This time around, I knew that, above all, I wanted the novel I wrote to be fun. It’s no secret that the last few years have been globally and personally hard, and I wanted to write a book that would, both for me as a writer and you as readers, be some small joyous escape from that. So is it any surprise that I decided to write about two people falling in love? Because, seriously, what’s more fun than romantic chemistry and flirting and crushes and emails and texts that you overanalyze and first kisses that are so enticing that you’re willing to surmount all the awkwardness it takes to get to them?
I also decided with this novel to make use of the fact that I’ve spent a lot of my life reading People magazine. Some call it celebrity gossip, but I think of it as a study of the human condition. In addition, my family had watched a ton of Saturday Night Live during the pandemic, and I know I wasn’t the only one to notice that pattern where a talented but maybe rather ordinary-looking comedy dude on the show dates a female guest who’s an incredibly talented, incredibly gorgeous, incredibly famous celebrity. And good for such dudes, but why doesn’t the phenomenon ever seem to happen in reverse, where an ordinary female comedy writer dates a smoking hot male celebrity?
In Romantic Comedy, Sally Milz, a writer on a show much like SNL, creates a sketch asking this very question. And that week, it just so happens that the guest host and musical guest is a smoking hot male celebrity, a pop singer named Noah Brewster who also turns out to be warm, charming, down-to-earth…and maybe even into Sally, if only she can get over herself and believe that such a thing is possible.
I loved writing the dialogue, and eventually the emails, for Sally and Noah as the sparks fly and they get to know each other. I loved researching the world of late night TV comedy. And now I love getting to share Romantic Comedy with all of you. I hope you love it, too.
