Q&A with Melody Maysonet

From my Q&A with Melody Maysonet, author of What We Wish For:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

My working title for a long time was Out of Mind because the main character’s mom is out of her mind, but it was also a play on “out of sight, out of mind,” as in, Layla, the main character, is trying to hide who she really is.

Then I settled on What We Wish For as the title, which is a play on the phrase, “Be careful what you wish for.” Layla thinks she gets everything she wishes for when her rich aunt and uncle swoop in to save her from the homeless shelter, sending her mom to fancy addiction rehab and moving Layla into their mansion. Layla thinks all her dreams have come true but finds out that getting everything she wished for comes with its own price tag.

The title is also a reference to hope—as in, there are so many things we wish for, and oftentimes we don’t get them, but the point is to keep hope alive. In What We Wish For, Layla longs for a better life—for herself, for her mom. She longs to be a better person, to be a better friend, a better daughter. She struggles and...[read on]

Visit Melody Maysonet's website.

The Page 69 Test: What We Wish For.

Q&A with Melody Maysonet.

--Marshal Zeringue