We’re so excited to welcome author Jason June to the Ready Chapter 1 blog today! JJ writes across a variety of genres, including picture books, chapter books, and YA rom-coms. Today, he’s telling us all about his new book, The Spells We Cast!
Hi! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your new novel, The Spells We Cast?
Hi right back! I’m Jason June (it’s a two-name first name like Mary-Kate without the hyphen or the Olsen twin) and I write queer YA books full of love and lust and the magic of chaotic gay shenanigans. The Spells We Cast is my first contemporary fantasy following Nigel, a gay, elf-descended cowboy, who must compete in the Culling to enter the Guild, an organization that battles monsters that are created by human hate. If he fails the Culling, not only will Nigel not make it into the Guild, but he will be stripped of his powers, and the curmudgeonly sprite-descended toy collector, Ori, is turning out to be a big distraction…
How did you come up with the unique magic system in The Spells We Cast? The idea of a “Culling” is so interesting!
I was really inspired by how our energy as humans, whether we’re upset or happy, can always be felt. And in today’s day and age where it seems like we’re constantly making monsters out of others, I decided to create a world where human hate creates literal monsters that have to be vanquished. In our world and time, it feels to me like humans aren’t yet equipped to actually heal divisiveness and start seeing the humanity in each other, so I needed to come up with a magical force that could help us out. Insert the Ancestral magical species (elves, fae, goblins, nymphs, and sprites) who shared their powers with a select set of humans to fight off the monsters born of human negativity that were causing havoc in the human and magical world. But just like any good thing, too much of it can be dangerous, and if too much magic coalesces in one place, that energy can start to destroy living things (think of it like water: you need it to live, but you can overdo it and drown). So the Culling is a series of challenges to see which 18-year-old magicians have the most control over their powers and can keep them, and those that don’t have control get their magic taken away so that costly magical saturation doesn’t take place.
What did your road to publishing look like for your debut novel, Jay’s Gay Agenda?
My road to JGA included years and years of writing and lots of rejection. Jay’s was my fourth novel manuscript I wrote, but my first to be published. I first focused on middle grade fantasy, but after three failed attempts, I decided to do a palette cleanse and wrote a contemporary YA rom-com. It made me realize there’s a magic to real life too, and you don’t always need witches and wizards and fairies to convey magic. It was a major AHA moment, and taught me to not always assume what I’m writing at this very moment will be what I’m writing forever. Within all that writing time, I had over four years of no sales (I had sold two picture books before Jay was bought by HarperTeen), as well as switched agents, so know that obstacles are super common in any author’s journey, and the main thing you’ve got to do is just keep writing.
Writing romance can be tricky! Do you have any advice for authors trying to create a spark (and eventually, a roaring flame) of romance between their characters?
I think the best romances are the ones that include the real-life uncertainties we can all feel when we’re falling in love. The worry that who we’re crushing on doesn’t crush on us back, the awkwardness of not knowing what to do with your hands, the electric tingles in your gut that make you totally tune out to what’s being said in front of you. Include those very wholesome and human stumbles, and have the love interest acknowledge those little flaws in a way that makes it clear they see your lead as a whole person, and I think you’ve got the great beginnings of a relatable romance that readers want to root for.
You write picture books, chapter books, and YA novels (a person of many talents! Hats off to you). What is your favorite aspect about writing for each of these age categories?
What I love about any age range is honing in on the things that might be concerning readers of that group and then tailoring it in a way that hopefully makes them laugh and provides that campy JJ feel. So for picture books, I typically hone in on describing a feeling (like the feeling of love and how it can spring up on you in Porcupine Cupid). For chapter books, I focus on an overarching dynamic of life, like how to cope with feeling like an outsider, or how to fix things when you make a mess (literal or figurative). Then YA gets to be this great tapestry of multiple layers of life and relationships, like how to juggle friendships with romance, how to take on the weight of the world relying on you (literally in The Spells We Cast) but still take in the moments of firsts that are always popping up in young adulthood.
How do you handle the emotional impact of a book (on yourself) as you are writing it?
Wow this is such a great question, and one I’m not really sure I have a solid answer for. It seems to change with every book. Each thing I write is personal, and some things are more cathartic than others, some are more of that proverbial soap box than others, some are just to make me laugh and hopefully make others laugh too because that can be such a release. I think I’m writing what I’m writing at any given time because my heart is ready to take on that emotional impact. So the writing *is* me handling it? Does that make sense? Or did I just not-answer answer your question?
Can you provide links to any websites or social channels you’d like readers to follow?
Yes! Readers can follow me on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter @heyjasonjune or go to my website at www.heyjasonjune.com.
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Author photo credit: Romy Suskin
