A Horror World Conversation with Carrie Jones
By Steven E. Wedel

What’s that? You’ve never heard of Carrie Jones? Well, I won’t accuse you of living under a rock for that. However, it’s a name you’ll want to remember. You see, Carrie burst into the world of published young adult authors in 2007 and in December 2008 marked the release of her fourth – yes, FOURTH – novel. With that fourth novel, Carrie became one of us … an author who brings in the supernatural and explores the dark of the soul.

If you meet Carrie, you won’t suspect her of having a dark thought in her head. She’s kind of shy, but once you get to know her the word “effervescent” will come to mind. Like good champagne, the author and her books are something you’ll want more of.

So, I’m going to serve up what may be the first draught for many of you.

Horror World: Carrie, thanks for taking the time to join us here at Horror World. Before we jump in talking about your new novel, let’s backtrack a little and talk about your previous three. Your breakout debut, TIPS ON HAVING A GAY (EX) BOYFRIEND, and the sequel LOVE (AND OTHER USES FOR DUCT TAPE) take place during one school year in the life of your protagonist, Belle Philbrick. She faces some pretty tough issues in both books. How about giving us a short plot summary of each book?

Carrie Jones: Plot summaries! Oh, you are so mean. You go right to my weakness.

I’ll try:

TIPS is about a girl whose boyfriend has just come out. They were the class couple; the duo everyone thought was perfect, including her. Now she has to deal with the ramifications of her knew knowledge and learn whether or not it’s possible to love people when you don’t know absolutely everything about them.

LOVE is about trusting yourself to be the best kind of friend and best kind of person you can be when your perception of reality and your wants don’t coincide with everyone else’s.

That’s more theme than plot though.

How’s this?

TIPS is about a girl who gets dumped, deals with crud, falls in love again, and stops a fight.

LOVE is about a girl who really wants to have sex, doesn’t get to have sex, has identity/self esteem issues because of it and then realizes that she’s sometimes a total dork, while simultaneously her best friend is dealing with some major stuff.

HW: Both books deal with tough issues, but both end mostly on a happy note. Is that necessary in young adult fiction? Why, or why not?

CJ: I don’t think it’s necessary in young adult fiction. I think it’s the norm in young adult fiction. I also think it’s the norm in most American art, be it movies, television shows, or books. It’s almost like we feel that we’ve been robbed if it doesn’t have a picture-perfect happy ending. It’s become a cultural norm. It’s hard to buck that norm. I try to make my endings less than picture perfect but having an element of hope in them.

HW: Your third novel, GIRL, HERO, is epistolary in form, as Lily has to deal with her mom’s less-than-standup new boyfriend. What made you want to write a book as a series of letters to John Wayne?

CJ: I needed a father-figure for her to write to, someone who is obscure to most people in her world; someone who is dead so that she’s safe to write all she feels; and someone who has meaning for her. John Wayne seemed so perfect, so cowboy-superstar. It was an easy choice.

HW: What’s the reaction been like for GIRL, HERO? Do teens even know who John Wayne was?

CJ: It hasn’t been as widely read as TIPS. Critically it’s been really well received. I think some teens know who John Wayne is and some don’t have a clue. Hopefully, the book is written in a way that you pretty instantly know he’s a dead movie star who was all tough talk/tough action.

HW: Okay, the shadows are getting restless. We probably should talk about some supernatural stuff now. Your newest book, NEED, appeared in bookstores two days before Christmas. Give us the plot synopsis. It’s about a phobiaphobic, right?

CJ: (NOTE: As you’ll see later, Carrie wasn’t fully awake yet and somehow skipped this question. Or just refused to do yet another summary. So I’ve lifted the product description from Amazon.com.) Zara collects phobias the way other high school girls collect lipsticks. Little wonder, since life’s been pretty rough so far. Her father left, her stepfather just died, and her mother’s pretty much checked out. Now Zara’s living with her grandmother in sleepy, cold Maine so that she stays “safe.” Zara doesn’t think she’s in danger; she thinks her mother can’t deal.  Wrong. Turns out that guy she sees everywhere, the one leaving trails of gold glitter, isn’t a figment of her imagination. He’s a pixie—and not the cute, lovable kind with wings. He’s the kind who has dreadful, uncontrollable needs. And he’s trailing Zara.

