00:00Before we get into the TV series, I want to go back to the beginning. I'm wondering where you
00:04got the idea for writing Every Summer After, and is any of it inspired by your own summers living
00:09in Canada? Yes, I grew up on the lake in Barry's Bay, and I was, our house was kind of
00:18on a dirt
00:18road in the bush. There were only three permanent residences on the road. The other houses were
00:24cottages, and every summer it would be very quiet in the winter, and then every summer it was like
00:29full of action and kids. I grew up working at my family's restaurant. It was very much like Sam
00:34and Charlie's story in the book, and I had always wanted to write a novel. In the pandemic, I was
00:41very frustrated with my job in journalism, and had a frustrating call. I slammed on the phone, and I
00:47said, I'm going to write a book, and I wanted to write about growing up at the lake, so that's
00:50where
00:51Every Summer After came from. How involved were you with the process of casting, particularly with the
00:56core trio? Because I'm kind of wondering, when you're writing, do you have a specific image of what these
01:01characters look like?
01:02You know, it's funny. I can never picture the characters. I can picture the setting so well. I, sometimes I
01:08draw
01:08layouts of rooms or of properties. I can tell you exactly where the fridge is in the kitchen. I cannot
01:14picture the
01:14characters. I try to describe them so that you can picture them, but I don't have an actor in mind,
01:19and so when we were
01:20casting, it was really fun for me to see them come to life. I wasn't, I wasn't envisioning anybody
01:27specifically, and then I saw the tapes of all the top picks for each role. Sadie was cast first as
01:34Percy,
01:35and then Matt, he, his tape for Sam made me cry. He does this, he did this like eulogy speech,
01:43and I was
01:44tearing up, and then the chemistry read between Matt and Sadie was so incredible. They were in
01:51different cities. It was on Zoom, but you could just feel, feel their connection on the screen, and
01:57then Michael, Michael Bradway, who plays Charlie, he was amazing too, and also had a chemistry read with
02:03Matt, because as brothers, their relationship is so core to the book, and the two of them together, you
02:08really, you really felt that brotherly connection from the get-go.
02:11Is there anything in the book that you found yourself really protective over once the scripts
02:16were being written, and the show was going into production, and was there anything that you felt
02:20needed to be adapted exactly as it's written on the page? Good question. The thing I felt most strongly
02:26about was the setting, and making sure the book was set in Canada. The first version of the script
02:32that I read, which, which was about two years ago, this was before our showrunner Amy B. Harris was on
02:37board. It was set in a town called Barry's Bend in Wisconsin, and so it was very, very important for
02:44me that this was, was a Canadian set show. There was nothing from the book that I felt needed to
02:51be
02:52word-for-word, except there's a scene in the book. We call it the You Came Home scene, and it
02:58was the
02:59first, when I read that scene to an audience, it was one of my first book events, everybody in the
03:04crowd gasped, and it was the, it was the first time I understood how, like, emotionally invested
03:09people were in the story, and that scene in particular is really important to fans. So it was those three
03:15words, having those three words in the show and have that delivery really land.
03:28You came home. I was excited to see it. I was nervous about how it was going to come together,
03:34but I think it, I think it turned out beautifully. What is your favorite new edition, and which one are
03:39you most excited for fans of the book to see? Oh my gosh. I, well, I love all the secondary
03:43characters
03:44who have, they were all part of Every Summer After, but it's Geordie, who is Sam's childhood friend,
03:51we've got Delilah, who is Percy's childhood friend, and Chantal, who is her best friend as an adult,
03:56and they're all in the book, but in very kind of smaller ways, and in the show, they serve as,
04:03like,
04:03really important characters, and I love their stories. I think Amy has done such a beautiful job
04:10expanding the world. She's given audiences, I think, what they, if you're a fan of the book,
04:14you get what you want, but then you have this ensemble and this group that, and she writes
04:19with such empathy, like, you are really along for the ride with the characters, and they help.
04:24The book is so interior. You're in Percy's head the whole time, but having Chantal come with her,
04:30come with her to the lake, having Delilah there as a bit of an antagonist at the beginning,
04:34you really see Percy's struggles and her point of view for screen. It makes a lot of sense.
04:40I've noticed already, just in, like, the promos and everything, fans have been making edits on TikTok
04:45to all different songs with the characters, just from the trailer clips.
05:00Music is such a huge part of the show, too. Are there any songs that, like, you wish someone would
05:06make an edit of your characters, too? Oh, that's such a great question.
05:12Hmm. Hmm. Maybe, maybe a Taylor Swift, a Taylor Swift, maybe an Invisible String. I feel like that's
05:21very Sam and Percy coded. There is a scene in the show, I'm a major Harry Styles fan, like, major
05:28Harry
05:29Styles fan, and we have a Harry Styles song, um, in Fine Line, and it is so, the scene is
05:37so beautiful.
05:38Amy, Amy wrote the scene with that song in mind, and I know that people will be making edits with
05:45that song, and I'm very excited to see them. Kind of going back to adaptations, like, off campus,
05:50between that show, yours, and Heated Rivalry, three of the biggest romance adaptations right now are from
05:55Canadian authors. Um, have you noticed that this is a trend, and do you think there's a reason why
06:00Canadian romance is having such a moment right now? I don't know what the reason is. I've definitely
06:06noticed it. Of course, Rachel Reed, Al Kennedy, I'm so excited about it. You know, I guess, you know,
06:14we're looking there at two, um, series of books about hockey. Hockey is deeply, deeply Canadian. Um,
06:20my books are very much about these places in Canada and, and these Canadian summers. Um,
06:27I don't know the reason for it, but I love it. Have you talked to either of them about
06:30any of this process? I sent, I sent Rachel a note, um, early on just to make sure she was
06:35okay,
06:36because I feel like it's just such a wild ride, and I've talked to Elle as well, and just kind
06:41of
06:41compared notes a little bit, cheering, cheering her on too. Yeah, so Every Year After hasn't been
06:46renewed for season two yet, but if it is, can we expect to see the story from One Golden Summer
06:51play out on screen? Yeah, so Amazon has the rights to One Golden Summer. Um, I know Amy has talked
06:58about this, and I know it's kind of my understanding that that story will be wrapped into a second season
07:05if we get one, and if you watch Every Year After to the end of the first, of the first
07:10season,
07:10it really sets us up for One Golden Summer, for sure. Okay.
Comments