Yahoo Lifestyle Author Nora Dahlia On How A Big Sister Can Change Your Life
New author Nora Dahlia tells how a big sister can change your life. Dahlia was chatting with other parents outside school when the idea for her first Romance novel Pick-up came in a flash.
“I was standing outside after drop off with a crowd of parent friends talking about how our school doesn't have enough salacious gossip,” says Dahlia. “I literally said to them, ‘I'm going to write a rom com about so-called pick up.’ So it's true that it was inspired by a real moment and a real place, but the actual plot definitely is not reflective of my actual life.”
Or your friends?
“Or my friends,” laughs Dahlia. “Yes, that's awesome. Give them cover as well.”
An established journalist, Dahlia has also published books under other names, ghostwritten works, collaborated behind the scenes and served as a book doctor. But Pick-up is her debut romance novel and already garnering praise and best-seller buzz.
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Our hero is Sasha, a single mom with a jerky ex, struggling to balance family needs with the unpredictable life of a freelance writer. And she does not have time for a dad who snags the last slot Sasha promised one of her kids. And the last hoodie in the right size. And is just annoying (and annoyingly handsome) in every possible way.
So of course family and work life collide when Sasha snags a make or break opportunity with a magazine…only to find Annoying Dad is kind of almost her new boss? Toss in judgemental moms giving Sasha the side eye, a disastrous turn at cotton candy duty and a dream-come-true work trip to a gorgeous island paradise, with Annoying Day turning into Tempting Dad and Really Bad Idea Dad. Sasha soon longs for the day when being a few minutes late for pick-up was her biggest hurdle of the day.
Publishers Weekly calls Pick-up “a pitch perfect rom com.” And Dahlia reached this moment thanks to her family.
Author Nora Dahlia On How A Big Sister Can Change Your Life
Courtesy of Gallery Books; author photo Rich Wade, copyright 2024, all rights reserved
Pick-up by Nora Dahlia ($18.99; Gallery Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Growing up, Nora’s big sister was reading the gothic tales of V.C. Andrews. In minor rebellion, Dahlia reached for Jude Devereaux and Guaranteed Happy Endings. And she couldn’t get enough.
“There were a couple summers where I went on these intense road trips with my parents,” says Dahlia, whose sister had gone to college by this point. “It was just me and my parents, and we drove all the way from New York to New Mexico and then stayed for a week or two, and then, I guess, flew back. And on those trips, I was heavily, heavily reading, and there was a lot of Jude Devereux but also Christopher Pike, those kinds of books, sort of the Go Ask Alice of it all. I was finding them wherever I could, in any bookstore I could. I do remember the elation of discovering one I hadn't read and getting to buy it.”
Her sister wasn’t done with Nora yet, turning her on to Joan Didion at the right time, offering as good a role model for a writer as anyone could ask. “My sister and I were always extremely close,” says Dahlia. “As I went out into the world, I discovered that we were actually much more similar than I thought, but we were always told we were opposites. She's early to everything [meaning authors and music and the like]. I'm late to everything.”
Nowadays, Dahlia is right on time. She counts established authors as her friends, sees her first Romance novel hitting bookshelves and is delighted to share some of the writers that move her.
Courtesy of Back Bay Books, Penguin Books
LESS IS LOST by Andrew Sean Greer
IN THE WOODS by Tana French
Nora Dahlia avoids reading books of fiction when writing her own novels. But she will read favorite passages to stoke the creative fires.
“Andrew Greer!” says Dahlia when asked to name a favorite current author. “Oh, Less. And you know he wrote a sequel? I just really love his writing. I find it to be so heart tugging and funny and I don't know, I just really, really love it. So I was definitely re-reading portions of Less Is Lost while I was writing. And there's a passage at the very beginning of Tana French’s In The Woods. It's the prologue! It's just the prologue and it is so gorgeous that I re-read that pretty regularly. I just re-read Franny and Zooey and J.D. Salinger is always huge for me.”
Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer ($17.99; Back Bay Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
In The Woods by Tana French ($19; Penguin Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Penguin Classics
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE by Jane Austen
“Both [of my parents] read to me, but my mom particularly liked to read me,” remembers Dahlia. “To the point where long after I read to myself, she still read with me. She read me Dorothy Sayers’ mysteries. And actually, this is probably really at the heart of it, because this is the foundation for all things romance, right? She and I read together Pride and Prejudice. And that was game changing for me. I loved it so much. I sat up next to her on her bed with our backs against the pillows and she read to me. I was about 10.”
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ($5.99; Penguin Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
SLOUCHING TOWARDS BETHLEHEM: ESSAYS by Joan Didion
“I read Joan Didion kind of early? Because I had this big sister who was obsessed with writing and reading. She passed Joan Didion to me early, and I became obsessed with Slouching Towards Bethlehem. You could definitely argue that that was part of it.”
And of course, Joan Didion is essential for everyone.
“I've certainly given a lot of people Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” says Dahlia. “I've definitely done that a lot. If I meet someone and I find out they haven't read it, I basically give it to them.”
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays by Joan Didion ($18; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
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Courtesy of Harper Perennial
TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett, read by Meryl Streep
Dahlia never read two books at once. But now, with audiobooks, she is astonished to find herself reading one book in print and listening to another book while out in the world.
“Can I proselytize about this?” asks Dahlia. “Listening to Meryl Streep read Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake was like a religion,” says Dahlia. “Everybody has to listen to this and walk around Prospect Park. It was the most wonderful thing. I listened to it as spring was beginning to bloom and it was such a beautiful experience.”
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett ($19; Harper Perennial) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Little, Brown and Company; Mariner Book Classics
RAISE HIGH THE ROOF BEAM, CARPENTERS AND SEYMOUR: AN INTRODUCTION by J.D. Salinger
A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving
When asked the best book she ever got as a gift, Dahlia immediately thinks of two.
“This is my debut romance,” says Dahlia, “but I have written other books under other names and my other, my real name, right? So years ago, I was having a bad day. It was a reading I did for a book, and basically no one showed up.”
Which is a rite of passage for most authors.
“Oh, of course, absolutely. It's a bad feeling, but it's just what happens. And my parents came!”
Which made it worse?
“Well, exactly,” laughs Dahlia. “There was one [other] person there or something and so I had to actually do it, which was bad. It would have been better if I just went home. Before the event started, before we realized it was going to go that way, before I realized it was going to be kind of a bad day, I happened upon a first edition of Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters, which is actually my favorite J.D. Salinger story. I was fawning over it and then got distracted and realized I was going to do this thing for three people. [Afterwards] my father said, ‘I'll be one second,’ and my father met us outside, and he came out with a paper bag, and he pulled out the first edition, and he had bought it for me; compensation for my bad day. So that's probably the best book I've gotten as a gift. I have that, and I love it.
“The other is that a dear friend of mine–one of my best friends from growing up–died in 2017," said Dahlia. "He was a really big reader and he had introduced me to John Irving. When his family was figuring out what they were going to give people of his things, the one I asked for was a first edition of A Prayer for Owen Meany that he had. So I have that as well. And those two [books] are very special. Absolutely.”
Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger ($9.99; Little, Brown and Company) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving ($19.99; Mariner Book Classics) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
Pick-up by Nora Dahlia ($18.99; Gallery Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org
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