Getting to help cast the dogs for the TUE cover honestly might be the highlight of my life as an author. And since these covers were photoshoots, they feel incredibly tied to my books. The SYBG cover in particular feels like art to me. We had hired the models, but I wasn’t loving the clothes options for the girls. And at that point I felt like I KNEW Sloane and Emily, knew what they’d wear. So I sent a box of my things that I thought would work.

On the cover, the model portraying Emily is wearing my Wildfox tank top - it reads It Was The Best of Times, which is very perfect for this book. Sloane is wearing my Mayle top. The hair tie on her wrist is mine. And she’s, most crucially, wearing my heart sunglasses I tossed in at the last minute. I have this picture framed in my house - because it’s always felt like art to me.

But!! These covers are very much OF A TIME. Back when they were coming out, the photographic YA cover was A THING. But times change and tastes shift and that’s no longer where the market is. My later books - Take Me Home Tonight and The Ballad of Darcy and Russell - both got illustrated covers. Covers that I LOVED. But this meant that my backlist was feeling a little disjointed - some covers with photos, some with illustrations, no cohesion.

Well, NO MORE!

S&S is incredibly awesome, and they’re re-designing my whole backlist. The same artist, the brilliant Ali Mac, is doing the art. And Since You’ve Been Gone and Second Chance Summer are available starting today! Target, Walmart, B&N, all the indies. I was at Diesel over the weekend and got to see them a few days early, on the shelf!

The rest of the books will roll out, two at a time, in the months to come. But they’re all SO cute. I can’t tell you how great the foil looks in person. And did you see the SPRAYED EDGES?! CAN YOU EVEN?!

I’ve also had the opportunity to revisit the text, and gently move things into the present when possible. (There was actually just an article about this!) Don’t worry, I’m not making any big changes.

But SCS is fourteen years old, somehow, which is weird, because I haven’t aged a day.

So it was mostly not having QUITE so many mentions of iPods. Changing text thread to group chat. And in my book from 2016 I kept calling it a cell phone?? It’s just a phone now, thank you very much. Nothing that would even get noticed by anyone - but it was fun to revisit all these books, and take a little ramble down memory lane.

The one that we’re not doing this with is Amy & Roger. So much of this book is about not being contactable, about paper maps, and no smart phones, and iPod playlists. About the moment when you could still step off the grid for a moment and be unfindable - and maybe find yourself along the way. So we decided to make A&R a historical novel (sob). It’s now textually set in 2010, which will explain things like why nobody has the internet on their phones, but also why Roger doesn’t get to listen to Hamilton (which he absolutely would have LOVED).

To kick off the launch of these re-releases, Simon Teen is giving extended free sneak peeks!! Check em out here!

So cool right? And there’s a ton of fun bonus content in the new SYBG!

It’s been so great to revisit these books - to see what they were, and imagine what new editions of them could look like. I’m excited for new readers to find them - and for readers who’ve been here from the beginning to get to hang out with some old friends.

xoxo

mm

Omg.

Let’s back up.

It’s January, 2019. I’m at my friend Sonia’s apartment for a birthday party. A VISION BOARDING birthday party. I am sure I must have made a vision board before this, but this is the first one I have a real memory of .

I was putting my vision board together. Pictures of dogs and houses and books and the words hot crispy pizza. And I said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I woke up and everything on the board came true?” And then I froze - the way you do when you suddenly realize you’ve gotten an idea. “I want to write that!” I yelped, since I was in a roomful of writers, and wanted to lay my claim.

I knew it was a screenplay, not a novel, but I didn’t know anything about the story yet. Or if there was really anything there. But I knew there was the possibility of something. A flash of gold in the river. Maybe pyrite, maybe something valuable. But no way to tell except to go panning. (And now we’re at the end of my mineral knowledge.)

I’d broken the story by the end of February, and was moving fast - apparently I had a draft by March 2019. (I hadn’t remembered this; thank god for PDFs with dates on them.) I continued to work on it, iterate, get notes from brilliant friends, write another draft.

I’d never worked on something like this before - where every draft was SO different than the one that came before. I had my heroine - Emerson Mills - and her vision board that came true. But literally everything else could change from draft to draft.

One of the hardest things was figuring out the magic and how it worked. WHY is there a magic vision board? What are the rules of it? These seem like simple questions; they’re really, really not. It was a LOT of trial and error to figure this out. I watched 13 Going on 30 and Big and I Feel Pretty and 17 Again SO MUCH, taking notes on their structure, looking at the rules of their magic.

I wasn’t working on the script full time - I had other projects, lots of books to write. But I never let it go. There was a new draft in 2020, a whole different draft in 2021.

I kept making vision boards, of course. My friend had another Vision Boarding party in January 2020. I cut out a picture from a magazine that said, Or maybe just stay home. This stopped being so cute two months later when a global pandemic hit!

I started working with producers in 2022, who told me they only had a few minor notes - like could we change the heroine’s job, the love interest’s job, and give her a sibling? These notes spun me out, but in retrospect, they took the story where it needed to go. But! By the time I had figured out the new draft, those producers’ mandates had changed, and we parted ways.

Then this happened.

Suddenly, things were moving again. We had a director, Peter - who I loved, and who gave me amazing notes. But BIG notes. Notes I was initially resistant to. But when I tried them, the script got SO much better, and so much sharper. (And in a very Social Network turn of events, we dropped the “the”. It was cleaner.) We got producers, and an absolute dream lead actress in Lucy attached to play Emerson.

And now here we are. My little vision board script idea, winging its way to France.

I have no idea what will happen to it. Everything could fall apart tomorrow! (I really hope it doesn’t.) Nothing in this business is a done deal until you’re on set, and sometimes not even then.

But it’s been so fun to look back on this - this idea I had SEVEN years ago, and just kept chasing and chasing, until it became sharper and stronger and better than I ever could have imagined.

And OF COURSE I’m still making vision boards.

2025:

I had a vision boarding PARTY to kick off 2026; it was a blast. I am planning on having another one next year, and have already started saving magazines.

I’m very proud of 2026’s:

It’s been a ride. And- hopefully - it’s just getting started.

xoxo

MM

I love January first. I love looking at the year that passed, and making resolutions, and cleaning off my white board and starting fresh. I love taking stock of what came before, and charting a course for the year to come.

Do you read Steven Soderbergh’s culture diary? I look forward to it every year - his summation of all the books and movies and TV and theater he consumed. For years I’d try and do what he did, keeping a log every day, but it just never worked for me and I always abandoned it a few days into January.

Which I never understood, because I love a list - I love TRACKING things. I love data!! I love getting info and seeing patterns and adjusting accordingly (or not). For every book I’ve written, I keep a daily log of the date, how many words I wrote, and if I finished a chapter or not. It’s as low-tech as you can get, but it’s always worked for me - I love keeping track of my writing that way.

