{"id":3336,"date":"2026-04-21T16:07:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/?p=3336"},"modified":"2026-04-21T16:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:07:57","slug":"qa-with-caitlin-devlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/qa-with-caitlin-devlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Caitlin Devlin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks for joining us here at YALC. We would love you to introduce yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m Caitlin, a twenty-six-year-old author living in London. I currently share a tiny one-bed flat with my fianc\u00e9 in the centre of the city, which can be chaotic, but I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. I spend most days writing and remote working from caf\u00e9s all across London. I also have a day job writing about music and theatre, and am lucky enough to get sent to watch and review lots of West End shows.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Can you give our readers an overview of your YA novel A Song I wrote for Charlotte?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Song I Wrote For Charlotte <\/i>follows Connie Moore, an overachiever whose Plan A falls through when she fails her audition for the Royal Academy of Music and ends up in a university flat studying English Literature. She\u2019s determined to stay focused on academics, but her flatmates \u2013 particularly Music Production student Charlotte Owen, who lives across the hall \u2013 have other ideas. Charlotte drags Connie determinedly into university life, and as an unlikely friendship blossoms between them, Connie begins to wonder if there\u2019s something more to the way she feels about Charlotte \u2013 and, even more terrifyingly, whether there\u2019s something more to the way Charlotte feels about her. But Charlotte isn\u2019t the kind of person you can hold on to forever, and soon Connie might have to figure out whether the life that Charlotte has built for her is one that she can sustain alone\u2026<\/p>\n

And, if you could do it in just 5 words or less, what would they be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll probably laugh and cry!<\/p>\n

\u00a0What first sparked the idea for A Song I Wrote for Charlotte?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wrote the first draft of A Song I Wrote For Charlotte <\/i>quite a few years ago now, as my sister was preparing to start university. I used to write her a book every year for Christmas, and wanted to give her something that encompassed what my first year of university had taught me. A few years later, my agent suggested I return to it, and it was so much fun to reunite with Connie and Charlotte and bring a new perspective to their story. My sister has now graduated with her doctorate in medicine, and this book is still her favourite thing I\u2019ve written.<\/p>\n

Who was your favourite character to write and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Connie, the book\u2019s narrator, is one of my favourite characters I\u2019ve ever written. I love writing characters who it isn\u2019t necessarily easy for readers to like at first, and she\u2019s definitely a little abrasive, but she goes on a real journey throughout the novel. She has a really unique perspective on the world, and although there\u2019s a lot about her that I think many readers will relate to, I also think she\u2019s one of a kind. She\u2019s very blunt and can be quite unintentionally funny, and under the front she puts on she has a huge heart.<\/p>\n

Is there a character that you relate to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The characters I enjoy writing the most are often the characters who are very different from me. That said, there are definitely parts of Connie I relate to \u2013 she\u2019s someone who isn\u2019t always sure if she\u2019s getting it right socially and has a lot of self-discovery and getting comfortable in her own skin left to do, which was where I was at eighteen. Writing her also gave me permission to lift my filter \u2013 she\u2019s definitely someone who always says the quiet part out loud!<\/p>\n

Why did you choose music\/songwriting as a theme in the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Music has always been really important to my writing process. I\u2019ve also always written music \u2013 it\u2019s quite a private hobby and my partner tends to be the only person I share it with, but it\u2019s a fantastic outlet. That\u2019s something else I share with Connie \u2013 that instinct to sit down at the piano when I have a feeling I need to process. I also think that when you\u2019re someone who doesn\u2019t always feel comfortable articulating your feelings, or if you don\u2019t have the language to do so yet, music can be a great proxy.<\/p>\n

Did the ending turn out how you planned? Or did it change throughout your writing process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I always had the ending in mind as I was writing, but I went back and forward on whether it was where I wanted to take the story. An event in my personal life way back when I wrote the first draft made me want to process some of what I was feeling on paper, and the ending ended up being influenced a lot by those emotions. Writing the new version of the book years later, there wasn\u2019t any part of me that wanted to change it.<\/p>\n

Did you listen to music while writing? If so, what kind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did \u2013 some of the songs I listened to are referenced in the book! Writing the first draft, I listened to a lot of Christine and the Queens, girl in red, Fiona Apple, Norah Jones and Jensen McRae. Returning to it years later I mixed in The Smiths and Mitski a lot as well. \u2018marjorie\u2019 by Taylor Swift is also a song that will always make me think of Connie and Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Who would you cast as the main characters if your book was turned into a movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I really don\u2019t know! Maybe Thomasin McKenzie as Connie? And Emma Myers looks a lot like how I picture Charlotte.<\/p>\n

What scene do you think the readers will enjoy the most?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a scene very early in the novel where Connie meets her flatmates and has no qualms about lying her way through \u2018Truth and Dare\u2019. That one has always got a smile out of everyone who\u2019s read the book so far.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Where do you write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I write all over London! I\u2019ve more or less conditioned myself to believe I can only be productive if I\u2019m hopping between beautiful cafes and drinking nice drinks. It\u2019s wonderful for my quality of life and terrible for my bank balance.<\/p>\n

What is your favourite genre to read?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am someone who will genuinely read anything. My favourite books tend to be literary fiction, or real-world Young Adult. I love anything that manages to be witty and moving at the same time or lets me see the world through someone else\u2019s eyes. I also have a deep love for classic literature and do a lot of self-guided study of the great novels and plays in my free time.<\/p>\n

Where can our readers find you on social media?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m @catmdevlin on both TikTok and Instagram. Come join!<\/p>\n

Finally can you give us your favourite quote from a novel (it can be yours)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Off the top of my head, I\u2019ve always loved this one from Anne of Avonlea <\/i>by L. M. Montgomery:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to add some beauty to life,\u201d said Anne dreamily. \u201cI don\u2019t exactly want to make people know more\u2026 though I know that IS the noblest ambition\u2026 but I\u2019d love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me\u2026 to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn\u2019t been born.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks for joining us here at YALC. We would love you to introduce yourself \u00a0I\u2019m Caitlin, a twenty-six-year-old author living in London. I currently share a tiny one-bed flat with my fianc\u00e9 in the centre of the city, which can be chaotic, but I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. I spend most days writing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3340,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3336\/revisions\/3340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/londoncomicconwinter.com\/YALC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}