Awesome Authors: Julie Linker

Spencer's a big fan of tiaras, so I'm sure she'd approve of our guest today, author Julie Linker. Julie's first two books BOTH have tiaras on the cover, so she's obviously made of awesome.

Here's a short author bio, in her words: Julie Linker is the incredibly witty, charming, and fashionable author of the young adult novels, Disenchanted Princess and the recently released Crowned. To experience her awesomeness for yourself and read her blog, go to julielinker.com.

*The above bio may or may not contain a few slight exaggerations. However, the names of the books and the website are true.*

What's your favorite thing about blogging? I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m not all that in love with blogging. Well, that’s not exactly true—I like blogging, but I always feel guilty when I’m doing it because I feel like I should be writing for “real.” You know, on a book. That being said, my favorite thing about blogging is definitely reading the comments people post. So people, read my blog and post something!!

What's the difference between a blog and a diary? For me, the main difference between a blog and a diary is that the whole world can read my blog, but I would be MORTIFIED if even a single person read my diary. In fact, I’m really bad about shredding my diaries, which is a big no-no for a writer because you can get good writing material from them. But I’m too paranoid! Not because I’m living a secret scandalous life or anything but because I usually only write in my diary when I’m mad or upset. So every entry is like “You won’t believe what so-and-so said to me today. She’s so mean. And her hair is hideous.” Or, if something bad has happened and I’m sad, there will be a whole bunch of entries like “Life is pointless. Nothing makes sense. I can’t take this anymore.” (Because I’m very melodramatic in my diary.) But the deal is—I don’t really *mean* any of those things. I’m just scribbling them down in the heat of passion. It’s not an accurate reflection of my true feelings, which is why I wouldn’t want anyone to see it.
A blog, on the other hand, is something you want other people to read. You write a blog entry knowing and hoping people are going to read it. I actually think about what I’m writing in my blog because I don’t want to a) hurt anyone’s feelings; or b) sound like (too big of) a dork/moron.
So, Blog=public. Diary=private.

Spencer Grace Kelly, the main character in GoldenGirl, is named after her distant relative, the Princess of Monaco. What’s your favorite Grace Kelly movie, and why? This is a hard question! I love Rear Window, but I also love To Catch a Thief. Cary Grant, the French Riviera, scads of diamonds—who can resist that? But Rear Window has Jimmy Stewart, lots of spying, and a dead wife buried in the yard. And Grace Kelly wears fabulous outfits in both of them. As in, they’re so gorgeous they make me want to cry. Especially the white gown in Thief. You know the one I’m talking about.
Sigh. I wish they still made movies like that.

GoldenGirl is full of scandals and exposed secrets. What was the biggest scandal at your high school? Did your classmates discover any of your deep, dark secrets? Now I’m depressed. Because I’m racking my brain and I can’t come up with a single scandalous story from my high school. Sure, there were a few unplanned pregnancies and a couple of people who got busted for drugs, but as far as a big, juicy scandal . . . yeah, I’ve got nothing. And none of my classmates discovered any of my deep, dark secrets because I didn’t have any. In high school, I was—how can I put this delicately? A dork. A very sheltered, very innocent dork.

What’s the worst thing you ever did to a friend? Are you still friends with her or him?
My BFF and I went away to college together, along with a guy from our high school who was our really good friend. He was really great and we liked him a lot, but once we got on campus he started being really clingy. Siamese-twin clingy. It was smothering. And it was starting to interfere with our dating lives because everybody assumed he was either mine or my BFF’s boyfriend. We tried to talk to him about it, but he just didn’t get it. So, we ditched him. And not in a nice way. I still feel bad about it. Ashamed. We found him on the internet a few years ago and thought about contacting him and apologizing, but we didn’t have the guts. Maybe someday we’ll do it.

What are your most recent books? What new projects are you working on now?
My first book, Disenchanted Princess, was released in July ’07 and my second book, Crowned, just came out in November. Crowned is about two rival beauty queens, so if you like pageants, you should check it out! Currently, I’m working on another YA, but it doesn’t have a title yet. It involves the the war in Iraq and is a bit more “serious” than my previous two books.