YOUNG ADULT: What is your earliest memory involving writing?Megan Bostic: I used to write when I was little. I believe my first poem was written in kindergarten. It was about the weather. I still remember it but it’s too horrible to share, lol.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about Never Eighteen?
MB: Never Eighteen is the story of Austin Parker, who is pretty sure he’s not going to see his 18th birthday. What’s different about it, is instead of the regular old bucket list most teenagers would write, Austin wants to help people. He more than anyone knows that life is fleeting. You never know when it might end. Austin wants to remind those people he feels have given up on life that you only get one shot at it, and you better make it count.
YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
MB: Good lord. I sit down at my kitchen table, which I prefer over the desk in my office because it’s next to the sliding glass door where most of the light is (I’m truly solar powered). I write a paragraph or two, maybe a page, then I get distracted by email and Facebook. Then I remember what I’m supposed to be doing and write some more. Then I see the dirty dishes in the sink, do some cleaning, and when I’m tired of that I write again. On a good writing day, I’ll get a couple thousand words in. On a bad day, zero. But bad writing days don’t necessarily mean I’m not working. I do a lot of research when I’m writing as well, so zero words doesn’t mean zero work.
| YA: Can you describe the path to getting this work published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it? MB: Mine is a bit of a Cinderella story really. I wrote Never Eighteen during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in 2008, which is a personal challenge of writers in the month of November to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. When you write a novel that fast, you know the outcome is not going to be good. I revised the book thirteen times before sending it out to agents. I’d sent it to about twenty-five before someone offered to represent me. She had me revise it twice more. I signed with her in late March of 2010 and she had my book sold in two weeks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Then the process slowed way down. After revisions, copy edits, first pass pages, and a frustrating amount of waiting, Never Eighteen hit the shelves January of 2012. The hardest part for me was definitely landing the agent. I know every no is that much closer to a yes, but it doesn’t make the rejections any easier. |
From the Book: |
YA: What were your specific influences for this book? Films, literature, other stories?
MB: Life is what inspired this book. I took care of my mother-in-law when she was diagnosed with late stage cancer. I closed down my business and my husband and I moved her into our home. I saw, first hand, the effects of the disease, the medications. I was witness to the speed in which the disease will take you without treatment.
When you’re witness to death like that, it makes you think about your own mortality. What would you want to do before you die? See? How would you make your mark? How can you make a difference in the lives of others?
YA: If you hadn’t become an author, what path would your career have perhaps taken?
MB: I would have definitely been a rock star. Okay, I would have wanted to. I was a stay at home mom for many years. I had mostly worked in government. I would want to be a stay at home mom for the rest of my life if I could. Other than that, I couldn’t tell you. Writing is my passion, I can’t think about doing anything else.
Austin Parker is on a journey to bring truth, beauty, and meaning to his life. Austin Parker is never going to see his eighteenth birthday. At the rate he’s going, he probably won’t even see the end of the year. The doctors say his chances of surviving are slim to none even with treatment, so he’s decided it’s time to let go. But before he goes, Austin wants to mend the broken fences in his life. So with the help of his best friend, Kaylee, Austin visits every person in his life who touched him in a special way. He journeys to places he’s loved and those he’s never seen. And what starts as a way to say goodbye turns into a personal journey that brings love, acceptance, and meaning to Austin’s life.
Readers, be sure to check out Megan Bostic at her website meganbosticbooks.com!