Meet Ani Thomas

Ani is a romance enthusiast fueled by coffee and endless daydreams. She loves to write heartfelt stories that incorporate angst, humor, and open-door spice with endearing characters and happily ever afters. Born and raised in Upstate New York, she now lives in the South with her husband, three children, and their dog.

Ani's Bayport Cove series has all the feels with struggling relationships, hometown coziness, and male characters that will make you swoon.

Let's dive in.

What inspired you to write in the romance genre?

I have always been a bit of a hopeless romantic. I love, love those stories that just put you in all the feels and have you giggling and kicking your feet and swooning. I couldn’t imagine writing anything else.

Many aspiring authors deal with difficult hurdles when they set out to draft their first novel. What were some of the biggest obstacles you faced while writing your first novel?

Honestly, I think that I was my own biggest hurdle. I am someone who constantly second-guesses myself, overthinks every little thing, and I don’t have the greatest confidence. The amount of times throughout writing my debut where I questioned whether my story was good enough, if I should even continue with it, and almost talked myself out of it, was a lot.

Congratulations on conquering the self-publishing process. You did a phenomenal job with the stories, cover designs, formatting, and even the book promotion on Instagram. What made you decide to take the indie-author path as opposed to the traditional publishing route? Did you hire outside sources to help with some of the tasks?

I like having the control over my timeline and my stories that self-publishing gives me. I’m not saying I would never go trad if the opportunity arose, but I’m content with where I am at the moment and the control over my journey that I have.

As for hiring outside sources, my brother is a graphic designer and actually designed my covers for me. It was fun to have him involved in it and it makes my debut series a little more special than it already was.

Debut authors often struggle with how to reach an audience and get their book out there. Please share your experience with publishing on Amazon and would you recommend it to aspiring authors?

I personally haven’t had any issues with publishing on Amazon and using KDP—my experience with them has been good so far (knock on wood). I think the biggest obstacle for me when it comes to reaching my audience is marketing. It’s a lot of work, it can be mentally and physically exhausting constantly creating content to market, having it hit some days and not so much on others based on the mood the algorithm is in, and it takes away from writing time. There are avenues that help a bit like creating ads, hiring content creators to make graphics and things like that, but you have to have the budget for them.

Did you set out to write a series where each new book focuses on a different couple from the same friend group, with completely different conflicts and issues, or did that evolve while writing the first story?

While I plotted out Beyond the Wall, I knew I wanted a strong friend group (because who doesn’t love those fun-loving friend groups?). As I was coming up with the characters for that group, that’s when ideas started formulating for the others based on their personalities and their dynamics, and I plotted out all three books before starting to write the first one.

How did you develop the group of characters who appear in all three books? Were they based on personal experiences, totally figments of your imagination, or a combination of both?

The characters’ personalities really came with plotting because, for me, they needed to match the vibe of the story and the direction I took the different relationships and connections. The MMCs are all figments of my imagination (unfortunately, lol). The FMCs are mostly figments, but I definitely sprinkled tiny bits of myself into them, whether it was from a hobby or a favorite food.

Let's explore each book.

Beyond the Wall

Please share a brief synopsis of Beyond the Wall.

Lucas Carlisle is determined to right his wrong and knock down the walls he’s responsible for putting around Callie Bennett’s heart ten years ago in order to win it back. But when a buried secret is unearthed, it doesn’t just threaten their second chance. It shatters everything they’ve ever known.

In Beyond the Wall, I loved how you lured the reader into the lives of Lucas and Callie while building the suspense for their reunion, then finally leading the characters and the reader to the ultimate moment when they consummated their relationship. Was it hard to hold back? Was this intentional from the beginning or did it grow as you were writing?

I wanted there to be a build-up to their impending reunion after being apart so long. And with Callie and everything she was going through and having to return to Bayport after ten years, for me it made sense to prolong their reunion, but I knew when and how it was going to happen from the start. It was hard to have to keep them apart even more, but at the same time it wasn’t because I love writing angst, lol.

A breakup or a temporary separation is often an important plot device in romance novels. The relationship needs to be tested in some way to build the storyline momentum and make the reunion satisfying for the reader. You do this beautifully with Callie and Lucas. First with their past angst then with the question of what Callie will do when she finds out the truth about her family. The tension between them was very relatable. How did you choose their relationship characteristics and personal conflicts?

For their past, I knew I wanted it to be a struggle that Lucas was having because, despite who his family is and their wealth, his mindset is so different from his family and his peers. It’s a miscommunication to an extent because he’s never really given a chance to fully explain his reasoning for things he said, but they’re 18, and I think at that age, miscommunication paired with her mindset at that time, Callie’s reaction was relatable and believable.

Beneath the Surface

Please share a brief synopsis of Beneath the Surface.

The only things Wes Callahan and Morgan Hayes have in common are a group of friends and their mutual disdain for one another. But a spontaneous hate-fueled hookup turns into something they never saw coming and spawns secret trysts, a drunken pact, and some playful sabotage.

