Let’s give a big GODDESS welcome to Sarah Pekkanen!!!
Bio: Sarah Pekkanen is a former journalist whose debut novel, The Opposite of Me, will be published in six countries and five languages. It’s a Redbook magazine March book pick and has won an endorsement from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner, who called it “Fresh and funny and satisfying. A terrific book about sisters that actually made me laugh out loud.” Sarah lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her husband and three young sons.
I’m thrilled to be guest posting today to talk about my debut novel, The Opposite of Me. It’s the story of twin sisters who are complete opposites – or so they think. When people learn the premise, they always want to know if I’m a twin. Nope; in fact, even though I always wanted a sister, my parents didn’t cooperate and I’m sandwiched in between two boys. But I’ve always been intrigued by the complex relationships my friends have with their sisters, so I tried to make the relationship of my main characters, Lindsey and Alex, as tangled and juicy and competitive and loving as possible.
I’ve heard about twins who are so close that they create their own language, and can feel each other’s pain from miles away – but I wondered what would happen to twins who were completely different. What if two sisters had nothing in common, but were constantly being compared? How would that shape their relationship?
I also think it’s very common in families for children to get certain labels, either spoken or unspoken – like the “pretty sister,” the “smart one,” the “drama queen,” or the “peacemaker.” I’ve always been curious about how those labels are formed – are they really a true reflection of who we are inside? What if the labels don’t fit us? It’s so interesting to me that we can go out into the world and re-invent oursevles as adults – we can be whoever we want to be – and yet when we go home to visit our families, they still see us through the lens of our childhood roles. And sometimes, despite our best efforts, we get dragged kicking and screaming back into those old roles!
So I took both of those notions and whirled them around in my mind for a while before they turned into the premise of my novel. The intersection of those themes – sisterhood and identity – is the heart of The Opposite of Me. And the funny thing is, in writing it, I developed a new identity of my own: novelist. When I started my book, I was a stay-at-home Mom, spending my days cutting the crusts off sandwiches and chaperoning school field trips. But I’ve always dreamed of writing a novel, so I began bringing my laptop with me whenever I went. I even wrote some of The Opposite of Me at Chuck E. Cheese (I used to work in loud newsrooms so I find background noise oddly comforting). It was my own secret project – the little bit of “me” that wasn’t consumed by taking care of my family.
Today is my debut day, and I’m going to go into a bookstore to find my novel on the shelf and just stare at it. In my purse, I’ll be carrying the letter I wrote on Raggedy Ann stationery to a New York publisher many years ago, asking when my book entitled “Miscellaneous Tales and Poems” would be published. It’s my favorite reminder that dreams really do come true.
Your Herchulean Task: Tell me about your sister. One lucky blogger will win a copy of my book!
About Tonya
Hi Sarah! We are excited to have you here with your debut novel. I loved The Opposite of Me. It’s interesting, this week I put up a blog about sisters and I got all sorts of stories. Some very uplifting and some very sad.
I have twin boys who are night and day! They were the same, same sports, same in grades, same friends, same taste in clothes, same foods UNTIL this year. They have different friends, different grades, different taste in clothes, different foods and different activities. NOTICE I said activities. One is huge into sports, which is great for my husband and now the other twin is into art, karate and video games, which KILLS my husband. I’ve had to train my DH”s thinking about how different children are. It’s been hard on the twins and I can see it. But I always explain how boring the world would be if everyone was the same.
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My sister and I are seven years apart. Do the math:) She was the beautiful teenage cheerleader while I was going through “the awkward stage”. That colored our relationship for years…in part because I went in the direction of quirky drama student rather than pick up her hand me down pom poms!
Now that we’re older (much) and wiser (some), we’re still very different, but I like to think that we’re there for each other, come what may.
ps…I have twin sons. They are as different as night and day!
