Interview with Jen St. Jude, author of IF TOMORROW DOESN'T COME

 

I am thrilled to introduce today's author, a debut author by the name of Jen St. Jude (they/them or she/her)! Their debut book, If Tomorrow Doesn't Come was a wonderful read with a lot of heart and emotions packed into the book! I highly recommend it. Getting to interview Jen was amazing!

In this interview we primarily focused on their debut novel but I also got to pick her brain a little as to what it's been liking releasing their debut book and what else they're currently working on.      

⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜

When did you first start writing and when did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

I've written for as long as I can remember; since I was a child. I've always just loved it and expressed myself that way. It wasn't until high school that it occurred to me I was pretty good at it. College was the first time I knew it would be in my life forever in one form or another.

I love that! You loved writing and then realized you might be good at it! I don't know why that entertains me so much! I'm very glad you had that realization though, not everyone does but it's so great when they do!

Are you a plotter or a pantser or something else?

I wrote as a pantser, revised as a plotter. In the interest of time, I'm more committed to planning things out in advance now, but I think there should always be room for discovery and mistakes.

Fair enough! I think that's a great way of approaching writing. Give yourself a framework but don't make it too rigid.

Do you have anything that helps you write? Like a certain snack or music or fidgets?

I'm all about playlists! Music really helps me return to the emotions or tone I'm trying to capture. I wrote about the If Tomorrow Doesn't Come playlist here. I'm also one of those people that always has like three drinks at one time; water, caffeine, and seltzer or something similar.

YES!!! I absolutely adore music being tied to books! I love that this book has a playlist and I'm already planning when I can just sit down and listen to these songs. I'm impressed you can have 3 drinks at once, I can barely keep track of one.

What has your experience been like with releasing your debut book?

It's been wonderful, and so much more than I could have ever asked for. My teams at Bloomsbury and Penguin Random House UK are beyond supportive. People really showed up from me in so many ways, and it's fun to see people actually reading the novel. It still blows my mind completely that it's actually in the world on such a big stage. And at the same time, it's terrifying. It feels a bit like that Black Mirror episode where Dallas Howard's character watches people rate her as a person all day in real time. You really have to come up with a plan around your mental and emotional health.

That's so good! I love that so much! It sounds so amaszing and wonderful. But I also definitely get the terrifying aspect of it as well. It sounds overwhelming at the same time. I think that having a mental and emotional health plan is a great idea for all aspiring authors!

How did you come up with the idea for If Tomorrow Doesn't Come?

It was a combination of experiences all around the same time; I was at rock bottom with my own mental health and dealing with some big loss in my life. I felt like I was living in a separate world from everyone else most of the time, one where everything was either impossible or ending.

Fair enough!

What made you want to focus on Avery's mental health and mental health just in general?

I don't think it was a choice, actually. I think I couldn't write about anything else because it was just the lens through which I saw the world. All these years later, my reasons are different. I want to talk about it so that other people don't feel alone in their struggles. Many of us feel like it's our fault that we're struggling, and that it's because we're permanently broken. We're not.

That's a solid reason to have written about it. I also love that the reason has changed in the years since though. Mental health is such an important topic but it's not talked about as much as it should be.

How did the character of Avery, and to a slightly lesser extent the other characters, develop from your initial idea and draft to the final draft?

They've all changed so much! There have been so many drafts of this story; dozens, I think. Avery's sexuality has changed along with my own, but over the course of the decade+ I worked on it, so many other characters were added, deleted, changed, combined. Peter's character is a combination of two other now-non-existent brothers and a friend. Aisha was once a man, and the love interest. For a while I wanted it to be a polyamorous story until my thesis advisor was like uh, no, we don't have time for all of that. I have played with so many different characters and so many different versions of this story, but now that it's in its final form I can't imagine it any other way.

You've been working on this book for quite a long time. It definitely makes sense that the characters would grow and change along with you. That's amazing growth and I'm glad that this was the final story that it ended on.

The beginning of If Tomorrow Doesn't Come kind of just dives straight into Avery's mental health. How did you know that that was how you wanted to begin the book?

I know the beginning is a bit abrupt, and many agents or others felt like it was too abrupt. Wow, she's right at the brink and the world is ending all in the first chapter? I get it. But to me, it would have taken a good third of the book to really show how she got to that place, and by then the asteroid plot would have felt like a completely different story. I wanted the flashbacks and present day to tell a full story of who Avery is, at the pacing that made sense for the story.

It's definitely an abrupt start to the book, but not in a bad way. It was such an excellent way of showing where Avery was at that time and the flashbacks and present day chapters just helped to expand on that.

Were there any big changes made from the initial draft to the final draft?

So many! I mentioned some with the character shifts, but the chronology is different, most of the plot is different. It was a much darker book for a long time. I'll admit that when I see people say it's sad now, I just think, oh boy. You have no idea. This is the most hopeful version of this story, and I'm so glad it's the one that went out into the world. It took me a long time to get there.

I'm very glad that this is the most hopeful version of the story. I think it's wonderfully told. I'm also just a teeny bit curious what the darker versions of the book looked like but I don't know if I can emotionally handle a darker version of this book.

What's your favorite scene or line in this book?

I have We still are. tattooed on my arm because it reminds me that I'm still here, and as long as that's true there's still the potential for things to get better, even in my worst moments. It also reminds me I'm not alone.

That's amazing! I absolutely love that. An important line with a lot of meaning!

What scene or part of the book was the hardest for you to write and why?

Avery's college scenes are pivotal to the book-they show how she ultimately arrived at her decision to end her life, they illuminate her [potential] last moments and how broken she felt in them. But I barely wrote these scenes until I was working with my editor, which was one of the final stages for this book. It was really challenging for me to write them even though they're fictional. My own experience was so much darker than Avery's, to be honest, but even writing shadows of my own experience was really hard to do. I know the book needed these scenes, and I had to write them eventually. But I avoided it for a long while.

That's very understandable. It's never fun to have to delve into your own dark experiences.

Are you currently working on any other books?

My second book is on track to be published by Bloomsbury in 2025! It's about climate change, friendship, and mental health. I think it will be even queerer than If Tomorrow Doesn't Come with a bigger cast of characters, so I'm excited about that.

Ooh, yes please!! That sounds amazing!! I'm gonna keep a sharp eye out on your socials for more information and on other accounts for whenever ARCs come out. We've got a while to go yet but if I start now I'm more likely to remember it.

Thank you so much to Jen St. Jude for an absolutely amazing interview!! If it sounds like your kind of book, make sure to check out If Tomorrow Doesn't Come. It's one hell of a read!

If you like what I do, consider giving me a follow on my social media or consider sharing or donating my GCLS GoFundMe. I appreciate any help or shares that I can get! Every little bit matters. Thank you for reading!!

⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜ ⚜

You can find Jen St. Jude on their website, Instagram, and Twitter.

You can buy Jen St. Jude's book from Bookshop where you can choose which indie bookstore (or blogger like me) to support.

If you can't buy her books but you still want to read them, consider requesting them to your local library or suggesting them on Overdrive!