Stephanie Shea joins me to chat about Missed Connection, if we will be seeing more of Jenn and Val, how she met her girlfriend and much more.
You can purchase Steph's books on her Amazon page: Amazon.com: Stephanie Shea: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
To learn more about Steph or for links to her socials, check out her webpage: Stephanie Shea Writes – home to broody women-loving women
You can join my Patreon to hear Steph and more of your favorite writers playing hilarious game of would you rather starting at only $5 a month. Sapphic Book Review is creating Bonus fun with lesfic authors | Patreon
Stephanie Shea joins me to chat about Missed Connection, if we will be seeing more of Jenn and Val, how she met her girlfriend and much more.
You can purchase Steph's books on her Amazon page: Amazon.com: Stephanie Shea: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
To learn more about Steph or for links to her socials, check out her webpage: Stephanie Shea Writes – home to broody women-loving women
You can join my Patreon to hear Steph and more of your favorite writers playing hilarious game of would you rather starting at only $5 a month. Sapphic Book Review is creating Bonus fun with lesfic authors | Patreon
Hi, I'm Laura green, and this is the Sapphic Book Review Podcast. The show where I visit with the best writers in lesfic. I love reading and these books and writers means so much to me. I hope you learned something new each week about your favorite authors. Enjoy the show, and be sure to subscribe Welcome to the Sapphic Book Review Podcast. I'm Laura Green. And today's guest is one of my favorite authors. I love the way she writes and the wonderful character she creates. She's also become a great friend, Stephanie Shea, welcome, and
Stephanie:Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here. thanks for joining me.
Laura:For anyone who hasn't read your most recent release. Tell them about Missed Connection and what to expect from Avery and Ky.
Stephanie:Well, anyone who's read Chef's Kiss would have already gotten a glimpse into Avery's character. I really enjoyed crafting her relationship with Jenn and I absolutely could not let her go. One thing I'll say is that Avery and Kyla's story doesn't start at the beginning. There is a prologue where they meet in an airport lounge. And then the story hops six months forward, where we find out that they sat on a plane next to each other for a 14 hour flight. There might have been some talking some PG cuddling and a not so PGkiss. But the story really begins when Kyla shows up at GIA, and the reader learns all of that. So it's it's quite a bit of family drama mixed in. But figuring out their feelings for each other is sort of the biggest obstacle especially considering every is never dated women. And Ky is only in the mission for two weeks before she resumes her life as a travel influencer.
Laura:I love that they made out of the airport. I have been on many flights. I've never met a hot chick who made out with me at the airport.
Stephanie:Yeah, no, it was very spontaneous. It's not for everyone.
Laura:It's not apparently now I can't do it because I get in trouble.
Stephanie:Yeah, I'm not recommending it. Let's just leave it for Avery And Kyla.
Laura:Okay. As you're well aware, I have a love affair with Jenn Coleman. From chef's kiss. Have we seen the last of Jen and Val? And who would you like to play them in a movie adaptation?
Stephanie:Okay, the movie adaptation This is a little bit more difficult for me. I can say you haven't seen the last of them. I'm planning the third book in the Gia San Francisco universe, which a few people have already guessed will be centered on Whitney. For people who haven't read Missed Connection yet I won't say too much about that. But Val and Jenn will definitely feature in that story. As for who would play them in a movie adaptation. Probably. Barbara Lopez is this Mexican actress who I think will be a she would be brilliant as Valentina. I haven't seen her in any English shows. So maybe no one really knows who that is. But for followers of the Juliantina, and she was Juliana in that pairing. And then for Jenn, that's a tough one. I don't know maybe if like Jennifer Beals, Sherry Saum and Meghan Markle had a miracle love child, that would be Jenn.
Laura:Wow, that would be quite a lovely child.
Stephanie:Well, Jenn is a lovely woman.
Laura:You don't have to tell me that. I think you know And yeah, you know about my obsession. It's a little bit, I may need some therapy for it soon.
Stephanie:No, it's not that bad.
Laura:What are you working on now? And when do you anticipate releasing it?
