Summary:

In episode 19 of Backstage with the Book Babes, we interview hockey romance author, Ruby Rana. She writes romcoms featuring driven women, the hockey players who fall for them, and super fun meet disasters.

Ruby shares with us all about her Ottawa Regents series including the comedy, the spice, and the reason she chose Ottawa as the home for her fictional hockey team. Even though Ruby is not Canadian, she has family there and has visited many of the locations she mentions in her books, but she has a special love for Ottawa.

She shares with us how the difficulties of bringing physical comedy elements into book form, but how a lot of the inspiration comes from her own life. We even get to hear true story that led to a scene in one of her books.

Some of her favorite tropes to write that are included in most of her books include found family and forced proximity. And she tells us how her own found family in real life is just as important as her fictional found families. Although she also enjoys flipping tropes in her books, such as a reverse age gap.

We talk a lot about the many hats us indie authors wear and how important it is to be able to pivot when something isn’t working or a new strategy becomes more important. And also how it can be useful to hire help for some of your admin tasks when you’re able to.

Ruby’s dream is to get her books on a list in a magazine. This would be the ultimate sign of making it for her. Anyone in magazine publishing listening out there?

And her question for readers is: What is the one thing that draws you to a book? Is it a cute cover, the title, the tropes, or the blurb? Let us know in the comments, or post it on The Book Babes Instagram post.

It was fantastic getting to know Ruby.

We hope you enjoy the show, and if you do, leave us a review on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Music by Christopher Tallon

If you listen and it brings you joy, make sure to leave a review or help support the podcast through Buy Me A Coffee.

Help Support the podcast:

Buy Alby a tea: https://buymeacoffee.com/albyblake

Buy Nikki a tea: buymeacoffee.com/nikkijewell

About Our Guest:

Ruby Rana is an elder millennial who writes spicy, funny, and heartfelt romance about sassy brown girls. She excels in sending messages where autocorrect is adamant in embarrassing her.

When she's not battling typos, you can find her explaining Midwestern slang to her East Coast-raised husband, being used as a jungle gym by her young children, or really leaning into her plant mom-era.

Here’s where you can find Ruby:

All links

Instagram

Threads

Facebook

Ottawa Regents on Amazon

Keep Up With The Book Babes:

Social Media: Backstagewiththebookbabes

Email: backstagewiththebookbabes@gmail.com

Links & Guest Author Applications: linktr.ee/backstagewiththebookbabes

Find Alby Blake & Her Unique Sports Romance Books:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_alby_blake/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alby_blake

Website: www.lovelunapress.com

Find Nikki Jewell & Her Spicy Contemporary Romance:

Social Media: @nikkijewell_books

Website: authornikkijewell.com

Event Links: ://linktr.ee/nikkijewellbooks

In episode 18 of Backstage with the Book Babes, we interview contemporary romance author, JD Harbor. He writes cruise ship based romances that are humorous, heartfelt, and character driven.

JD tells us all about his love of cruising, and shares how he met his wife on a singles cruise. These experiences inspired him to write romance novels where the characters meet on a cruise ship and carry their relationship back to the real world.

His current books are all connected as part of the Romantisea Serenades series. The first two books feature a unique dual POV perspective with the first book, Scarlet Wave telling the story from the female main character’s POV and the second book, Golden Shores, telling the same love story from the male main characters POV.

The mystical cruise host matchmaker of the series, Maude, was inspired by the real life cruise host who helped JD connect with his wife. And he tells us about how he was able to reconnect with her later on to share their story and her part in his books.

He tells us about the very unique experience of traveling on board the LoveLit cruise with a small group of readers and other authors. We learn all about the deeper connections he was able to form with readers during this five day adventure.

And what skills has JD learned to support his writing? He’s become an amateur mixologist learning how to mix all kinds of fun drinks. His wife really appreciates this skill.

JD’s dream is to have a contract with a cruise line to stock his books. Any cruise ship operators listening out there?

We had so much fun talking with JD. Enjoy the show.

