We were thrilled when author Emery Lee was able to join us in our warehouse studio to create scents for eir books Don’t Drag This Out and Forget Me Knot. We tested several combinations of each scent and finally landed on a collection that is SO dreamy. You’ve got to check out Emery’s scent collection today, and e was kind enough to talk with us about indie publishing, boba tea, and so much more!

Emery Lee is the award-winning author of MEET CUTE DIARY and CAFÉ CON LYCHEE. E’s the founder of #Transbooks365, a community hashtag made to celebrate books by and about trans people. Coming from a university background of creative writing, e’s gone on to write entertainment news, edit literary magazines, and work as a trade book reviewer. Outside of novels, e’s written interactive fiction, short stories, and webcomics. Eir books have received starred reviews, been featured in ALA’s rainbow booklist, and been translated into multiple languages. Drawing inspiration from anime, pop punk music, and eir own cultures and identities, e seeks to tell multi-layered stories about complex characters that challenge conventional power structures and make room for marginalized readers across fandom spaces.

In Emery’s book Don’t Drag This Out, the two leads, Brian and Thomas, are both returning characters from Café Con Lychee & Meet Cute Diary! 

What made you want to get back into the perspectives of Brian and Thomas for Don’t Drag This Out and how was the experience of visiting with these characters again in a new story? 

When I finished Café Con Lychee, I already knew Thomas's story wasn't done. He always felt like the most compelling character in that book for me, but I knew I hadn't covered enough to do it justice. Meanwhile, Brian just... never felt totally straight to me. It wasn't something I had really thought to explore more until I was jokingly telling my group chat that I could make this super ambitious crossover, and of course, everyone told me I should do it for real. It's always fun to step into an already established world and revisit characters from a new perspective, but it's also hard because there's always this question of "Am I doing this justice? Does it feel consistent? Is this still the same person?" For Don't Drag This Out, it was especially complicated because the story takes place years after the first two books, and it'd been just as many years since I'd written within that world, so it took some actual studying on my part, rereading excerpts and trying to recall what I sought to channel in those characters in the first place.

What inspired the shift to writing romantasy in Forget Me Not and what was the inspiration behind the story?

I actually wrote Romantasy long before I wrote Romance and before "Romantasy" was considered a genre. I only started writing contemporary just before Meet Cute Diary, which was the 8th book I drafted, but back in the day, my "fantasy" was a little too romance/character heavy because the industry largely wanted high-stakes, plot-driven stories, so I couldn't sell those early projects. Then, by the time Romantasy became a thing, I'd given up on writing Japanese fantasy in any capacity since all of my stories that aimed for a Japanese-style execution were rejected for not following Western conventions. I remember reading some gay poetry from ancient Japan and sending it to my agent like "Okay, but can I sell something that reads like *this*?" and they were like "we'll definitely try!" because they were always very supportive, but it just... wasn't something the industry was familiar with, and because a lot of Japanese fiction tends to be more indirect, less formally structured, and more driven by the antagonist than the protagonist, I knew the only way I could tell Japanese stories was if I first Westernized the structure, and that felt almost sacrilegious to do haha. So, when I left my publisher and decided to go back into indie exclusively for my adult projects, it just felt like common sense to work on a Japanese Romantasy that explored queerness through an historical Japanese lens. I wanted to channel all of the pining from those early poems, but through a familiar myth and trope (soulmates) that my audience would recognize so they could take their first steps into a less Western structure without fully losing their footing haha.

What made you want to be an author?

I've always written stories, but I actually didn't plan to be an author. I wanted to be a musician! I ended up majoring in Creative Writing in college because it was easy enough and meant I could graduate early, and I ended up selling my debut to a publisher because I needed a "more stable" career than freelancing and handselling art, which is hilarious because I can't imagine a less stable career than being a trad author haha. I made a pledge with some friends in high school to publish a book some day, but it really was meant to be just a little bucket list item, not my full-time career. It just so happened that I ended up being really good at it!

What do you hope readers will take away from your stories?

Something. That's such a bizarre answer, but it's really the only one I've got. I write every story for different reasons and with completely different intentions, but I ultimately hope that readers come away feeling like they actually have something to take with them, something to stew on, reflect on, bask in, and remember. I don't want my books to be another quick read that they stop thinking about once they close the back cover. What exactly they take is deeply personal, and I don't think there's any real right or wrong way to read, but I hope that my stories leave enough of an impression--good or bad--that they can't just forget what they read the second the story ends.

What is your favorite thing about indie publishing?

