I’m excited to welcome Abigail de Niverville to the site today to celebrate the release of her new book, We Go Together! This contemporary m/f YA Romance stars a cis bi girl and trans boy coming back together over a summer, and the author is here to talk about the settings of the book and why they mean so much to her. But first, a little more on the book, out today from NineStar Press!
Now seventeen and on the brink of attending college, Kat is full of regret. She’s broken a friendship beyond repair, and she’s dated possibly the worst person in the world. Six months after their break-up, he still haunts her nightmares. Confused and scared, she returns to Grand-Barachois to sort out her feelings.
When she arrives, everything is different yet familiar. Some of her friends are right where she left them, while some are nowhere to be found. There are so many things they never got to do, so many words left unsaid.
And then there’s Tristan.
He wasn’t supposed to be there. He was just a guy from Kat’s youth orchestra days. When the two meet again, they become fast friends. Tristan has a few ideas to make this summer the best one yet. Together, they build a master list of all the things Kat and her friends wanted to do but never could. It’s finally time to live their wildest childhood dreams.
But the past won’t let Kat go. And while this may be a summer to remember, there’s so much she wants to forget.
Buy it: NineStar Press
And here’s the post!
When I was little, until I was about ten years old, my family piled into the car, with stuffed animals and bedsheets jammed into every corner, and drove to the family cottage in Shediac, New Brunswick. My grandmother and great-aunt would stay there pretty much the entire season, with a revolving door of family popping in for dinner visits and overnight stays. The cottage was old, with mismatched plates, and furniture that vaguely smelt of must. But even with all its imperfections, it was perfect. Going to the cottage was a magical time every year when real life felt eons away, and time almost stopped and sped at the same time.
When I was twenty-one, my friends and I drove out to a friend’s cottage in Cap-Pelé, in a community a little further than Shediac on the Acadian coast in New Brunswick. We went down a long, dirt road, with various houses and cottages peeking through the trees. It was more rural than Shediac, but just as magical. We sat on the deck and looked down at the beach, so close to us and so far from the world and our responsibilities. My friend mentioned how some people lived here all year, not just in the summer. I thought to myself that would be ideal, to live on this small corner of the coast and forget about life.
A few years later, my mom’s cousin moved to Grand-Barachois, another area along the Acadian coast. She had a beautiful house, fully winterized and a minute’s walk away from the beach. Her street was so quiet, with only a hint of the world beyond coming from the cars moving on the old highway. The sky was vast and blue, and stretched on forever. I thought to myself that it would also be a wonderful place to write a story.
While all three of these places were different, the experience was always the same. I loved coming to that corner of the province. I loved feeling the sand in my toes and smelling the sea air. I loved how these places made time stand still. I loved how cozy they felt, preserved with artefacts from the past—like old TVs and jigsaw puzzled with pieces missing. I knew, one of these days, I wanted to write a book with this setting, and somehow recreate the feeling these places gave me.
When I first began We Go Together, I started with a simple concept: to write a summer novel that took place somewhere along the Acadian coast. I had a character in mind who was in a transitional period of her life, who would be looking both forward and backward in order to piece herself together. The more I wrote, the more it became clear this character had survived a traumatic relationship, and needed to parse what had taken place in a setting that would allow her space to breathe. The beaches in Grand-Barachois felt like the perfect setting. They were peaceful, remote, timeless—but never lonely. A gentle removal from daily life, to ease into acknowledging the darker parts of the past.
In creating a fictionalized version of this setting, I wanted to reflect a world that felt both current and timeless, with mixes of modern and old technology, and modern and old references, too. A place that was both grounded in reality, but also otherworldly. A place where beauty abounded, even when confronted with desolation. A place full of contradictions, much like the main character Kat’s journey towards understanding her past.
There are many aspects of life in New Brunswick that are not ideal. There are reasons I moved away. But there’s so much beauty in that province that I feel compelled to acknowledge in my writing. There are so many little nooks and crannies characters can explore, and so many memories just waiting to be made. This novel covers some of those beautiful places, but there’s always more to discover.
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Abigail de Niverville is an author and composer based in Toronto, Canada. Born on the East Coast of the country, Abigail draws inspiration from her experiences growing up there. She’s especially fond of writing contemporary young adult novels and poetry. Abigail holds and M.Mus from the University of Toronto and writes music in many genres, including classical, pop, and film. She is constantly working on new music projects and drafting story ideas.
