Welcome to my Happy Place
Hello, hello again, my beloved friends,
As always, I wanted to share this news with you all first: the very first Happy Place excerpt (not quite the beginning of the book but very close to it!) is now live on Entertainment Weekly. I’ve been excited and anxious for this moment for months. With every new book, I find myself nervous not only for how the book will be received but specifically how the narrator will be received.
As I worked on this one, I constantly found myself trying to skate above the surface of the main character, Harriet, and had to keep reminding myself to dig deeper, to really excavate her fears and pains. And as with my last few books, the deeper I dove into her head, the more protective I became of her. I know she’s not real, but I guess that’s the magical thing about fiction: it doesn’t matter. I want her to be happy. I want her to be known and loved. With January, I worried she’d be too emotional for readers. With Poppy, I worried she’d be too annoying. With Nora, I worried she’d be too sharp. With Harriet, I worried she’d be too spineless.
And it’s funny writing all of that out, and then realizing, these are all just my fears of how I’ll be perceived. And I think very common fears for all people, but maybe especially for women. And as Nora Stephens once said, “That’s the thing about women. There’s no good way to be one.” That might not be an exact quote, but I’m lying on my couch with my laptop on my stomach and I can’t bring myself to check.
Anyway, at every stage of the book, I found myself worrying about how a lead character like Harriet would be received. As a rule, I think we like to see characters with agency: who make decisions and drive their own stories forward. It’s somewhat of a writing rule to not just have things happening to your character. And of course the whole book isn’t just things happening to Harriet, but the better I knew her, the more I understood that largely, Harriet’s decisions and reactions aren’t guided by her own desires. They’re guided by a need for a peace; the need to believe that everything is okay, that she’s not at odds with anyone, that no one’s mad at her, that she’s not hurting anyone or overstepping in any way. She hates the feeling of being at odds with anyone and will do almost anything to avoid it. And while I know so many of my very favorite people in the world (and honestly, I myself) are like this, I worried how it would translate.
If readers would find her inaction and her conflict avoidance annoying, cowardly, self-sabotaging. I worried they would judge her.
But I shouldn’t have worried. Because as early copies of the (not-yet-proofread!) book have gone out to booksellers, librarians, and journalists over the last few weeks and early reviews have started trickling in, I’ve been reminded of something profoundly humbling: I have incredibly emotionally generous readers.
They want to empathize. They want to understand people. They want to root for people. They want to know themselves better and to heal, and they want that for the people they love. And when I say they, I of course mean you. So this is a little private thank you to you all, whether you’ve read this one early or not, because I know even if Happy Place is not your perfect happy place of a book (and even if Harriet does annoy the hell out of you), I know you’ll read with open, soft hearts because that’s what you’ve done for three (!!!) books so far. I feel so overwhelmed by that, so grateful. So that’s just a huge, long thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Now I wanted to mention a couple other things fairly quickly. The first is that signed copies are starting to show up for preorder. There are some at Barnes & Noble and some at Waterstones, but there will also be quantities going out to a bunch of different indie bookstores, so if you want to hold off for your local indie (first of all, yay), I’ll hopefully have a more complete list sometime soon.
There will also be a a limited amount of personalized copies (signed to you, specifically, I mean) available through my indie, Joseph Beth. They don’t have a landing page set up for the personalized ones yet, but again, when they do, I’m going to share it with you all first, because we’re capping it at around twelve-hundred this time, so that hopefully everyone can get their preorders on release day rather than weeks later as some of you had to deal with last time!
The last thing I wanted to do was a quick little People We Meet on Vacation film FAQ, because I know there have been a lot of questions since I shared the news. So I’ll try to hit a few of the common ones below.
When will it be released?
Not sure yet! It’s a top priority for the studio, so we’re hoping things will move quickly, but filming hasn’t begun yet, so we really can’t say for sure. And things could still fall apart! Hopefully they won’t, but it’s truly all a possibility.
Where will it be released and/or streaming?
Also not sure yet! This depends on a handful of factors, but when I know more I’ll let you know.
Who will play Alex and Poppy?
I don’t know this yet either! (This will be a theme in these FAQs.) No one has been cast yet. Our director, Brett, and I have been in regular communication about it. We’ve bounced a lot of ideas back and forth, and frankly, I love absolutely everyone he’s eyeing and he’s also adamant that we have a cast I’m thrilled with. But here’s the thing and I know this sucks but: the film’s Alex and Poppy will very likely not be your personal Alex and Poppy. I just mean this on, like, a statistical level.
If you look at any fan-casting post, there will always be pitches you hate and ones you love, and your perfect pitch will also get those reactions from other readers. That’s just how it works, because hot is ~a state of mind~ and thus subjective. And beyond that, there are a ton of other factors in casting, including but not limited to:
Budget: Some actors cost a lot more than others, and the budget for PWMOV is not yet set!
Schedule: For films to get made, thousands of people need to be free for the same chunk of time, including the leads, so even if there’s someone who seems perfect that doesn’t mean they’ll actually have the time available, in the right time.
Interest: Actors are working artists. They take the projects that work for them based not only on pay and schedule but whether it’s a film they’re excited about, or a role they want. I think when we’re fancasting, we tend to reach for actors we’ve seen in similar roles, but that doesn’t mean those actors specifically want to do more roles like that. If anything, I think many want to avoid falling into the trap of being typecast over and over again. Oftentimes, they’re looking for something new to do, that widens their repertoire.
Chemistry: This is a really big one, and something that Brett and I are both hugely passionate about getting right. Whether we find our perfect Poppy or our perfect Alex first, whoever is cast next has to have the exact right chemistry with our cast lead.
A lot of other voices weighing in: Films are huge collaborations between a lot of creative people. It won’t just be me and Brett weighing in. Our incredible producers at Temple Hill will have thoughts to offer, as well as our wonderful studio execs at 3000 Pictures. All of these people are smart and passionate, and they love this book as much as we do. They’re going to make sure we have an incredibly Alex and Poppy.
But! That doesn’t mean they will necessarily be your mental Alex and Poppy, and I want you to know that’s okay! The film and the book, though very closely married, will not be the same exact thing, and when you re-read, I hope you’ll continue to feel free to imagine these characters however you want, because they belong to you, no matter what happens with the adaptation. I think it’s helpful to think of an adaptation like you would a play, or a superhero franchise. The characters will always exist separate from the plays and films themselves. There are so many different Batmans, and none of them is the real Batman; it’s all about what different actors can bring to a character.
Brett and I were talking about this a few weeks ago, and he reminded me of how, when Heath Ledger was cast as the Joker, everyone was shocked and confused, until we saw what he brought to the character. That’s what we hope our Alex and Poppy can do: open up these characters in a whole new way.
Possibly too much Batman talk, so I’m going to stop there, but all that said, I want to reiterate: this movie really is very much for you, and we’re going to do absolutely everything in our power make it beautiful, magical, nostalgic, sexy, romantic, emotional, weird, heart-warming, and funny. We want you to be deeply thrilled with it. We want our Alex and Poppy to totally steal your hearts—but they don’t have to replace yours, either. This is my express permission and encouragement to guard your sacred Alexes & Poppies in your hearts (while also hopefully falling in love with our cast ofc).
And while I can’t tell you who’s on our shortlist just yet…. I can tell you, they’re all people I love, and many of your favorites as well, so I think (hope/pray/manifest) you’ll be overjoyed with where we land.
That’s all for now friends. I’ll circle back when there’s more to share.
With so much love and appreciation,
Em
P.S. Haven’t been buying as many groceries because I’ve been doing Green Chef, and honestly, I love it.