Q&A with Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

 

Photo by Mike Yoon

 

 

Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka are the authors of the new novel Book Boyfriend. Their other books include Do I Know You?. They live in Los Angeles.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Book Boyfriend, and how did you create your characters Jennifer and Scott?

 

A: Book Boyfriend is the culmination of a longstanding wish to write about a fantasy reader who gets immersed in her favorite fantastical world. We never expected it would take this form, and first started writing about a girl whisked by magic into the enchanted world of her favorite books.

 

When we watched Austenland and started noticing advertisements for Regency and fantasy immersive experiences, though, we found new inspiration for a way for Jennifer to enter a fantasy world without magic and while staying within this one.

 

Engaging with these gave us new opportunities to explore the experiences and emotions of fandom, readership, and how ordinary life competes with fantasy.

 

Jennifer and Scott came about as the voices we often hear as readers and as authors—Jennifer, a lover of fantasy and an idealist, needs to learn to reconcile her fantasy infatuation with the courage to pursue her real world-dreams as the main character of her own life, while Scott, skeptical and discouraged, pushes himself to rise to the example of Jennifer’s bookish dreams.

 

They’re equally important halves of a discussion on indulging in fantasy readership and not overlooking the enchantment in real life.

 

Q: How did you come up with the idea for your fictional Elytheum Courts series?

 

A: We’re huge romantasy fans and have been since before we wrote this book. The Elytheum Courts series to which Jennifer is hopelessly devoted was a delightful opportunity to combine tropes from every romantasy classic we could think of into the perfect, emblematic example of an obsession-worthy read.

 

We hope readers recognize their own genre favorites in Elytheum. We definitely recognize ours!

Q: What do you think the book says about the world of romance novels?

 

A: With Book Boyfriend, we wanted to speak to criticisms that readers of romance and fantasy get lost in fictional worlds and forget about, or have unrealistic expectations for, the real world. It’s an unfair characterization when the reality is more complicated.

 

We do encourage readers to find the magic in the real world. But we’re proud champions of romance, fantasy, and everything in between, and we want to stand up for the ways those genres can inspire us to hope for the best from our lives and loves, and to find the courage to chase those dreams like our favorite heroines and heroes do.

 

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your two characters?

 

A: We loved writing Jennifer and Scott because they’re one of the truest enemies-to-lovers pairs we’ve ever written.

 

Jennifer is a proud, unabashed fan of her favorite romantasy reads. Scott, her publishing house coworker, is dismissive of the genre and its dramatic, fairytale romances…yet, Jennifer’s surprised to find him showing up to the same immersive romantasy experience she’s attending, seemingly working to remake himself into the perfect “book boyfriend.”

 

We absolutely loved writing their friction and Scott’s grudging efforts to out-swagger and out-flirt Jennifer’s favorite fantasy heroes. Yet the closer their relationship grows, the more we used them to delve deeper into their respective views on fantasy and real life.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: We’re wrapping up edits on our next adult romance, which we couldn’t be more excited to share with readers. It’s called Seeing Other People, and it’s a contemporary romance about two people haunted—literally—by the ghosts of their exes, working to exorcise the spirits and perhaps finding new love with each other in the process.

 

It’s an exciting change in some ways, with more angst and real paranormal activity, and the romance is intertwined with a story of two people dealing with loss, healing, and commitment in very different ways.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: One of the reasons we wrote Book Boyfriend was in recognition of readers whose enthusiasm for romance keeps us inspired and keeps us going. We remain ever grateful for your readership!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka.