The Nerd Daily contributor Mimi recently had the chance to sit down with Emery Lee, debut author of the upcoming YA romcom Meet Cute Diary, in which teen Noah’s first teen love challenges everything he’s ever believed about romantic relationships. We got to ask Emery all our burning questions about favorite meet cutes, future projects and so much more! You can find Emery on Twitter, Instagram, and at emeryleebooks.com.
Hi, Emery! Thank you so much for joining us today! Why don’t you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! Thanks for having me. I’m Emery Lee, an author, illustrator, and boba enthusiast. Most of my time is probably split equally between writing, catering to my dog’s every whim, and watching anime.
Now tell us about Meet Cute Diary! What can readers expect?
MEET CUTE DIARY is a romcom all about trans joy and first love. It’s very much a spin on a lot of common romcom tropes with a Denver backdrop and the joys of trans identity at the forefront.
What inspired you to write Noah’s story?
It was basically a combination of my own love for romcoms (especially TO ALL THE BOYS) and an irl experience that, if romcoms were real, definitely would’ve been a meet-cute. So I started developing this idea of what if there were a romcom about a kid who turns those almost meet-cutes into something, and what if that kid looked like me?
Meet Cute Diary – Noah’s blog – is a safe haven for a lot of readers and definitely something we could all use in our lives. Is there any safe haven online for you that makes you smile and believe in the pure things in the world you’d like to recommend to our readers?
Honestly, the internet is the best and worst of humanity all rolled up into one LOL. I’ve met some of my best friends online and built such cool opportunities for myself, but I’ve also been on the receiving end of a lot of harassment as well as a lot of racism and just general creepiness. Generally, if I want a safe haven, I’ll actually just unplug for a while, but if I’m really in the need to scroll, Pinterest is like the one quiet spot since people don’t really interact on there LOL.
What are your top three favorite meet cutes you’ve read/seen?
Oh, God, okay, this is hard. I think the first one I think of is Arthur & Ben from WHAT IF IT’S US by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera. That one really stuck with me for a long time. I also think of the stairwell scene in the anime GIVEN because it’s just really funny. Imagine meeting the love of your life because he decided to nap in the stairwell you usually nap in between classes? And I don’t know if this counts since it’s technically not how they met, but it is how they met for the purposes of the story, but the scene in YURI!!! ON ICE where Victor shows up nude at the hot spring? Yeah, that one’s golden LOL.
Meet Cute Diary is your debut novel – what was the hardest part of the writing and querying process for you and what was the best?
The hardest part was querying and the best was the writing. LOL for real though, querying has thus far in my career, been by far the most stressful and damaging part. I absolutely have never recovered from the horrors of querying. As for writing, I love creating characters and coming up with the Twelve Steps was a lot of fun. Also, I love leaving easter eggs for my friends to catch!
Noah has this plan of steps that constitute the process of falling in love – how did you come up with those steps?
So before I actually started writing, I knew I wanted this book to be a romcom and I wanted to make sure that I actually hit all the necessary marks to fit the definition, so I went digging through a whole bunch of different analyses of what sets a romcom apart from romance and comedy and makes it, essentially, its own thing. Ultimately, I learned a lot about romcom story structure, and one thing I found was that there are certain beats we’re always expecting in a romcom. As I started to tear into those some more, I basically pulled out the Twelve Steps. They’re essentially the things that are (at least subtly) present in almost every popular romcom, and so I thought it’d be funny to see Noah think they were things necessary for actual, real life relationships.
Devin absolutely stole my heart in this book! I loved how you let Devin explore gender pronouns and identity in this novel. Gender-nonconformity is still something rarely addressed in novels – what were your biggest challenge while writing about Devin?
Well, first, I think it’s important to note that Devin is nonbinary, which isn’t actually the same thing as gender-nonconforming. Gender-nonconforming refers to when a person doesn’t fit the “rules” designated by society for a certain gender. You can be a cis woman, but if you defy the rules of womanhood in the way you dress or act or speak, you’re gender-nonconforming. Nonbinary means that Devin actually has a gender that does not fit in the box of either of the two cis genders. So I think one of the hardest part about writing Devin was just navigating things that are largely normal for me as a trans person around lots of trans people that cis people just do not understand. Things like neopronouns and the concept of not knowing your gender. I was trying to walk a fine line of centering trans readers and making sure this stuff was presented in a way that didn’t make them feel like they were being preached to or othered while still giving enough context for cis readers to follow along.
I confess, I lived for the meet cute between Devin and Noah. Was that inspired by real-life events or how did you come up with that…memorable introduction?
I thought “what is the worst thing that could possibly happen right now” and just went with it LOL.
There are some excellent musicians referenced in Meet Cute Diary – if you could mix a soundtrack for this novel, what songs would have to be included on it?
I’m gonna say WILD by Troye Sivan, Kiss the Boy by Keiynan Lonsdale, and Young For The Summer by DALES.
With Meet Cute Diary releasing soon, are you already working on another project? If so, can you share a tidbit about it with us?
Haha, I’ve always got something new in the works! Right now I’m working on an enemies to lovers café romcom where a Latinx boy and an Asian boy who do not get along have to work together to save their parents’ rival cafés, as well as a contemporary fantasy that I don’t want to give too much away about just yet but it’s got demons and it’s got gays!
Last but not least, do you have any bookish recommendations for our readers?
Absolutely! If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of CEMETERY BOYS by Aiden Thomas, that’s a must read, and you’re gonna want to get a copy of their sophomore book LOST IN THE NEVER WOODS as well! Preorder FIFTEEN HUNDRED MILES FROM THE SUN by Jonny Garza Villa because it’s one of my absolute favorites of the year, and grab a copy of BE DAZZLED by Ryan La Sala because that book changed my life!
