Hi, there! Today I'm super excited to share an interview with one of my favorite authors, Mia Garcia!
M. García was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She moved to New
York where she studied creative writing at The New School, worked in
publishing, and lived under a pile of to-be-read books. She is the
author of Even If the Sky Falls and the upcoming The Resolutions from Katherine Tegen books (an imprint of Harper Collins) coming November 13, 2018.
That's right.
The Resolutions is out TODAY. Here's a bit more about this amazing book:
A heart-expanding novel
about four Latinx teens who make New Year’s resolutions for one
another—and the whirlwind of a year that follows. Fans of Erika L.
Sánchez and Emery Lord will fall for this story of friendship, identity,
and the struggle of finding yourself when all you want is to start
over.
From hiking trips to four-person birthday parties
to never-ending group texts, Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora have always been
inseparable. But now with senior year on the horizon, they’ve been
growing apart. And so, as always, Jess makes a plan.
Reinstating
their usual tradition of making resolutions together on New Year’s Eve,
Jess adds a new twist: instead of making their own resolutions, the four
friends assign them to one another—dares like kiss someone you know is
wrong for you, find your calling outside your mom’s Puerto Rican
restaurant, finally learn Spanish, and say yes to everything.
But
as the year unfolds, Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora each test the bonds that
hold them together. And amid first loves, heartbreaks, and life-changing
decisions, beginning again is never as simple as it seems.
In honor of Mia's book birthday, I sent her some questions and did my best not to
exclusively discuss food (it was very hard not to!). Here's what Mia had to say:
1) Let's talk writing. How would you
describe your drafting process for The Resolutions? How did it
differ from your (AMAZING) debut, Even If The Sky Falls?
This is an excellent question because Even If the Sky Falls felt like such a
plot driven story – not that emotions didn’t play a large role in it – but
because of the 24-hour time constraint I had to keep the action going and make
sure you were always aware of the storm that was approaching moments away.
With The
Resolutions we follow four characters over a whole year, which meant I had
more time to work with feelings and linger on small moments. It also meant that with four characters
that time was limited.
I forgot where I was going with this…Ah
yes. Both novels were started under-contract so I had a strict deadline for
both. Both were written in under 4 months and each editorial round took around
6 weeks to complete. But (going back to my earlier statement) because Even If the Sky Falls was a much more
plot driven story, there was a clear skeletal structure that I could grasp onto
while I was editing. It took me several revisions to find that structure in The Resolutions because each character
had their own beat and each beat had to come together with the other to form a
symphony or at least a runaway pop hit.
2) The Resolutions centers
around a group of friends who pick New Year's resolutions for each other
(confession: I wouldn't trust my friends with that, lol). What
came first during your brainstorming process for this particular story, the
characters or the premise?
I hear you – I’m not sure if I’d trust my
friends with that either, though I have a feeling I know exactly what they’d
pick.
The
Resolutions was a
collaboration between my editor Alex Arnold and myself. We both have a love of
book friendships. In fact, I think the way she described this book when it was
announced was “friendship = life’s blood” which is totally true. We
brainstormed each character’s resolutions, which gave us the skeleton for the
story. But it wasn’t until I figured out their relationship and voices (and
particularly their repartee) that things really came together. My favorite
scenes to write were the text exchanges and the moments where they were being
silly and supporting each other.
3) One of the reasons why I love The
Resolutions so much is the FOOD. You have no idea how stoked I am to
see Puerto Rican cuisine so often in this story. If you could eat only one Puerto
Rican dish for the rest of your life, which one would it be?
Amparo! How could you do this to me? ONE
dish!?! Can I have a savory and sweet dish? I’m going to pretend you said yes.
I’m a sucker for a good bistec and
habichuelas – particularly because I can never find recao over here so it never
tastes right when I make it. For dessert I am very judgmental of flan/tres
leches because I’m partial to my mami’s. OMG I almost forgot mallorcas – like –
how could I?
Clearly I can’t answer this question…
4) If you were a character in The
Resolutions, what's a resolution you'd like for your friends to pick for
you? It can be one that's not featured in the book!
Ohh, that’s interesting, because I put a
little of myself in each of my four main characters so in a way it feels like I’m
in the novel already, but…Amparo this is hard!! OK, I think they would
encourage me to have a little more patience with the dating process, but to be
honest it feels like another job and I don’t need another job!
5) Which fictional character from any
other story would you pick a resolution for and what would that resolution be?
I would tell Minerva McGonagall to take a
sabbatical – she needs it.
Thank you so much to Mia for letting me pick her brain! Make sure to get your copy of The Resolutions at the links below:
Also, you can follow Mia here:
