07.42: These Summer Storms

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fated Mates - Episode 07.42: "These Summer Storms"

Release Date: July 6, 2025
Hosts: Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop
Guests: Jen Prokop (Author of These Summer Storms)

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Introduction

The episode kicks off with Sarah MacLean and Jen Prokop engaging in their characteristic lighthearted banter, reflecting on road trips and upcoming events. They briefly discuss personal trips and announce Jen's book release week, setting a relaxed and conversational tone for the episode.

Discussion of These Summer Storms

Plot Overview

Jen Prokop delves into the intricate plot of her book, These Summer Storms. She describes it as a contemporary family drama that diverges from her usual romance novels. The story revolves around the Storm family, whose patriarch, Franklin Storm, a billionaire, dies unexpectedly in a gliding accident. This tragic event summons all his children back to their private island off the coast of Rhode Island for the funeral.

Jen Prokop [07:07]: "It is about a dysfunctional family, the children of a billionaire who return home to a private island off the coast of Rhode Island in the wake of their father's death."

Upon their arrival, the siblings discover that their father has orchestrated an inheritance game, compelling them to complete specific tasks to activate their inheritance. The plot thickens when Jen reveals a personal twist—Alice, the protagonist and estranged third child, realizes that her one-night stand before arriving home was with the man responsible for the inheritance game.

Jen Prokop [07:43]: "Alice accidentally had a one night stand on the way to the house, and that turns out to be with the man running the inheritance game."

This connection adds layers of complexity, intertwining family dynamics with unexpected romantic entanglements.

Themes and Insights

1. Family Dynamics and Sibling Relationships

Jen emphasizes the exploration of sibling relationships within the family, moving beyond typical portrayals of harmonious sibling bonds often seen in media.

Jen Prokop [09:22]: "I think families do think of secrets as currency. They're bundled with power."

She discusses how her book sheds light on the often underrepresented tension and rivalry among siblings, especially within the context of an affluent family grappling with the loss of the family patriarch.

2. Secrets and Truths

A significant theme in the book is the nature of secrets within a family and how they shape individual identities and relationships.

Sarah MacLean [16:05]: "I think families do think of secrets as currency. They're bundled with power."

Jen reflects on how secrets act as both shields and weapons within the family, affecting trust and absolution among the siblings.

3. Inheritance and Power Structures

The inheritance game serves as a metaphor for the distribution of power and legacy within the family, forcing each sibling to confront their reliance on family wealth and status.

Jen Prokop [12:04]: "The plot of this book is... an inheritance game for them all. They have tasks to complete to activate the inheritance."

4. Isolation vs. Connection

Through the setting of a private island, the narrative explores themes of isolation, both physical and emotional, and the struggle to reconnect with estranged family members.

Jen Prokop [23:49]: "I wanted you to feel like the crisp ocean and the kind of mystery of the island... that sense of Rhode Island."

Character Development

Alice Storm (Protagonist):

Alice is portrayed as an independent and estranged daughter who has been exiled from her family for five years. Her return is marked by reluctance, intention to remain just for the funeral, and a deep-seated desire to distance herself from her oppressive family dynamics.

Sarah MacLean [09:11]: "Alice has to stay for the inheritance game, even though she really doesn't want anything to do with it."

Elizabeth Storm (Mother):

Elizabeth embodies the quintessential New England matriarch—stoic, emotionally restrained, and deeply entrenched in old money traditions. Her character represents the unyielding facade that hides her internal struggles, making her interactions with her children fraught with tension.

Jen Prokop [33:32]: "Elizabeth feels lots of feelings but would never dream of admitting it."

Jack (Inheritance Game Manager):

Jack is introduced as an enigmatic figure connected to Alice's past, serving as the orchestrator of the inheritance game. His outsider status and mysterious demeanor add suspense and ambiguity to his role, blurring lines between antagonist and potential ally.

Sarah MacLean [38:11]: "He stayed kind of man on the hill instead of being down in the muck with them which makes it like, it makes it not a romance."

World-Building

Jen discusses the meticulous world-building in These Summer Storms, emphasizing the setting's role in shaping the narrative.

Jen Prokop [23:49]: "I wanted you to feel like the crisp ocean and the kind of mystery of the island, the sense of Rhode Island."

The private island serves as both a physical and symbolic space where the family's power structures are displayed and challenged. The historical backdrop of Rhode Island's old money and secluded islands adds depth and authenticity to the story.

Integration of Personal Experience

Jen draws from her own upbringing in Rhode Island, infusing the locale with personal memories and nuanced details to create an immersive setting.

Jen Prokop [24:51]: "I grew up in New England, and so for me, this particular location... this kind of summer in Rhode Island has a real vibe to it."

Writing Process and Challenges

Jen shares her journey of writing These Summer Storms, highlighting the challenges of transitioning from romance to contemporary family drama.

1. Evolution of the Story:

Originally, Jen intended to focus solely on the strained relationship between a daughter and her father. However, as the narrative developed, sibling dynamics took center stage, leading to a more complex and multifaceted story.

Jen Prokop [09:39]: "I started this book really fascinated by secrets... but ended up writing about siblings."

2. Revision and Refinement:

The book underwent extensive revisions to balance the plot's progression with deep character exploration. Jen credits her background in romance writing for her ability to craft nuanced characters with emotional depth.

Jen Prokop [52:18]: "This book took more revision than usual... because I was figuring out what I was doing."

3. Genre Blending:

Jen reflects on incorporating elements of romance into a non-romantic narrative, ultimately deciding to embrace a hybrid approach that maintains the emotional intensity of romance while exploring broader themes.

Jen Prokop [53:24]: "I never want to not be writing romance... because I love two people just messing together."

"Get Booked" Segment

In this interactive segment, Jennifer answers questions sourced from listeners, offering a glimpse into her personal reading preferences and inspirations.

1. Favorite Books and Influences:

Jen names Dreaming of You as the book that has significantly impacted her, attributing it to its profound influence on her understanding of family and personal relationships.

Jen Prokop [71:32]: "Dreaming of you changed my life. It changed my perspective on relationships."

2. Ideal Reading Experience:

She describes her perfect reading setting as a tranquil environment without external pressures, often enjoying books outdoors or in cozy indoor settings.

Jen Prokop [62:09]: "Summer, I think the best reading experience is when you have no pressure... like having nothing to worry about."

3. Literary Dinner Party Guests:

Jen expresses her desire to invite writers like Madeline Miller and Edith Wharton, highlighting her admiration for their storytelling prowess and contributions to literature.

Jen Prokop [73:29]: "I want her to come and talk to me about myth, obviously. I couldn't have Edith Wharton to dinner and not have Adriana to dinner with us."

Conclusion

The episode wraps up with Sarah and Jen encouraging listeners to purchase Jen's book and leave reviews to support her work. They reiterate the themes and emotional depth of These Summer Storms, emphasizing its departure from traditional romance while retaining the genre's insightful character development.

Jen Prokop [77:14]: "You can get it right now wherever you get your books—print, ebook, audiobook."

Final Thoughts

This episode of Fated Mates offers an engaging exploration of Jen Prokop's These Summer Storms, blending discussions of intricate family dynamics, personal growth, and the blending of literary genres. Listeners gain insight into Jen's creative process, the challenges of expanding beyond romance, and the deep themes that drive her latest work.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

1. On Sibling Dynamics and Family Secrets:

   • "I think families do think of secrets as currency. They're bundled with power."
     — Jen Prokop [16:44]

2. On Character Development Inspired by Romance:

   • "Every character is the hero or heroine of their own story."
     — Jen Prokop [20:04]

3. On World-Building and Setting:

   • "I wanted you to feel like the crisp ocean and the kind of mystery of the island, the sense of Rhode Island."
     — Jen Prokop [23:49]

4. On Writing Challenges:

   • "This book took more revision than usual... because I was figuring out what I was doing."
     — Jen Prokop [52:18]

5. On Blending Genres:

   • "I never want to not be writing romance... because I love two people just messing together."
     — Jen Prokop [53:24]

6. On Favorite Book Impact:

   • "Dreaming of you changed my life. It changed my perspective on relationships."
     — Jen Prokop [71:32]

7. On Ideal Reading Experience:

   • "Summer, I think the best reading experience is when you have no pressure... like having nothing to worry about."
     — Jen Prokop [62:09]

8. On Literary Influences:

   • "I want her to come and talk to me about myth, obviously. I couldn't have Edith Wharton to dinner and not have Adriana to dinner with us."
     — Jen Prokop [73:29]

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Thank you for tuning into "Fated Mates." Stay connected and keep the romance alive!

Transcript

[Sarah McLean]

It's happening. It's happening. Or it happened yesterday.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It happened. We're recording this in the past, everyone. But I should be in a car with Jen and Kate Claiborne going to Chicago right now.

[Sarah McLean]

And Kristen.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, maybe not right now. Oh, and Kristen. And our friend Kristen.

[Sarah McLean]

We are road tripping across the great and flat state of Illinois, which I anticipate will be fun for everybody.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Listen, I am definitely saying, look, the world's biggest ball of twine. And Kate is definitely saying, Sarah.

[Sarah McLean]

So driving through Illinois from St. Louis to Chicago is very flat. It's very flat.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Are there cool things?

[Sarah McLean]

Corn?

[Jennifer Prokop]

I like corn.

[Sarah McLean]

It is delicious, but it's not ready yet.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Will there be, like, roadside stands? Can I buy a pie? Everyone, we're going to report in on what we stop and do.

[Sarah McLean]

Well, because it's like different people have different road trip protocol.

[Jennifer Prokop]

For sure. The Kristen Kate contingent is going to be very fussy about me getting to Chicago on time.

[Sarah McLean]

Well, I feel that that will be my major goal too. But you know what? I do like to drive fast. And it's gonna. It's very flat. There's not really a lot of impediments in our way. Knock on wood. So. So, yeah, I don't really see us stopping at a roadside stand, I'll be honest with you.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, we'll see. July 9th, it's. It's my release week. Jen, we have to do it.

[Sarah McLean]

Whatever Sarah wants. Kristen's gonna be like, you mean getting her to Chicago on time?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Tonight, July 9th, I will be in Chicago with Veronica Roth. That'll be fun.

[Sarah McLean]

And me and my co workers in the audience and Mr. Reed's romance and maybe a little romance. Who. This is funny.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So I hope so.

[Sarah McLean]

On the discord, someone's like, are you gonna stop? It was my friend Elsa. Are you gonna stop calling him a little romance now that he's graduated from college? And I was like, well, I don't know. That seems awkward. It is a little birth certificate. It is not. And then someone said, I think it was Kelly baby said, well, you could call him Rome, which is like a very classic romance name. And I was like, okay, that is really funny.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I like it.

[Sarah McLean]

So. So we'll see. We'll see. We'll see how it goes.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I don't know, though. I feel like he's always a little.

[Sarah McLean]

Romance to us, and he is younger than us, so it's fine.

