Authors in Conversation: CL Montblanc and Jamie D’Amato

Today on the site I’m delighted to present a conversation between two YA debuts, Pride or Die author CL Montblanc and The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood and Boyfriends author Jamie D’Amato! Pride or Die just released on April 15th (though as you’ll see, this conversation took place beforehand, and I opted out of editing that), while Vampire is still to come at the end of August, but you can get hyped for both right now!

CW from authors: Discussion of mental health topics/suicidal ideation.

JD: Hey there! First of all, I always love chatting with you, but I’m especially excited to be talking with you for LGBTQ Reads, which I’ve always admired as a resource, and which feels more important than ever in today’s climate.

CLM: Agreed. More so than anywhere else right now, this feels like the safest space for us to be talking about our two queer books. Promoting an LGBTQ title has been really challenging so far—I’ve already had pushback elsewhere for simply “having pronouns” while trying to talk about writing craft.

JD: That’s so terrible, and so scary that that’s something we have to deal with while just existing and trying to do our jobs and trying to tell stories. But again, at least that’s what makes places like LGBTQ Reads really special and safe.

CLM: We love it here!

JD: Your novel Pride or Die is out April 15th, and I’m so excited to have a finished copy on my shelf. It follows an LGBTQ club trying to prove their innocence when a cheerleader is attacked on school premises, which leads to lots of shenanigans, but which also involves dealing with bigotry. One thing that I love about your book is how lighthearted and humorous and delightfully over-the-top it can be while also dealing with those super difficult and important topics, like homophobia in school systems. I had my own experience with that with my high school’s GSTA (Gay Straight Transgender Alliance) and it resonated with me a lot because of that. So it’s something that really affects me emotionally, but you made it so approachable with this laugh-out-loud humor I adored. Did you always set out to blend humor with serious issues in this way, or was it something that kind of naturally happened as you were writing this premise?

CLM: Thank you, and that’s so lovely to hear that it resonated with you! Humor is something that is really important to me, especially in conjunction with darker topics, and during hard times like those we’re living in. With YA fiction especially, I think readers are seeking an element of escape. And so while tackling tough issues like homophobia can be helpful and make teens feel like they’re not alone in those experiences (and have positive examples of resilience in fiction), it’s nice to have books that can also feel like a comfort. Like it doesn’t all have to be serious talks and tears. We can still be goofy and free in the face of adversity, you know? Besides, I think the resultant flavor of dark humor resonates a lot with teens. It’s a very normal way to cope, so I hope a lot of readers will feel seen by that and find it more authentic, if anything.

JD: Oh, I totally agree, I think dark humor as a coping mechanism is kind of very human to the core, and it does feel authentic and real because sometimes the really shitty things in life are funny even while they’re also terrible.

CLM: Yeah, see, you totally get it. And I feel like you do a great job of tackling this in your upcoming book, as well. The Good Vampire’s Guide to Blood and Boyfriends comes out August 26th and strikes a similar balance between humor and heavier topics, in your case mental health. Brennan is turned into a vampire not long after an attempt on his own life and ends up having to navigate cute boys and vampire antics alongside his depression. So, I want to hear the same from you—what made you choose a mental health-centric rom-com?

JD: Oh gosh, yeah, mental health and depression and recovering from a suicide attempt doesn’t exactly seem ripe for a rom-com, does it? But to me a lot of it was personal experience with my own mental health and just feeling like—I’d read characters who struggled with mental health and even characters who ended their own lives, but I hadn’t read much about characters who attempted suicide and survived and sort of chose to keep living. To me that was always at the core of the story I was trying to write. But the humor was really just a natural extension of that… like you said, dark humor as a coping mechanism! For me that contrast was very intentional. I was worried with such a difficult topic as depression and suicide that it could feel really dark and hard to navigate so I always wanted to kind of temper that with this humor that is so inherent to Brennan’s character where, yes, he’s depressed, but he also is aware of the ridiculousness of both that and the world at large. I think I just wanted to make the difficult topics feel a little more approachable and to humanize these dark emotions with a bit of humor, and vampirism was the perfect way to do that.

CLM: I think the elephant in the room, the undercurrent that I’m kind of getting in both of our answers so far, is that we’re in especially dark times right now.

JD: Oof, yeah, definitely. Like it’s scary out there and sometimes humor can feel like the only way to really deal with that? Or maybe we’re just not well adjusted, haha. But maybe that’s just perfect for teen audiences, honestly, this dark humor and sort of unhappiness with the state of the world… What drew you to write about a high school LGBTQ club in regards to these issues?

CLM: It was more the opposite way around, really. Like, because I was writing contemporary fiction about teens, these were the kind of issues I had to address. Bigotry is unfortunately just the reality of what they are dealing with.

JD: Oh, absolutely. I think people get this idea that things need to be or should be sanitized for teens when the truth is that they’re often the ones dealing with things like bigotry and mental health issues head-on and with little or no support. And I hope that seeing those struggles on the page makes them feel a little more seen and makes those problems feel a little more conquerable.

CLM: And on top of teens feeling like their problems are seen, I think it’s so important that they see their own happiness, as well. For example, your book has such a sweet queer love story. That was such a light not only for the characters, but for me as a reader. If Brennan can find this joy even amidst his own struggles, I think readers will believe that they can, too.

JD: Aw, thank you so much! I adore a good YA romance and that’s always what I was aiming for, in addition to the serious stuff. There’s such escapism and joy in romance and happily-ever-afters like that. For Brennan and Cole, I went in with that kind of joyous, Heartstopper-esque romance where the conflict is never about whether they care about each other or not, but the issues they are able to face together. I loved the romance subplot in Pride or Die, too, which felt like a small part of a greater story of queer joy. What does that mean to you in the context of your book, or what were you trying to highlight?

CLM: In addition to that romance, there were two other areas that I wanted to prioritize even more in terms of queer joy. The first was just allowing the characters to have fun. To goof around and get into some trouble with their friends, even as their antics become higher-stakes. The other was to ultimately have them triumph—spoiler alert. But the idea of overcoming all of this hardship we’ve talked about was so important to me. I say pretty explicitly in the book that it’s not as though these characters can single-handedly eradicate homophobia, but even smaller actions and victories can make such a huge difference.

JD: Yes, and I love that—I feel like there’s something revolutionary just in queer characters getting happy endings that would have meant a lot to me as a teen.

CLM: Me too, and I hear that a lot with YA writers in particular. Writing the books we wished we had as teens. But, speaking of writing books… I think it’s become clear here that we’re pretty in sync with the kinds of stories that we like to tell. Any chance of a team-up in the future?

JD: Hell yes! I’m thinking something with the same blend of humor and heart but a little bit darker and more murderous. I’ve been taking a lot of inspiration from Interview with the Vampire lately and could use a little more delicious toxicity in my next project.

CLM: I see. Maybe some “be gay, commit atrocities” is exactly what we need after writing all of this unbridled joy… Well, for now, thank you so much for joining me for this conversation, Jamie!

JD: Thanks for having me, it’s been great!

CL Montblanc is a writer, producer, and escape room enthusiast. Despite hailing from Texas, CL is intimidated by both horses and very large hats. If you have any leads on where to acquire buried treasure, or a decent bagel, you can find CL on social media. “Pride or Die” is their debut novel.