– Thanks for joining us here at YALC. We would love you to introduce yourself
Hi I’m Ben Tomlinson and I write heartfelt contemporary stories about teens full of comedy, romance, authenticity and cringe.
– Can you give our readers an overview of your YA novel The Party
A teen boy lies to his mum in order to have a party to impress a girl – and it spirals out of control and ends up on the news.
– And, if you could do it in just 5 words or less, what would they be?
Noah’s secret party turns apocalyptic.
– Who was your favourite character to write and why?
I loved writing Ruby, Noah’s sister, because she’s so angry and funny and cruel, but hiding a deep wound underneath.
– Is there a character that you relate to?
I relate to Noah’s social frustrations and feeling stuck – I went to an all-boys school and didn’t meet girls for a long time!
– What first inspired the idea for The Party?
I was thinking of a party I went to as a teen, before social media, that ended up with what felt like every teenager in north-west London filling the streets. I thought – wouldn’t it be great for a book where the core premise is a teen-party that gets well out of control – and then I knew I wanted to root it in a romance.
– What inspired you to write a story about friendship and loyalty under pressure?
Things are changing fast in your teens – you can be really close to your friends, but want to explore and grow in a different direction, and that might feel like a betrayal, and it can be hard and painful, but also necessary. This happens in adulthood too!
– If you could spend a day with any of your characters, who would it be and why?
Caitlin, one of Noah’s best friends because she’s very quirky, intelligent, and funny.
– Is there a particular scene that felt rewarding to write?
There are two scenes, between Noah and Ruby and Noah and Saskia (his love interest) at the end that I found were very moving and rewarding, but I don’t want to give what happens away!
– Was there a characters who surprised you as the story developed?
Ruby’s storyline was full of delightful surprises for me as I wrote. Also Saskia, who starts off as a “cool kid”, Noah discovers she has a lot more depth and light and shade to her.
– Is there another character’s backstory you would love to explore in another book?
Yes but kind of in reverse. Some characters from my first book with Andersen, Loverboy, show up at Noah’s party – I’d like to explore this universe and characters across book in new and interesting ways.
– Did you have to do much research before you started the writing process for the book?
I’m the sort of writer who does research as I need to. I had already done quite a bit of research into out-of-control parties in my life! But I had to research how they happen in the 2020s, and I had to get details of the area and school life right, and also, I had to consult with the police too – so I did the research as and when it became mission critical.
– How did you come up with the title? Was it a hard process?
The Party was the title I originally pitched to Andersen – it was the easiest bit 🙂
– Where do you write?
I’m an every-where-on-my-laptop person – the sofa, tables, cafes, trains, often very early in the morning when i wake up. I dream of a giant man cave writing den with a huge screen and massive keyboard and fireplace and bookshelves and a TV but it hasn’t happened yet.
– What is your favourite genre to read?
I like a few. I obviously love YA otherwise I wouldn’t have ended up here. I love the big, dark, poetic emotional YA stories and I love funny, fast-paced relationship YA. I love noirish poetic, crime and psychological suspense. I sometimes dabble in weird surreal magical realist fiction. I love contemporary relationship and family stories. But really I love character, so any story where the characters feel real, deep, and I connect with and fall for them I a happy – and that can be any genre.
– Where can our readers find you on social media?
Insta! https://www.instagram.com/bentomlinsonwrites/
– Finally can you give us your favourite quote from a novel (it can be yours!)?
Now Noah was sad too. He’d never been to a party like that! He’d never even been to a party, he realised. And every Monday, he had to come in and listen to everyone yap about their amazing social lives. He hated it! Saskia and Reuben spoke to Noah like you might acknowledge a stranger in a shop. Polite, formal, pleasant, distant. They’d been in the same class for eight months, and that was the most Noah had ever spoken to them. There was this invisible barrier. He had no idea how to break it! He just sat and drooled and hoped Saskia wouldn’t see. For months and months and months his crush just got bigger.
He didn’t do anything about it. He didn’t have the balls. A naïve, cowardly idiot. Who missed out on everything fun. A sad, geeky loser who never got invited to shit.
How the hell had it come to this?