We chat with author Jessica Warman about Repeat After Me, which is a mature YA contemporary sci-fi novel about a girl’s desire to lose her virginity and a class trip to a remote island where, after eating ceviche from a magical octopus, several students and their teacher are forced to relive the same day over and over again.
Hi, Jessica! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure! I live in Pittsburgh. My kids are both out of the house now, so it’s just me and my cat, Carl, living our best lives on our own schedules. I’m not a serious person. I’m almost incapable of being serious, except in extreme situations. It’s a blessing and a curse. All I want to do is laugh and play and write.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I don’t remember ever wanting to be anything but a writer. I was a bookworm from an early age. My parents encouraged my love of reading, but I took it to an extreme, which is typical of me. I felt like I’d discovered a huge secret in the sense that I’d realized books and reading were EVERYTHING: a portal to other worlds; a source of comfort and entertainment and information… it got to a point where all I wanted to do was read, all the time, so my parents gathered up all my books and put them in suitcases and took them to my grandparents’ house. “You have to go outside sometimes and play with other kids,” they told me. I was devastated. I was allowed to “visit” my books once or twice a week for the next few months. But the joke was on my mom and dad – I didn’t have access to my books, but I had access to a pen and paper to write my own stories.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. It’s about a donkey named Sylvester who finds a magic pebble that grants wishes.
- The one that made you want to become an author: It was probably Slumber Party by Christopher Pike. I was bonkers for his books. He wrote these absolutely unhinged thrillers for teens in the 1990’s that I couldn’t get enough of.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Can I choose more than one? The last page of Brave New World has been living rent-free in my head for at least twenty years. There’s a subplot in the novel The Godfather that didn’t make it into the movie that I think about all the time. (I won’t spoil it for anybody who hasn’t read the book, but I will say that it’s well worth a read for this storyline alone.)
Your latest novel, Repeat After Me, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Ridiculous, raunchy, unhinged fever dream.
What can readers expect?
I think this is a book readers will either love or hate. I expect it to be polarizing in that sense. I decided very early in the writing process that I was going to let my freak flag fly and just see what happened, instead of constantly second-guessing myself or trying to write something safe and broad. I wanted to get weird, and I think I accomplished that goal.
Where did the inspiration for Repeat After Me come from? Was it from a life-changing ceviche?
The idea actually came from my editor. It was a simple premise: A girl trying to lose her virginity ends up in a time loop. So I did a bunch of reading about time before I actually started writing. The Confessions of Saint Augustine was a big influence for me while I was getting started. I took some inspiration from The Wasteland by TS Eliot, which is how I came up with Sibyl the octopus, who is loosely modeled after the Sibyl of Cumae.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Bradd is my favorite character. I loved getting into his head. I loved the dynamic between Emma, the protagonist, and her roommate Alison. Honestly, the whole book was a blast. This is my first comedy; all my other books have been serious thrillers. I should have been writing comedy the whole time.
What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned as a writer since your debut?
Having a thick skin is so crucial for every writer. Even if you’ve written the most mind-blowing, groundbreaking novel of all time, there are going to be people who hate it. You can’t worry about those people. Beyond that, the reality is that sitting down to write a book, putting in the work day after day, is not glamorous or sexy in any way. It can be isolating and difficult. Routine is critical.
What’s next for you?
I’d love to write another comedy. I just want to make people laugh.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
I read a lot of nonfiction. My favorite book so far this year has been How Music Works by David Byrne, who was the frontman for the band The Talking Heads. I struggle to connect with music sometimes, so I was excited to sort of have it deconstructed and explained to me by one of my favorite musicians. Another thing I can’t get enough of lately is the user’s manual for my Miele vacuum cleaner.
As far as future reads, I just moved into a new apartment and am in the process of unpacking my books. I have something like thirty boxes of books sitting in storage right now. So as I’ve been unpacking them, I’ve been re-discovering them, which is so much fun. I just started re-reading my favorite Kurt Vonnegut books; I recently finished Cat’s Cradle and am about to start Slaughterhouse Five.
