Hello there! Hi.

I haven’t talked too much about books on here yet except for a list I did about some recently released microhistories.

That’s about to change! Books rock! I love them so much I even have a button that says, “Ask me what I’m reading,” even though I hate get anxious talking to people in real life!

I like stories that take me away, that don’t pull me out with clunky prose while serving up a reality different (and yet, not that different) from our own. Emily O’Malley Liu’s Wine for Roses does this well: It’s a queer retelling of Beauty and the Beast that takes place in a contemporary Indiana imbued with gossamer magic that some people (and buildings) tap into to help with things like farming, gardening, and — perhaps most importantly (to me) — baking.

The story centers on Ethan, a young man whose father is a rose rustler — someone who searches for older variants of roses growing in the wild to propagate. (This is a real thing!) Ethan’s father — who is also a hedge witch with an affinity for roses — finds such a rose in an estate’s seemingly abandoned rose garden. The owner catches him and asks/orders him to build up the rose garden once again. When the father isn’t well enough to do so, Ethan takes on the job even though he thinks he has no magic of his own.

The story blooms from there, and that pun was intended. (Sorry!) I talked with Emily about her debut novella, including how she writes with three kids at home and a full-time job.

Check out the interview below, and also check out the book! You can order via my online bookshop (full disclosure: I get a small fee at no extra cost to you if you buy through that link) or wherever books are sold.

I'd love to hear your genesis for the story. What came first: the incorporation of roses, being inspired to write something in the vein of Beauty and the Beast, or something else?

I wrote the initial draft of Wine for Roses during lockdown. I had a newborn, and I wrote in short spurts that were entirely determined by the erratic length of his naps. I had come across the concept of a “rose rustler” in a gardening book, which gave me the first line for the story. It was always going to be a Beauty and the Beast retelling, because I can't seem to stop telling that story. I think every writer has a major theme or storyline they come back to time and again. This is the first time I've gotten anything approaching book-length out of it, however.

For the uninitiated, a rose rustler does sound exotic! I'm always fascinated to learn details about professions that are off the beaten path, at least to me. You weave in those details throughout the story, and have given me a new appreciation for the care and work that goes into growing roses. There's so much more to the book, of course! The introduction of hedge magic, for one, and also setting it in Indiana. What made you decide on contemporary Indiana for the book? And how did the inclusion of garden magic grow (pun intended, sorry) into the story?

I went to college in Indiana. I was fascinated by the windmill farms along US 31, which felt like a natural fit for a fantasy story. I'm a discovery writer, which means that on a first draft, I just kind of go with what appears on the page, and that was true for the garden magic as well. I always knew that Ethan's father, the rose rustler, would have some kind of special ability, but every time Ethan encountered other characters on the page, the magic got bigger, broader.

Was there any aspect of the story — a place, a character, something else? — that came up as you wrote that especially surprised you or took the story to a place you weren’t expecting?

The Victorian house was definitely the most “verbal” of all my settings! Such that it actually manifested as its own character, in the persona of Colonel Mustard. That setting was based on a real house, Tippecanoe Place, which is the old Studebaker mansion in South Bend. It operated as a restaurant until very recently.

Colonel Mustard definitely has a personality! All the places in Wine for Roses — the manor, of course, but also Ethan’s home with his dad and the rose garden itself — feel almost sentient, or at the very least aren’t passive backdrops to the story. Is that something that happens often in your writing?

The stories where the settings feel the most real to me are the places I've actually spent time in, which is probably no surprise, but I've never had a setting become sentient before. The personalities of Colonel Mustard and Ethan's house grew directly out of the magic system in this story. They surprised me, which is one of the best parts of writing.

I'd love to hear more about your writing process. The practical side of it — when do you write, what you write on, any rituals you have, etc.

My writing process is very slow. Finding time is my biggest challenge. I have three small kids, so I wake up early to write before they get up. I'm usually writing at my desk, on my laptop, and my only ritual is egregious amounts of coffee.

I'm here sipping coffee before my kid is up, too! Last question: what do you hope readers of Wine for Roses walks away thinking and/or feeling after they've finished the story?

I hope that readers are left with the conviction that we all matter. Our talents and abilities may differ, but every human person has inherent dignity.

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