We had the pleasure of chatting with debut author James Ramos about their upcoming YA novel, The Wrong Kind of Weird, which is a high-energy YA contemporary love story, following multicultural geek and nerd club member Cameron Carson… and his secret relationship with school queen bee Karla Ortega.
Hi, James! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Absolutely! I’m a Queer, nonbinary author who grew up in Minnesota. I’m an enormous dork, and when I’m not writing I’m probably cosplaying!
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I have to say I’m grateful to my mom for instilling a love for stories in me and my siblings so early that I genuinely don’t remember a time when I didn’t love writing and stories. Some of my earliest memories are of going to our local library and checking out books, and her taking us all to one of our local comic book stores, so stories in one form or another have always had a special place in my mind and heart, and writing them was almost a natural progression from that.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
I was raised super-religiously, so the first book I remember reading was The Bible. The book that made me want to be an author was probably Twilight, not gonna lie! I was a senior in high school when the hype for the movies started, and before that I had never heard of any of the books, but seeing how much that franchise impacted pop culture, and then learning it all started with a book, was the push I needed to start seeing writing as something I wanted to do professionally instead of as a hobby. It became a lot more tangible for me during that time. As for one I just cannot stop thinking about, can it be a comic book? Because that would definitely be Elektra Lives by Frank Miller. I’ve read it about a million times and I just love it! If you, like me, loved the Netflix Daredevil show, it’s a must-read!
Your debut novel, The Wrong Kind of Weird, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Geeky fun for (mostly) everyone!
What can readers expect?
It’s a celebration of geek culture for sure! I think they can expect a mixture of high brow and low brow humor, tons of references to teen rom-com films, a little enemies-to-lovers thrown in for good measure, and hopefully characters they can see themselves in, in some way. If you’re any kind of geek or nerd or dork, this book was written for you, and if you’re not, maybe you’ll end up becoming one, or maybe realizing you were one all along?
Where did the inspiration for The Wrong Kind of Weird come from?
It ultimately came from me just reflecting on my own teen years and the kinds of struggles I had with wanting to fit in and the pressure to conform with peer pressure, which isn’t something that goes away for a lot of us even after we get to our twenties, thirties, and beyond. I’m in a place where I’m the most comfortable I’ve ever been in my own skin, and getting there took and continues to take a lot of work, so the idea for this novel kind of had its beginnings in me looking backwards on all the time I wasted trying to be someone and something I wasn’t.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really liked the moments between Cameron and Mackenzie. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s a throughline of snark that sort of defines how they interact with one another, but over the course of the story the subtext beneath it shifts to mean something very different than it did at first, and that was a ton of fun to do.
Do you have any advice for those who may have set some writing resolutions for the new year?
Hold yourself accountable, but be gracious with yourself. Writing is such a taxing thing to do, and it’s important to set goals for yourself, but be reasonable also. Don’t push yourself further than you can go, because it’s easy to lose sight of why you’re doing it to begin with, or to lose your joy or enthusiasm for it.
What’s next for you?
I’ve got a YA coming-of-age story that’s due to release in winter 2024 with Inkyard. After that, I’ve got a bunch of other things in the works, mostly YA, but different genres like fantasy (hopefully). I’ve also been aching to do something cyberpunk, so we’ll see!
Lastly, are there any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?
So many! Theres A Ruinous Fate by Kaylie Smith, Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success by Jessica Parra, Reggie + Delilah’s Year of Falling by Elise Bryant, and so many more! 2023 is going to be an amazing year for book lovers!
