Why I Wrote It

My first novel was published on July 5, 2005--twenty years and two days ago. This would’ve been a lot more poetic if I’d begun writing on Saturday instead of Monday, but it’s such a distant part of my past that I had to consult Amazon for the exact date of publication. Which I did just moments ago. Two days past perfect symmetry. Somehow, I’m always just a little late to the party. Which is probably why I’m here, deep in the year 2025, only now about to send my third novel into the world.

     Like many women of a certain age, I have been asked some version of, “So, I see there’s a gap in your resume. What’s that about?” And, like many women, my answer is, “fuck you.” Just kidding, my usual answer is much less aggressive: “I was a stay-at-home mom. You got a problem with that?”

Now, don’t worry, this is not about to be a multi-thousand-word screed on the joy and wonders of motherhood. I would never. First, because I hate those things. And second, because I drifted into stay-at-home motherhood the way one drifts into a rip current. I paddled out naively with no real plan or direction, then blissfully bobbed along with my face to the sun, completely oblivious as the shore ebbed to a narrow slice of beige on the horizon. In other words, it just, sort of, happened.

     That isn’t to say that I regret it, because I don’t. I only mention it because our lives are often marked by turning points like these. Choices are made, or not made. Each day we wake up and go to sleep, and in between things happen. At the time these little moments seem completely insignificant. Especially since the big ones are so easy to spot--marriage, the birth of a child, a big promotion, the publication of a novel. The little ones pale in comparison; often only becoming obvious turning points in hindsight. At the time, they’re just. . .life.

     Lucy Rollins, a main character in my novel One More Time, has had many of these small moments cast ripples through her life. Well into her forties at the time the story takes place, a chance encounter with a dynamic figure from her past forces Lucy to look back at where she’s been, and ahead to where she might steer her future.  

For Lucy, and indeed for the rest of us, I believe it’s never too late to course correct. No matter how stuck we feel, or how far from shore we’ve drifted, change is always possible. Unlike Lucy, my personal journey wasn’t the result of reconnecting with a handsome rock star from my past (much to my husband's relief). Instead, it was the pandemic and the surfeit of time I suddenly had on my hands. To read. To let my imagination wander. To reflect on where I’d been and what I wanted for my future. The result was that I started writing again.

First was a series of historical romances. Fast-paced, steamy romps that I wrote just to see if I could still do it. To flex my creaky old writing muscles and get into fighting shape. (Maybe someday, I’ll send those into the world, too.) When I felt ready, I developed this kernel of an idea I had about the legacy of a love song into Lucy and Nicky’s story.

I wrote One More Time when my kids were back to in-person school and I’d decided to try and make writing my fulltime job again. Every weekday between 9am and 2pm, I sat at the computer typing away. With sporadic bouts of staring off into the middle distance like a zombie, of course.

That’s how One More Time became both an exploration of how small moments can make imperceptible but important changes in our lives, and a tangible result of the big intentional shift springing from my own.

I would be elated if my story, or Lucy’s, were to give other women the courage to make their lives happier and more fulfilling. But honestly, the serious stuff is just the spine of both her story and mine. Because, while I started One More Time to make a change in my life, I kept going because it was fun. Plain and simple. So, my only hope for this turning point--some twenty-years in the making--is that readers find escape in the steam, humor, and thrill of it and enjoy Lucy and Nicky as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Emily S. Morris

July 7, 2025

www.emilywritesromance.com

One More Time (HQ/HarperCollins) will be released in eBook and audio in the US and UK on July 31, 2025. It will be available in print in the UK on July 31, 2025, and in the US June 2026.