With suspense, romance, and paranormal themes, this exciting breakout novel has all the elements to keep teens rapidly turning the pages.

HW: Did you say “pixie”? Really? Pixies? Like Tinkerbell? Why pixies? Were the werewolves on strike? Were the vampires … Well, never mind about the dirt-sleepers. Why did you go with pixies?

CJ: I’d had this very strange experience at a fair in Maine. I was at the Common Ground Fair, which is this huge, cool fair in Maine that’s sponsored by Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association (MOFGA). To get to the main part of the fair you have to walk through this sweet trail that curves through these tall spruce trees.

Right in front of me was this guy. He had a weird vibe. He was wearing all corduroy – blazer, pants. And sticking out from his blazer was this long tail-like appendage that was wrapped in different colored earth-toned cloth. I guess he could tell I was checking him out because he turned his head and looked at me. His eye was this startling silver color. How startling? So startling that I actually gasped and got creeped out.

Then when we were in line to pay we made eye contact again and his eyes were brown.

I know! I know! I probably imagined the silver eye color.

It doesn’t matter. That was one of the main things that got me started. Then, I just had this image of a man standing outside an airport pointing at an airplane this girl was on.

It also creeped me out.

So, I started writing.

On a more conscious level I was tired of people thinking of pixies as Tinkerbelle. The Disney version of them drives me a little crazy. No offense to Tink. I wanted to bring them a little closer to their roots.

HW: What’s up with the glitter in NEED? I tease my high school girl students mercilessly about the vampire glitter in a certain well-known series. You put the glitter to a little different use, though.

CJ: Yeah. The glitter here is not a pretty, happy kind of glitter at all. It has nothing to do with skin. It’s more like fairy dust and you really REALLY don’t want to see it. It does not make you all swoony.

HW: What prompted you to go from the “normal” world of Belle and Lily into an exploration of the supernatural in the story of Zara? Why did this story need a supernatural element?

CJ: I thought it would be fun to write something more plot-driven and with the supernatural. The supernatural has always fascinated me and it ups the stakes a little more. Zara’s dealing with her step-father’s death. That’s something that lots of people have to deal with, but when you add a supernatural element things become a little more frightening, even more unknown.

HW: You told me once that you used to be a horror movie buff back in your teens. What did you like?

CJ: I was a total horror movie whore. Seriously. I would watch anything. I was so easy. I’d even watch Godmonster of Indian Flats. It has a mutant sheep in it! Oh. I am ashamed to admit that.

HW: What happened that made you leave the scary stuff behind? What brought you back?

CJ: I left the scary stuff when my own life became too scary. My life’s not scary now. I guess that’s why I came back.

HW: Do you plan to write more stories with supernatural elements? If so, can you tell us about them?

CJ: I do. I love them. I’m afraid to talk about them though. One involves possession. One is the sequel to NEED. One involves angels

HW: You completed your master of fine arts studies at Vermont College just before TIPS was accepted by Flux. What’s your opinion on writers getting higher education to become novelists? Is it necessary? Does it help? Is it an ego boost? Why did you do it?

CJ: Oh, I did it because I had no idea what I was doing. I had been a newspaper editor and a poet. I was absolutely lacking in confidence about writing a novel so I kind of applied on a spur-of-the-moment lark. I didn’t think I’d get accepted. (TIPS was actually accepted at the half-way point of my MFA). For me it helped a lot. I got to work with these mentors who knew exactly how bad I was. They were encouraging and kind and brilliant. It was a lot of fun. Except for the campus. The campus is haunted.

HW: Young adult is a booming market right now. Did you consider that when you began writing, or did you just write the story you wanted to tell?

CJ: I started out writing middle grades, but my natural writing voice is young adult. I had no idea about markets when I started writing. If you asked me I would’ve been like: Markets? You mean like grocery stores? Huh?

