The birth of The Lover Boy

November 24, 2022, I was sitting in the airport anxiously checking my phone. The Lover Boy had just been published that morning and I was hungrily awaiting any updates on sales and how people were feeling about the book. Now as I sit here two years later I can say that I was a bit naive at the time. Even if a million people had bought the book on that first day, they still need time to read it before giving any sort of review. The 2022 version of me would not listen to any of that though. My sisters and I were going to New York to see our Grandma for Thanksgiving, and I could think of little else except for my book. 

It’s closing in on the two year anniversary of the book’s publication, and I have been reflecting on the whole experience. When I started working on my second novel, I kind of pushed The Lover Boy into the rearview, but it will of course always have a special place in my heart. The Lover Boy has always felt like a natural extension of myself, like a limb, so much so that I can hardly remember what it feels like to not have it lingering somewhere in my brain. I guess The Lover Boy existed within me long before I began writing it. 

Anyway, in honor of the two year anniversary, I wanted to share some fun facts and tidbits about the novel. 

• I started The Lover Boy in January 2022 and finished the first draft at the end of July. I was producing about a chapter every week or so, but gained a huge burst of creative energy over the summer. I would stay up until the silly hours of the night writing with Seinfeld on in the background. I literally became obsessed with the story. Meditation is a part of my morning routine, and every morning when I’d meditate I’d see the characters from the story enacting various scenes from the novel. When the draft was finished, I spent the next few months making revisions until it was published towards the end of November. 
• I get a lot of questions about the cover. The concept is based on this still from A Goofy Movie, the part where Max is on stage at his school performing a song. There’s a part where he is looking out at the crowd in the gym, and his eyes eventually land on the girl he likes. As he looks at her the frame zooms in on his sunglasses until her face is the only thing visible in them. I just thought it was a really cool shot, like “all of the bullshit in the world, and my focus is only on you.” So the cover is Roman as Max, with the sunglasses on looking for his “one.” 
• This is not an autobiography in any regard. This is absolutely a work of fiction. I know people think that I am Roman, and yes I can admit there are similarities, but no, I am not Roman. This book is a part of my soul, but I am not in the book. 
• I had a number of inspirations for this story. I read the novel Normal People sometime toward the end of 2020 and really loved it. It was so introspective and I wanted to create something along those lines. I don’t believe I reached that standard with The Lover Boy, but it’s something I’m still striving toward. Another inspiration was the TV show Master of None. I found the way the show portrayed dating to be very relatable. Showing multiple relationships, multiple romantic encounters that don’t even classify as relationships, made the show feel more true to life, at least when compared to romance novels and rom coms that portray these fairytale relationships where everything is perfect and rosy. Master of None was more interested with dating as a concept than other forms of media I had consumed at the time that focused more on a specific relationship, and it’s something I tried to portray in The Lover Boy as well. Another big inspiration for the novel was the anime Hajime no Ippo which is a boxing anime. The main character Ippo is probably who I most patterned Roman (the main character in The Lover Boy) after. Even though he would win these crazy fights, he was very meek and insecure. Ippo views himself as being weak, but the viewers of the show watch him get stronger with every fight. I wanted The Lover Boy to follow a similar pattern, but with relationships instead of boxing matches. Similar to Ippo, Roman is very insecure, but we watch him learn and grow as a person with every new woman that he meets (that was my intention anyway). Finally, I of course pulled from my own experiences, though probably less than most people seem to think. I would say that you see me in the novel, not as much in the specific traits of Roman, more so in the sensibilities of the novel. For example the power and importance of love is something that’s a core theme in the novel and it’s also something that I believe in. After all, what’s more important than love? 
• I purposely withheld the name of the city. I felt it would be kind of corny to have the setting be in Charlotte, which is where I’m mainly from and where I currently live, but I also didn’t want to have it be set in like New York or somewhere typical like that. There were a couple of restaurant names included in the story, but they were all made up. It’s funny, I recently read Pride and Prejudice for the first time, and instead of having the names of some locations, Jane Austen would have a line in place of the name. It looked like a redaction or something. I looked it up, and apparently authors from that era did that on purpose as a way to let the readers become more immersed in the story by letting them imagine the location for themselves. The blank lines were a bit jarring, so I don’t think I’ll adopt that for myself, but I agree with the idea of leaving out specific town names as a way to let the readers fill in the blanks (figuratively not literally like the authors back then did). 
• I thought the reception towards the book was interesting. I expected to have an audience that mostly consisted of women mainly because there are a lot of traits displayed by Roman that don’t adhere to the “Alpha Male” standard. I thought that men would not want to identify with a character like Roman for that reason. However, I was surprised to find that most men that I know were able to relate to Roman, while most of the misunderstandings came from women. Obviously I will never meet most of the people that read the book, but I thought it was an interesting pattern with those that I do know. I guess it just goes to highlight the divide in the dating experience of men and women. 
• The hardest part of the book had nothing to do with writing. I would definitely not say that the writing was easy, but it was the part that I most enjoyed, so it didn’t come off as difficult for the most part. What was hardest for me was everything after the writing. The promotion was very difficult for me, and hearing people’s feedback. I’m a naturally guarded person, I know that I’m sensitive to things, so I make sure to protect myself from things that might upset me or trigger me or whatever. There was no possible protection for the book though. It was completely exposed to the world, and made me feel vulnerable in a way I didn’t quite expect. The promotion was difficult for that reason, and also the fact that it felt wrong to sell the book (yes I know that sounds crazy). I did not create the story for profit, I created the story for people to read it, enjoy it, and discuss it. So that, along with how personal it felt to me, made it hard for me to promote it as a good to be traded for money.  
• I remember I kept hearing how an author’s debut novel is rarely their best work. It’s almost a universal truth that your first attempt at writing a novel will have a lot of flaws. At the time I didn’t get it, but looking back, I completely understand. There’s a lot to like about The Lover Boy. The story is engaging and concise with passages that many have found to be amusing and endearing. I love it dearly, but I can admit that it is a flawed work. There were typos and my writing mechanics were a bit sloppy, I also believe the first person narrative came across a bit sophomoric at times. Basically, the story was sound, but the writing was not. Ultimately I’m proud of the novel and will always love it, but these are things I believe could’ve been better. I have been working on improving these flaws for my future novels. 
• People have asked if I plan on making a sequel. I’m honestly not sure. I don’t know if sequels really work for this genre. I’ve thought of some ideas for a potential sequel, but I could just as easily take those ideas and make a completely separate book, which I think I’d prefer. My next novel will definitely not be a sequel. It’s a fantasy set in a world where everyone has powers based on their astrology placements. The main character has a Scorpio moon which manifests as these lethal explosions that are affected by his emotions. I think this will probably end up being my sole fantasy novel, but I’m really excited about it. I have improved considerably as a writer since The Lover Boy, so the writing is more sound. I finished the first draft over the summer, and have been busy making revisions. I hope to have it released soon. 

If you are interested in reading The Lover Boy, it is available online wherever books are sold.