February 12, 2025 • 47 mins
Dive into the hilarious world of alien romance! We made new best friends with our incredibly funny new friend and the author of I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com, Kimberly Lemming!
What follows is a riveting discussion with hosts Bridget and Shani gushing over Kimberly Lemming, delving into her latest literary creation, "I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom-Com", book 1 of her new series Cosmic Chaos, and making alien/fantasy romance fun!
Synopsis: A hilarious and sexy romance about a woman who gets dropped on a strange planet only to fall for not one, but two, aliens, from the author of I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf.
Takeaways:
- In this episode, we discussed the delightful intricacies of Kimberly Lemming's latest book, which is titled 'I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I'm Trapped in a Rom Com', and how it uniquely blends humor with romance and fantasy elements.
- We talked about the importance of the protagonist's intelligence, particularly as a wildlife biologist, which is a pivotal trait that influences the narrative and ultimately aids in resolving the central conflict.
- Throughout our conversation, we explored the concept of alien romance, highlighting how the characters navigate their relationships amidst bizarre circumstances.
- We touched upon the creative process behind the book's cover art, discussing how the illustrator captures the essence and emotions of the characters, making the visual representation align closely with the narrative's playful and adventurous spirit.
- An engaging aspect of our discussion was the comedic approach to traditional romance tropes, as the alien characters attempt to decipher human courtship rituals, leading to humorous misunderstandings and scenarios that enrich the story.
- Lastly, we celebrated the significance of independent authorship and the evolving landscape of publishing, particularly how unconventional titles and narratives are gaining traction and recognition in the literary world.
Check out Kimberly Lemming!
See her other series Mead Mishaps #1!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Well, hello everyone, andwelcome to Romance at a Glance. I'm
your host, Bridge, and with meis my co host, Shani. Hi, Shani.
Hi, Bridget. How you doing today?
I am doing so well, Shani. Ihad the best week recording with
you last week.
Me too. I've been excited thatwe're like, getting into the swing
of things because I don'tquantify how much I miss you when
(00:22):
I don't actively get to hangout with you. So thank you for saying
that. And also, I love you.
I love you too. But also, Iwas talking about Kimberly Lemming,
who I feel like is going to bemy new best friend. Sorry, you're
gonna have to take a seat.Actually, best friends of tier we
can all fit. She was amazing.Kimberly, if you're listening, you're
a goddamn delight. Guys, wegot to talk to her about her latest
(00:43):
book, which is coming outtoday, February 18th. It's called
I Got Abducted by Aliens andNow I'm Trapped in a rom com. It
is book one of a new, newseries, which I'm very excited that
it's going to be in a newseries called Cosmic Chaos, which
means we're going to get morealien, just insanity. And I cannot
be more ready.
(01:03):
So, Bridget, I'm more thanhappy to be in a throuple best friendship
with you and Kimberly becausewe had a great ass time. And I'm
actually so excited about whatwe talked about on the podcast and
to share it with everybody.
So, like, Bridget, I feel like we.
Should just get into this.
I mean, let's get it popping.There's nothing else to do but just
(01:25):
get it popping. Romance at aglance. Romance at a glance.
What'd you say?
At a glance. Go ahead. Okay,so I have to tell you that I loved
this book so much it isembarrassing how fast I ran down
the stairs. And my husbanddoes not read just like period. But
(01:47):
he also does not read romance.His theory of life is if it's good,
it'll get turned into a movie.Which I'm like, there's too many
books for that to be real. ButI was like, babe, you don't understand.
Let me tell you the plot.Okay, so there's this girl, she's
hysterical. She's studyingthese things. Then she's about to
be mauled by a line. But thenthese crazy bird aliens save her
and take them both up to aspaceship. And he's like, wait, what's
(02:08):
happening? And I was like. Andthen they get dropped off on this
other planet where there'sThese other. Other aliens and the
bird people are trying to savethose aliens, but they only save
the dudes because they'redumb. So then they bring these human
women, but then she actuallymissed. Like, I. Like, he's just.
Like, that book sounds crazy.And I was like, you don't understand.
It's, like, the perfect blendof hilarious, like, in the way that,
(02:30):
like, it gives me those vibesof, like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
or, like, you know, back inthe day when the characters were
allowed to be, like, morequippy and fantasy didn't have to
be so dark and so intense andso, like, fantasy could just be fun
and weird. Tell me a littlebit about, like, your journey into
(02:54):
finding that voice of fun inthe fantasy.
Well, it kind of started outhow I started writing my first book
in the first place, and thatwas, I really hate my job. I'm going
to quit and be a delusionalromance author for a bit. And so
after I quit my job, I waslike, wee. And just, like, spent,
like, two months puttingwhatever silly nonsense I could and
(03:17):
just having the time of mylife writing my first book. That
time I got drunk and saved ademon. And when that book came out,
I found out, hey, there'sactually a market for fun, goofy
fantasies, so why change now?So I just ended up writing the book
I wanted to read so muchbecause, again, like you said, a
lot of fantasy has just beensuch grim, dark lately. And I grew
up with Buffy and all theother fun stuff, so I'm just like,
(03:39):
where is that? Bring it back.
I also liked. We talk a lotabout dual POV on the podcast and
how sometimes it can be reallygreat, especially in, like, a fantasy
where there's a lot of thingsgoing on away from the character.
So you can kind of get thatperspective of, like, what is that
other prince or alien orwhatever doing in their High Council
(04:00):
or something. I love that youstay in one point of view, because
I think for this, like, youcan't. I don't think it would be
as enjoyable to discover allthe oddities of the world if you
didn't discover them with her.Like, if you all of a sudden were
in one of the other alienPOVs, you would know too much.
Y. I think there's a realdelicate balance when it comes to
(04:22):
POVs. And personally, I don'treally like writing dual POVs unless
I have to. And when it cameto, like, having my first romance
with three people, I'm like,okay, there's no possible way I'm
doing, like, three POVs Iwon't do it. I refuse. They can be
mad if they want to. We'restaying in Dory's head because one,
she's funny and two, it makesway more sense to just see the entire
(04:44):
story through her eyes ratherthan a bunch of other people.
So I agree with you. I thinkit takes you out of it. And I think
there's something charmingabout her. First of all, she's so
funny and she has so manyintrusive thoughts about everything.
And I think it's so funny,like hearing the dialogue of the
(05:05):
other two MCs talking abouther, especially to each other. And
he's like, what is she doing?She's yelling at plants. Why is she
yelling at plants? It's athing she does. It's adorable. Like,
I thought that that was thebest because it shows that he understands
her kind of and he thinks thatshe's cute and that her personality
and weird like quirks aboutbeing obsessed with biology is charming
(05:26):
as part of his draw to her.And also I just think like, if you
had heard him internalizingthat, I don't think it would have
been as cute.
Nah, definitely not. Also, hewas having his own spirals of his
own. So it would have been waytoo much. That book would have to
be like 500 pages and I can't,I can't write that long. I can't
do it.
(05:47):
Okay, that's something Iwanted to ask you too. So your books
are fast in the best possibleway. I love fantasy, as listeners
of the podcast know. Shaniknows I'm here. A thousand pages.
If it's there, if the writingis there and the world building is
there, I'll read a thousandpages. But too many authors, I feel
(06:07):
in fantasy add exposition, addthings that perhaps we don't need
to know. Perhaps they do notadd to the plot or the central romance.
And I feel like in otherauthors hands your book may have
been 450 pages instead of anice tight 300.
I mean, I'll be honest, Icould sit there and ramble on about
(06:30):
animals and dinosaurs untilthe cows come home. So I have spared
you of at least a thousandpages of that.
So appreciate it.
Yeah. And I, and I like, likeI think it like you I was interview.
I actually had another guesthost on and we chatted about your
book the other day. And onething that we were talking about
(06:51):
is how you drew in into thislike alien world, human flora and
fauna and dinosaurs andwhatnot. Can you talk a little bit
about how that helped you likeBuild out that alien planet.
Well, when I first startedthinking about doing an alien romance,
I'm like, man, I'm gonna haveto create an entire world full of
(07:11):
new species and all of thatother stuff. And that is not nearly
as funny as trying to create abootleg Earth. So instead of just
having it be a breedingprogram for, like, the planet of
the Sencato, which the ViewBand already destroyed, I'm just
like, what if. What if thisunderfunded research department was
just like, you know what?We're just gonna take, like, a bare
(07:33):
bones planet and terraform itreal quick to be, like, something
that's at least habitable forboth of them. Because on the original
Sankato planet, there is,like, massive storms that would happen
all the time, which is whyyou'll find out later in the series.
But the aliens can sensestorms coming, which is how soul
neutral, like, scoop them bothup and take off. And we would die
on that planet. We reallywould. So they're like, okay, well,
(07:55):
we'll just make, like, a copyof Earth. But we don't really have
time to, like, do our properresearch and do all our due diligence.
So we're just going to go tothese buildings with a bunch of,
like, Earth DNA and just do aquick scan and just boom, there you
go. And then I thought, oh, myGod, what if they just took scans
from all these dinosaurmuseums? And, like, you had, like,
megafauna. You had dinosaurs.You had just like a regular poodle
(08:17):
running around somewhere. I'mlike, oh, my God, this would be so
much more fun. And so then Ijust kind of rolled from there. And
then I thought, I. I bet youthese bu band are going to think,
well, nobody's going tonotice. How are they going to know
the difference? Like, it'sEarth DNA. But who's the one person
that would notice the most? Awildlife biologist. And I'm like,
and we're rolling.
Yeah, it was the perfect stormof, like, everything being new and
(08:42):
funny, but also my brain beingable to quickly accept and understand
everything in the scale. Youknow what I mean? Like, I understand
from watching Jurassic parkand going to dinosaur museums that
dinosaurs are fucking big andscary. And so you didn't have to
explain, like, the exactplanet is sort of like a dinosaur,
(09:04):
sort of like a cross between.You could just be like, it's a T.
Rex. And I was like, run,girl. Like, get out of there. I want
to talk also about Totobecause I like all the characters
so much. I think they're allgreat. The intern made me laugh.
But, like, Toto the lion iswho I aspire to be unbothered. He's,
(09:28):
like, calm. He's like, youknow what? We're on a planet, but
let's go kill some shit. Like,let's get after it. And she's like,
I'm not horny. And he's like,we can all smell you. You're embarrassing
yourself. Okay? We all knowthis is the animal kingdom. Like,
he was so, like, did you basehim in your mind off of, like, what
(09:48):
you imagined a line would sayor off of some other character or
person in your life who's kindof got that. Like, we got this energy.
I'm the alpha. Like,everything's good.
He's actually based off mycorgi bandicoot. And before he was
finally fixed, anytime I tookhim to the dog park, he would just
gravitate towards the largestfemale dog he could find. Like, even
(10:10):
though he stands maybe a foottall, he was all about the pit bulls,
the rottweilers, everything.And he just had, like, such this
big boss energy of, I am herefor the female dogs, and I will fight
anyone that gets in between meand my hair. I'm sorry I had to stop
taking him to dog parks, buthe makes a great lion character.
