We’ve had the pleasure of sitting down with Phil Stamper to discuss his upcoming debut novel, The Gravity of Us, current obsessions, and the political climate in an era of fake news, as well as goals for the next few months! You can find Phil on Twitter and Instagram!
Hi, Phil! So nice of you to chat with us! Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself before we get into the swing of things?
Sure! Thank you for having me. A little about me: I grew up in a rural village near Dayton, Ohio. I was never a writer, but I loved reading, so much that I read every one of the 40 or so Agatha Christie novels they had in my high school library within a year. I went on to get a degree in music, then later one in publishing, the latter guiding me into a career in book publishing. I’ve been writing with the goal of publication for most of the last decade, and though there have been plenty of ups and downs along the way, I’m so happy to present The Gravity of Us as my debut novel.
With the new year just starting out, what are your plans and goals for the upcoming months?
My main goal is to stay hydrated! I just announced my book tour, and I’m so excited to meet the many readers, booksellers, librarians, and authors out there who have supported The Gravity of Us. But, in all honesty, I’m also struggling a bit to balance this all with my full-time job, plus making time for my family and friends and taking care of myself. This is such a special opportunity, but there’s definitely not a guidebook out there for how to stay above water. Thankfully, I have a supportive network—my publishing team, my family, and my author friends who are dealing with the same issues—that helps keep me afloat.
Beyond hydration and general self-care, I’m excited to finish up edits on my sophomore novel (which should be out winter 2021!) and work on future projects.
Coming to your wonderful debut novel – how would you pitch The Gravity of Us to our readers?
I like to describe The Gravity of Us as a contemporary reimagining of the 60s space race where two sons of astronauts fall in love after their lives are uprooted for their parents’ NASA mission to Mars.
The story follows Cal, a successful social media journalist with half a million followers who’s used to sharing his life online. But when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars, Cal and his family relocate from Brooklyn to Houston and are thrust into a media circus.
Not long after, Cal meets Leon, another “Astrokid,” and finds himself falling head over heels—fast. As the frenzy around the mission grows, so does their connection. But when secrets about the program are uncovered, Cal must find a way to reveal the truth without hurting the people who have become most important to him.
Cal has a lot of passion for political themes, cassette tapes, and space. What did you geek out about as a child/teen? What’s your current obsession?
Thinking back, I had a lot of passions as a teen. Some of them were pop culture related—Pokemon, So You Think You Can Dance, 90s rom-coms like While You Were Sleeping—but music was always huge for me too. I’ve always played piano, it was even my principal instrument college, but as a teen I really wanted to learn how to play every instrument. I’d learned clarinet as a kid, but in high school, that expanded to saxophone, flute, oboe, and I even played my school’s contrabass clarinet once, which was… intense. I learned the trumpet and French horn, too, eventually playing horn in college for various ensembles. I also know how to play guitar, but I’ve never been very good at it.
I always write characters with passions that drive their stories, because those kinds of passions defined my teen years and made me who I am today. My current obsession though, beyond the fact that I own about a million books, is that I’ve started collecting various memorabilia from the 60s space race. I especially like reading through old LIFE magazines from the era, because the interviews with the astronauts and their families are so fascinating. Also, magazine ads from the 60s are just… bonkers, and I love it.
Did you always see Cal’s story ending up being a contemporary or was there a time where this could have ended up as a science fiction novel?
I never saw this being a sci-fi, because I really wanted to explore the drama that was happening on the ground. That’s always been more interesting to me, which is why I’m drawn to books like The Astronaut Wives Club and the aforementioned LIFE interviews with the astronaut families.
That said, my book wasn’t always a contemporary! I started drafting the novel as a YA historical fiction novel, actually. In the plan for this novel, I was actually going to build a teen m/m love story into the actual Apollo program. But I had a hard time making it work. Logistically, I found ways to make the plot work, but I realized it didn’t feel very relevant or exciting as a story. I wasn’t feeling that “spark” you get when a piece is really coming together.
And then I had the idea to make it a contemporary. I replotted the book, adding the social media and reality show elements, the “Orpheus” missions to Mars, and I found a way to reference the drama of the 60s while not getting too caught up in nostalgia. I decided to go for it during NaNoWriMo 2016, and ended up drafting the full book in three weeks. It just worked so well.
You address this in your acknowledgements, but I would love to chat about this for a moment with people who haven’t read those yet. It has finally become more common in YA to find #ownvoices queer stories in all their glory and especially younger people are finally able to find themselves represented not only on covers but also within the story being the protagonist instead of the side characters.
