{"id":347970,"date":"2026-07-22T00:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347970\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T00:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T00:05:10","slug":"author-hayley-fleming-brings-healing-debut-romcom-thighs-wide-shut-to-st-pete-next-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347970\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Hayley Fleming brings ‘healing’ debut romcom ‘Thighs Wide Shut’ to St. Pete next month"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"headshotCredit: Hayley Fleming\/Substack<\/a><\/p>\n

Romance novels usually evoke terms like \u201cspicy,\u201d \u201csteamy,\u201d \u201ccute\u201d and \u201cIs it bestiality if it\u2019s not a real animal?\u201d But rarely is the term \u201chealing\u201d tossed around, even for a booming genre.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s the word author Hayley Fleming uses to describe writing her debut romance novel, \u201cThighs Wide Shut.\u201d In an essay for People<\/a> published last week, Fleming opened up about having vaginismus. The condition involves pelvic floor muscles surrounding the vagina involuntarily contracting, making penetration\u2014whether for sex, managing periods, or pelvic exams\u2014painful or impossible.<\/p>\n

Fleming gave her main character, Emma, the same condition in \u201cThighs Wide Shut.\u201d It\u2019s a genuine, relatable tension in a genre saturated with tropes and escapism. The resulting book, as she describes it is \u201ca love letter to anyone who\u2019s ever felt their body is a barrier to their happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn her worst moments, Emma believes she could never be a good partner because of her vaginismus,\u201d Fleming writes for People. \u201cMy task was to show her outgrowing that misguided belief over the course of the story. In doing so, I reflected on the million and one different reasons that someone having vaginismus does not make them a bad partner\u2014even when that someone is me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Florida-raised author now lives in Washington, D.C., but she returns to the Sunshine State next month to discuss \u201cThighs Wide Shut\u201d at St. Pete\u2019s Tombolo Books with fellow Florida romance writer Alicia Thompson, bestselling author of \u201cLove in the Time of Serial Killers,\u201d \u201cWith Love, from Cold World,\u201d \u201cNever Been Shipped\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

There is no cover, but RSVP is requested for \u201cThighs Wide Shut \u2013 An Evening with Hayley Fleming\u201d on Tuesday, Aug. 4 in St. Petersburg.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

This article appears in July 16 \u2013 22, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Hayley Fleming\/Substack Romance novels usually evoke terms like \u201cspicy,\u201d \u201csteamy,\u201d \u201ccute\u201d and \u201cIs it bestiality if it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200,2985],"class_list":["post-347970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tombolo-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}