Interview with Brittany Cavallaro + Emily Henry for Hello Girls

Hello Girls

by Brittany Cavallaro & Emily Henry

Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: August 6th 2019

Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Best friends are forged by fire. For Winona Olsen and Lucille Pryce, that fire happened the night they met outside the police station—both deciding whether to turn their families in.

Winona has been starving for life in the seemingly perfect home that she shares with her seemingly perfect father, celebrity weatherman Stormy Olsen. No one knows that he locks the pantry door to control her eating and leaves bruises where no one can see them.

Lucille has been suffocating beneath the needs of her mother and her drug-dealing brother, wondering if there’s more out there for her than disappearing waitress tips and generations of barely getting by.

One harrowing night, Winona and Lucille realize they can’t wait until graduation to start their new lives. They need out. Now. All they need is three grand, fast. And really, a stolen convertible to take them from Michigan to Las Vegas can’t hurt.

Can you briefly describe HELLO GIRLS and their main characters? 

HELLO GIRLS is the story of Winona and Lucille, two girls who have been put in impossible situations by the men in their families. It’s about their unlikely best friendship and the lengths that the two of them will go to get free—some hilarious, some dark, and all, hopefully, thrilling. 

Winona is a rich girl who’s been kept in a glass case by her controlling father; Lucille’s grown up with an absent dad, a drug-dealing brother, and a mother who works long hours to put food on the table. At first glance, Winona is Tory Burch dresses and perfect manners to Lucille’s drugstore glitter lip gloss, but the two of them together find new depths when they hit the road. 

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why? 

Brittany: My favorite character has to be the Sicilian mechanic Armie Quinhole. I’m of Italian descent, and I’m from a big family—getting to write characters like Lucille (who is at pains to remind you she’s both a Folgarelli and a Pryce) and Armie lets me pay tribute to, and send up, my own upbringing. 

Emily: Armie is definitely pretty high on my list too, and I also have the softest of soft spots for Chaxton. I can’t even think his name without giggling. But honestly, I think it has to be Lucille. I love her so much. She has a backbone made of steel but her innards are just soft and gooey and good. She is the friend we all deserve. 

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere? 

We came up with the idea for HELLO GIRLS on our own road trip, driving through the Midwest in search of inspiration for a project for the two of us to write together. Over and over, as we stopped at gas stations and got food at restaurants, we were cheerily condescended to by men, who looked at two grown women and only saw ‘girls’ they could hit on or demean. We wanted to write a book that talked back to the kind of toxic masculinity. 

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be? 

Probably some kind of unholy mashup of songs by Mariah Carey and Bleachers, played on top volume through blown-out car speakers. 

What would you say it is the best thing about writing a book with someone else? 

Brittany: Every sentence I write needs to be as good as one of Emily’s, and that makes my own writing better. I love seeing her process. She’s so talented! 

Emily: I have to agree with this (only… you know, reversed). I think one reason this book poured out of us was that whenever one of us sent the other a chapter, it felt like this adrenaline-inducing challenge. I have never read a book by Brittany Cavallaro without learning something about writing in the process, and this was no different. It was just inspiring to watch her work, and in a way, writing this book together strangely paralleled the book itself: the way Lucille and Winona egg each other on, how they keep trying to top one another. 

Brittany, can you tell us something we don’t know about Emily? 

You might know this from Insta, but Emily dresses like an actual Farrah Fawcett angel from the 70s. She might have the coolest personal style of anyone I know. She’s also the queen of the quick comeback—hanging out with her is a master class in banter. 

Emily, can you tell us something we don’t know about Brittany? 

Brittany is freakishly good at video games and strategy games. Whenever we’re together, she tries to teach me something about one of these (and does so with the patience of a saint), and I nod and pledge to practice when I go home, and then the song on the radio changes, and we start singing, and I forget to ever think about strategy games again. Also she taught me everything I know about skincare (a lot). 

To which character do you identify the most in HELLO GIRLS and why? 

Brittany: Oh, I am thoroughly a Lucille, good qualities and bad—the loyalty, the impulsiveness. She’s much better at math than me, and has slightly worse taste in boys than I did at 16 (…slightly), but we’re cut from the same cloth. 

Emily: Hm, maybe a Winona dressed as a Lucille? Which I guess is just a Winona. I don’t know, I think one reason I loved writing Winona so much was that she’s so different from me. Writing her allowed me to tap into parts of myself that I rarely think about. In real life, I would be terrified of Winona and would follow Lucille around like an adoring puppy. So maybe that makes me… Chaxton! JK! 

