Deborah Crossland is an English and mythology teacher at her local community college where she lives in Norther California. Her debut novel, The Quiet Out Loud Part, is a tender modern retelling that infuses Greek myths with Gen Z heartbreak and friendship.
Debutiful asked the author to answer the recurring A Life of Books questionnaire so readers can get to know her better.
Is there a book or series that, when you think back, helped define your childhood?
Okay, this is kind of embarrassing, but I grew up in the 70s and 80s, so there was a huge gap between children’s books and those meant for adults, so the books I remember are either for really young kids or 30-somethings. My own mother kept an encyclopedia set for me on the bottom of our bookshelf, and I do remember sitting for hours looking through them. There was one volume that contained fairy tales and folk tales that I would read over and over, and I’m pretty sure that’s where my love of story started. My absolute favorite book, though, was There’s a Monster at the End of This Book starring Sesame Street’s Grover. He’s just so silly, and the story has a fantastic moral that kept me thinking for a long time! I still have a copy on my own bookshelf.
Would you want any children in your life (yours or relatives’) to read those too? Or what’s your philosophy on what children read?
Absolutely! I loved that I could read Grover’s story to my own children when they were young. I’ve always encouraged reading with not only my own kids, but all my past students. Even now as I teach college level English to high school students in dual-enrollment courses, I hold book giveaways once a week to encourage students to read lots of stories with lots of different perspectives and diverse main characters. Science shows that reading helps us increase our empathy skills, and I want to support that. Plus the students love free books!
Moving to your school years: what book did you read in high school and hated (or skipped reading at all) that you learned you loved later in life?
The only book I remember hating was Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and I can admit now that it had little to do with the book. I did not like my 9th grade English teacher, so I projected all those terrible feelings for him onto that book. It was his favorite and I wasn’t about to like it! Honestly, I still have never read it all the way through, so I’m not sure if I can say I love it now. Guess I have to add it to my TBR now haha!
What about the opposite way? One you loved in your teens, but realized you didn’t love it so much later on?
Oh, this question breaks my heart. As an older teen, I absolutely adored Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches series. I wanted to be part of the family so bad! When AMC announced the television adaptation, I was so excited and wanted to re-read the books before it premiered. I’m so sad to say they absolutely did not age well. The first one was okay, but I couldn’t get past the first few chapters of the second book. I’m happy to say the TV series is fantastic, though!
Are there any books that you read while writing your debut that helped shape the direction you took your own book?
I try not to read novels when I’m actively drafting, but I did draw from James Joyce’s Leopold Bloom’s journey in Ulysses for Mia’s encounters as she traverses San Francisco. I also found a magazine put together by a Bay Area publication that covered the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake while going through my grandparents’ things. That helped with small details about the city and what people experienced post-quake.
What is a book you’ve read that you thought, Damn, I wish that was mine?
So many! I can think of two off the top of my head. The first is Lovely War by Julie Berry. The story is so beautiful in the way it mixes mythology with a story about forbidden love. The second is Little Universes by Heather Demetrios. Her characters are so raw and the writing is absolutely delicious, but it’s the symbolism of soup making and leaving tiny poems as graffiti throughout the city that absolutely sends me.
What have you been reading / do you plan to read during your debut book tour?
I’m getting ready to start drafting, so I’ll probably catch up on my adult titles instead of reading YA. Recently, I finished The Cloisters by Katy Hays, The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis, and Chaos Theory by Nic Stone, and I loved them all!
And, finally, I have to ask… I’m sorry. What’s next? But wait! Only use three words.
High. School. Widow.