A few months ago, fellow 2018 debut author Farrah Penn and I interviewed each other about our upcoming contemporary YA books and publishing experiences. Since Farrah's book, 12 STEPS TO NORMAL, comes out in just one week and my book, ALL OUT OF PRETTY, releases in less than a month, I thought this was the perfect time to share our conversation with the blogosphere. Hope you enjoy it!

12 STEPS TO NORMAL, out from Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown in March 2018, is about a teen who moves back home after her father finishes Sober Living rehabilitation and finds her life upside-down. When she develops her own 12 steps to get back to normal, she has to redefine what “normal” really is.  

ALL OUT OF PRETTY, releasing from Creston Books in April 2018, is about straight-A student Andrea Hathaway, who finds herself indebted to her mother's drug-dealer boyfriend. In order to survive, she learns to keep her head down and her mouth shut. But soon she realizes that surviving is not enough; she must use her smarts to plan an escape—even if it means betraying her best friends and leaving her mother behind.

Farrah: It sounds like both of our books deal with different types of hardships and teenagers grappling at normalcy. What inspired you to write ALL OUT OF PRETTY?

Ingrid: For me, it always starts with character. Andrea, the MC in ALL OUT OF PRETTY, was actually a minor character in the first novel I ever tried to write back when I was a teenager. When I decided to dust off that novel and work on it years later, my critique partners mentioned how compelling Andrea was and encouraged me to write her story someday. So a couple of years later, after letting that idea percolate, Andrea’s voice and full story came to me. Once I started writing it, I couldn’t stop. TWELVE STEPS TO NORMAL sounds amazing — I can’t wait to read about Kira’s journey! How did you come up with the idea, and what was the most challenging part about writing it?

Farrah: It’s amazing how much we learn from our prior work! I have MANY shelved books and stole a kissing scene from one to put into TWELVE STEPS, haha. I wanted to write a hopeful story about a father and daughter whose relationship was rocky due to his struggle with alcoholism — yet focus on how that would directly affect Kira (my main character). But I also love a sweet romance, so I definitely wanted to include that in Kira’s journey with figuring out WHO may be right for her, and who she thinks is right for her. I think the most challenging part was writing those real, raw emotions of loving someone who is an addict, as it’s a disease my own father suffered from.

Should I move on to a fun question?! Do you have a “receiving The Call” story??

Ingrid: Yes! Well, for my agent (the awesome Shannon Hassan of Marsal Lyon Literary), the moment I remember most was getting her email after she requested my book. I’ll never forget clicking it open and reading the words “I love it!” I was so excited I couldn’t breathe. And then when she called me several months later to tell me about the offer from Creston, I basically started crying with happiness. My husband was there and we hugged, and my son was doing fist pumps in the background. It was an amazing moment. Same question back at you!

Farrah: Aww, that is so sweet your family was there to enjoy that moment with you! When my agent called to tell me TWELVE STEPS had sold, I was in the car on my lunch break running an errand. I answered through Bluetooth but ended up pulling over into some random gas station to talk because I was so surprised and excited. It was surreal! After, I immediately called my mom and sister and ended up taking a much longer lunch break than I intended (but I don’t think anyone noticed!)

But it’s a lot of work getting that life-changing call. What was your publication journey like? Was there a moment you felt like giving up?

Ingrid: Oh wow, you definitely needed to pull over for that call — and I agree that an extended lunch break was in order! I started writing ALL OUT OF PRETTY six years ago, so it has been a long and emotional journey. The first time I queried I got a lot of requests and encouragement, but no offers of representation. I started seeing a pattern in the feedback I was getting, so I took about two years to revise/rewrite and then started the query process again. I’m a pretty persistent person, so giving up was never an option for me. Of course, there were times when I felt discouraged and frustrated (like when I wrote ten different versions of chapter one and then ended up with something close to the original!), but I deeply believed in these characters and this story, and my perseverance eventually paid off!

What has been the most enjoyable — and the most difficult — part of your writing journey?

Farrah: Ugh, I love hearing success stories like this! I think publishing is a mix of perseverance, hard work, and luck. It’s subjective for SURE, but your persistence paid off!! I’m not an overnight success story, so the most difficult part for me was moving on from previous books I’d written. My agent and I went on submission with three different YA books before TWELVE STEPS sold. It’s hard not to feel like a talentless failure when you don’t get any bites, especially when you’re comparing yourself to everyone else (which, I know you shouldn’t do but I’M NOT PERFECT!!). But the most enjoyable part so far has been working with an enthusiastic, lovely publishing team who is passionate about this story. Okay, what piece of writing advice would you pass along to another debut author?

