By The Book: Chloe Michelle Howarth Goes Spooky In Anticipated Second Novel

When we meet Chloe Michelle Howarth, she has just launched her second novel in Hodges Figgis in Dublin. She’s heading to Belfast after we chat in her hotel just off a bustling street in the hearth of the city.

When I walk in, she stands and gives me the biggest hug. This is our second chat and she is just as eager to discuss this incredible novel as the first time we sat down in the summer. She’s heading on tour in the UK to promote her new book, but she’s not the least bit tired when we chat.

After her hit novel, Sunburn, focusing on two queer teenage girls in Catholic nineties Ireland, she has gone for a different story altogether. While Sunburn is full of hope and youthful longing, Heap Earth Upon It, is absolutely depraved. It’s haunting and after you read it, you’ll probably sit and look at the wall for a while. I certainly did!

Here, we chat with Chloe about the inspiration behind her new book, the love she received for Sunburn and why she’ll read any book with lesbians!

 

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Tell us about your new novel, Heap Earth Upon It.

It’s quite different to Sunburn, I would say. It’s a 1960s family drama set in rural Ireland, and it’s about these four siblings who leave their lives behind and overnight arrive in a new village to restart there. And we learn along with the locals in this new village about the secrets that this family have brought with them, why they’ve come so fast, why they’ve left their lives behind, and they’re really not all they seem. And it’s a lot about repression and grief and also obsession. There’s definitely lots of sapphic yearning and obsession there. Similar to Sunburn, but I think tonally, it’s quite different. It’s a bit darker, obviously. 

Sunburn is such a beautiful book, and this is also a beautiful book, but in a very different way. How do you get into the headspace to write something so dark? 

I think initially, I just wanted to do something different to Sunburn, which is very romantic, very sweet. I just wanted to try something else. In terms of getting into the headspace, I chose the era and the colour palette and the season, the weather. It’s all those kinds of atmospheric things. Once I have those in mind, it’s quite easy to get into a new universe.  So for this, it was very much January, middle of winter, drizzle, grey, all those things. Once I was in that headspace, I was there, and it’s obviously coming out on Halloween.

Did you plan the release date to be Halloween?

No, I didn’t. I was hoping that they’d do an autumn-winter release because it’s suited to the book. Halloween is a hilarious day for it to come out. I love that it’s coming out on Halloween, but I didn’t plan that at all. 

Sunburn is your first novel and it has just become so beloved. Could you have ever imagined that it resonated with people so much? 

Not at all. Oh, my God. Not at all. It’s nice that it was such a slow burn because I could just get used to it by degrees, which is nice. I never expected anyone to even read it. Never really expected anyone to relate to it. It’s just been constantly surprising me, but in the best way, it’s so nice. 

Do you get surprised to see it on social media every summer?

Sometimes, especially at the start, I would see quotes and things, and I’d be like, “What is that? That’s unhinged”. Then I was like, “That’s actually mine”. I don’t look at it too often, but my partner Erin looks at that stuff all the time, and if there’s something especially nice, then they’ll show it to me. It’s always so strange. I think it has its own legs now. It’s so nice.

When you go sit down to write, what is the first thing you do? 

Literally, I just have to make sure I have no distractions. If I’m being very good, I’ll put my phone on the other side of the room. I pick an album that I can listen to all the way through that’s not going to distract me. If it’s new songs that I haven’t heard before I can’t listen to that. Doja Cat’s album came out, and I tried to listen to it while I was writing, but I was like “What’s she saying?” I just kept reading all the lyrics to the songs, so it has to be songs I already know or an album I can actually listen to all the way through without getting distracted. That’s it, really. Then I just opened the Google Doc and hope for the best. 

What is a childhood book that you think about still to this day? 

Vicky Angel by Jacqueline Wilson. Oh my God. That book is mad. I remember when I read that as a child, I was shook for days because it’s about a little girl who witnesses her best friend getting hit and killed by a car. The ghost of her friend follows her around, and it’s kind of about survivor’s guilt. It’s amazing, she is such a talented writer. No one else could pitch that as a children’s book and do it so well. Like, she is just phenomenal.  And every now and then, I’ll just be minding my business and then Vicky Angel will come back to me. I felt like such a lady when I was reading her books. I felt so grown-up. I was like, “These are the troubles of our times, I understand”.

Do you have a book from whenever that you wish you could erase from your memory and read for the first time. 

