Inside Brynne Weaver’s Harvest Season

Originally published in Nashville Lifestyles

Cliffhangers, chaos, and Cape Carnage: Brynne Weaver is coming to Nashville.

Weaver, often dubbed the Queen of the Dark Rom-Com, has built a devoted following through social media and across multiple series where sharp wit, heat, and high stakes collide.

She first gained widespread attention with her viral Ruinous Love Trilogy, including Butcher & Blackbird, which is currently in development for a major film adaptation. Her past lives include a forensic archaeologist, waitress, deep-sea core analyst, advertising account executive, neuroscience clinical researcher, and horse farm boarder and breeder before she recently transitioned to a career as a full-time author. In the wake of her writing success, dark romance has surged into the mainstream, with Weaver at the forefront of the movement. Now, with more than 400,000 followers and over 5 million books sold, she continues that momentum with her latest release, Harvest Season, which is the second book in the Seasons of Carnage Trilogy.

For the Seasons of Carnage Trilogy, what began as a planned set of interconnected standalones quickly evolved into a continuous series as the characters and their fraught relationships demanded more space and depth. In Harvest Season (releasing June 9), Weaver turns it up a notch, delivering a roller coaster that readers can’t get enough of. She’ll mark the release with a book tour stop on June 14 at Books-A-Million, featuring a live conversation with Sarah Adams, a reader photo opportunity, and an exclusive-edition copy of the book.

Ahead of her Nashville visit, Weaver talks her latest release, her craft, and why a little emotional damage is half the fun.

You’ve been deemed the Queen of the Dark Rom-Com. What are the ingredients that make a standout rom-com?

Brynne Weaver: There has to be a little chaos. It has to be funny. Otherwise, it wouldn't get the ‘com’ in the rom-com. There has to be a romantic connection between the lead characters, and hopefully they have a lot of chemistry. The characters have to see the worst in each other and still come out with a happy ending. It must have a happy ending, that's one of the conditions for romance. It’s a hotly debated topic, but it always ends with a happy ending. I think in dark rom-coms, it can be just a little bit more chaotic on how they end up there.

How did you create the town of Cape Carnage?

BW: I drew a lot of inspiration from towns that I used to live in, small towns in Nova Scotia. You know, fishing villages where people know everybody else. I was very fascinated with the idea — because I write dark romance — of what it would be like to have a town that's fun but mysterious, almost like a Tim Burton type of vibe.

What made you want to make The Seasons of Carnage a continued series rather than interconnected standalones?

BW: I thought that it might be interconnected standalones when I first talked to my publisher about it; I think that's actually how we sort of pitched it to them. But as I was writing Tourist Season, I realized that the characters really hated each other. It felt like it would be doing a disservice to those characters to compress it down into one book.

So, when I was about two-thirds of the way through writing it, I sent a message to my agent and I said, “I really think, this has to be a continuous series. It can't be interconnected. It'll just feel too rushed. There's too much to excavate out of the characters.” And she was like, “Yep, no problem.” Then she messaged the publisher, and I think that they probably had a mild panic attack. But they trusted my vision. They went with it. I'm a discovery writer, so I don't know how things are going to end up as I'm doing it.

I'm really glad that I made that decision, though. I think it was the right call. It probably could have been possible to compress it, and the rest of the books would obviously be markedly different, but it wouldn't have been as special to me. It is really fun getting to follow the characters through the whole line of what they're doing and where they're going and digging into their backstory.

Is there anything specific in Harvest Season that you're most excited for readers to experience?

BW: It's funny, actually, I was just listening to the audiobook, which is really itself because Sam [Samantha Brentmoor] and Rob [Robert Hatchet] recorded together in the studio at the same time, sitting across from each other. It's quite rare that audiobook narrators get the chance to do that. Even if they're in the same studio, they're often separated by a room, but they were like right there together. So, it's been fun listening to that. Honestly, for me, this is going to sound really sadistic, but the end of that book, I really love a cliffhanger. Not for the reason of wanting to hook somebody into reading the next book. No, that's not why. It's like inflicting pain.

Are there any specific rituals you have to get into the writer space?

BW: I really like to have some music on. I start building a playlist before I even start writing the book and it's usually like the last thing I'm tinkering with at the end. There's always one song that seems to really sum up the characters for me or the essence of the book or series. In the case of Cape Carnage, I think “Sugar” by Sleep Token was one that I always kind of went back to. Also the MISSIO song, “Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea.” Those two songs really summed up the characters for me and the dark atmosphere of Cape Carnage.

What are you most looking forward to or what can people expect on book tour?

BW: On book tour, there are two things that I always really love. It's getting to meet other authors because we don't get a chance to connect in person very often. Sometimes it's a friend of mine who I don't get to see them often. Sometimes it's somebody whose work I've admired and I get to finally like meet them in fangirl in person, which is always fun. I love to meet the readers and get a chance to actually interact with them. I think the tours are always super fun. I like being on stage and getting to talk to the readers about the books and getting to answer their questions from the audience. It’s just a good time. They're often very funny and entertaining.

How do you think the reaction is going to be to the cliffhanger?

BW: People are going to be mad. I think people are going to be like, “what have you done?!” Because they've got to wait again for the third book. I personally argue that anticipation is a great emotion to have. It can be very fun as much as it is tortuous.

With Tourist Season and Harvest Season, do you have a favorite place that you like to be a tourist in?

BW: I love to travel. I love Italy, that's one of my favorite places to go. I love the food, the heat, being on the ocean. But I like to explore new places. I'd say that my ideal is going somewhere I've never been before. Which means I'm very excited to go to Nashville because I've never been, and it's one of those places where a lot of readers have been asking for me to go. I've wanted to be there for a long time.