Author Bio:
Except for six months in Wyoming, I've lived my entire life either in Los Angeles county or on California's central coast (it was during those six months away from the west coast that I began writing Thirteen Reasons Why).  I've worked at an independent bookstore, a chain bookstore, an outlet bookstore, and two public libraries. But before those jobs, I worked at a shoe store, a trophy shop, and an airline.  My very first writing award earned me a free fruit smoothie every day for an entire year.  Mmmmm...


Book Report Info:
Birth Date & Place:  September 30, 1975 - Arcadia, CA
High School:  graduated from San Luis Obispo High School in 1993
College:  attended Cuesta College and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (left during my senior year)
Marriage:  got married September 7, 2002
Children:  nope
Career:  while I write, I also work at a public library

Major Media:
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
Barnes & Noble: Meet the Writers


Interviews:
Corrine Jackson (October 25, 2009)
Julie Halpern's Blog of Wonder (October 8, 2009)
Kossis Welt (August 25, 2009 - in German and English)
Nisha Sharma (August 19, 2009)
Diet Coke-Fueled Life (August 2, 2009)
Curious George's Notes from the Hut (July 16, 2009)
Old People Writing for Teens (July 13, 2009)
Cool Kids Read (May 7, 2009)
Today's Teen Writer (May 5, 2009)
Market My Words
Jodi Kendall (2008)
Innovative (November 22, 2008)
Mrs. Magoo Reads (October 18, 2008)
rgz TV (on YouTube) (August 14, 2008)
Terry Pierce (June 23, 2008)
Reviewer X (about me) (May 14, 2008)
Reviewer X (about 13RW) (May 13, 2008)
The First Book (February 11, 2008)
Cynsations (February 5, 2008)
Poised at the Edge (December 30, 2007)
Boys Blogging Books  (November 14, 2007)
Book Divas (October 30, 2007)
Little Willow (July 20, 2007)
Tina Nichols Coury (May 1, 2007)
SmartWriters.com: regarding the Write-It-Now! Grand Prize win for Thirteen Reasons Why, then called Baker's Dozen: the AudioBiography of Anna Baker (May 2004)


Cool Mentions:
Fuse 8 Productions:  Hot Man of Children's Literature, baby!




Q&A...So Ask Away!
Do you want to know more about my writing process?  I'll tell ya.  Do you want to know the inspiration behind a certain scene?  I might tell ya.  Is your question a little more random than that?  That's fine, too.  For example, do you want to know what one taste absolutely ruins way too many otherwise perfectly good foods?  Let me tell ya...it's onions!
Since not everyone's on MySpace, send your question to WriteJayAsher{at}aol.com with "Q&A for Jay" in the subject line and I just might answer it below. Also, let me know the city and state in which you live, because that's how I'll sign your question.
So...whatcha wanna know?

from Bryan in Alabama:
Why did you want to write a book such as this?
I didn't ever see myself writing a book like this. I've always wanted to write humorous novels. But the format of the book was knocking around in my brain for years; I just couldn't find a funny story to go along with it. One day, the idea for Thirteen Reasons Why came to me, and I knew I had to write it. It was like a challenge. It seemed like a difficult novel to write because of its structure, but I felt that it could be really powerful if I pulled it off. And because I had a close family member attempt suicide when she was Hannah's age, there were definitely some issues I wanted to honestly explore.

from Emily in New Jersey:
Do you believe working at libraries and bookstores helped you become a better writer?
Definitely. Mainly, it opened my eyes to the many different types of readers there are. A good librarian or bookseller is able to match people up with the perfect book. Some people are more into character than any other storytelling element. Others are into setting. Or language. I'm a plot guy! But by talking to so many people about what they love to read, I learned to appreciate a lot of books I otherwise would have never picked up. And now, when I write, I spend extra time thinking about those storytelling elements that aren't naturally the most important to me. Sometimes I even picture certain customers when I'm writing a scene, wondering if what I'm doing would meet their approval.

from Fatima in California:
As a writer, what kinds of things or subjects should I improve/work on?
Everyone has their own weaknesses and strengths as a writer.  For me, character development is something I work on a lot.  Good ideas come to me all the time (at least, I think they're good ideas!).  But I run into problems when I think a good idea is all I need.  I've started plenty of manuscripts which eventually lose steam when the unique quality of the idea has worn off.  And that's where characters need to take over.  But if we don't care about the characters because they never fully came alive for us, they won't take over.  An idea for a book can be big or small and still make for an engaging book if we care about the characters.

from Cameron in Texas:
What's the setting, exactly?
It's not set exactly anywhere. In my mind, though, the town is a mix of two real cities. I spent most of my childhood in Arcadia, California and went to high school in San Luis Obispo, California. The school, coffee shop, movie theater, and a few other locations were inspired by places in SLO. The park, diner, and liquor store were inspired by places in Arcadia. Overall, it feels a lot more like SLO, but I purposely didn't give it a specific name so it could be Almost Anywhere, USA. (NOTE: New editions come with the map Hannah sent to the people on the tapes. The map names the town Crestmont, which I chose, but that isn't mentioned anywhere in the text.)

