We chat with author Abigail Johnson about her latest release Every Time You Go Away, which is a searing and lyrical portrait of grief, forgiveness, and the kind of love that blooms in the aftermath.
Hi, Abigail! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I was born in Pennsylvania. When I was twelve, my family traded in snowstorms for year-round summers and moved to Arizona. I chronicled the entire cross-country road trip in a purple spiral-bound notebook that I still have, and have been writing ever since. I became a tetraplegic after breaking my neck in a car accident when I was seventeen, but I haven’t let that stop me from bodysurfing in Mexico, writing and directing a high-school production of Cinderella, and riding roller coasters every chance I get. I am the author of several young adult novels including If I Fix You and Every Other Weekend. Visit me online at abigailjohnsonbooks.com and follow me on Instagram @abigailjohnsonya and X @abigailswriting.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I had a wonderful English professor in college who nudged me to explore creative writing. Thanks to her encouragement, I discovered a passion for storytelling that grows brighter with every book. I started my first novel while taking her creative writing class, and while that manuscript will remain forever buried in the depths of my computer files, the one I wrote after that became my first published book, IF I FIX YOU.
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!
THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE by C.S. Lewis is a favorite from my earliest memories, Stephanie Meyer’s TWILIGHT is the book that inspired so many of us to write our own stories, and the book that lives forever in my mind is ANNE OF GREEN GABLES by L.M. Montgomery.
Your new novel, EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Tender. Romantic. Raw. Bittersweet. Hopeful.
What can readers expect?
I always promise my readers heartbreaking and heart-healing stories and EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY is no different. What is different is the disability representation. I finally got to write a book featuring a wheelchair user! It’s an incredibly vulnerable and honest depiction and one that is heavily influenced by my own emotional experiences—the good and bad—of living with a spinal cord injury. Most importantly though, this isn’t a book about disability. It’s a book about first love, grief, and forgiveness that just so happens to feature a protagonist who uses a wheelchair.
Where did the inspiration for EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY come from?
I wanted to write a book about a wheelchair user. It was that simple. And that challenging. It took me years of false starts before I discovered the ‘who’ and the ‘why’. I can’t say there was any one thing that sparked Rebecca and Ethan’s story. It was more a lifetime of little experiences and realizations that I went through in my 20+ years of being a wheelchair user that inspired the heart of this book.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I’m always surprised by the characters that I end up loving the most because they are often the ones I never planned out in advance. In this book, Ethan’s cat, Old Man, took on a much bigger role than I initially expected. He kept popping up in scene after scene and even ended up on the cover! I’ve had so many early readers reach out to tell me how much they loved him too!
Do you have any advice for those who may have set some writing resolutions for the new year?
My best advice for anyone hoping to write is to start with a synopsis. It is so much easier—and quicker—to rework a synopsis if something isn’t working than it is to draft half a book or more and realize the plot is full of holes or your character arcs aren’t right. You can save yourself a lot of time and heartache if you draft after you have a solid synopsis in place first.
What’s next for you?
More books! My next Contemporary YA features another wheelchair user—a guy this time—and a headstrong girl digging up family secrets, major grumpy/sunshine vibes, and a New England coastal setting.
Lastly, are there any releases our readers should look out for?
EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY!
