February 19, 2025 • 32 mins
As a devoted fan of Alexandria House's work, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to sit down with this captivating author and delve into the stories that have captivated readers. Alexandria's ability to weave complex narratives that explore the nuances of human emotion, from the most tender connections to the darkest desires, has made her one of my favorite authors. In this fund conversation, we unpack Alexandria's unexpected journey to literary success, the driving force behind her commitment to diverse representation, and the powerful themes that permeate her expansive catalog.
A true southern girl, 3x Audies finalist Alexandria House has an affinity for a good banana pudding, Neo Soul music, and tall Black men in suits. When this music-loving fashionista is not shopping, she's writing steamy stories about real Black love. Her books have been featured on Shondaland, BookRiot, Cosmopolitan, Ebony Mag, Oprah Daily, and many other online platforms.
In this episode, we're discussing:
- Alexandria's unexpected path to becoming a successful romance author, coming from an academic family
- The importance of writing exclusively Black romance and reflecting her own upbringing in a predominantly Black community
- The depth and complexity of Alexandria's characters, often dealing with trauma and real-life issues
- Powerful representation of mental health, albinism, and adoption in the "St. Louis Sires" series
- Alexandria's foray into dark romance with the "Three Kings" series and her plans to challenge herself in new genres
Alexandria's stories serve as a testament to the transformative power of representation, reminding us that love, in all its complexities, is a universal language that deserves to be heard.
CONNECT WITH ALEXANDRIA:
BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:
Love After (Amazon)
Them Boys (Amazon)
McClain Brothers (Amazon)
Romey University (Amazon)
St. Louis Sires (Amazon)
Three Kings (Amazon)
St. Louis Cyclones (Amazon)
The Strickland Sisters (Amazon)
Running list of books mentioned (Doc)
Thank you for listening to the We Read Smut Podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag @WeReadSmut. Don’t forget to follow, rate, and review the podcast.
Connect with Alesia:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Alesia Galati (00:00):
Alexandria house is a master of weaving
(00:02):
captivating stories that explorethe complexities of human
emotions, from heartwarmingconnections to the darkest
desires. Today, we're delvinginto her diverse works and
discussing the power ofrepresentation within black
romance. Listener, discretion isadvised. This podcast contains
(00:24):
mature content intended foradult audiences only. Alexandria
house, I am so excited to haveyou on the podcast. I fangirled
so hard when you said yes. Sothank you so much for being on
if you could just start bytelling everyone a bit about
your author journey. I wouldlove to hear that. Yeah.
Alexandria House (00:47):
Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me.
I'm glad to be here talkingabout my favorite subject. Me my
writer journey. I don't knoweverybody's just unique, but
writing wasn't a thing I everthought I'd do for a living? I
come from a very academicfamily, very I guess you could
say realistic family. Myfather's a physician, has been
(01:09):
for eons. My late mother was ateacher, Master's degree
teacher, highly educated people,and I just figured I need to be
a teacher or a doctor. That'sjust what I figured I'd do.
Ended up because I ended upgetting pregnant early, getting
married early, getting divorcedyoung. I ended up going to
nursing school so I could takecare of my children. But I was
always someone that knew,although it was never presented
(01:32):
to me, that the arts could be acareer. I was someone that
always knew that I'd never behappy working a regular job. I
knew that from childhood thatwas not going to be happy. I
couldn't imagine spending mylife clocking in or just working
shifts, and I always felt like Iwas supposed to leave some type
of legacy. So my strongestsubject was always English. I
was always really good atwriting anything, if it had to
(01:54):
be written word. I get my pointacross better than if I was
speaking. I was a natural poetgrowing up, and I was always an
avid reader. My mother used tosay I decided reading it too. I
don't know how true that is, butthat's what she told me. So one
day, I just said I was unhappyin my career as a nurse, and it
wasn't the patience, it waseverything else that goes with
(02:15):
it. And I just decided, after myoldest child was grown and going
to college, I said, let me justsee if I could write a book. And
I just started writing. But whenI started, like, 2016 is when I
put my first book out. It washigher love the book one in the
love after series, and peopleactually liked it. I was like,
let me keep doing this. And it'skind of how it all happened,
Alesia Galati (02:40):
yeah. And it's definitely progressed since
then. I mean, now you haveevents that are centered all
around your books, like you aredoing the thing. So I love it. I
love it so much. You are my mostread author in 2024 which is
when we're recording this. I amobsessed with all of your books.
Specifically today I want totalk about the Roma University
(03:04):
series, McLean brothers series,St Louis sire series, them boys
series, and then three kings,which is in progress. So getting
into your stories and kind ofthe behind the scenes of it you
write, I want to say exclusivelyblack romance. Why is that
(03:24):
important for you?
Alexandria House (03:25):
Because I'm black, and because I often tell
this story. But I grew up in theSouth, in Arkansas, in the most
populous with black people townin the state, so there's an HBCU
in the hometown, the mayors wereblack. All of my doctors growing
up were black. All of myteachers were black, mostly all
(03:46):
of my teachers. So it's all Iknew, and all I knew was black
excellence. And it's just thisis all I know too, right?
Because that's how I grew up.
And as a matter of fact, when Ileft my hometown and me and my
youngest moved to a differenttown, still in Arkansas, this
town, we were the minority. Shehad never experienced that in
her life. She said, I didn'tknow what people meant when they
(04:07):
said black people wereminorities. I was like, What are
y'all talking about? And shesaid, now I understand it, but
that's how I feel. Like I had avery privileged upbringing in
that and living in that type ofworld where the HBCU home come
and shut the whole town down.
It's just everything. It was, itwas, it was a beautiful way to
(04:27):
grow up. And my parents, my dad,wouldn't let me have anything
with black baby dolls. I grew upwith all these rich black music
and Alex Haley's Roots was onthe bookshelf. It's just how I
grew up. So it's what I know,and those are the stories I know
to tell
Alesia Galati (04:42):
that's so beautiful, and to be able to
grow up that way, right? And seethat as the majority, I'm sure,
is so incredible. I grew up in avery mixed household, right? So
my dad is black, my mom isHispanic, and so it was a very
like I would go with my blackcousin. Cousins that would be
very different than, like,hanging out with the Puerto
Rican cousins that was verydifferent, right? And so to be
(05:05):
able to have, like, your fullheritage surrounding you, I
think, is so beautiful, and I dosee that, right? Reflected a lot
in your books. Now you alsotouch on some very important
topics, right? I don't want tosay they're deep topics or
troubling topic, because they'renot right, like, these are life
experiences that I think a lotof us can reflect on, and I
(05:29):
think that's what it's one ofthe things that I love so much
about romance is that, you know,people who don't read romance
are like, Oh, it's just smut,it's just porn, it's just
listen, read an Alexandria housebook and tell me that it's just
porn, because it is not okay.
Like, yes, the spice be spicy,but
Alexandria House (05:52):
be much easier to write at this right? No,
Alesia Galati (05:55):
your characters have so much depth and layers to
them, complexities of childhoodtrauma or trauma that happens as
they're adults. There's just somuch around that. Now I want to
talk specifically about themboys, because I did just finish
the last one in that series as Iwas, like, going through all
your other stuff. Just kind ofdabble those in as I have time
(06:16):
now for that series, you've gotthree men. They're in their 40s.
