Compiled by Vira Mancini, Deanna Baker, and Scott O’Dell.....

Biographical Questions The city of Guelph, Ontario is notable for its indie rock scene, which has spawned some of Canada's most important indie bands, including King Cobb Steelie, Royal City, and The Constantines. Famous current and former Guelphites (besides Alison Olson) include poet John McCrae, children's author Robert Munsch, novelist Jean Little, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, cartoonists Seth and Jay Stephens, and actress Neve Campbell.

When is her birthday?
April 3rd.

French, Swedish and Italian. The last name Ripley is British, but the mystery behind her name is something we’ll leave for Alycia herself to discuss at Q and A signings.

Several! She attended Vassar College freshman year and then transferred to Syracuse University (of which she is a huge fan) for the remaining three, graduating in 2000. She was part of American University’s Justice and Law Program and was lucky enough to work for both the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Behavioral Sciences Unit. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and then subsequently studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She is now on respite from education and is continuing with writing and acting full-time.

After recently leaving Manhattan where she lived for five years, Alycia is living back home in a suburb of Buffalo using it as headquarters for her promotional tour while also planning her move to the island of Maui in Spring 2006, finally leaving the snowy northeast climate behind.

Contact Questions

Written requests are unnecessary- email is more than adequate. Send an email request specifying the publication or group you are with and if there is a specific time and date you would like Alycia to be present for, say a compilation reading or community event. Interviews are often dependent on tour dates and Alycia’s schedule but her publicist is friendly and eager to accommodate requests.
Contact: Pilar Pratt-Ryan at pilarprattr@yahoo.com

Same as above. Just send an email to Pilar Pratt-Ryan and arrange the details of the date and time. Alycia is thrilled to participate in readings and signings this Fall-same with interviews- her favorite part of writing is communicating with people and answering any questions they might have about her work. All requests are welcome! However, we at the site are not Ms. Ripley’s promotional staff so please refrain from sending requests our way.

Traveling With An Eggplant was influenced by L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and Jim Henson’s film Labyrinth. She is also influenced by thriller writer Patricia Highsmith, rock critic Chuck Klosterman, the dazzlingly imaginative Chuck Palahnuik, Grande Dame Agatha Christie, and her late friend, Hunter S. Thompson. Probably her biggest influence is Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, her favorite film, and one that inspired her to become a writer and actor. Alycia is a noted Jaws expert and was a member of the 2002 “Jaws Panel” in New York City at the New York Book and Film Festival, speaking with the likes of Jaws writer Peter Benchley, screenwriter Carl Gottlieb and several cast members to fans there to catch the 1975 film on the big screen. She hopes to be in the running to write the forward for the 50th Anniversary Edition of Gottlieb’s Jaws Log, the best-selling memoir documenting the making of the movie. Cross your fingers- she really wants the job!

Both. She usually writes sections or notes on paper, or cocktail napkin, or any scrap that happens to be around and then fits them into what she already has in her manuscript. Editing, she says, is much easier on paper rather than sitting and staring at a computer screen.

Eggplant took many things from her own life but there were many aspects to research- she read at least 6 books on rock journalism, notably female rock journalism, written through the years. She interviewed friends at Rolling Stone (although, she has mentioned, the fictional Scene magazine is NOT a veiled Rolling Stone) and also a few critics who were nice enough to speak with her about the workings of major music magazines and dealing with the artists. She researched details about Elvis Costello who she poses as a character in the novel, and also some information on coma patients. Research was not heavy in this particular novel, it being a sort of fictionalized memoir, but appears to be a greater part of the planning in her future works.

Anywhere and everywhere. The typing of course takes place on her computer but the actual writing happens in airports, at her desk, on long drives, when she’s still in bed, etc. Many sections of this book and how to write it came to her in dreams.

As of right now there are no plans in her schedule to teach workshops or classes. However, she is scheduled to speak at a few writing seminars so check the site for updates!

Alycia has NUMEROUS projects in the works that we’ll keep you updated on. We have no definitive future release dates but her next project will be released in late 2006. It will most likely be either the novel Winterphoenix, a story of a mother-daughter vacation trip that goes fatally wrong, or the satire Nothing But Flowers that concerns female ad execs who institute a “No Assholes” Policy at their firm and kill anyone who violates the policy. Alycia wrote portions of this satire as a play while studying at the Strasberg Institute, playing the part of the glamorous office sociopath, Arden “Fitz” Fitzhugh. She is also working on a strange, Jungian alter ego comedy tentatively called Jane Says, a short story called “Dating Jason Statham” and even a children’s book.

