Jasmine Guillory

Is romance better in books or real life?
I don’t think there’s a better or worse, right? In real life, it’s wonderful, but the great thing about books is you can experience different types of romance than the kind you have. Like, there are so many things I would absolutely dislike in real life that I really appreciate in books. You can dive into other worlds and people and experiences you either haven’t had or wouldn’t necessarily want, but really appreciate reading about.

How did you become a romance writer?
A number of years ago, I was going through a really difficult time and started reading a ton of romance novels—like a few books a day. I had been writing before that. I hadn’t gotten published, but I was still going with it… At first, I was reading a lot of historical romance, and I was thinking, “Reading this is fun, but I don’t think I could write one.” Then I started reading more contemporary romance and I was like, “Oh yeah, I want to write one.” I had this idea for The Wedding Date, and I had so much fun writing it that I basically haven’t stopped.

You wrote your latest book during the pandemic. How did that affect your process?
At the beginning, I didn’t really think I could write a book during the pandemic. Thank goodness I didn’t know how long this would last! [Laughing.]… I didn’t know how to think of the future inside of a book. How do you write a contemporary novel when we don’t know what contemporary life is going to be like a few months from now? I had to lean into what I loved about writing. It was something that brought me joy, so I was like, “I have to write this book for me. I have to write something to make me happy during this time when there’s nothing happy out there.”

So you saw it as a type of self-care?
That’s how I started. I wrote the entire first draft by hand, which is not something I do. It somehow felt easier to open a notebook than it did to open my laptop, which seemed intimidating at the time. It was little things like that that I had to trick myself to keep going. After a while, it became my refuge from all the hard things going on in the world. I could put my phone away, stop doomscrolling, and just think about the love story my mind was in the middle of.

How do you come up with your stories?
I tend to start with characters. Then I think about who they are, what their story individually is, and what would bring the two of them together. I had the idea for While We Were Dating a year and a half before I started writing. Ben, who is one of the main characters, was a character in my 3rd book, The Wedding Party. When I wrote that book, I knew I wanted to write a book about him. Then a while later, I knew it would be Ben and a Hollywood star, but that is the most I knew. I had an outline when we sold the book to my editor, but what I ended up writing was vastly different because I knew more about the characters. I figured out who they were, what made them tick, and what they were going through. I came up with a lot of it in the midst of writing.

What are you reading?
One book I just finished is by Farrah Rochon. It’s called The Dating Playbook, and it’s about a woman who is a personal trainer, who has a new client who’s a former NFL star, and she’s trying to get him in shape. I had so much fun reading the book. I also really loved Leah Johnson’s Rise to the Sun. It’s set at a music festival with 2 girls who both have stuff in their pasts that they’re trying to escape. They find each other and fall in love, and I just adored it.

Does constantly writing romance affect how you view real-life relationships?
Oh, absolutely! I think there’s a lot people don’t talk about enough early on. In the early stages and falling in love, to really know what values someone has and what they care about and what their priorities are—I think those are some things people get stuck in later in life, when they realize their priorities are vastly different. Just paying attention to the world around me, and what hard things people are going through, has made me write romance in a certain way.

All 6 of your books are set in the same universe. Would you ever turn them into the MCU of romance novels? And if so, do you have a dream cast?
Oh, I would be delighted if that happens! Hello Sunshine has the rights to the first 4 books, so we’ll see… It’s hard for me [to pick a cast] because actors and actresses change, right? There were certain ideas I had at the beginning [of the series], but now there’s exciting new people… A few months before While We Were Dating came out, I saw this promo picture for a movie with Tessa Thompson and Nnamdi Asomugha, and I was like, “Oh, they are Ben and Anna. They are perfect.” That’s one of the first times I had seen people and really thought about that for them.

You always get a manicure inspired by your new book cover. How did that tradition start?
I can’t take credit for that at all! I have this incredible manicurist [Masako Beck] here in Oakland, who I’ve been going to [for years]. I went to her right before The Wedding Date came out and I was like, “Can you do something fun for my nails for my book? Here’s the cover.” I expected her to be like, “Here are red nails with little hearts.” Then she did this incredible art! She does it freehand, like she picked up a tiny little brush and start painting. Then it just happened every time since then. I’ll make an appointment a few days before my book comes out. And she follows me on Instagram, so whenever I [post] new book covers, she’s like “I’m excited!”… Now it’s hard for me to get appointments with her, because a bunch of people have found her because of me. [Laughing.] But that’s okay because I love her and want her to succeed

If you could have a dinner party with 3 authors, who would they be?
Oh, that is a huge challenge. I’m gonna say Toni Morrison, which seems like an obvious one, but you can learn so much from her. Also, she seems like she was hilarious and funny and a thrill to meet… Terri Jones, who is one of my favorite authors writing today. I met her a few times; she’s a wonderful person. Then this is a little bit of a cheat, but you know she is an author, so I’ll say Michelle Obama, because how fun would that dinner be? I would be totally silent and sit there and watch them and be like, “Please take a picture so I can be in it.”