Catherine, how long did you work on THE SKY BETWEEN YOU AND ME?

In the time it took me to write and then find a home for this book I lived in four different cities, had nine different addresses, earned two Master’s degrees and became a mother. Though I didn’t work on this book consistently, a total of ten years passed between the day I scribbled Raesha’s first words on a napkin in a dining hall in Vermont to the day on which I finally sold this novel.

What did this book teach you about writing or about yourself?

I learned that endings never look like you think they will. If you let them, an ending can turn out to be the beginning of another chapter.

What do you hope readers will take away from THE SKY BETWEEN YOU AND ME?

I hope that readers never feel as though they are reading a book about an eating disorder. Instead, I’d like them to experience the story of a complex and beautiful girl who happens to be struggling with anorexia. Raesha is much more than the disease threatening to destroy her life and I hope readers are as captivated by her as I am.

Was there an AHA! moment along your road to publication where something suddenly sank in and you felt you had the key to writing a novel? What was it?

My a-ha moment came when my agent, Sara Scuito, looked at a manuscript I thought was complete and informed me that I had yet to finish the story. I looked back through the piece and realized she was correct. I had stopped writing just before things became truly complex for Raesha. I had ended the story on the edge of a cliff because I was afraid of what I’d discover to be true not only about her life, but about mine as well.

What’s your writing ritual like? Do you listen to music? Work at home or at a coffee shop or the library, etc?

Every night I read a stack of picture books to my daughter and then fall asleep next to her for about half an hour. I then wake up, make a cup of mint tea and turn on my computer. The next four hours are spent writing. No internet. No music. No phone conversations. Just me and the words on the page.

What advice would you most like to pass along to other writers?

In the words of Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, kill your television. Put your phone away. Disconnect from the internet. Interact with people face-to-face whenever possible. Listen to their stories and allow yourself to be changed by them.