bookburger pop quiz: cecil castellucci

Punk poet of girl geekdom Cecil Castellucci has carved out a world all her own in novels like Boy Proof and Queen of Cool—a world populated by memorably quirky nerds and the people who either befriend or torment them. We predict '07 is going to be a big Cecil year...In May, she's got two books coming out: a graphic novel coming out from the new chick-targeted comics imprint Minx (we posted on this a while back), and a YA novel, Beige--which is all about NOT being beige. We grilled Cecil, and here's the juicy result:

Who is your favorite writer that most people have never heard of?
I'm a big fan of Walter Tevis.  He wrote one of my fave books that I read as a teen called Mockingbird.  It's about a robot that wants to commit suicide.  So amazing.   He also wrote The Man Who Fell to Earth.

I also adore James Tiptree, Jr.  Who wrote as a man but was really a woman.   Highlights include her short story collection Warm Worlds and Otherwise.  A great biography of her life just came out. 

And of course, two up and coming writers both of whom have novels coming out in 2007

Heather Tomlinson - The Swan Maiden (Holtzbrinck)

Jo Knowles  - Lessons from a Dead Girl (Candlewick)

What kid or teen books rocked your world growing up?
All of the All of a Kind Family books by Sydney Taylor

any of the Shoes books by Noel Streatfeld

The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Anything by Jane Austen or the Brontes.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Candide by Voltaire

Burger-flippers want to know: have you ever had a job that required you to wear a geeky uniform? Details, please!

Well, there were some ugly aprons that I had to wear working  at Swenson's Ice Cream Parlor and Pier One Imports.  Blech.  But the geekiest uniform that I ever wore was my elf outfit while working as a Christmas elf at Macy's Santaland.  Now you'd think that an Elf outfit would be FANTASTIC! But they didn't have an outfit that was small enough for me so it was ill fitting and the hat was very big.   So it was kind of fantastically geeky and also totally badly geeky.

How did you get together with the folks at Minx? Did they find you or did you find them?

Shelly Bond at Vertigo, who was launching Minx got in touch with me.   I was very happy to be found.  She had edited one of my fave Vertigo titles, The Deadenders.  I had long wanted to write comic books, but didn't know how to go about doing it.  Happily Minx was putting feelers out to see if maybe a YA author would be interested as a potential person to write a book for the Minx line.  Happily, I'm the gal that got the call.

Are there some graphic novels that really inspire you?

Some titles off the top of my head are...

Dirty Plotte by Julie Doucet

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. 

Maus by Art Spiegleman.

DMZ by Brian Wood

Gray Horses by Hope Larson

Fables by Bill Willingham

Y the Last Man by Brian K Vaughan

Sunset City by Rob Osborne

We'd like to name a burger in your honor. What kind of fixins should
it have?
It
should have cheese, avocado, onions, some kind of special mayo-lemon
fancy spread and cilantro.   And it should have french fries with gravy
on the side.  (and Poutine if possible)  (Poutine is french fries,
gravy and cheese curds) (It's a Quebec thing)

what's Cecil's personal theme song? her ideal writing spot? read the whole interview at bookburger...