Husband Material (London Calling #2)(128)

My hand wilted in Oliver’s. Making a wedding happen had been bad enough. I had no idea how to make one unhappen.

“Thank you for coming,” said Oliver, as if he did this kind of thing all the time. Which, between this and his dad’s funeral, he almost did. “I’m afraid Lucien and I have decided that marriage isn’t right for either of us, and we’d rather be together on our own terms. Please do enjoy the party and make the most of the open bar.”

And then we ran.

Hand in hand.

Up the aisle.

Out the doors.

Through the venue.

And into the sudden storm that had turned a busy London street into… Well, okay, it was still a busy London street. But the pavement was shining silver and the raindrops were playing our tune and I was in Oliver’s arms, and we were laughing and kissing, and all around us the passers-by were putting up umbrellas in every colour of the rainbow.





SPOTLIGHT ON BOOKSELLERS: Q&A WITH ALEXIS HALL AND CATHY

BERNER

Why did you return to the world of Luc and Oliver and their friends? Was that always the plan?

Err, it definitely wasn’t the plan. I’ve sort of just reached the point in my career that I can sell more than one book at a time, but in general I very much work on the assumption that things will be standalones unless stated otherwise. I think the one exception is probably the Arden St Ives series, which was sold as a complete trilogy.

Plus, there isn’t much precedent for direct sequels in the rom-com subgenre. So, y’know, this could be a terrible disaster. Watch this space, I guess?

In general, I try to write romances that feel, to me, like a complete arc—even if I’m leaving the characters in a HFN space rather than an HEA space. With Luc and Oliver, though, I sincerely felt there was more story to tell. We see them grow a lot over the course of the first book but it’s clear they have a long way to go both in terms of who they are as people and how they fit into the world.

And, once I started thinking about it, I realised I did have something quite specific I wanted to do with Husband Material. So…

here we are.

When writing this sequel to Boyfriend Material, how did you decide which characters got “screen time”? Were there any characters you wished you could spend more time with?

I think part of it is that both Boyfriend Material and Husband Material are told from Luc’s POV, so his friends are necessarily going to be more central. I do wish there’d been a bit more space for Oliver’s friends in this book (Jennifer and Peter both get a cameo, and I think Brian gets a mention) but given the focus of the book is on weddings and most of Oliver’s friends are quite pointedly already married there wasn’t a natural place for them.

Husband Material followed an interesting structure. Did you have that in mind before you began, or did that develop as the story progressed?

Nope. I decided going in I was going to blatantly and shamelessly rip off Four Weddings and a Funeral. Which is what I’m assuming ‘interesting structure’ is a polite euphemism for.

Your novels often veer from hilarity to pointed social commentary (a great example is Ana with one N). Do you have those issues in mind when you start writing, or do they just sort of pop up?

This makes it sound like I don’t know what I’m doing, but they do just sort of pop up. I mean, I think what Luc and Oliver have going on in terms of their various issues and their relationships to the intersecting branches of their identities is sort of baked into the characters and therefore baked into the premise. But a lot of the rest of the time it’s sort of almost circumstantial.

Ana With One N is a good example of this. Like, in a sense, she came about because part of Rhys’s deal is that he tends to serial date and so he always brings a different woman to every CRAPP-related event. And, obviously, I didn’t want these people to be faceless ciphers, so I needed to get Rhys’s date a fairly clear personality, backstory, and worldview.

That’s kind of what happened with Tyler as well: I wanted Luc to look at art during his own gender nonspecific bird party and to have a healthy, flirty encounter with a guy (to offset all the unhealthy encounters he’s had previously). And that just took me down the “what kind of person would know Priya” rabbit hole, which would be someone cool, interesting, arty, and a bit angry. And from there you get Tyler.

What’s one thing that both Oliver and Luc might have in the refrigerator at their flats? (Does such an item even exist?) Margarine. It’s a weird crossover point between “random crap that even people who never cook have to put on bread” and “stuff that’s actually quite useful and vegan.”

Do your fans create some of the best fan art in the world? The correct answer is YES. What are your thoughts on people creating art or stories from your own work?

I am incredibly blessed in terms of the fan art people share with me. It’s genuinely humbling to feel you inspire that kind of thing. In general, I’m completely happy for people to create art or stories or whatever they like from my work (although, as always, blah blah legal handwave reserve the right etc.). I am aware that there’s some written fanwork out there too, but obviously I don’t look at that because it goes to some very complicated places. I don’t think there’s the same culture of sharing written fanwork as there is with fan art and me seeking it out would just be awkward for everybody. I think the difference is art is a specifically different medium, so the types of work aren’t going to compete or conflict or anything like that.