Today we are chatting with Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman, authors of
ROXY!
Read on for more about Neal and Jarrod and their book!
Meet Neal Shusterman!
Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty award-winning books for children, teens, and adults, including the Unwind dystology, the Skinjacker trilogy, Downsiders, and Challenger Deep, which won the National Book Award. Scythe, the first book in his latest series, Arc of a Scythe, is a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. He also writes screenplays for motion pictures and television shows. Neal is the father of four, all of whom are talented writers and artists themselves. Visit Neal at StoryMan.com and Facebook.com/NealShusterman.
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Meet Jarrod Shusterman!
Jarrod Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling coauthor of Dry. He has a passion for storytelling across many mediums, with love and multiculturalism as an ethos. Jarrod writes and directs with his partner Sofia, under their company Dos Lobos Entertainment. Together they enjoy traveling the world and learning new languages, living between Los Angeles and Spain. They can be found on Instagram @DosLobosMedia.
About: Roxy
From the team that brought you the New York Times bestselling Dry comes a riveting new thriller that proves when gods play games, even love is a lie.
The freeway is coming.
It will cut the neighborhood in two. Construction has already started, pushing toward this corridor of condemned houses and cracked concrete with the momentum of the inevitable. Yet there you are, in the fifth house on the left, fighting for your life.
Ramey, I.
The victim of the bet between two manufactured gods: the seductive and lethal Roxy (Oxycontin), who is at the top of her game, and the smart, high-achieving Addison (Adderall), who is tired of being the helpful one, and longs for a more dangerous, less wholesome image. The wager—a contest to see who can bring their mark to “the Party” first—is a race to the bottom of a rave that has raged since the beginning of time. And you are only human, dazzled by the lights and music. Drawn by what the drugs offer—tempted to take that step past helpful to harmful…and the troubled places that lie beyond.
But there are two I. Rameys—Isaac, a soccer player thrown into Roxy’s orbit by a bad fall and a bad doctor and Ivy, his older sister, whose increasing frustration with her untreated ADHD leads her to renew her acquaintance with Addy.
Amazon * B & N * Indiebound
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
Jarrod: For me, there were some people close to me in my life who struggled with prescription medication, with doctors and treatments they trusted, and lost their lives in the end. It was just so tragic. My partner, Sofi, urged me to work on something with the potential to heal.
Neal: Jarrod came to visit me to brainstorm ideas for our next book together—and we were talking about unique storytelling perspectives. We were discussing a story that I had co-written with his brother, Brendan, for Shaun David Hutchinson’s “Violent Ends” story collection. The story was about a school shooter—but told from the point of view of the weapon itself. We thought how powerful it would be to tell a story about drug addiction from the point of view of the drugs, personified.
Jarrod: And then my dad came with the idea of, what if they were like Greek Gods? And that’s when Roxy was born. We more or less had the story worked out within a few weeks, and then naturally it grew, twisting and turning during the writing process.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
Jarrod: My favorite character is Roxy. She was the most engaging to write and the trickiest, because her relationship with Isaac is a tragic romance. So how do you write a love story, when that very love is slowly destroying your protagonist? Questions like that made for a really strong writing experience.
Neal: And my favorite character is Addison. I love how conflicted he is. He is “the helpful one,” but envies the drugs that rule the party. He wants to be one of them—but his more noble nature won’t let him. But will he be able to take the reins of his own existence, and rise above self-interest? I found his character fascinating to write.
YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?
Neal: The story came first. Then, when we tried to personify the drugs as individuals the character names started to stand out for us.
Jarrod: We came up with Hiro, and Crys, Mary Jane, The Coke brothers, etc… but Roxy was the name—and the character—that stood out. The Opioid epidemic is one of the most insidious drug crises that we’ve ever had, because it’s institutionalized in our medical system, with drugs like Oxycontin, which addict people, then, when they can’t afford it, they end up getting cheaper opiates like heroin on the street.
Neal: It was that seductive, and insidious nature of Oxycontin that made us realize we wanted it to be right in the title of the book. We insisted from the beginning that the “R” in Roxy be a different color from the rest of the word to really make it clear that “Oxy” was the focus.
YABC: What scene in the book are you most proud of, and why?
