Facebook, the enabler for all connections to the past, recently put myself and Lucy Silag in contact with each other. Lucy and I were classmates high school, and though we didn’t know each other well at the time, only sharing our American History class, our recent correspondence made us discover we both share the love of knitting. Lucy quickly purchased Rio in Olive Green and I anxiously awaited the publication of her first novel.
Since high school, Lucy has graduated from UCSC, traveled, worked as a book publicist and published the first book in a trilogy, BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS.
Beautiful Americans is written from the points of view of four teens who travel to Paris for a high school study abroad program. Each has a secret he or she is trying to hide or run from. Thousands of miles from home, PJ, Olivia, Zack and Alex quickly begin to stretch their wings and explore the new found freedom of no parental guidance. Beautiful Americans is the story of love, friendship, growing up and self discovery.
Sunday night I attended a book signing at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Lucy was kind enough to answer some questions about her book below.
1. Where did inspiration for the story come from? How much of it is based on your own experiences?
I studied abroad in college (Germany and Hungary), and before that, I did a couple teen tour programs (Australia, Fiji, and Thailand) as well as backpacked around Europe with my boyfriend for a summer when I was eighteen. All of those experiences made me a total travel nut, and because I have done the bulk of my foreign travel without my family in tow, I feel like I have learned a lot about myself as an individual while I have traveled. Traveling in high school and college shaped so much of who I am, and that really inspired BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS
2. What is your writing process like? We know Beautiful Americans is the first of a trilogy. When you started writing it, did you already know where you wanted each character to end up by the third book?
My writing process is erratic at best. I find myself writing at weird times of day or in weird places like airports or on Amtrak or while visiting my dad in Iowa. Basically anytime when I have no good reason to procrastinate.
When I started writing BEAUTIFUL AMERICANS, I did want it to be the first of a trilogy, and I did have some sense of the journey each character was on. What has changed a lot is that now I know much more about Paris, and that inspires me to make each of their stories more layered and detailed.
3. Which is your favorite character and why?
I don’t have a favorite, but I adore Jay. He’s got a much bigger role in the second book, which I am working on now. As I develop his character, I just find him so interesting and cool.
All the characters have something I adore writing about. With Zack, I get to pretend I’m from the South, which was something I used to wish for when I was a little kid watching Fried Green Tomatoes. With Alex, I get to peruse tons of magazines and dream up beautiful, quirky, expensive outfits for her. PJ is so mysterious and dramatic and loyal to her family. Writing from her point of view is always emotionally rewarding. And Olivia’s ballet career makes me relive years of ballet classes. I totally relate to how it is the only time she could really focus. I never do yoga–I can’t stand the quiet. Dancing to music is my therapy.
4. Why did you decide to write the book from four points of view? Was this difficult to do?
I wanted to show a study abroad program for Americans, but who is a typical American? It was something I thought about a lot when I have been abroad. For example, one of my roommates when I was in Budapest grew up in Minnesota and attended the University of Wisconsin. There were only 5 Wisconsin students, and about 40 Californians, on our program. We took all our classes together, socialized constantly, and traveled all over Eastern Europe with one another on the weekends. This roommate often felt just as much culture shock being with Californians as she had being with Hungarians. She couldn’t get over our flip flops in October. In my travel programs for US students, I met young people from all over the US–New York, Texas, LA, the Bay Area, Alabama, among others, as well as people who were going to to college in the US but were born in Latvia, Poland, Russia, Hungary, all over the place. It was a little difficult, but ultimately I thought it really made the story more interesting.
5. You’re a former book publicist. What made you take the leap to become a freelance author? Was this a scary step for you?
It was a scary step! I loved my old job (especially all the people I worked with–amazing authors, editors, agents, and media people) but I couldn’t do both well if I was doing them at the same time. I really wanted to try out this traveling/writing lifestyle for a while when I was still young. So far so good!
6. Have you always wanted to be a writer? Any tips for aspiring writers?
I have always loved to read and write and I have always known I wanted to work with books. After working in publishing, bookselling, and now writing, I imagine myself creating some sort of career that combines a lot of these elements, as well as perhaps teaching.
The tip I’ve been telling people who’d like to write professionally (and note that I’ve not been doing this for very long!) is that you just have to sit down and do it. Getting your thoughts on paper is the hardest part. Just make yourself do it!
7. As a knitter, the mention of knitwear always catches my eye. I loved the mention of PJ’s handknits and her grandfather’s sweater that starts a trend. Any chance she’ll pick up the needles herself in a future book? Can you give us any hints of what’s to come?
Haha. I love that sweater that I designed for PJ in my head. Maybe you can design a pattern for me . . . for the real world.
Knitting and wool is part of the second book, but I don’t want to give too much of it away, and I don’t want to getting fiber fanatics’ hopes up too much.
8. What’s on your knitting needles right now?
Right now I am actually doing a BUNCH of projects. I’m on Ravelry (my username is lucysilag) and you can check them all out. The coolest thing I am doing right now is that I just designed a capelet that feels very French and was so easy. I will be putting it up on my blog soon!
9. You’re currently living in Paris. What are the yarn shops like there? Any great finds?
The Marche St Pierre in the 18th Arrondissement (just below the Sacre Coeur in Montmartre) is the big fabric and fiber market area. A friend of mine is a design student in Paris and she showed me around one day. It was overwhelming! I didn’t even buy anything. But right now I’m daydreaming about a Gedifra Charme sweater–super soft, non itchy wool that I haven’t ever seen in the US.
Tags: beautiful americans, bookshop santa cruz, knitting lit, lucy silag, writer
