Author Interview: Ciera Burch and Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away

Happy Monday, Everyone! Today I’m excited to have Ciera Burch here to share about her MG contemporary, Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away. It sounds like a compelling middle grade story that explores sexual identity, and I’m looking forward to reading it. 

Here’s a blurb from Goodreads: 

A middle schooler navigates the challenges of feeling invisible—literally and figuratively—as she comes to terms with her asexual identity in this poignant speculative novel perfect for fans of Ellie Engel Saves Herself and Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone.

Seventh grade has just started, but Olivia Gray already knows this year is different. Her brother ignores her for his crush, and all her friends talk about is who likes who, something Olivia has never cared about—even when Robbie, the most popular boy in school, asks her to the fall formal. After unknowingly rejecting him, Olivia goes viral on the social app KruShh. As the chatter about Robbie and dating grows, Olivia starts to feel left out to the point of feeling invisible—literally.

Seen only by her new librarian and a friendly kid named Jules, Olivia flickers in and out of sight whenever the topic of romance comes up. As she begins to realize she might be asexual, Olivia struggles to actually use the label because of the negative perception behind it. All she wants is to be normal, but can she really fit in without disappearing completely? 

Hi Ciera! Thanks so much for joining us. 

1. Tell us about yourself and how you became a writer.

Thanks for having me! I’m a huge reader, lover of ice cream, a big Dungeons and Dragons nerd, and, of course, a writer. It’s hard to think of a time when I wasn’t a writer, honestly. Not in the professional sense, of course, but in terms of actually writing. I’ve wanted to tell stories from the minute I learned how to read them. 

How I became a published writer, though, was a little different. I’d been writing all my life and ended up in grad school for my MFA. After I finished my thesis, during the pandemic, I had plenty of time to keep writing and to polish it, so…I did. But even before I had an agent or published books or anything of the sort, I always considered myself a writer.  

2. Where did you get the idea for Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away? 

Oh, gosh. I have so many ideas floating in my head at once, often, that it can be hard to remember the seeds of them, sometimes! In trying to put together some pieces about younger me—why, even in my 20s, I didn’t care about dating and no longer had the excuse of school to give people when they asked—I found Olivia in my head: a young girl who doesn’t understand the suddenness with which everyone at school starts not only liking each other, but focusing solely on ither people, her best friends included. I love writing speculative fiction and so I wanted something to really represent how Olivia was feeling, and how I felt in 7^th grade, too, and decided invisibility was a perfect metaphor for everything I wanted to talk about. 

3. It’s great that Olivia was in your head long before you wrote her story. How did you plot out this story? Was the process different than for other stories you’ve written? 

I had to make the pitch to my agent, first, so it was a little different to how I’d done things for Finch House and Camp Twisted Pine. I tend to have bullet points and little snippets of things—dialogue, description, character information—that I know I want to include and then start writing and see where I end up. This time, I needed a synopsis, so I had to know how I’d get from point A to point B, with everything at least partially fleshed out in between. But before I finished it, I wrote the first few chapters so both I and my agent, Trinica, would have some sense of the voice and the characters, to see if it was something I actually wanted to keep writing. 

From the first few sentences, I’d convinced myself. Then, it was only a matter of trying to put the pieces together and letting Olivia’s voice guide me. 

4. That is a different way of writing your story. You had to have a good sense of it to write the synopsis. In Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away, Olivia grapples with being asexual and feeling and becoming invisible. How did you tell these parts of your story without sounding preachy?

Like with anything else I write, I try to stay true to the character. How she’s feeling, how she’s experiencing and interpreting things. Olivia is having a hard time with it, so I let her have a hard time. I didn’t make her jump to any conclusions or to acceptance right away. I gave her mentors and people who might relate and people who loved her no matter what and trusted her to navigate her way through. I also had a fictional self-help book in the novel if I did feel the need to be more explanatory when it came to certain definitions and specifics, especially since, as these things are new to Olivia, they’ll likely be new to my audience, too. 

5. What was a challenge you faced when writing this story or working on it with your editor? How did you overcome it? 

I didn’t really have any challenges with my editor, Kate, because she’s lovely. But in terms of challenges I faced while writing, I worried about getting the definitions about asexuality and aromanticism correct, but not bogging down the story with technicalities, and that I was also making things clear, understandable, and genuine when it came to how Olivia was dealing with everything. I also worried that just the word asexual, because it has ‘sexual’ in it, might worry some parents or readers. 

6. I can see why you were worried about those things. You’re a former assistant editor at HarperCollins. How did that strengthen your writing in general and in writing this book? 

Ha, is it bad to say that it didn’t? Writing and editing are such separate skills for me and I find that if I get too bogged down with focusing on one while I’m doing the other, I’ll get overwhelmed. I do write pretty clean drafts and tend to edit lightly as I write, but if I do it to the level of actually editing, I’ll second guess my word choices or story beats or pacing and will get stuck writing and editing the same chapter for ages. 

I think what I did learn while at Harper, and at HMH before that, is how an editor looks at things; the specifics I might not think of as the writer. It also keeps me grounded whenever an edit letter comes in! My feelings aren’t hurt by suggested changes or cutting certain plot points, for example, because I’ve been on the other side and I know it’s all in favor of making the story the greatest it can be, not trying to nitpick me or change who I am as a writer. 