Ingrid: It looks like we are both good examples of persistence leading to success! I think your journey is super inspiring, and I understand all those fears and doubts. It’s so hard to keep moving forward, and especially hard to let go of characters you love. I’m working on a new book right now, but I still plan to go back and rework my old stories someday. Or at least mine them for gems ;) Hmm, writing advice...I think if someone asked, I would pass along the advice that I tried to follow when I was drafting: Don’t be afraid to write what scares you. That, and of course, never give up! Did you always know that you wanted to be a writer? What did you read as a teen?

Farrah: Absolutely! Those are both VERY solid pieces of advice! I’d always dreamed of becoming a writer, but I NEVER thought it’d be possible for me to do it professionally! After college I sorta had the mindset of “OK, now I need to get a good job and make money” — but then realized getting a job doesn’t mean you have to stop writing entirely. It may be challenging to make the time, but it’s not impossible! As a teen, I was ALL OVER the Fearless series by Francine Pascal. Gaia was my idol. I also read a ton of Meg Cabot (love her Mediator series!) and Sarah Dessen. And, of course, the Harry Potter books.

Ingrid: You are absolutely right about making the time to write. Ooh, and I love all those authors you mentioned. Especially Sarah Dessen — I’m a huge fan of her books!

— Lightning Round —

Hi guys, I'm so excited to "officially" share my good news here at We Heart YA!! Here's how it all happened:

Six years ago, I started writing a contemporary young adult book about an honors student who finds herself trapped in a dangerous life with her addict mother and a ruthless drug dealer. In October of 2016, a wonderful literary agent fell in love with my manuscript :) Six month after that, the story sold to a publishing house (yay!). And a few short months from now, my little book baby will be released into the wilds of the world (here's a link to prove it's not a dream).

My road to publication has been long and twisty, full of detours and potholes. And the journey didn't just start six years ago; it really started back in the 80s, when I was barely a young adult myself, pecking away on a dinosaur of a computer and writing my first novel. A lot of living and learning happened between then and now. Many, many dominoes fell into place to get me from there to here. And this past year has been nothing short of a dream come true. But it has also been a roller coaster ride, full of excitement and anxiety, exhilaration and terror. I know I'm not alone in this, so I'm planning to share a few articles about my experiences leading up to my (eeeep!) official pub date of April 3, 2018!

Next month I'll talk about what inspired the idea for the book as well as details about my publishing journey. But for now, I'd simply like to introduce you to Andrea -- my proud, beautiful-inside-and-out protagonist (hopefully someday she'll forgive me for torturing her) -- and her story, ALL OUT OF PRETTY...  

All Out of Pretty - Creston Books - 4.3.18

Beautifully written and hauntingly tense, DELICATE MONSTERS does not ask easy questions, nor offer easy answers. (And we love it for that!) Fortunately for the YA Diversity Book Club, author Stephanie Kuehn agreed to answer a few of our questions, and we loved getting deeper insights about her story, the three main characters, and the themes of cruelty, compassion, sex, violence, and identity.


Please describe your book in a sentence or two.

After getting kicked out of her third boarding school in four years for almost killing a classmate, seventeen-year-old Sadie Su returns to her hometown of Sonoma and quickly seizes on the opportunity to toy with an old childhood friend—Emerson Tate, a boy Sadie happens to know holds unbearable secrets inside of him. Meanwhile, Emerson’s sickly—and possibly psychic—younger brother Miles has a vision of impending violence and seeks to discover what it is, setting off a chain of events in which the lives of all three teens unravel against the threat of this dark unknown.

What was your inspiration for writing this book?

There were lots of small things that inspired me. I wanted to write a female antihero, but not one anyone is meant to come to understand or who has a tragic backstory. I wanted to write a girl who is callous and cruel simply because she can to be. And I wanted to cast her against a boy who appears to be her opposite yet is similar to her in ways neither of them really understands. Both Sadie and Miles are people who see cruelty and compassion as zero-sum games, with Sadie determined to be the winner and Miles convinced that he’s a loser.

I also wanted to write a book that explored how acts of violence can happen for different reasons and the ways in which these actions are perceived. My initial question was: If you have three people who all commit violent acts, and the first person is someone who owns her actions; the second person is someone who feels guilty and/or rationalizes what they’ve done; and the third person is someone who is impaired in some way…do these explanations even matter? Or is it only the outcome that counts?

These questions led me to plot out the story in such a way that the reader moves through shifting vantage points of empathy; there are no fixed answers as to who is good or bad. That was important to me. Rather than approach morality prescriptively, I wanted to write a story that allowed teen readers to parse these issues for themselves.

