Please welcome MARY O'CONNELL to Random Buzzers! This is her first visit to our community and let's welcome her by posting your comments and questions about her amazing new novel THE SHARP TIME below! Don't forget to login during her visit beginning January 2nd to read her responses!

About The Sharp Time: Sandinista Jones is a high school senior with a punk rock name and a broken heart. The death of her single mother has left Sandinista alone in the world, subject to the random vulnerability of everyday life. When the school system lets her down, her grief and instability intensify, and she ponders a violent act of revenge. Still, in the midst of her crisis, she gets a job at The Pale Circus, a funky vintage clothing shop, and finds friendship and camaraderie with her coworker, a boy struggling with his own secrets. Even as Sandinista sees the failures of those with power and authority, she's offered the chance to survive through the redemptive power of friendship. Now she must choose between faith and forgiveness or violence and vengeance.

Last Modified Dec 23, 2011, 10:36:36 AM

what inspired you to become an author?

what is your all time favorite book?

Posted Dec 27, 2011, 10:37:03 AM

My idea was to write a book about the redemptive power of love and friendship. Institutions might fail you, but if you're lucky enough to have one wonderful friend, you'll survive. At some point in life we will all find ourselves in stark circumstances, and that's certainly true of The Sharp Time's narrator, Sandinista Jones. What will redeem her? What will pull her back from the edge? These were questions  I thought about while writing The Sharp Time. It seemed the only thing that could save Sandinista--indeed what saves us all--is love.

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 11:10:03 AM

My idea was to write a book about the redemptive power of love and friendship. Institutions might fail you, but if you're lucky enough to have one wonderful friend, you'll survive. At some point in life we will all find ourselves in stark circumstances, and that's certainly true of The Sharp Time's narrator, Sandinista Jones. What will redeem her? What will pull her back from the edge? These were questions  I thought about while writing The Sharp Time. It seemed the only thing that could save Sandinista--indeed what saves us all--is love.

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 12:21:24 PM

I once heard a writer say that you should pack all you know about life, up to the very moment you sit down to write, into your book. I suppose I tried to do that with the characters and the situations in The Sharp Time. 

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 12:18:01 PM

Can I say yes and no? Yes, because everything you observe and experience in life informs your writing. No, because Sandinista's specific experience is not my own.

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 11:16:39 AM

I have not yet made a resolution; I'm considering a few with the basic theme of time management.  Although I suspect I'm in trouble if I'm procrastinating about making a resolution...

Last Modified Jan 02, 2012, 03:46:34 PM

Yes, it was. It sounds like a cliche, but I came to care about my young characters so much that writing the scenes when they were in real peril was difficult for me. But I always try to include humor in my writing, especially when writing emotionally difficult scenes. In real life, in the midst of something horrible or merely challenging, I always love the moment when someone risks a weird moment by cracking a joke that can’t possibly make anything better—it can’t! it cannot--but then the joke does make things easier, if only for a moment.

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 03:57:21 PM

Probably writing the emotionally difficult scenes...

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 04:06:24 PM

Thank you so much! I wanted a name for the shop that would resonate, something that would call to mind subdued brightness.

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 04:15:53 PM

Thank you so much for the welcome. I have three kids--one in junior high, one in elementary school and a three year old--so I spend a lot of time in a mini van driving people to and from school and various activities. Part of my writing routine is writing when I'm not actually writing... figuring out scenes in my head as I go about my day. And I do like to write late at night. As far as writing and finishing a book, I just try to stay focused. It’s like John Irving says in The Hotel New Hampshire: “You’ve got to get obsessed and stay obsessed.”

 

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 11:03:15 PM

Thank you! I came up with the all the names rather randomly, with the exception of Sandinista, who was named after the seminal Clash album.

Oh, I love the cover too! I'm so grateful to Angela Carlino at Random House for designing such a brilliant over.

Posted Jan 02, 2012, 11:15:58 PM

Thanks so much for your interest! I wanted to write a book about the redemptive power of friendship.

I think when you write you usually incorporate a bit of your own life experience.

Posted Jan 03, 2012, 10:01:09 AM

Thanks! Sandinista was named after her beloved mother's favorite album. I love the sound of her name so much!

Most of my friends who are/were in bands gave their children names like Henry or Rose. My own kids are named Juliana, Zach and Veronica, so I didn't really go for the punk rock names either. 

Posted Jan 03, 2012, 10:12:25 AM

Kyle Chandler as Henry Charbonneau.

Sinead O’Connor as Erika.  

Clint Eastwood as Arne.

Rosie O’Donnell as Mrs. Bennett.

Nat DeWolf as Brother Bill.

Laura Kirk as Heather Jones.

Sandinista: Somewhere there is an actress in her early twenties, temping or waiting tables and dreaming and hoping and that’s the girl for this role, just at the role of her friend Bradley should go to another young hopeful.

Posted Jan 03, 2012, 10:50:24 AM

Where did the title come from?

Posted Dec 23, 2011, 06:58:24 PM

Welcome to Random Buzzers! 

How old were you when you decided to start writing? 

Posted Dec 23, 2011, 07:09:15 PM

What inspired you to write this novel?

 

Posted Dec 23, 2011, 07:23:35 PM

I have two, if you don't mind.

1. When did you decide to be a writer, or was it not really a conscious deciscion?

2. Are the characters in you book, like Sandinista, inspired by any real people, or are they entirely fictional?

Posted Dec 23, 2011, 07:24:57 PM

Do you write on the computer or by hand, generally?

A lot of writers seem to write on the computer only, whereas, I only like writing on paper or a typewriter- which do you prefer?

Posted Dec 23, 2011, 07:36:55 PM

Hey Mary, welcome to Random Buzzers! :D

So I'm really curious- this is the first time I've heard the name Sandinista. It is truly unique! Where did the name of your MC and other characters come from? And are any of your characters based on yourself or anyone you know in real life?

I look forward to reading your book!

Posted Dec 23, 2011, 07:44:02 PM