Author interview with J.H. Trumble

J.H. Trumble is the author of Don't Let Me Go. You can find my ARC review of DLMG here. 

Don't Let Me Go by J.H. Trumble

(400 pages)

Pub. date: 12/27/11

My rating: 5/5 stars

Series: N/A

About the book:

Some people spend their whole lives looking for the right partner. Nate Schaper found his in high school. In the eight months since their cautious flirting became a real, honest, tell-the-parents relationship, Nate and Adam have been inseparable. Even when local kids take their homophobia to brutal levels, Nate is undaunted. He and Adam are rock solid. Two parts of a whole. Yin and yang.

But when Adam graduates and takes an Off-Broadway job in New York—at Nate’s insistence—that certainty begins to flicker. Nate starts a blog to vent his frustrations and becomes the center of a school controversy, drawing ire and support in equal amounts. But it is the attention of a new boy who is looking for more than guidance that forces him to confront who and what he really wants.

J.H. Trumble’s debut, DON’T LET ME GO, is a witty, beautifully written novel that is both a sweet story of love and long-distance relationships, and a timely discourse about bullying, bigotry, and hate in high schools.

Now for the interview!

1. What's the Twitter version bio of yourself? (140 characters or less)
Writer hell bent on changing the world one character at a time. Sometimes inappropriate, sometimes provocative, but always optimistic. <3 <3 (and exactly 140 characters!)

2. What's the Twitter version of your novel, Don't Let Me Go?
Don’t make me do this! I’ve cut enough. LOL. Okay, how about this—You let me go. You let me go, too.

3. Don't Let Me Go first started out as two novels, one wait past events and one with present. Why did you decide to combine the two? Was it difficult? Did you have to delete any parts?
Combining them was actually my editor’s idea. I can’t tell you how excited I was about that; I was so afraid the first novel would never be published. It’s a little more of a traditional coming out story. So when my editor told me he’d like to include some of the backstory in backflashes, I squealed!

Yes, it was dang hard choosing what to keep and finding a way to bring those scenes into the main story organically. It was a lot of trial and error. In the end, I got to keep more than I thought I would, maybe half the first novel but significantly tightened. There are only a few scenes that I really struggled to let go of, but in the end I don’t think anything truly important was lost. Most of those scenes came early in the first book—scenes before Nate and Adam became a “we,” scenes with Juliet, Nate’s dad, and Nate’s porn-loving grandmother.

4. DLMG also has a soundtrack (found at the back of the book). How did you decide upon the songs? Particularly Adam and Nate's song.
I love music. I was always finding myself listening to a song and thinking, that’s Nate! Or that’s Adam! Sometimes a song would actually influence the plot. I think “Kryptonite” is a good example of that. It got me thinking about heroes, the burden of heroism, and the fact that heroes have their breaking point too. “Never Say Never,” on the other hand, and Hallelujah for that matter, so encapsulated the feeling of the novel for me that they still bring me to tears. All of the songs on the playlist in the book came right from the Nate & Adam playlist on my iPod. I’ve probably listened to that playlist a hundred times. The songs helped me think through what was going on with each of the characters. When my editor suggested I include the playlist, I was all over that. I added the blurbs for his benefit so he would understand why I chose each song, never imaging that those blurbs would be included in the novel.

5. Your novel had a lot of memorable and loveable characters. Which one was your favorite?
How can I possibly choose? I love them all. Nate is the most complex—his plight breaks my heart. Adam is true-blue. Danial is the best friend I always wanted. Luke is so earnest and naïve. And Juliet closes the deal at the end. I love Nate’s mom too, and his grandmother, and Mr. Wolf, and Adam’s parents. See? I can’t choose.

6. Without giving too much away, which scene was the hardest to write? The easiest?
Nate’s assault was definitely the hardest to write. I just didn’t want to go there, and I didn’t feel like I could do justice to the moment. The easiest were probably the scenes with Nate and Danial. Danial was such an easy character to work with. He’s so blunt and the good-natured play between him and Nate allowed me to introduce some themes and defuse them all at the same time.

7. Do you have any particular quirks when writing?
Once I start a book, I’m writing 24/7. I just can’t shut it down. I’m thinking about the characters in the shower, in bed at night, when I’m doing laundry, when I’m driving, when I’m talking on the phone. It’s very annoying to everyone around me.

8. What (if any) novels do you have in the works right now? What can you way about it/them?
I’m very excited about my sophomore novel—Where You Are. I’m editing the manuscript right now. It will be out in the fall or winter of 2012. I won’t say too much about it, except that I’m just as in love with these characters as I am with the characters in DLMG. You’ll be seeing Luke again in a minor role. I have a third novel on the books as well in which Luke is the lead character. At least, I’m hoping that book with be the third since I’m kind of in love with it too. You get a hint of that novel at the end of DLMG.

9. I'm old fashioned. When I write I do it with a pen and paper. How about you? Pen and paper or laptop? Why?
Laptop all the way. I type fast; it’s the only way to keep up with my brain. Although, one of my favorite scenes in DLMG—the scene where Danial helps Nate set up his blog—I wrote on a notepad sitting in a very boring all-day meeting. (Let’s just keep that between us.) Generally, I find that my handwriting distracts me.

10. There are many more GBLTQ books being published as of recent, which is a great step forward, although some may disagree. What do you think about this progress, and how do you think GBLTQ books will change over the next few years?
It’s a great step forward! I think that these books are on the right side of history. And I applaud writers who write GLBTQ characters, especially main characters, knowing that doing so will make for potentially lower sales. I think, already, we are seeing fewer coming out stories, less angst, and more authentic characters doing what characters do—responding to a variety of conflicts. It’s still hard to write a gay-themed book where being gay isn’t a source of some conflict. It’s just where we are. But I think you’ll find in my next two books that there is far less of that kind of angst than you see even in DLMG. I can’t even imagine writing a coming out story again. If there is any problem with being gay in my next two books, it’s somebody else’s problem. And there’s not even much of that.

 

 

Did you love the interview? Do you think that Don't Let Me Go is a book you're going to love? Are you counting down the days until the release date of Don't Let Me Go? Comment and let me know!