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Emily Cox: Hi, this is Emily Cox. I'm an editor here at Audible, and today I am so thrilled to be chatting with bestselling contemporary romance author Amy Daws. Her latest book, Seven Year Itch, performed in duet by Teddy Hamilton and Erin Mallon, is just out now. And we're lucky enough to have Amy visiting our studios today in advance of an ACX Author Summit taking place here in Newark. Welcome, Amy.

Amy Daws: Hi. Thanks for having me.

EC: Thanks for being here. So, I am a huge personal fan of all of your series. I think maybe your very earliest series I haven't picked up yet; I kind of worked backwards. So, I'm excited to dig into your full career. But I thought first we'd start with your latest release, which is book 2 in the Mountain Men series.

AD: Yes. I'm so excited.

EC: When you embark on these interconnected series, do you have it all planned out? Did you always know Calder and Dakota were a match?

AD: Oh, good question. I don't know if anybody's even asked me that, so I gotta think about it. I think I always knew Dakota was going to get a story, because she's featured as a secondary character in one of my Wait with Me series books, book 5, Last on the List. She was always really dynamic and fun, and I was like, “Yeah, eventually she has to have a happily ever after.” When I developed the brothers, I was like, “Oh, yeah, the middle child, Calder, the naughty one, the most wild, rambunctious one, he'll be perfect for her.” I think I saw him and thought, “Yeah, this'll be Dakota's moment, finally.”

EC: I feel like they had a little banter at some point in that book 5.

AD: Yes, they did. There were vibes. And that was before I'd really even plotted the brothers out, but it just felt natural.

EC: Yeah, I love that so much. I know you've mentioned in some of your newsletters that you've been writing ahead. Is that sort of a new way of working for you? What's been going on with how you're operating now?

AD: I've been independently published for 10-plus years now, and my Mountain Men Matchmaker series was picked up by Harper Collins, so that's been a really big change in my career. With traditional publishing, you have to turn the books in so far ahead. They go to printers at least six months in advance. I've had to kind of be a grown-up now instead of doing it my indie, rough-and-tumble way where I just kind of figured out or changed dates willy-nilly. I used to say my business philosophy was willy-nilly. That does not fly, necessarily, in the traditional world. You have to meet deadlines, you have to get things turned in. You're always working ahead, and you’ve got to have an idea for your next book even before you write it because they are out selling that book to bookstores and stuff in advance.

So, yeah, it's a different part of the process, but it's actually very helpful with audio because booking my narrators was always really hard in my indie way, because I never knew when my deadline was going to be. I never knew when I was going to finish the book. And really popular narrators book out really far. So, it's been good to get myself onto a schedule so that I can get the narrators that I want.

EC: And you've always had such great narrators for all of your books. I mean, Teddy Hamilton and Erin Mallon are the best.

AD: I know. They're like the cream of the crop, and especially in the romance world.

EC: Yeah, absolutely. I really like the way that you've bridged this series to your last series. I always get mixed up—I keep calling this the third book because I feel like Max and Cozy were book 1, but they were book 5. You've always created that bridge, and you sort of did that with your London Lovers and your Harris Brothers series too, right?

AD: Yeah, I think crossover books, or like a spinoff series, is just a really easy way to captivate your current fans while not ostracizing new fans. So, I'm starting this Mountain Men Matchmaker series, readers can dive into book 1 and then just be pleasantly surprised that the oldest brother already has a story out and they can go back and read that. The hope is they read the whole series. It's a little bit of entrapment. You tease 'em with, "Oh, yeah, total standalone.” And it's like, “Surprise! There's other books you can check out, too." It's marketing, it's fun. And it's a good way to update readers or listeners on other characters and let them see what their lives are like after the epilogue.

"There's just something that makes it an extra special happily ever after when it's not just a romance love story, it's a whole family falling in love with this new person."