Stephanie:Well, what I'm working on is a bit of a mystery, literally. And because I keep popping among like three different projects. I'm refining mystery YA novel that I wrote a few years ago. And I think I'm finally ready to try querying. it will be under a different pen name. But that's only because it's a completely different vibe from like my adult queer romance stuff. Which leads me to the other two product projects I'm working on. One of those is the GIA the third book in the Gia San Francisco series with Whitney. And the other one is a novella, which is kind of best friend's older sister who was part of her queer awakening and comes back to town kind of thing and we see where that goes. So both of those in novella and the Gia San Francisco third book, I'm thinking between the summer and fall, and the Chef's Kiss audio book should be out around that time too.
Laura:Oh, really? Who's narrating that?
Stephanie:I will not say just yet but I will give you the scoop once everything is settled. Okay, you better knoyou will be first.
Laura:Okay, thanks. You've added a mystery writer to your resume. With whispering oaks, what other genres do you plan to tackle? And will another mystery thriller be in your future plans?
Stephanie:Well, the simple simple answer is YA, which I just mentioned is the other one I'll be working on. As for other genres, I'm not so sure I love fantasy. I love historical romance, although almost everything I've read in the last two years has been either romance or mystery. So I think outside of that one way, I may stick to romance and mystery for a bit. I have at least two working ideas for other mystery suspense novels. With a romantic subplot. It will always be with a romantic subplot, I can't help myself there.
Laura:Are you going to write any more whispering oaks stories?
Stephanie:Yes, I think I will do a follow up actually, there's a lot of scream for. We need that sequel because of how it ended. But I kind of anticipated with the way I ended the story which you you would have read already.
Laura:Yes. You just set that up. Who's your favorite supporting character from one of your books?
Stephanie:It's probably cheating. If I say Avery, right. But, Avery kind of stuck with me.
Laura:It's not cheating.
Stephanie:Not really. Okay. Well, I knew I wanted to give her her own love story, because I don't know I have a bit of a fascination with that kind of strong willed high fem. Like it's not necessarily a ice queen. But they know exactly what they're about. They can fix just about any problem except when it comes to their own romantic situations. And well, which is not to say they're afraid of those situations or that vulnerability. I do think Avery brought out the best in every character in chef's kiss. And if I think Ashley in Whispering oaks kind of does the same for Cassidy so if I had to pick a real supporting character, I guess it would be Ashley from whispering oaks.
Laura:Okay, name a line from one of your books that you are most proud of writing.
Stephanie:Okay, this this is a very, very, very tough one for me. I went through almost all of my books, and I could not decide on one that I thought okay, this is the one I'm most proud of. But I guess one that overlaps with something that people seem to like was in Missed Connection. Avery had a thought after she had breakfast with her mom and her brother. And she it basically said, How could she convince them that she was the same person that she has always been when their concern would be for how different being with Kyla made her. And maybe that's one of the things that made coming out difficult is the bizarre concept that that could abruptly and lastingly change how everyone who knew her before saw her everyday after? So I don't know. People seem to connect with that. And it was a line that I guess feel personal to me. So I'm really proud of that one.
Laura:It's a good one,
Stephanie:Do you have a favorite line?
Laura:Don't put me on the spot.
Stephanie:Okay, okay. That was putting you on the spot. I admit, I could not answer on the spot, obviously.
Laura:See, and you wrote them. I gave you advanced warning. If you would have been like, Hey, girl, I'm going to ask you what your favorite line is, I would have looked it up and I would be prepared.
Stephanie:But that's like, I still didn't get it.
Laura:That'd be like asking me like, in class, answer this question. As soon as somebody calls on me I freeze up and I'm like, Ah, I don't know. And I'll send you my favorite line. Send your message. Where's your favorite place to write?
