Penelope Black

[00:00:00]

Laura: Hi, Penelope. Welcome to Watch Your Next Podcast.

Penelope Black: Hello, so happy to be here.

Laura: So happy to have you here. It's helpful to live by myself.

Penelope Black: So I'm Penelope. I live in the Midwest with my husband, my kids, and my little fluffy shadow, as my readers refer to him. He's a mini Australian. Labradoodle, and he's basically my best friend in the best way possible. And he keeps me company while I write every day or when I'm outside in my backyard reading.

He's on my lap, usually. He's literally next to me all the time. So, that's me in a nutshell. That's the elevator pitch, right?

Laura: good little bit to have. So when did you start writing?

Penelope Black: So I started writing back in 2020 like that. Well, that's when I first published. I was on the back end of the community. I'm doing some editing and stuff. I have a background [00:01:00] in journalism and editing. So I actually came to the community by way of editing. And then kind of took a really big leap there at the gentle guidance and push of a few close friends and just kind of dove in head first and published my first book and then, kept doing it.

I think I'll just keep doing it until it doesn't work anymore.

Laura: yeah. I love it, and it's great. So let's talk about The Broken Pack, which is a small town fake dating romance. But it's a little bit, like, rough around the edges. Like, it's not just your typical Hallmark movie. There's a little bit of bad guys, a little bit of, there's reasons why we're fake dating.

Penelope Black: Right. Yeah, so this is actually rom I like to call it romantic suspense, or as I often refer to it as like cozy romantic suspense because it has a lot of those, like, small, intimate details that you would expect from, like, A tradition [00:02:00] or not a traditional but not a romantic suspense like a small town like you fall in love with this trio of older gals who like to wear coordinating neon, wind jackets and stuff like that.

And so it is definitely. More suspenseful than just a regular small town romance. But I wouldn't call it, like, just a straight suspense. I like to think of it as, like, a really good blend of the two. Which is pretty much all of my books, really.

Laura: Yeah, which is kind of like a nice little like it's perfect for the fall because you get a little bit of like a little bit just edgier than just your cozy, small town. Everyone's happy kind of like, there's a little bit of angst here. So,

Penelope Black: Lots of angst. I like it with angst. I think it makes I think sometimes the word angst gets a bad rap. Like, I think sometimes people hear the word angst and they think, Oh, I don't want to do that. But it's really kind of what gives it A little bit more character in my [00:03:00] opinion or it may be a better way of putting it as like makes it have those rough edges.

So it's not that cookie cutter shape which I personally do. I mean, listen, I'm, I know you've talked to a ton of authors. I'm sure everyone says the same thing, like, you get them happy and then you're like, how can I make these characters miserable before they're ultimately happy again? So that angst just kind of helps sweeten that pot, I

Laura: Yes. It makes it like at the end of the result to be like, Oh, it's worth it, for the journey. So we're going to talk, it's book one of a small town series. So talk to us about what to expect from this series. What can we go from here? And yeah.

Penelope Black: Yeah, so, it's the first book in Avalon Falls. It is a series that so far as It's tentatively been planned for four books following four siblings. So you just very briefly meet the siblings in book one, and then books two, three, and four follow them. It's going to, it's not it doesn't [00:04:00] take place all at the same time, so you can pick them up at any point, and you'll see like, little cameos little sprinkles.

They do have a pretty tight knit family So you will see that family dynamic in every single book But by the time you hit book four, you'll already kind of see the couples from books one through three in there it's just the way my brain works. I cannot possibly like hats off to those authors We're like i'm gonna write four books and four different couples It's all gonna take place over the same year or whatever it is.

I just can't Keep it straight. I have too much happening in my maybe or in my brain, I should say. So you can expect them all to be small town, all of that cozy romantic suspense. Some of them might be a little grittier or go a little more darker themed. I will say Broken Pack does have a little dark themes, not like my backlist, but definitely like some definite darker themes.

It's not the main focus point, I should [00:05:00] say, of the book, but I just like it a little rougher, I guess. Like, rougher on the edges, like we keep mentioning, so.

Laura: so let's talk about your backlist like now that we have broken pack because we only have one book right now. We have more to come. What should they go back to readers listeners should go back to from your backlist to pick up where they should get started,

Penelope Black: So I think it depends where you come in. So if you've read and loved Broken Pact and you're like, okay, what else can I get my hands on? I would suggest you start with my Rosewood series, which is my most recent completed series, because it's a spinoff. So you the Rosewood Trilogy starts with Moonlit Temptation and you meet Evangeline and Coraline are cousins.

So Coraline is the FMC from Broken Pact. So you do see our main characters from Broken Pact in the Rosewood Trilogy. It is an MC romance. It's definitely got darker themes than Broken [00:06:00] Pact. It's small town, it's angsty, it's why choose, it's A really good time. So that's where I would recommend to start if you've read Rogue Impact.

