Or How a Tweet + a DM Lead to Two Friends Writing a Spicy, Cozy Fantasy Series and a Heartfelt Fast & Furious-inspired YA book Together (Much to their surprise)…
Guest post written by Homeward for a Spell co-authors Jamie Pacton and Rebecca Podos
Jamie Pacton is a bestselling, award-winning Young Adult and Adult author who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family. She writes funny, whimsical, cozy fantasy books and the occasional YA contemporary novel. When she’s not writing, she’s likely in an art museum, walking in the woods, or dreaming up new stories by the sea.
Rebecca Podos is the Lambda Literary Award-winning author of YA novels, including The Mystery of Hollow Places; Like Water; The Wise and the Wicked; From Dust, a Flame; and Furious. Her adult novels include Homegrown Magic; What if… Kitty Pryde Stole the Phoenix Force?; and Homeward for a Spell, out now. She is also co-editor of the YA anthology Fools in Love, and her stories have been featured in the anthologies At Midnight and This is How We Roll.
About Homeward for a Spell: In this cozy queer romantic fantasy from the award-winning authors of Homegrown Magic, two members of a motley crew of adventurers must confront monsters, hostile landscapes—and their growing attraction to each other. Released August 18th 2026.
We’re writing a book on a road trip.
It’s not a very long trip—just under an hour from Becca’s home in Connecticut to the charming small town that’s hosting a community book launch for our latest adult fantasy romance, Homeward for a Spell—but it’s precious time. As the miles pass, we go back and forth about characters, the first act of this new story, the pacing. And then, in a flash, we come up with a twist that will bring everything together elegantly. (Spoiler: our main characters hook up in chapter three. Spicy!).
We don’t have a laptop out, but Jamie’s frantically taking notes on her phone as Becca navigates traffic. Hopefully, we’ll remember enough of our own ideas and story insights that we can log them in our huge Discord server, where much our co-writing work is done. There are plotting threads for every book, promo threads, and character art threads. There’s also an entire thread of fantasy-world appropriate euphemisms to use in sex scenes.
“I wish we lived closer,” Becca says wistfully while almost missing an exit. “Can you imagine how much we’d get done if we could hang out once a week?”
It’s so, so true.
We live on opposite coasts, in Oregon and Connecticut, and any time we get together it’s a fevered rush of catching up on our lives and co-author brainstorming. It’s wonderful, weird, and a bit chaotic.
Hi, we’re Jamie Pacton and Becca Podos, co-authors of the adult queer fantasy romance books Homeward for a Spell and Homegrown Magic, and the YA sapphic contemporary book, Furious. And here are five of the questions we get asked most as co-authors:
How did you become co-authors?
Back in 2021, we didn’t really know each other beyond a passing professional association. Jamie was living through the worst time of her parenting life, and she and her partner were binging The Fast and Furious movies to take their minds off their heartbreak. Late in the summer, Becca dashed off a tweet with a picture of Letty Ortiz, iconically played by Michelle Rodriguez, asking for an “F/F Fast & Furious book” under the hashtag #mswl (manuscript wishlist). Jamie slid into Becca’s Twitter DM’s to say, “If you don’t get this book, I’ll co-write it with you…” Which was ridiculous, of course. We had spoken online a handful of times at most.
But Becca said yes.
From there our friendship and our co-writing career was born. Our first book, the YA contemporary queer romance Furious, emerged over a series of emails, calls, DMs, and much work in a Google doc. Then Homegrown Magic came about from a D&D campaign we were playing with other author pals, started because we needed a non-monetizable hobby (HA!). We wrote so much backstory for our characters, and we were so accustomed to telling stories together, that we ended up writing a hundred pages of story—just for fun—that our agents promptly sold in a six-figure pre-empt to Del Rey. Much to our surprise, our cozy, spicy fantasy romance series was on!
How do you write books together?
We spend a lot of time brainstorming, talking ideas through, and then Becca writes a detailed synopsis (their professional strength as an agent, which Jamie is entirely grateful for!). Each of us takes one character and really develops their backstory, while consulting one another to make sure the characters compliment each other and the story we want to tell. We do a lot of “What-ifs” in our Discord server, send each other a lot of songs and videos and art for inspiration, and then we start drafting in Google docs. Each of us writes the chapter for our character, and we alternate these. Sometimes, we get through four or more chapters in a week, and sometimes it takes one of us a whole week or more to get finish a chapter (pretty sure it once took Becca a month). Slowly, though, a book emerges, which is always a bit of magic.
What do you like best about co-writing?
Everything really! Sharing creative projects like this is such an intimate experience (truly, no pun intended, though as writers of spicy books we’ve had lots of, ahem, unexpected conversations), and it’s so much fun to plan, write, and publish a book with a friend. It’s also a joy to figure out story problems together. And, let’s be honest, it’s a bit less work than writing an entire book alone! We’re also really good at working through conflict together, and we’ve weathered many storms as friends and co-authors that have strengthened our professional and personal relationship. Plus, we just really like hanging out (preferably beside Becca’s pool or near the ocean with a whisky at hand).
How do I write/finish a book?
Unfortunately, there’s no magic formula we can give you for this. You have to sit down, do the work, and show up again and again. When you do that, though, magic happens. One sentence becomes one page becomes one chapter and then, eventually, becomes a book. And the worst book you’ve ever written is still better than the book you never wrote. But if you can find joy in the process—something that sparks your curiosity, or if you have a friend to write with—it makes it that much easier to stick with.
What’s next for you both?
We’re wondering that too! We can’t say anything about our official publishing schedule yet, either as co-authors or with our solo projects, but we’re hard at work co-writing a new, spicy, dark fantasy romance that we think our readers will love.
For all the updates, follow us on Instagram: @jamiepacton and @beccapodos
