my book is officially 1 year old today π₯Ί
And you better believe this is a good chance for me to beΒ feeling absolutely all of the things. I feel like I should be saying “it went so fast!” but omg π I feel like it’s been out for 19 years already. Life has been stressful this last year, loooong and slow and a little serrated around the edges. But I’ll forever be proud of this book, and humbled by the love it’s gotten from you all and with some award nominations and bookstore features. It’s just!! It will never cease being an incredible honour to be a published author.
Sam, Avery, and the De Laineys are chaotic and heartfelt and messy — and I really really love them. (I also miss writing them!)
Also this is a freaking fantastic chance to eat ice cream to celebrate and [clenches fist] I took that opening. Ice cream was good tonight.
I asked for some questions on instagram, so I’ll post some of the answers here too!
Also feel free to ask me whatever you’d like and I’ll answer in the comments. I did intend to do something really special for its first birthday but [cough it’s clearly the second child] I am really busy and also super tired. Also old in my bones, apparently.
π read the deleted scene about potatoes
π a christmas short story (from Moxie’s perspective)
π my happy release day post
π inspiration behind the boy who steals houses
π bake Moxie’s caramel brownies (recipe!)
π what it’s like to write an #ownvoices novel
what was your inspiration behind writing The Boy Who Steals Houses?
it’s basically a combination of:
- genderbent Goldilocks retelling
- I have a big family so it was something that easily fit into my writing
- I wanted to write a bit of an inverse of my debut (A Thousand Perfect Notes) where violence was used purposefully to control, whereas we have Sam’s violence that scares him. He’s not a “bad person” but he does bad things — and explore how he deals with that.
favourite scene?
TBWSh says thank you!! π And okay I LOVED writing all the De Lainey banter scenes. Moxie cutting Sam’s hair. Using Sam as a pincushion. The twins giving Sam the “big brother” talk and Jeremy getting worried his ship wasn’t sailing…
if your books were movies who would you want to play Beck and Sam?
I wish I had a cool casting but I barely watch movies/shows and wouldn’t have a CLUE of actors young enough π I’m pretty terrible…
any advice for authors about to start querying?
Querying is really really stressful ππ I’ve been through the query trenches twice and I do have a lot of thoughts and feelings about it. But my top tips would be.
- Make sure you’ve researched SO MUCH. All about the agents, who they rep, how to query, how to write a synopsis. Google google.
- Definitely make some sort of spreadsheet to keep track of who you query, response times, if you can query more agents there if one rejects.
- MAKE SURE SOMEONE ELSE EDITS YOUR QUERY TOO!! We’re too close to our work and we need imput.
- Get a panic buddy π₯Ί I cried all over my writing friends. a LOT. They kept me going!!
did you find that publishing was hard? how long did it take?
Publishing is definitely a hard beast to manage (whether you go indie or traditional), especially when you’re new to it…and anxious and clueless π AND YOUNG. (I was only 19 when I signed with my first agent.) And the industry is obviously very competitive and I was a small release, I’m really glad I had amazing support from this community though.
are things like colour and music a big part of your life as they seem to feature in your novels?
I did a lot with music growing up: I played violin, cello and piano in high school. I was self-taught and then took lessons…and look I was “okay” at it, but I didn’t really understand musical concepts.Β πLike timing. Like properly reading music. Ahem. But I was a bit obsessed with classical music so that’s definitely why I gravitated towards writing about it.
And I love colour π₯° hence my rainbow shelves! But the yellow in TBWSH was because of it being a Goldilocks retelling!
how long did it take you to write TBWSH?
I wrote the first draft in 3 days for NaNoWriMo, 2016! Then I wrote the next draft over a month while moving house (I even was rewriting while sitting in a tent). And then I kept writing, rewriting, tweaking, and editing it for the next like 2 years. π Because an author’s job is never done.
tips on writing lgbt+, disabled, minority characters if you don’t identify as such?
1) do your research! go beyond what you can easily google. Read memoirs of people who’ve lived the life. Follow them on online, read blogs/twitter/forums, especially listen to diverse advocacies and read #ownvoices books.
2) definitely get sensitivity readers!
3) if you’re not part of the minority, my instinct is to write the character IN your story, but don’t write THEIR story. Don’t write what it’s like to BE gay or be blind. Capture how their identity affects their life, but just be respectful and cautious. Ex: I could write a black character, but I wouldn’t write what it IS to be black, because that’s way out of my lane. π
how long did it take you to get published?
