Friday Five -- Anne Greenwood Brown

Anne Greenwood Brown is the author of LIES BENEATH, published by Random House/Delacorte on June 12.  Anne is a whip-smart member of the Apocalypsies, and I've realized, looking at her novel playlist, that we listen to a lot of the same music.  Who knew merpeople and Tudors had so much in common?





THE FIVE:

1. What is your guiltiest pleasure?


My guiltiest pleasure is buying a “Medium Skim Latte, please” at a coffee shop drive-thru. Notice the verb. I am so in love with the luxury of buying a coffee while sitting in my car that sometimes I pay for it and drive off, leaving the coffee behind. It’s very embarrassing.

2. Who are your writing heroes?


My writing heroes are Markus Zusak for his word play, John Irving for his mastery of the absurd, Maggie Stiefvater for her lyricism, and Judy Blume for her flexible voice.

3.  What is your favorite word?


Well, judging by my first drafts, the word I must love best is “just” because I just can’t help myself. If my fingers had their way, “just” would show up in just about every sentence. But that’s probably not what you were asking. Here are some faves: cling, haphazard, semblance, and token. I just like the way they sound.

4.  What word do you like the least?


Nipple

5.  What other profession would you like to learn?


I would have loved to have been a movie star. I think that’s where writing comes in. Playing a role on screen and creating a character on the page are very similar creative processes, but as a writer you are not only the actor, but the script writer, director, make up artist, costumer, set design, and prop master.

I might have also liked to have been a party planner.

ABOUT LIES BENEATH:

Calder White lives in the cold, clear waters of Lake Superior, the only brother in a family of merpeople obsessed with killing Jason Hancock, the man they blame for their mother’s death. To lure the aquaphobic Hancock onto the lake, the mermaids charge Calder with the task of seducing the man’s daughter, seventeen-year-old Lily Hancock. “Get close to the daughter,” they tell him, “and you’ll get close to the family. Get close to the family, and you’ll get close to the man. Get him out on the water. We’ll take care of the rest.”
But Calder screws everything up by falling in love. Now he’s in the unenviable position of trying to love the girl while simultaneously plotting her father’s murder. Suffice it to say, his sisters aren’t pleased with his effort, and Calder’s running out of time (and excuses). 


ABOUT ANNE:

You can find Anne on her website.
On Twitter.
And on Facebook.

GILT playlist - The End

Everyone knows how Cat Howard's story end - or anyone with access to Wikipedia does.  But what about Kitty Tylney?  That, my friends, is a little more mysterious, and has to be left up to the imagination.  Not wanting to be too spoilery, but that last phrase is key.  Imagination is important.

However, so is this week's playlist song - Quelqu-un ma dit, by Carla Bruni.  Now, I don't go around listening to French music very often (I did, however, take four years of French in high school.  Totally useless, except for one trip to France straight out of college, when the ticketmaster at the Lyons train station looked at me after I used my best schoolgirl French to purchase tickets to Bordeaux and said, "Excuse me, but I do not understand English." Hmph.)  And I haven't put this song in here to appear more worldly-wise or cosmopolitan than I am (which is to say, not very.)  But I did see the movie 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, and the simple beauty of this song moved me.  And when I really listened to it, so did the lyrics, at least what little I could understand.  (There are ways to find the lyrics - and the translation - online, but I chose to come to my own conclusions).

My own version, based on what I heard, translated the chorus this way:

Someone told me that you loved me still....


It is possible, then.


Love opens up a whole realm of possibilities, does it not?  I chose to imagine that it does for Kitty, too.