79. F.T. LUKENS: Mashing up Heartstopper and Supernatural vibes

F.T Lukens is mashing up all the genres in "Love at Second Sight". It's a paranormal romcom with a murder mystery. Oh, and it feels very cozy fantasy all at the same time. Think Heartstopper by Alice Oseman meets the fabulous world of The CW's show, Supernatural.

F.T. and I chatted all about the book, crafting, and more while at YallWest 2025.

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Love at Second Sight
Otherworldly
Spellbound

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Love at Second Sight
Otherworldly
Spellbound

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Love at Second Sight
Otherworldly
Spellbound

Transcript

00;00;03;04 - 00;00;26;01
Speaker 1
Hi and welcome to Literary Hype. I am Stephanie, your literary hype woman. And today's author conversation is a fun one featuring f.t lukins actually lukins is the author of this book Love at Second Sight, as well as several others like Spellbound and Other Worldly. This book is described as heart stopper meets Supernatural and it's a cozy fantasy, murder mystery with like, all kinds of paranormal creatures involved in this little town.

00;00;26;09 - 00;00;31;03
Speaker 1
So there's a lot to unpack with this one. So without any further ado, here's my conversation with FC Lukins.

00;00;36;02 - 00;00;44;22
Speaker 2
Welcome to Literary Hype. It's always happy to have you on, especially because we had a little moment with this book back in December. The St Louis team.

00;00;45;04 - 00;00;46;14
Speaker 3
Oh, that's right. It's St Louis.

00;00;46;14 - 00;00;56;08
Speaker 2
OK, yes. Where I got to have the first copy that you signed on Love at Second Sight. Yes. So what's it like for you that when you first start seeing those arcs pop up at signings?

00;00;56;08 - 00;01;13;29
Speaker 3
It's kind of surreal because sometimes they're out in the world before you get them seeing it out in the back. It was actually pretty cool. And seeing the cover in the flesh and, you know, knowing that there's folks reading it. And I was super excited about this book. I really love everything about it.

00;01;13;29 - 00;01;18;10
Speaker 2
So for anyone who hasn't seen this book on social media or in their bookstores, what's it about?

00;01;18;10 - 00;01;42;29
Speaker 3
It is a paranormal romance, murder mystery if you like any of the CW shows, you would like this book. It's about a psychic who doesn't know he's psychic. And on the first day of school, has a clairvoyant glimpse of a murder and then from that point forward has this little group of other paranormal folks together. And they are trying to solve a mystery like the Scooby Gang.

00;01;43;02 - 00;01;56;18
Speaker 2
It is a murder mystery, but it also has these, like Koby Cosey fantasy vibes all at the same time. Cozy Fantasy isn't something we really had a few years ago. It's really blown up in the last couple of years. So what's it like getting to play in multiple genres within one book?

00;01;57;00 - 00;02;32;07
Speaker 3
Yeah, it's basically a mash up of a lot of different genres. It took a lot of research for some aspects of it, and then other aspects of it were just like, I know this and was able to do it. So yeah, it was a fun time balancing the murder plot. So having the, the, you know, like the Jessica Fletcher vibes of the murder mystery and then having the romance that's underlying that's going on between the psychic and the werewolf and then having, yeah, like you said, the cozy vibes and having like this teen found family that finds each other and balancing all the different relationships and then having the two different arcs that are happening

00;02;32;07 - 00;02;37;21
Speaker 3
at the same time. So it was a lot of plotting and planning to be able to pull it off.

00;02;38;11 - 00;02;40;18
Speaker 2
What was the initial inspiration for this story?

00;02;41;25 - 00;03;01;05
Speaker 3
That's actually really funny. So it's actually in the acknowledgments of the book and my papa told me a ghost story when I was at his house one day as an adult and his house was growing up. It's right next to a funeral home. So when we were kids and all my cousins were there, we couldn't play outside. There's a funeral going on.

00;03;01;16 - 00;03;26;24
Speaker 3
So it always had like creepy vibes because it was a big house and it was only having my mama living there. And as an adult I would go and be the only one there. There'd be no other people except those two and me. And then one morning he just said that the ghost opened the door in the night and he could hear it and then I was like, My Papa, who is 91 years old, a down to earth, gruff man, loves gardening, believes in ghosts.

00;03;27;12 - 00;04;00;12
Speaker 3
And from that point forward, I was like really interested in ghosts and psychics and mediums. And I did a ton of research and was watching YouTube videos of mediums, doing readings and researching all the different kinds of psychics and clairvoyance. And I had done all that research and it was just kind of sitting and then when I was like, I wanted to write this book, I was like, I have already done all this research, so I'm going to take what I have learned and pour it into this character and then build a team of paranormal beings around him.

