Long and Short Reviews welcomes Ashlyn Kane who is celebrating the recent release of Fake Dating the Prince.
My name is Ashlyn Kane. I’m thirtysomething, a Leo; I like long walks with my dog, beach optional. And I am a romance writer. (Probably not a shock to anyone reading this blog.)
I’ve been at this whole professional writing thing on and off for more than a decade now—True North, my first book, came out in January of 2009. When it comes to writing in general, I’ve been at it the better part of three decades. I attended my first writer’s workshop when I was six, though I can’t say any of the advice stuck with me. I was terrified I was going to get on the wrong bus home.
That was all a long time ago, of course, and it’s not really what I’m here for. I’m here for this:
When fast-living flight attendant Brayden Wood agrees to accompany a first-class passenger to a swanky charity ball, he discovers his date—“Call me Flip”—is actually His Royal Highness Prince Antoine-Philipe. And he wants Brayden to pretend to be his boyfriend.
Being Europe’s only prince of Indian descent—and its only openly gay one—has led Flip to select “appropriate” men first and worry about attraction later. Still, flirty, irreverent Brayden captivates him right away, and Flip needs a date to survive the ball without being match-made.
Before Flip can pursue Brayden in earnest, the paparazzi forces his hand, and the charade is extended for the remainder of Brayden’s vacation.
Posh, gorgeous, thoughtful Prince Flip is way out of Brayden’s league. If Brayden survives three weeks of platonically sharing a bed with him during the romantic holiday season, going home afterward might break his heart….
Fake Dating the Prince is something like my thirteenth published work of fiction, depending how you count. I also had a poem published in my high school yearbook! On top of this, I work as an editor. The point is, I don’t have any business being surprised by much about publishing these days. And yet I do find myself surprised, again and again. So without further ado, here’s a list of things that have, and still do, surprised me about being a published author.
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1. How many typos a trained copy editor (i.e. me) can make and then subsequently not see until a proofreader points out something that should’ve been obvious. Also, how much this makes me bang my head on the table. I am not a good self-editor. *wince* I know that’s what proofreaders are for, and I am grateful for them, because it’s an entirely different skill from editing. But sometimes one just needs to whine at one’s own perceived lack of competence.
2. How much work publishing is. Mind you, writing is a kind of work that I enjoy, and I mostly don’t find the process of actually writing a book to be arduous. Usually I can barely tear myself away from it once I get started. But editing, and proofreading, and choosing cover art, and promoting the book, and not disappearing on social media, and promoting fellow authors, and interacting with readers—all of this does take up time and energy. I love being a writer, and I’ve done it for years, and yet I somehow always manage to block out how energy-intensive putting out a book can be after the writing’s done. And that’s not just for me, that’s for an art department and an editorial department and a marketing department and several admins and, and, and. I feel like there’s a lot of invisible labor that goes into the end product.
3. That seeing one’s book is part of a library’s physical collection is worth a hundred preorders. I’ve been really fortunate with Fake Dating the Prince in that it seems to have gotten someone’s attention, and all that has led to the book being picked up by various libraries. A reader tweeted me a picture of my book with a library catalog sticker on the spine and I about lost my mind, I thought it was so cool. That my actual physical book is in a library where anyone can read it for free is just mind-blowing to me. Do you remember those Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Mustafa? Mine would end with “I’m in a library.” Total heart eyes.
4. How exciting good publicity can be. Sure, negative reviews can bring an author down, and good ones can make our day. But I didn’t know how good a review could make me feel until Amelia Vaughn, Dreamspinner’s Marketing director, emailed: can you call me? I was sitting there going, what in the world could this be about? But I did, and then she told me Fake Dating the Prince got a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. She read it out loud to me while I about lost my shit, making all kinds of squealy noises. I was useless for two days, I was so happy. I think I spent so long living in the times of the late aughts and early teens that I forgot that times are changing. Gay romance might have started as a niche genre, but it is making its way to the mainstream, and that means mainstream outlets are actually paying attention to us. Which is awesome and also, now that I think about it, utterly terrifying. Anyway, my point is: there’s always some new threshold of good feelings and pride in oneself and one’s work to discover. Presumably there’s also a corresponding new low, but let’s not think of that just now!
5. The book hangover. I know people are out there writing 6 books at a time flawlessly without ever mixing up a character’s eye color, or doggedly writing a brilliant book a month, or whatever. I haven’t found that magical ability yet. It’s always a few months after finishing that I catch the seeds of an idea that will actually make it all the way to the end. In the meantime I’ll start and abandon at least three books because they’re not quite right. Sometimes those books will end up finished as a different iteration of the same thing, but mostly not. There’s a WIP graveyard on my hard drive. I used to feel guilty about it, but now I have mostly accepted it, even if it still surprises me every time when it’s four months after I last finished something and I go, “Ugh, why can’t I write?” It’ll happen eventually. It’s part of the process. But it still surprises me it takes so long, every time.
Fake Dating the Prince released June 18. It is available at Amazon, Dreamspinner, Barnes & Noble, Indigo Books, Target, and (this just tickles me, so I have to mention it) at the Dayton Public Library—so you’ll want to check your local library too!
About the Author: 
ASHLYN KANE is a Canadian former expat and current hockey fan. She is a writer, editor, handyperson, dog mom, and friend—sometimes all at once.
On any given day she can usually be found walking her ninety-pound baby chocolate lapdog, Indy, or holed up in her office avoiding housework. She has a deep and abiding love of romance novel tropes, a habit of dropping too many f-bombs, and—fortunately—a very forgiving family.
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