GUEST POST – G.F Miller

Perfect for fans of Geekerella and Jenn Bennett, this charming, sparkly rom-com follows a wish-granting teen forced to question if she’s really doing good—and if she has the power to make her own dreams come true.

Charity is a fairy godmother. She doesn’t wear a poofy dress or go around waving a wand, but she does make sure the deepest desires of the student population at Jack London High School come true. And she knows what they want even better than they do because she can glimpse their perfect futures.

But when Charity fulfills a glimpse that gets Vibha crowned homecoming queen, it ends in disaster. Suddenly, every wish Charity has ever granted is called into question. Has she really been helping people? Where do these glimpses come from, anyway? What if she’s not getting the whole picture?

Making this existential crisis way worse is Noah—the adorkable and (in Charity’s opinion) diabolical ex of one of her past clients—who blames her for sabotaging his prom plans and claims her interventions are doing more harm than good. He demands that she stop granting wishes and help him get his girl back. At first, Charity has no choice but to play along. But soon, Noah becomes an unexpected ally in getting to the bottom of the glimpses. Before long, Charity dares to call him her friend…and even starts to wish he were something more. But can the fairy godmother ever get the happily ever after?

I’m delighted to have G.F. Miller on my blog today sharing the mood board for her book Glimpsed and a her thoughts behind it!

I think this mood board perfectly captures the feels of Glimpsed—the fast-paced, colorful, wish-filled world of Jack London High School, but also Charity’s fierceness as a fairy godmother and the way Noah challenges her and brings a totally unexpected element of vulnerability and playfulness into her life. And, oh yeah, Trekkie fandom is key. You don’t have to know anything about Star Trek to get into Glimpsed, but by the end, you may just be shopping for Star Trek t-shirts. This book is for anyone who likes enemies-to-lovers, geeky boys, fake dating, broken fairy tales, and a sprinkle of magic. 

INTERVIEW WITH AMY NOELLE PARKS

Hi Amy, thank you for being on my blog today to discuss your debut novel The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss! I feel like I’ve been waiting ages forever for this book to come out, but I know that’s nothing in comparison to how you’re feeling. How excited are you for people to read your book?

So excited! The book was pushed back from its September release because of the pandemic, so it’s been an even longer wait than I expected. But it’s a happy, bubbly book, and I’m glad it’s releasing at a time when the vaccine is bringing all of us a little hope.

Can you tell us a little bit about The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss?

The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss is a dual POV friends-to-lovers romance that I wrote because I love the smitten boy-oblivious girl energy of Gilbert Blythe and Anne Shirley and also because while I’m fascinated by the big ideas authors take up in science fiction, I always think there’s not enough kissing in those sorts of books. It was so fun to bring quantum physics into a romance.

What was your favourite subject in school?

The book is pretty mathy,but reading and writing were always my favorite school subjects. It wasn’t until I started teaching math to children that I fell in love with the subject myself.

Evie is in High School and having to choose between a few different boys. This is big for anyone to go through let alone a high school student. Did you have any stand out moments in High School moments?

In some ways my love life in high school was even more dramatic than Evie’s. I had a serious boyfriend for a couple of years, and after we broke up, it took me forever to get over him. We did a lot of getting back together and breaking up again for years after our serious relationship ended. Honestly, both Caleb and Leo are much better options for Evie than he was for me.

is there any advice you’d give to Evie?

No. I should be taking advice from her. I’m proud of her for getting into therapy and doing the work while she’s so young, and for all that she’s not great at reading emotions, she’s an excellent judge of character. It wasn’t until I finished writing that I realized Evie is a little aspirational for me. I’d love to be as comfortable being myself as she is.

Sometimes when I read a book, I recognise myself in a character. Is there any character in your book that you see yourself in?

I think there’s a little bit of myself in all of my characters. I definitely share Evie’s social anxiety and her love of mathematics, although I am anything but a genius. Like her, I tend to have a very few people in my life who I’m super close to, and honestly, not a lot of interest in anyone else. I share Caleb’s sunny disposition, and like him, I fall in love quickly and for good.

How was it writing your debut novel verses your second book?

My second book will actually be a middle grade novel, Summer of Brave, which will come out March 1. I wrote it while The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss was on sub to publishers as a way of distracting myself from the anxiety of the process. That was when I started getting really serious about craft. I tried to construct the story intentionally, rather than let it pour out in an emotional rush like I had with my first book.

My second YA rom-com will be out in Spring 2022. In writing Lia and Beckett’s Abracadabra, my goal was to create another girl protagonist who loved math, but who otherwise was as different from Evie as she could possibly be. Lia is a giddy, extroverted, aspiring magician. She’s probably the character I’ve created who is least like myself, and she was so fun to write.

You can buy The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss from any good retailers such as Amazon and Waterstones

Amy Noelle Parks is an associate professor at Michigan State University. When she’s not using One Direction lyrics as a writing prompt, she’s helping future teachers recover from the trauma of years of school mathematics. She lives in Michigan with her husband and two daughters.