Edward Underhill grew up in the suburbs of Wisconsin, where he could not walk to anything, so he had to make up his own adventures. He studied music in college, spent several years living in very small apartments in New York, and currently resides in California with his partner and a talkative black cat. He is the author of two young adult novels, Always the Almost and This Day Changes Everything. His latest work, The In-Between Bookstore is his debut as an adult author. He recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
What was your inspiration for The In-Between Bookstore?
I’ve always been interested in "what if I knew then what I know now" kinds of questions, and I think they’re especially poignant for queer people. I've often found myself wishing I could go back and tell myself that I was trans earlier and wondering whether my life would look different now if I had. It’s a strange gray area to exist in—wishing that you could have made something easier for yourself while simultaneously understanding that the way your own story played out also shaped who you are in important and valuable ways. So I had that on my mind, and the bookstore element felt like it naturally fit in—bookstores have always felt a little magical to me, like they existed out of time and space, so a bookstore felt like the perfect place for my main character’s transformation. I really wanted to explore this confusing gray area of wrestling with the paths you’ve taken and the paths you haven’t, but through a queer, millennial/Gen-Z lens and with a speculative twist.
Are Darby, Michael, Phyllis, Olivia, Joan, Ian, or any of the other characters in the novel inspired by or based on specific individuals?
I don’t consciously base characters on anyone I know in real life, but I’m sure bits and pieces of my friends or my family or my experiences sneak their way in. I kind of think that’s part of having a writer brain—you absorb things you hear people say, or things you see people do. And then it all swirls around and somehow finds its way into your stories and your characters, though not in an immediately recognizable way.
How did the novel evolve and change as you wrote and revised it? Are there any characters or scenes that were lost in the process that you wish had made it to the published version?
In the first draft, Ian had a boyfriend who was also Olivia’s roommate. It was fun to write Ian and this boyfriend as total opposites, and especially fun to have him also be Olivia’s roommate because it lent itself so well to jokes about one’s queer friends all dating each other at various points and still somehow all staying friends. (True of at least half my friends!) But my editor pointed out that he wasn’t really doing much as a character, so I cut him out. It was the right call—Olivia, Joan, Ian, and Darby got to be a much tighter-knit group once I did that.
Your biography says that you were born and raised in the suburbs of Wisconsin. How strongly did those suburbs influence Oak Falls, Illinois, where Darby grew up and revisits as an adult?
Oak Falls is basically an amalgam of three places—the suburb where I grew up in Wisconsin, the town my mom lives in now (also in Wisconsin), and the town where my grandparents lived in Illinois. Krape Park in Oak Falls (where the waterfall and the carousel are located) is actually real; it exists in Freeport, Illinois, though I’ve changed some of the details. But there is actually a waterfall with stairs carved into the bluffs! And while I didn’t have a tire swing growing up, I did have a tree of significance in my backyard, just like Darby does, and I spent a lot of time sitting in it as a young person.
In your note at the beginning of the novel, you explain that the independent bookstore you visited as a child and teen, Harry Schwartz, isn’t there anymore. Do you have any favorite independent bookstores now, either where you currently live or in other places?
I have so many favorite independent bookstores! Some of my favorites in Los Angeles are Skylight Books in Los Feliz, The Ripped Bodice in Culver City, Annabelle’s Book Club in Studio City, and Once Upon A Time, which is a children’s bookstore in Montrose. I also really love Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, TX, and Harvard Bookstore in Cambridge, MA.
Do you have any other favorite places in and around Southern California? A hidden gem that someone visiting should not miss, but would only learn about from a resident?
I feel like I should call out some gorgeous hike or uncrowded beach, but everyone already knows Southern California is a beautiful place to be outside. Honestly, the places that I consider gems are all neighborhood spots that remind me how intimate Los Angeles can be, even though it’s also so big: the improvised Shakespeare at Largo, the fruit carts you can find on practically any commercial street, the LA Phil concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer (that’s one of my favorite traditions.)
You’ve written works of fiction for young adults, and The In-Between Bookstore is your first novel for adults. Is it markedly different writing for adults compared to writing for young adults?
You know, it’s funny—my agent actually told me, "Oh, writing for adults is simple; it’s just like writing for teens, except everybody has jobs!" Which is kind of true, at least when you’re writing characters in their twenties or early thirties. A lot of us are still figuring out who we are at those ages, still falling in love, still having tension with friends…we just have jobs instead of school classes. But I definitely felt like a lot of subtle differences came up too. The existential crises are still there, but they’re different. The level of self-awareness is different. The decisions can still be bad, but often for different reasons. You’re working with a lot more character history. Darby is about to turn thirty in The In-Between Bookstore, so he’s carrying around twice as much baggage as when he was fifteen, for example. I personally find that aspect of writing for adults really fun—there’s more depth to explore and even more intertwined, complex, gnarly feelings.
There is an element of time travel in The In-Between Bookstore. Do you have a favorite time travel novel, film, and/or series?
I absolutely cried my eyes out reading The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I also really liked Palm Springs when I saw it—it was such a fresh take on the Groundhog Day idea. But I think my favorite piece of time travel media is actually much sillier: I adore Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. It’s the film with the original cast where they wind up traveling back in time to San Francisco in 1986 in an effort to save humpback whales from extinction, and it’s just So. Much. Fun.
