Book Event

Tonight, I attended an event with Meet Cute Romance Book Shop to celebrate the launch of Accidentally in Love by Danielle Jackson.

The two other authors in discussion were Nikki Payne, who is an anthropologist who also writes romance books, and Denise Williams, who is the author of I hate you and its sequel, I Still Hate You.

The three authors started off the discussion with a few icebreakers. One of the icebreakers asked where one would tell someone to visit and what they would tell them to do from where they are from. Denise said she would tell someone to go to the fair but not try fried butter because it isn’t good for you. But then she started to describe what fried butter is, and Nikki started laughing and told Denise that she is not, not selling it because she made it sound so good.

They then talked about the similarities their female heroines have in their books. Danielle noticed that each of their main characters has a work life and has experienced burn-out or close to burn-out at some point. Denise agreed that her main characters are highly focused on their work because that is how she is. She also believes it is an excellent way to show that character’s passions aside from the romance. Nikki added to the conversation, saying that she never mentioned the word burn-out in her book but that it is what happened. That it is something that happens very often for a lot of women. But that love can help people burnt out by giving them a different perspective and showing them how to move to achieve a different kind of agency and reach what they were really working to achieve.

The next topic was family. Danielle said that she loves having family in books, especially parents, to cause trouble, give tough love, provide support, and to show relatable characters, and use parallels with their past lives. She uses parents and family as a great entry point in understanding characters and their motivations. Denise uses siblings a lot more in her writing to show different perspectives and world views. She explained that she loves to play with the sibling dynamic and that for her it gives interesting dialogue and helps move the story forward.

In discussing what kind of heroines they like to write, Danielle describes herself as quiet, straightforward, and just grumpy. Hahaha. So, she said she relates well with her main character in Accidentally in Love. In that novel, Sam has a lot going on, but she is just grumpy and Danielle expressed that people in books should have the allowance to just be grumpy if that is how they are. So, for her, she made the hero the sunshiny one and the heroine the grumpy one, which is a dynamic she enjoys doing. Nikki, she loves writing heroines who see everything in different perspectives than everyone else around them. Denise’s favorite heroine she wrote is the attorney RJ who knows she is a bad***. She enjoyed writing her in a way where she was unapologetically her. Denise found that very empowering. She described writing this character as writing how alpha men are written in books.

All of their books have interracial couples. Nikki said that each time she does that, she does it intentionally and pulls a lot of research for her books because it falls into anthropology. Denise said that all of her books but one have interracial couples, and for her, it is very natural to write because of how she has lived and her relationships. Danielle said that for her, what she did intentionally in her book The Accidental Pinup was give the white hero the messy background and the black heroine the emotional support with the cleaner background. She also gave her couple in that book a discussion that she has had similarly with her husband because she is also in an interracial relationship where the heroine explains how she has to live compared to how he can live.

This discussion was fun, cute, and insightful to listen to. Thank you, Meet Cute!!