Tag: romance

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Book Event

Tonight, I listened in on an event with Meet Cute Bookshop, which featured Natalie Naudus, the author of Gay the Pray Away and an audiobook narrator. The conversation between Natalie Naudus and Travis Baldree was very natural and flowing because they were both on the same page regarding what they found important in writing and reading.

One thing the conversation led to was talking about why Natalie wrote Gay the Pray Away. She said that when she became a parent, she had to dig in deep about stuff left over from her childhood that she didn’t realize was an issue or was there. So, the tipping point of her story being put on the page was her needing to get an issue she had out of herself and process it. When she was writing, she told herself she didn’t have to publish it, but after writing it, she realized that it might help other people, so she decided to put it out there.

When she published this story, she received what she called validation. She received so many messages from others saying they now felt seen, which made her feel not alone and like she had done the right thing.

Natalie explained that to write the book, she had to write around her work and kids’ schedules. She started the book as a raggy memoir but then wrote it as fiction, which gave her the freedom to write her feelings and made writing what she needed to write easier.

She said that she may not write another book soon because narrating pays more, and she has kids in hockey, so she has to make money. But she may jump into it when her kids are older. She does know, for sure, that she wants to write a poly relationship because she has a lot to say on how love should grow and not be limited and finite.

A few other things that were discussed were how writing creates empathy and connection to someone’s life. Also, how found family now-a-days is becoming so big for so many people because people are realizing that finding the people who love you the way you always wanted to be loved is such a fulfilling experience in life.

From this event, I learned that Natalie is such an inspiring writer and person. She said how she knows she won’t be able to write as beautiful of prose that she reads from some authors, but all she can do is put out something that is her. She also mentioned that as she is getting older, she is becoming more attracted to the truth because she reads such a large volume. So, for her, she needs something real to consume or something that hits hard because then it feels true and sticks.

Thank you so much Meet Cute. I feel so lucky that I was able to listen into this conversation.

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Pull Me Through

Sing me a lullaby

And help me pull through

Can’t be touched by anyone

Unless it’s you

Need you for safety

Remind me, don’t lie

That you’ll be there forever

You’ll help me get by

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You Are

You are my everything

From cloud cover on a burning hot day

To shelter from a devastating storm

You are my only

You are my lover

You are my happy tears

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Book Event

The Ripped Bodice bookstore hosted an event panel with three authors, Jennifer Mathieu, Nadia Mikail, and Linda Cheng, with the interviewer Amanda McCrina to talk about their romances that circled the theme of finding love in hopeless times. All three of their books are not just romances but a commentary on the world we all live in.

Linda Cheng wrote Gorgeous Gruesome Faces, an awesome genre blend of sapphic romance, Asian horror, and K-pop. Linda explained that writing it was a cathartic experience that helped her see the light during the dark time of covid. She chose to combine horror and romance because they are two of her favorite genres and both are about deep visceral feelings where one can really get into the core of a character when they are introduced to vulnerability.

Linda set K-pop as the background of this novel because she grew up in Taiwan during the hype and rise of pop. She loved seeing it become a worldwide phenomenon and listened to pop during the pandemic to feel better. She also loves survival shows and said that there is so much stuff underneath the surface of the K-pop industry with so much darkness to be explored, so she thought it was the perfect setting for a horror story.

Nadia Mikail who wrote At the End of the World talked about how her book was a pandemic baby. That she started writing it right before the pandemic because she was studying overseas and really missed her family. Once covid hit, she didn’t know when she would see her family again so she started writing this book where all the scary things flowed into it subconsciously. For example: being estranged from an older sister and the world ending. It is set during an asteroid collision with Earth. She wanted to place it there because she wanted to write an end-of-the-world story because it is during the end of the world when one thinks about what is really important to them. She stated that she knows that survival corrupts some people and that she wanted to dive into what a character would do when it came to thinking about what is important to them and what they are going to keep living for.

In Nadia’s novel, her main driving relationship is between the main character and her sister. The romantic love story was the easiest for her to write but the hardest was between the sisters because she had a sister growing up and knows how complex a relationship can be between siblings.

Jennifer Mathieu who wrote Down Came the Rain said it was dedicated to her friend who wanted her to write a YA about climate change. She went on to tell about how she lived during Hurricane Harvey in Houston where she knew twenty-five people whose houses were flooded. It was very traumatic for her and she wanted to make sense of all of it, so she began writing. During the floods, there was a time when it didn’t look like they were going to go back to the school where she taught and that they were going to have to share space with another high school. That didn’t happen, but it did happen to a different high school in the suburbs. Her book is about finding love when two high schools had to share space and combine during Hurricane Harvey. It dives into climate change because while living in Houston they have had to deal with so many different events involving the climate and things their homes are not set up for. She knows people whose homes have flooded in the span of two years and was there during the Texas Freeze. She feels like Houston is speaking as a character trying to tell people climate change is happening. She loves living there and loves the diversity so this book is her love letter to the city. She hopes that people who don’t have a connection to her part of the world can look at their communities after reading it and that this book can act as a window or a mirror to spark conversation.

This was a very deep interview panel that I am thankful The Ripped Bodice could provide us.

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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!!

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Show Me In Words

Meeting you in the bookstore

I want to know what’s in your mind

All the places you’ve been

All the worlds loved combined

Show me in words

In conversations so deep

Sitting, opening the pages

We can be entwined underneath

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Let Me Fall for You

Let me fall for your duet

Let it make me complete

Let your words fill my lonely

Let joy be released

Let the sing-song pattern soar

Let it fill the open sky

Let your song be something heavenly

Let it bring me back to life

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Book Event

Tonight, I got to listen into an awesome book event between three authors hosted by Book People for Pride Month! The authors were Jason June presenting his book Out of the Blue, Brian D. Kennedy presenting A Little Bit Country (a debut), and Lyla Lee presenting her book Flip the Script.

The authors were dressed for pride! So that was cute! And the first question to them was how they like to spend Pride. Some of the answers were with parades, family, friends, and sunscreen!! Hahaha.

I thought it was interesting and so heart-warming how Brian D. Kennedy wrote his book set in the south, while making sure that he did not have the main character viewing the south as a bad place. He wanted to show how it can be different coming out in different places, especially someplace that is not as ready to accept it, but he wanted to show that there are ways to still live authentically even if you live in one of those places or come from one of those places.

Lyla Lee set her book in South Korea where there are no gay rights. Her book is set in a big city where it can be dangerous to be at Pride. She wanted to write two queer teens falling in love in that context because she needed that as a teen growing up, but she made sure she didn’t make it too idealistic.

In Jason June’s book, he had two settings, but in the Blue, everyone loves who they love and who they are. It is very intriguing how all their settings are so different from one another and was very interesting listening to them talk about it!

Jason June brought up the fact that in the books that Lee and Kennedy wrote, the main characters are public figures being watched as they are trying to explore their identity. Which would be so hard! That led into favorite queer and gay icons. Layla Lee’s favorites are Halsey and Lady Gaga.

It was really cool listening to Kennedy’s passion with this being his debut. His passion lies in country music. He talked about how he loved diving into country music and getting to nerd out about it while building his own world.

They all would love to see more diverse voices because they believe that people need that. When they were growing up, they NEEDED that to feel less alone and less confused. They would also love to see more queer rom-coms to bring about more fun and happy reads to queer books. I could not agree more!