Fantasy Movie Soundtrack

Feat. Mariah, Morrissey, and yes, The Kinks

This morning, I sat in the Peter Straub Reading Room (that’s what we call the back garden at the store on Montague Street) and finished a draft of my screenplay, the draft that the director and I have been working and working on and are finally sharing with our producers. I was playing my This Time Tomorrow playlist over the speakers, and so I was also treating the store’s neighbors to the dulcet tones of Mariah Carey and Morrissey and Oasis and Mary J. Blige. In my mind, it’s the complete soundtrack to the movie adaptation, not to get too ahead of myself. Here’s the link, in case you love joy/90s R + B.

This is not a great photograph. But I really did take it this morning, and those are my falling-apart clogs.

Ok, real quick, just off the dome, top five movie soundtracks of my life:

1. Pretty in Pink (top track: “Bring on the Dancing Horses,” Echo and the Bunnymen)

2. Stand by Me (top track: “Every Day,” Buddy Holly)

3. Dirty Dancing (top track: “Be My Baby,” The Ronettes)

4. Reality Bites (top track: “Tempted,” Squeeze)

5. Singles (but really only for the Paul Westerberg, in particular “Dyslexic Heart”)

This obviously does not include actual musicals. But if it DID, I would include the soundtrack to The Thing Called Love, the River Phoenix/Dermot Mulroney country music movie. RIP River forever, my first love, and Dermot, if you’re reading, I would die for you and your cello. (Top track: “I Can’t Understand,” Trisha Yearwood)

Then, lookee what showed up in the mail! Real paperback copies!

Do we need to re-do the floors? Yes.

Here are some things I love about the paperback:

1. Smaller! Cheaper! Easy to throw in your bag so you can read and cry in public!

2. It says #1 Bestseller on the back. I made it to #3 on the NYT list, but I was #1 on the Indie Bestseller List for literal months, and everyone knows that that’s the list that matters most.

3. I wrote an afterword about my dad. Maybe I should have started with that one, because it’s the most meaningful, there there you are. It’s an adaptation of this piece that I wrote for Vulture, which I started the day after my father died. Writing is the way through, always. I’m also going to record it for the audio. <3

There are also some jazzy new blurbs that have come in—unsolicited! the blurb equivalent of winning the lottery—that are too good not to share.

“I loved this book. I've known Emma Straub since she was a teenager, as her father, the late Peter Straub, was my friend, and this book reminded me of that, of the way time passes and the choices we make. It's a book about time travel (sort of), about missed chances (kind of) about being who you are, about telling your loved ones that you love them when you can. It's a book about regret, and about alternatives. Leonard, the father of Alice (our protagonist) is a writer, and the most convincing writer I've run into in fiction in a long time. It plays beautiful "What if..." games and takes us to good places.” —Neil Gaiman

“One of the most moving and intelligent time travel novels I have ever read. Nostalgic, wise, funny, and filled with love."—Gabrielle Zevin

(If you happen to live in Melbourne, come and hang out with Gabrielle and me!)

Ok, now please tell me YOUR top soundtracks! There are no wrong answers.

Stay tuned for details for the paperback tour, and if you’re in Brooklyn, get pumped, because I’m planning the craziest event of all time and you’re not going to want to miss it.