We chat with author Amelia Diane Coombs about her new release All Alone With You, which is described as HBO Max’s Hacks gets a romantic twist in the vein of Jenn Bennett and follows a standoffish teen girl whose loner status gets challenged by a dynamic elderly woman and a perpetually cheerful boy.
Hi, Amelia! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi there! I’m Amelia and I’m the author of All Alone With You, as well as three previously published YA novels. I live in Seattle, WA, with my spouse and our Siberian cat, Sofiya. In my free time, I enjoy gaming, rolling dice with my D&D group, and binge-watching my favorite reality TV shows.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I was a really avid reader as a kid, and was lucky to grew up in a household that really promoted and supported my bookworm habits. As a shy, anxious kid, I loved how books—both reading them and writing them—could transport me into another person’s head. I honestly don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t reading or writing!
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!
Nancy Drew, Sarah Dessen’s This Lullaby, and Notes on an Execution. (A weird combination, I know!)
Your latest novel, All Alone with You, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Grumpy. Sunshine. Loneliness. Friendship. Yearning.
What can readers expect?
All Alone With You is, at its core, about friendship and connection (even though there’s romance sprinkled in there too!) and readers can expect an emotional journey as they follow Eloise through the fall of her senior year. They can also expect: a Halloween-themed battle of the bands, a Stevie Nicks-inspired septuagenarian, anxiety and depression representation, and a STEM-focused main character.
Where did the inspiration for All Alone with You come from?
My inspiration for All Alone With You actually came in the early days of the pandemic. I’d been listening to an audiobook of Vivek Murthy’s Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World in April of 2020, and—as a self-proclaimed loner at the time—I was really fascinated by the negative health effects loneliness can cause. Murthy talked in the book about different programs in place to help the elderly, who’re the most vulnerable to loneliness, and an idea took root.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Even though this book was difficult to write, it was also a joy to lose myself in, and I adore each and every character with my whole heart. My favorite scene to write in the entire book was the Halloween-themed battle of the bands, A Scare is Born! I love spooky season, and working on that scene brought me so much (albiet angsty) joy.
This is your fourth published novel! What are some of the key lessons you have learned when it comes to writing and the publishing world?
That all you can control are the words you write. Publishing is a rough industry and so much is out of your control. As someone with a lot of anxiety, this was a difficult reality for me to accept—and I fought against it for years! Learning to accept that all I can control are the words on the page has brought me a lot of relief.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on an exciting project with my agent that I’ll hopefully be able to share more about soon, but until then, TBD!
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
The Borrow A Boyfriend Club by Page Powars! I had the immense pleasure of reading an early version, and it’s literally a shot of serotonin in a book; so delightful. It releases on September 12th!
