What is the title of your latest release?
CHRISTMAS PEOPLE
What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When a woman who has totally lost her Christmas spirit begrudgingly visits her family for the holidays, she gets more than she bargained for when she wakes up to a version of her hometown that’s straight out of the too-cheery-for-their-own-good holiday movies that air on the Heartfelt Channel. To get back to reality, she needs to throw herself into the season, and into a love triangle featuring her smoldering ex, and her high school crush.
How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
Though I live in the Los Angeles area now, I’m originally from the south suburbs of Chicago, and I’ve made it my mission to see the place where I grew up on the page. Powell Park – the name of the town my main character Jill Jacobs hails from – is a fictional version of Oak Lawn, Illinois, my hometown. Jill eventually is trapped in a Heartfelt Channel (you know what Heartfelt is a stand-in for) iteration of Powell Park, which was a choice I made because so many Christmas movies are either set in a big city, or in a charming and idyllic small town. But since so many readers are like me and spend their time in the kind of places that will rarely if ever see itself on screen, I loved the idea of Heartfelt-ing up a totally average but ultimately loveable place.
Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I would! Jill, my lead, has been a bit polarizing with early readers – some people love her, and some people find her too cynical and negative. Which makes her even more lovable to me; I adore someone who’s a little rough around the edges.
Personally, I think she’s got a witty take on her own failings, and – while she may be Scrooge-like — I also understand how the holidays can make a person feel extra-down on themselves. When you’re surrounded by reminders to enjoy the season and make it unforgettable but you’re at a kind of low place in your life, you feel so much pressure to either fake your way through it or feel like you’re the coal in everyone’s spirit stocking. Even though I’m in a very good place in life, I still am stressed out when the holidays roll around – I’d love to meet Jill for a strong drink and a laugh at the season’s excess.
What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Messy. Sarcastic. Prideful.
What’s something you learned while writing this book?
That if writing doesn’t work out, I could pursue a consultancy role developing new hot cocoa variations for coffee shops and cafes. I loved inventing some of the drinks at the book’s Lotta Love Pub.
Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
Almost every time I open my document, I at the very least read through the last few pages I wrote and refine whatever’s there. That’s because I usually end my writing sessions by quickly vomiting out several lines of dialogue or a couple paragraphs as a means of not losing an idea I want to get down. This also pays off because having something to fix the next day gives me somewhere to start. And, throughout the drafting process – and this is partly out of necessity because sometimes life gets so busy I may go a few days without opening my manuscript – I start reading from the beginning and, as I do, I fix things up. But in terms of larger edits where I’m moving whole chunks of the book around or deleting pieces that aren’t working? I do that once the draft is done.
What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
There’s nothing I hate more than a heavily hyped and expensive restaurant that is all style, no substance. That said, every penny I’ve spent at Mother Wolf in Hollywood has been well worth it. They serve Roman-style Italian food and nothing on the menu has disappointed – get the squash blossoms and a negroni! However, while that’s high end, I’m very much a high-low person, and my favorite smell in all existence is when you walk out of a sporting event or concert and a cavalcade of street vendors pushing red wagons has L.A. hot dogs snapping over Sterno can flames (an L.A. dog is bacon wrapped, and served with grilled peppers, onions, and mayo); one of those hot dogs will change your life. If there’s a heaven, I imagine your nose is greeted by the smell of hundreds of those hot dogs cooking.
Describe your writing space/office!
It’s aspirational/non-aspirational. My office is proof that you don’t need a photogenic writing space to get started, or to finish for that matter. I’ve worked on my books all over the place – at the kitchen table or counter, in library study carrels, coffeeshops, and so on — but now my most permanent spot is this tiny alley of a room attached to our garage. It’s mostly storage space and one step above a set from a true crime documentary. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter and there is not enough room to lean back in my desk chair but it’s all mine, and I’ve written a lot of books there!
Who is an author you admire?
I admire all of us, for real. While writing isn’t always hard, the process of seeing a book to completion is. The rounds of changes required to get to publication are a feat of endurance. You know how some movie stars say they can’t watch themselves onscreen? Well, authors have no choice but to reread their books what feels like a thousand times before they ever are bound into books.
But if I have to name names, or because I want to name some, I have two. Judy Blume, partly because she was the first author I read as a tween or teen where I truly thought that the books weren’t stories of idealized kids and teens but real kids and teens (like, I loved The Baby Sitters Club but those girls weren’t as messy as a Blume heroine; I love messy). I also recently watched the documentary Judy Blume Forever and had no idea what a larger-than-life figure she was – not only for deciding to write because being a homemaker wasn’t giving her an outlet for her creative energy but also later on, when she sounded off as a fierce advocate against censorship and for letting kids read what they want. My second admired author is Toni Morrison. She wrote a New Yorker essay about something her dad said to her, when she was young and paid to clean a woman’s house (the woman, noting that Morrison was a good worker, kept adding tasks while keeping her pay the same), “Listen. You don’t live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home.” While that was about her childhood, she spoke a lot about doing her work while raising her children…and that’s who I admire: writers like her who pride themselves on filling a bigger role in someone’s life than as a writer. Writers who know who their home is with, whether that’s with blood relations, or their friends and neighbors. I admire the writers who get the work done in the cracks of their regular life, their full-time jobs, the raising of kids and caring for family. You read about someone like Charles Dickens whose routine was writing from nine to two every day – somewhere I think I even read that his wife would deliver a lunch to his office, but otherwise the door was closed — and then taking a three-hour leisurely stroll, and while it surely worked for him, it’s harder to admire the writer whose life conforms so perfectly to the work. Give me someone whose days might be bursting at the seams but who still find time to make art. Give me someone whose love for their family and community is huge and unassailable, and yet they still have love left for their creative endeavors. Those are the people I hold high in my esteem.
