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That’s What Friends Are For: Aging, Authenticity, & Found Family with Wade Rouse (E201)
Description
In today’s episode, I sit down with USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and internationally bestselling author Wade Rouse. Many readers know Wade by his pen name, Viola Shipman, his grandmother’s name chosen to honor the woman whose stories and heirlooms inspire his fiction. But this novel marks something new. That’s What Friends Are For is the first book he has published under his own name. Inspired by The Golden Girls, the novel follows four gay men “of a certain age” who have built a vibrant chosen family in Palm Springs, until an unexpected family arrival begins to unravel long-held secrets.
Episode Highlights:
- Why Wade chose his grandmother’s name as his pen name
- What publishing under his own name represents at this stage of his life
- The Golden Girls inspiration behind “The Golden Gays”
- Writing about aging in America
- The power of found family and chosen friendship
- Humor as a doorway to deeper emotional truth
- The legacy behind his beloved Viola Shipman novels
If you have ever built family beyond blood, navigated reinvention, or believe friendship carries us through life’s hardest seasons, this episode is for you.
Connect with Wade:
Show Notes
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Books and authors mentioned in the episode:
- Erma Bombeck books
- David Sedaris books
- I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
- Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
- The Last of the Savages by Jay McInerney
- Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
- So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder
Book Flight
- Awake by Jen Hatmaker
- The Forget-Me-Not Library by Heather Webber
- Hazel Says No by Jessica Berger Gross
The BFF Book Club is becoming a family affair! ❤️ This our FREE virtual book club, where we read together each month and have live author chats.
Each Family Book Flight pairs our BFF Book Club pick with:
- One chapter book for growing readers
- One picture book for our littlest readers
- A few family conversation starters + a simple activity
Three books. One common theme.
→ Join us here: https://bookishflights.kit.com/bfffamily
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