Second Chances In Love

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Best-selling YA author Julian Winters on writing joyful queer romances, the mess of creative beginnings & why LGBTQ+ characters deserve stories that aren't defined by trauma.

This week on Hella Chisme, we sit down with award-winning and USA Today bestselling author Julian Winters — the voice behind Running With Lions, Right Where I Left You, Prince of the Palisades, and the upcoming Find My Way Down to You. Julian opens up about his journey from Thundercats fan fiction to publishing queer romances that center joy, community, and hope for young readers.

We unpack his creative process (spoiler: it starts messy), how rom-coms shaped his worldview before he ever saw himself in books, and why he refuses to write the trauma narrative — choosing instead to show queer kids that they deserve happily-ever-afters without having to earn them first.

This one's for writers, readers, and anyone who believes stories can save lives.

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Transcript

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Second Chances And Vulnerability

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And I feel like this book really explores the idea of second chance and love and emotional vulnerability. Um what tell us about this story and what interests you in telling a story about people who revisit feelings um and who essentially recreates a love story that they've had, but uh making it a new love story for themselves.

Why Fake Dating Works So Well

SPEAKER_00 0:24

Yeah, so I I mean I really love writing, uh I mean I really love the romantic fake dating. It is one of my favorite things. I don't know something about trying to tell this little white lie that gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, um, all while you are not realizing that you're slowly falling in love with this person that you're fake dating um is such a funny thing. So I am that was my intention going in. Um and then the more I wrote the story, I was like, oh, they're exes. Okay, that's fine. We'll work this out. And as I kept writing, I was like, oh, there's there's so many layers to this that I didn't foresee telling in this romantic story um that were super important.

When A Bad Ending Is Not Failure

SPEAKER_00 1:06

And the biggest thing I took away from it was um that it was the reminder to myself that you know there are things in my life that have happened that didn't go the way I wanted them to. And they ended badly. It's often the case with relationships, but in other things in life. Um and I had to kind of take a step back the same way that Denz and Braylon do in the book, and realize is it wasn't my fault that things didn't go the way they they went. It wasn't my fault that they ended badly. You didn't do anything wrong. You just weren't the person you needed to be in that moment for it to go the way you wanted. And that's a that's a thing that a lot of us have to realize is sometimes you are not who you need to be in order for things to go the way you want them to go. Um, and so that that became a huge component of me telling this story about, you know, two, you know, men falling slowly falling back in love with each other and realizing we dated when we were in college. We were young, we didn't know, you know, who we were becoming. That doesn't mean we don't deserve a second chance later on in life to have the love story that didn't happen then. Um, and I think that's that's such a a powerful message uh and such a powerful reminder for people is it's you deserve second chances. You deserve third chances, you deserve fourth chances. Sometimes it's not your fault that things didn't happen the way that they, you know, that you expected to. That doesn't mean you shouldn't, you know, dust yourself off and try again, like Aliyah said, you know, like go for it.

Being Ready For Love And Work

SPEAKER_01 2:52

No, I I also think um the other theme uh in the book in in with telling with uh understanding that he wasn't the person he was supposed to be in order to receive that blessing when it comes to relationship, but also when it came to career choices too, right? Yeah, um you know he at the he's not he was not ready to be CEO of the company. Um and I think 25 no yeah, and even when we even just you know, uh book aside, but in real life, uh you know, you have to be ready for that blessing, and it's gonna take some time, but it will continue to come back around again, and if you're ready at that time, it you'll get what it is that you're looking for.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Yeah, 100%.

Writing A Layered Main Character

SPEAKER_01 3:40

So we also know that Denzel's character was really layered. He, like I mentioned, he was balancing some emotional things, he had a lot going on, trying to do all the things. So, how do you approach building personalities of characters like such as his, uh, that is on an emotional journey, that's trying to figure it out, that's trying to get to an end go ultimately. Um, but you know, depending on where the character wants to end or where you want this character to end up, how do you make those decisions and how do we get to that point?

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Uh I it's interesting because it took quite a few drafts for me to figure out where Den's I mean, I at the end of the day, I knew I wanted him to be with Braylon, but who he was as an individual and not as a part of a couple, figuring that out took a like in life, took a couple of tries, a couple of, you know, a couple of mistakes, um, to kind of figure out where his journey was going to land. Um and I love that so much because it is a reflection of the actual story that's being told. Um, is that we we need a couple of tries to figure out who we're going to become. It was important for me to find that balance in remembering that um this is a person. And as people, we have we are more than just the person who's our partner. We are more than just who we are in our family, we are more than just who we are at our job. And so that helped me find the balance with creating different scenes and different moments where I got to show Den's with Bralin, Den's as a career man, Den's as a son, Den's as a brother, and all these different things, um, which for me I've I think helped really show, you know, how three-dimensional he is.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I often I feel like um, you know, it's the book, the book is so it's multi-layered and it tells so many stories that uh in real life us as real adults go through on a daily basis, especially, you know, just going through the different phases of life that we go through. And um, which is why I love I I love this story so much. Um because I think also it resonates with me and my career and my life right now. Although I'm I'm not uh the same age as the age group that they are in, but you pick you different things I pick I pick up from from the story that was being told there. And I I love that uh you incorporate that in the stories that you tell.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

Yeah, I just I try to make sure that my my themes are universal so that if you're picking it up as the 25-year-old Denz is you're like, oh yeah, I mean really but there's also different elements in the story where you can be 35, 45, you could be 65, and you're like, I still know how that feels to be in that moment and not know which path is the one I'm supposed to pick.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Absolutely.

What Makes Romance Feel Authentic

SPEAKER_01 6:39

And I think this is a perfect segue to this question of what do you think makes a romance, a romance novel or books feel authentic to readers today?

SPEAKER_00 6:50

I think it's uh gosh, just so many different things. Um one definitely has to be, you know, that we as humans, we're a lot, I feel like we're allowed to be a lot more human in the romance novels now than we were previously, where it's like it felt like everyone had these lies, even if it was messy, it was the perfect version of messy. And now I feel like no, we're just allowed to, we're just messy, messy. And that, you know, is that's what makes the the romance story feel authentic, makes it feels feel real. Um, I think you know what makes a really good romance feel authentic is the end goal, yes, is a happily ever after, but how that looks does not have to be picture perfect. It can be it can be flawed in its own way, but as long as you walk away with that hope in your chest that you know I can survive, I can make this, I can get to the you know, this point, um, is so so good to

Messy Happy Endings And Diversity

SPEAKER_00 7:52

me. Um, and I think just I mean, I hate to say it, but I do love now that romances are a lot more diverse. Like it it is a reflection of the world that we live in versus the small town that a lot of other people lived in back in the day.