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Chapter 1: What makes a tasteful amount of cringe in romance writing?
so much of romance can be cringe. And I found that too, like reading things out loud is really helpful. And like some of it, some cringe is okay. Of course, but sometimes a tasteful amount of cringe is always okay. But when it makes you go like, and takes you out, yeah, it's really hard. There's such a delicate balance.
Yeah, I agree. Hey everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Comment Section Show, starring me, your fave, everybody knows me, who cares about me. On to the guest today, we have the iconic, the hilarious, the published author herself, Brooke Abrick! Woo! Thank you so much for having me, Drew. Oh my God, thank you so much for coming. I feel like it's been a long time.
It has, it's been a long time coming, you and I. I'm really happy to be here. Yeah, and you know what? No better time. No better time, like the present. Miss Phoebe Berman's going to lose it. Yay, my baby.
You guys can see in the wide. When does this come out? Is she out yet? Or she's about to be out? Oh, she, she popped yesterday. Okay. Yeah. So that's incredible.
Yes.
So yes, I'm officially a published author.
Oh my gosh. How exciting. Yeah. This episode of the comment section is presented to you by Barilla. You know, those nights when you're deep in a reality TV binge and suddenly the snacks aren't cutting it. You need a proper meal, something that hits as hard as the most unhinged clap back.
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Chapter 2: Who is Brooke Averick and what is her new book about?
Albronzo by Barilla is crafted with textured ridges that actually hold onto sauce so every bite is rich with flavor. That moment you go back to swipe the clean plate, that's Scarpetta, the art of savoring every last drop. Albronzo by Barilla, the pasta that does Scarpetta. Look for the red bag. Please tell me about Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It. I really want to talk all things published author.
Yeah, so Phoebe is a rom-com. Yes. She is, basically it's about a hopeless romantic, Phoebe. She's 29 years old. And even though she's a hopeless romantic, she has this very crippling intimacy anxiety. Mm-hmm. That she's had since she was a teenager. And so she has not lost her virginity yet.
And she becomes super obsessed with losing it in the 30 days before her 30th birthday, which is when this book takes place. She makes a list and that is her goal is to lose it. And she goes from kind of a non-existent love life to having three prospects. So it's kind of like, is she going to lose it? If she loses it, who is she going to lose it to?
So kind of like mystery thriller element there as well. Murder mystery. Murder mystery too. No, but it's just like I tried to really channel those like early 2000s.
rom-coms and this one is like Bridget Jones kind of like Bridget Jones um yeah if she was like on a lot of anti-anxiety medication okay so tell me about the process of coming to write a book like I know you're a huge bookworm yeah and I know you love to read especially fiction so I do like what what inspired you to want to write your own like did it kind of come naturally were you kind of like I've always wanted to do this now I have the opportunity
I have always wanted to write a book and I have always wanted to write about this like super romantically anxious person. Yeah. But I don't I just like thought I wasn't qualified like I was always under the impression like I had to go back to school and like get a master's in creative writing or like.
I had to take a class like I was always looking up like creative writing like USC and then I don't know I was just like waiting for something to like give me the permission that I was looking for totally and then one day I kind of just realized like I think I don't need that I think I can kind of just write a book if I want to right and I think giving myself that permission kind of just like the floodgates open yeah and then once I kind of wrote the first sentence it just all like
Kind of spilled out.
Just kind of spilled out at that point. Were you pulling from any inspo for Phoebe, the world itself?
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Chapter 3: What are the main themes in Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It?
I know the book talk girls do not play around.
They do not play. No, on Goodreads.
That was like one of the first things I talked about with my team when I came out with my first book because I was like Goodreads is scary. Scary. Goodreads is scary. I take the recs very seriously, but Goodreads, man, do they write a novel in there if they don't like something.
I have an addiction to Goodreads. Like, it's really bad. It's my most used app, which sucks because no one else uses it. But I check Goodreads probably. 50 times a day.
I love Goodreads. The recs are so real on there, but I was so afraid of my own book being put on there because I was so afraid of what people would write.
It is terrifying. And I'm letting myself look at Phoebe reviews before it comes out. And I'm going to really, really try not to do that. After it comes out.
I think it's going to do really well. And I think everyone's going to love it. From what I've seen, everybody's already really loving it. So I think that's a beautiful thing. Did you guys get to send out arcs and stuff?
Yes. That's so great. Yeah. That... kind of stressed me out because I didn't know much about that whole process. But arcs, there are some things that I've changed since the arc. And I have pretty severe OCD. So going to sleep at night knowing that there are people reading an unfinished copy of my book That's crazy that you change things after arcs.
That's crazy.
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Chapter 4: How does Brooke draw inspiration from her own life for her characters?
I always have people in mind.
There's one. So there's three suitors. There's Jonathan, her roommate and best friend. There's Finn, who is a new teacher at her school. And then there's Matthew, who she went to high school with and resurfaces in her life through Hinge and also Words with Friends. And so Jonathan is described as like being like so hot. It's like kind of like overwhelming.
And for him, I have I was kind of always picturing David Cornsweater, Jonathan Bailey. Yeah, because it's just like, what can you do there? They need that, though.
I love the book talk. Girls love a good description. So that. Yeah.
Yeah. So and then for Finn, I always pictured Evan Peters.
OK.
And I was writing, but it changed to Hudson Williams pretty immediately upon heated rivalry. Had to swap really quick. Yeah. And then Matthew, I've been picturing Joe Keery. So he's like a little bit alt.
Yeah.
I love that. Yeah. Nice diversity. Nice different kinds of hotness.
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Chapter 5: What are the favorite romance tropes discussed in the episode?
The world building and just powerful females just being badasses. And I love banter. I love banter. That is how I learned I love One Bed at the Inn. Like, I really learned so much about myself.
