Some People Made Sourdough During Lockdown… I Wrote a Book | Christmas Romance Chat with Lulu Moore

🎧 Get a FREE 30-Day Audible Trial
Want to listen to more romance books without adding to your already unhinged TBR? Try Audible free for 30 days and get access to thousands of audiobooks — perfect for commuting, cleaning, or your daily hot girl walk.

👉 Start your Audible Free 30-day Trial here

In this special Christmas episode of What the Smut Are You Talking About, Cortney sits down with rom-com romance author Lulu Moore to talk about writing, romance tropes, and the wildly relatable story of how she accidentally became an author.

Lulu Moore is an author of over 20 contemporary romance novels including the New York Lions series, New York Players Series and the Valentine Nook Chronicles. Lulu shares how one vivid dream during lockdown turned into her first published book. While everyone else was baking sourdough, Lulu was writing a romance novel… and the rest is history.

This festive conversation dives into small town Christmas romance, enemies-to-lovers tension, second chance love stories, and the interconnected world of the Luluverse. Lulu also shares the inspiration behind her latest release Wilder Ranch, book two in the Valentine Nook series, and gives listeners a behind-the-scenes look at her writing process, favorite tropes, and plans to re-release her hockey romance series with new edits, covers, and extended epilogues.

If you love romance books, spicy small-town love stories, holiday romance novels, hockey romance, or romantic comedies, this episode is packed with laughs, writing advice, and cozy Christmas book vibes.

Grab your hot cocoa, settle in, and enjoy this festive chat.

This podcast description may include affilaite links that will earn the creator a small commission.

👉 You can find Lulu's books here.

To Connect with Lulu:

Amazon

Instagram

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/what-the-smut-are-you-talking-about/exclusive-content

Well Read Candle Co
10% Off WHATTHESMUT10

Transcript

00:16
Merry Christmas, you filthy book nerds, and welcome to What the Smut Are You Talking About podcast. My name is Courtney, and I am so excited for today's guest. We have a special guest who recently published book two in her Valentine Nook series. And this one gives you all the small town Christmas feels. Our guest is none other than author Lulu Moore. Welcome, Lulu. Hello, and thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. Happy Christmas.

00:44
Yes, Merry Christmas to you as well. I'm so excited. We're finally got to do this. I know we've had to reschedule a couple of times due to  sicknesses and just overall life. Yeah, for sure. So I'm so glad we're finally getting to do this. Me too. Well, before we get started, why don't you tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself? Well, okay.  My name is Lulu Moore.  I write.

01:12
contemporary rom-com romance books. I'm currently working on my 20th book and while the majority of them are all set in New York, this current series is a small town romance set in the English countryside. I write across all genres. I have hockey romance, baseball romance. I have a rowing romance with Penguin. What else do I have? Billionaire. I think that's it.

01:41
That's amazing. you know, I first like discovered you with your New York Lion series. I've read two of those. Absolutely adored them. Thank you. then when I preparing for this interview, like I went on your website and you know, you have this amazing like Lulu verse, which I love. Like I think more authors should take advantage of that.

02:07
And it made me realize that you had this hockey series and I am a hockey slut when it comes to hockey romance books.  And,  um, I'm, just, I ended up finding one on  my hoopla account.  I  ended up downloading it last night.  Which one was it?  Um, it's the first one  in,  uh, the New York player. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just there. Okay. Yeah.

02:38
Yeah, I was  sitting in the bath and I was like, I'm going to see if  this  book is on Hoopla. And it was so I like quickly downloaded it  and I just got started and then my kids started going crazy. ah I'm going to restart it today, hopefully.  Oh, I hope you like it. Yeah. The, the audio for that. I, I re I really enjoyed the audios for all of those. Actually, they've done really well with them. Yes. I, and I'm

03:06
primarily audio these days. I love it. I have not crossed the book of yours yet that I haven't liked and the narrators do such an amazing job, especially in the two like New York Lions books that I got to read. Which ones did you read for the New Orleans? It was A Third Basement. I did that one. It was completely random because one

03:36
I think I found  on  audible and then I'm in must love audios group. And so the last one you did with them. Yes. Yeah. did home run with them  and I was obsessed.  Yeah. The obsession is real though.  They were so good.  I really,  really loved  the home run audio. It's,  oh, it's Teddy Hamilton is just so brilliant. Um,

04:06
He really brought Tana's character to life.  even like listening back on it, just, there were some scenes I was just crying, laughing. Like he was so good at that. I really thought he was brilliant.  He was. And it's like,  I'm used to it like I read pretty much anything and everything. And so when I'm listening to Teddy, like it's usually some kind of dark and twisted book.

