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MEET CECIL CASTELLUCCI
by Bonnie O'Brian

What books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Cecil Castellucci

Some books that influenced me the most were THE SECRET GARDEN and THE LITTLE PRINCESS by Frances Hodgson Burnett. THE TRIPOD TRILOGY by John Christopher. THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by Elizabeth George Speare. A WRINKLE IN TIME by Madeline L'Engel. TIN TIN by Herge. THE HEADLESS CUPID and THE EGYPT GAME by Zilpha Keatley Snyder THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton. CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY by Robert Heinlein. BLUBBER by Judy Blume. THE CAT ATE MY GYM SUIT by Paula Danziger. FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANWEILER. THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkein. DUNE by Frank Herbert. THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES by Ray Bradbury. FOUNDATION by Isaac Asimov. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut.

When you were a child did you ever have moments when you decided thatyou were going to be a writer when you grew up?

I always knew that I wanted to be a storyteller when I was a child. I had seen Star Wars and figured out that there was going to be a sequel and I understood for the first time that it was someone's job to make up stories and write them. I thought maybe that would be a good job for me and thought that maybe I could write the sequel to the movie. Sadly, I did not get that job. But I was hooked on writing. I set about trying to have as many adventures as I could in order to be a better writer. Hopefully some of those adventures will make it into my stories one day.

What audience did you have in mind for your career as a writer - adult or children?

I was always interested in writing for young adults. I think it's because that is when I fell in love with reading. I also feel that characters that are young adults are facing some of the most interesting and profound questions about who they are and who they are going to be. As a writer that is a compelling thing.

Was your first book accepted immediately? or did you experience a number of rejections?

I wrote three novels that were rejected before my first book BOY PROOF was accepted. My feeling is that art is a ten year waiting list, and that I was going to have to do a lot of work and write a lot of books before I was published. So I just kept at it. I sold my first book about 7 years after I got really serious about wanting to be a writer. I didn't get too bummed out about my rejections because I figured that it was a part of the process and that being an artist is just about stick-to-it-eveness. Like a chicken fight. So I just stayed in the ring, so to speak. As for those other books, I'm glad I wrote them because they taught me a lot about how to write a novel. I don't think I'll try to get them published, instead I have used elements of them in other stories, or reused a theme that I found interesting in other books.

What are the topics are some of your books?

All of my novels deal with girls figuring out who they are, who they want to be and figuring out how they want to move through the world. Most of my main characters discover this through some kind of art. In BOY PROOF it's movies and special effects make up, in QUEEN OF COOL it's science, in BEIGE it's music and in THE PLAIN JANES it's visual art.

Do you do other types of writing - for example, educational, nonfiction, magazine work?

I tell other kinds of stories in the sense that I think a story tells you how it wants to be told. I have been a musician and written songs, I write poems, I do performance art, I write plays, I make movies, I write comic books, I write essays, I write short stories, I have even been a journalist. I think that all kinds of different writing strengthens all your writing skills. And sometimes writing something different, or outside of your usual comfort zone, gives you insight into your regular writing.

Do you work on more than one book at a time?

Yes, I do work on more than one book at a time. Sometimes I need a break from the story. I also find that when I am not working on a story I am actually working on it. Like, when I am doing the dishes. Or taking a walk. Or eating dinner. Sometimes when I work on another story, because I am not worrying about the other story, I actually get little ideas for it. Also, there are different kinds of stories. For example, I might be working on a novel and a short story and a comic book at the same time. Each one is a little bit of a different process. Or they might be at different stages. Sometimes you work on something and send it out to your editor and get back notes and are revising something and also starting something new. They are all at different phases. I don't know if I could start more than one story at the same time, like, as in, three new stories and three new blank pages. That would be too intimidating.

What are you working on now?

Right now I have just finished working on the sequel to my graphic novel THE PLAIN JANES. It's called JANES IN LOVE and it's due out some time in 2008 on Minx/ DC Comics. I also have an early chapter book called ODD DUCK that's due out in 2009 and a picture book called GRANDMA'S GLOVES which will come out sometime in 2010 both out on Candlewick Press. Next year also brings a bunch of short stories that will be in anthologies. One is called Bad Reputation out in the FIRST KISS (THEN TELL) anthology on Bloomsbury and the Lights, Camera, Action in the MAGIC IN THE MIRRORSTONE anthology on Wizards of the Coast. And I've just started work on a new YA novel and we'll see what happens with that.

Do you write every day and do you have set hours that you work?

I don't have set hours that I work, but I leave the page open every day and come to it if I can. I am pretty much always gestating with a story once I'm set on writing it. It's always on my mind and I'm always working it out. Sometimes I write in a big burst rather than a steady day by day way. But each project is totally different.