Monday, August 6, 2012
Books Rebecca Stead on Liar & Spy: "It Felt like a Brooklyn Story"
Posted by Henry Stewart on Mon, Aug 6, 2012 at 9:00 AM
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It wasn’t a conscious choice. I don’t do a lot of planning before I start a book: I sort of mentally locate a small constellation of characters and ideas, and then I start writing. But as a reader, I love short novels and novellas, so it doesn’t surprise me that my work has moved in that direction.
Did you have any hesitations about writing in the first-person from the point of view of the opposite sex? Is it easier to write as another gender when the POV is a kid's?
I’ve never written anything from the point of view of a grown man, so I can’t make that comparison. It’s always a big leap from my own head to the mind of my character. But I don’t find it more difficult to write from a boy’s point of view, compared to a girl’s. For me, it’s all difficult!
Your last book was about time travel; this one, spies—sort of! Do you think of yourself as a genre writer?
Not at all. The truth is that I write about what’s interesting to me. I try not to ask myself where my stories fit in. Questions like that can kill a good book idea before you can say "Harry Potter."
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