An Interview with Piper James
Hi everyone, Christina here! Earlier in August I had the pleasure of speaking with Piper James. As Wendi Wilson, she wrote dark, paranormal YA romances such as the Vampire's Mate and the Shadow Lake Vampire Society series. Under the pen name Piper James, she writes spicy small-town rom-coms such as The Little Black Dress and The First Best Man, the second of which was recently promoted on the Calli Marketplace.
Thanks so much for hopping on and talking with us, Piper. We'd love for you to tell us a little about yourself.
"I have been writing romance novels for 10 years. I just had my 10 year anniversary! For the first five years I wrote young adult paranormal romance under my real name Wendi, and now I write contemporary spicy romcoms under the name Piper James. Before that I was a stay-at-home mom and so it just gave me something to do, you know, when I got started. I really enjoyed it. My sister-in-law is Sylvia Day. So she kind of inspired me to finish the book that I've been working on for years and publish it after, you know, she became so successful. So it's a lot of fun talking to her about it."
I'm always curious about different writers and their processes. So, I know some writers, they just kind of write by the seat of their pants, others like to outline everything thoroughly. What does your writing process look like?
"I am kind of in the middle. When I started I was very much a pantser and it would take me months and months to write a book because you know you write yourself into a corner. You get to a certain spot and then you're stuck and then it takes some time to figure out how to get yourself out of that. So, eventually I read this book that really helped me because I hate plotting! It helped me do that, [as well as] what beats I need to hit by a certain word count. I was able to start loosely plotting out each chapter because in my Piper James books, it's dual POV. So I'll plot her chapter, then his chapter, then her chapter, then his chapter. That takes me like a day or two usually, and then I can write a book. I mean, I've written one as fast as three weeks."
Do you currently have any books of yours live on the Calli marketplace?
I actually just wrapped up a campaign! It's a book called The First Best Man, which is a standalone. All of my books are standalones, but I tend to do them in series, so they're all interconnected. You meet all of the characters in the first book and then they all get their own books, right?
Kind of like a Piper James Book Universe!
Yes! So, this particular book (The First Best Man), this is a true standalone about a maid of honor and a best man who she's supposed to stay away from and it's set on a little island. I think it's one of my funniest books and I put it on Calli for a gifted campaign and I picked three, you know, really good influencers. They were super nice and they posted about it and it got a lot of comments like, "I'm going to put that on my TBR!" and it was just a really great experience.
Before jumping onto Calli, had you worked with influencers before?
No. I suffer from imposter syndrome quite deeply. It's better now than it was when I first started. [But I'm still] always surprised when people read my books. Like they come up to me at signings and they're like, "Oh my gosh, I love your books." I'm like, "You know who I am? Oh my gosh!" You know, I'm still surprised even after 10 years. And I never had the nerve to approach an influencer because I just feel like I would be stupid. Like why would they want to read my book?
So when I put my first campaign – I've done two now – when I put my first campaign up on Calli and I had immediately like 17 requests, I couldn't believe it. Like it was amazing. And I think that's what I've gained from this experience so much is that people actually do want to read my books and that if I offer it to them, they will take it!
We love hearing that you had such a great experience! Do you have any campaigns that you're planning to do in the future?
Oh, of course! Yes. I'm considering it because I just put out a book last week that is part of a paranormal romcom series, as an author collective, if that makes sense. So, there are eleven of us.
The books aren't connected in any way other than they're all set in the modern world. They all have a magical twist and they all have like matching titles. So, mine is Bewitched by the Siren. So, it's obviously about a mermaid. There's Bewitched by the Headless Horsemen, Bewitched by the Witch, etc.
I kind of want to do a campaign with that book to not only get eyes on mine but the whole series. So I think that would be helpful. So, it's out on ebook, paperback, and hardback. It's my first hardback ever. The whole group of us are going to do like a PR box. And so, there's a lot of components that I'm not used to dealing with myself because I'm very straightforward like post it, you know, put it up, publish it, and then on to the next. So, that's been an interesting learning curve for me!
Besides writing, what do you like to do for fun?
That is a good question. I have a Jeep Wrangler and I take everything off her in the summer. Like no doors, no top, nothing. And I just go drive. It's so much fun! I've wanted one my entire life. And then in 2019, I had a series called Oberon Academy that hit. It was an academy series that hit at the perfect time and I made a lot of money and I finally got my Jeep which was so amazing.
I have kids that play sports, so of course I always love to go watch them. Uh, my my youngest is a senior this year. He plays football, so it's going to be my last my last season as a sports mom, and I'm not happy about it at all! I love to read. I'm a big TV fan, too – I love to binge watch TV shows.
Piper, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us. It was truly a pleasure getting to know you!
You're welcome – thank you for having me!
If you are an author interested in doing an interview like this for Calli, reach out to me, Christina, at christina@meetcalli.com. We'd love to have you featured on our website and socials!
