Born in Northern Minnesota, Amanda Boyden grew up, the eldest of three daughters, in Chicago and St. Louis. Currently she teaches in the English department of the University of New Orleans. Previous positions include elderly companion, artist's model, gutter cleaner, dishwasher, science lab assistant, cancan dancer, tutor, stuntwoman, and bit part actress. Until recently, Amanda worked as a contortionist and professional trapeze artist. She proudly lists hanging high over the heads of Galactic and 311 in her life accomplishments. She is married to Canadian author Joseph Boyden. Pretty Little Dirty is her first novel.

Cara Seitchek: Pretty Little Dirty has a "coming of age" theme. When I read the initial chapters, I was reminded of Judy Blume's Are you there God, it's Me Margaret and it resonated with me that your book describes experiences common to pre-teen girls. Did you have Judy Blume's book (or any others that you might have read at that age) in mind when you wrote your novel?

Amanda Boyden: I'd actually not set out to write a bildungsroman at all when I began the novel. I knew that I wanted to open with Lisa and Celeste meeting, but I hadn't necessarily intended to spend as much time with them as I did in their communal youth. As for having a book in mind when I began to write: Pretty Little Dirty is a loose reinterpretation of the Cupid and Psyche myth. Years ago I read Jane Smiley's Thousand Acres and loved the idea that the storyline had been adopted from a classic tale. Thought I'd try my hand at something similar.

CS: Do you think this is a book describing an "every girl" experience?

AB: Again, I'd not intended to write an "every girl" experience, but I'm very happy if young women relate to the events in the novel. Lisa's and Celeste's, ah, tribulations are likely more severe than most young women's, but we've all suffered the gauntlet of growing up female to some degree, don't you think?

CS: The plot of the novel follows the arc of Celeste and Lisa's friendship, with Lisa being the solitary narrator. Why did you choose Lisa as the narrator? Did you consider adding in Celeste as well?

AB: One of the most classic versions of the Cupid and Psyche myth is told from the vantage point of the handmaiden, Psyche's woman servant. I knew that Lisa would be the sole narrator for the duration, the one whose continual "job" entailed protecting Celeste as best she could.

CS: With an occasional reference to Lisa's daughter, you foreshadow Lisa's adult life, while managing to contain the knowledge of what happens to Celeste until the very end. Why did you choose the perspective of an adult Lisa?

AB: I think young people's authentic-sounding POVs are terribly difficult to pull off as a writer and can be very grating on the reader if not executed perfectly. Giving Lisa an adult narrative voice allowed me to stretch a bit in terms of diction and direction.

CS: The book alternates first person chapters with second person "diary entries." What purpose do you see these sections serving? Why did you choose to use second person?

AB: The intercalary sections, those dividers with the headings of punk band names, utilize the second person point of view. I had fun writing them even though they were difficult. I suppose I hope readers wonder a bit whose POV is being used in those. It was my intention to have them go a number of ways, belong to Lisa, Celeste, or both.

The end of the novel is, well, pretty dark. I wanted those dividing passages to do double-duty. I really wasn't interested in having the reader slog along through several long chapters of depressing hardcore scenes very near the end of the novel, so I thought these sections would fill in a lot of the gaps of Lisa's and Celeste's last years together without dragging out the actual telling. I also thought the passages would help to propel the narrative itself. I don't mind if readers think, "Oh no. I really hope that's not the two of them. That can't be where they end up!"

CS: On page 269, I was caught by the sentence, "Celeste and I barreled into the future." It seemed to be such a fitting description for the last third of the book. Did you intend to divide the book into specific sections, of pre-teen, high school, college, after college?

AB: I'd be lying if I said I wasn't aware of the breakdown of the "sections" of their lives. Five act plays have been around for a very long time for a good reason. Thanks for noticing!

CS: An image that stayed with me when I finished the book, was the photograph of Lisa's ear that Mack took, and that she hung inside her closet door. Did the image have a significance for you?

AB: The image itself doesn't hold any true personal significance for me, but I searched a long time for an image that would be both intimate and slightly strange, one that would speak to Lisa and Lisa alone. I'm happy to read that you remembered it.

CS: The contrast between Celeste's very involved parents and Lisa's distant parents is quite strong, and yet both sets of parents exert a strong influence on the girls and their actions. How difficult or easy was it to craft these characters?

AB: I think authors have the tendency to eliminate one or both parents of a protagonist to help move along a narrative, but in the case of Pretty Little Dirty, I needed to get Lisa into the Diamond household rather early and keep her there, for the most part. Creating a painful home life for Lisa allowed me to move her into her best friend's warm house without the reader questioning why.

CS: The focus on food creates a rich side story to the main plot. The descriptions of the girls cooking and the feasts they create are rich and sensory. The peak of this story line appears on page 396 with the sentence "I did not know she would consume me." How did the food story line occur to you?

AB: I'd envisioned the girls as Renaissance women, so they needed to master most of the arts, culinary and otherwise. Food is such an essential element to human life. Still, the two of them are nothing if not aesthetes early on, so they had to move beyond the mac' and cheese stage quickly. (I'd hoped to reflect all the "arts" in their communal storyline, from dance to sculpture, music to the languages.)

CS: Your book contains letters that act as pivots to the plot in the book Ð for example, the letter (p. 199) from Celeste's sister, Diana, to Celeste, telling of her pregnancy, and the letter from Celeste's father (p. 278) to Celeste when she's in college, telling her good-bye. Why did you choose letters for these turning points?

AB: A great observation, one that I have to say I'd not consciously considered much until now. Both of these pivots, I realize, though, stem from the original myth and involve plot points that take place "off stage," things that are pretty tough to cover with a traditional first person POV. Guess letters can help convey otherwise invisible information to both a reader and a protagonist.

Cara Seitchek reviews Pretty Little Dirty.