Today we are very excited to share a special interview with Author Erik J. Brown (Lose You To Find Me) conducted by YABC staff member, Olivia Farr!
Meet the Author: Erik J. Brown
Erik J. Brown is the author of All That’s Left in the World. Erik was selected as a Lambda Literary Emerging Writers Fellow. When not writing genre-blending books for young adults, he enjoys traveling and embarking on the relentless quest of appeasing his Shiba Inu. He lives in Philadelphia with his husband.
About the Book: Lose You To Find Me
A romantic, heartfelt, and hilarious queer coming-of-age story from All That’s Left in the World author Erik J. Brown, perfect for fans of What If It’s Us and If This Gets Out.
Tommy Dees is in the weeds—restaurant speak for beyond overwhelmed. He’s been working as a server at Sunset Estates retirement community to get the experience he needs to attend one of the best culinary schools in the world. And to make his application shine, he also needs a letter of recommendation from his sadistic manager. But in exchange for the letter, Tommy has to meet three conditions—including training the new hire.
What he doesn’t expect is for the newbie to be an old crush: Gabe, with the dimples and kind heart, who Tommy fell for during summer camp at age ten and then never saw again. Unfortunately, Gabe doesn’t remember Tommy at all. The training proves distracting as old feelings resurface, and the universe seems to be conspiring against them.
With the application deadline looming and Gabe on his mind, Tommy is determined to keep it all together—but what if life isn’t meant to follow a recipe?
~Author Chat~
Interview Questions by Olivia Farr, Assistant Blog Manager at rxe.kcr.mybluehost.me
Olivia: The characters originally had a connection at summer camp. Do you have any summer camp stories of your own?
I used to go to day camp when I was a kid but the only real memory I have from that is having a book taken away from me! To be fair, it was a Stephen King book. I was probably eight and my parents were wary about letting me read Stephen King, but I feel like they finally went, “Well at least he’s reading?” and let me. It was 1995 and the miniseries for The Langoliers had just come out. I was able to watch the first hour but the second hour of each episode was past my bedtime so I decided to read the novella in Four Past Midnight so I could find out what happened. And some kid was reading over my shoulder while we were waiting in line for the bus to pick us up and told the counselor the book had the F-word in it. So they took it away and I never got it back!
Olivia: The restaurant setting is pretty exciting, particularly considering popular shows that show the inner workings of the kitchens. Did you have a particular restaurant on which you based the book?
It’s actually based on the retirement community I worked at when I was in high school. It was a quirky, after-school job that I ended up making a lot of friends at. And it was people I might not have befriended had it not been for working there. I’m actually still friends with a few people that I became close with there.
Olivia: Have you worked at restaurants yourself?
Aside from the retirement home, I did get into serving at real restaurants after high school. I’ve worked in a lot of service jobs in college (server, barista, barback, bartender) and I can tell you they’re all very underpaid. I almost always tip 20% just because I know how hard it is to be on your feet dealing with rude people all day. If I have seriously awful service, I’ll tip 15%, but if you’re a great server I’ll give you between 25-30%.
Olivia: If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would you pick? What do you think Tommy and/or Gabe would pick?
Lasagna. I hate making lasagna because it takes so much time, but I always love it once it’s done baking. Tommy would choose bread because he loves baking it, but it also goes with everything. He can make a sandwich out of it or just toast it and slather it with butter or jam. It can be sweet or savory! Bread is perfect! Gabe has a sweet tooth and would choose ice cream.
Olivia: Are you known amongst friends/family for making any particular dishes? Any secret recipes?
I have four nephews and every year they ask if I’m making pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving because I make the absolute best pumpkin pie. And part of that is because of my pie crust which is my secret recipe. I will give you one ingredient to try if anyone makes pie crust at home: brown butter fat-washed vodka. The point of pie crust is a flakey, buttery base for whatever kind of pie you’re making. And the best way to make sure it’s hydrated enough to roll out but dry enough to get flakey and buttery is to use vodka. The alcohol in the vodka evaporates faster than water so you don’t have to worry about adding too much and making it gummy. But! Make brown butter, then pour it into a mason jar with your vodka and shake until it becomes an emulsion. Let it sit on your counter for a few hours until it separates then put it in your freezer. The brown butter will freeze and you can pull the top layer of that off but be careful because now that butter tastes like vodka, but so does your vodka! You can use it in your pie and when it evaporates it will leave behind more delicious butter flavor. I also only use fresh pumpkin for my pies and to the spices I add fresh cracked pepper and ground cardamom.
Olivia: What is your favorite restaurant or type of cuisine?
I love Mediterranean food because not only does it include multiple countries’ foods, but it all tastes amazing. Portuguese, Spanish, Moroccan, Italian, Greek, and Turkish. It’s all simple but flavors and spices are perfect.
Olivia: What were your summer jobs as a teen? Any favorites?
I actually worked at Blockbuster Video the summer between freshman and sophomore year in college and it was fantastic! I got to watch as many movies as I wanted for free and even got to watch movies a couple of weeks before they came out. As a film buff, it was pretty great! Also, it was towards the tail-end of Blockbuster’s reign so it was never really busy.
Olivia: Tommy knows he wants to go to culinary school. When you were a teen, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to make movies, but it wasn’t until my Junior year of film school I rediscovered my love of writing. I always liked writing, but when I was making short films in high school and college I wrote, directed, shot, and edited everything and I thought I would just like to be a director. But I realized all that other stuff just got in the way of what I really enjoyed which was writing and seeing the finished product. I’d much rather the stress of production be on someone else’s shoulders. I’ll handle the writing.
Olivia:- Just for fun – If Tommy were a dessert, which one would he be and why? What about Gabe?
Tommy would be the pumpkin pie recipe I mentioned above: complex and slightly pretentious, but a general crowd-pleaser. Gabe would be cookie dough, but specifically cookie dough that Buffy was talking about in the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He’s still baking and not finished becoming whoever the h* it is he’s gonna turn out to be.
Book’s Title: Lose You to Find Me
Author: Erik J. Brown
Release Date: 5/16/2023
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Genre: YA romance
Age Range: 13-17
