1–What is the title of your latest release?
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
The runaway youngest child of a big, wealthy, dysfunctional family returns to their private island for a wedding and is forced to reckon with the family she left behind, the OCD that has plagued her since childhood, and a first love she thought long over.
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I based it on an area where my family spent a lot of time when I was growing up. It’s a part of Ontario that’s close to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful and magical places in the world. And I chose to set it on a remote island because it is a location the main character cannot escape—which is exactly how she feels about her own mind.
4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I already do! Eliot’s brain is my brain, and I’m forced to hang out with my brain all day long—for better or for worse.
5–What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Creative, afraid, loving
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Because I wrote this book over a two-and-a-half-year period, I learned more things about myself than I can list. I learned about how my brain works, how writing about that process can be healing for myself, and how much I love my own family.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I usually like to bang out a first draft, then go back and do edits. For me, the first draft is all about getting the story onto paper, no matter how bad it is. I love the process of going back in and doing surgery on the piece to make it finally shine.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
I looooove the peanut butter cup cookies from Insomnia. Oh, my goodness. I could eat them every night.
9–Describe your writing space/office!
I write in the guest bedroom of my husband and my apartment in Chicago. My desk is next to a set of bookshelves and is surrounded by candles and fake plants on all sides. The desk faces the window, which looks out over the El tracks. The tracks are so close to our apartment that the building rattles when a train rolls by.
10–Who is an author you admire?
Too many to name! Sally Rooney, Claire Daverley, Louise Erdrich, Melissa Broder… the list goes on.
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black made me become re-obsessed with fantasy and is the primary inspiration for the world in my next YA fantasy trilogy.
12–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.
I was at my parents’ house with my now-husband, Pontus, when the email landed in my inbox that Berkley wanted to publish GUY’S GIRL (my debut adult novel). I remember screaming and jumping up and down with Pontus, then sprinting up the stairs to find my mom, my hands shaking like crazy. When I told her the news, we danced around her bathroom together like little kids.
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
When I’m happy, I like reading fantasy and/or romance books filled with grand adventure. When I’m down, I like literary fiction that makes me bawl my eyes out.
14–What’s your favorite movie?
Either Pride and Prejudice (2005) or When Harry Met Sally.
15–What is your favorite season?
Autumn. There’s nothing better than the leaves changing in Chicago, a warm cup of coffee, and The Vampire Diaries on the television.
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
With my friends and family around the dinner table.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I absolutely love the podcast Seek Treatment with Catherine Cohen and Pat Regan. Two comedians talk about love and mental health in a very open, hilarious way. I put it on when I’m packing orders for TikTok Shop and laugh out loud in my apartment.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Japanese food. My older brother lived in Japan three separate times, and we visited him on each occasion. Japan was the first place I learned that vegetables could actually taste good, and I now crave udon, sushi, okonomiyaki, yakiniku, and everything in between at all hours of the day.
19–What do you do when you have free time?
Read, rollerblade, swim in Lake Michigan, cuddle with my dog, rewatch The Vampire Diaries
20–What can readers expect from you next?
The first book in my next YA fantasy trilogy, SOUL OF SHADOW, will release next July. It’s a fun, fantastical high school paranormal romance. Think football games, homecoming dances, and disappearing teenagers all set on a backdrop of Norse Mythology.
HOW TO HIDE IN PLAIN SIGHT by Emma Noyes
The unbreakable bonds of family and love are explored in this brilliant and tender story from the author of Guy’s Girl.
On the day she arrives in Canada for her older brother’s wedding, Eliot Beck hasn’t seen her family in three years. Eliot adores her big, wacky, dysfunctional collection of siblings and in-laws, but there’s a reason she fled to Manhattan and buried herself in her work—and she’s not ready to share it with anyone. Not when speaking it aloud could send her back into the never-ending cycle of the obsessive-compulsive disorder that consumed her for years.
Eliot thinks she’s prepared to survive the four-day-long wedding extravaganza—until she sees her best friend, Manuel, waiting for her at the marina and looking as handsome as ever. He was the person who, when they met as children, felt like finding the missing half of her soul. The person she tried so hard not to fall in love with… but did anyway.
Manuel’s presence at the wedding threatens to undo the walls Eliot has built around herself. The fortress that keeps her okay. If she isn’t careful, by the end of this wedding, the whole castle might come crumbling down.
Coming of Age | Romance [Penguin, On Sale: September 10, 2024, Mass Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593639023 / eISBN: 9780593639030]
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About Emma Noyes
Emma Noyes told her mother she wanted to be an author when she was six. She grew up in a suburb outside Chicago and attended Harvard University, where she studied history & literature. She started her career at a beer company, but left because she wanted to write about mermaids and witches—eventually publishing her first YA fantasy series, The Sunken City. She now lives in Chicago with her Swedish fiancé and miniature Pomeranian. GUY’S GIRL is her adult debut.
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