[Jennifer Prokop]

True. It's true. And then I just want to finish out the week on Thursday. I'm in Winston Salem North Carolina, with Renee Adia, who also wrote a dysfunctional wealthy family book this year called Park Avenue. And then on Monday of next week, I'm in Newport, Rhode island, at, like, this swanky place drinking champagne with you guys, which is nice. In conversation with Kylie McCullough, who is on Million Dollar Listing and is now a, like, swanky real estate person in Rhode island and the founder of the Newport Ladies Book Club. And then on the 15th, I'm in Cambridge. That's next Tuesday, I'm in Cambridge, Massachusetts with Adriana Herrera. And then I'm just going to do the whole tour now. And then on Wednesday the 16th, I'm in Decatur, Georgia with Mary Kay Andrews at Eagle Eye Books. And that I'm just so excited. I'm buying everyone gifts for your holiday. Gifts are all sorted. Just sign. I'm going to have Mary Kay just like write angrily on in all of them. She's the coolest. And then on the 17th, I'm in Franklin, Indiana, in conversation with Rebecca Bellman from the Lily Library at the Sycamore at Mallow Run. But this thing is called, like grown up summer camp. Summer camp for grownups. Anyway, you can find all of this information@Sarah McLean.net tour or fademates.net live. But you all miss live. It was last night, but it was great. I'm sure.

[Sarah McLean]

I'm sure it was awesome. It always amazing.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I already know what book I'm going to recount. Oh, in an official. Well, because I feel like I always do recount a book, but I'm prep. I've prepped. I found one. It's very. Headphones in.

[Sarah McLean]

Ooh. Okay. That's exciting. All right. We don't know what it is because it's a secret. So we hope that you all had a great time if you were there. For those of you that weren't, I. We have had a tough time typically getting audio out of these events, despite our best intentions. So I don't think it's going to happen this time.

[Jennifer Prokop]

You know, it feels that way, but it's only been one that we haven't been able to do, apparently. Okay, well, and I. I have been given. Eric is not going with us to fademates Live, but I haven't given instructions. So we'll see if we can make it happen.

[Sarah McLean]

So we'll see. You know, you never know. We'll just keep your fingers crossed, everybody.

[Jennifer Prokop]

In which case that'll be released during our hiatus at the beginning of September.

[Sarah McLean]

Yes. Okay. So welcome, everyone.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, welcome, everyone, to Fate of Mates I read romance novels and I write them. And I wrote one that's out this week.

[Sarah McLean]

That's. And I'm Jennifer Pro gup romance reader and critic and editor. But this week, what we are doing is talking about these summer storms. As always, she's my hype woman. I am your hype woman. I'm a one woman hype woman. I guess that makes sense. Anyway, I have some questions. I did also see if there's some questions from the Discord. This is a spoiler free, you know, one of the. It's worth saying, right? Like, oh, you know, spoiler free.

[Jennifer Prokop]

We're going to be talking about the book.

[Sarah McLean]

We're gonna talk about some of the cool stuff in it, how Sarah wrote it. I have some fun questions I pulled at the end for like, from like the get booked that at New York Times column where they ask readers questions. I found some really fun ones that I thought might be a really fun way to end, like inside the Actor Studio, but books for Sarah. And so that's the whole thing today is we're just gonna be talking about these summer storms. But if you haven't read it yet or you are, you know, in your car listening right now to Julia Whalen or you the beginning of the audio last week, all those really cool things.

[Jennifer Prokop]

But you can listen to this without.

[Sarah McLean]

Getting spoiled, I promise. So that's my pledge to you.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I hope you're in the car with Julia Whelan. I would like to be in the car listening to Julia Whelan do this. I'm so excited. It's the only one of my books that I intend to listen to.

[Sarah McLean]

I am really excited. She is a great narrator. So that is really, really fun. So. And hopefully you listened to that episode with her last week, which I just thought was really fascinating. So what we are doing this week is just really diving into these summer storms. So, Sarah, you're gonna have to do all the talking. I know Sarah. Listen, the irony of this is Sarah hates talking about her books. Guess what? She's not in charge right now. I am. And she's gonna do what I tell her to do. So we're gonna start off, Sarah, by having you tell us about the plots. Oh, God.

[Jennifer Prokop]

The hardest question, everyone. I wrote a book. It's called these Summer Storms. It is. I've been telling everybody it's not a romance. And we will probably get to that conversation because it is the. A plot of this book is. It is about a dysfunctional family, the children of a billionaire who return home to a Private island off the coast of Rhode island, which is where I grew up. In the wake of their father's death, he is in a freak gliding accident. A real like rich person death.

[Sarah McLean]

Yes.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And all his children are summoned home to the island. The protagonist of the book is Alice, who is the estranged third child, this middle daughter of this family. And Alice has been exiled from the family by her father. And this is her first time home in five years. And when they get there, she is sort of intending to stay just until the funeral. Like she's just gonna like see it through and then be done with it. But she discovers that her father has left an inheritance game for them all. So they have all been left a task they have to complete or several tasks that they have to complete in order to activate the inheritance. The problem is that Alice accidentally had a one night stand on the way whoops. To the house. And the one night stand turns out to be with the man who is running the inheritance game. So there's a lot of like chaotic panic and also I think like sibling rivalry and dysfunctional family tension and terrible rich people. And it's just a book that really felt like something I wanted to write that really like expanded and stretched what I would ordinary what I love in, in all the books that I've written.

[Sarah McLean]

And it's contemporary, this is essentially a big family drama and a lot of the most powerful relationships are between the siblings.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah.

[Sarah McLean]

So why is that so productive? I mean like, right, we have lots of great novels, right, Like Anna Karenina. Right. Like every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. So why was this so what you were drawn to when you thought about writing your first kind of non romance?

[Jennifer Prokop]

I didn't originally expect it to be about siblings. I thought it was going to be about a daughter returning home after exile to reckon with the fact that she would never be able to fully understand her father. Like what went on with her father. We know this from like it feels like all media loves father. That sort of like fraught relationship with fathers. And I thought that's what I was going to write. In part I thought that was what is going to write because I had lost my dad several years before this book kind of came to me. But I was, I've been really interested and I am really interested in like the questions that you are left with that you cannot get answers to. Like you'll find a piece of information about a parent and think I wish I knew, I wish I understood that or knew more. And you just can't. You can't get the answer. So I thought that was what I was going to write. And then I ended up writing a book about siblings. And I think I did that because I feel like siblings are a really fascinating relationship. I think we don't actually give siblings as much attention in media as we should. And in part, that's because I think there's this, like, mythology of, like, the media loves to show us siblings who love each other, right? Like sisters who, like, live next door to each other and who, like, you know, walk into each other's houses and, like, claim each other, like, have space with each other all the time. And I think, like, that's not as common as media tells us. And so I really ended up writing, like, this family of these characters who have had to reckon with their own place in this, like, family dynamic with this, like, massive, powerful figure above them. And then also, when you lose a character from your family who is that powerful, the vacuum that is left ends up kind of throwing all personalities into stark relief. So. So, you know, I thought a lot about. So I didn't know I was writing about siblings until probably three quarters of the way through the book.

[Sarah McLean]

Oh, interesting.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And then I was like, oh, shit. Like, this is about siblings. And now, like I said, the protagonist is Alice, and so you see the whole family through her eyes. But there are three chapters, each one in the point of view from each of the siblings, and those came in the revision because I was like, it's important that we see this plot, right? Like, who will win the inheritance?

[Sarah McLean]

Alice has to stay for the inheritance game, even though she really doesn't want anything to do with it. So it's also really interesting for why, like, what's driving each of them to sort of continue on, right?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Because Alice has survived without the money.

[Sarah McLean]

And the name and the family support and the name, right?

[Jennifer Prokop]

And so she's like, her response to this inheritance game is like, well, fuck this. Like, I don't need you people.

[Sarah McLean]

That's simply not my business.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And I mean, I wish it were. Like, I think she wishes it were. It's simply not my business. I think for her, it's, like, really fraught, right? And she's like, you guys, you know? But then the other siblings have never left, and, like, why have they never left? And what has the family done to them by virtue of keeping them.

[Sarah McLean]

Keeping them in check, right?

[Jennifer Prokop]

And everybody has a secret. Like, there are lots of secrets and lots of sort of revelations through the book. It's a really, I think, insular book in a way that my books are usually like, there's usually like a big external thing happening, and this book is really about like five people trying to figure their shit out.

[Sarah McLean]

This week's episode of Fated Mates is brought to you by Kylie Scott, author of Wildflowers An End of the World Romance.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, here we are. I guess there's only one person Dean Wallace wants to save from the end of the world, and that is the sunshine girl who lives across the street and who is always smiling at him. Dean is extraordinarily grumpy and doesn't like the rest of the neighborhood. And he's sort of thinking, well, I. I'm concerned about this deadly virus that is threatening all of civilization, and she seems to not be that worried about it. So. So I'm going to take matters into my own hands and just like rescue Slash, kidnap her into my home to protect her. Astrid Hardy is like, why did I wake up in my grumpy neighbor's basement? This is not great. But he is very adamant that there is a deadly virus outside. He is trying to protect her. And while she thinks he's a Paris, a paranoid conspiracy theorist, things start to go real sideways real fast. And the two of them end up watching the downfall of the world play out online, hearing gunshots outside, smelling smoke from burning buildings nearby. And everything is starting to feel horrible and scary. And the two of them, it becomes very clear, are going to have to figure out how to be against the world. Almost everyone they know is dead. Law and order is gone and they have to survive and also realize that, like, love waits for no one.

[Sarah McLean]

So if you are looking for a post apocalyptic romance where people are in the basement and then have to leave it and so do you one day, then Wildflowers by Kylie Scott is probably going to be for you. It is available in print or in ebook and if your podcasting app supports it, you can click on the chapter title right now to be taken to buy the book. Thanks to Kylie Scott for sponsoring this week's episode. You said secrets and one. I'm not gonna read the line, but one of my favorite early lines in.

[Jennifer Prokop]

The book, one of the lines I.

[Sarah McLean]

Highlighted was there's like a really beautiful line about like sort of how Alice and the rest of the family members convert truth to secrets because there's more.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Value, there's more value.

[Sarah McLean]

There's currency and a secret that there isn't in truth. So do you think that. Is that also a theme you sort of discovered as you were writing? Truths of secrets.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Don't you think a little bit that that's come back to all the time? Like, I think secrets are a thing that I. I love to think about. And I think that comes from. I mean, this is going to get real personal. But we're all friends here. We've been friends for seven years. I mean, like, my family keeps secrets, right? My family. I mean, I think every family. You're right, every family keeps secrets. But so that it feels like like there is. And. And I think families do think of secrets as currency. They're bundled with power. They're bundled with the sort of nobody can be cruel. Like a family member can be cruel.

[Sarah McLean]

Well, as my friend Liz says, of course your family knows where your buttons are. They insane them.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Nobody can be cruel like that. But also I think it's because we don't tolerate it. Like, we're so like, if you have any modicum of self respect, like even a, you know, the, the tiniest amount of self respect, like you tolerate cruelty more from your family than from anyone else.

[Sarah McLean]

Sure. Because you know how fast it's like you can take a little bit of cruelty, but do you really want to start a conflagration? I mean, it can go, right? It can just go. It can just get really big fire really fast. I think that's what's interesting about the characters is how. And I want you to talk a little bit about each sibling is like how each of them has a really different perspective about like how much heat they're willing to take.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes. So I think that cruelty piece is really interesting with siblings because I think there's also, there is the whiplash of like, nobody can be as cruel as a sibling and nobody. And then, but then like within minutes, that's over. And now we're like, now it's us against the world. Right. Because. And often like the world in. In this scenario is like, it's us against our parents.

