Q&A with Elle Gonzalez Rose, debut author of "Caught in a Bad Fauxmance"!

Let the festivities begin 🕯️

As I write this on Saturday, I have a “sugared plums” candle burning, the delightful sweet smell filling my room with a festive aura. It’s early December, and the air has a bit of a bite to it. I need to wear a jacket when I go outside. I saw snow falling on Thursday. It’s winter, baby, and I’m so here for it!

I am delighted by December. There’s the usual freaking out about the year ending, of course, but otherwise, this is my second-favorite month1 of the year. I love cozy sweater vibes, candles and tree lights brightening the darkness, making cinnamon rolls for breakfast on the 25th, and just in general everything that comes with it.

As we barrel toward New Year’s Eve and 2024, I’m taking some time to reflect, so stay tuned in a few weeks for a lil retrospective newsletter. And now, without further ado: the reason you’re all here, Elle Gonzalez Rose!

Welcome to the interview 🗣️

Today, I’m delighted to feature a Q&A with Elle Gonzalez Rose, whose debut Caught in a Bad Fauxmance released this past Tuesday. I hopped on the phone with Elle the day before she debuted and we had a lovely chat all about the book and writing, and it was just so much fun. I hope you’ll be equally delighted by this Q&A as I was!

Karis Rogerson: How did you first get started writing and telling stories?

Elle Gonzalez Rose: This is such a hard question because I am one of those people who started writing when they were super young…I wrote my first short story when I was in kindergarten, so that’s the first quantifiable time…I showed it to my kindergarten teacher and she was like “this is great, you should keep doing this!”

I’ve been drawn to writing ever since I was five, and I’ve been doing it on and off ever since then. I studied it in college, I took a quick break after college…and then thought let’s try pursuing this thing.

KR: Why do you write — what drives you?

EGR: I don’t know, it’s genuinely one of the few things that I really love to do — some poeple love to play video games or watch movies — I feel that way about writing.

There’s something about creating stories that is so much fun to me…always thinking of scenes and stories and dialogue. It’s not great when I’m listening to an audiobook cause I should be paying attention! I also have a very visual, day-dreamy way of thinking…I have to write it down, my fingertips are itching. I like to write every day but it’s not a slog. I genuinely enjoy writing.

KR: Let’s chat about Caught in a Bad Fauxmance! What is your favorite thing about this book?

EGR: How fun it is! My intention with writing this book was to write something that is just shamelessly self-indulgent for me. It is that. It’s very much a story that is not happy-go-lucky at all times, but it is unabashedly fun. iI’s joyful…[published with] Joy Revolution. I’ve never had to add any unnecessary trauma or strife to this book.

KR: What is a secret dream you have for this book (that you’re okay sharing)?

EGR: I really really want a Spanish translation — I am Puerto Rican, and I would love to be able to share this book with the members of my family who would rather read in Spanish than in English. I grew up speaking both…but I can’t write in Spanish. There’s something very interesting about knowing a language so intimately, but not feeling able to create in it.

KR: Is there anything about Fauxmance that may surprise readers?

EGR: Two things — there is grief in the book, a big content warning but it’s hinted at in the blurb. The main character and his twin sister are dealing with the loss of their mother a couple years prior.

The second I don’t talk about (as much) is it is a holiday book, it is set at Christmas and New Year’s…we have this conception of what a holiday romance is, and it’s not a classic Hallmark Christmas story, but it is at that time2. It’s a nice little surprise for people who want something that lines up with the season, it’s a pleasant…surprise.

KR: What was the most challenging aspect of the publication process for this book?

EGR: A big part of it is just keeping your eyes on your own paper in many ways — challenging at any part, but especially when you’re debuting and your book comes out in the 12th month of the year. I’m a 2023 debut but my book comes out in the last three weeks…you’re watching everybody go before you.

I blocked goodreads, I’m more mentally well because of that. It is very hard and challenging when you’re debuting to remind yourself of what you’re capable of and the biggest responsibility is to write the best book you can…comparison…it’s such a breeding ground for being mean to yourself and being really hard on yourself. I was very hard on myself for a long time because i was at a different stage from everyone else. I was my biggest critic the entire time. I don’t even know what people are saying — I only had my own judgment to sit with.

KR: Is there something you’re celebrating today, and how are you celebrating it?

EGR: I’m celebrating that I have several books lined up for the future. I’m almost done with second pass pages on my second YA rom-com which comes out in May. That’s happening, and I’m working on that and developmental edits for my thriller in winter 2025, plus some other projects I can’t talk about yet.

I’m just so grateful that I have a body of work already before the first one comes out. It has been amazing — stressful — to have work that is released in the more broad sense…not think about perception (while creating book 2 etc). I was waiting til December to hustle and work on all this.

There will someday an “A0lso by Elle Gonzalez Rose” page. That’s confirmed! I have at least a couple books confirmed and this is not going to be the last one. A fear not to have on the debut day. There’s at least two more.

KR: Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

EGR: I have so many different pieces of advice. Two big ones: write what you love because you are going to spend so much time with that book. I’ve been with this book for so freaking long. I’m excited because I don’t have to look at it again. It’s been three years, and it’s time for them to go! I’m evicting them from my house, it’s time for them to either pay rent or leave…I really believed in this story and I loved this story and these characters.

It’s difficult when it feels like the story that you wanna write is not the one that publishing wants. Try not to write something that you’re not passionate about or love and your name’s going on it it’s something that you really really wanna be proud of.

Celebrate everything and be easier on yourself! I was unnecessarily mean to myself many many times…due to other layers of advice…at the end of the day, you’re gonna be your biggest critic so celebrate your wins and yourself — like writing a book at all! We lose sight of the fact that it’s not a thing that a lot of people do. You should be celebrated no matter where you are.

KR: Can you recommend 1-3 books you’ve read and loved recently?

EGR: I wanna recommend, I’m shameless, same imprint — I loved Sinner’s Isle by Angela Montoya, I ate this up. I loved it. Really really amazing!

In the same romance vein — earlier in the year but i reread it recently, Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni, it’s a sapphic adult romance, fresh & witty.

And one of my favorite books ever — The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes…it’s the kind of stuff I would have been getting up to in my youth.

Alla prossima 👋

That’s all for today’s Q&A with Elle! Elle, it was a pleasure to chat with you, and I’m so excited for this book and all your upcoming ones as well!

Friends, you know what I’m going to say: there is an ongoing genocide in Gaza. This week, the UN’s ceasefire resolution was shot down by none other than the US. That’s horrifying — this country is bankrolling and approval-stamping a massacre. I am refusing to lose hope, because Palestinians who are still alive deserve to be fought for, and because the voices of the martyrs, including poet Refaat Alareer who was targeted in an airstrike this week, ring out from beyond asking us to keep fighting.

I have been bad about consistently calling my reps, although I have emailed them a lot. I’m going to make a commitment to reach out to my reps every day this week. I will not be quiet about this. I encourage you to join me in speaking up. Do what you can, whether that’s donating money, protesting in the streets, or calling for a ceasefire.

I love y’all. Be well.