What differentiates “Happy Place” from a standard love story is how much it’s a love-in-the-time-of-covid story, though inexplicably, neither covid nor the pandemic is referenced explicitly. All romances, be they comedies or dramas, demand that their leads get vulnerable and confess their feelings before is too late. No one prepares you for what to expect.“Happy Place” is funny at points, but it is also the closest that Henry has come to writing an old-school melodrama, a heart-rending plot that struggles to express the inexpressible. You have this feeling the whole time: I’m the only one whose dreams are being dashed or things aren’t working out as well as I’d hoped, or my publishing team is too busy for me. In a phone interview, she explained the motivation behind her social media outreach: “I was thinking back to my first debut in the young adult space, how lonely that can be. The vibe is equal parts support group, pop-up salon and master class, with Henry as a casual, first-name-only teacher. “Sometimes the pieces snap in in the wrong order but keep walking past it every so often and eventually you’ll see what you need to do!” “Books are puzzles,” Henry reminded a writer who complained of feeling “majorly” stalled. Her answers are available in a series of saved stories on a variety of topics: Revision, First Drafts, Literary Agents, Writer’s Block, Dialogue, Characters and - my personal favorite - Pep Talk 2. On Instagram, where she describes herself as “#1 NYT best-selling dog in a human body” (her latest novel, “People We Meet on Vacation,” recently debuted at the top of the trade paperback list), Henry invited followers to ask questions about the publishing process. Last summer, when Emily Henry’s adult debut, “Beach Read,” promoted her to best-sellerdom, she extended a (virtual) hand to other writers climbing the ladder. The ones who appear in this column have arrived - for the moment.
Needless to say, these conditions are subject to circumstance, but most authors stay the course with a combination of guts, Googling and infrequent glory. You have no official job description or employee handbook and, sorry, you’re not getting an evaluation. You can’t turn to a colleague with a gripe or a silly question you work alone. PAY IT FORWARD Aside from lighthouse tending, writing may be the most solitary profession.
0 kommentar(er)
