Carrie Jones is on the GCC with me and her first book was Tips on Having a Gay (Ex)Boyfriend, while her second is Love and Other Uses for Duct Tape -- a sequel!
Belle Philbrick’s life is imploding. Her non-dating mom has started dating again. Her best friend needs her to buy condoms (Yes! Condoms!) at Wal-Mart. Her boyfriend, Tom, is acting really strange. Her arch nemesis Mimi spreads evil rumors. All this and... someone might be preggers.
Below, Ms. Jones tells us her sneaky escapades and gives a great definition of feminism.
Tell Me Your Disreputable History, Carrie Jones!
(the questions below are related to stuff that happens in my upcoming book....)
1. Tell me the sneakiest thing you ever did.
Does peeking at Christmas presents count?
Does it count if you had to rewrap them?
Does it count if you had to go out and buy Scotch tape and IDENTICAL wrapping paper to rewrap them because your mom checked EVERY SINGLE NIGHT to make sure and you totally blew it when you stick your index finger just under the edge and the whole thing just ripppsss.
Because if that counts, that's the sneakiest thing.
2. Tell me the sneakiest thing that happens in your new book.
Belle, the main character, has to go into Wal-Mart and covertly purchase a pregnancy test. She goes through the self-checkout line, but, um, unfortunately there is something wrong with the bar code.
3. Are you a prankster? Tell me a story.
Once on April Fool's Day I convinced my boyfriend that there were Big Foot prints in the mud outside. And he totally fell for it.
And when I told him the truth and jumped up and down and shouted "April Fool's" he just looked at me and said, "I had no idea you were such a liar."
Low blow, mister.
We broke up shortly after that. I mean, seriously, it was APRIL FOOL'S DAY!
4. Were you in any clubs or societies in high school? Did any of those club activities make it into your novels?
Yep. I helped form an Amnesty International Chapter, which is a lot of my books.
I was the president of Students for Social Justice, which is in both LOVE (AND OTHER REASONS FOR DUCT TAPE) and TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (EX) BOYFRIEND.
I was in theater stuff (Should I spell it theatre and be more theatrical?), and Latin Club, and Modern Foreign Language Club and NHS, and NAHS, and New Hampshire History Club, and NH Central American Network and the Martin Luther King Day Coalition (NH was being really lame at the time and not celebrating. Ha! We changed that) and I was on the literary journal staff and some other stuff, which is all just because I was REALLY really REALLY afraid of not getting into college and I knew college liked clubs.
5. Do you consider yourself a feminist? Why, or why not?
Yes.
There are so many different political theories behind feminism from "Lifting as We Climb" to Audre Lorde to Meg Cabot to Kathleen Hanna to Angela Davis. There's liberal feminism, radical feminism,riot grrl feminism, post-feminism, feminism feminism... but the basis of all these branches is the absolute belief that there shouldn't be gender inequality, not at home, not at work, not at school, not on the field.
I believe in equality for all races and religions and sexuality. How could I not believe it for gender too?
6. How does your answer to question 5 show up in your new book?
Belle, the main character, is tremendously liberal. She is always thinking about issues and equality and humanity. She believes everyone deserves respect; that everyone deserves rights. She believes "women are people."
7. The club in my book is called The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds. If you were to found a secret society, what would it be called, and what would its mission be?
The Postum Posse and its goal would be to have Kraft Food Products once again return Postum, the lovely grain beverage cereal, to the shelves of grocery stores across the world.