[C]

It's against.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Against the wealth, the money, the power, the game. But I think they are all willing, I think in this case. So there are four siblings, Greta the oldest, and she is like the perfect daughter. She has been her mother. She has been her mother's sidekick for 40 years. Sam, who is the only boy and a real kind of boy king vibe to him, he works for the family business. He has always done that. And he has always kind of had a kind of really vibrant personality. But as boy king of the storms, he's in a terrible marriage. He has two children who are possibly terrible. We don't know. And I Think everybody's trying to figure it out. And then there's Alice who we've talked about exiled for. You know, she did.

[Sarah McLean]

She.

[Jennifer Prokop]

She's always been sort of the one who tried to do to. To walk her own path and her father never wanted that for her. And that led to her exile. And then Emily, the youngest by 8 years who is like a frickin delight. Everybody loves Emily. She runs a crystal shop on the mainland. Like she's married to a like very measured lovely woman. Like they just. Emily seems fine. Seems.

[Sarah McLean]

How do you then go about developing like four distinct siblings, right, with different voices?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, because these aren't uncommon characters. Right. Like each one of them. And there's. I think writing this book in a contemporary made me realize like well there's a reason why these are the archetypes. Like there is a real truth to them in a lot of ways. I'm sorry, but what your question was, how do you separate them?

[Sarah McLean]

How do you I think go from archetype or you know, what could be a cliche almost right to something that felt so. That didn't feel that way at all in the reading experience.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I'm happy to hear you say that. I'm going to say romance is the way I did that, I think. And listen, everybody knows my feelings about romance novels. I think romance is really great at writing a nuanced character. And I think that there are a lot of things that fiction writers outside of romance could learn from us if they were willing to respect us a little more. And I think that there was. I mean every character is. Has to be shaded in a really like nuanced way. Because what I wanted you to come away from with this book is I wanted there to be moments where you were like these are terrible people. And then I wanted you to be. I wanted there to be moments where you were like actually I feel kind of bad for these people. And then I wanted you to have moments where you were like actually kind of like these people. Like I wouldn't mind hanging out with these people. I don't want to be in this family. But like, but would I like an invitation to this funeral? Absolutely. I would totally go to this. But I think in order to do that you have to be willing to write a character who is many things. If you think of all of them as protagonists. Right. Like every character is the hero or heroine of their own story. I mean romance really taught me how to do that. You know, I think all the time about world building in romance and how like I say it, you know, you. You have to be willing, like, you have to feel like if you followed that character out of the scene, you would walk into their book. And I feel like this was a book where I was actually writing five books, if you count the mother, you know, six if you count Jack, who we'll get to.

[Sarah McLean]

Well, and it's interesting because I actually had sort of a world building question, which is it's not really about characters maybe so much as the. The actual world, like a contemporary world. Right. So one of the biggest, I think, fallacies that maybe contemporary readers have is that, like, world building is something that is done in science fiction and fantasy, but world building is something that happens here too, in a lot, in a lot of really specific ways because they're, you know, on an island. Right. And so, you know, the setting itself, but also, you know, the. The sort of tech world. Right. And there's ways in which this feels obviously very grounded in kind of a 2025 reality. And then there are lots of ways in which it doesn't. So, you know, outside of the character work, how did you approach building this world?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, I think this is also another sort of hallmark of my writing. Like, most of my books have a really strong sense of place. Like, there's usually a setting, like a location, right. So there was like the place in the Bell series. There's a casino in the Rules of Scoundrels series. There's the Covent Garden of the Baronicle bastards, the ice holds and all of that stuff. So I think I am really interested in place as character. And I think New England. I think this is true of lots of places, obviously, but I grew up in New England. And so for me, this particular location, this kind of like summer, like late summer in Rhode island has a real vibe to it. And I wanted you to feel like the crisp ocean and the like, the kind of mystery of the island, the sort of heavy weight of the humidity, the, like, the sort of sense of Rhode Island. I wanted. Even if you've never been there, and a lot, most people have not been to Rhode island because it's tiny. We. I wanted you to feel that way.

[Sarah McLean]

I've never been to Rhode Island.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Maybe someday you'll, um. And so I think there's all that. But I also think, like, there is something about Rhode island that feels very old fashioned. You know, there's a Gilded Age weight to it. There's a sense of this house of what being built at the turn of the 20th century. All this, like, old money, the, like, robber barons of it all, I was writing a billionaire in a place where, like, billionaires were basically invented in, like, Rhode Island. Right. So I think the nice thing about it is there was a level of comfort in the world building both, because it's a place I know, and I've, you know, have experienced, like, my whole life. But there is a kind of feel, I think, of history there, a sense of the history of the place, like, sort of making the story. This is a story that could only happen there.

[Sarah McLean]

Yeah, yeah. And one of our Discord writers actually asked that. Right. What, does it come from real life or was.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, did you ask for questions from the Discord? Hi, Discord.

[Sarah McLean]

I did. I asked for. And you know what? There were. I know there are a couple good ones. So Kate sort of said the scenery was really descriptive and were there details that came from real life? And I knew that you would sort of talk about growing up there, but I also think it's clear, like. Right. So there's, like, kind of your knowledge. But it's a weird coming home experience for Alice, too, right? Alice is sort of experiencing the family home and this island that they own, you know, in a. And there's ways in which, like, so she is. Arrives on the train, and then, like, sort of takes, like, a little boat.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Like a little white boat with a motor, an outboard motor, a little boat.

[Sarah McLean]

Right. And I was like. I was like, wait, what the. Is she just stealing someone's boat here? And she knows, right, that they're. They're like, sort of these boats belong to the island, and she just takes it if she needs it. And there are ways in which I was really fascinated by, like, I was. I was like, wait, whose boat is she taking? Excuse me.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Hyman West, Alice.

[Sarah McLean]

I was like, alice, what's happening? But I do. I think that that was really interesting to me because there are ways in which Alice felt both at home and alienated from home. And I think that, like, the setting is doing really powerful work to communicate that to the reader as well.

[Jennifer Prokop]

A line I remember writing, and I don't actually remember a lot of the things that I write when I'm done with a book, I sort of, like, just erase it from memory. But there's a line I remember writing where, you know, she talks about how, like, the island is exactly the same, even though it is, like, now her father's dead, and it will never be the same. And I think I've always been really moved by the way people write about that. I. I think I've talked about this on the podcast before, but right after 9 11, the New York Times Magazine asked about, I don't know, 15 writers to write short pieces about New York in the wake of 9 11. And it was like in October of 2001. And Colson Whitehead wrote this incredible piece where he was like, my New York is not your New York. My New York is the bodega on the street corner or the nail salon or the whatever, you know, the MetLife building will all always to me be the Pan Am Building. And so his point was like, for me, whenever I look at the skyline, I will see the World Trade center because that was part of my New York. I'm gonna find it and see if we can put it in show notes. But I think I think about that story like weekly. I think about it anytime I look at the Manhattan skyline and I think that that sense of this place you have known so well. You, I mean like Alice knows every inch of this island and they all do all this. All the children do, but without their. Without Franklin. What is it?

[Sarah McLean]

This week's episode of Fated Mates is brought to you by Mina Brow, author of A God of moonlight and Stardust.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So A God of moonlight and Stardust is the first in Mina's Daughters of Chaos series which follows the abandoned daughters of a villainous God of darkness and chaos as they come to terms with their inherited powers in an apocalyptic setting in the Andromeda galaxy. The first book, A God of moonlight and Stardust, is available right now in Kindle Unlimited and follows the eldest daughter, Rena. Strongborn name is Destiny, as she must decide whether to continue to learn magic after her university campus is attacked by dark forces as she discovers more of who she is and what her powers are. Three supernatural men vie for Rena's attention in the Ultimate Love Square as she grows into her power. The men are Callios, the God of the moon and stars. Sethos, a mysterious Fae man who visits her in her dreams. Amen. And Silas, a playboy creator God. The second book in the series, An Heir of Darkness and Ruin, has Rena seeking sanctuary in a dangerous dimension for criminal Fae as her father searches for her, hoping to harvest her magic. So this sounds like a huge kind of fantasy world. Lots of big characters, lots of big personalities, lots of danger and something that Romanasy readers are going to be really happy with.

[Sarah McLean]

I'm always looking for like a more sci fi type of romantasy angle and so I'm really excited about this. And if you also love a futuristic fantasy, if you love Crescent City, for example, or Discovery of Witches. This might be the series for you. And the reason to start with A God of moonlight and Stardust now is because the second book in the series, as Sarah just mentioned, An Heir of Darkness and Ruin, comes out at the end of the month. So get yourself ready for, like, just a great month of reading this really sexy romance Square. I'm into it. And if your podcasting app supports it, you can click on the chapter title right now to be taken to buy the book, which is available with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited. Thanks to Mina Brower for sponsoring this week's episode. It's almost like a joke that you'd be, like, so rich. You would, like, have your own private island, and at the same time, it's like, the island of misery. Like, yeah, you have this island, and now you're here for Alice, at least with all these people who you would give anything to be away from. And I think that is the part where it's kind of like a. It really had a. Like, be careful what you wish for.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, and I wanted that, too. Like, I thought a lot about, like, the House on the Hill, the, like, Woman Running Away, those, like, great gothic pulp covers. Like, for me, I wanted it to feel that way. Like, in fact, when we did cover conference for it, I really, really, really was, like, kind of begging for one of those, like, pulpy. Some, like, hint at that. Like, pulpy. And I didn't get that. And I think I didn't get that for a good reason. But, like, I wanted, you know, I want you to feel like, oh, the house is rise. Like, when you. When she approaches the. The. The. The house. I remember I wrote. I wrote the first version, and then my agent was like, I really think you need to, like, gothic this moment. Like, it needs to feel like you're coming into a completely new space. Also, let's be clear, Jen. Like, I've never written a contemporary, like, novel before, and I needed cell phones to be like. I was like, I need. I need to clear the decks of some of this stuff.

[Sarah McLean]

You're like, listen, he's a tech billionaire, but phones just don't work here. What can you do?

[Jennifer Prokop]

I get that we can't, like, wash out the Great North Road here, but.

[Sarah McLean]

You can get real darn close, right? Let's talk about two characters I don't want to, like, sort of forget, because there's two characters we haven't really talked about much yet. And one is their mother, Elizabeth, and then the other is Jack, who is the one night stand lawyer. And I think they are also really interesting because when you have a family who is used to operating a certain way, you have both removed someone, Right? You've removed Franklin, but you've added someone, Jack, who many of the siblings view as Franklin's proxy. And Alice does not know him.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Alice doesn't know him at all.

[Sarah McLean]

Like, I mean, she knows him biblically.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Sarah, listen, it's all gone real south for Alice real quick. Eric read this book and he was like, no one told Jack he wasn't a romance hero because he goes down real quick. And I was like, eric, heroes should be kings. I don't know what to say. Also, is this Sarah McGlane novel. Come on. Of course he eats.

[Sarah McLean]

Yeah. So, I mean, listen, we're gonna get to that later. So how does, like, Elizabeth's presence kind of loom over the book in some ways? And then how does Jack's presence, like, break some of those things? Like what? Right, like, you have these kind of outlier characters outside of these.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, I mean, first of all, I didn't expect Elizabeth to be an outlier character. Like, I thought Elizabeth was going to be a critical piece of the puzzle. And she. I think she is, like. I think she's.

