You hear authors talk about passion projects, projects that they do because they want to because if they don’t do them, a part of their soul feels like it’s dying—this was that project for me.
Back in 2019, I had this idea to do a K-pop book while sitting at Apollycon in DC. There were so many readers, and the vibe of the entire place was off the charts. And because I was a huge fan of K-pop already and had a friend constantly sending me music videos, I decided that our table needed to have a bit of BTS’ Mic Drop playing on repeat.
It was insane how many people would start dancing, singing, or how their nerves would just dissipate (let’s be honest, book signings in the romance community can be insanely nerve-wracking for both authors and readers, just another reason I love the romance community!).
I told my agent and a publisher that I was going to do it, I was going to write this book—after all, I’d written a ton of rockstar romances; how different could this be?
HAH! Well, I knew that idols had a lot of pressure and that the K-pop industry was vastly different, but the minute I dove in, I realized that I seriously had no clue, NO CLUE. It was hard to include all of those details in just one book, so fingers crossed I can do more!
This is also a passion project for me because I was told by several industry professionals that I couldn’t write it. Or that it wouldn’t sell. Or that it was too new. What genre did it even fit into? I’ve written diverse characters my entire career and have always been careful to research and use sensitivity readers no matter what, so I was a bit shocked. I had a few very key people tell me that if this story was in my soul, I needed to write it. If I listed all the people here, the list would be so long but thank you to everyone who reached out, who helped me, people from all over the world, from Korea to China, Africa, the States, Canada—this book would be nothing without your input. Truly.
Once COVID hit, I decided I would dive deep into K-pop that I’d spent nearly a year already attempting to write, little did I know that the pandemic would be ongoing and that I was forced to take some “free” time indoors and continue my research, and not just researching but watching YouTube videos (I swear my youngest probably knows Korean at this point). I even decided to start learning Korean and attempted to stick to a K-pop idol schedule to fully immerse myself—I didn’t last long, and as a parent, I am used to zero sleep! It was so much fun, and now I’m happy to announce that’s literally all my kids want to listen to. How amazing, right?
I’m so thankful for the experiences I had with this book, and I’m SO SO SO thankful to Seoul Street & Q4 Entertainment, along with Content Group, Will Yung Lee and Mark and Christine Holder, for believing in this story and adapting it for TV. You guys are amazing.
I hope you guys enjoy this book!
No, this experience ;)