1--What is the title of your latest release?
COME OUT, COME OUT
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
It's the story of three young queer kids who find solace in each other when they're young, but when they encounter something terrifying and sinister in the woods, only two of them make it out alive... alive, but not entirely themselves. Five years later, Fern and Jaq are unknowingly trapped in straight lives with only the most distant sense of the things they've lost. Until they end up inside the woods once more and everything changes.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I have always loved the Pacific Northwest and lived on the Olympic Peninsula for a time when I was in high school. I’m not sure I’ve ever loved the woods the way I did when I lived there—they are wild and beautiful and terrifying all at once. They reached up to the edge of my backyard, lined the narrow mountain roads I took to school, and spilled away in the foothills at the edge of town. They were promise and possibility, haunting and lovely, and the very natural setting for a story like Come Out, Come Out.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Probably, but they’re much younger than me so I’d be honored to take the role of Queer Auntie in their lives.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Fern is driven, guarded, and talented. And Jaq is kind, nervous, and devoted.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned that Grease was a play before it was a movie! It wasn’t adapted for film until 1978!
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as I go, but I also need several rounds of revision once the draft is complete.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Sashimi. Like, really goooood sashimi.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I have a very small office that was probably intended to be a mudroom at the back of the house, but it has a little window and a door that opens to the backyard (when it isn’t swollen shut!). I’ve also recently acquired an adjustable desk that lets me raise and lower it so I can stand or sit. It’s been a real game changer!
10--Who is an author you admire?
I have always looked up to Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler. I read them both for the first time when I was in high school, and they have been a source of inspiration ever since.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
I don’t think I can narrow this down to a single book, but seeing queer characters in fiction when I was a young reader was so deeply important and validating to me.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
Come Out, Come Out is my twelfth novel so it was a little different than the first time I got that call. But this one was special because I had submitted two proposals to my editor. I think she read roughly 80 pages of the book in its earliest stages, but she loved it and the characters enough to buy it at that stage and work with me to build the rest. It was such a vote of confidence, and I cannot imagine having worked on this story without her.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
This changes all the time, but right now it’s horror and thrillers.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
I’m going to say Speed because it’s perfect and because I adore Keanu Reeves, but I also have to say that if you’re looking for something scary, the Conjuring is exquisite.
15--What is your favorite season?
Winter! I’m obsessed with snow and being too cold for anything but cuddles by the fire.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I’m a Thanksgiving baby so my birthday is always a little bit of a turkey dance. But when I have my way, I prefer to spend time with my family in whatever way the spirit moves us.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Two books that I recently read and loved are Dead Flip by Sara Farizan and Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul. They are very different—the first is young adult horror and the second is adult literary fiction—but both quite excellent.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Japanese food, as you may have guessed from my Sashimi answer above.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
I currently have three jobs so free time isn’t exactly plentiful, but when I do have it, I spend it on my sofa with a glass of wine and (these days) a C-drama.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
Two things! I co-edit a series of anthologies with one of my best friends and most amazing author Zoraida Córdova and our next one, called Faeries Never Lie, is coming out on September 24th. After that, my next young adult adventure will come out on January 5th, 2025. It’s called The Assassin’s Guide to Babysitting and is essentially John Wick meets The Baby-Sitters Club.
It's never been safe for Fern, Jaq, or Mallory to come out to their families. As kids their emerging identities drove them into friendship but also forced them into the woods to hide in an old, abandoned house when they needed safety. But one night when the girls sought refuge, Mallory never made it back home. Fern and Jaq did, but neither survivor remembered what happened or the secrets they were so desperate to keep.
Five years later, Fern and Jaq are seniors on the verge of graduation, seemingly happy in their straight, cisgender lives—until a spirit who looks like Mallory begins to appear, seeking revenge for her death, and the part Fern and Jaq played in it. As they’re haunted, something begins to shift inside them.
They remember who they are.
Who they want to love.
And the truth about the vicious secrets hiding in their woods.
This delightfully dark and pointed novel calls out the systems that erase gay and queer and trans identity, giving space to embrace queerness and to unleash the power of friendship and found family against the real monsters in the world.
Paranormal | Fantasy | Young Adult Suspense [G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, On Sale: August 27, 2024, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593619391 / eISBN: 9780593619414]
Natalie C. Parker is the author and editor of several books for young adults among them the acclaimed Seafire trilogy. Her work has been included on the NPR Best Books list, the Indie Next List, and the TAYSHAS Reading List, and in Junior Library Guild selections. Natalie grew up in a navy family finding home in coastal cities from Virginia to Japan. Now, she lives with her wife on the Kansas prairie.
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