I want to say, is that correct?
Okay? And they have an absoluteterrible father and a terrible
childhood, and a lot of theircoping mechanisms now have to do
with how they grew up and whenthey find their love. It is not
so much about, oh, this personis healing me, or I have to
(06:41):
forgive my father. It's none ofthat. It's how can I be content
where I am and who in who I amand have this one incredible
partner alongside of me thatbrings me peace, which I think
is is obviously what they werelacking when they were children.
(07:01):
Brings me so much peace andhappiness and contentment in who
I am that I can move forward inmy healing. And that doesn't
have to be forgiving my terriblefather. It could be just, I'm
moving forward. I'm gonna saywhat I gotta say, and I'm gonna
keep moving so why was thatimportant to have a partner that
comes alongside those, thoseguys, specifically with their
(07:25):
trauma?
Alexandria House (07:29):
Because number one, one of the things is very
important for me to alwaysremember, is there's a reason
why people are the way they are.
Most people didn't just spawnforth me whatever they are. And
so a little background on thatseries. The inspiration for
those characters came from afamily where, in my hometown,
they were known for beingbullies that could fight.
(07:51):
Everybody was scared of them. Somy brother, who's 10 years older
than me, he was scared of theirfamily. I was scared of their
family when I went to school andmy children were mind you, none
of us have ever seen thesepeople fight. They just had a
reputation. And I wanted to takethat and run with it for the
Mitchell Brothers, because theyhad this reputation, come to
find out, they had all thistrauma behind them, and they
(08:14):
were just they were veryprotective of each other. Nobody
was going to mess with them,period. And they just came off
as just these angry guys,troublemakers. And so I wanted
to first give you a littleunderstanding of why some people
are the way they are. Second toshow that you don't have to have
it all together. You don't haveto be perfect. Your Life doesn't
(08:36):
have to have been perfect, pastor present, to deserve love and
to deserve acceptance and to beable to give love, because they
were very loving toward theirpartners, and I think they gave
just as much as they receivedfrom them. So that was kind of
my, my goal with them. Thesecond goal was I just wanted to
write something completelydifferent from the McLain
(08:57):
brothers so, and I think I didthat
Alesia Galati (09:00):
too. Yeah, I love that so much. I mean, yeah, it
is very different than theMcLean brothers, right? Those
ones are more like familyoriented, which the them
brothers are as well. You know,they're successful, they're all
these things. The other ones arekind of all over the place, and
like, what they're doing, or howthey're approaching life, how
they cope also with their traumais all very different. And I
(09:23):
just I love it so much.
Obviously, those
Alexandria House (09:26):
brothers really did love each other
through it all. Even thoughtheir father might have had them
pitting them against each other,they still had that bond. And I
also want to show that'spossible. There are people that
come out of bad situation andthey end up being good people.
It doesn't necessarily have tobe a tragedy in the
Alesia Galati (09:42):
end. Let's move on to the St Louis sires now
that series. Oh, okay, so inbook one, you've got the not
even single father, because he'snot it's him taking care of his
younger sibling. Things who arenot fully related to him, taking
(10:04):
care of them, needing to figuresome things out. This is a
hockey series. For anyone who'snot read it, please just go read
it like you don't need any moreexplanation. Just go read it.
But in that one, there's a lotof I want to give spoilers.
There's some other woman drama,like previous woman drama that
happens, and just the way thathe stands up for their
(10:27):
relationship, like, Hey, thatwas passed. This is now. This is
where we're at. I just love thatso much. Then in Book Two,
you've got, oh my goodness, somuch mental health awareness
that I think is just sobeautiful. Second Chance
romance. Let's touch on that onefor a second, because I feel
like we could stay there for abit. The female main character,
(10:48):
and I can't for the life of me,cannot remember her name at the
moment, Crystal. Crystal, yes.
So crystal is bipolar? Is thatcorrect? Yes. Which I absolutely
love that representation,because my mom was manic
depressive, and so to be ableshe got her diagnosis relatively
later in life, and so to seethat reflected on page, those
(11:09):
really high highs, those arereally low lows. Yeah, was just,
I thought, so beautifullycreated. And also, again,
romance is not just born guyslike it can reflect the life
experiences that you've seen inyour life or that you have, and
then having a partner who, youknow, she pushes him away. It's
(11:33):
not which I think is verydifferent than a lot of the
romance genre tends to be whereit's like, oh, the guy's like,
oh, I want to go do somethingelse, or Oh, you're too much for
me, or whatever, the guys maketerrible choices. But in this
one, she was like, I don'tdeserve you. You don't deserve
me. Go away. And so pushes himaway. He obviously has such a
(11:55):
love for her, wants her back,cannot stop thinking about her
and wants to be with her. Whywas that story really important
for you? I
Alexandria House (12:07):
did have a relative they passed on that was
he's both bipolar andschizophrenic. And when, even
when I was in nursing school,the mental health portion was,
like my I was just sofascinated. It was, like, my
favorite part of nursing school.
And I just I know that there arepeople out there that are
experiencing bipolar and similarneurodivergences, and it's just
(12:29):
important to me to represent ablack woman. Every black woman
is my goal, every shade, everyheight, every size, the spectrum
of black women, and I want allof us to know that we're worthy
of love no matter what that is,something that she could have
done nothing about. It'shereditary, you know. So she
(12:49):
inherited it, and because sheinherited it, and she was trying
to figure it out, and theydiscovered it at the same time,
and he went through thediscovery with her, none of that
means that she didn't deservethe support or the love or the
acceptance that he gave her,because he loved her long before
any of that started. He lovedher as a child. So yeah, I
(13:09):
wanted to represent that. Ithought it was important, and I
have had people contact me andthank me that were bipolar, so
that really helped him to seethat on the page and to see the
support she received. And thatreally is my goal. I'm a girls
girl, 100% I just, I just wanteven the sex part. I want women
to black women to feel free intheir sexuality, free in wanting
(13:33):
satisfaction and receivingsatisfaction and giving
satisfaction. So I just wantedpeople to see that even before
you understand what's going onwith her. You may think, why
would he keep dealing with her?
I knew that was what everybodywas gonna think. But he loved
her, and true love, you want totry to figure it out. You don't
(13:56):
just want to give up. And that'swhat I wanted to portray, yeah,
Alesia Galati (14:00):
and you see that in book one, whereas buddies are
like, man, get over her stuff.
Obviously she doesn't want youanymore.
Oh, my God, but it's so true.
And then when you're able to seethat, especially in the
beginning chapters, where yousee them falling in love as
children and just being like,I'll always be here for you. Oh,
(14:22):
my goodness, I love it so much,
Alexandria House (14:26):
so beautiful.
I'll enjoy writing that one too,and just sweet old country love
story.
Alesia Galati (14:32):
And then in Book Three, you have a black woman
who has a melanin deficientdisorder. Is that correct? What
was the correct terming for she
Alexandria House (14:45):
has, I'm about to call it the wrong thing,
albinism.
Alesia Galati (14:52):
Okay? And then you've got a mailman character
who was adopted, which is just avery interesting. Especially
when you tie in the thembrothers as well. Oh my
goodness. I was like, Yeah, youget to see the kind of
crossover. So read them brothersfirst, then get into the st
louis ire series. But havingthose two, she was a very
(15:14):
predominant rapper. He wasfangirling really hard on her,
which I thought was so adorable,and then like his buddies
dogging on him, like, man, comeon, you made fool to yourself.
