Today I am delighted to welcome Irish novelist Gráinne O’Brien to my blog. Gráinne has written an utterly fabulous verse novel, Solo, published by Little Island Books, and has kindly agreed to answer some questions that I asked her. I am super grateful to Kate at Little Island Books for arranging this interview.

Welcome to my blog Gráinne. Congratulations on the recent publication of your YA verse novel Solo, which blew me away (please excuse the pun) and thank you so much for allowing me to ask you some questions.

Could I begin by asking you to give us a short summary of the story and introduce us to the main protagonist Daisy?

Daisy is an eighteen year old recorder player who recently got broken up with by her first boyfriend. When we meet her, she is going through it all, the poor thing. Not only has she been broken up with, her friendship with her oldest friend has ended as they drift apart, she is feeling disconnected with her music.

Are you a musician yourself, I’m guessing you might be with the use of the music terminology throughout the novel? When I saw the book cover my immediate thought was: what motivated the choice of the recorder as Daisy’s instrument? So I was amazed to see this question addressed by Daisy. Could you explain why you chose this particular instrument for Daisy?

I sing as a part of a choir as a first soprano and have done for many years, but I am no way as musically gift as Daisy is. I chose the recorder because I feel like most of us have some kind of relationship with it, we recognise it from being made to play it in school and rarely do we continue it beyond those few years. But hearing a recorder played well is such a beautiful sound. I wanted Daisy to become enamoured with the recorder when most of her classmates hated it. I thought it really suited her personality. I am very lucky that my choir director is a recorder player, and I regularly picked her brain to make sure Daisy’s experience would be as true to life as possible.

You address some big topics in the novel and I love the way that the emotional upheavals are related to the musical theme throughout; do you think that teenagers have a particular tendency to link music to their emotions during a time when many are experiencing hormonal surges and mood swings? What do you hope that they will take from this novel?

I think it is incredibly important that teenagers have access to books that are just for them, that reflect the things they are going through, regardless of what is happening in the wider world. I think everyone remembers the music they listened to when they were teenagers, in writing Solo I went back to a lot of what I listened to. I think at times when we are especially vulnerable in our lives, to find music that seems to speak to that experience makes us feel less alone. And we are never as vulnerable as we are when we are a teenager. Everything is raw and exposed.

I’m really interested to know what prompted your decision to write Solo as a verse novel, could you tell us why you chose to write in this format?

In truth, it really felt like it was the only option. The verse comes from Daisy’s connection to her music, and it’s there to demonstrate that it pulses through her, even when she isn’t able to play. The characters and the plot determined what form the book was going to be written in, and I was dragged along for the ride. I have learned a lot about verse and poetry in the last two years and I am infinitely better for it.

Does the process of planning and writing a novel in verse differ from writing prose, and if so, in what ways?

Not really, but sometimes I had to be flexible and willing to jump around if I got an idea for a particular poem that I knew would be used much later in the book, or I came across a musical term that worked better with a poem I have already written. Verse novels are fun because they can almost be quilted together, and if (like me) you struggle with sticking to a strict plan or structure, there is a lot of freedom in their creation.

I have only started reading verse novels myself in the last couple of years, and wish that I had discovered them sooner (and that they had been available when I was a teen reader, which is rather a long time ago). Do you have any particular favourites that you would recommend?

• The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta
• Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• Moonrise and One both by Sarah Crossan
• The Lonely Book by Meg Grehan
• Wider That the Sea by Serena Malloy
• I also love the poetry of Nikkita Gill, and think every teenager should read her collection These Are The Words

Which authors and/or poets did you most enjoy as a teenager? And who are your current favourite authors writing for children and young people?

I always loved stories that took place in real life. Judy Blume especially, Jacquline Wilson, Beverly Cleary, Louis Sachar and Robert Cormier. I also loved the fantasy world created by Tamora Pierce. And, but of course, the Babysitters Club. But I would read anything I could get my hands on. 

There are some incredible writers working in Ireland at the moment and they are all at different stages of their careers so it is so exciting to watch, but some of my favourites of the last year are, Derek Landy, Dave Rudden, Clara Kumagai, Padraig Kenny, Meg Grehan, Patrica Forde, Sarah Bowie, Alex Dunne, Amy Clarkin, Kevin Moran, Sheena Dempsy, Kel Menton, honestly the list goes on and on.

In your role as head buyer for Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway, what do you look for in novels written for middle grade and young adult readers?

I look for books that make me feel things, that put the characters and the plot ahead of all other messaging and have a beautiful cover. It’s a simple enough formula to be honest, and it has never not worked for me.

I have read online that you founded a literary service to support writers of fiction for children to get their work published. Could you tell us about your motivation for this, and what is the current children’s book scene like in Ireland?

What Rontu is really about is about supporting authors as they navigate the next steps in their writing career. Bookselling and the realities of it can be a bit of a mystery and a scary place if you don’t understand what is happening in the market. I do my best to help calm anxieties and reassure people about whatever stage in their writing career that they are in. The current children’s book scene in Ireland is thriving. It is an incredibly exciting time to be a part of it.

How do you manage to carve out time for writing alongside your other roles?

I am not a person who writes every day. I do a lot of thinking about what I am going to write for sure, usually when I am in the car, but I tried that idea of writing every day, but for my life it wasn’t realistic and it became something I would bully myself about when I missed a day. Now I am much more relaxed about it, but every bit of annual leave that I get I usually use for writing. I try to get away for a few days at a time. I am lucky that my life and job accommodate this. My best advice to anyone writing is to find a process that works for you. Don’t kill yourself trying to reach someone else’s standard. Write when you can, and be kind to yourself while you do it.

