Interview: Hannah Moskowitz

Teen author Hannah Moskowitz is foraging into new territory with YA. Her debut novel Break is edgy and pushes the envelope.

The first feeling is exhilaration.
The second feeling is pain.
The feeling that never comes is regret.

Jonah is on a mission to break every bone in his body. Everyone knows that broken bones grow back stronger than they were before. And Jonah wants to be stronger—needs to be stronger—because everything around him is falling apart. Breaking, and then healing, is Jonah's only way to cope with the stresses of home, girls, and the world on his shoulders. This is the story of his self-destructive spiral, his rock-bottom moment, and how he finally learns to accept help and find true strength through recovery.

Break will be released by Simon & Schuster on August 25th, 2009, but in the meantime Hannah has been kind of enough to grace us with an interview!

Break, your debut YA novel, was written in merely six days. Can you tell us a little bit about how the process was like, how the motivation managed to last, and what the book's about?

Sure. Before BREAK, I'd had a bunch of false starts and wasn't quite sure what I wanted to be writing. I'd finished my last book a few months ago and I was born and stumbling around for a new idea. BREAK really hit me all at once--what if there was a boy who wanted to break all his bones? I really figured out the book while I was writing that first draft. I was unfolding Jonah's motivation as I went. That's the point of the story--why does Jonah want to break all his bones? I guess I wrote so quickly because I was anxious to find out.

A journey of discovery for both of you then - that's awesome that there was such a deep connection with the MC! If the apocalypse were coming tomorrow and you could only choose three books (in the entire world) to keep safe and bring into the "New World", which ones would you choose?

Oh God...that is so hard. I'm going to say Peter Pan, Fight Club, and The Kiss of the Spider Woman. There are so many books I love, but I think those are three that have a distinct point of view I wouldn't want to get lost.

Very worthy choices. Care to describe the circumstances surrounding The Call?

Sure! It was just about this time last year, and I was about to go get my ear pierced. I remember I felt pretty gross because I'd just eaten an entire enormous bag of cheese popcorn. My dad came downstairs and said my phone had been ringing constantly for the past ten minutes. I grabbed it and found my old agent, who'd tried to call me five times already. And she told me we had a sale.

I still got my ear pierced that day.

Haha, well. Now, your MC Jonah is on a self-destructive spree. Have you broken anything before?

I've never broken a bone. Fingers and toes, but those don't really count...unless you break them the way Jonah does, which I did not.

That's good that there hasn't been any major injuries! If you could meet any character from your book to just chill for a day, who would you hang out with, and what would you guys do?

I think it's pretty clear to anyone who reads the book that I absolutely love Jonah's brother Jesse. I would love to hang out with him. He could teach me how to ice skate.

He sounds lovely; speaking of the realm of the fictional sweetie pies - do you have any fictional or literary crushes? (Who?)

Billions. Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, James from Someday This Pain Will be Useful To You, Tyler Durden (of course), Elijah from Are We There Yet?, Pudge from Looking For Alaska, Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby...basically there are millions.

Any other projects currently in the works that you'd care to share a little bit about?

Right now I'm working on a book about a chorus, told from the points of view of a soprano, an alto, a tenor, and a bass. It's about the crazy stuff that goes on in their lives when two of them fall in love, two of them fall out of love, one gets beat up in a bathroom and their choral director gets fired. It's working title is ALL TOGETHER WITH FEELING.

Sounds like a great premise, and what a beautiful title. Words of wisdom - what do you do when the muse has gone on vacation?

Listen to your favorite CD on repeat. Stare out the window. Read something. It'll come to you. Screw self-motivating. I'm lazy. And it always comes.

Now, about the unexpected. What're the best and worst unforseen things that have come along with this whole process (e.g. the planning, outlining, writing, querying, submitting, publishing, etc.)?

The people I've met, without a doubt, are the best part. It's been amazing getting in touch with people around the world I never would have met if we didn't have writing in common. And it's so comforting to be able to whine about word count or publishing trends or query letters with someone who understands.

The worst part, I suppose, is how much time it's sucked away from my real life. My friends and family complain they never see me.

Anything else to add?

Don't think so. Thanks so much for the interview!

Thanks for stopping by, Hannah!

Other places to where Hannah can be found on the world wide web: her website, her blog Invincible Summers,and her YA group blog Yapping About YA (of which Tenners Trish Doller and Suzanne Young are also part of). She's also a frequenter of the Absolute Write forums.