Is there a book that changed your life?
Ha, there are dozens of books I admire but in terms of what changed my life and maybe told me that I could pursue writing as a career? It was definitely, somewhere along the line, a not very good book that made me think, “Hey, if this could get published, why can’t I?”
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’m going to go with the call for this particular book because it’s my first adult novel. The pages had gone out to a few editors who were into them but, on both my side and theirs, there was a sense of it not being quite the right fit. But when Eileen Rothschild at St. Martin’s read them, she responded with so much enthusiasm and spark that I just knew (I know, it sounds like a romance novel). We spoke over Zoom not long after she read the pages and it was totally thrilling to go back and forth with her on the story, on other books we liked, and what we love about romance. I really believe you need to have great chemistry with your editor, and I’m so lucky to have that.
What’s your favorite genre to read?
You can’t ask a Gemini (Cancer cusp) this! My appetite is way too expansive to narrow myself down. I love a good story in any genre; what’s most important to me is linking up with a character with a point of view that intrigues me. I don’t have to like them as people, necessarily; I just have to have my curiosity piqued, and I will follow a character anywhere, in any genre.
What’s your favorite movie?
I have a lot of favorites but my favorite to recommend because it’s one not everyone has seen is Better Off Dead. It’s a dark comedy starring John Cusack, and it’s weird and irreverent but it has heart and triumph at its core. It’s also set around Christmastime, so it’s a great watch if you want an irreverent palate cleanser after binging a bunch of Hallmark movies.
What is your favorite season?
I love dressing for fall so in L.A.; I get about a six-week window in January and February to pretend its October in New York. I know, it’s complicated.
How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I’m lucky enough to share my birthday with the summer solstice so I already get the most sunshine of any day in the year. That being the case, it feels like a special occasion no matter what. But as for a specific celebration, the truth is, I love a day off from making a lot of decisions, and my husband and sons always plan something great and indulgent for me. Aside from the sunshine and special treats, I tend to spend my birthday doing the kinds of things I enjoy on any other day – reading, writing, sipping coffee in the morning, having a cold beer in the afternoon, maybe going to my boxing gym. I take it as proof that I’m doing my life right that the things I enjoy on a special occasion are also the ones that I get to do all the time.
What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I love the Critics at Large podcast from the New Yorker. The three critics, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz, are having a good time, and it’s like getting a seat at the coolest lunch table. It should be said that I’m an extremely finicky podcast listener. If I tune in, I normally want something like You Must Remember This, where the research Karina Longworth does is so detailed, I feel like I’m getting a college course. The critics of the New Yorker are doing an opinion-centric, conversational podcast, which is normally not my bag. But they are all so smart, and so able to make connections – tying together works of art across mediums and time spans and creators – that I always feel so much more intelligent after I listen. The fact that the trio has amazing chemistry and are so quick-witted and funny on top of it… well, I feel like I should have sold you on this show by now! (It’s also a tight 45 minutes or so, and lives up to the good advice of leaving you wanting more!)
What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I’m going to be annoying and say I don’t really have one in particular. I consider myself so very lucky to live in Los Angeles, where I can satisfy almost every culinary whim that crosses my tastebuds. (Though, I will say that I deeply miss Chicago-style thin crust pizza, particularly from my hometown of Oak Lawn. Palermo’s, you made me who I am today.)
What song will automatically put you in a good mood?
So many, so many! But I can’t go wrong with “Barracuda” by Heart – I swear it makes me run faster, jump higher, and if I had a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda, and that song came on the radio, I have no doubt I could perfectly execute a cliff jump in that car.
What can readers expect from you next?
Another rom-com with a magical realism bent and maybe set at a holiday… but I resolve (wink wink) not to say which one.
CHRISTMAS PEOPLE by Iva-Marie Palmer
A Novel
Some people are Christmas people, but Jill Jacobs is most certainly not. She hasn’t been ever since her hometown love broke her heart on Christmas Eve three years ago. After that, Jill moved to L.A. to pursue her dream of becoming a screenwriter. She hasn’t been home in years to avoid her ex, but this winter she finds herself back in drab, suburban Illinois for the holidays.
After one very hazy night, Jill wakes up to a hometown that’s filled with jolly neighbors, covered in pristine white snow, and seasoned with the smell of peppermint. She realizes that this is more than just a bad hangover… she’s stuck in a Heartfelt movie. One set in her town, starring real people from her life, including her family, her high school crush (uber perfect, owns a bakery, and definitely a Christmas Person), and of course, her ex —handsome as ever and now exclusively clad in plaid flannel.
The only way out of this bizarro world is to complete the plot of the movie, including a holiday bake off and a cookie-sweet love story. To get home in time for Christmas, Jill must act out a picture-perfect holiday romance with the one that got away, all while her ex watches on. Fa la la la freaking la….
Romance Fantasy | Romance Holiday [St. Martin’s Griffin, On Sale: September 30, 2025, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781250396150 / eISBN: 9781250396167]
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About Iva-Marie Palmer
Despite being born on the first day of summer long before too much sun was considered bad for you, Iva-Marie Palmer possesses no capacity to achieve a decent tan (or its cousin, the sun-kissed glow). Still, she relocated from her native Chicago to sunny southern California nearly ten years ago and only regrets the choice on the rare occasions when she forgets to apply sunscreen. A former journalist who oversubscribes to periodicals, she loves books, running, cooking and eating elaborate meals, classic screwball comedies, food sold off carts and trucks, old movie palaces, word games and crossword puzzles, adventures large and small, indulging her curiosity and overextending herself. She lives with her husband, two sons and a seeming inability to take her sunglasses off her head when indoors.
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