Fresh FIction Box Not To Miss
Paul Rudnick | Exclusive Interview: PLAYING THE PALACE
Author Guest / May 24, 2021

Danielle: Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Paul! We are thrilled to have you here. Can you tell us what inspired your new book, PLAYING THE PALACE?   Paul:  Two things inspired PLAYING THE PALACE: first, I wanted to explore a passionate and uproarious romance between two people of very different social backgrounds, namely Carter Ogden, a lonely New York City event planner, and Prince Edgar, the openly gay Crown Prince of England. Beyond that, I wanted to create an all-out romantic comedy, to combat despair and celebrate the glory of falling in love despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. How do you feel your background in playwrighting and screenwriting influenced writing this novel?   Writing for the theater, the screen and the page can be very different pursuits, but they do inform each other. I want PLAYING THE PALACE to have the pure fun of a great musical comedy, with the heart of a bigscreen romance. There’s a cast of delightful characters throughout PLAYING THE PALACE that add to the hijinks Carter and Prince Edgar find themselves involved in… do you have a favorite side character, who really stood out to you while you were writing this book?  I hate to play favorites, but…

Georgia Clark | Exclusive Interview: IT HAD TO BE YOU
Author Guest / May 4, 2021

Danielle: Welcome to Fresh Fiction, Georgia, and congrats on the release of your new book, IT HAD TO BE YOU! What has it been like working on a book and releasing it during a pandemic?  Georgia: Thanks so much, happy to be here! Of course, the past year has been a sh*tshow and writing about fictional people’s love lives during a global pandemic feels a bit like playing music on the deck of Titanic as it plunges into the North Atlantic. I feel extremely lucky I was able to do what I love—write—during lockdown, and that my close friends and family made it through. It was a difficult but valuable perspective shift. IT HAD TO BE YOU begins with a bombshell—Liv’s husband unexpectedly passes away AND he had a secret girlfriend… on top of these revelations, the successful wedding planning business she had with her husband has been left to both her and Savannah, his younger mistress. Where did you get the idea for this hilarious setup?   To be honest, most set-ups emerge as hazy, dreamlike things—a combination of my life, what I’m paying attention to, what I’m reading/watching/daydreaming about—but okay here goes: I wanted a set-up that’d let…