Susan Mallery’s newest summer romance, The Summer Book Club is out now! We asked the New York Times bestselling author to shed a light on how she writes, where she gets her ideas for her stories, and how she pieces them together.
Here’s what she said . . . Over to you Susan!
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Readers often ask where I get my ideas, and the answer is different for every book. Sometimes from an article I’ve read, or a conversation with a friend. Sometimes from country songs—not the lyrics, but the emotions. On very rare and wonderful occasions, an idea comes to me fully formed.
Shortly after The Boardwalk Bookshop came out, my editor, my agent, and I were talking about how much readers love books about books. The Summer Book Club—not the story, just the title—popped into my head. I said it aloud, everyone loved it, and before I knew it, I was committed to writing the story.
The thing was, I didn’t have a story, I only had a title. That is . . . not how things usually work.
So I had to build it, one piece at a time.
Piece 1: With the title being The Summer Book Club, I knew I needed to do something special with the book club. Since I wanted this to be a real feel-good book, I decided that the book club would read feel-good books during the summer. Every year, Laurel and Paris would decide on a different genre of fiction for their summer reads. This year, they’ve settled on romance novels.
Piece 2: Right around the time I was hunting for story ideas, my husband and I moved into a very modern condo, and I had no idea how to decorate it. I fell down the YouTube rabbit hole, where I happened upon the channel of a thrifter who calls herself the Crazy Lamp Lady. Jocelyn finds bargains at secondhand shops, then resells them for a profit, and this is how she earns a living. I found that fascinating.
Piece 3: Not too far from where I live, there’s a great farm stand called the Yakima Fruit Market. Over the years, I’d often thought it would make a fun and interesting career for a heroine. Paris inherited it from her mother, and gave up her dreams of being a Hollywood costume designer to run it.
Piece 4: Then we went on a cruise of autumn colors from Canada, through the Great Lakes, and down the northeastern coast of the United States. One of our stops was Bar Harbor, Maine. I grew up in Los Angeles, so an ocean view is nothing new to me, but I was struck by how incredibly different the Maine coast is from that in California. Bar Harbor was so beautiful and alive! Cruise ships and fishing boats and sailboats and yachts dotted the water. The mountains of the Acadia National Park framed the view. I was charmed and inspired.
When I was ready to begin plotting the book, I sat down with a blank piece of paper and asked myself, “What do I have?” I had a book club that reads romance novels, a thrifter, a farm stand, and a woman who moves from Bar Harbor, Maine to Los Lobos, California. That was the genesis of The Summer Book Club, a feel-good, feel-everything story of the summer that forever changed the lives of three friends. Happy reading!
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