Yeah, I did. I definitely did. Ilove it. That's another
representation, I think. And toyour point of before, of being
(15:37):
able to showcase everycomplexion, every color, every
weight, every spectrum, mentalhealth of black women is so
powerful, right? Because someonewho might see her might think,
oh, no, you're not, or you'reother. And I think that it's
really important that we see theworld outside of ourselves
(16:00):
reflected in the pages that weread. I think that it can be
used as a sense of like window,right? That's how they say. It's
like a window or a mirror. Thethings that we read can be used
that way. And so being able tosee something that I don't think
I'd ever heard of or ever seen,I was like, Wow, that's so
interesting. And her experienceand the way she described it and
(16:22):
felt about it. What was the kindof decision behind that? Well,
Alexandria House (16:26):
I get inspired by a lot of things. In a Tiktok
video I was scrolling through,and I was like, Oh, she's
gorgeous, and yeah, she had thenystagmus, or eyes moved. And I
was like, Huh, I'm a writer bythe girl with albinism, and so,
yeah, that's where I got thatfrom. I just thought the girl I
was watching on or the younglady I was watching on Tiktok,
(16:47):
was so striking. I was like,whoa. But what I love about it
is, although albinism runs thegamut of all ethnicities, you
could tell by the her featuresthat she was black. And I
thought, Man, she still hairtexture and everything. Just
didn't have that melanin. I justthought it was fascinating. I
have a science degree too, so Ilove anything scientific or
(17:12):
genetic or whatever. And then Ido have a birthmark where I
have, I'm missing melanin onthis. Oh, a lot of parties are
part of my back too. I forgetit's there, but I, you know,
kind of identify a little bit.
Everybody thinks I was burned,but now I was, this is a
birthmark, or this, what myparents always called it, this
kind of, where that kind ofhelped with the inspiration,
too. Just knowing, you know,different doesn't mean gap
(17:34):
normal, I guess is what I'mtrying to say. We all our norm
is our norm, you know. And thenthe adoption rep came from my
trainer, and my very patienttrainer, she was adopted, and
she was telling me her story,and I said, Would you mind if I
kind of use, you know, talkedabout she said, No, I don't mind
(17:54):
at all. So I interviewed herinstead of working out one time,
and she gave me all thisinformation, I was just really
fascinated. There were so manythings I didn't realize as an
adoptee that you would gothrough, like the just knowing
that someone's missing, or eventhe seeing that I went through
and researched, like all thesechildren, the babies, would have
this look on their face that'scommon with them, because they
(18:17):
know you've been inside someonefor nine months, and you're used
to that voice and that smell,and even as a baby, you realize
this is not the person thatcarried me, that never occurred
to me, but I learned a lot fromher and from researching. I
wanted to show that it's notthat necessarily that child is
ungrateful. It's just they knowthat there's a piece missing
(18:38):
that they innately would like tofind, yeah,
Alesia Galati (18:44):
I have a friend, and she's adopted, and she talks
very openly about her experienceand how, like, had a perfectly
fine childhood, had lovingparents, very German, but loving
parents, and how, when shefinally was like, All Right, I
want to try to find my birthparents. Both of them had passed
(19:04):
away. And so, like, was that ablessing or a curse? You know,
what would that have looked likefor her? And so she talks very
openly about that as well, andjust those feelings and those
experiences of still having butstill feeling like you're
missing something and havewanted something kind of that
grief, right? Of, yeah, of whatcould have been. And so to be
(19:24):
able to reflect that, I think,is so beautiful in your story.
Thank you. Moving on to threegigs, this, I think is very
different than a lot of yourbooks. But I love I'm, I'm a
dark romance girly. So I love itso much. And like going in I do.
Okay, this is a Alexandra housedark romance. All right, let's
(19:46):
go tell us a bit about thebackstory behind this series. I
don't want to give away too manyspoilers for book one. So how
are you talking about i
Alexandria House (19:58):
just want to do something different. I. I
want to challenge myself. I'mnot saying anything else I write
is just simple and easy, butthis is much harder because it's
not in my wheelhouse. And I'mthe type of person who would get
burned out and get very boredvery quickly. I had every
nursing job you could think ofbecause I was just tired of
doing the time, you know. Andthis is something I love, and I
(20:18):
don't ever want to get burnedout or tired of it, so I said,
Let me the hockey series was achallenge too, because I knew
nothing about hockey until Istarted working on the series.
So I said, let me figuresomething else out. So I said,
Okay, we'll try dark rubberbands. And, man, it's not easy.
It's because it's just a wholedifferent world. And I want it
to feel like a different genre.
I want you to feel like, okay,did something happen to her,
(20:39):
because why did you
Alesia Galati (20:42):
who hurt you?
Alexandria House (20:45):
And I always had to warn people, don't give
up. I'm going somewhere. It'sgonna look real strange at
first, but just keep going. I'vehad so much it's been hard, but
it's so much fun. It is so muchfun writing these unhinged,
morally corrupt people, really,I don't have to worry about him
being good. Oh, man. Ray was somuch fun to write. He was so
(21:10):
much fun. He is so unhinged. Heis just out of his mind. And I
had just as much fun writingthis. Memphis is the second, the
oldest sister's story, thesecond book. I had so much fun.
I mean, it was torture doing,but I had fun with it. And then
my favorite part is always, onceI finished going back and
reading through it, and seeingwhat, you know, seeing it all
(21:31):
come together, and I'm like, Oh,I might have done a little
something with this one. No, Ithink that's it's with the
editor. Now, the beta readershave read it all, but one is
reported back. They love it.
Everybody understood everything.
That's my biggest worry,especially this book, is because
(21:52):
I write shorter books, and I tryto pack so much into them, and
there's so much going on in thisbook, I was worried that
something would get lost intranslation. But everybody's
saying they loved it. I love theseries. Oh, I'm enjoying it.
It's just to me, it's like aedgy, prime time soap operas.
Alesia Galati (22:15):
It definitely gives that for sure. It feels
that way. I love that. And so togive people a little bit of an
idea of book one, right? Becausewe don't want to give too many
spoils for two, which will beout by the time this airs, and
then look out for Book Three.
But to start us off with bookone, we have a older woman who
left her man because she waslike, Look, you're not going to
(22:37):
commit. You said you were goingto commit. This is going on too
long. I'm not here for itanymore. Of course, he goes
running tail back. Oh, pleasekeep me, I promise, bro, step
off. And then you've got thisyounger guy, which I want to
say, this is one of the onlybooks that you have that there's
(23:00):
such an age gap between olderwomen younger man. Is that
correct? Yeah,
Alexandria House (23:06):
this is probably the biggest gap. But
you know, Leland McLean had alittle gap too. Yeah, I have a
couple, because it's just myfavorite thing to write, because
I want to be a cougar. But y'allheard it here, my son is
starting to kill any cub thatcomes toward me, so I can't do
but yeah, it that probably isthe biggest Well, the ladies,
(23:30):
though, is, but yeah, he's theyhave an interesting pairing.