Stephanie:Well, I want to say, my desk in my apartment, I have a I guess a designated writing desk. My apartment is seven floors up. So you know I open the curtains. It's not a bad view. It definitely gives me something else to look at when I'm writing a scene and I get stuck. And I'm wondering where the hell am I going with this? But I don't my girlfriend would probably say I don't have a favorite spot. I think it's become a bit of a bit of a running joke at this point, because she works remotely too. And she'll get out of her office and she'll see me curled up between two sofas on the living room floor and discreetly snap a picture that I'll discover on her phone like two weeks later. And I don't know I move around, especially when I feel like the words aren't coming out. Right. So the sofa the bed, wherever I'm just all over the place. Actually, I think a lot of Chef's Kiss was written in my car.
Laura:Oh wow. I would have written it at a restaurant that would have been inspirational for me.
Stephanie:Too many distractions. I need just open cityscapes.
Laura:How did you and your girlfriend meet? And what would you title the book based on your love story?
Stephanie:Okay, my girlfriend and I met on a dating app. I it's it was weird timing. I was on vacation in Fort Lauderdale for two weeks with a friend. And I had never tried dating apps before. So I said, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna go for it. And it was funny because she was in Miami for work for one week. And we literally started talking the day she landed, we matched on the app. So for like, the next six days, I spent that six days trying to meet up with her. And it was always something I worked in or with the bosses or I had family stuff, she had family stuff. And I think eventually, we realized that we weren't going to get like three perfect uninterrupted hours to just sit and talk or whatever. So she told me, I should come to her hotel. So I said, Okay. And my friend kept joking. You know, this girl could be a catfish. And I was like, Well, you know, she's invited me to a hotel, and I could be a kidnapper or something. You know, luckily for both of us, none of us turned out to be that, because it was all very sketchy that meet at first. We met up for an hour on the Fourth of July. And she had to leave the next day. But we kept talking and six months later, we went to Miami together. And that's kind of how everything unfolded. I still don't know what the name of it would be. But I did start a short story about it like three years ago, and I would happily send you a little snippet or whatever.
Laura:It could be called Made Connection.
Stephanie:it's funny because I mean, there's a little bit I guess of similarity with Kyla and Avery, that six month gap, and talking online.
Laura:You're a big music lover what's on your playlist right now?
Stephanie:My playlist is a bit of a mess. You know, it always is because I skip across genres. And some of the titles are a bit obscure, so you will probably find some Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler, some Taylor Swift. I got hooked on this one Zola Simone song, and then there's Ruelle and Eden, you'll also find like some piano classics Clair De Lune and Moonlight So a lot of actresses. If you watch The L Word, generation Q there is Arienne Mandi, who's Dani and the actress who plays Gigi, Sepideh Moafi. I hope I'm not butchering her name. Yeah, there's just a lot of beautiful people out in the world.
Laura:There are are quite a few. I have a lot of them. I have the top five.
Stephanie:You should share with me to you. What's your top five?
Laura:Hannah Waddingham
Stephanie:I do know that.
Laura:Yes. She's tall and I just want to climb her like a tree. And Ashlyn Harris from the women's soccer team corps. Yes, the tattoos, the hair, the cheeks, and I've been watching 911 The TV show, and I'm putting Angela Bassett on there. She's timeless. Yeah, she's hot. The body, the cheeks. parently cheekbones are kind of a thing for me.
Stephanie:She has great cheekbones. looks almost the same as she did 10 years ago I think.
Laura:she's like 62 She doesn't age. And then I'm gonna throw in Pink even though I'm a little afraid of her. I think she might hurt me. She might be a little rough.
Stephanie:Oh, yeah. She has some arms on her.
Laura:She does. And then number five changes. I think I'm going to put Adele on there because she would sing to me and what's not hot about that?
Stephanie:Of course. And that voice, she has a beautiful voice.
Laura:I know. And the laugh is just this cackle. I love that.
Stephanie:Yeah. I think I saw her on James Corden and she had that laugh
Laura:It's great. What did little Stephanie want to be when she grew up?
Stephanie:Little Steph wanted to be an artist but the kind that draws and paints. I can't really remember why I stopped except maybe it was only mandatory up to I think, the ninth grade in high school. But I also, r when I think about it, I'm not sure I was ever any good. But maybe when I was a kid, I thought I was amazing. But I fell in love with writing pretty much like two years after that, so I guess it was okay timing.
