Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!
I have been showcasing quite a few Swoon Reads authors since I started hosting for Xpresso Book Tours – this is wicked lovely as I first came to recognise Swoon Reads when a fellow book blogger first told me about her appreciation for reading their stories. She’s since left the book blogosphere and opted to return to University; however, it always struck me that at some point in my readerly life, I ought to start to pick up the stories being published by Swoon Reads. Hence why you’ve seen an influx of authors by this publisher arriving on Jorie Loves A Story via guest author features like today’s interview with Ms Vale!
There were a few quirkily clever things about this particular YA Contemporary Romance which intrigued my eye towards wanting to a) read it and b) feature the novelist: it was set in a small coastal towne in Maine (for a girl who likes New England, that was a bit of a no-brainer! Go Sox!), it has a pro-positive LGBTQ+ narrative and it is a Contemporary Rom. The latter being the icing on the cake for me as Contemporary Romances are hit/miss with me as you well know if you’ve been spending time digging round my archives and/or have been a long-time reader of my blog. I vacillate between reading mainstream & INSPY Contemporaries these days – however, I always manage to find quite a few Contemporaries in mainstream which make me ‘swoon’ after them; thus I am wicked happy to say I am *celebrating!* this lovely new YA Contemporary on its #PubDay!
In truth – the author mentioned she doesn’t consider this a YA Contemporary Rom inasmuch as a straight-up coming-of age Contemporary YA – I am thrilled either way, as finding strong stories which have convicting plots and a strong balance of contemporary life & issues is something to celebrate as much as finding a contemporary set story-line which seeks to represent a realistic impression of a girl coming-of age in our modern world.
Give a hearty welcome to debut novelist Lillie Vale & let’s tuck close to this convo where we explore not only the setting and the characters of “Small Town Hearts” but her writerly process to bring this story to life! If you’ve already earmarked this one to read OR were one of the lucky few who read it as an ARC – I’d love to hear your thoughts & comments in the threads below this interview!
Likewise, if this is your first visit to my blog – guest features & convos are best accompanied with your favourite cuppa & brew – where you can settle in, enjoy the feature and stay a spell visiting with me and my guest author. May this new release have a plotting which will tempt your readerly heart as much as it has mine.
Small Town Hearts
Subtitle: Rule #1 Never Fall for a Summer Boy
by Lillie Vale
Rule #1 – Never fall for a summer boy.
Fresh out of high school, Babe Vogel should be thrilled to have the whole summer at her fingertips. She loves living in her lighthouse home in the sleepy Maine beach town of Oar’s Rest and being a barista at the Busy Bean, but she’s totally freaking out about how her life will change when her two best friends go to college in the fall. And when a reckless kiss causes all three of them to break up, she may lose them a lot sooner. On top of that, her ex-girlfriend is back in town, bringing with her a slew of memories, both good and bad.
And then there’s Levi Keller, the cute artist who’s spending all his free time at the coffee shop where she works. Levi’s from out of town, and even though Babe knows better than to fall for a tourist who will leave when summer ends, she can’t stop herself from wanting to know him. Can Babe keep her distance, or will she break the one rule she’s always had – to never fall for a summer boy?
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781250192356
Published by Feiwel & Friends, Swoon Reads
on 19th March, 2019
Published by: Swoon Reads (@SwoonReads)
a publishing subsidiary of Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan
Formats available: Hardback and Ebook
Converse on Twitter via: #YALit & #Contemporary with #Novel19s
as well as #SmallTownHearts + #LilliVale with #LGBT or #LGBTQ Contemporary
Brew your favourite cuppa & enjoy this Wickedly Lovely Convo:
What inspired the choice to set your novel in Maine and to be quirkly New England in its vibe? What did you love most about developing the setting and the personality of this region?
Vale responds: While this isn’t true of all of Maine, I pictured Oar’s Rest with craggy coastline, blue-gray skies, and crashing waves. A sandy, golden beach that’s been well-trodden and loved, sprinkled with sandcastles and beautiful shells. A candy-cane striped lighthouse looming above the town like a silent sentinel. The stark beauty of Maine plus the fun of a beach town created the aesthetic of Oar’s Rest. It was an amalgamation of every coastal town I’ve visited and loved.
I truly felt your aesthetic and had a feeling this might have been want inspired you to set your novel in Coastal Maine. It was lovely reading your reply and smiling knowing I had the right impression of what was driving the story to be told.
I love your cover art – pie, coffee and that tagline “never fall for a Summer boy” – what were your first reactions and thoughts when you spied the art? And, how much input did you give to have this created? What do you think it reveals about your story (that you can share?) and why it rocks to be featured?
Vale responds: Pretty much the moment my book sold, I was eager for cover art. I have experience in graphic design, so I was dreaming up so many possible covers! When three possible cover directions landed in my inbox, it was just a waiting game to see which one the Swoon Reads community would love the best! For a cover to be chosen interactively through voting is something pretty unique to Swoon! There’s a lot of excitement surrounding cover voting, and by popular choice, the pie and coffee cover won.
