I am very excited to have Kate on the blog today to answer some questions about her excellent debut! Kate has also offered to giveaway a signed copy of the paperback which comes out TODAY with the beautiful cover shown below, so fill out the form at the end of this post by the end of January 27 to enter! (US/Canada only.)
Here's the synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Raychel is sleeping with two boys: her overachieving best friend Matt…and his slacker brother, Andrew. Raychel sneaks into Matt’s bed after nightmares, but nothing ever happens. He doesn’t even seem to realize she’s a girl, except when he decides she needs rescuing. But Raychel doesn't want to be his girl anyway. She just needs his support as she deals with the classmate who assaulted her, the constant threat of her family’s eviction, and the dream of college slipping quickly out of reach. Matt tries to help, but he doesn’t really get it… and he’d never understand why she’s fallen into a secret relationship with his brother. The friendships are a precarious balance, and when tragedy strikes, everything falls apart. Raychel has to decide which pieces she can pick up – and which ones are worth putting back together.
One
of the things that make or break a book for me are the characters, and I
was really impressed with your incredibly complex and dynamic
characters. Even the parents were interesting and present in the story,
which I find is rare in YA. How did the dynamic between Matt and Raychel
and their parents develop as you were writing?
Thank
you for the compliment! Several things influenced that depiction. One,
while I understand that it's easier to give YA characters agency if you
get the parents out of the picture, it's just not a realistic depiction
of most teens' lives, and it didn't make sense for this story. Two, as a
mom myself, I'm hyper aware that parents are not stock cutouts.
Realizing that your folks are individual people with their own pasts and
preferences and flaws is a huge part of growing up, even well into
one's adulthood, and for girls struggling to find their place in the
world and within feminism, that ever-changing dynamic with one's mom or
mother figure is an important part of growing up. Three, my own parents
were present in my life, but beyond that, my friends' and boyfriends'
parents played a big role in my teen years. Some were supportive and
almost like friends themselves; some were judgmental and indifferent or
even mean to me while they tried to steer their own kids' choices, and
some were just straight up awful parents.
So
in early drafts, the dynamic was a little more "good mom vs bad mom,"
but as the story deepened, I realized it was important to portray
Raychel's changing perception of the two moms, in order to support the
overall "feminism is complicated" theme in the book. Both moms are doing
their best, but both moms screw up, and ultimately, both moms reach the
limits of what they can do for Raychel. She can't begin to steer her
own life until she reaches that realization.
One
of my favourite things are friendship stories, and After the Fall has a
lot of interesting friendship dynamics in it, between Matt, Raychel,
and their other friends. Was it important to you to focus on the
friendships of these characters, and why?
In
high school, I was very much that girl who considered herself "not like
other girls." Most of my friends were boys, and I invested a lot of
energy in trying to prove myself worth of their attention. It wasn't
until adulthood that I accrued a solid group of awesome lady friends --
and once that happened, I realized I'd always had lots of girlfriends,
but I'd put our relationships on a second tier. So while none of the
characters in After the Fall are based on my high school crew, it was
interesting for me to explore that particular dynamic and lead Raychel
and Matt through the realization that many high school friendships are
based more on circumstance than real relationships (but that some can
turn out to be the real deal, too).
After
the Fall alternates perspectives between Matt and Raychel. Were there
any challenges writing these two different perspectives?
For
some reason, all of my projects come to me in multiple POVs. I think
it's a side effect of studying history and realizing that there is no
true objective perspective: every story has a million sides, and all of
them can be correct in some way. Executing the different voices is
challenging for me, though. I winged it for awhile on this book, but
before I got into serious revisions, I made a list of vocal tics,
favorite phrases, and that sort of thing for each character (for
example, Matt's narration never uses dashes; Raychel says "y'all" while
Matt looks down on southern accents).
Among
many things, After the Fall deals with characters struggling with the
issue of privilege. How did your own experiences with privilege
influence your writing?
You’ve
talked about your experience getting rejected by publishers, and
feedback you received about how your protagonist was unrealistic, even
though Raychel’s experiences were largely informed by your own
experience with sexual assault. How do you hope your book has an impact
on the YA or publishing community?
To
be honest, I don't have any illusions about it making any grand changes
to the overall narrative. But my hope is that the book will reach some
readers who haven't seen themselves on the page -- that they will feel
heard, and go forward feeling more confident that their stories matter,
or at least knowing how to better support friends who've been victims.
Thanks Kate! After the Fall is a really incredible story, and I would like to think books like this will make an impact, whether that be on an individual scale or encouraging someone else to tell their story.
 |
| One of the many cool items in Kate's Etsy shop! |
And don't forget to enter below to win a signed copy of After the Fall, by commenting on or sharing this post! US/Canada only, closes midnight January 27, 2018, winner will be contacted through email.
Posts
