We chat with author Jayne Denker about her new rom-com Hedging Your Bets, which sees opposites attract in this enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy of feuding neighbors and dueling hearts!
Hi, Jayne! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi, ND! I’ve been a romcom author for more than ten years now. Hedging Your Bets is my ninth (and counting). I live in Western New York with two crazy cats, and I have a son in college who swoops in on occasion to sleep for days on end and clear the kitchen of any food not nailed down.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I have never not been writing, to be honest. I was that weird kid in elementary school who got excited when the teacher announced it was time for independent writing. I had my first commissioned poem, for the closing ceremonies of summer camp, when I was nine.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Oh gosh, that’s impossible to single out. My parents used to say they thought I was reading at three, but then they realized I’d memorized the books because they read to me all the time, and I was just reciting them while turning the pages. The one I really remember clearly was Are You My Mother? by PD Eastman. I was so worried about the baby bird wandering around alone looking for his mom.
- The one that made you want to become an author: Again, it’s impossible to identify just one book since I read so much. But I knew I wanted to become an author when I went to a talk by Douglas Adams. I was sixteen. The audience was in raptures the entire time. At one point he read from Restaurant at the End of the Universe but kept giggling at his own stuff, and I distinctly remember thinking “I want to do that for the rest of my life—make others happy, and make myself laugh while doing it.”
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Interestingly enough, not a romance novel. I’ve been reading some YA fantasy lately and a lot of them are making me appreciate the solid worldbuilding of The Hunger Games series all over again. Might be time for a re-read.
Your debut novel, Hedging Your Bets, is out January 9th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Well, it’s not a debut novel—it’s my ninth—but I’m still excited for it as if it were my debut! Five words? Um…small town, silly, swoony, body positive. Oh wait—that’s six. Well, I do tend to exceed my word limit all the time.
What can readers expect?
Hedging Your Bets is the second in my Willow Cove series (the first book, The Rom-Com Agenda, published in February of 2023) and is the story of Gillian Pritchard, who was part of the RCA friend group. She’s a pharmacist by trade and a passionate gardener, as well as proudly plus size. She’s been divorced for five years and is perfectly happy with her single life, but her friends have convinced her to try dating apps. Naturally there are disastrous results. In the meatime, Noah West arrives in town. He’s having a bad time after a rough breakup and has impulsive moved across the country and bought the town marina where he worked as a teenager as well as the house nextdoor to Gillian. Gillian’s pride and joy is her garden—she enters the town competition every year—and when Noah rips out some hedges between their properties, ruining her design, the battle is on. A garden gnome may or may not be involved. (Spoiler: A garden gnome is definitely involved.)
Where did the inspiration for Hedging Your Bets come from?
A couple of places, actually! The hedge war had always been in the back of my mind ever since I moved into a new house after my own divorce. I told the seemingly normal couple nextdoor that I was going to remove the giant hedge on our property line, and they seemed relieved that they wouldn’t have to maintain their side anymore. Once it was gone, though, they changed their tune, freaked out, and immediately started putting up posts to erect a fence. However, that’s as far as they got. They never put the fence up, and I’ve been been mowing around their fencelss posts for five years, which is a pain. However, I do not have a green thumb, so no gardens were harmed in this real-life neighborhood drama. My inspiration for Gillian came from a friend who, like Gillian, is blonde and plus size and I am forever in awe of her magnetic personality. She can make men fall in love with her without even trying—I mean they fall at her feet within seconds—proving there’s no such thing as one ideal body type.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I never get tired of creating new characters to see where they go and what they teach me! Naturally I was proud to have plus-size Gillian as the main character of this installment of my Willow Cove series to explore not only how society sees her, as a “size” only, but also how she sees herself, as a confident, intelligent, charming, beautiful person—as well as examine how she’s learned to trust her own judgment and to shut out the judgment of others (except in weak moments, which I guess we all have). But the most fun was writing the old-lady gang of nosy neighbors. I’ve always wanted to write a sort of small-town Greek chorus of locals, and they fit right in here. Noah is new in town and needs someone to talk to, but he’s not very approachable because he’s stinging from a bad breakup and comes across as grouchy. The neighbor ladies, Carol, Arnette, and Judy, knock down his defensive walls and become his no-filter, boozy fairy godmother trio. They were so much fun to write. Actually, they pretty much wrote themselves!
Why do you love writing romance?
I started my very first romcom as a National Novel Writing Month project—the program where you strive to write 50,000 words in the month of November—and I thought if I was going to be spending that much time with one story, it had darn well better make me laugh. So I chose to write romcoms, and I haven’t looked back. The way I see it, there’s enough misery in the world; I don’t want to add to it, even fictionally. I’d rather have readers know they can be guaranteed a light, fluffy, funny escape read. The biggest compliments I receive are the ones that say they laughed out loud while reading one of my books.
With it being the new year, have you set any resolutions or goals for 2024?
Oh, I never make resolutions. Tomorrow, the next day, the next year…it’s all hidden around a blind corner. We have no idea what’s waiting for us. I can’t imagine making plans in the face of all that unknown stuff waiting to pounce.
What’s next for you?
I’m trying to take it one day at a time, but my next goal is to write the third Willow Cove book about Gray and Delia (fingers crossed). I’ve also got a young adult postapocalyptic thing rattling around in my brain, as well as a witchy romcom. There’s a lot of “shush! wait your turn!” going on in my head.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I haven’t read many new releases lately, romance or otherwise. (Oh the shame! My only excuse is that working retail during the holidays barely allows time for breathing, let alone reading.) The last book that knocked me sideways was Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey. It was so captivating, I just couldn’t put it down. And the way the twist teases itself out over the last third of the book is brilliant—it makes you want to go back and reread everything to look for the breadcrumbs you may have missed.