And so I'm just like, you knowwhat? She needs a sidekick. And what
(10:32):
better sidekick for an animalresearcher than a lion who really
is just here to find lionesses?
Yeah. And I think in a weirdway, I feel like you did such a good
job of giving her perspectiveon everything. She was like, you
should be proud of yourself.You're getting your own harem. That's
what we all deserve. I'll takeover this planet. No big deal. So
(10:55):
will you. We'll be together atthe top of this.
We're pride, basically brothers.
We're right now. Yeah,exactly. So when you wrote this series,
because this is book one, Iwas very excited when I then, because
I got sent the physical books,I read it, and then I was very excited
when I was doing my researchthat it said that it was book number
one in a new series. Did you,like, pre plan kind of the arc of
(11:21):
where you think this serieswill go or, like, where the next
characters will go? Or are yousomeone who, like, is writing, and
then as things come, you'relike, ooh, that might be good for
book two?
Well, I had an initial plan atthe beginning, and then I wrote book
one. I'm like, fuck that plan.We're doing something else. So it
was Actually funny, because Ineed to finish book two pretty soon,
and my editor Essie emailed mesaying, like, hey, I got the COVID
(11:43):
and the blur or cover ideasand the blurb for book two, and it
was still about Misty, acharacter that's not even in book
one yet. And I'm just like,I'm pretty sure I told her about
Blair's book. Did I not?Whoop. And so I ended up emailing
her back, like, hey, I wrote acompletely different book. But listen,
it's funnier and it's gonnatie into the third one if you buy
it. She's just like, yeah,that's fine. I'm like, oh, thank
(12:03):
God. Did I not tell her about Blair?
I mean, I would have beendevastated if Blair wasn't next.
You guys, I don't want tospoil the entrance of Blair, so I
won't. If you do want it to bespoiled, you can listen in a couple
days when the review episodecomes out and we talk about it in
(12:26):
depth. But let's just say shecomes in hot. She comes in hot. She
is not pleased. Dory is kindof, like. I wouldn't say happy about
being kidnapped to an alienplanet, but she's, like, intrigued
by the flora and fauna. Itgives her something to think about.
She's got two hot aliens,which is never a bad idea. And she's
(12:49):
got a sidekick, best friend,lion. So she's got, like, a little
bit of, you know, well, maybewe can get out of this. A little
bit of hope going a little bitof, like, well, while I'm here, we
may as well sample things. AndI feel like the next book is 100%
the opposite energy of, like,a bit.
Yeah, no, this isn't that muchof a spoiler, but you're going to
(13:10):
find out pretty soon intoBlair's book why she's so pissed
off in that cage. Because ofall my heroines, she probably has
the worst intro to her story.
When, like, as you're writing,because you did three books of the
other series and I've seen youtalk about how you'll probably, like,
(13:32):
you have some ideas and we'llprobably dip back into that at some
point. Like, as you'rewriting, you know, first indie published
and just kind of like takingyour readers on that journey and
now traditional published. Howhas that changed? Like, not only,
like, how you write it, buthow you communicate and talk to your
readers and develop that storykind of almost like in real time
(13:54):
with readers as an indiepublish versus more of like a marketing
at. When the book is alreadyfinished or like the covers are already
coming out.
How's that solved? I've had tosort of step back from sharing everything
with my readers and be morehush hush about things. And that's
kind of been a good thingbecause I was running myself ragged
(14:14):
trying to write books thatfast in the indie space. And now
with the excuse of Trad puptakes forever. I can actually slow
down and take my time and, youknow, breathe in between books. So
it's sort of been an oddbalance of like, hey, this is what's
coming as soon as I drag myweird brain out of wherever it's
dusting off and actually getit done. Because I know a lot of
(14:38):
authors can be like, yeah,this is what I'm writing and this
is what I will continue towrite until it's done. I am not that
way. And sometimes I'll begin,I'll be in the middle of a book and
be like, I cannot. I'm goingto go over here for like three months
and do something else. Andthen I'll wander back eventually
over here and get the book Iwas supposed to be writing. But it's
(14:58):
sort of a weird push and pullof like, I can't make myself write
something if I don't want towrite it.
That's, that's like, that'slike the realest thing ever. And
I feel like you're the firstperson to really like, say that concisely.
Like, I was trying to explainto somebody yesterday that like,
(15:19):
I need to clean my house,right? I've been organizing it and
just trying to get it likeemptied. And then yesterday I had
law, my like legal homeworkand I got so much cleaning done because
(15:39):
I was like, I could sit downand do this law homework or I could
go do this.
No, I feel that so much. I'mlike, I don't know if it's autistic
burnout or whatever, but Ican't write this right now. I have
to go clean my house. I haveto walk the dog. I have to write
a completely different series.Maybe I'll write a short, who knows?
I can't, I can't just do thisright now.
(16:01):
I call it productive procrastination.
That's what it is. Becausethen you're doing something you're
still.
Supposed to do, correct. Ifeel good about, about it. I got
so much done today and it'slike, there's that one task. If I
did that first, if I could getmyself to do it first, then everything
else would feel so Much betterin my brain, right? But I can't.
And so therefore, I've paintedthe hallway, all the furniture, clean
(16:24):
my house, taking the tongue.
I feel so jealous of otherauthors. And I'm just like, yeah,
I just, like, wrote thisseries for a while. Like, my friend
Rebel Carter is so good atthat. She can be like, yep, this
is the book we're doing. I'vegot this many awards left. I can
get it done in this time.Like, how do you. How can you give
yourself deadlines and, like,meet them? How do you do that?
Especially.
Especially in. It takes a verydisciplined type of person to do
(16:51):
it and just do it. Even ifthey know. Because some authors,
like, they're like, oh, well,every day I write 5,000 words or
8,000 words or whatever theirword thing is. And even if they know,
like, oh, I might delete 4,000tomorrow, but they know that if they
just keep on going, it'll getthere. Which is true of any art.
If you just keep on making theart, you have to edit it. You have
(17:13):
to consider, you know, youhave to bring things together, but
eventually it's gonna get doneif you just keep on doing it. But
it is hard to convince your,like, your own brain to do it that
way if that's not the way yourbrain is wired.
Yeah, it's. It's tough. I willsit there like, yeah, I'm gonna write
5,000 words today, and thenI'll sit there and stare at the screen
(17:34):
for, like, three hours. I'mlike, you know what? I'm gonna go
for a walk.
You know? You know, sometimesthey, like. I like when people try
to give me advice. That's,like, the standard advice. And I
really think that if you're neurodivergent.
Yeah, it's not.
It doesn't work right. Like,they're like, just get your paper
and write your name on it.Well, you know what I have? I have
(17:56):
a paper with my name on itthat has nothing else on it, you
know? Or, like, if you justsit down and whatever, you'll do
the thing. And, like, my brainhas such PDA that if I'm trying to
tell it it's got to dosomething, then it is absolutely,
like, not gonna do it.
(18:17):
Let me tell you about how whenI read books with aliens and people
getting abducted, a lot ofpeople throughout history have been
worried about alienabductions. However, I come from
the generation where we'relike, hello, Excuse me. Well, I don't
mind. I mean, let's just seewhat's happening.
(18:38):
Authors in space. I've gotnothing going on. Let's go.
I mean, I have a husband andchildren, but I'm just saying, if
you abducted me, it's not.It's gonna. I mean, what can I do?
You've taken me. I. So I feellike this book is me in the sense
that if I discovered an alien.I was on an alien planet, and I discovered
(18:59):
he had ridges on his tongue,my first thought would be Dory's
first thought, which is, whatdo those ridges feel like? And I
appreciate deeply from theheart of all alien romance readers
that they do not have regularhuman male parts.
(19:25):
Because what would be the point?
What is the point? Thank you.What is the point?
That's the real.
I always tell Shani, if. Ifaliens do not have magical jizz that
somehow rubs on my skin andmakes me orgasm or something, whatever.
I don't care what it does.It's got to do something, okay? You
got to have. In this book, wehave special tales, knots, special
(19:46):
tongues. I mean, it's atrifecta of glory.
There are also ridges on their dicks.
Yes, that's true. I've heardabout that.
The sex scene was getting soinvolved. I can't keep track of all
this. So we're gonna focus onthe tails right now.
Yes, I think the tails was awin. I think the tails. I also think,
in general, you do such a goodjob of the characters asking questions
(20:09):
and then listening to thehuman women. Because presumably,
I mean, in this case, forsure. But even in the case of the
other, like, fantasy monsters,they wouldn't necessarily have had
sex with a human woman before.So perhaps they don't even. Maybe
alien ladies don't have aclit. We don't know they're aliens.
And so I think. I love thatabout your book, that they're like,
(20:31):
well, what does it do? Show mewhere it is. I will take over from
here. Don't worry.
Just give me a littledirection, and I got it.
Not like, a little direction,and then I've ignored you. A little
direction. Then I will suctionmy tail to you until you break.
It was the wrong time to sipmy coffee.
Sorry. Yes.
Listen, I'm with you. Like,SpaceX keeps launching rockets outside,
(20:56):
and nobody ever knows whatthey are because they're different.
Like, now they've startedlaunching ones that are red and blue.
It's kind of wild. But theother day, they launched these. And
my friend was driving, and I'mwatching it on his FaceTime, and
he's like, what the is this?And I was like, I don't know. But
I just went to my. My windowand I was like, aliens. I'm here.
(21:18):
Take me. Because no matterwhat, in my mind, it's better than
here, honestly.
Real.
Yeah. I mean, I think thereason to start. We started a podcast
around the same time that youstarted writing. We. I feel like
there are so many things goingon in the world, and we've debated
(21:39):
before, like, should we talkmore about the real world? We talk
about our real livespersonally, but we're like, should
we talk about things that wecare about, issues that we care about,
et cetera? And we've sort ofcome down on the side of like, no.
People need a place where theycan come and laugh and we can be
that place. We're not a new.We're not journalists. We're not
news people anyways. And soit's better for people to not have
(22:02):
to worry if they tune in thatthey're going to hear something triggering
and that they can just comeand laugh and squeal about, you know,
funny, sexy books and, youknow, you know, alien penises and.
And all the good things of life.
I honestly appreciate thatbecause a lot of times when I talk
about this book, people oftenask me, like, so what? What's like,
the core meaning? Like, why doyou think alien romance is so hot
(22:25):
right now? And I'm just like,earth is ghetto. That's the reason.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Human dudes aren't pullingtheir weight the way alien dudes
are. Okay? Do they have hornsto hold on to while I ride their
face? No, they don't.
Can they carry you and yourother lover away from vicious raptors
right after you've had sex?
No, they cannot.
No, they cannot.
(22:46):
Although I have to say, thereis a scene in this that Shani listens
to the audiobook. So shehasn't listened to the audiobook
yet, but there's a scene inthis book, Shani, that you're going
to be like, what are youdoing? Because her pet peeve is like,
when people are in danger. Andthen they're like, they got time
to get it on. Which I'm like,there's always time to get it on.