7. Share how you got your agent, if any, and your first book deal? 

I mentioned it a little before, but I finished my MFA thesis in 2020, right at the start of the pandemic, and decided that once I finished my full novel and got it to a place I felt was good enough, I’d start querying agents, since I’d been laid off from the bookstore I worked at and had plenty more time to write, suddenly. I’d had interest from an agent after my short story was picked as Boston’s One City, One Story but hadn’t had anything to show her and promised I’d send something once I did.  

Once I sent my manuscript to that agent, I realized I might as well send it to others. I’d had a spreadsheet I’d been building all through grad school with the names and information of agents who represented my favorite authors and books, and decided I’d go in rounds. I only got through the first round before I got a few requests for full manuscripts and the next thing I knew, I was talking to Patrice on the phone about how much she loved and connected to my book, and was signing with her. 

My first book deal actually happened pretty quickly! It’s still all a bit of a blur, but I think everything, from submission to author calls, to signing a contract, happened in about a month or so. Once Patrice, my then-agent, decided to take a step back from agenting, her assistant, Trinica, asked if she could represent me and as I already knew—and loved—her and working with her, I was happy to agree. 

8. That’s a cool story about getting your agent and publishing contract. It sounds like everything fell into place easily. You’ve published two young adult and two middle grade novels since your first book was published in 2023. Besides writing good stories, why do you think you’ve been able to sell so many books in such a short time period? 

Oh, gosh, I’m still asking myself that question, honestly! I think it’s a blend of hard work, having an amazing agent and team, some amount of luck, and plenty of time spent staring at words on my computer trying to get them all to come together. 

I’m a pretty fast writer, which is part of things. I can usually knock out a first draft in a couple of months and move onto something new while that one is being read and/or edited. I was also lucky that I had two separate two-book deals, which meant I didn’t have to worry about going on submission again, just getting the interest and approval of my current editors. 

  

9. From your bio, it looks like you write full-time now. What made you decide not to have a day job, too? What advice do you have for other writers thinking of making this decision? 

 I did, and then it got a little unsustainable and I missed having a true routine and going outside and talking to people. Writing full time was a lot of sitting in my apartment alone and writing, which isn’t always great, even for an introvert like me. Even though I’d been working from home before I started writing full time, I missed the communication of meetings and emails (the horror, I know!) and having a set time when I started working and when I ended it.  

Since I’m not a massive New York Times bestseller or anything, I didn’t always have too much to fill up my days, especially when I was waiting on manuscripts to come back to me from my editors, so I felt a little lazy at times. But the initial decision, I think, was the freedom and the excitement of writing full time. It had always been my dream and it was something I could have fully realized in my 20s, so I felt the urge to, well, try it out. 

For other writers, I’d say make sure you have a safety net. Things really pile up when you have a set amount of money coming in based on your contract and life is expensive! It’s so different from having a biweekly paycheck. Have some sort of routine so you don’t drive yourself crazy trying to fill your time or feeling guilty for not writing for 8 hours a day. Also, if you’re American, figure out what you’re going to do about health insurance. 

10. Yes, health insurance is important. What are you working on now? 

I’m trying things out in the adult romance sphere currently, since I’m a big romance novel reader, and I’m having a lot of fun trying something new! 

Thanks for sharing all your advice, Ciera. You can find Ciera @cierasurch on Instagram or at cieraburch.com. Book buy link: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Olivia-Gray-Will-Not-Fade-Away/Ciera-Burch/9781665972628 

About Ciera:

Ciera Burch is a lifelong writer and ice cream aficionado. She has a BA from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. Her books include the middle grade novels Finch House and Camp Twisted Pine, and young adult novels Something Kindred and Out of Step, Into You. Her fiction has appeared in The American Literary Magazine, Underground, Five Points, Stork, and Blackbird. Her work was also chosen as the 2019 One City One Story read for the Boston Book Festival. While she is originally from New Jersey, she currently resides in Washington, DC, with her stuffed animals, plants, and far too many books. Visit Ciera at CieraBurch.com. 

Giveaway Details

Ciera’s publisher is generously offering a hardback of Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away for a giveaway. To enter, all you need to do is be a follower of my blog (via the follower gadget, email, or bloglovin’ on the right sidebar) and leave a comment by March 21st. If I do not have your email (I can no longer get it from your Google Profile), you must leave it in the comments to enter the contest. Please be sure I have your email address. 

If you mention this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites and/or follow me on Twitter or Bluesky or follow Ciera on her social media sites, mention this in the comments, and I'll give you an extra entry for each. You must be 13 years old or older to enter. This book giveaway is US. 

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday is hosted by Greg Pattridge. You can find the participating blogs on his blog.  

Upcoming Interviews, Guest Posts, and Blog Hops 

Wednesday, March 11, I have an agent spotlight interview with Lindsey Aduskevich and a query critique giveaway 

Monday, March 16, I’m participating in the Chasing Rainbows Giveaway Hop 

Monday, March 23, I have a guest post by Aaron Starmer and a giveaway of his MG You Are Now Old Enough to Hear 

Wednesday, March 25, I have an agent spotlight interview with Rob Broder and a query critique giveaway 

Monday, March 30, I’m participating in the Honey Bunny Giveaway Hop 

I hope to see you on Monday!