3 Months Later & Symbolism of Love- Jacqueline Milom
About the Books & Storytelling
1. You describe your writing as emotional, uplifting, and sometimes funny. How do you balance heartfelt romance with humor in your stories?
I find it is easier for me because I tend to deal with the negative with humor. I have a dark sense of humor but with a light tint to it. But when I am writing I generally lean on lighthearted jokes to fill the devastating and the lovely aspects of the romances. For example I use puns a lot. As I am working on book 3 which is the one after ‘Symbolism of Love’ in the series, I am finding my supernatural puns help bring some light to a lot of the darker stuff that has happened to the main couple Genevieve and Aiden. In book three there’s a literal silver Fox named Frederick. He’s a shifter who shifts into a Fox with silver fur and is married to an Irish Fae 400 years younger than him. I guess the secret is keeping it corny or cheesy but not too much.
2. Your work often plays with familiar romance tropes, sometimes embracing them and sometimes satirizing them. What draws you to those classic tropes, and how do you keep them feeling fresh?
I usually play homage to many of the tropes I satirize. It’s not with malice, but I enjoy poking fun a little at things I find as my own guilty pleasures. Genevieve in my series oftentimes is very meta about the tropes used. Very self aware. It is fun to subtly break that fourth wall and embrace with love the tropes many complain about in fantasy. It's laughing with the story instead of at it. And I think I keep them fresh because I am in on the joke and sort of twist how it may end up. So instead of introducing a love triangle that drags out, I introduce one that fizzles out and is commentary itself on how a long drawn ship can sometimes lose some readers while entertaining others.
3. Your series has been described as a YA fantasy satire. What inspired you to blend fantasy elements with satire and romance?
Honestly? Reader feedback and people ‘yucking my yum’ as they say. I was a huge fan of the vampire diaries books and the twilight books and a few other YA supernatural based stories. They were fun for even adults. And then the TV and movie adaptations came out and it felt like everyone was overwhelmed by the popularity and felt the need to be negative about overused tropes or what is the ‘proper lore’. I kind of thought what if I found the humor in it. It’s sort of an answer to how do you use these tropes you tend to love and make it grab these people’s attention. Satire can be either fun commentary or mean commentary. It was just a fun way to answer all these opinions on the genres. And YA fantasy and romance is another fun mix.
4. For readers discovering your work for the first time, what kind of journey can they expect when they pick up 3 Months Later or Symbolism of Love?
Well it starts out sad I will warn you. The first book in the series which is 3 months later starts with Genevieve finding an old friend of her mother’s 3 months after her mother’s death (this is not a spoiler because it is info in the blurb) and then finding out all these secrets about her family. Both on her mother’s and on her father’s. She ends up carrying the weight of all that while balancing being a normal teenager. She manages to stick up for herself often when some of the older supernatural adults expect a lot of her heritage. Her journey has a lot of boundary setting and discovering who she wants to be, not who she’s destined to be (this distinction is more relevant in book 2).
5. Romance stories often explore emotional growth and relationships. What themes about love or personal growth were most important for you to explore in these books?
What was very important to me with these books was not to make the love feel like it was all Genevieve had. To rush her into a serious partnership. I love a good YA romance but I always think these are still kids when I read how quickly they fall. There is a pivotal moment that almost forces Genevieve to define what she and Aiden are but even then she sets boundaries again on what that means and keeps things in check. Aiden being the same age as her also sets that tone. Throughout book 1&2 when it says ‘they kissed’ it’s a kiss on the cheek. There’s many lines that show that meaning without me having to put ‘on the cheek’ each time. It builds up to their first kiss on the lips which will take place in book 3. There are moments where she’s desperately worried for Aiden sure but she tries to keep it away from an unhealthy obsession for her age. She likes to balance falling for her person and being her own person. She knows she doesn’t want to fall into the ‘boy crazy’ stereotype too long. It was very important I explored the notion that every teenage girl is different in how fast or how slow she goes with her first love. And I think that stemmed from my own real life experience of not dating until I was 19 and just knowing slow is okay for some young people.
6. As a writer of closed-door romance, how do you focus on building emotional connection and tension between characters without relying on explicit scenes?
I have always been a vulnerable writer. I started out writing poetry and there were a lot of my own personal feelings and thoughts. What led me to being brave enough to publish my works was my family telling me I should publish my poetry. I eventually did publish them and love was a topic addressed in some. I think it’s easy for me to rely on feelings more than spicy scenes because I am a demisexual in real life. I am not sexually attracted to anyone based on physical attraction alone. Character, and vulnerability drive me in my own romances I think. So I think I can focus by writing what I know in this case.
7. Are there particular moments in your books that felt especially personal or meaningful for you while writing them?
Quite a few. With many Supernatural stories there’s sometimes death and grief or even betrayal and I have some of that. In my book there’s a lot of injustice that Genevieve fights and some of it is her own family's doing. There are a lot of unforgivable acts that she does forgive because of the circumstances in which they happened. And whether or not one agrees she should have it eventually makes sense why she does. And it felt meaningful and personal to me writing those moments because in real life many people have an opinion on if a person should or shouldn’t forgive blood who wronged you. It was important to me that when she chooses to forgive regardless of deservingness that she made that choice without outside input. It is a small thing but it felt extremely significant. And yes I know a person who’s been judged for their decision on such matters.
