Interview with Author Barbara Delinsky Regarding Teen Pregnancy

Barbara Delinsky who is a New York Times best selling Author took time out of her busy schedule to answer some questions for me relating to teen pregnancy, with regard to her brand new novel, which is also a New York Times best seller only released January 2010, entitled "Not My Daughter." This is now Barbara's 19th Best Selling Novel! I personally have read this novel and could not put it down! I was so anxious to read it all and see what happened with each character.

Cindy Springsteen: What made you decide to write this story about a teen pregnancy pact, but also focus more on the parent's experiences, instead of the teens?

Barbara Delinsky: The more I got into the plotting of the book, the more drawn I was to the moms' dilemmas. My main question became: What does it take to be a good mother, whether at age 17, 35, 42, or 59? There are moms at each of these ages in "Not My Daughter," and I felt that my readers would relate to one or all of them.

Cindy Springsteen: Just like in your book, parents are often blamed for teen pregnancy, as if they were able to control every minute of their teen's life. Do you think parents should be blamed in any way?

Barbara Delinsky: It's hard to generalize. Parents do bear some of the responsibility if they don't talk to their kids, are never around, even deny their kids the love that young girls often crave when they decide to have a baby. The moms in "Not My Daughter" did everything right. This makes for an even more interesting, not-quite-so-knee-jerk discussion.

Cindy Springsteen: Was there any particular reason why you chose to have the main character's mom a single mom? There were many interesting family dynamics shown between the characters in this book. It intrigued me that the main character has a unique relationship with her mother, but the opposite is true between the main character's grandmother and mother. What led you to create this conflict in the story line?

Barbara Delinsky: In plotting a book, my goal is to raise the stakes for the characters and, in so doing, keep the reader mesmerized. In the case of "Not My Daughter," it wasn't so much that Susan was a single mom, but that she'd been a mom at 17 herself and did not want her daughter to do the same. Moreover, both of these facts upped the ante when it came to her job.

As for Susan' mother Ellen (Lily's grandmother), there were clearly unresolved issues on all sides here. I felt that Ellen's contribution to The Good Mother discussion was appropriate and meaningful.

Cindy Springsteen: I hear so many stories as I am involved with a non-profit website for homeless pregnant teens. With each of the girls who got pregnant, as much as their families did not like that they were pregnant and it did take time for them to accept the situation, why do you think some parents just can't handle the situation and disown their own child and grandchild, such as what happened to the teens mother when she became a teen mom herself?

Barbara Delinsky: For some parents, it is easier to remove the problem than to deal with it. They may be embarrassed or disappointed. They may be frightened, or absolutely not know how they're going to feed another mouth. There may even be a cultural reason why they disown their pregnant daughters.

Cindy Springsteen: Why do you think there is such a high rate of teen pregnancy today? Do you think there is something parents or educators could do different to help this situation?

Barbara Delinsky: I'm not convinced that abstinence-only education works. Moreover, as abortions become more and more difficult to obtain, pregnant teens are carrying to term.

The only answer is reality-based education. Yes, teen girls (and boys) should be encouraged to abstain from sex, but they also need to be taught how to prevent pregnancy when they are sexually active, and they need to be shown, first-hand, what caring for a baby 24/7 is like. Perhaps they need to read the epilogue of Not My Daughter?

Cindy Springsteen: Are you working presently on a new book? Any hints you can give us regarding what topic the next one may cover?

Barbara Delinsky: I've just begun a new book. It's about a young woman who does everything that's expected of her and suddenly finds herself living a life she doesn't want. What to do then? My working title is, Escape! This gives you a hint about where I'm headed.

Cindy Springsteen: Is there anything else you would like to add regarding "Not My Daughter"?

Barbara Delinsky: I've been deeply gratified by the response of readers to this book. They have identified in so many ways, whether to the daughters or to the moms. The discussions I've had with book groups on the issues in this book have been the best, suggesting that these hot-button issues aren't going away any time soon.

My thanks to you, Cindy, for letting me share these thoughts.

I would like to extend another thank you to Barbara for her time, as I know as a writer time is very precious!

Barbara has an extremely interesting and entertaining biography about how she got into writing which you can read in its entirety at http://www.barbaradelinsky.com/delinsky-bio.htm you will be amazed at her own personal story.

As many interviewers seem to ask authors the same questions with regard to where they get their story ideas among other standard questions including their favorite book, you can read all these questions and answers at http://www.barbaradelinsky.com/delinsky-qa-ideas.htm also very entertaining reading!

If you would like to read a full synopsis of "Not My Daughter" and how Barbara got this particular story idea please click the following link http://www.barbaradelinsky.com/delinsky-nmd-summary.htm

I am sure you are now ready to order your own copy which you can purchase here Barbara Delinsky There are also many other wonderful books of Barbara's that you will want to order while your there!

This was originally published on Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-33498-Long-Island-Parenting-Teens-Examiner