Hi everyone! If you follow me on social media or this blog, then you know I loved Rachel Lynn Solomon’s debut novel, You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone! When I got the opportunity to interview Rachel, I just couldn’t say no. I love her books and I am so thrilled to be able to feature her latest, Our Year of Maybe.
About the Book
Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Release Date: January 15th 2019
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary
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Aspiring choreographer Sophie Orenstein would do anything for Peter Rosenthal-Porter, who’s been on the kidney transplant list as long as she’s known him. Peter, a gifted pianist, is everything to Sophie: best friend, musical collaborator, secret crush. When she learns she’s a match, donating a kidney is an easy, obvious choice. She can’t help wondering if after the transplant, he’ll love her back the way she’s always wanted.
But Peter’s life post-transplant isn’t what either of them expected. Though he once had feelings for Sophie too, he’s now drawn to Chase, the guitarist in a band that happens to be looking for a keyboardist. And while neglected parts of Sophie’s world are calling to her—dance opportunities, new friends, a sister and niece she barely knows—she longs for a now-distant Peter more than ever, growing increasingly bitter he doesn’t seem to feel the same connection.
Peter fears he’ll forever be indebted to her. Sophie isn’t sure who she is without him. Then one blurry, heartbreaking night twists their relationship into something neither of them recognizes, leading them to question their past, their future, and whether their friendship is even worth fighting for.
About the Author
Rachel Lynn Solomon lives, writes, and tap dances in Seattle, Washington. Once she helped set a Guinness World Record for the most natural redheads in one place. She’s the author of You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone (out now from Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse), Our Year of Maybe (1/15/19), and Today Tonight Tomorrow (2020). A short story of hers will appear in the anthology It’s a Whole Spiel (Penguin Random House/Knopf, fall 2019).
The Interview!
1. Summarize Our Year of Maybe in 5 words or less!
best friends, kidney transplant, yearning
2. Where did the inspiration for Our Year of Maybe come from?
Organ donation has always interested me, and I love writing complicated relationships. I remember getting the first idea-spark while I was walking my dog, and I rushed home to write the first chapter all in one go. I had this vision of two characters a couple days before a transplant, the recipient assuring the donor it would all go smoothly, and the donor harboring some not-quite-platonic feelings for her best friend, the recipient. While the chapter has changed pretty significantly, a lot of the dialogue has remained the same.
3. How is Our Year of Maybe different from your debut novel? How is it similar?
On the surface, the books have quite a few similarities: both contemporary, both dual POV, both set in Seattle, both premises have a medical bent to them. But while Huntington’s disease plays a large role in YOU’LL MISS ME WHEN I’M GONE, in OUR YEAR OF MAYBE, the medical issues are largely resolved post-transplant. We know Peter will be taking anti-rejections meds as long as he has the donor kidney, and that at some point he may be back on the transplant list, and Sophie has a bit of lingering pain, but there aren’t any tense hospital scenes after their surgery. The book is primarily about how the transplant alters their friendship.
The other significant difference is that YOU’LL MISS ME WHEN I’M GONE is about two sisters trying to find their way back to each other. At the beginning, they’re barely speaking to each other. But OUR YEAR OF MAYBE opens with best friends who are closer than close, and it follows their struggle to maintain that closeness.
And finally, I think OUR YEAR OF MAYBE is a bit messier, a bit more raw. In YOU’LL MISS ME WHEN I’M GONE, Adina and Tovah are both extremely good at what they love to do: viola for Adina, biology for Tovah. They have very defined, focused paths: conservatory, med school. In OUR YEAR OF MAYBE, Sophie and Peter have interests and passions, but they have no idea what they want to do after high school, and they still have a lot to figure out in terms of what their futures look like.
4. As a sophomore author, is there anything you’d go back in time to tell yourself before You’ll Miss Me When I’m Gone debuted?
Stop looking at Goodreads 🙂
5. What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and do you have your own advice for other writers?
This is a great question. Here’s a piece of advice I return to often: if your character is crying, then your reader doesn’t have to. I think that applies to laughing, too. Let the writing show a scene is sad (or funny), rather than telling a reader where to shed a tear. I’ve read books where the characters laugh after every other line of dialogue, as though they want to make sure you as the reader know they’re saying funny things. It’s the equivalent of an “applause” sign—emotions are more sincere when they happen organically.
In terms of advice I have to offer—aside from writing the next book, which is the only thing we have control over at any stage—one thing that significantly helped me was embracing my terrible first drafts, which I (lovingly) refer to as garbagedrafts. I can’t obsess over making beautiful sentences with my first draft, or I’ll never finish. All I need from a first draft is something book-shaped—then I can revise.
Thank you for having me, Shelly!!
Giveaway!
Win a signed copy of OUR YEAR OF MAYBE by Rachel Lynn Solomon (US Only)! Ends January 20th.
a Rafflecopter giveawayThanks to Rachel for participating in this interview! I loved her answers and it definitely made me even more excited for the book.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the tour and let me know what you thought of the interview! Are you as excited for this book as I am?
