Today we are very excited to share an interview with authors Suzana Harcum and Owena White!
Read on to learn more about the authors, the book, and a giveaway!
Meet the Author: Suzana Harcum and Owena White
Suzana Harcum and Owena White, a lesbian couple from Tucson, AZ, and Worcester, MA, respectively, are an artist-writer duo making LGBT-centered comics. Their collaborative efforts blend Suzana’s art with Owena’s storytelling, crafting stories that explore communication, self-discovery, and acceptance. In creating together they seek to share their perspectives and experiences growing up queer, through heartfelt slice-of-life comics. They enjoy making relatable stories for readers, aiming to foster a sense of community and understanding through their work.
About the Book: Tripping Over You Book 1
The first volume of a young adult graphic novel series about the long and winding romantic relationship between an energetic theater kid, Milo, and his withdrawn classmate, Liam. Perfect for fans of Heartstopper!
The infamous theater kid Milo and wallflower Liam are unlikely friends connected by a mutual feeling of being misfits in their boarding school. As their friendship and bond develops, unspoken romantic feelings start to bubble up and complicate everything—misunderstandings and bruised eyes aplenty. But with their graduation soon approaching, Milo gathers the strength to finally confess. They begin dating in secret (for fear of Liam’s strict father finding out), but their relationship becomes more difficult to hide over time and they must decide if they are ready for what the future has in store for them.
Tripping Over You is perfect for readers who want more than just the moody teen problems and the ‘getting together’ stage. It’s a story that throughout the three volumes, progresses until they are out of college, showing the relationship mature and change as the characters move through different stages of their lives.
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
Suzana and I began Tripping Over You as a webcomic back in 2011! We’d been writing and drawing gift art for each other for years beforehand, and we wanted to keep doing that even after we began dating and moved in together. We were really into webcomics and graphic novels, and thought it would be a really fun hobby that scratched that particular itch, to combine drawing and writing in this way. And it has been!
YABC: What came first, the concept, landscape, characters, or something else?
Definitely the characters first. We each brought a character to the table – planned out their design, their personality, their backstory, and so on. Then we shoved them together into a boarding school and saw how they got along! We were really interested in telling a story that both of us had a hand in, that we could play back and forth off of each other’s ideas for what would happen next in Milo and Liam’s lives. The setting and concept grew from there as we found our footing with the webcomic format.
YABC: If you could only write one genre for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
Owena: Even though I think it might be cheating to say slice-of-life, that’s my answer. There are just so many ways to live this life, I think I could be endlessly amused making up fictional people and doing character studies with them within little bubble universes.
Suzana: I agree, but I’m also leaning more toward historical fiction/fantasy. I like drawing things that are a little made up, in settings that didn’t quite actually happen, but almost could have. The freedom to be a little silly is fun.
YABC: What can readers expect to find in your books?
TOY is a story that mixes together a fictionalized version of our own experiences growing up queer, of being in a gay relationship, and of navigating coming-of-age struggles through that lens. If we ran into something that we needed to process, we’d work through it with a story arc. Hopefully readers can see a bit of their own experiences reflected in the story, too!
YABC: Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to narrate?
Suzana: Milo and Liam’s first fight in Chapter 1 was the most difficult for me – or at least the part I wanted to pay the most attention to setting up and then reconciling. Their first fight sets an awkward precedent for rest of their entire relationship is going to go right from the start, and the weight of how badly it goes that first time changes how they have to approach each other throughout the rest of the story.
Owena: I think I got nervous all over again each time the story came to a disagreement between Milo and Liam. I wanted to do each of their perspectives justice, while keeping in mind and preserving everything that’s come up between them up to that point. It felt like wanting to pull a cartwheel off just right, and I became more emotionally invested in arriving at a satisfying place as the story grew longer.
YABC: What is your favorite snack when writing?
Suzana: Coffee and gum. Coffee for the focus… gum is also for the focus. It can be really hard to stay focused.
Owena: Lately I’ve been enjoying smoothies. They’re easy to keep in front of me and sip through a straw while still using the keyboard. And coffee, of course.
YABC: If you could time travel what would you want to see?
Owena: I’d want to see Neanderthal societies! Archaeologists have been coming out with so many theories lately about how advanced Neanderthals were compared to what we typically think of them as being, and filling in more of the blanks would be so fascinating. I’ve seen it said that they were likely really creative, so I’d love to see what art looked like for them.
Suzana: I really like her answer, but I think I’d want to see a saber-toothed tiger. I want to know if their cheeks covered their teeth or not. Were they cool or silly looking? I would love them either way, I just want to see one!
YABC: What other age group would you consider writing for?
I like the age range we write for currently, but we’d be open to writing for any age group, especially if we have a story in mind that suits it. We’ve really enjoyed working on the coming-of-age aspect of these characters, though we’ve been finding it fun to write for middle-aged characters lately!
YABC: What daily thing do you see that brings you joy?
Owena: Family, for me! We lived across the country for nearly a decade, and while I loved the American Southwest very much, moving nearby to my immediate family on the East Coast has been such a lovely homecoming.
Suzana: My wife, our pets, the nature and weather around here, the local architecture… I try to spend some attention appreciating everything that’s around me.
YABC: What do you do when you procrastinate?
Owena: I try to pick another task that I still need to get done, but one that feels easier for me to start. Usually if I’m putting something off then something about it is difficult for my brain to wrap around, so I try to jog it by getting that feeling of productivity started somewhere else. If I pick a really boring or tedious task to do instead, sometimes I’ll bore myself right into tackling whatever it is I’ve been putting off!
Suzana: I doodle! I sketch things that are in front of me, or ideas for future chapters of stories, or even just a character striking a fun pose. Sometimes I play around with new tools in my art programs just to become more familiar with them when I get back to actually using them for work.
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
Owena: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It set me off on a binge of her works, which has been really fun – but that wallpaper is still haunting me.
Suzana: I recently reread Three Shadows by Cyril Pedrosa and fell in love with it all over again. It made me cry even though I knew the ending. It’s long been one of my favorite graphic novels to return to, and probably the first book I picked up from First Second.
YABC: What is your favorite writing space or routine?
Owena: I have a workstation in a home office that I’ve set up to cater to the way my brain work – with a spot next to me that my cats can jump up into and visit with me, and a bed that my dog can curl up in at my feet. As for routine, I’m not sure I’ve ever had one! I mostly impose regular deadlines on myself and work toward them, doing as much as I can whenever I can.
Suzana: I make a pot of coffee for both of us, I put on one of my favorite up-tempo playlists, I set up the references I’ll be using around my workstation, and I dive in. I can sometimes go hours without breaking out of my stride if I lock in just right, but more recently I’ve also folded in more breaks for some good stretching exercises.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
We’ve started a new webcomic called Living in Future Tense – a sequel to Tripping Over You – available to read at www.liftcomic.com! We have plans for future stories we’d love to work on alongside LIFT, too; we just love creating stories together!
Title: Tripping Over You Book 1
Author / Illustrator: Suzana Harcum and Owena White
Release Date: 08/19/2025
Publisher: First Second
ISBN-10: 1250330718
ISBN-13: 9781250330710
Genre: YA Contemporary
Age Range: 14-18
This book sounds so much fun to read!