00;04;00;17 - 00;04;08;04
Speaker 2
That first scene is so funny. How did you come up with having this bird come to wake up this boy.

00;04;08;25 - 00;04;30;19
Speaker 3
Well, I knew his best friend was going to be a witch, and so I was thinking of all the fun witchy things that you can do. So in the book, like there are broom lanes on the highway there are bike and broom racks. One of the witches there, minivan, is run by magic. So I was like, what would be a fun thing for this witch to have?

00;04;30;20 - 00;04;54;00
Speaker 3
You know, they have technology, but what would be a witchy way to send a message, you know, was like a bird and what but a bird that a raven and I named Lorraine and Lenore. And so Lenore comes, you know, rap, right? Rapping at his window and waking him up. And I thought it was really funny, just kind of intro the book with this, you know, magic right away.

00;04;54;11 - 00;05;06;07
Speaker 3
And then also after he gets the message, he sends Al his best friend a text and was like, why don't you just text me instead of sending this bird waking me up at 530 in the morning?

00;05;06;17 - 00;05;09;13
Speaker 2
If you could use an animal as a messenger, which one would you pick?

00;05;09;16 - 00;05;20;11
Speaker 3
Birds are great because they're fast and maybe they would return. But, you know, I would think like a maybe a squirrel would be fun to send a squirrel to somebody because you're.

00;05;21;02 - 00;05;21;08
Speaker 2
So.

00;05;21;28 - 00;05;27;06
Speaker 3
Right. You would never expect a squirrel, you know, a little cute, a squirrel. And then it starts talking you that that would be fun.

00;05;27;09 - 00;05;49;21
Speaker 2
That would be fun. One thing I loved about this book is so there's this tension between our main character and his parents because they don't want him hanging out with this witch yep. Even though there are other like, societal norms, like for us that, like, his posse, he's queer, all these other reasons that are people are persecuted or othered in our world.

00;05;49;21 - 00;05;59;04
Speaker 2
But those aren't the problems. It's that he's paranormal. So talk a little bit about crafting a world where it slips kind of that vibe on its head a little bit.

00;05;59;07 - 00;06;25;28
Speaker 3
Well, you know, I like to write queer normative worlds because I like to give queer readers a a safe space to, you know, read something and have a little distance from it and not be so immediate, you know, and so yeah. So Cam is, you know, othered right away by his parents because he is a psychic and he, you know, has the psychic abilities come forth.

00;06;26;07 - 00;07;05;15
Speaker 3
And his parents don't like out his best friend because they're witch. And so those are things that teens experience in real life. But maybe, like you said, not for those, not because they're witch or psychic. So there's it's I wanted to make it grounded in something relatable. That is he would read and be like, oh, I relate to that because of some other reason, but not necessarily something that they experience right now because I did want to give them some distance and have that kind of safe story to where they can read it, enjoy it, and have a good time, and then maybe take away something from it, maybe take something and apply it to

00;07;05;15 - 00;07;06;06
Speaker 3
their own life.

00;07;06;13 - 00;07;19;16
Speaker 2
The relationships throughout this book are really fascinating stuff about craft, especially with parents othering them relationship. So talk a little bit about crafting that for teens in this world.

00;07;19;18 - 00;07;42;10
Speaker 3
In this, like you said, the adults in this book are pretty horrible. And it's the teen relationships that really support the characters. And there's a group of teens and each of those teens has a relationship to the main character, but they have relationships among themselves too. And so when I was crafting those relationships, I really wanted to make sure that each character was really well rounded.

00;07;42;10 - 00;08;12;13
Speaker 3
They were fleshed out. So I really thought about, even though they have this specific relationship with the main character, what relationship do they have to this other side character? What relationship do they have to their parents? What relationship do they have to this community to make sure that they were very well rounded and fleshed out? And then in thinking about the relationships of the adult you know, there's a lot of times in your life where maybe someone in authority is doing something that you don't agree with.

00;08;12;24 - 00;08;46;13
Speaker 3
And so in this book, the adults are having this whole other kind of stressful, tense relationship between each other and these different factions that affects the teens. But the teens just kind of like they still want to be friends. So it's kind of a commentary on how prejudice is learned and that even though that maybe the adults are doing something that you don't agree with or you learned a certain way of being, or you've learned a certain way of judging another person, that you don't have to do that you can outgrow that and you can make your own decisions about who you want to be friends with.

00;08;46;18 - 00;09;04;22
Speaker 2
One really important kind of lesson in this for teens especially is like facing the relationships and how they shift over time and new situations. So talk a little bit about do you relate ability for teens to read this book and like maybe see themselves in a different world? But in a similar situation that they might be facing?

