What is the title of your latest release?
HOW THE STORY GOES
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Whit Longacre is an author of mystery novels and the widower of a famous children’s fantasy novelist, Helen Albright Longacre. Merritt Pryor is a down-on-her-luck MFA dropout whose horrible ex has just published a novel that is almost certainly about her. She also happens to be a superfan of the late Helen’s series, the completion of which has been left to Whit. Finishing the final book in the series feels like an impossible task for Whit, so he and Merritt come up with a plan to tackle the book together—until a buried secret about Helen’s final wishes raises questions about the work they’ve done and the tender, inescapable partnership they’ve forged along the way.
I hope it’s a long elevator.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I think if you’re writing a book that is at least partially about grief and loss, and you don’t want it to feel like a slog, then you have to offer your reader (and yourself!) some warmth and joy. I mean, Whit has already lost his wife; we don’t need to punish him further by forcing him to live in suburban Houston (my hometown).
Whelk Harbor is my own version of the imaginary small towns I’ve loved in other stories: Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls, Alice Island from The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, and Three Pines from Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache books. I hope that a lot of my book feels realistic, but I’m also very okay with escapism. I built a place where I’d want to live, and I would love for Whelk Harbor to feel like a cozy retreat from the outside world for others, too.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Whit and I were not the same age when I was drafting this, but we are now, and oops, it looks like most of my friends are millennial parents who listen to sad-dad rock and people who, like Merritt, love libraries and bookstores and NPR. So . . . yes!
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Whit: cranky, lovable, good
Merritt: capable, honest, brave
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I think I learned to get out of my own way and to ignore the rules I’d imposed on my work. For years, I had defined myself as one kind of writer, and when I finally put (digital) pen to paper for this idea, my voice bubbled up, my humor shone through, and the words really flowed. I realized that I was finally writing exactly the kind of thing I should have been writing.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit as a draft. When I sit down to write, I usually start by rereading what I wrote the day before and fiddling with it for twenty or thirty minutes. It helps me get back into the groove and remember where I am in the story, and I feel proud of myself for having done the work the day before!
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I think it’s very mature and responsible when people are like “I’m not really a dessert person,” but I also think those people might not have very rich inner lives. I love sweets, and more often than not, after I get the kids to bed, I have a really nice bowl of vanilla bean ice cream with either 1) olive oil and sea salt or 2) a homemade butterscotch from Smitten Kitchen that has forever altered my brain chemistry.
Describe your writing space/office!
Honestly, I mostly write on my couch or at my favorite Austin coffee shop, Radio. My dream office would be either Whit’s first-floor space, which looks directly into lush New England woods, or Helen’s third-floor sunroom, with 360-degree views of the surrounding hills and ocean. For now, the couch with a warm blanket and cup of tea is pretty great.
Who is an author you admire?
Elizabeth Strout is my favorite author. I think she is sneakily good, in that she is both eminently readable and quietly profound. Others I admire and aim to write like are David Nicholls, Linda Holmes, Candice Carty-Williams, Kevin Wilson, Jia Tolentino… the list goes on.
Is there a book that changed your life?
In fourth grade, I read THE GIVER by Lois Lowry, and it was the first time that reading felt like a transcendent experience for me. I’ve reread it probably six times since.
More recently (that is, in the last decade), I read Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels, which are perfect. They genuinely reshaped the way I thought about humanity, family, faith, community, fiction, and on and on. I love her forever.
Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
This was an exclusive submission, so I knew my now-editor, Laura, was looking at the manuscript, but I didn’t know what she would think. I’d been with my agent, Elizabeth, for years, and I’d been on submission I think three times before this, so I was keeping my expectations low. Then Elizabeth forwarded me an email that included the words “I finished this over the long weekend and . . . I kind of love it. It feels like it was written just for me.” It wasn’t a sure thing just then, but it was the furthest I’d ever gotten, and I was thrilled. A week later, Laura and I spoke on the phone, and I sort of knew then that it was going to work out. Lo and behold, it did. Eventually, Elizabeth called me, and I rushed out of the house to escape my numerous children. She told me about the offer as I paced up and down the sidewalk on my street, all of it very heady and surreal. Then I went back inside and changed a dirty diaper. Life!
