Shiny Broken Pieces Authors Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton Talk Characters, Collaboration, and Cake

How did you guys meet?
Sona: We met in the Writing for Children MFA program at the New School. We were the chatty ones in class, and would always meet up over Patsy’s pepperoni pizza (and sometimes cupcakes!) to chat about our writing, what we were watching, the books we read as kids and teens. We often came back to the fact that we didn’t see ourselves much in the books we read growing up—and still wouldn’t.
Dhonielle: At some point, we decided we needed to actively do something about it. We both had heard about the concept of packaging, and it was something that we were interested in. But we wanted to do it differently. So we decided to collaborate on a project that would show how you could incorporate real diversity into a fun, delicious, high-concept read. I worked at a ballet school teaching English, and I wanted to write about that world. Sona suggested a thrillery take like Pretty Little Liars, and that became Tiny Pretty Things. We used the series to launch our packaging company, CAKE Literary.
How did the collaboration work?
Dhonielle: Sona’s the plot mistress, building the structure and plot from the ground up, while I’m more focused on character and world. I think that’s why we work well together. Together, we sort of have the bases covered, and we can focus on our strengths and leave holes for the other person to fill.
Sona: Writing-wise, we each took one character, and split the third. We work from outline, adding chapters, and we edit each other’s chapters as we see fit—Dhonielle adds, and I cut for pace. We try not to be precious about it. It can pinch sometimes, but we want to ensure the books have a cohesive, fast-paced, page-turnery feel.

Who’s your favorite character in Tiny Pretty Things and Shiny Broken Pieces?
Dhonielle: Bette. Because she’s authentically herself, even though that means she doesn’t always say the right thing or do the right thing. She’s sort of like the teen I was. I had darker impulses like that, even though I might not have acted on them.
Sona: My favorite is June. I wanted her to be the Iago of the book—conniving and confounding, but also deeply pained and misunderstood. She always feels like she has nowhere to belong, and that was very much me a teen.
You said you bonded over Patsy’s pizza and cupcakes. Favorite flavors?  
Dhonielle: Red velvet. Because I’m a Southern girl in my bones. And a good red velvet cake is everything that a Southern girl should embody.
Sona: Spice cake. Rich, delicious, unexpected, with a little kick to it.
Plotter or Pantser?
Sona: I’m a hardcore plotter. I come from a screenwriting background, and bring my love for three-act structure and scene development right into fiction. Dhonielle was always a pantser, but I have dragged her kicking and screaming to the other side.
Did you write fan fiction as a kid?
Sona: I wrote New Kids on the Block fan fiction with my sister. Later, when I was working at People magazine, I got to interview most of them at some point. That was weird.
Dhonielle: I never wrote fan fiction. I always just wrote my own stories.
What’s on your nightstand now?
Sona: I mostly read on my iPad, because with little kids, I sometimes have to read in the dark. And there are more books on my iPad now than I could ever actually read in a lifetime. But right now I’m reading Labyrinth Lost, by Zoraida Cordova, and Three Dark Crowns, by Kendare Blake.
Dhonielle: I don’t read on tablets—I can’t. I have to have paper. I’ve fallen into the hole of Outlander —I started with the TV series two weeks ago and now I’m onto the books. I can’t stop and I keep pulling other people into the hole of love with me. It’s such a delicious, distracting love story. I forgot how much we needed that. And the funny thing is that I never read adult fiction. This is an exception. In kidlit, I just started Jason Reynolds’ Ghost and Ever the Hunted, by Erin Summerhill.
What’s your sign?
Sona: Funny you should ask, because I am astrology obsessed. I frequently text people their horoscopes and warn them of Mercury retrogrades. Dhonielle has converted, but my husband was a nonbeliever for a long time until one too many Mercury retros proved him wrong.
Dhonielle: It’s funny, because I’m a Gemini and Sona’s a Libra, which means we’re both about balance and seeing both sides of things. But the way that translates to real life is very different. Libras balance both sides of an issue or problem before they reach a solution. Geminis tend to be more impulsive, and I make decisions based on what face I’m wearing that day, because I have two faces—I can mirror back to someone what they want to see.
Sona: Meanwhile, I only have the one face, and if you don’t like it, move on.
What Harry Potter house were you sorted into?

Dhonielle: I’m a Hufflepuff but I want to be Slytherin.
Sona: Well, you’re lucky you have a Slytherin by your side.

What’s one thing you can’t write without?
Sona: Chai. I can’t start the day without it, and I need a cup by my side when I’m writing, whether it’s noon or midnight. I have my own not-so-secret recipe, one that’s making an appearance in my current work in progress, probably because I’ve spent way too much time pondering the cultural politics of it. And please, don’t get me started on people who dare to utter the words “chai tea.” Infuriating.
Dhonielle: Notebooks. I have stacks of them scattered throughout my house, and I always have one on me.
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