Tia Williams stopped by Good Morning America—with her daughter in tow—to discuss her latest book, Audre & Bash Are Just Friends.
Williams’ novel, published last week by Little, Brown, tells the story of the romance between two high school students, Audre, a high-achieving junior, and Bash, a fun-loving, track-star senior. A critic for Kirkus praised the book, which is GMA’s young adult book club pick for May, as “a heart-melting story of self-acceptance and self-actualization.”
GMA co-host Michael Strahan noted that Williams’ new novel is focused on Audre, who first appeared in her 2021 book Seven Days in June. “Did you ever realize this character would be so popular?” he asked Williams.
“No,” she responded. “You write these books, you write these characters, and you give them over to the public, and you just never really know how they’re going to be received, but people loved Audre.”
Strahan asked Williams’ daughter, Carolina Cabezas, how much help she contributed to her mother’s new book.
“I think I gave a lot of help,” Cabezas responded. “I was basically the muse for Audre, and I gave her advice about what teenagers say now and how teenagers my age act nowadays.”
Williams added, “I wanted to make sure I sounded authentic, because I’m a Gen-X person writing about a 16-year-old. So I would run plotlines by her, slang, I would get the tea from her and her girlfriends about what was happening in high school.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
