Today, I am delighted to be interviewing Flynn Meaney, author of Bloodthirsty and, more recently, The Boy Recession!
Book Synopsis
Where have all the boys gone?
Down-to-earth Kelly is always the friend and never the girlfriend. But as her junior year of high school starts, Kelly is determined to finally reveal her true feelings for her long-time crush and good friend Hunter - that is, until the Boy Recession hits.
Over the past summer, an overwhelming number of male students have left Kelly and Hunter's small high school class. Some were sent to private school and others moved away. Whatever the case, the sudden population shift has left the already small Julius P. Heil High in desperate shape. The football coach is recruiting chess champs for his team, the principal's importing male exchange students to balance out school dances,and Hunter is about to become an unexpected heartthrob.
Content with his role as the guitar-strumming, class-skipping slacker, Hunter is unprepared to be the center of attention. Desperate coaches are recruiting him for sports teams, and the drama teacher casts him in the lead role of the school musical. Even the Spandexers, powerful popular girls in tight pants, are noticing Hunter in a new light - with a little work, he could have potential. He might even be boyfriend material...
In order to stand out from the crowd and win Hunter's heart, Kelly needs a "stimulus package" in the form of cougar lessons from a senior girl who dates hot freshman boys and advice on the male mind from her Cosmo-addicted best friend, Aviva. As if dating wasn't hard enough without a four-to-one ratio!
Author Bio
Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into writing.
I’ve always loved to write, and I started selling poems and short stories when I was in high school. I took my first workshop-style classes at Notre Dame, then enrolled in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Hunter College so I could take more. I just graduated from the program with a degree in poetry, which is obviously one of the most lucrative and in-demand degrees in the job market…oops, wait, not at all.
Both Bloodthirsty and The Boy Recession are humorous reads about boys who meet girls who change them around the time that they find new popularity. What draws you to these kinds of stories?
I guess I’m interested in how personalities develop, and when you’re a teenager, you’re trying to define yourself within a group of your peers. High school is such a weird little social incubator, with all different personalities forced together in classrooms and locker rooms and on class trips where someone’s peeing in a bottle in the back of the bus....so random and funny interactions inevitably happen.
That's true. It's also why we all love to read stories about high-school students! What inspired the idea for The Boy Recession?
The gender ratio in the town where I grew up what pretty skewed; my public high school graduating class was over 75% female. There was no recession, it was just a weird demographic thing…or the government was pumping estrogen into our water supply.
That is skewed. How has your high school band experience (and other awesome nerdy activities) influenced the writing of The Boy Recession?
I did SO many nerdy activities. I was on the Mock Trial and Academic Challenge teams, I was in the school band, I went to band camp and musical theater camp… the list goes on. Unfortunately, I had no talent at many of these things, but I like to write characters who have talents and passions because I like talented and passionate people in real life.
I was in nerdy clubs too, like my school's Academic Decathlon team, French Club, and Literary Criticsm and Ready Writing UIL. I was also in orchestra for a while. Each chapter starts with the title of one of Aviva's articles. Why did you decide to open the chapters with these?
This was actually my editor Elizabeth Bewley’s idea, so she should get all the credit! She knew I was having trouble tightening up the book because it takes place over such a long period of time—a full school year. The headlines were a quick and entertaining way to give background info on what was happening at the school each month.
They are entertaining. I loved reading reading them! How would Hunter, Kelly, Aviva, and Diva describe themselves in a tweet?
Like a Twitter bio? Okay, hmmm….
Diva: *FUTURE STAR* Follow me, bitches!!!
Hunter : give.me.grilled.cheese
Kelly: 16-year-old student, flutist, and friend. Addicted to Frappuccinos and movie musicals.
Aviva: Ravishing Resplendent Resourceful Roving Girl Reporter
Nice. If a boy recession were to strike the world, what would you do?
I think there is a boy recession! There have been lots of articles about women outnumbering men in grad school programs and on college campuses, and I’ve even read a few about how the Y-chromosome is dying out and men are going extinct—although I think those are false alarms. Personally, I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by powerful, accomplished women all my life and have great female friendships, so I say, bring on the boy recession!
Females friends are the best! While my guy friends are awesome, they know they can't win over the awesomeness of girl bonds. What are you working on right now?
I just finished grad school, and I think I need to recover from writing my thesis. But I have some ideas for my next book, so hopefully I will start that soon!
