Interview with Romance Author Emily Mah Tippetts

Emily Mah Tippetts grew up in New Mexico and now lives in London with her family. Someone Else’s Fairytale is her third novel written as E.M. Tippetts, the name she uses for romance. She also writes science fiction and fantasy as Emily Mah. Before she was a writer, she was an attorney who specialized in real estate, estate planning, and literary estate planning. To learn more about her, including how to contact her, visit her website.


Hello Emily! Please tell us about your sweet romance.

Protagonist, Chloe Winters, doesn’t just not care about celebrities, she’s got good reasons to avoid them. Suffice it to say, she’s got some unusual scars and cops recognize her immediately when they hear her name. The movie star is Jason Vanderholt, star of the New Light franchise, a series of gladiator movies that made him so famous he can’t set foot anywhere in public without attracting a mob of adoring fans.

Someone Else’s Fairytale conforms to the moral norms of Latter-day Saint fiction. There are no steamy sex scenes, swear words, or gratuitous violence. I loved writing it, and hope my readers get that same sense of lighthearted joy when they read it. It came out in December in ebook form, and is just now coming out in print.

Since my blog is a family friendly blog, your book fits right in. Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

The idea for Someone Else’s Fairytale came to me while I was desperate to think of another light romance concept. I was completely blank, but wanted more than anything to have a book idea that I loved so much that I’d look forward to working on it every day. I must’ve spent two weeks wracking my brain for something, anything, and then one day I was bored and reading entertainment headlines. It occurred to me that it really is strange how many people idolize celebrities and how if one ever hit on me, I would find it an amusing incident to tell my grandchildren about and there it was, the idea I’d been searching for. What if, I thought, I had a protagonist who doesn’t care about celebrity, fame, or money who gets hit on by a movie star? So that’s the plot of Someone Else’s Fairytale.

The setting just had to be Albuquerque in my home state of New Mexico. It’s ideal because although it is a city, the population is tight-knit enough to make it feel like a small town. It’s produced several well known actors, and even those who aren’t well known are known to the people who live there. Their former classmates and extended family are still around everywhere. For example, I worked at the law firm that Neil Patrick Harris’s grandfather helped found. His brother ran a restaurant on the east side of town. So I made Jason Vanderholt an Albuquerque native and a graduate of La Cueva High School, which is where Neil Patrick Harris and Freddie Prinze, Jr. went to school.

Once I had my characters and setting, it was just a matter of introducing Jason to Chloe, and the rest was a couple of months of hard work and serious fun. I hope people enjoy the ride!

What a great plot! Back in the 40s, my mother and her sister took a trip to Palm Springs and while there she was hit upon by Errol Flynn. She enjoyed his flirtations but knew his reputation with the women and was careful. For those too young to remember, he played the part of “Robin Hood.” So, Emily, you write “chick lit” and science fiction. What does your family think about your writing?

They’ve been endlessly supportive. My parents paid for a very expensive education for me, and yet brag to their friends about my books - that’s loyalty, given the average income (or lack thereof) a writer earns. My husband reads everything I write, even the chick lit. And then the other people who’ve helped me along, such as my best friend Char who reads absolutely every draft of everything I produce, have become family to me. I don’t know what I’d do without them. My boys are too young to tell me what they think, so we’ll see!

Okay, now it’s time to tell us something about the real you that we’ll never forget.

I’ve got six names altogether. My legal name is Emily Mah Tippetts, but I was born Emily Mary Mah, and my Chinese relatives gave me the name Shi Yue. So I am Emily Mah, E.M. Tippetts, Emily M. Mah, Mah Shi Yue, and many other names besides. This means that I can go through a lot of permutations before I have to use an actual pen name, which I love, because I can brand my different styles accordingly, but still look at the cover and see my very own name.

Wow! That’s really something. Now we know the real you: Emily Mah Tippetts, Emily Mary Mah, and Shi Yue! Hahaha! Thank you so much for this interview.