Writing Romance in a World on Fire

Confession time: I don’t usually write romance.

I write about collapsing cities, fractured memory, recursive AIs, and people clawing their way toward meaning through fire, signal, and silence. But when it came time to tell the story of Elle (Ellemental) and Caleb (Fahrenheit), something shifted.

Fire & Storm is still a Technomancer novella—yes, there are coded enemies, atmospheric power surges, and rooftop standoffs—but at its core, this is a story about connection.

Writing this book pushed me into unfamiliar emotional territory. Not the sweeping romance of flower fields and grand declarations—but the kind that’s quiet, earned, and forged through shared firewatch, whispered doubts, and choices made when no one is watching.

Elle and Caleb aren’t star-crossed lovers. They’re survivors. They’ve seen the world at its worst—and each other at their most vulnerable. And still, they choose each other.

That, to me, felt worth exploring.

So if you’re like me—a little skeptical of romance tropes, but still secretly rooting for connection in the midst of chaos—I think Fire & Storm might surprise you the same way it surprised me while writing it.

August 1st is getting closer. I hope you’ll be there when the storm breaks.