Wade Rouse
AUTHOR

Wade Rouse

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I am the USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly and internationally bestselling author of 18 books, including five memoirs and thirteen novels. I also write fiction under the pen name, Viola Shipman, as a tribute to my working poor Ozarks grandma, whose family stories, heirlooms and love inspire my novels. I was a finalist for the Goodreads Choice Awards in Humor (I lost to Tina Fey) and was named by Writer’s Digest as “The #2 Writer, Dead or Alive, We’d Like to Have Drinks With” (I was sandwiched between Ernest Hemingway and Hunter Thompson). That’s What Friends Are For is inspired by The Golden Girls, and this novel is like the sitcom in that it lessens life’s pain with laughter, it breaks down walls and unites with humor. Moreover, it’s ferociously funny (money back guarantee you will laugh on the first page!), hopeful and heart wrenching, a story about what so many of us have endured in this life to find friendship, love and respect. The novel has already been praised by #1 New York Times Jodi Picoult “Hilarious, tender, devastating!), the New York Post (Full of heart, humor and friendship, quick witted and heartfelt … buy one for yourself and another for your BFF) and named a 2026 Most Anticipated Read by Zibby Owens. This marks the twentieth book I’ve written and my twentieth year as a published author, and I feel as if this is not only the book I was meant to write but also the right moment for this story – inspired by The Golden Girls – of friendship, family, faith, aging and acceptance. This novel is a HUGE departure for me in in career – my first novel under my own name – and I wrote this story because it called to my soul, and I knew that I needed to follow my heart. I’ve learned that sometimes the greatest moments in our lives happen when we are most terrified – as writers and souls – and that if we can just corral that fear and walk through the fire to emerge on the other side – heart racing, a bit scorched –what we dreamed of and fought so hard to achieve has the chance to change the world. I believe this novel does. When you think of the show or hear the lyrics to the song, and smile, that is the spirit that this novel captures. As Sophia Petrillo might say: PICTURE IT: SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI. 1985. I was your typical fraternity boy on the surface: I could polish off a keg & Domino’s Pizza, I was the life of the party … and I was deeply miserable. I was a closeted college kid who – after losing my brother – internalized all of my emotions so as not to cause my family another moment of pain. And then The Golden Girls began to air, and I started watching it long distance with the two women I loved most – my mother & grandmother – as a way to laugh and overcome our collective grief. I snaked the cord of the rotary phone into my bedroom and watched the sitcom before parties. We laughed, but – even more – the show broached huge topics at the time, such as being gay and coming out. This eventually paved a foundation for me to talk to my family. My novel, like the show, does exactly the same & represents what I’ve done my entire existence in life and writing: Lessen the pain with laughter. Teach and break down walls with humor. Let me say this right upfront: This is the best book I’ve ever written. Period. This is the most beautiful cover for any book I’ve written. Period. This is the most excited and terrified I’ve ever been about launching a book. Period. I think this book can change the world. Period. Let the words of #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult speak for themselves: "By turns hilarious, tender, and devastating, Rouse’s novel explores what it means to be the sandwich generation of gays today — caught between those who paved the way for equality, those who are too young to credit them, and a world that seems increasingly hostile again. I loved this ode to the family we find, the family we reinvent, and the support systems we lean on to find our authentic selves.” In addition, I delve into the character of Coco in The Golden Girls. Never heard of him? You’re not alone. In the pilot of The Golden Girls, there was a lead character named Coco, who was meant to play the women’s housekeeper and cook. He was removed from the show to make room for Sophia, who got an incredible response from early viewers. Sophia got the fulltime role, and Coco got cut. Why? Some involved with the show blamed the kitchen: It was too small to have five people constantly featured in it, but I ask in the book: Were audiences ready for an out gay character like Coco at the time? I fictionalize the life of this actor who had the role of a lifetime ripped away from him and share the struggle of a man trying to get that back his entire career. What must it have been like to be an out, gay actor in a time when Hollywood was still so closeted? I’ve never been prouder of a book in my life (I mean, it starts with the funniest scene involving Cher and Chappell Roan), and if you have friends who not only make you laugh, drive you crazy but also complete your soul, this is the story for you … which is why I start the novel with the perfect quote from Reese Witherspoon: "I don't know what I would have done in my life if I hadn't had my friends. They have literally gotten me up out of bed, taken my clothes off, put me in the shower, dressed me, said, 'Hey, you can do this,' put my high heels on and pushed me out the door!" That sums up the novel perfectly. For now, let me just say I hope you love it, I hope you preorder it (a big giveaway to be announced this fall), I hope you spread the word, readers, influencers and booksellers, and I will let the jacket copy speak for itself: In this poignant and hilarious story inspired by TV’s beloved The Golden Girls, bestselling author Wade Rouse celebrates love, aging, finding your people, and the art of impeccably timed one-liners. Theodore Copeland has created a fabulous life in the desert oasis of Palm Springs, where he shares a fabulous pink mid-century home with three fabulous friends: Barry, a former actor still clinging to his youth, his hair, and the memory of the dream role that killed his career; Ron, an uprooted Christian from the Midwest with a big heart but no one to give it to; Sid, who, after coming out late in life, has never found love. Teddy is the caustic, unspoken leader of “The Golden Gays”—the foursome’s monthly drag tribute to The Golden Girls. Despite their foibles and bickering, they have turned their golden years into a golden era. But the harmony of their desert enclave becomes a carousel of emotional baggage when Teddy’s estranged sister, Trudy, shows up on their doorstep, her dramatic teenage granddaughter in tow. While Teddy keeps Trudy at arm’s length, she manages to wheedle her way into the lives of the Golden Gays, until the real reason for her visit is revealed and the secrets they’ve all been keeping from each other unravel faster than a hastily stitched hemline. A novel that gives thanks to “old” friends, and proves that while family may be the tie that binds, it’s the chosen family that truly keeps us together.
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