All About Eve: Talia Hibbert on the Final Book in 'The Brown Sisters' Trilogy

Goodreads: You’ve now released books both before and during a pandemic, is there anything you miss most about traditional book releases?

Talia Hibbert: I feel like I've never really experienced a super-traditional book release. My deal being with a U.S. publisher and me being in the U.K., I've never really done any of the events that other authors seem to do. Whereas now that my book is being released during the pandemic and everything's moved to the virtual sphere, I feel like I've maybe been involved in a bit more promotion than I was previously.

GR: This is the last book in The Brown Sisters series. Did you know when writing Chloe that it was going to be a trilogy?

TH: Yeah, I definitely intended for each sister to have a book, and as I was kind of creating the character of Chloe, I knew that she was going to be the eldest sister just because of her personality. Then I started thinking, “OK, who are her younger siblings?” Once I came up with the other two, then I knew that they all needed a book of their own.

GR: So then were you coming up with ideas for Eve while writing the others. Were there notes you were taking along the way?

TH: I, unfortunately, am not that organized. [Laughs.] My method is sort of to get the hang of the characters in the following books by writing the first character's perception of them, and then, once it comes to that character's book, I have their character outlined and then I decide who their love interest is going to be and I go from there.

GR: Eve is very different from her other sisters in that she doesn’t have her stuff together and is a bit of a hot mess. I’m the youngest daughter, so I resent that stereotype, but it's also a little true. Is there a sister you relate to the most?

TH: I think I would probably relate to Chloe the most. I'm not the oldest sibling nor am I the most sensible. [Laughs.] But I think that Dani is a lot more cynical than I am, and Eve is much farther in the opposite direction than I am. Whereas Chloe is just sitting at home eating chocolate, which I can definitely relate to!

GR: Was there a sister you enjoyed writing about the most?

TH: I think I had the most fun writing Eve because she's just bonkers.

GR: You have more than a dozen books, and this series is the first that’s published by a traditional publishing house. What’s the major difference between the two publishing methods, and what are some of the pros and cons of each?

TH: One big difference is, obviously, when I self-publish something, I have to make all of the decisions myself. All of the elements of publishing a book I either have to do myself or I have to decide who to outsource that to, so there are a lot of decisions. But I think I've gotten better at self-publishing every time I do it. I'm lucky that there are so many people who are amazing at self-publishing and have really shared that knowledge, so I've been able to learn more, but I'm not incredible at it.

Another difference is the reach that I'm able to get for myself versus the reach that I've gotten with the traditionally published books. And obviously, on the flip side with my traditional publishing, I don't have to do everything, but I also don't get to choose everything. I think the pros and cons arise from that, so it depends on how much control you want or enjoy having over a particular book.

GR: What I appreciate about the book is that it’s just as much a love story as it is Eve finding her confidence and self-worth. Why was it important that both the love story and Eve’s own personal journey carry equal weight in the book?

TH: I feel like one of the things that makes romance special is that every genre has its conceit…I think that's the right word. In a mystery, there's a mystery. In a murder mystery, someone dies. In a romance, people fall in love.

But I feel like romance is special because, as well as the people falling in love, it focuses on the people themselves, because obviously to fall in love you have to know who you are, you have to know who the other person is. That's something that I really enjoy about the genre, so I was excited to turn it into a turning-point story for Eve as well as a story about Eve and Jacob together.

GR: Consent is big in your books. Some people tend to view it as a thing that kills the mood, but in your case, it very much enhances it because it involves the character letting the other one know how much they want them. Can you talk a bit about consent in your writing and how you approach incorporating it into your books?

TH: I genuinely don't understand why consent would be a mood killer. [Laughs.] I have heard people say that; I just don't understand. I honestly just feel like consent is an integral part of any human interaction, but especially interactions that have so much weight to them and that can be great, but then on the other hand can cause harm if they're not done the way they should be.

So to me, consent is written into the way I envision these scenes, but at the same time, anything that I write in a love scene I do want it to contribute to the vibe that I'm trying to make with the scene. Every interaction between my characters I try to convey a feeling. I think that's another great thing about romance is that there are so many intense feelings in it, and readers get swept along with that as well. So making sure that everything in that scene has a purpose and has a feeling is important to me.

GR: Jacob and (as we find out later) Eve are both autistic. I know you’ve written about autistic characters in the past, and you yourself are also autistic. How did you navigate this time around writing about two autistic protagonists, and were there certain aspects of the disability that you wanted to explore?