EC: It's super common that romance authors will create these interconnected universes, but I think you've done such a good job. I just love the families that you've created, and I think that family is so prevalent in your books. I just wanted to hear your thoughts a little bit on that. How does the role of family work for you with writing a compelling romance? Has your family informed your writing process and do they show up in your stories at all?

AD: Yeah, absolutely. It's very funny because I've written a lot about brothers, and I'm one of three girls, so I don't really know what that is other than maybe I just wanted to write an alternate reality, or I wanted to write something I haven't lived because that's more interesting to me. I think if I wrote a sister story, it would be brutal [laughs]. Me and my sisters are ruthless with each other. One of my sisters lives across the street from me. The other one lives like five minutes away. We have a pool in our backyard and we're hosting everybody every weekend. We all go to the lake at my mom's every weekend. So, we are very much in each other's lives all the time.

I like that. I like the found-family vibe, whether it's real family or found family that you see more in my books. A lot of characters in my books have some sort of trauma with their past, whether it's with a parent or something. And a lot of times these love stories come with the addition of a really great found family for them, whether that's in friendship groups or literal grandparents or something like that. There's just something that makes it an extra special happily ever after when it's not just a romance love story, it's a whole family falling in love with this new person.

EC: Right. It's not like, “Oh, the only thing I need is that one person.” Some of your characters have really traumatic family backgrounds, too, which is interesting.

AD: I know. I always seem to go a little dark in those backstories. I write rom-com, but I'm like, “I think I can do this. I can pull it off. It'll be all right. We're going to get 'em there.” That just makes it really satisfying then, when they find people that support them and that love them like a family should. It's just, like I said, another version of a happily ever after.

EC: Speaking about families, I wanted to talk a little bit about how you got started. I know that your first book was actually a memoir, was completely different. It was about your struggles with starting a family. Can you talk a little bit about writing that and how you were able to transition into this completely different genre?

AD: Yeah, absolutely. It's fun to reflect on that because I can't believe where I am and where I was. I mean, my husband and I tried for over five years to have a baby. We suffered tons of second-trimester miscarriages. I've lost six babies in total.

EC: Wow.

AD: So, it's a lot. It's a big number that a lot of people are shocked by. And I'm even shocked by it. When I think back to what I went through, I feel like a completely different person now. But we had a happy ending. We had a daughter, Lorelei, she's 13. She's our whole life. Our life revolves around that kid. So, we really did have a happy ending. But I also got this happy ending in this desire to share my story. I don't know if I ever would've known I had the ability to write a book if I didn't have a true story to tell first. So, I wrote the memoir. It's called Chasing Hope. My daughter's middle name is Hope. I wrote that memoir and I was like, “This was really fulfilling. This was really satisfying. But I've always been a huge romance reader, and I love fiction. I wonder if I could do fiction, now that I've done this, I wonder if I could.”

So that's what I did. I started off writing what I knew. I wrote about a few infertility storylines in a romance novel, which I felt like wasn't super common. So that was a new idea. And then it just grew from there. Now it's just this dream job that allows me to be home every day for my daughter when she gets home from school and stuff like that. She travels with me to some of my events. The bad really did get me to the good. So, I feel so lucky to find writing.

EC: That's amazing. And so what's your daily schedule like? Your daughter's at school and you're writing. Is that kind of the way you organize it?

AD: Should I give you the real answer or the answer if my publisher's listening? [laughs] “I write every day from eight till five.” No, my day is a mess. My process is not pretty. It doesn't look good. If my husband really knew, if he ever starts working from home, it'll never work because he will see that all I do is maybe binge-watch a show all day or something instead of actually do the work I need to do. But that's also part of my process. Once I get going in the writing in the book, I just write. I'm a feast or famine author, and so I'm either writing around the clock or I'm not writing at all, but I tell people I'm writing [laughs], so they don't start panicking about deadlines and stuff. I'm like, “No, it's just my process.”

