We’re delighted to have Jackie Lea Sommers join us to share more about her debut novel TRUEST.
Jackie, what do you hope readers will take away from TRUEST?
Whatever they need. Truest is ultimately a book about rescue—it is more about questions than about answers, and even the answers are more like scaffolding from which to properly view the questions. I hope readers will learn the joys and pleasures both of certainty and of uncertainty.
Was there an AHA! moment along your road to publication where something suddenly sank in and you felt you had the key to writing a novel? What was it?
My AHA! moment came near the end of editing Truest. This is my debut novel, and I’m still learning to navigate the relationship between author and editor. My editor is the sweetest, sassiest, most brilliant woman ever, and I adore her—but I had to learn that we were on the same team, that we were partners. For much of the process, my instinct was that we were either on two separate teams or else that she was the boss and I was the underling. Note that she never made me feel that way—it was just my own false assumptions. Toward the end, we were able to make jokes about what percentage of the time I was allowed to disagree with her, and I finally realized: we’re together in this. I’m so excited I get to work with her again on my next story.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a second standalone YA novel about two unlikely best friends: Rowen, the creative adventurer, and Asa, the cautious mathematics prodigy in love with her. The story takes place toward the end of their senior year of high school when the anonymous letters their class wrote to themselves as sophomores are posted online. Rowen falls hard for one of her classmates and determines to find him with Asa’s help. But as they struggle through decisions about the future and deep uncertainties, they’re searching for much more than just the letter-writer. I’m so very excited about this story—Rowen is a powerful, badass dress designer, and Asa is a dreamy math nerd. I can’t wait to introduce them to the world.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Truest
by Jackie Lea Sommers
Hardcover
Katherine Tegen Books
Released 9/1/2015
Silas Hart has seriously shaken up Westlin Beck’s small-town life. Brand new to town, Silas is different than the guys in Green Lake. He’s curious, poetic, philosophical, maddening–and really, really cute. But Silas has a sister–and she has a secret. And West has a boyfriend. And life in Green Lake is about to change forever.
Truest is a stunning, addictive debut. Romantic, fun, tender, and satisfying, it asks as many questions as it answers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jackie Lea Sommers is a young adult author who lives in Minnesota, where the people are nice and the Os are long. She is the 2013 winner of the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing. Her first novel Truest will be published by HarperCollins in September 2015. Jackie grew up on a hobby farm but has made the Twin Cities her home for nearly 15 years after moving there to study creative writing at the University of Northwestern. She hates OCD, horcruxes, and Minnesota winters. She loves Jesus, Augustus Waters, and Minnesota springs.
Have you had a chance to read TRUEST yet? Do you find joy in uncertainty? How do you view the writer-editor relationship?
Happy reading,
Jocelyn, Shelly, Martina, Erin, Lisa, Susan, Jen, Sam, Lindsey, Sandra, Kristin, and Anisaa