(23:07):
There's always time to cop afeel, make out in the closet. I don't
care. You can always find timeto squeeze in a quickie. Okay?
And I'm.
You're height, you're hidingsomewhere, and they're above you,
but you're laying on top ofeach other. What are you going to
do, Kimberly? You know, whatthey're going to do, okay? You know,
and Shani's always like, thisis silly. And there's a scene in
this book, Shawnee, when youget to it, you're going to call me
(23:28):
and be like, this is ridiculous.
No, what I'm going to be doingis yelling in my own house.
Well, Dory. Dory also is like,what are you doing? That's how he
uses time wisely.
That's always nice when atleast somebody acknowledges the thing,
right? It's kind of like, getout. Right? They put the character
in who's like your. Everyblack audience member who's watching
(23:50):
it. You know what I mean? So,like, when I'm reading the book and
I'm like, you're in danger, girl.
You're in danger.
And they're like, let's justget it on in this closet.
I'm like, what the hell? Getout the closet.
And then I call Bridget, justlike that. Bridget. Did you see what
I did?
Yeah.
And then I almost want to seeyour live reaction to this scene
(24:10):
now, because I really want to film.
We'll film it. I'll send it toyou. I'll have her film it. It's
so funny. I was thinking aboutyou the whole time, Shawnee. I was
like, shani's gonna die whenshe listens to this later.
The stress, the stress. Like.Like my brain forgets it's a book
and the stress in my body, but.
(24:31):
They'Re being chased and I'mlike, the adren. Pumping is a perfect
time because it's hard to tellbetween adrenaline, arousal, all
that stuff when you're feelingthat adrenaline.
If it's any consolation, atone point somebody does shout, what
are you doing? We're in a highspeed chase.
That's all I need. I justneed. That's all I need.
(24:53):
I want to talk about the birdpeople, the bird aliens. First of
all, I think birds was like,like the weirdest but funniest choice
because if they had been likesome form of ground walker, they
don't get to like, be aroundobserving in the same way that something
(25:14):
that's flying is. It's almostlike a little drone that's like recording
everything. But also, Ithought the way that you integrated,
like the feathers with thetechnology and stuff was really clever.
How did you, like, come upwith that or what? What, like, what
sparked that where you werelike, oh, that would be an easy way
(25:34):
to get technology into this bird?
Well, there was sort of arunning joke with my family that
Furbies were evil and oh,gosh. How does come about again?
Well, the thing was, is thatpeople were being stinks on Twitter.
I think it was about the titleof my second book that time I got
drunk and you did a littlepushing at a werewolf. So I'm just
(25:55):
like, okay, well, if y'allwant to give me crap for having millennial
humor, I can make this so muchworse. The evil aliens are now Furbies,
or at least they look likethem. And you know what? They got
all of these feathers all upin here. What if some of them were
actually, like, replaced withmechanical ones? Like how sometimes
we do with our gold teeth andthings like that? It just made sense.
So, yeah, Furbies are now evilaliens. There's Tamagotchis involved.
(26:19):
I'll do whatever I want.
The Tamagotchi thing was sofunny, too, because I. I think it
was nice, especially becauseit was only in her POV and we knew
she was lying, but it was,like, a nice way for everyone else
to, like, keep calling her outon her. She's like, I don't have
feelings for them. And itwould be like, she's like, God damn
(26:41):
it.
Okay, the affection meter says otherwise.
Exactly. I think the Furby.The Furby call it is good because
I'm one of those people whowas raised by a mom who. Furbies
were demonic.
Yeah.
When they came out, it waslike an absolute. No, no. And I remember,
like, you said that, and Ijust had this visceral memory getting
(27:03):
on an airplane, and it hadbeen just after Christmas, and so
there was a kid who wassitting in front of us with a Furby
with me and my mom. I wassitting with my mom, and my mom was
convinced that the plane wasgoing to go down because this demonic
creature was on the plane. Andit's moments like this, Bridget.
(27:26):
I go, oh, yeah, there's thatemotional damage.
Honestly, let's talk aboutmom. You know, I kind of had a.
Similar thing going onbecause, like, both my sisters and
I had a furby, and it used toscare the crap out of our mom because
of course, it would pick upwords. And what are you gonna pick
up when you're, like, hearingthree sisters fight Instantly. So
(27:48):
she would be, like, cleaning,and then, like, next toy box, she'd
hear, I see you. And thenshe's like, oh, I hate that.
I would have thrown it out.
And then she'll, like, try tosneak away. And all of a sudden it
goes, shut up. Shut up. I seeyou. I was like, we're throwing out
the Furbies. We're throwingout the furbies.
I can't handle this.
I would 100. There were toomany movies in general. Now they
(28:11):
have more. But, like, when wewere growing up, that was the age
of, like, dolls trying to kill kids.
I used to be terrified of dolls.
Yeah. Like, I was like, we'renot. No, the humanoid doll looking
Annabelle Chucky is too much.We ever get one? And I was like,
no, we wouldn't. No, we wouldnot ever get a lifelike sized doll
(28:32):
that is gonna murder ourchildren in the night.
Listen, man. Teddy Repskin,okay? Somebody decided to give me
a Teddy Repskin for mybirthday. You know, you put the tape
in the stomach and it tellsyou the story and it's talking, but
when the battery is dying,Teddy's like, I. I was terrified
of this to the point my momhad to, like, hide it. She put it
(28:54):
in the top of the closetbecause I don't hide it, freak out,
just give it away. And I justused to stare at the closet like.
Like, she. Like, she did it tome on purpose. Like, why she put
him in there. He's gonna beout of there at any time. He can
come out. And it wasn't untilI was at YouTube space in, like,
a class, there was a kidthere. He's like. He raised his hand.
He's like, my dad inventedTeddy Rubsky. And I felt fully, like,
(29:17):
vindicated and in my powerwhen I said to him, tell your daddy's
a bitch.
Incredible.
But I love. I love that youhave those types of references in
there, because I do think theyspeak just. They speak so heavily
to us.
They really do. It's all. It'sjust ingrained in us. The slight
(29:40):
fear of dolls.
Yeah. Let's talk about sex inbooks. Because I think sometimes
when there is an illustratedcover, people think that the book
is not going to be spicy.Ourselves included. We've been tricked
a few times where we're like,oh, this. This book will probably
be fine. And then we'rereading it and we're like, well,
hello there. Your books,however, are illustrated, but they're
(30:03):
like bodice rub. Excuse me,Bodice ripper illustration. So rather
than, like, have people dressup as aliens and then take a real
photograph, how did you do theart? Because I think that the covers
are so pretty, and I feel likethey hit that perfect tone of like,
(30:24):
I know what the book's goingto be about. I know, based on, like,
the font and the colors thatit's going to be fun and, like, poppy
and not, you know, like aDark, you know, sort of mysterious
fantasy. How do you come upwith them? Do you, like. I know you
don't draw them. There's anillustrator. But, like, do you kind
of come up with the plan of,like, what the characters will be
(30:45):
doing in those images?
So sometimes I think with myMead Mishaps books, because I originally
drew the indie covers, andwhen I got traditionally published,
I was able to pick out MikePape as my cover artist. And he's
incredible. So with those, hesort of just, like, looked at the
original covers and sort ofplayed off on that and read a few
chapters of the book. But withAliens and with my Mistletofo cover,
(31:07):
especially with the Mistletofocover, I got to work with him directly
because that one is stillindie. And one thing I love about
Mike's paintings is that hereally is good at capturing the emotions
of it. And so instead of justsaying, like, oh, here's what these
characters look like, he hadme go out and feel, like, what are
their personalities? How dothey interact with. With each other,
how to do this and that? Like,what kind of pose would work? And
so he's very interested in notjust how they look, but how they're
(31:30):
feeling. And I think he's ableto capture that perfectly with every
single book. And he has donesuch incredible work. Like, he's
done work with Baldur's Gate 3and all these other just amazing
places. And, yeah, I think itreally. He should get all the credit
for this because I'll givehim, like, the first few chapters
of, like, each book that he'sworking on and, like, a few pointers
(31:51):
in their characteristics. Butafter that, he just runs with it
and he. It comes out perfectevery time.
The COVID collaboration, theCOVID of that.
Time I Got Drunk and Saved aDemon. So I didn't. I didn't know
who you were as an author. I'dnever, like, heard your name before.
I was just, like, browsingbooks and I saw this cover and I
(32:13):
was like, I have to read thatbook. Like, I chose it because of
the COVID I thought it was so.Like, I thought it promised me so
much.
Well, hopefully it delivered.
It did, but it was just. Itwas just interesting because I think
I messaged Bridget and I waslike, oh, we gotta read this book.
(32:34):
So, like, I think one. It's,like, so beautiful. The colors are
so vibrant. Also, like, thecharacters are looking at each other
in a certain way. And thatcertain way I want to be a part of.
I want to be in the sandwich.
I want to Be. I want to be in there.
You know, the first time I sawthe final sketch, I literally gasped
aloud, and I think I justscreamed like, eric, come here. I
(32:58):
have to show my husband.
Definitely. I like, what isit? Like, so going from that mindset
of, like, oh, I'm just gonna,like, I wrote this book. I like it.
I'm gonna put it on KindleUnlimited. Obviously, it took off.
Book two is massive. And hit,like, I don't, like, top five, I
think. Right. Or something of fantasy.
All fantasy romance on Amazon.
(33:20):
I was like, what? Insane? Yes,crazy. Obviously, then you get traditionally
published book deal. So nowyou walk into a bookstore, and there
are your books, there's yourname. What's that feeling like it's
baffling.
I. I didn't really know how tohandle it the first year because,
again, I wrote the first bookas just, like, having fun. And two
(33:41):
months later, I'm just like,here you go. Here's a book world.
I didn't think anyone'sactually going to read it. Then a
bunch of people actually readit, like, oh, God, I have to make
a second one. Cool, here yougo. And then a third. And then, like,
publishing deals. Okay, so Iactually want to talk about how this
one came to be.
Yeah, please.
I got abducted by aliens andI'm trapped in a rom com. So after
the Mead Mishaps series gottraditionally published, I had another
(34:05):
publisher coming to me wantinganother series. And I wasn't really
sure if I wanted to, like,stay indie or, like, like, go delve
further into additionalpublishing. So I'm just like, I know
I'm gonna make a book soridiculous, they'll have to say no.
They'll have to say no. Andthen I thought, well, what's not
selling in trad pub? Oh, Iknow. Alien romances and poly romances.
We can do this. And because itwas in the middle of that stink on
(34:28):
Twitter, I'm just like, youknow what? We're also going to make
it even more millennial humor,because why not? So I come up with
this wild concept, and I'mlike, okay, this is gonna be great.
There's gonna be, like,dinosaurs, Tamagotchis, all the things.