I have to fill my creative cup with books, with movies, with TV shows, something that's not in my own little world before I can just lose myself in my story again, because once I get going, I can't stop. I'm writing morning, late at night. I do solo writing retreats a little bit now, too, because I like that consuming feeling. I like living in the story more than the real world once I get going. Because of that, that means the days that I'm not living in the book, I'm very relaxed. I'm going to Costco, I'm doing laundry, I'm doing the mom stuff.

EC: Oh, my gosh. That sounds amazing. Love that. Are you still writing in the tire shop ever?

AD: I do. I go there every once in a while, when I need to get out of the house or I just want a change in pace. I still love all those guys. They all know me. They all say hi to me. They're all happy to see me still. I like writing at Tires Tires Tires.

EC: That's really funny. You have written almost every contemporary romance trope that I can think of. There's sports, there's only-one-bed, there's grumpy-sunshine, friends-to-lovers, but I'm sure there are ones I'm not thinking of. Are there any approaches or premises that you've struggled or you avoid or are absolutely like, “I'm never going to go there”? Or you want to try and you haven't gotten there yet?

AD: I mean, for sure there's stuff that I would never be comfortable with. I don't really ever want to write a cheating trope. It's just not for me. It's not my vibe.

EC: Oh, I hear you on that.

AD: I don't think I really want to ever do a love triangle. Things that seem hard to accept. I've written some angsty romances in the past, but I like it to be more of an internal emotional angst rather than an external cheating trope or things like that. But I do like to try to push myself into new categories, which is why the first book of my Mountain Men series, Nine Month Contract, is a surrogacy romance. I'm like, “Oh, I've never seen a surrogacy rom-com. Bet. I think I can do this. Let's try to push into that and see.”

"I don't know if I ever would've known I had the ability to write a book if I didn't have a true story to tell first."

It was hard, too, because I wanted her to have this goal in mind of being a surrogate and earning money for a job and not ever want to be a mom. But by the end, I want them to end up together. It's a happily ever after because it's a romance novel. It's got to have a happy ending. They have to end up together. But that means she has to go through this emotional journey of deciding, “I don't want to be a mom, and now I do want to be a mom because I love this man.” It was a big story. It took me a long time to write because I just really wanted to get it right. I really wanted to believe her. I wanted to believe her change in opinion and her change in her whole life. It's fun to be pushed into new categories, but it gets tricky.

EC: I think Book Riot did a list of romances that you think are not going to stick the landing. I don't know if that book was on the list, but I would put it on the list because I remember listening to it, I was like, “How is this going to work? How is she going to do it?” And you pulled it off. You stuck the landing. I love those kinds of wild premises, where you just cannot say whether the author's going to do it, and then they surprise you.

AD: I felt uniquely qualified to write a surrogacy romance because of my infertility background. There were times we were debating about a surrogate and things like that. So, I was like, “Man, I just feel like I could pull this off. I feel like I can do this because I'm so in touch with what it's like to struggle to have a baby, to become a mother, to go through hardship with your body.” So, I really hope I did stick the landing. I think I did for the most part.

EC: You did. That one's fantastic. So many people on my team, that's been the first one they picked up from you. You have a lot of fans now.

AD: I get so excited when I hear that, until I remember that I wrote, like, ranch cups and Tylenol syringes in it, and I'm like, "Oh, gosh, this is awkward to look people in the eye after they read that." But it's all in the context. You read it, you listen, you go on the journey.

EC: So, body positivity is a big theme in this series, but I think you pick up on it in a lot of your books. I know this is an emerging theme in a lot of romance now, but what's your take on the responsibility of the genre promoting body positivity?

