Well, since I've spoken to you last I've written another novel.
It's taken me by the throat and I've been writing furiously, and now I can present to you Hometown Girl: a queer romance following Saoirse, a twenty-something photographer who is trying to find her way in life while getting over her childhood sweetheart, Eli. Oh, and Eli is now one of the biggest rockstars of the era.
I'm still working on the novel formerly known as Taste but after some deliberation, I've renamed it The Shape of His Teeth, which is already much more suitable in my mind.
For now, I'll leave you with a snippet of Hometown Girl:
The doorbell rings again, swiftly followed by a knock on the door. Saoirse can hear the static crackle of a radio too, low voices talking. It sounds like the police. Maybe there’s been an accident outside and they’re looking for witnesses. Either that or the neighbour has been busted for growing cannabis, again.
“Babe!” Tomas cries and Saoirse rolls her eyes, hustling out of the kitchen to answer the door.
Only, Tomas has beaten her to it because he’s standing at the door with the door open and there is Eli Fury, ‘biggest rockstar in the world’: 6’3 in platform boots, leather trousers and an unbuttoned floral shirt, their platinum hair teased and effortlessly yet perfectly messy, smudged eyeliner around their smoky lashes.
“Fuck,” is all Saoirse says for a moment, that initial swoop of there’s a celebrity at my front door followed swiftly by the hatred she feels for Eli. “What are you doing here?”
“We need to talk, Saoirse,” Eli says, leaning one hand against the doorframe. Their nails are bitten to the quick—like they always were—and slathered in black polish. It seems like they’ve had a decade to perfect their dirtbag-rockstar vibe, after all.
“Come all the way into the city to talk to little ol’ me?” Saoirse asks, sneering. Eli hasn’t paid Saoirse one single thought since they got on that bus out of their hometown. Why should Saoirse give a shit about them?
There are plenty of things in the works, so wish me luck, friends.
Jenn 🤍