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Back to Featured Interviews >> MEET GEORGIA BRAGG (10/2010)
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| Georgia Bragg |
As a kid, I really liked listening to grownup conversations. It was nerdy on a large scale, but it wasn’t something I mentioned to my friends. Hey, lets go to your house and listen to your parents. My dad is the funniest person I ever met so he was cracking me up all day long. Both of my parents are artists so I did a lot of coloring and drawing when I was young. Art was everything to my folks; once when I came home with a good grade in math my mom said, “It’s weird being the mother of a person good with numbers.” Yeah, it was different at my house.
When You Went To College, Were You Already Pursuing A Writing Career?
My biggest regret is not ever going to college. In grammar school I was put in the lowest reading group and ever since then I have worried that I am not very smart. It’s just amazing how something like that can stick with a person. Not going to college only made me feel more inferior, which is why I didn’t let anyone in my family or any of my friends read my first book until I had a publisher for it. I still don’t know any of the rules about grammar or punctuation; it feels like I’m just winging it most of the time.
Was your first book accepted immediately? Or did you experience a number of rejections?
I have zero skills as a salesperson. I knew I had to get an agent to find a publisher for me otherwise everything I wrote would dwell in my bottom desk drawer until I died. I was very lucky to be pulled out of the slush pile by my dream agent, Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh & Otis, Inc. He submitted my novel MATISSE ON THE LOOSE and I got a number of rejections before I finally sold my first book to Random House.
What Really Triggers Your Imagination?
Quirky combinations of people in unlikely situations appeal to me. My story ideas come from small things, even just a single sentence can do it. There was a kid in my car once and the way he described his grandmother a whole story just popped into my head. He said, “My Grandmother likes to smoke, play cards, and watch games shows.”
When is your next book going to be in book stores?
My next book is called HOW THEY CROAKED and will be in bookstores March 15, 2011. It’s a nonfiction book about how famous people died. Every kid knows how Abraham Lincoln died, but they don’t know that George Washington died of a sore throat, or that Beethoven had lead poisoning and his stomach was drained using something resembling a backyard garden hose. Each of the nineteen mini-bios highlights two absolute truths: nobody is perfect and everybody dies. I hope HOW THEY CROAKEDwill enlighten readers with a whole new take on cultural, medical, and scientific history.
What Other Jobs Did You Have Before You Became A Writer?
I had two career goals as a child: to be a cartoonist and an air traffic controller. I achieved neither. I was a master printer, artist, actress, script supervisor, and a storyboard artist before I became a writer. Who knows what the future will bring. I irrationally dream that one day I’ll be a professional tennis player.