Happy Friday! Are you still deciding what to read this weekend? Try freshly released Exes & Foes by Amanda Woody. In our new interview, we chat with Amanda about the book, their refreshing take on the love triangle trope and so much more.
Thanks for joining us, Amanda! Let’s start with an introduction of your new YA novel Exes and Foes, coming out on July 23rd. What can readers expect to find in your work?
Thank you for this opportunity! At surface level, E&F is a book about two ex-best friends with a complicated past who hold a competition to win the new girl’s heart, and begin to drum up unresolved feelings for each other. Beyond this, it’s an Amanda Woody book, so people can probably expect that the hooky one-liner about a silly romcom with an unconventional love triangle is hiding a lot more emotional turmoil and unresolved trauma than it’s showing.
What inspired you to write the book and such a unique love story?
Exes & Foes is my love letter to all the love triangle haters out there, which, funnily enough, includes myself. I know that sounds wild, considering the premise of this book. My own dismay with the concept has always stemmed from the inevitable fact that when the main character chooses between two love interests, one of them will always get hurt. I wanted to play around with the trope – rather than two boys fighting over a conflicted girl, it’s a couple of stubborn queers fighting for the heart of someone who wants to hang out with them simultaneously. Rather than the question being, “Who is she going to choose?” it quickly becomes a question of, “Okay, when are these fools going to figure their shit out and date each other instead?”
Can you tell us a little bit about your characters? Which, if any, do you identify with most and why?
Caleb is a strict, responsible rule-follower who’s been living in an apartment with his single mother and struggling to form a connection with his wishy washy father. Emma is an easygoing, irresponsible rule-breaker who’s been living out of her car after her relationship with her mother fell apart. Juliet is my future wife.
I identify with Caleb the most because I, too, constantly have a stick up my ass and could probably use someone in my life to loosen all of my rigid edges.
This is your second queer romance (yay!). What are your favourite tropes to read and do any make an appearance in one of these two love stories?
Rivals-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers are top tier romance tropes in queer love stories. Sizzling banter and boiling tension come with the territory and are my favorite components to slap into a romance, so you’ll probably find them in all of my works. Anything that subverts a cliché – for instance, doing Exes & Foes as “good boy x bad girl” instead of the other way around – is something I love and do my best to implement into my books.
While your books are filled with heartwarming romance, heavier topics are part of them also. Exes and Foes specifically features abusive and neglectful parents, bullying, homelessness and mental health. Why it was important for you to include them?
A lot of kids and young adults don’t have the support systems they need to get through life. Yet they also deserve happily ever afters, and to see themselves depicted in media that ends on an upswing.
Did you find any challenges while writing this book? How did you overcome them?
This is the hardest book I’ve ever written. I pushed through because I knew Caleb and Emma would find their audience, but only if I finished writing them. This book isn’t for me, exactly, which is why it was so difficult to write, but I know the people who need it will find it.
Have any shows, movies, books, or games influenced your own work at all? Or perhaps your own life?
Yes, all the time. Most of the books I write were inspired by some form of media. They Hate Each Other came to me after reading two funny but heart-wrenching books – In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan and Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. Exes & Foes was inspired by a show named Toradora. Video games are also a huge source of inspiration for me and a great resource for world building tips.
As both a queer author and reader, what do you hope to see more of in the romance genre, YA or adult, or in queer book spaces, in the coming years?
I just want queer authors to be able to explore the tropes, cliches, subversions, etc. that make them happy. When people say tropes are “overused” or “tired,” it’s a disservice to queer authors or other minority authors who are only now more recently able to dip their toes into these ideas. Move a little to the left, straight cis allo white people, and let the queers and BIPOC authors take a shot at it! ;)
Can you tell us about any other projects you're planning? What can we look forward to?
Book 3 is about a football himbo and the snarky waterboy who rejected him. I love this project and can’t wait for people to meet Cam and Mason.
If you could give any advice to authors set to make their debut, what would it be?
Deep breaths. Try not to fret about sales and marketing. Do what you do best – write more books and fall in love with your characters. The day will pass and it will feel like nothing has changed, even if everything has changed.
Our podcast focuses on media we’re currently loving. Are there any books, shows, movies, or games you’re enjoying at the moment? Any recommendations for our audience? Bonus points if it includes sapphics!
The two series that have completely consumed my life recently are All for the Game by Nora Sakavic and Heaven Official’s Blessing by MXTX. It’s no secret that Hades is my favorite game for bisexuals of all time, but Baldur’s Gate 3 also has me in a chokehold currently. For sapphic books, I recently enjoyed She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly Quindlen and Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth.
Amanda Woody is a queer nonbinary author based in metro-Detroit and represented by New Leaf Literary. When not writing, Amanda is probably playing their PS4, devouring fantasy books and romcoms, and drinking wine with their parents.
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