About

"Hopeless Romantics" behind-the-scenes

The Birth of Hopeless Romantics

Hopeless Romantics will always hold a special place in my heart since they were my first books (after finishing my Twisted Tales and my New Adult College Romcoms). They are a blend of third- and first-person because... dun dun... I am about to reveal my biggest, darkest secret--I used to NOT be able to write in third-person.

Sooo when I first wrote books while I was in college, I wrote them like a movie because that was my main form of entertainment back in the day--not to mention that I was a child of the 90's, and strangely enough, a lot of fiction I read was third-person omniscient (think Dune), so I was a BIG TIME head hopper. My teachers were like, "No, no..." until finally I just gave up and became the queen of  Chick Lit.

So, Jane and Austen was the first romantic comedy I wrote for my Hopeless Romantics collection, and it garnered a lot of attention back in the day (namely because of its name tbh and also, there just weren't as many books offered at that time). Books were mostly from traditional publishers and if the company was wrong about taking a chance on a new author? They had to eat the costs of printing. Anyway, because I went the hybrid author route, I thought I was super clever when I gave my book to some free and discounted newsletter sites, which was also a newfangled thing to do (none of us authors really had our own newsletters), and Jane and Austen got into a lot of hands--and probably into too many hands since it landed into the laps of quite a few historical romance fans too, sooo they probably wanted to kill little 'ol "Chick Lit" me, who couldn't really figure out how to market to her target audience in the early years. Yikes!

Then, I started writing, Gina and Ash (once called, Out of the Mouths of Babes), but I got an opportunity to write and direct a movie and thought movies were my future. Four years later... after getting hit over the head by a shovel with the reality that making movies was really, really expensive... I was back to writing novels again. After all, the only startup cost was my laptop, which I already owned. I picked up Gina and Ash and realized I now had a social media problem--meaning, my attention span was SHORT! So, after designing a system of alarm bells, stars on my forehead, locking my computer from social media, and using checkoff lists to help give me dopamine rushes without the "likes," I moved on to give Gina and Ash their happy ending, and I had a blast doing it! Soon after, I was able to drop my writing tricks and just wrote for the pleasure of it.

From there, I went on to Robin and Marian--my VERY FIRST third- person novel to see the light of day! I had just finished a rough draft of 12 Dancing Princesses (published years and years later under a pen name), and after experiencing some success at third-person with that fairy-tale remake, AND also because Robin Hood is one of my VERY FAVORITE characters of all time--I didn't mind at all getting into that guy's head. The book qualified for the top five in a contest that I was really excited about and it also lost, haha, but... I've never lost my love for it.

Roman and Jules was supposed to be a novella that I gave away free for my newsletter (this was when I first discovered that you needed to give something away for free to build a newsletter. At this point, all my friends had newsletters and I was WAY BEHIND on the times). AND... while creating it, I realized that I was incapable of writing anything short. And so, my sister (a film person all the way) told me, "Look, novels are like writing a limited 6-hour series and novellas are like writing a music video--lots of emotion with a compelling storyline that resonates fast." She then gave me an actual formula for novellas: 1--meet cute, 2--present the problem, 3--two to three short rising actions ("SHORT, Stephanie!!"), 4--a misunderstanding, and 5--the happy end. And so keeping that in mind, I wrote "Bonnie and Klyde," which actually ended up quite cute (in my biased opinion).

After I was more experienced with novellas, I wrote Mia and Harker with a group of talented authors who were out to create a boxset called, "Love in the City." There was only one problem--COVID hit and I wasn't able to research New Orleans like I'd hoped! So the little yellow-person icon in Google Maps and I had to explore the place together. I interviewed my sister extensively (who'd gone there for work trips) and that's how I tried to figure out the feel of the town. Only years later was I able to visit and, boooy! It was hilarious because it really HAD felt like I'd been there before--I was dragging my sister down roads to explore the places I had on maps and trying out the Po' Boys and beignets for myself. The "Love in the City" boxset was only out for a limited time, and now Mia and Harker is mine to do with as I please.

And... I haven't been able to write SHORT since. Ah hahaha. We shall see how I do with another talented group of authors I'm set to work with in the future. We're doing fairy tale remakes that I'll be doing with my pen name--pray for me!

Either way, I hope you enjoy my Hopeless Romantics collection as much as I did writing them! I put my heart into them (and a little of my brain... a dash of stubbornness, and perhaps even a cup of beginner's luck).

And that's the whole story! Thanks for connecting!

--Stephanie Fowers