A casual encounter with Kiera Cass

Her name is Kiera Cass, author of the young adult trilogy The Selection. She also happens to be a New York Times best-selling author whose books are loved and adored by millions of teenage girls (and possibly even grown men), but she never lets that get to her head. The vibrant and energetic author graced Manila with her presence earlier this month for a book signing in Glorietta 1, and we had the pleasure of sitting down with her first and asking her a few questions.

— Loren Seneres

YOUNG STAR: Tell me about how you got into writing first.

KIERA CASS: It was kind of accidental. I was living in Blacksburg and started kind of writing as personal therapy. I was stressed and not doing well.

What were you doing at the time?

I was just being a housewife. I think I might have been working at an ice cream shop. I’m a college graduate, you know, very educated, hanging out, working at an ice cream shop. But I kind of went to school knowing I wanted to stay at home and be a homemaker, that was always the dream. I was unhappy and it was fun to work at an ice cream shop because nobody comes in angry. Everybody always comes in a good mood. It was really nice, I always smelled like cinnamon and vanilla, it was really fun. I was just working, and keeping the house.

We live in Blacksburg, Virginia. I don’t know if you know about the shootings that happened on our campus, Virginia Tech (33 students and faculty were killed in 2007). My best friend lived on campus at the time — Calloway worked on campus at the time. It was really bad. I didn’t quite bounce back; a year later I still wasn’t myself. So I was like, I’m going to give my issues to a character and see what she does and I’ll write about it. And I ended up never finishing what I was writing because once I got into the habit of it the story just started coming. The Siren came first, a book I self-published in 2009 and then several more. I think (the character) America was third in line as far as what came, but she was like the next one: “You have to tell my story, you have to finish it.”

The Selection trilogy, it’s a deconstruction of a lot of fairytale tropes. Why did you think you gravitated towards that?

I think everybody enjoys a good fairy tale. I was watching a lot of those happy endings. I didn’t even set out to write a dystopian, I was told I had a dystopian story coming along and I had to go Google it because I didn’t know what it was. I liked the idea of reading a fairytale. When I had no idea where to put it, it ended up being set in the future. It’s really meant to be a fairytale. The reason why it’s not set in the past because I couldn’t find the right place to put it there, so I had to make up my own.

One of the questions your trilogy asks is what happens after “ever after.” Did “happily ever after” always bug you growing up?

No, well, part of the inspiration was Cinderella. The inspiration for the book was Esther from the Bible and Cinderella. Cinderella never asked for prince, she asked for a dress, she asked for a night out, all she wanted was a break. She gets something different than what she asked for. Do we know if she’s happy? Is there more to that story? It’s fun to ask the “what ifs” in your head and find a new way to answer them. I’m not sure if I do, but it’s fun to play with. I’m okay with not finding the answer. There are things I want to tell you about happily ever after as far as my story goes, (but) I don’t think I can. I’ll get into trouble.

The trilogy is about to end. Are you happy to end it?

It’s funny because after I wrote The Siren, it was the first character in my head, the first one that ever got on paper, and I was like, “I don’t think I’ll ever love anybody the way I love Kahlen, it’s not possible, no way.” And then The Selection happened, it’s possible. I love America, I love Aspen, I love Maxon with this undying affection. I don’t think it’ll feel done until it’s printed. I’m not happy to move on, I don’t even want to talk about it. It’s really strange. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel done. I think there will always be feedback, and I’ll always want to write about it. If she marries Max and they’ll have a son, would they have a selection? Would you write about that? If that’s what’s going to happen, maybe I would. If she marries Aspen, if they had a daughter, what would happen? I would love to tell you. In five or 10 years, if HarperTeen asks me to write something, I would. It will never feel done. I care about them too much.

Why do you think you’ve gone into the young adult direction?

I think I have a young soul. I’m wearing my One Direction bracelet. I’m a Directioner, it’s pretty serious. My favorite is Harry, but I was a Louis girl. But mostly because it was because I’m 32, I like this boy band, which one’s the oldest? Harry’s 19, Louis is 21. It’s less creepy.

I like boy bands, I think I feel, a lot of ways, the way I feel when I was a teen. When things go wrong, I think it’s the end of the world, when good things happen I live off of them forever. I love pretty intensely. I still feel like there are times where I figure things out about myself and the world, and I’m okay with that being who I am. I think it means I relate to my audience really well. For a while I thought there was something wrong with me, because I couldn’t relate to other wives and other moms. Shouldn’t I be in this club? But something it felt a little weird. I felt really insecure about who I am, but not anymore because I there are actually people out there like me.

You’re 32, what’s your advice to people who want to start writing?

The first thing you have to do is finish a book, because it’s really difficult to get to the end. Do that, and read everything, even the things you don’t like because that’s how you’ll find out what you don’t want to write about. Daydream a lot, and get a thick skin. I thought I had a thick skin, it turns out not so much. There were some blog reviews, they can be malicious, they forget that I’m not just a name on the spine of the book it just really hurts what they say. It wasn’t even well thought out, just kind of mean. I could appreciate a well-written critique. There was a girl on Tumblr who hated my book, and I wrote her and told her that some of the questions she asks are some of the questions an editor asks so I told her that’s good for her. She appreciates that, but I don’t think she likes me much. So yeah, get a thick skin. Be okay with not being loved. Get time to daydream. I try to get time to daydream, it’s really hard to keep house and have children to take care of children and write and then pause. It’s difficult, but very important. And you have to read. If you want to write, you have to read.