We chat with author Emily Zipps about Alice Rue Evades the Truth, which is a sapphic homage to While You Were Sleeping and follows a down-on-her-luck receptionist who is mistaken as the girlfriend of a comatose man and doesn’t have the heart to come clean to his devastated family—even when she starts falling for his sister.
Hi, Emily! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m an author of sapphic romcoms who grew up in LA and lives in the Southwest. I love to write sapphic love stories, and with the rest of my time I play sports badly, watch people play sports well, and hang out with my wife and our very opinionated dog.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I was always a creative kid with lots of stories in my head. I loved to put on plays for my stuffed animals, or do performances with my sister and our friends for our poor parents to suffer through. I was a huge reader as a kid, and I always felt like I had a million stories buzzing around in my brain, but it wasn’t until adulthood that I started sitting down and writing them.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: I have no idea! I was a very early reader. I remembering being maybe four or five, and asking my big sister to read me the Calvin and Hobbes book she was looking at, because it was making her laugh and I felt left out. She said no because it was too hard to read comics out loud (little sisters are annoying) and I remember thinking, well, I guess I gotta learn to read!
- The one that made you want to become an author: Every single one.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Right now that’s probably The Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler.
Your debut novel, Alice Rue Evades the Truth, is out October 28th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
A sapphic romcom for pessimists.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect big laughs and hopefully a few tears. I hope readers will find this book to be funny, deeply romantic, relatable, and honest. I consider it a romcom about loneliness, about what happens when it feels like life has missed you and everyone else is moving forward while you’re standing still. And then finally, for once, someone looks right at you and sees you—but, unfortunately, you’re currently pretending to be that person’s comatose brother’s girlfriend.
Where did the inspiration for Alice Rue Evades the Truth come from?
I’m always trying to capture the feeling I had as a teenager watching and rewatching romcoms from the 90s and early aughts. The filled me with such yearning, a desperate desire to find love like that in my own life, and I would rewind and replay my favorite moments or scenes over and over again. When I started thinking about this project, that’s what really captivated me, finding a way to write that feeling down on the page. I also desperately wanted more sapphic stories with butch representation, so Van was a perfect fit.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
One of my favorite things during drafting was figuring out all of the ways for Alice to go along with this lie without actually telling it. She’s evading the truth, right? I think a lot of the humor comes from those moments when she’s twisting herself into knots in order to get everyone around her to think she’s said “yes that’s my boyfriend he knows my name definitely” when actually she hasn’t. That was so much fun to play with, and a good way to keep a certain lightness in even the emotionally tough scenes.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
One of the big challenges was figuring out how far to push Alice’s lie (or, evasion, if you will). If you think about the film While You Were Sleeping, the protagonist Lucy does some really awful things. She convinces a man he has amnesia when he doesn’t, and then gets all the way to the wedding alter with him! That’s terrible! It works in a movie because we’re not in her head—we’re an omniscient camera—and also it’s quick 90 minute jaunt starring the most adorable, loveable actress ever. In a book, however, we’re deep in Alice’s head, and we have 350 pages to live with her and watch her tell lies and make mistakes. We, the readers, are her as she moves through this story, and we’re not bad people! The math ends up working out so differently—if Alice did those things in the book, it would be unforgiveable. So calibrating how far the lie goes, and how deceptive Alice can be while remaining a character the reader can relate to and be in love with, that required a lot of thought and care, and some trial and error through the revision process.
This is your debut published novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
It was a dirt road full of potholes! I signed with my wonderful agent all the way back in the spring of 2020, and we sold Alice Rue in mid-2023 for a release at the end of 2025. I had several books die on submission before Alice, and there was so much grief and pain during that process, and so many periods of agonizing waiting all the way through. However, all of those failures helped me learn so much about writing, books, and publishing, and I’m truly thrilled to have Alice Rue as my debut.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently revising my sophomore novel which is slated to come out in fall of 2026. It’s a Sliding Doors-style story about two versions of the same adult woman: one of whom kissed her friend Grace twenty years ago at a high school party, and the other who didn’t. It’s the result of a thought experiment: would it have been easier to realize I was queer much earlier in my life than I did, or was the pain I went through before I understood myself worth it? It’s a super challenging book to write, and I’m really excited for how it’s going to turn out.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
This year I’ve loved Legendborn (Tracy Deonn), Hammajang Luck (Makana Yamamoto), Lady Like (Mackenzi Lee), and Dream On Ramona Riley (Ashley Herring Blake). I can’t wait to read Bury Our Bones in Midnight Soil (V.E. Schwab), Every Step She Takes (Alison Cochrun), and The Familiar (Leigh Bardugo).
