Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Q&A with Chloe Liese

 


 

 

Chloe Liese is the author of the new novel Once Smitten, Twice Shy, an update of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It's the latest in her Wilmot Sisters series, which also includes Two Wrongs Make a Right.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Once Smitten, Twice Shy, and why did you choose Twelfth Night for your new Shakespeare-based novel?

 

A: I’ve had a blast writing Shakespeare reimaginings through the Wilmot Sisters, and saving Twelfth Night for last felt so right—I adored the concept of giving Juliet (whose full name is Viola Juliet) this story in which, like Viola in Twelfth Night, Juliet finds herself falling in love with the man she’s supposed to be helping find love with someone else.

 

Twelfth Night’s impact hinges on the sometimes funny, sometimes fearful mess humans make when they hide their true selves, and the liberating joy that comes from being honest about who we are and what our heart desires.

 

Juliet’s journey leads her to be brave after heartbreak, to stop hiding from the romantic love she really wants. Her love interest, Will, goes on a journey toward bravery, too—bravery to trust that he can be his true self and also be loved for it.

 

These character arcs felt like the perfect fit for Twelfth Night, in which the main characters muddle through the confusion and chaos of mistaken identities and hidden hopes into the clarity that comes from trust and truth.

 

In my reimagining of Twelfth Night, our main characters, Will and Jules, practice date—a trope that allows for that same lovely dance found in the source text between lighthearted playfulness and deeper, vulnerable emotion—and in that playful, trusting, healing process, they discover their bravery, open their hearts to each other, and fall in love.

 

Q: Can you say more about the dynamic between your characters Juliet and Will?

 

A: Juliet and Will’s dynamic crackles with chemistry and desire, even though they try to deny it and lean into being “just friends” who practice romance; it’s vulnerable and tender while also playful and hopeful. They make each other feel safe while at the same time pushing each other to be braver, to reach for what they want from life and love.

 

I think it’s such a satisfying evolution from friends who are afraid to act on their connection, to impassioned lovers who finally take the leap and give into a beautiful, trusting, deeply romantic intimacy.

 

Q: In our previous Q&A, you said, “To me, a good retelling/reimagining, especially of an older text from a very different societal time, doesn't simply recreate but commentates on its source text.” How does that play out in this new novel?

 

A: In this story, I inverted the archetypal romantic hero (in Twelfth Night, Duke Orsino), always portrayed as a man who is confident in romance and in whom he should be with romantically, through my hero Will—a man who isn’t confident in romance at all and who isn’t sure there’s even a place for it in his life.

 

I think it’s so important for us to see heroes in the genre who are vulnerable emotionally and insecure in aspects of their lives, to push against the prevailing pressure and message in our culture that men must be stoic creatures who can’t feel tender or unsure, otherwise they aren’t “manly” or “strong.”

 

There is profound strength in vulnerability, in admitting when we’re struggling and asking for help, and I hoped, in his character, to write a hero that readers would admire for his openness about his perceived shortcomings and insecurities, for his desire to grow and learn, for his journey away from resignation to what rejection has taught him to expect and toward hope for more, even though it makes him feel vulnerable and presents him with emotions and emotional spaces in which he realizes he has to work to grow and heal.


I also tried to dig deeper than Shakespeare’s Viola in Juliet; rather than make her disguise superficial, as is Viola’s is in Twelfth Night, in which Viola hides in men’s clothing and behind a man’s name, Cesario, to protect herself, I crafted Juliet’s character as one hiding her emotional fears to protect her heart behind a façade of “I’m fine with how things are” when really she wants much more for herself.

 

I hoped, in her character, to encourage my readers, especially women, as they watch a heroine who’s been through heartache and an emotionally abusive relationship, taking the time to let herself heal, which is so important, and then also working through and past her learned response of diminishing and hiding her hopes and her heart’s desires after being hurt.

 

Juliet has to lay down her façade of fine and bear her unmasked honest self—her fears of being hurt again, and her fierce ache to love and be loved well; in doing so, she bravely reclaims her truth—her hopes and heart’s desires.

 

Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: Each Wilmot sister book, we’ve made the title a play on an adage; as I was thinking up the title for Jules’ and Will’s book, I was looking for something that captured their mutual wariness about pursuing romance and love, their two serendipitous encounters before they become friends and start to practice date.

 

The original saying, “Once bitten, twice shy,” refers to people becoming hesitant and cautious after experiencing failure, disappointment, or hurt, which is very much where Will and Jules are coming from at the beginning of the book.

 

Changing it to “Once smitten, twice shy,” I got to stress their two chance flirtatious encounters before their friendship kicks off, in which sparks fly but both times it doesn’t ultimately work out smoothly, so they’re carrying not only their “once bitten, twice shy” reticence but also their “once smitten, twice shy” romantic caution and carefulness.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a project that’s very close to my heart—I wish I could share more, but for now, what I can say is that this a deeply personal, meaningful, exciting concept that I haven’t yet approached in my writing, that’s been waiting in my creativity’s wings for years, for the right time; and I’m beyond happy I finally get to bring it to life and share it with my readers in the future!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I always love to recommend a film of the Shakespeare play I’ve reimagined, so I’m here to say She’s the Man is a delightfully nostalgic early 2000s rom-com retelling of Twelfth Night that I rewatched before I wrote Once Smitten, Twice Shy, and I had a blast.

 

Also, as with all my books, Once Smitten, Twice Shy has a playlist, and it’s one of my favorites I’ve ever made! You can listen here via Spotify.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Chloe Liese.

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