Josie is independent, fierce, and does not care what anyone thinks about her, especially where guys are concerned. She may flirt with them, and even kiss them, but it doesn't mean anything, not even with Michael. He's more like a friend-with-benefits.
So who can explain what happens when Carson Gold decides he's interested in her? Carson Gold, the hottest senior, the one everyone secretly watches. At first Josie treats him the same way she treats everybody else. But something about him gets to her. Maybe it's the same thing that causes everyone to watch him. Maybe it's something between them, something just he and Josie share.
Can you blame her for what happens? Could you resist? Neither can Josie -- not for lack of trying, and despite her better sense. It's too much, that first time love finds you and sucks you under. It's too much, even for Josie.
Can't say I have just one, but here is one among many: My father, an avid amateur gardener, had determined to get rid of a rock in the middle of his flower bed in our backyard. The rock turned out to be the size of Tennessee, but he just kept digging for a few years, trying to budge the thing, which created an ever-changing landscape for backyard adventures. My younger brother Jon was my constant companion out there, and our favorite game was "Time Machine," which involved a mysterious metal thing sticking up from the ground - obviously a gear shift for moving into the past or future. Jon was the pilot, in charge of bringing us to different times, depending on how he moved the mysterious metal thing. I was the "teller": I would tell the story of what time period we landed in, what was happening, the dangers we faced, which bad guys were chasing us around the back, the rock, and the Way Back (where we weren't even supposed to go but we did; don't tell!), what we needed to collect around the yard -- a magic gem, a twig from the tree of wonder -- and how we would be able to get back to our time Machine to get back to home and the present when my Mom called to us to come in for dinner.
My younger son was complaining yesterday that the problem with grownups is that they don't play as runny-aroundy as kids. He is absolutely right.
2. What is your favorite memory from when you were a teenager?
How about my least favorite but most useful? I was at a dance at the Rye Golf Club with my best friend, Jill. We had decided to really go for it, get all duded up and mascara'ed. I wore my hottest outfit -- a one-piece, strapless pantsuit. (It was the early 80's; that's what was hot. Trust me.) We had practiced dancing all week: step-together-clap; slightly bored expression combined with slight head-bobbing. Luck was with us at first -- two cute boys came right over to ask us to dance. I looked slightly bored while repeating my mantra internally: step-together-clap, nod. The boy was smiling at me, checking me out. I was succeeding! Jill step-together-clapped her way to my side and said, "Don't panic, but your top fell off." I looked down and there for everybody to see was my white strapless bra, looking like an ace bandage across my lack-of-anything to hold up my wilted outfit. I ran straight to the Ladies' Room with my arms crossed over my chest. Jill was right behind me, and sat beside me on the cold linoleum as I cried. "I was naked," I wailed. "Only briefly," Jill assured me. "I am never leaving this Ladies' Room," I told her. "Okay," she said. "I'll stay here with you." "Forever?" I asked. "Sure," she said. "We'll be two little old ladies here when they come to wreck the building, but we still won't leave." "I'm serious," I said. "Me too," she answered.
I recall that moment whenever I am writing and my character needs to feel the soul-burning humiliation of being exposed in front of the world -- whether figuratively or literally. I can still feel the cold shivers in my fingers, still smell the disinfectant in the restroom, still hear the distant echoes of the disco beat beyond as I sat there feeling utterly stupid and naked and embarrassed. But I also use it when I want to feel how reassuring it is for a character to realize a friend is willing to stick with her forever, no matter what.
3. How did you end up becoming a writer?
What I always loved to do was read, tell stories, imagine being other people, eavesdrop, and not wear shoes. What else could I end up becoming?
4. What other jobs have you tried?
I worked in a book store, which I loved except when people interrupted my reading by trying to make purchases. I was a really good babysitter and a lousy magician but kind of a fun clown at kids' birthday parties. I worked in theater -- acting, directing, selling tickets, dressing and undressing actors (!), ironing costumes, sewing stuff... I still can't make buttons stay on all that well, but I am a pretty decent ironer. I also tutored for SAT's, and GRE's, as well as regular school subjects from bio and algebra to English and writing, and specialized in working with kids who have learning troubles.
5. What first appealed to you about writing for teens?
Well, I started writing my first book when I was 22, so I'd had some recent experience. But really there were two things. I had always looked young for my age, and used to vow to myself that I would remember what it really felt like to be a kid and NEVER condescend when I grew up but rather bear witness to and show respect for the struggles of metamorphosis experienced by a teen going through it. Also, a brilliant playwrighting professor I had in college told us that drama exists in the life-or-death moments: those instances when the character's life is at mortal risk are the scenes you should write. I realized that he had just described pretty much every moment of being a teenager. Just a walk down the corridor in eighth grade can feel like a death march, if somebody looks at you sideways, then slides her eyes away and bends to whisper to somebody else, who turns immediately to look at you -- and snickers. Oh, dread. Life could end or begin at any moment, beside your locker, and the murder weapon, like your pride, might never be recovered. That's what continues to appeal to me about writing for teens: metamorphosis. It's so awful and wonderful and public and extreme.
6. Where do you get your ideas for your books?
Mostly, honestly, in my head. I pick up details of phrases or styles of sitting from watching people all the time, and listening, eavesdropping, on the subway, in the market, in the changing room of a department store. Kids write to me about what they are going through, and of course I have my own journals to re-read, so I mine my own memories and fears and hopes. But mostly my ideas come from wondering: what would happen if my parents suddenly lost all their money? ... if I always thought of myself as kind of funny-looking and suddenly I was chosen for being gorgeous? What if I discovered I was profoundly gifted in some way? What if I learned something shatteringly disappointing about my mom? What if I fell in love with somebody I shouldn't? What if I lied to my best friend and then had to keep lying so she wouldn't find out? What if my best friend lied to me and I found out? What would be the worst thing that could happen to me? What would be the best? But I am not asking those questions of myself, Rachel Vail. I build a character over the course of many months, and then ask those kinds of questions of her - until I get to the start of an answer that is so interesting to me that I have to write a book to find out what happens.
6. Who in your life has especially inspired or motivated you?
So many people have motivated and inspired me -- teachers who asked for revisions and edits and focus; librarians who found books for me and communicated their passion to me; friends who are funny and honest about whatever they are going through and so articulate about expressing their frustrations and ambitions; my husband who believes in me and laughs at all the right moments; my kids who come home with stories and ask to hear mine, again and again, and then give me harsh but loving (and smart) editorial feedback. My brother taught me to tell stories by wanting to play them with me; my parents were my first and most enthusiastic audience (before my kids came along, at least.) Now editors and my agent, who are some of my first readers, press me to think deeper, go further, try new challenges. I'm also inspired by great writers: when I read something I love, I read it again and again, trying to figure out how did he or she DO that? I want to move people the way my favorite writers (from John Steinbeck to Judy Blume to Bruce Springsteen) move me. And finally, readers who write to me with their honest and powerful reactions to my books, asking for sequels and for clarification of what happens after the book ends, who let me know that my characters live on beyond the page, in them -- they are my greatest current inspiration.
7. What do you consider to be the most fun part of your job?
The absolute most fun thing for me as a writer is getting to the point in a book, usually about 20 or more drafts in, when a sentence is changed, sometimes by cutting three words or substituting one phrase for four -- and suddenly the character has just said something so right for her, so true and funny and wise and so unique to that character that nobody else could've said it. That just makes my whole day. Man, I could be happy for a week off one great sentence.
8. What part of your job do you find the most challenging?
The first 19 drafts.
9. If you had to assign a book title to your life, what would it be?
I'm not sure. I'm hoping there will be many more years before that book is done. Maybe, by then, it will be: The Most Brilliant, Happy, Successful, Generous Person Ever. But for right now, I think I would have to go with the title of my new paperback book, which could apply with perhaps less irony to my own phenomenally blessed life: LUCKY.
This review is from: You, Maybe: The Profound Asymmetry of Love in High School (Hardcover)
"Love is a brat," Josie's new crush, Carson, tells her. "Whatever you don't love, loves you. But whatever you love kicks your butt." Carson Gold isn't just any crush. He's a hot senior who had a very public breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Emelina. He then ran through several girls who Josie scorns as she sees them begging him to take them back at the parties she and her friends crash on weekends.
Josie doesn't believe in love. She's happy hanging out with her two best gal pals, Zandra and Tru, and her longtime best friend Michael. She even enjoys running little kids' birthday parties, doing magic tricks dressed as Tallulah the Clown. Her life is full and uncomplicated. It is true that she and Michael make out frequently, but they're still just friends, she believes.
Things get complicated though when Carson starts noticing Josie. She discovers that even she is not immune to his many charms. Things start out with secret makeout sessions during their free seventh periods. She continues to write songs and make out with Michael, which begins to feel weird.
Carson doesn't call her and they don't really go out. But then he starts getting serious, asking her to be his girlfriend and to stop being with Michael. After some convincing, Josie agrees. She scraps plans for Michael's birthday and starts hanging out with Carson and his popular crowd, which includes his ex-girlfriend.
Soon Josie is changing how she dresses, how she acts, and canceling birthday party gigs to go spend a weekend with Carson at his ex's cabin. Josie tells him about how much she loves him and is even thinking about having sex with Carson, who is pushing her farther than she has ever gone during makeout sessions.
It is during this cabin adventure that Josie is forced to see that these changes are not good and that Carson has not changed from the fickle person she thought she knew. A near tragedy in her family brings Michael back, and she sees him for the valuable friend he is as well.
YOU, MAYBE is for everyone who has had their head turned by the wrong guy.
--- Reviewed by Amy Alessio
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5.0 out of 5 starsthe best book ever about falling in love, April 26, 2006
A Kid's Review
This review is from: You, Maybe: The Profound Asymmetry of Love in High School (Hardcover)
I absolutely loved this book. It is deep but also funny and so intense. It is about Josie, who has always been strong and smart and comfortable with herself, and how she falls in love with gorgeous, charming Carson -- and throws away everything important to her, trying to keep him. ACK!!!! I know exactly how she feels! Rachel Vail absolutely captures the feelings (fantastic AND devastating) you have when the most important thing in your life is this one special relationship, and even when you KNOW you shouldn't do stuff (call him constantly, IM him, ask him what's wrong, cry in front of him) you just can't help it, you are nuts and obsessed and lost all track of who you used to be. I love Josie. I love this book. It just came out yesterday and my mom got it for me and I read it last night without looking up from it once! I couldn't stop! I just had to find out what happened... and now I can't wait to read it again.
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This was a fun book! I really liked it. It was funny and you kind of know what's going to happen, but still you feel excited and sad and everything that the character is feeling. I really liked this book and would recommend it to people who enjoy reading teen fiction.
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