Author Interview: Mandy Hubbard

I want to thank Mandy Hubbard for being here today and allowing me to interview her. 

Mandy Hubbard is the author of Prada & Prejudice and You Wish. She is also a literary agent for D4EO Literary, where she represents authors of middle grade and teen fiction.

What inspired you to write You Wish?

I really loved the idea of contrasting a teen today with the girl she used to be. I came up with the concept first (a girl getting all of her past wishes) and then asked myself what kind of character would be most interesting in a book like this? I realized that the wishes were really whimsical and goofy and fun, so I wanted Kayla to be the opposite—jaded, cynical, sarcastic. Plus, I wanted to write an entirely different character than Callie, in Prada & Prejudice, who was so desperate to fit in she bought $400 Prada pumps.

How long did it take you to write You Wish? What is your writing process (plotter, pantser, or hybrid?) 

YOU WISH was a whirlwind book. I pitched it to my editor on June 24, 2009. She immediately loved it and took it to the others for approval. They said yes and we brainstormed things on the phone on June 29th. The first draft was due October 1st, three months later. I had a couple weeks off and then four weeks to revise it. I turned it in, my editor had minor line edits, and it went to be copy edited by December 8th.

So basically, three months to write, one month to revise, wham-bam-done. Definitely my fastest turn around!

Why YA?

Why not? Heh. I got into YA because I was 23 when I was writing the book that got me my agent. I wrote it about four early twenty-somethings because, well, I was in my early 20s. She said my voice worked better for YA, so we made them into teenagers. I did so, and then started reading YA like crazy. The rest is history!

What one birthday wish from your childhood would you like to have come true?

To be rich and famous, JL. So if you want to go out and buy like, a million copies of my book, that one can come true. Get on it, will ya? What? No? Sigh.

Let's say you want to tweet a description of You Wish. What would your 140 characters be?

YOU WISH is about a cynical teen who gets everything she ever wished for- to disastrous effect.

If you were creating a soundtrack for You Wish, what's the one (or two) songs you would have to have on there?

Taylor Swift’s YOU BELONG WITH ME is the epitome of the book. It’s all about a girl pining for a boy who is clearly in love with the wrong girl.

I also love Paris Hilton’s song, SCREWED, for the lyrics: “Boy meets girl and she falls much harder than him, same old story….”

What's next for you writing wise?

In 2011 I have my first foray into realistic/contemporary, with a very dark YA book about a girl in an abusive relationship. Then in July, my first paranormal romance, RIPPLE, releases. It’s about a siren who accidently kills the only boy she’s ever loved, and she becomes an Ice Queen to keep people at arm’s length—and thus, safe from her deadly voice—but then a new boy comes along and he’s impossible to resist, despite the life or death consequences.

To learn more about Mandy Hubbard and her books, visit her website. A special thanks to The Teen {Book} Scene for arranging this interview and blog tour.

Book cover images courtesy of Goodreads.  Author photo courtesy of www.mandyhubbard.com.