Welcome, friend! Today has a bonus post with an interview with Alyson Derrick, the author of Forget Me Not. Alyson Derrick was born and raised in Greenville, Pennsylvania, a town where burn barrels take the place of recycling bins. After making her great escape to Pittsburgh, where she earned her bachelor’s in English writing, Alyson started her own food truck but soon realized she much prefers telling stories over slinging cheesesteaks. She is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller She Gets the Girl and the author of Forget Me Not. Alyson currently resides in Pennsylvania with her wife and their dog, Hank.
Many thanks to Colored Pages Team and the publisher Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers for having me on this tour and giving me the chance to connect with Alyson.
Hi Alyson. Welcome to Armed with A Book. Please tell me and my readers a bit about yourself.
Hi! I’m Alyson Derrick. I live in Pittsburgh, PA with my wife, our daughter, and our dog. After college I opened a food truck that my wife and I ran for two years before I decided to give it up to write full-time. When I’m not writing, I like to hike, fish, and play board games with my family (Moonrakers, Dominion, and Catan are some of my favorites).
What drew you to a story about a young girl in a conservative rural town? Are there any life experiences that you brought into this book?
Well, I just happened to be a young girl in a conservative rural town for most of my life! Like Stevie, I’m queer and Korean-American, and I grew up in a very catholic family in a small town in Pennsylvania. So, I definitely brought a lot of my own life experiences into this book.
What kind of research did you do for this book?
Very little actually. I think the only thing I remember researching is how to put up a fence. I’ve taken one down before, but never put one up. Haha.
In what way did the final draft of the book look different from the first one?
In the first draft, there was nothing about Catholicism, which was a pretty drastic change! It ended up being quite an important portion of the book. I needed Stevie to have a really good reason for being so secretive about her sexuality.
Stevie’s accident offers a second chance to many people in her life. Did you know from the start who the characters in this story were or did they evolve as you wrote?
I had a really good idea of most of the characters. One that evolved a lot throughout the drafting process was Stevie’s mom. Since Catholicism wasn’t a part of the book, Stevie’s mom was someone who likely would’ve been more accepting of Stevie being queer. But my editor and I decided it would be better if that changed!
If readers could take away one thing from your book, what would you want it to be?
Life can feel impossible living in certain places for certain people. If you’re one of those people, just know that it really does get better. Hang in there.
For someone who loves Forget Me Not, can you recommend three books with similar themes to check out next?
- SHE GETS THE GIRL (a book I wrote with my wife)
- THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST by Emily Danforth (my favorite book)
- THE LUCKY LIST by Rachael Lippincott
Click on the cover to head to the Goodreads pages of these books.
Before this book, you co-authored She Gets the Girl with Rachael Lippincott. What does co-authoring look like?
For us, it looks like sitting across the kitchen table from each other sharing ideas, writing, and then editing each other’s work. It was a real blast to write SGTG with Rachael, because it’s based on our own love story. We shared some really good laughs when we were thinking back to the start of our relationship as we came up with the scenes.
Do you have another book in the works?
I do! I just started outlining yesterday, but I can’t talk about it yet. Sorry!
Thank you for taking the time to chat with me.
Thank you for hanging out with Alyson and me. Connect with her on Goodreads, Instagram and Twitter.
Add Forget Me Not to your TBR on Goodreads. Read my review here.
Happy Reading!
Be First to Comment