When I was contacted about interviewing Helen, I was truly overjoyed. The Love Interest is a gorgeous YA novel set in the town of Nine Trees, with a heroine you’ll root for and superheroes that you’ll either love or hate. It’s the sort of book, 14/15 year old me would have been obsessed with. It really spoke to that nerdy side of me.
I really LOVED our conversation and I’m so happy Helen had the time to speak to me. I’m sure we digressed and chatted about other things. However, thank you so much Helen for taking the time out to speak to me and WearMedia Hive for organising this interview.
A swoony, speculative and entirely electric YA debut with a humorous and satirical take on the conventions of the superhero-verse, for fans of Michelle Quach’s Not Here To Be Liked and the Marvel Universe.
Seventeen-year-old Jenna Ray has just been saved by the world’s newest superhero, Blaze. And, in the eyes of the public, that means one thing: Jenna Ray has been cast as the Love Interest.
No. Not happening. Not if Jenna has anything to say about it (even if Blaze is actually quite sweet and cute).
But her plans to defy the HPA (the Heroics and Power Authority) and turn down this new role are thwarted when the Villains begin to take an interest in her and offer a life-changing proposition; become Blaze’s Love Interest, while avoiding catching feelings for him, to uncover the HPA’s secret plans and find her missing mum.
To make matters even more complicated, just as Jenna starts to embrace her new-found career, she discovers she might be more on the side of the superheroes than she ever imagined …
This book is gorgeously written. It’s funny, full of wit, romance, strong family relationships and so much more. The action scenes are glorious. There’s not a single dull moment and I love that we have a heroine at the front and centre of a narrative driven by men.
Superhero books, films, tv-shows and more, tend to have men at the front of centre.
From The Boys, Invincible and most of Marvels popular films. The Marvel films with women at the centre e.g. Captain Marvel and The Marvels were described as ‘flops’. It’s so interesting to me that we can’t have superhero films where women are the heroes. Plots where they aren’t the ones that need saving or rescuing. So I loved that Helen really explores this argument with this book, but in a fantastic way.
So to kick off, what made you decide to become a writer?
Helen: I don’t even know. I was that kid that always had a book with them as a safety blanket. And I decided early on that I wanted to be Enid Blyton because I was racing through the Famous Five books.
Then I started writing my own little stories and just never really stopped writing.
I also work in theatre when I’m not chained to my laptop. So I did have a go at writing plays and the response I got was “Erm so it’s funny but you can’t have 12 main characters and 54 settings. It’s not viable.“
From there, I decided to move into novels and that’s now my happy place.
Me: I love that! I grew up on the Famous Five too and I feel like it’s just the standard.
Helen: Oh definitely. Did you do Mallory Towers or Twins at St Claires?
Me: I did both. Haha!
Helen: YOU DID BOTH? No-one does both!
Laughter*
Me: I was one of those kids that just said “yeah I’ll do both! Why not!”
Helen: I was pure Twins at St Claires.
Me: That was such a great series. But anyways enough reminiscing!
I know The Love Interest is your debut book, but what actually inspired you to write it?
Helen: Well, I started writing a story about love and superheroes. But at the same time, I was a single adult and I just felt like I was being pelted by the message that:
Being a single woman is NOT okay.
And I remembered that 15 year old Helen was bombarded with the same messages. I remember being a teenager and thinking, ‘oh well I need a boyfriend. Everyone else has one or a partner. What’s wrong with me? There must be something wrong with me.’
And I just wanted to write a book to emphasise that there’s nothing wrong with you. Be who you are. And be proud of who you are.
Love is great but it isn’t everything.
Me: Oh honestly, as I get older the more that message seems to hammer down. I don’t even know where it’s coming from. It’s just everywhere.
And I love that Jenna was so independent and very vocal about deciding if she wanted to be Blaze’s love interest or not.
Helen: Yeah it was really nice to give a teenage girl the type of agency I didn’t have when I was her age.
How long did it take you to write the book?
Helen: I started writing it on my MA, which was a course on writing for young people.
It actually took about 4 years to write, including revisions with my agent and Bloomsbury as well.
The sequel will be coming out (hopefully) in June 2025!
So I’ve had to turn that around much quicker – in about a year.
How has that process been? Has it been different or similar?
Helen: Yeah it’s been very different.
But the world exists. I know who the characters are and I already know what they do. I understand the world of Nine Trees and the mechanics of the EVs.
And it continues straight on from the first book.
Me: Oh that’s so good to know! I was wondering if it does.
Helen: Well, I say it continues straight on but there’s a tiny gap. It’s very small.
If I had to start from scratch I wouldn’t have been able to write the sequel that quickly. Because it’s a world and characters that I know and love – it’s come together quicker. I’m hoping that it’ll be fun, funny, full of superheroes and action-packed power scenes.
How was the world-building? Did you struggle to create it? Was there a process? How was that for you?
Helen: World-building was really interesting because the concept came first, followed quickly by the characters and then setting was last.
It came from research and the questions I had to ask myself when I was creating a superhero-verse.
