1--What is the title of your latest release?
LOVE, LIES, AND CHERRY PIE
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Emily Hung, author and barista, is the last single daughter. To get her mother off her back about her single status, she fakes a relationship with the son of her parents’ friends.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Most of my books—including Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie—are set in Toronto, which is where I live. I love the city, and it’s easier to write a location that I know well!
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I think so, though she’d occasionally get on my nerves.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
millennial, creative, judgmental
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
The hero has a cat. My main characters very rarely have pets, and I learned that I rather enjoy writing them.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I wait until I’m finished. Then I put the manuscript aside for at least a few weeks before reading it over and starting my first round of revisions.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Ice cream/gelato. (Donuts and cake aren’t far behind, though.)
9--Describe your writing space/office!
A large corner desk in my living room. I always write on my desktop.
10--Who is an author you admire?
Sophie Kinsella.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Bridget Jones’s Diary is the book that made me start writing as an adult, so in that respect, it definitely changed my life!
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I do remember the email and call for my first trad book (Donut Fall in Love), but not as well as I should because it was early in the pandemic and everything from then is a bit of a blur. I try not to get too excited about things because I’m afraid of being disappointed later on…but it was still quite exciting and a bit surreal!
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Romance (historical and contemporary)
14--What’s your favorite movie?
Enchanted, Shrek, and Shrek 2. I refuse to pick a single favorite among those.
15--What is your favorite season?
Summer (it’s warm!) but I do enjoy spring flowers.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Rewatching my favorite movies and eating good food.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
Past Lives is a great movie.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I don’t think I could pick, but last weekend, we went to a Syrian restaurant that we really like, so that’s the first thing that comes to mind.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Other than reading, I enjoy walking around the city and dining out. I like traveling, though I haven’t ton a ton of that lately.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
More contemporary romances with Asian main characters! My next release will be Three Reasons to Run (Weddings with the Moks 2), which is a runaway bride book.
Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.
Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. You’d think he single-handedly stopped climate change and ended child poverty from the way her mother raves about him. But in reality, he’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer, and when they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her.
But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees.
Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates—including a bubble tea shop and cake-decorating class—so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark’s not quite what she assumed and maybe that argyle sweater isn’t so ugly after all…
Romance Comedy [Atria/Emily Bestler Books, On Sale: May 7, 2024, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781668030769 / eISBN: 9781668030776]
Jackie Lau decided she wanted to be a writer when she was in grade two, sometime between writing “The Heart That Got Lost” and “The Land of Shapes.” She later studied engineering and worked as a geophysicist before turning to writing romance novels.
Jackie lives in Toronto with her husband, and despite living in Canada her whole life, she hates winter. When she’s not writing, she enjoys gelato, gourmet donuts, cooking, hiking, and reading on the balcony when it’s raining.
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