The Nerd Daily recently had the opportunity to speak with Olivia Dade, acclaimed author of the Lovestruck Librarians series, Teach Me, and the upcoming Spoiler Alert, a book that reads like a love letter to fanfiction and fandoms! We got to ask Olivia all about her own experience with fanfiction, her hauntingly accurate portrayal of fatphobia in today’s society and her favorite books!
Hi, Olivia! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us! Would you mind telling our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I’m Olivia Dade, and I’m a lifelong nerd who used to have jobs that, sadly, required actual pants—teacher, librarian, tutor, etc. Now, however, I spend all day in pajamas writing romantic comedies, as nature intended. I live outside of Stockholm with my husband and daughter, and I am an enthusiastic hag and eager crone-to-be.
Now give us the deets on Spoiler Alert! What can readers expect?
Spoiler Alert is my love letter to fandom, fatness, and found families, and I hope it brings readers a few hours of joy and comfort and maybe some happy tears. The story involves the star of a blockbuster television series, Marcus, who’s seemingly a himbo—but who’s secretly nothing of the sort, and who writes fanfiction critical of his own show. If anyone ever found out, he’d be done in Hollywood. Which is why it’s, uh, problematic that he’s just met his online BFF—a beautiful, fat, take-no-crap geologist and fangirl named April—in person, and realized he could fall for her very, very easily. Or maybe, through their online interactions, he already has fallen for her.
Like I said: problematic.
Oh, and readers should expect a surprising number of jokes about pegging. I am who I am.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have to admit, when I first read the synopsis for Spoiler Alert, I couldn’t believe that this was a real thing that existed? Like, I couldn’t make up a more perfect story idea even if I tried for the next four decades?! So, I want to ask you: have you ever picked up a book based on a synopsis that sounded too good to be true, but it turned out that the actual book was even better? If so, please share!
I think maybe my best example of this is Radiance by Grave Draven? I love a good fantasy romance, and one centered around an arranged marriage? Yes, please. But this book is lovely in so many unexpected ways. Both main characters, “spare” nobles who get married to cement an alliance between their kingdoms, are good people, even though each is initially disgusted by the other’s foreign appearance. Despite that preliminary disgust, though, they try to accept one another, and that acceptance turns into desire and love as they work together to overcome political intrigues. The story is funny and kind and warm, and I loved it even more than I expected to.
Now, there are obviously a bunch of TV shows out there that…have lost their marbles, to say it kindly, once the final season rolled around and just ran wild with the storytelling and character arcs. Did one (or more) of them inspire you to write Spoiler Alert?
Well, there is a certain blockbuster television show that ended last year, and while some were satisfied with that ending, others (including me) were decidedly not satisfied. One might even call us salty. Perhaps my book’s tagline should have been: Saltiness Is Coming.
Spoiler Alert is a love letter to fanfiction, so what was the first fanfiction you remember reading? What fandom was it from? Have you ever written fanfiction yourself?
I only began reading fanfiction a year and a half ago, but that first fic made such an impact, I basically read nothing but fanfiction for the next twelve months. On Twitter, Kay Taylor Rea wrote a thread of recommended fics for the Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth fandom, and I was intrigued enough to check them out. The first one I tackled was “Traveling Far” by astolat, and it blew me away. It had such a clear authorial voice, and it was clever and funny and heartwarming. I thought to myself, “If this is fanfic, I am ALL ABOUT FANFIC!” And so I was, and so I remain.
That said, I haven’t written my own, because immersing myself so deeply in someone else’s characters is a particular skill, and it’s one I haven’t mastered. Luckily, I don’t need to, since so many others are incredible at it.
To follow up because the tags on Marcus’s and April’s fanfictions made me cackle: what are the fanfiction tags that draw you in? What was the weirdest or funniest one you’ve ever encountered (I snorted out loud when I read Alex’s tag “the peg that was promised”)?
Many of my favorite fic authors are so, so good at writing tags that make me snicker. Some of my recent faves include: “Revealing your deepest secret and then passing out cold as flirting,” “can’t believe in this economy i am writing heterosexual shenanigans,” and “Jaime Lannister Considers His Suboptimal Life Choices” (an evergreen tag, TBH). Oh, and I can’t forget this duo of tags: “hey how is this 13k when it’s just cave snuggling?”; “great question! i have no idea.”
As far as what draws me in, I’m all about hurt/comfort and fluff and smut. I don’t mind some angst, but there needs to be fluff too! Or at least a happy ending!