04:31
So it was like such  a breath of fresh air to listen to him be this like golden retriever. Yeah. I enjoyed it so much. Oh, I'm so pleased. Thank you. All right. Well, what made you decide to write your first book? I mean, it kind of,  it kind of happened by accident.  You know, when I was younger, I've never been one of those  authors that has

04:56
dreamed of being a writer a whole life. I wasn't writing stories as children or as a child. Like it wasn't in my sphere really. Like I loved reading and I've always read a lot but writing a book wasn't, it wasn't something that ever occurred to me.  And then  I just had this really vivid dream one night and then wrote it down in the morning.  I was on holiday and I then like carried on with it because I was just enjoying it and I

05:25
kind of just wondered where this would end up. And that turned into Jasper.  I mean, that was five years ago now.  And at that point, like,  I think I'd just got Kindle Unlimited because it was around lockdown and everyone was just reading. um But  it wasn't,  I mean, I didn't really know what I was doing.  didn't um ever think  anything was kind of

05:54
going to happen from it. It was very much a paint by number situation and I was kind of like learning on my feet. It also wasn't ever supposed to be anything. You know, I never told anyone I was doing it. It was just like, you know, some people made sourdough in lockdown and I did the S. It wasn't like, there was no intention behind it. Like I never thought it would be something that I would

06:19
do full time. It's difficult to explain because there was there was literally no intention behind it apart from, I'll just see if I can do this, it can't be that difficult.  And  so I did.  And  it was only after I had like figured out the logistics of putting on Kindle Limited, like working out my Amazon account. And it was only after I'd done all of that, that  I even then set up any social media.  So

06:49
You know, nowadays you get new authors coming that have had social media, their social media is going for a year before they even release a book and everything's about the buildup and the marketing and I did none of that, like nothing.  So, yeah,  in answer to your question, it wasn't that I ever really like intended to write, it just kind of happened. Well, I'm so glad it did. Yeah, like it's taken me on a journey.

07:17
feel that because like I resonate with that a lot because you know this podcast,  just,  I decided on a whim like I never wanted a podcast in my life like yeah, knowing me in real life like  I'm very much like an introvert like  I  want to keep to myself. I just want to hang out with my family all day  and this is like my escape right so I kind of like lost myself in motherhood so I was like,

07:46
do this because my friends are tired of me talking about my crazy romance books. So I'm going to take it to the internet. Well, you know, thank goodness you did. Yes. I'm so  it's  opened up so many doors and I've met so many cool people and it's just fun just to get to chat to people all over the world. Yeah. And the same goes for me as well because  I get messages like constantly like DMs and emails and um

08:16
It's so lovely hearing from people  and hearing their story and what they love about my books and the impact it's had on their lives and just um from everywhere,  all over the world. And  it's really heartwarming.

08:38
That's amazing. Well, if  I was to look at your search history right now,  what, if anything, would be the weirdest thing that I would find? Oh my gosh. Got anything juicy for me?  Like literally nothing. My search history is so boring. It's like, uh it's probably something to do with my dog. What was  I?

09:03
Googling the other day. Oh something to do with like inflammation He was limping because he'd been like charging around way too much.  And so I was looking for like  Really good stuff like dog supplements  I  think that was like the the last thing that I googled like I don't really I'm yeah, I mean, I can't really think that I do anything more interesting than that.  I mean

09:31
Right, if it was in terms of writing, I haven't Googled any like sexy stuff, if that's where we're going with this, but  I was Googling some logistics  of, um you know, the game Polo, so I just needed to understand in terms of like the offside role in Polo.