They'll have to say no. Theysaid yes. And I was like, ah, well,
I said no anyway. And then myagent was like, well, let's shop
(34:48):
it around, see if anybody elsewants it, and see if we can get you
a good deal. And I'm like,okay, I doubt anyone's actually gonna
want to, like, give me anadvance for this. And then Berkeley
came along. I'm like, what ishappening? Okay, fine, we'll do it.
But, like, what is happening?
I think what's happening isthat publishing is slowly, like any
giant monolith. Like, bigthing is the ship is slowly turning.
(35:13):
And I think, like, the IcePlanet Barbarian series being so
unbelievably massive withtheir reprintings and stuff, I feel
like is like opening the doorfor. For books like this. That's
true.
Ruby.
Dixie Queen. I feel like 4years ago no one would have bought
this book. Probably.
No.
But now I feel like they'relike, well, obviously people want
(35:36):
it. And obviously, you know,that's what they want to sell books.
Like, at the end of the day,they're in the business of selling
those books. I want to talkabout your titles because you mentioned
a little bit ago that someonewas, like, giving you grief for how,
like, long the title was andthat it was very millennial sounding.
(35:58):
Did anyone push back on thetitle? Because typically books are
just. The titles are justshorter. I don't know if that is
because it's easier to marketor just because book titles are usually
shorter. So people, when theywrite books are like, well, I can
only have four words, so Ihave to find the four words that
work the best, I guess. Butall of your titles are very descriptive
(36:20):
and long. Did anyone, like,push back on that or were you kind
of like, sorry, this is thetitle. This is what it is.
I'm very interested in this.
Yeah.
So I think because I startedoff the series as indie, I'd already
become known for my longtitles. Orbit pushed back a bit when
they bought book two of MeetMishaps. Like, I don't know if we
want a title this long. I'mlike, okay, well, this book already
(36:41):
won, like, indie awards, sowe're keeping the title. I don't
know what to tell you. But Idid let them change the title of
book three, because originallythat time I drugged the dragon because
it is an ayahuasca trip.They're just like, we don't want
drug in the title. I'm like,that's fair. So we did change the
title of that one, but when itcame to aliens, we tossed around
different sounding titlesbecause I think the original title
(37:02):
was I Got Abducted by Aliensand I'm about to make it everyone's
problem. They wanted somethinga little different, a little more
punchier, but they never saidmake it shorter. They're just like,
no, no, we still want thewhole sentence because that's what
you're known for, but like,maybe rom com instead.
Yeah.
And it's.
Yeah. And like, I mean, assomeone who just finished reading
the book, I feel like thefirst title, I would have thought
(37:25):
that it would be what is goingto be Book two. I think like, that
title, like made it everyone'sproblem. Feels more like the next
character's book.
I actually pitched that as the title.
Okay. Because I feel like sheis going to make it everyone's problem.
Oh, yes.
Whereas this one, she's morelike baffled and like. Okay. Like
(37:49):
she's constantly like, okay.
Angry.
Yes. Okay. Okay. I want toknow we're doing giant frogs. Okay.
Shouldn't be that big becauseI don't understand what's going on.
But okay. Dinosaurs are pink. Okay.
I. So the reason I'm like, Iwas like, so curious about like the
long titles and the pushbackis because. So I read music and whenever
(38:13):
I write a song, it alwaysstarts off with a long title. And
then my bandmates always makeme shorten it. Okay. And this last
time I wrote a song and it'scalled you made me get out of bed
and leave my Cats. Right.
That's a great title.
They want to change it to likefind yourself free, but I. Or like.
(38:34):
Or find free. And I'm like,no, that's not. But that's not. And
this is.
Leave it. See how it does. Youcan always change the title later.
That's what I'm saying. Thisis the first time I've been really
adamant about a title namebecause I. Somebody, like, I was
in a conversation withsomebody who did some fucked up shit
and I said, if you make me getout of bed and leave my cats, I'm
(38:56):
gonna fuck you up. Like, I'mgonna fuck. I said, you don't want
that for yourself.
Honestly, I am totally in yourcorner. That is a better title.
Thank you. Thank you. I'mgonna go in with the power. I'm gonna
say like, you know what she said?
He said one of these bestselling author said, you can go yourself,
stamp your approvalparaphrasing what you said. Obviously.
(39:19):
What I'm known forreinterpreting things.
But I love, I love the longtitles. I. I love that I know, like,
what I'm walking into. Even ifit's the unknown, you know, if they're
intriguing, they get me, like,excited to know what it is. And after
you read books for, I don'tknow, 25 plus years, I don't know
how old I am now, but like,after you've been Reading romance
(39:42):
that long, what title are yougoing to get that's like new or fresh?
Exactly. Like, I'm like,listen, we've all seen the Court
of. And blah, blah, blah.
There's only so many times youcan put Rose in a title. Yes.
Tell me what it does. Tell mewhat it does in the 10 and I'll be
happy blood.
And let it. Let it be theright. Like, if you're marketing
(40:04):
me a certain book, I want itto be that book. I don't want to
be tricked. I want to know.Because I had. We have on the podcast
a few times a time or two, thetitle and literally the publisher's
synopsis or the indie author'ssynopsis. Then we get to the thing
we talk about and I'm like,shannon, let me tell you why we did
(40:24):
not read the book they pubthey sent to me, okay? I read the
reviews or the. I read theblurb. I was like, great blurb. Read
the title. Love the title.Look at the COVID Love it. And then
we read the book and I'm like,but, but this is Second chance romance.
And they told me it wasEnemies to Lovers. And now I'm mad.
I don't like. Then I get allon my high horse about how they betrayed
(40:46):
me and led me astray. Yourbook, Start to Finish, is exactly.
What you sold me.
That's exactly what I waspromised in the best possible way.
I was happy reading it all theway through. I. I giggled, I squealed.
It was wonderful.
Oh, there you go.
And so I appreciate that.
I appreciate that. And I justwant to throw it out here if you.
Okay. Because I'm saying we'rejust gonna laugh when I say this.
(41:10):
Listen, if you're feelingPirates of any kind in your soul,
just. I'm gonna just put thatin your ear, okay. Because there's
just not enough pirate books.Okay. It doesn't matter what planet
they're from, just.
Well, there is some pirateshappening in mead mishaps 4. So that
is on the way still.
Oh, okay. Thank you.
(41:31):
Appreciate you. When you'repromoting books and you're doing
all these interviews and, andthe meet and greets and sort of like
a book tour to different NDstores and Barnes and Nobles and
whatever. What is yourfavorite part about going to those
events or doing sort of themarketing stuff?
(41:53):
Well, I love going places,especially if they'll actually just
send me somewhere, like, hey,we got you this hotel. And I'm like,
oh, awesome. Mini vacation. SoI'll go to the event and then just
like, go wander around thecity. Like, I've never been to Chicago.
What's going on here? And thengo try and find, like, the best ramen
shop. And of course, it'salways so fun to meet my readers
because everybody I've met sofar has just been, like, like, fantastic.
(42:15):
Sometimes they'll, like, makeme sweatshirts and things. Sometimes
they'll bring me cookies. AndI'm like, wow, this is amazing. And
my sister will yell at me,like, why would you eat strangers
cookies? Because they werenice. And she was like, they could
be poisoned. I'm like, I don'tknow. It's worth it. It's lemon bars.
Okay, I'll take the death.
Yeah, it's a homemade lemon bar.
Do you think I'm gonna pass one.
Of my lemon bars?
Also. Also, what kind ofcelebrity can just do that? Like,
(42:36):
an author is, like, the onlycelebrity job where you're not scared
that your fans are trying topoison you.
If they poison, you will neverget the next book.
It's Housewives.
Exactly. If, like, in theseinterviews and stuff, like, is there
any questions that you wish?Like, you got to talk about more
(43:00):
or things that you wish yougot to talk about more about your
books or writing or anything.
I mean, nothing I can thinkof. Any random questions are usually
fun by me. Like, of course,like, there's the average ones of,
like, how would you come upwith this? Or whatever. But, like,
anytime they have, like, aspecific question about the book,
like, why giant frog? I willhappily launch into that anytime.
(43:21):
Or why pink dinosaur?
Oh, which reminds me, the lastthing that I want to say about the
book, because again, I'mtrying not to give too much away
in this author. And if youguys is. I appreciate in your books
that the heroines main heroinetrait, in this case, that she's brilliant.
(43:44):
Botanist or biologist.Wildness. Wildlife biologist.
There you go.
Is what saves the day. BecauseI think too many times a character
will be like, like, she'sbrilliant. You're, like, wonderful.
I like brilliant people. Andthen at some point, they have to,
like, learn to fight or learnto hunt or whatever, which is great.
(44:05):
Characters should evolve. Butthen whatever they learned is what
saves the day. And I'm like,no, that was a learn. No, that's
a new skill. She should savethe day with her original.
Because what was thebrilliance for then?
Exactly. And I appreciate thatthis book closes that loop for me
in the most delightful way andin a way that, like, any person who
(44:28):
understands wildlife and Earthwould be like, aha. But obviously,
whereas the aliens are like,we don't know what you're talking
about. That can't be the answer.
It can't just be that easy.
It can't be that easy. Andsometimes on an alien terraformed
planet by bird, like, aliens,Very little research. It can be,
(44:52):
except for. That brings me toone more thing. I want to talk quickly
about the purpose of thelittle bird aliens trying to, like,
repopulate this other alienspecies and how you sort of integrated
romance tropes as theirknowledge base for getting species
(45:13):
to mate.
So what's the actual question?
Like, will you talk a littlebit about, like, about the anthology
and how they decided how theythink human women fall in love and
how they. How they think theymate, make babies?
Well, I gush. My brain justblanked. You know what? I got it.
(45:38):
It's back, and I'm stalling soI can think of it. I got it. So the
one idea I had is that I knowromance novels are kind of, like,
known for relying too heavilyon tropes. And so I thought to myself,
well, instead of trying to,like, get rid of all the tropes,
what if we just lean into themharder and made it so much worse?
So the alien bu. Bands arejust like, well, we need to get these
(46:00):
humans to mate, but we don'tknow any of their mating rituals.
They're such a foreign speciesto us. Let's get a mating guide.
And so they get their researchteam to, like, try to find any kind
of manual for human courtship.And what do they find? An ultimate
guide to writing the bestromance. And it says, the only one
bedroom works. So, you know,that must be what we have to do.
(46:21):
So all the houses, we make thesecond floor. Just me. One giant
bedroom with one bed. Becausethis is what they do.
It's so funny. And I love howsmart Dory is where she's just throwing
out random stuff. She's like,well, obviously, we need other things
that you don't know about.She's just like. And, like, some
of it comes back to bite herlater. I won't tell you exactly what
(46:43):
it is, but some of it is justlike. Like something that we would
all say, well, we needchocolate. I need. I am on an alien
planet. I want some chocolate.
So I need some freaking coffee.
I need coffee.
You expect me to bearchildren? To, like, form a relationship
without coffee? Withoutcaffeine? You monster.
