Roselle Lim’s first fabulist-romcom, called Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune, was picked up for TV and it looks like the second, just out, Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop, could well find its way to the small screen as well. That’s wonderful success for a writer early in her career, but Roselle put in a dedicated apprenticeship to achieve her “overnight success”.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in today’s Binge Reading podcast Roselle talks about what it took to strike success with her first novel, how she kept going when even her teachers told her that her English wasn’t good enough to be a writer, and the delights of eating out in Paris – all in the interests of research for her book, of course.

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Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

Why she chose writing over paintingHow her sense of magic reflects her heritageHer passion for all things foodieThe love and perils of aspirational parentsThe joy of seeing her world reflected in other's workHow determined persistence paid off

Where to find Roselle Lim: 

Website: https://www.rosellelim.com/

Instagram: @rosellewriter

Twitter: @rosellewriter

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39754733-natalie-tan-s-book-of-luck-and-fortune

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. But now, here's Roselle.

Introducing Roselle Lim author

Jenny Wheeler: Hi there, Roselle and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. 

Roselle Lim: Thank you for having me.

Roselle Lim - Fabulist foodie Romcoms

Jenny Wheeler: We've been chatting before we went on air, and you tell me that you're in the depths of a Canadian winter. We are in the middle of our summer here, so we're right at opposite ends of the Pole.

Your debut romcom was called Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune and it sold straight through to TV I believe. That's a very big success for a debut author.

Then I noticed that the second book, the one we're going to be discussing today, which is Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop, has already been picked by one of the Shondaland editors.

Shondaland, for those who aren't familiar with it, is a company that is doing a tremendous amount of popular TV. They have just had the Bridgerton series on Netflix, so you have to conclude that the second book has got a good chance of continuing to head for the small screen as well.

From that, people might assume that it's been a very straightforward and easy road for you, but in fact it wasn't quite that simple was it? Can you tell us what preceded what people might see as an "overnight success?"

A long road to publication

Roselle Lim: Natalie Tan's Book of Luck and Fortune was my, I think, eighth manuscript that I've written, and the ones I had written before were not good in that I had to get them out of my system to be able to write this book. It took me a little under two years to revise this book with my agent too.

Jenny Wheeler: When you say you had to get them out of your system, were they in this same fabulist-romcom genre?