"Coming out of the pandemic, no one remembered how to talk to people anymore."
New York Times bestselling author Jasmine Guillory on brushing off rejection, relearning how to write a book, and her charming rom-com, FLIRTING LESSONS
Check out the collection of past Words With (Author) Friends, wherein I g-chat with an author and you get to read over my shoulder, and order Jasmine’s delightful new novel, available now.
Me: Hello, hello!
Jasmine: Hello!
How's it going? So happy to be chatting with you!
Good! It's a foggy morning in the Bay Area, which let me do some gardening first thing
(Well, first thing for me, which is like 9 am, I am not an early riser)
haha same here. And I'm jealous! It's been raining cats and dogs in upstate New York
But onto the good stuff—HUGE congrats on Flirting Lessons!!
Thank you!
How are you feeling a little ways out from launch?
Mostly relieved that it's over and out there in the world! And that the hardest part is all done.
Yes! After all that anticipation and anxiety, it's nice to have it in the rear-view mirror
For the uninitiated, can you share what the book's about?
Yes! Flirting Lessons is about Avery and Taylor: Avery is a little (or a lot) uptight, buttoned up, excellent at spreadsheets kind of person who has always done everything "right." She's just out of a bad relationship and wants to get out there, make new friends, flirt with people, learn how to relax, get a new hobby! But she has no idea how to do any of that.
She confesses all of this to Taylor at a party, and Taylor says "Oh, I'm great at all of that, I'll teach you how to flirt." So they embark on a series of flirting lessons...and then romance happens.
Just the sweetest pitch! Where'd you get the idea for it?
Avery and Taylor were both side characters in my last book, Drunk On Love, and while I was writing them there, I realized that these two would be very fun to bring together in a book.
But actually, I had the idea for Taylor's character a while before that -- I was in a car with two friends of mine who were talking about a mutual friend of theirs, who I didn't know. And one said to the other "Well, she breaks a lot of hearts." And I pulled out my phone and wrote that down, because it felt like an amazing beginning for a character.
Who was this person who breaks a lot of hearts? So much so that their friends say that about them? And then what happens when they fall in love? When I wrote Taylor in Drunk On Love, I knew immediately that it was her. And then I realized it would be perfect to match her with her opposite, Avery.
I love it! And you know I stan a queer love story, especially in this day and age. Is this the first time you've done a f/f romance?
Yes! I've been wanting to write one for a while, and when I had this idea I knew it was the perfect story for me to write.
So great. The idea of "flirting lessons" is so fun—we talk about how the internet and app dating has made us terrible at flirting, and while there was the whole The Game thing (shudder) to help men hit on women, we don't talk as much about women learning to flirt. How did you channel Taylor's flirting aptitude? (Are YOU a natural flirt? lol)
