Get to know Lynne…

Lynne Kelly grew up in Houston, lived in a couple of much colder places, then returned to the Houston area, where she works as a sign language interpreter and writes novels for children and young adults. For a few years she was a special education teacher, until she realized it was a job for people with good organizational and planning skills. CHAINED is her first novel. For more info, check out her site. 

Let the conversation begin!

If you could have one super human power, what would it be?

I don’t suppose invisibility counts as a super human power, does it? That’s more like a straight up superpower. It would be really fun to be invisible and go wherever we wanted and listen to whatever conversations were going on, wouldn’t it? But if it can’t be invisibility, I think we’ll all agree that the best super human power would be to maintain a perfect body on an ice cream diet.  

What is the craziest (or stupidest) thing you have ever done?

There must be many stupid things, but the one that comes to mind first is going into my middle school when it was closed for a teacher inservice day (I mean really, who goes to school just to wander around when it’s not a school day?) and getting locked in the band hall storage room.

What is your favorite season? Why?

Fall, when the bone-melting heat of Houston is finally going away.

When are you the most productive?

I’m not a morning person, so I take time to really wake up, but I work best in the late morning and early afternoon hours. And it’s best if I’m at home by myself; I’m too easily distracted to get much done if anyone else is around.

Daily word count?

Somewhere between 0 and 3,000.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Hopefully still at the laptop, writing a new book. On the front porch of a beach house, ideally.

What is the worst possible name to call a child?

Renesmee.

What do you miss about being a child?

Spending the day wandering around to explore the neighborhood.

What is the best part of writing? Worst part?

The best part is discovering how the story unfolds as I write. The worst part is when I have no idea what’s going to happen next, or when I’ve spent time working on a scene I really like and then have to cut it if I realize it’s not going to work with the story.

If you could only write one more book, what would it be about?

Ugh, that would be really sad! My favorite book are ones that make me both laugh and cry, and have some mystery to them, so I’d write something like that. Some book that would look like the love child of J.K. Rowling and John Green.

How long have you been writing? Does it feel like yesterday?

Just since 2006. And yeah, it’s really weird that things seem to move so slowly in publishing, but in some ways it’s flown by.

What does your room look like?

Usually kind of a mess, since cleaning takes away time from reading and writing. But there’s always a stack of books next to the bed.