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Before that happened, I just felt that when you take a teenaged girl, who doesn’t have a lot of self-esteem, who doesn’t have the greatest home life, who’s very vulnerable, who only wants to be loved, and you have an older man approach her who is sophisticated in some way or is perceived to be sophisticated and who says things to her like, “I love you, I don’t love my wife, I really want to be with you,” she’s going to buy that line. She’s going to do whatever he wants. And nobody seemed to be discussing that.

I really wanted to write a story from the young girl’s point of view that really showed her psychological landscape. What I really tried to do in the book was show Andi’s perception of what was going on, while at the same time showing the reader what was really going on.

I originally wrote it as a novel for adults. I wanted to show how damaging this kind of relationship could be to a young girl. The ending was very different, it was very dark. It went to about a dozen editors and more than half of them said it reads like a teen (young adult) novel. It was written in first person, the protagonist is fifteen years old. I re-wrote it for a teen audience, which meant that I had to tone down the description of the sex that happens between the two characters. It’s not that it’s less frequent or less violent, it’s just described differently. When I say, at one point, in Andi’s voice, “Frank makes me do something so disgusting that I can’t even tell you what it is,” that was actually described, but it was changed to what I just said, and the reader gets to supply what they think it is the most disgusting thing that can’t be talked about. Whatever level the teenage reader is at, they will supply that.

The other thing that was changed drastically was the ending. I feel like if I’m writing for teens, it’s really important for me to leave them with some kind of hopeful ending. It’s not a happy ending and it’s an open ending.

AE: She reclaims her identity.
LN: Yes, she does. And I didn’t think it was fair to leave a teen reader devastated.
One thing I really wanted to say about suburban culture is that it’s a real car culture, you go from an urban environment where you’re on the subway, you’re on the bus, you’re on the street, you’re surrounded by people all the time and suburbia is very isolated, you can get into a persons car, and it’s just the two of you, and nobody knows where you are or what you’re doing.

AE: And throughout the book, it’s the sound of his car, she keeps hearing. The sound of his Volkswagen coming up, and it’s this recognizable sound, and even though we’re reading it we can hear it too.
LN: The way that image came to me was when I was in high school my best friend and I walked to school everyday rather than take the bus and this light blue Volkswagen, who would give this little honk and wave, passed us everyday at the same. We got all giggly and excited and kind of creeped out at the same time. He never got out of his car and we never spoke to him. But when I started to write this book, that image came back to my mind.

AE: You mentioned doing speaking engagements earlier. Have you been doing any readings for Jailbait?
LN: I have not. The book only recently came out and I’m not really sure what to read. It’s a difficult book. I’m not sure if I should start at the beginning and read the first chapter. I’m not sure how an audience will respond to it. Usually, when I give readings, I rely on humor, and I just don’t how I’ll read from this book.

AE: It’s pretty serious.
LN: It’s very serious.

AE: Have you started work on your next book project?
LN: I have. It’s always terrifying to use the N-word, but I think I’m working on a novel (laughs). It’s for adults. It’s what I’ve wanted to write my whole life. It’s about what I hope to be the quintessential mother/lesbian daughter relationship.

Learn more about the author and her books at lesleanewman.com

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