Beyond the Pale with WINTER WHITE and Jen Calonita
This Spring I had the opportunity to meet the lovely and charming Jen Calonita, author of many books (Secrets of my Hollywood Life series, for example), including BELLES and the newest installment from Emerald Cove, WINTER WHITE. Blythe and I took a look at it, and immediately had tons of questions for Jen. Lucky for us, she is as friendly and accommodating as a true Belle, and here’s what she had to tell us!
First, the synopsis:
Isabelle Scott and Mirabelle Monroe are still reeling from the revelation that they share more than just the roof over their heads. The media has pounced on their story and the girls are caught up in a flurry of talk-show appearances and newspaper interviews. They’ve put on a happy public face, but someone is leaking their true feelings to the press, and while it seems like the world is watching their every move, at least they have each other.
But with cotillion season right around the corner, Izzie and Mira have barely had time to process their newfound sisterhood. Mira has dreamed of making her debut in a gorgeous white gown forever-now, if only she could find an escort. Izzie, meanwhile, is still struggling to find her place in Emerald Cove and it’s seeming ever more impossible with EC mean-girls, young and old, doing their best to keep her down. As cotillion preparations heat up, though, there are dance steps to learn, manners to perfect… and secret initiations to complete? As if sophomore year wasn’t hard enough!
It’s time for the gowns to go on and the gloves to come off.
TEM: BELLES and WINTER WHITE both take place in the the South, and there’s a lot about them that is so very Southern. What’s your connection to that area of the country, and what’s the appeal in using this environment as a setting?
JC: I think using the South as a setting was my little way of wishing myself there! I would love to move down South (we live in New York) and I romanticize everything about it. It got worse when I started researching BELLES and WINTER WHITE and talked to Southern girls and women about their
experiences doing cotillion and living in small coastal towns. I wanted to put the house up on the market the next day! But my family and my husband’s family is here and it is just too hard for me to pull up roots. Still I wish…What’s not to like about Southern living? The beautiful weather, the sense of
community, incredible food, and the strong ties to family…here I go again. You see? I have rose-colored glasses regarding everything Southern!
TEM: What I admire a lot about how you created Izzie and Mira, is that they are both their own individuals, but they also have a lot of things in common—things that lie under the surface of their exterior personas. Can you just . . . talk about them a little?
JC: Thank you! I am so used to writing one protagonist that when I decided Mira and Izzie would both be narrators I worried I wouldn’t do one of them justice. But then I realized, that just like with friends in real life, it’s okay to like people for their differences and it doesn’t mean you like one friend more than the other. Izzie is who I wish I could be sometimes—strong-willed, driven, and she says whatever is on her mind! Then there are days I wish I could be more like Mira—sophisticated, polished, and a true lady—even if she is bad at picking friends! When I was writing the first book I actually had a picture of Kate and Pippa Middleton up on my office bulletin board as inspiration for how two girls could be so alike and yet different.
TEM: There’s so much delicious fashion in WINTER WHITE. What’s your own personal style, and who are your favorite designers or shops in real life?
JC: I think I talk about fashion in my books because I’m so bad at it myself! Seriously I dream of calling up Stacy London from “What’s Not to Wear” and asking for some help (fun fact: way back when I was an editorial assistant at Mademoiselle magazine, I worked with Stacy! I doubt she remembers me though!) But I do love clothes. It was so much fun writing Kaitlin in the Secrets of My Hollywood Life series because she always got to wear such glamorous, expensive threads that I could only dream about trying on. Me, personally, I am an Ann Taylor Loft girl. I would say 90% of my wardrobe is bought there.
Author Elizabeth Eulberg is a fan too and we do a lot of events together so now we email ahead of time and actually say things like “Are you wearing the black ruffle skirt? If not, I’m going to!”
TEM: Family is very important in this book, and the Monroe family feels like a realistic one, from the jokes and the jabs, to the way they handle crises. Tell us about creating this family and what was most important to you about them.
JC: I’m so glad you enjoyed them. I think the thing I worried about the most was how Izzie fit into this family that had already been chugging along for so long without her. They fit perfectly and yet they were welcoming to her, which is what I wanted to come across. I think blended families can be hard sometime so the relationship I concentrated on the most at first was Izzie and Mrs. Monroe. One of my best friends is a step-mom to a twelve-year-old that I adore and watching their relationship and how it’s grown and change was instrumental to me. The rest of the family was a little easier to write! I always wanted an older brother so Hayden was born from that and my boys are seven and three so writing a funny little person was enjoyable. Some of Connor’s lines are things my own boys would say.
TEM: There are two love interests in WINTER WHITE, one for Izzie and one for Mira. Did you have a favorite storyline between them while you were writing? Was one easier or more challenging to come up with?
JC: When I started shaping the BELLES series I always knew there would be a Brayden. I felt like he was a great way to link Izzie’s two worlds since he had traveled in both of them. I liked watching Brayden struggle a bit with who he is supposed to be and what he really wants out of life and in a relationship. I
always enjoyed writing Izzie and Brayden passages! Poor Mira has a tougher time with boys. She’s always gone for the boy who looks good on paper and she slowly realizes that those types of relationships aren’t always fulfilling. When she meets Kellen she realizes there is a lot she’s missing out on. I wish I could tell you what’s in store for Mira and love in THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER! Thankfully you only have to wait a few months to find out. The final book in the series will be out next spring.
TEM: So, you’ve got to tell us how you came up with all the great “hazing” activities for Izzie and Mira while they’re working towards cotillion.
JC: Those were so much fun to write! My friend who was a sorority girl helped me come up with those. My college, Boston College, didn’t have any sororities so I needed help getting into that world. We had so much fun writing bikes around the neighborhood and talking about all the things she went through during rush week! The Lady Gaga one I came up with on my own. It felt like it would be fun.
TEM: The twists! The turns! The surprises! The suspense! So much of it in WINTER WHITE. How do you go about plotting something like this, especially in a series format?
JC: I’m a big outliner. I have to be because I tend to get lost somewhere in the middle of my story. I always know how I want things to start and end, but the middle section can be murky. The Secrets series was actually harder to plot because I didn’t know how many books there were going to be going in to the
series. We’d tack on one, and then two more, and then thankfully before book six came along I knew how I wanted to end things. BELLES was easier to plot since there were only three stories I knew I was going to tell.
TEM: There’s an obvious cliffhanger at the end of WINTER WHITE, and I know we have THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER to look forward to in the Spring. Anything you want to let us know about what to expect next from Emerald Cove?
JC: I will leave you with this hint: the person you meet at the end of WINTER WHITE plays a huge role in the next book. This person’s presence will have an effect on the whole Monroe family and will cause Izzie to have to make the biggest decision of her life. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
We will all be looking forward, Jen, and thanks again for the terrific interview!
To learn more about Jen Calonita and her books, visit http://www.jencalonitaonline.com/.