my favorite thing i've learned about love in the writing process

answering your AMA questions + an audiobook giveaway 🎧

Spring is here, officially. I’m especially excited about that this year because Yin Yang Love Song takes place in the spring! It’s filled with flowers, nature, and characters who learn how to bloom in their own ways. 🌼🌷

If you need this reminder (because I do), please take it: go easy on yourself. We may be emerging from wintering, but getting back into the swing of things takes time. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel and try to say it a different way when I captured it the best I could in YYLS: “Your body isn’t a machine that can operate nonstop. Machines break down, you know. Even instruments need tuning and restringing. Your body is an ecosystem that needs taking care of.”

No matter what season the world—or you—is in, I hope you’ll remember this. 💚

A few updates:

• I got to be part of The Ripped Bodice’s brand-new romance audiobook event series, Love at First Listen! Taylor Capizola interviewed me and Yin Yang Love Song’s audiobook narrator (and narrator extraordinaire) Eunice Wong. It was so much fun. I even got to ask Eunice a few of my own burning questions! If you missed the live event, you can catch the recording here.

• I started a broadcast channel on Instagram! It’s called 🧋 tea time with LKJ, and it’s where I’ll be spilling book updates, sales, behind the scenes sneak peeks, and what I’m sipping on (because my writing process requires at least three beverages minimum). Yesterday I shared a ‘cozy spring garden’ playlist with springy classical songs for writing and reading sessions (I hope I made Vin proud!). 😆

• I’ll be in convo with Susan Lieu, author of The Manicurist’s Daughter, at Parnassus Books on May 6. Register here. So excited to read this one!

Audiobook giveaway 🎧

As a thanks for your support, I’m giving away THREE audiobooks (via Google Play codes) of Yin Yang Love Song. To enter for a chance to win one, respond to this email with something you’re excited about this spring. I’ll pick three people at random on Monday, March 24, and respond via email with a download code.

Eunice Wong and Eric Yang did such an incredible job with (and took such good care of) Chryssy and Vin. It’s a really special listen. Here’s a snippet:

And now to the Q&A! A little while back I did an AMA and collected your Qs. I’ll be answering a few today.

What are you reading?

As always, multiple things at once. I recently finished The Love Haters by Katherine Center, which comes out in May. It’s sooo good! (Obviously. It’s by Katherine Center!) I read it one sitting.

I’m also reading Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World's Greatest Museum by Elaine Sciolino (out April 1), which takes me right back to Paris.

I’ve also dipped into Alexa Martin’s How to Sell a Romance (out July 15)—I’m already hooked.

What have you been cooking lately?

I was recently on vacation, so I’ve mostly been going out to eat. But now that I’m back, we’ve made lasagna soup and sheet-tray feta and tomato pasta. Also can’t wait to make my favorite springtime tart again!

Favorite thing about love you’ve learned from/shared in the writing process?

Wow, this is such a beautiful question. When it comes to love, I think writing romance has helped me strengthen my communication skills with my partner. There are so many vulnerable, honest, and intimate conversations that are had on the page in romance novels that have empowered me to analyze the way I open up to my husband. By writing dual POV, it’s also helped me realize that we don’t always mean what we say, or say what we mean, even when we intend to. There’s a real empathy that’s gained from being in someone else’s shoes, whether you’re writing or reading the words.

From the start, my IRL relationship has shown me what safe spaces look like for real honesty and open dialogue and communication (I married a deeply wonderful man), but so have the conversations I’ve written between my characters. Writing has reminded me how it’s more than okay (and totally normal) to be having a hard conversation one moment but be laughing the next. We can be messy and flawed and too much and unlikeable at times—and we can love and be loved for it all the same. We are complicated and contradictory beings filled with so many Big Feelings. I think that’s beautiful.

What’s your favorite snack?

It always depends on my mood. Right now, I’m loving homemade granola (which is pretty straightforward to make and you can control the sugar levels, as well as what you want in it) and yogurt with strawberries. A spoonful of peanut butter (sometimes with a banana). Dried peaches and nectarines. Frozen grapes when I’ve got them. I also love anything sour cream & onion (chips, pretzels…).

I’m visiting Nashville. Where should I eat?

I’m actually building out a full post for this! It’ll be available for paid subscribers, so if you don’t want to miss it, make sure you’re subscribed.

How do you feel about killing your darlings [when writing]?

For 2% of the time, it can feel not so good when I’ve gotten too attached. That said, for 98% of the time, I kill my words so quickly and with such force you can hear the comical movie sound effect it makes. Whish!

If that sounds brutal, it kind of is. Sometimes things make sense in my own head, but when my writing gets in front of others, it doesn’t always land the way I thought. I’ve cut side characters I’ve adored, fun scenes and dialogue that no longer fit the new plot, chapters I tried a hundred ways to make work because I loved them so much, jokes and banter, unnecessary (but nice) descriptions. It’s all in the service of making the book better—which I’m hyperaware of when I’m editing—so that’s what feels good when it’s all said and done.

Now that we’ve cracked this topic open, I’m realizing I actually have a lot more thoughts on this. Should I do a longer post?

What can you share about your next project?

I saw this come up as a question in the Love at First Listen event that we didn’t have time to answer, and while I can’t share anything quite yet, I didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you! Here’s what I can say: It’s another romantic comedy, and it’s set in a location we’ve been before (a place I love very much) in two of my previous books. ☺️

Have a restful weekend. And remember to respond to this email if you want a chance to win a YYLS audiobook. 🙃

From me to you, in the present,
Lauren

P.S. If this can be a two-way AMA: What are you currently reading?

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About me: I’m Lauren Kung Jessen, author of Lunar Love, Red String Theory, and Yin Yang Love Song. Connect with me on Instagram (and in my broadcast channel!) for more on books and food.

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