ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: People arestarving for you on the internet.
They seem very ready for this book.
TAYLOR JENKINS REID:That makes me happy.
Deborah Feingold
It’s tennis, so it’s funny because a lot of the reaction’s been, “What?
I don’t want to read about tennis.”
I promise it’s fun!
Ballantine Books
I promise tennis is a very fun world to be in.
Oh my gosh, it was the first thing I watched during my research.
“Let’s just pop onWimbledon.”
Who doesn’t need a little moment with Paul Bettany?
Were you coming in more familiar this time, or was that the case again withCarrie?
I don’t know what I’m doing.
I did not know anything about tennis when I started, I just did a lot of research.
I’ve become a tennis person.
People who don’t love tennis just haven’t met it yet, is how I feel.
I’m not a sports person, but I really think tennis is an exception.
Part of it is that it’s man versus man.
It’s not a team sport.
And so it is very much about the psychology of the player and their particular style.
Mick Riva, a wayward husband fromEvelyn Hugo, has almost become your talisman.
Carriedoes take place in the world that he lives in, and people are aware of him.
His name comes up, but he’s not going to come in and mess anything up.
It makes me feel good.
Maybe readers are going to embody him eventually, like Candyman.
If you say his name enough times in the mirror, he’ll become real.
Speaking of readers, do you get recognized?
Which, it’s funny because I did not think that happened to authors.
So it was not part of my plan for what my life would look like.
But occasionally, you’re able to tell somebody knows who you are.
you’re free to’t just run to the grocery store with no bra on now.
I literally became an author because I wanted to live in sweatpants!
Everybody who’s like, “Oh, pandemic, I’m in sweatpants.”
I’m like, “I’m 10 years ahead of you.”
I have not put on jeans in a decade.
I want to be a dirtbag.
And so now it’s like, “Oh, it’s possible for you to see me?”
But it is really sweet.
I’m like, “Veggie bowl.”
But that familiarity also fosters expectations, and a certain emotional attachment.
I’m not getting off of it.
You hope that you write something that people enjoy enough to trust you to go on another journey.
That was always my goal, is to earn that trust and then come through.
Are you a fan of looking back at your old stuff, or do you like to leave it?
You hope that you grow with every book.
But I recently went back and read them all because all of them are being reissued.
And there were parts I cringed, and parts where I could see where I had grown.
And then, there was also moments where I was like, “You know what?
I got to have a little bit more faith in myself.
It’s okay that these are out here.”
There’s a lot to be proud of in them.
Your covers tend to be distinctive, andCarrie Soto, with all that gold, is pretty striking.
Was getting to that a big journey?
It was a journey.
It was perhaps my biggest journey yet.
Part of what was difficult about it isEvelyn Hugois a very glamorous woman.Daisy Jonesis a very glamorous woman.
Nina Riva is a very glamorous woman.
I didn’t want Carrie to be glamorous in that same way.
And I really wanted that sense of strength to be first.
And that is very much on purpose.
Her purpose within herself is not to be beautiful.
And so I wanted a cover that felt like “This is an incredibly strong woman.”
She looks like a Greek goddess.
But you still want it to be inviting for people, so it took a long time.
It took on many, many different iterations.
Do you have to google to see if Carrie Soto exists before you pick these character names?
Yeah, I do.
What’s tough, though, is…
I mean,Daisy Edgar Jonesshowed up after I had the book Daisy.
[Laughs] Yeah.
What’s the update onDaisy[whichis slated to be a miniseries for Prime Video starring Riley Keogh].
Is there a hard date for that yet?
Well, there were delays [for the pandemic].
But we’re supposed to finish filming this summer, and then we should have a release date.
Do you have a drawer full of little idea scraps for what’s next?
And I also don’t, for the first time in a long time.
I have said thatCarrie Sotowill be the last in this series of books about famous women.
I don’t know quite what it’s going to look like, and I’m taking my time.
I have not written anything.
I don’t know.
Things are percolating, but it’s the Wild West in my brain right now.