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My girls have labels. Drama Queen and tattle tail. They have absolutely earned their titles. As a matter of fact, we struggle with how much the younger one tattles. We have decided the best thing to do is get them both in trouble. Morgan gets in trouble for doing whatever it was to make her sister tattle and Jordan gets in trouble for doing the tattling. We are hoping before they decide to torture each other and get in trouble, they will stop and work it out together. The tattling is where the Drama Queen comes in. She NEVER does ANYTHING wrong. But when she tells you this, it’s like watching a drama student on stage. Sometimes I even clap for her performance. They are like night and day. Morgan (the drama queen) is scared of everything. She hates any kind of physical activity. All she wants to do is play video games or get on the computer. Jordan ( the tattle tail) LOVES physical activity. She always wants to get into something and be outside. They both love art though and that’s a great common bond. Morgan also excels at school and Jordan is on level. So one does a little better academically than the other. But we love them just the same.
I have always wanted a twin sister!
Two of my best friends are twins. Though they are fraternal and complete opposites. Also one is male and the other female. But they have a wonderful bond.
Thank you for coming today.
I have a question. I see that you have two brothers and no sister. I didn’t have a sister either. So my question is: In what way do you think you would have been different if you had, had a sister.
My answer would be: I think I would have been less of a Tomboy, and more into dress up.
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Congratulations on your new book, Sarah! It sounds wonderful. I don’t have a sister, and my kids are two boys and a girl, but I love writing about sisters (living vicariously through my characters?) and family dynamics in general–so fascinating.
I can’t tell you how impressed I am that you can write at Chuck E. Cheese… Seriously. Impressed.
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Hi Sarah-
Being a sister myself – I am really excited to read your novel. Growing up – it is funny how in your dialog above I can definitely relate to your comparisons. Especially the “pretty sister,” the “smart one,” comment. Even though my sister and I are not twins – we grew up with this labeling so to speak. This did not come from our parents, but many of the folks around town and relatives. The funny thing is that as different as we look – we have so many of the same qualities, actions, and thoughts we sometimes feel like “twins”. Now that we are grown women and have families of our own- we find that we never venture too far from one another and our bonds are strong as steel. I credit this to our parents who loved us and never compared us, but encouraged us to love unconditionally and embrace our unique qualities.
I love that you picked up your lap top one day and started writing. Both my sister and I have always thought about writing. Fortunately, she is well on her way to being a published writer – she picked up the ball and ran with it…me, still contemplating. I am living vicariously through her and her journey – I have my pom poms handy!
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Welcome to the Naked Hero, Sarah! I don’t have a sister, either, except in spirit. My sister in law is the sister I never had, so that’s great, but it’s not quite the same, is it? I have 4 boys and 1 girl. I always hoped my daughter would have a sister, but 6 kids was not in the cards. Being the only girl is special, too, though, and I think I escaped a whole lot of drama by not having more. 4th grade girls…oh my.
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I have two sisters. I think I’ll tell you about my middle sister. (I’m the youngest). We get along great and even take “sister” trips together now that we are grown. But there is NO WAY I could ever live her life!
She lives in costant commotion. I think she believes this world would not turn if it were not for her! I, on the other hand, am very laid back and prefer to live my life in calm. One of my favorite ways of teasing her is that she is Type A and I am Type B. That gets me out of a lot of her hair-brained schemes!! LOL!
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I had three sisters, and we were all very different from one another. I’m the closest emotionally to my oldest sister. We can gab for hours and finish each others sentences. We’re the most alike. In a house of sisters, we had the smart sister, the emotional sister (we called her puddles) for all the tears, the quiet independent sister, that was me,(left home at seventeen and didn’t look back) and then the baby. Baby sis seemed to be a combination of all of us. My dad said with so many girls in the house, he didn’t stand a chance, and even the bird was a girl!! Since my mother’s passing, in some ways were closer in other ways, we’ve drifted a little apart. My mother was the heart of everything, and we’ve struggled to maintain the family unity without her.
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Oh Barbara! Isn’t that the way sisters are? My sister and I are extremely close, but growing up she has the blonde hair/blue eyes, she has a tooooon more friends than I do and still does, she’s been married for umpteen years, while I’m divorced, she’s the smart one….BUT that’s what makes us work so well. I admire those qualities in her and encourage her where she admires my qualities and is my cheerleader.
