The Litter: A Paranormal Teen Pregnancy Thriller with a Literary Feel, was the winner in the YOUNG ADULT category of the 2020 IndieReader Discovery Awards, where undiscovered talent meets people with the power to make a difference.
Following find an interview with author Jonathan Maas.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
Title: The Litter: A Paranormal Teen Pregnancy Thriller with a Literary Feel. Publication Date: June 23, 2019
What’s the book’s first line?
(First two lines 😉😉)
“Lupe once told me that humans don’t really understand the essence of good and evil—he said that each society based its morality on a somewhat arbitrary set of values. I disagreed with him, and his response was so powerful that I had trouble sleeping for a week.”
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch”.
The Litter is about a high school girl who falls in love with a boy who turns out to be a werewolf. The boy is taken away, and right after this she finds out that she is pregnant. After that, she gives birth to seven furballs, each with their own personality and power. She then realizes that this is more than just a tale of teen pregnancy.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
I like female-driven tales, and I have recently been getting into the Romance genre as well. But the one thing I don’t like about YA Romance is that often there is an underlying sentiment that the most important thing to the female lead is that she end up with a boyfriend. She can fight, she can fly, she can save a nation—but at the end of the tale the only thing that matters is what boyfriend she ends up with.
I still wanted to have a YA Romance though, and still wanted the protagonist to have a relationship with a boy. So in The Litter, the boy is taken away by the antagonist early on, as well as our protagonist’s parents. Our protagonist is left alone, and now has 7 pups to look after. But she is going to take care of them, and she is also going to save her boyfriend and her parents—or will at least try to.
And the underlying sentiment is that she is not defined by her boyfriend, nor does it matter if she ends up with him. It’s her tale, and her struggle against the antagonist.
That’s what I want to bring to the genre of YA Paranormal Romance – you can have a female lead that’s independent of all those around her, including her boyfriend.
What’s the most distinctive thing about the main character? Who-real or fictional-would
you say the character reminds you of?
The most distinctive thing about the main character is how quickly she is thrust into adulthood, and the insights that she receives from this. She never had any friends in high school—she is not even part of the unpopular crowd—and never had any interest in a boy before her first boyfriend, let alone any experience with dating. And then boom—she meets her first friend and boyfriend in Lupe. She then becomes pregnant, while both Lupe and her parents are taken away. She now has a soon-to-be litter of 7 pups, and she is forced to live in an abandoned building while evil forces try to find her.
If I had to say who she reminds me of? A lot of characters remind me of her, but one that comes to mind is Jay from the film It Follows.
Unlike the main character of The Litter, Jay is established early in the film as the alpha female of her High School, or at least the object of every boy’s desire.
Jay soon learns though that having a boyfriend can catapult you into adult problems, and
the shy late-bloomers in the film are fortunate by comparison, because their childhoods last a little longer.
If one good thing comes of Jay’s sudden thrust into adulthood though, it’s that she receives a bit of insight into human dynamics. Our main character grows up fast, and as a result she receives a bit of insight as well.
What’s the main reason someone should really read this book?
This book is YA because it tones down the scenes of violence and sex. It does not tone down its writing though, even though it is aimed at a YA audience.
I’ve spent a lot of time interacting with young readers, and have found that whatever you throw at them, they will reach up to understand it, and possibly go even beyond. So if you want a YA Teen Pregnancy Paranormal Thriller that treats the reader with respect and a bit of a challenge, this one might be for you!
Is this the first you’ve written?
No, haha – I have quite a few. I am honored to get this award, but I am an (ahem) 9-time IndieReader approved author. There are more books on the way as well.
Would you go traditional if a publisher came calling? If so, why?
I would definitely listen. I know how rare those calls can be, and I know how hard it is for an agent/publisher to sell a book. But until that call comes, I am going to publish—and hopefully get a hit that makes it easier for that publisher to make that call.
Is there something in particular that motivates you (fame? fortune?)
I don’t write for fame, and definitely do not write for fortune, haha. If you write for either of those reasons, particularly the latter, you are going to have a hard time. I write for connection. I’ve been fortunate to have read a number of incredible authors in my life, and since I read ~2 books/week, I still encounter them. Those authors give me so much: insight, entertainment, and sheer pride at being a human. I hope to reach a few readers, and pass that on. My readers do not have to be writers, but if I can pass on a few words to get them through the day, and then inspire them to reach their potential—it’s all worth it.
Which writer, living or dead, do you most admire?
There are too many to count, and the list changes every week. You know that distracted boyfriend meme with the guy looking over his shoulder while his current girlfriend is aghast? I’m that guy, at least when it comes to books and authors. But if I had to say one, I’d say I’m a big fan of Peter Orner. I was down a while ago and came across his book Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live, and that pulled me way up, and way out. I then read another collection of his, and then another. They call him the modern-day Bernard Malamud, and yeah—I understand. He writes with clarity and a tremendous emotional impact, but right after that impact, he lifts you up.
With all due respect to his contemporaries—whom I love as well—but authors like Joan Didion, Dani Shapiro, Roxane Gay and Dan Chaon—they knock you out and then you’re down for the count. I read Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and gave it 5 stars, but I basically had to give up reading for a month while I recovered.
Oh—and after reading Dan Chaon’s Ill Will I had a nervous breakdown and was non-functional for a day.
But Orner delivers the impact, and though it knocks you over, he extends another hand and you want to read another. And then another, and then another.
That’s what I want to do—to deliver an impact, but also leave the audience feeling uplifted. Having tales like Orner’s where a reader rushes home to read them won’t hurt either.
Which book do you wish you could have written?
I don’t normally like to play that game. I am a writer, but also such a hardcore reader when I read a great tale I am grateful for the author. But if I had to choose one book that came closest to that feeling, it would be Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. There are so many floor-drops in that tale—where Crouch pulls the rug from under the reader and shows that the world is so much bigger than they thought it was. He provides more than just twists—these are floor-drops—and he keeps providing them right to the end.
So though I don’t exactly wish I could have written it, I do believe that Dark Matter served as an announcement to the world of Science Fiction—and the world of Fiction as a whole—that the bar has been set a bit higher.