From New York Times bestselling author Gwenda Bond, Not Your Average Hot Guy is a hilarious romantic comedy about two people falling in love, while the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.
We chat with author Gwenda Bond about her latest rom-com release, along with sequels, writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Gwenda! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi there! I’ve written many books, including the Lois Lane and Cirque American YA trilogies, and the first official Stranger Things novel, Suspicious Minds. I’m married to another author, and we live in a hundred-plus-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, where we have three adorable dogs and two queenly cats, and you’ll see them all over my social media. My new book is my first fantasy rom-com, kicking off a duology, and I’m super excited about it.
As the year draws to a close, how has 2021 been for you?
Please, don’t let it close yet! I still have a book draft to finish. I kid. Like everyone, these past couple years has been a roller coaster, but I honestly feel very grateful. We’re lucky to live in a place we love, with our amusing herd, and have also built a whole writing community here. It has helped make the pandemic feel much less isolating.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I was that obnoxious kid who declared I was going to be a writer before I could even write. Seriously. I would make loops on paper and force my parents to look at it and see if I’d made words when they got home from work. Then, I advanced in the holy terror department in elementary school, where my kindergarten teacher called me out for making up a story to go along with a picture book, pretending to read it, and said, “You can’t read.” To which I countered, “Maybe you can’t read.” And she sent me to see my dad, the principal. Even though I lived in the middle of nowhere, my parents were always reading, and there were always books around.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Ah! I’m terrible at these kinds of questions! But I’ll give it a shot: Peter Rabbit, books and stories and how they made me feel like I was in the presence of real magic (still do), and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler.
Your new novel, Not Your Average Hot Guy, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
I’ll do it in three-ish. An apocalyptic rom-com.
What can readers expect?
They can expect a bookish recent college grad working at her mother’s escape room business, who is kidnapped when a cult shows up to steal a real grimoire the family has accidentally put in one of the rooms, and then ends up having to prevent the apocalypse after it is used to summon one very hot prince of Hell named Luke Morningstar. With kissing.
Where did the inspiration for Not Your Average Hot Guy come from?
I convinced a group of authors at a conference in Tennessee to go do an escape room beside our hotel with me in 2017. This book is the result of that one whim!
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I’m far from the first person to observe that writing comedy is hard. And it is! But it has to seem organic and easy and it’s also very personal. So there’s a vulnerability there. Showing our senses of humor–especially some nerdy humor–is revealing. I just knew I had to go there or the book wouldn’t work.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I think Porsoth is most everyone who has read the book’s favorite demon tutor. I’m no exception.
The sequel, The Date from Hell, is currently set to release April 5th 2022. Can you give us a little teaser?
Ooh, yes. You can expect Callie and Luke trying to take their relationship to the next level (will they succeed), an unexpected challenge from Lucifer, and a quest for the holy grail, along with the return of characters from book one and some new ones. The world of the story gets bigger.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
Great question. “Write what you know” is the worst, when I was a beginner trying to write fantasy stories. I prefer Ursula Le Guin’s formulation, which I’ll paraphrase as, write what you can imagine in detail.
What’s next for you?
We’ve already talked about The Date from Hell. I’m currently working on an Audible Original novella series called The Youngbloods, co-written with my dear friends Kami Garcia and Sam Humphries, which will likely be out sometime next year; think Succession but with demons. And I’m also hard at work on my next rom-com, Mr. & Mrs. Witch, think Mr. & Mrs. Smith meets Bewitched.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Do I! From my writing group alone this fall there’s Lee Mandelo’s debut Summer Sons and Alix E. Harrow’s A Spindle Splintered. I’m also very much looking forward to digging into Rachel Hawkins as Erin Sterling’s The Ex Hex and Ann Aguirre’s Witch Please once I’m finished with my own witchy book.
Twitter: @gwenda Website: GwendaBond.com Instagram: @GwendaBond
