Ann Arbor’s Setting for All You Need Is Love
I have always loved Ann Arbor, Michigan, ever since my mom, an artist, spent a few days in July at the annual Art Fair back when it was small (compared to the thirty-city-block sprawl now with a thousand artists). As a high school kid, I sat with my parents at the corner of State Street near the Michigan Union (maybe S. University Street? So long ago I’m not certain exactly where her booth was situated) and kept watch over my mother’s easels while they strolled the fair. It was fun people watching, too. And of course I walked around the gorgeous Law Quad area, admiring the stone towers, the soaring arches, the shade trees and students studying on the grassy lawn, while dreaming I was in England.
The signs of a future writer — three main traits are dreamer, watcher, observer…
Unfortunately I didn’t have the grades to get into U of M. My kid did, however, and whenever we visited the dorm, we could hear the marching band practicing. The college town is quite exciting, with the Big House filled to capacity on football weekends. Traffic is horrendous, though, on those days so I prefer catching every game during the season on TV (who can afford tickets?) I felt real joy seeing the rainbow flags all over, visiting the eclectic shops, and attending the Kerrytown Book Festival (sadly no more) as a new author. Since my kid remained in the area to work after graduation, we consider Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti as “our town” as well and easily drive there every month or so.
Ann Arbor is also known for several “firsts.” The University of Michigan led the way in passing ordinances for anti-discrimination and established the United States’s first LGBTQ campus center in 1970. Gay Liberation Front leader Jim Toy helped open the U of M Spectrum Center, while Gayle Rubin co-founded the Ann Arbor Radical Lesbians. The first openly gay candidate, Kelly Kozachenko, was elected to the City Council. Literati and the Dawn Treader are wonderful bookstores with LGBTQ literature, and Necto has the longest running Pride Nights on Fridays. (www.annarbor.org) And Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor host summer Pride Festivals, with the latter hosting several entertainers from Ru Paul’s Drag Race plus a group wedding ceremony last year. I missed seeing that, but the drag queens were amazing.
So when Jack Riley popped up on my radar, he was firmly established in the Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor area (despite spending a few years in NYC). He returned to A2 on purpose to fulfill his and his bestie Jules’s dream of opening a breakfast café in All You Need Is Love. My favorite restaurants, Amadeus, Savas, Connor O’Neill’s, became Jack and Jules’s. I love Kerrytown’s welcoming atmosphere, so I planted the Pink Unicorn gay bar in that area.
Blending fiction with facts is part of the fun in building the “world” of a book. The café’s location north of the river meant I could include an actual bridge reconstruction project that affected customer numbers. I chose a building that looked like as if it could include an upstairs apartment for Jack, which plays a major part in the book’s climax. And due to the incredible murals around Ann Arbor, which I’ve always loved, Jack wanted to create a mural on the café’s outside wall with the theme of “love and acceptance” of Ann Arbor’s LGBTQIA+ community.
During research, I discovered a gay student was harassed by their roommates on campus in 2017, a frat house was vandalized in 2023, and an art display in Gallup Park by the non-profit group Embracing Our Differences was vandalized in a 3-week string of hatred last year. The reality of people facing homophobia and bigotry can happen even within an inclusive, accepting town. So all that touched off the idea for vandalism and anti-gay slurs in All You Need Is Love.
Research plays a big part in building characters’ traits — what cars they drive, what clothes they wear, what motivations they have for their lives. I included Jules’s penchant for looking up her horoscope (and her friends) since I also use the Zodiac, both western and Chinese, to explore the characters’ backgrounds of family, friends, likes, dislikes, weaknesses and strengths, etc.
And I enjoyed writing the books to the music my main character prefers. Jack’s playlist (and mine) includes popular songs from Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, Conan Gray, Billie Eilish, Chappel Roan, Imagine Dragons, Omar Rudberg, Lavrans Svendsen, Mehro, Coldplay, Ariana Grande, Sia, Dua Lipa, Troy Sivan, RAYE, K-Pop Demon Hunters, Khalid, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, and plenty more. And my own love for the Beatles spurred me to use the song All You Need Is Love as the book’s title and theme.
I’ve been a theater lover for years and included the “Chelsea theater” (the Purple Rose Theater founded by Jeff Daniels) in one scene. I’ve been to New York City to see productions, and friends of mine work as actors, costume, and set designers, so that added to Jack’s background. It’s true that everything writers experience usually finds some way of slipping into a story, because details bring the world alive. Ever since earning my MA in Writing Popular Fiction, I make a point of including not only visual cues but smell, touch, taste, and audible senses as well. Not all at once, but it adds to a multi-dimensional read.
Being a writer may be a lot of work, but it’s also a huge joy to share. Thank you all for being readers, because authors would be nothing without you!
….Meg Macy
Meg Macy has a new MM romance book out, Love is Love book one: All You Need is Love.
Longtime friends Jack Riley and Juliette (aka Jules) Baxter are now partners in a new breakfast café, but they are surprised to be confronted by a wave of homophobia in a town known for its inclusive and diverse LGBTQA+ community.
Their romantic lives are just as uncertain. Jack, a gay former actor and fashion model, has failed at committed relationships due to his unsavory past – until he meets Reese Baxter, his partner’s handsome, closeted cousin.
Jules juggles several polyamorous relationships due to major trust issues, until she’s drawn to an intriguing artist. However his jealousy of her bestie Jack is getting out of hand. Is the vandalism against their café from conservative hate groups, or is it a focused personal attack?
Warnings: past trauma; past SA; homophobia; vandalism
In the Love Is Love series, three LGBTQA+ contemporary romantic suspense novels explore past hurts, healing, and the vulnerability of gay love and acceptance. Friendship, trust, courage, and resilience unite to combat fear and homophobia in reshaping lives and communities.
