Author of The Witches of the Glass Castle Gabriella Lepore speaks to Hypable about her new young adult supernatural romance novel, How I Found You, which has just been released!
How I Found You is a story about 16-year-old Rose, who meets two mysterious brothers while staying with her aunt for the summer. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to Oscar, but can’t help but feel a deep mistrust for the boys and what their appearance might mean for her family’s safety.
We have previously reviewed the novel on the site, and you can purchase it on Amazon. In this interview, Gabriella tells us about the characters she loves to write, her writing process, what her future plans are, and how Supernatural has influenced her latest book.
Tell us about How I Found You.
It’s split between two perspectives, the boy and the girl. It’s done in first person as well, which is a bit different from my usual style. We’ve got Rose and Oscar: Rose goes to spend the summer with her aunt and uncle on their private estate, and one night two boys come knocking on the door saying they’ve got car trouble, and they need a place to stay. Then she begins to feel suspicious, and starts to uncover their supernatural deceptions…
Does it take place in the same universe as your first novel?
No, this is a completely separate story. It’s written for the same audience as The Witches of the Glass Castle, but it’s different because where that was more of a magical realm, this is more witches in the real world. These witches see it as a job, so it’s not a story about their powers. But it’s still in that 11-18 teen genre.
Have you found that your writing style has developed since Witches?
Definitely, I think my writing style is completely different for every book I write, and How I Found You was probably one of my favourites to write because it’s so different from any of the others. And I don’t know if that’s because it was in the first person or because I got to write a lot from a male perspective, Oscar’s point of view.
How has your first novel been received since we last spoke?
I think it’s done quite well, it’s got some good reviews on Amazon which I was very pleased about, and I’ve had a lot of positive feedback on it which I’ve been delighted about. So I think it’s exceeded my expectations for it really. I love getting feedback and I couldn’t have asked for better feedback this time! And I’m really happy with my publisher (Book Guild), they’ve done fantastic work with Witches, promoting it, so I’m really excited to be working with them again.
Do you still read a lot now that you’re writing?
Yeah, I feel like I read more actually. I don’t know why. I vary in what I read because I get bored with one genre. I’ve been reading a lot of Cecilia Hearne, supernatural books… although I do feel like they all kind of follow the same plot, so you’ve read one, read them all. Plus, I was watching Supernatural so much when I was writing this book, and there’s probably influences and little nods to the show.
What are your main influences or sources of inspiration?
I love the antihero, and I love the sarcastic, petulant, moody characters. They’re quite rare at the moment. There’s one book I rave about that not a lot of people know, it’s called Pentecost and the Chosen One by WJ Corbett, and I just can’t give that book enough praise. It’s about mice, so it is for younger readers, but I just love how the author comes up with these ridiculous characters that are allowed to be moody and a little bit obnoxious, that type of humour.
So it’s characters like Dean Winchester, Damon Salvatore… and Colt from Witches of the Glass Castle?
Yes, like Colt. And Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle… characters that are quirky, I find them inspiring and fascinating to write. And in this book it’s Oscar, I think he has his moments. I wanted to write the character of Oscar for ages and I actually wrote another book, with him in it, but in it he was quite nice and polite. The book just didn’t work, and in the end I had to scrap it. And then I wrote him again in this book and I completely changed him, and it just seemed to work. I gave him a bit more snark, which is big with my writing style I think.
How hard it is to scrap an entire project like that?
It is difficult. It’s disappointing, but at the same time, I knew that it wasn’t gonna work. I’ve done this with a few books; I did it with the sequel to Witches. I wrote the whole thing and it just didn’t work. And then I started writing it again a couple of months ago, and I just know that this is the right one. So hopefully the Witches sequel will be out some time later this year or early next year. But it’s just a feeling, I’m happy to carry on to something better than keep working on something that isn’t right.
What is it about YA fiction that is so appealing, even to people who aren’t technically “young adult”?
I really don’t know, I think it might be the freedom of that age group, because when the book is about people of that age, there’s no real kind of negative context like failed marriages or broken homes or work, that kind of thing, it’s more free to just experience romance and new adventures. I think for me, it could just be the freedom. It’s coming from a non-jaded perspective… in other things you can always sense an underlying heaviness…
What advice do you have for budding authors?
I would say write for the love of writing, so enjoy every second of it and don’t put too much pressure on yourself, just have fun with it. And everything else will hopefully fall into place – no, will fall into place!
Thanks to Gabriella for a great interview! Visit Gabriella Lepore’s official website and Facebook fan page to learn more about her and her novels, and make sure to check out How I Found You, available online and in stores now!
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