Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Christen Randall (The No Girlfriend Rule)!
Meet the Author: Christen Randall
Christen Randall (she/they) is a queer, fat, neurodivergent author of queer, fat, neurodiverse books. When they’re not writing joyful stories for the next generation of geeky gay kids, you can find them working at their local library branch or at home planning all the D&D campaigns they’ll run one day, they swear. Christen lives in Covington, Kentucky. The No-Girlfriend Rule is her debut novel.
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About the Book: The No-Girlfriend Rule
Julie Murphy meets Casey McQuiston in this unforgettable queer romance about a teen girl whose foray into fantasy tabletop roleplaying brings her new confidence, true friends, and a shot at real, swoon-worthy love.
Hollis Beckwith isn’t trying to get a girl—she’s just trying to get by. For a fat, broke girl with anxiety, the start of senior year brings enough to worry about. And besides, she already has a boyfriend: Chris. Their relationship isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s comfortable and familiar, and Hollis wants it to survive beyond senior year. To prove she’s a girlfriend worth keeping, Hollis decides to learn Chris’s favorite tabletop roleplaying game, Secrets & Sorcery—but his unfortunate “No Girlfriends at the Table” rule means she’ll need to find her own group if she wants in.
Enter: Gloria Castañeda and her all-girls game of S&S! Crowded at the table in Gloria’s cozy Ohio apartment, the six girls battle twisted magic in-game and become fast friends outside it. With her character as armor, Hollis starts to believe that maybe she can be more than just fat, anxious, and a little lost.
But then an in-game crush develops between Hollis’s character and the bard played by charismatic Aini Amin-Shaw, whose wide, cocky grin makes Hollis’s stomach flutter. As their gentle flirting sparks into something deeper, Hollis is no longer sure what she wants…or if she’s content to just play pretend.
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
Roleplaying was a large part of how I figured out I was queer. It’s such a unique space where you can play with identity in a safe, fun way, supported by your friends. I wanted to bring some of that magic to the page. Telling a love story—a romance, but also a journey to self-love—felt like a natural place for me to do that.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
Don’t tell Hollis, but it’s probably Fran. She’s such a delightful little chaos goblin, and she reminds me of my own little sister.
YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?
Always the novel! I am notoriously bad at titles. Those are always a community effort for me.
YABC: What do you like most about the cover of the book?
“Everything” is probably cheating, even if it’s the truth. More than anything, I am just proud that my cover has a happy fat girl front and center. Simini Blocker’s illustration of Hollis is just so joyous!
YABC: What new release book are you looking most forward to in 2024?
Jonny Garza Villa’s Canto Cantigo. Anything Jonny writes is an auto-buy for me. The way they rip my heart out and then tenderly sew it back together is one of my favorite reading experiences—and they nail it every book.
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
I finished Jamie Pacton’s new historical fantasy The Absinthe Underground and had the best time reading it. It’s about two delightfully opposite definitely-not-in-love girls who steal posters and find themselves in a deal with a powerful fae. The writing is just so lush and dreamy, and I couldn’t put it down.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
I’m working on my second contracted book now which I can’t say much about (yet!), but it’s a queer neurodivergent romance I’m really excited to share. There’s also a queer YA romantasy draft sitting on my shelf I’m thinking of dusting off this year. And I keep threatening my agent with writing middle grade. Wherever I go, though, you can be sure it’s going to be fat, queer, and full of big feelings.
YABC: Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to narrate?
There’s a scene where Hollis has a panic attack, which was both really good and really hard to write. I have anxiety, like Hollis, and wrote it from my own experience with panic attacks. It was difficult to put that on the page, but it felt important to me so that readers who might be like me and Hollis could see that they’re not alone in these feelings. Just as important, I think, is how her friend group reacts—the girls are there for Hollis without judgment or shame; they just love her and support her. Writing that kind of radical acceptance on the page was healing for me. It’s become one of my favorite scenes in the book.
YABC: What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember
from this book?
When people put down The No-Girlfriend Rule, I hope they do so feeling like they’re enough exactly as they are. I think often as folks who are fat, or anxious, or queer, or (like Hollis, like me) all three at once, we’re told we’re not. But real friendship looks like loving because, not in spite of. We are all worthy of that kind of love—especially from ourselves.
YABC: Is there anything that you would like to add?
I want to make sure readers know that you don’t have to know a single thing about tabletop roleplaying to read and love The No-Girlfriend Rule! Hollis is new to the game at the start of the book, so we all learn everything we need to know about gaming along with her. So if you’ve never heard of dice rolls or character sheets or monster stats, don’t worry! There’s still plenty of space for you at the table. (I do not-so-secretly hope you’re inspired to pick up a game when you’re done reading, though—and that if you do, you’ll tell me all about it!)
Title: The No Girlfriend Rule
Author: Christen Randall
Publisher: S&S