Are there any stories that have inspired you in particular to write this book? Any that you saw on the shelves of a bookstore and felt seen by?
I knew I was gay as a young kid, which meant I spent a long, long time trying to understand myself, while feeling pretty isolated. I never saw myself represented in the media anywhere, from TV and movies to books, and it always felt like something was missing. Not that there weren’t a few queer books out there, but they were rare. I didn’t know where to find them either, since queer stories were (and in many cases, continue to be) hidden by the many gatekeepers out there. The only time I really felt seen as a teen was when I watched the movie Shelter (2007), which was the first queer love story I’d seen in any piece of media that had a happy ending. I’ll never forget how important that was to me.
But when I first read Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda in my mid-20s, I got that feeling all over again and realized just how powerful queer YA could be. After that, I decided to start writing books with queer main characters, and I’ve never looked back. I have been (and continue to be) inspired by queer authors like Julian Winters, Mason Deaver, Nic Stone, Caleb Roehrig, Adam Silvera, and Shaun David Hutchinson, among so many others.
If you had to encapsulate Cal’s essence in one word and one song, what would these be?
One word: Compassionate. He may be a little self-centered (he’s an internet star… it’s his job!!) but in the end, he always takes the time to be there for his friends and family in whatever way they need him.
And one song: Robot, by Miley Cyrus. Any time he feels like he’s being manipulated and his future is in danger, he acts out and tells the media, clearly, “I’m not your robot.” Yes, he’s a little melodramatic.
You address the work that goes into constructing an appealing online presence and a narrative that will spike ratings and there has of course always been the controversy of being yourself while also trying to promote the work you have put your heart and soul in. But as readers will see, the things that draw the youth in are transparency and authenticity. Living in the digital age, do you feel pressure to perpetuate a certain narrative?
I think it’s fine to admit that who we present ourselves as online is bound to be a little different than who we are in person. Today, anyone in a public field has to balance their “brand” with their offline lives, and having a little separation between the two can be really healthy. Both Cal and StarWatch present their own versions of reality, but Cal’s version has an honesty and authenticity that’s missing from traditional media and the reality show that has so much control over the astronauts’ lives. It was fun, and it felt extremely relevant, to pit these two types of media against each other and see which one resonated more.
We’re all so weighed down by clickbait and “fake news” right now, and Cal gets that from the start. I wanted to show readers that, despite what the media is constantly telling you, having an authentic and transparent message has the power to stand out, and that anyone can make a difference.
Following up on that, Cal believes firmly in the power of the truth and being completely transparent in his reporting of the news. How have you experienced the plethora of fake news and attention-seeking headlines concerning issues that you feel passionate about?
A couple years ago, I started to realize that many people—from media organizations to random internet homophobes—literally ran off of my rage. When I would quote tweet them, or when I would hate-read an article, I realized they were still getting clicks and exposure, and that’s all that mattered to them in the end. I’ve tried to stop, recently, because being angry 24/7 is pretty unhealthy, and it started to take over my life. But I think many of us just don’t know how to reconcile the need to speak out with the fact our anger is being used against us.
And honestly, I still don’t have the answer, but if I figure one out you’ll be the first to know!
Many of our readers are aspiring writers – do you have any advice for them?
My main advice is to keep trying. Keep improving your craft. Keep trying new stories. Write what comes naturally to you, even write what doesn’t. Try a bit of everything, really.
I received 92 total rejections from agents between two books, and 84 rejections from editors between three books. This industry is not kind to its artists—even the nicest rejections hurt, bad. But I think you grow so much with each rejection and with each new story, that as long as you keep trying, one day it will turn around. Just know that for every supposed “overnight success” there’s usually years of frustration leading up to it that we never hear much about. Know you’re not alone, and stick with your writer friends—they’ll get you through the worst of it!
And last but not least: let our readers know what you’re currently reading or what books you have loved lately!
I’m currently reading Know My Name by Chanel Miller, which is fantastic. Some YA books I’ve loved recently include The Lucky Ones by Liz Lawson, The Fascinators by Andrew Eliopulos, The Grief Keeper by Alex Villasante, and Reverie by Ryan La Sala. 2020 is going to be a GREAT year for YA, especially for debuts, so I’d recommend checking out all of the great books in our debut group, The Roaring Twenties, to fill up your 2020 TBR!
