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The Rainbow Connection … by Katherine Valdez

June 16, 2016 By: Patricia

2015_Katherine Valdez Oct 2014Last April, I entered the gates of Santa Monica High School in California – along with 20,000 teenagers, librarians, teachers, and parents – for YALLWEST, the young adult book festival.

The main reason I attended for the second year in a row was because the event featured my favorite author, Rainbow Rowell. She wrote Fangirl, about a college freshman obsessed with a Harry Potter-like book series, and Eleanor & Park, the story of “two star-crossed misfits smart enough to know first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.”

2016_Valdez_Rainbow Rowell Holly Black YALLWEST 2016Doll Bones author Holly Black opened the interview with the question, “What were you like in high school?” as a nod to the mostly-teenaged audience. Rainbow grew up in poverty, so her answer wasn’t surprising: “Those were the worst years for me.” Working on the newspaper and yearbook saved her from being a miserable outcast.

At home, her mother wouldn’t allow her to watch TV shows in which people kissed. An acceptable alternative was books. “She would always let me buy one book at the thrift shop for 27 cents.”

Rainbow grinned. “I would read anything I could get my hands on.” These novels included The World According to Garp, From Here to Eternity, Exodus, My Name is Asher Lev, and science fiction short stories. She lamented her undirected reading. “I wish I’d had a librarian in my life,” she said.

2016_Valdez_Rainbow Rowell event line YALLWESTNevertheless, self-education served her well. The award-winning Eleanor & Park is set in 1986 and resembles her own high school experiences. Rainbow and her friend Scott were the only ones not into heavy metal music. “We’d sit together on the bus for safety,” she said, and he’d loan her comic books, much like the protagonists in the novel.

After graduation, Rainbow became a newspaper reporter and columnist, because it gave her a stable life. “I was so poor as a kid….” she said. “All I wanted was a car and health insurance.”

2016_Valdez_Welcome to YALLWEST chalk artShe didn’t begin writing fiction until she was in her 30s. Attachments was Rainbow’s first adult novel, a book initially released in the U.K. and read by “very few people.” It’s the story of a young man who works at a newspaper’s cyber-security department and is paid to read employees’ email.

Later, the author wrote Landline, about a TV sitcom writer named Georgie who struggles to balance career and family life. Like the main character’s husband, Rainbow’s spouse is a stay-at-home dad.

How does Rainbow craft such engaging fiction? “I like characters,” she said. “That’s what draws me in…I never start with plot.”

She drew from memory to create her characters. In Eleanor & Park, Eleanor’s mother endures domestic violence at the hands of her second husband. Park’s dad is white and his mother is Korean. They face racism in their Nebraska neighborhood, but his peers respect him because his family has lived there longer than any other.

“One of my best friends at that time was Chinese,” Rainbow said of 1986, when she was in high school in Nebraska. Paul, who was short, would complain to her about various things: “Why won’t Kristin go out with me?” Rainbow would reply honestly: “Because she’s tall.” In the novel, Park has similar conversations with a friend.

Some fans find her endings ambiguous, though she disagrees.

“I really served that up for you,” she said with a smile, referring to the final paragraphs of Eleanor & Park. “I tied a bow around that for you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katherine Valdez and her sister, Hazel Martinez, at YALLWEST

Katherine Valdez and her sister, Hazel Martinez, at YALLWEST

Katherine Valdez, who shares with Ms. Rowell a love of the TV show Buffy The Vampire Slayer, restrained herself from yelling, “Rainbow, I love you!” Her sister later pulled her away and they cruised up Pacific Coast Highway to The Sunset Restaurant in Malibu, right on Zuma Beach, for a leisurely meal. (Which you should do, too, if you attend YALLWEST next year.)

2016_Valdez_04-30_ Malibu ZumaBeach feet

The author dips her feet into the Pacific Ocean at Zuma Beach

Find Katherine on Instagram and Twitter, like her on Facebook, and type your email address in the Follow box at her “Secrets of Best-Selling Authors” blog.

