Q&A with Ciara Smyth

June 3rd 2021

Can you tell us a bit about your new book, Not My Problem?

Not My Problem follows Aideen Cleary, a girl who is struggling at home and struggling at school. Her best friend doesn’t seem to like her very much and her PE teacher won’t accept that she’s not a team player. But she is really good at solving other people’s problems, in her own unique way. Eventually she decides to offer her services to the student body but she can’t do all these favours without getting a few favours in return.

Both your books have lesbian protagonists, as well as having a wider cast of supporting LGBTQ+ characters, how important was that to you?

It’s so important to me to be able to write LGBTQ+ characters but in particular to be able to write lesbian characters. Girls who are not afraid or embarrassed to use the word lesbian. The feedback I’ve got from readers only confirms to me that it’s really vital. I think there is some shame associated with that word, for a lot of complicated reasons, but that’s why I insist on using it.

Neither of your books focus on coming out and instead focus on wider issues to do with the characters’ home lives, why did you decide on this approach?

Mainly I think because this is what I would like to give my teen self if I could. Coming out stories are important of course but the fact that for a long time that’s all there was created a strange narrative about what it was like to be a LGBTQ+. As though coming out, or dealing with the ramifications of coming out is the end of the story not the beginning. I think that’s what ‘it gets better’ was all about. And I think there’s an SNL skit where they kind of talk about this, that yeah, it gets better but you still have the rest of life’s problems to deal with.

Aideen is another fantastic, quick-thinking and witty main character, is she or any of the other characters in Not My Problem based on anyone?

Well I’m fantastic and witty so there’s that. But no I don’t really base the characters on anyone. I think of a situation first and then I work out what kind of person would get themselves into that situation. I do all my character work from there. Having said that I think Meabh from Not My Problem is a lot like me. She’s an intense, obnoxious, know-it-all and she will have to grow out of her black and white, all or nothing, approach eventually. For the meantime though, I wanted to give her people who would love her, just as she is.

The main friendship between Aideen and Holly is very reminiscent of fraught teenage friendships, what made you want to include that plotline?

I think most of us have experienced the pain of a friendship that is chugging along even though we’ve outgrown it. Neither Holly nor Aideen know how to end the relationship even though it’s painful for both of them. They manage this in different ways. Aideen is chasing the ghost of a good thing (pardon the Dashboard reference) and Holly is lashing out. While I think people might see Holly as a villain in some ways, I don’t think she is. She’s handling it all abominably but I don’t think there’s a person alive who hasn’t treated someone else poorly and hopefully when you’re confronted with that, you can grow from it.

How do you come up with the jokes and funny escapades that your characters get embroiled in?

Some seem to come from thin air, the inciting event, Aideen pushing Meabh down the stairs, was the first scene that I thought of and I enjoy the extreme response to a fairly mundane problem. Other shenanigans in the book involved a surprising amount of consideration and planning because Aideen collects favours as payment. This means all the favours given and received had to match up in some way. I spent several hair pulling evenings trying to work these all out with my friend Darren in a way that hopefully feels smooth and organic. The humour in general though just sort of happens as I write. Once I have the character’s voice in my head the jokes and bits come pretty naturally.

What was the most enjoyable part about writing this book?

Not the hair pulling plotting I referred to, that’s for sure. I really love writing dialogue. Sometimes have to remind myself to write some description or action in there too. The scenes between Aideen and Ms Devlin were probably my favourite to write. Aideen’s sort of ‘who me?’ attitude knocking up against Ms Devlin’s frustration. They’re a double act of their own.

And the last question, what are some of your favourite recent YA and/or LGBT+ books that you’ve read?

I’m a big fan of Misa Sugiura, I loved It’s Not Like It’s a Secret and I can’t wait for Love and Other Natural Disasters. I love Kat Dunn’s Dangerous Remedy and the sequel Monstrous Design. I’m in the middle of reading Love is for Losers by Wibke Brueggemann and I think it’s both fantastic but also a really good read for anyone who enjoyed The Falling in Love Montage. They are sister books!

Not My Problem is published by Andersen Press and was listed as our Book of the Week on 8th June 2021.