Birthday Extravaganza: Cherry Cheva

Cherry Cheva (full name: Cherry Chevapravatdumrong) is the author of She's So Money and the soon to be released DupliKate.

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Describe Duplikate in five words or less.

Unexpected clone, then shenanigans!

In addition to writing YA, you also write for the TV show Family Guy. How has writing for TV influenced your writing?

It’s probably made me better at dialogue, because that’s what a majority of a TV script is, plus you get used to getting in and out of scenes as quickly as possible because you only have 22 minutes to tell a story. On the other hand, these habits can sometimes be counterproductive in novel-writing—for instance, my book editors are always telling me to add more description, and I get really foot-draggy about that because from TV I’m used to describing things in like two words and then moving onto the next joke.

What drew you to writing YA?

Happy coincidence! It actually didn’t occur to me that I was even writing a YA novel at first—in retrospect I have no idea why, because obviously the characters were in high school—but I guess I was just kind of clueless about books back then. But it turns out I LOVE IT...part of my brain is stuck in high school mode, for sure.

How would you describe your writing style?

“Much worse than John Green.” “Much less lucrative than Stephenie Meyer.” “Not nearly as funny as Seth Macfarlane.”

Duplikate is your second book, how has your writing style changed since She’s So Money?

Hmmm. I don’t think it has, actually, at least not in a way I’ve noticed.

Did you find writing your second book easier or harder?

HAAARDER! First of all, I had a much more badass deadline this time around, which is a technical issue, but still. Second of all, She’s So Money was—I mean, it wasn’t a story that happened to me, but with the main character being a Thai girl from Michigan whose parents own a restaurant, etc.—that made it more personal, which, coupled with it being my first book, made it just slightly more fun and exciting to write, which made it slightly less hard.

Which one of your characters do you relate to the most? Why?

Maya from She’s So Money, because she’s the only one actually based on me—mostly just the background facts, not really personality-wise, but I certainly have more in common with her than with any of my other characters.

If you could meet any character from any book, who would it be and why?

Any book?ANY BOOK? Oh my god. This is—okay, this is really hard. Um. I wanna say someone from Harry Potter just so I could watch ‘em do wacky magic stuff, but it’d have to be someone game for doing wacky magic stuff for no reason, so that is leading me towards one of the Weasley twins, but didn’t one of them die or get an ear cut off or something? Wow, and I thought I was a fan, and look at my terrible memory there. Yikes. Better answer: Garfield, because fat cats are awesome.

What’s one thing you can’t live without while writing?

The internet. It’s terrible. It actually PREVENTS me from doing work, but I want it all the time anyway, even though I know perfectly well I’ll get more done without it.

What’s next for you in terms of YA?

Hmmm, nothing I can report any concrete info about yet, but my next episode of Family Guy airs soon, and it’s about Stewie getting obsessed with Hannah Montana, and the Evil Monkey meeting the family.

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Thank you for the interview Cherry!

I have another chance for you to win, yes another! Cherry has donated a signed copy of Duplikate. Now, are you ready for the drill? Here's how you can enter to win DupliKate:

Leave a comment with your name and email by midnight EST on October 24!

Best of luck!