NEED TO KNOW
Bestselling romance authors Ali Hazelwood and Christina Lauren chatted with PEOPLE about the new paranormal romance anthology Scared Sexy, out now from Amazon Original StoriesThe collection also features romances from J.T. Geissinger, Ruby Dixon, Katee Robert and Kimberly LemmingThe authors talked fandom, Twilight and why we love getting scared — especially with someone’s hand to squeeze
“I just have one request,” romance powerhouse Ali Hazelwood asks PEOPLE in a recent interview. “Can you get monster f—— in the headline?” And while this PEOPLE editor likes her job and wants to keep it, that does pretty much sum up the newest anthology from Amazon Original Stories, Scared Sexy.
Featuring paranormal romances from Hazelwood, Christina Lauren, J.T. Geissinger, Ruby Dixon, Katee Robert and Kimberly Lemming, the six stories feature “amnesiac vampire slayers to fallen angels, space vampires to cursed tattoo artists, sleep paralysis demons to ancient wish-granting entities,” according to an official synopsis.
PEOPLE sat down to chat about the new anthology with Hazelwood and the writing partners behind bestseller Christina Lauren, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings.
The conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, spanned topics like the powers of drunk texting, who should really have ghostwritten Britney Spears‘ memoir and what Edward Cullen has under those pants.
Author Ali Hazelwood.
Justin Murphy, Out of the Attic Photography
PEOPLE: So, let’s get into it. Why do we love scary, sexy stories so much?
Lauren Billings: I mean, I think we like them because we love big feelings, and I think romance and horror kind of bring that together. But I also think, for those of us who are paranormal girlies, we love the idea of sexy monsters.
Ali Hazelwood: I thought we were gonna give the neuroscience point of view, which is that arousal, in the end, is arousal. Like, both horror and romance are activating, so you’re gonna have a lot of feelings. I remember my psychology TA, when I was in college, told us that the ideal first date would be a horror movie, because then you’re gonna experience a lot of arousal. Not necessarily sexual arousal, just, like, a lot of emotions, and then it’s hard to attribute these emotions, so you might misattribute it to being in love with your date, but you’re actually scared sh——.
PEOPLE: How did you first get involved in this anthology?
Lauren: Well, we were at dinner and had a couple of glasses of wine…
Ali: I think we probably started talking about monster f—— as we were drunk at dinner. And then I remember Lauren being like — I actually have two such memories of Lauren. One is that we should have a monster f—— anthology, and the other one was, we should ghostwrite Britney Spears. Lauren has been in this industry for so long and knows everyone, so she has everyone’s phone number, so when she’s drunk and has a great idea, she actually can act.
Lauren: I’m a woman of action, okay? I mean, most of the time I’m spending money on things that I don’t need, but occasionally I will email an editor, and this whole thing will come together. So it took a little while, but look! It’s here!
PEOPLE: So, talk about the writing a little bit. What was that like for you all?
Ali: I mean, I think my biggest thing is the word limit that they give you for this type of stories at Amazon. It’s nothing, and it’s so hard to stay within the limit, and I didn’t, by the way.
Lauren: I know, I looked at yours, and it was, like, twice as long a reading experience as ours, and I’m like, damn, Ali.
Ali: I know, I was like, I emailed it to [my editor], and I was like, ‘Listen, please, please work with me again, I am so sorry.’
Lauren: You’re a wordy b—. We don’t get mad about it, though.
Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, the ladies behind Christina Lauren.
Chandra Wicke
Ali: It’s just so fun to write something knowing that it’s gonna be part of something bigger. Like, there’s gonna be a bunch of stories, and you’re gonna hang out with the other authors. It’s the fandom. It’s fun to do as a group.
Lauren: Even if we’re not writing in the same room, I think it’s always exciting to see who else is going to be in the collection, because we’re all readers first, right? We’re all fangirls. Finding out Ruby Dixon was gonna be in here, I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m doing a thing with Ruby Dixon!’
And also, the length is hard. But I actually think, in some ways, it’s easier, because you don’t get kind of bogged down in the middle of the story. You have to just keep the pacing tight and figure out your beginning, middle and end. It’s so nice to finish something in a matter of days and it didn’t take me, you know, three servings of my soul in three months to do.
Christina Hobbs: It’s more like writing fanfic, where you don’t have to give every backstory, and you just assume that the reader’s gonna go along with you. The first thing we ever wrote together was, in fandom, you call them a one-shot, but it’s basically a short story. In fandom, there’ll be these prompts, and somewhere in the story, it had to be mentioned that it was an uncircumcised penis. And so the first thing we ever wrote together…
Lauren: was about an uncut Edward Cullen.
Ali: And look how far they’ve come.
‘Falling’ by Christina Lauren.
Amazon
PEOPLE: Christina Lauren, talk about where your story, Falling, came from.
Lauren: Mythology [and] paranormal is hard to write, because especially things like vampires, angels, werewolves, they’ve been done so many times, that putting your mark on the lore is really tricky. And so I think in a short story, you don’t kind of have to worry about that. You get to just be like, everybody knows the shorthand for angel. They got wings, they’re hot, you don’t need to know all of the rest. I think that’s kind of fun. It makes it easier, and you get to play.
PEOPLE: What about your story, Hot For Slayer, Ali? I have to ask: Is Lazlo inspired by What We Do in the Shadows?
‘Hot For Slayer’ by Ali Hazelwood.
Amazon
Ali: I didn’t even put it together. There is a character from The Alienist, the main character’s name is Laszlo. But yes, the vampire Laszlo from What We Do in the Shadows, what an idiot, in the best possible way. Like, maybe I should have thought of that. But I didn’t!
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PEOPLE: And isn’t that one of the great things about fandom? That you can be your weird little selves and find your people, and people can find other Easter Eggs in there that they didn’t expect.
Ali: I think that the good part of these Amazon collections is that there are several different writers, and they are very bite-sized, so you’re going to find something, no matter what you like. And they are easily accessible, so if you’re interested in the collection, just go with the cover, or the plot that seems more fun to you and I feel like you’re gonna be sucked in, and you’re gonna find the story of your heart.
Lauren: It’s like a sample pack.
Christina: And for people who are like, ‘Oh my god, I’m only at book whatever of my reading goal,’ it’s like, you read this, and you’ve just knocked out five or six.
Lauren: I’m having a really hard time with attention span and sitting and reading a whole book, and so it’s really nice because I feel like I’m still reading a lot, but I’m not feeling like, ‘I have 700 pages of this romantasy that I have to get through.’ It’s like, ‘No, I’m gonna finish it in a sitting, and it’s delightful.’
Ali: Sometimes you just want to be in the same world for four days in a row and never look up, and sometimes you just want to have fun, for like, 20 minutes or whatever.
Lauren: And they all have such different vibes. It’s like, you know you’re getting into it for monsters and romance, but, each one is gonna taste a little different. You’re not gonna just read the same story six times. This is such a crazy lineup. Like, the authors in this compilation are just, no skips.
Scared Sexy is available now on Amazon Original Stories.