1–What is the title of your latest release?
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Two dental students trade fillings for feelings as they navigate first love, being “just friends,” meddling found family, and finding what they really want out of life while also working through the hard parts of mental illness and grief.
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I wrote ABWL during my first year of dental school. While in the program, your world becomes really small (and tooth-shaped) to the point that you’re thinking about school or exams or hanging with other dental students talking about school or exams… it’s as tedious as it sounds. Harper and Dan, my main characters who are in dental school, popped into my head one day and wouldn’t shut up! It was fun to watch their friendship and romance unfold in a setting I’d never seen in a romance novel before.
4–Would you hang out with your heroine in real life?
Oh heck yes. I love Harper Hannah Horowitz with my whole heart. She’s funny and determined and would do anything for the people she loves. She’d also probably push me to study when I’m supposed to instead of writing.
5–What are three words that describe your hero?
Earnest. Tenderhearted. Adorable.
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That digging into mental health is hard! I’ve had a formal diagnosis for my anxiety disorder since I was twelve, and it’s something I try to be open about, but writing about feelings and physical responses that come with it required deep introspection and a great deal of vulnerability. It was scary to put it on the page, but I’m so glad I did.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Answer: I tend to edit as I draft. I’m a slow drafter, often laboring (aka, getting very stuck and frustrated) over phrasing and sentences until it feels right. Whenever I hit a wall of writer’s block, I start from the beginning of the book and tweak as I read to try and re-find the thread.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Where to even start… I order out way too often for the amount of student loans I have, but Philadelphia has so many incredible restaurants and life is too short for me to burn another dinner in my apartment (the lies I tell myself…)
9–Describe your writing space/office!
I write in whatever random space I can fold myself into! I actually wrote a lot of A BRUSH WITH LOVE in the back of lecture halls and on my lunch breaks at school. My apartment is tiny, so when I’m drafting there it’s often at messy kitchen tables or on the couch… usually with a cat laying across the keyboard.
10–Who is an author you admire?
Chloe Liese writes with incredible wit, heart, and tenderness and continually creates unique stories with unforgettable characters.
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang was my first time reading a romance with a neurodiverse main character, and I felt incredibly seen. Reading that book and the radical beauty of seeing a neurodiverse character find fulfillment and love gave me the final push to finish my first draft of ABWL.
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)
I’d been an anxious mess for weeks because I knew my now-editor was sending it around for other internal pub opinions, so I was expecting an answer one way or another. I ordered sushi from my lucky sushi restaurant (it’s a thing…) then went to school for a mandatory orthodontics lab session. I got the call about ten minutes after getting to school and I went out to this private courtyard in the back and started happy sobbing then called my parents and boyfriend. Still one of the best days of my life.
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
ROMANCE FOREVER!!!!
14–What’s your favorite movie?
Moulin Rouge
15–What is your favorite season?
Fall
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
As obnoxiously as possible. I make a fuss for the entire month, then I force all my friends to get really dressed up with me and then go to Buffalo Wild Wings or Olive Garden. Gotta keep it classy.
17–What’s a recent TV show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
It’s not recent but I will recommend Fleabag every chance I get for the rest of my life.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Thai food
19–What do you do when you have free time?
This sounds so cheesy but reading. Between writing under contract and finishing up dental school, I have such little time to read for fun anymore, so it’s always my go-to when I can. Some non-bookish answers are going to art museums or watching TV in bed (there’s something so decadent about that simple pleasure!).
20–What can readers expect from you next?
My second novel, Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake, releases September 6th, 2022! Lizzie is a side character in A Brush with Love, and that kooky angel was so fun to write, I had to give Lizzie her own story. It’s an “opposites attract, forced proximity rom-com” about the consequences of a two-night stand. It has ADHD rep and an underground erotic baking scheme that I still can’t believe my publisher let me get away with.
A BRUSH WITH LOVE by Mazey Eddings
A Novel
Harper is anxiously awaiting placement into a top oral surgery residency program when she crashes (literally) into Dan. Harper would rather endure a Novocaine-free root canal than face any distractions, even one this adorable. A first-year dental student with a family legacy to contend with, Dan doesn’t have the same passion for pulling teeth that Harper does. Though he finds himself falling for her, he is willing to play by Harper’s rules. So with the greatest of intentions and the poorest of follow-throughs, the two set out to be “just friends.” But as they get to know each other better, Harper fears that trading fillings for feelings may make her lose control and can’t risk her carefully ordered life coming undone, no matter how drool-worthy Dan is.
Blood, gore, and extra-long roots? No problem. The idea of falling in love? Torture.
Romance Comedy | Romance Contemporary [St. Martin’s Griffin, On Sale: March 1, 2022, Trade Size / e-Book, ISBN: 9781250805980 / eISBN: 9781250805997]
Buy A BRUSH WITH LOVE: Amazon.com | Kindle | BN.com | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Powell’s Books | Books-A-Million | Indie BookShops | Ripped Bodice | Love’s Sweet Arrow | Walmart.com | Book Depository | Target.com | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Mazey Eddings
Mazey Eddings is a neurodiverse author, dentist, and (most importantly) stage mom to her cats, Yaya and Zadie. She can most often be found reading romance novels under her weighted blanket and asking her boyfriend to bring her snacks. She’s made it her personal mission in life to destigmatize mental health issues and write love stories for every brain. With roots in Ohio and North Carolina, she now calls Philadelphia home
No Comments
Comments are closed.