About the Author: James L. Sutter
What would you like readers to know about you?
Before I started writing young adult romance novels, I was the co-creator of the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games, and have written a ton of tabletop gaming materials, comics, video games, and fantasy, science fiction, and horror fiction. I'm also a lifelong musician and have played in bands ranging from metalcore to musical theater here in my home city of Seattle.
What music do you listen to (if any) when you write?
I need silence to write—music is too distracting, as I'm always trying to take it apart and see how it works—but I was listening to a lot of Sub-Radio and Bleachers when I wrote Darkhearts.
What books or authors inspired you to become a writer?
Too many to list, but Dan Simmons' Hyperion and Patricia Wrede's Dealing With Dragons really stuck with me and inspired me. But for YA romance, John Green, Rainbow Rowell, Jeff Zentner, Mary HK Choi, and Abigail Johnson were the ones who really pulled me into the genre. (And Aprilynne Pike, who personally encouraged me to take a shot despite having spent my whole career in adult science fiction and fantasy!)
About the Book: Darkhearts
What is your book about for those who haven’t read it?
Darkhearts is a queer YA romance about falling for the boy who stole your shot at becoming a rockstar.
When David quit his band, he missed his shot at fame. For the past two years, he’s been trapped in an ordinary Seattle high school life, working summers for his dad’s construction business while his former best friends Chance and Eli became the hottest teen pop act in America.Then Eli dies. Suddenly David and Chance are thrown back into contact, forcing David to rediscover all the little things that once made the two of them so close, even as he continues to despise the singer’s posturing and attention-hogging. As old wounds break open, an unexpected kiss leads the boys to trade frenemy status for a confusing, tentative romance—one Chance is desperate to keep out of the spotlight. Though hurt by Chance’s refusal to acknowledge him publicly, David decides their new relationship presents a perfect opportunity for him to rejoin the band and claim the celebrity he's been denied. But Chance is all too familiar with people trying to use him. As the mixture of business and pleasure becomes a powder keg, David will have to choose: Is this his second chance at glory? Or his second chance at Chance?
What has been your inspiration for writing it?
When I was fifteen, I started a punk band. While we never got famous, we played a lot of shows, and even got on the radio. But I can still vividly remember being eighteen, looking at the younger musicians coming up behind me, or all the rock stars getting signed as teenagers, and feeling washed-up—a has-been before I’d even graduated high school. This book came directly out of that feeling: the sense of having barely started your life, yet knowing in your gut that you’ve already missed your shot. At the same time, this book is also about how confusing it can be to realize you’re bisexual—the sudden upending of an unquestioned default. What does it mean to be attracted not to boys in general, but to one particular boy? When I first started kissing guys, I could tell I wasn’t straight—but was I queer enough to claim the label? No matter which category I put myself in, I felt like an impostor.
Ultimately, Darkhearts is about what happens when the labels you use to define yourself—to yourself—no longer fit. What does it mean when you don’t become the rock star you expected? What does it mean when your sexuality isn’t what you’d thought? While Darkhearts is a rom-com, set in my hometown of Seattle and drawing heavily on my own experiences, it’s also a conversation I wish someone had had with me at seventeen, about moving beyond labels and learning to just be comfortable with who you are—queer or straight, rock star or otherwise.
What was your favorite scene or part of your book to write?
Probably all of their dates. I wrote the book during the pandemic when I was fully quarantined, and in many ways this book is my love letter to Seattle as a city—a chance for me to get out to all my favorite places, even if only in my imagination.
Where can your book be purchased?
Anywhere! All over the world! Amazon, B&N, Waterstones, local indies... we've even got translations in half a dozen languages.
To the Future Writer:
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who want to write a book?
Just do it. You don't need a degree, you don't need anybody's permission. I'm a big fan of outlining—check out Dan Wells' Youtube lecture on 7-point story structure—but you don't even need that. A novel can feel like an impossible undertaking, but you don't have to write a novel, you just have to write a chapter. And you don't have to write the whole chapter, just a scene. And that scene is just paragraphs. Break things down as far as you can. Tiny bites.
Also, remember that all great novels start out as a pile of garbage. And you can totally write a pile of garbage! So just get it out there, then go back and revise and see what you can sculpt out of that raw trash.
What’s next for you? Any events, upcoming pubs, etc.
My next queer YA romcom, THE GHOST OF US, hits this June, and I'm super excited for it! Here's the pitch:
Eighteen-year-old ghost hunter Cara is determined to escape life as a high school outcast by finding proof of the supernatural. Yet when she stumbles upon the spirit of Aiden, a popular upperclassman who died the previous year, she learns that ghosts have goals of their own. In the wake of his death, Aiden’s little sister, Meredith, has become a depressed recluse, and Aiden can’t pass on into the afterlife until he knows she’ll be okay. Believing that nothing pulls someone out of a slump like romance, he makes Cara a deal: seduce Meredith out of her shell and take her to prom, and Aiden will give Cara all the evidence she needs for fame. If not, well—no dates, no ghost. Wooing the standoffish Meredith isn’t going to be easy, however. With Aiden’s coaching, Cara slowly manages to win Meredith over—but finds herself accidentally falling for her in the process. Worse yet: as Meredith gets happier and Aiden’s mission nears completion, his ghost begins to fade. Can Cara continue to date Meredith under false pretenses, especially if it means Aiden will vanish forever? Or should she tell Meredith the truth, and risk both of them hating her? And either way, will she lose her only shot at proving ghosts are real?
Where can we find you:
Twitter- @jameslsutter
Instagram- @james_l_sutter
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/jameslsutter/
Website- jameslsutter.com
What’s on your TBR list?
Right now I can't wait to dive into Abigail Johnson's EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY, Seth Dickinson's EXORDIA, and Dahlia Adler's GOING BICOASTAL.