Young adult author, Rachel Lynn Solomon is with us today! We loved Rachel’s debut ya contemporary, You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone so much, we had to have her as our next Five Minutes With… author. Watch out for this writer, whom we feel has one of the finest young adult voices around. Catch our review of YMMWIG here and we hope you enjoy Rachel Lynn Solomon!
What is your favorite childhood book?
I have the best memories of going to Borders (RIP) every time a new Princess Diaries book came out. I absolutely loved them — they were so fun, and they explored such authentic emotions. Meg Cabot is 100 percent the reason I started writing.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
Yes! I used to work in public radio, and there’s a little nod to NPR in each of my books. In YMMWIG, one character is carrying an “I <3 NPR” tote bag, and in OYOM, one character’s dad is a sound engineer at a radio station. I also tend to borrow (with permission) the names of friends who’ve helped me out during the revision process. Lastly…there’s a notebook Tovah (one of the protagonists in YMMWIG) and her friend Lindsay pass back and forth that was absolutely stolen from my middle/high school years.
What was your hardest scene to write?
Hmm…without giving too much away, the explosive, climactic fight between the sisters was hard to get right. I didn’t want it to be melodramatic, but there are a LOT of heavy things discussed in that scene. I must have rewritten it half a dozen times. Once I figured out the last straw that led the sisters to that point, though, it started to click.
What advice do you have for our readers who are also aspiring writers?
The path to publication is not a straight line. It’s probably not even a line at all. YMMWIG was my fifth completed manuscript, and my agent is my second agent. Stubbornness—and always, always working on the next book—is crucial, and we have to be our own best advocates.
Bio:
Rachel Lynn Solomon is the author of the contemporary YA novels You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone (out now from Simon Pulse) and Our Year of Maybe (out in 2019). A former journalist, she has worked for NPR, produced a radio show that aired in the middle of the night, and currently works in education. You can find her online at http://www.rachelsolomonbooks.com/ and on Twitter @rlynn_solomon.
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RACHEL LYNN SOLOMON
You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone (Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse, 1/2/18)
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@rlynn_solomon
rachelsolomonbooks.com