The rom-com writer’s Second Chance Romance reunites a grumpy baker with his lost love, an audiobook narrator specializing in monster erotica.
You’re known for your body positivity. How do you approach writing fat characters?
One thing I believe very firmly is that the word fat is not a pejorative. It’s just a descriptor, like tall or brunette. For me, fatness is not a plot; it’s not a character trait. It is simply another descriptor for that character. I believe very firmly that there is no size beyond which you can no longer be loved or have a happy ending. That’s crucial to all my work. I want everyone to see themselves on the pages in a way that’s good and affirming.
Where do you see room for improving fat representation in romance?
Looking at body diversity in male characters is really one thing that needs to become more common. I think that there’s this idea that female readers don’t find larger men hot, and that’s just not true. I think the drawing of Karl on the cover of Second Chance Romance is super hot. When you have thousands of characters who all look a certain way, that’s a statement about what and who is desirable. There’s also a certain culture that has really come to associate body with morality; if someone has a larger body, there’s something wrong with them. But really the fact that someone is fat tells you almost nothing about them other than what size clothing they wear.
The circumstances that bring Karl and Molly back together are really unusual: he hears her voice narrating an audiobook; she sees an incorrect report that he has died. What inspired this premise?
I thought about, if two characters haven’t been in contact for two decades, what would be the circumstances that could draw them back together? Well, an incorrect obituary might work. You see that sometimes online: there’ll be a trending topic that some public figure died but it turns out, no, they just got a new personal trainer or something. As for the overheard erotic audiobooks, I just had a lot of fun with the idea that the town of Harlot’s Bay has a uniquely horny population. What other small town could fully support two sex shops? A lot of times with plotting, I try to figure out a means by which the things I want to have happen can happen. A lot of it is really to amuse myself.
The titles of the books that Molly narrates are a hoot.
Coming up with fake intellectual properties is one of my favorite things in all my books. From the Harlot’s Bay series, I would say I have two favorite titles: Loch Ness Master, which involves a lake monster who is also a dom, and My Kangaroo, My Kidnapper, which is a nod to the recent rise of dark romance.