What kind of research did you have to do to make sure your characters were authentic?

Culturally, I interviewed a number of teens and young adults who identify as biracial (Chinese American and European American) about their experiences growing up, as well as young people who came to the US from China to attend college (which was how Sadie’s father came to the United States). I also did a significant amount of research on family systems, personality disorders, paraphilias, abuse, parental loss, complex trauma, factitious and somatoform disorders—reading articles, books, watching videos, talking to clinicians who’ve treated teens struggling with these issues.

How did you come to incorporate the diverse elements in your book?

They were all there from the start, those elements. The book is about cruelty and compassion, victims and victimizers, and I wanted to show all the different places those dynamics play out: through perceived distinctions in class, education, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, mental health status, ability status. The characters bounce up against all of these lived experiences and have to reckon—for better or for worse—with the ways they use certain aspects of themselves to disempower or marginalize…as well as the ways they are simultaneously being disempowered or marginalized. Roman is the one person who ultimately models to Sadie what it might look like to disengage from this cycle of hurting to avoid being hurt, although what she takes from that is open to interpretation.

I know the book club asked in particular about Sadie’s and Emerson’s use of the n-word and why that word would come up if the vineyard workers they were around were primarily Hispanic (this is in reference to a childhood memory Sadie has of Emerson using “racial slurs” to refer to workers at her family’s vineyard), which I actually think is a good example of how this cycle of cruelty = power is perpetuated. I conceived of young Emerson as being the kind of kid who would run his mouth about anything racist, sexist, homophobic, etc—whether he’d picked this up from his mother, his father, or the auto repair shop where his dad worked isn’t specified. Conceivably Sadie would’ve heard a collection of these rants over the time they spent together, and that’s why she picks that word to taunt him with years later when he mentions playing basketball.

But Sadie’s recollection about him using racial slurs to address the vineyard workers is less about what words he uses in that instance, and more about her observation that he doesn’t say anything about her father. She recognizes that he’s using those words as a way to feel powerful—and that he feels disempowered by his family’s poverty. Later, of course, Sadie shames Emerson with his own words so that she can feel powerful.

How does the diversity in your book relate to your life?

I think all the aspects of diversity in the book are grounded from experiences in my life and the world around me. Biracial identity is important to me, personally, and while I don’t share the same background as Sadie, the negative space notion—that is, being defined by where you don’t fit in, not where you do, is one that I relate to. The interracial relationship between May and Emerson obviously has a lot of tension unrelated to race, but the elements of racism in their connection were important for me to convey. I feel like so many interracial relationships are written in such a way as to make the white character appear somehow free from bias, even when other people around them hold different views. That never feels authentic to me.

But beyond that, the core experiences in the book center around feeling like a bad person—having bad thoughts, wanting to hurt people who care about you (or wanting to hurt them because they care about you), using and demeaning others for one’s own benefit, or feeling worthless because you’ve been demeaned. These aren’t nice thoughts or actions, but they do happen. I don’t think we get anywhere or help anyone by pretending experiences like these don’t exist or by dehumanizing those who are involved in them.

What are some of your favorite YA books about diverse characters?

Pointe by Brandy Colbert
The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd
Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert
Everything Leads to You by Nina Lacour
Stick by Andrew Smith
47 by Walter Mosley
All Our Pretty Songs by Sarah McCarry
Starglass by Phoebe North
Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

What areas of diversity do you want to draw attention to or do you feel are underrepresented in books?

More than anything, I’m interested in exploring the intersection of mental illness with the psychology of adolescence. There are certain narratives or ways we talk about mental illness and teenagers that get told over and over again that I personally find disempowering, and also very limiting. There needs to be room for different types of stories. Even the really hard ones.

The characters in Delicate Monsters are all difficult people, but it was important to me to write each of them with the deepest of empathy. To see them as human is not to excuse their actions. Rather it’s a chance to expand our understanding of humanity—to look where we usually choose to look away. I wouldn’t write YA if I didn’t believe that all teens deserved to have their stories told. And I wouldn’t be a therapist if I weren’t always, always willing to listen.


Want more DELICATE MONSTERS? Be sure to check out all of our great posts:

• Our book club's discussion at Teen Lit Rocks
• "Delicate Monsters: Further Reading (and Giveaway!)" at The Reading Date

The entire YA Diversity Book Club archives can now be found on Tumblr, along with information about our upcoming book selections.

Next month we will each be reviewing our favorite diverse reads from 2015 (even if they weren't our featured in our book club) and spotlighting a few diverse reads we're looking forward to in 2016!

Recently I had the pleasure of attending two YA author events in the Cincinnati area. (There were actually several more happening nearby, but I am just one person!)

