Interview: Emma Lord discusses her newest novel and writing in New York City

To me, Emma Lord is a rom-com goddess. I devour every single one of her books as soon as it’s released. Over five fabulous novels, she has perfected the formula for making two teenagers fall in love in the cutest ways, while simultaneously showing us how the main character finds herself. In The Getaway List, Riley graduates high school with no idea who she is or what she wants to do, so she heads to New York City to reunite with her best friend and find out. I was so excited to get a chance to read and review this book early, and even more excited to get a chance to interview the author. Lord was so generous to give up her time to answer my burning questions about writing romance, basing her stories in NYC, and of course, Broadway musicals!

You always write the cutest, most swoon worthy romances! What do you love about writing romance? Do you have any tips for fellow aspiring rom-com writers?

Oh gosh thank you!! I think my favorite part is probably the “puzzle completion” of it all. You’ve got these two characters you’ve created, who are very alike and very different in all kinds of ways, and you get to figure out how their pieces fit for that satisfying “click” to form the picture. I often don’t even know what it will fully look like or what pieces I’m working with when I start, which is why it’s so fun to let the characters tell you sometimes! I think that’s part of my tip, is just to enjoy the process. Rom coms are so fun and so very human and messy and full of love. The more you can enjoy the process and let yourself play and explore, the more satisfying it will be to write. 

Riley and her mom’s relationship reminds me so much of Lorelei and Rory in the show Gilmore Girls. I wondered if you were a fan of Gilmore Girls and if it inspired this novel at all? If not, what was the inspiration behind this mother-daughter relationship?

This is a cardinal millennial sin, but I missed the boat on Gilmore Girls when it was at its height! Friends of mine lovingly (read: forcibly) brought me into the fold, so I am definitely familiar with the characters and larger plots now. Riley and her mom do have a very Rory and Lorelai dynamic, but I wasn’t necessarily inspired by them or anything specific — it’s just a dynamic between mother and daughter I hadn’t really explored in a narrative before, and to me it really heightened that friction that came with understanding someone a little too well.

That’s at the root of a lot of character relationships throughout the novel, is how you can relate to someone and know them so well that they can feel like a mirror image of yourself — almost literally, in Riley and her mom’s case — which makes it all the more disorienting when you aren’t on the same page. 

This is your third novel based in New York City, and you’ve set two novels somewhere else. How is your writing process different for your New York based books versus your books set in other places?

Oh boy it is definitely different for the NYC books not even for the process, but just for the general flavor of my brain? Like with New York books it feels like settling into a very beloved pair of jeans — I know precisely how they fit so I feel confident trying new pieces with them, the same way I feel comfortable incorporating different parts of the city in each book.

But with books outside of NYC it’s sometimes like settling into a new outfit, or an old one I loved but forgot was at the back of my closet. Places I’ve lived or places I’ve made up in my head. So the fit and the feel is definitely different for the feeling I have while I’m writing them, but the same process-wise in that I am, without a doubt, either writing slouching on a park bench, slouching in my favorite coffee shop, or starfished in the dark on my couch. (My aesthetic as a writer is “gremlin.”) 

What inspired you to switch from high school to college/post high school YA in the past few years? How have you enjoyed writing these more mature stories?

I think a lot of the inspiration to switch is that for me, most of my growth and self-discovery happened after high school. I feel like these days a lot of people relate to that because high school is so “GO GO GO” in terms of getting your grades squared away and stacking up your extracurriculars to get into college that you aren’t allowed nearly as much time as you should to reflect on your life or what you want for the future. And then there’s just all this open space when you graduate or turn eighteen to just be.

To me that’s more of a canvas to play with in terms of, “Where is this character going and what are they going to prioritize now that they actually have a lot more freedom?” I’ve really enjoyed it because it means the characters can push the boundaries of their self-constructed worlds a little more, and understand to a heightened degree that the barriers of them aren’t necessarily the strings of school and parents and convention, but come from within. 

The Tides of Time is such a cool piece of worldbuilding that you add to The Getaway List. Was there a particular sci-fi franchise that inspired The Tides of Time? Are you a sci-fi fan?

It’s funny, I didn’t have anything in particular in mind coming up with that idea because originally it wasn’t that big of a player in the larger plot of the book! But it’s definitely Doctor Who-adjacent. I wanted it to have a little bit of that “growing up with the characters” feel of Percy Jackson, too, so I’d put it somewhere in between those two. I am not a well-rounded sci fi fan, but when I do get into a fandom, I get INTO it. It’s a miracle I ever talk about anything that isn’t Star Wars after what The Force Awakens did to me. So there’s definitely some Star Wars in there that’s more of a reflection on the intensity of the fanbase, too. 

I know from your Instagram account that you’re a big Broadway girlie. Which Broadway musical best encapsulates your personality? You can choose more than one if you need to.

One thousand million percent Mamma Mia. The way I will lose every single marble in my body whenever ABBA comes on!!! Physically I am in NYC but emotionally I am always shaking my booty on a Greek Island waiting for Aphrodite to send up an exploding fountain of water and glitter and joy.