Music by Christopher Tallon

Help Support the podcast:If you listen and it brings you joy, make sure to leave a review or help support the podcast through Buy Me A Coffee.

Buy Alby a tea: https://buymeacoffee.com/albyblake

Buy Nikki a tea: buymeacoffee.com/nikkijewell

About Our Guest:

JD writes contemporary romance that feels like a true escape, set in sun filled destinations where connection comes easily and emotions run deep. His stories focus on slow burn chemistry, found family, and characters who discover love when they least expect it. Expect sharp banter, heartfelt moments, and relationships that feel earned from the first spark to the final page.

Here’s where you can find JD:

linktr.ee/jdharbor,

jdharbor.com,

instagram.com/jdharbor

Keep Up With The Book Babes:

Social Media: Backstagewiththebookbabes

Email: backstagewiththebookbabes@gmail.com

Links & Guest Author Applications: linktr.ee/backstagewiththebookbabes

Find Alby Blake & Her Unique Sports Romance Books:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_alby_blake/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alby_blake

Website: www.lovelunapress.com

Find Nikki Jewell & Her Spicy Contemporary Romance:

Social Media: @nikkijewell_books

Website: authornikkijewell.com
Event Links: ://linktr.ee/nikkijewellbooks

Summary:

In episode 17 of Backstage with the Book Babes, we interview contemporary romance author, Monique Fisher. She writes spicy but cosy romcoms featuring lovable characters. These include her Richardson siblings trilogy and the Decadence series.

We chat about the reasons behind Monique choosing to write romcoms including her love of 90s romcom movies like Pretty Woman and Boomerang. Her background in theater has also been a big influence on her writing career. She has tried her hand at various writing mediums, but really found her love with romance novels. She calls her books low angst, cozy romcoms, and believes the world needs this sort of fiction.

Monique also talked about the opposing sides of life as an author. The stress of balancing a job with her family and her writing. But on the other side, the joys of creating fictional worlds. She particularly loves writing in series, so readers can follow the Easter Eggs as they read through.

Revisions are one of her favorite parts of the writing process. She likens them to rehearsals from her theater days. And she loves to analyze sentences, dialogue and character arcs in order to make her books the best they can be.

One of Monique’s other endeavors has been to create an amazing community of black romance authors. Not only does she collaborate with black cover designers, beta readers, and sensitivity readers, she also connects and uplifts other black authors. She tells us about how she created an online community of black women authors and all about their weekly video meetups.

Monique’s question for readers is, will you buy my books and tell your friends to as well.

What a fascinating conversation.

Music by Christopher Tallon

If you listen and it brings you joy, make sure to leave a review or help support the podcast through Buy Me A Coffee.

Help Support the podcast:

Buy Alby a tea: https://buymeacoffee.com/albyblake

Buy Nikki a tea: buymeacoffee.com/nikkijewell

About Our Guest:

Monique Fisher is a theatre and comic book geek who always has her hands glued to the keyboard conjuring up happily ever afters. She writes modern, fun, real-life romances set in cities and small towns featuring a diverse cast of big-hearted, lovable characters. She has written and released nine books including seven which serve as the introduction to her MRCU (Mo’s Rom-Com Universe). She lives in Los Angeles with her two boys Michael and Alexander. Her dream is to write full time without the aid of a

nine to five. Fingers crossed!

To connect with Monique, you can find her here:

HOME | Monique Fisher

IG/Threads: @moniquefisherauthor

Tik Tok: monique.fisherauthor

Substack: moniquefisher

Keep Up With The Book Babes:

Social Media: Backstagewiththebookbabes

Email: backstagewiththebookbabes@gmail.com

Links & Guest Author Applications: linktr.ee/backstagewiththebookbabes

Find Alby Blake & Her Unique Sports Romance Books:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_alby_blake/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alby_blake

Website: www.lovelunapress.com

Find Nikki Jewell & Her Spicy Contemporary Romance:

Social Media: @nikkijewell_books

Website: authornikkijewell.com

Event Links: ://linktr.ee/nikkijewellbooks