Your FMC is an influencer, a role often dismissed as frivolous, yet Sofia is using social media to educate and amplify overlooked stories. Were you hoping to challenge readers’ assumptions about influencers and content creators?

Absolutely! Some of my favorite social media creators focus on education, whether that’s highlighting historical figures, discussing civic engagement, or exploring the natural world. I love learning something new in addition to the cat videos, book reviews, and makeup tutorials I enjoy watching.

Social media makes it possible to feel deeply connected to someone you’ve never met. How did online relationships and digital intimacy shape your approach to the romance?

Although I met my husband the old fashioned (in a college bar on quarter beer night), I have dear friends I’ve “met” online. Whether it was in author spaces, baby boards, or fanfic circles, I’ve always believed that the internet, and social media more specifically, can bring people together. So when I contemplated Sofia and Alex’s relationship, it felt important to ground their beginning in a shared interest and grow it from there. But despite their online friendship, Sofia never expected to meet Alex in person. So when they’re suddenly thrust together in real life, the attraction she found easy to ignore when they were just online friends is now right in front of her, which makes for delicious romantic tension!

What were you seeing in influencer culture that made you want to pull it into a story?

For better or worse, influencer culture has become part of our greater community. So much about society’s tastes, whether in music, fashion, reading, etc, comes from social media, where anyone with an account and an idea can share it. This open access can be hugely problematic, but presents opportunities to learn and share knowledge. It is within this specific social media niche that I find interesting, and so I centered Sofia’s educational, feminist content creation within it. The only influence she’s keen to engage is educating her audience about bad ass women in history who have yet to receive their flowers.

Who are some influencers making a positive impact (like Sofia) do you love following?

Oh, I follow so many! Redacted History on Instagram is amazing, as is the Humanity Archive. I love Herstory_feminism on Instagram, which highlights women who changed history and most closely mirrors Sofia’s Matildas series. I also never miss a video by Today I Learned Science on TikTok and Instagram, and look forward to every October for Spooky Lake Month, hosted by Geodesaurus on TikTok.

What do you think people misunderstand about influencers that you were able to explore in the story?

I hope I showed how much work goes into not just filming and editing content, but researching it, as well. Sofia spends hours out of her day researching feminist historical figures, writing scripts about them that are both informative and engaging, and then films those videos. It takes talent to continuously hook, entertain, and engage your audience, and I think influencers/content creators deserve more credit for this feat.

What was it like to build a love story that starts online? How was it different from the romances you’re used to writing?

For my entire writing career, until this point, I’ve set my books in the past, namely the Victorian era. But with Mutual Discord, I could play with technology! I could reference modern day events or cultural moments. At the same time, when my characters miscommunicate, it’s a harder sell because they have smartphones that they could use to literally text each other. Call each other! Facetime each other! And they’re not?! The easy access to technology made character development that much more important because I had to ask myself: what about this character makes them not want to be honest with their love interest? I had to dive deep into their characterizations to generate the romantic tension.

As someone known for historical romance, what surprised you most about writing a contemporary novel that engages so directly with social media culture?

The vernacular! I’ve never felt more like a Xennial than I did trying to figure out which turns of phrase Sofia and Alex would use. And because social media moves so fast, it was a task to keep up with the changing terminology.

Social media can be empowering, but it can also be exhausting. What aspects of influencer life did you most want readers to understand?

I hope that through Sofia and her Matildas series, I was able to highlight how social media can be used to educate in an entertaining manner. It can be used to organize and has the power to shape public opinion, whether good or bad. But social media is not real life. It’s often carefully curated, and in Sofia’s case, it’s focused solely on a specific topic. The Sofia in her videos is not the enormity of the Sofia she is in real life, and I think it’s important for all social media users to remember that who they are is not dependent upon who the internet believes them to be.

What are you working on next?

In January, I will be independently releasing the first book, titled Recklessly Yours, in a new historical romance series. Opposites attract on the slopes of the Himalayas when an adventure seeking second son finds his mountain guide more than a little compelling! I originally wrote this book in 2019, so I’m thrilled to finally share it with readers!

A Few Fun, Fast Questions

Which social media platform is your favorite and why?

Oh, it’s so hard to choose a favorite because they all have their own personalities. But if I had to choose, it would be YouTube. Not only do I enjoy long form content on various topics like historical documentaries, true crime cases, and even vlogs from creators who live in countries far from my Phoenix area home, I also like giggling over dog and cat shorts and saving videos for recipes I’ll eventually get around to making.

Who is the most fascinating forgotten woman from history you’ve discovered through your research?

There are so many, but I find myself thinking of Alice Ball again and again. She was a young Black American chemist who discovered how to modify chaulmoogra oil’s fatty acids into ethyl esters to successfully treat leprosy. It was a groundbreaking discovery because it was the first time a viable treatment had been identified for a disease that has affected humans for thousands of years and carried severe social stigma. But before Alice could publish her findings, she died at just 24 years old in what many people believe was the result of a lab accident. After her death, others took credit for her work and she was largely erased from her discovery until historians began to talk about her story in the 1970s. I frequently wonder what else Alice Ball could have discovered if she hadn’t died so young.

Are you more likely to post, lurk, or disappear from social media altogether?

I’m a dirty lurker! I like to consume social media content, but rarely want to create it!

Which romance trope will you never get tired of writing?

I love writing antagonists to lovers. Antagonists aren’t as cutthroat as enemies, but they still don’t like each other and that animosity bleeds into their interactions. I live for when the cutting sarcasm between the main characters begins to take on a flirtatious tone!

What book, creator, or historical figure has most influenced you recently?

Scary Interesting on Youtube! The channel does historical deep dives into cases I’ve never heard of, like the Cerro Rico mine in Bolivia, the Bataan Death March of 1942, and the Black Hole of Calcutta. It also recaps cave diving accidents, tells tales of adventures gone wrong, and highlights criminals history has forgotten. The videos are always well researched and the host, Sean, has the most soothing voice!

Mutual Discord by Liana De la Rosa

Sofia Mendoza had enough with watching her male-coworkers take credit for her ideas, so she left her corporate job. No one knows it but she is the creator of an extremely popular video series highlighting women that have been left out of history. It’s popular enough that Sofia is able to support herself as a content creator, not that her friends and family know that. Hiding her online presence has been lonely but she makes a random connection with a mysterious commenter that has turned into private messages and then video chats, where he is smart, funny, and incredibly attractive. The problem is when an old friend Caitlyn comes to visit with her boyfriend, Alex. That boyfriend is who Sofia has been messaging and video chatting online. Alex is pretending not to know who Sofia is and pretending the chemistry and connection they have doesn’t exist. With their friendship no longer on the internet, how long will it take until their secrets are revealed?

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