Lisa: Welcome to author Jude Sierra, who’s joining us today to chat about her new novel, A Tiny Piece of Something Greater, from Interlude Press. Hi Jude! Let’s start by having you tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know.

Jude: This is a hard one, because I am a pretty open book! I guess I have a lot of little quirks (I love traffic circles, windmills deeply unsettle me, I can fold fitted sheets perfectly and get a deep sense of satisfaction out of doing so). One thing people may not know is that summer Jude and school year Jude function completely differently on an organizational level. School year Jude color-code plans her day in half hour increments with rotating, color coded lists of items to do that are updated daily. Generally these lists have over 40 items on them at a time.

In the summer, all bets are off. I don’t have enough things to do to fill my time in a structured way and then everything falls apart.

Lisa: What’s your favorite scene in A Tiny Piece of Something Greater, and what makes it a fave?

Jude: I have two: one is a poolside date with a little picnic Reid plans for Joaquim that ends in a sexy and cute game of twenty questions. It’s romantic and fun.

The other is a scene where Reid experiences a big mood change and is in a very deep low. It was a hard scene to write and perhaps not the happiest one to share. But writing and reading it are profound for me. I somehow managed to write out how I feel and how I get myself to function when I am in that similar place. It can be really challenging to articulate the lived, embodied experience of mental illness to those who haven’t lived that experience themselves. I felt like I captured it when I wrote it, and feedback from others has reflected this as well.

Lisa: Would you care to share an excerpt from the scene with us?

The Excerpt: Reid rolls over and trains his eyes on the ceiling again. He imagines pressing his palm to its rough surface. Pressing the heel and then the tips of his fingers to feel how the smaller points would dig in. The way it would hurt without hurting.

Sit up, Reid.

He sits up. His hair is a wreck: flat and matted on the left side of his head, dried in stiff clumps elsewhere. His phone chimes. It’s not Joaquim, and there’s no one else he wants to talk to. Reid sits slumped for a long while, eyes on the geometric mauve and baby blue patterns of the comforter. It’s almost more hideous than the wallpaper. But there’s something soothing about the lines he can trace over and over. Nancy has pillows like that, with concentric beige and bronze circles he followed and followed with his fingers for the hour and a half they were together each week.

Get out of bed, Reid.

He sighs, peels back the heft and warmth of his blankets, and slowly stands. He’s stiff from hours spent in that bed. He wobbles a little and puts a hand on the doorframe when he pauses there. Eyes slipping closed, he leans on it and has to fight going back.

I can do this. I can

Lisa: If you could spend some real-life time with one of the characters in the book, who would you choose and why?

Jude: Joaquim! I’m way too similar to Reid, and Joaquim and Reid are so well matched, I wouldn’t mind having some of that for myself. He’s gorgeous and sweet and we would have a lot of fun together.

Lisa: On the flipside, which character would you probably least get along with? Why?

Jude: Probably Delia. I get along with people who are sarcastic and dry, but not always if I’m feeling sensitive or emotional. Delia isn’t really the kind of person to tone it down for someone.

Lisa: Have you ever created a character so despicable that even you hated them and can’t believe you made them up? If so, who was it and what made them so awful?

Jude: No. I’ve had characters be awful in initial planning stages though. The thing is that I spend time with every character in a book trying to figure out what makes them tick. If a character is important to the book but is doing or has done bad things, I end up spending so much time trying to figure out their motivations, they become more sympathetic. Malik in Idlewild is a prime example. Readers have contacted me to say they love him, and that they wish he would get his own book. When he was just a concept though, he definitely was not likeable; same with Felix in this book. I don’t know if readers will be as sympathetic to him as I am, but I know a lot more about his struggles and what makes him tick.

Lisa: Let’s take off your author cap and put on your reader cap for a moment: what do you look for in a book, what sort of protagonists do you love, and do you have a favorite genre/sub-genre?

Jude: I look for well-developed characters and well thought-out character motivations and plot movement. I have a hard time when I read a book and it is clear that something happens for the purpose of moving the plot, but that doesn’t serve the characters, what they would really do, why they would do it, etc.

I wouldn’t say I have a favorite sub-genre. I read things all over the board. I just love to read.

Lisa: What are your least and most favorite things about being an author?

Jude: I love falling in love with characters, falling into their worlds, and getting to find the words to bring them forward. I love words, and when words are working with me, it’s a lovely, gratifying process.

I worry a lot about giving too much of myself away. We all as readers and writers have a tremendous amount of access to each other on social media, and sometimes that can set us up for false intimacies or for interactions that feel invasive. It helps that I have a few simple rules about things I will never, ever share on social media. I’ve honestly only ever had one interaction that made me uncomfortable, but I worry about this a lot.

Lisa: Have you ever written a line, paragraph, or passage, and thought, “Darn, that’s pretty amazing, even if I do say so myself”? What was it?

Jude: I have! I remember because it was *years* ago and I shared it with Racheline Maltese and Erin McRae (other romance authors). But I have no idea what the context was, what the book was, or why I was even sharing it with them. Welcome to my brain kids. I remember things strangely. “Oh yeah, that one scholar said this thing about that thing in the blue book with inverted triangles on the front and the script font chapter headings.” That’s how I remember things.

Lisa: What’s the one genre/sub-genre you haven’t written yet, but would love to? What’s kept you from it so far?

Jude: Probably sci-fic or spec. Creating new and alternate worlds seems like a huge responsibility and I’d really need a lot of confidence to do it.

Lisa: Let’s talk tropes: do you have a few favorites that you enjoy both writing and reading? If so, what are they and what makes them your faves?

Jude: I love fated soul mates. I’m such a sucker for that. Otherwise, I can’t think if I like or dislike particular tropes. I love a good trope in a book when the author is using it super intentionally, rather than resting on it and depending on it to do the work of the story. Well done trope work is so satisfying.