Summer is here and we love to go out and enjoy the sun. What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date? 

A strawberry milkshake with extra whipped cream on it by a paddle pool in your backyard. 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish HELLO GIRLS? 

For more girl friendship, Elizabeth Wein’s CODE NAME VERITY is a must. Katie Cotugno’s 99 DAYS is my favorite summer read—complex relationships, gorgeous writing. And speaking of summer books, anything by Sandhya Menon (like WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI) is perfect. For something with grit that engages with the darker themes, almost anything by Mindy McGinnis is a safe bet. 

Finally, not a book—but if you haven’t seen Thelma and Louise yet, you should! 

What’s next for you? 

Brittany: I have an 1893 World’s Fair historical fantasy coming out in early 2021 called MUSE. Stay tuned! 

Emily: My next book comes out next June, and is a rom-com (for adults!) called BEACH READ! I also wouldn’t sneeze at a chance to write another book with my bestie. (Is that even the saying? Sneeze at? You get the idea: I’d love to do it.)

Brittany Cavallaro

Brittany Cavallaro is a poet, fiction writer, and old school Sherlockian. She is the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlotte Holmes novels from HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books, including A STUDY IN CHARLOTTE, THE LAST OF AUGUST, and THE CASE FOR JAMIE (forthcoming in March 2018). She's also the author of the poetry collection GIRL-KING (University of Akron) and is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She earned her BA in literature from Middlebury College and her MFA in poetry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in Michigan with her husband, cat, dog, and collection of deerstalker caps.

Emily Henry

Emily Henry is the author of The Love That Split the World and A Million Junes. She is a full-time writer, proofreader, and donut connoisseur. She studied creative writing at Hope College and the New York Center for Art & Media Studies, and now spends most of her time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the part of Kentucky just beneath it. She tweets @EmilyHenryWrite.

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FFBC: Welcome to the tour, This Mortal Coil by Emily Suvada

This Mortal Coil

by Emily Suvada
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: November 7th 2017

Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction

Synopsis:

In this gripping debut novel, seventeen-year-old Cat must use her gene-hacking skills to decode her late father’s message concealing a vaccine to a horrifying plague.

Catarina Agatta is a hacker. She can cripple mainframes and crash through firewalls, but that’s not what makes her special. In Cat’s world, people are implanted with technology to recode their DNA, allowing them to change their bodies in any way they want. And Cat happens to be a gene-hacking genius.

That’s no surprise, since Cat’s father is Dr. Lachlan Agatta, a legendary geneticist who may be the last hope for defeating a plague that has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. But during the outbreak, Lachlan was kidnapped by a shadowy organization called Cartaxus, leaving Cat to survive the last two years on her own.

When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with news that her father has been killed, Cat’s instincts tell her it’s just another Cartaxus lie. But Cole also brings a message: before Lachlan died, he managed to create a vaccine, and Cole needs Cat’s help to release it and save the human race.

Now Cat must decide who she can trust: The soldier with secrets of his own? The father who made her promise to hide from Cartaxus at all costs? In a world where nature itself can be rewritten, how much can she even trust herself?

Hello Emily! We are super excited to talk to you about THIS MORTAL COIL and to have you in our FFBC tours. 

Favorite Book? 

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Favorite TV show? 

Battlestar Galactica

Favorite movie? 

Howl’s Moving Castle

Favorite Song? 

From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness by Coheed & Cambria

Favorite Food? 

Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Name 3 fictional places you would move to in a heartbeat. 

Hogwarts, Narnia, and Rivendell!

What were your favorite books growing up? 

The Harry Potter series by JK Rowling, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series by Douglas Adams, and Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut.

Favorite Quote? 

“They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.” - Dorothy Parker

What are your fandoms? 

Harry Potter, Miyazaki, Star Trek, The 100, and Tool.

What are your fave Sci-Fi TV Shows or Movies?

I love Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Hackers, Orphan Black, Jurassic Park, Firefly, The Fifth Element, The Matrix, and Star Wars!

Name a recent book you read that you would recommend to our YA fans? 

I absolutely adored An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson!

Could you tell our Book Addicts a little bit about THIS MORTAL COIL?