This is what I wrote this year - two books and two scripts. Not pictured are the many treatments and drafts and pitches of things that never ended up materializing - but such is a writer’s life. I have really big goals for my productivity this year - maybe 4 books, 8 scripts? I concede this might be wildly ambitious. (But if you’re not going to be wildly ambitious on January 1st, then when?) Maybe putting it here will mean that next year, this picture will be of a towering pile. I hope so!

I also published a book this year - Gradchanted came out in March! But since most of the work on that was done in 2024, I didn’t feel like it counted.

It’s only recently that I’ve started keeping track of what I’m reading and watching. I’ve found it really helpful, though - I like seeing my progress, and it helps me to remember, when someone asks me for a rec, what I’ve recently loved. What I’ve found has worked for me is keeping a notes app list of the books I’ve read, another of the TV/ theater I’ve watched, and letting my letterboxd take care of keeping track of my movies.

It was one of my intentions to read more this year, and I’m thrilled to report I did! I didn’t get where I wanted to be - I’d aimed for 150 books, then reduced it to 100, then 75, and ended up at 71. But more than double what I read in 2024 - next year I’m aiming for 119.

Books 25

1. Everyone this Christmas has a secret (1/1)

2. Heartbreak is the national Anthem (1/4)

3. How to solve your own murder (1/7)

4. The Jaws Log (2/15)

5. Love Song (2/19)

6. Penderwicks on Gardam St. (2/24)

7. The running grave (2/27)

8. The ink black heart (3/5)

9. Last night was fun (3/15)

10. Lethal White (3/18)

11. Troubled blood (3/22)

12. The friend (4/8)

13. We solve murders (4/12)

14. The authors’ guide to murder (4/16)

15. Verity (4/21)

16. Great big beautiful life (4/26)

17. Princess daisy (5/14)

18. Love and theft (5/24)

19. It’s a love story (5/30)

20. Marble Hall Murders (5/31)

21. Fair Play (6/8)

22. All His Lies (6/9)

23. Worth Fighting For (6/10)

24. Vera Wong 2 (6/30)

25. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil (7/4)

26. Atmosphere (7/6) (11:58 pm under the wire baybee!)

27. Deep Cuts (7/15)

28. The Love Haters (7/26)

29. Margo’s Got Money Troubles (8/5)

30. Matrix (8/15)

31. Catching the Big Fish (8/15)

32. Sunrise on the reaping (8/23)

33. The Wedding People (8/25)

34. These Summer Storms (8/28)

35. The Hallmarked Man (9/9)

36. Hamnet (9/11)

37. Bad Actors (9/14)

38. We Solve Murders (9/18)

39. Clown Town (9/23)

40. The Impossible Fortune (10/1)

41. Lin-Manuel Miranda: Education of an Artist (10/6)

42. Dolly all the time (10/11)

43. The Impossible Fortune (10/19)

44. Down Cemetery Road (10/19)

45. John & Paul (10/21)

46. Consider Yourself Kissed (10/22)

47. The Trouble With Heroes (10/23)

48. Library of Unruly Treasures (10/24)

49. What We Can Know (10/29)

50. Dreaming the Beatles (10/30)

51. Murder Takes a Vacation (10/31)

52. Once & Again (11/5)

53. Forever (11/9)

54. Curtain (11/15)

55. Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club (11/16)

56. Murder in Retrospect (11/20)

57. Twenties Girl (11/21)

58. The Correspondent (11/26)

59. See You Next Tuesday (12/1)

60. The Body in the Library (12/4)

61. The Summer Book (12/5)

62. The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (12/7)

63. The Boomerang Clue (12/13)

64. Project Hail Mary (12/17)

65. This American Woman (12/18)

66. Murders in the Rue Morgue (12/21)

67. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit (12/28)

68. A Marriage at Sea (12/29)

69. I Remember Nothing (12/30)

70. If The Fates Allow (12/30)

    71. When Harry Met Sally… (12/31)

A solid 1/4 of these are mysteries, which makes sense considering how much of my next year will be taken up with writing my YA mystery WHO DUNNE IT. (And also…I love mysteries. I feel like they’re one of the best things to bust you out of a reading slump. If you haven’t read Richard Osman, please please go make yourself happy and check him out). Next year I want to crack 100 - we’ll see.

My faves of this year were The Correspondent, The Wedding People, Margot’s Got Money Troubles, John & Paul, Atmosphere, The Impossible Fortune, Dolly All the Time, and The Trouble With Heroes.

I also watched 120 movies this year, which I definitely want to increase next year - I’d like to aim for 300 but would be happy with 200 for sure. Here’s my movie diary. And yes, I DID watch all of the Knives Out movies way too much! (See above, mystery writing & loving.) I also watched K-Pop Demon Hunters a whole bunch, and have no regrets.

I hope that you’re having a great first day of the year - and that 2026 is already off to a good start.

xoxo

MM

The thing about me is I always want to know everything. Blame it on being a Virgo, or a second child, or maybe it’s just the way my brain is wired. If I love a director, I’ll binge all their movies. If I’m into an author, I’m going to read everything they’ve written. Blank Check became my go-to podcast during the pandemic, and one of the things I loved it about it was that there was SUCH a deep backlist I could wade into.

It’s also very millennial of me (even though I think I’m *technically* that weird little micro generation in between Gen X and True Millennials? I am, at the very least, the oldest millennial - which I think should be the title of my eventual memoir. THE OLDEST MILLENNIAL - THE RISE AND FALL OF MORGAN MATSON.) But I thought this summed it up perfectly:

I grew up in a time when it felt like it WAS possible to know everything! Nick at Nite and I Love the 80s and best-of compilation CDs and re-runs and old movies on TV. At any rate, it wired my brain in this particular way. There are my normal deep dives (“normal” is really doing a lot of work in that sentence, huh?) but then there are a few that tip over into hyperfixation.

This is when I’m going beyond a deep dive. I’m going scuba diving. Down into the part of the ocean where it’s really cold and dark and you need those special big watches. (I have never been scuba diving; can you tell?)

These hyperfixations don’t happen that often, but when they do I usually don’t…ask questions. I have found that something in my unconscious knows why I’m suddenly so into whatever I’m into, and it’s really not my business. My brain has an itch it needs to scratch, and this seems to be taking care of things.

And sometimes I’ll figure out why, and sometimes I won’t. A few years ago, I basically became the director Rian Johnson’s biggest fan. I watched all the movies, I read the scripts, I listened to the commentaries, I listened to every podcast this nice-seeming man has ever recorded. I wasn’t sure why, really…until this year when I sold my upcoming mystery novel that was very much sparked by my Knives Out deep dives.

All of which to say, I’m suddenly consuming everything I can get my hands on that has to do with the Beatles.

Why?

I have no idea!!