I can't wait to see what you bring us next!
Little Brown Books has generously donated a copy of The Boy Recession, which will be going to a lucky U.S. winner!
The giveaway is open through September 12th.
To enter, follow Imaginary Reads and leave a meaningful comment on the interview, then fill out the form below. Do not leave your email in the comments section.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Book Synopsis
Down-to-earth Kelly is always the friend and never the girlfriend. But as her junior year of high school starts, Kelly is determined to finally reveal her true feelings for her long-time crush and good friend Hunter - that is, until the Boy Recession hits.
Over the past summer, an overwhelming number of male students have left Kelly and Hunter's small high school class. Some were sent to private school and others moved away. Whatever the case, the sudden population shift has left the already small Julius P. Heil High in desperate shape. The football coach is recruiting chess champs for his team, the principal's importing male exchange students to balance out school dances,and Hunter is about to become an unexpected heartthrob.
Content with his role as the guitar-strumming, class-skipping slacker, Hunter is unprepared to be the center of attention. Desperate coaches are recruiting him for sports teams, and the drama teacher casts him in the lead role of the school musical. Even the Spandexers, powerful popular girls in tight pants, are noticing Hunter in a new light - with a little work, he could have potential. He might even be boyfriend material...
In order to stand out from the crowd and win Hunter's heart, Kelly needs a "stimulus package" in the form of cougar lessons from a senior girl who dates hot freshman boys and advice on the male mind from her Cosmo-addicted best friend, Aviva. As if dating wasn't hard enough without a four-to-one ratio!
Author Bio
Flynn Meaney grew up in Mamaroneck, New York, ten minutes away from Pelham, home to the fictional Finbar Frame. Flynn's hilarious high school friends and their conversations preserved in letters, emails, and notes passed in class have provided endless inspiration for her YA writing. She is an alumna of the University of Notre Dame and the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Hunter College.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into writing.
I’ve always loved to write, and I started selling poems and short stories when I was in high school. I took my first workshop-style classes at Notre Dame, then enrolled in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Hunter College so I could take more. I just graduated from the program with a degree in poetry, which is obviously one of the most lucrative and in-demand degrees in the job market…oops, wait, not at all.
Both Bloodthirsty and The Boy Recession are humorous reads about boys who meet girls who change them around the time that they find new popularity. What draws you to these kinds of stories?
I guess I’m interested in how personalities develop, and when you’re a teenager, you’re trying to define yourself within a group of your peers. High school is such a weird little social incubator, with all different personalities forced together in classrooms and locker rooms and on class trips where someone’s peeing in a bottle in the back of the bus....so random and funny interactions inevitably happen.
That's true. It's also why we all love to read stories about high-school students! What inspired the idea for The Boy Recession?
The gender ratio in the town where I grew up what pretty skewed; my public high school graduating class was over 75% female. There was no recession, it was just a weird demographic thing…or the government was pumping estrogen into our water supply.
That is skewed. How has your high school band experience (and other awesome nerdy activities) influenced the writing of The Boy Recession?
I did SO many nerdy activities. I was on the Mock Trial and Academic Challenge teams, I was in the school band, I went to band camp and musical theater camp… the list goes on. Unfortunately, I had no talent at many of these things, but I like to write characters who have talents and passions because I like talented and passionate people in real life.
I was in nerdy clubs too, like my school's Academic Decathlon team, French Club, and Literary Criticsm and Ready Writing UIL. I was also in orchestra for a while. Each chapter starts with the title of one of Aviva's articles. Why did you decide to open the chapters with these?
This was actually my editor Elizabeth Bewley’s idea, so she should get all the credit! She knew I was having trouble tightening up the book because it takes place over such a long period of time—a full school year. The headlines were a quick and entertaining way to give background info on what was happening at the school each month.
They are entertaining. I loved reading reading them! How would Hunter, Kelly, Aviva, and Diva describe themselves in a tweet?
Like a Twitter bio? Okay, hmmm….
Diva: *FUTURE STAR* Follow me, bitches!!!
Hunter : give.me.grilled.cheese
Kelly: 16-year-old student, flutist, and friend. Addicted to Frappuccinos and movie musicals.
Aviva: Ravishing Resplendent Resourceful Roving Girl Reporter
Nice. If a boy recession were to strike the world, what would you do?
