Monday, May 8, 2023

Yay! For Middle Grade Books 2023: Interview With Evelyn Skye!


Hi, everyone! Today I'm happy to present an interview with Evelyn Skye, the author of Princess Private Eye, which is out now! She is also the author of multiple YA books, including Damsel, which released earlier this year. Her debut Adult novel, The Hundred Loves of Juliet, releases in August.

Would you please tell us a little about your book, Princess Private Eye?

I'd love to! Princess Private Eye is like The Princess Diaries meets Nancy Drew, and the book introduces Disney's new princess, Genevieve Sun. Gen is just an ordinary foster kid in NYC—okay, an ordinary kid who happens to be an awesome hacker—when she finds out she’s actually the long-lost princess of a country called Raldonia! But when the secret agents whisk her away to her new kingdom, she finds out there’s a curse that’s supposedly tied to her arrival… When things start to go very, very wrong, Gen will need to get to the bottom of the mystery and catch the real criminals who are sullying her name, before the Queen decides to cancel Gen’s coronation and send her packing back to New York.

You’ve written a lot of YA books, however this is your first MG book. How did you decide to write Princess Private Eye?

It's funny because this book actually happened because of a failed YA. I had written an outline and some sample chapters of a YA rom com involving a princess, and my agent shopped it to some publishers. Disney read it and said that although they weren't interested in my YA, they loved my voice and thought I'd be perfect for a new MG novel they were coming up with. So the tables kind of turned and they sent me their outline to see if I would want to work on the book. I loved the idea of a smart, spunky princess who has to learn how to be properly royal while also sneaking out of the castle to solve mysteries. The result is a clever story with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, and it was so much fun to write.

 Random Question! What time of year is your favorite?

Summer! Because of cherries, berries, peaches, and all the delicious pies you can make with them. Plus, I just feel like the world feels a little lighter when it's summer. Maybe because the kids are out of school and their vacation joy permeates the air? I don't know, but summer is my favorite... as long as it's not humid!

If you’re able to talk about it, what are you currently working on?

My next book is The Hundred Loves of Juliet. It's adult fiction that comes out on August 1st of this year, so I'm starting to do publicity for that. The Hundred Loves of Juliet is like Romeo & Juliet meets The Time Traveler's Wife: What if Shakespeare got it wrong? What if Romeo never died, but Juliet did, and she has been reincarnated over and over. And in every lifetime, Romeo is doomed to meet her, fall in love, and watch her die, again and again. Fast forward to present-day... 

What are some of your favorite MG books you've read recently? And what are some that you're looking forward to reading?

Since May is AAPI Month, I'll shout out a couple of great MG books by AAPI authors:

 I loved Winston Chu vs The Whimsies by Stacey Lee. Honestly, I love everything Stacey writes. She's so witty and her humor works so well in this new middle grade series. 

And I'm excited to read Momo Arashima Steals the Sword of the Wind by Misa Sugiura. It's on my shelf and Misa is a lovely person, so I'm really looking forward to that one.

Thanks so much for having me here today, Jessica! And thanks for being such a wonderful advocate for books!

Thank you so much to Evelyn Skye for participating in this event!


Author BioEvelyn Skye is a New York Times bestselling author of books for adults, young adults, and children. Her highly anticipated forthcoming novels include Damsel (which will also be a Netflix film starring Millie Bobby Brown, Robin Wright, and Angela Bassett) and The Hundred Loves of Juliet.
Evelyn is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and daughter.

Here Are A Few Links:

Her Website

Her Twitter

Her Instagram

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