Sara Hantz: The Second Virginity of Suzy Green

 

Title: The Second Virginity of Suzy Green
Author: Sara Hantz
Mass Market Paperback: 264 pages
Publisher: Flux
ISBN: 978-0738711393

First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?

The Second Virginity of Suzy Green is about a girl who used to be one of the coolest nonconformist “almost-Goth” party girls in Australia. Until her older sister Rosie dies and her family moves to a new town. After that, not even her best friend would recognize her. Gone are the Doc Martens and the attitude. All she wants is to be like Rosie-perfect. The new Suzy Green makes straight As, hangs with the in-crowd at her new school, and dates the hottest guy around. And since all her new friends belong to a virginity club, she joins, too. So what if she’s not technically qualified? Nobody in town knows . . . until Ryan, Suzy’s ex, turns up. As the past and present collide, Suzy struggles to find her own place in a world without her sister.

2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.

I’d been writing chick-lit for a couple of years, when in November 2005 I decided to try a teen-lit. After writing 3 chapters I did what you’re not meant to do and started to send it to agents, to test the water. Ooops!!! That’ll teach me. The story seemed to hit the right nerve because straight away five agents asked for the full manuscript and six for partials. I sent the partials and said to those requesting the full that it still needed some tweaking (aka writing) and I’d send when ready. In only a few days one of the agents had read the partial and asked for the full.

I managed to finish the full by January and send to all those who requested it….. most of them asked for it by email which was an added bonus….. and 10 days later the agent I mentioned above phoned and offered representation. I said yes pretty much straight away. By February I’d done some revisions for my agent and she sent it out to lots of publishers. Andrew, the editor from Flux, phoned asking if I’d be prepared to do some revisions. I said yes (obviously!!!) and he sent me a very detailed letter. I did them. He was happy and then asked me to do some more, saying if they were ok he’d take it to the Acquisitions Committee. He took it to the committee and they offered me a contract. The actual ‘call’ was staged. First, my agent emailed asking for me to let her know a time I’d be available for a chat on the phone. So I sort of knew they’d offered. So I didn’t scream or burst into tears because I’d already prepared myself.

3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?

My agent is currently shopping a mid-grade series, which I’m very excited about.

4. What’s your writing process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?

I’m more of a something in between writer. My guiding principle for most things in life is ‘little and often’ as I have a very low attention threshold and am easily distracted. So, I open my manuscript up first thing in the morning and dip in and out of it during the day. Some times I get more done than others, depending on how busy the motel is and how sidetracked I get on the internet. In the past I have set myself a daily page target. Normally, though, I just do what I can.

5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at the The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.

Clearly I’m the exception that proves the rule. I’m a dog person (should I be ducking???). When the children were small we not only had a dog, we also had goldfish, mice, hamster, rabbits and chickens. Now, all we have a gorgeous golden Labrador called Ellie.