A debut worth sinking your teeth into: Jenna Levine’s ‘My Roommate Is A Vampire’ is full of heart, wit, and the perfect amount of paranormal.

The following interview contains minor spoilers for My Roommate Is A Vampire

Jenna Levine has always liked to write. For as long as she can remember penning off-the-wall tales has been a comfort and solace during times of need. When the global pandemic coincided with the perfect writing prompt, she decided it was time to see if her hobby could be something more. Jenna spent her days working her job as a lawyer and her free time at a laptop weaving a story inspired by Beth O'leary's book The Flatshare and FX's vampiric mock-documentary series, What We Do In The Shadows. The result was her debut novel, My Roommate Is A Vampire, a fresh new voice in the ever-expanding genre.

The quirky and comedic story centers on down-on-her-luck, modern artist Cassie, who, with some assurance from her friends, decides to take advantage of a seemly too-perfect Craigslist ad. The catch? There is none. That is until Cassie discovers her new roommate sipping some B+. From there, the book focuses not on the dark and mysterious lore of the fanged creatures of the night but instead on what it might look like to fall asleep in a world without the internet and wake up in a decade where TikTok is quickly transforming into the younger generations preferred search engine. Levine’s cozy paranormal romance is perfect for those who love classic tales like Kate and Leopold but wish Leopold harbored a taste for human blood.  

Jenna was kind enough to sit down with The FMC to talk about her debut novel, which vampire stories are her favorite, and what advice she wishes she had before she turned writing into more than just a hobby.

Congrats on My Roommate Is A Vampire! I really enjoyed it. How are you feeling now that the story is no longer just yours?

I’m so excited. But it’s also scary. It's very vulnerable having a story you've worked hard on and believe in out in the world.

I can only imagine.

I try not to look at reviews, but a certain number of them find you. There's a fair amount of implicit pressure to have a social media presence as an author. If you do that, it's kind of impossible to avoid seeing what people are saying. 

Well, I loved the book. I thought it was super fun and unique. How did you come up with this story originally?

Several things happened simultaneously. I have spent a fair amount of time in online fandom spaces, and there was a story prompt floating around there in the early days of the pandemic involving a human roommate living with a vampire. When I'm stressed or sad or just dealing with a lot, my brain seeks solace in the quirky or the wacky as an escape. Around the time that I saw this prompt, I was watching a show called What We Do In The Shadows, which, for people who aren't familiar, is a really off-the-wall documentary-style show about a found family of vampires fumbling their way through modern-day life in Staten Island, and I thought, “Oh, it would be really fun to have like a roommate/vampire situation that matches the tone of this show instead of something a little more gory. Then, the final piece of the puzzle was that I had just finished reading The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary, which is just a phenomenal book. In it, a lot of the romance between the two main characters develops over a series of Post-It notes. In a way, this book is a combination of elements from those three ideas. I wrote it just because I wanted to see if I could do it. I wasn’t expecting this outcome.

I love both The Flatshare and What We Do In The Shadows. I can definitely see both of those influences, and I think you've blended them very well. 

Thank you. 

From the research that I've done, it seems like you are a big vampire fan. Besides What We Do In The Shadows, what vampire stories are your favorite and why?

I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which is maybe apparent to people who've read the book already. I watched the show a couple of years after it went off the air. While Buffy and What We Do In The Shadows are very different, I think one thing they have in common is that they are fairly light on the gory details of being a vampire. There are some wonderful vampire stories that go much deeper into the grisly details of being someone who requires drinking blood to survive. I also really like Nalini Singh’s vampire hunter series.

It’s definitely easier to empathize with the vampires if they are more of a Buffy/What We Do In The Shadows type. On the flip side, let’s talk about your protagonist, Cassie, for a minute. How did she take form? What was the final piece to that puzzle?