I used to be part of the ChocLit Stars Team where we would get to help vote for cover art choices and I know how wicked cool it is to be in that kind of a group where you get to make those kinds of decisions before the final art is selected. It was quite clever learning more about the process of what goes on behind the ‘art’ itself and how those choices are made.
As “Small Town Hearts” is an LGBTQ+ release what can you share about writing a novel which celebrates #EqualityInLit? How important was it to make this an inclusive cast of characters? And what did you hope would inspire readers the most after they met them?
Vale responds: Diversity and positive representation in YA is incredibly important to me. There have been an increasing number of LGBTQ+ books published over the last few years, but many are still coming out stories, or stories where sexuality and identity create struggles in the main character’s life. I wanted to read a story with a girl who was proudly out, someone whose community accepted her. Who had the love and acceptance of her friends and family, who didn’t have to hide who she was or make herself smaller to fit a close-minded space. I wanted her to have struggles, but who she was and who she chose to love was NOT going to be one of them. I wrote the story I would have loved to read as a teen. The story I would still love to read today, by other voices. I think a lot of other readers would love the same thing.
I love that you took this entrance into the story-line – you are quite right, a lot of the stories I am finding for LGBTQ+ are of that particular variety, however, I’ve also have had quite a good bit of luck in finding the stories which are fitting outside that particular narrative as well. I still remember how much I loved finding “The Language of Hoofbeats” by Catherine Ryan Hyde and I am wicked thrilled to be re-listening to “Trans-Continental: Girl in the Gears” by E. Chris Garrison for review purposes as I loved it last year but didn’t get to showcase it yet on my blog. There are others but these two spring straight to mind – about characters who are comfortable in their own skin, are proudly living their lives as themselves and have a support group round them.
Why do you feel small townes are coveted places to live? Is it the slower pace, the anonymity or the setting of being outside a city without the pressures of city life? Is it something else even? What did you love most about creating the small towne of Oar’s Rest and how did you name it?
Vale responds: I wouldn’t say small towns have greater anonymity—in fact, maybe the opposite is true! In smaller communities, there’s a great chance of standing out as a “new face”. Levi’s pinned as a summer boy for this very reason, and by unspoken understanding, every local knows not to get romantically involved with a tourist who’s bound to leave. In these wondrous, small town microcosms, with their strong sense of identity and culture, it’s almost like being in another world. In Oar’s Rest, certainly, that is the case! Babe’s beloved town got its name from a sentiment in Small Town Hearts: “Home is a place to rest your oars.”
You’re quite right- anonymity can sometimes be more regaled to larger cities – though other times you sometimes hear the opposite. I think it just depends on the towne itself and how it interacts with its residents. New England has the tendency of being more observant and in-tune with their citizens’ lives. Love how you named the towne “Oar’s Rest” and of course, I liked the back-story about Levi and his role in the story.
Who became your favourite character to write and why? What made them stand out from the rest of the cast?
Vale responds: Babe and Penny were always my favorite characters to write. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Levi, but…there’s something about a fraught female friendship that is instant bait for me. Penny was sharp in all the ways that Babe wasn’t, and wanted different things, and wasn’t afraid to hack at bonds when she thought it was necessary. She was unapologetic, and sometimes, frankly, awful, but she was also deeply sympathetic. She was just as scared of the future as Babe, but for different reasons. Her feelings were compelling, and, to me, relatable, but her behavior painted her as, not really a villain, but certainly a source of both internal and external conflict for Babe. She’s probably a good example of an unlikeable character!
What do you think is the most difficult aspect of writing a Contemporary Romance and showing the character growth not just in their romantic relationships but also in all their relationships as generally a lot of Contemporary Roms are featuring characters “in-progress” of becoming themselves?
Vale rseponds: The balance between the romance and the other subplots can be tricky to get right in contemporary romance novels. Hopefully, I was successful! I never really considered Small Town Heart’s as strictly “romance”, because at its heart I think it’s more about life after high school, and what it means to keep afloat when you feel like you’re a girl overboard. When you don’t know if a change will be good or bad, or how to deal when a change that’s good for a friend might be bad for you. When you’re looking to the future, but also to all the what-ifs of the past. Romance is part of Babe’s life, definitely, but it’s her bonds with her found family that are most precious to her. The most meaningful relationships can last a moment, a summer, or a lifetime, and that’s something Babe spends Small Town Hearts figuring out.
A definitive coming-of age Contemporary YA than might be a better fit to categorise this book’s niche and its one I love to seek out just as readily as a Contemporary YA Rom. I think the future is harder to see when your younger and just exiting school – the time effect alone feels differently when you first leave school and then, of course, life after school sets in and your quite right about navigating those hours, months & years – it takes time and before you can sort out the future or a relationship, you also have to know yourself best first.
What are three things you can share about what makes Babe and Levi stand out in regards to how their dynamics worked together?
