Today we are chatting with N.Griffin, author of
Trigger!
Read on for more about N. Griffin and her book, Trigger:
Meet N. Griffin:
Griffin is the author of The Whole Stupid Way We Are(Atheneum, 2013), for which she was named one of Publishers Weekly’s Flying Start Authors of 2013, as well as Just Wreck It All (Atheneum, 2018). She is also the author of the Smashie McPerter Investigatesseries, including Smashie McPerter and the Mystery of Room 11 (Candlewick, 2015) Smashie McPerter and the Mystery of the Missing Goop (Candlewick, 2016) and the upcoming Smashie McPerter and the Shocking Rocket Robbery (Candlewick, 2022).
She received her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and lives with her husband and a lot of dogs.
Website * Twitter * Instagram * Facebook
About Trigger:
TRIGGER: A Novel is The Queen’s Gambit meets The Hunger Games in a harrowing young adult thriller about a teen girl whose abusive father teaches her the finer points of chess and hunting for his own sinister ends.
Author: N. Griffin
Publisher: Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Release Date: March 29, 2022
Age: 14+
Amazon * Indiebound * B&N
~Author Chat ~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
My own darned life and also all the kids in tough situations I have ever loved and ever will. I love you and I see you and I am one of you. So many hugs.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
I love the protagonist, Didi so much! She is such a deep, good person despite what she’s grown up to know. I also love Devin, the tiny neighbor down the street. But Didi most of all!
YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?
Love this question! I am THE WORST at figuring out titles for my books and always outsource, forcibly, on friends and editors. So I always just have the working title be the name of the main character and that was true with this book as well. But as it became clear this was going to be a real book, TRIGGER popped into my head as the perfect titles and that’s what we went with. I was pretty proud of that one since honestly if I could name them all THAT BOOK I would, for ease.
YABC: What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?
Hmmm! I think what I am most proud of is a relationship—the one between Didi and her father. When I read it back, it feels to me just the way I hoped it would feel. I hope other people feel feelings when they experience it as well.
YABC: What do you like most about the cover of the book?
Every single solitary thing. I had no idea what direction they would go for the cover and obviously had no ideas myself. But when the cover came to me, I was gobsmacked. It was so right, so perfect, so exactly how the book feels in my heart that it gave me weird dreams and sleeplessness for three days. So I know that it’s really good as well as beautiful. I am so grateful!
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
Honestly, my favorite reading right now is autobiographies of comedians. I love comedy. Full of brains and language and usually complex wellsprings. Right now I am reading British comedian David Mitchell’s BACKSTORY and it is a kick.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
I got this idea in my head but I am afraid to say anything about it just in case it falls out of my brain and onto this page and I never need to write it again. It is YA, though, and I think oddly creepy. Hopefully in a good way!
YABC: What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember from this book?
I want people in Didi’s situation to feel seen and heard and to know that hope is a real thing and also a possibility. I want them to know there are ways out and your life belongs to you and you alone, no matter what or who is telling you otherwise. And for people who live in different situations, I hope that this book helps expand their hearts and minds to understand lived different than their own and to offer empathy even more deeply.
YABC: What would you say is your superpower?
Discerning whether my husband has chocolate treats hidden in the house. I make him hide them because I am a complete chocolate hoover machine and must have servings doled out to me or else toothlessness will ensue, but I always know when there is some actually hidden in the house and then I am relentless until he turns it over to me with helpless confusion.
YABC: Is there an organization or cause that is close to your heart?
I’ve got three:
- Hunger (Feeding America https://www.feedingamerica.org/ and The World Food Program https://secure.wfpusa.org/donate/send-food-save-lives-2201?ms=GS_B_MV_ASL_AD&gclid=CjwKCAjwxOCRBhA8EiwA0X8hiy59spGa2AXaidJnKjEcpLHfUDybIJenA_NNmIeVB9vcgZBywpAPUBoC6c8QAvD_BwE .)There is not one person that does not deserve a happily full belly that they take utterly for granted. We have the means for this. Come on, us. Let’s get it together.
- (Choose Love https://chooselove.org/.) Again, we are our own angels. Let’s angel around for each other and make the world what we know it can be.
- (Sheldrick Wildlife Trust https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/.) Elephants are creatures made out of empathy and love and thought. We can do the work to let them be themselves and have a harmonious relationship with the humans around them. We must.
