BLOG TOUR: Interview with Jas Hammonds, author of We Deserve Monuments

 BLOG TOUR: Interview with Jas Hammonds, author of We Deserve Monuments

Release Date: November 29, 2022

Release Date: 11-29-22

Hey fellow Bibliophiles!

Today is my tour stop for We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds; hosted by Hear Our Voices.  I had the opportunity to interview them.  We discussed writing, their new books, and other bookish things.  Check out the interview below:

When did you know that you wanted to be a writer?

I started writing in elementary school. I still have a journal from fourth grade with the beginning of a very dramatic story still scrawled inside. Not long after, my best friend and I discovered the Fictionpress website and we became addicted to reading and writing stories.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

It’s okay to take your time. I have a tendency to get impatient when it comes to things I really want, and I still have to remind myself that it’s okay to take a slower path.

What was it like publishing your first book?

It’s been an overwhelming, beautiful ride. By the time the book is published, it will have been six years from initial conception, and the story is nothing like how it started. Nothing could have prepared me for how amazing it was to have so many readers (already!) reaching out and telling me how much my story meant to them. I’m so curious what life the book will take once it’s out in the world!

What did you learn while writing this book?

How to do what’s best for the story. There were so many drafts with scenes that I thought were cool or interesting that ultimately got cut because they weren’t serving my characters and the plot. A character I absolutely loved didn’t even make the final cut! And while it can be hard to keep carving away at something so precious, I truly learned to make peace with it while writing this book. Now I’m very flexible when it comes to the editing process and am willing to try almost anything if it means it’ll serve the story.

How did you come up with the premise of We Deserve Monuments?

Originally, We Deserve Monuments was a ghost story. I had an image of three friends in the woods at night, telling a story of a ghost who was an angry old woman and what happened in her life that made her so vengeful. That angry ghost became my main character’s grandmother, Mama Letty. The three friends became my protagonist Avery and her new friends, Simone and Jade. And the ghost story became a different sort of haunting in the way that intergenerational trauma often is—sneaking in unannounced, taking root, and becoming almost impossible to shake without a lot of hard work.

Who was your favorite character to write?

Mama Letty! Her voice came very naturally to me. I love writing characters who are very prickly on the outside but have so much more underneath.

What do you hope that readers take away from We Deserve Monuments?

I know every reader experience will be unique, but I hope folks realize how important the power of community is throughout Avery’s journey. We don’t have to go through things alone. Asking for help and talking about your feelings and stating your needs and boundaries are powerful things to have in our toolboxes.

What are you working on now? 

I’m still in edits for my second young adult novel, tentatively slated for publication in 2024. It’s a story about friendship and class and the feeling of losing yourself in your first love, all told over the course of one hot Virginia summer.

What are you currently reading? Or what was the last book you read?

I’m currently reading The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis. It’s been on my list forever, and I’m loving it so far!

Synopsis of the book: 

Seventeen-year-old Avery Anderson is convinced her senior year is ruined when she's uprooted from her life in DC and forced into the hostile home of her terminally ill grandmother, Mama Letty. The tension between Avery’s mom and Mama Letty makes for a frosty arrival and unearths past drama they refuse to talk about. Every time Avery tries to look deeper, she’s turned away, leaving her desperate to learn the secrets that split her family in two.

While tempers flare in her avoidant family, Avery finds friendship in unexpected places: in Simone Cole, her captivating next-door neighbor, and Jade Oliver, daughter of the town’s most prominent family—whose mother’s murder remains unsolved.

As the three girls grow closer—Avery and Simone’s friendship blossoming into romance—the sharp-edged opinions of their small southern town begin to hint at something insidious underneath. The racist history of Bardell, Georgia is rooted in Avery’s family in ways she can’t even imagine. With Mama Letty's health dwindling every day, Avery must decide if digging for the truth is worth toppling the delicate relationships she's built in Bardell—or if some things are better left buried.

Content warnings: We Deserve Monuments contains depictions of racism, homophobia, non-consensual outing, abusive family dynamics, terminal illness, death, grief, alcoholism, drug use, murder (off-page), mentions of COVID and fatphobic comments.

About the author:

Jas Hammonds (they/she) was raised in many cities and in-between the pages of many books. They have received support for their writing from Lambda Literary, Baldwin for the Arts, the Highlights Foundation and more. They are also a grateful recipient of a MacDowell James Baldwin Fellowship. Her debut novel, We Deserve Monuments, is forthcoming November 29, 2022 from Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan.

#WeDeserveMonuments #HearOurVoices #HOV