Yeah, I guess this wouldn't be aspoiler. I don't think because
it happened so early in thebook. But she witnesses, him
doing something illegal. It's acrime. And then after that, he
kind of just starts popping up,because he sees her, see him,
(23:52):
and he starts popping up. Andit's it's a ride. It's
definitely a ride. It'sinteresting. I always encourage
everybody just stick with it,y'all, because I promise you,
it's gonna go somewhere, andwhen you get there, you're gonna
be like, Okay, I see what shewas doing. Yes. And
Alesia Galati (24:08):
I feel like, if you're a dark romance reader,
you're gonna love it, like Iwent into it thinking, Okay,
this is a dark romance cool. I'mhere for it. I am along for the
absolutely demented ride thatthis is probably going to be,
and it is okay to me, I lovedit.
Alexandria House (24:27):
You're gonna love book too, too, you.
Because, I mean, neither one ofthem is hinged. Yeah, Memphis is
some kind of mean. So you shouldenjoy that.
Alesia Galati (24:42):
I cannot wait.
It's gonna be so good. What isnext, and maybe a different
genre? What are you feeling?
What are you thinking?
Alexandria House (24:51):
What I've got going? Next will be a Motorcycle
Club series. All the charactersare over 50, and they're gonna
be, you know, I. Nasty so andand incidentally, Memphis is
like 47 her man's like 54they're not missing any sexy
times, because it's an erotic,dark, robust, yeah, you know,
(25:13):
I'm old. I'm tired of trying tokeep up with the slang, so I
said I'm gonna make everybody beover 50 and they could talk like
me, but I don't have to researchanything. Yeah, I'm excited
about having some silver foxes.
Of course, it's not a, it's a,you know, morally and one
percenter motorcycle clubs, youknow, be some stuff going on.
Yeah, I'm super excited aboutthat, because I've been wanting
(25:35):
to do that for a while, so thatI've planned to try to do that
series next year, hopefully thewhole series. Of course, I have
to finish three kings first, andthen the year after that, I'm
actually gonna do a lesbianseries, the sapphic series. So
hoping that somebody will read,
Alesia Galati (25:53):
oh my god yes, I already know like 50 people that
are like, hell yeah to sapphicromance, yes, because
Alexandria House (26:02):
I'm very serious about representing all
black women. When I say it, Imean it. So I want to end some
people have asked me, Would I dothat? And I said, Let me think
about it. So yeah, I can dothat. And I would love to do it.
So I'm gonna do that. I alreadygot the name and everything. The
motorcycle series is sons ofShango. The sapphic series is
loves Equinox. And what I wouldlike to do is sit it's gonna be
(26:23):
three books, because that's mylimit. Now, after the complain
brothers, I've never do that tomyself. Loves Equinox. I want to
set each book in a differentera, like maybe one in the 60s,
one the 70s, 180s that's what Iwant to do. I'm not saying
that's what's gonna happen, butthat's what I would like to do
with that. And as always withme, I want to try to try to
think outside the box. I don'twant it to read like anybody
(26:43):
else's Savic romance. I see if Icould put it off. I mean,
Alesia Galati (26:46):
I'm sure you can.
I'm sure it's gonna beincredible. I am like, yeah, I
already know a bunch of peoplethat are gonna be all over that,
and are, I'm sure, more thanhappy to promote it. I know I
am, for sure that is and I lovethat you're doing that. I love
that you're showing that acrossthe spectrum in different genres
today,
Alexandria House (27:08):
because that'll be 2026, and then only
thing in between all of that isI'm supposed to be doing another
Romeo book. So we'll see if Ican make all that happen.
Alesia Galati (27:21):
Wow, this has been so much fun. Thank you so
much, Alexandria, for talkingthrough all of your incredible
stories, the inspiration behindthem. What is something that you
want to, kind of leave yourpotential readers with? Where
should they start if they'rewanting to delve into your
world, okay?
Alexandria House (27:42):
Well, there are a couple of places you can
start. You can start at the verybeginning with the love after
series. The first book will behigher love. And because
everything's so interconnected,you will probably get the most
joy. I was doing it that way,because you'll notice people, oh
yeah, I remember him here andher there. But what I call my
crack is Big South. Let me loveyou. Yeah. So I'm almost tell
(28:04):
you now, if you really want toget hooked, go to Big South,
because it's not like you can'tgo back and read this stuff.
It's not that you want tounderstand it. You'll still
understand it. But I would say Iwould highly recommend Big South
first and go through the McLeanseries. The next series, if you
want to continue some McLeanadjacent will probably be teach
(28:28):
me, you know, Romy, you go backto Strickland sisters love
after. But on my website, whichis ms, alexhousehouse.com ms,
alexhousehouse.com there is acomprehensive book list and
where you can check off whatyou've read and all that stuff.
And there also is a book or areading order list that you can
follow if you want to. So Iguess Visit my website is
(28:49):
connected to everything me,please check out my house party
event. Tickets are for sale. VIPis sold out, but everything else
is available. It's going to be atime for the grown folks, it's a
three day event, and I will haveguest office there for the
literary portion. We have openbar weekend. We feed you all
(29:09):
weekend. You get swag bags. Justabout every event, you get a
swag bag. And let me just have agood time. It's my gift to my
readers that, I mean, you dohave to pay to pay to go,
because I got to pay, you know,to do it, but it is my gift to
my readers. I just wanted themto be able to come and just have
fun. There's no assignment.
There's nothing you have to doto have fun. Just show up and
(29:30):
have fun and experience thingsmaybe you haven't experienced.
Sometimes we do facials,massages, erotic painting, sip
we also may or may not have somenaked penises the after party.
Historically, we've always hadthose when it comes crikey,
we're gonna try to keep thatgoing. We had a wonderful brunch
(29:53):
on Sunday. We have a live band.
It's very over the top, becauseI am. It's. So I encourage
everybody to get your tickets,but they usually run out pretty
fast, and it's different fromany literary event you could
even imagine going to. And Iwanted it to be a different
experience. I like to party, andI just wanted to throw a party,
(30:14):
so we have that. But like Isaid, you can go to my website
and really find all theinformation about the house
party, anything else. There's alink to buy signed paperbacks,
and that's it. You can keep upwith me that way. I'm on social
media, posting foolishness mostof the time, or sexy man Thirsty
Alesia Galati (30:31):
Thursday is my favorite. Just saying,
Alexandria House (30:35):
No, I try to keep engagement up. Yeah, the
main thing I want to say to eatand you and all of my readers, I
deeply appreciate you. I'm soglad that you connect with what
I do, that you enjoy it. I soappreciate the support. Thank
you for keeping my lights on.
I'm just so great. I really loveyou all. So grateful. This was
(30:56):
my dream. This is my dream job,and I get to do it, I'm beyond
grateful. Honestly. I just thankyou, and as long as I can write
it, I'm gonna keep doing it, andI hope you all keep reading,
yes,
Alesia Galati (31:09):
and we'll make sure that we have links for all
of that in the show notes. So ifanybody is doing other things
while they're listening orwatching us, we got you just go
check out those links. We'llhave them all there for each of
the things that Alexandriamentioned. And also, if you are
on Audible, I know thatAlexandra has quite a few of her
books included in the audiblesubscription for free, so please
(31:30):
go check that. I know that's oneof the ways that I was able to
fly through your book. Also,Jacoby Diem, can we just have a
moment of silence for hisincredibly beautiful voice?