Talk about slow burn.
Talk about slow burn.
Had to wait a while for that one. Oh, yeah. I know. I was even telling my friend, because I got my other friends, my girlfriends, to read it. We were all kind of reading at the same time. And then one of my friends, she was like, are they going to fucking kiss or what? And I was like, girls, just steady the course. Steady the course. Because when it happens, it's going to be awesome.
It's well worth the wait.
Chapter 55. Yeah.
Chapter 55. The one, the only.
Actually, I feel like you're either a chapter 54 girl, which is kind of the lead up to chapter 55.
That's true.
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Chapter 6: How do the hosts feel about popular book series like ACOTAR and The Hunger Games?
And the words that she's using to describe certain body parts, I don't feel like I'm aligning with. And I feel this a lot when I'm reading Smut. Like, what words do you use?
You're right.
That's T. That's hard. You're right. Because right now, she's describing, like, the female anatomy. She's just using the word sex to describe, like, oh, her sex. Yeah. And I'm just like, I don't think I like that right now. I'm not loving that. But what else do you use? There's nothing that you can do. Yeah, that's true.
It is kind of a dealer's choice.
It's a dealer's choice and it's nothing. I haven't found anything yet that I'm like, yup, that's it.
Yeah, that doesn't make you go. That's the word. Yeah. Doesn't make you recoil just a little.
So I think that's something that as authors, like we will have to figure out.
it's not easy it's not easy no that's true like i that was something else i because i had sent and i'll send it to you too actually if you'd like my my proposal with my intro stuff i'd love to i'll text it to you after but i i sent it to my friend taylor tomlinson and she was like this is fucking awesome because she loves reading fiction and she was like this is so good and she was like i love the banter and that's kind of how i picture writing smut because i
sometimes the banter, especially during smut can be a little, it can throw me just a little like where I'm kind of like, well, why would you say that? Like, I think that like in my head, like some of the things the men say to the women is kind of like, ah, that would take me out of it. Yeah. Take me out of it. Yeah. I hate that a little bit. Yes.
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Chapter 7: What challenges do authors face when writing smut scenes?
Last night, like, I was reading a chapter of my book where, like, a fire sprite dragon hybrid was lounging on a wooden coffee table. And it was singeing the coffee table. But her body was so curvy that, like, the guy didn't notice that his coffee table was burning because she was so hot. What?
the hell are you talking like physically like her body and I was just like what what the hell where where how did we get how did we get here I'm glad but like how I'm not judging I'm just kind of confused yeah I'm a little uncomfortable
that is how I felt reading from blood and ash like and I read the the prequel to it because like the the from blood and ash one I think there's like five books I read three of them because I was at first when I started reading fiction I was like I was trying to be a completionist so I was like let me at least finish yeah but then it got to a point where I was like these books are so goddamn long I can't take it anymore so I switched to the prequel
almost identical in every way, except it was ancestors, like her ancestors, but it was still good. So I was like enjoying myself. But then it was like, that one's like four books. I think I got to book three. They're building up to this enormous war. They're like, it's this huge fucking thing. She spent so much time like earning respect from other gods and whatever the fuck was going on.
And then literally I saw, like the start of one chapter, it starts saying that she starts feeling sick. I go, no, they're not going to do that to my fucking girl. I was like, they're not going to do that to my fucking girl. There's no way I've spent six books getting here. There's no fucking way. And then it was like another one. She randomly threw up again.
I said, no fucking way, dude, no way, no way. Then she finds out she like goes to her friend who like is like a, doula, in essence, in this world, and she tests her, essentially, and she's like, oh my god, pregnant, not just pregnant, pregnant with twins.
Pregnant with twins, in fact, so much so that they're both magical, and they're siphoning all her powers, so she actually can't fight in the war. I said, DNF! I'm not finishing this book. I was like, I was so angry. I put it down. I was like, I'm not. You guys have wasted my time. And now you're going to take my girl out right before the big game. That's crazy.
There's never a normal pregnancy. It's either like they're siphoning their power. One has wings that won't fit through your pelvis. It's like always something like extreme. extremely dramatic and awful.
And you would think in the magical world, they would have figured that out.
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Chapter 8: What future projects does Brooke have in mind after her debut?
Oh shit, no way. And I was done. I would say I read like probably the first three books. So like over a thousand pages, 2% done. That was really, really hard.
That's fucking insane.
What about fourth wing? You've read fourth wing? I've read fourth wing. How do you feel about it? I am much more of an ACOTAR girl. I feel that. I read the first one. And I think I read Fourth Wing right after I finished all of ACOTAR, and ACOTAR was my first ever Romantasy. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, and so then to read Fourth Wing right after it, I was like, this just kind of feels like a fan fiction of ACOTAR. It was like Zayden was doing shadows and mine reading. It was just like all...
too similar right and not as good to me and so i was i didn't mind it like i was totally entertained the world itself is cool the world itself is cool i like the school like yeah it kind of gave like hogwarts vibes which i really like yeah and i actually like the second one better oh which most people like hate the second one i like the second one better and then the third one i was like i'm done oh i'm finished now i have actually completely finished thank you though
Thank you.
Yeah, the Gen Z banter. Gen Z banter is hard. I can't, you know. Not my fave. I'll be honest, not my fave.
And I really struggled with Violet just because I really like what the author was trying to do with, like, chronic illness rep. But it was really hard to, like, believe. Like, on one hand, she's, like, this really, really fragile girl. And then on the other hand, she is saving the internet.
entire kingdom like with physically with her power and her body yeah so that i was like trying having a hard time wrapping my head around but yeah i'm like one second she can't cannot walk yeah and the other second she has completely saved the entire world Yeah, and then she's like, that was nothing but a scratch.
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