BEFORE WE WERE INNOCENT is a Reese's Book Club pick 🤍
(And how I used my only baby name for a character in my novel...)
First of all, I’m sorry for the extended silence! It’s been quite the year since I last wrote but I’m breaking my unintentional hiatus now to share some news…
BEFORE WE WERE INNOCENT is a Reese's Book Club pick!
My second novel, BEFORE WE WERE INNOCENT (out in paperback today) has been chosen by Reese’s Book Club as the December pick! This is the wildest thing, a true dream come true for any author and I feel so incredibly grateful to everyone involved. I know how many books are published each year that don’t find their way into enough readers’ hands and having this boost feels particularly restorative right now when life feels both sludgy and dreamlike at once (a little more on that later) …
The book tells the story of Bess Winter, a woman who has closed herself off from the world in the aftermath of a senseless accident, only to be coaxed out of hiding ten years later by her magnetic but unknowable best friend, Joni. This notion of trading in rigidity and control for the unpredictability of a life bursting with unfiltered love (and inevitably, loss) is something I find myself writing towards again and again, and it resonates with me even more now than when I wrote it. I hope that some of you also connect with Bess’s story and her rediscovery of the lost parts of herself.
Here is a short piece I wrote on how my own teenage friendships inspired me, and you can purchase the book (now in paperback) here:
SOME SPECIAL NEWS…
In very personal news, I had a baby! Our sweet October baby Joni Camille came both early and perfectly on time all at once. And I am both perishing from exhaustion at the same time as my heart is splitting open with love for this perfect, squirmy, tiny human. Some of my favourite moments with her are when it feels as if everyone else in London is asleep so, in lieu of an end of year round-up (which raises a few commitment issues) here is a brief list of things I’ve been reading/watching/listening to during our sleepless nights together…
DECEMBER LIKES…
Music: boygenius, The Byrds, The Beaches.
TV shows: The Curse, The Crown, Love is Blind season 5, plus Friends From College + Beef rewatches.
Books: The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez, Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll, The List by Yomi Adegoke, Fourteen Poems Issue 12.
Donating: Choose Love (and on this note, here is a thoughtful article on how to engage responsibly when it feels like the world is irreparably broken).
Old(er) movies: Dazed and Confused, The Family Stone (truly chaotic), Slums of Beverly Hills, Two Days in Paris.
Podcasts: Sounds Like a Cult, Makes Sense with Chanel and Karen, The 13th Step, The Rewatchables.
Movies: May December, Kelce (I cried!?), Past Lives, The Worst Person in The World rewatch (I sobbed).
Following: Hunter Harris’s substack, Meecham Whitson Meriweather’s substack, Olivia Muenter’s instagram.
TikTok algorithm: Almost exclusively Hugh Grant and Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka press run.
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Hi and THANK YOU if you made it this far, and please do send me any of your own recommendations - I need them all!
Love,
Ella 🤍
PS. And yes, I did use my baby name for a character in my book less than a year before she was born, but in both cases I wanted something bright, fearless and a little scrappy so what was I going to do? I think the real question is whether my daughter shares her name with a loving literary best friend or a charismatic sociopath, and there’s really only one way to find out 🙃
Huge CONGRATS again, and thank you for such a nice shoutout here! Also, love love love the name Joni <3