THIS MORTAL COIL is set two years after the outbreak of a plague that kills its victims in a pretty horrifying way… Most survivors now live in bunkers that are run by a group called Cartaxus, but our hero, Catarina, has been told by her father to stay away from Cartaxus at all costs. She’s a genehacker - in this world people have the ability to rewrite their DNA, downloading and using ‘apps’ to change their bodies. When a Cartaxus soldier, Cole, arrives with the news that her father has coded a vaccine, but that only Catarina can decrypt it, she embarks on a journey across the country to release the vaccine and end the plague.

Can you tell us 3 interesting/random things about Cat?

Oooo, I like this question. Here are three cool things about Cat:

1) As well as being a hacker, Cat is an amateur scientist. She mentions making gunpowder in the first chapter, and she can usually be found in her lab, working on her own experiments. 

2) When we meet her, Cat is a little bit feral. She gave up on having clean clothes a long time ago and just. does. not. care. She’s not very good at taking care of herself, can’t cook, and sleeps on a mattress on the floor beside her fireplace.

3) The letters of her surname, along with her nickname, Cat Agatta, are the bases that make up DNA - G,T,C, and A.

What 3 hashtags would you most associate with your book series? (Could be a word or phrase or anything that would instantly make you think of THIS MORTAL COIL).

#thingsthatmakeyougoBOOM, #genehacking, and #TheSumOfOurGenes

How did you come up with the story? Did you find inspiration in any other story/movie/show and how has this affected your writing?

The first idea that came to me was the image of Cat, this feral girl living in a cabin in the woods during a horrifying outbreak. I loved the idea of her being resourceful and pragmatic, doing whatever it took to survive, and one day being confronted with an enemy soldier who says he’s come to protect her. So naturally, she tries to kill him. 

This interaction forms the first big plot point in the book, and once I had that image in my mind, I just kept adding cool things - genehacking, a virus that makes people explode, awful experiments on people - until the rest of the plot fell together. I take inspiration from a lot of things - almost everything I watch or read influences and textures my writing. The book is basically a love letter to my favorite tropes in YA and science fiction. 

Tell us your favorite quote from THIS MORTAL COIL.

There’s a lot of danger in this book, and several life-or-death moments for Cat. This is a quote that I wrote when my editors encouraged me to focus on what my character thought about mortality:

“The universe is continuous; I am the anomaly. I am the thread that begins and ends, the flame that sputters out. A chance collection of proteins and molecules that perpetuates itself, bound by the electric fire of my mind.”

Is there a specific scene that you had the most fun to write? Or which part was the most difficult to get through?

The scene that was the most fun to write was one at the midpoint at the book. Cat discovers that her life might be at immediate risk and has to go to extreme lengths to save herself. I’m not going to say any more than that, but trust me - you’ll know the scene when you read it. That scene was fun to write and rewrite, trying to make it more intimate and shocking each time.

If you had to pick one song to be the Theme Song for THIS MORTAL COIL– Which one would you pick?

Probably 46&2 by Tool. That band was one of my major influences, growing up, and the song has relevance to the book in more ways than one.

Are there any recommendations you could give your readers to be in the “perfect mood” to read THIS MORTAL COIL (specific music, snacks…)? 

This is a demanding book, and almost every single scene ties into a twist or reveal later on (or is building up to more twists in the rest of the series). It also moves at a demanding pace, and only gives you a few good opportunities to put it down. My recommendation would be to get comfortable in a place where you can dive into the story, although that’s my recommendation for most books! You might also want to plan a vegetarian meal for the evening, too... 

What’s next for you? 

I’m working hard on Book 2! This is the start of a series, and Book 2 begins right after the end of THIS MORTAL COIL. There are *so* many more twists to come. Keep an eye out for details on the sequel in the months to come!

Thank you so much for everything, Emily!

Emily Suvada was born and raised in Australia, where she went on to study mathematics and astrophysics. She previously worked as a data scientist, and still spends hours writing algorithms to perform tasks which would only take minutes to complete on her own. When not writing, she can be found hiking, cycling, and conducting chemistry experiments in her kitchen. She currently lives in Portland, OR, with her husband.

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FFBC: Welcome to the club, The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright

The Heir and the Spare
by Emily Albright
Publisher: Merit Press
Release Date: January 18th 2016

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit, British Literature, New Adult

Synopsis:

Family can be complicated. Especially when skeletons from the past pop up unexpectedly. For American Evie Gray, finding out her deceased mother had a secret identity, and not one of the caped crusader variety, was quite the surprise. Evie’s mom had a secret life before she was even born, one that involved tiaras.

