Writers Who Read: Rebecca Brooks

The Writers Who Read series continues this week with romance author Rebecca Brooks.

Who are you?
I’m Rebecca Brooks! I write contemporary erotic romance about independent women who step out of their lives to try something new. I’m into travel, adventure, small towns in beautiful places, and strong, outdoorsy men with big hearts.

My debut, Above All, is about an artist who runs a campground in the Adirondacks and falls for a younger chef just passing through. My next book, How to Fall, is coming out in November and I can’t wait—it’s set in southern Brazil and features a Chicago math teacher and a sexy Australian screenwriter who are both bent on escaping the past, but find it harder to escape each other.

I just last week sent my agent a brand spankin’ new manuscript called Make Me Stay, set in a fictional ski town in Washington State. I don’t want to say too much about it but I’m so in love with the hero, a former Olympic skier and coach, that I feel terrible for what he has to go through!

Which book or series was your gateway into the world of reading?
I’ve been reading (and writing) forever, but I didn’t get into romance until more recently. I wrote my dissertation on the romance plot in contemporary feminist utopian and dystopian literature (yep, I got to write about The Hunger Games). As part of my research I read an amazing book by Janice Radway called Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature. This was a huge turning point for me. I realized that if I’m interested in opportunities and possibilities for female characters in literature, then romance is an amazingly rich and varied genre to explore (and way more fun that academia).

The first romance novels I read were Liberating Lacey by Anne Calhoun, Tempted by Megan Hart, and Good Girls Don’t by Victoria Dahl. Needless to say, I became a total convert. After I finished my degree, I didn’t pursue academia and started writing my first romance instead!

Nowadays, what makes you crack open a book instead of pressing play on your favorite Netflix show?
That’s hard because TV has gotten so much better at storytelling over the years, so I can almost kind of justify it as work. But I spend so much time on the computer that sometimes I can’t stand the thought of more time in front of a screen, and that’s when I pick up a book (my kindle screen feels different than a computer, although it’s still a device). I’ll admit that it can be hard to get into a new book instead of pressing play on a favorite show, but if I’m in the middle of a book I can’t put down, then all I’m going to want to do is read.

Which authors are auto-buys for you? Why?
I write contemporary erotic and that’s a lot of what I like to read—I mentioned Calhoun and Dahl; another favorite I’m always recommending is Charlotte Stein. But I’m in two romance book clubs in NYC and a lot of what I read is dictated by whatever the groups choose for the month. I ready widely and am incredibly unfaithful—I like to jump around from one thing to the next, and will pick up YA, middle grade, science fiction, literary fiction, classics… you name it. These book clubs expose me to a lot of different things I might not gravitate toward on my own, like paranormal or highlander time travel, for example. I love the experience of trying something new and broadening my tastes.

What is your book kryptonite–those unique settings, tropes, or character types that make you unable to resist reading?
Anything outdoorsy will immediately make me interested, and dynamic, picturesque settings that are central to the story and transport me somewhere beautiful I’d love to be. I go for characters who are competent, humble, and kind—the kinds of people I’d want to drool over myself, or hang out with over a beer.

I can’t stand major clichés, women who are always falling down (literally) and need a man to save them, and alpha men with no character traits beyond washboard abs and some deep dark secret that’s not actually a big deal but nevertheless makes them so brooding that they become mean. (And let’s all agree that “washboard abs” isn’t actually a character trait, ok?)

Here’s one more big thing: since I gravitate toward the erotic, I want my women to be sexually empowered and get what they want. Things don’t always have to go perfectly—this is romance, so they probably won’t! But if the hero is getting his then I want to be damn sure the heroine is satisfied, too.

What is your ideal time and place to read?
I can’t go anywhere without a book, whether it’s a physical copy, my kindle, or something on my phone. I read on the subway, or when I’m waiting around, or any time I can find a few stolen moments during the day. But my ideal spot is in the big comfy chair in my living room that’s under a good light and has a small table next to it—perfect for a drink or cup of tea. In the evenings my husband and I will often sit and read aloud to each other, or read silently to ourselves and then stop and talk about what we’re in the middle of. It’s the best.

Are you a re-reader? Why or why not?
There are so many books that I love and want to go back to re-read, but to be honest it rarely happens because there are so many new books I want to dive into! I’ll re-read if there’s something specific I’m looking for in my writing, like if I want to remind myself how another author tackles a particular problem. But I rarely find myself picking up a book to re-read for pleasure, even though I often tell myself I should because I know I’ll have a different perspective after time has passed.

Which books have had the biggest influence on your writing?
Octavia Butler is one of my favorite writers; her essays have been a huge influence in terms of reminding me to persist and keep writing. Likewise, Margaret Atwood is so eclectic, even though I don’t like all of her work I appreciate the reminder not to pigeonhole myself or limit my imagination.

Lastly, Russell Banks’s Lost Memory of Skin was a big “aha” moment for me because it seems like a book that shouldn’t work and that I’d never, ever like—it’s about a sex offender who lives under a causeway in Florida—and yet I couldn’t put it down.

None of these are romance novels, but they’ve all reminded me to be bold, take risks, and not talk myself out of trying something before I’ve found whether or not it might actually work.

Every time I write there are moments when I think, “Can I write this? Can I get away with this? Are people going to tell me I can’t do this?” That voice only gets louder as I’ve gotten deeper into the industry and can hear my agent, my editor, reviewers, and readers in my head. But if it’s true to the story, true to the characters, and it works, then the answer should always be Yes.

What makes a book a satisfying read for you?
I want to feel like the writing is careful and thought through, so not a lot of cliché or repetition or uninspired language, and I want to feel like each character is multidimensional and real. I feel unsatisfied when I close a book and don’t understand why a character does or feels something, or why an event plays out the way that it does. When the character, setting, dialogue, and plot all fit together; when I can’t imagine the story happening any other way; when I feel like I’ve been transported into another person’s consciousness—that’s when I want to linger in the pages and can’t wait to tell everyone about it when I’m done.

What are you reading right now?
Yikes. Well, I just finished Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and Afternoon Delight by Anne Calhoun, and now I have no idea what to do next. On the pile next to my bed are: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marissa Pessl, Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas, Wired for Story by Lisa Cron, Joyland by Stephen King (which a student I mentor said I absolutely have to read), and a stack of Denton Welch books that I can’t remember why I have because I’m probably not going to read them anyway. So! I guess I’ll pick one or two from this list and get cracking.

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Rebecca Brooks lives in New York City in an apartment filled with books. She received a PhD in English but decided it was more fun to write books than write about them. She has backpacked alone through India and Brazil, traveled by cargo boat down the Amazon River, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, explored ice caves in Peru, trekked to the source of the Ganges, and sunbathed in Burma, but she always likes coming home to a cold beer and her hot husband in the Bronx. Her books are about independent women who leave their old lives behind in order to try something new—and find the passion, excitement, and purpose they didn’t even know they’d been missing. You can find her at her website and on Twitter and Facebook.

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