Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance are the authors of The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading. Check back here later for my review!
Q: As The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading is about a geeky girl and her just-as-geeky friend trying out for cheerleading, I'm curious. In what position were you in high school (meaning a nerd, a prep, an art freak, a drama queen, a skater chick, a band geek—I think you know the rest)?
C: I was definitely a geek. Case in point: I was a Girl Scout for twelve years, which was so not cool. Until my troop earned enough money for a trip to Europe, that is.
D: I had classes with all the other geeks and we were friends so, part classic geek. But I was also definitely an art freak. I had friends who were way into band, orchestra or theatre so I sometimes hung with the music geeks and drama queens. On top of all that, my main boyfriend was a jock so I spent some time with the sports crowd too. I guess I was a Hybrid Geek, or maybe om-nerd-verous ; )
Q: Charity, after reading the "Our Story Behind the Story" page at The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading website (www.thegeekgirlsguide.com), I was wondering if you could tell us more about the process of being co-authors for a novel. I have read plenty of books written by two people, but never really understood how it works exactly. I mean, not everyone has the same writing style, and not everyone can write one thing with another person without having major disagreements. Would you mind clearing this up for us?
C: In our case, it helped that we'd been both friends and critique partners for about ten years or so. We find many of the same things funny, which I think is another plus.
The mechanics of it go something like this: one of us will write the draft of something, then we'll pass it back and forth. When we first started working together on The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading, you could tell which parts were me and which were Darcy's.
After a while, we both learned how to make all parts Bethany's. I can't really explain it better than that except to say that, as with most types of writing, it took time and practice.
Q: You guys clearly knew each other before this novel came along. Was it weird to be working together on a book, or was it just fun to be doing something with a friend?
C: It was definitely fun. We'd been working together as critique partners for so long, in some ways this really wasn't much different--we just spent more virtual time together.
D: It was FUN!
Q: Were any of the characters in The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading based—no matter how loosely—on people from your own time in high school? Or do some of them—especially Chantal Simmons and other members of the so-called "in-crowd"—just share similar qualities to people who attended school with you at one point?
C: I draw from real life, things I've either experienced or people I've known, but no one character is based on anyone I actually knew growing up.
D: Charity already had all the characters in place by the time I started working on the book with her so I didn't establish any of them on my own. I did have people from high school in mind as I wrote though, especially those characters at the extreme ends of the popularity spectrum. Every time I even think about Todd, I see this kid named Richard's face. And, in my mind, there are two Chantals.
There's "good" Chantal who reminds of a girl I knew named Kim. Kim and I went to the same church and we had a few classes together. She was fabulously popular, pretty, from a wealthy family and she had a shoe collection that would rival Chantal's. Kim was always nice to me at church functions and in class -- but outside of that, it was like I did not exist for her. I wasn't unpopular in school but I was definitely not in her stratosphere. We could be walking down the halls in a direct path toward each other and she would never ever wave at me or acknowledge my existence in any way, but, in a different setting, she was totally cool.
"Evil" Chantal reminds me of another girl, one who I wished would not acknowledge me. She comes up as a potential "friend" suggestion on Facebook sometimes and, all these years later, I still wince when I see her face.
Q: I know tons of girls that are too afraid to try things, or even be themselves, because they think that they're not as "pretty as {insert name of popular person here}" or they "don't have the same kind of clothes as {insert name of popular person here}" or they "are too awkward and quiet for a guy to like them" or they even "are afraid people judge them because of their freckles and birthmarks—they wish their skin was more like {insert name of popular person here}". I personally find it sad that all of these girls can't even go to school without feeling like someone is going to make fun of them, or can't even leave the house without feeling nervous about being themselves. What are your views on the social status at most schools currently, and the serious issues with school cliques?
C: Darcy has answered really well (see below), but I relate. It took me a long time to work up the courage and try new things and feel good about the way I looked. I channeled a lot of that into The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading.
D: I could write pages and pages about this – oh wait, I did – they're all in The Geek Girl's Guide! But really, I spend a lot of time in high schools and it is just like you said: there are tons of girls who suffer through some pretty brutal self esteem problems. Most of the worst ones I've seen were caused by other people who were cruel and thoughtless – but a lot of the time, girls put these judgments on themselves.
We all think that everyone is watching every move we make but the truth is, most people are so wrapped up in worrying about themselves that they don't even notice that zit you have on your chin or the way your belly fat muffins over your jeans, or even that huge extra chunk you accidentally tweezed out of your eyebrows when you sneezed (oh wait, that one was me, not you, lol).
The best thing girls can do to combat this is to just suck in a big breath and ask themselves, What is the worst thing that could happen if I…? Usually, the worst thing isn't any more awful than what is already going on. And yeah, it won't always work out – some people will label you and try to keep you from getting outside of the box they've placed you in, but that's not as sad as staying in that box on purpose. TRY. It could turn out to be amazing!