In this modern day fairytale, Evie is on a path to figure out who her mom really was, while discovering for herself what the future will hold. Charged with her late mother’s letters, Evie embarks on a quest into her past. The first item on the list is to attend Oxford, her mom’s alma mater. There, Evie stumbles upon a real life prince charming, Edmund Stuart the second Prince of England, who is all too happy to be the counterpart to her damsel in distress.

Evie can’t resist her growing attraction to Edmund as they spend more time together trying to unravel the clues her mother left behind. But, when doubts arise as to whether or not Edmund could ever be with an untitled American, what really ends up unraveling is Evie’s heart. When Evie uncovers all the facts about her mom’s former life, she realizes her mom’s past can open doors she never dreamed possible, doors that can help her be with Edmund. But, with everything now unveiled, Evie starts to crack under the pressure of new family responsibilities and the realization that her perfect prince may want her for all the wrong reasons.

Hello Emily! Welcome to the FFBC ! We are super excited to have you in our FFBC tours! 

Thanks for having me! 

Could you tell our Book Addicts a little bit about The Heir and the Spare?

The Heir and the Spare follows American Evie Gray on a quest throughout England as she discovers the true identity of her deceased mother. On her journey Evie uncovers a long lost family member, a strength she never knew she had, and a love she never expected. I like to think of it as a modern day fairytale and I’m so excited to share Evie and Edmund with readers.

If you had to pick one adjective to describe Evie and Edmund what would you choose?

Sweet

How did you come up with the story? Did you find inspiration in any other story/movie/show and how has this affected your writing?

When Prince William married Kate Middleton it sparked an idea. I wondered about Prince Harry and how his life might differ from his brother’s, especially in the romance arena. Once that little seed got planted, everything else fell right into place.

What is your favorite quote from the book?

“It was like Emily Post on crack meets Martha Stewart on acid.”

Is there a specific scene that you had the most fun to write?

That’s got to be the Eiffel Tower scene. :) 

Was there anything you had to research for this book, that you would be worried if someone found in your browser history?

I did quite a bit for this book. I researched Oxford, London, Paris, the different aristocratic titles and their proper forms of address, art history, and lots of other little bits and pieces. There were things that I wanted to use, but ultimately couldn’t, so I had to take some liberties. But it was all fascinating. There really wasn’t anything I researched that’d make me cringe if someone saw my history. Then again, I’m not someone who gets easily embarrassed. 

What authors are auto-buys for you? 

Diana Gabaldon, Cassandra Clare, Richelle Mead

What you would you say is harder to write: The first sentence of a story or the last?

Both. If pressed I’d probably have to go with the first sentence. 

What do you find yourself fangirl-ing over?

Right now, Downton Abbey and Outlander. I’m so bummed it’s Downton’s last season. But I’m eagerly awaiting season two of Outlander this spring. 

What is your favorite snack/drink to eat when you read?

I have to have my iced peppermint tea, but that’s about it. I don’t usually snack when I’m reading. I’m afraid I’ll get food on my books or e-reader.

Favorite book of 2015? 

Ugh, I’ve gotten so little reading done this year (which makes me so sad!) and my TBR list is a gazillion miles long. I haven’t even caught up with all the series I read that had new releases this year. They’re all just sitting on my Nook, waiting for me. (Bet you guys can guess one of my New Year’s resolutions.) Most of the reading I did in 2015 was for books that are coming out this year. I’ve got a great list for 2016 though! ;) 

If you could pick one author dead or alive to have a drink with who would you choose and why?

Hmm, that’s tough. I’d probably say Jane Austen. I’ve loved all her books and I’d love to ask her more about her own life and maybe even get a closer look at her writing process. It’d be fascinating to pick her brain for a while. 

Thank you so much for everything, Emily!

Anytime! Thanks again for letting me be here today.

Follow the The Heir and the Spare by Emily Albright Blog Tour and don't miss anything! Click on the banner to see the tour schedule.

Emily Albright's debut novel, THE HEIR AND THE SPARE, is releasing January 18, 2016 from Merit Press.

She's a writer, a major bookworm, a lover of romantic movies, a wife, a mother, an owner of one adorable (yet slightly insane) cockapoo, and uses way too many :).

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