Was your ambition always to write for children and young people? If so, what are your reasons for choosing this particular readership?

For a while I actually avoided writing for the children’s market, because I spent all day everyday with children’s books, I tried to do something different when I came home, but what can I say, the ideas wouldn’t leave me alone and eventually there were some that I just couldn’t ignore. I am open to writing for any market, but at the moment I am very happy with the books I have written and the ideas that I have on the horizon, are all for the children’s market.

In the UK, recent research indicates that the percentage of children choosing to read for pleasure is falling year-on-year. What do you think that writers and the publishing industry can do to try to persuade more youngsters to choose to spend their spare time enjoying a book?

A) THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT! Make sure the children in your life not only see you reading a book, but hear you talk passionately about it. Talk to children about the book you are reading! Tell them why you love it. Be honest with yourself about how much you are reading, and how often the children around you see you doing it, and talking about it in a way that tell them it is bringing you joy.

B) Don’t treat reading as a punishment, or something that must be done. It doesn’t always need to be a lesson or an opportunity to challenge them. Let kids read what they want to read. If they want to read the same book over and over again, let them. If they want to read a book that is ‘below their level’ let them. It’s not about constantly pushing them to move on or move up, its about associating the habit of reading with pleasure. Children that love reading will find their way to other books, more complicated books, books that make them think and challenge them and show them different points of view. All of that will come.  But we need to let them experience the joy of reading in whatever form that comes first. Cultivate that joy. The rest will follow.

C) As adults we sometimes allow our own egos and vision of what a child reading should look like to get in the way. Talk to your young reader. Bring them a library or bookshop and let them talk to the staff there and tell them what they are interested in and what they want to read about. That book may be wildly different from the books you read and loved as a child. That can be hard to accept, especially if you want that child to love the same books you did so you can talk about them. But you can still talk about them! Tell them how much you loved them and why, not because you want them to love the books you read, but to show them how much reading has brought to your life.

Is there any chance that you will visit any book festivals in the UK in the near future, and are you appearing at any festivals or book events in Ireland this year where readers can come and meet you?

I would love to visit UK festivals and do my best to do so! I am doing an event in Books Upstairs in Dublin with the wonderful verse novel writer Meg Grehan on May 1^st. On May 20^th I am taking part in a live DnD game with other writers as part of the International Literature Festival Dublin.

Thank you so much for spending some time in answering my questions, Gráinne and for so many recommendations to follow up on. I wish you every success with the launch of Solo. I found it immensely powerful and enjoyable, and hope that school librarians, public librarians and parents/caregivers will put it into the hands of many teen readers.

Here’s my review:

Solo by Gráinne O’Brien is a note-perfect story of teenage heartbreak, written in verse so that the reader actually feels every one of teenage protagonist Daisy Ryan’s emotions. I couldn’t put it down, so compelling was the voice. The verse-novel format works perfectly for this tale, the rhythm of the writing portraying the musicality which lies at the heart of the narrative. This is an astonishingly brilliant debut novel which dives into the deep well of emotional experiences which are often first encountered during the later teenage years. In sparse text, the author portrays a central character, a family, and a school community with such precision that you feel like you know them inside out.

The story opens on Daisy’s eighteenth birthday. Immediately you realise that she would like to stay buried in her duvet, nursing the utter rejection that she feels after David her first boyfriend has moved on to new conquests. Her mother and father tiptoe around her, at a loss to know what to do or say; confused that their single-minded, dedicated student daughter, who has spent her girlhood utterly dedicated to music, now appears to have lost interest in everything other than mourning for her lost love. Meanwhile, her twin brothers Fiachra and Tadgh, who operate as a single unit in everything that they do, exhibit less patience on their visits home from medical school. The author builds a picture of Daisy as a solitary presence, who built an impressive reputation as a performer and winner of musical awards through single-minded dedication to her craft. Following her Dad’s mantra, built during his former years as a hurling champion:

You must practise more

You must want it more

You must love it more

Than anyone else page 41

she perfected her art, only to neglect it for a boy unworthy of her love.

Now, with the Leaving Certificate exams looming, Daisy is cut adrift from her music, her studies, her former best friend Shannon, and David for whom she gave up her own passion to encourage him to progress from being a substitute player in the local hurling team, to now being seen as a star player who will help the school team ‘break the curse’ in the school championships this year. Dreading the final year of school, Daisy is surprised to be befriended by new arrival Nora, whose cavalier attitude hides her own private heartbreak and who begins to reawaken Daisy’s interest in music. The story builds to a crescendo as Daisy faces the prospect of losing her father to cancer and in dramatic fashion, learns of the deep loathing that Nora feels for her own father.

I loved every aspect of this book. From the beautiful cover, where the raised font on the title makes the Os feel like the holes on a recorder, to the clever text effects on some pages, to the pertinent use of musical terms as headers for each section of the story, and to the powerfully emotional narrative. I loved the character of Daisy, for whom music “forms the very fabric of who I am as a person” and loved the portrayal of her parents who exhibited her love for her in ways that authentically matched their personalities. I raced through the novel the first time, which is very possible due to the economy of the text, and then reread to savour the fantastic imagery and intelligent asides which fleshed out the personalities so perfectly. I have read quite a number of books written for the YA market over the past few years and I have to say that Solo is outstanding; a perfectly composed masterpiece which can be enjoyed by all readers of 15+.

I whole-heartedly recommend Solo to anyone who loves music, anyone who loves poetry and anyone who loves a compelling story.

Disclaimer: I am very grateful to Kate at Little Island Books for sending me a copy of Solo and for arranging the interview. It was my own decision to write a review and all opinions are my own.