[Sarah McLean]

She is.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, obviously, right. Like, the father dies, and so you, like, their mother who, like, is queen of the island. She is. She becomes really critical, I think, for me. Oh, Elizabeth was very difficult to write. She's a very particular kind of New England woman. New England has this really interesting relationship with old money. A lot of people from New England are like, my ancestors were on the Mayflower and there is no money anymore. Like, New England wealth is very sort of. It's in the DNA of these people. And they also are like. So there's like a very, like, closed. They are closed to emotion. Like, you want to talk about people who don't feel feelings in this case, like, Elizabeth feels lots of feelings but would never dream of admitting it. And I think that's a really difficult character to write. But it is a character who. I think a lot of us certainly know people who are like this. And I think that because she is so brittle, there is a constant fear on the part of all of the children that she could break, but she would never believe that she was a challenging character to write. Because I wanted her to constantly feel. I wanted everyone to feel like at some point this woman is going to break. And what will it be that, like, finally snaps her? And what does that look like? Because I Think in, in a lot of cases, like if you know somebody who's very brittle like that, there's this kind of sense. I don't know, maybe this is just the Sagittarius in me, but I'm like, like I am always like, how do I needle this person to the point where they do break? Because won't they feel better if they've broken?

[Sarah McLean]

Elizabeth will not. She will not feel better. Sarah, that's no.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Elizabeth would rather walk into the fucking sea than break. And it will not feel better for her to cry, to scream, to. But there is an instinct to be like, well, surely you have to release the pressure. So again, a character who ha. Like there's a lot of character work for all of them, right? And then there's Jack, who.

[C]

Oh, Jack.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Thunder, thud. Like a flat out romance here. Like I'm a clean hero. Flat justifiably punches somebody in the face at least once in this book and.

[Sarah McLean]

Many times off page. We know the truth about Jack. Yeah, I think one of the things that's really interesting about Jack then is that Alice, I think. And again, I'm not, I don't. These are not spoilers, I promise. But Alice now feels like an outsider and Jack is also an outsider in some way that I think she understands. And yet everyone else thinks he's the insider, right? So he's really riding the line between kind of like his job, what he's been told to do. Does that make him a yes man? Right. And you know, he's not a point of view character. So all of this has to come through us. Right?

[Jennifer Prokop]

And that's actually really an interesting point.

[Sarah McLean]

It's.

[Jennifer Prokop]

There is a version of this book where he has, he also has a chapter and I took it out because it's not Jack's book. Right. And you know, refracted through a different lens. This is a romance novel. Like I think, I hope, looking at it, I hope a romance reader will be very happy with the situation that fall as it unravels. But I think that the fact that Jack stays kind of man on the hill instead of like being down in the muck with them makes it like it, it makes it not a romance. Capital R. Despite the fact that there is a happily ever after. That's not a spoiler. It's a Sarah MacLaine novel. Of course there's a happily ever after, right. So for me, I think like the, the Jack of it all is, you know, you said they were both outsiders. I think the state. There are a lot fewer stakes For Jack. Right. Like he's an outsider, but he's like. Well, I mean, of course I am. Right, yeah, sure. And also because he can look at the family from 30,000 Foot View, he's also a king. Right. Like he can see the whole playing field.

[Sarah McLean]

I think Alice surprises him or Alice's knowledge or understanding of how the family.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Work surprises him because he doesn't know her, he doesn't have her number.

[Sarah McLean]

Yeah. And I think that that means he's kind of. She reshuffles the deck for a lot of the things he thinks he understands about the family. Right. There's a great scene I love between the two of them. They're on a boat. I'm not going to spoil it.

[Jennifer Prokop]

It's the only scene that's off the island. And it's not even really off the island. They're on a boat.

[Sarah McLean]

Right. They're. They're on the boat. And he sees a literal different part of the island because of tides and.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah.

[Sarah McLean]

And there's like this kind of staircase up and he didn't like know that it existed and. Right. So he's like literally uncovering something new. I was really interested in her. Her memories of her father during this scene. And again, I don't want to spoil it. I don't think it's a big spoiler. I think this is like one of the things I loved about this is there's a lot of really small, powerful moments in the text for Alice. So I'm just gonna talk about one which I don't think is gonna spoil anything. But Alice describes a time as a child that she essentially got trapped kind of in like a. On a rock, essentially, and had to kind of wait for the tide to get in before she could make it up these stairs. And she kind of pops up and it's in sight of her dad's office and he's on the phone. And there's this moment where she describes that he like sort of saw her and nodded at her. And she felt that it was one of the few times in her life that he. He had like, given her like tacit approval. And I found myself really wondering at that moment if he had known, even known in what dire straits she was in or not. And I don't think Alice really knows either. And it's a really fascinating moment because it just goes to show you how thin on the ground this. Right. Jack has received more praise, accolades than any of them have. And it's a really interesting moment, I think, for them, the two of them. As they sort of uncover not just like family secrets or Alice's secrets or understanding, but just the way the family really operated and Alice's place in it. And when she felt why, in some ways, even though she was cast out, that was a kind of approval as well.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Franklin is the father and he is a massive character in this book, despite the fact that he is dead before it begins. And he. There's no. I mean, like, we don't see Franklin. We don't interact with Franklin. And I think, like I said, I started this book really fascinated by secrets. Like the secrets of family keep and then the secrets that die with a person. Like, you just never know. And I think there were a couple of moments in the revision of this book where my editor or my agent, like, someone would read it and then we would think to our. Like, we would say to ourselves, like, should. Should there be Franklin? Like, should we see Franklin? Should we know? Should we know? Like, why? Right? Because this is the big question, right? The question that has, like, that Eric, for example, when he read this book, was like, this guy, why? Right? And I was like, why is the fundamental question, right, for any of us about anyone in our life. Like, why? And it is the only one we never get an answer to. And so, like. And so for me, like, right now with you, I can say, like, I have, I think the why, but maybe not. And so for. For me, it was really important. And I think this is also what sets it apart from. From genre is for me the why. The fact that, like, you think of Franklin in a way, in your way, and I think of Franklin in mine, even though, like, I wrote this book is, like, part of what I wanted you to feel. And so, like, when Alice pops up, I think you're right. Like, did he fucking know? Like, she was eight. Like, she could have tides in the tides in that day.

[Sarah McLean]

She could have been swept away. They would have never known.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Did he really know? Was he. But then also, like, was Franklin really, like, did he care enough to watch? And so I think that's a question Alice has too. And Jack, like, I think everybody does. And so I'm. I'm sorry because I know for some people that's gonna be really frustrating. And I think it's. And it is frustrating for me, but it's also frustrating for me about, like, people in my life so.

[Sarah McLean]

Well. And I think that's why ultimately, family secrets, truths, those go so well together, because they do. And I think there's a way in which when you as an, you know, My son is now an adult, a young adult. Right. He's graduated from college. And I've really thought to myself, there are so many things I know about how my family of origin work that I'm sure he's like, wait, what's going on here? And I've tried at some point to sort of talk about them, but ultimately I have also thought maybe, does he care? These are interesting questions.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And I think also there is a real feel. I mean, families are so up, like, all of them are. And I think as you age, right, like, as you. Or not age, but as you grow and you interact with other people and, like, see their families all, like, through. Through different lenses, you start to see, like, they're actually like Tolstoy was. Right. Right. Like, there is. I mean, like, I've never known. I've never met a happy family because, like, they're like, does that exist? Like, a truly happy family? But what I would say also is, like, in this book, and I think this is where the romance of me, like, the. The tension of the romance of me and the genre of me is There are answers in, like, I give you a number of answers. I just. Like, you start this book not knowing anything about this family. Then you go through, like, questions, and then I give you some answers, more answers than probably a literary fiction writer would give you.

[Sarah McLean]

There's something, I believe, that is true about romance. I don't know if I've ever said this before, but I think in a romance, the characters In a romance, it cannot be at the end of the book that the reader knows something that the characters don't know about each other.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I think that's true.

[Sarah McLean]

Does that make sense? But in this book and in families, it is still the case that the readers know things that other characters don't know. Because in those point of view sections, there are things that sort of come out or that they say or that the siblings talk about that there's. Then they don't share on page. So the reader is able to put together a more full picture, in some ways of the family dynamics and the truth that each sibling hold that they don't still end up the book.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, because siblings, of course, wouldn't. There are so many things your siblings don't know about your relationship with your parents. That's like. That's just true. And it's because families keep secrets, like, all of the, like, gross feelings that are, like, messy and human. You know, you're like. You, like, hoard them.

[Sarah McLean]

This landed a certain way for me as Someone with siblings. And I really wonder what it would be like to an only child. And I can't answer this question. You can't either, to have an only child report in. I mean, it would be terrible to have been the only child. Oh, these two awful people. Oh, my God. Just look at Sam as the only son. Sort of has a sort of experience that's very different than what his sisters are having. But I have thought a lot about that. But I think you're right. Ultimately, secrets and truth is, even in our family, there are things that I will do for our son that I'm like, don't tell dad. And I know the opposite is true. I know it, right? I know. I'm like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And she's 11, so, like, just what could I possibly be doing with her where I'm like, don't tell dad. But sometimes I do. This week's episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by 1001 Dark Knights, publishers of Midnight Myths and magic, a paranormal romance collection, including Donna Grant, Gina Showalter, Heather Graham and Lara Adrian.

[Sarah McLean]

So I love these collections, right? We've talked about these before. How great it is. If you even know one of those authors, you can sort of jump in and then get a sense of, like, who the other ones are. And it's just a great reading experience. You get four of these novellas just for, like, one bargain price. And in this case, all these paranormal romances have gods, legends, essentially, anything otherworldly that's gonna take, like, a regular human normie and sweep them off into a world beyond the veil, into a realm of, like, passion and mystery. In particular, I wanna point out that Donna gr. Dragon Fever, which has a Highlander.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Seems like the whole world has dragon fever.

[Sarah McLean]

Exactly right. So you've got a Highlander and then a woman who is. Who is. There's a dragon. Listen. There's a dragon.

[Jennifer Prokop]

There's a dragon.

[Sarah McLean]

There's a dragon king.

[Jennifer Prokop]

We don't have to lead you horses to water here. We, you know.

[Sarah McLean]

And then in Gina show Walters who writes a great book. We have a hated immortal in the underworld who has lied, cheated, and stolen with abandon, who falls in love, of course, with the very human femme fatale sent to destroy him. So this collection seems like it would just be a great summer read. You can get away from heat outside with the heat from a dragon. The heat from hell. Oh.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So if you would. If you miss paranormal, like straight up rough guy paranormals, this bundle is for you. Mid Midnight Myths and Magic is available right now in Kindle. And you can click on the chapter title and be taken to buy the book if your podcasting app supports it. Thanks to 1001 Dark Knights, Donna Grant, Gina Showalter, Heather Graham and Lara Adrian for sponsoring this week's episode.

[Sarah McLean]

So now you're writing a contemporary after mostly writing historical. This is a question from Amanda Our discord. Did it change your writing style or habits around drafting the book?

