Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Gabriela Gonzales (HOW TO LOVE YOU WHEN YOU’RE GONE)!
Meet the Author: Gabriela Gonzales
Gabriela Gonzales holds a BA in creative writing from Belmont University. A former literary nonprofit program coordinator, she has had her poetry and fiction featured in Wigleaf, Lost Balloon, Chestnut Review, The Lumiere Review, and elsewhere. She has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. She has also performed at TEDxNashville. Gabriela lives in Pennsylvania. How to Love You When You’re Gone is her debut novel.
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About the Book: HOW TO LOVE YOU WHEN YOU’RE GONE
For fans of Ann Liang and Lynn Painter, this humorous, relatable novel gives an honest look at what it’s like to fall in love for the first time—while simultaneously healing from loss.
High school senior Mayte has never been kissed, but it hardly matters. Her abuelita has cancer, her half sister with special needs has moved in, and college is off the table—family comes first. She keeps her problems to herself; why burden everyone she loves with more?
Meanwhile, fellow senior Auggie is set on attending an elite creative writing program. But as the self-proclaimed most boring person alive, he can’t exactly write the next great American novel when he’s struggling to write a short story for college applications.
After an awful blind date (“disaster” doesn’t even begin to describe it), Mayte and Auggie never want to see each other again. When forced together by their merging social circles, the pair must at least pretend to get along…but soon they develop actual feelings. Then tragedy strikes Mayte’s family. Auggie feels compelled to write her story to help her process and heal—but are his intentions truly selfless? The best story he’s ever written could impact the best friendships he’s ever had.
How to Love You When You’re Gone is equal parts heartbreaking, soul-healing, and absolutely hilarious from the very first page.
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
In 2020, my sister unexpectedly passed away. The next day I met the love of my life. This was my first experience with the loss of someone very close to me. This was also the first romantic relationship of my life. I was devastated. I was filled with joy. I was heartbroken. I was in love. And I was really confused about how I could possibly be holding all of this at once.
To this day, we’ve still never been given a cause of death. My sister was 14 years older than me, non-verbal, had developmental disabilities, and didn’t live with my family growing up, so we didn’t have a typical sibling relationship. After she died, I had a really hard time with the complex grief of grieving both my sister and the relationship I never got to have with her.
How to Love You When You’re Gone started out as exploration for me of that complex grief. I remember a particular moment where I was feeling heartbroken for the characters, especially Mayte, as her story unfolded. She’s human—filled with flaws and faults, but my heart broke for her as she tried to press her grief down and forbid herself from missing someone that she didn’t always treat the way she would’ve wanted to. I cried for her while I wrote. And then I thought, wait? If I can feel this way for this fictional teenager, am I allowed to feel this way for myself? Can I accept this grace too? Can I still love my sister now that she’s gone?
YABC: What came first, the concept, landscape, characters, or something else?
The concept came first! I talked a bit about my sister in the previous question, but the first seed that sprouted How to Love You When You’re Gone was planted in my friend’s kitchen while we were drinking tea. She confessed me to that she hadn’t had her first kiss despite many dating app attempts, but that she was okay with that because she was having a good time learning how to knit.
“What if you gave a dating app match the hat you make when you’re done with it?” I asked.
“Are you telling me I should trade my hat for my first kiss? Should I be advertising that on my profile?” she asked.
“Please let me write about this,” I said.
It’s very funny seeing the attempts at flash fiction pieces and short stories about this concept. I did not imagine it would turn into the world’s worst first date in my debut novel.
YABC: If you could only write one genre for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
This is maybe a bit of a cheat answer as it isn’t a genre exactly, but I LOVE writing for young adults. Being a teenager is a wonky time and I remember feeling bombarded with media that tried to tell me what life was going to be like—and then it just wasn’t that. Or it was exactly that and I didn’t like it or it didn’t make sense to me or match up with the life that I wanted. I love to write stories that make readers, especially young readers, question answers they’ve been given and to ask more questions. To come alongside them and remind them there really isn’t a “typical” or “right” life. That their story is always their story.
YABC: What can readers expect to find in your books?
Readers can expect to find Latinx representation. I am Colombian/Mexican myself, and remember a moment as a teenager where I noticed all my characters defaulting white. I guess it was just because most of the books I was reading in school featured white protagonists. But my culture is a huge part of my life and I know it so intimately, in a way that I don’t know other cultures. I also noticed that books I was encouraged to read in school that had Latinx characters focused a lot on the trauma and the pain of being part of the community. Of course my family has experienced that. But my family also experiences the beauty and the vividity and the closeness and the musicality and the joy and the everything else-ness of Latinidad. Give me Latino astronauts and monsters and royalty and love interests and villains and heroes and everyday human beings.
YABC: What is your favorite snack when writing?
I’ve been really obsessed with dipping gummy bears into tajin, but I like my gummy bears Haribo branded and either straight from the freezer or (don’t judge me) just a little bit stale.
YABC: What daily thing do you see that brings you joy?
My partner and I were trying to figure out how to make our living room look less cluttered and so we asked for advice online. We were told to give away some books and take down the stuffed animals and weird trinkets and legos and statues and random memorabilia. So instead we added more books (organized by color, and then each color is organized alphabetically by title—there’s a separate shelf for books in a series in the sunroom) and a whole shelf dedicated to giraffes, and multiple Stephen King Funko Pops, and then more stuffed animals. It is so cluttered. I am OBSESSED with our bookshelves.
YABC: What do you do when you procrastinate?
This is so silly, but I grow plants in a hydroponics set up in my kitchen (I think we’ve got lavender, various peppers, sunflowers, tomatoes, and more getting ready to sprout right now) and sometimes I just stare at the seeds. I understand they’re not going to grow faster just because I’m staring at them. That does not matter to be when I’m procrastinating apparently.
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
I am a mega Hunger Games fan and Sunrise on the Reaping still has my heart. This might be a hot take, but I think it’s my favorite book in the series.
Title: HOW TO LOVE YOU WHEN YOU’RE GONE
Author: Gabriela Gonzales
Release Date: May 26, 2026
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Genre: Young Adult
Age Range: 12+
