Using tropes and genres like a pro: Ep 334 with Alexis Hall

Alexis Hall describes himself as a genrequeer writer of kissing books. You may know him as the author of <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/a/1183/9781728206141">Boyfriend Material</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://bookshop.org/a/1183/9781538703328">Rosalyn Palmer Takes the Cake</a>, both of which we’ve talked about here. But like recent guest Emily Henry and so many others, those successes were far from his first rodeo. Head to his website, <a target="_blank" href="https://quicunquevult.com">quicunquevult.com</a>, to see the evidence. (Why is it called that? You’ll have to listen to find out.) Alexis has written, and still writes, everything from paranormal and fantasy to billionaire romance to rom-com, with the recent addition of genre mystery and historical fiction.<br/><br/>We talk tropes, dialogue and leaning into the the thing you do best then revising for the rest. (And we did it all with a kitten climbing around on my desk, adding to both the joy and the challenge.) <br/><br/>Sarina and I (this is, as usual, KJ) have long hoped to talk to Alexis because he is so prolific and also so willing to take chances. When we finally did, what we heard was someone who doesn’t see himself the way we see him—successful, talented, charming and able to convey all of that on the page. That shouldn’t be a surprise, because he often writes characters with that same block—they’re successful and delightful but see themselves as flawed in some way. That may be almost too generic to be considered advice (after all, we’re often told to write a “misbelief” into our characters)—but I found it striking, because along with the many other emotional journeys Alexis writes, he writes this one often and well: that of a self-perceived f**k-up accepting that they’ve transcended that earlier self and become someone capable and worthy of love. <br/><br/>I’m calling that out here because as we talked to Alexis, we talked about his brand being clever banter and an uber-confident writer’s voice—but I think that emotional jo