The first event featured Epic Reads authors Maggie Lehrman, Margo Rabb, and Robyn Schneider. They confessed that they were a bit loopy because this was the last stop on their tour -- but I think they were being modest. Here are some highlights (paraphrased) from the panel:

The pace of this conversation is too fast to live tweet, but they're funny & wise and we can't wait to blog about it! pic.twitter.com/7x32A5Pra3

— We Heart YA (@weheartya) June 6, 2015

Maggie: Was there a point where you were going to give up on your novel?
Robyn: The whole thing! I wrote 800 pages and I have a 300 page book.
Margo: Everything is salvageable through revision.

Robyn: What's the easiest part of writing?
Maggie: The beginning, when I'm just playing around.
Robyn: The beginning?! At the beginning, I feel like I've just walked into class for the first time on finals day and I'm going to fail. Meanwhile Maggie is feeling just fine, answering every question D, and drawing a flower on her Scantron sheet.

Robyn: What do you like best about writing for teen readers?
Margo: There's such passion in readers at that age. Many of my favorite books were ones that I read at that time in my life. Teen lit is immediate, vibrant, the first of everything.
Maggie: When I was a teenager, I didn't understand anything about it. I was always trying to figure things out. I guess I still am.

Robyn: What sparked your story to life?
Maggie: I sat down to write, and I just had this image of a girl dancing around a fire with a guy. And I realized, "Wait, the girl doesn't remember this. Why not?"
Robyn revealed that the severed head in her first book, THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING, was inspired by the real life story of Fabio riding a roller coaster. A pigeon flew right into him, broke his nose, blood spraying everywhere. Robyn wondered, "What would it be like to be seated behind someone else's tragedy?"
Margo moved to Austin from NYC, and she went to a real rodeo for the first time. Also, a friend told her that travel is the best cure he knows for a broken heart.
Robyn was researching vampires and found out that their myth started in part due to tuberculosis.

Audience Q: What do you want your readers to take away from your books?
Robyn: I just want all your feels.
Maggie: I don't really think about messages... More like questions. What questions do I want readers to take away? In this case: "Is it worth it?"
Margo: Books are a collaborative experience between reader and writer. It's both wonderful and hard to share books with other readers. So whatever a reader takes away from my story is great. But I suppose I was asking the question, "How do you get through life when you know how hard it is?"
Robyn: In all seriousness now, I don't think about messages either. I just write for my 16-year-old self.

Audience Q: After you hand off one project, which you've just invested so much time and emotion into, how do you get excited for the next thing? The next set of characters and their problems?
Robyn: Oh, I love the shiny new thing! It's like carrots and cheesecakes. Every new book starts out as a cheesecake, but eventually it turns into a carrot. I'm just trying to get through the carrot to the next cheesecake!

Audience Q: Which Harry Potter house would you be?
Robyn: Gryffindor when I was younger, but Slytherin now.
Maggie: Ravenclaw.
Margo: I want to say Gryffindor...
Maggie & Robyn: She's a Hufflepuff!

Final fun tidbits:
••• Margo once wrote an essay on RICHARD II even though she couldn't make herself finish reading it. The essay got an A+. That's when she knew she had a chance at being a writer!
••• Maggie once pretended to have read THE CRUCIBLE in order to talk to a boy she had a crush on.
••• Robyn picked her agent based on the advice of a guy who ran a bar with a Tardis in it!
••• Joseph-Beth Crestview Hills has the best cookies of any bookstore they've been to so far.

The second event was organized by the authors themselves -- Gwenda Bond, Megan Shepherd, Megan Miranda, Renee Ahdieh, and Carrie Ryan -- under the fun and intriguing banner of "Dangerous Ladies."


Well, if that's not a great note to end on, I don't know what is. #girlpower

A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for Jasmine Warga's debut novel MY HEART AND OTHER BLACK HOLES. It was held at a local Barnes & Noble that Jasmine frequented as a teen herself. Throughout the evening, the crowd kept growing and growing, filling the room with family, friends, and fans. The event coordinator later revealed that this was their largest turnout ever!

Jasmine (left) speaking with a young fan who approached her before the event.

Me (left), Jasmine, and fellow Cincinnati author Kate Hattemer. Other writer-friends in attendance included Emery Lord, Becky Albertalli, and Adam Silvera.

With a book as thoughtful and heartfelt as MHAOBH, it's no surprise that people were lining up to listen to what Jasmine had to say. Here are a few highlights from her brief talk and the Q&A session afterward:

• Jasmine didn't specifically decide to write a Young Adult story. She just followed the voice of the protagonist that came into her head, who happened to be 16. There is also an immediacy of emotion when you're a teenager, which Jasmine enjoys and thought would work well for the story she needed to tell.

