If you’re looking for a holiday read you should definitely pick up This Time Next Year by Sophie Cousens. A love story about a man and a woman who were both born in the same hospital, one minute apart, on New Year’s. Both of their lives took completely different courses but they reconnect on their 30th birthday. The characters and the story are very lovable and real and you won’t want to put the book down! Get cosy with a warm drink and a blanket and read on!!!
I urge you to pick up This Time Next Year and give a read this holiday season, it’s the escapism we all need right now. If you’re still not sold, be sure to check out our review as well as this interview!!
Hi Sophie! Firstly, congratulations on the release of your debut novel, This Time Next Year!!!! Could you please start by telling us a bit about yourself?
Hello! So, I’m Sophie, I live in Jersey (one of the Channel Islands, just off the coast of France) with my husband and two little girls. Before I became a writer, I lived in London and worked as a TV Producer on comedy shows such as The Graham Norton Show. I loved working in TV, and sometimes miss the camaraderie of working in a big team. Aside from work, I love all forms of cheese and most forms of dog. I dislike doing life admin and arguing with my children about whether they should eat green things.
This Time Next Year has a very fun and interesting premise. What inspired you to write this story? And, if you had to describe This Time Next Year in three words, which ones would you choose?
I’ve always been interested in the idea of ‘first impressions not being what they seem.’ In this story, Quinn looks to have the perfect life while Minnie’s life appears to be jinxed, but beneath the surface it’s much more complicated than that. I used to live in Primrose Hill next to these enormous, beautiful mansions. I’d imagine how perfect the lives of the people living in them must be. No one’s life is as simple as that though, is it? Wealth does not necessarily correlate with an uncomplicated life. This was the initial idea for the book, then throw in two babies born on the same day, lots of baking and plenty of fun secondary characters and the story started to take shape.
In three words I’d describe it as; romantic, funny and delicious (because you will want to bake pies after reading it!)
Besides romantic relationships, you also explore many other universal themes in this book: female friendships, mental health, family bonds, and even climate change. But especially, mental health. It is something we rarely see in romance novels and something that readers will definitely appreciate since it gives the story more depth and it makes it even more real. What made you want to include it and make it an important part of the story?
Mental health is interesting because it’s something you can’t see from the outside. In the same way that people’s lives can look perfect, you never know what’s happening inside someone else’s head. Minnie’s first impression is that Quinn has a sweet, caring relationship with his mother, in fact she is jealous of how close they are. However, in reality Quinn’s mother’s mental health has affected his life in a profound way. I’m interested in the idea of cause and effect, how our family and friends can influence our lives and our behaviour, how we’re basically soft wood, moulded by our surroundings and the people in our lives. Another central relationship in the book is between Minnie and her best friend Leila. Leila is everything Minnie is not; self-assured and confident. The book explores how, as with family, close friendships can affect our perspectives and our self-esteem.
Writing a first novel can be daunting, yet extremely rewarding. What was the most difficult aspect of writing This Time Next Year? And the best one?
I think the hardest part, for me, was the second draft. I’d had input from editors on things I should tweak, characters I should change, and I found this very difficult to implement. Writing a book is like sewing a huge tapestry and then someone asks you to unpick all the green bits, but the threads are now all intertwined and knotted together at the back. I think some authors are better at unpicking their threads than others! The best part has been some of the messages people have sent me since reading the book – people who said it’s really helped them with their anxiety during this difficult time, or others who have said they couldn’t focus of reading a book until they picked up mine. I never imagined my story might help people in this way and it’s wonderful.
This Time Next Year has a bunch of fun, charming, and realistic characters. Which one did you find to be the easiest to write? Hardest? Who do you identify the most with?
I love that readers have truly engaged with all the secondary characters in this book. Often in a rom-com, people don’t want the side characters to take up too much space, but here, I like to think they all earn their place. I especially loved writing Bev. I haven’t read any other characters in literature going through that kind of guilt about not doing enough to save the planet. It’s a guilt we all feel somewhere in our minds, and for Bev it kicks off an existential life crisis that I found interesting to explore. The hardest character to write was probably Minnie’s mum, Connie. She is a harsh character. I think when you see what she’s been through you understand why, but she’s not immediately likeable, certainly not a positive role model for Minnie. It can be hard to get the balance right with these kinds of prickly, complicated characters.
Writing and publishing can be hard and stressful work, what do you do to unwind when you’re finished writing for the day?
Wine and Netflix! Or a good book… Bookstagram is my guilty pleasure, seeing all the new books I NEED to buy. Or playing ‘jump the lava’ with my children, where we turn the floor into lava and have to cross the living room by jumping from cushion to cushion. Though this is quite a dangerous game and ruins the cushions, so not that relaxing at all. Ha ha.
The book takes place in a 2020 where there is no pandemic, which was nice to escape the real world for a while haha. But, how do you think the characters would cope with the pandemic, and do you think Minnie and Quinn would be on lockdown together?
Oh, I think Minnie and Quinn would love to be in lock down together – as long as they weren’t in lock down with their mothers, ha. I think Quinn would cope well in a pandemic, he’s pragmatic and optimistic, but I think Minnie would be worried about all her pie customers. She delivers food to the elderly and isolated and they would need her more than ever during a pandemic. Perhaps she would get dispensation to keep visiting them but leaving pies on people’s doorsteps.
Are you working on a new project, and if so, could you give us a little hint?
I am, I’ve just finished the first draft of an exciting new novel which will be out next year. It’s about a girl who picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport, and then when she looks at the contents, realises the case must belong to the man of her dreams. I hope people are going to like it, it’s lots of fun and set on the island where I live – Jersey.
Do you have any book recommendations for us?
I am currently hooked on The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, I think most of the world is obsessed with this book right now. I’ve enjoyed a couple of debuts recently too; The Paris Connection by Lorraine Brown, Tom Ellen’s All About Us, a heart-warming Christmas read that’s a modern re-telling of A Christmas Carol, and Lizzy Dent’s hilarious The Summer Job. I love supporting new authors as I know how difficult it can be to get noticed in a sea of celebrity authors and better-known names.
We could only end with this question… Where would you like to be this time next year?
Writing from my laptop in the Bahamas, ha ha. I think I would like to be preparing for a lovely big family Christmas with all my family in the UK – no social distancing, lots of hugs and mince pies and muddy dog walks. One can only dream of that right now.