Vale responds: I think what set Babe’s relationship with Levi apart from her other relationships is that he was someone new. Not someone with a decade-plus of history who knew her as well as he knew himself. She could be someone new with him, someone without a past. She could be the Babe she was now, not the cocktail of every version of herself that her friends knew. To them, she was every age of herself carried forward, and all the memories that came with them.
Levi came into her life at just the right time that she was truly ready to move on from mourning the loss of her secret relationship with her ex-girlfriend Elodie (who wasn’t out yet). Because everything about their relationship—who knew, where they met, how they acted in public—was dictated by Elodie, Babe never got to enjoy her first relationship the way she would have wanted—openly, sharing how they felt without looking over their shoulders.
And finally, he let her set the pace in the relationship. Nothing was a unilateral decision. For the first time, Babe had a voice with her partner. And because this freedom was so new to her, she didn’t always make the right choices, but she’s learning. She’s learned. She’ll continue to figure it out.
I’m looking forward to reading this story even more learning more about the key components of what is knitting the story together. I am grateful you’ve openly shared more insight into your characters – giving myself and my readers something to chew on before we get a copy of the novel to read for ourselves! It is quite true – the best relationships have equality in their partnerships and there is a level of freedom in being able to thrive in that kind of connective bond.
Do you aspire to write stories in small townes throughout your career or are you going to switch it up a bit and write about all kinds of areas, big cities included? How do you decide where you want to set your stories and how does the area its set play a larger role in how the stories are told?
Vale responds: I plan to write about all kinds of areas! For stories that have a strong sense of place, I favor small town settings. For many reasons, but one of them is that teens have to be more creative about how they spend their time, and that can lead to some pretty awesome brainstorming for me!
I am looking forward to seeing what you develop as your career moves forward and seeing all the different settings you’ll be exploring as you follow your writerly instincts!
What can you share about your Swoon Reads experience for readers who are also writers trying to navigate their own path into publishing? What was the most challenging aspect of the journey?
Vale responds: When it comes to writing, you hear a lot about pacing. And when it comes to publishing, it’s no different. Every book, every writer, every process goes its own pace. Keep your eyes on your own journey, keep writing, and don’t get too impatient for all the milestones you haven’t reached yet. You’ll get there.
No truer words were ever said. It takes time and each writer has their own timepiece to realise that their story (or stories) will be written in a time frame which is right for them. Everyone writes differently and everyone has their own pacing in life. The beauty is accepting this and finding your own rhythm in which to thrive in the process of being creative.
When your not researching and writing stories what uplifts your spirit the most?
Vale responds: I’m very passionate about cooking and I love spending time in the kitchen! Though less so if it involves washing up, haha! I also like photography, staggering out of the library with a stack of books, and watching way too much Netflix. I also play Sims, Zelda, and tennis.
I personally love experimenting with vegan & vegetarian cookery delights – as much as I love baking. Definitely share your joy of photography – as my sidebar eludes and I think my librarians have given up ship on having me NOT cart out huge #bookhauls of #librarybooks! lol I do miss NetFlix but I’m enjoying what I find on Roku including how you get ‘extras’ now if you have cable – that’s a new territory as I was used to Roku without cable and now with it – golly! You can seriously find more episodes of series in those network apps and like Netflix that become addictive to sort through! My latest finds are “Young Sheldon” and “For The People” when I’m not binging on “Whiskey Cavalier”, “American Idol” or “Magnum, PI”.
I would like to thank Ms Vale for her wicked lovely conversation – speaking to her openly about her writing process, what inspires her stories and how she crafts her characters’ was true blissitude! I know now when I first spied this release heading into a blog tour was the right ‘fit’ for me as a reader – as it had everything I was seeking out of a Contemporary YA! I look forward to gathering a copy for my own library but for now, I am going to be requesting this for purchase at my local library as one of my Spring requests! I will keep everyone posted if they accept the request & if I get to read this before Summer!
This blog tour is courtesy of:
Be sure to visit the rest of the tour for more guest author features & a lovely array of insightful observations by the bloggers who’ve reviewed the story & shared their key takeaways on behalf of this story.
Find others hosting via @XpressoTours!
I am enjoying being a hostess for:
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers. This also extends to Book Spotlights & Book Blitzes which I choose to highlight which might have content inclusive to the post materials which I did not directly add a contribution but had the choice whether or not to feature those materials on my blog.
{SOURCES: Book cover for “Small Town Hearts”, author photograph of Lillie Vale, author biography, blitz tour banner and host badge were provided by Xpresso Book Tours and are being used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Conversations with the Bookish banner and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
Comments via Twitter:
Celebrating #PubDay for debut #YA #Contemporary novelist @LillieLabyrinth one of the #Novel19s w/ a wicked engaging #interview feat. her characters & #amwriting process 👏
🧁📖https://t.co/Xn8QuyitL5 🎊#writingcommunity | #SwoonReads | @SwoonReads pic.twitter.com/AT6bqbtXpY
— Jorie Story 📖🎧 (@joriestory) March 19, 2019
Thanks for being on the tour! :)