Choosing the Right Place

Junior year of high school, my parents told me that I could only apply to five colleges. This was entirely for my own good. Left to my own devices, I would have applied to five hundred colleges. (I was a wee bit anxious about the whole thing.)

This limitation didn't stop my obsessing, of course. I needed to pick the "right" five.

My dad and I visited a total of 22 colleges during my junior and senior year of high school. We even video-taped our visits (though most of the time, we'd forget until we were driving away, and I'd just stick the camera out the window and roll film -- unsurprisingly, my mom couldn't watch those videos without getting seasick).

It's not like college campuses are so different from each other. Classrooms, check. Dorm rooms, check. Gym. Student center. Really, your college experience is going to be shaped a lot more by what you are like than what your college is like. Also, who lives on your hall freshman year and whether your roommate is awesome or a raving lunatic.

(My roommate and neighbors were awesome. Also, some of them read this blog. *waves*)

Anyway, when I walked onto the Princeton campus, it felt RIGHT. As I've said before, it was the trees that wooed me: the elms, the oaks, the sycamores, and especially the flowering magnolia-like trees that fill the campus with their perfume every spring.

Picking a setting for a book is a lot like choosing the right college. You agonize over it. You do some research. You visualize your characters in that setting. You try to anticipate how it will change your story and the impact it will have. And in the end, you bite the bullet and decide based on a hodgepodge of actual fact, pure conjecture, and a large dose of random chance.

Once you make that decision, the ramifications are HUGE. Setting shapes both plot and characters, often in ways that surprise you. Eventually, the setting becomes so integral to the story that you can't imagine ever having considered another choice.

I chose to set Enchanted Ivy at my alma mater because I love adding magic to places that I love. It's basically wish fulfillment for me. (I did a similar thing in my debut novel Into the Wild by setting it in the town I grew up in. It's one of the perks of the writing gig.)

The campus quickly became my inspiration and an integral part of the characters and plot. I used the gardens, the eating clubs, the gargoyles, the front gate, even the mascot. The story would literally not be the same if it were set anywhere else.


35 days until ENCHANTED IVY!

College Obsession

Junior and senior year of high school, I obsessed about college. I swear I did not have a single conversation over those two years that did not touch on the topic of college in some way. Of course, this was not helped by the fact that when one is that age, everyone begins every conversation by asking, "So where are you applying?" And as soon as you can answer that, they begin asking, "So where are you going to go?" And as soon as you can answer that, they ask, "So what's your major?" And then, "What are you going to do after you graduate?" Really, it's enough to make anyone high-strung, and I was high-strung enough to begin with. (I am, after all, the person who had a mid-life crisis at age ten because I didn't know what my career goals were yet. Incidentally or not-so-incidentally, that's when I decided to become a writer. But that's another story.)

I had stacks and stacks of brochures from colleges. I sent away for the promotional videos. I made endless lists of pros and cons... You see, I knew that this was a Big Moment. Whichever direction I went, it would influence what I would do and who I would become. A lot of times, we have Big Moments and have no control over them or don't even recognize them as they happen, but I knew this was one and I had at least the illusion of control over it. Hence the freaking out.

My new novel ENCHANTED IVY is about Lily Carter, a 16-year-old caught in that pre-college obsession. Unlike the 16-year-old me, she knows where she wants to go: Princeton University. She just doesn't know if she's going to get in.

She also doesn't know that Princeton is a portal to a magical realm. If I'd known that, I totally would have done Early Decision.

As it was, I didn't end up deciding where to go until April of my senior year, a few days before the answer was due. After all my careful research and all my lists of pros and cons, I chose Princeton because of the trees. Seriously. I saw the arch of elm trees over Washington Street, and I was sold. In retrospect, this is perhaps not the best way to choose a college. But I loved it there. And it led to this book. So feel free to draw whatever moral you'd like from that. :)

44 days until ENCHANTED IVY!

Freshman Year Sarah

It is now 50 days until the release of my next book, ENCHANTED IVY. I'm excited! And I'm thinking about college. (The novel is about getting into college. Also, talking gargoyles and were-tigers.) This is me in my dorm room freshman year of college:


Nearly everything I brought with me was a memento: the tall glass cylinder by the window contained dried roses from prom and from various recitals and shows, the gray lamp was my dad's from his college days and the stickers on it were from my elementary school sticker collection, the sunset painting on the wall was painted by my brother, the mug was from my friend Gillian (of INTO THE WILD fame), etc.

Looking at this photo, I think about how much I've changed...

Hmm, I still have that cylinder of dried roses (though the roses in it are newer), and I still have a dead plant on my windowsill (though this one is a geranium). I still have those sandals and wear them every summer. I fill that same mug with hot chocolate every winter. (It's the perfect size for a packet of Swiss Miss.)

Okay, fine, I haven't changed much.

*sticks out tongue*

I do have longer hair. And the cassette tapes (see far left on my desk) have been replaced by iTunes. Also, several years ago, a mover lost that sunset picture. (I'm still annoyed about that.)

I'm more comfortable as me. I'm happier. A lot of that has to do with the person who was on the other side of the wall in that photo. Six years after this photo was taken, I married the boy who lived on the other side of that wall.

As the countdown to pub date continues, I'll be talking more about college, about getting into college, and about my new novel. I'll also be posting an excerpt from ENCHANTED IVY soon, so stay tuned!