"It’s like, yes, ELLIE is heavily inspired by my life but it is not my life"
YA author Gretchen Schreiber on writing vulnerably (and dealing with the fallout), surviving the "debut brain breakdown", and her big-hearted debut, ELLIE HAYCOCK IS TOTALLY NORMAL
Check out the collection of past Words With (Author) Friends, wherein I g-chat with an author and you get to read over my shoulder, and buy Gretchen’s page-turning and heartfelt book, out now!
Gretchen, hiiii! Thanks so much for talking with me! How are you feeling a few weeks post-launch?
I mean honestly amazing but also digging out my life-- I feel like so many "real world" things fell through the cracks and now it's playing catch up on all of those things like laundry and cleaning
also just moving into a new perspective of being an author-which feels like a part time job no one prepared me for
That's so true, "laundry" and "launching a book" are v incompatible
It's really like...can I make the book money where someone does this for me...
I do send out my laundry, I won't lie. But it's more because I don't have it in my building and am lazy than that I'm making that mad author money
my mom keeps telling me to get a cleaning service...and I'm like I don't think you understand how I would still have to clean before they come...
CLEANING SERVICES ARE A SCAM THE HARD PART IS NOT RUNNING A CLOTH OVER A MIRROR IT'S CLEANING UP ALL YOUR SHIT I feel this very strongly
THIS
like I can "clean" but the part before that needs to be handled before the cleaning part
I think people like it because it FORCES them to tidy up regularly. That's my theory
...oooooo THAT probably
also I just feel like I need the time to do a deep clean but every time I start I have to stop halfway and just shove the rest somewhere because it's like oh there's a new deadline...
You're so right about the big shift, though. It's almost...an additional full-time job? At least for a while around the launch?
Yes! There's so much email between yourself and the publisher, event getting set up...I'm like my admin skills are being put to the test
I want to get into the whole business of publishing a book, but I REALLY want you to tell us about ELLIE HAYCOCK IS TOTALLY NORMAL
YES --back to the topic...
Can you share a little about your debut?
The simple way to describe ELLIE HAYCOCK IS TOTALLY NORMAL is to say it's Breakfast Club in a Hospital. The longer pitch is Ellie is a girl who keeps her two lives separate --those being her hospital life and her high school life but when a new illness sends her back to the hospital it will take a new group of friends and a new love interest to help her realize that mixing your lives is not only possible but also totally normal
A lot of it came from my experiences growing up in and around hospitals and one event where a friend got to spend some time with me in a hospital and was like--Hospital Gretchen is the best Gretchen
Oh wow, that's so interesting!
yeah--it was one of the first times that I realized how I go to a hospital / talk to doctors and nurses is not how everyone else does?
What was different about your approach, exactly? From other people and—I guess—from non-hospital Gretchen?
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