[Jennifer Prokop]

The drafting of this book was very weird for me. I had to learn how to do it. Like, I've written a short story that's contemporary, right? But that was a romance. And I know, listen, however you feel about my romance novels, like them or don't, like, I know how to write a romance romance novel. And I will tell you, there is a pretty funny story. And you probably know I probably did tell you Jen, this story, but I don't know about 90,000 words into this book. I called my agent and I was like, I have a problem. And she was like, oh, no. And I said, I'm pretty sure I'm not writing a romance novel. And she was like, oh, thank God you finally got here, because we all knew you weren't doing that. And. And I think that that's where I sort. So there were. This book took more revision than usually. And you all know that I love revision and that's where the magic happens. And so all my books have like a massive revision, but this one had two massive revisions. And I think part of the reason why was because I was figuring out what I was doing, right? Like, what was the balance of genre to not genre? Because I think there is a little of both truth in this book. How did it evolve from, like the book that I thought I was writing? I always knew the plot of this book, right? Like, I always knew it would be inheritance game. I always knew there was a dead dad. Like, there was sort of like very clear structural things that I knew was were going to happen. But like, originally I thought it was about a daughter and her father. And then it became about, you know, a sister and her siblings. And then, you know, and at some point, you know, in the early stages, I was like, well, and obviously it's a romance. But then this other stuff, I think, like, I thought, well, it'll be 80% romance and like 20% family. And then now it's like, you know, I don't know. I don't know what the breakdown is, but it's definitely reversed, right? And so I felt very comfortable writing the Alison Jack scenes. And then I felt like the whole the rest of it just felt like, you know, there's that great John Irving quote and it's like if you don't feel like you're going. You're on the edge of losing control of the whole thing, then maybe you're not really doing it value in any way, valuable way. And like I felt like that the whole time, like just barely controlling this island full of people. I mean, I'm so glad they were on an island because then at least I had my phone booth, right? But like there were extra characters. Like there's a. In the original draft, there's an aunt who I really loved. But like, suddenly it was like she opened the world too much. Like she had to like, because there are some other characters in the this book. There's, you know, the, there are some in laws. There's, you know, the. Yeah, sure.

[Sarah McLean]

I mean there's other people, but I mean, I would say like there's the core four siblings and then the two. Right. Jack and the mom.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So. But drafting wise, I mean, I did have a outline for this because when I sold it, I. It wasn't complete. So like I, when I had to sell it, I sold it with like the first 150 pages and an outline of the rest. I mean, but the writing was, it was difficult. I learned a new skill. It was a new muscle.

[Sarah McLean]

I've been saving this question for last because I. Before we do the get book thing, that's kind of separate, right? But this is kind of the last question about storms, which is really also about you. But this is a romance podcast, so obviously, you know, readers are gonna love this book. Especially, you know, we have a lot of listeners who don't really read a lot of historical. So, you know, this is a real opportunity for them to sort of explain, experience the full power of Sarah. But I. So I'm going to frame this question in sort of a weird way, but I think it's like going to be a nice way for us to tie storms to like our work here, which is. What did you learn about romance from writing a book that is not romance?

[Jennifer Prokop]

A few things. I, first of all, just top line, sort of separate from this question, I learned that I feel very strongly about what is and what is not a romance. That is, it's interesting because now, you know, there are. I've seen some reviews come in and I've seen people talk about it online and people are like, she says it's not a romance, but like Jack. And I'm like, yeah, Jack. But like, this is not like it's just not like it is. I really hope it is like the greatest beach read you've ever read. Like, that's what I want. I want you to take it to the beach and just like, have a great time. I think I've already talked a little bit about character work in romance being, I think, different in a lot of ways. I think you come to. I especially come to characters through big feelings and trauma. Right. What built you. The buttons that were installed are installed in a particular way that they evoke strong emotion always. And so for me, every character here, I think I could not have written all of these characters the way I did. And I'm really proud of these siblings, which is probably the only time you'll ever hear me say I'm proud of something that I've written, but I'm really proud of these siblings. And I think part of the reason why is because romance taught me that work, the craft of it. I think the other thing I learned, and this is very personal, is I never want to not be writing romance. I loved writing this book and I'm very proud of this book. But like, I. I don't want to just do this forever. Like, I. I want to write romance novels because, like, they're so fun and I love two people just mess in, mess together and also structure the rules of romance, which of course are rules of genre. Releasing the. The reins of those rules makes a book messier. It takes more work to tidy it up and make it a good book. If you don't have those. I'm not saying that it's easier to write romance. I'm saying it's easier to it up.

[Sarah McLean]

I think that makes sense.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I can't imagine, like, writing something that doesn't have a. A romance straight, any kind of romance plot. I think I would have been very bored by these people if there hadn't been like an absolute tree trunk of a man just wandering through up and going down on my girl.

[Sarah McLean]

So, yeah, it's great. Jack is great. This book, to me, it's. It was sort of the. A great hybrid, right. Like, I have the romance plot that I need, but I also have this really rich story about. And not rich because they had money, right? Rich because of who they are and the way they learn to be with each other. And I think I will also go on record as saying possibly one of the greatest, like, last lines of a book ever. Like, I really hit it and was like, that's good stuff.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Thank you.

[Sarah McLean]

So before we wrap up and go on to the get booked questions, which is just, I thought would just be like a fun way to end. Are there other things that like you wanted to talk about with Storms that we haven't sort of touched on?

[Jennifer Prokop]

I think I would just say to like longtime me readers, I would say like a lot of shit happens in this book too. Like, don't worry, it's not just a bunch of people navel gazing. Like stuff happens. And that's important to me. I think that's the other thing I learned about my writing is like I really do need a plot to right.

[Sarah McLean]

Like the inheritance game drives certain things forward that if it was just them waiting a week for the funeral to happen, it would have been.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, boring. No, there's I and I and I acknowledge that there are some writers who just can like write a beautiful book that like doesn't need that sort of really like those sort of strong anchor of a. Of a plot. Maybe writing this book made me feel like, oh, these are the things that make a Sarah MacLaine novel. This week's episode of Fated Mates is sponsored by Avon Books, publishers of Elliot Fletcher's Scotch on the Rocks.

[Sarah McLean]

So opposites attract when it comes to Juniper Ross and the very sexy, very grumpy Callum McCabe. The problem is is that June has a like some rules for herself Sarah when it comes to these McKay brothers. And that is number one, don't look at a McKay brother. Number two is don't talk to a McKay brother. And number three is don't even think about a McKay brother. The problem is this is becoming impossible to do because one of them is in love with their best and one of them is her ex fiance and one of them is super hot small town hero Callum McCabe. And the thing is that June does not realize is he has been kind of grumpy and terrible to her ever since she started dating his brother eight years ago. But in fact he has really actually been in love with her all along, right? So the reason he has been terrible to her is because he cannot deal with his own feelings. And now that she's single again and back in town, all of a sudden he is popping up everywhere. Even especially at times, she is feeling at her most vulnerable. So she starts to imagine that maybe it is time for her to start breaking the rules about the McKay brothers and take the right one for herself. Mm.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Well, this sounds like a delicious book. And if you think so too, you can read Scotch on the Rocks right now in print, ebook or audiobook if your podcasting app supports it. Just Click on the chapter title right now to be taken to buy the book. Thanks to Avon Books and to Elliot Fletcher for sponsoring this week's episode.

[Sarah McLean]

All right, so everybody, if you do not know what get booked is, this is a. Every week in the New York Times Sunday Book Review, there's a column where they interview kind of a, you know, a writer who has a book out like that week. And you can go if you have a subs, you know, subscription. And. And kind of, you know, they have a. You know, you just kind of click through them one at a time, and they have some standard questions that normally the way it works is like a. It's like kind of a mix of, like, the standard questions and then the types of questions that I already asked Sarah. So we thought we would end with, like, five or six of these standard questions just because I think it would be really fun as an author and reader to have anybody ask me these questions.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah. Oh, I'm scared. I hope I know the answers. Go on.

[Sarah McLean]

What's this? Almost always starts with this one. What's on your nightstand?

[Jennifer Prokop]

But there's a stack of books on my nightstand. But I'm gonna tell you what's on my secondary nightstand, which is the table in my office right now.

[Sarah McLean]

I have.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And I was actually gonna recommend this to you today. I have Carter Sherman's the Second Coming, which is the subtitle is Sex and the Next Generation's Fight Over Its Future. It's a really intense analysis of, like, what's happening with young people and, like, the way they think about sex. And it's great. I have Annabelle Monahan's It's a Love Story, which is just out this week, which I have not read yet. But that is what is. That's what's next for me. I just finished my friend Kennedy Ryan's Can't Get Enough and so good. So good. And I have a book that I just read for a blurb by Francesca Saratella. She's a debut novelist, and it's called Full Bloom. And it's like magical realism. A lady, a kind of woman in her 30s in New York. Her life is in chaos, and she is gifted a magical perfume that then, like, she puts it on and she becomes irresistible to everyone around her. It's very cool. I had a great time reading it. Fun.

[Sarah McLean]

Okay, so describe your ideal reading experience.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, summer, I think the best reading experience is when you have no pressure for. For us. I feel like that's like, I'm not reading for the podcast. Like, I'M not reading for. For a blurb. Like, I'm just reading, like, a book by my friend. So usually that's, like, either outdoors or, like, on my couch. Very, like, in a cozy way in the winter. But it does feel like summer. Like, beach. Not because we're talking about a beach read, but, like, reading at the beach is great. Like, I read Zoraida Cordova's, the one about the rock star, the. The Little Mermaid retelling. Why am I. Oh, kiss the Girl. I read that last summer at the beach. Was it last summer or the summer before? I don't know, but I have, like, a really, like, stark, like, sharp, beautiful memory of, like, laying on the beach, reading that book and just having nothing to worry about. At this particular beach that we go to in Rhode island, there is no cell service. So, like, you can't even. There's no texting, no phone, like, nothing.

[Sarah McLean]

You're just in the town you were up in or where you go to the beach. There's that library with that, like, yard.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, the. The Brownell Library. Yeah. Oh, it's so nice there.

[Sarah McLean]

You've taken pictures of just. And I was like, that seems like a nice place to read.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay, listen, this is because there are, like, 12 people in this town.

[Sarah McLean]

The tax base is probably still better than the city of Chicago. I'm sure it's a nice library.

[Jennifer Prokop]

$12 million trillion dollars. Well, no, actually, I'll tell you a story about this, and we'll have to save this. I'll tell it again when I do my next contemporary, because my next contemporary is actually set in this town. But my. So this town is called Little Compton, Rhode Island. And that is where I wrote, like, the lie. It's where I came up with the idea for the storm for storms. It's where I wrote a huge part of Storms. I actually. I revive storms at this, like, tiny library. It's a one room. It's like a. A one space library. A tiny little town library in the middle of town and out. And you. What you walk through. You walk in the front door of this, like, little house, and then you walk out the back door into this, like, beautiful cover. There's a covered porch with, like, beautiful furniture. Everything has, like, nice pillows on it. There's. There is WI fi. You can plug your laptop in and just, like, hang out and write all day. And it's like. It is actually in their hydrangeas all around you, and it's just lovely and perfect. Anyway, but the reason why Little Compton has so much money is because in the 80s, I think there was a, like, massive heroin ring that was running. So Little Compton is in, like, a little co. It's in a cove of Rhode island, so it's the Atlantic, but it's just sort of kind of curved in enough that there's no reason for boats. Nobody goes there. There's no, like, shipping or anything. Like, it's just, like, tucked away. And in the 80s, some like, like, drug dealers, like, heavy duty drug dealers were like, this is great. We'll just use this, like, tiny little town where no one lives for. To run our drugs into New England, right? So, like, they would come in through this cove, and then they would get picked up in the dark and then driv. And then, like, taken and distributed throughout New England. And the, like, dea, like, did a big sting with. And I guess if the DEA does a sting in your town, the police department and the public works department get, like, a significant percentage of, like, whatever the money is. And so Little Compton got, like. There is one police car in Little Compton, but it's, like, the nicest police car. Like, and then they have, like, a library that's very well funded and, like, a city hall that's, like, beautiful, and a fire department that's. That's stunning. And, like, it's because they got all this drug money and that's what they did with it. But this is also a town where, like, the mayor also sells hot dogs on the beach.

