Few authors could hope for a debut as stunning as Andie Burke’s. Her first novel, the 2023 romance Fly with Me, was a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and was named one of the best new romances by PopSugar and one of the best queer books of 2023 by Autostraddle.
Her second book, Fall for Him (2024), which will hit shelves in September, is something of a sequel, focusing on different characters within the same universe. Ahead of this publication, I sat down with Andie to talk about books, writing, her background in nursing, bisexuality, and the stereotypes she hopes to upend in her writing.
Natalie Schriefer: Tell me how you started writing novels.
Andie Burke: I've been writing since I was a little girl. I remember, on a family vacation, driving across the country and getting a journal. I remember writing chapters. I feel like at that point it was American Girl fanfiction. I've always been telling stories in my head.
I wrote a middle grade novel in my 20s that didn't really go anywhere. But then I started writing adult fiction more as I got into my 30s. There's something absolutely magical that happens when you're creating a book — there's nothing like that rush of seeing a plot come together and getting to construct these characters and see who they are. There's a magic to it, and I can't get enough.
I think Fly with Me was my fifth full-length adult novel. Getting an agent is mostly trial and error — a lot of being just delusional enough that you feel like maybe you can do this. It also takes a lot of luck.
Speaking of Fly with Me, your author's note mentions that you worked as a nurse. How does that figure into your writing?
I was an English literature major and I went to school for education, but found the idea of standing in front of a group of children terrifying. Because I really liked my special education class and the clinical component of it, I pivoted into nursing. I've been a nurse for over a decade.
I'm very inspired by the type of people who go into nursing, and what it requires to be in that kind of high-stress environment day in, and day out. I started in pediatric transplant, and have worked in the neonatal intensive care unit and also general pediatrics. And then during the pandemic, I was in the pediatric emergency room. I loved the work, and I love the people that I worked with. We laughed so much because you sometimes just have to laugh. I find the idea of comedy and tragedy going hand in hand intriguing. So when I wrote Fly with Me, I was inspired by the fear we were all encountering in the pandemic. I wanted to write a story that was going to make me laugh but also had a heaviness of heart. Being a nurse, you don't leave your job at work. It impacts the full extent of who you are.
One of the things I really enjoyed about Fly with Me, and mentioned in my review for Bi.org, is that you addressed both really happy and really sad things.
Maybe some people get the privilege of living life in a vacuum, where only one thing is happening at once, but in my own life, I remember being 38 weeks pregnant and helping my grandmother in hospice. You're seeing death and life all wrapped around each other. There's a lot of comedy that happens with tragedy, weirdly enough.
I don't know about your life, but mine doesn't always chill when I want it to, so sometimes I'm dealing with a lot of things all at once. It was so important to me, in Fly with Me, to show that just because other aspects of your life are falling apart doesn't mean you can't fall in love, too.
You've got another book coming out in September that's part of the same universe. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
Fall for Him is about Olive’s best friend Derek, because when I got the deal on Fly with Me, my editor loved Derek and really wanted his story. The way I celebrated getting my book deal was basically to sit down and write Derek's story in like a month. In his story, I explore neurodivergence and ADHD, as I was getting my own diagnosis around this time. There were a lot of neurodivergent-coded characters in my first book, but I wasn't as aware of my own “neuro-spiciness”, as we'll say. I was more aware of it in Fall for Him.
Olive and Stella from Fly with Me make appearances too. Queer people, oftentimes, end up with a found family because we need that connection and that unconditional love from the people in our lives. Olive and Derek are that to each other.
There's a character in this story that's probably one of my favorite characters I've ever written. I'm so excited for people to meet her as well, another bisexual.
You yourself are bi, correct?
Yes, I tend to label myself as a whimsical, socially awkward bisexual.
I love that. How did you come to realize you were bi?
