Cherry Cheva is so money!
She’s So Money was a fun trip back through high school in the sense of a mini-adventure story! Cherry’s sense of humor shines throughout. It is an easy read, for adolescent girls. But the book is intriguing to a more mature audience as well, who can easily drum up feelings of adolescence from the book. The way Cherry writes seems to mimic the style of a teenager’s speech and gives the voice of the character a very young touch. She is able to dip inside the mind of Maya. The character is trying to get into college, raise money to save her family’s Thai restaurant by running a cheating ring, dealing with cattiness from other girls, and finding a (turbulent) romance along the way! Exciting!
“I spent the rest of the weekend mentally beating myself to a pulp. How had I, a smart girl with a good, practical head on her shoulders (if I do say so myself), fallen for the biggest man-whore in school? How had I let him use and humiliate me like that? Had he and Dani been hooking up the whole time?”
In the book there are major consequences because of her dishonest schemes. Eventually it works out for the best, but she has to accept some changes and gain self-acceptance along the way.
“I’d spent the previous day in a stupor over the fact that my Stanford dream was dead-and by my own hand- but now all my panic had resolved itself into a sort of quiet, calm acceptance.”
Cherry’s writing convinces the reader that Maya’s lessons in life are definitely similar to issues us Asian American girls faced at that age! And the high school love story nostalgically captures the nervous butterflies over crushes that we had or still get today. It is a light-hearted, casual, girly-fun read. Fun for a weekend of relaxation!
Cherry Chevapravatdumrong (‘Cherry Cheva’) is originally from Ann Arbor, MI. She currently lives in Los Angeles and writes for the hit Fox TV show “Family Guy”. “She’s So Money” is her first novel.
obviously your ethnicity is an important part of who you are, but so is everything else about you. I’m lucky to have gone to a pretty diverse high school
ASIANCE: She’s So Money is ultimately about a young woman’s crazy adventure and the “time of her life.” How much of the story was based on your own true story? What constitutes the modern day “chick” in your opinion?
Cherry: None of it, really. I’ve got some stuff in common with the main character, but they’re mostly surface details. I didn’t wait tables back in high school, nor did I ever pull any sort of cheating stunt. I would’ve been way too scared!
ASIANCE: When it comes to having a great sense of humor, you are a champion! What is your style of working this charm into your writing, and more importantly, into every day life? Do you talk to guys the way the main hero does in your book?
Cherry: Oh, thanks! Hmmm, yeah, I guess I talk to guys the same way Maya does, but the thing is, that’s not any certain way – ”we just talk how we talk, it’s not like either of us has any special method to it.
ASIANCE: This book is for the young adult girl audience and the style of writing captures that narrative brilliantly. What were you like when you were 17 compared to today? Were guys, good grades and family as important to you as to the main character in your book?
Cherry: I’m kind of the same person, frankly; it really wasn’t much of a stretch to mentally return to high school because I kind of never left. I mean, I think I saw like one Oscar movie this year but I saw “Step Up 2” twice, you know? As for getting good grades, yeah, I was totally into that, like Maya is, and my interest level in guys back then was probably about the same as hers, too – ”that is to say, interested if somebody happened to come along, but not obsessed or “boy-crazy” or whatever.
ASIANCE: What would you have done if you liked a somewhat “jerky” but cute guy when you were a teenager? Did you ever go through this experience? Do you think a lot of young girls do?
Cherry: Probably nothing. If he was just hot but not a personality I could get into, I would’ve just admired from afar. The only reason Maya ends up hanging out with Camden is because they’re kind of thrown together, which isn’t a situation that ever happened to me in high school… although if it turned out the way hers did, it probably would’ve been kind of fun!
ASIANCE: The character in your book Maya, is Thai in her heritage, how much of a role does a young girl’s ethnicity play in high school, in your opinion? How much of a role did your own ethnicity play in high school and today?
Cherry: A big and yet a small role, I guess; obviously your ethnicity is an important part of who you are, but so is everything else about you. I’m lucky to have gone to a pretty diverse high school, and actually to have always lived in pretty diverse areas, so it might not be as obvious an everyday thing to me as it would be to someone who grew up, or lives, in a place with less diversity.
ASIANCE: How did you become a writer for Family Guy, and did the writer’s strike affect you very much?
Cherry: I moved to LA right after graduating from law school and got a job as an assistant to an agent, and from there I did the same thing a lot of people do when they’re trying to break into writing here – ”worked at several different assistant jobs, wrote spec scripts of TV shows, and “networked,” for lack of a better word, which eventually led to finding an agent and manager, and meeting some people who worked on “Family Guy.”
And yes, the writer’s strike definitely affected me; it was all for a good cause, obviously, but it was a bummer having to be out on the picket lines (it could get seriously hot and sunny out there!) and watch other people, like assistants and crew, lose their jobs through no fault of their own.
ASIANCE: As a writer for Family Guy, you have to come up with new ideas and jokes all the time. What inspires you to think up all these new themes?
Cherry: Oh, pop culture, definitely, since we have so many pop culture gags on the show. It’s always fun to be watching TV and basically getting to call it research. And then just… life, I guess? Literally anything that seems funny is fair game.
ASIANCE: What is it like to write for such a hilarious and often controversial cartoon? Do all of the writers seem to “push the envelope” more than other people?
Cherry: It is the absolute most fun job in the whole world! It is awesome. Yes, we all certainly try and push the envelope, although of course the Fox standards department is always keeping us in check, and we try to be equal opportunity offenders – ”we mock everybody.
ASIANCE: What are your next plans? Is writing your main business or are you branching out? Who do you ultimately want as your main audience?
Cherry: I’m in the very beginning stages of my next novel, and I’m still working on “Family Guy” as well. And I’m not fussy about who my audience is, I’m just glad there is one!
ASIANCE: What is the best thing young women should do to “kick ass”?
Cherry: Whatever the hell they want!
www.myspace.com/cherrycheva
She’s so Money