Alexandria House (31:41):
Oh, he's so beautiful. Makes it hard for me
to listen to him. I'm like, Oh,am I way about what I wrote?
Should I be tingling?
Unknown (31:52):
Sweet, sir. But
Alexandria House (31:54):
you know, let's go back and hear that
again. So yeah, and if you'reinto audio, I do have some that
exclusively on at my store.
They're shorts and that long.
They're very good, though,couple of them have full cast.
Wesley Siobhan produce all ofthem, and so she appears in, I
think, almost all of them. So ifyou want something short and
(32:16):
nasty, check out alexhouseshop.com. I got you
Alesia Galati (32:20):
Yes, I think I got your holiday one recently.
And yes, so good. So definitely
Alexandria House (32:27):
four seven, that's the latest one. Yes,
Alesia Galati (32:32):
so good. Oh, thank you so much. Alexandria,
that's been so much fun. Thank
Alexandria House (32:36):
you for having me. I appreciate you. Wow.
Alexandria house is a master of weaving
(00:02):
captivating stories that explorethe complexities of human
emotions, from heartwarmingconnections to the darkest
desires. Today, we're delvinginto her diverse works and
discussing the power ofrepresentation within black
romance. Listener, discretion isadvised. This podcast contains
(00:24):
mature content intended foradult audiences only. Alexandria
house, I am so excited to haveyou on the podcast. I fangirled
so hard when you said yes. Sothank you so much for being on
if you could just start bytelling everyone a bit about
your author journey. I wouldlove to hear that. Yeah.
Alexandria House (00:47):
Well, first of all, thank you for inviting me.
I'm glad to be here talkingabout my favorite subject. Me my
writer journey. I don't knoweverybody's just unique, but
writing wasn't a thing I everthought I'd do for a living? I
come from a very academicfamily, very I guess you could
say realistic family. Myfather's a physician, has been
(01:09):
for eons. My late mother was ateacher, Master's degree
teacher, highly educated people,and I just figured I need to be
a teacher or a doctor. That'sjust what I figured I'd do.
Ended up because I ended upgetting pregnant early, getting
married early, getting divorcedyoung. I ended up going to
nursing school so I could takecare of my children. But I was
always someone that knew,although it was never presented
(01:32):
to me, that the arts could be acareer. I was someone that
always knew that I'd never behappy working a regular job. I
knew that from childhood thatwas not going to be happy. I
couldn't imagine spending mylife clocking in or just working
shifts, and I always felt like Iwas supposed to leave some type
of legacy. So my strongestsubject was always English. I
was always really good atwriting anything, if it had to
(01:54):
be written word. I get my pointacross better than if I was
speaking. I was a natural poetgrowing up, and I was always an
avid reader. My mother used tosay I decided reading it too. I
don't know how true that is, butthat's what she told me. So one
day, I just said I was unhappyin my career as a nurse, and it
wasn't the patience, it waseverything else that goes with
(02:15):
it. And I just decided, after myoldest child was grown and going
to college, I said, let me justsee if I could write a book. And
I just started writing. But whenI started, like, 2016 is when I
put my first book out. It washigher love the book one in the
love after series, and peopleactually liked it. I was like,
let me keep doing this. And it'skind of how it all happened,
Alesia Galati (02:40):
yeah. And it's definitely progressed since
then. I mean, now you haveevents that are centered all
around your books, like you aredoing the thing. So I love it. I
love it so much. You are my mostread author in 2024 which is
when we're recording this. I amobsessed with all of your books.
Specifically today I want totalk about the Roma University
(03:04):
series, McLean brothers series,St Louis sire series, them boys
series, and then three kings,which is in progress. So getting
into your stories and kind ofthe behind the scenes of it you
write, I want to say exclusivelyblack romance. Why is that
(03:24):
important for you?
Alexandria House (03:25):
Because I'm black, and because I often tell
this story. But I grew up in theSouth, in Arkansas, in the most
populous with black people townin the state, so there's an HBCU
in the hometown, the mayors wereblack. All of my doctors growing
up were black. All of myteachers were black, mostly all
(03:46):
of my teachers. So it's all Iknew, and all I knew was black
excellence. And it's just thisis all I know too, right?
Because that's how I grew up.
And as a matter of fact, when Ileft my hometown and me and my
youngest moved to a differenttown, still in Arkansas, this
town, we were the minority. Shehad never experienced that in
her life. She said, I didn'tknow what people meant when they
(04:07):
said black people wereminorities. I was like, What are
y'all talking about? And shesaid, now I understand it, but
that's how I feel. Like I had avery privileged upbringing in
that and living in that type ofworld where the HBCU home come
and shut the whole town down.
It's just everything. It was, itwas, it was a beautiful way to
(04:27):
grow up. And my parents, my dad,wouldn't let me have anything
with black baby dolls. I grew upwith all these rich black music
and Alex Haley's Roots was onthe bookshelf. It's just how I
grew up. So it's what I know,and those are the stories I know
to tell
Alesia Galati (04:42):
that's so beautiful, and to be able to
grow up that way, right? And seethat as the majority, I'm sure,
is so incredible. I grew up in avery mixed household, right? So
my dad is black, my mom isHispanic, and so it was a very
like I would go with my blackcousin. Cousins that would be
very different than, like,hanging out with the Puerto
Rican cousins that was verydifferent, right? And so to be
(05:05):
able to have, like, your fullheritage surrounding you, I
think, is so beautiful, and I dosee that, right? Reflected a lot
in your books. Now you alsotouch on some very important
topics, right? I don't want tosay they're deep topics or
troubling topic, because they'renot right, like, these are life
experiences that I think a lotof us can reflect on, and I
(05:29):
think that's what it's one ofthe things that I love so much
about romance is that, you know,people who don't read romance
are like, Oh, it's just smut,it's just porn, it's just
listen, read an Alexandria housebook and tell me that it's just
porn, because it is not okay.
Like, yes, the spice be spicy,but
Alexandria House (05:52):
be much easier to write at this right? No,
Alesia Galati (05:55):
your characters have so much depth and layers to
them, complexities of childhoodtrauma or trauma that happens as
they're adults. There's just somuch around that. Now I want to
talk specifically about themboys, because I did just finish
the last one in that series as Iwas, like, going through all
your other stuff. Just kind ofdabble those in as I have time
(06:16):
now for that series, you've gotthree men. They're in their 40s.
I want to say, is that correct?
Okay? And they have an absoluteterrible father and a terrible
childhood, and a lot of theircoping mechanisms now have to do
with how they grew up and whenthey find their love. It is not
so much about, oh, this personis healing me, or I have to
(06:41):
forgive my father. It's none ofthat. It's how can I be content
where I am and who in who I amand have this one incredible
partner alongside of me thatbrings me peace, which I think
is is obviously what they werelacking when they were children.
(07:01):
Brings me so much peace andhappiness and contentment in who
I am that I can move forward inmy healing. And that doesn't
have to be forgiving my terriblefather. It could be just, I'm
moving forward. I'm gonna saywhat I gotta say, and I'm gonna
keep moving so why was thatimportant to have a partner that
comes alongside those, thoseguys, specifically with their
(07:25):
trauma?
Alexandria House (07:29):
Because number one, one of the things is very
important for me to alwaysremember, is there's a reason
why people are the way they are.