The key question being: How do humans have powers?
That’s where the action for most superhero stories come from. For example, your hero gets bitten by a radioactive spider and that propels the story.
I decided that my humans would have evolved. A bit like a genetic mutation. Similar to the X-Men.
And then from there I thought it might be fun to take it a bit further. So it’s not just the humans that have evolved, it’s the planet itself and there are some animals that are super strong and have electric blue eyes. And thats where the EVs came from – the concept of the evolution of the Earth.
[POTENTIAL SPOILER BELOW]
What would you say was your favourite scene to write?
Helen: Ooo it might be hard to say without a spoiler but I’ll try.
There’s a scene in a supermarket where Jenna, her sister and her bestfriend are running around away from the villains. They’re being chased through the aisles and about to smash into a pyramid of baked goods.
It was so silly to write and I chuckled the entire time I was writing it. I could just picture my local Tescos with superheroes and it made me happy.
Me: Plus teenagers running around? It sounds like the perfect amount of chaos actually.
If you had to describe Jenna in three words, what would you pick and why?
Helen: Ooo I’ll say heroic because it was super important to me that she was heroic from the outset. The whole story happens because Jenna decides to run back into a burning bulding to try and save someone.
Loveable because she is kind and trying do the right thing. It makes her super endearing to me as the writer. It’s nice to write a loveable character that has friends and family around that love her aswell. It makes their bonds/connections really strong and fun to write.
Funny. She’s not the funniest character. Its really difficult to make your main character the funniest character. However, she does have her moments.
Out of all the characters are there any that you would want to be friends with?
Helen: 100%. I have two.
I would like to be friends with Megan (Jenna’s big sister) because her ranting feminist views is a mirror to everything I think. We’d have a lot of fun over a cup of coffee and discussing how we can try to put the world right.
There’s a character called Emily, who shows up about halfway through, and is pure chaos. I think she’d be fascinating to be friends with. Definitely a bit dangerous but I’d like to get to know her.
If you could pick a superpower, what would you pick and why?
Helen: Someone has this power in the sequel but I’d pick teleportation. I always thought I’d prefer Telekinesis but then COVID happened and I realised how important it is to me to be able to get around.
So yeah I’d pick teleportation so I can flip between my house, my sister in the Highlands and my family all over the place.
What would yours be?
Me: Oh I think mine would still be Telekinesis. It sounds really lazy but sometimes I just don’t want to move out of bed and want something to come to me. Especially when I’m reading I really hate to be disturbed. So, for example, when I need a bookmark, it would be great if I could just get it to come towards me.
Helen: Or use Telekinesis to keep the door shut!
Me: Exactly! But I remember when I was younger, I did want to be a mind-reader.
And then I realised how much of a nightmare that would be.
Helen: Yeah that would be horrible!
Whilst one of the main themes is love, weaved into the book are themes of community, friendship and family. I was wondering whether you found it difficult to balance all the themes and if there was one you found yourself leaning into more?
Helen: That’s such a nice question. I think when you set out to write a Romcom, you have to hold the romantic love front and centre.
Because Jenna’s saying ‘no thank you, I don’t particularly need it in my life,’ throughout most of the book. I had to bring her other relationships to the forefront. For instance, her relationship with Joy is really strong and her relationship with her family, especially her sister, is almost equally as important.
I think writing sisterly relationships comes more naturally to me than writing romantic relationships. But I did put a lot of effort into Jenna and Blaze to make sure they were solid.
Me: No fair enough. I can completely understand why you might find writing sisterly relationships easier. I think I would be the same. There’s something about sisterhood that is so much easier to write.
Helen: Yeah absolutely and because it’s often very positive. Whereas romantic relationships can kind of come and go. Sisterhood, ideally, is forever.
What message would you want your readers to take away from your book?
Helen: As a long time superhero fan, I think the key message in here is:
You can be whoever you want to be.
So I would watch a superhero film and maybe wouldn’t see myself. Or I’d see myself in the woman that gets swept out of the way of a car coming towards them by the superhero. And that would be it.
But in The Love Interest, you get to choose your own future! And you can say no to the tropes and roles that people try and shove you into.
It’s emphasised that you can honestly be whoever you want to be.
If you could give any advice to any aspiring writers out there? What would you give and why?
Helen: I would definitely say write what you love.
It’s the most common writing advice but it’s the best.
You can research trends in the industry until you’re blue in the face. But publishing moves so fast and writing a book takes a really long time. So chances are if you try to hop on a trend, it could be gone by the time you finish writing your book in 18 months time. Or by the time you’ve sold it in 2 and a half years.
So always write what you love.
And that also means that the research is really fun. I mean I got to watch the MCU films and buy comic books as research! It was amazing.
And that concludes such a great interview with the incredible Helen Comerford. Thank you so so much Helen for taking the time out to talk to me.
Listening back to this interview made me smile and super excited for the next book in this fantastic series. So if you haven’t already, go and pick up a copy of The Love Interest! It’s out now.
