Ask the Author: Sarvenaz Tash
Answered Questions (12)
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi Sarvenaz! (I've only ever met one other person with my name, so it's super fun to write that!) Thanks so much for your kind words about my books and for the great questions.
I have many OTPs, but the one that's coming to mind right now is Veronica and Logan from VERONICA MARS. I shipped them so hard, and was inconsolable when I got to the end of season 3 and everything was so...unresolved. Thank goodness the movie happened!
As for Harry Potter, I will always stand by the Ron/Hermione dynamic and really do love them together. And I do think Neville and Luna would have made a dynamite couple, though I do also appreciate that they ended up with people who were off-screen, so to speak.
Thanks for your question! Sorry it took me so long to respond as I just saw it.
I have many OTPs, but the one that's coming to mind right now is Veronica and Logan from VERONICA MARS. I shipped them so hard, and was inconsolable when I got to the end of season 3 and everything was so...unresolved. Thank goodness the movie happened!
As for Harry Potter, I will always stand by the Ron/Hermione dynamic and really do love them together. And I do think Neville and Luna would have made a dynamite couple, though I do also appreciate that they ended up with people who were off-screen, so to speak.
Thanks for your question! Sorry it took me so long to respond as I just saw it.
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi Annike,
My biggest tip is pretty simple: read. Read YA, certainly, but also read in other genres. I'm always surprised at how much of good writing techniques can be learned by osmosis. But that being said, the other part of my advice is to write. Writing is a craft and it simply needs the hours to be put into it to hone it. Write and finish a draft of something, even if that draft is terrible (as most first drafts usually are). And then worry about editing it into something that's not terrible. Revising something that already exists in some form is so much more doable than trying to get down something perfectly the first time.
Best of luck with your writing and thank you for your question!
My biggest tip is pretty simple: read. Read YA, certainly, but also read in other genres. I'm always surprised at how much of good writing techniques can be learned by osmosis. But that being said, the other part of my advice is to write. Writing is a craft and it simply needs the hours to be put into it to hone it. Write and finish a draft of something, even if that draft is terrible (as most first drafts usually are). And then worry about editing it into something that's not terrible. Revising something that already exists in some form is so much more doable than trying to get down something perfectly the first time.
Best of luck with your writing and thank you for your question!
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi Alexis,
Thanks so much! I'm so glad you loved the book!
As for me, my main fandom is definitely Harry Potter (Ravenclaw and Thunderbird here--I guess I've got an aviary theme going on!) I also love Doctor Who, Sherlock, Game of Thrones, Veronica Mars...and if there is a Hercule Poirot fandom, I'd definitely be in on that too. (The Little Grey Cellmates, perhaps?)
Thank you for your question!
Thanks so much! I'm so glad you loved the book!
As for me, my main fandom is definitely Harry Potter (Ravenclaw and Thunderbird here--I guess I've got an aviary theme going on!) I also love Doctor Who, Sherlock, Game of Thrones, Veronica Mars...and if there is a Hercule Poirot fandom, I'd definitely be in on that too. (The Little Grey Cellmates, perhaps?)
Thank you for your question!
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi Luna,
Great question! You definitely don't have to be into comics to understand THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO UNREQUITED LOVE. The comic/fandom that Graham and Roxana are into the most (and discuss the most) is actually fictional, so it's explained throughout. If you are into comics, there might be some names of writers/artists that you'd recognize, but if you don't recognize them, it wouldn't affect your understanding of the plot at all.
There are also references to tons of movies, TV shows, and books. I'd like to think there are hidden jokes and easter eggs for people who are into a variety of different things, but even if you weren't into any of them, you'd still be able to enjoy the book.
Thank you for your question and I hope you like the book!
Great question! You definitely don't have to be into comics to understand THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO UNREQUITED LOVE. The comic/fandom that Graham and Roxana are into the most (and discuss the most) is actually fictional, so it's explained throughout. If you are into comics, there might be some names of writers/artists that you'd recognize, but if you don't recognize them, it wouldn't affect your understanding of the plot at all.
There are also references to tons of movies, TV shows, and books. I'd like to think there are hidden jokes and easter eggs for people who are into a variety of different things, but even if you weren't into any of them, you'd still be able to enjoy the book.
Thank you for your question and I hope you like the book!
