Middle School Forever

New town, old feeling

In July I moved to Connecticut from New York. It was only a fifteen minute move (well the move took forever, but we moved fifteen minutes away), and I see my friends all the time. I’m still using my New York post office to mail things because I spent twenty years learning the intricacies of that particular minefield, and I refuse to start fresh.

But for all intents and purposes, I live in Connecticut now and I’m still finding my way. There’s a little park on my corner where two women whose dog walks are timed with mine tend to hang. They know each other and don’t look my way, but when my dog sees them, he cries until I let him off leash to frolic. I have no choice but to follow him to where they’re standing because of his bad social skills and penchant for inflicting chaos and urine on unsuspecting people.

I approach, and they stop their conversation and are nice to me until I leave so they can have fun again. I’ve seen this before, anyone who’s completed middle school knows this dance. They’re in, I’m not. I’ll eventually wear them down (this is how it went for me in middle school at least), but in truth I just want to cut to the chase. You guys, I want to say. Just go ahead and let me in. I’m low stakes, I don’t linger long. I have no hot takes and I’m never going to invite you to a holiday cookie party.

Instead, I say a few (super clever) things about the weather, re-leash my dog and back away.

Not to judge books by their covers, but they do seem like people I’d like. They’re easy people, though I can’t describe exactly what that means. It makes me think of middle school but also the challenge of meeting people throughout your life. It’s a moment where you have all the information about yourself (I’m fine) and all they have is what they can see (middle aged woman, weird dog). It’s on you, but mostly it’s on time, to bridge that gap. I wish there was a shortcut where they could scan a barcode on my neck to see that I’m harmless and definitely not going to call a lot.

I’ll keep you posted as this story unfolds. I really hope I get invited to the sleepover.

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Writing a novel - copy edits

I made very little progress on Book Five (working title) this week, because the dog ate my homework and also I was going through the copy edits for It’s A Love Story (May 2025).

All I can say about copy edits is that it’s the most humbling part. As a life long writer, an English major, and a crossword freak, it’s the moment that I remember I don’t know anything. Hyphens? I don’t know. It’s navy blue, but, also, it’s light-blue. See what they did there? Why? I learned today that both lovable and loveable are correct, you just have to pick one. Commas fall from heaven at random, I’ve decided. That’s the rule.

This, the last phase of writing a book, is the reset. It’s the end of a cycle where you come back to basics and get over yourself — we’re all just doing the best we can.

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The November Book I’m Dying For

Sophie Cousens is my go-to auto-buy source for smart, satisfying and heart melting (heart-melting? wtf) romances. She has such a talent for connecting readers to the delicious specifics of everyday life so that by the time the big parts of the story happen, we don’t just know the characters, we are the characters.

Her next novel IS SHE REALLY GOING OUT WITH HIM? comes out November 19. It’s the story of a disillusioned divorcée who agrees to let her children play matchmaker. It’s everything I throw myself at Sophie’s feet for, and it’s hilarious. In even better news, Sophie is coming to the US and I get to be in conversation with her at The Ripped Bodice in Brooklyn, NY on November 22, 7pm.

(I admit there was no reason for me to post that photo of Sophie and me. But I met her in the spring and I feel like people should know.)

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Okay, that’s it. Has anybody else moved through all the phases of human development and still find themselves smack dab in the middle of seventh grade? Lmk.

Lots of love,

Annabel

(PS every day is a good day to preorder…)

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