Q&A With Amy Meyerson 

Back in December I finished reading one of the best books of 2023 titled “The Love Scribe,” by Bestselling author Amy Meyerson. “The Love Scribe,” comes out today on February 7^th 2023. “The Love Scribe,” isn’t the only bestseller Amy has written. Amy’s novels are also “The Bookshop of Yesterdays,” and “The Imperfects”. 

Q: When did you realize your calling was to be an author?

A: I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Some of my earliest memories are of sitting on the floor in my parents’ bedroom and using their typewriter to draft stories. I wish I still had those stories. It would be interesting to see what captured my imagination as a child, if it’s similar today. 

Q: What advice do you give to aspiring writers? What advice do you give to aspiring writers to defeat writer’s block?

A: I think the best advice you can give to folks who want to publish is: you have to finish. It may seem obvious, but if you don’t finish a project, you will never get published. It’s safer to keep working, keep tweaking, and avoid rejection. We’ve all faced rejection. It’s an unfortunate part of being a writer, and it doesn’t ever get easy, at least not for me. But you do grow thicker skin. I think the same goes for writer’s block. You have to be okay with early drafts being messy and not nearly as good as you want them to be. If you aim for perfection from the start, of course you’re going to be blocked. So, my advice to my students is to think of writing like physical exercise. When you first start working out, it’s really challenging to get motivated and to have stamina. If you keep it up and get into a routine, it gets easier. The same is true of writing.  

 Q: Where did you get your ideas to write all of your novels, especially “The Love Scribe?” I think “The Love Scribe is very unique and that’s why many will love it. 

 A: I wanted to do something different with this novel, and it’s been so satisfying to see readers comment on how distinct this book is from others they’ve read. This book started with a challenge from my editor. She said she’d like to see me write a love story. She didn’t say that she wanted me to write a romance, but specifically that, a love story. That got me thinking about what constitutes a love story, whether I could write a novel that explored the concept of love itself. Fortunately, she and my publishers were game. I wrote most of this during the height of the pandemic, when I was home all of the time. I think that isolation, the privacy, let me experiment on the page. I’ve been so nervous about sending this book out in the world because it has so much of my creativity in it, more so than my other novels. That feels vulnerable. I’m so pleased that readers are responding to it. 

 Q: If you were to write in a different genre other than fiction which genre would it be and why?

A: Well, I’m currently working on a children’s book, which has been really fun. We’ll see what happens with it, but it’s been so interesting to see what hooks my three-year-old son into a story. There are certain qualities to a story and its language that stick in his head, and it’s been fun trying to replicate that experience for other kids through my book. 

Q: If you were to collaborate with another author who would it be with and why?

A: I love this question, but I am going to answer it indirectly, because I have so many author friends that it would be fun to collaborate with. I will say though, anytime you collaborate with someone else, you need to make sure your visions for and expectations of the project are the same. It can sound really fun and romantic, collaborating creatively, and it can push you to do work you wouldn’t otherwise make, but like any relationship, it has to have the right chemistry.  

Q: Does Hollywood have the rights to any of your novels?

A: Not yet! 

Q: Are you already writing another novel now? If so can you reveal any details?

 A: I am tiptoeing into a new book, but I’m choosing to stay quiet about it, which is something I haven’t done before. I love bouncing my ideas off other people, but if they don’t respond with the exact response you’re hoping for, it can make you question your vision. I want to have a clearer sense of what I’m writing and why before I share it with anyone. It’s fun, having a secret that occupies so much of my mental space.