Queen of Beach Reads, Carley Fortune's Ideal Summer Day + Beach Read Recs

Carley Fortune, the bestselling author behind Every Summer After and Meet Me at the Lake, joined Olivia Ponton to talk about her ideal summer day, the psychology of a great beach read, and what makes a book impossible to put down. Fortune, who describes herself as a writer of "romance with depth," offered a calm, specific look at how she works, what she reads, and why certain stories hit differently when you're reading them by the water.

The Ideal Summer Day: Solitude First, Company Later

Fortune's picture of a perfect summer day is precise and revealing. She and her family recently bought a cottage on the same lake they have visited for years. Her ideal day starts alone. "I would get up, make coffee, I would go down to the dock in the morning with my coffee and I would write and write away. And I would write until I didn't want to write anymore." Then she would go for a walk or jog, swim, and read. Only at about 3:30 in the afternoon would her family show up. The kids go to bed, and then she and her husband have wine on the dock in the evening.