Interview with Andrea Seigel, To Feel Stuff

Interview by Amy Brozio-Andrews

Andrea Seigel is the author of Like the Red Panda and the newly-published To Feel Stuff. A television series based on her debut novel Like the Red Panda is in development. In addition to working on her MFA at Bennington College, she will be teaching Novel I at UCLA Extension Writer's Program this fall. This week she begins a reading tour for To Feel Stuff-- check out her website at www.andreaseigel.com and read up on book tour dates and locations at http://www.myspace.com/tofeelstuff.

What's a typical day like for you?

I eat a bowl of cornflakes. That's mandatory. Then, weekdays, I baby-sit a three-year-old for a few hours because I found out, after selling my first book, that staying home all day is bad news. Audrey and I spend a lot of time at the La Brea Tar Pits because right now she's obsessed with skeletons and this film strip at the museum in which a prehistoric horse gets stuck, then a Sabre Tooth Cat eats the horse, then a pack of Dire Wolves eats the cat, and then a vulture eats everything that's left. Or else we go swimming in my pool. Then I nap for at least an hour and a half. And then I start my night, which is potent mix of writing while watching primetime TV. I cap off the TV-watching with Jimmy Kimmel and the Tivo'd version of that day's syndicated reality soap "Starting Over," and then I get into bed and read until usually 2 a.m.

And that is a very, very accurate day in the life of. I'm pretty consistent.

Please tell us about your first book sale.

I was working at the Disney Channel when my agent e-mailed me the news and the offer, and I immediately got up from my desk, went over to my production manager and said, "So I think I'm on my way out of here." I later celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese, skeeballing with some coworkers and later took a nap in a beanbag chair hidden behind an empty cubicle. It turned out that my boss was quitting, too, and so for the next month, which happened to overlap with Christmas and Hanukah, we showed up, watched some TV at our desks, shrugged around noon, and went home.

What was your inspiration for writing your new book To Feel Stuff?

I heard David Mead's song, "Elodie" (the same name of my protagonist) on a drive up to Palo Alto, and immediately started thinking about a girl who looks older than she acts. Also, I'd long been jealous of people who have personal ghost stories because my parents moved us to Irvine, a brand new planned community, when I was five, and no one had ever lived in our house before. And, as far as I know, the house wasn't built upon burial ground or anything like that. So I always liked the idea of someone being haunted in a place where there was no good excuse or documentation for the haunting.
 

What do you do to prepare for author readings? How do you select what passages to read? What has inspired you to include a dance routine in your upcoming readings?

I pick a passage that has a somewhat contained sub-story within it and is easily followable, because I know how difficult it is to pay attention to something when it's being read to you. More importantly, I go to Loehmann's and I buy a new top, preferably halter. It always makes things feel slightly more special.

As for the dance routine, which has convinced a lot of people that there's something wrong with me, I decided that readings are way more boring than they have to be. I've never understood why everything has to be so sober and unsexy at readings. (And it's also my contention that no one really loves being read aloud to.) So I've added the dance routine since watching dance has always made me happy, and I'm hoping for that effect in the audience. When I watch "So You Think You Can Dance?" or "Dancing With The Stars" I'm beaming like a rainbow. Which is kind of humiliating, but I'm okay with that. Also, there just comes a point when, after reading from city to city, you need to amuse yourself, too.

When you wrote Like the Red Panda, did you ever envision it making the transition to television? How did the development of the book as a TV pilot come about?

Maybe I fantasized that it could be a TV show, but I don't think I thought that it would ever really happen. The deal came about because Lori Gottlieb, who reviewed Panda for People magazine, asked me if she could take my book and pitch it to some TV executives she knew. Right now we're on the verge of doing the pilot.

Are there any big differences between publishing a first and second book? Is it any easier the second time around?

I think it's a million times harder the second time around. My editor kept reminding me of the sophomore curse, warning me that people put the second effort under a gigantic magnifying glass. And I've really been stressing out over whether the Panda readers would embrace To Feel Stuff, because of the supernatural element in the latter book.  With the first novel, I knew nothing and had zero expectations, so through that whole process I was sleeping well and ambling along. With this one, I'm ten times more aware of what's being said about it, who's liking it, and the state of the stress-zit that keeps appearing on my cheek.

What's the biggest challenge in trying to teach other writers? The greatest reward?

I'd say the biggest challenge is helping people narrow in on what they have to say to the world. This seems like it should be an easy thing to identify, but a lot of my students (and I do it, too) let what they think they should be writing or how they think they should be writing get in the way of what they do best. The greatest reward comes when a student abandons conceptions she has about her work or herself and produces something great and immediate, unlike anything she was doing before that point. I had this happen in a workshop last term, and just seeing this girl's newfound excitement and awareness was very exciting for me because I knew it would propel her through her first novel.

For other writers who may be considering an MFA program, do you have any advice?

I would say do a low-residency program. Because a huge part of the life is being alone, figuring out your writing schedule, and making yourself produce, and the low-residency model most closely mirrors these hermity requirements. I think that if you're in regular workshops, not only can your work get dissected into nothingness (or mashed down into an amalgam of everyone else's tastes), but you can also get too dependent on imposed deadlines and being guided through a story.
 

Which authors do you read for pleasure?

I love Kelly Link. Jincy Willett. All the non-fiction humorists like Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, Sarah Vowell, David Rakoff, and Beth Lisick. Bret Easton Ellis. And just last week I finished Ned Vizzini's Be More Chill, which I thought was fantastic. Right now I'm reading Fowles' The Magus, with four hundred pages remaining.

It sounds like you're really busy-- what with doing an MFA program, teaching for UCLA Extension, readings for To Feel Stuff-- how do you keep from feeling burnt out?

As indicated, the napping is crucial. Crucial! I also think writing while watching massive amounts of television helps take the pressure off, and makes the writing feel more integrated into my normal life as opposed to a task I have to perform daily. What else do I do. I pet my pet rabbit. I read US Weekly. I roll my eyes at myself because I'm so neurotic. And I just keep thinking about what I'm going to write next because that always feels hopeful.

Amy Brozio-Andrews is a freelance writer and book reviewer. She brings more than five years' experience as a readers' advisory librarian to her work, which is regularly published by Library Journal, The Imperfect Parent, and Absolute Write. Her reviews have also been published by The Absinthe Literary Review, ForeWord Magazine, January Magazine, and Melt Magazine. Amy is also the managing editor and an international markets columnist for Absolute Write. Visit her online at http://www.amyba.com.

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