Not a single one of you should be surprised about our next guest for our December Celebration.  I picked up My Life Next Door on a whim… the cover was pretty and the plot sounded interesting.  I didn’t know I would be finding my forever book boyfriend! lol  Huntley Fitzpatrick has a way of creating characters that jump off the page and into your heart and it certainly happened for me.  I ran the gamut of emotions while reading this book and as I turned the last page, I knew I had just found a new author I would follow to the ends of the earth.  I was incredibly excited that Huntley agreed to an interview with us … it allowed me the opportunity to ask some hard-hitting questions like… well, you’ll see below!  But let me introduce you to her books first.
“One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time.”
The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.
As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase’s family embraces Samantha – even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha’s world. She’s suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?
A transporting debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another.
From the author of My Life Next Door comes a swoony summertime romance full of expectation and regret, humor and hard questions.
Gwen Castle’s Biggest Mistake Ever, Cassidy Somers, is slumming it as a yard boy on her Nantucket-esque island this summer. He’s a rich kid from across the bridge in Stony Bay, and she hails from a family of fishermen and housecleaners who keep the island’s summer people happy. Gwen worries a life of cleaning houses will be her fate too, but just when it looks like she’ll never escape her past—or the island—Gwen’s dad gives her some shocking advice. Sparks fly and secret histories unspool as Gwen spends a gorgeous, restless summer struggling to resolve what she thought was true—about the place she lives, the people she loves, and even herself—with what really is.
I have not reviewed this yet but OMG OMG OMG I loved it!Â
ABOUT HUNTLEYÂ
Huntley Fitzpatrick grew up dreamy and distracted in coastal Connecticut, attended Concord Academy and Yale. She flourished in a family of bookworms where everyone always had their nose in a book. She kept an exhaustively thorough journal which frightened her boyfriends but has proved very useful in her career as a writer. Her debut contemporary Romance, MY LIFE NEXT DOOR, was published in June of 2012 by Penguin-Dial for Young Readers. Now she laughs with and eavesdrops on her six children who provide her with perspective and material. She is represented by the amazing Christina Hogrebe of the Jane Rotrosen Agency.
HEY!! If you for some unknown and totally weird reason have NOT read My Life Next Door, WE (Swoony Boys Podcast and Fic Fare) will be doing a readalong of this book on December 13th-14th from 8-10cst and we’ll be doing a giveaway and quoting and flailing over all the amazing things in this story! Â All the details are HEREÂ
You know, Jase is my book boyfriend… (I have claimed him it’s all official in a spreadsheet and everything) was he inspired by anyone?Â
There are little pieces of boys I liked or loved in Jase, but he’s mostly his own man, came to me fully formed, as it were. I did find an old story I’d written when I was fifteen, where the boy is being described by his mom, and he is basically Jase (although in that case his name is Jesse and he has a prosthetic leg—a harbinger of Augustus Waters, too?) so I guess I’ve been liking this boy for a long long time.
If you could introduce one of your characters to another character from another book, who would it be and why?Â
The heroes from my first two books, Jase and Cass, should probably meet. They have a lot in common, but more importantly, Cass, especially, needs a laid-back friend. His BF is a lot more edgy (which causes problems for both Cass and Gwen, the heroine of What I Thought Was True).
I’ve been told that Cass is going to swoon the pants off of me in your upcoming book, What I Thought Was True… how do you write swoony boys that manage to remain realistic? Â
Well, I’d be thrilled if Cass did. Katja Millay, who wrote the Sea of Tranquility, was great enough to read WITWT and give me a blurb, but it was her informal note to me that I found really thrilling: Cass, Cass, Cass, swoon, swoon, swoon. We all need to swoon, right? As for combining that with being realistic, I’ve always felt that it’s the realistic things about heroes (and real guys), their senses of humor, integrity, ability to really ‘get’ you that are the swooniest. Yes, I do appreciate Jase’s hot football training and Cass’s constant shirtlessness, but it’s that these guys really care about being decent people, and good to and with the girls they love that matters most to me.
What was the inspiration for What I Thought Was True?Â
Having done first/true love that goes right in MLND, I got to thinking about what it would be like if you got off on the entirely WRONG foot at the start, with someone you could really love. WITWT came from wondering if you could ever get over a bad past and have a good future love.
The Boy Most Likely To is Tim’s story. I know when I finished My Life Next Door I was hoping we would see it someday, but were you always planning to write it?Â
Always. Pretty much from the moment Tim strolled unexpectedly on to the pages of MLND, intended to be a side character and then pretty much making himself at home, I knew he had a story I wanted to tell. In fact, I wrote most of it (an early version which I am changing some of now) before I sold MLND.
Did you always want to be a writer?Â
Yup. It was always the one place I felt completely at home, that I ran to when times were good to tell how good, and when times were tough to make sense of it.
Tell us a little bit about your writing process, do you plot everything out or fly by the seat of your pants?Â
I used to be a complete pantser, and I still find myself ruled by impulse, and the unexpected turn things take when I write something I don’t expect, a scene or a twist that changes everything, that I nonetheless know is right. I have learned, though, that if I don’t have SOME sense of where I’m going, I can get lost in the tall grass.
Do you have any writing quirks or rituals?Â
When I first started writing again after years of editing, I took myself Very Seriously and had to have music, and candles and all that. Now I’m just happy if there’s relative quiet and time, time, time to really get lost in the story.
What authors have influenced you?Â
I hope it doesn’t sound flippant to say every book I’ve ever read, even the awful ones. I am omnivorous with reading, and I get ideas from Science journals and biographies and of course YA, NA, but also historicals, paranormals. Any book written with a passion is an influence, if only to let myself go in that same way.
What is the last book that you recommended to someone?Â
David Levithan, Deb Caletti, Steph Perkins, Katie McGarry, Katja Millay, Kristan Higgins….they are all constant recommendations for me. I’ve been known to take books off shelves and shove them into people’s hands.
Any advice for aspiring writers? Â
Keep a journal, eavesdrop when possible (and legal) on conversations held in public places, and finish every novel you start.
 Are you working on anything right now that you can tell us about?Â
Right now I am hip-deep in THE BOY MOST LIKELY TO, the follow up/companion to MLND.  It’s a great, but nerve wracking process. I pretty much hear the characters talking in my head (not crazy, just inspired) and I’m constantly running to the computer to get down a thought, a twist, a scene. But I want to make sure this book does the first one proud and doesn’t take away from anything anyone cared about in MLND…so I feel a sense of responsibility that can be nervewracking.  Not that MLND was A Classic For Our Time…but I was lucky to have a lot of people care about it, and I don’t want to let them down.
Speed Round Questions
Coffee or Tea Hot coffee and Iced Tea
Cake or Pie Pie (but with ice cream or never mind)
Chocolate or Vanilla Coffee? I’ve never been passionate about either chocolate or vanilla.
Morning or Night Morning
Twitter or Facebook FB
Sweet or Salty Salty
Fantasy or Romance Romance
Comedy or Horror Comedy
Real book or E-book Either, as long as I can read
Favorite Superhero Superman. Totally. My mom had a similar injury to Christopher Reeve, and I made a connection there that has never left me.
Favorite snack Anything involving salsa
Biggest pet peeve  Dishes and laundry
Favorite word Summertime
Dream job (other than author)Â Librarian, Editor, English teacher. It would have to involve words.
You guys have a chance to win some amazing here!! We have a paperback copy of My Life Next Door and an ARC of What I Thought Was True that will go to one lucky winner!! (US ONLY) Enter NOW!!Â
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