Hello and happy day! I hope your weekend is off to a magnificent start.
I’ve started putting together my proper book proposal as I prepare to get wild and begin querying sometime in October. It’s actually really fun?! It’s also a little surreal, though, as I’m reading Yellowface currently and that book asks some big questions about the publishing industry, the people within it, and the decision-making that goes behind the approximately elevendy billiondy steps that must be taken to get a book from a first draft to out in the world and beyond. Despite the strangeness, I’m very excited!
Romance author Allie Samberts is the author of the rom-com The Write Place. “It’s a bit darker than your typical romantic comedy,” Samberts says. “Jenny and Ben have been teaching high school English together for nine years, and he’s been in love with her almost as long. The only problem is she doesn’t believe she’s worthy of the type of love he wants to give. You can’t love someone else until you learn to love yourself. Can Ben teach Jenny the lesson of a lifetime?” More recently, Samberts published the standalone but interconnected The Write Place. Both are available here.
Where is your happy place?
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Someday, when we have money again after paying for daycare, my husband and I want to buy a place near Lake Geneva. It’s just so peaceful and pretty there. I dream of mornings when I can grab a pastry and a coffee and walk to the lake to enjoy the view and a good book. I love it there.
Do you have any favorite memes?
The “this is fine dog” meme made the rounds at our school when we came back after remote learning, so that meme really holds a special place in my heart. One of my teacher friends even bought a bunch of little toys that depict the dog in flames and left them on our desks. I still have it, and it reminds me that we can do hard things.
Do you have any tricks for cheering yourself up if you’re having a rough day?
Either iced coffee and a trip to a bookshop, or red wine and a hot bath. Or both!
Who makes you happiest in life?
I don’t think I could pick between my husband and my kids, so is it OK if I say all of them as a unit? My kids are little, so their experience of the world is still mostly joyful, and seeing everything through their eyes makes it all new again for me, too. My husband is my entire support system. He can make me laugh and make me feel safe, which is really what happiness is about for me.
What trip would make you the happiest to take?
If it were just me, I’d say I want to go to Paris again. I went once in college, and I’ve been dying to go back. However, we are headed to Disney World with the kids just after Christmas this year, and I am so excited to see the Happiest Place on Earth all decked out for the holidays. I think it’ll be a truly joyful experience.
When did you feel the most accomplished in your life?
Recently, my greatest accomplishment has been publishing my first novel, The Write Place. I had no idea what to expect from this book. I knew I loved it, but I wasn’t sure if other people would. It succeeded beyond my wildest dreams, and I have felt such joy knowing it is bringing happiness to others, as well. Specifically, the best part about it is when readers will message me telling me that the book brought back their love of reading. As a writer, reader, and English teacher, those words are music to my ears.
You can follow Allie on Instagram and purchase her books here.
Seven Happy Things!
1. We’ve experienced quite the change of late to our daily routine as our days are completely child-free since they’re all officially school-aged now. It’s a strange feeling, but we’ve taken advantage of it by taking little morning walks after we drop them off (weather permitting), and those have been just lovely. The morning air feels wonderful, the companionship is divine, and they set a fresh tone for the day.
2. This moment of kindness toward a little boy in a barbershop:
3. My husband plays with numbers all day for a living, but he went to college to study art, the great culmination of which being little hand-drawn notes for our kids in their lunchboxes each day. They are sweet and silly and make the kids happy and we are all very lucky.
It isn’t quite the Beauty and the Beast library, but it’s close:
5. I am a tremendous fan of the Green brothers. They have done so much for access to education and make the world better simply by being themselves in it. If you’ve been following John and Hank this past year, you’ve likely seen that Hank was diagnosed with cancer and has been undergoing treatment for it. At his latest appointment, though, following months of fighting it, he was officially declared in remission. HECK YES.
6. Neil Gaiman being Neil Gaiman:
7. I don’t even read that much YA, but this still made me laugh:
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Thanks for the shout-out, Tara!!