[Sarah McLean]

Everyone's living in a romance novel in Little Compton is what you're telling me. Fine.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes, it is.

[Sarah McLean]

Okay. This is where I'm going. When I finally get to the great state of Rhode Island, I'm immediately going there.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Okay. Yeah, you are, because you're gonna come stay with us sometime in the summer. It's gonna be fun.

[Sarah McLean]

Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, yeah. Have I never told this story? When I was in the eighth grade, I took geography. And, like, I know about geography. Like, I like what's. Give me the map. I'll study it, right? So I was reading Joanna Lindsay novels inside my geography textbook because it's an ocean voyage.

[Sarah McLean]

There's a. I needed to know a place.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I'm learning about England, so. And I would talk that. I thought I was. Listen, you're a middle school teacher. I thought I was so slick. Do your kids. Do kids still do this? They don't put a book inside a book.

[Sarah McLean]

They don't have textbooks now. They just, you know, they, like.

[Jennifer Prokop]

They just ignore you.

[Sarah McLean]

They just, you know, listen, if When I have to tell a kid to stop reading in my classroom, I always make a really big deal out of it. Like, now I have to tell you to stop reading. Like, you're making me do. Like, it hurts me. I'm hurting myself right now. Like, I do. I act real. Your geography teacher was not taking this tact.

[Jennifer Prokop]

My geography teacher was. Now I realize he was very young, like, green, and he got real pissed, and he took my book away from me, and he didn't return it. Like, it just disappeared. I think probably because he was like, and it's smut. And so he took it away, and I didn't get it back, and I was really pissed about it. And so, like, I have remembered this forever. And then I was brought. I went back to school about, I don't know, five years ago. And to know before the pandemic, but still to give a talk. Like, they asked me to come back and, like, talk to students and be, like, a successful person. See, people who grow up in Lincoln, Rhode island, can actually, like, pay their mortgage. And I went and, like, somebody asked a question, and it was something I. It was like, did you read romance novels in high school? Or, like, whatever. And I was like, oh, yeah, I have a story about that. And I told the story, and I named the teacher, who I will not name on this podcast, because afterward, Jennifer, this teacher.

[Sarah McLean]

Oh.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Came up to me and told me I had been rude to tell the story.

[Sarah McLean]

Listen, this guy has been making people. Kids miserable in his room for 40 years or whatever. 30 years.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And I was like, sir. I was like. And I literally was like, I'm a grown person.

[Sarah McLean]

Talk to me like that anymore.

[Jennifer Prokop]

You can't give me detention for telling a story. That is true. And also, where's my book?

[Sarah McLean]

Okay. Honestly, I'm kind of cracking up with that. That's pretty amazing. Okay, great. All right. So what's the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, you know what? Okay, Renee Idea, who I'm doing an event with this in. So her book Park Avenue, which came out in June, is about. It's basically like, crazy rich Koreans, right? But in New York City.

[Sarah McLean]

So.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And the family is like, like, Korean beauty magnate family. And I will tell you that I like, as. As lots of people know who listen to the podcast. Like, I moisturize and I, you know, put on makeup. But, like, I don't know anything about, like, the k. Beauty world. This book was fascinating, like, because it. It by. I was like, oh, here she is, like, showing me all of this So I know, like, I'm supposed to probably answer with, like, oh, I learned about frog genetics. But, like, I. But this was really fascinating to me because also, Renee is Korean, and so. And she's always, like, on her channel, like, on. On Instagram, like, with gorgeous skin, telling you about her beauty regime. And, like, it was really fascinating learning all about, like, the history of it. The. The, like, way the. That world works, that rarefied era of.

[Sarah McLean]

K. BE.

[Jennifer Prokop]

So that book is called Park Avenue, and it's really fun. And if you love a dysfunctional rich family, that one is about the. The. The character you are. The protagonist of that book is separate. Is. Is a lawyer who is, like, kind of, like, brought into the family, and like, you're. You see it through her lens. This, like, wacky, wealthy family.

[Sarah McLean]

Okay, two more questions. What book has had the greatest impact on you?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Dreaming of you.

[Sarah McLean]

Moving on. Great.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I mean, I'm sorry. I know everybody's like, oh, no, it's real. Like, Dreaming of youf changed my life. I think about that book. That book is My Roman Empire.

[Sarah McLean]

The week that we recorded this, there was this really funny, like. Well, you know, those memes that go.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Around on social media?

[Sarah McLean]

And it was like, what liter. What, you know, fictional character other could. Could ever lift Thor's hammer? And I was like, Derek Craven.

[Jennifer Prokop]

That's true, Jen.

[Sarah McLean]

It is true.

[Jennifer Prokop]

That is the only correct answer.

[Sarah McLean]

Exactly. And someone was like, what about Reese Winterbourne? And I was like, no, he doesn't have what it takes. Right. And someone's like, what do you mean? And I was like, listen, you have to both be good enough to pick it up and bad enough to kill people with it. Correct.

[Jennifer Prokop]

This is all true. And that is why Dreaming View is my answer. I hope. The New York Times asked me that question. Someday I'm gonna say dreaming of you, and they're gonna be like, what is that? That? And then I'm going to say, no further. I don't need to say anything more. That's. I said what? I said. Yeah.

[Sarah McLean]

If you know, you know. D. Dreaming of you. If you know, you know.

[C]

Right.

[Sarah McLean]

Okay. All right, last question. This is again, almost always the one they end with. You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Madeline Miller. I've.

[Sarah McLean]

I've met her. I mean, kind of met her. Do you know this? She is friends with someone who's, like, a parent at my school. And so we have, like, zoomed with her, and she's like, at a. Like, a parent book talk when it was. She is, in fact, great and so interesting.

[Jennifer Prokop]

She.

[Sarah McLean]

Well done. Yes, I approve.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I want her to come and I wanna. I want her to just talk to me about, like, myth, obviously. That's what I want her to come and talk to me about. Bertra Small.

[Sarah McLean]

Why not?

[Jennifer Prokop]

Because.

[Sarah McLean]

Wow. A different kind of thing.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, the pressure of a name.

[Sarah McLean]

Well, Eric will cut out all of this, I'm sure. It's kind of not fair. In real life, the get booked thing is done by email. And so people, I'm sure, get to really, like, gather their thoughts.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Jen. What they get to do is like, lie to you. Figure out they get to go, this is the truth. Okay.

[Sarah McLean]

While you're thinking of your third person, I mean, I think this came up quite a bit with the New York Times that like, best books of the century so far. Right. And we talked about this on that episode. People were kind of like. They put together the list that sort of like. Like true, but also signaling something. And one of the things I loved about your list is your list was like nine romances and a Madeline Miller.

[Jennifer Prokop]

And Madeline Miller. Yeah, exactly.

[Sarah McLean]

You're like, I know the job here, and it's to tell you about the greatest books in my genre.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, exactly. And that's how everybody should have answered, but they didn't. God, that's so hard. God. I don't think it would be a man.

[Sarah McLean]

Why would you do that to yourself? I mean, only if you wanted to watch a beer Bertram ritually disembowel him. I mean, then. Yes.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, my God.

[Sarah McLean]

Yeah, right.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I. You know what I think it would be? Maybe it would be someone like Wharton. Wharton and Bertrand.

[Sarah McLean]

Correct. Good times. Good times all around.

[Jennifer Prokop]

I don't know. I mean, then I would. But also, like, can I also throw in, like, Adriana and Kate? Like, just. I couldn't have, like, Edith Wharton to dinner and not have Adriana to dinner with us.

[Sarah McLean]

I mean, you know, we could have Adriana, Kate and us at a dinner anytime we wanted.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But like, man, the real question here is you can ask Bertra Small three questions. What are they?

[Sarah McLean]

Real forerunner on that milk thing. I mean.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Wowzer. Yeah. If you ask Lisa Klepus which book has influenced her the most, it's definitely Wortry Small with that milk thing.

[Sarah McLean]

Oh, too much. Well, that's. These summer storms, everybody.

[Jennifer Prokop]

There is no adult lactation in it. I'm sorry. I live to fight another day.

[Sarah McLean]

Mediocre. Like in that.

[C]

Right.

[Sarah McLean]

From Fury Road.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yeah. My publisher listened to this whole thing and they were like, she was so good. It was. Was so, like, well done.

[Sarah McLean]

And then right at the end, she.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Had to like.

[Sarah McLean]

Anyway, everybody, at the end of this episode, you. Last week we had the first chapter of these summer storms. This week we've got chapters one and.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Two, narrated by the absolute incomparable Julia Whan, a fucking superstar. Just making my book. You know, when she said last week, the audiobook is the first and purest adaptation of your book. What a gorgeous way of framing that. And I think, like, that is probably, like, I would doubt there is any writer who has seen the adaptation of their text and gone, like, that's perfect. But I do imagine that many of us listen to Julia. That's perfect, and think, all right, that's it. That's.

[Sarah McLean]

That's the book.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Anyway, so you can listen to that. This is Faded Mates, everyone. I'm Sarah McLean. I'm here with my friend Jen Prokop. Thanks for letting us talk to you about my book. You can get it right now wherever you get your books in print, ebook.

[Sarah McLean]

Audiobook, and airports around the country, maybe.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Oh, my God, maybe.

[Sarah McLean]

Right? That'd be a great feeling.

[Jennifer Prokop]

If you're in an airport and you see it, will you text me a photograph or, you know, direct message me a photo? I'll just leave my number for everyone. It's 91 7.

[Sarah McLean]

Okay. Sarah really is spinning, so.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Yes. So thank you so much. You can get storms everywhere. I hope you love it. If you, no matter what, please leave a review wherever you leave reviews, because reviews are important and people learn from them and decide if they want to read a a book because of them. You can find me and Jen tonight in Chicago at Women and Children First. I'm on tour all. All for the next two weeks, and then I'm in Australia and New Zealand next month. You can find all of that@sarah mclean.net tour but you can find show notes [e-mail] we are together and in your ear butts every Wednesday. You can also find us online at. On Instagram, thetamatesquad, on threadsaytamates, pod on Blue Sky. I don't know what we are there, but you can find us there. I think we're Fademates there. If you love talking about romance novels and you want to talk about them, you can join Our [e-mail] Patreon Every month you get an extra episode of the podcast where we just banter and have fun and you get access to the discord where all of the other listeners are other than that. Thanks so much for reading, everybody. I know that you have a finite amount of time and resources, and it always means so much that you choose me. And us. And us. I love you.

