11 Quick Questions for Jennifer Weiner

New York Times best-selling author Jennifer Weiner’s latest novel may be titled The Summer Place — and be preceded by That Summer and Big Summer — but she shrugs off the “beach read” label. With more than 15 million copies of her books in print in 36 countries, “beach reads” or not, she clearly resonates with readers. She’s also a big fan of bicycling, using it to get around her hometown of Philadelphia and to get to almost all of the stops on a book tour.

When we last chatted you were working in a cloffice. Still there?

Simon & Schuster

Actually, during the pandemic my little house-updating project was turning the closet office into an actual tiny little office. They carved a little nook, so now I have even another door I can close, which is excellent, but, no, I’m still in the closet, still working in the closet.

I thought by now you’d have a proper office?

I always remember this story that Stephen King told in his book about writing [On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft], where he talked about becoming successful and buying this ginormous desk and having it up in the center of the room and then just ending up becoming addicted to various substances and being a total jerk to his family. Saying kind of like, “I had to organize my priorities so that it was a smaller desk in the corner of the room, and the big room went back to being a family room.”

So success hasn’t changed you?

Well, I’ve gotten very spoiled with nice hotels. I can tell you that, but I hope that I had good values going into this and that I continue to be a reasonable human being. I’m looking at my husband and thinking he’s going to roll his eyes at that, but so far no eye rolls. So that’s good.

Speaking of husbands, you’ve been divorced and remarried. Is this the fairy-tale ending of your books?

It’s interesting. It’s been a rough couple of years for me and everyone else on the planet. My mom died last spring, actually on Mother’s Day, which I give her a lot of credit for. I mean it was just like, Thanks for that, Fran. Even people who are lucky enough to love their jobs and love what they are doing and find some success doing it, you still have losses. You still have parents who get sick or who die.