Laura:Yeah, that's good. You could try taking a drawing again. Maybe it could be abstract.
Stephanie:I think I'll call it that. So whatever I draw when it looks terrible, it's just abstract.
Laura:What is a cause that means a lot to you.
Stephanie:Okay, well, this got me thinking a little bit. I don't know if it's a cause, necessarily. But since writing is what brought me here, I will say, people of color representation in sapphic romances. it's not necessarily in a way where I think everyone should write that if they either don't feel called to it or something, because then it's just tokenism. And that's not what the discussion is about, for me. Bryce Oakley and I, pretty early in our friendship, we had a discussion where I mentioned to her that basically, like 10 to 12 years ago, when I was just leaving high school. I thought to myself my lead characters have to be white for my writing to be recognized. And it took me a while to sort of realize that's not necessarily what I want to write, I want to see myself on the page, I want my girlfriend who's Latina, to see herself on the page. And even Saturday, I did a panel for the GCLS and someone in the comments, she was saying that there's not enough Asian representation in sapphic romance. And, well, I'm not Asian. And I don't necessarily want my writing to be noticed or to be known only for people of color, protagonist, but I'm glad when people contact me, and they message me on Twitter or Instagram, wherever they say it feels great to see themselves or themselves on the page. So I don't know if it's a cause. But it's definitely important to me.
Laura:It's important. I think, because we all need to feel represented.
Stephanie:Eight I think so too. So that's the one for me.
Laura:That's a good one. This is a serious question. I was shocked to discover that you had never seen a Golden Girls episode. And I told you to rectify this for the sake of our new and fabulous friendship. Have you seen an episode yet? Or do we need to watch one together over the internet?
Stephanie:Okay, I know our friendship is on thin ice. I'm on it, I promise. But actually, now that you mentioned it, I'm thinking and internet watch party is the way to go. So let's let's do that. Let's do it.
Laura:We'll totally do that. Because literally, it's one of the most important shows in the history of television.
Stephanie:This is a pretty big one. I can't let that go on rectified.
Laura:Have you seen The Mary Tyler Moore Show?
Stephanie:No. I've never seen it.
Laura:Oh, my gosh, I have so much work to do.
Stephanie:It's okay. I'll be your project for the important shows. I'll accept that role.
Laura:Okay, excellent. We will get on this. Okay, Stephanie, I appreciate your writing so much, but I appreciate you as a person even more. Thanks so much for taking the time to chat with me. This has been a lot of fun.
Stephanie:It was really fun. And I'm so glad you invited me. Thanks a lot, Laura.
Laura:Thanks so much for listening. And thanks again to Stephanie Shea for joining me, you can purchase Stephanie's books on Amazon. And be sure to follow her on Twitter at Steph_shea27. To support this podcast, you can buy me a coffee at buy me a coffee.co/sapphiclaura or join my patreon at patreon.com/sapphicbookreviewpod. For as little as $5 a month, you can listen to your favorite authors playing Would You Rather? Here's a sample with today's guest, Stephanie Shea. Thanks so much. And until next time, happy reading. Would you rather be Wonder Woman or cat woman?
Stephanie:Wonder Woman, I think. Yeah, I would rather be Wonder Woman. It's one of those situations you don't know if you want to be her or be with her. But I think I want to be with Cat Woman. So I would go with Wonder Woman.
Laura:Nice. That was some good logic there. Would you rather have a tattoo of the title of the last book you read? Or the last TV show you watched.
Stephanie:The last book I read. Only because the last TV show I watched is called One of Us Is Lying. And I don't know. That's like a weird tattoo.
Laura:that would be very strange.
Stephanie:Yeah and I'm reading A Whisper Of Solace right now. So that would make a better tattoo. I think
Laura:that would be a great tattoo. Yeah, totally. I I think we should both get that.
Stephanie:Definitely. Let's make a date. I'll come down to to Missouri.
Laura:Okay, we'll get tattoos.
Stephanie:We won't even have to like argue because I know you would want Neve. And I would go for Audrey.
Laura:How do you know I would want Neve?
Stephanie:Oh, come on.
Laura:Yeah totally.