Abigail Johnson is ready to hit all of the feels by bringing you another hard-hitting story, featuring two teens that stuck with their families’ issues and unexpectedly found a way to temporarily escape through their unlikely friendship. The new novel stars Adam, a boy who lost not just his oldest brother but also his parents due to their split, and Jolene, a girl whose parents were divorced and now she’s constantly stuck in the middle of their affairs.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Abigail about her upcoming release, her writing process and struggles, and to what will she considered as a perfect weekend getaway!
Your newest contemporary, Every Other Weekend, is out now! Can you tell us about it and why everyone should include this book in their reading list?
Every Other Weekend is a dual point of view story about two teens, a boy who thinks forgiveness makes him week and a girl who thinks love is for fools, who meet and spend every other weekend together in the same rundown Philadelphia apartment building. Readers should add this book t their reading lists if they want a messy, complicated, romantic, funny, heartbreaking and heart-healing story of first love. There are tons of movie references, deeply broken families, characters you love to hate, text messages, sneaking out, kissing, fighting, and kissing again. I hope readers laugh, they’ll probably cry, but I promise they’ll be smiling by the last page.
What particularly inspired you to start writing this story? Is there any special reason for why’d you choose to centere it around the weekends or featured two characters with such opposite personalities?
Every Other Weekend was inspired by an old episode of The Wonder Years where Kevin falls for a girl he meets on vacation and then has to leave her behind when he comes home. I started wondering about what it might have been like if they’d continued to see each other regularly, but briefly, and forged a relationship that was totally separate from their ‘real’ lives back home. Adam and Jolene’s story evolved radically from that inspiration—they always do—and there were other influences that played a role including Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell and my own childhood growing up in Pennsylvania.
Adam and Jolene’s first encounter was adorable and feels like something straight out of a classic coming-of-age movie. The awkwardness and the sparks mixed perfectly! What was the writing process behind this particular scene?
It was so much fun! These two characters leap off the page for from the very beginning. This first meeting between them was one of the first scenes I wrote and it stayed largely untouched even through subsequent drafts.
We can’t help but get massive James and Alyssa vibes from The End of the F***ing World from Adam and Jolene, especially the fact that the two didn’t immediately fall for each other when they first met but together, they went through many issues and struggles. Have you ever watched the series and if so, what do you think about the resemblance of these two couples?
I actually haven’t seen that show yet but now it sounds like I need to add it to my watch list ASAP! Thanks for the recommendation!
What would you say was the biggest challenge when you were writing this story and how did you overcome it?
The timeline was incredibly tricky to keep straight considering this is a dual point of view book. If I needed to move a chapter it involved moving around so many other scenes. Fortunately, I have a wonderful team of editors who helped me keep things straight.
Can you share the story behind the making of this lovely cover for Every Other Weekend? This cover is very much different from all of your previous books and we also couldn’t help but notice the fact that (1) you started writing on a purple spiral bound notebook at the age of twelve, (2) Jolene’s favourite colour is purple, and (3) the book cover is basically drowning in shades of purple!
Isn’t it beautiful? Marisa Korda, the artist and designer, not only captured my main characters Adam and Jolene perfectly but included the adjoining balconies in the rundown Philadelphia apartment building where they meet and spend every other weekend together are spot on. And the pigeons! Those pigeons are in the book! I had no idea what direction they were going to go with the cover until I saw it, but I could not be more thrilled with how it turned out, and I can’t wait to introduce readers to this heartbreaking and heart-healing story of first love.
Now that we mentioned Jolene, she is an aspiring movie maker and continuously drops movie recommendations throughout the book. If she could only watch three movies for the rest of her life, what would they be and why?
Ooh, that’s a tough one. She loves so many. I honestly don’t think I can pick. She loves everything from John Hughes, Wes Anderson, and her idol the fictional director Suzanne Silver.
Every Other Weekend is your fourth book and before that, you’ve also published hard-hitting contemporaries/realistic fiction. Do you consider this genre as your speciality or are you planning to branch out to other genres in the future?
I love writing contemporary YA and hope to consider publishing more in the future but I am branching out into a new genre with my next book. It’s a YA Thriller that will be coming out in October 2020.
This story mostly took place every other weekend, where Adam and Jolene got to hangout with each other and escape reality for a while. For you, what will you consider as a perfect weekend getaway?
Somewhere quiet with room service 🙂
If this story were to be adapted for the big screen, are there any actors and actresses that you think will be able to bring these characters to life?
I’ve been envisioning Hailee Steinfeld as Jolene and KJ Apa as Adam.
We’re incredibly excited for this book, as it’s in our list for most anticipated 2020 releases. For you, what’s your most anticipated titles for the year?
It’s gotta be The Hunger Games prequel novel from Suzanne Collins. Like every one else on the planet, I love the original trilogy and I’m also a huge fan of her middle grade series, the Underland Chronicles.
Lastly, what’s next for you?
I have a YA thriller coming out in October 2020 and I’m working on another contemporary YA right now.
