… A. L. Brooks

1. What’s the time of the day when you feel most like yourself?

Between 6 and 10 in the evening - I’ve finished the day job, probably finished all the household chores too, and then I can just spend my time on things that mean the most to me. Once a week this will be date night with my future wife - we make sure we definitely have one night per week that’s only about us and nothing else. Twice a week I’m in German classes, and the other evenings I’m either trying to write (sometimes hard when you’ve just done a full day’s work with the day job!), catching up on my social media commitments, or I’m reading.

2. What’s your coffee order? 

Well, as a friend of mine once said, I have the least fun coffee order ever, as I can’t drink caffeine and I’m lactose-intolerant! So I’m a decaf soy latte - completely joyless as far as ‘regular’ coffee drinkers go, but you know, still a treat for me. When I had to give up both caffeine and dairy for health reasons, I was gutted, because my daily two-shot latte was the best way to start my day. Finding the alternative was a great moment in my history of beverage drinking.

3. How would you describe yourself in three words?

Caring, humorous, cautious.

4. What do you think of garden gnomes?

When I was a child, my paternal grandparents had a ton of gnomes all around their pond. I would go and chat with them (the gnomes, not the grandparents) every time I visited, and would get so excited each time my grandfather pointed out a new one. I had no idea they were considered tacky or daft, which I only picked up on when I was in my early teens. I reckon one would look great on our balcony here in Frankfurt, but I need to work a little more on persuading my love, who is definitely not so sure about that idea…

5. What author would you follow till the ends of every literary genre they chose to write in? 

Oof, this one’s tough! So many authors I love, and would love anything they wrote. But if you really, really, really make me pick just one, I’d say Clare Ashton. She has a way of crafting a story that hooks you in from page one and doesn’t let go, whether it’s a story with an element of mystery, or humour, or romance.

6. What makes you smile?

My love, every time she does or says something cute, which is pretty much every day.

7. Gloves or mittens?

Gloves, of course! Mittens make me feel like a five-year-old. Besides, gloves leave your fingers free to do things, like hold your decaf soy latte.

8. Funniest/best/saddest/proudest (choose one) thing that ever happened to you as a lesfic author?

Proudest moment was holding the paperbacks of my debut novel, The Club, in my hands for the very first time. I’d dreamed of being an author for forty years, and then it had finally happened. I still feel that buzz with each new release, but that first one was just super special, and I’ll never forget it.

9. What makes you cry?

I’m a big sports fan, so guaranteed to make the waterworks happen is when an underdog team or athlete does something amazing. Like when Emma Raducanu came out of nowhere to win the US Open women’s tennis. Any sports story like that and I’m blubbing.

10. What’s your best feature?

My hair - I’ve had this cut for five years now but wouldn’t change it for anything, as I think it’s the first time in my life I’ve truly had a haircut that says ‘me’.

11.  If you were a book, which book would you be and why?

I’d be one of those lovely sappy romances where there’s this geeky woman who has literally no idea how to meet other queer women or talk to them without sounding like an utter fool when she does finally meet them and therefore stumbles through one horrendous date and relationship after another for years until one day she happens to meet this awesome woman who seems to work some kind of magic on her and stop her being all tongue-tied and they talk and talk and talk and then they fall in love and live happily ever after. (It me, in case that wasn’t obvious, haha!)

12. Ice Queen or enemies to lovers or fake romance?

Oh, fake romance every day of the week! Not against the other two tropes, but really love stories where there’s so much pretence, yet underneath it, either right from the start or as the story evolves, there’s a reality the two MCs just can’t fight entirely. And when they give in, it’s so delicious.

13. In a crowded room, what makes you notice a woman?

Shoulders. I’m a sucker for a good strong shoulder line. If some of it is naked, i.e. wide-necked top or strapless dress, then I’m a swooning goner…

14. What’s your one big regret?

That I didn’t continue with learning German after school because oh boy trying to learn it now in my mid-fifties is hella difficult. Obviously that’s hindsight speaking, because how could sixteen-year-old me know that thirty four years later I’d meet and fall in love with an incredible woman who happened to be German and that two years after that I’d pack up everything in the UK and move to Germany for good?

15. What would be the title of your autobiography? 

Never say never.

16. Three women you’d have over for dinner and what would you serve? 

Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep, and Megan Rapinoe. They’ve all excelled in male-dominated arenas, and I can only imagine what amazing conversation would flow as a result of having them sitting around the table. And as I pride myself on being a great host, I’d research what each of their favourite dishes were for starter, main, and dessert, and combine them into a nine-course tasting menu that everyone could enjoy. Then I would probably collapse from exhaustion and/or over-excitement and miss the entire event as I was too strung out to actually talk to them.

17. A vice/habit you’d like to quit?

Saying sorry for everything. I blame my Britishness.

18. What’s the one thing you’d want the 18 year-old you to know?

Haha, easy - it’s ok to like girls that way!!! Man, that would have saved me four more years of crap with men that I really didn’t need…

19. If you could choose one song to be played every time you enter a room, what song would that be and why? 

Dancing Queen by Abba. I’ve loved this song since it first came out in 1976, and it kind of became my ‘theme tune’ when I was in my twenties and thirties. All my friends knew what a favourite of mine it was, so any time we were at a cheesy club or at someone’s party, it would get played and I’d be bang in the centre of the dance floor. Even now, every time I hear it I want to dance, and life should always have dancing, I feel.

20. What’s the one book you wish you could read again for the first time? 

Finding Jessica Lambert by Clare Ashton. I read it in one day when it first came out, and it literally blew me away - truly a gorgeous story with two equally incredible leads. I’ve re-read it many times since, and loved it each time, but that enormous ‘wow’ factor from that first read would be great to get back.

A.L. Brooks’ new sizzling hot book The Club Revisited can be found here: mybook.to/ALBrooksClub