By Suniti Srinivasan
Today we’re pleased to welcome editors and contributors g. haron davis, Cam Montgomery, and Adrianne White to discuss their upcoming YA anothology All Signs Point to Yes, out May 31, 2022!
A literal star-studded anthology that delivers a love story for every star sign straight from the hearts of thirteen multicultural YA authors.
A haunted Aquarius finds love behind the veil. An ambitious Aries will do anything to stay in the spotlight. A foodie Taurus discovers the best eats in town (with a side of romance). A witchy Cancer stumbles into a curious meet-cute.
Whether it’s romantic, platonic, familial, or something else you can’t quite define, love is the thing that connects us. All Signs Point to Yes will take you on a journey from your own backyard to the world beyond the living as it settles us among the stars for thirteen stories of love and life.
These stories will touch your heart, speak to your soul, and have you reaching for your horoscope forevermore.
Contributors:
g. haron davis (Aries)
Adrianne White (Aquarius)
Cam Montgomery (Ophiuchus)
Tehlor Kay Mejia (Gemini)
Mark Oshiro (Libra)
Eric Smith (Scorpio)
Emery Lee (Pisces)
Byron Graves (Virgo)
Karuna Riazi (Cancer)
Roselle Lim (Taurus)
Alexandra Villasante (Capricorn)
Lily Anderson (Sagittarius)
Kiana Nguyen (Leo)
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g. haron davis (they/them) is a New York-born, Tennessee-raised Young Adult author. Currently residing in the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri, they specialize in horror and several shades of fantasy. They co-founded marginsbox, a diversity-celebrating subscription book box, with Adrianne Russell in 2019. They can be found online at ghdisme.com, on Twitter at @ghd_twt, and on Instagram at @sopescum.
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How were you able to handle so many stories from different people delicately while incorporating your ideas into the text / How were you able to tie all the stories together while still keeping the unique sentiment from each story?
Honestly, there isn’t a throughline with these stories, and I like it that way. While all of them embody the expression of that sign through the lens of Venus, the planet ruling love and relationships, they’re all very different in how that love is expressed. We wanted to give everyone as much freedom as we could to interpret the theme in their own way because they’re all talented enough to not need a lot of hand-holding.
There were a lot of LGBTQ+ stories as part of the text. Was the representation in the book coincidental or planned? How did this resonate with you as an editor, being part of the LGBTQ+ community?
The extensive queer rep in the book wasn’t planned; we just happen to have a lot of queer writer friends and so things just shook out this way. As a queer person myself I’m genuinely thrilled! I didn’t expect a lot of queer stories, which was kind of silly of me considering many of our contributors are out and proud, so I was pleasantly surprised. What struck me most was the varied expressions of queerness—some characters are fully out, some only to a few trusted people, some to no one at all. It feels representative of actual queer experiences and I love that for any queer teens reading.
How did you balance your perspectives on how the book should be edited while presenting the author’s content the way they wanted it to be?
I did very little in that regard. Our contributors are rockstars and really got the concept without much help from us. At most, I pointed out moments in which the authors could go a little deeper with the sign rep. Like if x sign has y trait, and I saw a moment that y could be really incorporated, I’d let the author know. Otherwise, we got lucky and had to do very little heavy lifting as editors.
How did being an Aries affect your perspective on the story? How did it impact your relationship with your co-editors?
I’m actually a Leo! That’s my sun sign; my Venus sign is Virgo. I chose to take on the Aries story because my then-partner was an Aries Venus. As far as my own Venus sign, I think the fact that Virgo Venus folks tend to be very practical in relationships helps me work well with other editors. But it’s also a matter of being very nitpicky or perfectionistic sometimes with other people, and that can be detrimental. So I try really hard to not be impulsive or overly critical.
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Cam Montgomery (non-binary she/her) spends her time teaching dance to queer kids, bingeing anime, tending bar and writing romancey novels. Two of her YA novels—HOME AND AWAY and BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY—are available now. Having ditched LA, the transplant now lives in Seattle and has made a habit of complaining about the weather even though she secretly loves it.
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How were you able to handle so many stories from different people delicately while incorporating your ideas into the text / How were you able to tie all the stories together while still keeping the unique sentiment from each story?
For me it was mostly about letting people tell the story they wanted to tell. The story they needed to tell. So when I went in with my Editor Hat on, it was about trusting the people we asked to help us build this book. It was about trusting their talent and their brilliance, and each of them made that very easy. My goal was to guide and suggest and maybe bat around an idea or two with the contributors, but never to change the story or ask them to write what I thought they should. We’ve made an excellent book, and I think that’s part of it. As for tying the theme together, we wanted to unify through the concept of love—your sign in Venus. So no matter how that came out, whether it was direct or through metaphor or reflected in their main character, it all came together beautifully.
