Friday Fifteen: Lisa Yee

It’s the Friday Fifteen! Today’s author is Lisa Yee, author of Millicent Min, Girl Genius and Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time. Onto the Fifteen…

1. Where are you now?
At this very moment I am sitting in my cluttered home office in South Pasadena, California. There’s a glass of ice water to my left, and a pile of Hot Tamales candies on my right. My dog (a labradoodle) is bored so she keeps walking in and out of the room.

2. What were your favorite books as a kid?
Ooooh, tough question. There were so many books that I loved, like the KATIE JOHN series by Mary Calhoun, ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY books by Sydney Taylor, and, of course, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. (On my website — http://lisayee.com — I list, like, 40 of my favorites.)

3. What are you reading now?
I am currently reading SCHULZ AND PEANUTS (the biography of Charles Schulz). It’s a fascinating account of depression and humor. Recently, I read A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by Linda Urban and THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE STORY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie. Both were wonderful.

4. Do you have kids?
I have two. (Four, if you count my dog and husband.) My son is in 5th grade and my daughter is a sophomore (!!!) in high school. Now that I have a teenager, it’s payback for when I was a teen.

5. What projects are you working on now?
I’m just finishing up a young adult novel called DEFINITELY MAYBE. It’s about a goth girl whose mother runs a charm school for beauty pageant contestant. Some bad stuff happens and the Maybe (her mother named her after Maybelline mascara) runs away to Hollywood to find her father who doesn’t even know she exists.

I’m also just started JUST BOBBY, a series of chapter books about a boy who’s a very sincere, very well-mannered, very accident-prone fourth grader.

6. What is your biggest writing or illustrating luxury?
Books. I buy a lot of books under the guise of I-really-need-this-one-because-any-reading-I-do-is-research.

7. Coffee or tea?
Uh, neither. But I do drink large amounts of caffeine-free Diet Coke. Does that count? (I am self-caffeinated. The few times I have had coffee, it’s like someone flicked the hyper-speed button on me.)

8. Name five artists on your iPod (or mp3 player).
Rufus Wainwright, Boz Scaggs, Gwen Steffani, Five For Fighting (he’s just one guy), and Eric Clapton.

9. What would I be surprised to know about you?
How about that I have the second largest collection of Winnie-the-Poohs in America? Most of them reside in a museum in White River, Canada. Although my parent’s den is also filled with them, and many of my favorites still live with me.

10. What college did you attend (in what subject)?
I attended the University of Southern California and dual majored in Humanities and English.

11. If you weren’t working with kids’ books, what would your dream job be?
I’d probably be an artist (I love creating mixed media collages) or make jewelry. I used to make a lot of my own jewelry when I was younger and had more time.

12. What’s the best thing on TV right now?
It’s a tie between Craig Ferguson and THE OFFICE. There’s also a reality show called JON + KATE + 8, about this couple and their twins and sextuplets. I love that show, but can never figure out when it’s on, and we don’t have TiVO.

13. How did you get your “big break” into the field?
I didn’t have an agent and know anything about publishing, so I sent in a manuscript on my own. It was pulled out of the slush pile by Arthur Levine, the editor of the HARRY POTTER series and head of Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic. Though he didn’t publish that first one, he encouraged me — for years. My first book, MILLICENT MIN, GIRL GENIUS, came out in 2003. By 2010 I will six books under his imprint.

14. Which celeb would you want most to meet?
Colin Firth, as Mr. Darcy. Or Oprah. How about Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy when he’s on Oprah’s show and I’m sitting next to him on the couch?!?! Oh, and Craig Ferguson would be there, too. And Anne Tyler and Anne Lamott would both bring cookies, but the cookies would be on the burnt-crispy-side, the way I like them. And there would be no walnuts.

15. Who is the best book character EVER?
Oh man, you are just trying to befuddle me, aren’t you? I’d say, Piglet. Or maybe, I’d say, Boo Radley. Or I may even say, Ramona Quimby. I dunno. It’s hard to say!

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Thanks for playing, Lisa! You can find out more about Lisa on her web site at http://lisayee.com