Elena Bowes spoke with Annabel Monaghan, a hopeless romantic, about her latest novel It’s a Love Story, which comes out tomorrow, May 27th. Monaghan is the USA Today bestselling and Library Reads Hall of Fame author of Summer Romance, Same Time Next Summer, Nora Goes Off Script, and humorous essay collection Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big. Not only has Annabel saved every love letter that she’s ever received, but she reads Pride & Prejudice nearly every year. If you’re wondering what to pack for that holiday in the sun, what will put you in a good mood, and make you turn the page despite the sunburn, look no further.
Below are edited highlights from the Q&A. You can listen to the full episode here on Elena Meets the Author.
It’s a Love Story centers around a somewhat unhinged Jane Jackson, who was a child TV star and now 20 years later or so, is still in Hollywood and trying to get a movie produced. Jane is not having much luck and whenever Jane gets nervous, she hides in her closet or under her desk at work and eats candy. Enter Dan Finnegan, an arrogant cinematographer who almost immediately becomes Jane’s nemesis when he trashes her latest film idea to her boss, Nathan. Dan is somewhat handsome, a cross between a fireman and a swimsuit model.
Elena: Hello Annabel. Please tell us about your inspiration for this book. I saw in your Acknowledgements that you mentioned a book called I’m Glad My Mom Died, by Jennette McCurdy. Can you tell us about that?
Annabel: Hello and thank you for having me on the show. It is such a hard title to say, isn’t it? Every time I say it, I almost wish I never brought it up because every time I say it, I feel a little sick. I picked that book up two years ago, and I read it straight through and when I finished, I turned back to the first page, and I read it again. I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my life.
It’s by Jennette McCurdy who was a teen star. I was so taken by the writing. I don’t know that I’ve ever read writing quite that crisp and unusual. I also really got into the mind of teen stars and all of these teens like Jeanette that I watched growing up.
So, while I was watching them, they were going through puberty on TV. And when I think about that time in my life, it was all about trying things on, maybe I’m going to dress like Madonna now, or maybe I’m going try to have this personality. What was it like to grow up on TV where you’re being dressed and given a script every day? Is there part of your life where you missed your personal development as a person because you were always told where to stand? So that’s where Jane Jackson came from. She is the most unhinged character I’ve ever written. She is an adult. She’s trying to make it in the movie business. She is so unself-aware, has no clue really of who she is. So that was my starting point. I just wanted to see what she would be like all grown up.
Elena: Was it easy to write the whole unhinged part?
Annabel: Oddly, I’m embarrassed to say it was so much easier for me than trying to write somebody who has their act together. I mean, just the thrill of having her rip open candy bars on the floor of her closet and shove them in her mouth, the actual release that I felt, she’s a person who always knows what she’s going to say in advance, but then if she gets really mad, she just lets loose and says something totally different. Writing that was a relief to me.
Elena: Jane’s best friend and flat mate is a full-time nurse and a part-time bartender. She’s such a great, wise counterbalance to her best friend Jane. Was it easy to create their hilarious text exchanges?
Annabel: No, it wasn’t easy. Writing friendship does not come that easily to me. I’m not totally sure why that is. I think it’s because I have a lot of different kinds of friends. I have my very old friends where there’s no BS and then I have people who met me when I was an adult, and so maybe they think I have my act together. I don’t know how to tell them that I don’t have my act together. But when I talk to my high school friends, they know. So, it’s tough to hit that thing that feels natural. It takes a lot of drafts for me to get there with female friendships.
Elena: Oh, you did it really well, very convincingly.
Annabel: Thank you.
Elena: It wasn’t clear to me that writing this book was ever hard for you. How many times did you have to rewrite it?
Annabel: I probably turned this book in two months late and not because I was at the beach looking at the sky. It was because I was rewriting this book. So, I don’t know, maybe I wrote 15 drafts of this book.
Elena: Wow. Well, you had a lot of people, the Finnegans for starters.
Annabel: There were a lot of people. But the Finnegans were always in the same room. That wasn’t as hard. I always think that a lot of people are tough when you’re going to different places and engaging with different people who all have separate arcs. That’s overwhelming. Yeah. I don’t know what it was about this story.
There was something that I was feeling, this happens a lot to me, but more in this book. There was a feeling that I was having, and it was not on the paper. It’s like there’s something that’s in my head, maybe more in my subconscious, and it’s not coming through in my fingers.
Elena: You definitely got there in the end
Annabel: Well, thank you.
Elena: And so is it pretty much the deal with your publisher, where they say, every May, we’d like a book?
Annabel: Yes. I’m in contract to write a book for summer 2026 and summer 2027. Don’t tell them, but I would do this for free and until I die. I honestly don’t know what else I’d be doing. It’s really what I love to do. And then the culmination of it, in a few weeks I’m going on book tour and that’s super fun. And then I’ll start another book.
Elena: Do you not panic a teeny bit with these deadlines? Or do you have enough ideas percolating that you’re okay?
Annabel: I don’t panic. When I was finishing this book, I was having ideas about the book that I’m writing now, the next book. I’m not a good multitasker. Having children was really challenging for me. Like, why are we doing so many different things? So, I was terrified by how much I was thinking about that next book while I was finishing this book. So, I have to shut the door on any ideas. I don’t even write them down in a notebook. I’m like, it is not time. I’m not entertaining this idea yet. And then I start when I’m done.
Elena: Do you run your ideas by anyone?
Annabel: If I told you an idea and you went, ‘I wouldn’t’, I would discard that idea. It’s too risky, to run ideas by people. So, I talk to my editor, and one writing friend. I have a lot of writing friends, but the one I run everything by is Karen Dukess. She has written Welcome to Murder Week, coming out in June. It’s the best book you’ll read this summer. I run my ideas by the two of them, and that’s it.
Elena: That’s smart.
Annabel: Yeah, so this last book I made a PowerPoint presentation for my editor. Like, here’s the book I’m thinking about writing. What do you think? And then she approved.
Elena: What are you reading now and loving?
Annabel: I just finished The God of the Woods. I’m late to the party on that. You must read it. It’s complicated and really good, a literary thriller. I just started reading Emily Henry’s new book, Great Big Beautiful Life. And it’s so funny – I’m on page four, I know I’m going to love it. I almost don’t even need to read it, like I already love it. And the romance book that I did read that I loved this year was Abby Jimenez’s new book. Say You’ll Remember Me. There’s a lot of heavy stuff; it is not silly. It also deals with so much about the practicalities of life, like money and distance and taking care of people with dementia. She really digs into life. I loved that one.
Elena: Alright, that’s it for my questions. Thank you so much
Annabel: Thank you!