Creative Process
8. What does your typical writing process look like when starting a new story? Do you outline heavily, or let the story unfold naturally?
Mostly let it unfold naturally. I have a hard time outlining it officially. I am one of those people that can see pictures in their head. The ‘outlining’ is usually done that way and I almost always have the ending mapped out before the beginning. Once I have those visuals I just begin typing and see if it sticks mostly to how my thoughts wanted or takes a detour. The ending usually still ends up mostly how I planned it.
9. Since humor is something readers often praise in your writing, do funny moments usually come naturally while drafting, or do you intentionally craft them during revisions?
Well I don’t have traditional drafts. I usually just revise one copy until it’s the final one before sending it to the editor. So more the latter. But sometimes a friend may inspire a good pun before I continue writing and revising.
10. As someone who writes both novels and poetry, do you find that poetry influences the way you approach language, dialogue, or emotion in your stories?
Absolutely, as I mentioned earlier it has helped me craft some of those closed door romance emotional scenes. But it also reminds me that I put a lot of that vulnerability into my tales and to hold onto that. Poetry is a good starting point for going into heavier topics.
11. You also write community visual stories for the Chapters game app. How does writing interactive stories compare to writing traditional books?
Well it’s different for me because it feels more organized than how my brain works. The app has a writer’s room that basically helps you create backgrounds, scenes and the looks of the characters. And it is fun creating choices that may or may not affect the plot. The only thing is I have more ongoing stories there than in my traditional books. I need to remember to update those better and to get back into them. But other than that it’s still my writing style only in dialogue boxes.
Writing Life & Inspiration
12. Many authors are inspired by the books they grew up reading. Were there particular authors, genres, or stories that influenced your love of fantasy and romance?
Yes. My favorite books were ‘The Witch of Blackbird Pond’, ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘The worst witch’. The last one is the only fantasy one but I had diverse tastes in genres. The first two are emotional love stories and only one gets a happy ending. Which means one was a tragic love story and one was by genre standards a romance. And as a pre-teen and a teen I loved the contrast of that. I also would later find Shakespeare a little influential too. Not necessarily the tragedy of those stories but the emotions of them and sometimes the intensity. His stories didn’t have the HEA required to be a romance and they weren’t categorized as one. But my stories take all those feels and write a light at the end of the love tunnel.
13. What do you enjoy most about writing YA and fantasy romance in particular?
I enjoy writing YA because there’s always an adventure of sorts that can be dark but isn’t too dark. I enjoy reading all sorts of themes from heavy to lighter. But writing it and getting into that space can be different for me. YA keeps me in a middle ground between the two.
14. You mentioned having a Christmas-themed novella on the way. What can readers expect from that project?
Glad you asked. It’s finally out as an ebook exclusively on Barnes and Noble nook. I intend to release a paperback across multiple platforms at the end of this month. But back to what to expect. A little bit of more humor but this time more adult humor. The satire here is a little bit of those second chance Christmas movies, but once more in on the joke. It’s meant to be fun and it is quite emotional amongst all that. It’s not completely closed door but closed door adjacent. There is a scene that isn’t spice but comes close and from feedback from an ARC reader in my DMs it’s apparently hilarious.
Looking Ahead
15. What kinds of stories or themes would you love to explore in future books?
The Christmas novella was my first dual/1st person POV. I enjoyed going out of my 3rd person POV comfort zone. I would love to do more of those but full length books. I also would love to switch up genres more. Be diverse and see what I can or can’t do. I started a dark romance that is a dramedy that has some satire but I am careful with some of the serious tropes I have. I also began a mystery ghost story as well, and I hope to finish both. I will always love writing YA and it will be my primary genre, but I like to challenge my writing and what people may think my limits are being a YA writer.
16. For aspiring writers who want to explore romance or fantasy satire, what advice would you give them?
My advice is don’t be mean in your parody or satire. Stick to paying tribute to stories you may like and use those overused tropes to poke a little fun but acknowledge why they’re so popular. It should feel like you're teasing the conventions of a trope and not a specific reader. I am a huge fan of the Hillywood show who puts out parodies of popular shows and movies and fans would often suggest a parody and they would turn down a few because they never parodied things they didn’t enjoy themselves. I think it’s easy to turn something fun into something cruel if we're not careful.
Rapid-Fire Questions
17. Favorite romance trope? Friends to lovers. Especially if they’re childhood friends.
18. A trope you love to parody or twist? The love triangle or the ‘bad boy and good girl’.
19. Fantasy world you’d love to live in for a day? I do love a good vampire story and if I had to choose from a vampire universe I would love to hang out with Jeaniene Frost’s vampires. Though I would likely annoy both Bones and Vlad.
20. Coffee, tea, or something else while writing? Water or Pepsi.
21. When you're not writing, how do you recharge creatively? Listening to music or reading a book outside my own genre.