[C]

Chapter One There was something about trains. If she marked the minutes of her life, Alice Storm would not be surprised to discover that she'd spent nearly a third of them in transit. The shiny crimson bicycle that had been her seventh birthday present and most prized possession until her brother had sent it from flying into Narragansett Bay, never to be recovered. The white rowboat her father had captained into that same salty sea every Saturday in July for her entire childhood because he insisted on facing nature as God intended. The endless line of nondescript black town cars with silent drivers that ferried her from private school to private art classes to the Storm family's Park Avenue penthouse. New York City muffled and dim beyond the window. The skateboard she'd ridden into a tree one Sunday morning during her first year at Amherst, determined to prove herself a completely ordinary 18 year old resulting in an arm broken in three places. The helicopter that airlifted her to Boston to be pinned back together and returned her to school in time for a 9am Art history midterm before her classmates could discover there was nothing ordinary about her. The private jets that took her around the globe whenever her father issued an international summons on a whim. The commercial jet that had taken her to Prague eighteen months earlier, diamond ring tucked into her boyfriend's Carry on bag. The subway car she'd been on that afternoon when her phone had rung and stolen her breath. Incoming call. Elizabeth Storm. Never Mom. All beige walls and harsh lights and advertisements for clear skin and uncluttered apartments. And that one William Carlos Williams poem about plums and iceboxes and forgiveness and the parts of us that will never change. And still there was something about trains, probably because she'd discovered those herself. All the other ways she'd traveled through the world had belonged to someone else or shared with someone else. But trains. They were her secret. They did not come with flight plans. No siblings jockeying for position inside. No mothers calling for champagne. No fathers playing silent judge. They did not come unmoored. Instead they remained locked into their path, weighty and competent, unchanging, unable to be sent over a cliff and into the sea. A marvel of modernity that ran counter to all the technology that came after them. Solid, even, stable. Constant. Alice dropped her suitcase onto the luggage rack inside the door of the train car and found the first empty row, tossing her worn olive green canvas satchel onto the aisle seat and sliding over to the window, hoping that a Wednesday night on the 9:32pm Northeast Regional would reward her with a row to herself in the last few hours of peace before what was to come, before she faced the barrage of family with one glaring, irreversible absence. Through the window on the train platform beyond, a group of 20 somethings tumbled down the escalator laughing and shouting. A collection of duffels and weekender bags, bright smiles, sundresses, shorts and sunglasses as though night hadn't fallen outside. And maybe it hadn't for them. Maybe they were in that gorgeous moment in life when there was no such thing as the dark. Instead, it was all daytime, full of promise and empty of fear. Behind them a freckle faced red headed family of five, a teenager and hoodie and headphones, twin girls no older than 10 and their parents loaded down with suitcases and backpacks and a Paris Review tote that might have once been for literary cachet but was now for stainless steel water bottles and organic snacks. A middle aged black woman in flowing linen, her tiny silver roller bag the only evidence that she was traveling. A tall, stern faced white man in his 30s, leather duffel in hand, backpack slung over his shoulder. An elderly ruddy cheeked man in a cream colored windbreaker pushed in a wheelchair by an Amtrak employee in a trademark red cap. One by one they piled onto the train. Alice had been wrong. The train wouldn't be empty. Instead it would be packed, full laden with a few hundred New Yorkers headed north for a weekend of cobalt skies and gray green ocean during the most magical time of year in New England, when the rest of the world was back to school and work and Northeasterners were spoiled with one last week of sun soaked seclusion clinging to the promise of endless summer. She'd forgotten it was Labor Day weekend. The lapse in memory seemed impossible considering she'd left her freshly painted, newly organized classroom in Brooklyn six hours earlier, planning her own final long summer weekend as she waited for the subway Pilates that afternoon, the Grand Army Plaza farmers market for the last of the heirloom tomatoes, Governor's island on Saturday with Gabby and Roxanne, who insisted she leave her empty apartment a long Sunday painting in the last of the summer glow before school made the days too short for sunlight. Then her phone rang and she'd forgotten. Leaning back against the rough fabric of her seat, Alice focused on the train schedule, announced over a staticky loudspeaker, the conductor's voice thick with New England old saybrook New London. Wickford. Loud enough to keep people from the wrong train, Amtrak hoped. Providence, Back Bay, South Station. Loud enough to keep her from remembering. The train lurched into motion, the awkward first step before it gained speed and momentum, heavy and smooth. Familiar comfort. Next stop, New Rochelle. She exhaled. Four hours to what came next. Is someone with you? It shouldn't have surprised her, but she startled anyway, straightening to meet the serious gray gaze of the man she'd seen on the platform earlier, tall and stern, taller now that he was close. Sterner too. Dark brows rose, punctuating the question as he tilted his chin in the direction of the seat next to her, where her ancient canvas satchel sat, forgotten. No one was with her. No. She grabbed the bag and shoved it to her feet. Sorry. The noise he made in reply was almost impossible to hear above the sound of the train on the track, the white noise of the air conditioning, the slide of his overnight bag onto the rack above. He folded himself into the space she'd cleared, knees pressed to the back of the seat in front of him. On another day she might have paid closer attention, but she did not have time for noticing him. In fact, she vaguely resented his presence for reminding her that she was single again, for filling up the seat with his long legs, and the kind of judgment that came from strangers who had no idea that you'd had a day, that you were preparing to have multiple days. Five days, and then she was out. She could survive five days. She cleared her throat and adjusted her position in the seat, closing her eyes, trying to lose herself in the rhythmic thud of the wheels as the train shot out of the tunnel in Queens and they left New York City behind. An hour into the ride, they pressed east along the southern coast of New England, and Alice, unable to sleep, phone dead and lacking capacity to focus on the book she'd shoved into her bag as she'd rushed from her apartment that afternoon, peered into the inky darkness outside the window where Long Island Sound lay still and flat and invisible in the distance beyond the saltwater marshland of the Connecticut coast. It would have been impossible to see anyway, thanks to the late hour in the dark sky, but the view had competition, the fluorescent lights reflecting the inside of the train car against the glass, casting a pale glow over the cluttered shelf across the aisle full of sleeping bags and suitcases and a large tote bag with electric pink piping pickleball paddle jammed into the side pocket beneath the collection of travel detritus, two teenage girls laughed at a curly haired boy hanging over the seat in front of them, a goofy smile on his face. On another night, Alice might have smiled at the picture they made late summer perfection. But tonight it was a different part of the reflection that distracted her, the bright shining rectangle glowing in her neighbor's lap. His phone was open to some social app, one with Endless Scroll. He should turn that off. Endless scroll rotted a person's brain. It had been rotting hers before she boarded the train, searching for the dopamine hit of makeup tutorials and cat videos, antidotes to her mother's call, the first she'd made to Alice in five years. Her seatmate paused, a headline impossibly large against the darkness outside. She had no trouble reading the text in the mirrored reflection, trailblazing Genius Franklin storm, dead at 70. His thumb hovered over the link. Don't, she willed, not sure she would be able to look away, even though she knew the story within, had known it since she was born. Franklin Storm had stepped into his parents garage in North Boston at the age of 17 and changed computing and the world with $1,107 and a dream. He'd made computers large and small, brought them into homes and schools and placed them in pockets and on wrists the world over. That was the first paragraph. The ones that followed would be about his company, his vast collection of art, his philanthropy, his charm, his daredevil tendencies. No one should be too surprised by a gliding accident, really. And then his family. There'd be photos, probably from his 70th birthday, taken that past April, the ones Alice had poured over in the style section of the Times. Captions, a footnote about the child not pictured, not invited, a reminder of why don't open it. He didn't, alice breathed again, swallowing the urge to tell him to read a book or something. She reached down and pulled a newspaper out of her bag. She hadn't held a print newspaper since she was a kid, when a stack of them would be delivered to the apartment every morning. Still, she smoothed her hand over the front page of that morning's New York Times, printed 20 hours earlier, rendered instantly obsolete in this world where allegedly breaking news came all day, all hours, directly to a person's preferred rectangle. There, then gone, turned instantly into the past to make room for the future, a shift so quick that the present simply disappeared. Why had she bought it? Alice rubbed a thumb across the words, tattooing herself with the ink of yesterday's news. The before. Tomorrow's paper would be the after. The top of the fold on the front page would be devoted to her father's death. The biggest story of the week, of the year. Longer for Alice and her therapist. She traced a headline about inflation, another about unhoused New Yorkers, a third about the solar power revolution. Stories that were more important than anything the paper would say the next day. Stories she couldn't read because there in her peripheral vision, her seatmate had turned over his phone and the back of it gleamed smooth black obsidian without any reflection, its only mark a swirling silver S like the eye of a hurricane. Years ago, when she was young, that insignia had words that came with it, repeated over and over on television commercials, radio plays, print advertisements. The whole world knew them. Storm inside the world didn't know the half of it. Chapter 2 Before the Robber barons of the Gilded Age changed the face of American business with steel and banks and oil, Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt changed the face of American travel, snapping up and consolidating more than a dozen small railway lines and amassing a fortune that few had ever seen outside of royalty. Who needs titles when you can have trains? In 1870, Cornelius Vanderbilt II nepo grandbaby to Cornelius Vanderbilt Original Flavor did what rich young men have done for as long as they have been rich young men. He used his grandfather's money and power and influence to make it easier for him to have friends over for parties. With his brother, young Cornelius established the Newport and Wickford Railroad and Steamboat Company, overseeing a mere three and a half miles of train track from the main rail line connecting New York and Boston to the port of Wickford, Rhode Island. A sleepy town with wildly desirable geography, Wickford was located on the western edge of Narragansett Bay, the 147 square mile estuary that divided the western mainland half of Rhode island from the eastern side of the state. An archipelago where New York City's wealthiest 19th century families built the over the top man that would remain a hallmark of Rhode island tourism and American film for more than a century. It was the Vanderbilts who put Wickford on the map, quite literally plucking valuable farmland and ocean views from unsuspecting Rhode Islanders. Eminent domain isn't just for present day billionaires and laying the track that would become the safest, easiest journey to Newport. For New York's elite, along with their dogs, servants, and secrets, it also opened up access to a collection of small private islands peppering the bay. On that particular Wednesday before Labor Day, as Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 1603 crossed the Rhode island border, it occurred to Alice that if the Vanderbilts got one look at the train's worn maroon carpet and polyester blend upholstery. They would have bemoaned the seeding of rail travel to the common man and paid someone to set the whole thing on fire. Robber barons would robber baron. Of that Alice was certain. She'd been raised by one, after all. With a soft excuse me to the long legs in the aisle seat, Alice gathered her bags and headed for one of the three doors that would open to the elevated platform of the once again sleepy town, no longer a hub of travel for the wealthy and famous. Staring at her newly charged phone, she ignored the red bubbles at the corner of every app she used regularly. 14 new voicemails, 63 new emails, 121 new text messages. She swiped to a rideshare app, her thumb hovering over the green square as she waited for the SOS at the top of the screen to turn to bars indicating service and tried not to impart double meaning into that sos. This is my stop, too. She whirled to face the words and the man standing there. Tall, stern, long legs, rotted brain. Nice voice. Quiet and deep. The kind of voice that made someone want to listen. Alice hadn't noticed that before. Sorry. I'm only saying it so you don't think that I'm following you. It was a perfectly nice thing to say, but Alice Storm, third child of trailblazing genius Franklin storm, dead at 70, had spent a lifetime being followed. The train began to slow. That sounds like something someone following me would say. The corner of his straight, serious mouth tilted up. Barely. Scout's honor. Before she could respond, the conductor came through the automatic doors. Wickford. It came out like Wickford, and Alice couldn't help her smile at the sound of her childhood. Yes, Nice place for Labor Day weekend, the conductor noted. Her smile faded. Sure is, the man who wasn't following her replied. Gonna get some lobster. Lobster. The train stopped and the doors opened with a heavy slide. A modern day portcullis. Sure are surprised by his use of the plural, Alice looked back. He wasn't looking at her. The conductor tipped his chin toward the train platform. Lucky. Have a good weekend. Thank you, alice said, stepping down onto the platform as her neighbor replied, you two. The words were lost in the rhythm of the wheels, steady and reliable, already headed north. Alice hesitated, watching the train go, and for a wild moment wondered what would happen if she ran after it like in a movie, leaping from the end of the platform, catching the end of the last car, riding it all the way to Boston. Hero shit, gabby would say. Alice sighed. The likelihood of her catching the back end of an accelerating train aside, zero likelihood for the record doing so would change nothing. The news would still be the same. That and her family was already expecting her not to show up, and she refused to give them the satisfaction of being right. Alice's phone showed two bars, thankfully, and she made quick work of summoning a ride. It was too far of a walk to the docks and too late to wait inside anywhere. Nothing in the quiet town was open past 10, even on the last week of summer. She set her bags down in the cone of a bright yellow street lamp, staying outside the light to avoid the potato bugs that danced around an enormous no LITTERING sign, and settled in for the 20 minute wait for the driver she'd been assigned, watching as the handful of other passengers piled into cars lined up along the street. A few happy hugs and excited hellos and slam trunks later, the street was empty except for two cars and an SUV parked on the far side, dark and quiet, leaving Alice alone. Or alone ish. 30ft away, her neighbor stood under a street lamp of his own, braving the potato bugs, phone in hand, looking her way. He lifted the rectangle as though it meant something. My ride isn't here. It's okay. I don't want you to think that you're following me. He nodded once, firm. Right. You're doing a good job of throwing me off the scent. Good. A few minutes passed. Her driver, Benny, would arrive in 17 minutes in a gray Honda, which meant she'd be at the wharf in 25 minutes, on the island in an hour, if she was lucky. Everyone would be asleep. It would be almost two in the morning. Everyone should be asleep. Please let them all be asleep. A rumble sounded in the distance, far away and almost unnoticeable, the heavy promise of a nearby storm, the kind that came on summer nights by the water. Streaks of lightning and roaring thunder and rain that soaked you through the moment it started before it blew past, leaving clear skies and bright stars in its wake. Dad loved a summer storm. The thought whispered through her, and she sucked in a breath at the sting of it, an ordinary thought that had no place in her extraordinary relationship, such as it was with her father. Eager for distraction, Alice checked on her unlikely companion, still staring at his phone. He was in gray slacks, which was weird. Normal people didn't wear business attire in south county in the middle of the night, especially in the first week of September, 75 degrees and full of the humidity that came with being five minutes from the ocean. Nevertheless, gray slacks and a white button down, it was the only nod to the time or season or location. The way he'd rolled up his sleeves to reveal forearms, Alice noticed, as a student of the artistic form, not for any other reason. One of those arms boasted a spill of black ink that she couldn't identify at a distance. She wondered if the people he dressed for knew about that tattoo. Hiding pieces of yourself was something Alice recognized. Her gaze tracked up to his face, along the sharp line of his jaw. Unyielding. Distracting. She called across the wide expanse separating them. Them. You were a Boy Scout. He looked over immediately, as though he'd been waiting for her to speak. He didn't miss the reference to his words on the train. With a dip of his head, something a lesser observer might call chagrin, he replied, I wasn't. Impersonating a uniformed officer is a pretty serious infraction, you know. He put a hand to his chest. I'm sorry. I'm not mad.

