Ahead of the February 11 Residence 11 Desire Summit on Sex and Relationships (get tickets here!), we’re conducting a series of livestream interviews with Summit speakers. You can watch them live or after the fact on our YouTube channel, Facebook page or Twitter account, and ask questions for our interviewees.
Watch our interview between Editor-in-Chief Rachel Kramer Bussel and writer Kelly Reynolds, author of romance novella Meet Me in Los Feliz, and host of the romance novel review podcast Boobies & Noobies. They discussed Reynolds’ transition from romance reader to romance podcaster, her later transition into becoming a romance author, why she chose self-publishing, and her advice on how to become a romance novelist.
On becoming a romance podcaster:
I got the idea for it in 2017, and started doing the building blocks of listening to a lot of other romance podcasts and seeing what they were offering, what their point of view was on their shows. Also just trying to figure out what I wanted to do and how to start a podcast in general, because we are so blessed today to have so many options when it comes to romance podcasts, however, at the time, there were maybe six or seven. So I definitely knew I wanted to do something different.
I wanted to talk about romance novels. I listened to what was already out there and thought, Well, what is the spin that I can do on this? I reflected on the fact that I had so many friends and classmates and teachers and people I’ve worked with were…[snubbing] romance. Like if I pointed out that I was reading my 35th book of the year, they were interested. But the minute that I mentioned that it was a romance novel. It was, Oh, interesting. So I thought, I don’t I don’t see why people are judging genre if they haven’t tried it. That’s sort of how Boobies and Noobies was formed, was this idea of introducing newbie romance readers to the genre that I love to try to change their mind and dispel any misconceptions that they might have about the genre as a whole.
On writing her first romance novella, Meet Me in Los Feliz:
Meet Me in Los Feliz is a romance novella that takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas, in Los Angeles, and Los Feliz is a neighborhood within Los Angeles. I have a plus sized, tattooed, baddie heroine. I have a bisexual, British, redheaded hero. It was kind of a culmination of all of the things that I love in romance, and especially the things that I feel like we don’t get to see enough of.
As a self-identified fat woman, I love to read about fat people falling in love and having sex. I think it’s great, because, you know, we do it. So I wanted to write about a woman that looks like me. Nora, my main character, is 100% a pretty good representation of myself. And I wanted to write about a guy that was sort of my dream guy. That’s sort of how the story was born, just a combination of all the things that I wanted to read. I’m selfish this way. But I figured that if I want to read it, somebody else wants to read it.
I know that there’s a tremendous lack of both bisexual male representation in romance novels, and plus-sized characters as a whole, men and women. So I was really excited to have an opportunity to throw all of those things into a pot. And out came Meet Me in Los Feliz. I have always been a writer. I went to grad school for screenwriting. I have always gravitated towards reading and writing and watching romantic comedies. So it seems just like the next natural step, to turn some of those ideas into books, since this is the community that’s welcomed me in and I’ve become a part of.
I pick up bits and pieces, from movies I watch, from TikTok videos I see, from stories I hear, and I just file them away until enough pieces fit together to maybe form a character or form a potential relationship dynamic. This one kind of started in my head maybe a year or so ago. I decided last year that this was going to be the year I put my pen to paper and actually did something with them.
I think this is an issue that a lot of writers face–not having a shortage of ideas, but actually sitting down, to write them down. I know that that’s something that I have issues with all the time, is actually sitting down and doing the writing. I’m an excellent planner. However, sitting down and actually writing is the difficult part for me. So it reinvigorated my love for writing. And I plan to do more from here.
Watch the whole interview above and be sure to subscribe to our channels to catch all our interviews!
About the Desire Summit: The Residence 11 Desire Summit, sponsored by sex toy companies FUN FACTORY and Blush, intimate audio platform BLOOM, romance novel publisher Avon Books, and yoga teacher training company Ganja Yoga, will feature extensive educational sessions with over 20 diverse authors and subject matter experts across psychology, physical intimacy, technology innovation, sexual health, music and narrative storytelling. Speakers include writer Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, author of The Sex Lives of African Women, polyamory expert Kevin Patterson, author of Love’s Not Color Blind, sex educator and dating expert Erin Tillman, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling romance author and TikTok favorite Sierra Simone (Priest, American Queen), Mia Hopkins (author of Tanked, one of The New York Times’ best 2022 romances, romance novelist Suzanne Park (The Do Over, The Christmas Clash), and Taylor Hahn, author of swinging novel The Lifestyle, among others. Keynote speakers will be intimacy coach Zoë Kors, author of Radical Intimacy: Cultivate the Deeply Connected Relationships You Desire and Deserve, speaking on 6 Questions That Will Get You Instantly Connected to Anyone, and sex educator Dirty Lola, who appeared as a sexpert on Netflix’s The Principles of Pleasure, speaking on The State of Modern Dating. Get tickets here for the Desire Summit.