dear frida (coming september 1st)

q&a

q: why 'lei' and not 'emma'?

a: because emma's story has already been told, lei's has not.

q: why don't lei and leander end up together??

a) if they did, and i asked you what the story was about, you'd tell me it was a love story about a girl falling in love with a boy who kisses her and somehow makes her less boring. "dear frida" is not a love story - it's a story about love, amongst other things, and i happen to value these other things more.
b) they don't need to. some people are not in want of a relationship, and that's fine. it's okay not to be attracted to someone, or anyone. i'm pretty sure lei will find someone amazing to kiss someday, but until then, she's perfectly fine on her own. she's a whole person, and so is leander.

q: why do lei and leander conversate on ten different kinds of social media?

a: for the pure sake of aesthetic chapter names.

q: but you didn't give us any closure on ... ???? what happens with ... ???

a: as for now, nothing. 

lei is still growing as a person, still figuring things out - and if you ask me, she will always be. a lot of books on here, especially teen fiction, have 100% closed endings, but i don't like the notion that there'd be some sort of "and they lived happily ever after, roll the end credits" moment in life. lei is still trying to make sense of her cultural identity, and leander of his sexuality. these questions are life-long and any answers they might find temporary. is this a bad thing? no. is this a good thing? no idea. is it a thing? yes.

q: how on earth does lei write on toilet paper without it tearing in that one chapter??

a: witchcraft.

q: will laolao meet an incredibly cute single grandpa called andré with whom she'll exchange both kisses and candy crush boosters?

a: 100% yes.

q: why frida kahlo and not, let's say, monet or heck, lenny kravitz or katy perry?

a: because i feel like frida kahlo is a wonderful stepping stone to all things heartbreak, health, art, feminism, body love, race and many other things i wanted to talk about. 

q: when did you find out about frida kahlo?

a: i'd pretty much always known of her existance the way a lot of people do; you hear her name here and there, and you know she's got some crazy eyebrows. but i only really found out about her while researching an art project for school i'd chosen to do on her self portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird. 

q: what inspired the letter format of the book?

a: "dear frida" started off as an open letter to frida kahlo. i read her "strangest person" quote and wanted to write a poem addressing her. i thought the idea had more potential though, and lei was born.

q: how'd you plan it? did you know the ending right away?

a: yes, i did. i planned the entire thing from start to finish in august 2016 and wrote most of it in the last weeks of (european) summer. i edited and added some scenes while publishing though - the body love letter, f.i., was added later on because i really wanted "dear frida" to address that as a theme.

q: how'd you come up with leander's name?

a: i wanted him to have a quite bizarre yet pretty name that could be shortened to something really average for the sake of the story & i knew the name leander from a piece of greek mythology called "hero and leander". i thought it suited him.

q: who's your fave character?

a: oh, this one's hard. i love fattouma and laolao's personalities, and leander was so so so much fun to write, but i'm going with lei because her personal growth was really interesting to me. also, her writing style changes a lot throughout the story. in the first chapters, she tends to use a lot of words such as "maybe", "like", "or so", "kind of" which disappears a little as she gets more confident in herself & her writing. also, her drunk letters were so much fun to write.

q: who do you imagine playing the characters, if anyone?

a: i don't have 100% waterproof facecasts myself, but as this is an epistolary novel and i still wanted you guys to have an idea of what the characters look like, i came up with the following cast - zhang xinyuan as lei owyang, troye sivan as leander dessen, frida kahlo as herself, and farah emara as fattouma abdelnour. but of course, these are open for interpretation. also, i've been mixing farah emara a little with skam actress iman meskini.

q: what inspired you to write this?

a: a lot of things. 

for starters, frida kahlo. apart from that: coming of age, body love, feeling like you don't belong, family, a sense of personal growth i feel like i myself have been going through, all things colourful, art, introspection, romantic love versus platonic love, and much much more. 

q: can we know more about fattouma?

a: i'm a big believer of "bbttr" or "books belong to their readers". in other words, anything that's not stated in the story is all up to your imagination. whatever headcanons you have about her are just as valid as mine.

here are some random ones of mine: her favourite hijab is yellow, she has an adorable little brother, rocks at chemistry and physics, regularily jumps on her bed while screaming along to "smells like teen spirit" and is really close with her mum.

q: is leander asexual?

a: i believe he is. but as stated above, bbttr, so i'm not the one to decide. all we know is he's not experciencing romantic nor sexual attraction towards anyone, and that's fine. he probably identifies as asexual, but he's still coming to terms with that where the story leaves off, so maybe he's not comfortable with labels yet. maybe he never will be, and that'd be fine as well.

q: you changed the cover!?

a: i did! as much as i loved the original artwork, i will be trying to get this story featured, and i believe it'd be useful for the title to be on the cover when i do. 

q: aren't you sad it's over?

a: incredibly so. i've been thinking about the characters and listening to the soundtrack for hours on end. (find it http://8tracks.com/missmabelpines/dear-frida or just google "8tracks dear frida") still trying to get used to the idea of it being over. 

q: how much do you love the person reading this?

a: so much. so, so much. i hope you are smiling because you sure as hell deserve to be.