Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen is one of the smartest people I know. She’s also one of the bravest. It takes guts to be the very first person interviewed on a brand new blog with a name like Nerdy Chicks Rule.  Like me, Sudipta is an author. Unlike me, she has a whomping thirty six titles to her credit including a new early middle grade series forthcoming from Grosset and Dunlap featuring a nerdy chick with some special powers.  I’m so glad Sudipta joined us today! Her interview follows:

What is your favorite way to flaunt your brain power?

By working smarter, not harder. I have a job that lets me work in my bed, wearing pajamas, at any time of the day. That’s because I use my brain to create something (a story) from nothing. When I listen to the traffic reports in the morning, I feel badly for the commuters stuck in gridlock – and feel thankful that I’ve been able to use my brain to carve out a career for myself that is infinitely more rewarding, and requires infinitely less commuting!

Tell us about a time when nerdiness turned out to be an advantage.

Umm, every day of my life? (See above answer about working in my pajamas from bed.)

How did being a nerdy chick help you reach your goals?

I’ve had absolutely no training for the career I’ve chosen for myself – I don’t have a degree in literature, I’ve never taken a writing class, I have no reason to do what I do. In fact, I am a biologist by training, and was working on my PhD when I decided to stop and focus on writing. What made that transition possible is that college and graduate school – even though my major was science – taught me how to think, and how to figure out a solution to any problem. So when I decided I wanted to write, I used those thinking skills and attacked every story like it was a problem that needed solving.

If you could give your middle school or high school self one piece of advice, what would it be?

That the world is much bigger than middle/high school, and that what is cool to a teenager is not necessarily cool to the adult world. Be patient and be yourself. It will definitely be hard but it will also be worth it. Being different in middle school is torture. Being different as an adult makes you awesome.

If you could rewrite the ending of a favorite fairy tale, which one would you change, and why?

I would take every fairy tale that ends with the princess being rescued by Prince Charming and make the princess rescue herself. (Did you expect any other answer?)

Do you have a favorite hobby? Details please!

I don’t know if this counts as a hobby, but I love shoes. LOVE shoes. I have an entire floor-to-ceiling wall in my closet devoted to shoes – and only a tiny percentage of my shoe collection fits on this wall. And we’re not talking practical shoes. Stilettos, platforms, boots – even quite the selection of stiletto platform boots!

Also, I am a MASSIVE New York Giants fan. Another hobby would be obsessively trying to decipher which of my personal actions result in wins for Big Blue.

Have you figured out the answer to the title question yet?  If not, it’s both! See, you don’t have to sacrifice style to be a nerdy chick. (Unless you want to!) To learn more about Sudipta and her fabulous books, visit her new website at www.sudipta.com.

Take a look at this trailer from Hampire, one of Sudipta’s most recent titles.

And here is my favorite title of Sudipta’s… for obvious reasons!