I had always liked them, of course - I’m a human being with ears. (There’s a fake band in my Katie Finn books called Lenin and McCarthy.) But I was really more Emily in this exchange than Frank. (I think Frank is actually saying something very close to what a college boyfriend said to me once.)

This recent phase probably started with Yesterday, which I truly feel is an underrated movie. And then I watched Peter Jackson’s Get Back - the 8 hour process documentary that I couldn’t get enough of. And then I read this substack and then this book…and I was off to the races.

A friend asked me on Instagram (after I posted this stack of Beatles books) if this was for something or just for fun. And my answer was yes. It IS just for fun. And it might end up being an inspiration or a jumping off point for something down the road…I just don’t know. But I’m having fun.

I just watched the Beatles Anthology on Disney+, and now I’m watching this which is basically just Rick Rubin telling McCartney that he’s great. (I agree, Rick!) And I was delighted to find that one of my favorite music critics1 had written a Beatles book.

The nice thing is that I’m not going to run out of material any time soon. I’ve discovered a whole bunch of songs I’d breezed past (I’ve Just Seen A Face are you KIDDING ME) and that I’m a Paul girl for life, with renewed appreciation for Ringo. But the dynamics are so fascinating! And the songs are incredible! And the fits are so good! And and and….

Anyway! I’ll be over here, with lots of books to read and docs to watch and THIS to look forward to in…2028.

In the meantime, I’m having fun. I love having a random sidequest in my daily life. I love feeling like some part of my brain I’m not fully aware of has decided to do the driving for a moment. And I’m getting to listen to some of the best music ever, even if this WAS the reason my Spotify wrapped age was 78.

I hope you have a fab holiday!!

xoxo

MM

It wasn’t that I had been totally mystery agnostic before. My FIRST EVER book is a classic mystery. Top 8, written as Katie Finn, is basically an Agatha Christie style whodunnit. And just in case this is too subtle (it isn’t) in English class, the characters are reading Christie’s mysteries and learning about things like red herrings and library denouements.

But after that, I mostly kept my mystery writing confined to my pen name books. There’s a REALLY fun reveal at the end of Broken Hearts, Fences, and Other Things to Mend, and mysteries seeded throughout the rest of the Katie Finn books. And while there’s always SOME mystery element in every novel, the thought of writing a true-blue, straight-up mystery just never seemed to be on my radar.

Until 2019.

Two things happened around then. The first - Knives Out came out, and rocked my world. It’s one of my all-time favorite movies, full stop. It’s currently number one on my Letterboxd. (My the order changes pretty frequently, but it’s ALWAYS in the Top 4, unless I’m doing some kind of themed thing.) But when I saw it in the theater, Thanksgiving weekend with my family right before the world shut down, it was a revelation. It wasn’t a huge shock I loved the movie - I’m a huge Rian Johnson fan.

But it was more than that. I kept watching it over and over, trying to take it apart, and put it back together, attempting to figure out how it worked. Something about it turned on a light in my brain.

And the second thing that happened was - I read The Thursday Murder Club.

I wish I could remember why or when - I know it was in the pandemic, and I must have heard of it somehow. But the combination of this movie and this book series proved to be my gateway drug. Suddenly I realized I WAS a mystery reader. I just needed stories like these - character driven, funny, without a traditional detective or too much darkness. I LOVED them.

I’d never really been a mystery reader before. My mother has always been a huge mystery fan, and while occasionally I’d pick up an Elizabeth George or Louise Penny she had lying around, they weren’t really for me. But now, I couldn’t get enough. I started seeking out more and more books - the rest of the Osmans as he published them, of course, each one getting better. But also the Vera Wong series and the Benjamin Stevenson books and Anthony Horowitz’s two series (I love them both! Don’t make me pick!) and Kristin Perrin’s books. I dove into reading the classics - Christie of course but also John Dickson Carr and Dorothy Sayers. I was IN.

But it wasn’t until about six months ago that I started thinking about writing one. But then just like that - I had my title. (A title I was kind of shocked nobody had ever used?) And the story fell into place really quickly after that. I was going to write a mystery.

In retrospect, the signs were all there.

This is my mystery shelf

This is my parents’ Agatha Christie collection, which I am now the keeper of.

This is the poster that hangs above my desk.

And this is what I spent far too much money on after I sold the mystery, as a present to myself.

Sometimes the clues (lol) are all there, just waiting patiently for you to pick up on them. I’ve been living and breathing mysteries for several years now. And now, I’m finally am going to write one. (Despite what I said in 2016).

Here’s the official announcement!

I’m also SO excited about the new MG. Lucky & Gertrude isn’t the one I’ve been finishing this summer - that one still doesn’t have a title and is coming out in Spring 27. But L&G is going to be so much fun - a very Wes Andersonian MG about cousins and cons and family.

But first - I get to write a mystery!! Dark and stormy nights and a mansion on an island and clues and red herrings and MURDER. And in the middle of it is Ellie, who’s just trying to get through her freshman year despite the fact she has a roommate who hates her and has unwittingly stumbled into a feud with her collage librarian - so she really didn’t need murder on top of everything else. I’ve been trying to write a Thanksgiving-set book forever (Save the Date was originally set around Thanksgiving until my editor pointed out that made no sense, and we changed it to a wedding). And now I get the chance to!!

I’m really really excited about this one. I know it’s a departure from my normal YA vibe - but not THAT much, really. There will still be cute guys and crushes and dogs and friendship and lessons to learn and personal growth and humor. There will just ALSO be a blood-stained corpse because sometimes, through no fault of your own, your Thanksgiving weekend really takes a turn.

If you are not a mystery reader but are mystery-curious I really can’t recommend The Thursday Murder Club enough as a starting place. It’s REALLY funny, with characters I love so much. But that was my mystery entry point - yours might be totally different! (It might even be…Who Dunne It?) 🕵🏼‍♀️ 💗

More to come!!

xo

MM

This has not changed. This was my recent library haul - though in this case, it was partially because so many loans came in at once.

And there’s always been something about summer reading. I mean, it’s a whole category of books. The beach read! The lake read! The vacation read! As a kid, I lived for the summer reading contests where you could log the books you read, and try and win a prize, and at the end, everyone got a pizza party. (This is a plot point in my new MG. There’s a fake summer reading contest as part of a revenge scheme. At least, this is the in the book right now. Lots and lots will change with future drafts!)

My very favorite thing in the summers is to be near a body of water (beach, lake, pool, I’m not picky), preferably in the shade, and devour a book. I love a day like this when I can nearly finish a book. And then it’s all blended together - the day and the sun and the snacks and the story.

I had this on the beach in Connecticut

and at the dog beach in Huntington

and this last weekend in Shaver Lake

I have been loving the books I’ve read this summer (highly rec Atmosphere, Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Vera Wong #2, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil, and Deep Cuts) and it’s made me resolve to be a little more intentional about my reading going forward.

