The Nerds Awaken

We were so lucky to welcome Katrina Kwan, author of Knives, Seasoning, & a Dash of Love  and an all around gem of a human being, as our very last Writing Reylo author.

We had an awesome time chatting with Katrina about her fanfic origins, her career as a ghost writer, and all about her debut novel. We loved this sweet and spicy romance, which is set in the fast-paced, cut throat world of haute cuisine.

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We were so thrilled to welcome Kirsten S. Blacketer as the first guest in our new Author Spotlight series. A self-published author with an impressive backlist, Kirsten was a wealth of information on self-publishing, genre tropes, and improving your writing craft.

We loved talking with her about the importance of romance novels with happily ever afters, learning how she gets inspiration for her books (and sexy male leads),...

If there's one thing our friendship is built on (that isn't Adam Driver), it's spending hours on the phone talking/gossiping/venting about pop culture and entertainment. So this time we thought, why not let people listen in? So congratulations! You all get to be flies on the wall while we discuss everything that's been on our radar lately-the books we're reading, the TV shows and K-dramas we're watchin...

We were so happy to welcome Katie Shepard back to talk about her new book Sweeten the Deal, out October 17th from Berkley!

We loved Katie's debut novel Bear with Me Now and went into Sweeten the Deal with high expectations that were absolutely met. With a gender-swapped sugar baby plot and vibrant, likeable characters, the story completely sucked us in with its themes and romantic tension.  We had a great conversation...

Somebody pinch us, we must be dreaming...because our literary hero Thea Guanzon is in The Nerds Awaken studio!

We were so privileged to talk with Thea about her gorgeous debut fantasy novel The Hurricane Wars, out October 3 from Harper Voyager. We heard about her writing and research process (mostly just vibes), her fanfic origins (plus the first time she was caught reading smut) and how her Filipino culture inspired much...

We were DELIGHTED, overjoyed, ecstatic, and all other possible synonyms for "extremely excited" to welcome one of our all-time favorite fanfic writers, Jenna Levine (aka Jeeno) to The Nerds Awaken to talk about her greatly anticipated debut novel My Roommate is a Vampire!

We learned all about Jenna's fanfic origins, the inspiration for her book, and why a 300 year old vampire and a 30-something starving arti...

We were so excited to sit down with Ashley Hawthorne, whose debut novel Deliver Me arrives July 18th from Creative James Media!

We chatted with Ashley about how The Rise of Skywalker inspired her to become a writer, learned the inspiration for her novel and the tough themes of trauma that the story explores (and found out which character was inspired by Rian Johnson!). Ashley also had great advice for other writers on how ...

We were thrilled to welcome back Julie Soto, whose debut novel Forget Me Not arrives July 11th from Forever Publishing!

Whether you know her as Julie or as her fanfic alter ego Lovesbitca8, anyone who has read her works knows her incredible talent for storytelling. We were so excited to chat with her about how Forget Me Not  was born,  hear about exciting TV adaptation news, and see what advice she had for other writers ho...

Have you ever had to break up with a TV show or book series? We have, and that show/book series was Outlander.

But thanks to our friend Nagier at Big Gold Belt Media, we had the opportunity to interview some of the cast and producers behind the Starz hit show, and we asked ourselves the question: could the new season of Outlander convince us to come back?

We explored that and more, remembering our heady early days...

Us? Not talk about an Ali Hazelwood book? NEVER GONNA HAPPEN.

We LOVED Ali’s latest enemies-to-lovers novel Love, Theoretically, which pits an experimental physicist against a theoretical physicist and trust us when we say that that combo is WAY hotter than you’d think. Elsie and Jack miiiight just be our new favorite STEMinist couple (no offense, Adam and Olive).

Listen to find out why we think this is Ali’s bes...

It was our pleasure and delight to chat with author and fellow Reylo Tristen Crone, whose debut novel Playing for Keeps arrives from Lake Country Press June 27th!

We learned how The Rise of Skywalker got her into fan fiction, how her and her husband’s love of board games helped inspire the plot for her novel, and what other stories she has in the works (spoiler: they sound amazing!).

Connect with Tristen on her we...

Breaking down Bridgerton is back with a deep, very spoiler-y dive into the recent Netflix series Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.

We discuss the things we loved (the list was very, very long), and the few aspects that didn’t quite work for us, as well as how the show compared to previous Bridgerton seasons.

Find us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, or FaceBook and let us know what you thought about Queen Charlot...

It took a few years, but Din Djarin and his little green sidekick were finally back on our screens!

In this episode we discuss our thoughts on the entire season, from Grogu’s adorable toddler moments to the deeper look at  Mandalorian culture and that stunning finale. All that plus our hopes and theories for the future (*cough* Bo-Katan spin-off *cough*).

Find us on social media and let us know what you thought a...

The year of Reylos in publishing continues! We had the honor of sitting down with Katie Shepard, whose upcoming debut novel Bear With Me Now is out April 25th.

We loved this book, from its bear attack meet-cute at a Goop-esque wilderness retreat, to the tender romance that develops while the main couple each face their own mental health issues. We talked with Katie about her inspiration for the book, and how she went from ...

It was our absolute pleasure to talk with historical romance and Reylo fanfic writer Liana De la Rosa, the author of the upcoming Latinx novel Ana Maria and the Fox, the first book of The Luna Sisters trilogy and a story that we absolutely fell in love with.

We grilled Liana on very important topics like the first fanfiction she ever read, her least favorite historical fiction trope, and why enemies-to-lovers is so addicti...

Ignore the Rotten Tomatoes score, because we both agreed that Adam Driver’s new film 65 was the most fun we’ve had in a movie theater in a long time.

There was little we didn’t love; the jump scares, the locations, Adam Driver fighting dinosaurs, Adam Driver climbing trees, Adam Driver going full Protective Girl Dad…and so on and so forth.

Did you also love 65? Come find us on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and let...