from Nikki in Washington:
Was your book challenged by anyone or place?
The only place I know of for sure was at a school in Des Moines, Iowa. A parent learned that a teacher was reading it to her students and went to the school board to complain. Of course, she only read certain passages to the board (guess which ones!). Some adults not only objected to the book being read aloud in class, they wanted the book pulled from the library so no one would have access to it at the school. Thankfully, there are heroes in this story. Several teachers, the school librarian, and students stood up to support the book. One student even spoke at the board meeting to explain the significance of the passages read aloud. That student had to teach the adults why taking scenes out of context is inappropriate and misleading.

from Moni in Poland:
What do Clay and Courtney look like?
I assume you're not asking about Hannah because the cover of the book gives that away.  (Side note:  A lot of people also ask if I had any say in the cover of the book, and the answer is no.  But that girl looks almost exactly how I pictured Hannah while I was writing the book.)  There's a reason why I limit the amount of physical character descriptions in this book...which is the same reason I ain't tellin' what Clay and Courtney look like in my mind.  (Sorry.  Don't hate me!)  If I said that Clay found a certain character beautiful, and then I described what she looked like, readers might think, "That's not beautiful."  So by limiting the amount of description, readers are allowed to imagine whatever traits they find believable for that character.  But I do get asked that question a lot, and I usually turn it around and ask what they think the characters look like.  For some reason, a lot of people think Clay has brown hair and green eyes...and that works for me.

from Emily in New Jersey:
About how long did it take you to write Thirteen Reasons Why?
It's hard to say. I wrote the first words to it in the winter of 2002/2003. I began sending it to agents in June 2006. But I was working on a lot of other manuscripts at the same time. Sometimes I set this book aside for months at a time to work on something else…usually something funnier when I needed a break from the serious issues in this book.

from Bryan in Alabama:
What kind of advice could you give to aspiring writers like me?
For writers, I think the easiest way to improve your craft is to find a critique group made up of other writers you can be honest with. Get together regularly and share your work. It'll help you find your strengths and weaknesses. And by brainstorming within that group, you can hopefully find ways to strengthen those weaknesses. If you want to become published, a critique group is the only way to go because, in the end, your work is going to be evaluated by people you might never meet. You might as well give yourself the best chance and first have it read by people who can give you immediate feedback.

from Moni in Poland:
Were any of the characters inspired by people you knew or know?
There are character traits in a few of my characters which can also be found in the people I know, but no characters were directly inspired by real people.  The fictional characters always came first.  Of course, inspiration can sometimes be a hard thing to pinpoint...so the answer could be yes and I'm just unaware of it.  Of course, there are many scenes which were inspired by actual events, but the characters in those scenes are nothing like the people who were really there (just in case any of you are reading this!).

from Fatima in California:
What are some of your ways of brainstorming and finding words for what you're trying to say?
Finding the right words is probably my favorite part of writing.  A thesauras is extremely important for this...but they can also be dangerous.  The tone of a story can easily change if you select "impressive" words over "appropriate" words.  I hate books where I can sense the author trying to show-off.  So always stay true to the tone of your story.  Basically, brainstorming means not being afraid to plug in different words...over and over...to see what works best.

from Emily in New Jersey:
When did you realize you wanted to write as a job?
I don't remember ever not wanting to be a writer of some sort. I wanted to write and draw my own daily comic strip. I wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to be a screenwriter. In fact, all of those still appeal to me. But in college I took a course called Children's Literature Appreciation…and that's where I found my calling.

from Lorena in Florida:
Why did Hannah include Clay? Why did she have to put him through the pain of regret?
One of the most frustrating things about Thirteen Reasons Why (in a good way, I hope) is that almost everything we know about Hannah is what we learn from her cassettes. We do learn a little from Clay, but since he didn’t have many conversations with her, what he knows about her (other than those pesky rumors) is also fairly limited. Hannah does say Clay’s story was important in order to tell her story “more completely.” But is that the only reason? Clay and one other character (don’t worry, I won’t spoil it!) do ponder another motive. But in real life, as in my novel, suicides always leave far more questions than answers. Regarding Hannah putting Clay through so much pain, I don’t think she considered every consequence to her own actions.

from Sarah in Nebraska:
Are you currently writing another book? If so, can we get any hints about it?
Answer #1: yes. Answer #2: no. Sorry! I do a lot of speaking around the country and I used to tell people about Book 2, but then I changed the entire premise of the novel, yet I still get e-mails from people wondering when that funny book about the robotic bunny wabbit will be coming out (don’t worry, that’s not what it was really about). So now I don’t say much more than, “When it comes out, I hope you enjoy it!”