Traveling With an Eggplant Questions

From what Alycia has said in her press, it appears the stories from her (Alison’s) childhood are pretty accurate. Her mother’s character is relatively true to form although not completely (her mother has never been to a Costello concert!) as is the father, the grandmother, and the ‘phantom’ that menaces Alison throughout the story. The condition of audiokinesis was completely made up. However, in a magical coincidence there have been several news stories discussing the newfound neurological validity of “musical hallucinations.” These hallucinations are very similar to what Alycia writes about in the novel and came into the news at the perfect time. You can’t ask for better publicity than that.

Yes. He is based on an old friend Alycia met in college. Although she fictionalizes his life and circumstances, their relationship is what she experienced. This being said, Alycia makes a strong point of adding that although he is inspired by someone real, Seymour is not him. Anything outside of his unique speaking voice and their tumultuous friendship has been expanded upon with fiction. She speaks very little if at all about the man that inspired Seymour and we do not expect this to change any time soon.

Tara was a combination of Alycia’s friend Kathy, a blonde, Polish, now-lawyer friend who dresses often in black pants and blue blouses with her friend Baiba, a second mother to Alycia for twenty years until she succumbed to an inoperable brain tumor in 2003. In a strange and unsettling twist, Baiba became sick AFTER Alycia had written the scenes of Tara in the hospital with her tumor and her deteriorating condition. It was a horrible case of life imitating art of which Alycia has said, “I really don’t like to think about it. I didn’t know what to do when she got sick. As stupid as it sounds, I wanted to throw out the entire manuscript because it seemed to be my fault. It was the book’s fault. I just wanted to get rid of it and make things how they had been.”

Readers are oddly curious to know the “reality” behind Alycia’s novel but she is like any other writer- she takes things from life and expands and fictionalizes and makes it her own. The character of Anthony is based on a real person but the characters of Peter Gates, Eric Davies, and Chloe The Ghost, are not. They are simply figments of her imagination.

Not directly. Many of her friends had and she asked millions of questions, wandered the offices taking in details, and interviewed well-known journalists for anecdotes.

Feel free to email the site- we will forward the questions to Alycia and she plans to answer them in her blog. Check back often!.

Don’t quote us, but we doubt it. There technically could be but without giving anything away, it goes like this…Once you know the end it doesn’t seem likely that you’d need a sequel. Your imagination can take what Alycia gives you and run with what she implies will happen. But that’s just our opinion. Alycia might have a sequel up her sleeve, who knows? With all the response the book has been getting, she just might bring Alison and Seymour back for more weird adventures…

And now, Random Questions We Are Always Asked For Some Reason…..

It would appear so. They have spoken periodically over the years but not in some time. And yes, he does play the saxophone.

Ahh…one of the most frequently asked FAQ’s. Alycia met Hunter in 2001 and was both a friend and “life-student” of the late Doctor of Journalism. They had many adventures, some of which concerned shooting firearms in public places and lawn mowing. Alycia is working on a long essay about the Gonzo Journalist entitled “Beautiful Girls Never Go Hungry.” She was deeply saddened and felt a great loss after his sudden passing in 2005.

80’s. Everything 80’s from the most overplayed to the most esoteric. Alycia is indeed a child of the 1980’s and her musical taste proves it. She loves everything from the Cure to General Public to Madonna to Eddie Money to Oingo Boingo to Devo, to Motley Crue to Cyndi Lauper to Depeche Mode to INXS, and even loves the 1987 Rick James/Eddie Murphy hit, “Party All The Time.” She is a huge fan of VH1 Classic, and feels right at home when the show “We Are The 80’s” comes on. It’s not for some retro wannabe coolness factor- it’s just that these are songs she remembers and loves. She detests any new modern “cool” bands, specifically, any bands with “The” at the beginning of the name. Give her The Cars anyday…And of course, it goes without saying that she loves Elvis Costello. Basically for the book she went with Costello and took off from there. Whatever songs she listened to that reminded her of a feeling she wanted for a particular scene made it in. She listened to them over and over and tried to infiltrate the scene with its presence even if she didn’t mention it directly. Hope that helps.