Just in time for Pride week, in this heartfelt and sometimes hilarious conversation, I talk with USA Today bestselling author Wade Rouse and his husband, Gary Edwards, about Wade’s deeply personal new novel, That’s What Friends Are For. Wade has been on the program before and it’s always such a delight to chat with him. This time I get the bonus of chatting with Gary, too.

After publishing bestselling novels under the pen name Viola Shipman, Wade shares why he felt compelled to write this story under his own name and how The Golden Girls, grief, aging, friendship, and his experience growing up gay in the Missouri Ozarks inspired the book.

Wade and Gary discuss:

• Why Wade chose to step away from an established brand and publish under his own name

• How The Golden Girls helped him connect with his mother and grandmother after a family tragedy

• Creating four unforgettable characters inspired by the spirit, not the stereotypes, of television’s most beloved sitcom

• The importance of found family and community

• Writing about aging, mortality, second chances, and late-life love

• The role Gary plays as Wade’s husband, business partner, and self-described “Kim Kardashian stage mom”

• Building a sustainable writing career and the realities of the publishing business

• Why readers connect so deeply with authenticity

• The value of humor, pop culture references, and trusting your creative instincts

This conversation is filled with wisdom about storytelling, reinvention, resilience, and what it means to finally become comfortable in your own skin.

Watch on YouTube

About My Guests

Wade Rouse is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of five memoirs and twelve novels. His novels, written under the pen name Viola Shipman in honor of his grandmother, have been selected as must-reads by NBC’s Today Show and named Michigan Notable Books. His latest novel, That’s What Friends Are For, is published under his own name. Jodi Picoult called it “hilarious, tender and devastating”), and it was a national bestseller, a BookBub Best New Fiction and Most Uplifting Book of the Year, a Zibby Media Most Anticipated Book of 2026, and featured on CBS-NY/Club Calvi Book Club.

Wade’s next book, The Bluff, will publish October 13. It is a Christmas novel and family drama inspired by the holiday classic, The Family Stone, and romance classic, Somewhere in Time, and set on Mackinac Island. 

Gary Edwards left a successful sales career to help Wade build and sustain his writing career. He manages social media, events, book tours, reader engagement, and the thriving Wine, Words & Wade community, while serving as Wade’s biggest champion and creative partner.

Connect with Wade Rouse

Don’t Forget to watch episode #193 Restorative Writing with Carolyn Roy-Bornstein

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About Estelle

Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and author of Writing That Gets Noticed. She is the host, founder, and executive producer of Freelance Writing Direct and an adjunct professor at NYU.

Her work has appeared in more than 150 publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines.

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