• Jasmine used humor to make the sad/hard things in her story more accessible to readers. She herself has always been drawn to black comedy. Furthermore: "When I was a teen, I read really really dark stuff -- so this seems light compared to that!"

• One audience member asked, "Did you ever want to write [Aysel] out of being suicidal?" Jasmine considered this for a moment, then responded that because of her affection for Aysel, of course she wanted to rescue and protect her protagonist. But even stronger than that feeling was Jasmine's resolve to portray Aysel authentically, which meant letting her stumble and suffer. Jasmine added, "As a society we really stigmatize depression -- and [we have] this fear that if we talk about depression, we're going to make it contagious." Part of her motivation with MHAOBH was to debunk that myth and foster that important conversation.

• In terms of her working style, Jasmine prefers not to plot because she writes to discover, and she uses the sense of mystery to carry her through the process. She also likes to jot story notes on her phone. When asked if she was working on a second book, she said yes and added, "If anyone is passing this on to my agent or editor, it's going really well!"

• Jasmine's dad really wanted her to be a doctor. "But I think this turned out all right," she joked.

• Even though she followed her own heart instead of her father's, Jasmine did worry that her dream of being an author was "too big." She credits her husband for having faith and encouraging her even when she wavered and considered doing something more stable.
I have many other notes from the night, but I think you get the gist. Jasmine was the perfect combination of funny and insightful -- just like her book.

Interestingly, the most obvious element of diversity -- Aysel's Turkish heritage -- was not a focal point of the conversation. As we discussed in our YA Diversity Book Club chat, that's actually a good thing in this case, because it signals how organic that element was to the character and story. Race doesn't stick out -- and doesn't need to -- here. It just is.

For more on MY HEART AND OTHER BLACK HOLES, be sure to check out all of our features:

• The group's discussion of MHAOBH at Teen Lit Rocks
• The Q&A with Jasmine Warga at Gone Pecan
• "I Will Follow You into the Dark: Mental Illness in YA" at the Reading Date

PS: Guess who sold out this entire stack of books?

Do you have a post about MY HEART AND OTHER BLACK HOLES? Link up here!


Next month we're reading BLACK DOVE WHITE RAVEN by Elizabeth Wein. Please feel free to join us! You can also see the full archive of YADBC posts and our #YADiversityBookClub tweets.

I went to Books by the Banks, a local book festival, this year. It was the first I've gone without any of the other WHYA girls. Sarah moved to England or some such nonsense, Ingrid is up a Rocky Mountain somewhere, and Kristan was off on some silly honeymoon or whatever. So I went with my (very) bearded boyfriend. One of the panels I went to featured Middle Grade authors Emma Carlson Berne, Andrea Cheng, Jasper Fford, and Alan Gratz.

In the interest of not writing a blog post that is forever long, I'm going to share just a few of the answers that I found amusing and inspring.

Why do you think adults read children’s books?

Alan: Immature adults?

[Everyone laughs]

Jasper: I’ll start. I don’t know! I write what amuses me, and I leave it up to the publishers who’s going to buy it or read it. The difference between my books for grownups and my books for children is not quite such a difference, because I kind of write for the child in the adult. I always figured that if you can enjoy the Muppet Show, you can enjoy my books. So it really doesn’t matter if it’s a grown up or if it’s a middle grade book.

Alan: I think one of the reasons that Middle grade is also appealing to adults is that they’re action packed. Kids don’t have the patience. I’ve picked up an adult book before and I’ve read 200 pages in, and my wife will say, “What do you think?” and I’m like, “Weeeell, I don’t know, the story hasn’t gotten going, and I’m not sure I like the characters, and…” No kid has ever said that. They’re not going to say, “I’m going to give it another hundred pages and see if it picks up.” If you don’t get them quickly, they’re not going to stay with you. In the same way, I think many of us as adults think, “I want a book that gets on with it.”

Jasper: We could also say that books for adults are actually a bit boring.

Did you know you wanted to be writers when you were kids? Can you tell us about an unusual or unexpected experience that impacted your career path?

Alan: I grew up in a very sports oriented family. My father was the high school football coach, and my uncle had played football for the University of Tennessee. My extended family expected me to grow up and be the star quarterback for the high school football team. But I was terrible, no matter what sport I tried, and I’m an absolute klutz. And my dad – I will love forever for this – he realized at a young age that I was not good at sports, and he said “You’ve really started to show some talent at writing. Why don’t you keep writing and not worry about playing sports." So many parents who are coaches are so ready to guide their children into the sports life, but my dad didn’t. That was a huge thing for me. I felt the pressure from the rest of my family to be an athlete, but my dad was always there saying, “No no no, do what it is that you’re good at, not what everyone else expects you to do.” That was how I became a writer.