I feel like I read less than I did even a few years ago (and WAY less than before smartphones and podcasts and so many digital distractions). I try and read 100 books a year, but I think I can do better than that. And maybe writing it in my substack will keep me accountable? I’m going to aim for 150 this year. I think I can do it. I WANT to do it. If I could do fiction audiobooks, that would really help with this, but alas. My brain is not wired that way.

In other news, K-Pop Demon Hunters has taken over my life?

It’s INCREDIBLE and if you haven’t seen it, I’m jealous of you. Prepare for it to be your whole personality. All the songs from it have taken over my summer playlists (as you can see on my spotify here) and I just keep watching it? (and my letterboxd here!) It’s just fantastic and even if I DIDN’T know the people who made it, I’d still be a giant fan.

also…I will have NEWS to ANNOUNCE soon! I’m just waiting for the all-clear. But…if you’re on my letterboxd, there might be some clues. Just saying!! 🕵🏼‍♀️

I am finishing up my second MG - or as my agent and editor are calling it, MMMG2. (Morgan Matson Middle Grade 2). I’m at that place I always get when finishing a book - where everything is clicking, I love the characters, the story is working - and I’m also so sick of everyone and done with making choices for all these people that I’ve invented. Hopefully I’ll be able to announce a summary and info about this book SOON. The reception to Firefly was so lovely, and everyone was so welcoming to invite me into this MG world, that I really want to do right by my follow up. (Also, if anyone has a title for me that would be REALLY appreciated. I don’t think I can put a book in the world called MMMG2.)

I hope you all have a great rest of the summer! I’m mostly spending it on the patio by my starbucks, drinking iced lattes and iced tea and writing as many words as I can. Murph always comes too.

Hopefully my next post will be to announce exciting things!! In the meantime, happy summer and happy reading and demon hunting!!

xoxo

mm

I loved launching Gradchanted into the world last month! I had a wonderful time at Godmothers in Montecito (did not spot Meghan OR Lilibet, sadly) but did get a truly wonderful GIGANTIC tote that I already know is going to be my bag of the summer.

But now the book is launched and I’m back at my desk. I’m writing my second middle grade book - aiming to turn it in at the end of the month. Which seems…soon? Considering it feels like I’m very much at the start of this book? Which is bad, because I’m 150 pages in. But! I might just have to cut the first 100 pages or so. It’s happened before - my editor is very good at figuring out what to lose and he’s always right. We cut a whole DAY (and about 100 pages) of Save the Date in the second draft and I’m so glad we did.

One thing I’ve started using to help me draft is WriteTrack. I just started using it but I really like it so far. It’s free, and the guy who invented it created it for his wife when she was doing NaNo.

I like it because it keeps me accountable - I want to see as many green squares as possible in a row - but also because it breaks things down. Whenever I write a book, I keep a schedule - the date, how many words I wrote that day, if I finished a chapter or not. And I will sometimes go back and look at old schedules when I’m starting something, and remember this is how it happens. Some words, every day, over months. And at the end of of it, there’s a book!

This does the same thing for my brain - it just helps me to see how much I need to do every day to get to the end. And if you write more, or less, the schedule adjusts. It takes writing out of the mystical and puts it into the quotidian. I know this might not work for some people - you might see all those word counts and get panicky - but I love it. It makes me feel like there’s a plan. Whether or not I can stick to it is another question - but hopes are high.

Another thing I’ve been doing for accountability is keeping a shared spreadsheet with other writer friends. And every day, we just log what we’ve done. And this has been SO helpful for me, it’s amazing. There are days when I write simply because I want to log something on the spreadsheet. There’s lots of encouragement and exclamation points from my author friends when you achieve something, and it’s been a very fun, unexpected tool.

And one that, I feel, is going to continue to be necessary because after I turn in my MG….I have no more books under contract.

!!!

This is the first time this has happened since 2009. Since the first Obama administration! I know some writers who don’t like selling a book until they’ve written a book. That is NOT ME. I love having books under contract. I love multiple-book contracts. I love being able to plot out (lol) the next few years of my life.

And I’ve also rarely written a whole book before selling it. Most of the time, it’s just Untitled Morgan Matson book. I’ll talk to my editor about the idea I’m most excited about, and then I go off and write. But I’m writing knowing someone is waiting for something. A book that already has a tentative pub date, and designers thinking about the cover, and a nascent marketing plan. It makes it feel really real, and gives me that deadline pressure that I need.

But I have set things up so that my next book is not going to have that! I’m going to attempt to write the whole book, solo, before selling it. It’s really scary, but it also feels like the right thing to do if I want to continue to grow as a writer, and try new things. I will keep you updated!

I’m also going to be at YallWest next month! If you’re in California, I hope I can see you there!

xoxo

MM

I have a book coming out tomorrow!

Gradchanted will be available as a physical book, audiobook, ebook, the works!

Here’s the offish descripsh!

School is over. But the adventure has just begun. . . .

Eighteen-year-old Cass Issac doesn’t believe in sticking around. She's had to move a lot due to her dads' house-flipping business—always a different school, always a new friend group. She’s learned there’s no need for drawn-out-goodbyes with people you'll lose touch with anyway. Which makes Grad Nite at Disneyland the perfect way to finish up high school, and have a magical last night with her best friend, Bryony – before she leaves once again.

But amid the roller coaster rides and Cars Land dance party, the night turns into one big disaster. When she meets cute British bassist Freddie Sharma, she accidentally ruins his big break. Worse still? Cass gets in a major fight with Bryony. And instead of being able to make a quick exit, she’s thrown for a literal time loop. Which means the queen of ghosting has nowhere to go as she’s forced to relive the most dramatic night of her life, over and over. Now, Cass will have to find a way to make things right . . . or be stuck at Grad Nite forever.

I hope you like it! It’s available at the usual places - but your local indie is the best of course!

I was lucky enough to go to the North Texas Teen Book Festival this weekend. Always a highlight - and I am currently 90% queso, since that’s basically what I ate for three days straight (not a complaint). On one of my panels, we were asked what part of our newest book we like the most. And I realized, to my surprise, that I knew my answer right away.

There’s a section of Gradchanted, towards the end, that the book has been building to the whole way. Cass, our heroine, has gone through 140 time loops during her Disneyland Grad Nite. She’s learned and grown and solved some mysteries and acquired some new skills and fallen in love. And now’s the time for it all to pay off.

In the movie Groundhog Day, I’ve always loved Phil’s last day - the one where he does everything perfectly, where he’s been there enough that he succeeds on every level. I wanted to write the book version of that section - but wasn’t sure I’d be able to pull it off.

But I think I did. It’s my favorite part of Gradchanted, and my editor’s too. It feels like all the plants and loops are coming to a close and it’s paying out like a slot machine.

