Author Interview: Lisa Yee

Lisa Yee is the author of Millicent Min Girl Genius, Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, and So Totally Emily Ebers. I have read the first two and highly recommend them!

Did you originally plan to write three books?

Nope. The plan was just for one book, but then the idea about a parallel story from Millicent's enemy's POV smacked me in the head, literally. I remember the moment. I was driving and screamed out to my daughter, "Do you want a book about Stanford?"

About how long did it take you to complete each book?

Oh gosh, the first book took YEARS. Maybe six years? (I wrote three completely different versions and threw the first two away.) Although, I wasn't writing continuously for six years. There was a lot of start and stop.
My second novel took about nine months to write the first draft (?). It's hard for me to recall. So sad, this memory loss thing.
My third novel took about three or four months for the first draft.

Did you always want to be a author?
As soon as I could read, I knew that I wanted to write books.

With your experiences, would you recommend being an author?

Absolutely. Writing is a wonderful way to express yourself. Even if I was never published, I would still continue to write.

Can you tell me about your current projects?
I have a YA novel coming out next year called Charm School Dropout and an upcoming book for American Girl. I will also be writing a couple of elementary-grade novels. And I'm going to have a short story in an anthology called Geektastic.

If you could meet any person in the world, who would it be?

Hmmmm . . . how about Edward from Twilight or Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy? Or if they have to be a real person, then maybe J.K. Rowling while she's on Oprah's show and I am sitting on the couch between them.

Thank you very much, Lisa Yee!