Jarrod: I am most proud of the conversation I wrote between Ricky and Isaac, when Ricky finally found out that his best friend was struggling with addictions. To me it was a heartfelt conversation that I never got to have with those who were suffering in my own life. Also, it was one of those moments where my dad gave me a warm note— something to the tune of, you did it, Jarrod! One of those everlasting gobstopper moments, where I felt like I really exceeded. And I can’t help but feel good when I do something that can make, not just my writing partner, but father, proud.
Neal: I really love the “Interludes.” They are sort of like monologues from some of the other drug’s points of view. Mary Jane going legit and easing the struggles of a cancer patient. Lucy, the aging psychedelic hippy, Phineas— a.k.a. morphine—haunting hospitals and nursing homes like an angel of death. Jarrod really nailed the Coke Brothers interlude, the way they’re so slick and self-possessed in their own private booth! Funny, and deeply disturbing at the same time. Masterful!
Jarrod: I am most proud of the way my dad wrote formaldehyde. That was creepy, poetic, and he totally killed it on that section. I was blown away!
YABC: What do you like most about the cover of the book?
Neal: Simon & Schuster has been doing a fantastic job creating eye-catching and iconic covers for our books. This one is no exception. Roxy’s silhouette, the falling figures, and the pills that you don’t realize are pills until you look closer. We had seen the cover in about ten different color combinations and got to vote on which one we felt worked best. It was great to have that kind of input!
Jarrod: I think that they absolutely nailed it! What I love about it, is that if you didn’t know the premise of the book, you could look at the cover, and perhaps guess what it was about. It’s beautiful. It’s dark. It’s grabby! So let’s hope everyone grabs it!
YABC: What’s up next for you?
Neal: Currently I’m working on a collection of short stories in the SCYTHE world, that will be out in Fall 2022. Then in Winter of 2023, I have a Holocaust themed graphic novel with Scholastic books entitled Courage to Dream. It’s illustrated by Andrés Vera Martiniz, and I’m extremely excited about it—it’s something I’ve been working on for over ten years!
Jarrod: I have an S&S novel with my partner Sofia, called Retro, coming out in 2022— which we are very excited about! But also, working with my Dad has been such a joy, and a great father-son bonding experience, so I think we’ll always write together, especially when the right ideas find us, like Roxy! It’s a strong part of our relationship. As a teenager I was always writing, and my Dad edited and mentored me to where I am today. So there’s a great synergy in the way that we write, but I guess that’s to be expected considering I’ve got half his genes!
YABC: Which character gave you the most trouble when writing your latest book?
Jarrod: The characters that gave us the most trouble were Dusty and Charlie, because Cocaine is such an evil drug. There’s often a detaching shock factor when people read about heroin because it may be far removed from their world. But writing about drugs that are more commonly abused is what has proven to be the most powerful… And at the same time, the hardest, because it must be done very delicately. It has to be done in a way that is engaging, but sensitive— and reflects the sinister nature of the drug.
Neal: Exactly – we need to show they are dangerously enticing, but we don’t want to glamorize them. We want to show the ugliness beneath the flashy exterior.
YABC: Which part of the writing process do you enjoy more: Drafting or Revising?
The answer for both of us is a resounding DRAFTING!! They say writing, is re-writing, but it’s also hitting your head against the refrigerator until the milk, or your brains spill out. Re-writing is problem solving. And what makes or breaks your story… However, we both agree that Roxy was the most pleasurable revising experience that we’ve ever had. Working with our publisher and editor, Justin Chanda, has been fantastic, and when all the notes just make what you wrote so much better, you can’t help but be really, really excited! But our first love will always be that rush of creating initially, because that’s the place where the story is born!
YABC: What would you say is your superpower?
Neal: When I was in college, I had a friend who used to get frustrated with me, saying that I liked to paint the house before it was built. In other words, whenever I worked on a project, I was always imagining the finishing touches even before beginning the project. And what frustrated him more is that no matter how much time I spent “painting the house,” I always managed to get the project done. The way I see it, you have to imagine something completed—and imagine it so fully, that creating it feels like a mere technicality. So I would say that my superpower is imagining things into existence!
YABC: Is there an organization or cause that is close to your heart?
Neal: NAMI – the National Alliance on Mental Health has been an important cause for me ever since writing Challenger Deep. We are making great strides, but mental illness is still stigmatized and misunderstood. And when it comes to drug addiction, it often begins with people self-medicating for mental illness. NAMI is an organization that everyone should be aware of and support.
Authors: Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books
Release Date: November 9, 2021
Age Range: 14 and up