Sarah Smith

Who: Bend writer Sarah Smith is the author of the romance novels “Faker,” published in October 2019, and “Simmer Down,” which drops Oct. 13. “Faker” is the first in a two-book deal she inked with Berkley (Penguin Random House), and is available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Target, as well as local booksellers Roundabout Books and Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe. “Simmer Down” is available for pre-order at Amazon. Visit sarahsmithbooks.com.

Q: I saw on your bio that as a kid you found your aunt’s romance novels.

A: (Laughs) Yeah, when I was little, I think I was 8 or 9 or something like that. She was living with us at the time and she and I were sharing the closet in my room, and that was just where she kept all of her books she was reading. I was a pretty big reader when I was a kid, and that was obviously not anything that I was, like, allowed to read at the time. (Laughs) But it was different and very, very interesting to me, and so I just hid in the closet and read her books when I could get away with it. That’s how it all kind of started, as weird as that sounds.

Q: When you got older, did you continue to read romance?

A: I did, yeah. That’s definitely what sparked it, but I read it kind of off and on as I got older, just because people aren’t typically super — I feel like people kind of hate on romance a lot, in a lot of ways, so I felt really self-conscious about it for a while. But then I became an adult and just decided I didn’t really care, and just wanted to keep reading exactly what I liked.

Q: Yeah, there are adults who read YA their whole lives and are not embarrassed by it, why shouldn’t people be able to read romance if they want?

A: Exactly.

Q: Do you want to talk a little bit about the plot of “Faker”?

A: “Faker” is a multicultural rom-com. It’s kind of an enemies-to-lovers romance, about a half-Filipino woman who is trying to establish herself in the power tool industry, all the while kind of fighting against her attraction to the coworker who she’s never really liked.

Q: Fun. What gave you the idea for it?

A: I worked at a power tool company for a really long time in my 20s. That combined with me really enjoying reading romance books and rom-com books, I just thought, “I wonder if I can write something that I would like to read?” So it was kind of my own work experience combined with my hobby of reading romance.

Q: Did you join a writing group or anything, or just kind of take it alone?

A: Yeah, I kind of just did it. I moved to Bend in the summer of 2016. I didn’t really know anybody, so I had a lot of free time on my hands. I was just reading a lot and working, and it was finally a time when I didn’t have any excuses to put off writing a book. Because I had tried it so many times before in the past. I have so many unfinished manuscripts that I started and stopped and just could not finish because I was busy or because I didn’t like what I was writing. So when I was living in this new place and didn’t have any distractions, I was finally able to finish writing it.

Q: How about “Simmer Down,” when did you work on that?

A: I worked on that in the beginning of 2019, probably from January until April. I have a two-book contract … and I needed to write another book. It was before “Faker” came out, so I just had all this time to think about what other book I wanted to write. It’s about two food truck rivals in Maui, and they’re competing for this very coveted parking spot on the beach to sell their food. So, obviously, it’s another enemies-rivals to lovers (story). She runs a Filipino food truck with her mom, and her rival runs a British food truck with his brother.

Q: Do you have a third book in the works?

A: I haven’t started writing a full manuscript, but I have different ideas to pitch. My contract is done when “Simmer Down” comes out, so I was trying to think about what other ideas I should come up with. It’s hard because I always feel like I always have a lot of ideas in my head, and it’s hard to narrow down, like, “OK, what can I write a 300-page document about?” … I don’t have anything in the works right now, but I have a lot of ideas.

— David Jasper, The Bulletin