Most people didn't just spawnforth me whatever they are. And
so a little background on thatseries. The inspiration for
those characters came from afamily where, in my hometown,
they were known for beingbullies that could fight.
(07:51):
Everybody was scared of them. Somy brother, who's 10 years older
than me, he was scared of theirfamily. I was scared of their
family when I went to school andmy children were mind you, none
of us have ever seen thesepeople fight. They just had a
reputation. And I wanted to takethat and run with it for the
Mitchell Brothers, because theyhad this reputation, come to
find out, they had all thistrauma behind them, and they
(08:14):
were just they were veryprotective of each other. Nobody
was going to mess with them,period. And they just came off
as just these angry guys,troublemakers. And so I wanted
to first give you a littleunderstanding of why some people
are the way they are. Second toshow that you don't have to have
it all together. You don't haveto be perfect. Your Life doesn't
(08:36):
have to have been perfect, pastor present, to deserve love and
to deserve acceptance and to beable to give love, because they
were very loving toward theirpartners, and I think they gave
just as much as they receivedfrom them. So that was kind of
my, my goal with them. Thesecond goal was I just wanted to
write something completelydifferent from the McLain
(08:57):
brothers so, and I think I didthat
Alesia Galati (09:00):
too. Yeah, I love that so much. I mean, yeah, it
is very different than theMcLean brothers, right? Those
ones are more like familyoriented, which the them
brothers are as well. You know,they're successful, they're all
these things. The other ones arekind of all over the place, and
like, what they're doing, or howthey're approaching life, how
they cope also with their traumais all very different. And I
(09:23):
just I love it so much.
Obviously, those
Alexandria House (09:26):
brothers really did love each other
through it all. Even thoughtheir father might have had them
pitting them against each other,they still had that bond. And I
also want to show that'spossible. There are people that
come out of bad situation andthey end up being good people.
It doesn't necessarily have tobe a tragedy in the
Alesia Galati (09:42):
end. Let's move on to the St Louis sires now
that series. Oh, okay, so inbook one, you've got the not
even single father, because he'snot it's him taking care of his
younger sibling. Things who arenot fully related to him, taking
(10:04):
care of them, needing to figuresome things out. This is a
hockey series. For anyone who'snot read it, please just go read
it like you don't need any moreexplanation. Just go read it.
But in that one, there's a lotof I want to give spoilers.
There's some other woman drama,like previous woman drama that
happens, and just the way thathe stands up for their
(10:27):
relationship, like, Hey, thatwas passed. This is now. This is
where we're at. I just love thatso much. Then in Book Two,
you've got, oh my goodness, somuch mental health awareness
that I think is just sobeautiful. Second Chance
romance. Let's touch on that onefor a second, because I feel
like we could stay there for abit. The female main character,
(10:48):
and I can't for the life of me,cannot remember her name at the
moment, Crystal. Crystal, yes.
So crystal is bipolar? Is thatcorrect? Yes. Which I absolutely
love that representation,because my mom was manic
depressive, and so to be ableshe got her diagnosis relatively
later in life, and so to seethat reflected on page, those
(11:09):
really high highs, those arereally low lows. Yeah, was just,
I thought, so beautifullycreated. And also, again,
romance is not just born guyslike it can reflect the life
experiences that you've seen inyour life or that you have, and
then having a partner who, youknow, she pushes him away. It's
(11:33):
not which I think is verydifferent than a lot of the
romance genre tends to be whereit's like, oh, the guy's like,
oh, I want to go do somethingelse, or Oh, you're too much for
me, or whatever, the guys maketerrible choices. But in this
one, she was like, I don'tdeserve you. You don't deserve
me. Go away. And so pushes himaway. He obviously has such a
(11:55):
love for her, wants her back,cannot stop thinking about her
and wants to be with her. Whywas that story really important
for you? I
Alexandria House (12:07):
did have a relative they passed on that was
he's both bipolar andschizophrenic. And when, even
when I was in nursing school,the mental health portion was,
like my I was just sofascinated. It was, like, my
favorite part of nursing school.
And I just I know that there arepeople out there that are
experiencing bipolar and similarneurodivergences, and it's just
(12:29):
important to me to represent ablack woman. Every black woman
is my goal, every shade, everyheight, every size, the spectrum
of black women, and I want allof us to know that we're worthy
of love no matter what that is,something that she could have
done nothing about. It'shereditary, you know. So she
(12:49):
inherited it, and because sheinherited it, and she was trying
to figure it out, and theydiscovered it at the same time,
and he went through thediscovery with her, none of that
means that she didn't deservethe support or the love or the
acceptance that he gave her,because he loved her long before
any of that started. He lovedher as a child. So yeah, I
(13:09):
wanted to represent that. Ithought it was important, and I
have had people contact me andthank me that were bipolar, so
that really helped him to seethat on the page and to see the
support she received. And thatreally is my goal. I'm a girls
girl, 100% I just, I just wanteven the sex part. I want women
to black women to feel free intheir sexuality, free in wanting
(13:33):
satisfaction and receivingsatisfaction and giving
satisfaction. So I just wantedpeople to see that even before
you understand what's going onwith her. You may think, why
would he keep dealing with her?
I knew that was what everybodywas gonna think. But he loved
her, and true love, you want totry to figure it out. You don't
(13:56):
just want to give up. And that'swhat I wanted to portray, yeah,
Alesia Galati (14:00):
and you see that in book one, whereas buddies are
like, man, get over her stuff.
Obviously she doesn't want youanymore.
Oh, my God, but it's so true.
And then when you're able to seethat, especially in the
beginning chapters, where yousee them falling in love as
children and just being like,I'll always be here for you. Oh,
(14:22):
my goodness, I love it so much,
Alexandria House (14:26):
so beautiful.
I'll enjoy writing that one too,and just sweet old country love
story.
Alesia Galati (14:32):
And then in Book Three, you have a black woman
who has a melanin deficientdisorder. Is that correct? What
was the correct terming for she
Alexandria House (14:45):
has, I'm about to call it the wrong thing,
albinism.
Alesia Galati (14:52):
Okay? And then you've got a mailman character
who was adopted, which is just avery interesting. Especially
when you tie in the thembrothers as well. Oh my
goodness. I was like, Yeah, youget to see the kind of
crossover. So read them brothersfirst, then get into the st
louis ire series. But havingthose two, she was a very
(15:14):
predominant rapper. He wasfangirling really hard on her,
which I thought was so adorable,and then like his buddies
dogging on him, like, man, comeon, you made fool to yourself.
