Interviewing Ismee Williams, the author of This Train is Being Held
About the Book:
1. How did you get the idea of writing This Train is Being Held?
I came up with the idea on the subway, believe it or not. I’ve been taking the subway for more than twenty years and one of the aspects I enjoy most, besides getting to my destination quickly, is that you can find a microcosm of the city in the train car. Men in suits stand next to construction workers in fluorescent vests. Babies in strollers reach for the highlighters of students who balance textbooks on their laps as they cram for exams. I thought it would be cool to imagine a love story with two people from very different parts of the city who end up connecting on the subway, two people who maybe you wouldn’t expect to be together because of their differences. After I’d written a draft, an early reader mentioned it’s like West Side Story. My response was that, yeah, it kind of is–except both lovers are Latinx.
2. How similar are you to Isa?
Isa wants to be a ballerina. I danced ballet for thirteen years. Isa’s mother is Cuban. Mine is as well. I think that’s about where the similarities end. I did not grow up in the city, though I’ve lived here for over twenty years. My hair is brown and I’m pretty short. I never got as much attention as Isa gets, given her bright blond hair and her height. And Isa is considerably more patient and kind than I am! I don’t want to give away any spoilers in the story, but I never would have been able to be as selfless as she is
3. Why did you decide to make the main setting in the subway in New York?
(see above)
4. What is the key message in this book?
I wanted to tackle the idea of expectations head on–all types of expectations: from family, your friends, yourself, and society–whose expectations are usually seen as stereotypes or prejudices. I thought of a Dominican-American baseball prodigy, an incredible athlete who has a shot at going pro, but who instead perhaps wants to be a poet but is afraid to tell his papi. And a young, beautiful ballerina who wants to dance professionally, but whose mother doesn’t want her daughter seen as a Barbie doll with an unstable income so instead pushes her towards a career in medicine. The highly scheduled teens meet and fall in love on the subway and face challenges of race and class against the stigma of mental illness and gangs. This is not just a light romance, though I’m a total romantic so those elements (I hope!) are strongly woven into the story. But besides falling in love alongside the characters, I hope readers come away from THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD with a better understanding of how expectations from all different sources perhaps shape their own behavior and decisions and whether they are OK with that or not.
5. How did you design the cover?
I WISH I had designed the cover! An amazingly talented graphic artist, Virginia Zamora, did the design. I haven’t tagged her on any of my feeds because she specializes in erotic graphic art that is quite beautiful and in high demand, but not appropriate for the younger end of the YA audience. Readers who are over 18 (or who have parent’s permission) feel free to find her on IG!
6. Are you working on another book that you can tell us about?
I have a few ideas batting around in my head. I’m shy about sharing them, however. Last time I blurted out what I was working on and then never sold it (after spending two years writing and editing it)! I don’t want to jinx myself!
7. Where can readers purchase your books?
THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD should be available for purchase wherever books are sold. So head on down to your favorite local book store. There is also an audiobook available which I haven’t heard yet but I’m very excited about since it is my first audiobook! You can also request THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD from the library–which is also really important for authors, by the way. My special request from readers is that if you enjoy the story, it is incredibly helpful to leave a review online–Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound and Goodreads. It can be the same review. You can copy and paste it! Thank you in advance to anyone who writes a review! Reviews help spread the word about THIS TRAIN IS BEING HELD (Amazon will advertise the book more if it gets over a certain number of reviews so I am aiming for 100! Help me get there!).
About You:
1. What is your favorite romance book(s)?
I’m a huge Laini Taylor fan and Daughter of Smoke and Bone might be my favorite fantasy romance. I love Akiva and Karou. *sigh* That was another romance between star-crossed lovers who everyone thought shouldn’t be together. I think I have a soft spot for those types of romances.
2. What is your work schedule like while writing?
I see patients in the hospital one or two days a week and then end up writing two or three days a week. My girls have to be out of the house for me to get any writing work done, so my schedule depends on school vacations as well!
3. What do you like to do in your free time other than writing?
I play with my kids, our dog and our two cats. We have this new toy for the cats that we have dubbed ‘angry worm’ that is basically a long serpentine piece of fuzz on the end of a fishing pole that makes the cats go crazy! I love to cook–all types of recipes and foods. I love to meet up friends for coffee or lunch when time allows. A really big treat is riding horses, which I did with 4H when I was a kid. I haven’t done that in over a year but maybe this summer I’ll have a chance again!
4. What do you look for in someone when you go on a date to see if they are meant for you?
N/A! I will have been married to my college sweetheart for twenty years come July! If I had to go on a date, I would look for someone just like him: kind, smart, thoughtful, a brilliant father–and tall with nice broad shoulders.
5. What are some of your favorite vacation spots?
Oh gosh, this is hard. I love so many different types of vacations. I tend towards the adventure/cultural types of trips, like Glacier National Park with the family where we had some incredible hikes or a tiny town in the northwest corner of Spain where we were the only tourists and saw wild horses through the mist on the mountains. I love to try different foods and discover more about different cultures. Percebes – goose barnacles – from the sea cliffs of Galicia that look like the talons of eagles, are perhaps the most adventurous meal I’ve had in the past few years. Sometimes I’m in the mood for a relaxing vacation though, in which case the beach is where I’ll go. Longnook Beach in Truro, Cape Cod is a family favorite.
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