Stuff
Courtney Sheinmel: A Self Portrait
Courtney Sheinmel Revealed
About Courtney Sheinmel
Revealing Questions
- Q. How would you describe your life in only 8 words?
- A. Family, friends, books, showtunes, NYC, chocolate, neuroses, gratitude
- Q. What is your motto or maxim?
- A. Try to be one of those people on whom nothing is lost. - Henry James
- Q. How would you describe perfect happiness?
- A. Being in close proximately to all my favorite people; hanging out and enjoying their company, along with good food; and having a place of my own to go to when I want to sit and write.
- Q. What’s your greatest fear?
- A. Loss
- Q. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you choose to be?
- A. It is freezing cold outside, so I would like to be somewhere warm, like maybe Cancun or Tahiti.
- Q. Which living person do you most admire?
- A. My 95-year-old Grandma Doris
- Q. What are your most overused words or phrases?
- A. Yeah, yeah, yeah
- Q. If you could acquire any talent, what would it be?
- A. I'd like to sing like Lea Michele
- Q. What is your greatest achievement?
- A. When I was young I said I wanted to grow up to be a writer, and I did!
- Q. What’s your greatest flaw?
- A. My sister says it's that I'm not into dogs
- Q. What’s your best quality?
- A. I'm a good friend
- Q. If you could be any person or thing, who or what would it be?
- A. Honestly, I'm happy to be me
- Q. What trait is most noticeable about you?
- A. My height -- I'm only 5 feet tall.
- Q. Who is your favorite fictional hero?
- A. Atticus Finch
- Q. What is your biggest pet peeve?
- A. When people use derogatory words
- Q. What is your favorite occupation, when you’re not writing?
- A. Being with friends
- Q. What’s your fantasy profession?
- A. Broadway star
- Q. What 3 personal qualities are most important to you?
- A. loyalty, kindness, perseverance
- Q. If you could eat only one thing for the rest of your days, what would it be?
- A. It would have to be something that included cheese
- Q. What are your 5 favorite songs?
- A. Like a Prayer, by Madonna; Boys in the Trees, by Carly Simon; Riverwide, by Sheryl Crow; There Goes the Neighborhood, by Sheryl Crow; What I Did for Love, from A Chorus Line
On Books and Writing
- Q. Who are your favorite authors?
- A. For kids and teens: Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Gayle Forman, Norma Fox Mazer, Norma Klein, Lois Lowry, Rebecca Stead, Cynthia Voigt
For adults: Willa Cather, Mary Gordon, Nicole Krauss, Toni Morrison, Elizabeth Strout, Virginia Woolf - Q. What are your 5 favorite books of all time?
- A. The Shadow Man, by Mary Gordon; The Littlest Rabbit, by Robert Kraus; To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee; Autumn Street, by Lois Lowry; Liesl & Po, by Lauren Oliver
- Q. Is there a book you love to reread?
- A. New & Selected Poems by Mary Oliver (Volume I is my favorite, but Volume II is also fabulous)
- Q. Do you have one sentence of advice for new writers?
- A. Write what you know. (I stole that from Willa Cather, though she said it more poetically: "Let your fiction grow out from the land beneath your feet.")
- Q. What comment do you hear most often from your readers?
- A. Will you turn Sincerely into a series?
- Q. How did you come to write My So-Called Family?
- A. The idea for My So-Called Family came, mostly, from "The Today Show." I watched Matt Lauer interview a bunch of women who had used the same donor to have children. Their kids later found each other on the Donor Sibling Registry. I started to wonder what it would be like to one day meet siblings you hadn't known existed. That's when the character Leah was born.
