interview with author jessi kirby

website | blog | twitter | goodreads

Jessi Kirby is the author of MOONGLASS. She grew up in Mammoth Lakes, California, where scenery inspired her to write. After moving through different parts of California and passing through jobs as an English teacher and librarian, she finally settled in Orange County and wrote MOONGLASS. I think Jessi is brilliant, and am so thrilled that she agreed to an interview on Naughty Kitties. You can see my review of MOONGLASS here.


Who are some authors whose books have had the biggest impact on your writing?
Sarah Dessen, for sure. She was my introduction to YA, and the whole reason I began to write it. Other authors whose work I adore: Jandy Nelson, Sarah Ockler, Jenny Han, Heidi Kling, Deb Caletti, all amazing contemp gals!

Can we expect more emotional and vivid beach reads from you in the future? (SAY YES, JESSI. YES.)
Yes! I’ll always want to write a story that tugs at your heart, and I do adore the beach…BUT. I also adore any setting that’s big and grand and takes your breath away, so you can expect to see a few others in there as well.

MOONGLASS isn’t the first manuscript you’ve ever written, is it? Cause if so, MAN YOU ARE TALENTED.
Oh, you do know how to make a girl blush. Thank you! MOONGLASS is the first manuscript I’ve written, but by the time you read it, it’d been re-written quite a few times, so it was more like the eighth or ninth manuscript, really. It’s definitely true that revision is when you get the real writing done.

MOONGLASS is set in an easy-going beach town. I’d say that the beach is such an important part of the book, you could consider it a character! What is it that draws you to write about such landscapes?
I’m a person who will always be inspired by nature, so it will always find a way into my writing. I grew up in the mountains, so the beach held this mystique for me that was just so delicious and different from what I was familiar with. Writing MOONGLASS was a way for me to pay homage to that feeling. Hopefully my future stories will do the same for different settings!

MOONGLASS is a lot about girls and their mothers. What inspired to you to write about this relationship rather than any other one?
Some of my most favorite books are mother-daughter stories. That relationship is such an intricate, important one, and I think exploring those intricacies can lead to a really rich story.