AD: Yeah, it's tricky, and I don't do it the same in every book. One of my bestselling books of all time is Blindsided, which is the Scottish soccer player and his plus-size best friend. I wrote Freya, that character, with a lot of insecurity. And when I read the reviews, there's a lot of people that are mad about that. They don't want to read a plus-size person be insecure. And I'm like, “Gosh, you're right.” It made me challenge my own internalized fat phobia. I started to look at myself and reflect on my own thoughts and feelings. So, while I can absolutely understand why people don't want to read that, there were also just as many reviews that are like, "Oh, my gosh, I see myself in Freya. I related to her so much. Thank you for writing this."

I think there's room at the table for all different types of ways to be in a bigger body, and how that's portrayed is uniquely dependent on the character and the author. Some people might not like it; some people might like it. After Blindsided blew up and I really started getting an influx of a lot more readers because that one hit number one on Amazon when TikTok really started to emerge. It was a three-year-old book and it hit number one in the Amazon store, so it was like all of the sudden I was hit with all these new readers and I was hearing so many different voices and more criticism, which happens with more success.

So, I was like, “Okay, I'm going to write Last on the List, which is book 5 in my Wait with Me series, and I'm going to make her a confident plus-size heroine.” I really loved that. I enjoyed that. But I struggled because I'm like, “It doesn't feel super relatable for her to not have any insecurities.” So, it's this delicate balance of writing somebody who's confident in their body and their skin, but also somebody that people can relate to because people like to connect to a character. Insecurity lives in any shape and size. It's a delicate balance, but it's something I'm enjoying exploring. Seven Year Itch, she's more mid-sized. I like that change, too, because there's just, like I said, all sorts of bodies out there. Love happens in all sizes.

EC: In Seven Year Itch, her insecurities actually feel like they're in a way bigger than the insecurities in Nine Month Contract. But then you sort of bring in the reason for where those insecurities came from with her ex-husband. I just think it's so smart and I think that's an important part of the story. Like, Calder has insecurities that are very unique.

AD: Yeah, I'd written a few plus-size characters, and I remember when I was getting ready to write Dakota, in the book Last on the List, that was seven years prior. So, there'd been a seven-year age gap. I was writing her as a divorced woman, and I thought, “Man, so many people get married and gain weight or their body changes just because you get happier, you're in a marriage or just, you know, life. You just get older and things change.” I just like the idea of exploring different body types in general, not just plus-size but somebody who's flat-chested or somebody who's just so insecure about her arms or something, because it's always still beautiful to the main male character. So that's what I'm going for, is just showing that these characters don't have to look perfect in order for their love story to make sense.

EC: I know that you're an audiobook fan, or I assume you have to be because so many of your characters are audiobook fans. Are you a listener yourself?

AD: Yeah, I am. I always think it's important for me to listen to other authors’ work. It's important to know what people are connecting with out there and what people like, and just to be informed. I want to be in on the BookTok community as well. I get sucked into the storylines just as much as them. So, yeah, I definitely love audio.

EC: I know that when you were more of an indie author, you were probably very involved in the casting process. How do you think about identifying the right voices for your stories?

AD: I've been so lucky that I've kind of landed in with some really great narrators. And for me it's like, “Why mess with a good thing?” Once I find a cast that works and that my readers and listeners love, I don't want to change it. So, for me, Erin Mallon and Teddy Hamilton were in on my Wait with Me series, and I'm like, “You have to continue with me to the Mountain Men. It's a crossover. It makes sense. I can't hear anyone else.” And they get my writing, they get my comedic timing.

"I've been so lucky that I've kind of landed in with some really great narrators. And for me it's like, 'Why mess with a good thing?'"

It's embarrassing when I listen to the audio and I'm laughing at my own jokes. I'm like, "Oh, God, you wrote this, Amy. You shouldn't be laughing at your own jokes." But it's because of their comedic delivery. They're just so talented, and I'm just so lucky that they want to read my books and that they find time for me, because I know they're so popular and they're so amazingly talented, but they really do bring my stories to life. I just can't imagine another voice. I feel the same with my Harris Brothers series. I got in with Will Watt and Charlotte Cole early on, and I stuck with them through most of the series, too, branching out when maybe different accents or something like that came into play. But for the most part, I was really in deep with Will and Charlotte because they just understood my characters and they delivered it so well.

