Postcard For Reader

Keri Mikulski Rolls In

Keri Mikulski, author of Screwball, was kind enough to let me interview her - and to give away a copy of her book! Without further procrastination, here is her interview...

In Screwball, Ashley and Christy pretty much hate each other. Did you have somebody you hated like that, or hated you like that, in high school?
I wish I had a juicy girl fight story to share, but I don’t. Yeah, there were definitely people that I felt disliked me in high school, but I really can’t say that I hated anyone in particular or vice versa. I don’t know, maybe they did. Sometimes I’m a bit clueless when it comes to girl stuff. As far as my teammates go, I was pretty lucky. I didn’t go through what Ashley went through, but I’ve seen that stuff go on with other teams I’ve coached over the years. My teammates and I got along really well and besides some occasional stuff, we were really close. We played together for so long, we were like sisters.

I'm not on any teams, but I hope my newspaper staff next year is close. ^^ That's the closest I'll probably ever get to playing sports - writing about them! Do you listen to music while writing?
Yes! I love listening to music. Depending on what I’m writing, depends on the music that I listen to. If I writing my Ashley Clarke series, I listen to a lot of late 80’s, early 90’s stuff to get me back in a high school mindset. When I’m writing magazine articles and freelance stuff, I listen to pretty much anything, except country.

I don't go anywhere without my iPod. (Picture at right; isn't it cute?) What's your favorite song?
Right now, I love anything by Kanye West, Fergie, or Gwen Stefani. But, my favorite song of all-time is a hard one. I have so many favorite songs. Probably a tie between U2’s “With or Without You” and anything by Pearl Jam, “Black”, “Elderly Woman Sitting Behind the Counter in a Small Town”, etc.

So you like songs with fast tempos. I prefer Broadway. ^^ I'm a geek, what can I say? If you were Ashley, when Andrew dumped you after ignoring you for weeks, would you..., would you A) start crying, B) run home, or C) attempt to murder him where he stood?
Probably a combo of B and C. I HATE to be ignored, so I probably would have done the dumping before the inevitable or tried to make him jealous by involving another guy. :) Then, I would have attempted to murder him and ran home.

I probably would have stared at him and been like, "Wha... wait, start over so I have a clear enough head to slap you when you're done, please." Who would you chose, Andrew or Jake? Why?
Definitely, Jake. I tend to fall for guys that have bad boy tendencies, although I’ve been known to like pretty boys too. But, I love how Jake rises above his tough life and does some amazing things and is focused on making his life better in the future. He doesn’t go with the crowd, instead he does his own thing.

That's funny, I like Jake better, too! ^^ In your bio in the back of Screwball, it says that you 'enjoy watching grannies pass you while running 5ks.' Either you're super slow or those grannies know how to run... which is it?
A little of both. There are some kick ass grannies running 5K’s that kill me, but when I wrote SCREWBALL I was pretty slow. I’m getting better and only about one or two grannies pass me now.

You could probably outrun me... mainly because I'd trip. Oo! Let's say you're in a room full of your favorite foods (in my case, ice cream and chocolate, yum), and you're only allowed to eat fish. What do you do!?
Starve. Or if I HAVE to eat it, I’ll hold my nose and swallow.

I'd end up dead in a room like that. What's your favorite baseball team?
Easy, the Yankees! I LOVE DEREK JETER! Nicole, you’re from New York – are you a Mets or Yankees fan?

I HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT... but my mom is a Mets fan and my brother is a Red Sox fan. It's very anti-Yankees in our house. :)

Thanks for the interview, Keri! Don't forget, you still have until midnight tonight to enter the contest.

~Nicole B.