Hello bookworms! Today is the last day to enter my giveaway for All Are Welcome and to tell you more about the book, I have author Liz Parker with me today! It feels so good to connect with authors about their book and it gives me the opportunity to ask deeper questions about the themes and more. Below is a quick look at All Are Welcome and then read on for the Q&A with Liz! Review link and giveaway details at the end of the post.
All Are Welcome
Literary Fiction
Tiny McAllister never thought she’d get married. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t think girls from Connecticut married other girls. Yet here she is with Caroline, the love of her life, at their destination wedding on the Bermuda coast. In attendance—their respective families and a few choice friends. The conflict-phobic Tiny hopes for a beautiful weekend with her bride-to-be. But as the weekend unfolds, it starts to feel like there’s a skeleton in every closet of the resort.
From Tiny’s family members, who find the world is changing at an uncomfortable speed, to Caroline’s parents, who are engaged in conspiratorial whispers, to their friends, who packed secrets of their own—nobody seems entirely forthcoming. Not to mention the conspicuous no-show and a tempting visit from the past. What the celebration really needs now is a monsoon to help stir up all the long-held secrets, simmering discontent, and hidden agendas.
All Tiny wanted was to get married, but if she can make it through this squall of a wedding, she might just leave with more than a wife.
Content Notes include depiction of homophobia, cheating on partner, drugs, alcoholism.
Hi Liz! Welcome to Armed with A Book. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. Can you tell me and my readers a little bit about yourself and your journey as a writer?
Of course! I have always been a reader, and I have sort of always been a writer, but for the past fifteen years, I’ve spent most of my time as an editor and literary agent. My day job: helping authors dream up and execute their publishing ambitions, is greatly applicable to my own writing. You could say I am constantly engaged with stories.
All are welcome was a refreshing story touching on a number of important issues, such as societal acceptance, identity, and standing up for oneself. How did the idea of this book come to you? What made you want to pursue it?
I was with my wife on vacation, and we had a layover on St. Maarten’s shortly after hurricane season. We were walking through a hotel that had been decimated by a storm, and I thought, “I wonder who was supposed to get married here right before the storm hit.” That, combined with the book’s first line, “Tiny was actually tiny,” inspired the book.
Are there any books that you would say influenced and shaped you as a writer? What kind of books or resources did you read to research this book? Did any of your personal experiences make it to Tiny and Caroline’s story?
I am gay, and I had a small, intimate wedding six years ago. I also come from a long line of WASPs. But the similarities end there!
I really enjoyed the many perspectives in the book. I felt that it truly depicted how complicated weddings and relationships are and depending on what we want to see and what the other person chooses to show to the world, we only ever glimpse a fraction of the life of a person. What was the most challenging part of writing a book that deals with such complex situations?
The mountain I was most excited to climb was: how do you write authentic characters on a journey without being too kind to those characters or too harsh. Everyone evolves at a different pace, and sometimes in real life we can be impatient with those evolving more slowly. In this book, Tiny receives her family with compassion and patience, but also manages to help them change. And how do you that while also being funny!? That was the fun challenge. Talk about hard things, but laugh too.
I was glued to this book for the last 100 pages. All the build up – the secret meetings, the pretenses, the gossip… everything was going to come together and blow up in a magnificent showdown. I was not disappointed. I imagine this to be the most fun part of writing a drama! Did that hold true for you as the writer? Did you have a different ending in mind for the book?
I always knew the ending, and I always knew the beginning. The middle was a surprise. The best part for me is letting characters tell me the rest of the story.
Tiny and Caroline’s sexual preference was clearly in conflict with the religious views of the families. The added complexity of balancing that with keeping the parents happy was an important aspect of life to tackle. I loved your writing style and storytelling because it just makes the situations approachable through the unforgettable characters. That is one of the powers of fiction, I find. Are there any characters from this book whose lives you would explore more in another book?
I think there’s a lot more to Tiny’s story. I’d love to see Hank find his way. And Bitty! I see her going back to Greenwich and heading up the local PFLAG chapter.
Tiny and her family were the key family in All are welcome. Through her storyline it was clear how much acceptance from family and being able to share with our family who we are makes life better. Sadly, a number of people in the LGBTQ+ community do not have that kind of support from their loved ones, whether due to religious or personal reasons. Is that any advice you can offer or anything you can share from your own experience that might be of help to people in helping them through these rough times?
If possible, pace yourself and manage expectations for how your family will react. But, and again, only if possible, allow your family to come around.
Did you bring any lessons from your career as a literary agent into the writing and publishing of All are welcome?
I was able to apply my industry knowledge in knowing exactly what kind of book I was writing, and where it would perform the best. But the biggest lesson I learned? Publishing is hard!! It’s so hard!! My compassion meter for my authors just about exploded.
What kind of response were you expecting from your readers? What has their response been like?
I feel incredibly lucky to have written a book that is resonating with readers. It inspires me to keep writing 🙂
Thank you Liz for joining me for a Q&A! I look forward to reading your next book. 🙂
Reading Experience and Review Link
Thank you for hanging out with me and Liz Parker today! 🙂 I’ll be back tomorrow with a Climate Fiction novel’s review. Want to read this book? Enter the giveaway below! Today is the last day.
Last Chance to Enter: Giveaway Details for All Are Welcome by Liz Parker
CLOSED: Congratulations to Emilie from Instagram!
If you are interested in reading All Are Welcome, I have a giveaway for you, open internationally: One of my readers across all platforms will win a physical copy of the book!
All you need to do is comment below with why this book is on your TBR. That’s it!
Giveaway closes on August 17th 11:59 pm. I will contact the winner on the 18th. You should be willing to provide your mailing address for the book to be shipped to you. If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to me at kriti.khare@gmail.com.
Many thanks to Over the River PR and the publisher for the gifted copy of the book for an honest review and the giveaway copy of the book.
Cover image: Photo by Beatriz Pérez Moya on Unsplash
Be First to Comment