09:51
So  I did that, but yeah, nothing exciting. you have any favorite tropes that you like to write about? think my favorite trope is Enemies to Lovers.  There's only one book that I've done. I think I've only really written one proper Enemies to Lovers. And it's  still my favorite book. It's called The Suit.  it is  like the tension there,  the banter is just, I really, really loved writing that book.

10:21
I  haven't done another  proper Enemies to Lovers since then, I do have the fourth book in  my Valentine Kronicle series  is going to be em Enemies to Lovers. Ooh, yes.  I do love me a good Enemies to Lovers book. Well,  on the flip side of that, what are your favorite tropes to read? I I do love an Enemies to Lovers if it's done well, um but it has to be like tension filled.

10:50
I can't have them falling in love at 10%. It needs to be proper  tension throughout. um I do love a second chance. um I don't read a huge amount, to be honest, but  those two are probably my favorite.  I actually really love to write second chance romance. I think there's just something about a second chance that there's a...

11:16
It just hits. It's like they miss their moment and then they've come back and found each other.  People are bit funny about Second Chance, but I just really love it. uh don't hate it, but I also like don't love it. It's like not my favorite, but  I mean, I will read it.  I feel like Second Chance romance  has or carries more hope  than any other trope because when it's...

11:45
a second chance. You you've already been through that process of like grieving, um splitting up and you know, thinking that it's over when actually it isn't.  it doesn't matter how long it takes you to come back. just,  I just think it's there's something about it. just love it.  And like Wilder Ranch, like it's  a second chance. ah And it  is done very well because it's not your traditional

12:15
second chance, right? It's not like, oh, well, they fell in love, they broke up, whatever, came back together. It was because he lived in a different country and he had to go back home. And then she just kind of was like, well, it was, you know, a holiday romance kind of thing. it's not like, I'm trying to think, did. So in my hockey series, the third book in the hockey series is called Drew.

12:43
and that is second chance, but again, it's that one night stand and then him yearning and pining,  and then they come back together. And then  the  only real  second chance one I think I've written is  The Third Basement, where they were a couple as teenagers and then split up and then got back together.  Yeah,  those are the only two that I've written.

13:11
apart from World of Ranch, which I guess again is a second chance, but it's that one night stand second chance.  Right. Yes. I guess what I'm saying is I do love me a good one night stand.  Oh, I mean, who doesn't? I mean, that's so great because they're like, there's so much like tension and passion  and  the zero inhibitions because you're never going to see them again. It doesn't matter what you do. You can,  you know,

13:39
If you think you're never going to see someone again, ever again, and it has no consequences, then you just do exactly what you want, right?  Yeah. Right. Right. No holds bar.  Yeah. No holds bar. Well, when VPR reached out to me and was telling me about, you know, Wilder Ranch,  I,  um, of course said yes immediately because I've loved your book so far,  um, that I've read. But when they told me about Wilder Ranch, like,

14:08
I didn't look into any of it and so I didn't realize it was book two of the Valentine Nook series. go ahead and tell us a little bit about book one because I haven't read it yet. So let's keep it spoiler free. did you read Once Upon a Christmas Tree last year, which was my Christmas book? didn't. I didn't. But it's on, I...

14:34
I am going to read that this Christmas Eve.  that's my Christmas book this year that I'm going to be reading. um last year I introduced a whole brand new series, The Valentine Nook Chronicles, with  a Christmas book called Once Upon a Christmas Tree.  And it starts where the series is set around uh four brothers and a sister, siblings within this  really tiny village in the English continent.

15:03
countryside in the Cotswolds. um The eldest brother is the Duke of Oxfordshire and his siblings are  all lords and he  became the Duke when he was 13 years old. father died and it's a hereditary title so it was passed on to him and he um was  given the responsibility of  running his  family estate.

15:29
plus the  huge amount of land that they have  within England and overseas.  It's a massive, like, multi-billion dollar operation  and  that all falls on his shoulders.  Once Upon a Christmas Tree starts, where  the eldest brother has just effectively been left at the altar uh after this uh huge society English wedding.

