Interview by Katherine Burgess
Emily Franklin writes regularly about food and parenting for national magazines and newspapers. She is the author of two adult novels, The Girls’ Almanac and Liner Notes, and more than a dozen books for young adults, including the critically-acclaimed seven book fiction series for teens, The Principles of Love. Other young adult books include The Other Half of Me, the Chalet Girls series, and At Face Value, a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac. She edited the anthologies It’s a Wonderful Lie: 26 Truths about Life in Your Twenties and How to Spell Chanukah: 18 Writers Celebrate 8 Nights of Lights. She is co-editor of Before: Short Stories about Pregnancy from Our Top Writers. Her most recent book, Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, 102 New Recipes, is a collection of essays and recipes.
Q: Your latest book is Too Many Cooks: Kitchen Adventures with 1 Mom, 4 Kids, 102 New Recipes. How did you first come up with the idea for this book? Do you have a favorite recipe out of the collection?
A: This book was born out of my two great loves—children and food. I wanted to introduce new foods to my four kids and share with them my love of different recipes, tastes. In some ways, this book combines my writing and my personal life in a way I never imagined.
Q: You have four children under the age of nine. How does motherhood affect your writing? How do you find time to write?
A: I write on Wednesdays when my husband is home. This takes away some of the writerly glamour; there’s no time for the muse to strike or not I treat writing very much as a job—you get up and do it, whether you feel like it or not, inspiration is a bonus. Motherhood informs my writing and probably deepens it.
Q: Your hobbies include singing, skiing, and fishing. You’ve worked as a personal chef. You hold a degree in neuroscience. Do these varied interests feed your writing? What’s your newest passion?
A: My interests now focus mainly on all things kid-related (little league, crafts, diapers, intricate block structures), food, and travel, as well as a lot of reading. I still love to hike and to fish, but don’t have the time, space, or location for that much of it. We do like taking the kids on hikes, though. All of this is vital to writing, feeding details, filtering daily into whatever I’m thinking about putting to paper.
Q: You write primarily about young women and their struggles with relationships, friendship, motherhood, etc. It seems that books dealing with these subjects are often automatically labeled “chick lit.” Do you ever find that your work is labeled that way? If so, do you mind it?
A: I’ve escaped the term, I think, by writing in a variety of genres; adult fiction, literary stories, memoir, teen fiction. It’s a lame term, really, and just a big pocket for a trend. Barbara Kingsolver writes about family and struggles, so do many writers. I just write what I write. My next book is set in 1931 Brooklyn and is about a Jewish family’s struggles so hopefully that will tip the scales.
Q: You write both for adults and young adults. Does your process differ at all in writing one or the other? What advice would you give to an author aspiring to write YA books?
A: I think people either have the YA voice or they don’t. Teens and kids need that authenticity. Some people think spending time with teens helps. I just remember all of those feelings, read my old journals, cringe, laugh, and write.
Q: What do you think of the state of YA fiction today? What would you like to see more of? What would you like to see less of?
A: I love some of the YA today. Love love love John Green’s An Abundance of Katherines, adored Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Could probably do without another “I was a big loser boy but clever and got the hot girl” book, but if it’s really funny, that might be okay, too.
Q: Name a writer who is currently making you jealous.
A: My son. No over-thinking.
Q: What kind of child were you?
A: Booky, brainy, goofy.
Q: What is your relationship with rejection like?
A: We’ve been dating.
Q: What book did you suffer for the most, and why?
A: Too Many Cooks wasn’t about suffering, it was about eating, but testing all the recipes was a pain. But short stories are always hard to get published, and my collected of linked stories, The Girls’ Almanac, was no exception.
Q: What was the greatest surprise for you in your most recent writing?
A: Too Many Cooks is my natural voice—me, in conversation. That it translates well on the page is a welcome surprise.
Q: What writerly habit would you most like to break?
A: Getting lines or ideas in my head at odd times—before bed, in the middle of conversations, driving on the highway. But I probably wouldn’t trade this because it’s crucial for the process even if it seems ridiculous.
Q: Who’s your favorite John Hughes character?
A: I identify with Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful (the girl in love with her best friend) but favorite character probably has to be Duckie.
