Q&A With Heidi McLaughlin 

Heidi McLaughlin is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today & New York Times Bestselling Author of The Beaumont Series, The Boys of Summer, The Archers & her recent release The Art of Starting Over!

Q: Heidi, could you give a brief description of your work beginning with your recent release The Art of Starting Over? 

A: Devorah’s life is upended when she discovers her husband is having an affair with her best friend. She returns home to a town full of people she left behind, including her grumpy father, to figure things out with her 9-year-old daughter. She runs into Hayden, her brother’s best friend, who has also returned home with his 9-year-old son after his wife’s death. 

Q: Would it be fair to say that your ideas for your stories are taken from bits and pieces of real people you know and places you’ve been?

A: Absolutely fair. I think every fiction story has an element of real life in it. 

Q: What lessons & emotions do you hope readers feel and learn after reading your romance books?

A: I feel what I write. If they’re crying, laughing, or shaking their fist at a character I likely did the same. And because I write a lot about second chances, I believe most people deserve one. 

Q: I saw that Forever My Girl was adapted into a movie back in 2018! How was that experience like for you having a novel you wrote become a film? Are any of your other novels getting Hollywood treatment? If so, have they begun casting and filming yet?

A: It was and still is surreal. To this day, I still have people coming up to me and talking about the movie. As far as other novels, not currently. Hopefully soon. 

Q: How do you deal with self-doubt, negative reviews, online trolls & unsupportive family and friends who don’t support your writing goals that may help future writers? In your opinion, what makes the perfect romance story?

A: If you let any negativity into your life, you’re only hurting yourself. I can’t (you can’t) control how others feel or what they say. And if they feel so bold to tell you, that says a lot about their character. 

The perfect romance story, in my opinion, doesn’t exist (don’t come at me) and here’s why: what I think is perfect, others will not. 

For example: I sat on a panel during a book convention and one of the panelists said: I hate the secret baby trope. There is never a good reason to not tell the father. 

Everyone in the room gasped. The readers had a different opinion. 

Romance is vast and will never be perfect in everyone’s mind.  

Q: Will your next novel that you’re currently writing be a part of an existing series, the beginning of a new series or a standalone novel?

A: I’m currently working on two novels (at the same time). One will be a standalone and the other is my next installment in the Beaumont Series (next generation).

Q: What’s it like knowing that all your books are Wall Street Journal, USA Today & New York Times Bestsellers? It sounds so exciting and surreal knowing your books are on the three bestsellers lists! 

A: It’s wild. I call Forever My Girl, the book that could, and it did.