Happy Monday friends!
Since not much has changed on the publishing front (other than sending out sample chapters to editors so we can get a feel for how they do their thing), I thought I’d just tell the story about how we even came up with this K-Rom genre, and its first novel, K-Love.
It started with a love of Korean dramas, obviously. My good friend, Dani, suggested them to me, and after binge watching Sungkyunkwan Scandal, I was forever hooked. The dreamy guys, the culturally unique and yet somehow still familiar plot lines, the tropes I began to anticipate and love. All of it was fantastic and awesome!
And if you haven’t guess it yet, Cornwall is actually my mom, so if you had a sneaking suspicion that Devon and Cornwall were made up names, then ten points to your house! But even though Cornwall is my mom, she’s also my best friend, so of course I shared them with her. I think the first one I showed her was Secret Garden. And really, can anyone resist Hyun Bin’s jawline? Hello gorgeous!
I remember we were sitting there in my living room, still starry-eyed about the glorious perfection of Kdrama male leads, and Cornwall declared, “I want a Korean grandbaby!”
I was already happily married, but at the time, my sister was not. “We could always get Lindsay to marry a good Korean kid. Can you imagine how cute their babies would be?”
Cornwall gave a squeal of delight. “Yes! We need to find Korean men for her!”
“This is weird,” I hedged. Then we looked at each other and simultaneously drawled, “Nahhhh!”
“Maybe we can find cute Korean guys online or something,” I offered.
“Maybe I should go to her campus and just start handing out her picture to all the Korean men I see,” Cornwall suggested.
I imagined her standing there, handing out a picture of my blond-haired, blue-eyed, beautiful sister, and the thought just made me giggle. “I guess that really would put us at ‘psycho level’ if we tried to make our Kdrama fantasies come to life via Lindsay.”
“Yeah,” Cornwall agreed. And then her eyes lit up. “But wouldn’t that make a hilarious book?”
I could just feel the wave of creative genius flow through me. “YES, omglob, yes! We could write a book about a mom and daughter who are nuts about Kdramas…”
“…and they try to set up their daughter/sister with random Korean men they meet…”
“…and we could put all our favorite parts of Kdramas in them!…”
“YES.”
“YAS!”
And that’s really, truly how that happened. Once we had the idea, we made it happen, and the result is our finished novel, K-Love. We enjoyed doing it so much, we have a whole series of them planned for you, and dare I say it, we maybe have found a fabulous niche for our writing talents. It took us a long time to complete because I have four kids, and Cornwall decided to go back to school, and all kinds of other insane life happenings. But now that we know what we’re doing, we feel pretty confident we can pop these books out there faster than Kim Bok Joo can eat chicken wings. 😉
And there you have it. Just two crazy ahjummas taking fan girling to next level obsession.
Hope you enjoyed this post, and have a great week! We’ve got fun posts coming your way soon.
Cheers!
-Devon-
Hi Devon,
I can’t believe someone from the Western hemisphere who is not remotely Asian can share so much in common with me in our delight obsession with K-drama and Hyun Bin. It’s with great sadness that I have terminated my K-drama cable channel to focus on my study, but I have Legend of the Sea on record which I am slowly savouring now, episode by episode. I am approaching the final episodes with dread, for that’s when I will no longer be in the company of the charming, cute men and revert to the reality of real men in my life.
Vicky
It’s really awesome how far-reaching the greatness of Asian dramas can be, isn’t it? I feel like our Western culture isn’t very good at romance, so I rely on my Kdramas to give me that fix! I hope you love Legend of the Blue Sea, and yes, savor looking at Lee Min Ho! I was beyond thrilled that he did another drama before going into military service.
I want to know how you started on KD and what’s your first drama. Is it in your blog?
What do you like about it? The romance? Don’t you find it very paternalistic?
The first drama I watched was Sungkyunkwan Scandal, and yes, it’s the romance I love! I think American romances are weird. No one really acts like that-sleeping with many men, and having sex after the first date. That’s not how real love is. So to me, Kdramas are more romantic. They are paternalistic (good word, haha!) but I don’t mind that. I like a strong male lead. 🙂 Not everyone does, but it makes my heart flutter! Also, I’m watching it outside of my culture–I’m watching someone else’s culture, so it makes it different. It’s different than what I’m used to, and for that reason, it’s actually quite refreshing.
You articulated my thoughts exactly. Although even as an Asian(Chinese), I find Korean men, though cute, to be chauvinistic. I am almost reaching to the end of Lee Min Ho, and after that, I shall take a hiatus until after my study. I will suffer withdrawal syndrome for sure!.
I know the feeling! But I think it’s amazing how hard you are working on your studies, so keep at it, and do what you need to do so you can focus! There are times I have to set aside Kdramas. Happens to all of us! I’ll be cheering you on. 🙂
😍😘