Today on the site I’m delighted to welcome Sapphic Romance authors Camille Kellogg and Susie Dumond, whose newest releases (The Next Chapter and Bed and Breakup, respectively) both release this month! Here’s a little bit about each book, as told by the authors:
Bed and Breakup by Susie Dumond is a second-chance romance about two ex-wives who fell in love while renovating a historic inn in a quirky spa town in the Ozarks. Their unexpected success as an LGBTQ+ tourist destination tore them apart, and now, years later, they’ve landed back at the inn for very different reasons. They decide to fix up the inn, sell it, get some closure, and go their separate ways. But it’s a romance novel, so we all know that doesn’t go as planned.
The Next Chapter by Camille Kellogg is a queer ode to Notting Hill, about a former child star and an independent bookseller who start a relationship as a publicity stunt—but only one of them knows the relationship is fake.
And now, please welcome Camille Kellogg and Susie Dumond!
Camille: Hi Susie! How are you doing?
Susie: I’m doing great! I’m so excited to be chatting with you about The Next Chapter, which I absolutely adore.
Camille: I’m so excited to be talking about Bed and Breakup! I was reading it this weekend and I could not put it down. I know we have a lot of deep and literary things to talk about, but I have a burning question first: Are the requirements to get a divorce in Arkansas actually that stringent?
Susie: They really are, Camille. In Arkansas, you have to have lived separately for eighteen months to get a divorce, which means Robin and Molly can’t get divorced because they both wind up staying at their inn. That was actually not a planned part of the plot until I looked up the law and I was like, wait a second, this is actually really complicated. And it became an important part of the story.
Camille: I mean, that feels like such a rom-com setup. Because they end up having to work together to orchestrate their divorce.
Susie: Yes, it made for a really fun twist in a second chance romance! And who knew that Arkansas’s traditional family values laws would end up keeping this lesbian couple together?
Camille: What was it like writing a second chance romance?
Susie: I have mad respect now for everyone who’s written a second chance romance. It’s a really hard trope to execute well, because you as the reader have to understand both why they were together in the first place and why they broke up. Then you have to understand how both of them have grown since then and why it makes sense for them to get back together. Which is part of why I decided to make it dual perspective, so you could understand both of their reasons. I know this is also your first dual perspective book, too. What was that like?
Camille: Really fun. I liked diving into both characters’ heads, especially because these characters live in such different worlds. Kat is a former child star. She’s juggling agents and managers and stylists and Broadway auditions, while Jude is an independent bookseller juggling her love of selling books with the frustrations of a terrible boss and her fear of leaving her comfort zone. They have really different views of the world, which kept things feeling fresh as I jumped back and forth.
Susie: I loved the bookstore setting. I work part time at a queer bookstore and I’ve read other books that really romanticize the bookstore element. But I think you did a good job of giving them very real problems to face. Not just the joy of recommending books to people, but also the awkwardness of having to introduce an author of a book you didn’t like, or the monotony of working in retail.
Camille: Shout out to your bookstore, Loyalty Books, one of the best bookstores in DC! While we’re speaking of occupations, one thing I love about your book is the descriptions of the food that Robin the chef creates. All of your books have really beautiful food descriptions. That’s something I love about reading a Susie Dumond novel.
Susie: Well, I myself am a huge foodie. So any time I’m lacking inspiration in a book, I just go: “Well, what are they eating?” There’s something so personal about sharing a meal with someone. It brings down the walls between people. Especially in this book. Robin is a chef. She learned to cook by making these elaborate breakfasts for the inn she and Molly ran together, which is part of what made the inn such a big success. And ultimately that success is what tore them apart. So when they both end up back at the inn, Robin cooking for Molly is sort of going back to the beginning for them.
Camille: It also strikes me that food is very tied to region, which is a big part of your books.
Susie: Yes, all of my books are set in red states. They’re all in places where you wouldn’t necessarily picture a big queer community. But that perception is inaccurate, based on my experiences of living in those places. I wanted to show that these communities do exist, even if you don’t always get to see them in popular culture.
That’s also something I love about your books. They’re set in New York, which is obviously a very popular place for books to be set. But the way that you do it feels very intentional, like you have a very specific slice of New York City that matters to your characters. Did you approach New York differently for these two books?
Camille: Definitely. The Next Chapter is an ode to the movie Notting Hill, which takes place in a quirky London neighborhood, which is practically its own character in the movie. I wanted to bring that to life by setting my book in the West Village, which to me is a really vibrant place. The streets aren’t a grid, so everyone’s lost all the time, and there are all these cute quirky shops and all these weird expensive shops and a million locals and a million tourists. It’s wonderful and terrible and adorable and gross all at the same time, and I wanted to capture all of that.
Susie: The West Village is also very gay. Don’t leave that part out.
Camille: So true! It’s a historically gay neighborhood. It’s where Stonewall is and two of the big lesbian bars and about a dozen gay bars. There’s also great food there. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when the characters gather food from all the different famous West Village restaurants.
Susie: See? It all comes back to food.
Camille: It’s so true! Food is a huge part of your sense of place, your life, your identity. It tells you a lot about a character and the kind of life they lead.
Susie: Oh wait, should we be talking about the importance of queer stories, instead of just food?
Camille: Oops. Yeah. Susie, why do you write queer stories?
Susie: Shoot. I suggested this question but I didn’t have a plan. You go. What makes queer romance so special?
Camille: I love queer romance because it still feels radical to write queer stories with happy endings. Especially these days, when there’s so much uncertainty and persecution around queerness and transness, it’s a relief to go into a book knowing there will be a happy ending and that you can safely relax into a story.
I also love using my books to show the importance of queer communities. Because it is really hard to be queer in a vacuum. It’s really lonely not feeling understood by the people around you.
Susie: It’s true. Romance is so much more than two characters falling in love separate from everything around them. Their identity and community are a huge part of the love story. And it’s so powerful to see two characters find community and acceptance, especially since so many popular narratives of queerness don’t mention all the ways that queer people live happy, full lives. I think that queer books are more important than ever now that they’re being banned and attacked. That’s why I set my books in red states. They’re love letters to queer community in unexpected places.
Camille: That’s beautiful. I feel like that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. Write love letters to queer people and say, Hey, your communities matter. Your love stories matter. You matter.
Susie: Absolutely. 100%.
Buy The Next Chapter: Bookshop | Amazon | The Ripped Bodice
Buy Bed and Breakup: Bookshop | Amazon | Loyalty
Susie Dumond is a queer writer originally from Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the author of Queerly Beloved, Looking for a Sign, and Bed and Breakup, and she also talks about books as a senior contributor at Book Riot and a bookseller at her local indie bookstore. Susie lives in Washington, D.C., with her spouse, Mickey, and her cat, Maple. When she’s not writing or reading, you can find her baking cupcakes or belting karaoke at the nearest gay bar.
Camille Kellogg is the author of Just As You Are and The Next Chapter. She’s based in New York City, where she works as an editor for children’s and young adult books. She’s passionate about queer stories, cute dogs, and bad puns.
