Feature Book of the Week Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell

FEATURE BOOK OF THE WEEK

“I’ve got my entire life planned out for the next ten years — including my PhD and Pulitzer Prize,” claims 16-year-old overachiever Vassar Spore, daughter of overachiever parents, who in true overachiever fashion named her after an elite women’s college. Vassar expects her sophomore summer to include AP and AAP (Advanced Advanced Placement) classes. Surprise! Enter a world-traveling relative who sends her plans into a tailspin when she blackmails Vassar’s parents into forcing their only child to backpack with her through Southeast Asia.

On a journey from Malaysia to Cambodia to the remote jungles of Laos, Vassar sweats, falls in love, hones her outdoor survival skills — and uncovers a family secret that turns her whole world upside-down.     

Vassar Spore can plan on one thing: she’ll never be the same again.

AUTHOR GUEST POST

Howdy, all you Book Battlers!  I’m totally flattered that my comedic adventure, CARPE DIEM, was included in the line-up of books this year.  So, khawp jai lai lai!  (As they would say in Laos.)

My main character, Vassar Spore, would have been thrilled to participate in a Battle of the Books – if not a little cocky.  After all, she’s the prototype Type A Overachiever, and would have read all twenty books three times over before school even started.  Hanks, on the other hand, would have asked if there were any books on cowboys, and then gone back to lassoing a stump.

Anyway, here are the answers to some of the questions readers have had about CARPE DIEM – which you may have if you’ve read the book already.  If you haven’t read it, beware of spoilers!  (Berhenti! -- as they’d say in Malaysia.) 

Q & A

Are any of the adventures in CARPE DIEM based on your “real life” experiences?

Around 80% of the situations in CARPE DIEM actually happened to me during my travels through Malaysia, Cambodia, and Laos.  (Truth really is stranger than fiction, let me tell you!)   I almost wrote this book as a travel memoir, but my imagination always wanted to heighten the drama.  And I thought it would make a better Y.A. novel about a sheltered teen girl transformed by international (and intrepid!) travel.

(SPOILER ALERT!  Proceed at your own risk.)

Did your ear really get nibbled?

Yep.  I really did encounter a real-life Ear Nibbler in Malaysia -- I tell the story in CARPE DIEM almost exactly how it happened.  (And I think his "museum" is probably still running!) 

Did you get stuck in a bullet boat in Cambodia?

Almost.  But I managed to “unstuck myself” just in time.

But you couldn’t have REALLY been held hostage!?

Ah, but I really was held hostage in a hut in the remote jungles of communist Laos.  I tell that, too, pretty much how it happened, down to the opium den and “sleeping wrong.”  Except that it was only a couple hours of actually being held captive – not the many days Vassar had to endure.  By the way, I had to leave out some parts of my real life adventures, because they wouldn’t be believable – like my run-in with the Laotian Mafia.  (Seriously!)

Is there really a Stick Girl?

Yes, there is.  I met her during my “hostage crisis” in the Laos jungle village.  I couldn’t stop thinking about her after my trip.  Unfortunately, since Laos is communist, “behind the scenes” (which tourists don’t witness) the government oppresses the ethnic and religious minorities – like Stick Girl and her fellow villagers.   So, the last three times I’ve visited Laos, it’s been to lead outreach trips to help those minorities: providing medicine, food, supplies, doctoral and dental care, supporting the underground churches, and meeting other needs.  (In fact, we’re going back again next summer!)

What’s Vassar’s deal?

Like all of us, Vassar is a complex creature, a mix of both positive and negative traits and characteristics.  One of her issues is that she’s a bit of a control freak.  During her crazy adventures in Southeast Asia, she comes to realize that she has the choice to either L.I.M. (Live in the Moment) or to continue to attempt control her future.  We see her self-sufficiency and smugness gradually peel off her like layers of an onion.  Each crazy situation escalates to the climax where she finally realizes she really can’t plan her way out of everything!  She’s ultimately not in control.  And just who is?  (Hmmmm!:))

Does LIMMING come easy for you?

LIMMING most certainly does NOT come easy to me.  In fact, I’m always trying to balance the planner Vassar side of my personality with the artistic Grandma Gerd side.  I’m more of a Type A szperfectionist who’s always planning the future or rewriting the past – instead of enjoying the present moment.  But trekking through jungles and having kids – especially babies – sure helps you focus on the immediate!  Boy, howdy!

Have you eaten durian?

Yes, I ate the exotic and stinky fruit that resembles a giant brownish yellow hedgehog when I was in Malaysia.  Sweet, savory, creamy, oniony -- and the most pungent fetid smell ever!  And yet – strangely good.

Did you steal an apsara from Angkor Wat?

No, unlike Grandma Gerd, I most certainly did not steal an apsara while in Cambodia.  But!  I could see how tempting it could be for the tourists – so few guards around and so many priceless relics all over the place.  (And what a perfect travel souvenir.)  But that’s just wrong.

The bottle scene in the hut…?

Yep.  It happened, too.  My husband held up the blanket.

Can you tell me how you came up with The Big Secret?

I would, but if anyone hasn’t read the book yet, I don’t want to give away that mystery in case they want to try to solve it.  Sorry!

Do the Foreign Food Sanitation Spray and the Traveler's Friend Hygienic Seat actually exist?

Don’t I wish!  They would totally come in handy on all my jungle treks.  Unfortunately, they’re simply figments of my much too active imagination.  (However, someone really should invent them!)

Please, please, please tell me that a real Hanks exists!?!

Sorry – he, too, is a figment of my imagination.:)   (Unless a Chinese Malay cowboy with chops and a drawl happens to attend your school…?)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Squat toilets, profuse sweating, bamboo huts, jumbo centipedes, ear nibbling — these are just some of the delights Autumn has encountered in her global travels.  Not to mention the can’t-believe-it’s-true Laotian jungle adventure when she was actually held hostage -- which inspired her first young adult novel, CARPE DIEM.  The novel was first published in the U.S., then Germany, Holland, and China. 

A travel junkie, Autumn has explored (and survived!) twenty-four countries and counting.  She’s spent many a summer working with refugees and orphans in Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos.  (And even smuggled money and supplies into Burma to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis in 2008.)  Southeast Asia remains close to her heart since her days as a missionary kid in New Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) — where she ate her weight in guavas and mingled with reformed headhunters and cannibals.  (Which, she realizes now, is nothing compared to navigating the intrepid jungles of motherhood!)

After spending the rest of her childhood in Washington State (specifically Port Orchard, which was “Port Ann” in the novel), Autumn moved to California to attend Biola University, married her college boyfriend (they clicked while dancing to The Smiths and watching Monty Python), and refused to leave the sunny climate.  She currently lives in Pasadena, California with her husband, J.C., and two children, Dexter and Clementine.  (And a truckload of travel souvenirs).

Many thanks to Autumn Cornwell for her wonderful post. Hope everyone enjoys the book as much as I did.