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Lee your poor dad! I just have one, so I think it would be hard if your were close to one and not the other.
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Janette that is soooo funny. I think my sister would say the same thing about me. She did after all buy me a shirt when we went on a trip that said ‘It’s all about me”
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LOL Heather! Can you imagine going to Chuck E Cheese and writing??? But as you know, once you become a writer it consumes you and you can’t stop. I write every where too. In my van during car line (which is over an hour), during my kids sports, their practices, GAMES…I know, even games. Trust me when I say they tell me how I look like a geek.
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Julia, my DH and I always talk about how the kids that have the same parents, or upbringing that NONE of them are alike. It’s a strange science, isn’t it?
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OMG Misa! I hear you. My niece and I are really close, but so much so we fight like sisters. My sister even calls her ‘tonya’ by accident a lot b/c my niece has the same tendencies as I do.
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I’m the oldest of three sisters, and one of my sisters has three daughters, too. I would feel sad about my daughter not having a sister, except one of her cousins is like a sister to her. Maybe closer, because they forgive each others differences more easily than sisters sometimes do!
This book sounds great; I’m definitely going to check it out.
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I don’t have a sister, but I wish I did very much. I can’t wait to read your book, Sarah.
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Sarah, that is the best book concept story ever! We do use labels, don’t we? For everything. Like our brains won’t compute without being able to put everything/everyone in their own little slot.
My sister is 8 years older than me. We’re very different physically, but have the same sense of humor, share a love of the same sports, activities, etc. Where I’m younger and wilder, I keep her from being an old fogey (I finally got her to change her hairstyle from 80′s poofy bangs to something more modern) and she keeps me from buying too much black clothing. We’re so different, but basically the same. It’s very strange, especially if you consider the 8 year cap in our ages. I wouldn’t change her for the world. She’s my best friend.
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Hi Everyone,
Thanks so much for having me here today, and I’ve loved reading these comments and hearing other sister stories. Julia, in answer to your question, I think it would depend on what kind of sister I had. That’s a theme in the book – how we play off our siblings and how they shape us as people. I used to imagine a sister for myself, though, and she was just like me as a kid: Kind of quiet, loved Nancy Drew books, and had reddish-hair (now, thanks to Clairol, I’m more of a blonde.) I think it’s easy to imagine an ideal sister but the reality is, who knows if I’d be closer to her than I am to my two wonderful brothers?
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Hi, your book sounds so good, I look forward to reading it. I had 2 sisters, they are older than me but i do remember that the older one would always take up for me whenever the next sister would fight with me or pick on me. As we get older you remember the good times!!
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My sister and I are complete opposites. She shops at Express, I shop at Goodwill. She eats at Outback steakhouse and Red Lobster, my husband and I have chickens so we don’t have to pay for eggs. I live in the rural, rural part of Virginia and she lives in D.C. I wish I could have a farm, she wishes she could have a Lexus. We are complete opposites.
She’s a size two, I’m lucky if I’m a size twelve. She’s got one class left to finish her Master’s degree. I opted to go to a military college because I found normal college to be too boring. She vacations at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC, I took a 600 mile hike to vacation…
Despite that fact, however, we are always compared. I find it very difficult to be my own person, even though we’re 18 months apart and have absolutely nothing in common. We are always being compared. By friends, parents, we even do it ourselves.
The premise of your book sounds great and I can’t wait to find a copy! Maybe I’ll win one here!
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Wow, Joy, that sounds so interesting yet difficult. I wonder why it is hard for people to see you as individuals?
I’ve loved reading these comments – many thanks to everyone who wrote!
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Misa Reply:
March 21st, 2010 at 10:51 am
Thanks so much for being here today, Sarah!
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Wow! I’m sorry I was late reading this. What a great blog. Thanks for sharing Tonya and thanks for taking the time, Sarah!
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