From chart-topping songs to box office hits and best-selling books, everyone is looking to get a little taste of romance. To date, romance novels remain the highest-grossing genre worldwide, but what does it take to become a romance writer? On October 3, alumni Thao Thai (MFA ‘12) and Jess Everlee (BA ‘11) led a discussion with students on their own journeys to romance writing and publishing.
Everlee, author of the Lucky Lovers of London series, and Thai, fresh off the release of Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour (published as Nora Nguyen), both described their writing careers as less of a choice and more of a calling. Both grew up as avid readers and writers, but breaking into the publishing world and transitioning to full-time authorship came with its own challenges. Beyond their traditional education at Ohio State, one of the most critical steps in each of their journeys was finding an agent willing to promote their work to publishers. "I sent my first round of queries to agents in 2009, during my junior year at OSU," recalled Everlee. "No one wanted that book, so I wrote another, and another, until I signed with my first agent in 2016” — in total writing 13 books before getting published. She points out that writing romance offers many more opportunities for self-publishing than a lot of other genres, offering her more security in finding her audience. Thai’s agent found her through her previously published work for various digital publications and first published her in literary fiction, then acquired Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour. For both, good timing was of the essence, with their respective subgenres in romance gaining a larger audience before their queries.
For both Thai and Everlee, romance novels have played a significant role in their literary lives. Thai, a longtime reader and writer of romance, finds comfort in the "warmth and humor" of the genre, especially during tough times. She wrote her first romance novel in her early 30s as an outlet for untapped creativity while she struggled with her position in a startup that was often emotionally draining. While this book was left unpublished, ten years later she found herself feeling similarly after finishing her first novel in a different genre: “It took a lot out of me emotionally. And so again I felt myself wanting something that was fun and light and exciting.” From this feeling she began writing Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour. For Everlee, the path to romance was less direct. She initially carried popular misconceptions about romance novels, believing them all to be "trashy, poorly written, and featuring Fabio on the cover." However, her perception changed in college when she stumbled upon The Siren by Tiffany Reisz. She says “it was beautifully written. The craft was phenomenal. I realized I'd made a mistake about this genre and started giving other authors a try.” When she began writing romance, she enjoyed the freedom of a flexible word count (including as much “banter and sex” as she wanted) and the structural assurance of a happily ever after. As a writer of queer historical romances, the response to her happy endings has been especially moving. She says, “those happy endings mean the world to some readers; I did not really understand the power of that until I started hearing from them.”
Everlee’s Lucky Lovers of London series features queer historical romances set in Victorian England. As a student, she was drawn to English classes that focused on Victorian literature and sought to combine that interest with her women’s and gender studies coursework. Much of her research involves “filling in gaps” because queer life during the Victorian era often relied on living under the radar. She gathers information on the social and emotional landscapes of queer Victorians to discover ways for her characters to “fit into that world in a way that allows their happy ending.” Though period romances are more popular these days, centering a wide range of character types, Everlee notes that when she started it was rare to read about queer or middle-class characters. While she does not usually draw upon real life historical figures, some of her research brings up figures that are too compelling to pass up. For example, “Paul Smith, an erotica publisher, is vaguely inspired by Leonard Smithers, a publisher of similar literature near the end of the 19th century who risked publishing some of Oscar Wilde's more salacious or political pieces.” At the intersection of actual historical influences, primary research, and literary invention, Lucky Lovers of London hits a sweet spot that remains true to its historical setting while reflecting the desires and lives of its modern readers.
For Thai, romance writing has always brought joy. As she transitioned from literary fiction in her novel Banyan Moon to romance in Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour, she chose to publish under the pen name Nora Nguyen to “distinguish genre expectations” and tone for her readers. Although both works explore themes of family, identity, and inheritance, she wanted readers to approach Adam and Evie’s Matchmaking Tour with the understanding that it follows the conventions of a traditional romance novel and like Everlee, invite readers to take comfort in the promise of a “happily ever after.” The initial inklings of the book came in Thai’s twenties, when she toured Vietnam with her grandparents. During that trip, she says, “I fell in love with my homeland and found a sense of connection that I felt was missing for most of my life.” As readers follow protagonist Evie Lang from Ohio to Vietnam on a matchmaking tour, Thai hopes they find similar comforts in the different settings, underscoring how “places can often bring us closer to our families and to ourselves” and inspire feelings of renewal. Romance, for Thai, has always been a source of not only comfort, but self-discovery as well.
There is rarely ever a direct trajectory into publishing for any author, but rather a serendipity of good writing and good timing. For both Thai and Everlee, it was not only their skills as writers that brought them success as authors, but their commitment to their craft in the face of any potential disappointments. “Happily ever after” may not be guaranteed outside of fictional romance, but happily author after is possible!
