Interview with Aiden Thomas

By Miny Readsalot and Cielo Maria

Edited by Sherriece Hughes

We’re approaching spooky season so it’s fitting that we sat down with Aiden Thomas, New York Times Best Selling author of Cemetery Boys, Lost in the Never Woods, and The Sunbearer Trials. He also has the highly anticipated sequel to Cemetery Boys, titled Espiritu releasing later this month, and what he has fondly dubbed “Gay Titanic In Space” in 2027. We talked about what it was like writing Espiritu six years after the original, the story behind how Sunbearer was pitched, and an almost slip of the title for “Gay Titanic in Space.”

Miny: Can you tell us a bit about yourself for those who may not be familiar with you, slash, living under a rock?

Aiden: [laughs] I’m Aiden Thomas, I write young adult fantasy, sometimes high fantasy, sometimes urban fantasy. I’m from Oakland, California, born and raised and now I live in the Pacific Northwest and all of my stories feature either Mexican mythology or magic of some sort and it’s really my chance to show off my culture. It’s my favorite thing to do; I have the coolest job ever. 

Miny: In your NPR interview (from 2020) you dropped the idea of a non-binary bruje, so how long has Cemetery Boys 2 been in the works?

Aiden: Oh my gosh yes, I’ll tell you the whole story. 

Miny: Aiden exclusive!

Aiden: When I first wrote Cemetery Boys, I wanted to talk about so much and one of the things was, what do non-binary bruje/x look like in this world? I got feedback from my editor, I think probably on the first draft, and she was like, “Hey Aiden, this is wonderful but you are trying to tackle a lot of things at once.” 

I didn’t want to have it just be a fleeting thing. If I was going to talk about what non-binary bruje looks like, I wanted to give it that space. I was like okay, so it’s not for book one. I was convinced [Cemetery Boys] was going to be a standalone. I was convinced that I would only ever write standalones and then I had to write two sequels in a row, which was horrible. Such a big mistake. [laughs] 

My publisher, twice, tried to buy a Cemetery Boys sequel and each time I said no, and each time they were like what about more money? and I said, “That’s nice, but still no.”

I didn’t want to just write a sequel for a cash grab. I wanted there to be meaning behind the sequel because Cemetery Boys meant so much to so many people. I didn’t want to write the story of whatever random idea I had on a Tuesday night.

It took a really long time, but once I got the idea—I think at 11 o’clock at night—I texted my agent and I was like ‘Jennifer, I have an idea!’

Cielo: She’s probably sitting there thinking, ‘finally!’  

Aiden: In terms of writing, I ended up taking another year to write the sequel because it just wasn’t where I wanted it to be and I didn’t want to just be throwing a book out there for readers to buy. I wanted to be sure it could live up to the first one. 

I don’t really read reviews, but my friends will sometimes go through and send me funny ones or nice ones and someone said, “Cemetery Boys is about trauma and Espiritu is about how to process,” and that was a really good way to put it. 

Cielo: Someone finally got a therapist [laughs].

Aiden: That’s what we’re working towards!

Miny: Espiritu is coming out almost six years after Cemetery Boys. What was the process like jumping back into this world and these characters? 

Aiden: I was a little concerned that I wouldn’t remember a lot of stuff and be consistent. I went on Tumblr and I was looking through my name tags, looking for some inspiration and there was one person who I ended up thanking in my acknowledgements, who literally wrote a whole bible of Cemetery Boys. These are the characters, this is how they’re important, this is what they look like . . . 

I literally took screenshots of all of it and that was my reference as I was writing the sequel. I ended up reaching out to them being like ‘hey, I used your post to write this book, can I thank you?’

Miny: And Cemetery Boys was based off of a Tumblr post originally. 

Aiden: Tumblr really is where it all started, and I was returning back to the sacred lands of Tumblr.  

Cielo: You’re very millennial!

Miny: It makes sense because Tumblr and AO3 is where queer and BIPOC have been able to find their space in fandom.

Yadriel is fluent in Spanish while Julian understands but doesn’t speak as much of it. What was your rationale behind this?

Aiden: I wasn’t raised speaking Spanish. Assimilation was a really important part of my family to make sure I could be successful. A lot of us go through that. 

Spanish, to me, is intimate because it’s what my grandmother would speak to me and what I would hear when I was back with my family actually in Mexico. Spanish is naturally very romantic but also very sacred.

I wanted to figure out a way of emulating that in the book for Julian. Julian’s dad spoke in Spanish most of the time. So when Julian speaks Spanish, he still has that hurt and spot in his chest which is something he’s unpacking in the sequel.  

For me it was important to put across the importance and the love behind the language even though so many of us are often denied it in our personal lives.  

Cielo: There’s always that idea of not being Latine enough so not being able to speak Spanish, having that representation is so important. 

Miny: You see it in so many different cultures too, it’s a different experience depending on who your parents were, how they spoke at home and when you grew up because again, assimilation! Gotta learn English to be successful. 

Cielo: You have another book coming out in 2027. Did you pitch it exactly as Gay Titanic in Space? If you did, that’s iconic. 

Aiden: When I did the launch of Cemetery Boys, because it was 2020, it was virtual and Adam Silvera was interviewing me. Luckily, I couldn’t see how many people were on the call because there were 600 people and I probably would have passed out. 

The last question was ‘what’s coming next, what are you excited to write about, what ideas do you have?’ I said I have an idea for Mexican Percy Jackson and then something that I’m calling in my head “Gay Titanic in Space.”

My editor was watching the stream and as I was closing down this event, she messages me and says ‘I will buy both of those off of you.’ 

Cielo: So it was really pitched as Gay Titanic in Space!

Aiden: In 2020, mind you! It was originally just vibes and then I finally figured out a plot about a year ago.

Cielo: Did the Artemis moon landing affect the writing process at all?

Aiden: I was deep in the trenches! I was waking up early to watch Artemis, I was sobbing over Rise and Christine is the coolest person I’ve ever seen in my whole life. It was so heart warming and wonderful and stressful when they were landing. I was sweating and my boyfriend asked if I was okay and I said, ‘the astronauts are coming back, don’t talk to me!’

I also learned NASA has a space camp for authors writing sci fi and I immediately applied for it. They invite people out to a university where a lot of NASA stuff happens. They teach you about the sciences and you do experiments and you get to ask questions.

I don’t know anything about space, and a big part of . . . [pauses] I almost said the title.

Cielo: Now that would have been an exclusive!

Miny: You can DM it to us. 

Aiden: Part of the story is that they are travelling to witness a dying star. I know nothing about dying stars and wouldn’t it be cool if they let me go to NASA and ask about dying stars. I’m watching so much YouTube. 

Cielo: I recently read the Sunbearer Trials and there’s a character that has my name. I’ve never experienced that before. When did you first see intersectional representation for yourself in a book or media?

Aiden: When I originally started getting asked that question as an author, I would dig around and think about the first book that I saw with a gay character. I never wanted to talk about trans characters because the stories were always so sad. 

For a long time I was coming up with fake answers but Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender came out before Cemetery Boys and it was the first time I had ever seen a person of color on a cover who had top surgery scars. It was so life changing for me and that book still has a very dear place in my heart. 

Miny: It was a YA book you wish you had when you were younger. 

Aiden: Kacen is such a beautiful mind and a brilliant writer and that book means so, so much to me. 

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You can find Aiden on Instagram and his website and make sure to preorder Cemetery Boys 2: Espiritu releasing September 22nd!

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