That’s What Friends Are For: Aging, Authenticity, & Found Family with Wade Rouse (E201)
In today’s episode, I sit down with USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and internationally bestselling author Wade Rouse. Many readers know Wade by his pen name, Viola Shipman, his grandmother’s name chosen to honor the woman whose stories and heirlooms inspire his fiction. But this novel marks something new. That’s What Friends Are For is the first book he has published under his own name. Inspired by The Golden Girls, the novel follows four gay men “of a certain age” who have built a vibrant chosen family in Palm Springs, until an unexpected family arrival begins to unravel long-held secrets.
Episode Highlights:
Why Wade chose his grandmother’s name as his pen name
What publishing under his own name represents at this stage of his life
The Golden Girls inspiration behind “The Golden Gays”
Writing about aging in America
The power of found family and chosen friendship
Humor as a doorway to deeper emotional truth
The legacy behind his beloved Viola Shipman novels
If you have ever built family beyond blood, navigated reinvention, or believe friendship carries us through life’s hardest seasons, this episode is for you.
Connect with Wade:
Show Notes
Some links are affiliate links, which are no extra cost to you but do help to support the show.
Books and authors mentioned in the episode:
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
The Last of the Savages by Jay McInerney
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder
Book Flight
Awakeby Jen Hatmaker
The Forget-Me-Not Library by Heather Webber
Hazel Says No by Jessica Berger Gross
Be sure to join the Bookish Flights community on social media. Happy listening!