Andrea: I was a storyteller before I was a story writer. I would tell a story, and my sister would say, “No no, it didn’t happen that way you’re making it up.” Then one day she got really frustrated and said, “The only way you can lie and it’s okay is if you write stories.”

Okay, I already blogged about this on my own site yesterday, but there was too much goodness to be contained in one post! I just had to share a few more of these wonderful quotes from beloved YA authors, which I found in the YALSA interview series "One Thing Leads to Another."

A.S. King:

My first six novels were written in a vacuum—on a farm in Ireland, living off the land, not caring all that much about this life I lead now—publishers, agents, critics, awards. It sounds a bit naïve perhaps, but I found and needed writing as an escape from real life. I was struggling and I didn’t know what to do with it. So one day I sat down at a typewriter and the release was most important. Not therapy, but a need to express myself without anyone butting in and telling me how I felt or how I should feel or how my feelings were wrong, etc. Those novels (along with others) live in a drawer as a reminder of that time, and as physical proof that I am writing for myself and not for others, which is how I want to keep it.

David Levithan:

I wrote Love is the Higher Law, which takes place in New York on 9/11 and in the immediate space after, and even though I was writing it within a decade of the events, it was already historical fiction. I think writing about gay lives now is like that. Not that things get banished easily to history, but that the here and now moves too fast to be photographed easily. We novelists must try to pin down the blur, and show what’s happening right now both for the right now, and for whatever comes next.

Melina Marchetta:

Trust your instincts. Most times my instincts are right and I still doubt them, but not as much as my teen self did. And learn to accept praise. I was hopeless as a teenager, and later I coped very poorly with all the attention I received for my first novel. A friend’s mum took me aside and explained that by not accepting the compliment, I was taking away pleasure from the person giving it. Now, I find it as easy as saying a thank you.

Shannon Hale:

I don’t remember being very good at anything as a teen. I was okay smart but didn’t get great grades. I loved theater but didn’t get cast in significant roles. I loved writing but didn’t produce anything noteworthy. I feel like those years for me were a battleground. I learned a lot and got bruised and challenged and discovered my passions, but they were not a time for me to shine. At the time it sucked, but objectively I’d rather not peak in high school.

For more from this great series, both past posts and new ones, please visit YALSA's website.

A couple months ago, Sandie from Teen Lit Rocks approached us about joining her and a few other friends for a diversity-focused YA book club. We had all loved and supported the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign, and we wanted to keep that momentum going in a meaningful way. So, every month we are going to select a different YA book that highlights diversity (of race, religion, sexuality, ability, or what-have-you) and discuss it on our blogs.

Our debut selection was LIKE NO OTHER by Una LaMarche. Una was gracious enough to answer a few questions for us. Scroll down for her thoughtful interview, and be sure to check out the other YA Diversity Book Club posts:

• Highlights from the LIKE NO OTHER group chat - hosted at Teen Lit Rocks
• "We Can Quibble What to Call It" by Gone Pecan
• "LIKE NO OTHER - 5 Greatest Hits" by The Reading Date



Q&A with Una LaMarche

1. Describe your book in a sentence or two.

LIKE NO OTHER is a high-stakes romance in the tradition of Romeo & Juliet (or, let’s be honest: given my pop culture education, Say Anything) in which a Hasidic girl meets a black boy in an elevator, and even though her religion forbids connection with the outside world, they spark. Drama and stomach-flipping infatuation ensue—possibly not in that order.

2. What was your inspiration for writing LIKE NO OTHER? 

I grew up in Brooklyn and have lived near Crown Heights, where the Chabad Lubavitch movement is based, for many years. I knew I wanted to write a star-crossed romance for my second novel, but for a while I wasn’t sure what, in New York City in 2014, could possibly qualify. Then it hit me: I’d been living side by side, but worlds apart, from Hasidic communities for my entire life. That world was exactly the kind of insular community I needed to make the story plausible.

3. What kind of research did you have to do to make sure your characters were authentic?

I did a lot of research for the character of Devorah, because even though I knew I would have to use some creative license, it was very important to me that I didn’t paint the Hasidic world with too broad a brush. I was up front with potential sources that my main character would be questioning her faith throughout the book, so no one currently active in the Chabad movement felt comfortable opening up to me (which I completely understand). Through an organization called Footsteps, which helps women leaving ultra-orthodox communities get on their feet, I was able to connect with a number of women from different Hasidic backgrounds who gave me invaluable insight into what daily life would be like for Devorah, and how she and her family might react to different plot points.