What’s your favorite genre to read?
I really love contemporary literary fiction about complicated families or funny, book-clubby books about, well, complicated families or people falling in love. I’ll also read anything in that lightly speculative, Emily St. John Mandel/Anthony Doerr lane. Oh, and mysteries – not so much thrillers, but mysteries with a classic detective fiction form, like Elly Griffiths and Richard Osman’s books.
What’s your favorite movie?
Depending on how cool I want people to think I am in the moment… Lady Bird or Billy Elliot or Romeo + Juliet or You’ve Got Mail or Gosford Park.
What is your favorite season?
Fall. I hate the Texas summer, and winter can be really annoying here, but in the fall, I turn into a basic white girlie who loves pumpkin drinks and jigsaw puzzles and going to the farmer’s market.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I always feel weird on my birthday, like I should care more about it than I do. Honestly, I’d love to just be on my own for a bit, reading probably, then swim at Barton Springs with my wife Meg before eating delicious food at a restaurant I know and love.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I just devoured the second season of Deadloch, which is an Australian murder mystery. I’m reading fellow May 5 debut Portia Elan’s book, HOMEBOUND, and loving it. And I am a ride-or-die fan of the podcast If Books Could Kill.
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I love Thai, Indian, and Tex-Mex. Also, as I said before . . . all desserts.
What do you do when you have free time?
Loaf. Watch British crime dramas with a strong female lead. Run on Town Lake here in Austin. Try out new recipes. Hate myself for not being able to stay awake while reading at night. Maybe one day, when my kids are a little older, I’ll return to the pickleball courts, but for now, you are all safe from my (weak and erratic) backhand.
What can readers expect from you next?
I plan to stay in this same cozy-but-real genre of hopeful, bookish stories for a while . . . but one day, I’d really like to write a mystery or a sprawling, generational family drama. Stay tuned.
Narrator: Renata Friedman, James Fouhey
In this heartwarming, bookish debut, a young widower of a famous children’s fantasy author teams up with a down-on-her-luck MFA dropout to write the final book in his late wife’s series...and find their own perfect ending along the way.
Whit Longacre has a monumental task and a looming deadline. After his wife, Helen, died of cancer, she left him with their grieving eight-year-old daughter and a surprise in her will: the small task of writing the final book in her mega-popular children’s fantasy series for her legions of waiting fans.
Whit is the author of moderately successful (but well-received!) literary mysteries. He doesn’t have the first idea of how to complete Helen’s beloved series, and his enigmatic wife seems to have left no clues behind on how the story is supposed to end. Writer’s block is one thing, but to fail in fulfilling his wife’s last wish? Whit is guilt-ridden and dodging calls in the school pick-up line from Helen’s publisher and agent as the deadline fast approaches.
Then Whit meets Merritt Pryor, who works at the local bookstore in their small New England town. Merritt has moved back home after a disastrous affair led to her dropping out of her prestigious MFA program. When Whit realizes that Merritt is a superfan of the Greenwood Castle series, they come up with a plan to tackle the book together. For the first time in years, Merritt finds herself falling back in love with writing…and perhaps with the coauthor offering her the opportunity of a lifetime.
But when Whit uncovers a buried secret about Helen’s final wishes, he questions everything about what he and Merritt have created together, endangering the tender, electrifying partnership that has transformed their lives.
Can Whit and Merritt come up with an ending that feels right…for both a beloved series and for their battered hearts?
Small Town | Humor [ Avon, On Sale: May 5, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780063452138 / eISBN: 9780063452114 ]
Andrew Forrester is a writer and former English teacher whose work has appeared in McSweeney's and Parents magazine. He holds a PhD in nineteenth-century British literature and lives in Austin, Texas, with his family. How the Story Goes is his first novel.
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