Read my review of the "fun, believable, and ultimately touching"Our Song by clicking here!
Lovely to have you at Books à la Mode, Jordanna! Let's get this interview started.
Will you please share a brief bio with us?
Jordanna Fraiberg was born in Montreal, Quebec, and currently lives in L.A., where she settled after receiving degrees from Harvard and Oxford. A former national squash champion and Hollywood film executive, she now divides her time between dreaming up stories and chasing her toddler. She is the author of Our Song and In Your Room.
Tell us a bit about Our Song. The cover is to die for!
Olive Bell has spent her entire life in the beautiful suburb of Vista Valley, with a picture-perfect home, a loving family, and a seemingly perfect boyfriend. But after a near-fatal car accident, she's haunted by a broken heart and a melody that she cannot place.
Then Olive meets Nick. He’s dark, handsome, mysterious... and Olive feels connected to him in a way she can't explain. Is there such a thing as fate? The two embark on a whirlwind romance—until Nick makes a troubling confession.
Heartbroken, Olive pieces together what really happened the night of her accident and arrives at a startling revelation. Only by facing the truth can she uncover the mystery behind the song and the power of what it means to love someone.
Buy the book at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Books-A-Million | Sony eStore | Kobo
I've always been fascinated by the idea that we are constantly evolving and changing throughout life, sometimes by choice, but more often than not as a result of a seeming obstacle or challenge. So the idea behind having Olive literally die, was to use it as a metaphor for the fact that she's been figuratively asleep her whole life and she's finally come to the end—or the death—of her identity.
The Near-Death Society in the book is based on a real group just like it called The Los Angeles International Association for Near-Death Studies. I went to one of their meetings for research and the thing I was most surprised to discover was that none of the participants there that night had actually died, which is why I put it in the book.
I think the fact that I was a competitive athlete for so many years has influenced who I am as a writer. I started playing squash when I was 10, and quickly became one of the top-ranked players for my age in Canada, where I grew up. As a result, I started training at the club every day after school and had to miss out on a lot of hanging out with my friends. I trained with mostly adults, and throughout high school, instead of going on school trips or having sleepovers, I traveled all over the country and the world competing. While I loved being a squash player and wouldn't have traded it for anything, there was always a part of me that felt like I didn't quite fit in at school, that I wasn't fully part of it, and I think it has influenced one of the major themes I write about—the feeling of alienation many feel as a teen, and the search for authentic connection.
The other thing being a competitive athlete also taught me is how to set goals and find the discipline to accomplish them, which is one of the major keys to finishing a novel.
That teenage loneliness and search for identity is something all adolescents feel at one point or another in their lives, but I definitely see how being such a dedicated competitive athlete could have accentuated that feeling of not fitting in. It's an amazing endeavor though—not all teenagers can call themselves top-ranking child athletes!—and it's great that it taught you discipline and determination as well. On that note, how much of yourself is in Our Song?
I think it's impossible to write anything and not infuse a part of yourself into the story. The novel isn't inspired by real-life events, and there isn't any one character based on me, but I definitely see elements of myself in both Olive and Annie. Like Olive, I've gone through painful break-ups that felt very end-of-the-world in the moment, but turned out to be the best thing that ever happened. While Derek and Nick aren't based on real people, the idea of what they represent—the seemingly right guy on paper vs. the true soulmate—reflects experiences I've had in my own life. And like Annie, I tend to be the one in my friendships that calls it like I see it, but in the most loving way possible!
Readers, click "Read more" to learn what kind of kid Jordanna was in high school (you all want to know!), her best advice for teenagers and aspiring writers, and why she included a sexuality-questioning character in the book. You also don't want to miss the great giveaway at the end!
