We chat with Erik J. Brown about his latest release Lose You To Find Me, which is romantic, heartfelt, and hilarious queer coming-of-age story, perfect for fans of What If It’s Us and If This Gets Out!
Hi, Erik! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Sure! And thanks for having me! I’m Erik, I’m the author of the Goodreads award-nominated book All That’s Left in the World—a queer postapocalyptic romance—and my new book Lose You to Find Me. I love writing genre-blending books for young adults and I live in Philly.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I think I realized in kindergarten that books were actually written by people and not just materialized as everything else must be. And from then on I always thought it would be such an amazing job. In third grade, I wrote a story for an assignment that my teachers loved and even called my mom to tell her how amazing it was. That year my mom bought me a book on how to be a writer and I’ve actually been writing stories ever since. It wasn’t until I was an adult I realized people might actually like what I write.
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 first is The Haunted Mask by R.L. Stine, the one that made me want to be an author is The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, and the one I can’t stop thinking about is 11/22/63 by Stephen King.
Your latest novel, Lose You To Find Me, is out May 16th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Messy teens figuring out life.
What can readers expect?
Well, definitely messy teens figuring out life. But also queer elders, butter fights, drama, terrible nicknames, so much baking, ice cream named after Oscar-winning/nominated actresses—May Flavor of the Month: Waffle Cone Crawford—best friends, a summary of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love, a happy for now, and lemons.
Where did the inspiration for Lose You To Find Me come from?
I worked in a retirement community when I was in high school and I always thought it would make for a fun setting for a story. It wasn’t until the pandemic when so much was up in the air that it reminded me of being a teen in my last year of high school. It’s different from college because you’ve already made this big transition by the time you graduate college. But going from high school to college is such a monumental shift, the year before is full of unknowns and trying to figure out your future while maintaining your present life can be so complex. I knew immediately the two ideas went together and started writing.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
There’s a character named James I loved writing. He’s a silly golden retriever type who just likes people and doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him. But my favorite scenes were when I got to have the three queer elders in the same scene. There’s a floor manager named George who has a friendly shade-off with one of the queer residents, Al. The two of them just read each other for filth every time they see each other and it was just fun writing these two catty queens throwing shade at each other. It comes from a place of love, but they are vicious.
This is your second published novel! Can you tell us about any lessons learned between the two as a writer and published author?
I think the best advice I can give to other authors is to surrender control. Every debut wants to do the most work to market their book but there’s so much out of our control. We don’t have big marketing budgets and unless you have a TikTok go viral, the chances of new people seeing your posts are so slim. Sometimes doing promo on your own wastes so much time it can delay your next book. The only thing we as writers can control is how we write what’s next, so that’s what I’ve been focusing on during this second book. But make sure you come back and ask me about lessons learned between books two and three cause it’s a doozy!
What’s next for you?
I’m working on the sequel for All That’s Left in the World that’s due out in 2024 (hence the doozy), and another standalone due hopefully in 2025!
Lastly, are there any 2023 releases our readers should look out for?
Absolutely! If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude, The Name Drop by Susan Lee, No Perfect Places by Steven Salvatore, The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White, Northranger by Rey Terciero, Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler, The Last Girls Standing by Jennifer Dugan, Your Lonely Nights Are Over by Adam Sass, As You Walk on By by Julian Winters, The Spells We Cast by Jason June, The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist by Sophie Gonzales, The Pledge by Cale Dietrich, and The Long Run by James Acker.