(I don’t usually use that phrase, but I might start because last week I won nearly $400 at a casino slot machine after putting in $20? I’m still high from this victory.)

Anyway - that section kind of feels like the whole Gradchanted experience to me. It was challenging to write, but in the end, just brought me so much joy. It was so satisfying, seeing everything come together - all these characters and the adventure they’d gone on.

I have one bookstore event for this book - on Saturday, March 8th, at Godmothers books in Summerland. I would love love to see you there!

xoxo

MM

I love the start of the year, personally.

I am a list-maker, a goal-setter, a vision-boarder. And I love that at this time, a lot of people set their intentions for the year ahead, take stock of what has been, and look forward to what could be. I also love looking back - on old lists, old vision boards, old goal lists. What got achieved, what fell by the wayside.

So I’ve spent the last few days taking stock, and making goals, and setting intentions for the year ahead. It seems so far away now, but I had two (!) books come out in 2024. I have one book coming out in 2025 - Gradchanted, which will be out on March 4th, 2025. It’s essentially Groundhog Day set at Disney Grad Nite. It absolutely fried my brain while writing it (time loop books are complicated? who knew??) but I’m so thrilled with how it turned out and so very proud of it. I can’t wait for it to be out in the world in a few months.

I also had assumed by this point that I would have a draft of my next MG book, possibly even a second or third draft…but that just didn’t happen. I got about 100 pages into the writing of my second middle grade and I just realized…it wasn’t working. This has only happened to me one other time that deep into the writing. The book I was writing after Amy & Roger also REALLY wasn’t working, but I didn’t know enough to recognize the signs then and forced myself to haul it across the finish line. It was never published - I basically told my editor not to give me notes on it; that we needed to push the pub date a year and I’d write something else. I ended up writing Second Chance Summer, and the only thing I took from that other book was the very last line, which I used as the last line of Since You’ve Been Gone. Back then, I couldn’t tell the difference between not wanting to write and when something is fundamentally wrong with the story - a crack in the foundation that’s only going to spread.

I sometimes get asked questions about writer’s block, and I always say the same thing - that I think of it like a physical block, like a roadblock. For me, it’s my brain throwing down spikes in the road to stop me from going down a path I shouldn’t. It’s the unconscious part of my mind understanding there’s something off here, and that I should course correct.

So as I started getting that feeling with this MG, I realized what was happening and pulled the plug on this particular book. I have a new shiny idea now, one that I’m really excited about and one that I can’t wait to start writing in 2025. It means my next MG is going to be more delayed than I’d expected - but that sometimes, that’s just what happens.

In addition to the MG, there are a LOT of writing projects I’m so excited to tackle this year - I hope I’ll be able to share more about them at some point. And so to prepare for this year - and all I hope to achieve - I cleared my desk. Metaphorically - but also literally.

and then the wider shot, where you can see my disgruntled terrier

For me - there’s nothing better. It’s the promise of the new year, isn’t it? Everything organized and neat, and full of possibilities. In a week or so, it will be a mess of notes and mugs of tea and piles of paper. But for right now, it’s all possibility.

Here’s to a great year ahead - I hope you have a great one.

xoxo

mm

Because it IS officially summer - it’s SO light out so late; my favorite thing. I have yet to make it to a beach but I did spend Memorial Day with dear friends Maurene and Sarah in Palm Springs, and we had a pool! and! hot tub!

They both made fun of me for being in a hot tub when it was 89 degrees out, but I looove a hot tub. I read most of the 5th Hawthorne and Horowitz book, Close to Death, in said hot tub. It was great.

So I feel like I’m just starting to get into summer here - making plans and buying up beach reads and acquiring new flip flops and woven summer bags. It’s gonna be great.

I’m ALSO starting to sketch out a new book. This hasn’t been sold - I only have about 5 pages written - so it’s very much in the nascent stages. I’m just seeing what this is, what the shape is, if it wants to be a book. On tour/ at events one of the questions you always get is about your process. I always want to know other writers’ processes too! It’s something I find endlessly fascinating.

And a big part of my process is that I spend a LOT of time in notebooks, in word docs, just doing character work and thinking about what might happen. A lot of this stuff never makes it into the book, but I need to know if before I feel like I can actually start writing. When I draft, I tend to go fast and straight through, so it’s like I have to have all the backstory and details worked out first.

I was a theater kid and a theater major in college (acting before I switched to playwriting) and my editor is a former actor - and so this process makes sense to both of us. Because this is what you do when you’re an actor - you work out SO much backstory and fill in your character. And so I basically took that same training and applied it to books. And I also feel like no work is ever wasted - if you write a whole backstory about the characters going to Six Flags, but that doesn’t make it in the book, a reference one of them has to their trip to Six Flags then somehow carries more weight for me. Because I know exactly what happened on that trip, because I wrote it all out.

One of the fun things about starting a book is the NAMES. I did an event with Rachel Lynn Solomon and Marisa Kantor last week, and they both commented on my tendency toward uncool, older names for my love interests.

It’s true! It started with Roger in Amy & Roger, and then very much became a thing. I used to say I wanted girls’ names from the 70s and boys’ names from the 30s which was pretty much what I did for a while -

Amy/ Roger

Taylor/Henry

Emily/Frank1 (and bonus Gideon)

Andie/Clark

Charlie/Bill

Kat/Cary and Stevie/ Beckett

Darcy/ Russell

There were a few reasons I was drawn to this. The first is that I’ve never loved trendy names for my heroines or love interests. I don’t want something to be dated, and I want the names to seem very classic and timeless. I also think if a love interest has a too-trendy name I find him untrustworthy? I don’t know why!! I feel like there is something about a guy with an old fashioned name that makes you trust him more. AND then it’s a real feat if I can get you, the reader, to fall for a guy named Frank2.

And so right now I’m trying on names for these characters. I know the heroine’s name - that’s locked in. And I think one of her friends. But all the other characters are kind of up for grabs at the moment. It’s always fun to look back at my old notebooks and notes and see what I was trying on for people before I settled on them.

VERY MINOR SPOILERS FOR D&R AHEAD BUT JUST SKIP THIS NEXT SECTION IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED

I found this note from when I was just beginning to work out Darcy & Russell. I was in the Poconos, and I took a bike ride to a deserted beach. My mind had been working on the story on the ride, and then I sat down on the sand and wrote this:

Since I keep a schedule when I’m writing my first drafts, I can see that I didn’t start actually writing the book until November of 21. But that’s how long I sometimes marinate on things. Also I think in that note you can see me finding the book title? Amazing. Most of my projects have these long notes app rambles about them - and I love seeing what makes it through.

