If you still don’t know about #romanceclass, it’s more than time for you to check this wonderful group of authors from the Philippines who write romance! I always love their books and I’m so happy to see them publishing more LGBTQ+ books lately. When I found Chi Yu Rodriguez’s No Two Ways on twitter and ran to read the summary on Goodreads, I had no doubt that I needed to interview the author so more people could hear about it. Gladly, she was excited to be on the blog as much as I was excited to have her over.
Interview
Q1: First of all, let me just say I absolutely adore the premise of your book! Where did the inspiration come from to write a story with a makeover reality show for a romance?
Thank you, Maria! ❤
I already knew I was going to write a book with a bisexual MC and that I wanted it to be the queerest book I’ve ever written in my life. A short story with high school age AJ already existed though the anthology it belonged to hadn’t been published yet. I also knew I wanted a botched one-night-stand and a queer group of friends. But I had no idea how I was going to tell the story.
I’d been watching this makeover show on Netflix called 100% Hotter. It was a trainwreck, really. The makeovers were all over the top makeunders and oh boy the commentary. But I couldn’t stop watching. One night they made over this artsy/grungy girl I think? She was rated so low in the beginning and after they turned her as vanilla as vanilla could go, she was suddenly a ten. They completely erased her personality and it annoyed me so much.
I don’t remember exactly what happened after that. But the next thing I knew, I had typed up the initial blurb to No Two Ways on my phone. On the eve of Bi Visibility Day, no less! Then I just ran with it.
BiblioSapphic 