Author Chip Pons dishes on romance novel Dearly Departed‘s mythic inspirations & why queer books are thriving
The author opens up about his swoony new book, his complicated relationship with queer media growing up, & his ideal date night with his husband.
Mark
Author Chip Pons’s beloved queer romance novels have soared to the highest of highs, like his ’25 book Winging It With You, which followed two men as they fell in love while jet-setting across the world for a reality TV competition series.
But for his latest, he’s looking all the way down to the depths of the Underworld for inspiration.
Dearly Departed is a paranormal rom-com that finds it’s unlikely leading man in Hades—at least, that’s the fearsome moniker he used to be known as. After being stripped of his godhood, he now goes by Hayden Harlow, and keeps busy by running a funeral home, while plotting how he might one day claw his way back to the top—or should we say bottom—and into his rightful seat of power.
Little did he know, the Fates have a different plan, and a funeral flub sends him to the shop of florist Levi Wilder, a sunny, charming artist who represents everything Hayden should detest. And yet he can’t stop thinking about him. Is there a chance of a real connection here, or is true love just another big myth?
How about we take this to the next level?
Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
Sexy, swoon-worthy, and hard to put down, Dearly Departed is Pons at his most creatives and fantastical, yet he manages to keep his lovable characters firmly rooted on this mortal coil with vulnerability that rings true, cynicism be damed.
Before the book hits shelves everywhere on June 16, we managed to grab some time with Pons and get him in the hot seat for our long-running Q&A series, Dishin’ It. In our conversation, the author opens up about the novel’s mythic inspirations, his complicated relationship with queer media growing up, and his ideal date night with his husband (hint: it’s cozy).
Is there a piece of media—whether a movie, TV series, book, album, theater, video game, etc…—that has played an important role in your understanding of queerness and the queer community, or your own identity? Why does it stand out to you?
For me, it was less one singular piece of media and more my relationship to queer media changing over time. Growing up, anything that felt obviously gay was something I actively pushed away from because I never wanted to be “found out.” I didn’t come out until later in life (my now husband was actually my first boyfriend), so for a long time, queer media felt less like something I could embrace and more like something I needed to keep at arm’s length.
I’ll never forget someone comparing me to Jack from Will & Grace when I was younger, and not in a complimentary way. Looking back now, I think that’s an incredible compliment, but at the time, I took it as a warning. An indicator that I needed to reel it in, make myself smaller, draw less attention to the parts of me I wasn’t ready to face yet.
The irony is that I was consuming queer media anyway… just quietly. I remember closet-watching Queer As Folk and Noah’s Arc. I remember rooting for Marco on Degrassi while pretending I was watching for everyone else. Those stories mattered to me long before I was willing to admit why.
It wasn’t until I was older that I got to experience queer media through a kinder, more hopeful lens. Shows like Looking meant a lot to me because they showed queer friendship and found family in a way that felt deeply human. Messy and imperfect and sometimes frustrating, but full of connection and community. And then Love, Simon absolutely wrecked me. The scene where Simon’s mom tells him he finally gets to exhale, and I remember sitting in the theater holding my husband’s hand and sobbing. Not because my story mirrored Simon’s exactly, but because I kept thinking, God, I wish I’d had something like this growing up.
That’s the power of queer stories. They can’t change your past, but they can make someone else’s future feel a little less lonely.
Congratulations on your new novel Dearly Departed, a paranormal gay romance involving the Underworld, immortality, and Hades himself. What drew you to this darkly mythic world, and why did it feel so ripe for queer romance?
I’ve loved Greek mythology for most of my life, but if I’m being honest, the thing that drew me to Dearly Departed wasn’t the mythology: it was Hayden (formerly Hades).
When most people think of Hades, they think of the god of the Underworld. They think of power and darkness and death. But what I saw was someone profoundly lonely. The version I wanted to write is someone who has spent centuries convinced that his role is to stand apart from life rather than participate in it. He’s the person who believes everyone else gets the happy ending. Everyone else gets the sunlight. Everyone else gets to be chosen.
There’s a line in the book where Hayden realizes that he doesn’t actually miss being a god: he misses feeling like he mattered. That’s such a deeply human fear and, for me, that’s where this romance lives. Not in the mythology or the immortality… but in the idea that sometimes all it takes is the right person at the right moment to look at you and say, I see you.
Levi doesn’t rescue or fix Hayden. He simply refuses to let him disappear into the shadows he’s built around himself. And honestly, I think that’s why queer romance felt like such a natural fit for this story. So many queer people know what it’s like to hide pieces of themselves, to feel unseen, to wonder if they’re too much or not enough. At its heart, Dearly Departed is about what happens when someone loves all those parts anyway. The mythology gave me the backdrop, but the romance gave me the reason to tell the story.
Your previous novels have been a little more rooted in the real world, so even if the magic of the paranormal (so to speak) opens up some possibilities, are there ways in which it felt more challenging to write, or at least challenged you in new ways as an author?
Absolutely… but maybe not for the reason people expect.
One of the things I loved about using Greek mythology was that most of the lore already existed. I didn’t need to spend hundreds of pages explaining who Hades was or why the Underworld mattered. Readers bring a lot of that knowledge with them, which allowed me to get to the good stuff faster. And by “the good stuff,” I mean a florist casually finding out the guy he’s dating used to be the god of the Underworld and basically responding with, “Okay, sure. Also, what’s going on with the slutty little shadows?”
