Hello, dear readers,
It’s been awhile. Back in August, I had some life and health stuff pop up all at the same time, the way life usually works, and it forced me to slow down. Way, way, way down. For the first time in over a decade, I went five months without writing one word of a book, and I started mentally preparing for the possibility that I might not have a book to put out in 2025, as I’d originally planned. I even started making jokey hints about it when I talked to my agent, so it wouldn’t come as quite a shock.
And then, in January, an idea gripped me. Honestly, it gripped me like nothing quite has since I wrote Beach Read all those years ago. A novel started pouring out, far more quickly than I anticipated, twisting in on itself in surprising ways, burrowing into places I didn’t expect. All this to say, thanks to this time off, I have something I’m very excited to share with you, hopefully in 2025. Until then, I have two other bits of news I’m very excited to share with you now.
First, you can officially preorder a personalized copy of Funny Story now! There is, sadly, a hard limit on these, because I can realistically only do so many without hugely delaying the shipping process, so of course I am here telling you first with the hopes that as many of you as possible are able to get them first!
The second bit of news, which you might’ve already seen online is that Beach Read is getting a very special hardcover!
This is something my editor, agent, and I began dreaming about a couple of years ago, because Beach Read is incredibly special to all of us (and because we all love Pretty Things). When Berkley gave us the go-ahead, we started in on designing a new book with our original artist/designer, Sanny Chiu. We went back and forth a million times, asked a lot of annoying questions about what was possible—even briefly considered a color-changing edition, before realizing that the fail-rate of that particular technology meant a chunk of you would get inevitably get duds, which didn’t feel fair.
And then we landed on this, every single piece of it carefully made and tweaked and tweaked again by the ever-talented and ever-patient Sanny, and we all fell in love. It feels so warm, so inviting, so atmospheric. It feels to me just how I wanted the novel inside to feel. And now you can preorder it, if you so choose. (Happy Galentine’s Day, indeed.)
One final note about what to expect: There is a new letter from me in the book, and the Layover short story about Gus and January, originally published in the Target edition of Book Lovers, is included in the back, but that’s it. No other new content. While I understand this might be disappointing to some people, I thought about this a lot. We wanted to make something extra-special, and extra-beautiful for anyone who feels as connected to Beach Read as I do, for collectors, and frankly, for lovers of beautiful objects. But we did not want anyone to feel like they had to get another copy of the book in order to get more story, if special editions aren’t their thing. So this for the people whose thing it is.
So that’s it for now! And while I’m not totally out of my hibernation mode (and frankly am now deeper in drafting mode than I’ve been in a very long time), there will be lots more to share the next time I pop my head up.
xo,
Emily
P.S. My favorite current grocery item.
P.P.S. Amazing books I’ve recently read:
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
A Love Like the Sun by Riss M. Neilson
Come and Get It by Kiley Reid
Casanova LLC by Julia Whelan