Today Tonight Tomorrow(91)

When we see Seattle in pop culture, we usually only get a piece of it: rain, the Space Needle, flannel. I wanted to dig deeper—and so the game of Howl was born. While this book takes place in a very real city, it’s a patchwork of present-day Seattle and the Seattle I grew up in. Many of the landmarks are presently intact: Cinerama, Pike Place Market and the gum wall, the Great Wheel, the Seattle Public Library, the Fremont Troll, Kerry Park. Some of them I took fictional liberties with. Sadly, the Woodland Park Zoo’s nocturnal exhibit is no longer open. It was shut down during the recession, and though there were plans to rebuild, a fire in the building put those plans on hold. The Museum of the Mysteries was once a real place in Capitol Hill, but now exists online only at nwlegendsmuseum.com. I should also mention that Rowan and Neil really have quite incredible luck finding parking spots.

When I began writing Today Tonight Tomorrow, it was important to me that Rowan love Seattle, even if she was committed to leaving it behind for college. This book is a love letter to love, but it was a love letter to Seattle first.

Cities are perennial works in progress, and it’s possible some of the setting details have changed by the time you’re reading this. More and more of my favorite holes-in-the-wall are becoming condos and townhomes, and before they were my favorite holes-in-the-wall, they were someone else’s favorite something else.

This is my third book that takes place in Seattle, but there is still so much I don’t know about the place that’s always been my home. If and when I leave this setting behind, it will always be in my veins and in my storyteller’s soul.

Seattle, you are weird and wonderful, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.





Acknowledgments


THIS BOOK IS a happy one, but I began writing it during a difficult time. While I have always been drawn to dark and heavy books, for months after the 2016 election, I couldn’t bring myself to open one of the many guaranteed heartbreakers waiting on my shelf. I wanted to read—I don’t know who I am if I’m not in the middle of three books at once—but nothing was calling to me. And that’s when I found romance novels.

I’ve always loved romantic subplots, but I was largely unfamiliar with romance as a genre, and the more I read, the more I realized this was what I wanted to do next. My first two books had bittersweet endings and plenty of levity, but there was also a lot of despair. I didn’t know if I could write a fun book—even all my shelved manuscripts are dark dark dark—and yet suddenly, it was all I wanted to write. Rowan wasn’t actually a romance novelist in my first draft, but after I’d spent so much time learning the genre, it felt right to turn her into one. Nora Roberts, Meg Cabot, Christina Lauren, Alyssa Cole, Tessa Dare, Alisha Rai, Sally Thorne, Courtney Milan—without their books, I wouldn’t have been able to write a romance about romance.

I’m ashamed to admit that my younger self was a lot like Neil, a lot like the people who judge an entire piece of pop culture before reading, watching, listening. The truth is that romance novels made me really and truly happy in a way books had never made me feel before. I’ll always love dark books, and darkness finds its way into romance novels too, but there is such a comfort in knowing an HEA is waiting for you. And yet it still manages to feel earth-shattering every single time.

There aren’t enough adjectives for my phenomenal editor, Jennifer Ung. Thank you for being immediately on board with a book so tonally different from my first two. Somehow you understand exactly what I’m trying to do, even when my intentions get lost between my brain and the page. My books are infinitely better because of you.

Thank you to Mara Anastas and the brilliant team at Simon Pulse: Chriscynethia Floyd, Liesa Abrams, Michelle Leo, Amy Beaudoin, Sarah Woodruff, Ana Perez, Amanda Livingston, Christine Foye, Christina Pecorale, Emily Hutton, Lauren Hoffman, Caitlin Sweeny, Alissa Nigro, Savannah Breckenridge, Nicole Russo, Lauren Carr, Anna Jarzab, Chelsea Morgan, Sara Berko, Rebecca Vitkus, and Penina Lopez. Laura Eckes, thank you for designing the cover of my dreams, and Laura Breiling, thank you for the perfect, perfect illustrations. To complete the Laura trifecta, thank you to my agent, Laura Bradford, for soothing my author anxiety and making the business side of writing run so smoothly.

Kelsey Rodkey, maybe it’s fitting that this book begins and ends with you. The insightful notes, the pep talks, the flailing, the memes… thank you for all of it. I adore you, and your friendship is so dear to me. HAGS! I’m immensely grateful to the friends who offered feedback in various stages of this book’s life: Sonia Hartl, Carlyn Greenwald, Tara Tsai, Marisa Kanter, Rachel Griffin, Rachel Simon, Heather Ezell, Annette Christie, Monica Gomez-Hira, and Auriane Desombre. Thank you to my publishing confidantes Joy McCullough, Gloria Chao, Kit Frick, and Rosiee Thor, and thank you to my favorite coffee shop coworker, Tori Sharp. I am never letting any of you go!

I shared the earliest version of this book at a Djerassi workshop in June 2017, helmed by the spectacular Nova Ren Suma. Thank you, Nova, and thank you to Alison Cherry, Tamara Mahmood Hayes, Cass Frances, Imani Josey, Nora Revenaugh, Sara Ingle, Randy Ribay, and Kim Graff. That week in the mountains was one of the highlights of my career.

Ivan: these are the first acknowledgments where I can call you my husband! I’m so glad you’re my person, and thank you for making the best deadline food.

It’s always a little terrifying sending a book out into the world, and the support from readers, bloggers, booksellers, librarians, and teachers has made that experience much less terrifying. You all are INCREDIBLE, and I’m grateful beyond words for the posts, tweets, emails, and word of mouth that have helped make it possible for me to keep doing my dream job. With all of my heart, thank you.