Summary:

Queer romance author Kent Holland goes Backstage with the Book Babes for an insightful conversation about queer joy, making connections in the romance community, and the different subgenres he writes in.

Turns out the book babes have a lot in common with Kent Holland. He grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan where Alby lives and he shares a birthday with Nikki. Just goes to show you how connected we all are.

He starts off telling us about his books which include the Marquis Men theatre romance series, the Wanderlust travel romance series, and his Frostbitten hockey romance series. He even has a Western romance in the mix. And his next release, Hothead, is the first book in a new firefighter romance series.

Kent’s journey to authorhood was well planned and intentional. He studied English and entrepreneurship at school with a particular focus on online sales. This helped him grasp both the creative and the business side of being an independent author. His advice for aspiring authors is that writing is an art, but publishing is a business.

He shared how important making connections with readers is and how his personal measure of success is when readers reach out to say they felt seen. Kent is also very focused on ensuring he’s navigating his career in the most mindful and ethical way possible.

We talked about the impact of Heated Rivalry on queer romance including how it has brought many new readers into the community especially queer males who weren’t reading queer romance before.

Kent’s question for readers is a two parter. The first part is for LGBTQ2SL+ readers. What aspects of your experience have you seen in literature that you’re excited about or what aspects haven’t you seen that you’d love to see? And part two is for everyone. What drew you to the romance genre as readers or writers and what was it that brought you to this wonderful space? Please answer in the YouTube comments or follow the book babes on social media to answer there.

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

Music by Christopher Tallon

If you listen and it brings you joy, you can help support the podcast through Buy Me A Coffee.

Help Support the podcast:

Buy Nikki a tea: buymeacoffee.com/nikkijewell

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

About Kent Holland:

I am joyfully and proudly queer, which informs everything that I write. I live in a beautiful Southern town with my partner and our adorable cat, Poppyseed, who spends most of her free-time trying to step on my keyboard when I'm writing. I hope you find just as much queer joy in my stories as I do <3

Here’s where you can find Kent and his books:

All Links:

Website: https://kentholland.myshopify.com/

Instagram: @kenthollandwrites link

Threads: @kenthollanwrites link

Substack: @kentholland link

Keep Up With The Book Babes:

Social Media: Backstagewiththebookbabes

Email: backstagewiththebookbabes@gmail.com

Links & Guest Author Applications: linktr.ee/backstagewiththebookbabes

Find Nikki Jewell & Her Spicy Contemporary Romance:

Social Media: @nikkijewell_books

Website: authornikkijewell.com

Event Links: ://linktr.ee/nikkijewellbooks

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

Summary:

Sports Romance Author Eden Knox goes Backstage with the Book Babes for a fun, chaotic chat about her Sin Bin hockey romance series, Apollycon and other amazing book signing events, work life balance, and making connections with other authors.

She tells us all about her green flag men and how her dom MMC just happened to be a Cinnamon Roll at heart. So she’d like to coin the term Cinnadom if it’s not already a thing.

Eden has been a lifetime fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins and her first crush was Jaromir Jagr. To say she was devastated by his trade is an understatement. So when she decided she wasn’t going to be the next Anne Rice and pursued contemporary romance instead, hockey romance was the natural choice.

She spills the tea on her new book in the Hell’s Hollow interconnected world. She’s doing this one with a group of her romance author friends. So then we get into the importance of forming connections and building a support group with other authors. She’s got an amazing group and is happy to shout about how we collaborate, we don’t compete with other indie authors. She even got quoted in the press for this.

Eden tells us all about her amazing experience at Apollycon and meeting JR Ward twice. She’s got a great story about this, but you’ll have to listen to hear it. She also tends to overbook herself, so she’s got lots of events coming up.

We talk self care and balance and how sometimes you have to keep your deadlines to yourself so you don’t get overwhelmed. Eden knows all about that as she currently works in a library while writing books and completing a Master’s degree in Library And Information Science.

Eden’s question for listeners is: “Sprayed Edges or No Sprayed Edges?” Let us know in the comments or on our Instagram/Threads posts what your preference is.

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

Music by Christopher Tallon

If you listen and it brings you joy, you can help support the podcast through Buy Me A Coffee.

Help Support the podcast:

Buy Nikki a tea: buymeacoffee.com/nikkijewell

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

About Our Guest:

Eden Knox is a sports romance author who lives in Ohio with her giant tattooed husband, 2 amazing daughters, and their herd of animals. She is a geriatric Xennial who has been a Pittsburgh Penguins fan since the 90’s, and her first hockey crush was Jaromir Jagr. When she isn't screaming at hockey or football games, she's working on tormenting her fictional hockey team or completing coursework for grad school to earn her master's in Library Science.

Here’s where you can find Eden:

Website: http://www.edenknoxauthor.com/

Social Media: https://edenknoxauthor.com/pages/social-media

Keep Up With The Book Babes:

Social Media: Backstagewiththebookbabes

Email: backstagewiththebookbabes@gmail.com

Links & Guest Author Applications: linktr.ee/backstagewiththebookbabes

Find Nikki Jewell & Her Spicy Contemporary Romance:

Social Media: @nikkijewell_books

Website: authornikkijewell.com

Event Links: ://linktr.ee/nikkijewellbooks

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

Summary:

Contemporary & Sapphic Romance Author Maude Winters goes Backstage with the Book Babes for a fantastic conversation about switching between male female and sapphic romances, writing chaotic interconnected worlds and chasing plot bunnies

Maude writes billionaire and royal romances as well as sapphic romances. She has too many ideas to contain and is constantly fighting off plot bunnies to stay focused on her current work in progress. But she does have an accountability editor to help her stay on task. Shout out to Becky.

Her love for the sapphic romance community is strong, and she finds the community very welcoming and helpful. However seeing as how there were not enough events for this community she went and created her own. She’ll be hosting her own sapphic romance book event at Pages & Grapes in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a few other authors. And their slogan for the event is amazing. “Sounds Queer, I’m in.” She hopes this event will go well and she can bring it back for a second year.

Maude has an amazing supportive family who helps her get her writing time in while still working a full time job. She has a special ritual of heading to a coffee shop on Saturday mornings and her husband even set her up a space in the basement to continue this practice during the pandemic years.

Alby and Maude have known each other for a few years, but it feels like a lot more as it always does with people you have a great connection with. So they catch up about their local author community and all the fantastic events and meetups they participate in.

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

Music by Christopher Tallon

If you listen and it brings you joy, you can help support the podcast through Buy Me A Coffee.

Help Support the podcast:

Buy Nikki a tea: buymeacoffee.com/nikkijewell

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

About Our Guest:

Maude Winters is an pansexual, disabled author of open-door sapphic and billionaire romance who lives in Michigan with her husband, a horse-obsessed child, and three dogs. A weird theater kid and competitive choir devotee in a past life, she brings camp into all her stories.

Here’s where you can find Maude and her books:

All Links:

Love in the West End

Executive Decision

maudewinters.com

https://crewfiction.com/maudewinters/links

Keep Up With The Book Babes:

Social Media: Backstagewiththebookbabes

Email: backstagewiththebookbabes@gmail.com

Links & Guest Author Applications: linktr.ee/backstagewiththebookbabes

Find Nikki Jewell & Her Spicy Contemporary Romance:

Social Media: @nikkijewell_books

Website: authornikkijewell.com

Event Links: ://linktr.ee/nikkijewellbooks

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