C: I was definitely a geek. Case in point: I was a Girl Scout for twelve years, which was so not cool. Until my troop earned enough money for a trip to Europe, that is.
D: I had classes with all the other geeks and we were friends so, part classic geek. But I was also definitely an art freak. I had friends who were way into band, orchestra or theatre so I sometimes hung with the music geeks and drama queens. On top of all that, my main boyfriend was a jock so I spent some time with the sports crowd too. I guess I was a Hybrid Geek, or maybe om-nerd-verous ; )
Q: Charity, after reading the "Our Story Behind the Story" page at The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading website (www.thegeekgirlsguide.com), I was wondering if you could tell us more about the process of being co-authors for a novel. I have read plenty of books written by two people, but never really understood how it works exactly. I mean, not everyone has the same writing style, and not everyone can write one thing with another person without having major disagreements. Would you mind clearing this up for us?
C: In our case, it helped that we'd been both friends and critique partners for about ten years or so. We find many of the same things funny, which I think is another plus.
The mechanics of it go something like this: one of us will write the draft of something, then we'll pass it back and forth. When we first started working together on The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading, you could tell which parts were me and which were Darcy's.
After a while, we both learned how to make all parts Bethany's. I can't really explain it better than that except to say that, as with most types of writing, it took time and practice.
Q: You guys clearly knew each other before this novel came along. Was it weird to be working together on a book, or was it just fun to be doing something with a friend?
C: It was definitely fun. We'd been working together as critique partners for so long, in some ways this really wasn't much different--we just spent more virtual time together.
D: It was FUN!
Q: Were any of the characters in The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading based—no matter how loosely—on people from your own time in high school? Or do some of them—especially Chantal Simmons and other members of the so-called "in-crowd"—just share similar qualities to people who attended school with you at one point?
C: I draw from real life, things I've either experienced or people I've known, but no one character is based on anyone I actually knew growing up.
D: Charity already had all the characters in place by the time I started working on the book with her so I didn't establish any of them on my own. I did have people from high school in mind as I wrote though, especially those characters at the extreme ends of the popularity spectrum. Every time I even think about Todd, I see this kid named Richard's face. And, in my mind, there are two Chantals.
There's "good" Chantal who reminds of a girl I knew named Kim. Kim and I went to the same church and we had a few classes together. She was fabulously popular, pretty, from a wealthy family and she had a shoe collection that would rival Chantal's. Kim was always nice to me at church functions and in class -- but outside of that, it was like I did not exist for her. I wasn't unpopular in school but I was definitely not in her stratosphere. We could be walking down the halls in a direct path toward each other and she would never ever wave at me or acknowledge my existence in any way, but, in a different setting, she was totally cool.
"Evil" Chantal reminds me of another girl, one who I wished would not acknowledge me. She comes up as a potential "friend" suggestion on Facebook sometimes and, all these years later, I still wince when I see her face.
Q: I know tons of girls that are too afraid to try things, or even be themselves, because they think that they're not as "pretty as {insert name of popular person here}" or they "don't have the same kind of clothes as {insert name of popular person here}" or they "are too awkward and quiet for a guy to like them" or they even "are afraid people judge them because of their freckles and birthmarks—they wish their skin was more like {insert name of popular person here}". I personally find it sad that all of these girls can't even go to school without feeling like someone is going to make fun of them, or can't even leave the house without feeling nervous about being themselves. What are your views on the social status at most schools currently, and the serious issues with school cliques?
C: Darcy has answered really well (see below), but I relate. It took me a long time to work up the courage and try new things and feel good about the way I looked. I channeled a lot of that into The Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading.
D: I could write pages and pages about this – oh wait, I did – they're all in The Geek Girl's Guide! But really, I spend a lot of time in high schools and it is just like you said: there are tons of girls who suffer through some pretty brutal self esteem problems. Most of the worst ones I've seen were caused by other people who were cruel and thoughtless – but a lot of the time, girls put these judgments on themselves.
We all think that everyone is watching every move we make but the truth is, most people are so wrapped up in worrying about themselves that they don't even notice that zit you have on your chin or the way your belly fat muffins over your jeans, or even that huge extra chunk you accidentally tweezed out of your eyebrows when you sneezed (oh wait, that one was me, not you, lol).
The best thing girls can do to combat this is to just suck in a big breath and ask themselves, What is the worst thing that could happen if I…? Usually, the worst thing isn't any more awful than what is already going on. And yeah, it won't always work out – some people will label you and try to keep you from getting outside of the box they've placed you in, but that's not as sad as staying in that box on purpose. TRY. It could turn out to be amazing!
