Interview: Marci Lyn Curtis

Hi everyone! Recently, I read The One Thing and I absolutely loved it, so I thought it would be awesome to do an interview with its author, Marci Lyn Curtis, and guess what? Here it is!  If you haven't read my review yet, you can find it here. Keep on reading to find out more about this amazing writer!

Hello Marci! First of all, let me thank you for answering my questions today. To begin this interview, can you introduce yourself and your novel?

Hi Laurence! Thanks so much for having me! Let’s see…I’ll give you the short version: my name is Marci Lyn Curtis, author of The One Thing, a young-adult contemporary story about a blind juvenile delinquent who hits her head and is suddenly able to see a boy. It’s a tough book to sum up, so let’s just say it’s a coming-of-age with a little bit of everything—laughter, tears, friendship, romance, family, music, sarcasm, tragedy, cupcakes.

Etc.

Translation: it’s a twisty little story. And if you held the book on end and gave it a shake, you’d probably rattle out an Everest’s worth of emotion. So people who like stories with lots of feels would probably enjoy it.

What inspired you to write this story?

I wish I could say there was this huge ah-ha moment that inspired the story. But the fact was, one day it was just…there—characters and all—and it picked at me and picked at me until I finally started to take notes, just to get it out of my head. Those notes grew to about a foot-high stack of papers that eventually became The One Thing.

Can you relate a lot to your main character, Maggie?

Well, I’m not blind, nor do I know anyone who’s blind, so writing this story required a lot of research. By “a lot,” I mean months.

And months.

On end.

Also, Maggie was a soccer legend, and the last time I was half-decent in competitive sports was never. I mean, unless you count obscure sports, like, say, Orange is the New Black marathons. With those I’m sort of a badass.

Anyway, as far as similarities, Maggie and I both lean toward the sarcastic side. I grew up in a smart-alecky family (you do one idiotic thing and you’ll likely hear about it for the rest of your life), so sarcasm and jokes are sort of second nature for me.

Who is your favourite character in your novel and why?

Ben—because he’s just so…Ben. Life has basically handed him his butt, and yet he’s made the best of it, without using anything as a crutch. Also, he’s hysterical, loyal, kind, and he makes a mean English muffin pizza.

So far, what's the hardest thing you've been faced with while publishing your novel?

Can I say everything? No? Well, if I had to pick just one thing, I’d have to say the most difficult thing about writing this particular story was the responsibility I felt to be a good representative for the visually impaired. I was constantly terrified that, even though I was spending so much time researching blindness, I was getting all the details wrong—that I was missing something critical in the technology, the daily life, the thoughts and emotions, the training, the parenting. It was just so much. And it required an amazing amount of balance. I didn’t want to marginalize visual impairment, but I didn’t want it to be the focus of the novel, either. Sure, Maggie’s blindness had tremendously impacted her life. But did I want to portray Maggie as a blind character? No. I wanted to portray her as a character. I wanted her personhood to always be the focus. I wanted people to experience her. So I had to really pick through each scene, each line, and each bit of dialogue to make sure that this always came first.

If you could have lived in any fictional world, which one would it have been?

The Harry Potter world. Without a doubt.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Oh man. Jandy Nelson. She’s a genius. I mean, I’d probably dig through her trash just to read her grocery list.

Kidding.

Sort of.

What do you like the most about being an author?

Sharing my characters with everyone. It’s like standing on a stage and introducing my friends to the world. 

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

This: just write. Write about the things that are important to you. Write to share a version of yourself with yourself. Write without thinking about trends, or about how readers might perceive you. Just write.

What are your future plans? Anything we could be interested in?

Currently, I’m writing a story about an orphan pickpocket forced to live with the uncle who betrayed her family. Like The One Thing, it’s a twisty little story, and it covers a topic near to my heart, so it’s been difficult to write. After that, I’ll be writing a companion novel to The One Thing, featuring a certain unmentionable character.

Once more, thank you for answering! I hope to hear more from you soon.

Thank you so much, Laurence, for this amazing interview!

