Kathleen Glasgow Interview - How to Make Friends with the Dark

Photo Content from Kathleen Glasgow

Kathleen Glasgow is the author of the New York Times best-selling novel, Girl in Pieces. She lives in Arizona. Her second young adult novel, How to Make Friends With the Dark, will be published by Delacorte/Random House 4/9/19.

Girl in Pieces has been named to best of lists by The New York Public Library, Amazon, TAYSHA, Goop, TeenVogue, BN Teen, Refinery29, EW.com, TeenReads, and more.

Girl in Pieces has been published in 24 countries.

Girl in Pieces was longlisted for the Waterstones Book Prize and the CILIP Carnegie Medal.

Girl in Pieces was a finalist for the Amelia Walden Book Award, an Amelia Bloomer Project selection, and a Target Club Book pick. The Target edition contains extras and a special letter to the reader. Order here.

        

  

What’s one thing that readers would be surprised to find out about you?
While my books tend to explore difficult subjects, I’m fairly cheery in person.

When/how did you realize you had a creative dream or calling to fulfill?
I have always wanted to be a writer. I really can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to create stories. Art, in general, is good for the sould.

Was there a particular event or time that you recognized that writing was not just a hobby.
When I realized that for me, writing was a necessity, like breathing.

If you could be a character in any novel you’ve ever read, who would you be and why?
I would be Meg from A Wrinkle in Time. I identified with her and I’d like to see her journey from her eyes.

Did you learn anything from writing Tiger and what was it?
I learned that there are many, many ways we have failed our kids.

Can you tell us when you started HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE DARK, how that came about?
I lost my mother and my sister within four years and the living with grief made me want to write about it for kids who are grieving.

What was the most surprising thing you learned in creating Tiger?
It’s hard to be funny! I tried to make some moments in her life lighter, but it’s very hard to be deliberately funny.

TEN FACTS ABOUT HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE DARK

• 1. Original Title was This Beautiful Engine.
• 2. My editor pitched the idea of “How to Make Friends With the Dark” as the title and I said, “Great, how did you come up with that?” And she said, “IT’S A LINE FROM THE BOOK.”
• 3. Tiger originally had a cello-playing boyfriend named Mason McNally but he no longer exists and I am sad, sad.
• 4. You can learn how to make jam and jelly from cactus if you read this book.
• 5. Lupe Hidalgo was my favorite character to write because she’s a softball star.
• 6. There’s a horse named Opal.
• 7. It’s a sad book with a lot of hope.
• 8. There are lots of real places in the book, like The Bashful Bandit bar, Bookman’s used books, Lucky Strike Bowling, and more.
• 9. It’s a book set in the Southwest and we need more of those!
• 10. The JellyMobile (read the book and you’ll know what I mean.

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your readers. What would it be?
Stay safe.

Any ghost stories you would like to share?
Once when I lived in a very old house in the Frogtown neighborhood of Saint Paul, I wa standing at the stove when I very clearly heard a voice say, “The little girl wants out of the attic.” There was no one else in the house. No tv or radio on. Neighborhood quiet, neighbors asleep, so you tell ME what that was all about.

What is your favorite restaurant in town and why?
My favorite restaurant in Tucson in El Sur.

Tell me about your first kiss
It was a game of spin the bottle and he ended up being my boyfriend for a summer, but then he broke up with me when school started.

What’s the most ridiculous fact you know?
Where should I start?

If you could go back in time to one point in your life, where would you go?
I wouldn’t. I’m firmly here.

Here is what happens when your mother dies.

It’s the brightest day of summer and it’s dark outside. It’s dark in your house, dark in your room, and dark in your heart. You feel like the darkness is going to split you apart.

That’s how it feels for Tiger. It’s always been Tiger and her mother against the world. Then, on a day like any other, Tiger’s mother dies. And now it’s Tiger, alone.

Here is how you learn to make friends with the dark.

