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What Happens When Fangirl BFFs Collide? If You’re Lucky, Gena/Finn
Depending on your relationship with your best friend, cowriting a novel is either living the dream or embarking on a potential nightmare. Thankfully for us readers, debut novelist Kat Helgeson and veteran-despite-basically-still-being-an-actual-YA Hannah Moskowitz took the plunge, and it paid off in a majorly fabulous way in the form of Gena/Finn, about two girls who meet in fandom and form a fierce, inextricable, increasingly-blurry-lined bond. This is the kind of book that hits you at home in all the best and most painful ways, especially if you’re an avid participant in fandom or someone who has met your nearest and dearest online. Don’t miss it, and don’t miss this interview with its coauthors, either.
Ships in 1-2 days.
So, I have to ask the obvious question—what’s your fandom, and how did you guys meet?
Kat: We’re both big fans of the TV show Supernatural, and we met in 2011 writing fanfiction about the show.
Hannah: It’s hilarious how quickly people recognize the fandom in G/F as basically SPN. We totally thought we were being sneaky.
Gena/Finn was originally called Your Machine Anatomy, if I recall correctly. What inspired that name and what brought on the title change?
Hannah: Inspiration was magnetic poetry my roommate left on my fridge, just the phrase “your machine anatomy.” I used it in one of the actual poems in the book without realizing I’d totally nabbed it from him. It had just gotten stuck in my head. We knew that it probably wouldn’t be the final title because, well, it’s kind of weird and nondescriptive. It took forever for all of us to land on the final title, though.
Kat: Rejected titles include Fictions, Scene Break, Up Below, and Plugging In. We also discussed Gena and Finn, briefly. I think we made the right choice.
Hannah: Although I stand firm that Be Evanson or You Can’t Be in Our Cosplay would have worked magnificently as well.
Gena/Finn is told entirely through correspondence and social media. In what ways was that freeing, and in what ways was it limiting? Without spoiling, was there anything you wish you could’ve just written out as narrative?
Kat: Honestly, it was incredibly freeing. I’ve compared the process to method acting. Hannah and I would start at the beginning of a scene and decide where we needed to get to by the end, and then we’d just get in character as Gena and Finn and act it out together. It relieved a lot of the stress of planning and outlining that often comes with writing.
Hannah: There were parts we knew would work better as a narrative, which is why the last third of the book is structured the way it is, with Finn’s longer journal entries functioning as something closer to a straightforward narrative.
Gena/Finn was mentioned by two separate pub pros for two separate entries in a recent YAs That Get it Right post on B&N Teen. What’s the first time you remember a book nailing something about your personal experience?
Hannah: This is such a weird answer, but it was one of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books, I thiiiink the third one? Lena was talking about how she always feels so disconnected from what’s happening around her, and there was some line about sometimes she felt like hitting herself just so she would feel something while it was actually happening. And…well. I related to that.
Kat: Mine’s embarrassing. Or maybe super not embarrassing. It was Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix. The part where Harry’s telling Sirius how he feels so dark and angry all the time and he thinks that makes him a bad guy, and Sirius reassures him you can have bad stuff in your head and still be a good person because you don’t act on it. That really hit home.
What does the co-authoring process look like for you?
Kat: Like having a conversation. On occasion, Hannah and I have literally lost track of whether we’re cowriting or just talking to each other. I swear it’s really happened.
Hannah: Yep. Honestly, it was incredibly easy. I got to talk to my best friend and write half a book. Way easier than a solo project.
Hannah, this is your ninth book, and Kat, this is your debut. How did you find that made for different approaches and experiences?
Hannah: I would really take for granted that Kat knew stuff about publishing that I didn’t, and assume she was aware of what was and wasn’t something to worry about. In terms of the actual writing, though, I don’t think it made a big difference.
Kat:It made the whole process a lot more chill for me than I think it would have been otherwise. Partly that was due to Hannah’s wealth of experience, and partly it was because I was going through the debut process alongside my best friend. I think I’m incredibly lucky in that respect. I would recommend that to anyone.
Whether shows, books, movies, or music, what are you huge fans of right now?
Kat: We’re both big fans of reality TV shows, and we still love Supernatural. I’m also really digging Hamilton right now—but who isn’t!
Hannah: *raises hand* I’m not. My weekly shows are Supernatural, Survivor, Mom, Catfish, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Ink Master. My favorite writers are E. Lockhart, Jaclyn Moriarty, and Melina Marchetta. My music is basically all Motion City Soundtrack and Mat Kearney. And Taylor.
Kat: I’m watching Game of Thrones and Broad City, reading other 2016 debut authors, and listening to a playlist of the ’90s. Backstreet’s back!
What’s up next for each of you?
Kat’s first solo novel, Bidder’s Choice, is coming out from Simon & Schuster in Spring 2017. Hannah’s book about sea monsters is coming out…sometime. Probably fall ‘207.
Gena/Finn hits shelves today!