You monster. And they're like,oh, we'll figure it out. Like, so
(47:07):
funny. Oh, Kimberly, this hasbeen a delight. Thank you for coming.
And chatting with us today.
Absolutely. This has been fun.
And also thank you for writingthis book. It is so funny. Everyone,
the book is out today. You cango find it at all of your local indies,
Barnes and Noble, theInternet, anywhere you like to buy
books. And until next time,may your books.
(47:30):
Be your lover and your handyour best friend. Thanks for hanging
in with us, romance readers.Head over to Instagram to continue
chatting with us. We're superfriendly, we want to cackle with
you, we want to know what yourfavorite sex scene was, and we need
more book recommendations.
If you want to read along with.
Us, go to our website,romanceataglance.com to.
(47:50):
See what we're reading next.
And we'll see you next podcast.
Well, hello everyone, andwelcome to Romance at a Glance. I'm
your host, Bridge, and with meis my co host, Shani. Hi, Shani.
Hi, Bridget. How you doing today?
I am doing so well, Shani. Ihad the best week recording with
you last week.
Me too. I've been excited thatwe're like, getting into the swing
of things because I don'tquantify how much I miss you when
(00:22):
I don't actively get to hangout with you. So thank you for saying
that. And also, I love you.
I love you too. But also, Iwas talking about Kimberly Lemming,
who I feel like is going to bemy new best friend. Sorry, you're
gonna have to take a seat.Actually, best friends of tier we
can all fit. She was amazing.Kimberly, if you're listening, you're
a goddamn delight. Guys, wegot to talk to her about her latest
(00:43):
book, which is coming outtoday, February 18th. It's called
I Got Abducted by Aliens andNow I'm Trapped in a rom com. It
is book one of a new, newseries, which I'm very excited that
it's going to be in a newseries called Cosmic Chaos, which
means we're going to get morealien, just insanity. And I cannot
be more ready.
(01:03):
So, Bridget, I'm more thanhappy to be in a throuple best friendship
with you and Kimberly becausewe had a great ass time. And I'm
actually so excited about whatwe talked about on the podcast and
to share it with everybody.
So, like, Bridget, I feel like we.
Should just get into this.
I mean, let's get it popping.There's nothing else to do but just
(01:25):
get it popping. Romance at aglance. Romance at a glance.
What'd you say?
At a glance. Go ahead. Okay,so I have to tell you that I loved
this book so much it isembarrassing how fast I ran down
the stairs. And my husbanddoes not read just like period. But
(01:47):
he also does not read romance.His theory of life is if it's good,
it'll get turned into a movie.Which I'm like, there's too many
books for that to be real. ButI was like, babe, you don't understand.
Let me tell you the plot.Okay, so there's this girl, she's
hysterical. She's studyingthese things. Then she's about to
be mauled by a line. But thenthese crazy bird aliens save her
and take them both up to aspaceship. And he's like, wait, what's
(02:08):
happening? And I was like. Andthen they get dropped off on this
other planet where there'sThese other. Other aliens and the
bird people are trying to savethose aliens, but they only save
the dudes because they'redumb. So then they bring these human
women, but then she actuallymissed. Like, I. Like, he's just.
Like, that book sounds crazy.And I was like, you don't understand.
It's, like, the perfect blendof hilarious, like, in the way that,
(02:30):
like, it gives me those vibesof, like, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
or, like, you know, back inthe day when the characters were
allowed to be, like, morequippy and fantasy didn't have to
be so dark and so intense andso, like, fantasy could just be fun
and weird. Tell me a littlebit about, like, your journey into
(02:54):
finding that voice of fun inthe fantasy.
Well, it kind of started outhow I started writing my first book
in the first place, and thatwas, I really hate my job. I'm going
to quit and be a delusionalromance author for a bit. And so
after I quit my job, I waslike, wee. And just, like, spent,
like, two months puttingwhatever silly nonsense I could and
(03:17):
just having the time of mylife writing my first book. That
time I got drunk and saved ademon. And when that book came out,
I found out, hey, there'sactually a market for fun, goofy
fantasies, so why change now?So I just ended up writing the book
I wanted to read so muchbecause, again, like you said, a
lot of fantasy has just beensuch grim, dark lately. And I grew
up with Buffy and all theother fun stuff, so I'm just like,
(03:39):
where is that? Bring it back.
I also liked. We talk a lotabout dual POV on the podcast and
how sometimes it can be reallygreat, especially in, like, a fantasy
where there's a lot of thingsgoing on away from the character.
So you can kind of get thatperspective of, like, what is that
other prince or alien orwhatever doing in their High Council
(04:00):
or something. I love that youstay in one point of view, because
I think for this, like, youcan't. I don't think it would be
as enjoyable to discover allthe oddities of the world if you
didn't discover them with her.Like, if you all of a sudden were
in one of the other alienPOVs, you would know too much.
Y. I think there's a realdelicate balance when it comes to
(04:22):
POVs. And personally, I don'treally like writing dual POVs unless
I have to. And when it cameto, like, having my first romance
with three people, I'm like,okay, there's no possible way I'm
doing, like, three POVs Iwon't do it. I refuse. They can be
mad if they want to. We'restaying in Dory's head because one,
she's funny and two, it makesway more sense to just see the entire
(04:44):
story through her eyes ratherthan a bunch of other people.
So I agree with you. I thinkit takes you out of it. And I think
there's something charmingabout her. First of all, she's so
funny and she has so manyintrusive thoughts about everything.
And I think it's so funny,like hearing the dialogue of the
(05:05):
other two MCs talking abouther, especially to each other. And
he's like, what is she doing?She's yelling at plants. Why is she
yelling at plants? It's athing she does. It's adorable. Like,
I thought that that was thebest because it shows that he understands
her kind of and he thinks thatshe's cute and that her personality
and weird like quirks aboutbeing obsessed with biology is charming
(05:26):
as part of his draw to her.And also I just think like, if you
had heard him internalizingthat, I don't think it would have
been as cute.
Nah, definitely not. Also, hewas having his own spirals of his
own. So it would have been waytoo much. That book would have to
be like 500 pages and I can't,I can't write that long. I can't
do it.
(05:47):
Okay, that's something Iwanted to ask you too. So your books
are fast in the best possibleway. I love fantasy, as listeners
of the podcast know. Shaniknows I'm here. A thousand pages.
If it's there, if the writingis there and the world building is
there, I'll read a thousandpages. But too many authors, I feel
(06:07):
in fantasy add exposition, addthings that perhaps we don't need
to know. Perhaps they do notadd to the plot or the central romance.
And I feel like in otherauthors hands your book may have
been 450 pages instead of anice tight 300.
I mean, I'll be honest, Icould sit there and ramble on about
(06:30):
animals and dinosaurs untilthe cows come home. So I have spared
you of at least a thousandpages of that.
So appreciate it.
Yeah. And I, and I like, likeI think it like you I was interview.
I actually had another guesthost on and we chatted about your
book the other day. And onething that we were talking about
(06:51):
is how you drew in into thislike alien world, human flora and
fauna and dinosaurs andwhatnot. Can you talk a little bit
about how that helped you likeBuild out that alien planet.
Well, when I first startedthinking about doing an alien romance,
I'm like, man, I'm gonna haveto create an entire world full of
(07:11):
new species and all of thatother stuff. And that is not nearly
as funny as trying to create abootleg Earth. So instead of just
having it be a breedingprogram for, like, the planet of
the Sencato, which the ViewBand already destroyed, I'm just
like, what if. What if thisunderfunded research department was
just like, you know what?We're just gonna take, like, a bare
(07:33):
bones planet and terraform itreal quick to be, like, something
that's at least habitable forboth of them. Because on the original
Sankato planet, there is,like, massive storms that would happen
all the time, which is whyyou'll find out later in the series.
But the aliens can sensestorms coming, which is how soul
neutral, like, scoop them bothup and take off. And we would die
on that planet. We reallywould. So they're like, okay, well,
(07:55):
we'll just make, like, a copyof Earth. But we don't really have
time to, like, do our properresearch and do all our due diligence.
So we're just going to go tothese buildings with a bunch of,
like, Earth DNA and just do aquick scan and just boom, there you
go. And then I thought, oh, myGod, what if they just took scans
from all these dinosaurmuseums? And, like, you had, like,
megafauna. You had dinosaurs.You had just like a regular poodle
(08:17):
running around somewhere. I'mlike, oh, my God, this would be so
much more fun. And so then Ijust kind of rolled from there. And
then I thought, I. I bet youthese bu band are going to think,
well, nobody's going tonotice. How are they going to know
the difference? Like, it'sEarth DNA. But who's the one person
that would notice the most? Awildlife biologist. And I'm like,
and we're rolling.
Yeah, it was the perfect stormof, like, everything being new and
(08:42):
funny, but also my brain beingable to quickly accept and understand
everything in the scale. Youknow what I mean? Like, I understand
from watching Jurassic parkand going to dinosaur museums that
dinosaurs are fucking big andscary. And so you didn't have to
explain, like, the exactplanet is sort of like a dinosaur,
(09:04):
sort of like a cross between.You could just be like, it's a T.
Rex. And I was like, run,girl. Like, get out of there. I want
to talk also about Totobecause I like all the characters
so much. I think they're allgreat. The intern made me laugh.
But, like, Toto the lion iswho I aspire to be unbothered. He's,
(09:28):
like, calm. He's like, youknow what? We're on a planet, but
let's go kill some shit. Like,let's get after it. And she's like,
I'm not horny. And he's like,we can all smell you. You're embarrassing
yourself. Okay? We all knowthis is the animal kingdom. Like,
he was so, like, did you basehim in your mind off of, like, what
(09:48):
you imagined a line would sayor off of some other character or
person in your life who's kindof got that. Like, we got this energy.
I'm the alpha. Like,everything's good.
He's actually based off mycorgi bandicoot. And before he was
finally fixed, anytime I tookhim to the dog park, he would just
gravitate towards the largestfemale dog he could find. Like, even
(10:10):
though he stands maybe a foottall, he was all about the pit bulls,
the rottweilers, everything.And he just had, like, such this
big boss energy of, I am herefor the female dogs, and I will fight
anyone that gets in between meand my hair. I'm sorry I had to stop
taking him to dog parks, buthe makes a great lion character.
And so I'm just like, you knowwhat? She needs a sidekick. And what
(10:32):
better sidekick for an animalresearcher than a lion who really
is just here to find lionesses?
Yeah. And I think in a weirdway, I feel like you did such a good
job of giving her perspectiveon everything. She was like, you
should be proud of yourself.You're getting your own harem. That's
what we all deserve. I'll takeover this planet. No big deal. So
(10:55):
will you. We'll be together atthe top of this.
We're pride, basically brothers.
We're right now. Yeah,exactly. So when you wrote this series,
because this is book one, Iwas very excited when I then, because
I got sent the physical books,I read it, and then I was very excited
when I was doing my researchthat it said that it was book number
one in a new series. Did you,like, pre plan kind of the arc of
(11:21):
where you think this serieswill go or, like, where the next
characters will go? Or are yousomeone who, like, is writing, and
then as things come, you'relike, ooh, that might be good for
book two?