A long long time *laugh sob* I started writing seriously at 15. I queried and found an agent at 19, first book failed on submission. Then I wrote A Thousand Perfect Notes and it sold when I was 22. It came out in 2018 when I was 24. Then The Boy Who Steals Houses came out in 2019. I’ve now just signed with a new agent in 2020 and hope to get back into the publishing industry soon π
in other words: DON’T GIVE UP. a failed book isn’t a failed career, and often a “fail” is so subjective anyway!!
where do you typically start when writing a story?
The beginning! I am VERY linear. I must start at the beginning and go right to the end and then…stop. (To badly quote Lewis Carroll. π)
can you tell us anything about your next project?
okay sure sure π
- these disaster kids make Sam and Avery look sensible.
- it’s set in Australia
- at one point a character screams “I JUST WANT TO SLEEP” and that is 100% just me projecting into my own novel.
- I’m also supposed to be working on it right now but TBWSH needed a birthday okay.
is it possible to you to do a sequel to TBWSH?
LOOK I WOULD LIKE TO but it’s not looking likely though I dream. π₯Ί
how can you break hearts so easily?
You all think I’m nice and it’s just really really not true, see. I’m a Slytherin with a cold cold heart. ππ
how much cake did u eat while writing it?
So my family went away for the weekend so I was in the house ALONE, writing. I just ate brownie and pasta for 3 days. If you read one of my books and think “wow c.g. is writing a lot about this food” just know I was also probably eating it at the time. I have a great imagination like that.
how do you learn to writ such beautiful descriptions?
Annoyingly, I say practise. I’m inspired by what I read and I study my favourite authors’ style and craft. I adore the work of Maggie Stiefvater, Laini Taylor and Anna-Marie McLemore (they write DIVINE prose) so I look at how they do it, what words they choose, etc etc.
Another thing is to hone into your five senses. I love to describe how things taste and feel. It draws you into the moment and makes it feel real.
how do you get to know your characters and their voices?
My first drafts are basically: “get to know the characters” time. I have a solid idea of who I want them to be beforehand, but I generally write messily to start off with while I learn them deeply and truthfully.
Writing lists also helps: make sure you know their fears, the kind things they do, what defines them (their peculiarities and quirks), make sure you know what would devastate them and what they want more than anything. I write character driven stories, so I need to know them very closely to make my plots work.
what would the De Laineys be doing in quarantine?
Sam would be totally fine. He just wants to stay in a house anyway. While Avery would have broken social distancing 3898498 times in 2 minutes because he loves touching and draping himself over everyone.
Moxie would be aggressively sewing and hating being cooped up and using Sam as a pincushion. (Lovingly.)
Jeremy, an extrovert, would be staring out the window singing a sad sad song. While Jack paced until they all tried to kill him.
Maybe Mr De Lainey would get A NAP???
if you have any questions, feel free to ask!! (can be about writing, books, tbwsh, publishing…anything!) and thanks for being with me on this journeyΒ π
Olive
Happy birthday tbwsh!!
Beck @Smellfoy Can Read
*Grandmaster birthday song from Ragnarok* HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE BOY WHO STEALS HOUSES!!!! AHhhhhhhhHhHhhHHhhhhhh
Can you just kind of tell me what the heck a contemporary is supposed to be since you’ve published TWO? Cause one of my books is like “oh I’m contemporary” And it’s magical therefore confusing me and also contemporary isn’t my top genre. I am Confused β’
Also I just have to tell you that I may or may not have *accidentally* fancast moxie as Zendaya??? Idk if that’s how you imagined her but I did find some great gifs! (One including her saying “yelling is caring”)
Anyway yes AHHHHHHHH happy birthday TBWSH
Seth
Thank you for sharing about TBWSH! I love the book sooo much! Contradictions in characters are my favourite too, they’re so fun to work with. Also, what you shared about writing your first draft messily to learn about your characters truthfully really spoke to me! Knowing my own characters has taken me….a long time usually haha.
I wonder if you’ve ever struggled with trying to fit too much in a story? Like trying to talk about multiple problems a character faces, and then struggling to wrap them up?
Chalilodimun
Happy Birthday TBWSH !!
