About Jodie:
Jody Gehrman is the author of seven novels and numerous plays. Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft is her most recent Young Adult novel. Her other Young Adult novels include Babe in Boyland, Confessions of a Triple Shot Betty, and Triple Shot Bettys in Love, (Penguin's Dial Books). Babe in Boyland won the International Reading Association Teen Choice Award and has recently been optioned by the Disney Channel. Her adult novels are Notes from the Backseat, Tart, and Summer in the Land of Skin (Red Dress Ink).
Her plays have been produced in Ashland, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and L.A. She and her partner David Wolf won the New Generation Playwrights Award for their one-act, Jake Savage, Jungle P.I. She is a professor of English at Mendocino College.
Jody Gehrman
Where did you get the inspiration to write the book?
I'm fascinated with witchcraft. I guess I'm a pagan at heart; I've always felt there's a mysterious power running through the natural world. The idea of humans having the ability to tap that power appeals to me on a basic level. Growing up in Northern California, I knew at least a handful of people who identified as witches, so it wasn't that foreign to me. I started writing this book about seven years ago for adults, but I never felt like it was quite working. Then I realized it would work well as a YA novel, so I pulled out the old draft and gave it a radical makeover.
What do you think is totally unique about your story?
Well, for starters, it's got necromancers, cute boys, and magical chocolate cake. That's kind of a unique combination.
Your favourite character in the book and why?
I really enjoyed getting to to know all the characters, but I especially liked Sadie. Imagining her confusion as she moves from a totally magical community to the world of mundanes amused and interested me. She's definitely one of my favorite characters in the book.
Favourite book of all time and why?
I'm sorry, I'm just too wishy-washy and in love with too many books to give you a firm answer on this. It depends on my mood! Some of my favorites in the realm of “classics” include Nabokov, both of the Brontes (but especially Charlotte) and Jane Austen. Southern writers like Ellen Gilchrist made a big impression on me as a young writer. When I found Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary, Nick Hornby's High Fidelity and Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series I became fascinated with modern British comedic writers. I read a lot of YA these days. Some of my favorite YA writers are Beth Fantaskey, Nina LaCour, Maggie Stiefvater, Katie Crouch and Stacey Jay.
Favourite holiday destination?
I love beaches: Turks and Caicos is one of my favorites. Though honestly, hanging out at the creek behind my dad's house in the mountains is also pretty dreamy, and a lot less expensive. Oh, and I adore Japan! Apparently I'm incapable of answering any of your questions simply.
If someone made a movie based on your life, which actor/actress will you pick to be you?
Ummm...Charlize Theron, I think. She's so radiant, yet she brings a gritty realism to her roles too. Nice combination. She'd do me proud.
Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft
Summary from Goodreads:
Falling in Love, baking a magical cake, fighting an evil necromancer—it’s all in a day’s work for Audrey Oliver, seventeen-year-old witch-in-training. When her mother goes missing and her twenty-one-year-old witchy cousin shows up out of the blue, Audrey knows something’s gone horribly, dangerously wrong. Now it’s up to her to get her own magical powers up to speed before everyone she loves is destroyed by the sorcerer intricately connected to her mother’s secret past.
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