Author Interview with Mary O'Connell

Answer in 140 characters or less.

1. Where did the inspiration for The Sharp Time come from?

The tendencies of people to look away instead of helping someone in need. An alternate title for The Sharp Time: Against Complicity.

2. What is your writing process like?

Fast! Fast! Fast! I have three kids. aged 12, 10, and 3, so I have to write when I can and not let the hours slip away in a daydreamy haze.

3. Your first publication was a collection of short stories and now eight years later you have written a YA novel, what caused the change? Do you see more YA in your future?

I loved hearing from teenagers who found the adolescent voices in my collection authentic. I’m working away on my next YA novel right now.

4. If you could go back in time and tell your teenage self anything, what would it be?

It gets better.

5. What 2011 releases are you really looking forward to or have enjoyed so far?

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, The Marriage Proposal by Jeffrey Eugenides, Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro.

Thank you Zoe! I’m pretty inexperienced at tweeting, but these were great questions!

Mary O'Connell is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and the author of the short story collection, LIVING WITH SAINTS. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in several literary magazines, and she is the recipient of a James Michener Fellowship and a Chicago Tribune Nelson Algren Award. THE SHARP TIME is her first novel.

Thanks so much to Mary for stopping by In The Next Room! To learn more about her debut novel, The Sharp Time, stop by her website.