One of the things I loved most about this book was how April decides to quit her old job and basically to stop hiding her inner fangirl and embrace her love for Gods of the Gates, cosplaying and writing fanfiction – evidently, we’ve made incredible strides in society and being a “nerd” is no longer something to be frowned upon or to be ridiculed. With that in mind, what are the things (movies, bands, books, fandoms) you love to geek out about?
Right now, I’m still deeply immersed in the Jaime/Brienne fandom, but I was obsessive over Phryne and Jack from “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” for a while, as well as Leslie and Ben from “Parks and Recreation” and—way back when—Mulder and Scully from “The X-Files.” I am a lifelong shipper, as you can probably tell. 🙂
You address a lot of important topics in this book, mainly fatphobia. As a plus-sized woman myself, reading April’s story was just an indescribable experience. From seeing the fantastic cover to reading about April standing up for herself and not letting the world tear her down – it meant so much to me and I know it will to other readers as well. Can you talk a bit about how it felt for you to write a romantic comedy with a fierce, fabulous and fat female lead? What were the hardest scenes to write and which made you feel empowered?
Along with being a lifelong nerd and a lifelong shipper, I’m also a lifelong fat person and romance reader. I looked for versions of myself on the page for decades, and I didn’t find many—and those I did find were often painful or harmful in some way. A couple of years ago, I decided to write what I wanted to see. I.e., portrayals of fat women whose lives don’t revolve around their fatness or a desire to become less fat, and who get the love and devotion they deserve. They’re desired not despite their size or because of their size, but because they’re amazing, desirable people.
Writing those stories means the world to me, even when the scenes are painful to get on page. In Spoiler Alert, April’s confrontation with her mom was hard for me. I cried as I wrote it, but I had to, because one of my goals for this book was to have on-the-page pushback against fat-shaming and to show April setting the boundaries she needs for her own happiness and mental health.
Honestly, though, even the parts that are painful to write give me strength. So do the notes I sometimes get from readers, who see themselves in characters like April and take heart in her confidence and determination to live her life on her own terms.
I also want to talk about the complex and flawed relationships both Marcus and April have with their parents because the interactions and the resentment and emotional abuse but also the concept of loving someone who isn’t good for you really hit home for me. How hard was it to write those scenes where both Marcus and April engage and eventually confront their parents? Where did you draw inspiration from?
Please see above. 🙂 Also, just because someone loves you and you love them, that doesn’t mean they can harm you without consequence. Even if they don’t intend to do harm. For me, that’s a bone-deep conviction, and I wanted to explore that on the page.
Spoiler Alert had a cinematic feel to it (which makes sense considering Marcus is basically everyone’s celebrity crush – including mine). Did you have any actors and actresses in mind for April and Marcus while writing the book or anyone that would be your dream cast for the two of them?
For the past year or two, almost all my heroes have—in my head—looked like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in various states of beardedness and with various lengths of hair. For Marcus, I pictured NCW with light stubble and shorter hair, in one his more pretty-boy photo shoots. As far as April, I found a random photo-studio website featuring pics of a gorgeous, fat redhead who looked confident and playful and entirely comfortable with her sexuality and sexual appeal. The pictures were flirty but not graphic, and they were amazing. I don’t know the model’s name, and that website is now defunct, but I’m grateful to both. She was the perfect inspiration for April.
At the end of Spoiler Alert, you teased that Alex’s (Marcus’s best friend) and Lauren’s story will follow in June 2021 (and hallelujah, I loved the hints we got at their relationship!). The both of them definitely have quite a different dynamic than April and Marcus. Can you tell us a little bit more about what readers can expect from their story?
Alex is the most chaotic, impulsive character I’ve ever written, with possibly the biggest heart too. My guiding light for him was the phrase “delightful asshole.” Because of his perceived misbehavior while filming the final season of his show, he’s been given a minder to keep him out of trouble, a serious, hardworking woman named Lauren, who’s very short and considered unattractive according to conventional beauty standards, even apart from her fatness. Alongside her best friend Sionna, she’s working on her Big Hag Energy and #CroneGoals (as should we all). Alex and Lauren start out at cross-purposes, but that changes over time into friendship and then more. Slowly. Thus the title: Slow Burn.
The book is written, but not yet edited, and I love it. I think it’s some of the best dialogue I’ve ever done, and I hope both Lauren and Alex steal your heart.
Last but not least, do you have any bookish recommendations for our readers?
I am a Mia Sosa stan, through and through. She’s a dear friend, and she has written one of the best romcoms in recent memory: The Worst Best Man. It’s hilarious and cinematic and wonderful, and it’s exactly the literary escape I think many of us need right now.
You can find Olivia at her website and Twitter, and be sure to join her newsletter!
