Leesa Cross-Smith: Keep Going and Write Until the End
In this interview, author Leesa Cross-Smith discusses how falling in love with K-pop helped inspire her new romance novel, As You Wish.
Leesa Cross-Smith is a homemaker and the author of seven books. She was longlisted for the 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and the 2021 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. Her third novel, Half-Blown Rose, received the Coups de Cœur recognition from the American Library in Paris and was the Amazon Editors’ Spotlight pick for June 2022. It was also the inaugural pick for Amazon Editorial Director Sarah Gelman’s book club, Sarah Selects, and a Barnes & Noble Book Club pick. She lives in Kentucky with her husband and two children. Follow her on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.
In this interview Leesa discusses how falling in love with K-pop helped inspire her new romance novel, As You Wish, her hope for readers, and more.
Name: Leesa Cross-Smith
Literary agent: Kerry D’Agostino @ Curtis Brown, Ltd
Book title: As You Wish
Publisher: Tiny Reparations Books
Release date: June 24, 2025
Genre/category: Contemporary Romance/Friendship Fiction/Magical Realism
Previous titles: Every Kiss A War, Whiskey & Ribbons, So We Can Glow, This Close To Okay, Half-Blown Rose, Goodbye Earl
Elevator pitch: While au pairing for wealthy families in Seoul, three young American women make a wish at an enchanted waterfall for their deepest desires to come true. When everything changes and one of the young women wants to undo her wish, will they discover that their friendship was the real magic all along?
What prompted you to write this book?
About five years ago I fell down the BTS rabbit hole and devoured everything I could about them and in turn, fell deeply in love with K-pop and K-dramas and traveled to Seoul in 2023. Seoul is one of my favorite places in the world and I love everything about K-dramas so much from the original soundtracks to the perfectly decorated homes to the fashion and sometimes painfully slow-burn romantic relationships. I started learning Korean and I wanted to write a cozy, comforting book celebrating all those things I love with a dash of magic!
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took about three years from idea to publication, and the idea didn’t change very much during the process, no.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
This is my seventh book so not much surprises me anymore during the publishing process, honestly!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
While not a surprise, I am always open to learning how to write the best possible story I can, while remaining true to my heart and art. I learn how to do that more and more with every book by stubbornly sticking to the story I want to tell, no matter what someone else may think or say. It takes a lot of energy to write a book and I only spend that energy on the things I want to spend it on.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope readers fall in love with these young women and their friendship! I hope they fall in love with Seoul and the Korean dishes I write about. I hope they fall in love with the K-pop playlists I’ve included and with K-dramas if they aren’t in love with them already! I hope they find comfort in the cuteness! And I hope they find As You Wish hopeful and healing, too. The three main characters in the book are all searching for huge, different things and they’re all healing at their own speeds, in their own ways. I love healing K-dramas and healing fiction. I think we could all use a bit of softness and healing.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
My advice to writers is to make sure you finish your stories/books! It may sound simple, but you have to fight against wanting to give up and/or to keep going back and starting over. Keep going and write until the end. You learn so much by telling yourself the whole story first.
