LA MESA –Three years ago, Becca Title opened San Diego’s first romance bookshop in North Park, quickly becoming a mainstay among genre fiction fans and the region’s growing indie bookstore community.
Last year, she moved Meet Cute Romance Bookshop to a bigger space in old town La Mesa, bringing her dedicated readers into the East County community.
This year, Title published her first novel, “Nothing to Write Home About,” a spicy queer romcom about two summer camp directors in North Carolina whose friends with benefits arrangement turns into something more.
La Mesa Courier caught up with Title to learn about her bookshop, and her book, during Pride month.
How are you finding the La Mesa community?
We’ve found the community, particularly other nearby businesses, very friendly and welcoming!
What do you like about the Meet Cute Romance Bookshop location at 8235 La Mesa Blvd.?
We have almost twice as much space as in our original location, which means more books, more room for events, and critically for us, more storage. We even have a workroom, which, now that we have it, I’m not sure how we ever survived without.
What drew you to La Mesa when you outgrew the North Park location?
I loved the walkable business district on La Mesa Avenue, the accessibility to the freeway and availability of parking, and, of course, the shop was able to get more bang for its buck space-wise.
How did you balance writing and publishing “Nothing to Write Home About” with also being a business owner?
Hahaha not amazingly. Open to advice.
As a lifelong writer, what does it feel like to officially have a book published?
Honestly, it’s very weird! I’m used to people reading my academic and professional writing (I used to be a lawyer), but having a creative work be publicly available is very vulnerable. It’s cool when people are nice about it, though!
On your website it mentioned you moving around a lot but you were born in SoCal and now are back in SoCal. What is your connection to North Carolina and why did you choose it as a setting?
As a kid, I went to a summer camp in North Carolina, which is more or less where the book is set (with some creative liberties). I also have family there, so I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the state and I’m very fond of it.
Can we expect a San Diego book in the future?
Never say never!
What does queer representation in “Nothing to Write Home About” look like?
Maggie, one of the two main characters, is bisexual. Beyond that, I would say that probably a majority of the side characters are queer as well. Blue Harbor, the summer camp that Maggie inherits, is, intentionally, a very gay little bubble. The aunt that Maggie inherits the place from was a lesbian, and she made Camp Blue Harbor into a little pocket of the world that is safe and welcoming for all. While the book does address some heavier topics, homophobia isn’t one of them.
I’m sure there are preconceived notions about queer representation looking “one way,” but in the past couple years I’ve seen more romance books embrace having queer characters in relationships that may not be perceived from the outside as queer relationships, whether it be “Because Fat Girl” by Lauren Marie Fleming (shout out local) or Akwaeke Amezi’s “You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty.” Why do you think this shift is occurring?
Traditional publishing has been pretty hostile to queer romance until very recently, so the kinds of queer representation we’re seeing in romance from traditional publishing is very much in a state of flux. I also think that it’s helpful for big companies like the traditional publishing behemoths to be able to clearly categorize books for statistical and marketing purposes but queerness, particularly straight-presenting queer relationships, resists that kind of neat categorization.
Anecdotally, however, it seems like a lot of Millenials have been finding their queerness later in life, sometimes when they’re already in a committed straight-presenting relationship, and I think part of what we’re seeing is a related increase in that kind of representation in books.
What should people expect if they pick up your book?
Hopefully, a good time! It’s a “friends-with-benefits-to-lovers” rom-com about a consultant who unexpectedly inherits her late aunt’s Blue Ridge Mountain sleepaway camp and plays one too many games of sexy Truth or Dare with the irritatingly charming director of the boys’ camp next door.
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