There are no limits! I no longer feel pressured to shelve stories that excite me because publishers may not find them marketable enough. I can just choose to give away copies for free or host sales or book events without having to worry about my publisher objecting or withholding information that makes that kind of maneuvering possible. I don't have to burn out doing marketing that isn't working because someone at my publisher heard that some author broke out that way. There's no longer a middle man keeping me from my readers or telling me what I can or can't give them. As long as what I'm doing makes me happy and makes my readers happy, I'm allowed to just freely pursue that, and it's made the entire publishing process so much easier and so much fun!

What is some advice that you’d give to aspiring authors who are thinking about indie publishing?

Indie publishing is not "the backup plan if you can't make it in trad". I hear that take a lot from trad authors trying to hype themselves up, but it's reductive and honestly, really offensive haha. Many traditionally published authors try to pivot to indie and fail because they don't have any idea what does well in indie. They think indie is just "authors who are worse than trad authors" and it shows in how they step into our community thinking they're entitled to outperform us. The reality is that indie is an entirely different ecosystem. Indie readers don't have "lower" standards than trad readers; they just have different standards. What's valued in trad means nothing in indie, and what's valued in indie are a lot of things you won't learn in trad. If you want to succeed as an indie author, it's just as important to understand your market and your audience. In fact, it may be even more so because you're doing it all yourself! But if you think you can put out anything in indie because it's just "publishing with no barrier to entry", you're in for a very rude awakening!

What’s the best advice you have for writing a romance?

Romance is as much about the individual main characters as it is about their love story with each other. You can make them ready to jump in front of a bus for each other, but if they're both flat people with no life outside of each other and no individual characteristics that make us root for them outside of the relationship, we won't root for the relationship either. It's not enough to make them attracted to each other or give them good chemistry. We have to believe there's a reason for them to commit to each other beyond just a hookup or a short fling.

What is the best way to support you as an indie author?

Since I had a lot of privacy issues with distributors, any form of direct support makes a huge difference in my ability to keep putting out books, be that following along with my newsletter/Patreon, buying from my direct webstore, sharing my links with booksellers, friends, etc. Basically anything that helps keep my stories in circulation without having to rely on some of the more predatory corporations.

What do you have coming next that we need to keep on our radars?

I have a mafia romcom releasing this fall under my adults-only pen name, and a yet-unannounced YA novel with my yet-unannounced new publisher out early next year!

How do you set the vibe when you sit down to write your stories?

I don't! I have to have coffee in the morning to get my brain into focus, but I write at all times of day, in all kinds of places, with all types of environmental factors at play. I've written through fire alarm testing, construction, actively during classes and meetings. Just recently, I was drafting a novel on a plane in a tiny 3x5 notebook I just bought on the trip because the space was too cramped to pull out my laptop haha. All I need is a couple minutes to get my head immersed in my story and characters, and I'm good to go!

What is your go-to comfort read?

I don't have one! I almost never re-read, unless it's been so long that I can't remember a lot of details about the book. The closest thing I have is that, when I'm in a real emotional kerfuffle, I always say "I need a real shock to my system" and that's when I pick up whatever sounds like the most messed up and emotionally scarring horror around, often a Junji Ito comic since there are still so many of his I haven't read yet.

Are there any other indie books that we need read? Shout them out here!

Magica Riot by Kara Buchanan!!! This is probably my most recommended book at this point, but if you haven't read it yet, you need to change that!

Last but definitely not least, I’ve read in quite a few interviews that you are a very big fan of boba tea. What are your favorite teas to drink, and what would you recommend to someone who is trying boba for the very first time?

I drink a lot of different boba drinks depending on the shop and my mood, but if I'm trying a place I haven't had before, I typically try a Thai milk tea, lavender milk tea, earl grey milk tea, or oolong milk tea, just to be safe. You can learn a lot about the place based on how they prepare those haha. If you've never had boba before, I always recommend going with whatever the shop claims is their specialty because that's usually the thing they do best. Also, if you know what country the shop originates from, that can help a lot too! If a place is Taiwanese, I'll usually try an original milk tea, honey milk tea, or something along those lines. For Japanese shops, I favor matcha or jasmine milk tea. Chinese shops tend to do a great job with the bold, black teas, like oolong or earl grey. Meanwhile, Korean places are typically where I'll try the more adventurous flavors or fruity flavors. Oh, and of course, if you go to a Thai shop, you have to get the Thai milk tea!

Click here to shop the Emery Lee collection today!

Available through July 13, 2026