0:02

A it's I'm years but at the

0:04

day I'm Andrew. Limb bomb. It seems

0:06

like everytime I've walked into a bookstore

0:08

the past couple years weather in the

0:10

or a big box there's an Emily

0:12

Henry book on the front table. The

0:14

super popular romance writer join to some

0:16

the pod Today her new book is

0:18

titled Funny Story and it's about a

0:20

love quadrangle. I guess I'm here is

0:22

one of somersault. Lay it out but

0:24

they you to talking about writing romance

0:26

novels and Henry says this thing about

0:28

how yeah sure the romance genre is

0:30

kind of embarrassing. But. You know what

0:32

else? is falling in love? That.

0:34

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apply. Picture. Best

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You have the dream job, a dream

1:36

home, and are planning a dream wedding

1:38

with the love of your life. And

1:41

then said love of your life realizes

1:43

they are in love with someone else.

1:45

That is the exact nightmare scenario. Children's

1:47

Librarian Daphne events at finds herself and

1:50

at the start of Emily Henry's new

1:52

book Funny Story Daphne's fiance, Peter breaks

1:54

up with her for his childhood best

1:57

friend and her plans are thrown into

1:59

chaos. All. Sweet staff. need to

2:01

move and with Miles a guy who

2:03

knows all too well with Daphne is

2:05

going through sense. The childhood friend who

2:07

ran off with Peter is Miles is

2:09

now ex. Girlfriend Petra. It's

2:12

a premise that Henry wondered about after

2:14

writing about a best friendship turned more

2:16

in a different novel every time. I

2:18

kind of investigate. One kind of trope or

2:20

storyline. I'm. Always curious like ooh what happened

2:22

to you know the rest of the cast.

2:24

What about the woman who just got dumped

2:27

season at the start of this rom com

2:29

and I wanted to make heard the star

2:31

I asked Henry what seeds of gas me

2:33

she saw on ourselves that feeling of. Not

2:36

being enough is a real com and

2:39

fear for so many people on the

2:41

especially in romantic relationships, you know you

2:43

can just. Feel. Like. There's

2:46

just this whole world that you should

2:48

be like providing to this person and

2:50

and you're aware of every one else

2:53

around you and and how they interact

2:55

with this person that means the world

2:57

to. And I think that that fear

2:59

of like I'm not enough is just

3:01

a really pressing thing that they gets

3:03

kind of triggered an fermented relationships especially.

3:07

I know. Wanna talk about Miles

3:09

who is says this kind of warm,

3:11

comforting. Percent he is tattooed he

3:14

wearing crocs arms. I am curious

3:16

when you're writing romance books were a lot

3:18

of the tension comes from the obstacles that

3:21

com when it comes to getting two people

3:23

together. How hard is it to write a

3:25

character who is just so genuinely. Kind

3:28

and warm. this is

3:30

the exact battle of this whole book

3:32

was to realize these two people really

3:34

like each other and they're really connecting

3:36

and he's kind and he's emotionally available

3:39

on his present and the so i

3:41

had to really dig deep into kind

3:43

of their histories and their trauma and

3:45

figure out which things about themselves would

3:47

sort of trip each other up as

3:49

that makes sense you know i think

3:52

when you meet someone and you really

3:54

click there's all these facets of your

3:56

personality that just complement each other and

3:58

that's really exciting feeling But of course there

4:00

are always also going to be things that really

4:02

grade against each other. And for Daphne,

4:04

this person who has built

4:07

her life on needing to have this

4:09

sense of control and order, it's a

4:11

real challenge to start falling for someone

4:14

who's sort of the total opposite of

4:16

that. I spend more

4:18

time than I should probably admit on the

4:21

radio on TikTok, specifically Book Talk and reading

4:23

reviews. And something that I watched or read

4:25

somewhere suggested that you happen to be very

4:27

good at writing male characters, men who have

4:29

gone to therapy and worked on themselves. Yeah.

4:31

How do you feel about that?

4:33

I mean, I'm passionate about that.

4:36

I'm passionate about men going to therapy.

4:38

I mean, I'm passionate about everyone going to therapy. But

4:40

yeah, I mean, if you're a really introspective

4:42

person and have really great friends and all of

4:44

that, that can go a really long way. But

4:46

you know, if you want to have a sustained

4:48

relationship that goes through all of these different phases

4:50

of life and that really challenges

4:52

all of your own hang ups and triggers

4:55

and all of that. I don't

4:57

know. A lot of us need help. I need help. And

5:00

I think it's always beneficial to a

5:02

relationship to have an outside

5:04

source you can lean on. One

5:07

of the things that really stands out not

5:09

just in this book, but also in your

5:11

other books is the fact that there is

5:14

this quick witted, fun, kind of steamy banter

5:16

between characters. And it is certainly there all

5:18

throughout with Daphne and Miles. Their

5:20

voices, their chemistry, the intense

5:23

attraction between them just jumps off the

5:25

page. I guess I wonder when you're

5:27

writing, do you hear their voices

5:29

in your head kind of having this this back

5:31

and forth or how do you capture that? Definitely.