Universal Buy Link | QueeRomance Ink | Goodreads
Amazon
Jack glances at the clock. Forty-five minutes to go before closing. His anxiety deflates like a balloon after a needle prick. At Jules’s squeal of delight, Jack turns to see a tall, handsome man enter the café. He’s in a bespoke three-piece navy suit with dark hair and deep blue eyes. The guy avoids his curious gaze and smiles when Jules runs over to greet him with a hug.
“Hey, Reese. I hoped you’d come in!”
Hmm, the guy looks familiar. Jack figures he’s another Baxter when Jules calls him “cousin.” After cashing out more customers and answering questions, Jack empties the donation bucket again. He better count all this and announce the amount they raised after closing time. Jack checks his watch, the first responder Casio G-Shock that Drew always wore—fifteen minutes left. Most customers have departed. Ed has the kitchen under control, so he heads to the office.
He sorts through the bills, ones, fives, and tens. Someone threw in a fifty, whoa. But he’s disappointed at the total amount. Jack hoped for more, but it’s early days for an idea that some people like Paul Baxter think is foolish.
Jules peeks her head through the door. “Hey, Anna locked the door. My cousin is curious how much money we raised for veterans.”
“Meh. Enough to start the program, at least,” Jack says.
“Come on, let’s tell everyone!”
She drags him back out front, where a few soiled dishes are left at tables or booths. While Anna checks out the register, Keisha and Jack bus the tables. He breathes a sigh of relief, since that lack of sleep is taking its toll. Reese Baxter lingers near the front counter. He looks in his late twenties, sporting a five o’clock shadow in mid-afternoon. Not baby-faced like him. Jack hates that at twenty-four, he can’t grow a mustache or much of a beard even after a few months.
He’s only got a few scattered hairs on his chest, too. Damn.
Reese observes everything happening around him, quiet and still, from a stool at the far end. Cool and collected, but damned hot with that strong chin and those gorgeous blue eyes. His suit looks crisp, his white sleeves cuffed with gold links. Reese wears an expensive Cartier watch, too. And Italian loafers.
Jack knows that brand since he has a similar pair in his closet upstairs. He pushes his reading glasses on top of his head, stretches his back and arms, and exhales a deep breath. Jules looks ready to burst. She grabs a few more bills out of the bucket.
“Don’t forget to add these to the count.”
Anna and Keisha both use their fists to hammer out a drumroll on the counter. “So what’s the total from the donation bucket?” Jules asks. “Stop stalling. Tell us!”
“Two-hundred and forty, plus that extra three bucks.” Jack slides an arm around her and Keisha to form an impromptu line dance. “Not great, but we got time yet to collect more. Come on, kick a little.”
“Yeah, let’s do A Chorus Line,” she says with a giggle.
Keisha doubles over with laughter, her knot braids swinging. “Ain’t no way I’ma try that. Beyoncé’s moves, though, I can do.”
“I bet Jack could be a dancer in one of her videos, and he’s just as pretty,” Jules teases. “I’ve got a picture to prove he looks great in makeup and fishnet stockings.”
Jack sticks out his tongue. “Thought you trashed that photo.”
“Hey, Juli? Come here,” Reese says, beckoning.
“You dressed in drag for a party, Jack?” Keisha asks him. Anna crowds closer as well. “Come on, let’s see.”
“Jules took that photo and never sent—”
They all stop at her loud shriek. “Hey, everyone! My cousin Reese more than doubled the money donated today for veterans’ free breakfasts,” she says, waving a check and jumping up and down. “Now the fund has over five-hundred dollars. Fabulous!”
Jack stares at her cousin in shock. “Whoa. I oughta kiss you for that.”
Reese raises an eyebrow. “Never kissed a guy before.”
His deadpan tone is a tempting challenge. On impulse, Jack grabs him by his tie and tugs him down, one hand behind his head, then kisses his soft mouth. Startled by the guy’s woodsy scent, the intense shiver down his spine, and his quickening heartbeat, the feeling that everything surrounding them disappears, Jack backs away. Clears his throat nervously, given the sparking tension between them. Uh-oh. He’s been punched in the nose before after an unexpected kiss.
Jack grins, hoping Reese doesn’t lash out. “Can’t say that no more, huh?”
The guy flushes scarlet, matching his own flaming cheeks. Odd that Jules’s cousin doesn’t speak in turn. Jack scrubs damp palms on his jeans. Damn, that kiss was fantastic. Too brief as well, but he isn’t about to push his luck.
National bestselling author Meg Macy is a reader first and foremost. She’s always found comfort, adventure, and connection in books—which might explain why she now writes stories that offer all three. Best known for her Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear Mystery series (Kensington), several Christmas romance novellas with rescue pets, and as one-half of D.E. Ireland, the Agatha Award-nominated duo behind the Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins mysteries, Meg has long embraced the cozy end of fiction.
Now, she’s rewriting the rules with a new direction: LGBTQA+ romantic suspense —queer characters in a cozy setting, with spice, intrigue, and plenty of emotional payoff. M/M or polyamory, traditional or trailblazing, her stories are comfort reads with a twist.
Unique? Yep. Meg loves breaking the rules.
She lives with her writing companion, Mr. Whiskers the cat, and prefers pages to parties any day.
Author Website: https://www.megmacy.com
Author Facebook (Personal): https://www.facebook.com/authormegmacy/
Author Facebook (Author Page): https://www.facebook.com/MegMacyAuthor
Author Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meg.macy.author/
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15751255.Meg_Macy
Author QueeRomance Ink: https://www.queeromanceink.com/mbm-book-author/meg-macy/
Author Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Meg-Macy/author/B01N3KTK1N
Thank you so much for hosting All You Need Is Love on the blog today!