 

More from my site

  • Ten-Second Movie Reviews … by Katherine ValdezTen-Second Movie Reviews … by Katherine Valdez
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  • Hidden In The Hills … by Jodi BurnettHidden In The Hills … by Jodi Burnett
  • The Art of #notwritingThe Art of #notwriting
  • Patience, My Writer … by Natasha WingPatience, My Writer … by Natasha Wing
  • MONEY, MONEY, MONEY . . .  by Marilyn ClayMONEY, MONEY, MONEY . . . by Marilyn Clay

Category: Books and Authors, Guest Blogger, The Writing Life Tag: author events, guest blogger, Holly Black, Katherine Valdez, Rainbow Rowell, YALLWEST

Comments

  1. Tyrean Martinson says

    June 17, 2016 at 12:15 pm

    Thanks for sharing this! I haven’t read Roswell’s books, but now I want to.

    • Katherine Valdez says

      June 17, 2016 at 8:26 pm

      I’m glad you enjoyed my post, Tyrean! I recommend starting with Eleanor & Park and Fangirl if you love YA (and even if you don’t). Landline is excellent, too. Her novels have a quiet start and build slowly, but don’t let that deceive you. She’s an amazing writer and storyteller. Thanks for commenting!

  2. Madeline Mora-Summonte says

    June 17, 2016 at 7:15 am

    So enjoyed this post – thank you for sharing! I’m already a big fan of Rowell’s. My favorites: ELEANOR AND PARK and LANDLINE.

    • Katherine Valdez says

      June 17, 2016 at 8:42 am

      You’re welcome, Madeline! I loved Eleanor & Park, and Landline, too. Georgie and Neal are such great characters. Check out her short story “Midnights” in the anthology My True Love Gave To Me, if you haven’t already. Thanks for taking time to comment!

  3. Laura Mcfadden says

    June 16, 2016 at 9:50 am

    I love Rainbow Rowell’s books. Thanks so much for sharing! I’ve been curious about her name…did she mention anything about it? Fun post!

    • Katherine Valdez says

      June 16, 2016 at 11:41 am

      You’re welcome, Laura! Glad you enjoyed it. Always great to learn of other Rainbow fans. It is her real name; it’s on her birth certificate, confirmed on her website: http://www.rainbowrowell.com/faq/ Thanks for taking time to comment!

  4. Kenneth says

    June 16, 2016 at 8:30 am

    Excellent post, Katherine. You made me want to check out Rainbow Rowell’s work.

    • Katherine Valdez says

      June 16, 2016 at 9:27 am

      Thanks, Ken! What a nice compliment. That’s what I hope to do: direct more readers to Rainbow’s stories, because I know they’ll love her. I bet you and your daughters would love Fangirl and Eleanor and Park, and the short story “Midnights” in the anthology My True Love Gave To Me. http://www.rainbowrowell.com/my-true-love-gave-to-me/

  5. Alex J. Cavanaugh says

    June 16, 2016 at 6:18 am

    She really drew from her experiences.
    Most of the school was into heavy metal? Why didn’t I attend that high school?

    • Katherine Valdez says

      June 16, 2016 at 9:24 am

      I guess you should’ve been born in Nebraska, Alex! LOL. I think Rainbow drawing from her experiences contributes to making her characters and stories feel so real. Thanks for commenting!

  6. Margot Kinberg says

    June 16, 2016 at 5:41 am

    Thanks for sharing your perspective. I think we all have authors whose work we greatly admire, and it’s so nice to be able to meet them. I enjoyed the background information, too.

    • Katherine Valdez says

      June 16, 2016 at 9:19 am

      You’re welcome, Margot! I agree. I admire many authors, and it’s refreshing to discover that most of them are down-to-earth people with a great sense of humor. Thanks for taking time to comment.

  7. Katherine Valdez says

    June 16, 2016 at 5:20 am

    Thanks for allowing my fangirling, Pat! Always an honor and a pleasure to be featured on your blog.

    • Patricia says

      June 16, 2016 at 7:15 am

      It’s always a pleasure to have you here, Katherine.

Trackbacks

  1. Author Rainbow Rowell interviewed at YALLWest | Katherine Valdez says:
    June 16, 2016 at 5:14 am

    […] Read my guest post on Holly Black’s interview with Rainbow Rowell (at book festival YALLWest) on Patricia Stoltey’s Blog today! […]

Meet Patricia

I read, I write, I blog, and sometimes I do the laundry and cook. My 2014 novel, Dead Wrong, was a finalist in the thriller category of the 2015 Colorado Book Awards. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage, December 20, 2017) is a historical mystery set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. The novel was a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Book Awards for General Fiction. Read More…

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