Recently, I attended a book signing and discussion with Mae Marvel, the authors of Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous.
Mae Marvel is a writing team comprised of Ruthie Knox and Annie Mare, a married couple. I was familiar with Knox’s work, but not Mare’s. Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous is a lesbian contemporary romance about two friends from high school who reunite later in life. Katie Price was a theater kid who made it in entertainment and became an A-list celebrity. Her friend, Wil Greene, never left their hometown of Green Bay, WI. In some ways, Wil is a failure to launch, in no small part due to her father’s death from Huntington’s and her own fear about potentially inheriting the disease.
Wil and Katie were never a couple in high school (neither of them were either totally aware/accepting that they were queer yet), but they did have an intense friendship. One of the things the authors talked about is how important and informative adolescent relationships can be, although this isn’t realized until adulthood.
I was thrilled to go to this book signing for two reasons.
First, an event about a lesbian romance novel would have been a non-starter ten years ago in Green Bay (yes, the same city where the book is set). It might have been a non-starter five years ago. This is a conservative area—a city of over 100,000 with a VERY small-town vibe—so seeing the event nearly sold and full of eager readers warmed the cockles of my heart.
Secondly, the event raised funds for Safe Haven Pet Sanctuary, the no kill rescue where we got our cats, including Lady Pudding, who was a Royal Patron of theirs. St. Martin’s Press donated the books so 100% of the proceeds of the event could go to Safe Haven.
The sections of the book the authors read nailed the vibe of growing up in Northeast Wisconsin—like refusing to wear a jacket over your outfit in 20 degree weather because you wanted to look cool—a rite of passage for all upper midwestern teens and tweens. Also cows. There are just cows everywhere.
Also, if you’re an audiobook listener, Mare stated that the narrator, Mia Hutchinson-Shaw, does a “God tier” Wisconsin mom accent. Yah don’t say? (Long O in there).
I asked about the timeline of the writing of the book and the authors said it was originally written during early Covid lockdown because they needed something fun and escapist to keep their minds off of things. It was put in a drawer until 2022 when it was sold for publication in summer of 2024. Both authors were surprised to find that their lesbian romance sold versus their straight romance novels that were also available.
They also talked about writing as a team. They write together, often at the same time, in a Google document, and my brain is still struggling to comprehend how that is even possible. Sometimes I add comments to a document at the same time as the other Bitches and it causes my brain to short circuit. The idea of writing a cohesive book that way is just magic to me.
We also talked about cats, of course. The heroine of their book, Katie, has three cats that travel the world with her and communicate via those talking buttons. The authors share a former colony cat named Ramona who doesn’t need buttons to make her wishes known.
I really, really enjoyed this event and wish I had more time to stay and visit with the authors (especially over Knox’s knitting). The fact that in a decade my community went from an environment where this kind of book reading might well have been protested to one where it was almost fully attended, safe and enjoyable means so much to me. I can’t wait to start reading my copy of Everyone I Kissed Since You Got Famous.
What about you? Have you attended any local author events lately? Have you noticed positive changes in your community?