Well, I had an initial plan atthe beginning, and then I wrote book
one. I'm like, fuck that plan.We're doing something else. So it
was Actually funny, because Ineed to finish book two pretty soon,
and my editor Essie emailed mesaying, like, hey, I got the COVID
(11:43):
and the blur or cover ideasand the blurb for book two, and it
was still about Misty, acharacter that's not even in book
one yet. And I'm just like,I'm pretty sure I told her about
Blair's book. Did I not?Whoop. And so I ended up emailing
her back, like, hey, I wrote acompletely different book. But listen,
it's funnier and it's gonnatie into the third one if you buy
it. She's just like, yeah,that's fine. I'm like, oh, thank
(12:03):
God. Did I not tell her about Blair?
I mean, I would have beendevastated if Blair wasn't next.
You guys, I don't want tospoil the entrance of Blair, so I
won't. If you do want it to bespoiled, you can listen in a couple
days when the review episodecomes out and we talk about it in
(12:26):
depth. But let's just say shecomes in hot. She comes in hot. She
is not pleased. Dory is kindof, like. I wouldn't say happy about
being kidnapped to an alienplanet, but she's, like, intrigued
by the flora and fauna. Itgives her something to think about.
She's got two hot aliens,which is never a bad idea. And she's
(12:49):
got a sidekick, best friend,lion. So she's got, like, a little
bit of, you know, well, maybewe can get out of this. A little
bit of hope going a little bitof, like, well, while I'm here, we
may as well sample things. AndI feel like the next book is 100%
the opposite energy of, like,a bit.
Yeah, no, this isn't that muchof a spoiler, but you're going to
(13:10):
find out pretty soon intoBlair's book why she's so pissed
off in that cage. Because ofall my heroines, she probably has
the worst intro to her story.
When, like, as you're writing,because you did three books of the
other series and I've seen youtalk about how you'll probably, like,
(13:32):
you have some ideas and we'llprobably dip back into that at some
point. Like, as you'rewriting, you know, first indie published
and just kind of like takingyour readers on that journey and
now traditional published. Howhas that changed? Like, not only,
like, how you write it, buthow you communicate and talk to your
readers and develop that storykind of almost like in real time
(13:54):
with readers as an indiepublish versus more of like a marketing
at. When the book is alreadyfinished or like the covers are already
coming out.
How's that solved? I've had tosort of step back from sharing everything
with my readers and be morehush hush about things. And that's
kind of been a good thingbecause I was running myself ragged
(14:14):
trying to write books thatfast in the indie space. And now
with the excuse of Trad puptakes forever. I can actually slow
down and take my time and, youknow, breathe in between books. So
it's sort of been an oddbalance of like, hey, this is what's
coming as soon as I drag myweird brain out of wherever it's
dusting off and actually getit done. Because I know a lot of
(14:38):
authors can be like, yeah,this is what I'm writing and this
is what I will continue towrite until it's done. I am not that
way. And sometimes I'll begin,I'll be in the middle of a book and
be like, I cannot. I'm goingto go over here for like three months
and do something else. Andthen I'll wander back eventually
over here and get the book Iwas supposed to be writing. But it's
(14:58):
sort of a weird push and pullof like, I can't make myself write
something if I don't want towrite it.
That's, that's like, that'slike the realest thing ever. And
I feel like you're the firstperson to really like, say that concisely.
Like, I was trying to explainto somebody yesterday that like,
(15:19):
I need to clean my house,right? I've been organizing it and
just trying to get it likeemptied. And then yesterday I had
law, my like legal homeworkand I got so much cleaning done because
(15:39):
I was like, I could sit downand do this law homework or I could
go do this.
No, I feel that so much. I'mlike, I don't know if it's autistic
burnout or whatever, but Ican't write this right now. I have
to go clean my house. I haveto walk the dog. I have to write
a completely different series.Maybe I'll write a short, who knows?
I can't, I can't just do thisright now.
(16:01):
I call it productive procrastination.
That's what it is. Becausethen you're doing something you're
still.
Supposed to do, correct. Ifeel good about, about it. I got
so much done today and it'slike, there's that one task. If I
did that first, if I could getmyself to do it first, then everything
else would feel so Much betterin my brain, right? But I can't.
And so therefore, I've paintedthe hallway, all the furniture, clean
(16:24):
my house, taking the tongue.
I feel so jealous of otherauthors. And I'm just like, yeah,
I just, like, wrote thisseries for a while. Like, my friend
Rebel Carter is so good atthat. She can be like, yep, this
is the book we're doing. I'vegot this many awards left. I can
get it done in this time.Like, how do you. How can you give
yourself deadlines and, like,meet them? How do you do that?
Especially.
Especially in. It takes a verydisciplined type of person to do
(16:51):
it and just do it. Even ifthey know. Because some authors,
like, they're like, oh, well,every day I write 5,000 words or
8,000 words or whatever theirword thing is. And even if they know,
like, oh, I might delete 4,000tomorrow, but they know that if they
just keep on going, it'll getthere. Which is true of any art.
If you just keep on making theart, you have to edit it. You have
(17:13):
to consider, you know, youhave to bring things together, but
eventually it's gonna get doneif you just keep on doing it. But
it is hard to convince your,like, your own brain to do it that
way if that's not the way yourbrain is wired.
Yeah, it's. It's tough. I willsit there like, yeah, I'm gonna write
5,000 words today, and thenI'll sit there and stare at the screen
(17:34):
for, like, three hours. I'mlike, you know what? I'm gonna go
for a walk.
You know? You know, sometimesthey, like. I like when people try
to give me advice. That's,like, the standard advice. And I
really think that if you're neurodivergent.
Yeah, it's not.
It doesn't work right. Like,they're like, just get your paper
and write your name on it.Well, you know what I have? I have
(17:56):
a paper with my name on itthat has nothing else on it, you
know? Or, like, if you justsit down and whatever, you'll do
the thing. And, like, my brainhas such PDA that if I'm trying to
tell it it's got to dosomething, then it is absolutely,
like, not gonna do it.
(18:17):
Let me tell you about how whenI read books with aliens and people
getting abducted, a lot ofpeople throughout history have been
worried about alienabductions. However, I come from
the generation where we'relike, hello, Excuse me. Well, I don't
mind. I mean, let's just seewhat's happening.
(18:38):
Authors in space. I've gotnothing going on. Let's go.
I mean, I have a husband andchildren, but I'm just saying, if
you abducted me, it's not.It's gonna. I mean, what can I do?
You've taken me. I. So I feellike this book is me in the sense
that if I discovered an alien.I was on an alien planet, and I discovered
(18:59):
he had ridges on his tongue,my first thought would be Dory's
first thought, which is, whatdo those ridges feel like? And I
appreciate deeply from theheart of all alien romance readers
that they do not have regularhuman male parts.
(19:25):
Because what would be the point?
What is the point? Thank you.What is the point?
That's the real.
I always tell Shani, if. Ifaliens do not have magical jizz that
somehow rubs on my skin andmakes me orgasm or something, whatever.
I don't care what it does.It's got to do something, okay? You
got to have. In this book, wehave special tales, knots, special
(19:46):
tongues. I mean, it's atrifecta of glory.
There are also ridges on their dicks.
Yes, that's true. I've heardabout that.
The sex scene was getting soinvolved. I can't keep track of all
this. So we're gonna focus onthe tails right now.
Yes, I think the tails was awin. I think the tails. I also think,
in general, you do such a goodjob of the characters asking questions
(20:09):
and then listening to thehuman women. Because presumably,
I mean, in this case, forsure. But even in the case of the
other, like, fantasy monsters,they wouldn't necessarily have had
sex with a human woman before.So perhaps they don't even. Maybe
alien ladies don't have aclit. We don't know they're aliens.
And so I think. I love thatabout your book, that they're like,
(20:31):
well, what does it do? Show mewhere it is. I will take over from
here. Don't worry.
Just give me a littledirection, and I got it.
Not like, a little direction,and then I've ignored you. A little
direction. Then I will suctionmy tail to you until you break.
It was the wrong time to sipmy coffee.
Sorry. Yes.
Listen, I'm with you. Like,SpaceX keeps launching rockets outside,
(20:56):
and nobody ever knows whatthey are because they're different.
Like, now they've startedlaunching ones that are red and blue.
It's kind of wild. But theother day, they launched these. And
my friend was driving, and I'mwatching it on his FaceTime, and
he's like, what the is this?And I was like, I don't know. But
I just went to my. My windowand I was like, aliens. I'm here.
(21:18):
Take me. Because no matterwhat, in my mind, it's better than
here, honestly.
Real.
Yeah. I mean, I think thereason to start. We started a podcast
around the same time that youstarted writing. We. I feel like
there are so many things goingon in the world, and we've debated
(21:39):
before, like, should we talkmore about the real world? We talk
about our real livespersonally, but we're like, should
we talk about things that wecare about, issues that we care about,
et cetera? And we've sort ofcome down on the side of like, no.
People need a place where theycan come and laugh and we can be
that place. We're not a new.We're not journalists. We're not
news people anyways. And soit's better for people to not have
(22:02):
to worry if they tune in thatthey're going to hear something triggering
and that they can just comeand laugh and squeal about, you know,
funny, sexy books and, youknow, you know, alien penises and.
And all the good things of life.
I honestly appreciate thatbecause a lot of times when I talk
about this book, people oftenask me, like, so what? What's like,
the core meaning? Like, why doyou think alien romance is so hot
(22:25):
right now? And I'm just like,earth is ghetto. That's the reason.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Human dudes aren't pullingtheir weight the way alien dudes
are. Okay? Do they have hornsto hold on to while I ride their
face? No, they don't.
Can they carry you and yourother lover away from vicious raptors
right after you've had sex?
No, they cannot.
No, they cannot.
(22:46):
Although I have to say, thereis a scene in this that Shani listens
to the audiobook. So shehasn't listened to the audiobook
yet, but there's a scene inthis book, Shani, that you're going
to be like, what are youdoing? Because her pet peeve is like,
when people are in danger. Andthen they're like, they got time
to get it on. Which I'm like,there's always time to get it on.
(23:07):
There's always time to cop afeel, make out in the closet. I don't
care. You can always find timeto squeeze in a quickie. Okay?
And I'm.
You're height, you're hidingsomewhere, and they're above you,
but you're laying on top ofeach other. What are you going to
do, Kimberly? You know, whatthey're going to do, okay? You know,
and Shani's always like, thisis silly. And there's a scene in
this book, Shawnee, when youget to it, you're going to call me
(23:28):
and be like, this is ridiculous.
No, what I'm going to be doingis yelling in my own house.
Well, Dory. Dory also is like,what are you doing? That's how he
uses time wisely.
