I’m thrilled to welcome one of my favorite authors of romantic comedy, Emma Hart, to Frolic to chat about her latest book, The Roommate Agreement. It’s a laugh-out-loud funny, sexy rom-com in which two best friends discover that they have feelings for one another after moving in together. You don’t want to miss this irresistible love story.
Mary: Welcome to Frolic, Emma! The heroine in The Roommate Agreement, Shelby, loves the show The Big Bang Theory, and it’s featured throughout the story. Are you a The Big Bang Theory fan?
Emma: Hi, Mary! Thanks so much for having me. Oh, my gosh—yes. I am a HUGE fan of The Big Bang Theory. I actually have a script signed by Johnny Galecki (Leonard) that a friend sent me. It’s probably not a surprise to hear that this show inspired this book entirely. It feels like a great little tribute to a show I love so much!
Mary: Jay and Shelby have been best friends for 20 years. What is the biggest challenge when writing a best-friends-to-lovers romance?
Emma: It’s definitely the change in the relationship—the conflict between knowing what they want but not wanting to ruin their friendship. Especially for a friendship as long as theirs was. They’d been through everything together, and that was a lot to throw away on something that could go terribly wrong. Especially since they were such different people!
Mary: I adore your covers: They are fun, colorful and always reflect your sassy heroines. Tell us a little about your design process.
Emma: Thank you so much! That’s exactly what I hope to have as my finished project. I design my own, but I tend to start my covers months before. I like to use the models as the “muse” for the cover, so I go out looking for four things: a fun model, a bright photo, something that fits with the theme of the book, and it all has to make me happy. From there, I can go through a minimum of five photos and three concepts before I find the right one. The Roommate Agreement was a rare first draft that made the cut! The model was perfect for how I imagined a writer (it may have helped that I myself had a messy bun at the time,) and the notepaper on the front/text in the background was a homage to the agreement itself.
Mary: Many of your stories prominently feature family members of your main characters, and they are often hilarious and quite memorable, especially the grandparents. Are some of these secondary characters inspired by your own family?
Emma: They aren’t! We live quite far from our families, so they’re either drawn from conversations with friends or my imagination. I mostly just really, really like putting my characters in horribly embarrassing and awkward situations, so it works. The only inspiration from real life is when kids are involved and I use my own. I’m sure they’ll thank me one day.
Mary: If you had to decide right now which of your novels would be made into a movie or TV show, which one would you choose and why?
Emma: I would choose Four Day Fling. I had so much fun writing that book, and I think the whole set-up would make for the perfect girls’ night in rom-com. I mean, it doesn’t get much more awkward than your fake date being a super famous hockey player who you don’t know… But your entire family is obsessed with.
Mary: Which of your characters do you relate with the most?
Emma: God—I think I put a little of me in all of my characters. Poppy (Four Day Fling) has my love of graphic/sweary/inappropriate t-shirts (advice: do not accidentally wear the one that says ‘Because F**k You, That’s Why’ to a school meeting.) Mallory (Catastrophe Queen) has my love of organized chaos, but Shelby is definitely all the questionable parts of me as an author—dry shampoo love, yesterday’s shirt, randomly walking off to write down ideas/scenes… Yes, definitely Shelby. 😉
Mary: What’s next?
Emma: OH I AM EXCITED ABOUT THIS. Okay. *deep breath, Emma* My next release is titled THE ACCIDENTAL GIRLFRIEND, coming June 25th. It’s a fake-relationship book where my very-single heroine, Lauren, is dared by her best friends to put up an online ad offering her services as a fake date. She ends up being super-sexy Mason’s date to his ten-year high school reunion. It’s all good until Mason’s sister sneakily tells his parents they’re dating for real and they’re forced to keep up the charade. I can’t wait to share this story with everyone!
About The Roommate Agreement:
Let your homeless best friend stay with you, he said. Being roommates will be fun, he said. It’s only temporary, he said.
He never said I’d fall for him.
You know what isn’t ‘temporary?’ The endless stream of dirty socks in my bathroom and empty food packets under the sofa—and don’t even get me started on the hot guys who take over my living room every Sunday to watch sports.
I can’t take anymore.
So I propose a roommate agreement. One that will bring peace and order back to my life, complete with rules that might just stop my newfound crush on my best friend in its tracks.
After all, there’s only so many times you can see your best friend naked before you start to lose your mind.
Rules. They’re meant to be broken… Aren’t they?
About Emma:
Emma Hart is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of over thirty novels and has been translated into several different languages.
She is a mother, wife, lover of wine, Pink Goddess, and valiant rescuer of wild baby hedgehogs.
Emma prides herself on her realistic, snarky smut, with comebacks that would make a PMS-ing teenage girl proud.
Yes, really. She’s that sarcastic.
You can find her online at:
Alternatively, you can join her reader group at http://bit.ly/EmmaHartsHartbreakers.
You can also get all things Emma to your email inbox by signing up for Emma Alerts*. http://bit.ly/EmmaAlerts
*Emails sent for sales, new releases, pre-order availability, and cover reveals.