If you're just like, I don't know where to start. You can definitely dive in Rosewood, or if you're feeling like you want to go a little bit darker, most of my backlist, it leans Mafia. I like to think of it as like Mafia Light because it doesn't get, the sort of pitch black colors that we sort of grade on, but it definitely is more like gray leaning toward those darker colors.

And it's why choose their trilogies. We have a couple standalone or duets and they're all in a connected world. So if you're a big fan of cameos or like seeing your favorite characters from other books or series, I think you'll really enjoy really any of my books, but definitely because they're all in a shared world together.

Even my Rosewood series, which is then Avalon Falls too, you see these characters from earlier books, [00:07:00] which is kind of like little Easter eggs.

Laura: I love this. And MC is motorcycle club, correct?

Penelope Black: Yes. Yes. Sorry. Motorcycle club.

Laura: is so good. It is so good because sometimes listeners are like, what is MC? Is it main character? I was like, no, it's motorcycle club.

Penelope Black: Yeah. Yeah. And to be clear, like it's motorcycle club light again. Like it's not the same as those, like, really, I love those like super gritty, like true to what we think of like motorcycle, like, and like an homage to like sons of anarchy. Like I'm all for that. Rosewood is just not that far. These guys are like, used to be one percenters on the straight and narrow now, but like definitely crossed that line again for her, which we all love, like, to be honest,

Laura: love this. And so let's chat some book recommendations. Talk to us about some books that you read recently or you enjoy that you want to recommend our listeners to pick up after going through your backlist and trying different things that you have some good recommendations to share.

Penelope Black: Yeah. So I love reading. Who doesn't? [00:08:00] Right. I tend to like binge read when I release a book because I'm like in between projects. So I have this sort of window where I just go crazy pants and just read. Everything that I've been wanting to read. So, my, I just picked out actually a book. I just started since we last talked about from Tessa Hale.

It's, I guess, a dragon trilogy. I don't, I'm, my PA, who is wonderful and amazing, has been, like, shoving this in my ear for a while. And I just texted her, like, this is so good. You should make me read your recommendations more often. But I'm a romanticy I always have been. The last book before that I read that I devoured was Quicksilver, which I highly recommend.

I don't know how many books, it's definitely like a book one in a romanticy, but it was, It was just a really great immersive read. So I highly recommend that if you enjoy fantasy. The other book that I have not been able to stop thinking about [00:09:00] is a book by Stacey Hart. It's called Wild Card.

It is hilarious, so steamy, so angsty, like just a delicious like it's just so good. It's a little touch of sports, but not in a traditional way. It's kind of small town. It's just, it's a really good time. So those would probably be my top recs. If you're looking for fake dating and you read broken pact and you're like, give me more fake dating.

I have to recommend weak side by SJ Silvis, which is like hockey, new adult, fake dating. Just. Just devoured that one. Just gobbled it up.

Laura: These are great recommendations and I have Quicksilver on my to my TBR is just like

Penelope Black: It's so good.

Laura: getting like the getting to into the romance see space but I feel like falls the right time to do it because you're like it's cozy you just want to read. It's great. So

Penelope Black: Yeah I do think there are different [00:10:00] like times a year that just you crave different types of books. I know it's weird and I think it probably depends on where you live, too. Like, I live in Wisconsin, so I'm very much like we have four seasons. So, but, I have close friends who are like, okay, I live in Florida, so this is just a hundred or eighty degrees.

Those are my seasons, so it's a little different, but

Laura: I live in summer year round. I used to live up north, so now I live in Florida. So I get the summer, we get a colder season and the stuff, but it's getting cold. It's getting nice and cooler. So it's actually like feeling like fall. It's 70 and 80 degrees. Yes, it is.

Penelope Black: nice and cool as 80 from you.

Laura: Yes, it is. I can go to my balcony and enjoy my weather.

Penelope Black: Yeah, you know what? I love that. I'm up here going, oh my god, yay, it's still 80 here. Like we got 80 for a little longer.

Laura: Yeah, so it is all good. Penelope, tell us where we can find you online.

Penelope Black: Oh [00:11:00] so I'm actually pretty much everywhere everyone else is. I'm most active on Instagram or in my Facebook group. Just because I, can fall victim to doom scrolling like we all can. I will say though, I get some of my best book recs from like, watching like, random reels. I know this probably says more about me than anything, but like, I will one click off of a six second Real off of like one teaser line faster than almost anything I think me because i'm a mood reader too.

But you can find me on instagram probably too much so like feel free to chat me up there Or I always welcome readers to slide into my dms when they're reading especially Like my backlist, which is a little, I would say, notorious in an affectionate way for cliffhangers. So that's always kind of fun for me to read messages as people are reading too.

Laura: I love this. Thank you, [00:12:00] Penelope, for being on the show.

Penelope Black: Of course.