The Rom-Commers(105)

That’s just life.

Tragedy really is a given.

There are endless human stories, but they all end the same way.

So it can’t be where you’re going that matters. It has to be how you get there.

That’s what I’ve decided.

It’s all about the details you notice. And the joys you savor. And the hope you refuse to give up on.

It’s all about writing the very best story of your life.

Not just how you live it—but how you choose to tell it.





Acknowledgments

I always panic when it comes time to write acknowledgments because I’m always terrified of leaving important people out, and then I always do. Whoever you are, thank you—and I’m so sorry I forgot you!

Before I go any further, let me be sure to thank the lovely people of Macmillan Audio for their support and hand-signed holiday cards over the years. Warm and grateful thanks to Emily Dyer, Katy Robitzski, Amber Cortes, Matt DeMazza, Guy Oldfield, and Michelle Altman. I’ve been so lucky that Macmillan has found two wonderful narrators for my books—Therese Plummer and Patti Murin—and that they’ve so warmly let me record stories and notes for them over the years. I’m so grateful to be a part of it all!

The Rom-Commers is a story that combines a job I know better than any other—being a writer—with a job I know very little about: screenwriting. The biggest, warmest thanks to two friends who consulted with me about screenwriting life: TV writer and producer Alison Schapker (Alias, Brothers & Sisters, Scandal, Westworld) and feature screenwriter/director Vicky Wight (The Lost Husband, Happiness for Beginners) for taking the time to give me a sense of what it’s really like.

Thanks to Dr. Lindy McGee and Rhonda Sherman, Ph.D., for helping me think through some medical questions—and to Dr. Mark Brinker for diagnosing Charlie with bronchitis. I’d also like to thank Dr. Jocelyn Abrams for much wisdom she’s shared with me about how anxiety works.

Thanks to our dear family friend Nelda Jasper for introducing me to the joys of line dancing, and many grateful thanks to Britt Beresik of Cross The Line Dancing Houston for not shaming me in her class—because, like Emma, I am comically terrible at line dancing. Thanks also to my daughter, Anna, for taking line-dancing lessons with me one summer on a whim, and not letting me quit when I realized I was bad, and to my friend Laura Laux, who started coming with me to class after Anna went back to college. And speaking of joy, I’m so thankful to Janis Goldstein and her daughters, Bailey and Emery, for letting me spend some time with—and teaching me a lot about—their guinea pigs, Oli and Apple. I also need to thank my brother-in-law, Matt Stein, for his help with research on Japan. And much gratitude to my dear friend Maria Zerr for our deep and resonant heart-to-heart about the joys and perils of our curly hair. Maria, I dedicate Emma’s pom-pom to you.

Some great books influenced my thinking while I was writing this year. The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss by Mary-Frances O’Connor and The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price both gave me a lot to think about. I also love Judson Brewer, M.D., Ph.D.’s practical and helpful book, Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind.

I also need to thank an unnamed Southwest Airlines pilot who once held a plane for a passenger in much the way that it happens in this book. I read an article about it years ago and it’s stayed with me all this time—just knowing that it can happen and has happened, even if it hardly ever does, adds a little brightness to the world for me.

I’ve already thanked Vicky Wight for letting me interview her about screenwriting for this book, but I have to thank her again for turning my novel Happiness for Beginners into a movie for Netflix. Thanks also to Melissa Ryan at Netflix for all her amazing publicity for the movie—and for making sure to include the book so prominently! I’m so overjoyed that this book got a second chance to find its readers years after it was first published! Thanks also to Stephanie Hockersmith of Pie Lady Books and Katelyn Cole of the Bookcase Beauty for coming to Houston to celebrate!

I can’t even believe how lucky I am to get to work with some of the all-time greats of the publishing world. My agent, Helen Breitwieser of Cornerstone Literary, has been with me from the beginning—and never gave up. Much gratitude and many thanks to the good people of St. Martin’s Press who work so hard to help my books find their way in the world: Christina Lopez, Katie Bassel, Erica Martirano, Brant Janeway, Kejana Ayala, Lisa Senz, and Anne Marie Tallberg. Thanks also to cover designer Olga Grlic and illustrator Katie Smith for all the beauty they create. Heartfelt gratitude, especially, to my brilliant and inspiring editor, Jen Enderlin. I wish I had a bigger word for grateful.

So much love, at last, to my awesome family: Lizzie and Scott Fletcher; Shelley, Matt, and Yazzie Stein; and Bill Pannill and Molly Hammond. Many thanks, also, to my nephew Wiley Fletcher and his bride, Courtney Tee, for asking me to officiate their wedding on a Colorado mountainside. Some of what I said that day made it into this book. And at last, I am beyond grateful to my hilarious kids, Anna and Thomas, my legendary mom, Deborah Detering, and my absolute dream of a husband, Gordon Center, for making the best of every single day.

And you. Of course: you. If you’re reading this book, thank you. You make it all possible. People are always leaving me comments like, “Keep writing!” And I always think, I definitely will—as long as you keep reading. Right? I get to be here only because you’re here. I get to write books only because you read them. So thank you for reading, and thank you for being here. I’m so endlessly grateful that we have each other.