Interview with Clyve Rose

What is your favorite quote or excerpt in the book?

My favourite excerpt is the one where Syeira realises she loves Wil, because at the same time as her heart knows itself, she also knows they can’t be together. With great courage, and no hope, she tells him this in the kirkyard, in the middle of a storm. It’s also the moment Wil realises Syeira loves him – and he finds this confusing: “I regret anything I have done to pain you, Syeira, but I do not understand.” “I know.” Her low voice was audible only because the driving rain had stopped. The drip-drip as water tipped from leaf to leaf and branch to branch seemed loud in the sudden quiet. Nothing settled, and everything did. The storm was over, and in its aftermath a serenely sad silence lay between them.

I also love their first kiss scene.

Can you tell us more about monetizing love with dating apps ?

I’ve thought more about this since I said that. I originally said this to a man I was dating (okay I know – not my best work). I said that dating apps were not about finding love; they were about avoiding being alone. I still believe this to be true. So the apps essentially monetise loneliness, or rather our obsession with avoiding being alone.

Like most writers, I necessarily spend a lot of my time alone. I enjoy my solitude as a rare, and precious, gift I offer myself as often as I can. I believe in love between people of course – this is what I write about. I also believe loving myself is important. If we learn to be our own best companion, it’s possible the capitalists of the world might make a little less off of our emotional state. I could write a feature on this if you like – I feel capitalism is deeply invested in pointing out what people don’t have. It’s how consumerism works. it’s how most power-hungry ‘isms’ work – define something and try hard to make you crave it. Then charge you for access.

I do not like seeing this happen to human connections. We are better than this. Love is better than this – because we are all lovable. It starts with Self.

How does being vulnerable help one find courage in love?

Emily Lockhart wrote:
Love is giving someone the power to destroy you, and trusting they won’t.

I believe this is true. Most of us are fearful of showing who we are. We live in a society where a level of inauthenticity isn’t only accepted – it’s often required. I am ND so perhaps I notice this more because I have to consciously figure out the codes and adopt them. I’ve been doing this my whole life. It’s rare I can take all my filters off, and I am not alone in this. Some folks won’t post a single Instagram image without their filters – and this is a long-running metaphor. An argument between Heart and Ego that’s been going on as long as people have been people.

Showing someone else who you are – all of who you are – is an act of tremendous courage. You must be brave enough to reveal all of yourself. It’s also an act of trust. Trusting someone with your essential self –

your heart and soul – is far easier than trusting them with only your body. Sex is easier than love. While the two are linked, they are not the same.

Tell us about infusing yourself into her main character in your novel Always a Princess.

Syeira is an aspirational version of myself. I am fairly introverted and far less courageous than she is. She’s strong-willed and quite spirited. She stands up for herself and those she loves – and this is something I became better at doing as I wrote her character. Nothing makes me braver than defending the ones I love. Nothing fires up my temper more than someone coming for them – especially my daughter. I also have very little patience for bullies and prejudice. I grew up with unhealthy doses of both so it definitely triggers me. Syeira is far, far better at the waltz than I imagine I ever could be though. She’s also a better horsewoman. (Then again, I have a car )

Why and how do you think your books resonate with your audience, especially in our millennia?

Do they? I hope they do 🙂

I like to think we’ve reached a place in human relationships where we recognise nuance is a part of connection. Communication and understanding each other one-to-one ought to matter more than societal conditioning. I say I’d like to think we’ve evolved so far as people, because it’s clear we vacillate a lot – but that’s human too and individual. I believe people will always respond to interesting characters and decent dialogue. Human interaction is endlessly fascinating to me, and I think to other people as well. Certainly my readers’ insights are a revelation. I learn so much from their feedback. Romance as a genre resonates with people because it’s about people and how we relate to each other. Pride & Prejudice was published in 1813 and people still find the story interesting – because it’s about love, and awkward crushes and failed proposals, and snobs and not-snobs and witticisms, foolishness, siblings, cousins, and this – all of this – is the stuff of life. I hope I write somewhere in this ballpark, and that readers like it when I do.

Is there another book coming?

YES! There’s always another book! Stay tuned!!!!

Find more at: http://Clyverose.com