We chat with co-authors Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare about Big Name Fan, which follows two A-list celebrities who are famous for their on-screen chemistry as TV detectives (think: sapphic Mulder and Scully, or queer Rizzoli and Isles) and are reunited to investigate a real-life Hollywood murder, whilst fans who have been ‘shipping the leading ladies for years might just get the ending they’ve always wanted…
Hi, Ruthie and Annie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourselves?
Ruthie: Hello! I’ve been an author for over ten years, and I’m a trained historian and historic genealogist who’s worked in academic publishing. When I’m not writing, I’m an avid knitter and gardener. I’m married to Annie, and we have two teenagers, many pets, and live in a hundred-year-old house in the Midwest that’s mostly cat trees, dog beds, and books.
Annie: I’m married to Ruthie! I wanted to confirm her introduction. We have two teenagers, who are amazing, and yes, all of the pets. I’ve been writing my whole life. My first completed novel was an urban paranormal set in the subway and utility tunnels of a crumbling city and involved sentient rats and lore about radioactive jewels. I was fifteen. Because there was only one paper copy, it is lost to multiple moves and time, so I can confidently say it was a BANGER.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Ruthie: As soon as I could read, before kindergarten, I was a reader, and by middle school I was competing in Ohio’s Power of the Pen.
Annie: Same. Except for Power of the Pen. I can remember the first time I checked out a book in the library and how my entire body was genuinely buzzing with so much excitement, I was nauseated. It was a picture book about ballerinas.
Your latest novel, Big Name Fan, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Ruthie: funny, nostalgic, tinseltown, romantic, layered
Annie: homage, nerdy, emotional, defiant, L.A.
What can readers expect?
Ruthie: A genuine genre crossover between cozy mystery and romance, it features a very cold case and two protagonists whose on-screen will-they-or-won’t-they spilled into their personal relationship. They’re TV detectives from a beloved detective procedural, and when they do a rewatch podcast together for the network’s reunion special, it introduces a mystery (and feelings) that are all too real.
Annie: This is the book for readers who love a cast of characters and ensemble mystery-solving with their romance. It’s expressing real gratitude to fandoms and fanfic for keeping what we need alive and demanding more. We think of Big Name Fan as a love letter to the LGBTQIA2S+ community and a statement about how we have had to queer-code so many of the things we love in order to see ourselves.
Where did the inspiration for Big Name Fan come from?
Annie: My agent mentioned it would be fun to see a book with a podcast rewatch element. Ruthie and I were brainstorming about the general idea and talking about TV procedurals, queer ships that didn’t get airtime and that get explored in fan fiction instead (Annie reads and has written fan fiction), and one of us mused, What if there were clues to a murder buried in fanfic?
Ruthie: The idea of TV detectives who become real-life detectives when they’re drawn into the lore of their own show is what really came to life for us. We love the idea of actors who discover that what they’ve learned by playing detectives comes in very handy as they learn to be detectives—and that ultimately, in Hollywood, TV detective versus real-world detective is a distinction without a difference!
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Ruthie: Bex is my favorite, because I really identify with her struggle of having her dreams and passions derailed by the responsibility of raising her younger sisters, Party of Five style. Bex isn’t sorry she’s a caregiver, but she’s not sure how to prioritize her own desires anymore. It’s something so many women and marginalized people come up against.
Annie: I love Bex’s sisters because they are two young women who were raised by a big dreamer (Bex) without any of the struggle (because of her sacrifices), and so they know how to demand their own big, out-loud lives for themselves. They have been given space to make mistakes and know and be who they are, and I think they are 100 percent a reflection of Bex’s heart.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
Ruthie: It was a challenge to do something new (half mystery/half romance) that has legs as a series and has all of the elements that make a Ruthie-and-Annie book. There were a lot of elements to keep in play!
Annie: Yes! And this was a book, then, that required a lot of vision and attention to rewriting and reimagining.
Ruthie: But also frequent reminders that we had to follow our own vision and let this book be what it wanted to be.
Can you tell us a bit about your process when it comes to co-authoring?
Both: We work in the same Google Doc with a detailed synopsis/chapter outline we’ve authored together. Sometimes someone drafts ahead while the other revises behind, and sometimes we’re literally on top of each others’ sentences. We tell people to think about how music ensembles or actors on stage work together—it’s a similar kind of in-the-moment collaboration.
What’s next for you?
Ruthie: We just turned in the second TV Detectives book with Bex and Sam, this one from Sam’s point of view, titled LOVE A COMEBACK. We have another detective series coming out in June – HOMEMAKER in our Prairie Nightingale series. Also in June, our sapphic spy romance IF I TOLD YOU, I’D HAVE TO KISS YOU, written under our shared pen name Mae Marvel, comes out. Think “Ms. and Ms. Smith.” We’re very lucky and happy to have a lot on our plate!
Annie: In addition to the books with Ruthie, I have a sci fi-flavored sapphic romance called COSMIC LOVE AT THE MULTIVERSE HAIR SALON releasing in June. It’s a love story told via the multiverse.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
Ruthie: Olivia Waite’s Murder by Memory looks like a lot of fun, and I’m dying for Victoria Helen Stone’s Bald-Faced Liar. I thought first book in Amelia Diane Coombs’s series, Drop Dead Sisters, was super fresh and going in new and interesting directions, so I’m looking forward to where she takes that in Sisters Before Misters. Also, Annie and I both loved Elise Bryant’s series debut in It’s Elementary, so we’re definitely going to pick up book two, The Game’s Afoot.
Annie: I’m excited for so many. DEATH IN THE CARDS by Mia P. Manansala and THE POSSESSION OF ALBA DIAZ by Isabel Canas are pre-ordered!
