A Bestselling Romance Novelist Reveals Her Number One Fantasy
Annabel Monaghan on paying herself first, gentleman killers, and the secret to writing a novel a year
In the '80s and '90s, it was a rite of passage for teenage girls to paper our bedroom walls with movie posters featuring our favorite heartthrobs. We’d lounge on our beds, listening to cassette tapes, while gazing at Rob Lowe’s perfect smile and Patrick Swayze’s ab muscles, getting lost in romantic daydreams…
Annabel Monaghan’s bestselling novel, Nora Goes Off Script, is the grown-up version of that fantasy: Nora Hamilton, a cash-strapped single mom, finds herself in a pinch-me-this-can’t-be-really-happening romance with Leo Vance, mega-famous movie star, and former Sexiest Man Alive.
While this premise is wildly unlikely, Annabel’s genius is in making it seem possible. The heroines of her novels are smart, capable women with regular lives and struggles like parenting, divorce, and grief. They’re not looking for a man to save them but for meaningful relationships with equal partners.
In addition to Nora (which she wrote at age 50), Annabel has published two more USA Today bestselling novels, Summer Romance and Same Time Next Summer, as well as Does This Volvo Make My Butt Look Big? which is a selection of laugh-out-loud essays. I have adored each of her novels and can’t wait for her latest, It’s a Love Story, which is coming in May 2025.
Annabel’s happily married, and the mother of three boys. You can follow her on Instagram and at her newsletter, Love Bites, for adorable and hilarious missives from her life.
Here’s Annabel on how she became a novelist, some of her favorite things…and her own fantasies!
Fantasy. I was writing Nora Goes Off Script during lockdown, when all my sons and husband were home. My fantasy was that I would have someplace to go to write instead of hiding in the corner of a room with my computer. So, it became, Would I like to have sex with the sexiest man alive? Sure. But would I like to have my own tea house to write in? Yes! Even more! So that became the fantasy. The tea house was based on a picture I saw in an architectural coffee table book of a house in Darien, Connecticut. The way I described it in the book is exactly the way it looked.
Leading ladies. Nora’s someone who has to make dinner happen every night and has to throw in a load of laundry. It made it more fun for me to write than if she was a genius or had some kind of superpower because it felt like her exciting love story could happen to anyone. In my latest, It’s a Love Story, Jane is a former child star and a hot mess. She's bananas! She loses her temper, and she says stuff, and it was really fun to write somebody who was just a tiny bit unhinged.
Sneaking around! When you have a protagonist in a romance who has a lot of parts in her life, it gives way to more complication and more awkwardness. I think a story is more interesting the more parts it has. It's fun to write about mothers because they don’t have all day to lie around in bed: moms have to work around their lives, stealing time, for example, while the kids are at school. I love all the sneaking around, and I find it really fun to write.
Pay yourself first. You know how in personal finance, they always say to pay yourself first? When I was raising kids, I always paid myself last, but now I wake up early in the morning before anyone else is awake, and I have my coffee with my dog, I write, and then I exercise. And then I engage with other people. If the whole day goes to shit at nine o'clock, I've already worked and exercised. Writing is a pleasure for me, and I get very frustrated if I haven't had time to do it. It's my way of flipping the way my life used to be into the way I think everybody's life should be: start out by taking care of your own stuff, and then be there for other people, and see what comes at you from the world.
Funerals. When you go to a wedding, everybody's worried about what they look like in the pictures that are going to be taken—and maybe they're having a fit because the flowers aren't what they expected. All of that kind of thing. At funerals, no one is prepared: everyone's shocked, and they show up and tell the truth about somebody's life. People I've always thought of as a bit pretentious arrive at a funeral just exactly as themselves. It's like they leave their garbage at the door and just show up with their hearts. Funerals give you a moment to sit quietly and hear what someone's life was about, and it gives you pause to think, Is my life becoming the things that I wanted it to be about? Or are they going to say she shopped a lot?
Success. When I first published Nora Goes Off Script, even before it came out, I thought, I'm done. This is it. I have arrived at my moment. I will be happy now for the rest of my life! Then, two weeks later, I was wondering why I wasn’t on the bestseller list. There's always that next thing, and that next thing, and that next thing. I’m now writing the fifth book, and I’ve realized that none of that really matters. The part I like is the writing, so if I get to continue writing, then I'm a success. I don't need to sell a million copies of each book, and I don't need to be on a special list. The bonus is going out and talking to readers, which is just so heartwarming: I make something up all by myself on my computer, and then I type it out, and people read it, and then it’s in their heads, and we have a connection to each other. It's amazing.
