What inspired you to blend paranormal elements with the world of fandoms in a romantic comedy for Fan Service?
I have always been really into paranormal entertainment. I grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess, Charmed…I could go on and on. I also have always been really into fairy tales both traditional Grimm’s style, and even in movie-form like The Princess Bride. It’s very intriguing to me to think about how magical elements can both help and hinder a romantic arc. In this case, for Alex and Devin, I could only see their romance being realistic within a paranormal setting. Because if Devin—spoiler alert—wasn’t turning into a werewolf, and he didn’t desperately need Alex’s help, I don’t think that either of them would’ve given one another the time of day. I am very much using paranormal elements here to create the singular ideal set of conditions for them to be forced to work together for Alex to have sympathy for Devin, because he’s not a particularly sympathetic character prior to becoming a werewolf. The expression of the werewolf for Devin is taking inner turmoil—he’s always had this feeling that he needs to be in control of his image and that he needs to be desirable and an object of admiration and aspiration —and robbing him of the ability to hide. I found the premise of him literally turning into a creature he famously played on TV—and for that to be the reason no one but a former super fan believes him—to be both intriguing and also, personally, hilarious.
Can you go into detail about the different paranormal aspects of this romance?
Some of my favorite paranormal details that readers can expect here are spins on beloved werewolf romance tropes. So, for example, there is a scene that pays homage to Little Red Riding Hood where Devin is tracking Alex through the woods as part of his training to get a handle on his werewolf senses. There is also an element where he can scent her emotions. My twist on that is that he doesn’t have a very high emotional IQ, and so he often has trouble parsing what those scents are and how to respond to her. Like most werewolves, Devin is tied to the moon, emotionally and physically. I found it interesting to play with scenes across the narrative where he is more or less human by technical definition, and to see how that affects his behavior and his relationship with Alex. Sometimes they’re best able to find common ground when he’s a little more feral.
Alex Lawson is a unique character. How did you develop her personality and background as a small-town outcast?
Alex is a small town outcast, and I think, partially, this has become an unconscious hallmark of my heroines: they tend to not fit in the world they were born into. I was looking back across my work and they’re all different flavors of outcasts. Clara, my first heroine, is an outcast of old money Connecticut, which is very different from small town Florida. My second heroine, Naomi, is an outcast by choice and by virtue of her occupation, and then my third heroine, Riley, is isolated by her family’s ties to curses. You’re getting different spins on the archetype, hopefully resulting in distinguishable and complex characters, but at the same time this is obviously a kind of “core story” for me that I keep coming back to as an artist. In terms of getting into Alex‘s personality and mindset, I knew I wanted her to be a super fan of my fictional werewolf detective show and so I did go back to my youthful days on Tumblr.com and think about what kind of music I was listening to, what kind of art and fashion I was following, etc to inform Alex’s vibes. As a result, there is something very nostalgic about her. Fortunately, I hear the 90s are back.
The dynamic between Alex and Devin is central to the story. What do you think makes their relationship compelling?
In terms of Alex and Devin‘s relationship, I think one thing that makes it compelling is that on-paper it shouldn’t work. I’ve found that’s another one of my core story elements: I’m drawn to unlikely pairings of opposites attracting. Alex is a fangirl, at least in the beginning of the book, and Devin is the object of her hero worship. In a way, that feels really safe to her, because it can never happen in the way most of us know that a celebrity crush is never gonna manifest into a real relationship. So, what I think is interesting here, is a question of ‘How do you deal with the reality of a person that you have both idolized and also despised?’ Because Alex has been projecting onto Devin Ashwood her entire life in different ways. A lot of her side of falling in love is to remove those projections and to actually allow herself to see and hear him for who he truly is, flaws (and claws) and all. For Devin, he has never let anyone see who he really is. He’s never felt that he could do that and still be loved, but then within the events of the narrative, he has no choice but to be completely vulnerable with Alex because of the transformations that are happening to him.That physical transformation allows and enables emotional transformation and connection for the first time in his life. I don’t think that he could’ve described his ideal person before becoming a werewolf, and if he could’ve, I don’t think it would’ve been Alex. She catches him off guard and he ends up admiring her so much that he really spends the rest of the book, and I believe the rest of his fictional life, aspiring to be good enough for her. In order to do that, it takes practice rather than creating an untouchable idea.
Does Fan Service have any crossover with your previous paranormal romance Do Your Worst?
There is, I believe, one Easter egg for Do Your Worst in Fan Service that readers can keep an eye out for. It is my intention and belief as the author that these stories exist in the same world, which I describe as our world tilted 1° to the side, where magic is possible and often disguised or explained away as everyday occurrences or coincidence.
What themes of fandom and celebrity did you want to explore through Alex’s relationship with Devin?
This whole book is definitely a study of fandom and celebrity. Fandom, I hold in incredibly high esteem and it’s very precious to me as a community. So there is certainly celebration of not only the relationships we build through fandom, but also the creative endeavors that are possible because of fandom where large groups of passionate fans expand and explore, and sometimes correct, a narrative originally defined by someone else. I think there is something so compelling about the iteration that happens in fandom. You could be exploring a romantic pairing 100,000 times across that many different creators in something like a fanfiction archive.
I also love how relationships forged in fandom can then become major parts of our lives even when we grow out of that particular piece of media. You’ll see that with Alex and her friend group in the book. It was really important to me to use a group chat style medium—you actually see formatted excerpts of the group chat in the book—because that has been my fandom friendship experience. A group chat allows those relationships to transcend time and space, because often we are in a totally different country and time zone from some of our fandom friends.
In terms of celebrity, I’m more interested in the negative impact of celebrity here than the glamor and gloss. Devin was a child star, and that was a really negative experience for him, as it is for so many. A lot of Devin‘s challenges and emotional stunting come from literally being raised in Hollywood in front of cameras. Because he started playing someone else at such a young age, he never figured out who he is outside of a role. That’s why he holds so tightly to his most audience-beloved character: because really that’s the most love and admiration that he’s ever received.
How does Alex’s online fan forum serve as a reflection of her character and her struggles?
In creating the fan forum as a teenager, Alex carved out a space online where she is in control, and where everything is orderly, and searchable, and makes sense. She’s doing that at a time in her life when everything is falling apart with her parents divorce and the bullying she’s experiencing at school. She’s also doing an active service for her fan community, and those people are where she finds the welcome and kinship that is lacking in her small hometown. Making “Werewolf Support Group” is a very personal experience for Alex and it is something that she isn’t willing to give up even after she has a negative experience with Devin that taints her feelings about his character on the show.
What challenges did you face while writing this story?
This was a hard story to write. It took me a long time to figure out the right balance of comedy and camp blended with world building and romance that could be believable and intriguing. Plus I always find that it is more difficult to fully develop a romance arc in a paranormal rather than a contemporary because the magical elements and the world building take up so much story real estate. I am always trying to focus on, “how do I weave the threads of romance and world building together so that as the characters are understanding and embracing the paranormal elements of the story—in this case, Alex and Devin navigating him becoming a werewolf and not understanding why—it is also stimulating their individual and collective emotional growth. Fan Service was a huge process of iteration and layering. I am an underwriter, so for a book like this to come together, I was adding fundamental building blocks even in copy edits. I’m really proud of how this story ultimately came together, but it is genuinely laughable to reflect on the first draft in which I had a werewolf musical, unironically, at the end.
In Fan Service, who was your favorite character to write and why? Do they reflect any personal feelings or characteristics of yourself?
Devin was my favorite character to write, maybe ever. His POV voice came to me so distinctly and naturally. This feels like “his book” in many ways: he goes through the most transformation, literally and figuratively. Also, it is fun to write someone that is a bit of a jerk, who is flawed, and messy. He is very Baby Girl to me. I found him endearingly pathetic even at his worst, and I hope that readers will too. I don’t know if he’s very reflective of me. On the surface, at least, Alex would be a better proxy for my lived experiences, but I do think Devin’s funny so maybe he’s reflective of my sense of humor and all the jokes I really can’t often express because I’m not a super hot werewolf/rich and semi-famous actor who might get away with it.
Who are some of your favorite romance authors, and how have they influenced your work?
I love romance and I have as long as I could read so I could go on and on and on listing favorite authors. That said I am going to limit myself to one formative and one contemporary author. For formative, I’m gonna go with Sherry Thomas who writes historical and YA and most recently the Lady Sherlock Detective series (she can do anything). The thing that I find most inspiring about her work is that she breaks romance rules but with such a clearly deep love of romance and understanding for what makes readers gravitate to this genre. She writes fearlessly, and with such breathtaking talent. I strive to emulate her both in ambition, and obviously in craft, even knowing that I will fall woefully short. In terms of a contemporary author, I love Jen Comfort. Similar to Sherry, I love that Jen is writing the most bonkers ideas that she can come up with and still finding ways to make them really relatable and human and something that could only come from her beautiful brain.
Were there any particular influences—books, movies, or personal experiences—that shaped your writing for this novel?
One of the things that influenced this book, which I would be delighted if people could pick up on, is the Tom Hardy classic, critically-panned Venom. The way that Devin interacts with his inner wolf, is lightly, playfully inspired by the way Tom Hardy and Venom can sometimes not be on the same page even if they’re trapped in one body. FS is also obviously inspired by CW shows and the specific era of the paranormal drama that ruled that network in the late nineties through the early aughts. Those shows had these really long seasons of storytelling that allowed for a kind of indulgence that I don’t think we actually see very much anymore in the era of streaming where seasons are short and shows are often canceled too soon. I would also say growing up in fandoms—the OG experience on livejournal all the way up to current experiences on AO3—is something you’ll definitely see reflected in the work.
What do you hope readers take away from Alex and Devin’s journey by the end of the book?
In terms of takeaways, writing paranormal for me is always about exploring what it means to be human. And for this werewolf book, specifically, it is about embracing your inner weirdo and allowing yourself to be loved for and not in spite of your weirdness. I think there’s also something to be said about this being a love letter to fandom—to what fandom creates and how these people and spaces are a gift to us that build on the original creative work we loved so much. I also would love people to take away that fandom and the creators and cultivators within it should have more respect in culture and from showrunners, in particular.
Many romance writers started with fan fiction before becoming traditionally published. Did you incorporate any real-life fandom experiences into Alex’s character or her online forum?
What can fans of your previous work expect from Fan Service, and how does it differ from The Roommate or Do Your Worst?
Lastly, is there any other work coming up that you are most excited about sharing with readers?