15:57
which was going to take place  and his brothers whisk him away to Aspen to kind of get out of the frenzy like the media scrum in England  and just to take his mind off what has happened.  And  the second brother down in age,  Alex,  he's  always hated Christmas.  It stems back from when his father died when he was younger.

16:27
But he's decided to put his feelings aside for Christmas because  he needs to take care of his older brother  and just  get the family together.  But in Aspen,  they meet this, or rather he meets this um woman, her name's Haven. She  is the local Christmas tree seller.

16:53
He's absolutely enthralled with her. They proceed to have this quite steamy week away  and then he leaves. And that is the start of the series. And it really like lays the foundation not only for Wilder Ranch, but  the foundation for each of the four brothers.  There's little snippets of exactly like the type of person they are.  And the eldest,  the eldest brother, Lando, the Duke, his  is the first book and the

17:23
Once Upon A Christmas Tree  leads into the first book because he's been left at the altar. Valentine Nook starts six months later  where he's still kind of licking his wounds and his mother's trying to set him up with every eligible woman in England. um she rents out his cottage on the land. um

17:50
and she rents it to a Hollywood actress called Holliday Simpson, who is effectively like Margot Robbie level. She's that type of person. She has taken a break from Hollywood because she's so exhausted. She's been working really hard. She's just won an Oscar. She's been in this huge film franchise and she just wants to escape. And so she goes to the English countryside to escape.

18:16
And um Lando is very grumpy about it. He's her new landlord. He thinks that she's there because his mother's trying to set him up with her. He's like, absolutely not. I have no interest in  being with an actress. I have no interest in being with an American. I am not interested at all.  But she's very sunshiny and people slowly start to, you know, get over the fact that she's this huge A-list celebrity and are just  bowled over by the fact that  she's just a really sweet girl.

18:46
He is  soon like ground down  and I love a, if you're familiar with my books, I do love a really fun meet Q and I feel like the meet Q in Valentine Nook is probably  my favorite. If not,  yeah, it's definitely top three. um It was a really fun one to write. So that's Valentine Nook  and then.

19:10
that leads into Wilder Ranch, which is the book that's just come out, which is the follow on from Once Upon a Christmas Tree, where Haven and Alex meet and then this book takes place. uh Ten months later,  Haven's rocks up in the village with a baby in tow that is Alex's baby and he has to kind of get used to the fact that he's now got a daughter.  She's,  Haven is the

19:38
Basically, her life is just falling apart. can't, it's hard. Motherhood is hard work. A new baby is hard work. And she just wants to introduce her daughter or she wants to introduce Alex to his daughter rather. um So there's a bit of teething issues there, but they kind of get over it and oh it all ends well.  everyone that, because when I brought one to upon a Christmas tree out last year,  it came with a happy for now and um

20:08
people were not happy very much. Happy for now. They were very unhappy with their happy for now. But this is, hopefully this has given me a bit of a reprieve in the state burning. It has finished their happy ever after and they're a sweet family now. Well, I can't wait to dive into this. It's shorter than my usual novels, but technically it counts as a full length novel.

20:37
but it is shorter. But I don't want people going into it thinking that it's gonna only take them an hour to read. Like it is a bit longer than a full length novel. It's longer than a novella. It's not quite as long as my usual books. So  I don't want people to be like, oh my God, this so long. I thought it was only gonna take me 15 minutes to read, but it is shorter. It gets to the point. It's quite spicy. Probably  spice ratio is the highest per...

21:07
page, I guess, than any of my other books, that's because it is shorter. I'm ready for it. It's a spicy little number. from what? Because I mean, you do a great job, because like I said, I haven't read it yet, but I wasn't really missing anything not reading it. I knew exactly where we were going into Wilder Ranch. You did a great job of catching us up.

21:33
But the whole time,  again, cause at this point while I'm reading it,  I  don't realize that there's previous books out in the series. So I'm reading it and  the whole time I'm like, I mean more of these brothers story and the sister, like she is like hilarious.  And the best friend, like  Haven's best friend, like we get little like snips of her throughout this book and she's just so relatable.