00;09;05;02 - 00;09;29;11
Speaker 3
Yeah. So one of the relationships I really enjoyed writing was Cam and how they are best friends. They've been best friends for a long time, but their relationship changes as the book goes on and they have a little friend breakup, and that's something that happens. You know, you could have your best friend, your freshman year of high school and then, you know, maybe you guys go would play different sports or they're into something you're not into and you kind of grow apart and that's natural.

00;09;29;11 - 00;10;00;27
Speaker 3
That happens, but doesn't mean you're not their friend. You know, you don't have to be, you know, tied to each other, stuck like glue. And Al and Cam learned that over the course of the novel. They do have this, like, really difficult friend breakup in a hallway, which was a hard scene to write, especially because I wanted to have that balance of them being frustrated with each other and mean to each other, but not to the point where if they wanted to be friends later that that relationship was completely ruined, then it would be OK for them to be friends again.

00;10;01;20 - 00;10;04;09
Speaker 3
Then it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for them to be friends, like.

00;10;04;12 - 00;10;07;14
Speaker 2
The social media site that these guys use click.

00;10;07;21 - 00;10;08;08
Speaker 3
Click, click.

00;10;08;21 - 00;10;19;01
Speaker 2
And it has some really interesting things of a werewolf with the puppies, vampires on sunburn treatments and which travel burn videos. Yes. What would you want on your click click feed?

00;10;19;18 - 00;10;36;14
Speaker 3
And let me find what would I want on my clicks, obviously. But like everybody's reading, I want to know what the vampires are reading. What is it? It's reading, you know, are there because there's a werewolf romance that is actually a plot point. There's a werewolf romance book that is a plot point in the in the novel. So yeah.

00;10;36;19 - 00;10;42;14
Speaker 3
So I would love to know what the werewolves are reading and what the witches of reading that would be my ultimate click like feed.

00;10;42;23 - 00;10;45;28
Speaker 2
Just supernatural world reading. Yeah.

00;10;48;14 - 00;10;59;03
Speaker 2
And on a more personal note, I noticed in your bio that it said that you have too much iron, and I don't believe that's a thing that exists. So talk a little bit about how crafting and crochet helps you in your creative process.

00;10;59;03 - 00;11;00;16
Speaker 3
I have way too much yarn.

00;11;00;18 - 00;11;01;15
Speaker 2
I don't think it exists.

00;11;01;16 - 00;11;02;05
Speaker 3
Oh no.

00;11;03;07 - 00;11;04;17
Speaker 2
My husband also says I have too much.

00;11;04;17 - 00;11;23;13
Speaker 3
And so let me tell you, Joann's is closing and their brand is big twist and I love their passion. That is what I use. If you look at my Instagram, you can see I like the little like I'm a guru me I make that's all me with big tits, big twist, posh yarn. I went and I cleaned out every store in my region.

00;11;23;25 - 00;11;46;28
Speaker 3
I went to other regions. I called my family in other states and I was like, Look, and so I have I had to make a spreadsheet of how these scans of each color, I had to keep track and I have a lot it'll last me for several years. So I won't have to ever buy yarn for well, I probably will, but I won't have to buy half to buy yarn for a little bit.

00;11;47;09 - 00;12;13;03
Speaker 3
But yeah, I crochet. I love crocheting, I crochet everything, blankets, any grooming. And I it's relaxing for me. It's something I can do while watching TV. It's something I can do while listening to an audiobook and be creating something while I'm doing something else. So it's it's because I always have to be doing something. I have to be busy.

00;12;13;16 - 00;12;19;14
Speaker 3
I'm just that person. So it's hard for me to just like watch TV and watch TV and be doing something.

00;12;19;14 - 00;12;24;27
Speaker 2
So you got to keep those hands busy. Yeah. The last question we always ask because this is literary hype. What books are you hyped about?

00;12;25;13 - 00;12;43;16
Speaker 3
Oh, I am hyped about CB Lee's Coffee Shop in an Alternate Universe, and it's coming out in July. I read an arc of it and I really, really love it. And I know there's going to be arcs today that are going to be floating about so I am super excited for that to come out into the world and everybody get to celebrate.

00;12;43;17 - 00;12;47;16
Speaker 2
Seemingly husband. Well, thanks so much for hanging out with literary nice. You have all this.

00;12;50;17 - 00;13;12;11
Speaker 1
Thanks again to Lukins for hanging out with me. You always first thing in the morning like we did this at 830 in the morning before a full day of chaos. So I actually appreciate you for coming out super early just so we can talk about this book. If you'd like to get your hands on Love at Second Sight or any of these other books the links to do so are down in the show notes for you as well as where to find them on social media.

00;13;12;14 - 00;13;25;02
Speaker 1
If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the Literary Hype podcast. Give us some stars leave a comment, share it with the friends, all those things that really help out the podcast. Thanks so much for listening to the Literary Hype podcast.