Elissa Sussman’s hilarious break out rom com, Funny You Should Ask, is a witty romance built around the whole question and dynamic of celebrity journalism. Ten years ago, Chani interviewed Hollywood star Gabe. He was at that time the next James Bond, and the story she wrote about him then has haunted her career ever since. 

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Elissa talks about setting up her James Bond character in Funny You Should Ask, the particular challenges faced by women pursuing careers in Hollywood, and her own remarkable experiences managing big film animation projects including The Croods, Hotel Transylvania and Tangled for some of the top studios.

In our free giveaway a group of author friends have got together for another historical romance book offer. Take your pick from a wide choice in historical romance for summer.

GET FREE HISTORIC ROMANCE

Links in the Binge Reading show notes for this episode, as for all of the other content of this episode.

And don’t forget, for the cost of less than a cup of coffee a month, you can get exclusive bonus content – like hearing Elissa’s answers to the Five Quickfire Questions – by becoming a Binge Reading on Patreon supporter. We’ve got a new feature starting on Patreon this month, Encore, once a month short chats with authors who’ve already been on the show, talking about their latest exciting release. 

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First up in the second week of June is popular international author Gill Paul talking about The Collector’s Daughter, her new dual timeline novel about the fascinating life of Lady Evelyn Herbert. She was the English aristocrat who made history by being part of the first ever global media sensation – the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb – as well as enjoying the cachet having grown up at Highclere, the majestic manor house that is the location for the Downton Abbey TV series.

(Editor note: - Sorry Gill will be next month – next week it’s Deborah Challinor with The Leonard Sisters – a 1960 Vietnam War story about two sisters who both go to Vietnam  - one of them a war protestor, the other a military nurse on active duty.)

Links for this episode

Kate Spencer: In A New York Minute:  https://www.katespencerwrites.com/Julie Ann Long: Historical romance author: http://julieannelong.com/Bird of California by Katie Cotugno: https://www.amazon.com/Birds-California-Novel-Katie-Cotugno-ebook/dp/B09G6RJKH4Alisha Rai: http://www.alisharai.com/

Where to find Elissa Sussman:

Website: https://elissasussman.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/elissa_sussman/What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to the show notes in The Joys of Binge Reading.com for important mentions.But now, here's Elissa.

Introducing author Elissa Sussman

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there, Elissa, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us today.

Elissa Sussman: Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.

Jenny Wheeler: You wrote three teen novels, but then you got into what they are calling your breakout hit, your first adult novel, Funny You Should Ask. It's a witty romance built around the whole dynamic of celebrity journalism. How did you make that leap from the earlier teen novels to this adult novel that's being so widely acclaimed?

Elissa Sussman: Thank you. It’s funny because it feels like a very natural progression. In some ways I'm like, why did it take me so long to write a romance and an adult romance at that? I grew up reading romance, loving romance. Since middle school, I was a huge romance reader, getting books from the library constantly.

Then during a lull in work, when I was writing YA fiction, I got an opportunity to ghost write adult romance books, and it reminded me of how much fun I had reading it as a teenager and how much I missed it. It was like getting paid to go to romance writing boot camp....