Auctions. Bidding wars. Squealing agents and champagne toasts. To some, this is the stuff writerly dreams are made of. Novelist Rosie Walsh is here from her home in Britain to humbly share details of her magic carpet ride as the author of one of the most anticipated global publications this year. GHOSTED, Rosie’s debut book in America, celebrated its birthday the day we taped this episode. Pub day in the states! For a book that has sold in thirty-one countries and topped several bestseller lists already, I feel like the luckiest girl at the dance here to have had so much time—over an hour!—with this very busy new mother and author.
I had to ask Rosie the age-old question: what makes a page-turner? How do you write a story people, and that includes publishers, can’t put down? Because, cover to cover, I was swept away by this book. As an example, check out this marketing hook right on the back: "Seven perfect days. Then he disappeared. A love story with a secret at its heart.” Aren’t you dying to know the secret? I was, and I’ll tell you this: I never saw it coming.
Nor did my dear friend and one of my favorite writers, Aditi Khorana, our guest co-host for this episode.
Aditi and Rosie are both critically acclaimed Penguin novelists, and I think you’ll love hearing them compare notes on how to outline their books and craft their exciting plot lines. Their publishing wins will inspire you and their stories on editing and ditching hard-won prose are a dose of realism. In fact, Rosie’s honesty—about what she was willing to do, make that what she had to do to get her words worthy of the heights they’re currently hitting—is astonishing. (Hint, you don’t get published by legendary editor Pamela Dorman through her own Viking/Penguin imprint—with past titles like Bridget Jones's Diary, The Secret Life of Bees, Queen Sugar, Me Before You, etc. in her line up—unless your storytelling is world-class.)
And, yes, in this chat you’ll also here three girls talking about boys. And love. And longing. And the odd yet universal phenomenon of being ghosted. I'm so glad you're here.
Linda xo
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