Author Birthday – 25 October – Cecil Castellucci

Happy Birthday, Cecil Castellucci, born on 25 October 1969.

Cecil Castellucci Quotes

1. My first love is science fiction, so my heart has always been a science fiction writer. But when I first started writing, the voice that came out naturally was contemporary young adult.
2. I have been practicing in the sense that for the last few years I’ve been writing adult short speculative fiction and publishing those, so those have been the palate cleansers between my contemporary novels and gearing me up to writing a larger tale.
3. There’s groupthink everywhere, so I think that’s something that I’m always just trying to be on guard about for myself so that I can be myself and happy with that. And also I think a lot about finding your tribe, your true tribe, and I think that’s part of the passage of growing up.
4. I always knew that I wanted to tell stories and I didn’t really care how I tell stories. That’s why I’ve done performance-art pieces or was in a band; wrote a novel or made movies and, you know, wrote books and comic books and stuff. I’ve always felt like I just wanted to follow the way that a story wants to be told.
5. At the end of the day, a book is a book is a book is a book, and a great book transcends marketing categories.
6. I feel that as an author, the page is always open, and you’re always working, whether you’re at your desk or not. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like doing the dishes is working on your novel, but part of your job is to dream and think and nourish your creative side.
7. I’m very strict about my deadlines. Sometimes this means that I don’t write anything for a week and then binge-write for three straight days. I get it done.
8. One of the things that’s super-compelling about writing young adult fiction is that it’s the first time these characters are doing anything. First time they fall in love, first time they’re betrayed, first time they have a rage that makes them want to kill someone, and I think as a writer these moments are very fertile.
9. I absolutely feel like I’m writing books for my younger self. I’m an outsider, I’m an odd duck, I’m a little bit of a weirdo. I write for the young women and young men who are outsiders as well, who are on the fringe.
10. A first book is strange. I don’t write like that anymore, because being an artist is a craft and we hone our craft and learn from every piece of work we make. I have a new voice now, it’s matured like wine, and although I recognise that early voice of mine I’ve moved on from it a bit.

Source for quotes 1-4: Salon and quotes 5-9: The Rumpus and 10: Author Substack

Cecil Castellucci is an American-born Canadian young adult novelist, indie rocker, and director. She genre-jumps into realistic fiction, slice-of-life graphic novels, and science fiction. She is the author of works of fiction for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, Soupy Leaves Home, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, Don’t Cosplay With My Heart, and the Eisner nominated Odd Duck. Her more recent graphic novel, Shifting Earth, was published by Dark Horse Comics. Her work explores themes of identity, belonging, friendship, and the challenges of growing up. She is currently writing Shade, The Changing Girl, an ongoing comic on Gerard Way’s Young Animal imprint at DC Comics. She was the Children’s Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus, a two-time Macdowell Fellow, and the founding YA Editor at the LA Review of Books. Follow her on Instagram @cecilseaskull

Source for photograph: Hachette

by Amanda Patterson
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