That's always nice when atleast somebody acknowledges the thing,
right? It's kind of like, getout. Right? They put the character
in who's like your. Everyblack audience member who's watching
(23:50):
it. You know what I mean? So,like, when I'm reading the book and
I'm like, you're in danger, girl.
You're in danger.
And they're like, let's justget it on in this closet.
I'm like, what the hell? Getout the closet.
And then I call Bridget, justlike that. Bridget. Did you see what
I did?
Yeah.
And then I almost want to seeyour live reaction to this scene
(24:10):
now, because I really want to film.
We'll film it. I'll send it toyou. I'll have her film it. It's
so funny. I was thinking aboutyou the whole time, Shawnee. I was
like, shani's gonna die whenshe listens to this later.
The stress, the stress. Like.Like my brain forgets it's a book
and the stress in my body, but.
(24:31):
They'Re being chased and I'mlike, the adren. Pumping is a perfect
time because it's hard to tellbetween adrenaline, arousal, all
that stuff when you're feelingthat adrenaline.
If it's any consolation, atone point somebody does shout, what
are you doing? We're in a highspeed chase.
That's all I need. I justneed. That's all I need.
(24:53):
I want to talk about the birdpeople, the bird aliens. First of
all, I think birds was like,like the weirdest but funniest choice
because if they had been likesome form of ground walker, they
don't get to like, be aroundobserving in the same way that something
(25:14):
that's flying is. It's almostlike a little drone that's like recording
everything. But also, Ithought the way that you integrated,
like the feathers with thetechnology and stuff was really clever.
How did you, like, come upwith that or what? What, like, what
sparked that where you werelike, oh, that would be an easy way
(25:34):
to get technology into this bird?
Well, there was sort of arunning joke with my family that
Furbies were evil and oh,gosh. How does come about again?
Well, the thing was, is thatpeople were being stinks on Twitter.
I think it was about the titleof my second book that time I got
drunk and you did a littlepushing at a werewolf. So I'm just
(25:55):
like, okay, well, if y'allwant to give me crap for having millennial
humor, I can make this so muchworse. The evil aliens are now Furbies,
or at least they look likethem. And you know what? They got
all of these feathers all upin here. What if some of them were
actually, like, replaced withmechanical ones? Like how sometimes
we do with our gold teeth andthings like that? It just made sense.
So, yeah, Furbies are now evilaliens. There's Tamagotchis involved.
(26:19):
I'll do whatever I want.
The Tamagotchi thing was sofunny, too, because I. I think it
was nice, especially becauseit was only in her POV and we knew
she was lying, but it was,like, a nice way for everyone else
to, like, keep calling her outon her. She's like, I don't have
feelings for them. And itwould be like, she's like, God damn
(26:41):
it.
Okay, the affection meter says otherwise.
Exactly. I think the Furby.The Furby call it is good because
I'm one of those people whowas raised by a mom who. Furbies
were demonic.
Yeah.
When they came out, it waslike an absolute. No, no. And I remember,
like, you said that, and Ijust had this visceral memory getting
(27:03):
on an airplane, and it hadbeen just after Christmas, and so
there was a kid who wassitting in front of us with a Furby
with me and my mom. I wassitting with my mom, and my mom was
convinced that the plane wasgoing to go down because this demonic
creature was on the plane. Andit's moments like this, Bridget.
(27:26):
I go, oh, yeah, there's thatemotional damage.
Honestly, let's talk aboutmom. You know, I kind of had a.
Similar thing going onbecause, like, both my sisters and
I had a furby, and it used toscare the crap out of our mom because
of course, it would pick upwords. And what are you gonna pick
up when you're, like, hearingthree sisters fight Instantly. So
(27:48):
she would be, like, cleaning,and then, like, next toy box, she'd
hear, I see you. And thenshe's like, oh, I hate that.
I would have thrown it out.
And then she'll, like, try tosneak away. And all of a sudden it
goes, shut up. Shut up. I seeyou. I was like, we're throwing out
the Furbies. We're throwingout the furbies.
I can't handle this.
I would 100. There were toomany movies in general. Now they
(28:11):
have more. But, like, when wewere growing up, that was the age
of, like, dolls trying to kill kids.
I used to be terrified of dolls.
Yeah. Like, I was like, we'renot. No, the humanoid doll looking
Annabelle Chucky is too much.We ever get one? And I was like,
no, we wouldn't. No, we wouldnot ever get a lifelike sized doll
(28:32):
that is gonna murder ourchildren in the night.
Listen, man. Teddy Repskin,okay? Somebody decided to give me
a Teddy Repskin for mybirthday. You know, you put the tape
in the stomach and it tellsyou the story and it's talking, but
when the battery is dying,Teddy's like, I. I was terrified
of this to the point my momhad to, like, hide it. She put it
(28:54):
in the top of the closetbecause I don't hide it, freak out,
just give it away. And I justused to stare at the closet like.
Like, she. Like, she did it tome on purpose. Like, why she put
him in there. He's gonna beout of there at any time. He can
come out. And it wasn't untilI was at YouTube space in, like,
a class, there was a kidthere. He's like. He raised his hand.
He's like, my dad inventedTeddy Rubsky. And I felt fully, like,
(29:17):
vindicated and in my powerwhen I said to him, tell your daddy's
a bitch.
Incredible.
But I love. I love that youhave those types of references in
there, because I do think theyspeak just. They speak so heavily
to us.
They really do. It's all. It'sjust ingrained in us. The slight
(29:40):
fear of dolls.
Yeah. Let's talk about sex inbooks. Because I think sometimes
when there is an illustratedcover, people think that the book
is not going to be spicy.Ourselves included. We've been tricked
a few times where we're like,oh, this. This book will probably
be fine. And then we'rereading it and we're like, well,
hello there. Your books,however, are illustrated, but they're
(30:03):
like bodice rub. Excuse me,Bodice ripper illustration. So rather
than, like, have people dressup as aliens and then take a real
photograph, how did you do theart? Because I think that the covers
are so pretty, and I feel likethey hit that perfect tone of like,
(30:24):
I know what the book's goingto be about. I know, based on, like,
the font and the colors thatit's going to be fun and, like, poppy
and not, you know, like aDark, you know, sort of mysterious
fantasy. How do you come upwith them? Do you, like. I know you
don't draw them. There's anillustrator. But, like, do you kind
of come up with the plan of,like, what the characters will be
(30:45):
doing in those images?
So sometimes I think with myMead Mishaps books, because I originally
drew the indie covers, andwhen I got traditionally published,
I was able to pick out MikePape as my cover artist. And he's
incredible. So with those, hesort of just, like, looked at the
original covers and sort ofplayed off on that and read a few
chapters of the book. But withAliens and with my Mistletofo cover,
(31:07):
especially with the Mistletofocover, I got to work with him directly
because that one is stillindie. And one thing I love about
Mike's paintings is that hereally is good at capturing the emotions
of it. And so instead of justsaying, like, oh, here's what these
characters look like, he hadme go out and feel, like, what are
their personalities? How dothey interact with. With each other,
how to do this and that? Like,what kind of pose would work? And
so he's very interested in notjust how they look, but how they're
(31:30):
feeling. And I think he's ableto capture that perfectly with every
single book. And he has donesuch incredible work. Like, he's
done work with Baldur's Gate 3and all these other just amazing
places. And, yeah, I think itreally. He should get all the credit
for this because I'll givehim, like, the first few chapters
of, like, each book that he'sworking on and, like, a few pointers
(31:51):
in their characteristics. Butafter that, he just runs with it
and he. It comes out perfectevery time.
The COVID collaboration, theCOVID of that.
Time I Got Drunk and Saved aDemon. So I didn't. I didn't know
who you were as an author. I'dnever, like, heard your name before.
I was just, like, browsingbooks and I saw this cover and I
(32:13):
was like, I have to read thatbook. Like, I chose it because of
the COVID I thought it was so.Like, I thought it promised me so
much.
Well, hopefully it delivered.
It did, but it was just. Itwas just interesting because I think
I messaged Bridget and I waslike, oh, we gotta read this book.
(32:34):
So, like, I think one. It's,like, so beautiful. The colors are
so vibrant. Also, like, thecharacters are looking at each other
in a certain way. And thatcertain way I want to be a part of.
I want to be in the sandwich.
I want to Be. I want to be in there.
You know, the first time I sawthe final sketch, I literally gasped
aloud, and I think I justscreamed like, eric, come here. I
(32:58):
have to show my husband.
Definitely. I like, what isit? Like, so going from that mindset
of, like, oh, I'm just gonna,like, I wrote this book. I like it.
I'm gonna put it on KindleUnlimited. Obviously, it took off.
Book two is massive. And hit,like, I don't, like, top five, I
think. Right. Or something of fantasy.
All fantasy romance on Amazon.
(33:20):
I was like, what? Insane? Yes,crazy. Obviously, then you get traditionally
published book deal. So nowyou walk into a bookstore, and there
are your books, there's yourname. What's that feeling like it's
baffling.
I. I didn't really know how tohandle it the first year because,
again, I wrote the first bookas just, like, having fun. And two
(33:41):
months later, I'm just like,here you go. Here's a book world.
I didn't think anyone'sactually going to read it. Then a
bunch of people actually readit, like, oh, God, I have to make
a second one. Cool, here yougo. And then a third. And then, like,
publishing deals. Okay, so Iactually want to talk about how this
one came to be.
Yeah, please.
I got abducted by aliens andI'm trapped in a rom com. So after
the Mead Mishaps series gottraditionally published, I had another
(34:05):
publisher coming to me wantinganother series. And I wasn't really
sure if I wanted to, like,stay indie or, like, like, go delve
further into additionalpublishing. So I'm just like, I know
I'm gonna make a book soridiculous, they'll have to say no.
They'll have to say no. Andthen I thought, well, what's not
selling in trad pub? Oh, Iknow. Alien romances and poly romances.
We can do this. And because itwas in the middle of that stink on
(34:28):
Twitter, I'm just like, youknow what? We're also going to make
it even more millennial humor,because why not? So I come up with
this wild concept, and I'mlike, okay, this is gonna be great.
There's gonna be, like,dinosaurs, Tamagotchis, all the things.
They'll have to say no. Theysaid yes. And I was like, ah, well,
I said no anyway. And then myagent was like, well, let's shop
(34:48):
it around, see if anybody elsewants it, and see if we can get you
a good deal. And I'm like,okay, I doubt anyone's actually gonna
want to, like, give me anadvance for this. And then Berkeley
came along. I'm like, what ishappening? Okay, fine, we'll do it.
But, like, what is happening?
I think what's happening isthat publishing is slowly, like any
giant monolith. Like, bigthing is the ship is slowly turning.
(35:13):
And I think, like, the IcePlanet Barbarian series being so
unbelievably massive withtheir reprintings and stuff, I feel
like is like opening the doorfor. For books like this. That's
true.
Ruby.
Dixie Queen. I feel like 4years ago no one would have bought
this book. Probably.
No.
