Candice Jalili is the author of the new young adult novel Seeing Stars. Her other books include the YA novel Finding Famous. She lives in New York City.
Q: What inspired you to write Seeing Stars, and how did you create your character Mona?
A: When I was outlining Finding Famous, I made detailed backstories for every single one of the characters. So, as soon as Disney gave me the two-book deal, I knew the next book had to be from another character’s POV.
I was really excited about the opportunity to delve into one of these backstories I’d created and give the readers a chance to get to know another one of the other characters as well as they’d gotten to know Josie in Finding Famous.
As for which character to choose, it was tough. I had potential storylines prepped for each Mashad sister, and I even toyed with a Mary Mashad origin story concept — all ideas I’d still like to pursue eventually!
But I kept feeling a strong pull toward Mona. She was such a fun character to write in Finding Famous and served as sort of the perfect foil to Josie throughout the story. But there was so much more to her and who she is on a deeper level that I wanted to delve into in this book.
Q: How would you describe the relationship between this new novel and Finding Famous?
A: This is a true spinoff in that it is its own standalone story that sprung out of the Finding Famous universe.
You could easily read Seeing Stars without ever having read Finding Famous. But those of you who did read Finding Famous will still be getting more from your favorites!
Seeing Stars picks up shortly after Finding Famous and still includes the same original cast of characters – including Josie! We see all their storylines continue on in the periphery as we follow Mona along on this wild romantic ride.
The books are inherently very different because Josie and Mona are inherently very different. Even though Josie’s story involves her finding out she’s a Mashad, she’s still largely a normal awkward teenage girl attending a public high school and living in a one-bedroom apartment with her stepdad.
Mona, on the other hand, grew up in the spotlight and is one of Hollywood’s most notorious party girls. As a result, her book has a lot more Hollywood in it. There are confessionals, DeuxMoi tips, exchanges captured by Comments By Celebs, Met Gala meet-cutes, and tabloid stories woven throughout.
That said, you do still get that same sort of fish-out-of-water storyline and feel you got from Josie in Finding Famous when you see Mona get closer with her new crush and surf instructor, Kai. While Josie felt like a fish out of water in Hollywood, we see Mona feeling like a fish out of water amongst normal high schoolers as she gets more and more involved with Kai and his friends and family.
Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: Once I decided how the story would end, I made a point to stick to that. But love triangles are hard! I truly found myself rooting for her to wind up with each of the guys throughout the writing process.
But I read this great quote from Jenny Han: “A successful love triangle is one where you'll feel elated and heartbroken either way, no matter what happens.” I could not agree more with her. So, as challenging as it was at times, I tried to let her words be my sort of North Star as I was developing Mona’s love triangle.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: First and foremost, I hope people enjoy reading this book. It’s meant to be fun. And, with the world feeling as heavy as it does right now, I hope they can get lost in Mona’s over-the-top world and delight in the escape.
Second, there’s also a lot of depth to Mona and layers to her that you might not guess when you first meet her. I hope readers can take that reminder to be empathetic and remember we might not always know what somebody, even somebody who seemingly has it all, is going through behind closed doors.
Finally, I think we can all (myself included) learn a little something from Mona’s brazen boldness and confidence. We don’t quite have to be so reckless, but Mona has a knack for tuning out the noise and doing what feels right to her. That’s something I think we would all benefit from channeling a bit in our own lives.
Q: What are you working on now? Will there be more Mashad Family novels?
A: For now, I’m taking a bit of a break to focus on a new idea but I definitely hope there will be more Mashad novels in the future! I really do believe each one of the members of the Mashad family could have her own book.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I love these characters and this world so much. I hope readers get just as much joy reading their stories as I did writing them.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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