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Strangers on the subway
fall hard for each other—
only to discover one is
stuck in timeDating for the cameras
has complicated
consequences for an
actor with a static careerLives Matter and #MeToo and whatever
the hell the last presidency was—you
can’t help but infuse reality into your
story if it’s at all contemporary. But love
stories still need to be told.
MCQUISTON: For me, it’s about fi nding
the sweet spot between suspension
of disbelief and punching up. A lot of
romance stories take place in settings or
under conditions that we may want to
challenge in the real world—monarchies,
for example—and I like committing to
the bit while also subverting the tropes
that come with it and inviting the reader
to examine them with me.
HOANG: Some of my favorite romances
are more serious in tone, but I love them
for the intense emotions they evoke.
Romance with social commentary fl ows
and balances itself very naturally, as
social issues create confl ict, which in
turn inspires emotion, which is the heart
of romance. The tricky part for me is
in making those emotions inspired by
social issues relevant to a love story.
these moments seems super diffi cult.
How do you approach those scenes?
GUILLORY: Sex scenes are part of the way
I tell the story of this couple—who they
are and how they relate to one another.
I want sex scenes to feel fun and
exciting, yes, but also to tell the
reader something about these
characters and their relationship.
Is that character emotional? Uptight?
Funny? How do these people feel
about one another?Tia, the protagonist of your new
book, Eva, is a famous erotica
novelist. How does your approach
to writing sex scenes compare
with hers?
WILLIAMS: I thought it’d be interesting
and funny to write a character who
invents ultra-steamy sex scenes for a
living—and yet hasn’t had sex in ages.
At the time I was writing Seven Days,
I was extremely single, like Eva.
So our sex-scene strategy was pretty
much the same: lots of imagination
and wish- fulfi llment fantasy.Mikaella and Onjuli, as a gay couple,
what was it like writing about a
straight relationship?
MIKAELLA CLEMENTS: It was fascinating
to navigate our characters through
the many layers of power, desire and
diff erence which exist in a straight
relationship and examine the tensions
that might arise. At the same time,
there are many things about love which
are universal.Does every romance novel need
to have a happy ending?
GUILLORY: Not every love story
does, but every book called a romance
does. When readers are specifi cally
looking for a romance, they want a
book with a happy ending.
HOANG: When readers trust that
everything is going to be O.K.
in the end, they open their hearts to
experience a wider range of emotion,
because they’re not protecting
themselves from pain. This is
something special to the genre.
D A T T A : The most important thing
is to leave your characters in a
place where the reader can say goodbye
to them, even if they don’t want to. ‘It’s an escape,
catharsis, a bridge to
build empathy.’
HE LE N HOANG,
on the power of romance novelsHelen, why is it important to you to
portray neurodiverse characters in
your work?
HOANG: That is my life experience,
and writing helps me to better
understand myself and process what
I’ve been through. At the same time,
it’s important to share this perspective
with readers so they may either see
themselves, if they’re neurodiverse
as well, or understand and develop
empathy and lose the sense that autistic
people are “other.”A lot of your books describe sex in
visceral and sometimes intense
terms. Striking the right tone to avoid
cheesiness and make readers invest in