Today the lovely Alexa Martin, author of 2011 debut novel GIRL WONDER (which I absolutely loved) is here to answer a few questions.
GIRL WONDER was definitely not what I was expecting when I picked it up. It seems like a few other readers have had a similar reaction to mine. When you were finished writing GIRL WONDER, did you know that this was definitely not a typical YA book?
One of the things that helped me in my final editorial push of the book was that my life had gone all to hell at the time. I’d just gotten divorced, I’d shattered my neck in a rock-climbing fall, and a thyroid condition was making it impossible for me to heal from injury/illness. In a nutshell I felt AWFUL (no worries… I am feeling MUCH better these days and am back to my active and healthy lifestyle). But that “awfulness” allowed me to REALLY access the deepest and rawest parts of my character Charlotte. I did not hold back from delving deep into her feelings of shame and insecurity. Obviously, other teen books do handle topics like mine, but I like to think that what makes GIRL WONDER unique is it’s almost nauseating honesty. A book that sets the standard for this kind of writing is Adele Griffin’s book AMADINE.
You chose to include some risky topics in GIRL WONDER from sex to smoking to drugs. Did you struggle with deciding to include these topics in the story?
When I was writing GIRL WONDER I knew that there were some “heavy” parts. The very hardest scene for me to write was the sex scene, followed, of course, by the drug trip scene. I was scared about how the public would receive these parts but at the same time it was very important to me that I write honestly about Charlotte’s experiences and not sugarcoat or sanitize the aftermath. In the name of fitting in Charlotte makes some very heartbreaking choices. At the same time, her experience is not unique, and I wanted to give teen readers a realistic picture of the implications of 
forsaking yourself for the sake of fitting in with your friends. It happens. It happens all the time. Teens, tweens, and girls even younger often lead dizzying and dangerous secret lives. I do not preach in my book, but I do hope Charlotte’s story serve at once as a cautionary tale and also as inspiration for teens who are trying to bounce back from tough times and find their inner strength.
It took me a long time to realize who Amanda represented to me. In fact, it wasn’t until the book came out that if finally hit me. A year ago I parted ways with a long-time friend. This was not my choice… but in retrospect I see it as such a blessing in disguise. My friend was a naysayer who was constantly undercutting me and my choices. Who knows if we’ll be friends again… I like to think that maybe we just need some time to see each other as different people. She was my first “cool” friend and I very much looked up to her. I always secretly thought of myself as her sidekick or shadow. As we both got older I think we struggled to see each other as equals, and this was damaging to the friendship as it represented a shift in power dynamics. I’ve had a couple of other toxic friendships in my life, but at this point I’ve got the best friends on the planet. But I think it took some tough experiences and betrayals to help me realize what’s most important in a friendship: trust, honesty, and acceptance. Never settle for anything less.
Charlotte feels like a very real character to me. She struggles with things most teen girls struggle with- school, boys, friendship, family. What strategies did you use to ensure that she remained true to real life?
I had a very difficult middle school and high school experience, partly because my family move around a ton, and each move thrust me into a very different culture than the one I had lived in before. At one point I lived in very sophisticated Shaker Heights, Ohio. The next moment I was living on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, which might as well be a different country. Then I was in an inner-city school in Atlanta, GA. Next, I was in an old-moneyed town in Birmingham, AL. On the upside, all these moves gave me a mental filing cabinet for my memories. If I was struggling with a part of the book trying to figure out how Charlotte would feel, I would go lie down on my bed, close my eyes, and try to recreate exactly what I was feeling at certain times of my teenage life. I guess you could call this focused meditation?
Tell me a bit about your journey to publication.
I had to make the decision to really commit to writing the book, which meant that I had to make the decision to walk away from being a working professional, and stick more to random and odd jobs that would give me the mental space and energy at the end of the day to write. This was a huge leap of faith for me, and for most of the time I was writing GIRL WONDER I simply had to pretend to myself that the book would, for sure, be published. Then it came time to find an agent, which sent me into a tizzy, because now I was no longer in control. Because I am type-A about certain things, I spent six months researching the agent-hunting process before I sent out my first query. Read Miss Snark, btw. Her blog archives remain online and she was immensely helpful! Because I’d done my research I found an agent fairly quickly. We sold the book a couple of months later to Disney Hyperion, and three short years later (ha!) it hit the shelves. All told, from my initial idea to publication took seven years. It was a roller-coaster, but well worth the ride!
Thank you so much for taking the time to thoughtfully answer my questions, Alexa!
Great interview! Girl Wonder has been high on my wishlist for a while now so it was fun to find out more about it as well as Alexa.