Tell Me Three Things(77)

Dear Reader,

In Tell Me Three Things, Jessie, my main character, keeps constant count of the number of days it has been since her mother died. Like Jessie, I also lost my mother at fourteen, and of course I’m not going to be coy and pretend that’s a coincidence. It’s not. And I used to do that too: the counting. I still do it, in fact, but now I count in years instead of days. I’m at twenty-four. Twenty-four?!? How is that even possible? With Tell Me Three Things, I was finally brave enough to take a look at a period in my life that I long ago boxed up, put away, and marked with a big red label that read “Too Painful.” I wasn’t interested in exploring my specifics, necessarily, but I very much wanted to delve into those feelings of first loss and their immediate aftermath. To look back at what it was like to be teenager and to have the worst thing you can imagine happening actually happen.

But at the same time, I very much did not want to write a dead mom book. Instead, I decided to combine the loneliness of first loss with something much more magical and universal: the beauty of first love. Jessie is not me—she’s so much cooler and more together than I ever was at sixteen, or even am now, for that matter. But she’s a version of me, an alterna-me, in the way that all of the characters I create somehow are. Tell Me Three Things was an opportunity to gift that me-but-not-me, to gift Jessie, with the one thing I most wanted at sixteen: To feel truly seen. To feel known. Enter Somebody Nobody.

One of the most amazing things about young adulthood is that it’s a time that’s chock-full of firsts. Some wonderful and some…not so wonderful. At one point, Jessie says of her mother, “She will never see who I grow up to be—that great mystery of who I am and who I am meant to be—finally asked and answered.” Now, twenty-four whole years after my mother’s death, a lot of my own questions have been asked and answered, even if my mom wasn’t here to see it all unfold. Writing Tell Me Three Things reminded me of what it felt like when my world was forever widening.

I can’t thank you enough for reading. Though this may look just like an ordinary book to you, for me it’s one more magical first: my very first novel for young adults. Only took twenty-four years to get the courage.

Julie Buxbaum





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


It is with a heart full of gratitude, as embarrassingly earnest as that sounds, that I thank the following people, without whom this book would just be a big tangle of words on an antiquated hard drive: Jenn Joel, for being a brilliant and kick-ass agent and champion. Beverly Horowitz, for her sharp insights and for pushing me to make Tell Me Three Things better with each and every iteration. The wonderful and incomparable Elaine Koster, who is terribly missed. Susan Kamil, who rocks like no other. The Fiction Writers Co-op, for the support and laughs and for making the writing life a whole lot less solitary. John Foley, for naming Book Out Below! Karen Zubieta, for helping me to keep all the balls in the air. The Flore clan, for letting me into your club and allowing me to share your name. Mammaji, who has given up so much so that I get to do what I love; I am eternally grateful. Josh, who keeps me honest and laughing; I won the big brother lottery. My dad because he’s awesome. My mom, Elizabeth, who is loved and remembered every day, but whose name doesn’t get said out loud enough. And, of course, my husband, Indy, and our two little snugglebugs, Elili and Luca—“love” is too small a word. I am so honored that I get to call you guys mine.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR


(1) Julie Buxbaum is the author of the critically acclaimed The Opposite of Love and After You, and her work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Tell Me Three Things is her first novel for young adults. (2) She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two young children, and an immortal goldfish. (3) Julie once received an anonymous email, which inspired Jessie’s story.

Visit Julie online at juliebuxbaum.com and follow @juliebux on Twitter, where she doesn’t list everything in groups of three.