 So many. I read The Safekeep recently. I’d love to read that again for the first time because I sped through it. Have you read it? I read it too fast because I was like, “What the hell?” I wanted to know what was happening. I wish I could go back and read it for the first time, slowly and savour it. I think about it all the time. I’m excited to reread that one. 

Who are three authors that inspire you? 

I love Colm Tóibín. I think he’s fantastic. He’s like a singular talent.  I love Claire Keegan. She says so much with so few words. Her choice of words is excellent. She’s absolutely brilliant. I always say Jeffrey Eugenides. He is my favourite author. The things he writes are cinematic. They’re excellent. He has such a distinctive style. The way he writes is really cool.

Do you have a favourite character that you’ve written, or is that too hard? 

I actually really like Martin in Sunburn.  I hate to say that the boy is my favourite character, but he’s kind of the nicest character. Probably not true to life at all, that the teenage boy is the nicest one. When I was writing, I thought, I’ll make the teenage boy really nice and really understanding. But I do think he’s very sweet. He was nice to write because he kind of subverted my expectations of how men behave. I really enjoyed creating him. 

 

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If you could go into any book universe, where would you go? 

That’s such a good question. The books that I read are kind of set in the real world. Would I say somewhere like Narnia? No! I know where I’d go. I’m reading The Princess of 72nd Street, and it’s about this woman in New York in the 60s/70s, and she is living with psychosis. She sees it as such a positive thing. She calls it her radiance. So when she enters psychosis her world is beautiful and the descriptions and it’s so colourful. The pavement is made of flowers, and the sky is made of water, and the colours are so vivid, and it’s beautiful. So I’d go there. 

What are three books you’d want to go to a dinner party with?

I recently read Carrion Crow by Heather Parry, which is actually based on a true story. I didn’t know that until I talked to the author. And it freaked me out because it’s a very scary book about a woman who gets locked in her attic. Her mother’s preparing her for marriage, and she has a secret lesbian relationship going on, but she becomes this terrifying, feral creature living in the attic. Although I’d be scared to have dinner with this person. I’d be so interested. It’s set in Victorian England, they’re like half English, half French. I’d love to just have her at the table and just look at her, she’s insane. Going back to Colm Tóibín, Nora Webster, that book, it’s like the cosiest, loveliest book. I just want to give the main character in that book a big hug. She’s recently widowed, and she’s a mother, and she’s just trying to kind of pick her life back up and get on with things. It’s about how life goes on even when you’re not ready for it to keep going after death. And it’s just the sweetest, loveliest book ever. She feels so real. So I bring her to balance out the girl in the attic. Would I bring The Princess of 72nd Street? She could throw us all off course. You know, she seems fascinating. I’m only halfway through! She might do something crazy at the end, but I think because she’s so on my brain at the minute. I’ll bring her. 

Do you have a prized possession?

I have a signed Donovan album, Sunshine Superman, which I’m obsessed with. I love it. It got a tiny bit sun bleached in my old flat, so now I’ve moved it into the shade. I’m obsessed with it. I love him so much, it’s my prized possession. 

We kind of mentioned it earlier, but do you read reviews?

Not really, like I don’t seek them out. I know that people put a lot of time into reviews, so I don’t like to say, I ignore them by any stretch, but I don’t seek them out either.  Sometimes, my mam or Erin will send me one and then I know it’s safe to look at it. But yeah, I don’t really go for it too much. Even if someone is like, ‘100 stars. I loved it. It was the best thing ever’. I’m like, oh God. I just can’t take the compliment, I’m too awkward!

Do you have a favourite genre to read?

I just seek out Sapphic stories in any form that they come. I’ll read any genre if there’s a lesbian storyline in it, and even if it’s something that I typically wouldn’t enjoy, if there’s a lesbian storyline, I’ll try it because that’s the genre that I like. It’s the best when you don’t actually know there’s going to be a lesbian book and you’re reading and you’re like something’s gonna happen. I know something gay is on the horizon and then it actually, when it does happen, it’s so vindicating.

Obviously, we’re here to talk about Heap Earth Upon It, but are you working on a third book?

I’m always working on something. I’m always writing because it’s my favourite thing to do. It is my main hobby and my main creative outlet. It’s my kind of default thing to be at basically. I’m always writing. I’m working on a few things at the moment. It was kind of hectic working on multiple things at once when I was just at home. Now that we’re touring and doing all the promotion, it is quite hectic. But I thrive under pressure. I do a lot better with a deadline, and I have loads of other things to be doing. That’s when I do well. So hopefully I’ll get some good writing done in the next month. 

Heap Earth Upon It is published on October 31st

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