I did much less research for Jaxon. Even though he is black, and male, neither of which I can claim, first and foremost he’s a modern Brooklyn teenager, and more of a relatable avatar for the readers in terms of his daily life. I made a conscious choice not to make his world seem too foreign.

4. How did you come to incorporate the diverse elements in your book?

I always knew Devorah would be Hasidic, but I wasn’t sure about Jaxon’s race or ethnic background until I was developing the outline. My first instinct was actually to make him more of a hipster, part of the gentrification of Crown Heights, but then I thought, why shy away? It’s so much more A) realistic and B) interesting to make him black. The Crown Heights Riots of 1991, which caused a huge rift between the black and Hasidic communities for a long time, also provided historically accurate reasoning for the “old, bad blood” that makes it difficult for Jaxon’s parents to support his relationship with Devorah.

5. How does the diversity in your book relate to your life?

As I mentioned, I grew up one neighborhood away from where Jax and Devorah live in the book, so the diversity really just reflects my community. Park Slope is very gentrified now (and, by way of a possibly obvious disclaimer, as a white person who moved here in the late 80s, I’m part of that), but my world growing up was not. My elementary school was mostly black and Hispanic, and as a result so were my friends and neighbors. It wasn’t something I had to consciously think about; it was just what I saw.

6. What are some of your favorite YA books about diverse characters?

I don’t know if this counts as YA, but in high school I fell in love with THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET by Sandra Cisneros. Definitely Jacqueline Woodson’s IF YOU COME SOFTLY, which I read a decade ago and which has always stayed with me. Jason Reynold’s WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST. I also recently read and loved Nina LaCour’s EVERYTHING LEADS TO YOU, about a lesbian romance.


7. What areas of diversity do you want to draw attention to or do you feel are underrepresented in books?

If I’m being honest, I think every possible area of diversity is underrepresented, but I’m focusing on racial and religious diversity in this book. I think the world needs more characters across all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations and gender identities. I don’t think we should shy away from religion, either, especially given what’s been going on lately, with certain fundamentalist beliefs affecting reproductive rights and challenging gay marriage. It’s always shocking to me how few modern books are written about diverse characters and real, pressing societal issues. But I hope — and believe — that’s starting to change.

Thanks so much to Una for taking the time to answer our questions, and for writing such a rich and diverse story!

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Waterstones Piccadilly's author event in London featuring Rainbow Rowell. Although I'm American and have lived in the US off and on, I haven't managed to see one of my favourite authors in person...so much excitement that she was coming to my neck of the woods!

Because she's a rock star author, two events were scheduled and Stacey at Pretty Books did an awesome recap from Monday evening. Tuesday evening wasn't much different and I don't have anything to add, other than an audience question...When asked what her advice would be for Eleanor (from ELEANOR & PARK), Rainbow gave an answer that kinda-maybe gave me goosebumps (which is a feat because it was a hot/humid day and, since those are rare in England, there's no air conditioning pretty much anywhere and we were all sweaty-balls):

Rainbow started by saying that as a teenager, you don't have much hold over your life. "I would tell Eleanor that 'you're about to inherit your own life.'" She went on to explain that "You have to keep yourself whole, so that when you inherit your life, you're ready."  Then she explained that Eleanor is a character who doesn't believe in love and doesn't think there's a future for herself...And "we make bad decisions when we think there's no tomorrow."  So "hold on."


Rainbow tag-teamed with Bim Adewunmi on the whole conversation, which was amazing. This dynamic duo should do more tour dates together.  It was like attending a backstage conversation, really informal and it felt like the audience was merely in on the gossip.  Such a great atmosphere!



Melissa couldn't have said it any better. When Rainbow entered the room, as an audience we collectively leaned forward. There's something incredibly magnetizing about meeting someone who brings so much to the page and shares it with us. I've already finished LANDLINE and am mystified all over again how she can write my entire life, but with different details. Okay, maybe it's not my life. We're all in this together, right?

Thanks, Rainbow, for your magic.

We Heart Your Guts.  xx

This week's question comes from YA Confidential:


Kristan:

I go through phases, usually after I'm inspired by a certain story, where I seek out and absorb everything I can about that story's author. Right now, that's George R. R. Martin and Game of Thrones. Fortunately, the internet is such a wealth of material (interviews, blog posts, etc.) that I can, in a way, be mentored by him.

In the past I've gone through this binge with Maggie Stiefvater and Laini Taylor, among others.