I have a question ! I’m French and the book publishing system seems quite different. I never heard about an agent before entering the English-speaking writer’s world or about querying. In France, we just directly send our books to the publishing house we want (and getting rejected a lot of course) and it’s only when we are accepted that the publishing house assign us an “editor” who will say what you should change, improve, publish the book, etc. So, exactly, what is an agent and why is it so important in the “English-speaker writer’s world”?
Marie @ Drizzle & Hurricane Books
AH CAIT ALL THE CONGRATULATIONS on your 1st book birthday for the boy who steals houseeeeeeeees! So so proud and happy for you and ahh <3 <3
I loved reading your answers for these questions so much! I have to say I especially love your advice about quering, as someone who's currently thinking about heading down that path… i'll go seek some PANIC BUDDIES now hahaha π
Sabrina Accalai
I can’t believe I missed the potato scene till now!!! π
Aw, ‘you’re my favourite potato’ is now the most romantic thing I have ever heard!
Louis Mattox
If you could visit the world and characters of any fantasy books and have their powers, which would it be?
Louise
Congrats on your book birthday and on your new agent! π₯³ Being a published author is a dream of mine, but I need to actually write first, haha. And then get my social anxiety in check because querying would completely destroy my soft little soul. Maybe someday, though.
Kenzie
ASDFGHJKL!! Congratulations, Cait!!! I am so, SO stoked for you and TBWSH!! This book sounds like it’s filled with absolute chaos children and I am HERE FOR IT. XD
Also this Q&A is SO extremely helpful. Querying sounds terrifying, but I’m also weirdly excited for it??? #confusion
Sim @ Flipping Through the Pages
Ahh Cait, congratulations! I wish your books reach to many more heights. I wish I can get a copy of this. LOved that Potato thing π
Jas @ XIV blog
Congrats on the book birthday!! I really loved reading all of your answers and it makes me excited to start writing again and hopefully someday celebrate a 1st book birthday too! π
Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight
HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY, TBWSH!! I love this book so, so much, and I am so glad that it has been out in the world for a YEAR. It seems like just yesterday you were… giving birth to it? No that isn’t right, sorry, I have had some wine, but regardless, I love it, and if you ever felt positively compelled to write that sequel… just saying I’d read it.
Cas @ Daydreaming Ink
Ahh omg congrats on another one-year anniversary; TBWSH is so beautiful and I still love Jack ;)) and I loved reading the Q&A! Honestly you’re such an inspiration though because I’ve been working on my WIP for four years now basically, on and off (rip me being a high school student and always being bogged down with work) but it’s been a goal of mine to finish it this year and hopefully do some querying, google has definitely been useful but I also have no idea what I’m doing haha.
Annie @ Blossoms and Bullet Journals
Yay, happy anniversary Cait!! I love this book so so much. Hope you’re doing well! <3
Bec @ Happy Indulgence
Do you know how exciting it is, having followed your blog and book social media for YEARS, to see you not only publishing novels but celebrating their anniversaries?! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU CAIT!
Happy book birthday!
chelsea r.h.
Happy belated birthday to TBWSH!! Which, coincedentally, I just finished yesterday! I’m a little ashamed it took me a year to read it, but of course, it was brilliance itself. I loved it π I can’t wait to see your future books π I love the answer to “what would the De Laineys do in quarentine?” that’s basically my family at the moment!
Jem Jones
my comment? is gone?? *slaps technology* I TRIED.
CONGRATS on your infant child’s birthday!! I adored TBWSH and I NEED to get my own copy… the library’s copy is, obviously, not satisfactory, as the library is SHUT. (and The Girl Who Steals Christmas?? SO GOOD, THANK YOU FOR THIS PERFECTION.)
(In my previous comment, I also said that I tagged you for a thing – here – just if, y’know, you want and have time and stuff?? [you’re a Serious Blogger and Published Author, okay, and I am socially awkward and nervous just asking xD ])
Eleanor
Agggh! Loved this!! I’m 15 and I adore writing! It’s always super encouraging to know that some of my favourite authors were younger when they first started writing/querying! π My questions are:
a) HOW DO YOU WRITE SO WELL?
b) Any tips on openings without info dumps (I’m writing YA Fantasy)
c) How is your #bookstagram feed so perfect?
d) Any tips for people with waaaay too many characters in mind?
love your blog. Love your ain’t and FRECKING ADORE your writing.