Julie Murphy meets Casey McQuiston in debut author Christen Randall’s unforgettable queer romance about a teen girl whose foray into a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game brings her new confidence, true friends, and a shot at real, swoon-worthy love.
“The No-Girlfriend Rule” follows Hollis Beckwith who is just trying to get by. For a fat, broke girl with anxiety, the start of senior year brings enough to worry about. And besides, she already has a boyfriend: Chris. Their relationship isn’t particularly exciting, but it’s comfortable and familiar, and Hollis wants it to survive beyond senior year. To prove she’s a girlfriend worth keeping, Hollis decides to learn Chris’s favorite tabletop roleplaying game, Secrets & Sorcery—but his unfortunate “No Girlfriends at the Table” rule means she’ll need to find her own group if she wants in.
Enter: Gloria Castañeda and her all-girls game of S&S! Crowded at the table in Gloria’s cozy Ohio apartment, the six girls battle twisted magic in-game and become fast friends outside it. With her character as armor, Hollis starts to believe that maybe she can be more than just fat, anxious, and a little lost.
But then an in-game crush develops between Hollis’s character and the bard played by charismatic Aini Amin-Shaw, whose wide, cocky grin makes Hollis’s stomach flutter. As their gentle flirting sparks into something deeper, Hollis is no longer sure what she wants…or if she’s content to just play pretend.
Christen Randall (she/they) is a queer, fat, neurodivergent author of queer, fat, neurodiverse books. When they’re not writing joyful stories for the next generation of geeky gay kids, you can find them working at their local library branch or at home planning all the D&D campaigns they’ll run one day, they swear. Christen lives in Covington, Kentucky.
For this interview, I wanted to focus on Randall’s own experience playing tabletop roleplaying games and how that helped them write their debut.
What draws you to Dungeons and Dragons? How do you think your identity as a gamer helps your identity as an author?
I love Dungeons and Dragons because for me and my tables, it’s all about collaborative storytelling—coming together and creating a world we all care about, carving out the stories we want to tell with the characters we want to tell them through. So absolutely it has absolutely informed my identity as an author because that’s what I aspire to do with my writing as well. I’m here to tell fun, joyful stories that uplift the people interacting with them, driven by characters people care about. When I’m playing a really good tabletop game, that’s what I am doing there, too.
How do you hope Hollis’s relationship with her S&S friends will appeal to readers? Anything you hope they take away from that dynamic?
What I really loved about writing Hollis and her friends is how supportive they are of each other. Whether they’re having an impromptu parking lot dance party, helping each other out with homework, or working together in the game to conquer evil, they all show up for each other as they are and joyously lift each other up. Outside of being (I hope!) really fun to read, I want readers to know they’re worth those sorts of friendships in their own lives—and that it’s a truly magical thing to be that kind of friend for someone, too.
Did you have any milestones or goals you set when writing your debut? If so, did you complete them? Is there anything specific in the writing process itself that will be a core memory for you?
My major goal for my debut was for “The No-Girlfriend Rule” to find the people who need it. When I was growing up, I didn’t have many representations of people like me in the media I loved, so I have always wanted this book to be that for the next generation of geeky gay kids. Now that it’s out in the world, I have been really excited to start getting feedback from people that it made them feel seen, or that it was the book they needed when they were a teen, or (perhaps my favorite) that they’re getting a copy for their kiddo who is also fat, or queer, or anxious because they know they need a book like this. I try to keep it cool every time and every time I fail spectacularly. Literally, it’s a dream come true.
Do you have any memorable local library stories to share that have inspired you to write or that you hope to use in the future?
I work at my local library, so I am very lucky to be full of these! Libraries are such unique places where everyone in the community is welcome, so I’m always picking up bits of characters here and there from the wonderful patrons who visit the branch. But there are a couple memorable moments I’ve snuck pieces of into my second contracted book, which is still a secret, so I can’t share, but trust me when I say there is plenty of library love in there!
Besides the obvious tabletop roleplaying game theme going on in your book, if you could describe your book as an aesthetic, what would it be and why?
This one is tough! Different characters are different things—Fran is a neon version of goblincore, I think, and Maggie is definitely full of witchy cool girl aesthetic goals, for example. But for the book overall? I’m going to make up my own aesthetic and say Midwestern Queer Joypunk. It’s so deeply all of those things—Midwestern, Queer, and Joyful—that that’s how I’d pin it down.
Every author has pieces of themselves within their writing, especially their debut. How do you think this concept applies to you for “The No-Girlfriend Rule?”
Like Hollis, I have always been fat, queer, and anxious, and so many parts of her journey are pieces of my own. And like the dedication of the book says, this book is for anyone who needs Hollis like I have needed Hollis. Writing her adventure to finding her true self certainly helped me heal parts of mine.
Thank you Christen for answering my questions! Wishing you success on your debut. I’d also like to thank Antonella Colon from Simon & Schuster’s Children’s Publishing who not only extended this interview opportunity to me but also wrote for Her Campus Hofstra when I was there! What are the chances? So glad we could reconnect through our love for books. Wishing you success in your new role!