Interview With Julianna Baggott

Feb

2012

I’m so happy to have Julianna Baggot on the blog today for an interview because her new book Pure is fantastic!

The premise is so incredibly unique and creative what sparked the idea for you?

I was writing literary fabulist short stories — a number of which had fusings. They weren’t working. At the same time, I wanted to write something ambitious — some real world building. When I realized that this one character (and then some of the others followed) belonged in this world, the two things snapped into place. And there she was — a girl hiding in a cabinet, a girl with a doll-head fused to her fist.

What was your writing process like? Did you do a lot of outlining?

I always make maps and then I peel off and then write a new map and peel off and write a new map etc … I have to think I know where I’m going even if I’m derailed along the way.

Was it difficult writing from multiple narratives in Pure? Did you have a favorite voice or one that was particularly hard to write?

There was another character, Arturo, who had a huge role and his own voice in the first draft. He was cut entirely. There may be one vestige of him left, a name somewhere, but he’s gone. I miss him. Lyda surprised me. She showed up late and then I slipped her in earlier in rewrites. She continues to surprise me in FUSE, the second novel in the series. I think because I wasn’t set on her voice, even as I was writing it, she had to prove she was important enough to the narration to deserve to stay. She fought and I’m glad she did.

If you could have dinner with any 3 authors (dead or alive) who would they be?

I’d have to pick all dead, right? I mean, the premise allows for that possibility so I have to take it. Flannery O’Connor, The Fitzgeralds (but they’re counting as ONE — a couple — what’s one without the other?), and Poe — a not drunk-to-the-point-of-being-incoherent Poe, just feisty, argumentative, anxious Poe. That is one hell of a dinner party right there. Flannery will be drawn to the grotesque display but sober and perhaps moralizing. The Fitzgeralds will be messy, perhaps fighting, and Poe — strapped and looking for a drink and being morose himself. Good stuff.

Have you read anything good lately?

THE NIGHT SWIMMER by Matt Bondurant should be coming out soon. I blurbed it in the summer. A wild book set on the wild coast of Ireland — a novel for adults.

Thanks so much Julianna! If you want to find out more about Pure you can read my review, visit the website, and watch the trailer!