So right now I’m doing a lot of notebooking, and a lot of notes app-ing, and a lot of word documents where I try and sort out who these people and what they want and what their story is going to look like. It’s a really fun part of the process, and I always need the time and space to make sure I’ve figured things out before I jump in. Like my second MG book, which I have been thinking about for LITERAL years. Lots of things have changed since my first scribbles on it - the main character’s name changed, which I was NOT expecting - but a lot of things have remained the same, which I also love.

So that’s a long way of telling you what I’m up to at the moment! My MG is another full summer book, and this one will be a full summer book, which I’m looking forward to after D&R taking place over one day.

And if you are looking for a book to read, Darcy & Russell is out everywhere now! Same with Promchanted. And Firefly is out in PB and it is SO CUTE I can’t even believe it.

I hope you all are having excellent starts to your summers!

xoxo

MM

I also LOVE the playlists people have made on Spotify for my different books - either the playlists in the book, or just picking up on a general vibe. I think my favorite might be this one by Haley. (I especially love the subtitle - dancing until dawn, chilling at a lake, an epic detour, a scavenger hunt, wedding planning, living room theater…)

Music’s been such an important part of my creative process, so the idea that it can turn into a dialogue between me and people who’ve read my books is just beyond cool to me.

Music is a BIG part of The Ballad of Darcy & Russell. The story kicks off with Darcy having come from a music festival. And Russell is a musical-theater writer who’s going to study it in college. Talk of music - of songs and bands and artists and composers - is threaded throughout the book. Darcy was named after a song, and that also becomes a throughline in the book.

I have two playlists for this book - one is a playlist I put together that reminded me of the story, and the characters, and their journey.

It’s also on a bookmark that I’ll be giving away on tour!

And this is the other side. Isn’t that cute?

But! There’s a second soundtrack too.

There are five parts to the book. And each part is separated by a song. And that’s this playlist.

And all these songs mean a lot in terms of what’s happening in the story - and since they’re the dividers between sections of the novel, the titles also had to work as signposts in the story. I hope that in a few weeks when people have read it, we can go into a lot more of the details and motivations behind them.

And! For the first time, I made a Letterboxd playlist - of the movies that inspired the book.

Darcy is a believer in love at first sight - mostly because of all the movies she’s seen promising her exactly this. This is a playlist of mostly one day or one night, stories, and mostly love stories.

Link here!

It’s the Before trilogy OF COURSE - but also some others I just love. Especially Last Night, which I don’t think that many people have seen? It’s a longtime fave.

I hope you enjoy the soundtracks! And if you’re in LA I hope I’ll see you at Yallwest on Saturday or at my launch event at the Ripped Bodice on Monday!

And if you live in the Bay Area, Tempe, or Portland, I hope I’ll get to see you on tour!

xoxo

MM

A….fortnight1, if you will. 😁

I hope you’re going to be able to come to one of my events! I’m heading to Texas this weekend for the North Texas Teen Book Festival - I can’t wait!

And then I’ll be at YallWest on 5/4 - on awesome panels! Come say hi!

AND then my launch will be on 5/6 at the Ripped Bodice! I’ll be chatting with Maurene Goo, about one-day books, and writing, and romance, and Taylor Swift. I hope to see you there!

And then just in case, here’s my tour stops again! Just for clarification - the Powell’s Location is the Cedar Hills one! All the details are on my site here!

Phew! Okay. Now that all the housekeeping’s out of the way, let’s talk inspiration.

It’s an interesting thing. Not all my books have one or two things I can point to. Some do! My buddy Diya Mishra, years ago, told me the story of how she pre-prommed at Disneyland, and immediately, I was like, there’s the story. A girl in a prom dress gets pulled into a Disney fairy tale, and fits right in, because she’s wearing the right dress2.

The idea for The Unexpected Everything came from being on tour in DC, and having some time off to wander - and it got me thinking about politicians, and politicians’ kids, and then just like that, I had the story.

Other books, though, are more like soup. There’s the simmering broth of a theme or idea or world I want to explore. And then stuff gets tossed in, little by little, and I figure out what belongs in there to make a coherent dish. (Kind of lost the thread of that metaphor there, huh?)

Darcy & Russell was one of the times where I had an idea, all at once. There was the spark of the idea - and then my two real-life inspirations that came along with it. I can tell you ONE now. The other one will have to wait until after the book comes out. But I hope it’ll be worth it. (It involves movie stars.) (And my first time ever encountering a saltwater pool.)

The first spark of the idea was actually from the first season of Loki - which just goes to show, there’s no such thing as procrastination3! Because what if I hadn’t watched Loki? Then I wouldn’t have had the idea for this book. No spoilers for Loki season 1 (truly a sentence I didn’t think I would be writing today) but my favorite episode of the whole season was a two-hander, one that everyone was calling the Before Sunrise episode.

And watching it, I remembered just how much I loved those movies, and what a great concept it is for a story, and then…

IDEA.

It really came rushing in all at once, almost fully formed. I didn’t know the details of who these people were yet, or what their specifics and shadings would end up being. But just like that, all in a rush, I had it. Two people stuck after a music festival, stranded at a bus station. They’d meet, they’d fall in love, they’d discover things about each other…with the ticking clock of college starting imminently underscoring all of this.

And the reason that my mind immediately went to “stranded at a bus station post-music festival” - not a common thing to think - was because it had happened to me.

It happened to me, in fact, the summer before I went to college. When I was 17, I went to Woodstock 99. I had not been planning on going to Woodstock 99. Two days before the concert, I got a call from my friend Annie inviting me to go to Woodstock with her in 48 hours. Annie was the best, and I really liked her, but we weren’t close. We would chat in the halls, but we’d never hung out, one on one.

So it was VERY clear to me that someone had bailed on her, and I tried not to think about just how many people she’d had to call before she got to me. But it sounded like fun - and so I was in.

And we had a great time!

Everyone who knows anything about Woodstock 99 is always shocked to hear this - people who’ve seen the documentaries or read about it or seen the pictures. But until the very end when people were literally lighting things on fire, we had no idea that anything was happening other than a music festival, albeit an over-priced one. This was a pre-cell phone, pre-internet age, so we weren’t hearing about anything worrying that was happening. We were just having fun and getting sunburned and listening to Dave Matthews Band4.

At the end of the festival, when lots of stuff was suddenly being set ablaze, Annie and I were like, time to go. We grabbed our tent and our stuff and boarded a bus that would eventually get us back home to Connecticut5. And then a few hours into the ride, the bus broke down. We ended up having to sleep overnight in a bus station until the replacement bus came. I honestly don’t even know the name of the town we were in. My biggest concern was that I was going to get fired because this meant I was going to be late to work the next day.

Annie and I slept, with the rest of the people from our bus, on the cold floors of the bus station in some unknown town in upstate New York. And then in the morning, the new bus came, and we went home. And I nearly got fired - but I didn’t!!

This was just a story I’d tell people sometimes, but for the most part, it just went into the back of my mind…until I suddenly, just like that, I knew exactly what to do with it. And how I could use that experience for two characters who suddenly find themselves stranded in a similar situation.