HW: Why do you think the YA market is so hot right now? Have kids suddenly put down the video game controllers and picked up books again?

CJ: I don’t think just young adults are reading YA. I think younger kids and older adults are reading it too. The stories tend to deal with identity, with struggling to find self and purpose. As a nation I think we’re looking for that. We’re looking to understand who we are after September 11 th. Stories are one of the best ways of trying to understand who we are and what we want and what we can be. Stories help us make sense of things in our lives and in our cultures and at the same time they let us escape. How cool is that?

There’s also a lot of hope and a lot of possibility in most YA. That’s something so many people want and need.

HW: Looking at the last decade or so with Harry Potter and the TWILIGHT series, why do you think the supernatural is so popular with teen readers?

CJ: I think a lot of people, including teens, are hungry for connections. The supernatural helps create connections between us and the ‘spiritual world.’ It takes battles to mythic levels. It creates a mystery, a sense of immortality almost, a belief that there is something other than this plain old, cereal-eating world. Why wouldn’t that be popular? I think we hunger for worlds and meanings that are more than the mundane. The supernatural feeds that hunger. We can use images that resonate much more deeply. We can look for transcendence. There’s something comforting in thinking ghosts might be real because that means we might not just stop when we die. There’s something comforting in monsters because if monsters exist that means that there are wonders we don’t yet know of yet, heroes to be made, things to be discovered and explored.

HW: As a high school teacher I can tell you that it’s hard to get most boys to read. Do you have very many male readers? Despite having female protagonists, do you feel like your books cross gender lines?

CJ: I have way more male readers than I ever imagined, which totally rocks. I have no idea why this is. I have no idea what the gender lines are, really. I know! I know! I sound clueless, but I don’t want to lie to you and pretend. I could try though. Hold on. Let me find a good fake, pretentious British accent.

HW: There’s a lot more to you than just being an outstanding author. Like some of your characters, you’ve been deeply involved in Amnesty International. Why is it important to get involved in your community, whether it’s the food bank down the street or the global community?

CJ: Personally, if I don’t try to stop bad things from happening I feel as if I’m part of those bad things. I don’t want to be an enabler. When women are being raped in war, when kids are being kidnapped and turned into slaves, when men are tortured and robbed of their human rights because of their religion, it feels pretty jerky of me to just sit here in my cozy house in Maine and do nothing. Honestly, I don’t think I do nearly enough. It’s the same thing on a local level. There are people up here who keep their thermostats on 49 because they can’t afford oil. These are working people. These are grandparents and these are vets. Working at the food bank seems like a pretty nothing thing compared to what they have to deal with.

HW: You ran for a seat in the state legislature there in Maine last year. You didn’t win, but you did very well for a Democrat in a Republican district. What did you learn, and will that experience show up in future stories?

CJ: I learned that if you don’t smear the other opponent you probably won’t win.

I learned that people you never thought would be immoral will be immoral when it comes to politics.
I learned what it feels to be spat on.
I learned how incredibly kind and cool people can be.
I learned how much people want to believe in democracy and in our country.
I learned that Republican women over 80 bake THE BEST cookies in the world.
I also learned how to knock on doors.
I really learned that I hate knocking on doors because it feels soooooo intrusive.
I learned I’m not a very good politician.

HW: People are going to want to meet you and get NEED signed and tell you how it’s the best YA paranormal they’ve ever read. Where will we be able to do that in 2009?

CJ: I’m not sure yet. Bloomsbury is working things out. I know that I’ll be in CONESTOGA this year.

HW: You’ve worked for a newspaper. You know the drill at the end, where you ask your victim … er … interviewee if there’s anything they want to say that you forgot to ask about. We are there. So, is there?

CJ: Nope! Thank you so much for interviewing me. It was a great honor. It’s still early in the morning (Did you notice my bed hair?) but hopefully I constructed some sentences in here and didn’t bore you to death.

HW: Carrie, thank you again for your time. We wish you great success in 2009.

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