Sarvenaz Tash
When I was a kid, I read a lot. I was painfully shy and reading was both my escape and my way to understand the world around in me in a safe way. Very quickly, the authors of those books became my heroes, and the idea of being a part of that world when I was a grown-up became my dream.
Soon enough, there were stories and ideas and characters that were coming to me. They were stories I wanted to read, but realized I couldn't because they hadn't been written yet. So it only made sense for me to try and write them. So I wrote a lot; I wrote poorly and I wrote overdramatically and I learned with everything I wrote, whether it ended up forgotten in a drawer after one day or something I tinkered with for years.
In the most basic sense, everything I write now still goes back to that same idea: it's a story I want to read that doesn't happen to have been written yet.
Thank you for your question!
Soon enough, there were stories and ideas and characters that were coming to me. They were stories I wanted to read, but realized I couldn't because they hadn't been written yet. So it only made sense for me to try and write them. So I wrote a lot; I wrote poorly and I wrote overdramatically and I learned with everything I wrote, whether it ended up forgotten in a drawer after one day or something I tinkered with for years.
In the most basic sense, everything I write now still goes back to that same idea: it's a story I want to read that doesn't happen to have been written yet.
Thank you for your question!
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi Audrey,
I was 100% a geek when I was younger and I'm 100% a geek now! Though I think that I was a bit shyer about how passionate I was about certain nerdy things (musical theater, books, '60s music, '80s movies, academics) when I was a teen and a much more out and proud Potterhead/Whovian now. I love the passion of fandoms and the geek community and it was such a joy to tap into that for this book.
Thank you for your question!
I was 100% a geek when I was younger and I'm 100% a geek now! Though I think that I was a bit shyer about how passionate I was about certain nerdy things (musical theater, books, '60s music, '80s movies, academics) when I was a teen and a much more out and proud Potterhead/Whovian now. I love the passion of fandoms and the geek community and it was such a joy to tap into that for this book.
Thank you for your question!
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi Jersey,
I started writing when I was about 7, which is right around the time I started voraciously reading on my own (mostly Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, and Ann M. Martin books). Books very quickly became a central part of my life and I think I knew very early on that I wanted to create stories as well as read them. Thank you for your question!
I started writing when I was about 7, which is right around the time I started voraciously reading on my own (mostly Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, and Ann M. Martin books). Books very quickly became a central part of my life and I think I knew very early on that I wanted to create stories as well as read them. Thank you for your question!
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi Jezz!
My inspiration came from my lifelong desire to have been able to go to the original Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. Sadly, I was not alive at the time, and I currently do not own a time machine, so writing this book was the only way I knew of to be able to fulfill that dream. I had a lot of fun immersing myself in the music and clothes of the era, and imagining myself at the festival, while I was writing it.
Thank you for your question!
Sarv
My inspiration came from my lifelong desire to have been able to go to the original Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. Sadly, I was not alive at the time, and I currently do not own a time machine, so writing this book was the only way I knew of to be able to fulfill that dream. I had a lot of fun immersing myself in the music and clothes of the era, and imagining myself at the festival, while I was writing it.
Thank you for your question!
Sarv
Sarvenaz Tash
Hi CJ,
Yes, you're correct! It takes place at the original 1969 concert in Bethel and yes, I have visited the site and the museum multiple times both before and during my research for the novel. It's beautiful up there and I adore the museum--it was very instrumental to my research process.
Thank you for your question!
Yes, you're correct! It takes place at the original 1969 concert in Bethel and yes, I have visited the site and the museum multiple times both before and during my research for the novel. It's beautiful up there and I adore the museum--it was very instrumental to my research process.
Thank you for your question!
Sarvenaz Tash
I'm working on a new YA novel that I like to call my Comic Con rom com! It's called THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO UNREQUITED LOVE and is about a lovelorn nerd who decides to profess his love for his best friend at the greatest event of their social calendar. It was pitched as PRETTY IN PINK goes to Comic Con and inspired by both my extreme nerdiness and my love of John Hughes movies. It will be published in 2016 by Simon & Schuster BFYR.
Sarvenaz Tash
My own personal obsessions--in this case, the Woodstock Music Festival in '69. I decided to take advantage of one of the greatest advantages of being a writer: getting to time travel to an era and place I wasn't able to experience in real life, but always desperately wanted to.
Sarvenaz Tash
The ability to go somewhere I may not otherwise get to go, or be someone I wouldn't ever get to be.
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