1. Your characters live in a world that’s even more plugged in that ours. Throughout any given day, are you generally plugged in online or are you keeping your distance? How do you try to forge a good balance?
My agent once told me, when I asked how she juggled career, family, and her own personal interests, something along the lines of, “There is no balance. It’s a myth and all constantly trying to achieve it will do is make you more stressed.” I approach my online habits with the same thought in mind. Some days I’m very good about not doing five-minute checks on my phone and I’ll purposefully read a book or magazine article instead of scrolling through my feeds at night. Other days, I fully embrace the constantly looking to see if anyone’s posted something about The Takedown and mindlessly scroll Instagram for longer than is healthy. Do I secretly dream about being that mysterious author who is inaccessible online? Yes. Do I envy Aziz Ansari for saying goodbye to his online life? YES. But do I love being a published author and want to fully embrace this experience in all its plugged-in forms? More than anything. 🙂
2. As a food truck owner, can you share a recipe you think even a rookie chef can handle?
On my food truck, Short Grain, we serve mainly untraditional Japanese rice bowls. At home, my beau (and Short Grain’s co-owner) and I primarily eat leftovers a.k.a. the do-it-yourself rice bowl. It’s super easy to whip together a delicious rice bowl with just a few specialty ingredients and whatever else you have in your fridge. I could eat a DIY rice bowl every day. (And usually do).
3. TTBF’s new slogan is “Read Everything.” What book should be on our official Read Everything book list for 2017?
I really loved THE CALL by Peadar O’Guilin. It’s about kids in Ireland that get “called” at a certain age i.e. vanish to a faerie land where they have to battle-dome against bloodthirsty fairies in order to get back out. (Spoiler: most don’t). The only thing is, you never know when you’re going to get called. So you could be eating a sandwich and ZIP! Now you’re in a fight for you live. It’s creepy, imaginative, and so fun.