Lisa: What book are you reading right now?

Jude: I am reading Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai and Judith Butler’s Bodies that Matter. So pretty much the steamiest, delicious family feud, forbidden lover story paired with an academic book written by an author who is brilliant but who hurts my brain.

Lisa: Describe your ideal fantasy writing environment—the beach in Monaco, a sidewalk café in Paris, a thatched cottage in the English countryside—wherever you can dream of.

Jude: Y’all are going to learn how boring I am. I love my writing environment exactly as is. I am a ridiculous creature of habit. I like to do the same things the same way every time once I’ve found what works for me. Heck, I’ll eat the same dinner seven nights in a row if I really like it. I work at a sit/stand desk in front of a bay window. It’s in my living room so I have my beautiful bookshelves here and I get to look at my garden and neighborhood. If I was anywhere else in the world, I’d want to be out there in it, not stuck at my desk!

Lisa: If you could choose one of your books to be adapted for the silver screen, which would you choose? Why do you think it would translate well to film?

Jude: Oh god that’s hard! Gosh if I had to pick one, it would probably be Idlewild (oh that hurts to say! I love them all). My books are very character and place driven, which means that the settings of the books are all rich and would be nice backdrops, but that a lot of the story is going on internally, which makes for difficult adaptation. I can see the ways in which the side characters, the city, and the restaurant could help do some of the external exposition or create spaces for this in Idlewild. It would kill me to see the internal work for What it Takes or A Tiny Piece of Something Greater done badly or cut out.

Lisa: What’s the one book you’ve read in your lifetime that you wish you’d written? Why did this particular book leave such a lasting impact on you?

Jude: Oh this is so hard! I’ve never thought about this, so I’ll probably change my mind tomorrow. I’ll say The Chosen by Chaim Potok. It’s just the most beautiful YA story about deep love in the form of a lifelong friendship. It’s a quiet but profoundly emotional story.

Lisa: If I were to interview you MCs, what would they say about you?

Jude: That I’m neurotic, that I overthink things, that I love pretty words and that I cry too often over them.

More seriously, I think that Reid would have a deep sympathy for me. In this book he does the work of exposing difficult and painful things; he does it for love and for wellness, both with Joaquim and with his therapy group. He would know that I did the same, but for this book. There are two scenes in particular in this book that came from a place of really raw, deep, connected emotions for me. I cried the whole time I wrote them, I cry when I read them. I’m tearing up talking about them! I like to think that Reid would feel about this the way I feel about the work he does. That it’s brave and commendable.

Lisa: If you won the lottery, what’s the first completely self-indulgent thing you’d do?

Jude: Laser eye surgery!

Lisa: What book that you’ve read and loved would you most like to be a character in? Who would you be, and why?

Jude: I would love to be in the Outlander series (I know it’s not a book, but…still). I think that it might be really cool to be Claire for a variety of reasons—she ends up with Jamie (oh god yes), she’s badass, and also because she’s in every book so she doesn’t miss a thing. But also being either Young Ian (I’m sorry he’s just the bees knees) or Rachel (because she gets to be with Young Ian) or Lord John Grey would be amazing too.

Lisa: If you were stranded on a desert island, what are three things you’d absolutely have to have?

Jude: My kindle, a wi-fi connection so I can keep downloading new books, and an umbrella or tarp so I can have some shade.

Lisa: If you could be any animal in the world, what would you choose? Why?

Jude: A red panda. I would be too cute to resist, there would be a million fantastic pictures of me (red pandas are fierce models, Tyra would approve, not a bad angle anywhere), and just my existence would cheer people up on bad days.

Lisa: If you could travel back in time, with all your years of experience and wisdom intact, what advice would you give to your teenage self?

Jude: It sounds cliché, but that it will get better. To try really hard to love myself. I love myself now, I love my body and my gifts and my humor—obviously I know I am flawed and I do struggle—but if I could save time in the form of years I agonized over not liking, much less loving myself, that would be cool.

I’d also tell myself I’m not alone. Also, if I could find a way to convince myself that getting help is not a weakness, and that there was help out there for me, that would be awesome.

Lisa: Star Trek, Star Wars, both or neither? Explain.

Jude: I’ve….never watched either.

::ducks and hides::

Lisa: Haha, that’s okay, Jude! Thanks so much for taking the time to chat. It’s been fun!

About the Book

Title: A Tiny Piece of Something Greater
Publisher: Interlude Press
Release Date (Print & Ebook): May 17, 2018
Length (Print & Ebook): 258 Pages
Subgenre: LGBT, Interracial/Multicultural, New Adult
Editor’s Note: Some readers may find some of the scenes in this book difficult to read. We have compiled a list of content warnings, which you can access at interludepress.com/content-warnings
Blurb: Reid Watsford has a lot of secrets and a past he can’t quite escape. While staying at his grandmother’s condo in Key Largo, he signs up for introductory dive classes, where he meets Joaquim Oliveira, a Brazilian dive instructor with wanderlust. Driven by an instant, magnetic pull, what could have been just a hookup quickly deepens. As their relationship evolves, they must learn to navigate the challenges of Reid’s mental illness—on their own and with each other.

Buy Links: Interlude Press || All 3rd Party eTailers

About the Author

Jude Sierra is a Latinx poet, author, academic and mother working toward her PhD in Writing and Rhetoric, looking at the intersections of Queer, Feminist and Pop Culture Studies. She also works as an LGBTQAI+ book reviewer for From Top to Bottom Reviews. Her novels include Hush, What it Takes, and Idlewild, a contemporary LGBT romance set in Detroit’s renaissance, which was named a Best Book of 2016 by Kirkus Reviews.