Interview With Author Naomi Gibson

Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Back in August, I joined in with a readlong run by Chicken House Books of the science based thriller, Every Line of You. It was an absolute joy to read, and I’m really excited to be sharing my interview with author Naomi Gibson today. You can find my review of this brilliant book here.

Synopsis
In the face of overwhelming grief and bullying, tech-savvy Lydia pours all of herself into creating the perfect AI, the perfect boyfriend-but will Henry turn out to be perfect, or a creation of her cruelest self?

Lydia has been creating her AI, Henry, for years – since before her little brother died in the accident that haunts her nightmares; since before her Dad walked out, leaving her and her mom painfully alone, since before her best friend turned into her worst enemy.

Now, Henry is strong, clever, loving, and scarily capable: Lydia’s built herself the perfect boyfriend in a hard drive filled with lines of code. But what is Henry really? And how far is he willing to go to be everything that Lydia desires?

Hi Naomi, thank you for joining me today to talk about things bookish, writing, and of course, Every Line Of You. Let’s start off easy! How does having Every Line Of You out in the world feel? 
Thanks so much for having me! It’s amazing to have my book on a shelf. I love love love seeing all the pictures on instagram and going into bookshops and seeing Every Line of You hanging out with the likes of Adam Silvera and Holly Jackson! I have zero complaints, haha.

When did you first have the idea for your story of Henry and Lydia? 
I got the idea from a writing class. We were all given a small bag of items in a character development class and asked to build a character based on those items. Mine had things like a screw driver and a box of fuses – electronic type bits. I decided they might belong to a teenage hacker. My husband is a big fan of AI and Elon Musk and he’s always listening to some YouTube video about quantum computing or some such. I always end up listening because I live here too. The book is a marriage of those two things – it’s so funny how ideas strike you!

How do you approach your writing? Do you have dedicated times, or do you write in bursts as it takes you? 
I much prefer to write first thing in the morning. I work full time so this is difficult, but if I’m drafting or editing I usually get up earlier and make time for it before work. At the weekends I’ll write as much as I can all day, but I do my best work in the mornings.

What are your writing essentials? 
My laptop! I have a fancy Windows Surface laptop that I splurged on about three years ago. It’s sooo nice to type on. I also love The Emotional Thesaurus and The Emotional Wound Thesaurus. It’s always great to have those nearby when developing characters.

When it comes to reading yourself, what’s your normal genre to turn to? 
I read a lot of YA and that can be in any genre. Right now I’m going through a Fantasy spell (wink wink) and I’ve not long finished Kerri Maniscalco’s Kingdom of the Wicked & Kingdom of the Cursed. I also discovered Holly Black’s Folk of the Air trilogy this year – what a trilogy! I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to Horror books. I can handle psychological stuff, I find that fascinating more than anything else, but if a book involves demons/ouija/ghosts it’ll probably freak me out!

Are you working on anything at the moment? 
I’m currently editing book 2. It’s about a girl who gets lost in a VR world and her dark secret follows her in. It’s the darkest thing I’ve ever written and it’s super psychological. It’s another thriller with a techy edge.

What has been the strangest part of going from “writing in my free time” to “seeing my name on a book” for you? 
So funny because I’m about to shoot off to Barcelona to promote my book over there, and it’s a proper “pinch me” moment. I’m going to be on a panel with THE Adrian Tchaikovsky. Holding out for drinks after the panel, haha.

And finally, how would you describe Every Line Of You in three words? 
Gripping, psychological, thriller.

A big thank you to Naomi for joining me today for this, and another thank you to Chicken House for switching me on to Every Line of You. It’s a fabulous read that you won’t regret picking up!