Yeah, I did. I definitely did. Ilove it. That's another
representation, I think. And toyour point of before, of being
(15:37):
able to showcase everycomplexion, every color, every
weight, every spectrum, mentalhealth of black women is so
powerful, right? Because someonewho might see her might think,
oh, no, you're not, or you'reother. And I think that it's
really important that we see theworld outside of ourselves
(16:00):
reflected in the pages that weread. I think that it can be
used as a sense of like window,right? That's how they say. It's
like a window or a mirror. Thethings that we read can be used
that way. And so being able tosee something that I don't think
I'd ever heard of or ever seen,I was like, Wow, that's so
interesting. And her experienceand the way she described it and
(16:22):
felt about it. What was the kindof decision behind that? Well,
Alexandria House (16:26):
I get inspired by a lot of things. In a Tiktok
video I was scrolling through,and I was like, Oh, she's
gorgeous, and yeah, she had thenystagmus, or eyes moved. And I
was like, Huh, I'm a writer bythe girl with albinism, and so,
yeah, that's where I got thatfrom. I just thought the girl I
was watching on or the younglady I was watching on Tiktok,
(16:47):
was so striking. I was like,whoa. But what I love about it
is, although albinism runs thegamut of all ethnicities, you
could tell by the her featuresthat she was black. And I
thought, Man, she still hairtexture and everything. Just
didn't have that melanin. I justthought it was fascinating. I
have a science degree too, so Ilove anything scientific or
(17:12):
genetic or whatever. And then Ido have a birthmark where I
have, I'm missing melanin onthis. Oh, a lot of parties are
part of my back too. I forgetit's there, but I, you know,
kind of identify a little bit.
Everybody thinks I was burned,but now I was, this is a
birthmark, or this, what myparents always called it, this
kind of, where that kind ofhelped with the inspiration,
too. Just knowing, you know,different doesn't mean gap
(17:34):
normal, I guess is what I'mtrying to say. We all our norm
is our norm, you know. And thenthe adoption rep came from my
trainer, and my very patienttrainer, she was adopted, and
she was telling me her story,and I said, Would you mind if I
kind of use, you know, talkedabout she said, No, I don't mind
(17:54):
at all. So I interviewed herinstead of working out one time,
and she gave me all thisinformation, I was just really
fascinated. There were so manythings I didn't realize as an
adoptee that you would gothrough, like the just knowing
that someone's missing, or eventhe seeing that I went through
and researched, like all thesechildren, the babies, would have
this look on their face that'scommon with them, because they
(18:17):
know you've been inside someonefor nine months, and you're used
to that voice and that smell,and even as a baby, you realize
this is not the person thatcarried me, that never occurred
to me, but I learned a lot fromher and from researching. I
wanted to show that it's notthat necessarily that child is
ungrateful. It's just they knowthat there's a piece missing
(18:38):
that they innately would like tofind, yeah,
Alesia Galati (18:44):
I have a friend, and she's adopted, and she talks
very openly about her experienceand how, like, had a perfectly
fine childhood, had lovingparents, very German, but loving
parents, and how, when shefinally was like, All Right, I
want to try to find my birthparents. Both of them had passed
(19:04):
away. And so, like, was that ablessing or a curse? You know,
what would that have looked likefor her? And so she talks very
openly about that as well, andjust those feelings and those
experiences of still having butstill feeling like you're
missing something and havewanted something kind of that
grief, right? Of, yeah, of whatcould have been. And so to be
(19:24):
able to reflect that, I think,is so beautiful in your story.
Thank you. Moving on to threegigs, this, I think is very
different than a lot of yourbooks. But I love I'm, I'm a
dark romance girly. So I love itso much. And like going in I do.
Okay, this is a Alexandra housedark romance. All right, let's
(19:46):
go tell us a bit about thebackstory behind this series. I
don't want to give away too manyspoilers for book one. So how
are you talking about i
Alexandria House (19:58):
just want to do something different. I. I
want to challenge myself. I'mnot saying anything else I write
is just simple and easy, butthis is much harder because it's
not in my wheelhouse. And I'mthe type of person who would get
burned out and get very boredvery quickly. I had every
nursing job you could think ofbecause I was just tired of
doing the time, you know. Andthis is something I love, and I
(20:18):
don't ever want to get burnedout or tired of it, so I said,
Let me the hockey series was achallenge too, because I knew
nothing about hockey until Istarted working on the series.
So I said, let me figuresomething else out. So I said,
Okay, we'll try dark rubberbands. And, man, it's not easy.
It's because it's just a wholedifferent world. And I want it
to feel like a different genre.
I want you to feel like, okay,did something happen to her,
(20:39):
because why did you
Alesia Galati (20:42):
who hurt you?
Alexandria House (20:45):
And I always had to warn people, don't give
up. I'm going somewhere. It'sgonna look real strange at
first, but just keep going. I'vehad so much it's been hard, but
it's so much fun. It is so muchfun writing these unhinged,
morally corrupt people, really,I don't have to worry about him
being good. Oh, man. Ray was somuch fun to write. He was so
(21:10):
much fun. He is so unhinged. Heis just out of his mind. And I
had just as much fun writingthis. Memphis is the second, the
oldest sister's story, thesecond book. I had so much fun.
I mean, it was torture doing,but I had fun with it. And then
my favorite part is always, onceI finished going back and
reading through it, and seeingwhat, you know, seeing it all
(21:31):
come together, and I'm like, Oh,I might have done a little
something with this one. No, Ithink that's it's with the
editor. Now, the beta readershave read it all, but one is
reported back. They love it.
Everybody understood everything.
That's my biggest worry,especially this book, is because
(21:52):
I write shorter books, and I tryto pack so much into them, and
there's so much going on in thisbook, I was worried that
something would get lost intranslation. But everybody's
saying they loved it. I love theseries. Oh, I'm enjoying it.
It's just to me, it's like aedgy, prime time soap operas.
Alesia Galati (22:15):
It definitely gives that for sure. It feels
that way. I love that. And so togive people a little bit of an
idea of book one, right? Becausewe don't want to give too many
spoils for two, which will beout by the time this airs, and
then look out for Book Three.
But to start us off with bookone, we have a older woman who
left her man because she waslike, Look, you're not going to
(22:37):
commit. You said you were goingto commit. This is going on too
long. I'm not here for itanymore. Of course, he goes
running tail back. Oh, pleasekeep me, I promise, bro, step
off. And then you've got thisyounger guy, which I want to
say, this is one of the onlybooks that you have that there's
(23:00):
such an age gap between olderwomen younger man. Is that
correct? Yeah,
Alexandria House (23:06):
this is probably the biggest gap. But
you know, Leland McLean had alittle gap too. Yeah, I have a
couple, because it's just myfavorite thing to write, because
I want to be a cougar. But y'allheard it here, my son is
starting to kill any cub thatcomes toward me, so I can't do
but yeah, it that probably isthe biggest Well, the ladies,
(23:30):
though, is, but yeah, he's theyhave an interesting pairing.
Yeah, I guess this wouldn't be aspoiler. I don't think because
it happened so early in thebook. But she witnesses, him
doing something illegal. It's acrime. And then after that, he
kind of just starts popping up,because he sees her, see him,
(23:52):
and he starts popping up. Andit's it's a ride. It's
definitely a ride. It'sinteresting. I always encourage
everybody just stick with it,y'all, because I promise you,
it's gonna go somewhere, andwhen you get there, you're gonna
be like, Okay, I see what shewas doing. Yes. And
Alesia Galati (24:08):
I feel like, if you're a dark romance reader,
you're gonna love it, like Iwent into it thinking, Okay,
this is a dark romance cool. I'mhere for it. I am along for the
absolutely demented ride thatthis is probably going to be,
and it is okay to me, I lovedit.
Alexandria House (24:27):
You're gonna love book too, too, you.
Because, I mean, neither one ofthem is hinged. Yeah, Memphis is
some kind of mean. So you shouldenjoy that.
Alesia Galati (24:42):
I cannot wait.
It's gonna be so good. What isnext, and maybe a different
genre? What are you feeling?
