Author Interview: Adele Griffin (The Julian Game)

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Adele Griffin`s critically acclaimed novels include The Other Shepards, Amandine and Home Book Award Finalist Sons of Liberty. Her numerous awards and accolades include ALA Best Book for Young Adults, ALA Notable, CCBC Choice, IRA-CBC Children's Choice and Bank Street Book of the Year. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

For more information on Adele, visit her sites:

-Website

-Twitter

-Facebook

-GoodReads

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The Julian Game by Adele Griffin

Reading Level: Young Adult Fiction

Release Date: Available Now

Publisher: Putnam Juvenile

Summary: All new girl Raye Archer wants is a way into the in crowd, so when ice-queen Ella Parker picks her to get second at her ex, the gorgeous Julian Kilgarry, Raye is more than game. Even if it means creating a fake Facebook identity so she can take enough about Julian to countermine him. It's a fun and dangerous thrill at first, but Raye hadn't counted on dropping for Julian herself and igniting Ella's rage. As Raye works to settle the temptress Elizabeth with her real-life self, Ella serves up her own revenge, creating an online smear campaign of nasty rumors and trashy photographs. Suddenly notorious, Raye has to recover a way out of the web of deception that she's helped to build, and support to the relationships that matter. Adele Griffin's riveting novel explores the issues of generation Facebook: the want to be somebody else, real versus online friends, and the pitfalls and fallouts of mailing your personal life online for all the world to judge.

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Author Interview:

1) When did you first see yourself a writer?

AG: When I was eight, I wrote a report about an orphanage that burnt to the ground. I felt a genuine sense of accomplishment because I`d successfully blended two tragic plot points-orphans and arson-to make quite a devastating drama. "Write what you live" was not percentage of my rulebook in 3rd grade.

2) What inspired you to save The Julian Game?

AG: I`ve been mesmerized and alarmed with classroom bullying these days. Back when I was a kid, someone might open a rumour or visit you a lot of nasty names and that was sort of it. Bullying was an emotional scar but it left no physical footprint. Today, a lot of smear campaigns are waged in printed words. This too gives a new force to the anonymous herd; the kids that used to stand round and laughter at the victim are now able to place comments, to actually get in the knife. It`s pretty scary.A raunchy photo is the inciting incident in Julian, but the ganging-up and the relentless cruelty of the hate blog-that`s all text. And as a writer, the force of language is an intriguing theme to me.

3) If you had to distinguish your record in one word, what would it be and why?

AG: Electric. Because I really needful that game to be quick, fierce, wild, and risky. All those words stack up to electric.

4) Since The Julian Game is a tale about cat-and-mouse revenge, did you ever see a tone of revenge?

AG: I used to, all the time. I look like I`m so mellow now-but in high school, my emotions were pitched up to major extremes. I had huge opinions on everything-guys, teachers, friends, enemies, frenemies. As far as revenge, I was a kid in the 80s, and any joke in the 80s was all about crank calling-which is a totally obsolete kind of entertainment today. But back then, nothing was better than calling up some hot guy and getting his mom on the sound and hanging up. That was really scaling the high of fun.

5) Out of all the books you've written, which one is your favorite?

AG: This one I am running on now. My eye always belongs to the secret, untitled, unfinished, unpublished manuscript.

6) Besides being a loving father and writer, what else do you wish to do in your spare time?

AG: Apparently, I know to burn food. Over the preceding week, I`ve crisped one mess of blueberry muffins, a lasagna, and this morning, the pancakes. But when I`m not turn off the smoke detector, I`m re-learning how to bike. Brooklyn is a biking town. They say you never forget, but to this I`d add that you do forget how to be adept at it. My poise is awful.

7) What book are you currently reading?

AG: My friend Meredith Kaffel just gave me a transcript of Marjorie Morningstar. This was a big volume in its day, but it passed me by completely. So I`m deep in that. In YA, I am reading Broken Soup. And Before I Fall is next, on your recommendation. :)

8) Do you hold anything to say to all your stage and future readers?

AG: Oh, yes! I`d say, come see me on Goodreads because that`s where I am hanging out when I`m not falling off my bike. Reading everyone`s blogs and reviews. I am addicted to it.

9) What's the most craziest thing you've always done that you wouldn't dare share with others (besides us of course hehe)?

AG: When I was a senior in high school, my fellow and I stole this seven-foot-tall, plastic lumberjack dude from a mini-golf rink. We took it for a party, and we even returned it-but I was so certain that I`d be arrested for my diabolical crime that I spent almost a month jumping about in terror every time I heard a police siren.

New Release Coming Soon!