BooksChatter: ℚ♫ My Senior Year of Awesome: School Dayz [1]

Today we have the pleasure of meeting up with début author Jennifer DiGiovanni to talk about My Senior Year of Awesome (1 March 2016, Swoon Romance, 304 pages), a Young Adult Romance, book one of the School Dayz series.

A girl desperately tries to avoid the boy she was voted most likely to marry by her senior classmates.

To prove senior superlative votes are meaningless, she and her best friend create their own list of awesome high school achievements to be completed by graduation.

Author Q&A | Synopsis | Teaser | About the Author | Giveaway & Tour Stops

A very warm welcome to Jennifer DiGiovanni; thank you for joining us on BooksChatter.

"Thanks so much for hosting this stop of the My Senior Year of Awesome Blog Tour!"

Our pleasure! We love music; do you have a music playlist that you used in My Senior Year of Awesome, or which inspired you whilst you were writing it?

"As far as music goes, I usually have one “theme” song in mind for each book. For My Senior Year of Awesome, the song was “Brave” by Sara Bareilles."

What was the inspiration for My Senior Year of Awesome?

"The idea for this book came to me while sitting around a table with my sisters and cousins. They started talking about their “turning 30 bucket lists” and I pictured two girls in high school who wrote out their own bucket list after realizing they were about to graduate and hadn’t done anything spectacular with their lives."

How much of yourself is reflected in this book, and how?

"In many ways, Sadie is actually the opposite of me, which was why it was so much fun to write her character. She’s an only child and I come from a large family. She’s lived in the same town her whole life while I switched schools several times. She’s also a procrastinator, while I’m very deadline oriented and would probably be most likely to turn work in early."

The first thing that draws me to a book is its cover. Can you tell us about your cover for My Senior Year of Awesome - why you chose that concept and who the artist is.

"I loved my cover, although I was not involved in the design process. But I think it fits the tone of the book really well. I especially loved the font!"

Why should we read My Senior Year of Awesome and what sets it apart from the rest? What makes your book unique?

"In this book, I wanted to write an unconventional love story about two people who weren’t typically viewed as romantic heroes.

I also wanted to write about a group of friends who had been together for a long time and had trouble seeing themselves as all grown up. When you spend 12 years together and see each other every day, you may condition yourself to thinking of a certain person one way. But if you take time to really look at them, you may realize your long-held impressions aren’t 100% accurate."

Can you tell us something quirky about My Senior Year of Awesome, its story and characters?

"For me, character names have to sound good and flow with the writing.

Sadie’s name was the first one I came up with and I thought it fit her character well. Then I picked Jana because I liked the way Sadie & Jana sounded together."

Who would you recommend My Senior Year of Awesome to and what should readers be aware of (any warnings or disclaimers)?

"I like to stay on the lighter side of YA, and hopefully I achieved that!

Sadie and Jana do try to break a few rules in their quest for achievements, but they also aspire to move out of their comfort zones and try new things as well. Sometimes they succeed and sometimes … not. But at least they tried!"

If you could / wished to turn My Senior Year of Awesome and the School Dayz series into a movie, who would be your dream team?

"After reading an early draft of this book, my critique partners and I had a discussion about how to cast Andy, because he is attractive in his own, quirky way. I think one of the names we came up with was Freddie Stroma.

For Jana, possibly Christina Milian.

Sadie might be played by someone like Maia Mitchell."

What do you like to write and read about? Do you stick to a particular genre or do you like to explore different ones?

"I like to write about quirky YA characters. Maybe not the most romantic, beautiful people, but those who struggle with self-confidence and tend to fall under the high school popularity radar.

Most of what I write is considered contemporary, although I have played around in other genres like paranormal and mystery."

Janet's Writing Space
Also check out the Sixteen to Read site!

What is your writing process?

"I am a highly freeform writer (also known as a pantser).

I often start a book with a handwritten list of scenes and vague character descriptions. One thing I need to know is the ending. This helps me avoid getting lost along the way.

Then…I just write. I love going back over scenes and making them better, even if this means writing a lot of drafts. That being said, this book easily fell into a solid structure because I wrote the list of achievements for the girls before I started writing the actual book."

What is in store next?

"Right now, I’m working on book 3 of the School Dayz series, My Junior Year of Loathing, which will pick up at the beginning of the next school year from Melinda Banner’s point of view.

I’m also editing My Disastrous Summer Vacation, which is a follow-up to My Senior Year of Awesome."

And as a final quirky thing, to get to know you a little bit better... do you have a pet or something that is special to you that you could share with us?

"Although I would love a dog, we don’t have pets in my house due to my son’s allergies. Here’s the last picture of me with an animal.

When we were in Niagara Falls recently, we stopped by the wax museum. I took a photo of myself with Edward and Bella in the background (but obviously they didn’t photograph well because they’re vampires). But, there’s also a little animal in the corner who I think might be Jacob the werewolf?"