Interview with Eileen Cook!

I’m very excited to welcome Eileen Cook today! She the author of What Would Emma Do and Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood. Which is released tomorrow.

Where did you get the idea for Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood?

How did you come up with Claire/Helen’s revenge tactics?

I think most everyone has had someone who has really hurt them in the past. The person where you daydream for hours about what evil things you could do to get them back. That’s the best part of writing, you get to put your evil thoughts into action without actually hurting anyone.

I come from a family of big readers. We used to go every week to the library and load up on stacks of books. The first time I can remember wanting to be a writer was when I was about nine or ten. I had wandered into the adult section of the library and wanted to check out Stephen King’s book, Salem’s Lot.  My mom said I could read it, but warned me it would be scary. I remember thinking “pffft. How scary can it be? It’s just pretend. The whole thing is nothing more than a made up story.”   Then I read the book and had to sleep with the light on for weeks. I can remember laying in bed waiting for the vampires to get me and thinking how cool it was that someone could make something up, admit they made it up, I could read it knowing it wasn’t real- and it could still call all this real emotion.  I knew I wanted to do that- create new worlds that felt as vivid as the real thing.

 Only three? Can’t I have a  big giant dinner party with everybody? If it can only be three, I would invite Stephen King since he was a writer that inspired me to write, Judy Blume because I grew up absolutely loving her books and still do, and Meg Cabot because she has been so very nice to me since I started writing. So far next to seeing my books on the shelves and hearing from readers- the best thing about being a writer has been having the chance to meet or talk to other writers.  

Is there anything you have to have while writing?

When I’m writing I have to have my laptop, my dogs and hot tea (I love Chai tea in particular- but any good tea will work.) I sometimes like to write when I have music on, and having chocolate around never hurts.