E. Lockhart Sneak Peek

If you've read the entire December issue of readergirlz or downloaded our winter 2009 poster, you'll know that we're spotlighting The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart next month.

Can't wait 'til January? Follow E. Lockhart on her blog tour all week long, starting today at my blog, Bildungsroman. The interview includes an exclusive look at the new cover of E.'s first Ruby Oliver book, The Boyfriend List, info about the forthcoming (and final!) Ruby book, Real Live Boyfriends, details about Lockhart's past and future books, and, of course, questions about Frankie. Here's a sneak peek of the interview:

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is my favorite of your novels to date. In the book, Frankie becomes the secret leader of a boys-only club - and the boys don't even know it! What inspired this story? An interest in secret societies, or consideration of gender equality? A love for basset hounds and/or boarding schools?

Sometimes, when starting a novel, I collect together ideas that interest me but which I'm not sure are connected. I read up on these ideas and let them gel together. That's what I did with The Disreputable History. It started with the idea of writing about campus pranks. Then I began looking for a reason for the pranks to exist. And I've always loved boarding school stories. I read up about the politics and history of elite boarding schools, and researched urban exploration, which was also interesting to me. And the ideas began to come together.

If you were a member of The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, what would your duties be?

Chronicler of Exploits. I'm actually not the master mind that Frankie is. Figuring out the pranks she gets up to in The Disreputable History took me an incredibly long time.

Click here to read the entire interview.

Make sure to read The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart over the holidays so you can join our discussions here at readergirlz in January!