I grew up very much steeped in evangelical purity culture. I was out of touch with all of my impulses, desires, etcetera, because when you're raised in what's essentially a cult, you're taught to assimilate in a way that is very damaging. It’s particularly damaging for kids, I think, who are neurodivergent and prone to black-and-white thinking.
Because of that, it took a long time for me to understand. I was married to a man for a really long time, but I was reading and exploring my bisexuality through my writing. I was very, very fortunate that I didn't just decide, well, I'm married to a man right now, so I don't need to think about sexuality. A lot of times, when you say “I'm bisexual”, other people are like, “Well, why does it matter? You're in a heterosexual relationship.”
Well, it does matter, because relationships end, and I’m happy I did a lot of reflecting during the time that I was still married.
What has it been like for you to be out as a bi artist?
There's the artistic part of it, and fortunately, there's such a wonderful community of queer writers. I've been so lucky. But it is interesting outside of art when you get into a relationship with a woman and people say things like, “Are you still bisexual?” And the answer, of course, is “Yep, I am.”
I know that there’s a lot of biphobia out there, and you see how it plays out in certain types of media. I've had it happen with my book, where it gets labeled as a lesbian romance and it’s tough because, well, one of the characters is a lesbian. Sometimes it makes me uncomfortable because I want to be like “Well, no, it's a queer romance.” Or “It's a sapphic romance.” But one of the characters is bisexual. Sometimes I do want to clarify that so people don't erase the whole other half of the relationship.
We're still just as queer, no matter what relationship we're in. We're still just as bisexual, no matter what relationship we're in. If I'm bi, my relationship status should not impact that.
In so many aspects of how I grew up, I was asked to be smaller. I think a lot of us are familiar with wanting to be everything that you are and having people tell you, “No, no, no, you have to fit right here in this little tiny box because that box is more comfortable for me.” I think being bisexual, in many ways is like, “No, no, no, I want to be attracted to people that are my sex and the other sex. I don't want to be in your little box.”
There are a bunch of bisexual stereotypes, and some of those seep into your understanding of yourself because you hear them over and over again, so it matters how we talk about being bi. It matters how we talk about anybody's sexuality. I don't want to apologize for being the full width of whatever I am. I'm bi and I'm not sorry. Like, is it sometimes confusing to people? Yes. But I'm not sorry.
Do you have any advice that you wish you could have given your younger self?
Don't be afraid of taking risks and making mistakes and not fully understanding who you are at first. My instincts were spot-on in terms of who I thought I was, but I was afraid to say it. Sometimes you look back and think, am I queer enough? Am I bisexual enough? Am I whatever enough? You are.
One of the things that stood out to me about Fly with Me was that Olive is bi, but it's not a huge part of the narrative. What made you make that decision?
I’ve read a lot of books where the source of angst in the narrative is related to queerness. I think those stories are very, very important and need to be told, but for my books, I didn't want the characters’ queerness, whether it’s Stella being lesbian or Olive being bisexual, to be the source of their angst. Because of that, I didn't say the words “bisexual” or “lesbian” over and over again. It's just a story about two women falling in love during a tough time in both of their lives.
Nothing is wrong with walking around and saying “I'm bisexual”, but I have so many other parts of who I am, and they're all important. That being said, I'm very proud of my bisexuality and I think we have the coolest flag.
Coming out stories are so special to me — I love what Alice Oseman shows us in Heartstopper — but I don't think that all queer stories have to have that coming out narrative. Straight people don't need to come out. I think about all the other romance authors and no one's characters are like, “Hey, I'm straight, just so you know.” I don't want to feel like my characters have to come out in my stories too — it comes up when it's relevant.
How can we keep in touch with you?
I'm @andiewritesandreads on Instagram; I talk about plants and thrifting as well as my books. I'm also on Twitter @andiewritesalot. At andieburke.com, you can sign up for my newsletter. That's the best way to stay up to date with things like giveaways.
If you see my books out in the wild, let me know. Tag me in any photos on Instagram. I love to see that. It never gets old.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.