Ingrid:

I would choose Sarah Dessen to be my writing mentor because I've read almost all of her books and they are consistently engaging and well written. Since I write about situations and themes similar to the ones that come up in her novels, I think she'd have some great insights to share. Also, Sarah has been publishing since 1996 so she has long-term experience with the industry.

Sarah:

Maya Angelou. I think she'd get me. I think she'd speak my language. And I think she would have the most interesting stories to tell, which is the best kind of mentoring, really.

You:

Join in the fun by leaving your answer in the comments here, at YA Confidential, on your own blog, or on Twitter (and be sure to tag us @weheartya!).

Last week, we told you about the Dark Days event at our local independent bookstore, and we introduced the books that were featured: The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson, The Brokenhearted by Amelia Kahaney, and Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis. This week, we’re sharing our interview with these authors, and giving you a chance to win each of these three titles!

I opened by asking what comes first for each writer: character, world, or story. Rae and Mindy both said character without hesitation. Amelia said “For me, on this book, story came first,” but went on to say character usually comes first for her as well. Then I asked them to talk a little about each element.

Mindy McGinnis

Character — “My main character actually came from a dream that I had. I watched a documentary called Blue Gold about a fresh water shortage. I have a pond in my backyard, and I had a dream that night that I was teaching a young girl how to handle a rifle to protect our pond. In my dream, the child was very young, eight or nine. I woke and I thought ‘Wow. That’s a ridiculous thought. You shouldn’t give rifles to children.’ But then I thought ‘If someone was eight or nine years old, and you gave them a gun and told them to kill people to protect themselves, what kind of person are they going to grow up to be?’ And that’s where I got my main character.”

World — “My world pretty much built itself, because my world is my backyard. I have a pond in my backyard. The basement is my basement. The street is my street. My world is my world but a little waffled.”

Story — “I don’t plot at all. I just sit down and write. I just fly, truly, by the seat of my pants. I’m a complete, total, 100 percent pantser, and I usually don’t really know what’s going to happen, and I just go with it. The story’s going to tell itself. Before I started writing, I would hear writers talk about characters making their own decisions, things like that, and I was like ‘You’re the writer, you’re in charge, you’re God to these people,’ but you’re not. These people are their own people.”

Amelia Kahaney

Character — “I kept seeing a girl with long red hair, who was very lithe and dancerly, jumping through an urban night sky. I have a friend who is very lithe and dancerly, and I think I ended up modeling some of my main character, Anthem Fleet, on her, looks-wise. And I just thought about what a privileged dancer would do if the terrible things that befell her started to befall her.”

World — “My world is New York City. I’m in the heart of Brooklyn, so not as crazy as Manhattan, but still pretty darn packed. At the time that I began writing the book, Occupy Wall Street had just started their campout. The bankers had to walk by them every day, and there were these amazing images. I went down to the encampments as much as I could. I was so into what they were doing, and I was so interested in seeing the signage. They set up a whole library down there. Just seeing someone finally talking about how much some people have and how little everyone else has… it’s this new thing where, in this country, we’re talking about class. So I ended up creating a very divided city with the rich in a small enclave and the poor everywhere else.”

Story — “I was so into the Dark knight franchise, and my story has the feel of a superhero origin story. Those comic book convention are there for a reason. They really work. I have been a pantser, but The Brokenhearted was very carefully outlined. Also, I was terrified of writing a novel, and having the outline there really kept me going. I would finish chapter five, and I would say ‘I can’t do this.’ Actually, I said that until about chapter thiry. But then I would see the outline for chapter six, and I would just start to do it. That really was the guiding force for me.”

Rae Carson

Character — “[Alisa came from] jadedness and disgust current societal norms. I was rebelling against some things, like ‘Oh, princesses are always pretty. Well, fine. This one’s not going to be.’ I was just sick and tired of seeing some of the same things over and over again. I have a confrontational nature, so I wanted to do the opposite and see if I could make a sympathetic character out of that.”

World — “I was a social science major in college, so I studied history, economics, government, and I think that was actually a really good foundation for writing high fantasy. In addition to that, I have this insatiable curiosity about everything. I’m the type of person who goes on wikipedia to see what last night’s ratings for my favorite show were, and two hours later, I’ve somehow gone down the wikipedia spiral, and I’m reviewing Moroccan architectural history. Worldbuilding comes from a place of knowledge, knowing not just what you know, but what you don’t know and being curious about the things that you don’t know. If you don’t have a curiosity of about the world and the world you’re writing about, it’s going to be a drag. My advice is always, if you want to be a writer, indulge your curiosity shamelessly.”

Story — “I have a super basic outline in my head — like beginning, middle, end, and a couple touchstone points. Everything else, all the details, I discover as I go.”