Stacey McEwan: Romantasy author on BookTok trolls
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- Stacey McEwan is a romantasy author whose latest book "A Forsaken Prophecy" launches ahead of a 13 August in-conversation event at State Library Victoria.
- McEwan says male critics "invading" BookTok to mock fantasy romance are "real, real brave on a keyboard" but "turn to water in person," and recommends her own "A Forbidden Alchemy" first to convert skeptics, followed by Stephen Graham Jones's "The Buffalo Hunter Hunter" and Lynette Noni's "Shadow Reaper."
- McEwan, a former teacher, says recommending romance to colleagues depends on asking their spice preference — "open-door" (explicit) versus "closed-door" (fade-to-black) — adding "You're not going to recommend Fifty Shades of Grey to your Catholic grandma."
- Katherine Heigl is the most famous person in McEwan's phone, with the two messaging occasionally on social media; McEwan calls the actress "so, so supportive."
- McEwan limits herself to four hours of daily screen time via an app that delivers a five-minute warning — which, she says, typically fires around 11 a.m.
- McEwan names the "nightmare trope" — where one character wakes from a nightmare and the other comforts them, "especially if they're not meant to like each other" — as her favorite romance micro-trope.
- McEwan lists "cream," "seed," and "engorgement" as words that should never appear in a sex scene, calling "engorgement" a personal preference.
Why it matters: The interview shows how the romantasy genre has matured enough that authors publicly negotiate spice levels with readers and receive direct support from mainstream celebrities like Katherine Heigl — a sign of the genre's reach beyond its niche origins.
