Sparkling Stars is bring you an interview with one of your favorite author Aimee Friedman! Aimee has written countless number of teen novels from South Beach to Fashion High Graphic Novel (Breaking Up). Aimee added a new book to her collection in January with the release of The Year My Sister Got Lucky. The book follows to young sisters and there move from the city to a small town. Sparkling Stars hope you enjoy our interview with this amazing writer, Aimee Friedman.

Sparkling Stars: Hello Aimee, thanks for letting Sparkling Star interview you to day. Start off by telling the readers a little bit about who you are.

Aimee: Readers of all my books might recognize some things about me in many of my characters! I am a New York City girl, born and bred. I still live in the city, where I work as a book editor. I love the vibrancy and creativity of NYC, I love the subway system, I love the fashions you see on the street, I love getting my small dose of nature from Central Park. In that way, I am very much like Katie from THE YEAR MY SISTER GOT LUCKY, and Maxine from MISTLETOE. I am, of course, a huge reader—I grew up in a house full of different books and different languages, and as a result, I am very passionate about words and literature, much like Norah from A NOVEL IDEA. Like Alexa in SOUTH BEACH, I also adore traveling, and I am a Francophile—I’ve spent a lot of time in Paris, and I get a kick out of all things French. I am a total romantic and my friends and family mean the world to me. But like Holly from SOUTH BEACH, I can be a little bit shy sometimes, a little bit cautious. Being a writer allows me to explore all these different facets of what make me…me.

Sparkling Stars: Did you always want to be writer growing up?

Aimee: Yes. As soon as I learned HOW to write, I couldn’t be stopped! I spent a very good deal of my childhood and adolescence filling the pages of spiral-bound notebooks with long stories (I called them “novels”). Writing was my constant companion, my truest friend. I was quite pleased when I learned that I could make a career out of it. It seemed like the best possible thing one could do, and I still feel that way.

Sparkling Stars: You have written countless books like South Beach, 21 Proms, and your newest novel The Year My Sister Got Lucky. How do you come up with the ideas for your books?

Aimee: In various ways, and from various inspirations. Most of my ideas come from my own life, my own experiences, or from the stories of friends that I spin off into something new. The seed of South Beach, for an instance, came to me via my editor, who thought that a book about a trendy place like Miami would draw in teens. I had coincidentally visited South Beach that year, so I was brimming with ideas about a story set there…it worked out perfectly! The Year My Sister Got Lucky is probably my most personal, autobiographical book, very much based on the relationship I have with my older sister, but more on that below.

Sparkling Stars: What is The Year My Sister Got Lucky about?

Aimee: Katie and Michaela Wilder are sisters, best friends, aspiring ballet dancers, and real city girls. Katie, who is 14, idolizes Michaela, who is 17, but things start to change when the sisters are uprooted from their city lifestyle and forced to move to a small rural town in upstate New York, Katie is lost in the country—she doesn’t get what’s so great about hiking and is horrified by the random wildlife she sees in her backyard. Plus, the kids in school seem unsophisticated and Katie finds it impossible to make friends. But Michaela blossoms—she stops dancing, makes tons of friends, and even gets her first boyfriend! And then there is the shocking secret she hides from Katie. Can the sisters ever be best friends again?

Sparkling Stars: Would you ever like to see your books become a movie?

Aimee: I would love that! I write very visually, so I do feel like I already have a “movie” of sorts running through my head as a write. It would be rewarding and thrilling to see another vision of a book up on the screen. I think my graphic novel, BREAKING UP, would actually make a great film, because graphic novels are so cinematic in the first place. It would be a natural translation.

Sparkling Stars: If you could pick the perfect movie cast for you book South Beach who would you pick?

Aimee: Oh, I love playing this game. I’m always fiddling and changing my idea for the cast… For Alexa, I might pick Sara Paxton, who played the mermaid in AQUAMARINE (an adaptation of a great book!), and for Holly, I might pick Cheyenne Hill, a beautiful young actress who was in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. I welcome any other cast suggestions from readers!

Sparkling Stars: What is your favorite subject to write about?

Aimee: Ultimately I love writing about relationships in all their many forms—whether it’s friendship, sisterhood, romance, unrequited crush, parent-child, you name it… I love writing about travel and new places, sometimes invented places. I haven’t written a historical novel yet, and I would like to in the future. I also would like to try my hand at some element of magic or fantasy, which is apparent in the book I am writing now (more on this below!)

Sparkling Stars: Who are some of the writers who inspired you as a child and still do now?

Aimee: Growing up I was a voracious reader. I loved Ann M. Martin, Judy Blume (of course), Frances Hodgeson Burnett, Jane Yolen, Sydney Taylor, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stevenson, J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Cassidy, Candace Ransom, and many more. All these authors continue to influence and inspire me today, along with countless others.

Sparkling Stars: Do you have any other books in the works now that The Year My Sister Got Lucky is out?

Aimee: I am working on a very exciting new book. It’s a bit of a new direction for me, in that it has a slight fantastical element. It’s about a girl who loves science and order, who thinks she can totally understand the world, but then she spends a summer on an island that may or may not have a magical quality, and falls in love with a boy who may or may not be what he seems. I will leave it at that!

Sparkling Stars: Which character from any of your books most identify with you?

Aimee: I mentioned this a bit in the first question. I would have to say that out of all my characters, I am most like Katie from THE YEAR MY SISTER GOT LUCKY. Not only do we have similar personal histories (even though I never moved to a small town, but my family used to spend our summers in one…), but our personalities are very much alike: a tendency to be overdramatic, to make up stories about people, etc.

Sparkling Stars: Which out of all your books is your favorite?

Aimee: This is one of the hardest questions I get asked, because I love all my books, of course, and they are all an important part of me. But I would have to say my first novel, SOUTH BEACH, because writing it felt like such a fresh new adventure, and I don’t know if I’ll ever have as much pure fun writing a novel.

Sparkling Stars: What you favorite kind of books to read?

Aimee: I read everything from literary fiction, such as The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael to great classics like Jane Austen to historical romances to full-on chick-lit to Robert Parker potboilers to, of course, great teen fiction, such as the works of Meg Cabot, Hailey Abbott, Melissa de la Cruz, Claudia Gabel, and many more.

Sparkling Stars: Have you ever gotten the change to meet your readers?

Aimee: YES! I’ve had readers come up to me at readings and signings, and I’ve had readers email me and send me letters, and each time it is enormously rewarding to hear how my writing has moved someone or been a part of someone’s life. To me that’s what writing is ALL about.

Sparkling Stars: What would you say to someone hoping to be a writer one day?

Aimee: Read as much as you can, and write about something that truly excites and inspires you. And don’t give up! Even if you’re writing something that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, don’t be afraid to give it a little rest and come back to it with fresh eyes. Jot down ideas, memories, fragments of your day…you never know what might turn into a story. And don’t be shy about your work, make sure you have at least one person you trust, such as a teacher, who can read your writing and give you feedback.

Sparkling Stars: And lastly what do you hope your fans get out of reading your books?

Aimee: I want readers to find escape and joy in my books, to be pulled a little bit out of their daily lives and frustrations and be sucked into the dramas of my characters. I also hope readers take away positive messages from my books, in terms of how to treat others, and themselves. There is so much fiction out there about girls being cruel to each other, and I try in my books to show young women as positive, complex role models who can be kind and supportive as well. But ultimately I just want my readers to have a great time…and that they will hopefully come back!