Free Sample Essays > North American
Sarah Dessen
the letters mean to me.” A quote by Sarah Dessen from an interview with Don Gallo of Authors4Teens.com. Letters from fans help Sarah out a little bit while working on a book because sometimes she would get an idea from the letters but she mostly relies on her teen experiences. Sometimes when Sarah is having a bad writing day and feeling crappy she would get out a letter and she says it makes her feel so much better.
The strange thing about Sarah is that she doesn’t use much detail on clothing, music, or slangs in her books because she thinks it will date them later on. She trys not to include too much detail about clothing or music because trends change so quickly and by the time her book is published, it’s already out of style.
Keeping the Moon was the last book that Sarah worked on while working at the Flying Burrito; therefore, it’s filled with waitressing experiences. She had never used her waitress experience in a book so she thought that she would do that in Keeping the Moon. She combined the personalities of her lady co-workers at the Burrito to get Morgan and Isabel, two characters from the book. Most of Sarah’s books are about believing in yourself, being confident, even when everyone and everything around you may be making you feel different. That was the strong message that Sarah Dessen wanted to get to her readers. During her teenage years she was overwhelmed with this uncertainty and insecurity about who she was and her place in the society that was why working on Keeping the Moon was so fun for her, and it’s always the book she goes back to when she’s feeling low or useless. Sarah also likes to set her books in the summer and it happens to be that Keeping the Moon is also set during the summertime. She thinks the summer is a good concise time period and there’s endless things that can happen. A lot of the main character’s experiences and details in the book are very personal to Sarah Dessen. In the book there’s a character that always made devilled eggs when she was upset and happens to be that Sarah does the same. She says that before her book was published her house was filled with eggs.
She’s been writing for as long as she can remember: “…even at six or seven I used to write little stories about my dolls or my stuffed animals, stupid stuff, all of which I am horrified to say my mother still has on file somewhere.” What more can I say, talent starts at a very young age.