Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Jodi Lynn Anderson (Each Night Was Illuminated)!
Meet the Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Jodi Lynn Anderson is the New York Times bestselling author of Peaches, Midnight at the Electric, The Vanishing Season, Tiger Lily, and the popular May Bird trilogy. She lives in Senegal, West Africa, with her husband and their children. You can visit her online at www.jodilynnanderson.net.
About the Book: Each Night Was Illuminated
With writing that sparks off the page, New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson tells a story of saints and floods, secrets and truths, rage and love—and the bravery it takes to bet your whole life on a new kind of hope.
The day the train fell in the lake, Cassie stopped believing in much of anything, despite growing up in a devout Catholic family. Then she set her mind to forgetting the strange boy named Elias who was with her when it happened.
When Elias comes back to town after many years away, Cassie finds herself talked into sneaking out at night to follow him ghost-hunting—though she knows better than to believe they will find any spirits.
Still, the more time she spends with Elias—with his questions, his rebelliousness, his imagination that is so much bigger than the box she has made for herself—the more Cassie thinks that even in a world that seems broken beyond repair, there just may be something worth believing in.
An unmissable novel for fans of Nina LaCour and Jandy Nelson!
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~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
Lying in bed at night, I started to picture the Dark Ages ….but also angels and ghosts and the New York Public Library. I had this intuitive sense that they belonged together in one story — and to tell it, I needed to unravel the mystery of what could hold these things together. I’m not a logical writer – I’ve learned that my gut usually knows things about my stories that it takes my brain time to grasp. And so eventually I found that what linked these vastly different things was a sense of anger and faith and a world gone a bit wild.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
I tend to love my supporting besties the most – in this case, that’s Sister Suzanne. I grew up going to Catholic school in New Jersey and Sister Suzanne has many of the qualities of the nuns who taught me there: blunt, energetic, smart, funny. I also love how she carries her faith in a way that refreshes Cassie instead of turning her off…there are people in my life like that, and I wanted Sister Suzanne to embody it.
YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?
The novel.
YABC: What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?
When Cassie and Elias ride home on the bus, she pretends to sleep so she can put her head on his shoulder. There’s a line where she says that being in love with him makes her think that everything around him is exquisite including herself …how even the fact that he puts avocados on his salad is exquisite. I feel like that’s true to what it’s like to fall in love. That person makes everything in the world glow – it love changes the way we see even avocados in salads J .
YABC: Thinking way back to the beginning, what’s the most important thing you’ve learned as a writer from then to now?
I’ve learned what my strengths are, I think. When I started out, I was really emulating other writers…but by now, I’ve zeroed in on what I have to offer with my specific brain and the way it operates: which is shades of grey, and layers and hopefully a sense of honest and realistic magic.
YABC: What do you like most about the cover of the book?
I love that it’s suggestive of both wonder and secrets.
YABC: What new release book are you looking most forward to in 2022?
If I have to choose one …J — The Epic Story of Every Living Thing by Deb Caletti
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
YABC: What’s up next for you?
We just moved to West Africa so I am getting my family settled and focusing on learning French so that I can function –every day is a surprise here! I’ve got a couple of projects that are only in daydream stage right now but seem to be sticking – so I’m piling up notes. My attention there is definitely toward nature and the woods …I feel like I’m always trying to hone and explore how I write about nature as alive and this will be the next step in that journey for me.
YABC: Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to narrate?
It was hard for me to tackle Father James. So much anger and disillusionment built that character out of what I was seeing and feeling around me at the time: powerful men using their platforms to sow distrust and blind loyalty. He’s a combination of so many of those men. And some days I’d be so filled with anger, trying to capture his style of influence, that it really rocked me.
YABC: Which character gave you the most trouble when writing your latest book?
Other than Father James I’d say…it took me a long time to find Cassie’s voice! She was so cynical at first that it was hard to get close. But then I discovered her sense of humor… and that all of her cynicism is combined with this sort of gimlet eye of observing others in this really clever, wise way. And I discovered her huge love for her little brother. And I came to just love her and root for her so much.
YABC: What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember from this book?
Maybe that there will be so many people in our lives who try to define faith for us, but only we can define it for ourselves. And for me, that definition is hope without certainty – and the acts that go along with that hope.
YABC: What would you say is your superpower?
Seeing the shades of grey in any situation and not giving in to the enticing pull of the black and white, especially when pressured. And then writing about it!
YABC: Is there an organization or cause that is close to your heart?
It’s not exactly a cause but Robin Wall Kimmerer, and her book Braiding Sweetgrass, are the most inspiring things that have happened to me in a long time. It’s a book that totally shifted how I view and think of nature – reading it was like hearing things I’d known in my heart all along but had always been told otherwise. I think her writing is world changing.
YABC: What advice do you have for new writers?
Give yourself permission to express what’s special and strange and uncomfortable about the way your brain works. And of course, don’t give up if your early drafts are bad or full of gaps you can’t figure out – that’s how it is for most writers or at least definitely for me.
YABC: Is there anything that you would like to add?
Just my thanks for being interested in the book! I hope it connects deeply with people the way it has with me.
Book: Each Night Was Illuminated
Author: Jodi Lynn Anderson
Release Date: 9/20/2022
Publisher: HarperCollins – Quill Tree Books
Genre: Teen Fiction
Age Range: 14+
