Hello, my friends!
I know it’s been a little while, but I’ve been working on something SUPER exciting! I had the chance to interview Grace Elena about her debut novel, Between the Vines, and I am so excited to share it with you.
If you’re wondering what this FANTASTIC novel is about, keep reading as Grace takes us into the small town of Alpine Ridge, TN and introduces us to Bennett Moore and Camilla Morales, as well as telling us about her writing and how she balances it all.
I am a Mexican American author that lives in Nashville, TN. I’m originally from Chicago, IL. Although I am not a full-time writer, that has always been a dream of mine. I love all things romance. I love cheesy rom-coms, cheesy storylines, and romance in general.
Between the Vines is a small town country romance that follows the lives of the two main characters, Camilla Morales and Bennett Moore. As they get to know each other, the reader gets to know about the town as well and its residents. It has funny banter, funny side characters, and tons of events that happen within to make the reader feel like they’re right there. This book deals with heavy topics such as mental health and divorce. It’s real, raw, and imperfect. There is no “she saved him from his demons” plot line. He learns to love himself because of how much she and the town loves him. He learns to look at himself the way she does. He also learns how to ask for forgiveness to the ones that he harmed, when he was hurt. He doesn’t change immediately, with a snap of two fingers, but he slowly realizes that he can heal eventually with the help of his friends and Camilla.
I’ve always written stories or tidbit ideas as a kid. I will always remember the one story that made me really believe “wow, this is something I can do in my future.” It was a short story in my 3rd grade class where we could send in submissions for a contest. I told my parents about it and they helped me find a way to write the ideas in my head. I wrote the origin of my family’s adopted dog, and created a chaotic storyline about how he was originally the farmer dog for 3 big, mean farmers. He somehow escaped and found himself on a truck that went from West Virginia to Chicago. The only truth to this story was that he really was from West Virginia; that was where the Chicago Humane Society got a truck of dogs from haha! My mom loves to draw in her free time, so she drew an amazing cover to the story. It won.
As I grew up, I found friends that loved to write stories as well. I never really told anyone about this, but I was basically writing fan-fiction with my best friends. We thought of a plot of how our famous boy band were doctors in the Grey’s Anatomy show and how there were love interests that we’d each write the point of view for. I didn’t know what fan-fiction was until I was older and stumbled upon Tumblr. That site was the true catalyst to my writing. I wrote simple, cute, short snippets about characters from a famous movie franchise and the people on Tumblr were eating it up! They gave me a sense of belonging in that online community. At age 16 I started two drafts of two different novels. I never finished them, but they are ideas I’d love to go back to whenever I have the time.
Once I went to college, I stopped writing fan-fiction and those WIP (work in progress) novels. I started songwriting. I knew how to play guitar since 7th grade and going to a music school in Tennessee made it just make sense to write music instead of stories. I think I wrote over 100 songs during those 4 years.
It wasn’t until the pandemic, I was introduced to the world of Wattpad. I didn’t know some authors came from there. It was cool to see how much support a ‘fandom’ can bring to stories about fictional characters from franchises. So, I started writing about Marvel characters. I did something different though. I mainly used those characters as a “face claim” on how the main male character should look and then created an ‘alternate universe’ with an original storyline, plot, and original characters. These blew up. To the point where I got over 100k reads on my first wattpad book in less than a few months. In a year, I got almost 4k followers. I think right now, I have well over 7k followers, one book at over 600k reads, another at almost 500k reads, and my third one at 120k reads. These aren’t exactly smashing numbers compared to other Wattpad books, but they’re the best success I’ve ever gotten over silly, cute words I wrote on Google Docs lol. Wattpad was truly the push I needed to do this whole author thing. Tumblr was great for my ego, I will admit, but Wattpad allowed me to find my writing style and author voice. And to have that many people love it? It just felt like constant signs that publishing my ideas would be worth it.