22:04
here for it, sign me up. I can't wait for the next one.  Oh, thank you. I'm really glad that you enjoyed it. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Well, I have to know,  if you could go back in time and relive this whole experience of publishing your first book, what, if anything, would you do differently? Oh my gosh,  I would do a lot differently. um

22:34
from when we were speaking before and I said that didn't really give any thought about, you know, I thought no one would read it, I hadn't started my socials, I did nothing. And when I said I did nothing, like I really did nothing.  I would, I would market, I would certainly market the hockey series a whole lot differently.  I would get it edited for a start because I never did anything, I never did any of that.  It has been like,  a rudimentary, the first three books have had a bit of a rudimentary edit.

23:04
but they're not brilliant.  what I have, one of my big plans for 2026 is um the entire series is being re-edited. adding another, I'm adding an extended epilogue to each one of about 15,000 words. They're all getting new covers, um which I'm really excited about. I'm so excited about the designer that I'm using. I've been wanting to work with her for a really long time.

23:31
So they're going to be amazing covers. The whole series is being re-released  and it'll probably come  maybe towards end of the summer, like once Valentine Nook and the Valentine Nook Chronicles are done. um I'm currently working through the hockey books and like re-editing them and  like working on these, on this bonus content that's going to go into each of the back. So  everyone's going to...

23:57
Everyone that hasn't read it will be able to read it from scratch and start and like really enjoy that series.  Everyone that has read it will be able to relive them and also like see what they're doing now because I won that bonus content,  the  extended epilogue that each one's going to get to be like  a little bit of a fast forward into a few years, like where they're up to with their lives. Because  the thing with the luluverse is they are so  integral with all of my other characters and books and you can, they

24:27
They are very much like in each other's lives. So you can see, even now, like you can read a couple of books and see like where they're up to. But I really want this to be like a deep dive into what they're doing with their families or like where they are up to with their lives. know, Jasper's now head coach and I want to deep dive a bit into that a bit more. So that'll be really fun. It'll be really fun. But I'm really looking forward to it because they deserve to be better.

24:55
than they are and so I want to give that to them this year and it'll be five years since they've been released. Oh my goodness, I'm so excited for you! Thanks! That's amazing, I love that. I love that so much. need to, what you're telling me is I need to hurry up and read this series so I'm ready to reread it. Well, yeah, can either wait and then read it from scratch when it comes out or you can...

25:23
read it now and then read it again. So, so good to me. think I'm going to read it now and then reread it once it comes out because like just because your worlds are so like interconnected like because I want to go back and like I  said, I'm deep diving. So I want to go back and yeah, so it's gonna take me some time but I am here for it. So by the time that I

25:50
should get done with all the others, then your re-releases should be out with the new extended epilogue. I'm so excited. Thank you. Yeah, I am excited too. so, I am really excited about the books. I'm super excited about the covers. I literally am like, I've been like holding this in for a few months now. I'm really, they're going to be there amazing. I'm really, really can't wait. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited to see them. I can't wait.

26:19
I'm a sucker for a good cover. Yeah, me too. These are going to be brilliant. Well, before we go, please tell our listeners where they can find you at. So you can find all my books on Amazon and the eBooks are also available in libraries that you can download onto your Kindle. My socials are all LuluMore Books. That's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. I have my reader group. Please come and join me.

26:48
That's the Jupiter Reeves fan club. And then my website is Lulu Moore Books. So it's all super easy to remember. It's all the same  handle. And I'll have everything listed in the episode description just so links will be there. So if you are dying to get to know Lulu Moore,  go click my links because it'll all be there for you. Thank you.

27:14
And as always, you can find me hanging out over on Instagram at What the Smut Podcast. If you're interested in being part of this podcast, please check out my Instagram page  and the link is in the bio and you can fill out a contact form there. If you enjoyed this episode, please go give us a rate and review. A five star rating goes a very long way for us podcasters. Thanks for tuning in and we will catch you guys next time.