All Our Worst Ideas
Vicky Skinner
Published by: Swoon Reads
Publication date: August 11th 2020
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult
Two teens who have nothing in common work together at a record store in All Our Worst Ideas, a powerful and voice-driven YA novel from Vicky Skinner.
When Amy, on her way to becoming valedictorian of her graduating class and getting accepted to her dream school, gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she takes a job at a record store to ease the pain. She needs a distraction, badly.
Oliver, Amy’s record store co-worker, isn’t so sure about Amy—his complete opposite—but what he is sure of is his decision not to go to college. He just can’t figure out how to tell his mother.
As they work late-night shifts at the record store, Amy and Oliver become friends and then confidantes and then something more, but when Amy has a hard time letting go of what she thought was her perfect future with her ex, she risks losing the future she didn’t even know she wanted with Oliver.
Interview with Vicky
Skinner
For
those interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book,
where should they start?
In
terms of music, I would say start exploring whatever music you don’t
know. Ask your friends for bands you might not have ever heard of.
One of the ways we discover is by listening to what other people are
passionate about. That’s really what this book is about: how our
passions are all so different.
How
did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?
Three
things happened close to the same time in 2015: I read Eleanor
& Park, I
discovered Spotify, and I discovered Ed Sheeran. I was suddenly
flooded with all of this music inspiration and little by little, I
started getting an idea for these kids who worked in a record store.
Music has always been the only thing I love as much as I love books.
If I had any musical talent at all, I would have chosen that career
path over writing. Some days it feels like music is the only thing
keeping me alive. I only just finally got the chance to write about
it.
What
were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel
you achieved them?
My
goal with this book was to show readers that every person’s desires
for their future are different and that every path is a valid one.
Amy wants to get into the college of her dreams and Oliver doesn’t
want to go to college at all. When I was in high school, not going to
college wasn’t even an option. I worked hard because I wanted to be
the first in my family to go, but once I was there, I was less happy
about the prospect of getting a degree. Now, ten years later, I know
that option not go to college always existed but even today is seen
as the inferior option. I hate that. I want kids to know that if they
don’t want to go to college, they don’t have to, and they can
choose their own future without letting it be decided by others’
expectations. I hope I achieved that.
Anything
you would like to say to your readers and fans?
Thanks!
There are billions of books out there, and anyone who chooses mine to
spend their precious moments on means a lot to me, so thank you.
What
did you enjoy most about writing this book?
The
thing I love most about working on this book is that I got a chance
to be openly funny. I’m not a hilarious person, but I love to
laugh. I love comedies. I love funny, witty people. But almost
everything I’ve written is about very heavy emotions. Getting the
chance to write about heavy emotions and
let the characters be funny when they wanted to be was really nice.
Can
you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have
planned for the future?
The
future is a blur. I’m actually working on a lot, but not anything
solid enough to talk about yet. Maybe they’ll see the shelves of a
bookstore, maybe they won’t. Guess we’ll see!
How
long have you been writing?
The
first short story I ever remember writing was called “The Very
Greasy Pizza” when I eight, about a girl who was hospitalized after
eating, you guessed it, a very greasy pizza. I started journaling
when I was in elementary school, switched to poetry and fanfic in
middle school, and then wrote my first novel at 15. Haven’t stopped
since.
Can
you tell us a little bit about the characters in All Our Worst Ideas?
The
two main characters of All Our Worst Ideas are Amy and Oliver. Amy is
a driven, passionate, emotional girl who’s working hard to make
valedictorian of her senior class so she can go to Stanford, while
Oliver is a quiet, sort of grumpy, completely emotional but hiding
it, 19-year-old who doesn’t want to go to college but just wants to
learn business from his best friend so he can open his own record
store someday. In a lot of ways, these two characters are my two
halves when I was a teenager, the side of me that wanted to make
everyone proud and do my best at everything to my own detriment and
the half of me that wanted to focus on art and didn’t want college
and wanted to just enjoy life without expectations, so I’m rather
attached to both of them.
If
you could spend the day with one of the characters from All Our Worst
Ideas who would it be? Please tell us why you chose this particular
character, where you would go and what you would do.
That’s tough, but it would
probably be Brooke, Amy and Oliver’s manager. She’s totally the
kind of person I would get along with, and I think we have a lot in
common where our musical tastes are concerned. I want to take her to
lunch to discuss our favorite bands and then go to a record store
together and then probably go to a concert or maybe even a movie. I
feel like she would be a fun person to go to the movies with.
Author Bio:
Vicky Skinner was born and raised in Texas, where she started writing novels about kissing cute boys when she was fifteen and eventually earned a BA in Literary Studies from The University of Texas at Dallas. She’s a full-time writer, a part-time runner, and she currently lives in Dallas with her husband.
1 comments:
Thanks for being on the tour! :)
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