Welcome to Between the Covers summer series where# we put the spotlight on our South Florida authors.

Hi, I'm Anne Bok and joining me is awardwinning# author Melody Masonette.

Her latest book is What We Wish For.

Told through the eyes of a# 15-year-old, it is a story of homelessness, addiction, secrets, and forgiveness.

Vel,# thank you so much for for coming me.

I really enjoyed your book.

Not a typical YA book in in my# estimation.

This book would resonate with people of all ages, and there are some heavy topics.

We# have 15-year-old Leila.

She's living in a homeless shelter with her mother who is an alcoholic and# jobless.

Tell me a little more.

Well, the reason they're in the homeless shelter is because her mom# Shauna can't seem to get her life together.

And um Ila is mortified by her circumstances.

You# know, at her high school, she tries to project this aura of, you know, I'm cool.

I don't care# what you think of me.

But the fact is she does care very deeply to the point that she's lying# about her circumstances to everybody including her best friend.

So there's this growing rift# between them.

Um and then you know um well when the when the story begins her mom is getting ready# to pick up her 30-day sobriety chip and Ila is scared.

You know she's scared that her mom won't# stay sober.

She's scared her mom will just keep screwing up.

And then she gets everything# that she thinks she has been wishing for.

um the title of the book thus and um you know# her mom goes into a very fancy addiction rehab and Ila gets to move in with her very rich aunt# and uncle and they shower her with all kinds of material gifts and Ila like I said she thinks all# her dreams have come true but things aren't always what they seem.

Um her mom is spiraling but Ila# kind of refuses to see it because she's caught up in this in being this new person that her aunt and# uncle's wealth allows her to be.

And meanwhile, her uncle, who she's living with, is kind of a# nasty, pretty nasty guy.

He's a pretty nasty guy.

And and her cousin Celeste, who she goes to the# same high school with and she's now living with, is um how do I put this nicely?

An entitled snot.# Um so there are some challenges.

That that is a nice way of putting that.

You have been very# honest about your own journey to recovery.

Is that the reason you wanted to write this book?

Um,# it is the reason I wrote the book.

Um, my Okay, I'm going to try not to cry as I say this because# it's ve it's been very recent that I've outed myself.

Um, but I am an alcoholic in recovery.# I've been in recovery for about for 18 years.

And but for until very recently, I have not told# anyone other than my close family and other people in recovery.

And um, and the reason I didn't tell# anybody is because I was ashamed.

And I I still feel that stigma and that that shame attached to# it, especially when my son was little, you know, playdates.

I didn't want the other moms, you# know, can't go over to her house, you know.

Um, and and and there there still is a lot.

It's# gotten better, but there's a lot of shame and stigma attached to it.

But I told myself if I ever# got this book published that I wasn't going to shy away from who I really am.

You are a brave woman.# You are.

And thank you for writing this book.

As I said, this will resonate.

The title, as we talked# about just a moment ago, suggests a cautionary tale, what we wish for.

Personally, I think# it is a brilliant title.

Did you come up with the title?

I did.

And I liked the play on, you# know, the be careful what you wish for, but then keep wishing too.

You know, keep wishing is is a# wonderful mantra.

Your writing about the homeless shelter particularly felt very authentic and I'm# curious how do you research this kind of of an environment?

The environment felt real.

It had its# own community there.

There were standouts in that community, a couple of characters, James, Gabriel.# How did you build that location into the book?

I kind kind of got inspired to write the book.# Um I was invited to the Broward Outreach Center to tell my recovery story at a at a meeting and# I told my story and it was I seem to be helping people.

So I'm like, "Oh, it'd be kind of cool# to volunteer here."

So I am an English teacher um former English teacher.

So I started a# volunteer teaching there about once a week um teaching preg English classes.

And so I did# that for like more than a year.

So, I got to know, you know, how things were ran and um the director# of the shelter um took a shine to me.

He invited me to one of their community weekly community# meetings and it's kind of like a pep rally, you know.

Um he gets up and it's very inspirational# and they introduce new residents and and when I went to the meeting, um there was a a mother# and her teenage boy there and the kid's name was Gabriel.

That's all I know about him.

and of# Gabriel's character in the book, but you know, and I got to thinking about this kid you with his# mom.

He's like, what's his life like?

Is is is he um is he rooting for his mom?

Is he ashamed?

Do# the kids at school know where he's living?

You know, so that was sort of like what got me started# on writing.

I knew there had to be something in reality that that you had had witnessed because# it was that authentic.

There are some tense moments in this book.

There are some heartbreaking# moments.

But I want readers to know that there is this thread, this throughine, this undercurrent# of hope.

Leila is so optimistic.

Is that you?

Um, it's me in a in a wishful world.

Um, I am very# Ila is very much based on me.

like her.

I grew up poor and um you know things like notebook paper# for school or uh hairspray were often considered luxury items and my father was an alcoholic.# I lived in an abusive household.

So it was it was I was um I was very insecure like Ila.

Um# and like Ila uh I wrote poetry to cope as I was growing up.

Um, and I was told just like Leila# by the head of the English department that it was too filled with teenage angst, which was a# blow to my self-esteem, but I kept writing.

Um, so I guess I always did have hope.

Um, and I just# want to say that alcoholism didn't come until later in my life and it brought me to my knees and# I but I always had that hope that somehow sorry that somehow life would get better and it did.# and my life is amazing now.

And and that's that's kind of the hope that I want with this book,# too, is like you can go from way down here, but just keep keep trying.

I I felt the hope# all the way through wi with Ila.

Each chapter, it's interesting the way you crafted this.

Each# chapter begins with a poem by 15year-old Leila, obviously written by you.

Were they written# specifically for this book?

Most of them.

Glad you asked that.

Most of them were written when# I was a teenager.

I have like little journals at home like two books of handwritten you know I# wrote poetry all the time and I most of the poems that you see in the book were are direct word for# word poems that I wrote when I was a teenager.

Here and there I would change a word to make it# more applicable to what Ila was going through.

And I'd say probably a a quarter of them were ones# that I wrote now just because the piece of poem at the beginning of the chapter has something to# do with what's going on in that chapter and I couldn't always find something in my own poetry# that fit that.

So I would write something new.

You said you had a challenging childhood.

I'm# curious, did books help you at all?

And what did you read as a child?

Books saved me.

Oh my# gosh.

Um I was drawn to books that had um you know disturbing plots and and and disturbed characters,# dark um because that's the you know I dealt with you know abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse in my# you know with me, my sisters and my mom and it was it was it was not a good but reading gave me that# like oh this is this is what a normal family looks like or or wait, they're going through something# too and they come out the other side and it's okay.

You know, I always wanted to be a writer and# I think that's why I gravitate toward writing like dark issues driven books just because I want# people to know that, you know, whatever it is you're going through, you can come out the other# side cuz that's what books did for me.

Addiction does not stop with the addict and it's very clear# in your book.

It hits the entire family hard.

This book will really be help to young people# who have family members battling addiction.

The book is What We Wish For.

Melody Mason,# I want to thank you so much for sharing your time.

It's my pleasure.

Thank you.

I'm Anne Bok.# Please join me on the next Between the Covers.