Recently, The Nerd Daily had the pleasure of chatting to returning author Alexis Hall, whose new novel Something Fabulous, a laugh-out-loud yet tender regency romp, is out now. We got to ask Alexis about his new novel, his favorite regency novels and so much more!
Hi, Alexis! Thanks for joining us once more. How are you doing?
Thank you so much for having me back. Obviously things are a bit up-in-the-air doing-wise, what with Omicron, the rapidly spiraling cost of living, and being in a country where the biggest political question is whether a bunch of people getting drunk on wine is a party or not (yes it is, even if you’re the Prime Minster). But, y’know, I’m okay.
Now, tell us about Something Fabulous! What can readers expect?
I’m really tempted to say they can expect something fabulous and leave it there, but I guess that’s cheating? And not very helpful.
I will say, though, that the clue is very much in the name in that it’s a sparkly light-hearted romp (with some more srs themes if you want to look for them) set in a self-consciously ahistorical queer-friendly Regency.
If you could travel back in time to the Regency era, what would be the first thing you do/go see?
I mean, I’m working class so the first thing I would do is come back to a time period where have options other than domestic service or dying in a factory. Like, I do honestly have quite ambivalent feelings about loving the balls, pretty dresses, dukes out the wazoo image that we have of the Regency, while also being acutely aware that actually not only is that a romanticised image of history, it’s a romanticised image of the history of a tiny, tiny fraction of the people who were actually alive at the time.
Like, don’t get me wrong, I love me some balls (please don’t take that out of context) and some duelling pistols but I wouldn’t want to go back to the actual Regency any more than I’d want to be in an actual duel.
I would like to know how the cascade worked in Vauxhall Gardens though—though that’s a plot point in A Lady For A Duke, rather than Something Fabulous. I mean, I can broadly work it out but we only have speculation and a drawing that looks like this [adding drawing] so you can see why I’m curious.
Of course, I guess if I did go back to the Regency era it would be a good opportunity to do some unparalleled historical research, especially (and this comes back to the whole “most people weren’t at the balls” thing above) into the kinds of people whose lives tend not to leave much written evidence.
There’s this super classic feel to Something Fabulous (that makes me wish classics were written that engagingly back in the day). What’s your favorite classic or regency-era novel?
Okay, I’m going to be honest…’super classic’ is not the feedback I was expecting. Very daft and ludicrously anachronistic is what I was expecting.
If by classic or Regency-era you mean ‘actually written in the early 19th century’ then Austen is, of course, the go-to pick, though don’t ask me to choose a favourite because I can’t. I mean, Persuasion is definitely the most romantic, but Emma is about a messy bench who loves drama so I can kind of relate? Plus, I have a secret soft spot for Mansfield Park because it’s the one nobody likes (and I am in the vanishing minority of people who definitely, definitely believe Fanny Price shouldn’t have got with Henry Crawford).
Having said all of which, I think my favourite Regency novel—or novel that was written in the Regency period—is actually Frankenstein. Partly because it’s great and partly because I think it’s really important to remember that the Regency era wasn’t just one thing, and while some women were written with incisive social commentary set at country dances, others were all BUT WHAT IF ZOMBIES.
Plus Mary Shelley was ALSO a messy bench who loved drama.
Something Fabulous was without a doubt one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. What was the writing process like for you with this witty story?
Oh, I’m just effortlessly hilarious. It’s very simple.
Err … obviously that’s … that’s very much a joke. I’m increasingly worried how this interview is going to look out of context.
I know this is probably counterintuitive but the writing process was, um, basically being very sad? Because it was 2021 and the pandemic was dragging on and on and on, and there was no end in sight so I just really wanted to … be somewhere else. I mean, part of it was just wanting an opportunity to be over-the-top and absurd. But kind of Bonny’s whole deal is that he feels his life has been lived through books and that was how I was living at the time—so I wanted to express my gratitude for the escape that art can give you. But also I wanted to write about people who actually went outside and interacted with other human beings. So, y’know, Bonny was living my dream for a while there.