Recipe. The turkey burgers in
’ cookbook What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking are the best thing I've made in 10 years! You put a little bit of mayonnaise and a little bit of cheddar cheese, and they're more delicious than hamburgers.
Books. I've always really loved books about murder. Not the type of murder where I’m stalking you and I'm going to stab you, but the ones where it’s, I’m murdering you because you stole my inheritance. I love a good thriller, but I don’t like a lot of blood. I like gentlemen killers. I highly recommend everything by Lisa Jewell. I’m currently reading Missing, Presumed, by Susie Steiner, a British author who has passed away. It’s about a detective inspector in England who is researching a missing person case and the protagonist is so funny.
Headphones. These can really save a marriage! You don’t have to nag anyone to turn off the TV, you just put in your noise-canceling headphones. I have the noise-canceling AirPods—you can turn the feature on and off, but I leave it on, and it’s heaven!
Hammock. I just bought a hammock, and it’s taking the porch swing concept to the next level!
Shoes. A nice pair of Birkenstocks hold onto your feet and feel really good. They need about two weeks to reach the right comfort level, but you can’t keep them forever because they get gross and have the imprint of your toes on the leather, which is something you really don't want other people to see. It feels too personal.
TV Show. The last great thing I watched was Bad Sisters, which I loved. So smart!
Podcast. I really like Money for Couples by Ramit Sethi. He's a sociologist, and it’s all about the psychology of money. Sethi gets these couples together, and he talks them through their money issues, like how to handle credit card debt or whether they can afford a new couch. Sometimes, the couples have millions of dollars, but they won't go to Target because they don't want to spend extra money. I find it fascinating: just listen to one episode, and you'll be hooked!
Annabel wrote her first adult novel at 50 and has published a book per year since then. For many authors, writing a novel can take years. Here’s Annabel on how she became a writer and her secret writing “hack.”
I began my career in finance, but I hated it. Then, I stayed home with my children for a long time. I was writing, but not really. I wrote a young adult novel when I was 30, and that got me moving slowly.
It was hard for me to admit to anyone that I was writing because it seemed like a terribly bold and arrogant thing to do. It felt like I was taking up too much space in the world by writing something and expecting people to read it. It just seemed to me like a very, very confident thing to do. So I did it in bits and pieces: I started writing a column for adults about amusing things that happened in my house, and in writing that column, I found my grown-up voice.
But then it took me a long time to find the confidence to use that voice and to take up the space that any person should be able to take up in the world. I was 50 when I wrote Nora Goes Off Script.
I write almost every day, first thing in the morning. And I have one hack: with every book, I get to a place where I get an editorial letter back from my editor on the draft. I call her “the genius” because she’s a genius. She tells me everything that's wrong with the book, and I get totally overwhelmed. At that point, I go to a hotel and spend two nights in a fugue state where I will write for 10 hours a day. I like the hotel to be as bad as possible, like right by a highway. I don’t want to be tempted to go to the pool. I take my own food, and I get what feels like three weeks’ worth of work done. But then I start to miss my husband, and I realize it’s time to go home!
Thank you so much, Annabel. You are the best! For more, you can order her books here, follow her on Instagram, and read her newsletter!
A Genius Trick for Readers. My method for keeping track of the books I want to read is super easy—and it might work for you, too!
How a Bestselling Ghostwriter Defines Success and Happiness. "As it turns out, it really is more about the journey than the destination" says Caroline Cala Donofrio, plus the genius mantra that helped her finish a marathon!
7 Rules for Midlife Happiness. And a word from Nora Ephron…
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📺 My January recommendations include two new action-packed thrillers, my favorite winter comfort show, a meaningful conversation with Guy Raz on success and happiness, and two fascinating articles on addictions: sugar and screen time…
💌 Thank you so much for reading! I’m honored you’re here. See you next week! xo Amelia
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It was so much fun to relive this conversation by reading this. Thank you so much for taking the time to interview me and make me look cooler than I am!
Love Annabel's books and loved this interview with her!