I wanted the two characters to be opposite in many ways. I'll admit Frederick, the main character who is–spoiler alert– a vampire, sprang into my mind a bit more fully formed. I knew I wanted him to be very fish out of water, very old-fashioned and very formal. So, for his partner in this romance, I set out to create someone who was not those things in several key ways. I knew fairly early on that I wanted Cassie to be an artist of the modern era. For the premise to work, I needed her to be short on income because why else would she accept this ridiculous living arrangement? Those details were decided fairly early on. As I was writing, I thought it would be great if she were also a bit of a mess but extremely passionate about her art in a way that balanced that art that would be confusing to somebody from a different era. While I love her very much, and she feels very fleshed out to me, I do admit Cassie came together because of what I needed her to be for the story to work and for the romance to have the elements that I wanted.

With a paranormal romance, you have to start with a character that is not human because there's a guideline they have to follow. What was your writing process like once you had your story, premise, and characters?

I wish I could give you a detailed explanation, but unfortunately, this is my debut, and while I've written for a while, this is the first time I’ve gotten a novel published. I wish I could say I woke up every day at six, I had breakfast, and then from nine to noon, I wrote, but it was not as organized as I wish it could have been. I think that's largely because the creative muse can't be tapped into during set times. I tried to set up a schedule for myself because I also have a very different job that takes up a lot of my time. However, it just didn't work out like that. Basically, the steps were: I wrote it. I rewrote it [laughter]. I tried to put myself on a schedule. That didn't work. I cried. That helped more. And then it just kind of got done. How's that for helpful? [laughter] I gave it to my editor. She had a lot of feedback. I incorporated that feedback and so on.

Were there any sections that took longer to get right or parts that you are most proud of?

I really am proud of the epistolary sections. For those that haven’t read it, parts of the book are told through texts, notes back and forth between the characters and journal entries. I knew really early on that I wanted Fredrick to have a very limited point of view, partly because I wanted to make his backstory and the vampire world kind of bonkers, and I knew if I gave him an entire point of view, it would fall apart. I loved writing the epistolary parts of the book. I think they worked well.

The texting sequences are hilarious. You touched on this earlier when you mentioned your other job, but you're also a lawyer. When did you decide to pursue fiction writing as more than just a hobby?

I don't know that there was ever a day I woke up and I decided to do it. It just evolved over a period of time, mainly during the pandemic. My family relocated to a new area, and a pandemic was happening. Because of this, I was at home for the first six months after we relocated. So, I was like, let's see if this is going to work. But being an author has always been in the back of my mind as something that I might want to pursue.

What advice would you give someone looking to make that leap?

Oh, goodness, I have so much advice. I think the first thing, and this is maybe not encouraging, but it's 'make you want to monetize a hobby.' I'm thrilled and very lucky that I have a book deal and a book out there. And it's extremely rewarding to have that. But along the way, and I've heard this from so many other published writers, you lose a fun hobby or outlet. The second you get paid and have deadlines and expectations, what has been a hobby and way to blow off steam is a job. That's definitely not something I thought about seriously enough when I did this. I have no regrets, but that's something I think not enough people who want to take the plunge into becoming a published author consider. My second piece of advice is to keep trying if you decide you want to do it. I was fortunate in how quickly it all came together for me. A lot of stars aligned, but in no way was my path typical. If people want to do this, you have to shut off the voice in the back of your head that says you’re not good enough and go for it.

When I talked to Elissa Sussman about her second novel, she said it was so much harder to write than the first because the first one you write for fun and the second one you write for money.

I’m working on my second book right now. In other interviews, I’ve been asked what I had to cut out of the first book. The answer is nothing. I rewrote a lot, but nothing was really removed. With the second book, I swear I have deleted at least as much as I've written. She's absolutely correct.

Speaking of the second book, back in August of last year, you tweeted your next’s books’ premise. Is Vampire/human fake dating still the plan?

It is.

That’s so fun. How exciting! 

Wish Me luck!

I hope it goes well and that you still enjoy writing it. Finally, since this is the FMC, which FMC archetype do you most relate to?

The Nerd 

Believe it or not, I get that a lot from authors.