What are you thinking?
Alexandria House (24:51):
What I've got going? Next will be a Motorcycle
Club series. All the charactersare over 50, and they're gonna
be, you know, I. Nasty so andand incidentally, Memphis is
like 47 her man's like 54they're not missing any sexy
times, because it's an erotic,dark, robust, yeah, you know,
(25:13):
I'm old. I'm tired of trying tokeep up with the slang, so I
said I'm gonna make everybody beover 50 and they could talk like
me, but I don't have to researchanything. Yeah, I'm excited
about having some silver foxes.
Of course, it's not a, it's a,you know, morally and one
percenter motorcycle clubs, youknow, be some stuff going on.
Yeah, I'm super excited aboutthat, because I've been wanting
(25:35):
to do that for a while, so thatI've planned to try to do that
series next year, hopefully thewhole series. Of course, I have
to finish three kings first, andthen the year after that, I'm
actually gonna do a lesbianseries, the sapphic series. So
hoping that somebody will read,
Alesia Galati (25:53):
oh my god yes, I already know like 50 people that
are like, hell yeah to sapphicromance, yes, because
Alexandria House (26:02):
I'm very serious about representing all
black women. When I say it, Imean it. So I want to end some
people have asked me, Would I dothat? And I said, Let me think
about it. So yeah, I can dothat. And I would love to do it.
So I'm gonna do that. I alreadygot the name and everything. The
motorcycle series is sons ofShango. The sapphic series is
loves Equinox. And what I wouldlike to do is sit it's gonna be
(26:23):
three books, because that's mylimit. Now, after the complain
brothers, I've never do that tomyself. Loves Equinox. I want to
set each book in a differentera, like maybe one in the 60s,
one the 70s, 180s that's what Iwant to do. I'm not saying
that's what's gonna happen, butthat's what I would like to do
with that. And as always withme, I want to try to try to
think outside the box. I don'twant it to read like anybody
(26:43):
else's Savic romance. I see if Icould put it off. I mean,
Alesia Galati (26:46):
I'm sure you can.
I'm sure it's gonna beincredible. I am like, yeah, I
already know a bunch of peoplethat are gonna be all over that,
and are, I'm sure, more thanhappy to promote it. I know I
am, for sure that is and I lovethat you're doing that. I love
that you're showing that acrossthe spectrum in different genres
today,
Alexandria House (27:08):
because that'll be 2026, and then only
thing in between all of that isI'm supposed to be doing another
Romeo book. So we'll see if Ican make all that happen.
Alesia Galati (27:21):
Wow, this has been so much fun. Thank you so
much, Alexandria, for talkingthrough all of your incredible
stories, the inspiration behindthem. What is something that you
want to, kind of leave yourpotential readers with? Where
should they start if they'rewanting to delve into your
world, okay?
Alexandria House (27:42):
Well, there are a couple of places you can
start. You can start at the verybeginning with the love after
series. The first book will behigher love. And because
everything's so interconnected,you will probably get the most
joy. I was doing it that way,because you'll notice people, oh
yeah, I remember him here andher there. But what I call my
crack is Big South. Let me loveyou. Yeah. So I'm almost tell
(28:04):
you now, if you really want toget hooked, go to Big South,
because it's not like you can'tgo back and read this stuff.
It's not that you want tounderstand it. You'll still
understand it. But I would say Iwould highly recommend Big South
first and go through the McLeanseries. The next series, if you
want to continue some McLeanadjacent will probably be teach
(28:28):
me, you know, Romy, you go backto Strickland sisters love
after. But on my website, whichis ms, alexhousehouse.com ms,
alexhousehouse.com there is acomprehensive book list and
where you can check off whatyou've read and all that stuff.
And there also is a book or areading order list that you can
follow if you want to. So Iguess Visit my website is
(28:49):
connected to everything me,please check out my house party
event. Tickets are for sale. VIPis sold out, but everything else
is available. It's going to be atime for the grown folks, it's a
three day event, and I will haveguest office there for the
literary portion. We have openbar weekend. We feed you all
(29:09):
weekend. You get swag bags. Justabout every event, you get a
swag bag. And let me just have agood time. It's my gift to my
readers that, I mean, you dohave to pay to pay to go,
because I got to pay, you know,to do it, but it is my gift to
my readers. I just wanted themto be able to come and just have
fun. There's no assignment.
There's nothing you have to doto have fun. Just show up and
(29:30):
have fun and experience thingsmaybe you haven't experienced.
Sometimes we do facials,massages, erotic painting, sip
we also may or may not have somenaked penises the after party.
Historically, we've always hadthose when it comes crikey,
we're gonna try to keep thatgoing. We had a wonderful brunch
(29:53):
on Sunday. We have a live band.
It's very over the top, becauseI am. It's. So I encourage
everybody to get your tickets,but they usually run out pretty
fast, and it's different fromany literary event you could
even imagine going to. And Iwanted it to be a different
experience. I like to party, andI just wanted to throw a party,
(30:14):
so we have that. But like Isaid, you can go to my website
and really find all theinformation about the house
party, anything else. There's alink to buy signed paperbacks,
and that's it. You can keep upwith me that way. I'm on social
media, posting foolishness mostof the time, or sexy man Thirsty
Alesia Galati (30:31):
Thursday is my favorite. Just saying,
Alexandria House (30:35):
No, I try to keep engagement up. Yeah, the
main thing I want to say to eatand you and all of my readers, I
deeply appreciate you. I'm soglad that you connect with what
I do, that you enjoy it. I soappreciate the support. Thank
you for keeping my lights on.
I'm just so great. I really loveyou all. So grateful. This was
(30:56):
my dream. This is my dream job,and I get to do it, I'm beyond
grateful. Honestly. I just thankyou, and as long as I can write
it, I'm gonna keep doing it, andI hope you all keep reading,
yes,
Alesia Galati (31:09):
and we'll make sure that we have links for all
of that in the show notes. So ifanybody is doing other things
while they're listening orwatching us, we got you just go
check out those links. We'llhave them all there for each of
the things that Alexandriamentioned. And also, if you are
on Audible, I know thatAlexandra has quite a few of her
books included in the audiblesubscription for free, so please
(31:30):
go check that. I know that's oneof the ways that I was able to
fly through your book. Also,Jacoby Diem, can we just have a
moment of silence for hisincredibly beautiful voice?
Alexandria House (31:41):
Oh, he's so beautiful. Makes it hard for me
to listen to him. I'm like, Oh,am I way about what I wrote?
Should I be tingling?
Unknown (31:52):
Sweet, sir. But
Alexandria House (31:54):
you know, let's go back and hear that
again. So yeah, and if you'reinto audio, I do have some that
exclusively on at my store.
They're shorts and that long.
They're very good, though,couple of them have full cast.
Wesley Siobhan produce all ofthem, and so she appears in, I
think, almost all of them. So ifyou want something short and
(32:16):
nasty, check out alexhouseshop.com. I got you
Alesia Galati (32:20):
Yes, I think I got your holiday one recently.
And yes, so good. So definitely
Alexandria House (32:27):
four seven, that's the latest one. Yes,
Alesia Galati (32:32):
so good. Oh, thank you so much. Alexandria,
that's been so much fun. Thank
Alexandria House (32:36):
you for having me. I appreciate you. Wow.
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