Praise for HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE DARK

“A rare and powerful novel, How to Make Friends with the Dark dives deep into the heart of grief and healing with honesty, empathy, and grace.” —Karen M. McManus, New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying and Two Can Keep a Secret

“In this raw, powerful, and heartbreaking meditation on loss and grief, Glasgow writes with unflinching beauty. We meet Tiger Tolliver at her most broken—at her darkest moment—and yet, somehow, How to Make Friends with the Dark teaches us how to let the light in. ” —Julie Buxbaum, New York Times bestselling author of Tell Me Three Things

“How to Make Friends with the Dark is breathtaking and heartbreaking, and I loved it with all my heart. It’s for all of us who have loved and lost and need to find our power again.” —Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe

“A bold, fearlessly crafted story of loss and love. Kathleen Glasgow’s prose commands the page with its trademark beauty and grace, and Tiger Tolliver is a character readers will root for every step of the way—and won’t soon forget.” —Courtney Summers, New York Times bestselling author of Sadie

“Kathleen Glasgow is the rare type of skilled storyteller that knows you have to hurt your characters before putting them back together. I loved every word of this lyrical and devastating novel.” —Kara Thomas, author of The Cheerleaders

“Gripping, powerful, and full of truth—an emotional level many novelists strive to reach, but few achieve.” —Kami Garcia, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Beautiful Creatures and author of Broken Beautiful Hearts

“A visceral, gut-wrenching, and heartbreaking take on the grieving process. I cried within the first fifty pages. You’ll want to hug Tiger and never let her go. Kathleen has done it again!” —Tiffany Jackson, author of Allegedly and Monday’s Not Coming

“Magnificent. A beautiful, heartbreaking alleluia to survival.” —Brendan Kiely, New York Times bestselling author of All American Boys and Tradition

“A book as fierce, tender, and rare as its aptly named heroine, Tiger. How to Make Friends with the Dark is a gorgeously nuanced meditation on grief and family, and the incredible love that can pull you through the darkest of times.” —Meg Leder, author of Letting Go of Gravity

“Beautifully written and profoundly moving. From page one, Tiger Tolliver grabs your heart with her pain, her courage, her humor—and she doesn’t let go. Tiger, Cake, and Thaddeus (and Mae-Lynn, and Shayna, and Lupe, and LaLa, and Sarah, and Leonard, and June . . . all of Glasgow’s deeply wrought characters) will stay with me for a long time to come.” —Alyssa Sheinmel, New York Times bestselling author of A Danger to Herself and Others

“Tiger Tolliver is so vulnerable and real, you’ll want to turn your porch light on and have the spare room ready for her. In How to Make Friends with the Dark, Kathleen Glasgow’s prose begs and pleads and grasps at the light, like a prayer.” —Lygia Day Peñaflor, author of All of This Is True and Unscripted Joss Byrd

“Lyrical, devastating, witty and raw—this is Kathleen Glasgow at her best. Her fans will not be disappointed to fall in love with Tiger Tolliver, no matter how much she breaks their hearts.” —Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, author of The Smell of Other People’s Houses

“This story hauls you into its heart to live the pain in all its careening, messy, and miraculous glory. A brilliant, honest, raw look at what it really means to lose someone essential and make grudging peace with what is gained in the exchange. You will never forget Tiger Tolliver. Not ever.” —Estelle Laure, author of But Then I Came Back and This Raging Light

“Visceral and traumatic, pulsing with ache,…[this novel is] a gritty, raw account of surviving tragedy one minute at a time.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[A] standout….Tiger’s distinctive, haunting voice will be hard to forget.” —Booklist

You can purchase How to Make Friends with the Dark at the following Retailers:

        

And now, The Giveaways.

Thank you KATHLEEN GLASGOW for making this giveaway possible.

Winner will receive a Copy of How to Make Friends with the Dark by Kathleen Glasgow. 

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