WELCOME POST: The Sky Blues

Hi, y’all!

It’s finally time for our The Sky Blues bookstagram and blog tour, and we are just thrilled to be able to share this experience with y’all. This beautiful book releases tomorrow, so make sure to add it to your TBR and pre-order if you’ve yet to already!

Below, we have an opportunity to win a copy of this book, and we’ll also be holding a similar giveaway on our bookstagram portion of the tour! Make sure to go through our tour schedule and follow each of our hosts so you don’t miss out!

The Sky Blues
by Robbie Couch
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Releasing on April 6th, 2021
YOUNG ADULT FICTION–Contemporary, Romance

Sky’s small town turns absolutely claustrophobic when his secret promposal plans get leaked to the entire school in this witty, heartfelt, and ultimately hopeful debut novel for fans of What if it’s Us? and I Wish You All the Best.

Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it.

What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen?

Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator.

But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?

**Can you tell us a bit about you and The Sky Blues?**

Hello! I’m Robbie. I like to tell stories, eat noodles, and sleep with a night light on. I’m originally from small town Michigan, which is where The Sky Blues takes places. Sky Baker has plans to prompose to his big crush, Ali, but it all falls apart when his promposal plans get leaked to the whole school in a hacked, homophobic e-blast. Sky has to figure out who did the hacking and how he’ll get revenge. It’s a book about resiliency, hope, and finding Your People when it feels like the odds are stacked against you—which definitely falls hand-in-hand with my experiences growing up as a gay kid like Sky in the rustbelt.

Was there a scene that kept replaying in your head until you eventually wrote it into the story?

I love this question! There’s a critical scene that takes place during a big house party toward the beginning. Sky is trying to get a read on if Ali has mutual feelings for him or not, and Sky goes on quite the emotional roller coaster that night trying to figure it out. It’s also a chapter with big consequences for the plot moving forward, so I knew I needed to get it right. It was so fun to get it out on paper.

If there was one place you could go to write at this very moment, where would it be and why?

Oh my god. This is difficult. There are so many places! Is a cabin in the woods too cliche of an answer, even if it’s true? Because honestly I would kill to be writing in a cabin in the woods. Maybe on a mountain slope. Near a lake. And there’s a 24/7 Dunkin next door with endless coffee just for me. And the cabin has great Wifi. Does this place exist?

**Is there a specific theme that can be found in The Sky Blues?**

I wouldn’t say there’s a singular theme that stands out above the rest, necessarily, but there are several themes in the story that I think are notable. Finding your chosen family. Prom. Feeling like an outsider as a marginalized person. The awkwardness of Prom. Sending a message to The Man using sharpies and white t-shirts. Did I mention Prom?

Out of all your characters, which one would you take with you to the movie theater?

Ah!!!! Sky and his friends LOVE movies, so there couldn’t be a more relevant question concerning The Sky Blues. This is very tough, but I’d have to say Sky’s friend Marshall. Marshall is very particular when it comes to his moviegoing experience, which is one of the fun character quirks I love about him. He’d be a hoot at the movies.

Can you give us some insight into what your writing process is like?

Sure! I am a big, big proponent of outlining. The more detailed I outline before diving into a project, the more confident I feel about the direction it’s going. So that comes first. Outline, outline, outline. Before I write a single word! Then, I usually write chapter by chapter chronologically, unless there’s a particular moment down the stretch I need to get out of my system creatively. Sometimes writing it out will help inform how I should construct other parts of the narrative, even if I end up rewriting or heavily revising that one big scene. Once I finish my first draft, I go back and revise. And revise. And revise some more. And then—yep, you guessed it—revise.

**Lastly, what do you hope readers will learn/take away from The Sky Blues after reading?**

I’ve thought about this question a lot, and, to be quite honest, I’m not entirely sure I want that authority in my hands! I hope that readers will be touched by Sky’s story, of course, but one of the magical things about books is that a million different people can read the same story and take away a million different messages, or remember it for a million different reasons. I don’t necessarily want to dictate what Sky will mean to readers.

RC AUTHOR Robbie Couch is the author of the young adult romantic-comedy novel, The Sky Blues. His work has been published in HuffPost, Upworthy, and O, The Oprah Magazine, among other outlets. Originally from small-town Michigan, Robbie now lives in Los Angeles, where he remains in constant fear of aggressive birds and on the prowl for his next bowl of noodles.

Blog Tour

Bookstagram Tour

April 5th

@turnthepagetours
@djreadsbooks
@theinharmoniousheroine

April 6th

@thereadingroom444
@kaitplusbooks
@midnightbooklover

April 7th

@herbookish_obsession
@word_muse_
@anovelkingdom

April 8th

@jrundy85
@featherboundbooks
@thindbooks

April 9th

@celiamcmahonreads
@metaphorsandmisc
@rampant_reading

April 10th

@starredpages
@chai_n_books
@whisperngpages

April 11th

@sapphirebubble_
@bookreaderfromjupiter
@thebrokebookblog

Up for grabs we have ONE (1) physical copy and ONE (1) digital copy of The Sky Blues by Robbie Couch! This giveaway will be open from April 5th to April 12th at 11:59 PM CST. The digital copy will be available to INTL only, and the physical copy will be available to US only. To enter, click the link below!

3 thoughts on “WELCOME POST: The Sky Blues”

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Can you tell us a bit about you and The Sky Blues?

Was there a scene that kept replaying in your head until you eventually wrote it into the story?

If there was one place you could go to write at this very moment, where would it be and why?

Is there a specific theme that can be found in The Sky Blues?

Out of all your characters, which one would you take with you to the movie theater?

Can you give us some insight into what your writing process is like?

Lastly, what do you hope readers will learn/take away from The Sky Blues after reading?