In Beneath the Surface, Wes Callahan and Morgan Hayes loathe one another. They are the classic enemies to lovers characters, and both have a sense of humor. Much of their banter is funny and again relatable which makes them endearing. I found myself laughing out loud. Please share your method for coming up with their humorous, verbal interactions. Did you use character sheets or outlines, or did you just wing it?

I winged a lot of their banter. I would just start writing out dialogue and would just go with the flow of it and see where it took me. But writing their banter was definitely one of my favorite parts!

I love that Wes and Morgan have a dirty little secret. They crave one another, and satisfy their needs through a convenient arrangement, which is very steamy, but their true feelings lie just beneath the surface and that is the epitome of a slow burn. What inspired this storyline?

I actually saw a meme one day that said something along the lines of ‘they make a marriage pact to get married in x amount of years, except they spend the whole time sabotaging each other’s dating life.’ And this idea popped in my head of these two people doing that, but they’re supposed to hate each other, lol.

With their slow burn, I knew it would have to be stretched out over time. Because they despised each other so much, that wasn’t something I saw just vanishing after a few random hookups, even if it was just friendship. I wanted to really showcase them getting to know the other person and seeing them for who they truly are and not who they thought they were or who they portrayed themselves to be.

Beside the Broken

Please share a brief synopsis of Beside the Broken.

Struggling after returning home from a military deployment, Dr. Blake Pierson finds unexpected solace with a soon-to-be nurse practitioner he has a one night stand with, who also happens to be his best friend’s younger sister.

What made you decide to build a character who is struggling emotionally after returning home from a military deployment?

When I first developed Blake’s character, the inspiration for his career path (med school to a contract-of-service military physician) came from a friend of mine who was currently in med school and had joined the military through a similar program.

From there, I looked back on my own family’s history with the military. My dad was in the Army for 28 years and did deployment, and my brother is an Air Force vet. So, as I said in my author’s note of Beside the Broken, I have such respect and admiration for service members and their families. And as I thought more about Blake and the story I was looking to tell, I really wanted to highlight some of the struggles that those service members and their families face during times like that. I talked with my dad a lot about the military aspects in Beside the Broken as well as Blake’s deployment, which took place in book two of this series. I talked with my dad a lot about the military aspects of that story and about Blake and his character and what he was going through and dealing with once he came home. My dad had gone through it firsthand, so it was important to me to get it right and do justice to the real people his character was a reflection of. 

You perfectly weave popular relationship tropes in your Bayport Cove series. For Beside the Broken you chose the “best friend’s brother” trope with a splash of “friends to lovers” where the platonic bond evolves into a romantic yet quasi off-limits love. Why did you chose to blend these tropes for Blake and Haley?

While for entirely different reasons, Blake and Haley were both struggling mentally and emotionally. They hadn’t seen each other in thirteen years, so they had both grown so much and were different people when they met again. And I felt that, especially for Blake and what he was going through, it was essential for them to build that friendship between them outside of that familiarity they had due to his long-standing friendship with her brother. There was an obvious attraction between them, yes, but that foundation of friendship, trust, and comfort that grew between them was something neither really knew they needed, and it helped both of them heal in their own ways.

If you had to pick a favorite, which story or couple did you enjoy writing about the most?

I loved all of them for different reasons. Lucas and Callie have two of my favorite tropes—friends-to lovers and second chance—and I loved writing about their bond and connection. Wes and Morgan were so much fun, and I loved their banter.

But Blake—there has been something about his character that I’ve loved from the very beginning of this series, before I even really knew who he was. He wasn’t in the first two books as much as Lucas and Wes were, but I still had this connection to Blake’s character that I couldn’t quite explain. And when I started writing his story, it just came very easily. And I love the natural and easy progression of his and Haley’s relationship.

You write open door spice. How did you initially feel about writing sex scenes and were you nervous about family reading them?

I don’t mind writing sex scenes, but I am very self-conscious about my spicy scenes in the sense that I always second-guess myself and wonder if they’re good enough.

I was nervous for my family to read them. I offered to tell my mom what chapters to skip (she’s not a romance reader, but has been adamant about reading my books, which I love her for), but she refused to skip any. They’ve all been great about it, though, and have been so incredibly supportive.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Do it. Don’t let fear hold you back, especially if writing and telling stories is something you love to do. But go into it prepared. I wished I’d been more prepared than I was, that I asked more questions, that I had more things lined up and figured out, but it’s all been a learning experience, and I’m still learning.

Are there any other novels or projects on the horizon? If so can you share a tidbit?

I do have a new series coming! I don’t want to say too much yet, but I can tell you that if you’ve read Beneath the Surface and Beside the Broken, you’ve already met a few of the characters. I’m really excited about them and their stories, and I can’t wait to be able to share more, which will hopefully be soon!

To Learn More About Ani Thomas Visit her on Social Media

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To Purchase her Books Click the Links Below

Beyond the Wall Amazon

Beneath the Surface Amazon

Beside the Broken