You can find chosen families, a romanticization of travel, and more in Alison Cochrun's "Every Step She Takes."
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
"Every Step She Takes" is about Sadie, a woman who’s discovering her sexuality in her mid-30s and inadvertently finds herself on a queer tour trekking the Camino de Santiago through Portugal and Spain. As someone who didn’t come out as a lesbian until her 30s, and as someone who walked the Portuguese Coastal route of the Camino in May 2022, the inspiration for this book was two-fold. Even as I was completing the Camino, I knew I would have to write a book about the incredible experience one day, and I’ve always wanted to write a late bloomer character like Sadie who is still figuring herself out at 35. To me, those journeys paralleled and complemented each other in really interesting ways, so I decided to meld them together.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
I feel like this concept has changed for me in the last year or two with the rise of book bans targeting LGBTQ stories. Right now, Reading Rainbow is about our right to see ourselves reflected in the books we read -- a right that is in danger. I want to do a better job fighting to protect that right. There are so many authors out there already doing this advocacy work, and if you haven’t checked out Authors Against Book Bans, I highly recommend doing so.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
As someone who writes queer books, I think there’s an important responsibility to reflect the diversity of the queer experience. Queer people are not a monolith. Lesbians are not a monolith. So I think it’s important to populate stories with characters who have different queer identities and who experience their queerness or their gender in different ways. From the reader perspective, I think it’s also crucial that we’re seeking out diverse queer stories, especially BIPOC and trans stories. Now, more than ever, it feels vital for our community to be empathetic and inclusive.
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
As I mentioned, the book is about Sadie, who’s experiencing a gay panic at 35 and inadvertently finds herself on a queer tour of the Camino de Santiago along with Mal, the woman she drunkenly came out to on the flight to Portugal. I like to think of it as a coming-of-age novel for full-ass adults. I love writing about messy characters who are still figuring themselves out in their late-20s and 30s, in part because I think that’s something I need to see. Growing up, I viewed adulthood as this fixed state, like I would reach some miraculous age where I stopped questioning, stopped doubting, stopped learning about myself. The pressure to have everything figured out as a so-called adult made it really difficult for me to start questioning my sexuality at 32. Now I’m 38, and I’m married to a woman. We have a son and another child on the way. We’re seemingly very grown-up. But I still don’t have all my shit figured out, and I kind of like it that way. I wanted to write a book that celebrates uncertainty and exploration.
What can fans expect from your book?
After my last book, "Here We Go Again," the number one thing people ask me about "Every Step She Takes" is: will it make me cry? And the answer is: I don’t think so? I didn’t cry while writing this one (which is quite the feat for a triple water sign). Otherwise, readers can expect what they get from most of my books: complicated family dynamics, chosen families, sapphic yearning, and a romanticization of travel. And maybe one or two laughs. Hopefully.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
I’m hoping to continue writing stories about queer joy and queer love! Nothing I can announce quite yet, but I’m excited to share more books with my amazing readers.
Alison Cochrun is a former high school English teacher and Lambda Award–winning writer of queer love stories, including The Charm Offensive, Kiss Her Once for Me, Here We Go Again, and Every Step She Takes. She lives outside of Portland, Oregon, with her wife, her son, and two very needy dogs. You can find her online at AlisonCochrun.com or on Instagram @AlisonCochrun.
