Husband Material followed an interesting structure. Did you have that in mind before you began, or did that develop as the story progressed?
Nope. I decided going in I was going to blatantly and shamelessly rip off Four Weddings and a Funeral. Which is what I’m assuming ‘interesting structure’ is a polite euphemism for.
Your novels often veer from hilarity to pointed social commentary （a great example is Ana with one N）。 Do you have those issues in mind when you start writing, or do they just sort of pop up?
This makes it sound like I don’t know what I’m doing, but they do just sort of pop up. I mean, I think what Luc and Oliver have going on in terms of their various issues and their relationships to the intersecting branches of their identities is sort of baked into the characters and therefore baked into the premise. But a lot of the rest of the time it’s sort of almost circumstantial.
Ana With One N is a good example of this. Like, in a sense, she came about because part of Rhys’s deal is that he tends to serial date and so he always brings a different woman to every CRAPP-related event. And, obviously, I didn’t want these people to be faceless ciphers, so I needed to get Rhys’s date a fairly clear personality, backstory, and worldview.
That’s kind of what happened with Tyler as well: I wanted Luc to look at art during his own gender nonspecific bird party and to have a healthy, flirty encounter with a guy （to offset all the unhealthy encounters he’s had previously）。 And that just took me down the “what kind of person would know Priya” rabbit hole, which would be someone cool, interesting, arty, and a bit angry. And from there you get Tyler.
What’s one thing that both Oliver and Luc might have in the refrigerator at their flats? （Does such an item even exist?） Margarine. It’s a weird crossover point between “random crap that even people who never cook have to put on bread” and “stuff that’s actually quite useful and vegan.”
Do your fans create some of the best fan art in the world? The correct answer is YES. What are your thoughts on people creating art or stories from your own work?
I am incredibly blessed in terms of the fan art people share with me. It’s genuinely humbling to feel you inspire that kind of thing. In general, I’m completely happy for people to create art or stories or whatever they like from my work （although, as always, blah blah legal handwave reserve the right etc.）。 I am aware that there’s some written fanwork out there too, but obviously I don’t look at that because it goes to some very complicated places. I don’t think there’s the same culture of sharing written fanwork as there is with fan art and me seeking it out would just be awkward for everybody. I think the difference is art is a specifically different medium, so the types of work aren’t going to compete or conflict or anything like that.
What’s your favorite Richard Curtis movie?
It’s got to be Notting Hill. It’s the most coherent out of the three big rom-coms, I think. I mean, Four Weddings and a Funeral is iconic but flawed （like Hugh Grant and Andie McDowell meet…three times, I think?） and Love Actually is a whole bag of complicated. I will say, I have a soft spot for About Time—except the romance in that is a bit of a mess because using your time travel powers to date a girl is never not going to be creepy. It’s almost like the rom-com bit is this bolted-on element secondary to the story that the movie actually wants to tell about a guy’s quite melancholy relationship with his dad （the dad in question being Bill Nighy which makes everything better）。
What are you allowed to tell us about any more books in this world?
Well, I’m not sure what I’m allowed to tell you. But both of them involve side-characters who briefly pop up in Husband Material. The Amnesia Plot （working title） is Jonathan’s story, though he’s not the narrator: basically, I’ve always wanted to do an amnesia book because it’s such a trope, so this is my amnesia book. And, also, accidentally my holiday book? Because clearly a holiday book from someone who is at best ambivalent about holidays is going to be great. The next book is Tyler’s story, which I haven’t quite worked out the POV for yet…and in my head I’m calling it Himbo de Bergerac and that’s all I’m going to say. I don’t think they’ll actually let me call it Himbo de Bergerac, but I wish they would. （I mean, I don’t really.
Okay, maybe a little bit）。
Cathy Berner, a Congressional staffer turned librarian turned bookseller, works at Blue Willow Bookshop, an independent bookstore on the west side of Houston, Texas. Her colleagues know her fondness for all things romance—when she’s talking about a novel she really loves, her voice will rise in both pitch and volume and her hands will start flapping. She’s read romance novels since she was a teenager and her love for them has not diminished. Find her on Instagram @catberner or Twitter @bibliopinions.