Valentine and Bonny deliver all the grumpy/sunshine trope goodness in this novel! Their dynamic works so well. What shenanigans do you think they would get up to if they were dropped into 2022?
I mean the way things are going they’d probably be confined to their house because there’s a very real risk of Omicron getting out of hand. Although given their social class there’s also a reasonable chance they’d be getting pissed in a garden with the Prime Minister.
I love how queer this novel is! From the positivity, the casual presence of queer characters in every part of the story and the amazing demisexuality representation you offer readers. Without spoiling too much, was there a favorite scene for you to write where Valentine realizes just how uncommon heterosexuality is?
Oh thank you, that’s so kind.
Honestly, it’s a slightly cheap gag (okay, the entire book is cheap gags) but my favourite “hang on, could these people be gays” moment is the entire section with the “poor spinster ladies living alone together in their cottage in the country.” It was partly, of course, a nod to the Ladies of Llangollen but I really enjoyed Valentine being condescendingly pitying and utterly oblivious to these clearly happy, successful lesbians.
Last year, you mentioned in our interview that you were “trying out” being a writer and that you’re quite enjoying it. We hope that’s still the case! What is your favorite part about being a writer?
I’m definitely still trying.
I think I always say that my favourite part of being a writer is, well, the actual writing? One of the things I think about quite a lot is that “being a writer” means a lot of different things to a lot of different people and involves quite a lot of jobs that aren’t writing. Being a writer is sort of like being a combination of small business owner, social media influencer, data entry clerk and, since you do it from your own house, office cleaner: and everyone does those in different proportions. Probably, actually, I should spend more time cleaning.
But ultimately the bit of the job that I feel most comfortable doing is the actual words-on-paper bit. Not that I use paper, obviously.
2022 also marks the year you return to Oliver and Luc in Husband Material! What are you looking forward for readers to discover about this sequel?
That they don’t get a dog in it.
I joke, I’m terrified of them discovering that.
Seriously, I need to let go of this but there was a brief version of the cover with a cute dog on it and everyone was super excited about them getting a dog and I hadn’t planned for them to get a dog in this book so now I’m really worried that everyone’s going to be all “no dog DNF”
I’m sorry there’s no dog. It just didn’t feel right for them at this stage in their relationship.
With Something Fabulous releasing soon, are you already working on a new project? If so, care to share a tidbit about it with us?
So one of the weird behind-the-curtain things about publishing is that everything happens on a massive delay so I’m actually probably written at least one other book between finishing Something Fabulous and now. And, in fact, because of a weird vagary of scheduling the new project I did after Something Fabulous was actually Murder Most Actual which was published two months ago because Kobo and I both had gaps in our schedules. Do feel free to check it out, if you haven’t already? Like Something Fabulous, it’s a quirky romp only it’s a cosy mystery rather than a Regency. Also: check out the audio if you can. The actor they got for it (Remmie Milner) is amazing.
In terms of what I’m actually physically writing right, it’s Something Spectacular which, as you might be able to tell from the title, is the sequel to Something Fabulous. It’s Peggy’s book, for anyone who knows what on earth that means.
Last but not least, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Err, well I’m actually reading Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft at the moment, because I happened to be in a game store and I hadn’t picked up a D&D book in ages. But I think that’s probably a niche interest. Also the plot isn’t great and the central romance is problematic (sorry that joke is only going to make sense if you’re an old school D&D fan).
I’ve actually been fortunate to read some fantastic ARCs recently: a few books that readers really should have on their radar for this coming year are Lex Croucher’s Reputation (another Regency romp probably best described as Regency Mean Girls), Ashley Herring-Blake’s Delilah Green Doesn’t Care (an absolutely gorgeous sapphic romcom about a cynical artist returning to her hometown for a wedding and falling for a single mum who owns a bookshop) and, for those who—like Leonard Cohen—want it darker, there’s two amazingly hardcore YA’s due out. Violet Made of Thorns by Gina Chen turns flawed protagonists, enemies-to-lovers up to, like, not even eleven? Maybe 25 million? And Only A Monster by Vanessa Len is a time-travel murder heist with magic and that barely scrapes the surface.