TH: The main thing I was excited to do with Eve and Jacob was to contribute to the erosion of the idea that all autistic people are the same and that being autistic defines every single aspect of your character. It's obviously a cornerstone of how people interact with the world, but at the same time, we're all different because we're just people like those who aren't autistic. So obviously all autistic people are different, and there are so many different ways that autistic people can experience things and can feel about things, so it was nice to write two different experiences in the same book.

It's also nice to show that, for a lot of autistic people, most of the people in their lives are also autistic. We don't exist in a vacuum and we're not token characters. We're just people who hang out with people who are also like us.

GR: Going back to the beginning of your career, what first drew you to romance novels? Did you always know it was a genre that you wanted to write about?

TH: I always knew that I wanted to be a writer, and I've been reading the romance genre since I was 12. So for a long, long time I was definitely like, “Aww, it would be amazing if I could be a romance writer,” but at the same time it was so impressive to me, the genre as a whole, that it seemed like a very ridiculous goal. It seemed very pie in the sky, and it wasn't something that I seriously thought about.

But then when I reached the point when I was ready to try and self-publish something and I was ready to actually take the plunge and try to be a writer the way I'd always dreamed, it was obvious that the only thing I could really write was romance because that's what I love the most.

GR: Is there a book or books you return to?

TH: I feel like at this point I've read so many books and I love so many of them that I wonder how I even have time to read new books with the number of old books I want to reread. [Laughs.]

I regularly go back to the entire Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh. I love how huge it is. If I decide I want to reread it, that has me sorted for a significant period of time, which is great.

And I always return to the same authors, like K.J. Charles, Danielle Allen, Courtney Milan, Kennedy Ryan, Rebekah Weatherspoon, Vanessa Riley, Alexis Hall—I feel like I could go on forever.

GR: And are there books that you’re currently recommending to your friends—romance or otherwise?

TH: I recently finished an advanced copy of The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri. I loved her first two books, but I was not prepared for how much I was gonna love this one. It's like she knew everything that I wanted to read and was like, “Here you go.” It's the perfect fantasy romance, it might be my favorite of all time, so I definitely recommend that one.

GR: What about any you’re looking forward to reading?

TH: I have a copy of The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod, and I'm really looking forward to reading that one. You know when you're really looking forward to a book, so you don't read the book because you're enjoying the feeling of looking forward to it? I'm doing that right now.

GR: Eve’s character loves music, and some of her favorite artists, like Corinne Bailey Rae and the Internet, are mentioned in the book. I’m always curious as to what authors listen to when they write and if that soundtrack changes depending on the book they’re working on. So, do you listen to anything?

TH: I can't listen to music when I write. I like to write in silence, I'm so easily distracted. If I listen to music, I will just type the words and then be like, “Oh, whoops.” [Laughs.]

But one thing I do like to do is go for walks while listening to music, and kind of imagine the next few chapters in the book, and then write down notes when I get back. I think when I was writing Eve, a lot of the songs that she listens to are songs that I was also listening to. I tend to listen to them for the feeling rather than the lyrics necessarily.

In the final copy of the book, at the beginning, I kind of write down the playlist that she listens to, and I think it's a pretty accurate representation of my own personal playlist as well.

GR: Do you think that Chloe and Dani’s playlists would look a lot different than Eve’s?

TH: I think they would, yeah. I don't think Chloe really listens to music, for one thing. [Laughs.] I don't know why I think that about her, that's just the idea that I have. And Dani's playlist would be very new age.

GR: What’s next for you? Are you working on anything right now that you can talk about?

TH: I'm actually writing the first book in a spin-off series. So in Eve's book, the hero Jacob is best friends with Mont, who runs the pub in his small town. And he has two sisters, and they are the Montrose siblings, and I'm writing a rom-com trilogy for them.

GR: You’re an incredibly prolific writer, but I know that this past year has been hard for a lot of authors. How has it been for you, writing-wise?

TH: It's been terrible; I have never written so slowly. [Laughs.] As you said, I would've agreed that I was prolific before, but I am prolific no longer. [Laughs.] I think the pandemic has just put me in a terrible mood, and it's drained all of my creativity.

GR: How have you been able to push through that with writing this new series?

TH: Well, one thing is, when I was sorting out with my agent and the publisher that I was going to write these books, I was like, "I need way more time because I'm writing so slowly," and they were like, "OK." So these books are not going to come out as quickly as my previous books. And also, I've been making sure to go on walks every day that I can. As I mentioned, I think about my books a lot when I walk, and it's so easy to not do that because I have nowhere to walk to, but I walk anyway.