Photo Credit: Anita Lashey
Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester is very happy to shine our Friday spotlight on young adult LGBTQ+ author Robbie Couch.
Robbie, could you please tell us briefly a little about yourself and your writing? How would you like us to introduce you?
Hi! I’m Robbie. I grew up in small-town Michigan surrounded by cornfields and now live in big city California surrounded by traffic. I read lots of different genres but love writing young-adult fiction. All three of the books I’ve written thus far center the experiences of gay and queer teens, and I have no plans on changing that anytime soon.
Where can people find your work? (Besides Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester–though they should totally check here first!)
My books can be found at Barnes & Noble, many amazing local indies like Annie’s, and that one website that’s named after a rainforest and starts with an A.
How can we follow your work and share your awesomeness?
Follow me on social media! I’m active on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.
What was the biggest challenge in writing and putting out your latest release, If I See You Again Tomorrow? How did you overcome that challenge?
Because If I See You Again Tomorrow is a time loop romance a la Groundhog Day, the biggest challenge for me was developing the story arcs of my secondary characters who were not stuck in a repeating day. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to portray fully fleshed out characters with their own stories to tell when they’re unknowingly confined to a single box on the calendar. My approach to smooth out this bottleneck was allowing my MC Clark’s own arc to slowly reveal aspects of his relationships with the others, bringing them more to life on the page.
What is your favorite part of being a writer? Of the whole writing and publishing process? What do you think has been your greatest lesson in the journey thus far?
My favorite part of being a writer is having the privilege to take these completely random, mostly terrible—but sometimes good! —ideas in my brain and translate them into prose on a page. I think stories help us learn, build empathy, and empower us to be our authentic selves, and to think I’m contributing to that magic in my own small way is the coolest thing ever.
What piece of advice would you want to share with other writers?
I would say challenge yourself to be a story sponge as you move through the world. And by that, I mean absorb the people, places, and things you encounter every day through the lens of a storyteller. Interesting characters, inspiring settings, and jaw-dropping plot hooks are waiting outside your doorstep waiting to be realized! You just have to take a look.
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions, Robbie. Good luck with If I See You Again Tomorrow.
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