It’s called FUTURE YOU and is about woman working at a small hotel in the Catskills (where do I get my ideas??) who finds herself trapped in a four month “time scramble”, never knowing which day in that stretch she’ll wake up to.
It’s not a sequel to THE FOUNTAIN, but cleeeearly I’ve got a thing for Woman Has Surreal Experience of Time in a Cozy Catskills Setting. That’s its own genre, right?
And they say “write what you know”. Well I’ve been stuck in a time scramble for— wait! I mean, I’ve been running the Spruceton Inn for 13 years now and did some time at an NYC hotel before this so believe me when I say: I’ve got stories.
This whole time-scramble-at-a-hotel was an idea I first started playing around with back in 2020, but it was maybe a little too ambitious for me as a writer just then. I had to learn a thing or two (or ten) about plot in particular, because having a time scramble in your story means giving yourself the biggest plot headache possible as an author, haha! (She laughs through gritted teeth.)
In all seriousness, it has been such a blast to write. Though here’s a kinda strange thing to admit:
Part of me hasn’t really felt like a true novelist until I wrote a second one.
Call it Imposter Syndrome, call it ridiculous, call it totally understandable, either way I’m still pinching myself that this is something I get to do!
I’m working with my same editor at Harper—yay!— and one of the many things I love about doing this with her is that she hand writes her first round of edits in pencil in the margins of a printed out manuscript that she FedExes to me. It is so old school AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH.
It’s slated to come out the spring after next (aka 2028), which feels like both forever away and next week. I’ll keep you posted but for now, I’ve got some revisions to tackle…
Some of you have written to ask to be put on the waitlist for weekends this summer thinking we’re already sold-out, but I’ve got good news for you…
Only exceptions are the last weekend of August when we’re hosting BEYOND THE NOISE: YOGA & WRITING which has just 2 spots left so sign up now, plus Sept 26th & Oct 3rd when we’re hosting weddings.
Sorry, did I say weddings? Yes I did. And have I mentioned recently that—
Click through here for dates, rates, how we party, and other details.
We hosted their annual open rehearsal in our barn last month and omg guys, THE WAY WE LAUGHED.
I also legit cried. (I’m such a sucker!)
Their shows are always exceptionally accessible and exciting, but I think this one is going to be a real banger.
I’m heading back to Books Are Magic where I had my launch for THE FOUNTAIN in March—
But this time I’m the convo partner with Spruceton Inn Artist Resident Jessica Goldstein and we’re talking about her oh so smart and funny debut RETRO!
RETRO follows the story of Ash, an unemployed actress hired by a time travel agency for the wealthy. (Think: your bachelorette in Nashville… in the 1800s!)
It’s a super smart and funny look at the nature of nostalgia, it’s a juicy workplace drama, it’s brilliant takedown of the tourism industry.
She applied for the Inn’s Artist Residency back in 2023 with an excerpt from this before she even had a book deal and both Steven and I remember reading through her sample and getting to the bottom of it and thinking, Damnit, I wanna read the rest! Which is another way of saying I have been a big fan of this book from Day One.
So come talk all things bookish and time travel and hospitality with us at 7pm on Wednesday, July 22nd at Books Are Magic on Montague St!
Hope we get to have you up for some epic sunsets, firefly sightings, creek dipping, and more at the Inn this summer.
See ya soon?
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