Heated Rivalry’s Rachel Reid on developing Shane and Ilya, their group chat and queer literature: ‘Ilya changed a lot!’

Just a year ago, Rachel Reid was a niche author whose books were mainly available as e-books. As a hockey fan, she wanted to tackle the toxic nature of the sport and create a world that emphasises love and mutual understanding without trivialising reality.

Now, her book Heated Rivalry, book number two in her seven-part Canadian novel series Game Changers, is a global smash of a TV show. With it, Reid’s books and Reid herself, are in the spotlight, with no sign of the fanfare slowing down.

Journalist Anna-Lena Malter spoke with the New York Times bestselling author about developing her lead queer characters Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozanov (Connor Storrie), her in-depth chats with Hudson and Connor, and the rapid advancement of queer literature.

PinkNews: Hi Rachel! Let’s talk writing Heated Rivalry. Did Shane and Ilya develop differently during the writing process than initially planned?

Rachel Reid: I think so. At first, I think in the early drafts of Heated Rivalry, Ilya was much more of a jerk. I think he was much meaner. The things he said to Shane were more, I don’t know, just meaner. And I think he was maybe more of a stereotypical bad boy, I guess. And then I softened him a bit as I went back and wrote more. I’d say Shane didn’t change that much. He was always kind of like the main character, kind of in my head for that first book. So he was pretty much the same. I’d say right from the beginning. But yeah, Ilya, I think changed a lot. Just as I dug deeper into him.

If Ilya and Shane weren’t pro athletes, what do you think they would do instead?

Oh, well, I feel like Shane would just be like a personal trainer or physiotherapist or something pretty basic [but] still fitness. And I don’t know, Ilya would probably… I mean, he’s too tall to be a race car driver, but he’d want to be. I think he’d do something dangerous. I don’t know, maybe he’d be a pilot. Maybe be a rock star. Who knows? He’d do something. Definitely something with dogs. He loves dogs.

Q: Did you did you intend to write a Shane as an autistic character?

Rachel Reid: Yeah, I did. When I wrote the first book, it was more about his overall personality. But I’ve talked about before, how in the time between Heated Rivalry and The Long Game, my own child was getting assessed for things like ADHD and autism. I learned a lot over those few years, and then I was like, ‘Oh yeah, Shane is autistic.’ By the time I wrote The Long Game, I was like, yeah, that’s what it is.

Jacob knew right away. Jacob told me I think in the very first Zoom call, he was like, ‘Well, Shane’s autistic.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ He’s definitely approached the character that way. And when I talked to Hudson about it, he said the same thing. He was like, ‘Well, Shane is very autistic.’ We’d have a discussion about something where Connor might say something about Shane and I heard Hudson be like, ‘No, no, [he’s] doing that because he’s autistic.’ And I was like, ‘Yes, yes.’

I think because of that, which unfortunately is also common of people with autism, the things that Shane does and says get misunderstood, sometimes by characters in the book and sometimes by readers who are like, ‘Well, that was a terrible thing to say or do.’ And it’s like, well, he’s not great at reading social cues. He’s got a lot of internalised anxiety. He’s very particular about certain things. Things bother him that don’t bother other people. I’m glad that everybody involved with the character understands that and I didn’t even have to explain it. Jacob got it. Hudson got it. I think most readers get it too. Lately I’ve been trying to just make it clear that, yes, he’s an autistic character.

You said that you, Connor and Hudson are in a group chat together. What is the funniest message that you’ve gotten from them?

Rachel Reid: Oh, man, there’s been a lot. Those guys are nuts.

What kind of messages do you guys send each other?

Rachel Reid: Well, sometimes it’s very sweet ones. Lately it’s none because they are so busy. We’re all really busy! I also think suddenly they have, like, [millions of] Instagram followers or something. We switched over to text because we’re all getting buried in our Instagram messages. One day Connor changed the group chat name to “Shilya and the creator”, which I thought was really cute. I can’t even find that group chat! It’s buried so deep now, but they’re just funny. I think when I got to see the episode, I got to see the rough cuts of the episodes and they didn’t, any time I mentioned anything, they would just get really mad at me and jealous! They were just like, ‘Shut up, Rachel!’

Oh! Well…

They’re funny together. They tease me sometimes and I kind of tease them too, but I just really like them. I’m really grateful that they auditioned. I’m grateful that they got the parts and that they want to talk to me. And it’s lovely to hear them talk about the books and stuff in interviews. It’s nice that they mention me at all. I think there’s a lot of authors [who] wouldn’t get mentioned by actors or the director or anybody. But this is a good group. It’s really nice.

When we look back into what counts as mainstream in literature, only a few years ago, queer characters were the side characters, the sidekicks with tragic endings. And now, finally, mainstream publishing has picked up on the sense that everyone deserves a happily ever after. What was it like for you to see the process of queer stories progressing from a niche genre to a mainstream romance genre?

It was great. I feel like definitely the big turning point was Red, White & Royal Blue because Heated Rivalry came out in March of 2019. I believe Red, White & Royal Blue came out in May or April. It was right after, and that was one of the first books that was like a love story between two men that I saw get that kind of marketing push, like it was in stores everywhere. I remember it was [at] airports, you know, it was everywhere.

I think a lot of us who were writing queer romance at the time were like, ‘Holy smokes! This is going to change everything.’ And it kind of did, because before that queer romance just wasn’t in stores, it wasn’t in the romance section, it was nowhere. You could special order it, maybe if it was even in print. But most of them were e-book only or self-published, and you could buy them directly from the author. But it was almost like a secret underground thing. Then suddenly it became a much bigger thing. Now there’s tables and big booksellers that are just queer romance right at the front of the store. It’s very, very different.

My books were never in print until pretty recently, the Game Changers books were printed in the trade paperback format in November of last year for the first time, and it’s only just now since the show that the big booksellers like Barnes and Noble are carrying them. So even when they were in print, they weren’t getting ordered by the by the big booksellers. Just in the short amount of time that I’ve been writing these books, the change has been huge and it’s been really exciting.

Heated Rivalry is streaming now. Rachel Reid’s Game Changers novel series is available to buy now.

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