5:34

I mean, in the best case scenario,

5:36

that is what's happening. And I'll admit

5:38

that sometimes the earlier drafts are not

5:40

that. And it's just sort of writing

5:42

filler dialogue and cranking out beats to

5:44

a specific plot that I've decided. But

5:46

I think the magic moment for any

5:48

writer is when you feel those characters

5:50

just take over. I

5:52

feel like I was really lucky with this one that while

5:54

there were a lot of challenges, the

5:56

dialogue was really there from the beginning. The dynamic

5:59

was there. I under The Dead that he

6:01

was sort of the softer, sunnier one,

6:03

And she was. you know, a little

6:05

bit. Apps, sharper ads, and I just

6:07

loves the feeling of bouncing between their

6:10

voices. I. Think one of the things that.

6:12

Is. So fine whether it's and a book or and

6:14

relax about. Being. A mother said it's you.

6:16

Lose yourself in it. You have those little. Creditworthy

6:18

moments where you smack yourself and had you're

6:20

like oh my gosh I cannot. Believe I

6:22

am saying this right now. How do I

6:24

think about writing those kinds of scenes that

6:26

feel almost unbelievable, but yet they're so really

6:29

double for us. I do think

6:31

that's writing romance and reading romance and

6:33

falling in love all feel very similar

6:35

for that exact reason. It's this kind

6:37

of embarrassing giddy free fall. And if

6:39

you're you know it's so easy to

6:42

judge yourself to have this sort of.

6:44

Out of body experience where you're replying.

6:46

Every conversation and smashing yourself on the

6:48

head and feeling humiliated. But that's also the

6:50

joy of it. It's like just the

6:52

most vulnerable thing a person can do. And

6:54

as hard as vulnerability is, I think it's

6:57

beautiful because it's the only thing that

6:59

can ever lead a true intimacy into truly

7:01

being known. And so you know. I

7:03

think it's good for us. I think it's

7:05

good for us to engage with stories

7:07

like this where we can see rob vulnerability

7:10

on display and the cringe that you're talking

7:12

about. It's like we're gonna have to

7:14

learn to roll with those. Punches and enjoy

7:16

it and later you know it's in real

7:18

life. when you have those things happen later

7:20

it is a funny story. I'm

7:22

also curious about your personal philosophy on

7:25

love, where it is that come from.

7:28

I mean I I got

7:30

very lucky with my parents

7:32

I would say. They.

7:36

Have been married since they were seventeen

7:38

and nineteen. They are in their late

7:40

sixties now so from the very beginning

7:42

of my life I. Had

7:45

this. View. of what love was

7:47

in it was you know patient and

7:49

kind and they can thicker with each

7:51

other but there's always an apology is

7:53

like there's just no pride in themselves

7:55

there's no ego getting in the way

7:57

and their partnership is just so beautiful

7:59

and You know, I've gotten to now watch

8:01

it grow and change for over 30 years.

8:04

And it's just such

8:06

a special thing to see two people

8:08

who really got to grow up together

8:10

and go through all these different seasons

8:13

of life and be a witness to

8:15

the other's experience. It's an

8:17

incredible story. There

8:19

was something that I read on your sub-sac

8:21

a few weeks back, and it was about

8:23

how you think about the reader as you

8:26

write your books. You wrote that traditionally authors

8:28

try to forget about their readers when they're

8:30

writing. And you said that

8:32

recently we've been a little bit more present

8:34

in your mind. What has that done to

8:36

your writing process? I

8:38

honestly think it's made me

8:40

a better writer. I think, you know, it

8:42

can slow things down. It can make me

8:45

a lot more nervous. With funny stories specifically,

8:47

I remember telling my editor that I spent

8:49

the whole editing process telling

8:51

myself, you've done this before, you can do it again.

8:53

There's no need to worry. It all works itself out in

8:56

the end. And then the last couple of

8:58

months were just sheer panic. And so we decided next

9:00

time we're going to panic a little bit throughout and

9:02

stuff it at the end. But I do

9:04

feel this, you know, this pressure and this responsibility because I

9:06

see it as my readers having

9:08

given me this amazing gift and being able

9:10

to do the work that really means the

9:12

world to me. And I

9:15

want to show that I appreciate that.

9:17

I want them to feel like they are part of the journey. That

9:21

is author Emily Henry. Her new book,

9:23

Funny Story, is out now. Emily, thank

9:25

you so much. Thank you so much. This really

9:27

was a joy. Over

9:35

the past couple of decades, the U.S. has

9:37

lost about a third of its newspapers, taking

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thousands of local journalists off their beat. A

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