How were you able to merge your editorial style with your co-editors, as I believe this book matches the genres that appeal to you, helping you define your editorial style?
I learned a lot from Dahlia Adler (she/her), the resident Anthology Queen in these publishing streets. She gave me great advice every step of the way. Some of which was to communicate with my co-editors and to trust my gut.
I did very careful reads of each story as we went along—just reading, multiple times—and those steps helped me define my own methods and madness for editing this thing. It was about keeping the word “collaboration” in mind a lot of the time.
You have been in both the position of an author and an editor. How did this insight help you sequence this book?
Being an author in this game of editors has been hugely helpful for me personally. When I approached a story to be edited, I was able to look at it through three lenses: reader, editor, author. Those are different scopes and they require different mindsets. I believe being a published author (for both novels and multiple contributions to anthologies) gave me a very solid understanding of How Things Work insofar as communicating with our contributors and helping bring their stories to life. Then again, being an editor newb had its peaks and valleys and lessons as well.
Who was this text targeted towards (if any), and how did that play a role in the story’s trajectory / the co-authors of this story?
Our dedication says a lot about who we made this book for. You’ll see. And I like to tell people that my work is for you if you need it and think it’s for you.
But more specifically, we had a definitive goal in mind for this. To tell stories that showcase how people of color from historically underrepresented backgrounds express love. How our cultures and lived experiences influence these acts of love.
I like to think this beast of a book will seek out and find the hands of readers who need that.
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Adrianne White (she/her) is a born and raised Midwesterner living in the Kansas City, Missouri suburbs. When she’s not writing or editing young adult content, she’s usually napping, watching movies, listening to kpop, and uplifting marginalized voices in children’s literature. In 2019, she co-founded marginsbox, a diversity-boosting book subscription box, with g. haron davis. Creating the stories she needed growing up is her joy.
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How were you able to handle so many stories from different people delicately while incorporating your ideas into the text / How were you able to tie all the stories together while still keeping the unique sentiment from each story?
There isn’t a specific tie that binds all the stories together and that was a deliberate choice. Everyone was free to interpret how love and relationships are affected by Venus, the planet ruling those things, in the ways they saw fit. These writers are so awesome that as editors we really didn’t need to get heavy-handed with anything.
In your description, you state, “Creating the stories I needed growing up is my joy.” How did this anthology satisfy your want for stories? Was there any specific part that resonated with you?
As a young Black reader, I had no choice but to try and find things I could relate to in stories, and often did, even when the characters were nothing like me or the people in my world. I believe that empathy is a key skill for everyone to develop, but the overwhelming homogenity of characters in stories for young readers (white, cishet, neurotypical, etc.) means that the communities that could benefit from that skill the most are rarely confronted with the task. For me, that feeling of recognition, of familiarity, of home, was often elusive, and rarely seeing yourself in fiction has a negative, cumulative effect: So I’m never the hero? No one loves me? I’m just here to serve someone else’s journey? Over time, that really messes with your head. The stories in this anthology radically depict love, relationships, turmoil, excitement—that complex melange of experiences making us collectively human—while illustrating just how magical and important our distinctions are, particularly when rooted in culture, without apology. That is extremely uplifting and thrilling!
How has editing this book shaped your perspectives on zodiac signs? Did it help you understand more about who you are and your relationships with others (similar to some of the characters in the stories)?
Before working on this book, I considered myself a casual astrologist. I grew up with family members who were very involved in it and sort of learned by osmosis. I was really interested in the idea that our connection to the universe isn’t just theoretical, that as beings originating from literal stardust, our bodies subject to the pull of planets and moons, it impacts our day-to-day lives. A very significant personal relationship was imploding as I wrote and edited, and the resilience, determination, and spirit in these stories really helped me navigate some challenging times. Yeah, it’s bad now but it won’t be forever, there’s no one form of love to rule them all, and betting on yourself is never wrong—all lessons I learned from these characters.
Was it an editorial choice to keep stories on Venus in the zodiac signs? Even if not, what was special about Venus in zodiac signs?
It was. When we discussed the focus, we talked about how most people are aware of their sun sign, the one affiliated with their date of birth, but may be unfamiliar with their sign in Venus. Your Venus shapes how you express passion, desires, and values. It also governs how we relate to others socially. Since Venus is the ruling planet of love and since we wanted to assemble stories that embodied love in all its forms, it just made sense. I believe that was Cam’s brainchild!
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Suniti Srinivasan is a blog volunteer for We Need Diverse Books, and a middle schooler in International Community School. She is very passionate about law and International Studies. When she is not doing schoolwork, she expresses herself through classical dance and finds it to be a great stress reliever. She is an animal enthusiast and has a golden retriever who keeps her busy. She has been an avid reader from a very young age, absorbing the tales of strong characters in fantasy lands and in society. She hopes to share her joy of reading with the world and help highlight more diverse authors through this platform.