Unlike Darcy, I didn’t meet a cute guy and walk around and fall in love. But that’s the whole point of fiction, right? You take your experience - cold bus station floors, worried about getting fired - and turn it into an epic love story.

In a few weeks, I’ll share the second part of the inspiration! Promise.

But the last time I was on tour for a YA book was 2018!! Pre-pandemic!! Because Take Me Home Tonight came out in 2021, there was no in-person tour. And I was so happy to get to tour for Firefly last summer. But now I’m back in these YA streets!! And I so hope I’ll get to see you!

Here’s the D&R tour info!

For those who are local to the LA area, I hope I’ll see you at my Ripped Bodice launch event! I’m in conversation with author and dear friend Maurene Goo!

(In addition to these dates, I will be doing an event June 5th at the Grove in LA, with Rachel Lynn Solomon and Marisa Kanter.)

I hope if you’re in LA, Mountain View, Tempe, or Portland, that I can see you! Nothing makes me happier than getting to sign a stack of books and talk to readers.

See you soon!!

xoxo

MM

A few days ago we passed the 1-year anniversary of this substack! Thanks so much for reading - it’s been such a joy to get to communicate in a way that’s longer than instagram comments! Moving forward, I’m going to try and do more newsletters dedicated to a certain theme - writing advice, etc - and if there’s anything you want me to tackle, please let me know!

We are ALSO about a month from Darcy & Russell coming out. May 7th!! SO SOON!!

!!!!!!

Which means that book festival season is coming!!

I’m going to be at the North Texas Teen Book festival in April - talking Promchanted, and D&R! (And let’s face it, TTPD.)

And then I’m coming to YALLWEST in May!

AND! We’ll be selling Darcy & Russell EARLY! So you can get a copy before anyone else hurrah!! I hope to see you there!

On Monday, I’ll announce my launch event and TOUR STOPS! It’s all happening so soon, and I can’t wait! So excited for this book to be in the world, and to get to talk to you about it!

I hope to see you in Texas and/or Santa Monica!

xoxo

MM

ps - the title of this newsletter is mostly for the former theater kids, most of whom I now hope are humming Into the Woods!

Just a quick reminder that I’m doing an event for Promchanted TONIGHT at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena!

Event date: 

Monday, March 18, 2024 - 6:00pm

Event address: 

Vroman's Bookstore

695 E Colorado Blvd

Pasadena, CA 91101

I hope to see you there! Can’t wait to sign books and talk all things writing and Disney and prom!

xoxo

MM

Promchanted is out in stores TODAY!! HURRAH!!

It’s always such a special moment for me - that moment you see your book in stores for the first time. It always takes me a minute to adjust when I first spot my book on store shelves. Because the thing that had just been in my brain and then on my laptop out in the world. Because what had just been my story isn’t only mine anymore - it’s out there, for everyone to read it. It doesn’t belong to just me anymore.

It’s always exciting and hopeful and fun. I absolutely love launching a book into the world - hoping it’ll find its readers, hoping it’ll make some people happy. It’s such an immense privilege to do what I do, and I’m so grateful to all of you for giving me the chance to keep doing it.

I hope you all like it! It really was such a fun writing process, wholly different than anything I’d done before. I first had the idea when my pal Diya, who hails from Orange County, told me about how there, teens will pre-prom at Disneyland. It sounded so fun and was SUCH a great detail that I immediately filed it away. Because what if a girl was in her prom dress…and got swept into a Disney movie…and fit right in, because she was accidentally dressed for the occasion?

Promchanted ended up being a slightly different story - but the seed of the inspiration is still there. I loved throwing our modern teens into the 14th century, and I loved getting to expose the characters there to things like Doritos and boy bands. And of course, I always love someone who’s sworn off love…finding herself in the middle of a love story.

I hope you like it!! And don’t forget - I’m having an event for the book on Monday, 3/18 at Vroman’s Bookstore! 6pm! Hope to see you there!

xoxo

MM

But yes! It will be in all stores, online, and in TARGET for your ease of picking up a copy! And very exciting – I’m doing a launch for it! (Technically it’s after the book comes out, so if you’re local and want a signed copy maybe wait a beat??)

I will be at Vroman’s Bookstore1 on Monday, March 18^th, to talk all things Promchanted!

Info here!

I hope you’ll come out! This will be my first in person YA event…since before the pandemic?? Is that possible? Egad. I can’t wait to see you and chat and sign your books and talk all things Disney and prom. I would love to see you there!

In the meantime, I’m just working like crazy. Trying to get through a lot of overlapping deadlines, knowing things will calm down work-wise in the summer.  My desk will be clear for the first time in a LONG time. And I’ll be able to look around and take a breath and decide where I want to go next and what stories I want to tell. Which is scary! But also exciting! But in the meantime, I’m very much in the thick of things, writing books and revising books and attending to a finicky terrier.

Hope to see you NEXT WEEK!!

Xoxo

MM

I am very excited because the first of my 2024 books is coming out in ONE MONTH. Yes! Promchanted, the book I wrote for Disney, is out on March 5th eeeeek!!

Here’s a quick description of what the book is about:

Two modern teens.
One classic fairy tale.
Absolutely no cell service.

Stella Griffin doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Ever since her boyfriend dumped her three weeks before the prom— not ideal timing—she’s convinced every love story is a lie. 

She’s ready to skip the prom entirely. But she and her best friend, Nisha, have been planning for years to celebrate at Disneyland before the prom . . . an OG OC tradition. But even being all dressed up at the Happiest Place on Earth isn’t salvaging Stella’s night. Nisha has brought along her friend Reece to join them, and he and Stella do not get along. They’re like oil and water. Cats and dogs. Aladdin and Jafar. And so what if Reece is, fine, kind of cute? Stella’s over it all. Happily-ever-afters, true love’s kisses, princes on white horses. It’s not real. 

. . . Or is it? 

Because when Stella and Reece push through a hidden door in Sleeping Beauty’s castle, they’re not in Anaheim anymore. They’re in the story. In Sleeping Beauty —with Aurora and Phillip, the fairies, Maleficent, and extremely intelligent woodland creatures. 

Unfortunately, they’ve landed right in the middle of the story—which throws things off. Suddenly, Aurora and Phillip are meeting before they were supposed to. The fairies are suspicious of the interlopers, and even Maleficent gets word of their arrival. 

Stella and Reece will have to put aside their differences, make sure Aurora and Phillip fall in love, and get the story back on track—because if things don’t end the way they’re supposed to . . . they might never get home. 

Will they be able to pull off a fairy-tale ending? And will Stella and Reece get a happily-ever-after of their own?

It’s available for pre-order now should you be so inclined! Here!