Do you have a least favorite? (I realize that you may not want to address this one, and if that is the case, please don't. But I also realize it might be so bad that it could be fun to answer.)?
I think this is a hilarious question, but I actually don’t have a good answer, so I’m going to skip it, sorry!
If The In-Between Bookstore was going to be adapted into film or television series, who would your dream cast be?
Oh, what a good question! I’m kind of bad at staying up on current actors, but I think Elliot Fletcher is pretty close to how I’ve imagined Darby. Jonathan Groff in his Looking era would be a great Michael. For Darby’s mom, maybe Mare Winningham or Olivia Colman with an American accent? And for Olivia, I’d say Rachel Hilson.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
I’ve been on a re-reading kick lately and am currently in the middle of Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes, which is even better the second time. I’ve been underlining all my favorite lines in pencil (I know—the horror!), and there are so many of them! It’s a literary, nuanced romance full of so many complicated emotions. I love it.
Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors?
Picking favorite authors is so hard for me because I feel like it’s constantly shifting—I’m discovering new favorites all the time! But five authors that definitely had an influence over my development as a writer are Diana Wynne Jones, Kristin Cashore, Patrick Ness, Alexis Hall, and Catherine Jinks.
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I kept checking it out from my local library over and over. That book basically lived at my house for a year. I was obsessed, and I still re-read it every few years. I remember it being an early book that made me want to write my own stories.
Was there a book you felt you needed to hide from your parents?
Not really? My parents didn’t really put limits on my reading—at least not that I remember. I pretty much had free rein at the library. I was also kind of boring as a teenager, actually, so I’m not sure I read anything all that wild…
Is there a book you've faked reading?
Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I was supposed to read it in high school and I just got so incredibly bored. I think I made it about halfway through before I gave up and (I feel guilty admitting this) checked a movie version out from the library so I’d know what happened. In retrospect, I suppose it was an early lesson in just how subjective reading can be! Many people consider Moby Dick great literature, but honestly, by the end of the movie, I just felt affirmed that I’d made the right call giving up on the book.
Can you name a book you've bought for the cover?
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Books are constantly changing my life! Even when I don’t love a book, there’s so often a little piece of it that makes me think differently or approach my own storytelling differently. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness was one of the most cathartic reading experiences I’ve ever had and taught me the value of simple but emotionally hard-hitting prose. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle was so incredibly wonderfully weird to me when I read it as a kid, and I’m forever grateful for how much it expanded my imagination. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone did more or less the same thing for me as an adult.
Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall. I am incredibly picky about rom-coms, but this one is just one of the most perfect books I have ever read. It’s funny, it’s clever, it’s unexpectedly angsty, and it’s just so honest and real. I’m pleased to say I’ve successfully gotten several other people obsessed with it as well, which is excellent because now I have people to discuss it with!
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
Little Thieves by Margaret Owen. The plot twists work flawlessly with the emotional and character twists, and it all felt so surprising but also inevitable in the best way. I read the whole thing in a few days (which is very fast for me, especially considering it’s not a short book!), and I wish I could have that experience again.
What is the last piece of art (music, movies, TV, more traditional art forms) that you've experienced or that has impacted you?
Last year, I watched the first season of The Last of Us and fell very much in love with it. I’m not normally a zombie apocalypse person, but there’s so much emphasis on human connection in this show that I fell hard. And that actually led me to a piece of music I really love: Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight, which is used in the third episode of the show. I always make music playlists for each book that I write, and I usually know I’m ready to write the book when I find that piece of music that just cracks open the emotional heart of the story for me. The Richter piece did that for the book I’m currently drafting.
What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?
In true introvert form, I think the perfect day would be having the Japanese garden at the Huntington completely to myself, with a cup of tea and a stack of books.
What is the question that you’re always hoping you’ll be asked, but never have been?
The In-Between Bookstore hasn’t been out in the world very long, so maybe I will get more questions like this down the line…but I’ve actually hardly been asked at all about what to me is the most important relationship in the book: Darby and his former best friend, Michael. I think that’s probably because the book is not a romance, and there’s a lot of focus on Darby’s own coming-of-age—so it makes sense to focus on questions of identity and representation and all the things we wish we could tell our younger selves. But I would love to be asked why I centered so much of the story around Michael and Darby’s relationship.
What is your answer to that question?
Michael and Darby’s relationship—the possibility of fixing their broken friendship, the possibility of something more—is what keeps Darby anchored to the present. Otherwise, he’d spend all his time in the bookstore, talking to his younger self and looking backward, and I had a strong feeling that, ultimately, that just wouldn’t be a very interesting story. For one thing, it would be one long conversation, and that gets boring. But also, Darby can’t stay stuck in the past. By the end of the book, I knew he needed a reason to keep moving forward into his own future. Michael was the bridge between the past in the bookstore and Darby’s present outside it. He’s kind of the beating heart of the whole story, I think.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a couple of things, all of which are unfortunately secret for the moment, though I’m hoping I’ll be able to announce one project in a month or so. I can say that I have a new young adult rom-com coming out in May called In Case You Read This, which is about two trans boys who share an epic missed connection while moving across the country in opposite directions, and then have to enlist the help of their friends (and a bit of online community) to find each other again. It’s much lighter than The In-Between Bookstore and I’m very excited about it!
