April 18th, 2007 (08:07 pm)
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The brand-new book series Fame Unlimited follows the ups and downs of a teen actress - from the point of view of her best friend. This makes for an interesting twist, and it definitely will hit home with girls who feel as though they are standing in the shadow of their more popular best friends. Did author Liane Bonin draw from her own experiences to write this book? Let's find out . . .
What made you decide to make Erin the narrator, rather than Taylor?
As a journalist, you get a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Hollywood, and I think that was something that was missing from a lot of books about this world. Most tend to focus on the fantasy and the glamour without digging into the reality of what it's like to be a star. Celebrities may be at the center of the show business universe, but in a sense they're blinded by the spotlight -- they don't necessarily see how even the most minor decision they make can have these huge, unexpected consequences, both good and bad. By telling the story from Erin's point of view, I was able to portray fame in a very honest way, which I thought was really important. Even though there's so much that's fabulous about Hollywood, there are also a lot of challenges people never think about. In the book, when Erin talks about a rotten director screaming on the set it's simply an observation. But if Taylor were to make the same comment, it would come across as whining, so Erin's POV gave me a great deal of freedom. Plus, Erin's voice was just a lot more fun for me to write. She's fascinated by Hollywood, but she's smart enough to know not everything that glitters is made of gold.
Erin is a Korean-American girl whose parents have high hopes and strict rules for their daughter. Are or were your parents (their backgrounds, their personalities, or their expectations) similar to hers?
My parents weren't as strict as Erin's, but I think they have a lot of the same values -- they definitely wanted me to get a good education and go to a decent college, and I always had curfews and rules about how much television I could watch, that sort of thing. I hated all of it growing up, but now I can concede that there was a point to at least some of it -- if I had gone to every concert and party I'd wanted to go to, I never would have studied enough to graduate from high school, much less go to college!
( Read more... )
Go backstage with the author: LianeBonin.com
Get the gossip on similarly-themed books: But I Don't Want to Be Famous! and But I DO Want to Be Famous!