I absolutely loved writing this book. It’s my first time doing something with IP, and I’m so thrilled with how it turned out. This whole thing was inspired by my friend Diya (who kindly lent me her name for a character in Firefly). She grew up in the OC, and told me about how teens there would pre-prom at Disney, in their dresses. I always loved that idea - and always thought about how it would be so fun if someone in a prom dress then got pulled into a Disney fairy tale…because they’d be dressed for the occasion. But it was just an idea in my Idea Folder - until my Disney editor reached out to my agent, and asked if I’d be interested in working with their IP. I was like “Yes! And here’s my idea!”

Despite this not being how IP usually works, my editor loved the idea, suggested Sleeping Beauty as the story the characters could be pulled into, and we were off to the races. And last week, my editor and I took a Disney trip together, to bring the book back to where the idea got started.

and then the best thing of all happened…

It’s all super exciting - and I can’t wait for the book to be out in the world soon! It’s full of my favorite things - friendships, slow-burn crushes, fake boy bands, a girl who thinks she’s got it all figured out, spreadsheets, power ballads, magic, and love.

Event info coming soon!!

In the meantime, I’m just working. Putting the very final touches on Darcy & Russell, which is out in May, which is suddenly seeming much closer. If you want an ARC, there’s a Goodreads giveaway happening here!

I’m editing the second Disney book - which I can’t wait to tell you about as soon as I’m allowed. Writing the second Middle Grade book - coming in 2025! Which is, um, next year. Egad.

I've also recently discovered Letterboxd! It’s like Goodreads, but for movies. Here’s my profile. I’m having a blast there - and I’m starting to build lists for my books. But I’ve just done two so far, so I need to keep working on them.

Also, I want to do an AMA (Ask Morgan Anything) soon. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments or feel free to message me on Instagram.

xoxo,

MM

I love this time of the year so much - I wish it didn’t go past in what feels like the blink of an eye. But I do love the winding down that comes when everyone’s out of offices are on and the emails stop coming and it truly feels like a holiday.

I am very much looking forward to my annual holiday tradition of wrapping presents while The Family Stone plays in the background.

It is my favorite Christmas movie. It’s one of my favorite movies, period. Save the Date would not exist without it - I was trying to recapture the fun cozy craziness of a five-kid family. In We Grant You A Merry Christmas, my Save the Date holiday novella1, there’s a scene where Charlie actually watches The Family Stone, which felt very meta and full-circle.

I’ve been loving reading people’s end of year wrap ups - I always get so many great recs from these. And I love getting to see someone’s year through what they consumed. Steven Soderbergh’s culture diary is one of the best around. It’s truly amazing, and mind-boggling. The stamina of this man! I mean, I adore movies but I don’t think I’ve ever watched four in a day. I also loved reading my pal Maurene Goo’s version. (Her newsletter, the Mauxdown, is one of my faves.)

As the year wraps up, I’ve been looking to 24, and making goals and plans, baybee! I have a goal to draft three (??) books (?????) in 2024. I’m not sure if this is advisable or even possible - but there you have it. December Morgan is always very sure about what January Morgan can achieve.

WE’LL SEE. I’ll report back in February.

But I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who read, commented, and subscribed to my newsletter this year! I’ve really enjoyed it as a way to keep updates coming, stay in touch, and post pictures of Murphy. I’m going to try and post (at least) once a month next year - and considering I have TWO books coming out, there’s going to be a lot to chat about!

I wish you all a wonderful and peaceful holiday season. Don’t forget to eat some peppermint bark!

ho ho ho,

MM

This is not a surprise to anyone who has read any of my books. They all clock in north of 100k. The Unexpected Everything is the longest page count - I broke 500 with that one - but I’m not actually sure it’s the longest word count. I think we started playing with fonts and line spacings after that one to keep the books under 5001.

Even my middle grade book was, by MG standards, on the long side. My friend Sarah is always pointing out that I don’t get paid by the word. And truly, with Firefly Summer, I thought I was going to write a shorter book. 60k, here I come baybee! But then, I wrote a book with five main characters and a supporting cast that totaled seventeen. And these people all had things to say, and had to argue with each other, and I had to account for where they were…and before I knew it my MG was also over 100k. (I think the final book is closer to 80? It helped that I got rid of two cousins that weren’t really adding anything.)

I’ve thought a lot about why this is. I would like to write shorter books! As my friend Rebecca points out, one of my books, word count wise, is like two of hers. I could be writing more books every year! But as a reader, I love a big book. I love feeling like I’m really in the world, that I really know these characters. I adore a subplot, dialogue that’s just there for fun, side excursions that might not add that much to the plot, but are a joy to read. I’m never complaining about a chunky book. If I love a book, I want to spend as much time there as possible.

It’s also possible that my love of a long book was determined by the fact that when I was 11 or 12 (WAY too early, in retrospect) I started devouring Stephen King, John Grisham, and VC Andrews books. None of these people wrote short novels. So maybe my story metabolism just got set long? I don’t know.

There’s also the fact that I love dialogue, and banter, and inside jokes. I love to have people chatting with each other - it’s my favorite way of figuring out who characters are and what makes them tick. Darcy & Russell, my new book out in May, has a lot of the two main characters just talking and those scenes were such a joy to write.

I also think that a lot of my characters talk around things. It takes them a lot of time, and a lot of deflecting conversation, to loop back around to what they were trying to say.

But I have been specifically thinking of this for a reason - because We Grant You A Merry Christmas, my holiday story about the Grant family, the quasi-sequel to Save the Date, is currently available to read for all of December! Click here for the story!

It’s described as a short story. But…it’s not. It is 110 pages. That is not a short story. That’s half of one of Rebecca’s novels! It has ten chapters. So not a short story, in any sense of the word. I think it’s more like a novella? But even then, it’s closer to the longer end of what makes a novella.

However long it is, though - it was exactly the length I needed it to be to tell the story I wanted. And I loved writing this story. It also has my favorite epigraph of anything I’ve ever written.

Getting to jump back into the life of the Grants was the easiest thing in the world for me. It honestly felt like they’d been waiting in the wings this whole time. I loved getting to continue the story - of Charlie, Bill, J.J., Mike, Danny, Linnie, Rodney, the Grant parents, and of course Waffles. I just put all my favorite Christmas things in here - The Family Stone and Prancer and Christmas sweaters and snow and iron-clad Christmas traditions. And for fun, I added the New Jersey turnpike and terrible facial hair and the apartment building I grew up in in NYC and gingerbread and romantic complications. It was just fun. I hope that if you get a chance to read it, you get a kick out of it2.

And in the meantime, I am hoping my next book will be shorter…but I’m not making any promises 😌.

And just as a reminder, if you want to pre-order either of my upcoming books, you can! Promchanted is out March 5th, and Darcy & Russell is out May 7th!! I should have info about upcoming events and tour dates coming in the new year.

xoxo

mm