I think there is a boy recession! There have been lots of articles about women outnumbering men in grad school programs and on college campuses, and I’ve even read a few about how the Y-chromosome is dying out and men are going extinct—although I think those are false alarms. Personally, I’ve been lucky enough to be surrounded by powerful, accomplished women all my life and have great female friendships, so I say, bring on the boy recession!
Females friends are the best! While my guy friends are awesome, they know they can't win over the awesomeness of girl bonds. What are you working on right now?
I just finished grad school, and I think I need to recover from writing my thesis. But I have some ideas for my next book, so hopefully I will start that soon!
I can't wait to see what you bring us next!
Related Posts
Review - The Boy Recession
Little Brown Books has generously donated a copy of The Boy Recession, which will be going to a lucky U.S. winner!
The giveaway is open through September 12th.
To enter, follow Imaginary Reads and leave a meaningful comment on the interview, then fill out the form below. Do not leave your email in the comments section.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
I've been wanting to check this book out for a while. I love humorous reads and I do find the whole developing relationships with your peers thing in books. obviously, I'm still going through that now. But damn, I think I'd go insane if I grew up in a town that's 75% female. How did she survive?!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the best humorous reads I've read. You'll love it!! :)
DeleteFlynn's Bloodthirsty was a riot - loved it and now I'm really looking forward to reading The Boy Recession <3
ReplyDeleteCan't imagine what it would have been like if my grad. class had been 75% females ... bet those 25% boys were very in demand lol ;D
Love the Twitter bio's.
ReplyDeleteLol, Y choromosome dying out and men going extinct! Is there a scientific program I should be donating to so we can save the boys?
ReplyDeletefun post and good luck to all
ReplyDeleteNow this was a fun interview :) If we ever had a bot recession I have no idea what I would do. Well I'll tell you one thing, it will definitely stop my distractions LOL
ReplyDeleteGo Irish! (I'm a Saint Mary's alumna myself.)
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed 'Bloodthirsty,' and 'The Boy Recession' will definitely be on my TBR list.
Great interview! There is a boy recession! There are so many more girls than guys at the college I go to!!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to read this book!
Great interview. I'm so stoked to read The Boy Recession!
ReplyDeleteI love humorous books but good ones are so hard to find!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview!! The Boy Recession sounds like a fun read! Thanks for the chance to win!
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds like it's going to be so funny! I'm rooting for Kelly (:
ReplyDeleteAww just saying, Flyn is so pretty! But anyway. That wouldn't make me like her any less. She sounds awesome! As does her book. I hadn't heard of this book until coming up to its release day, in which everyone started going a little crazy. I'd love to read it. rgardless of if I win or not. Thanks for the interview and giveaway!
ReplyDeleteI really want to read this book, it sounds so good! I just moved to a new town and there definitely is not a boy recession! There are men everywhere BUT I haven't met a good one yet! ha.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, I've been looking forward to reading this one!
ReplyDeleteHahaha I love the character descriptions! This one sounds like a great, fun read! I'll definitely have to check this one out
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading the author's comments on the fact that there currently is a boy recession! Sounds like such a fun read!
ReplyDeleteMy graduation class was almost the same with about 60% percent being girls, though there wasn't really any shortage of boys many just dropped out or transferred to other schools. Great interview, Ms. Meaney is hilarious!! :D
ReplyDeleteGreat interview ^_^ The twitter profiles are hilarious. My school has a pretty even amount in the girl/boy ratio, but all of my classes seem to lean drastically one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to pick this up at the book store!
WOW! You had tons of girls in your graduating class!
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine the drama that went on in that graduating class when it came to boys! I'd be surprised if there weren't fights almost every day lol. I have to say that I am so glad there was an ample amount of boys in my school, I'd hate to have to deal with all the competition.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the opportunity to win this book. It was already on my wish list, but this interview only makes me want to read it more :)
Love the interview! Thanks for the opportunity for this giveaway!! :)
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds really funny!! Can't wait!
ReplyDelete-JennyC
this book looks sweet!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview! The boy recession sounds great and I love the twitter bios she's gave them lol.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interview. It's always great to hear from the book authors.
ReplyDeleteI love the concept that each chapter starts out with the title of an article and the chapter covers the month. This sounds right up my alley.
ReplyDelete