Dear September

Dear September,

You were quite a bittersweet month. Mostly sweet, but there was a bitterness that I just couldn't shake off, especially as the days grew colder.

I'm thankful for the sweet moments, though. They were the highlight of my month and surprisingly numerous. I enjoyed my cozy nights with friends and family, or simply by my own, with soft music playing in the background and a nice candle burning. I spent so much quality time this month that I felt like if I were to die at any point during this month, I would've had a perfectly happy life. Knowing this only made me want to go on in life even more, so I gained an energy that kept me going in the darkest times.

Hearing the rain pour while I was reading in bed made me feel happy and safe, which is always the case with autumnal days. Whenever I got a little bit of fall depression, I just picked up a nice romance novel, which cheered me up instantly. I was guilty of doing that a lot, in the last thirty-something days. However, I read over ten books in a month, while dealing with college, which I'm pretty proud of. In the end, you were a great month, reading-wise.

You were an awesome month for music. All four of the concerts I attended this month were amazing, leaving me with an exhausted yet giddy feeling. They came with a bit of nostalgia, knowing I would never experience the same exact feeling again, but they were absolutely worth it. My days were lulled by music and I found myself daydreaming about those dimly-lit rooms full of people who shared my passion. Incredibly, I got to meet my favourite band when they were performing at a music festival, something I will never forget. It's a completely different thing to listen to music all alone in your room than to hear it performed in front of you, but meeting the people who created it and talk to them brings you to cloud nine. I feel so blessed.

As I said before, there were more bitter moments, or days. You brought back the date marking the loss of someone I loved, but you also brought back the sadness and the overwhelmed feelings I felt only a year ago. Knowing it had been a year since I last saw this special someone, I couldn't help but break inside. I was fortunately able to find comfort in knowing that one day, maybe, I would think about the happier moments instead of my loss. I also got scared of losing someone else, which made me feel abandonned for as long as this fear lasted. I'm hoping that October will convince me that it was all just a fear, nothing serious.

Dear September, thank you for leaving me happy and hopeful, excited to see what October holds for me.

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Major Crush - Jennifer Echols

Goodreads summary:

Tired of the beauty-pageant circuit, Virginia Sauter tosses her tiara, pierces her nose, and auditions for the most unlikely of roles — drum major of the high school marching band.
Virginia wins, but is forced to share the title with Drew, whose family has held the position for generations. Sure, Drew is hot, but because of his superior attitude, he and Virginia are constantly arguing. That is, until they share more than just their half-time salute...

But as the drum major's heated competition turns to sizzling romance, explosive rumors threaten everything — including the band's success. Love seemed to be a sure hit, but Virginia and Drew may be marching straight into disaster.


My review:

3.5/5

That was such a lovely read and it definitely lifted my spirits! Once more, Jennifer Echols proves how good she is at writing short and sweet romance novels.

If you're in a bit of a down, pick up this book, or a book similar to this one. It'll cheer you uo and make you feel all giddy and happy again. I finished this novel grinning like a fool, happy with life in general and full of hopes and expectations (I'll deal with those later).

Love stories between enemies is not the kind of books I read often, because I'm more of a best-friends-fall-in-love-with-each-other girl, but I truly liked this one. I don't think the summary is actually giving a good idea of the story, because I was expecting this to be more about Virginia giving up beauty-pageant and going in a completely different direction, while this novel seems to take place much later in her life. It's okay, but I wasn't expecting that.

I liked how Virginia and Drew's relationship evolved, although I didn't like the fact that he had a girlfriend in the beginning. Sure, she's a bitch and they're not serious, but he shouldn't be flirting like that with other girls. It's just a big no-no. Although there are admittedly some very cheesy parts, they're the ones that made me smile the most, so I'm not complaining.

I like how marching band is important in this book. There has never been any marching band at the schools I went to, but I still like Learning about them and reading about passionate people. I wish there'd been a bigger part about them though, because it's clear that romance is a much bigger part than this.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I don't know what else to say about it, so I guess that'll be it!

View all my reviews