I'm very stoked to have Alyssa Brugman on the blog today to answer some of my questions about her book (which I absolutely adored) and to help to celebrate my birthday week. Thanks again for taking the time to let me do an interview with you! First, what inspired you to write Alex as Well?
The writer Jane McCredie was on the radio talking about her book Making Boys and Girls, which is about the science and psychology of gender. She was talking about gender as a spectrum.
Young people who experiment with, who identify as neither or both gender in various ways, are not much discussed in young adult fiction, which seems very odd when gender, sexual awareness and identity make up so much of the rest of young adult fiction. It doesn’t make any sense that there aren’t there more YA books about transgendered, cross-dressing or intersex teens, so I wrote one.
At the time I was working on a PhD in literature. My area of study was unreliable narration in young adult fiction. I wanted to know how I could let the reader know what was going even though my young character shouldn’t really have the emotional maturity to understand either themselves, or the motives of others. I incorporated a number of the narrative strategies that I studied in the PhD into this manuscript.
I couldn't agree with you more, YA literature is definitely lacking in those areas, and I was fascinated by Alex's narrative. Were any of these characters based off of people that you know in real life?
No, I made it all up.
Did you have to do any research while writing this novel? If so, how did you use this research, or what are some things you learned?
As I said before, I wrote a PhD thesis on unreliable narration, and the original manuscript of Alex was submitted as the companion piece, showing examples of the narrative strategies that I talked about in the thesis. I learned a lot of technical names for things I had done before in other books, and now I can see them when I read other people’s books. It’s kind of like opening the bonnet of a novel seeing all the different parts of its engine.
What do you hope people take away from Alex as Well?
I read an article by an emerging young adult author in the Australian Society of Authors magazine who said, “I didn’t want to write one of those social realism novels whose aim seems to be to make teens feel better about being bullied for being fat or thin or gay or black or Muslim.”
I unapologetically write those novels, but not with the sort of cynicism that the above quote implies - instead with what I fancy is a genuine compassion for, and interest in, young people who might be struggling in their various ways.
People who don’t understand intersex conditions seem to think that gender dysphoria is some kind of choice.
While I believe society in general is making life easier than it used to be for people who identify as LGBT, it still appears to be too common an experience to have the family/loved ones of these people to say, “I will love you again when you decide to stop being LGBT”.
My wonderful editor for the novel, Jane Pearson and I had a long discussion about how we were going to end this novel. We wanted it to be hopeful and triumphant, at the same time reflecting the sometimes harsh reality for adolescents like Alex.
I hope that young people (or old people) who in some way identify with Alex’s plight, for whatever reason, will find some comfort in her company.
“I will love you again when you decide to stop being LGBT” is quite possibly one of the most accurate statements about being LGBT today that I have personally ever read. In a bit lighter of a question, do you listen to music when you write? If so, what songs make up the soundtrack to this book?
There are a lot of pop tunes in this book. It's interesting that my character will often choose a soundtrack for the writing of the book that is quite different from what I would choose. My latest character, who is a man, wants to listen to The Cure, David Bowie, Joy Division, Morrissey, and Peter Gabriel. That's a long way from Alex who liked Pink, Black Eyed Peas and Miley Cyrus.
I'd get along with both of those characters- I listen to both Pink and The Cure. Is there a particular place or room where you feel the most inspired to write?
I have a study in my house which is where I do the typing part, but writing mostly happens in my head. I do the composing part while I am hanging out the washing, driving, grocery shopping etc.
Which scene in Alex as Well was your favorite to write?
There is a section of the book where Alex’s mother is giving her testosterone without Alex being aware of it, and Alex’s male side reasserts himself more at that point in the novel. He flirts with a class mate. I enjoyed writing that part of the manuscript because the two sides of Alex debate what to do and discuss what is appropriate conduct. The male part of Alex contributes power and vibrancy to the character too.There is a section of the book where Alex’s mother is giving her testosterone without Alex being aware of it, and Alex’s male side reasserts himself more at that point in the novel. He flirts with a class mate. I enjoyed writing that part of the manuscript because the two sides of Alex debate what to do and discuss what is appropriate conduct. The male part of Alex contributes power and vibrancy to the character too.
Which parts of the book gave you the most trouble?
This was one of the easier manuscripts that I have written. I didn’t feel like a had to build Alex from scratch – it was as if she already existed, and I only had to put the words down. I hope that you will have the same sensation reading this book – as if Alex is there next to you whispering in your ear.
The feedback that I’m getting so far from readers is that, now that they’ve met Alex, somehow they feel that they should have read this story before. In fact, there was one reader who wrote something like, “so good to read a vegetarian character in YA”, as if that was the attribute that stood out.
From my experience, I can definitely confirm that Alex felt like someone I should already know, like she was telling me something important as opposed to just being a character in a novel. But... Can you describe the book in five words?
Hahaha! No. Maybe feisty teenage girl comes out? Something like that?
Do you have any new books or projects in the works that you can tell us about?
Yes, I just finished a new manuscript which is about a man with a broken heart. It's been a lot of fun to write. I'm also planning on self publishing a romance novel this year. It's a manuscript I've had sitting on my hard drive for a little while. I have not tried self publishing before, so it will be interesting to see how that goes compared to the books I have sold through mainstream publishers.
I look forward to reading your new work. Thank you so much for talking with me about Alex as Well. It's not a book I'm likely to forget in the near future.
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