A Conversation with "The Lovers" Author Rebekah Faubion

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On the latest episode of Portrait of a Fangirl podcast, host Jenna Wrenn spoke with author of the upcoming book, The Lovers, Rebekah Faubion.

Portrait of a Fangirl Podcast

The Portrait of a Fangirl Podcast is a series from the team at the Temple of Geek. Portrait of a Fangirl initially began as a web series and has now expanded into a podcast series as well. You can watch and listen to the series both here and on our YouTube channel. The podcast is also currently in its second season.

Hosted by Jenna Wrenn, at the core of the project is the importance of telling the stories of women who have found inspiration, growth, and power through fandom.

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A Conversation with “The Lovers” Author Rebekah Faubion

Rebekah Faubion has written works in the past under a pen name and with a co-author. However, the upcoming release of the romance novel The Lovers marks her first time publishing solo and under her own name.

The Lovers follows main characters Kit and Julia who find themselves reunited as adults after a teenage friendship. However, the years apart may have changed the two in ways neither can imagine. In our interview, Rebekah delved deeper into the plot.

Jenna: What can you tell the audience about The Lovers?

Rebekah: The Lovers is a steamy sapphic rom-com that is about a tarot mystic who has a YouTube channel and she’s kind of like an influencer. And she years ago had had a falling out with her best friend in high school because they kind of had a little connection–a romantic connection–but they fell out. However, she ends up reconnecting with this woman at a wedding that they are both working in Joshua Tree. And that woman is the wedding planner. They kind of rekindle this friendship and start both questioning if they have deeper feelings for each other.

Rebekah’s Personal Journey as Inspiration

The Lovers also comes at a time after Rebekah herself went through a personal journey of questioning and accepting her own sexuality. In fact, Rebekah’s own experiences provided inspiration for many plot points in the novel.

Jenna: What inspired you with this book?

Rebekah: I fairly recently kind of later in life, not super recently but in my thirties, I was an in my thirties coming out person. I had known since forever that I was bisexual. But living that sort of authentic truth out in the world and sort of talking about it and being “out” had been really difficult with my upbringing. So, I had gone through a bit of a public coming out with folks within my close family and friends who didn’t know I was queer and were dealing with the judgment of that and the fallout of that. And also like talking about it online for the first time in a way that felt very vulnerable.

And so some of [my inspiration] was I really was still grappling with this experience. And when you’re a writer, that’s kind of how you understand the world as you write about it. And so, I knew I wanted to write a story that I could explore this these big questions that I was having; this experience of now being out and people knowing this thing about me and how people who weren’t close to me [knew] this thing about me and how that had changed their perception of me, if it did or if it did it.

Of course not everybody cares about you coming out, but there were a lot of people who did. And so, I knew I wanted to write about that. And then sort of simultaneously, as all of that was going on in my life, I got into tarot and I because, as I said, I came from a conservative Christian upbringing and tarot was like a no-no for me. And so as part of like leaving that behind, I was like, I’m going to try it. I really want to try it and figure out like how I really feel about it.

So much of my sort of experience over the last five years has been, how do I really feel about that? Like, how do I how does that act? What do I truly think if I take away all of these things that I’ve been told are correct or I’ve been told I should think, and as sort of part of understanding myself deeper. And both of those things found our way into this idea about this girl Kit, the tarot reader, who is very in touch with her intuition.

You can follow Rebekah on Instagram, Twitter, and on her website.

The Lovers is set to release on September 24, 2024. You can pre order your copy today on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. However, if you pre orders through The Ripped Bodice, you can expect some extra goodies along with your new favorite book.

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A post shared by Rebekah Faubion (@rffaubion)

About Our Host

Host and executive producer of the Portrait of a Fangirl Podcast, Jenna Wrenn, is also an entertainment correspondent for Temple of Geek. Jenna has interviewed talents such as Felicia Day, Max Brooks, Katee Sackhoff, Rachel Smythe, and Ashley Eckstein. She has written several articles for Temple of Geek covering conventions, anime, pop culture, and much more. Jenna also served as a panelist at San Diego Comic Con on Portrait of a Fangirl‘s panel, Adaptaion to Advantage: How Women & Fandom Work Together.

A historian by trade, a writer by passion, and a cat mom by birthright. Jenna loves to travel, forge new connections, and drink large cold brews. Jenna is excited to bring more fascinating interviews to viewers/listeners of the Portrait of a Fangirl podcast.