Katie McGarry is a powerhouse when it comes to contemporary and romance novels. Her Thunder Road and Pushing the Limits series have both become best sellers, while her standalone novels Say You’ll Remember Me is a favourite of many.
In January 2019, author Katie McGarry released her latest YA contemporary/romance Only A Breath Apart to rave reviews. In January 2020 she is back with her novel, Echoes Between Us, which is a companion novel to OABA, and focuses on the mysterious V and set slightly after the events of its spiritual predecessor. A haunting tale of love, loss, and the things we do for the ones we care about, Nerd Daily contributor Tasha Leigh sat down for a second time with Katie to ask her all about her upcoming release.
Hello again Katie! Thank you so much for sitting down again and answering my questions! So it has been almost 12 months since Only A Breath Apart was released into the world. How has your audience received Jesse’s story?
Readers seem to love Jesse just as much as I loved writing him! One quote I kept seeing from readers was when Jesse told V in regards to Scarlett: “I think I was born in love with her…” Plus, readers seem to fall in love not only with the connection Jesse had with Scarlett, but also the connection he had with his land.
Will it remain a standalone novel? Or can we expect to see more of Jesse and Scarlett’s love affair?
Jesse and Scarlett will remain a standalone story, but they do appear as secondary characters in Echoes Between Us!
How would you describe your novels to readers who are new to your work?
I write emotional, character driven novels with a love story. My books will make you feel what the characters are feeling…love, anger, sadness, laughter, joy and love again!
You have a new novel coming out in January titled Echoes Between Us. What was your inspiration for this one?
When I was a teenager, my life began to spiral out of control from secrets. One night, I had a dream of a ghost haunting me, following me, reaching out to harm me, and then I woke up to the sound of glass breaking. A mirror in the bathroom across from my room inexplicably shattered, and when I sat up in bed shaking uncontrollably, I saw a shadowy figure in my room watching me. My dog who had been sleeping on the floor whined and backed away from the shadow, and then I heard three knocks on my window. Each one slow, methodical, and my heart beat out of my chest. Fear paralyzed me from the inside out, and I knew in that moment that if I didn’t change, if I didn’t start making better choices than I had, I knew nothing good was going to happen to me. I decided to use this experience and turn it into a book.
Veronica has a brain tumour that allows her to speak to her dead mother as well as sense spirits around her. How did her character come about?
There was a time that I suffered blinding migraines and then there was another time when someone very close to me had terrible, extreme migraines. An MRI showed a mass on my loved one’s brain. We went through a period of time called watchful waiting where we monitored symptoms along with bi-annual MRIs. I decided to take this experience and combine in it with my weird dream/paranormal experience when I was a teenager and Veronica was born!
Sawyer is the other main character in Echoes and conceals a dark secret behind his perfect public persona. What draws you to write protagonists with hidden flaws?
We are all flawed. Even the best of people have something about them that isn’t perfect. Especially in a world where social media can make us feel as if everyone else is perfect or has a perfect life, and therefore, we must fake perfection, I feel driven to show that everyone is flawed. I often receive comments from readers that after reading my books they fell less alone in the world. I think the reason for that is because they see characters who are flawed and those same characters find a way to still love who they are.
From early readers of Echoes Between Us, it appears that people are really connecting with Sawyer and can understand the relationship between he and his mother. Unfortunately, there are many people who have grown up in a household where they sometimes had to be the responsible person, even though the world believed that they had the “perfect” life.
So, Echoes takes place in the same town/area as OABA and we see the return of Jesse and Scarlett in the role of friend rather than taking the forefront. What drew you back to their little slice of America?
The moment I met Veronica in Only a Breath Apart, I wanted to learn more about her. What better place to tell her story than in the same area that contained Jesse’s land? His land had a mystical quality to it and I wanted that same feel in Veronica’s story.
Were Echoes and OABA always planned to be a sort of companion novel to each other?
I wrote Only a Breath Apart as a standalone. After I turned in Scarlett and Jesse’s story, my publisher, Tor Teen, they gave me the green light to write Veronica’s story.
Glory also returns with her psychic predictions and vague prophecies and I have to say she is one of my favourite characters. Will we ever see a novel from her point of view?
Oh, that is a wonderful idea and would be so much fun! I have to seriously think about this now!
Have you got anything in the works that you can tell us about?
I am currently working on a project. Because it is a work-in-progress, there isn’t much I can share yet, but stay tuned!
Where can people expect to see you in the near future?
I don’t have any plans to travel at the moment. I’ve taken some time off from being on the road so I can focus on my family.
If you could see any of your novels adapted for the screen, which would it be and what form would it take?
I would love to see any of my book series as a TV series on Netflix or Hulu. It would be so much fun to see Noah and Echo, Oz and Emily or Scarlett and Jesse play out on TV!
And last question for a bit of fun, if you could only read 5 more books in your lifetime, what would they be?
Wow, super tough question! A Wrinkle in Time, The Stand, the Bible, Redeeming Love, and The Bronze Horseman