But now I feel like they'relike, well, obviously people want
(35:36):
it. And obviously, you know,that's what they want to sell books.
Like, at the end of the day,they're in the business of selling
those books. I want to talkabout your titles because you mentioned
a little bit ago that someonewas, like, giving you grief for how,
like, long the title was andthat it was very millennial sounding.
(35:58):
Did anyone push back on thetitle? Because typically books are
just. The titles are justshorter. I don't know if that is
because it's easier to marketor just because book titles are usually
shorter. So people, when theywrite books are like, well, I can
only have four words, so Ihave to find the four words that
work the best, I guess. Butall of your titles are very descriptive
(36:20):
and long. Did anyone, like,push back on that or were you kind
of like, sorry, this is thetitle. This is what it is.
I'm very interested in this.
Yeah.
So I think because I startedoff the series as indie, I'd already
become known for my longtitles. Orbit pushed back a bit when
they bought book two of MeetMishaps. Like, I don't know if we
want a title this long. I'mlike, okay, well, this book already
(36:41):
won, like, indie awards, sowe're keeping the title. I don't
know what to tell you. But Idid let them change the title of
book three, because originallythat time I drugged the dragon because
it is an ayahuasca trip.They're just like, we don't want
drug in the title. I'm like,that's fair. So we did change the
title of that one, but when itcame to aliens, we tossed around
different sounding titlesbecause I think the original title
(37:02):
was I Got Abducted by Aliensand I'm about to make it everyone's
problem. They wanted somethinga little different, a little more
punchier, but they never saidmake it shorter. They're just like,
no, no, we still want thewhole sentence because that's what
you're known for, but like,maybe rom com instead.
Yeah.
And it's.
Yeah. And like, I mean, assomeone who just finished reading
the book, I feel like thefirst title, I would have thought
(37:25):
that it would be what is goingto be Book two. I think like, that
title, like made it everyone'sproblem. Feels more like the next
character's book.
I actually pitched that as the title.
Okay. Because I feel like sheis going to make it everyone's problem.
Oh, yes.
Whereas this one, she's morelike baffled and like. Okay. Like
(37:49):
she's constantly like, okay.
Angry.
Yes. Okay. Okay. I want toknow we're doing giant frogs. Okay.
Shouldn't be that big becauseI don't understand what's going on.
But okay. Dinosaurs are pink. Okay.
I. So the reason I'm like, Iwas like, so curious about like the
long titles and the pushbackis because. So I read music and whenever
(38:13):
I write a song, it alwaysstarts off with a long title. And
then my bandmates always makeme shorten it. Okay. And this last
time I wrote a song and it'scalled you made me get out of bed
and leave my Cats. Right.
That's a great title.
They want to change it to likefind yourself free, but I. Or like.
(38:34):
Or find free. And I'm like,no, that's not. But that's not. And
this is.
Leave it. See how it does. Youcan always change the title later.
That's what I'm saying. Thisis the first time I've been really
adamant about a title namebecause I. Somebody, like, I was
in a conversation withsomebody who did some fucked up shit
and I said, if you make me getout of bed and leave my cats, I'm
(38:56):
gonna fuck you up. Like, I'mgonna fuck. I said, you don't want
that for yourself.
Honestly, I am totally in yourcorner. That is a better title.
Thank you. Thank you. I'mgonna go in with the power. I'm gonna
say like, you know what she said?
He said one of these bestselling author said, you can go yourself,
stamp your approvalparaphrasing what you said. Obviously.
(39:19):
What I'm known forreinterpreting things.
But I love, I love the longtitles. I. I love that I know, like,
what I'm walking into. Even ifit's the unknown, you know, if they're
intriguing, they get me, like,excited to know what it is. And after
you read books for, I don'tknow, 25 plus years, I don't know
how old I am now, but like,after you've been Reading romance
(39:42):
that long, what title are yougoing to get that's like new or fresh?
Exactly. Like, I'm like,listen, we've all seen the Court
of. And blah, blah, blah.
There's only so many times youcan put Rose in a title. Yes.
Tell me what it does. Tell mewhat it does in the 10 and I'll be
happy blood.
And let it. Let it be theright. Like, if you're marketing
(40:04):
me a certain book, I want itto be that book. I don't want to
be tricked. I want to know.Because I had. We have on the podcast
a few times a time or two, thetitle and literally the publisher's
synopsis or the indie author'ssynopsis. Then we get to the thing
we talk about and I'm like,shannon, let me tell you why we did
(40:24):
not read the book they pubthey sent to me, okay? I read the
reviews or the. I read theblurb. I was like, great blurb. Read
the title. Love the title.Look at the COVID Love it. And then
we read the book and I'm like,but, but this is Second chance romance.
And they told me it wasEnemies to Lovers. And now I'm mad.
I don't like. Then I get allon my high horse about how they betrayed
(40:46):
me and led me astray. Yourbook, Start to Finish, is exactly.
What you sold me.
That's exactly what I waspromised in the best possible way.
I was happy reading it all theway through. I. I giggled, I squealed.
It was wonderful.
Oh, there you go.
And so I appreciate that.
I appreciate that. And I justwant to throw it out here if you.
Okay. Because I'm saying we'rejust gonna laugh when I say this.
(41:10):
Listen, if you're feelingPirates of any kind in your soul,
just. I'm gonna just put thatin your ear, okay. Because there's
just not enough pirate books.Okay. It doesn't matter what planet
they're from, just.
Well, there is some pirateshappening in mead mishaps 4. So that
is on the way still.
Oh, okay. Thank you.
(41:31):
Appreciate you. When you'repromoting books and you're doing
all these interviews and, andthe meet and greets and sort of like
a book tour to different NDstores and Barnes and Nobles and
whatever. What is yourfavorite part about going to those
events or doing sort of themarketing stuff?
(41:53):
Well, I love going places,especially if they'll actually just
send me somewhere, like, hey,we got you this hotel. And I'm like,
oh, awesome. Mini vacation. SoI'll go to the event and then just
like, go wander around thecity. Like, I've never been to Chicago.
What's going on here? And thengo try and find, like, the best ramen
shop. And of course, it'salways so fun to meet my readers
because everybody I've met sofar has just been, like, like, fantastic.
(42:15):
Sometimes they'll, like, makeme sweatshirts and things. Sometimes
they'll bring me cookies. AndI'm like, wow, this is amazing. And
my sister will yell at me,like, why would you eat strangers
cookies? Because they werenice. And she was like, they could
be poisoned. I'm like, I don'tknow. It's worth it. It's lemon bars.
Okay, I'll take the death.
Yeah, it's a homemade lemon bar.
Do you think I'm gonna pass one.
Of my lemon bars?
Also. Also, what kind ofcelebrity can just do that? Like,
(42:36):
an author is, like, the onlycelebrity job where you're not scared
that your fans are trying topoison you.
If they poison, you will neverget the next book.
It's Housewives.
Exactly. If, like, in theseinterviews and stuff, like, is there
any questions that you wish?Like, you got to talk about more
(43:00):
or things that you wish yougot to talk about more about your
books or writing or anything.
I mean, nothing I can thinkof. Any random questions are usually
fun by me. Like, of course,like, there's the average ones of,
like, how would you come upwith this? Or whatever. But, like,
anytime they have, like, aspecific question about the book,
like, why giant frog? I willhappily launch into that anytime.
(43:21):
Or why pink dinosaur?
Oh, which reminds me, the lastthing that I want to say about the
book, because again, I'mtrying not to give too much away
in this author. And if youguys is. I appreciate in your books
that the heroines main heroinetrait, in this case, that she's brilliant.
(43:44):
Botanist or biologist.Wildness. Wildlife biologist.
There you go.
Is what saves the day. BecauseI think too many times a character
will be like, like, she'sbrilliant. You're, like, wonderful.
I like brilliant people. Andthen at some point, they have to,
like, learn to fight or learnto hunt or whatever, which is great.
(44:05):
Characters should evolve. Butthen whatever they learned is what
saves the day. And I'm like,no, that was a learn. No, that's
a new skill. She should savethe day with her original.
Because what was thebrilliance for then?
Exactly. And I appreciate thatthis book closes that loop for me
in the most delightful way andin a way that, like, any person who
(44:28):
understands wildlife and Earthwould be like, aha. But obviously,
whereas the aliens are like,we don't know what you're talking
about. That can't be the answer.
It can't just be that easy.
It can't be that easy. Andsometimes on an alien terraformed
planet by bird, like, aliens,Very little research. It can be,
(44:52):
except for. That brings me toone more thing. I want to talk quickly
about the purpose of thelittle bird aliens trying to, like,
repopulate this other alienspecies and how you sort of integrated
romance tropes as theirknowledge base for getting species
(45:13):
to mate.
So what's the actual question?
Like, will you talk a littlebit about, like, about the anthology
and how they decided how theythink human women fall in love and
how they. How they think theymate, make babies?
Well, I gush. My brain justblanked. You know what? I got it.
(45:38):
It's back, and I'm stalling soI can think of it. I got it. So the
one idea I had is that I knowromance novels are kind of, like,
known for relying too heavilyon tropes. And so I thought to myself,
well, instead of trying to,like, get rid of all the tropes,
what if we just lean into themharder and made it so much worse?
So the alien bu. Bands arejust like, well, we need to get these
(46:00):
humans to mate, but we don'tknow any of their mating rituals.
They're such a foreign speciesto us. Let's get a mating guide.
And so they get their researchteam to, like, try to find any kind
of manual for human courtship.And what do they find? An ultimate
guide to writing the bestromance. And it says, the only one
bedroom works. So, you know,that must be what we have to do.
(46:21):
So all the houses, we make thesecond floor. Just me. One giant
bedroom with one bed. Becausethis is what they do.
It's so funny. And I love howsmart Dory is where she's just throwing
out random stuff. She's like,well, obviously, we need other things
that you don't know about.She's just like. And, like, some
of it comes back to bite herlater. I won't tell you exactly what
(46:43):
it is, but some of it is justlike. Like something that we would
all say, well, we needchocolate. I need. I am on an alien
planet. I want some chocolate.
So I need some freaking coffee.
I need coffee.
You expect me to bearchildren? To, like, form a relationship
without coffee? Withoutcaffeine? You monster.
You monster. And they're like,oh, we'll figure it out. Like, so
(47:07):
funny. Oh, Kimberly, this hasbeen a delight. Thank you for coming.
And chatting with us today.
Absolutely. This has been fun.
And also thank you for writingthis book. It is so funny. Everyone,
the book is out today. You cango find it at all of your local indies,
Barnes and Noble, theInternet, anywhere you like to buy
books. And until next time,may your books.
(47:30):
Be your lover and your handyour best friend. Thanks for hanging
in with us, romance readers.Head over to Instagram to continue
chatting with us. We're superfriendly, we want to cackle with
you, we want to know what yourfavorite sex scene was, and we need
more book recommendations.
If you want to read along with.
Us, go to our website,romanceataglance.com to.
(47:50):
See what we're reading next.
And we'll see you next podcast.
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