Q&A with Joseph Moldover

 

Photo by Kate Donovan

 

 

Joseph Moldover is the author of the new young adult novel Just Until. He also has written the book Every Moment After. He is a clinical psychologist, and he lives in Massachusetts.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Just Until, and how did you create your character Hannah?

 

A: I have wanted to write about kids and families in the foster care system for a long time. It’s a topic I’ve encountered in my work as a psychologist and also in my personal life. It’s so complicated, and can be inspiring and also very, very hard.

 

I wanted to tell the story from the point of view of the type of person who is often forgotten in these situations, or not paid attention to. Someone who is not in a “hero” or a “victim” role, who is not getting a lot of support or affirmation, and is expected to quietly carry on…but in reality is holding the whole situation together.

 

I found Hannah’s voice quickly, before I really had the plot, and I felt like I immediately knew her: smart, funny, sarcastic, tough but also vulnerable.  

 

Q: How did your background as a clinical psychologist factor into the writing of the novel?

 

A: Some of it was being around kids and families in the foster care system, having a sense of that complexity. I also had contacts who could educate me about aspects of the system I didn’t understand and about the psychology of foster kids and families. A lot of being a psychologist is knowing what you don’t know, and figuring out who to ask.

 

Most of all, I had a strong visceral sense of people who were struggling but not centered, who were pushed into supporting roles in other people’s stories, and I wanted to give someone like that the chance to be heard.  

Q: The writer Jennifer De Leon said of the book, “An incredibly gripping, powerful story about a young woman, Hannah, who faces tough choices in a tough world. At a crossroads, she must dig deep to find a path that is at once hopeful and healing.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it! Jenn is a wonderful writer and teacher, and that comment meant so much to me.

 

She nailed it: Hannah is at a crossroads that will shape the rest of her life, and the lives of her two nephews. It’s not fair that she’s been brought to that moment at such a young age, but she is facing it with all the courage she can find. I think that’s the most dramatic thing I can write about.

 

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

 

A: I hope they identify with Hannah and her struggle. Her specific situation is pretty unique, but at a high level she is dealing with family responsibility and with the need to balance other people’s needs against her own dreams, and that is something that a lot of other people have to face. I hope her story makes them feel less alone.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m writing another YA novel. It deals with mental health issues and with advances in mental health science which present new, complicated questions about personal freedom.

 

And, though I hesitate to use this word, it’s a romance. Not necessarily a ROMANCE romance, but a story about a couple trying to figure each other out and take care of each other, which to me is romantic.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I love to hear from readers. Publishing a book is like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it into the ocean: you never know who (if anyone) has received it. It means a lot when people reach out.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb