When one book closes another one opens
Secret snippets, WIP inspo, Some Personal News, and an ode to Sherry Thomas
Tender, Thirsty, Ambitious is a newsletter from romance author Rosie Danan about savoring the good stuff, looking respectfully 👀, and building a creative practice that embraces unapologetic striving.
Volume 11, Week of August 23, 2024
TENDER– savoring the good stuff
grateful for The Friend That Starts The Group Chat. Group chats are beautiful, special micro-communities. They transcend time zones and can seamlessly transition from moments of laughter and strife.
I am not the friend that starts the group chat. Who says, in some variation, ‘Hey, we all like each other. Let’s open a new channel of communication that invites casual and collaborative discussion’ (See, that’s part of the reason I’m not that friend; clearly, I have no chill).
Anyway, whether for navigating the rodeo of publishing, sharing queries of social etiquette, or just screaming into the void, I love my group chats and am very glad my extroverted friends included me in their creation.
If you are, or can be, the friend to start the group chat, I encourage and salute you. Also, in case anyone was wondering, you can never have too many group chats.
Group chats also, coincidentally, play a significant role in my new book, FAN SERVICE, out March 11, 2025 from Berkley/Piatkus. (Is this a seamless transition? Please say yes.)
ICYMI: I recently revealed the cover over on Instagram along with some memes and AO3-style tags that I am very proud of. I'll drop some faves below but please do click through if you’d like the full spectrum.
I’m actually working on pass pages for FS right now (that’s the final stage of the book development process where authors get to be hands on with the material to catch any last minute typos or other errors). In celebration of this book very imminently transitioning from Mine to Ours, here’s a newsletter exclusive GC teaser :D
grateful to have bought a house. I know, I know. I sort of buried the lead here. Honestly, I struggle with personal disclosure (an interesting thing to share in a newsletter, but alas I digress). I’m never exactly sure how much to share and with whom. But this is a big life moment, made possible in part because I’ve gotten to write and publish books and (at least some of) you bought them, and I am very, very grateful.
Some fun facts:
· I’ve moved nine times in the last ten years (NYC, ATX, LDN, PHL)
· Our new house is 100 years old. It has built-in bookcases, a front porch, and a bay window.
· My goal is that we get to stay here for at least five years. Please cross your fingers for me. My track record for stability, as stated, is very poor.
grateful to have taken the first steps on a new project. I can’t share much at this stage, and who knows how the work will evolve, but here’s a little slice of my current inspiration mood board. My creative moto remains, “Let’s get weird.”
THIRSTY – looking respectfully 👀
Taylor Zakhar Perez, I would like to go on vacation with you to this beautiful oasis.
#maybe we could read each other poetry #and eat sandwiches #and kiss #eyebrows #LASHES #this is what they mean when romance authors describe a hero as having a Roman nose #his majesty somehow reflects the majesty of the trees?? #you’re welcome
AMBITIOUS – unapologetic creative striving
Today’s ambitious creative inspiration comes from Sherry Thomas’ Ravishing The Heiress. Which is, in my opinion, a genuine masterpiece of the romance genre. I have never read anything quite like it. I don’t even know if anything quite like it exists. If you are concerned that I am over hyping this book let me assure you that I am not. And could not.
It is a friends-to-lovers, arranged marriage, dual timeline story that is exquisitely painful. And that might sound like a bad thing, but I mean it in a way that this book allows you to experience rare, vivid aspects of human emotion and the aching of being alive, all through a the safe proxy of perfect prose.
I don’t even know that I need to get into the plot here to sell this as an ambitious creative achievement. One craft choice that stands out to me in particular in this regard is the book is told over the course of eight years through somewhat sporadic vignettes. This could have been a disaster. It could have hindered pacing and the development of chemistry. Thomas (unsurprisingly if you’re at all familiar with her work) nails it.
Another particular ambitious creative choice I want to call out here is that both of the main characters hurt each other—and in particular the hero hurts the heroine a lot—but it’s not because either of them is intentionally careless or cruel. They’re both good people trying their best and still causing such tremendous angst. You can’t even really be mad at them because even the long-held miscommunications feel reasonable and real because Thomas does such delicate and tender character work. As an artist, she sits in the discomfort of these emotions and the consequences they bring forth. As a writer, I marvel at the restraint. She rushes toward neither clarity nor culmination and instead let’s both flow to and through the reader. It’s magical.
One last thing: the slow burn and resulting culmination in this book is also worth studying. It’s so well-earned, specific, beautifully rendered, and satisfying.
HOUSEKEEPING
You can learn more about my upcoming release FAN SERVICE here or preorder from your fave retailer below:
Amazon Barnes & Noble Books A Million Bookshop.org Hudson Booksellers Powell's Target Walmart
You can also add it as “Want to Read” on Goodreads to be the first to hear about advanced reader copies and/or giveaways. A few other readers have already started making predictions about the contents that tbh are mostly accurate.
Congratulations on the new house, Rosie! It sounds dreamy. I'm a million percent intrigued by the mood board for your next project and will be cheering you on from afar!