YA Fresh

What's Fresh with E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father's "bunny rabbit."
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.
Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.
Frankie Landau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew's lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.
Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.
This is the story of how she got that way.

Hello E, it's so great to have you back with us! Please tell us about your latest novel.

E: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks came out March 25th from Hyperion. It's about a girl who infiltrates her older boyfriend's all-male secret society at an elite boarding school. There are pranks. There are secret late-night adventures. There is romance. And there are lots of basset hounds.

I also had a chance to read an advanced copy--absolutely loved it! What was the most difficult part of writing this novel?

E: The pranks. Frankie dreams up a series of increasingly grandiose pranks -- "The Library Lady," "The Doggies in the Window," "The Abduction of the Guppy" and so forth -- and I had to think them up myself!
I am a lot less inventive and nefarious than Frankie.

haha! Could you tell us what type of promotion you or your publisher are doing for your novel?

E; The main thing Hyperion did was a pre-publication tour to meet booksellers, including chain stores and independents, plus a big bookseller conference. I think it was a great thing for the book. When reviews were good, they took out some ads. And I'm doing approximately 8,000 online interviews, which is fun! But I am not touring until May -- and then it is technically for How to Be Bad, which is a novel I co-wrote with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski that comes out May 6. But I'll be signing Disreputable History as well.

Wow, sounds fantastic! Please list one similarity and one difference between yourself and your main character.

E: Frankie hates to be underestimated.
Me, too.
Frankie is possibly a criminal mastermind.
Me, not so much.

Thank you again for sharing, E, could you tell us one of your favorite lines from the book?

E: From a description of the Alabaster Preparatory Academy campus:

Many of the buildings, built in the late nineteenth century, were connected by steam tunnels -- utility tunnels intended for the maintenacne of heating pipes that run underneath the ground. These tunnels were locked, and student access to them was explicitly forbidden by the administration. But there wouldn't be a story here if there weren't a way of getting in.

Thanks for having me on your blog, Kelly!

E. Lockhart is the author of The Boyfriend List and its sequel, The Boy Book; Fly on the Wall; Dramarama; and the upcoming How to Be Bad, co-written with Lauren Myracle and Sarah Mlynowski. In stores March 25th is The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Visit her on the web at www.theboyfriendlist.com -- and soon (once the new web design is finished) at www.e-lockhart.com.