EC: Teddy shows up in one of my personal favorite Harris Brothers romances, Sweeper.

AD: Yes. Once we had an American in, I'm like, "Teddy, I need you. I need you. Come back to me."

EC: So good. Some of your books are dual narration, some are duet. Do you have any sort of feelings about when duet is the right approach?

AD: Yeah, interestingly, I started with duet with my Harris Brothers. I think it wasn't even super popular back then, but I think Will Watt at the time was more comfortable in duet narration, and so he was like, “If you're up for duet, I know a female narrator that I love to work with and we could do this for you.” I was like, “Sure, sounds good,” and then I realized readers loved duet.

But I also felt like there was still an audience for duals. I remember when I wrote my Wait with Me series and was going to change narrators, I'm like, "Oh, I should do dual on this one. Let's let them each have their own chapters and voice the other genders when they need to, and let's have something for all listeners.” But I feel like duet has just exploded recently. Now I'm kind of all-in with duet, as long as I can. But truly, I like all the narrations. A good narrator, you just hear their different intonations for different characters, and you're just along that journey and it's just this easy thing to sink in to, no matter what, if they're a good narrator.

EC: Do you ever listen to historical romance? Would you ever think about writing historical romance?

AD: That's a lot of research [laughs]. No, that would be tough. I don't think it's for me, but I would enjoy it, I think, but it'd be hard.

EC: So, I saw the galley for book 3 came through already, so I'm very excited about that. I know that's going to be Addison and Luke's story. But then there's this mystery book 4 in this series. Can you tell us anything about what's going to happen?

AD: Yes. I've been letting that slip. I probably am not good at marketing because I think I should have revealed it like in a big surprising way, because I can't believe people don't know who it's about. It's about Everly the matchmaker.

EC: That's what I was wondering. So, are we going to Ireland?

AD: Yes. Absolutely. So, she's been matchmaking her three uncles. Honeymoon Phase was such a fun marriage-of-convenience book. I just recently finished that one, so I'm obsessed with that couple. It's so funny that the release of Seven Year Itch, I have to refocus and go back in time almost and remember that couple. So now I'm getting ready to write Everly's story because the matchmaker has to meet her match. That's what I'm working on now. She's going to fall for some Irish bad boy, I'm sure, because she couldn't have gone over to Dublin for nothing. It's going to be fun. It'll be different because she's younger. She's just fresh out of college, but I'm having a lot of fun with her.

EC: That's great. She's such a fun character and I love the way that Erin voices her, too, when she shows up.

AD: Yep. Absolutely.

EC: So, I just started last night watching your movie, because I hadn't actually picked that up and I was like, “Oh, I can get it on my Amazon Prime. That's amazing." I'm trying to get my 14-year-old to watch it with me, but she maybe is worried about it being too embarrassing. She'll watch it on her own and then we can discuss it.

AD: Yeah [laughs], I can see that.

EC: Do you have any other future movie projects coming out?

AD: Yeah, so Passionflix released Wait with Me, and they've optioned the third book in the Wait with Me series, which is One Moment Please, which is my famous doctor one-night-stand surprise pregnancy book. I say famous because that book has blown up on TikTok as well. That's got a very big cult following, I would say. So, they've optioned that one, too. I've seen the screenplay already, so it's in motion. No production date set yet, but I'm excited to be a part of another adaptation. Wait with Me was an incredible experience.

EC: Yeah, it's really, really fun. I'm excited to go home and finish it tonight.

AD: Yay! Yeah, they did a good job. And they stay very true to the story, so it was fun.

EC: That's great. I think we're going to end on that exciting note. Amy, it's been such a pleasure talking to you. Listeners, you can pick up Seven Year Itch and all of Amy's titles on Audible now.