Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to Their Teen Selves (True Stories) (29 page)

Saundra Mitchell
has been a phone psychic, a car salesperson, a denture deliverer, and a layout waxer. She’s dodged trains, endured basic training, and hitchhiked from Montana to California. She teaches herself languages, raises children, and makes paper for fun. She’s also the author of
Shadowed Summer
(2009),
The Vespertine
(2011),
The Springsweet
(2012), and the forthcoming
Mistwalker
. She always picks truth; dares are too easy.

Q and A:

“Dog walking, I was thirteen. I lived in NYC so there was a pick-up-poop law. That part was kinda nasty, but I was so proud to be earning my own money. Spent most of it on candy, which we didn’t have in the house.”

Tracy White

“Movie theater popcorn popper.”

Cynthia Leitich Smith

“McDonalds, represent! I was 15 and worked the front register. Try not to be too jealous.”

Rhonda Stapleton

“Teaching piano at Lecuona Academy.”

Caridad Ferrer

“I worked for my best friend’s family at the carnival. They ran concession stands and I made funnel cake, sold cotton candy and caramel apples, and scooped sno-cones. That syrup does not come off.”

Jessica Corra

“Cutting wood and selling it by the side of the road.”

Kersten Hamilton

“I was a teenage tax collector. Seriously! By the time I was fourteen, I could talk knowledgeably about “millage” and the fiscal benefits of waiting until the “face period” to pay your real estate taxes.”

Beth Fantaskey

“Fry cook at White Castle.”

Marke Bieschke

“Paperboy!”

Geoff Herbach

“Writer.”

Riley Carney

“Vacuuming the floors at Barbara Ann’s, a department store ‘down the back’ in Secaucus. Practically every girl in town worked there as a salesgirl, and I vacuumed. Needless to say, I gossiped more than I worked!”

Michael Griffo

“Washing greasy dishes at a roadside diner.”

Katherine Longshore