WEST LAFAYETTE, IN — For many students, college has become the setting for countless firsts, from first classes and first football games to even first loves. One Purdue alumna has turned those experiences into a romance novel.
Tamara Wang graduated from Purdue in 2019 and two years later received her master’s in communications. Wang said she always wanted to be an author and finally got the chance to publish a novel, “Better Than I Planned,” earlier this year. She’s married and a stay-at-home mother in the Indianapolis area.
The 28-chapter romance takes readers to West Lafayette, following Danielle Wang, a 23-year-old Purdue graduate student entering her final semester. As she juggles the pressure of completing her final project, Dani faces an unexpected challenge: falling for a fellow Boilermaker.
Here is a conversation with the first-time novelist, lightly edited for length and clarity.
What made you decide to set your first novel at Purdue?
I always knew I wanted to be an author. I just didn’t have a story idea for a long time. Then when I was thinking about writing a novel … I thought, “Why not have it somewhere I know? Why not set it at Purdue?”
A lot of fiction books are set in New York or Los Angeles. I think it’s mainly because those cities have mass appeal and people want to travel there. But I wanted to show that a college town can be really interesting and is very formative to someone’s young adult years. I think anyone who has stayed around the Purdue area knows that it’s a very unique place.
A lot of people I met think that Indiana is just a flyover state, and even people that come to Purdue from out-of-state think it’s kind of boring. But if you have things you’re interested in, you can do that anywhere.
Many real Purdue locations make appearances in the novel. How did you decide which to include?Well, of course I was biased toward some of my favorite places. I really liked Happy Hollow Park in my grad school years, hiking up there and getting some fresh air and feeling surrounded by nature.
But it was also fun to make up different places; like Burton Hall, where Dani has her classes, doesn’t exist. So, I had to create this new department, and I felt it would be weird to choose an existing building.
The Purdue Events Agency, I knew that had to be fictitious because Purdue has nothing like that. In fact, It’d be more realistic to have something like that at Indiana University.
How did your own experiences shape Dani’s journey?This is just a book that came from my own life experience, and I kind of fictionalized it and made Dani her own character, and it just happens to be set at Purdue.
I think people really got hooked on the Purdue aspect and wanted more of those vibes. I really can’t emphasize how much I didn’t expect it to take off like it did. Maybe if I expected that I would have gone more in the Purdue direction and really upped the nostalgia.
But I think some people have been a little bit upset at me that I wasn’t the clearest about that.
How did Boilermakers respond to reading about their own university?Many of the alums loved it and said, “Oh, I have to order this immediately. I really want to relive those Purdue days.”
I think the current students also enjoyed it. There were some that said, “Why are you writing the story about my life?”
So, it was really funny how everyone had different responses. People have kind of seen their own stories in it, whether they fell in love at Purdue or their parents did, or they think it’s an interesting concept that someone would write a book set at Purdue. I think generally people have been enjoying it.
What was it like publishing your first novel?It’s really intimidating to have this many people want to read it. I was not expecting that whatsoever when I posted (about it online). I did not think it would attract that much attention.
It’s really surprising to have so many people care about your project all of a sudden. Writing a novel, it’s a pretty solitary process and very private. And once you can finally publish and get it out there, it just becomes everyone else’s, too.
I’ve always heard different music artists talk about that concept before, but now I really feel it when other people are reading and reviewing it. It kind of feels like it’s not my own anymore.
I would describe it as a marathon of trying to promote it and have it gain traction. But I think I’ve already hit the metrics of success that I hoped for in this book’s release, and that’s just unheard of in the indie world.
What’s next for you and the world you created in “Better Than I Planned”?Right now, I would love to have the book in a physical store. That would be really cool. I have to work that out, though, because there are publishing issues that need to be fixed first. I’d love to have it in a bookstore and maybe do a signing somewhere, too.
I reached out to the West Lafayette library and Main Street Books today, and they are both happy to stock it once it’s available. There is also a mobile bookstore called The Stacks Bookshop, and she has a stand at the Purdue Farmer’s Market. People can find “Better Than I Planned” at these places sometime in the fall or in the next few months.
As far as the story goes, I think I might write another book with Meredith (the protagonist’s undergraduate sister) as the main character because a lot of my readers have enjoyed her personality, and I felt like I was setting up for her story.
I think if I want this next book to be the best I can, it’s going to take a while.
I’m in learning mode right now, just trying to learn about character and plot development. I really want to take my time. I don’t want to rush anything just to get another book out there. Also, as a stay-at-home mom, I am really writing in the margins when I can.
Photo Taglines:
Laptop: Using her own time at Purdue as guide, Tamara Wang wrote “Better than I Planned” as a love story between two Boilermakers.
Graduation: Author Tamara Wang takes part in a Boilermaker tradition of walking under the Purdue Bell Tower after graduating in 2019.
Book Cover: “Better than I Planned” will be coming to book stores around West Lafayette in the coming months, said author Tamara Wang.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue author Q&A: A Boilermaker romance ‘Better than I Planned’
Reporting by Quint Holguin, Lafayette Journal & Courier / Lafayette Journal & Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Quint Holguin, Lafayette Journal & Courier | USA TODAY Network
