. Athena's Books: Laura Resau--Author of Red Glass! A Live Chat Summary!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Laura Resau--Author of Red Glass! A Live Chat Summary!


Well, I just finished participating in a live chat with Laura Resau—author of Red Glass! It was so awesome to connect not only with her, but also with the Readergirlz team and everybody else who posted comments! I read her entire novel today just to get ready for this, and I am so glad I did. It is a beautiful book about a girl whose life is changed on a journey through Mexico…there’s beautiful imagery, great love stories, and lots of familiar places, food, and music styles that anybody living in a border town or who has knowledge of Mexican culture will easily recognize. I loved it! I’ll be posting a full review soon!


But for now…here are a few things that came up in the live chat…


1. Writing comes as a mosaic to Laura—in bits and pieces that she blends together…hmm…I like her style!
2. Laura listened to a bunch of cumbia and salsa mixes while she wrote Red Glass—everybody down here in the RGV knows about cumbias!
3. The most difficult part of writing Red Glass for Laura…the political violence of Guatemala and Bosnia
4. Through her school visits, Laura has been able to chat with teens who have lived the immigrant experience, including those who crossed the border as illegal aliens
5. All the quotes she included from The Little Prince were actual lines she had highlighted when she was 16!
6. Laura loves to mingle with people…she conducts research for her novels by getting in there and living the same experience as those people she is writing about. She also takes influence from stories shared by friends and relative.
7. Laura has made tortillas! Yumm... I need to make some homemade torts soon!
8. Dika’s character is based on a real Bosnian refugee she once tutored
9. She’s faced a lot of the same fears experienced by Sophie in the novel
10. Laura describes writing some of her favorite images as a dreamlike experience…I should definitely try this—just write and relive an image through the outpouring of thoughts
11. She actually did experience the falling white flowers!
12. Like Sophie, she knows of the kindness of strangers in dangerous situations—including her own travels through Mexico
13. Writing the novel was an emotional experience for Laura…read it and you’ll know why
14. Laura writes several things at one time…sometimes that’s the best way—you just need a break, you know?
15. Laura makes an effort to experience an event using all 5 senses...she has the experience, she journals about it, and then when it comes to writing…well, it just comes out naturally. She writes in the same way she experiences!
16. Her next novel has romance in the Andes Mts.! Gotta read it! --The Indigo Notebook

READ RED GLASS!

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