But mythology was never really the point. What challenged me was finding the balance between the mythology and the emotional reality of the story. I never wanted the worldbuilding to become so big that it overshadowed the romance. At the end of the day, this wasn’t a book about gods. It was a book about two people trying to find their way through grief, loneliness, and longing.
Hayden and Levi demanded more from me as a writer than any characters I’ve written before. Hayden is this shadowed, isolated former god who has spent centuries convinced he’s meant to carry everything alone. Levi is sunshine and warmth and community. But underneath those differences, they’re both wrestling with loss. They’re both yearning for connection. They’re both trying to figure out how to move forward after life hasn’t gone the way they expected. The shadows and mythology were fun, but it was the love story that forced me to stretch emotionally, structurally, and creatively.
Which of the central characters, Hayden & Levi, do you identify with more and why?
Unfortunately, the answer is both.
Levi is the part of me that desperately wants everyone around him to be okay. He’s sunshiney and optimistic and constantly taking care of other people, but underneath that is someone who’s quietly struggling too. There’s a Taylor Swift lyric in “Mirrorball” about changing everything about yourself to reflect what other people want to see, and that one hits a little too close to home for me. There was a period of my life where I genuinely believed that as long as I kept smiling, kept performing, kept shining, everything would be okay. (Very healthy, I know.)
And then there’s Hayden. I know what it’s like to long for a life that feels just out of reach. To want something deeply while simultaneously pretending you don’t need it at all. Hayden spends a lot of the book convinced that love and happiness are things that happen to other people, not him, and I think a lot of us have felt that way at one point or another.
The funny thing is that this was actually the first book where I actively tried not to write myself into the characters. So really, writing Dearly Departed became this weirdly cathartic exploration of two sides of myself falling in love with each other. Which sounds unhinged when I say it out loud, but here we are…
Where’s one of the first spaces you can remember that made you feel a part of a queer community?
Honestly? The internet. I grew up at a time when online queer spaces became lifelines for so many people. Whether it was Tumblr, YouTube, AIM chatrooms (IYKYK), fandom spaces, or early book communities, those were some of the first places where I realized there were other people out there who loved and felt and existed like I did. And then later, that sense of community expanded into the book world. There’s something really special about being surrounded by readers and writers who understand the importance of queer joy and queer love stories… especially now.
Also, nothing bonds queer people faster than collectively thirsting over fictional characters while simultaneously unpacking emotional trauma. Now that’s community!
Though we’re sure your work lives keep you busy, how do you & your husband like to spend your time when you’re not writing? Do you two have an ideal romantic date night together?
We’re honestly pretty boring, and I mean that as the highest compliment. (I promise, honey!)
Our work lives are both very go-go-go, so when we get the chance to just exist together at home, it feels like a luxury. Some of my favorite moments are the ones where we’re curled up on the couch watching something we’ve seen a hundred times, or sometimes not even talking at all.
We’ve been together for almost thirteen years now, but we still actively date each other. We love trying new restaurants, revisiting old favorites, going to the movies, traveling when we can, and finding little moments to spend together outside the chaos of everyday life. But honestly, my ideal date night is probably the simplest version: good food, a comfy couch, and my favorite person. Because one of the greatest gifts in life is finding someone you not only love, but genuinely like. Someone you can be wildly in love with after all these years but also build an ordinary Tuesday around.
Related
Chip Pons on what makes a steamy read & dream casting a film adaptation of his novel ‘Winging It With You’
Author Chip Pons dishes on his latest book, “Winging It With You,” and what makes a great MM rom-com.
Your last novel, Winging It With You, is loosely set within an Amazing Race-esque reality competition series. Aside from that show, is there another (non-dating focused) reality series you think could be great to fall in love on? Why? What show would be the worst for romantic connection?
Best? The Great British Bake Off. You’re spending weeks together in a cozy tent making pastries, encouraging each other through minor baking catastrophes, and developing feelings over perfectly plated desserts. That’s not a reality competition…that’s romance novel gold!
Worst? Survivor. Listen, I love the show, but I don’t think anyone thrives when they’re sleep-deprived, starving, covered in dirt, and actively plotting each other’s downfall. But you know what? Knowing us romance readers, that could turn into a steamy enemies-to-lovers masterpiece real quick!
Who is an LGBTQ+ artist/performer/creator that you think is doing really cool work right now? Why are they someone we should all be paying attention to?
I’m going to cheat and say an entire corner of the queer book world. There are so many incredible LGBTQ+ authors doing amazing work right now, and what excites me most isn’t just that they’re telling queer stories—it’s how they’re telling them. They’re writing books that center queer joy, queer desire, queer friendship, queer messiness, and queer happily-ever-afters. They’re proving that queer stories can be funny, romantic, adventurous, hopeful, and deeply human.
For so long, queer storytelling was expected to justify our existence or center our suffering. But these authors are helping build a world where queer characters get to fall in love, make mistakes, chase dreams, heal, laugh, and be loved in return. As someone who writes queer romance, I don’t think we can ever have too many stories that remind queer people they’re worthy of joy. And this community of authors is doing exactly that.
Chip Pons’ Dearly Departed hits shelves June 16 and is available wherever books are sold, courtesy of Putnam.
Related
15 must-read queer books to kick off your summer stack
Whether you’re craving a swoony romance, messy coming-of-age drama, or sharp, subversive queer storytelling, there’s no better time to dive in than the first golden weeks.
Sign up for the Queerty newsletter to stay on top of the hottest stories in LGBTQ+ entertainment, politics, and culture.
