Get ready to learn more about the book Corked! in this discussion with sapphic author L.M. Bennett.
Join us for an exclusive peek behind the scenes as we quiz L.M. Bennett about Corked!, writing, reading, and more.
This book is part of the Foodie Romance category in the 2024 IHS Reading Challenge.
Why did you write Corked!?
I wrote Corked! because it was a challenge. I knew next to nothing about wines, even less about being a sommelier, so I challenged myself to write something that was unfamiliar and out of my lived experience. Haven’t looked back since.
Who is your favorite character in the book?
Nola, because we have some of the same perfectionist tendencies, we both feel some of the same pressure to excel, which is actually a common theme in all of my books, come to think about it. Nola and I just chose different careers.
What inspired the idea for Corked!?
There’s this cool sommelier on YouTube, André Mack, who does wine comparison videos. He’s fun, engaging and some of his descriptions of the different wine notes are completely wild. (Pencil shavings? WHAT?) So, of course, I got inspired for a story about a sommelier…and the food blogger who hated her wine choice. BOOM! Off to the races, I went.
What part of Corked! was the most fun to write?
Sampling the different wines Nola and Sharif mentioned in different scenes of the story. My poor spouse was a trooper, having to listen to me going on and on about different wines, pairings and wine regions, when all she wanted was to grab lime tortilla chips and salsa from the supermarket.
How much research did you need to do for Corked!?
I did a lot of active research about what a sommelier does, the questions they ask, their exact moments when they’re serving a table, and of course how they go about pairing wines with food. After a while, I started doing my own pairings, or trying to guess pairings before I looked them up. It’s definitely the most fun I’ve had researching any book, by far!
What is your writing process like?
I’m a chaotic pantser. While I may have a crystal clear idea of what the end of the story will be, I might give you a blank stare if you asked me what’s going to happen in Chapter 6. Having the ending in mind gives me an idea of what the character looks like when they’re happy and at peace, so then the fun becomes messing up their lives as much as possible before that point. It’s not perfect by any means, and sometimes takes me longer to complete a story without a concrete plan, but it works for me.
How do you celebrate when you finish your book?
I demand celebratory tacos, and like magic, they appear before me. 😉
Do you have a pet who helps/hinders your typing?
Nipsey Trevarious Hussle, Esq. is a 1 year old void kitty who supervises me while writing, and also steals my desk chair the moment I get up for coffee. His big sister, Queen Bootsy Collins II, often helps me out of writers block by climbing up my chair to tell me what comes next. I have to translate, of course, because she’s a cat.
If you could be mentored by a famous author (living or not), who would it be?
Chuck Palahniuk. He makes it easy to grasp the mechanics of his storytelling, but it’s the fearlessness of what he says that I could just suck up like a sponge.
Have you ever cried when writing an emotional scene?
I completely lost it while writing a scene in which a character hears something she’s needed to hear for a long, long time. It turned out to be something that I needed to hear, too. And when I wrote those words, the tears just flowed. I still can’t read that scene without tearing up!
What books did you grow up reading?
I’m a product of my time, through and through. Growing up, I read Babysitters Club, Sweet Valley High, River Heights High (if you remember that series, high five!) While some of the books made more of an effort than others to be inclusive, I found myself writing Mary Sue-ish fanfic, which I guess was my way of putting people who looked like me into those stories. I grew up to do exactly that.
What book do you wish you had written?
I wish I had written a book like “Yellowface” by R. F. Kuang. Kuang is masterful at creating a character who grates on your nerves one minute with all the excuses she makes for her poor behavior, but then she just says something so incredibly true and profound that all you can do is nod, and highlight that phrase to come back to it later and marvel at its genius. Juniper is impossible to like, but the book is also impossible to put down.
Have you ever thought you’d hate a book, but ended up loving it?
My grandmother gifted me “See Jane Run” by Joy Fielding as a teenager. I had just discovered books by African-American authors like Omar Tyree, E. Lynn Harris and Terry McMillan, so it took me a while to get around to this book. But when I finally picked it up, Fielding knocked me off my feet with a the tale of a woman wandering around in a blood-stained dress, a pocket stuffed full of cash, and no memory of how she got there. I tore through that book and immediately ran to the library to grab her other books!