I like to joke sometimes that I don’t. It’s hard. Sometimes you have to sacrifice socializing to meet a personal deadline for a book. Sometimes I just want to stay indoors all weekend and write! I do try to keep balance though so I don’t overwork myself and become burnt out. I do have a full time job so that keeps things balanced. But it can get draining working a full time job and then essentially writing part time. Some nights I write for 3-5 hours. It’s not practical and it can become harmful. Creating deadlines for myself helps a ton so I can map out how many days I should write and that gives me buffer room to add in social times. Also having people in my real life know what I do on the side helps. I don’t live a double life, that seems so exhausting. I will admit to my friends if I’d rather write with a glass of wine than go out!
I got the idea in the shower. I wanted an enemies-to-lovers storyline and thought about a farmer that sabotages a woman’s vineyard because he hated how she moved into his town. I went with that and then just kept writing until I realized I didn’t want it to be an enemies-to-lover storyline but just a grumpy-sunshine one with funny characters and a town that has a personality of its own. Also living in Tennessee helps a ton. We have a vineyard here that I go to all the time and I knew I wanted my book to be set in a vineyard. It was also originally an ‘alternate universe’ fan-fiction and I’m not ashamed to state this fact. The people loved it. It was so original and some even forgot I had characters in my book with the same names as those Marvel characters. I was able to branch their characters off into an entirely different being in my book. That’s why it was so easy for me to edit this book to publish. Literally just had to swap a few names because the characters themselves were so unique and mine that there was no issue.
Not much. She’s from Chicago, just because I have a lot of Chicago Pride. The Tennessee towns aren’t based on real ones here, I created them on my own so they don’t mimic my life in Tennessee. Camilla Morales is strong, independent, and loves change. I hate change. I get so much anxiety if something changes at the last minute. I cancel plans if the change is too much for me or if something happened earlier that week that offset my anxiety. She loves to put herself in situations where she can make new friends. I hate making new friends, it seems so silly and exhausting. I like commitment in friends and that’s why I’m still best friends with people from middle school, high school, and college. It’s hard to find commitment in friend groups when you get older–just something I’ve noticed. Camilla doesn’t care! She also loves extremely. I am very closed off. I only love extremely if I know you long enough. I have high walls, she doesn’t.
Start somewhere. Whether it’s Tumblr, Wattpad, or even just a document you keep for yourself. You won’t get anywhere with a blank page.
Finding a community is important in the later stages of writing. Create a bookstagram or a booktok to find similar interested readers/writers. Wattpad is GREAT in the first stages of writing original work because they hold so many contests that you can submit your works in. That exposure will only help you in the long run.
Also, be okay with criticism. Not everyone is going to like what you write. It’s also very important to not defend your work to someone who does not care. Don’t waste your energy convincing someone to like your book. You’ll find your readers and your own tight knit community.
There is always room to grow as a writer as well. No draft is perfect, even after you’ve looked it over a million times and even hired beta readers, editors, and reviewers. I still find typos and mistakes in my published works. We’re human, it happens.
Lastly, be your #1 fan. I’ve had to tell many of my author friends this. How will someone like your book if YOU don’t like it or advertise it as such? Be proud of what you write.
This is a tough one, not going to lie. I’d like people to read it to support me. But I also want people to read it to get sucked into a romance novel. I love being lost in books and forgetting about the real world. I want someone to pick up my book and get transported to the small town and feel like they’re a resident there, seeing all the drama unfold. I’ve even been told by people that that’s what happens when they read my book! It’s the biggest compliment. So many readers have confided in me saying they wish the small town was real. I wish that too!
Another reason I want people to read my book is because there is a lot of representation that often gets overlooked. As a Mexican American, it is very hard to find books that have latinx representation written by latinx authors. It’s usually a white author that kind of uses POC characters as a way to get more fame–a token POC character, if you will. I want to showcase my culture in a respectable manner as well as just share tidbits from my childhood! I also want representation with mental health. I have a masters in a degree that revolves around mental health. I’ve worked with patients that have been through the worst. I have been through some of those same things personally. I want to write mental health topics in my books because they matter–and they don’t make someone less of who they are. Mental health is also very different for everyone, so I want to show the kind of representation that I’ve experienced, witnessed, and studied.
Well, there you have it! I hope you all enjoyed reading all about Grace and Between the Vines. Click HERE to get your copy and let me know what you think. Stay tuned for more summer reads!
xo. Miranda