[Sarah McLean]

Bad.

[C]

Just disappointed. White teeth flashed and he looked away down the quiet one way street as though willing a car to come around the corner and stop him from making a bad decision. When it didn't come, he said, what if I told you I'm good at building fires anyway? An arsonist, then? Nah. He shook his head. I'm even better at putting them out. Considering Alice was about to walk into fire, it was the exact right thing to say. In that case, you can wait over here with me if you'd like. On a different day, at a different time, she never would have made the offer. Twelve years riding the New York City subway gave a girl a very real sense of self preservation around even the handsomest of men. And if the subway hadn't up until two months ago, the existence of the handsome man she'd been intending to marry would have made her tread very carefully around this one. But there was something reckless about that moment. In the dark, in the dead of night, in that place somehow uncomfortably close to her real life and wildly far from it, with a man who might have been the last person she met for a while, who didn't know exactly who she was, exactly why she was there. What was the harm? The invitation hung between them in air heavy with saltwater and the coming storm. Long legs stayed perfectly still, time stretching until Alice thought he was going to decline and she would have no choice but to walk directly into the sea from embarrassment. Are you going to set a fire? I already did. You never know. When he moved, it was all at once with no hesitation, nothing but a long stride claiming the space between them with even, steady grace, and then he lowered himself to the bench next to her with a level of control that few people had so late at night. Like a train, like she was a scheduled stop. She smiled and he looked at her, curious. Is that for me? Another day, another time. I was just thinking about trains. His gaze flickered to the tracks behind her. Wish you'd stayed on it. How'd you guess? I might feel the same way. Way? For a heartbeat she wondered why, but she knew better than to ask, knowing that her questions would summon his own. Instead, she spilled a new conversation into the silence hanging between them. Trains make me think of Duke Ellington. He was a I know who Duke Ellington was. Are you a musician? Are you? No. But my father. She cut herself off.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Off.

[C]

She didn't want her father there. The handsome stranger didn't notice. Why do trains make you think of Duke Ellington? He toured the whole country with a full orchestra and a private rail car, he said, the sound low and thoughtful. Alice liked it. Sousaphones don't really fit in the overhead on the Amtrak regional. I don't think there was a sousaphone. If you say so, he said, and she couldn't help her little surprised laugh. There was something easy about this man, smooth and competent, the kind of guy who made you want to mess him up a little, make him have some fun. Except there wasn't time for fun. She looked at her phone. Benny was 10 minutes away. She pushed away the messy thoughts and was left with jazz. Most people don't know that Duke Ellington's orchestra went stratospheric here. Here in Rhode Island. Do you think that private rail car stopped here in Wickford? He exaggerated it like the conductor on the train, long and flat, missing the R. It did, in fact, a few times, and all we got were lukewarm hot dogs and day old coffee. The fall of civilization, she said softly, thinking of the many ways she'd traveled to this place in her life.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Life.

[C]

Expensive cars, helicopters, sailboats. She resisted the memories, turning instead to the excellent distraction before her, solid and tall, with those forearms that the tattoo was a compass, geometric and beautiful, arrows extending in long fine lines to his wrist and elbow. She spoke to it. You're not local. He didn't have to reply. She was right. Anyone would see it. He was pure stranger comes to town. Nothing about him even close to homegrown by seaweed and salt and clam shacks on the beach. He was too serious, too smooth. He lifted a hand, hesitated. You have paint in your hair. She brushed the hair and his hand away, self conscious and unsettled by how easily he had identified the paint, as though he knew where she'd been that morning, before she'd gone to her classroom, before her mother had called and everything had changed. Back when it had been a perfectly normal day, distant now, the past before he cleared his throat. I should introduce myself, he said, extending that hand that hadn't touched her like they were normal people doing a normal thing. I him don't. He didn't. Why not? Because then. Then she would have to introduce herself and then he'd know, and then it would get weird. And this wasn't weird? Well, it was weird, but it wasn't weird in the way that every other interaction in her lifetime had ended up weird. Storm like Franklin storm. Storm like storm technology. Storm like storm inside. Yes, she'd answer, and always with a laugh, like it was the cleverest, most original thing anyone had ever said, when what she'd really meant was, no, not like that, that's my father. When what she'd really meant was, don't think about it, don't remember, just let me be commonplace, common name. And then she'd pretend to be someone else because someone else was always more interesting than the truth. Truth, which was this. No matter how hard she tried, the most interesting thing about Alice Storm had always been her last name. She had been an outline of a person, shaded by the stories of her father. Madcap, genius, daredevil, billionaire, visionary, world changer. And then she'd been shaded by the story of what she'd done to him. How she'd betrayed him, how he'd exiled her, how she'd either deserved it or was better for it. It. Another rumble in the distance. Louder, closer. Of course, names make things complicated, she said, finally, meeting his gaze, intent beneath a furrowed brow, like he was trying to understand. I know it sounds dramatic, but my life is complicated enough this week. Any chance we could just skip them? He understood. Sure. He nodded and looked down at his phone. My car is almost here. She mirrored his actions. Mine too, she lied. Benny hadn't moved since the last time she'd checked. It's late, he said. Are you going to a hotel? No. A hesitation leagues long. Are you? I'm staying at the Quahog Key. Her brows rose at the mention of the motel that had been a Wickford landmark since electricity had come to south county with its blinking neon vacancy sign. No one ever stayed at the Quahog Cay. Why? Why the Quahog Key? Or why, in a more existential sense, I assume you chose the Quahog Key for its clever name. He didn't hesitate. I can't resist alliteration. Alice smiled and tilted her head, warm from something other than the summer evening. Do you even know what a Quahog is? I assume it's not something to be discussed in polite company. She laughed. And the existential sense. Why are you here? A pause. Work. Superior Business center at the Quahog Key, I hear. I prioritize a quality fax machine. When his smile flashed in the darkness, something coiled inside her. Desire. And then with a heavy thud, something else. Suspicion. She met his eyes. Are you a journalist? No. She had absolutely no reason to believe him. And still Scout's honor. Should I build you a fire to prove it? A rumble in the distance and she looked to the sky. Think you can do it before the storm gets here? I'll have to owe you one. I'll hold you to it. When she returned her attention to him, there was something in his eyes that she hadn't seen in a while, that she hadn't realized she missed. Good. She liked that word. Clipped and certain, as though this was a man who made promises and kept them. Who'd be around long enough to keep them. Then he was closer and something had changed, making her wonder what would happen if she took a night for herself before facing the inevitable. Another rumble. A reminder that any wild thoughts about a one night stand with a perfect stranger were just that. Wild thoughts. And Alice Storm was simply not the kind of person who made good on wild thoughts. She had a father who did that and look where it got him. Dead at 70. The words crashed over her, discordant and unwelcome, and she hated them for it. Grief shouldn't feel like this, should it? It should feel like screaming and crying and rending of clothes. Not like this. Empty. Like she wanted to fill it up with anything but sadness. Like she wanted to fill it up with this man. With one night. A car door slammed in the distance. She cleared her throat and looked back to her phone. Damn it. What happened? She shook her head. The universe. My ride canceled. A gray SUV turned the corner from Main Street. Long Legs said, that's mine. Thanks for keeping me company. There was no reason for her to feel like this. Like his departure was a loss. Like he was a port in the storm. Are you okay? No reason for him to notice that she wasn't. And still it felt. Do you need a ride? That definitely sounds like you were following me. Okay. But what if I don't want anyone else following you? It was a really decent thing to say, the kind of thing she'd remember fondly in an hour or so when she recounted this bad day understatement to her best friend, a sort of and then a really handsome, very decent guy asked me if I would be okay by myself kind of memory, and I wondered what he would say if I said definitely not. You should stay and protect me and also let me climb you like a tree. And Gabi would laugh and Alice would talk about the rest of the day, her ride bailing and the train being loud and packed with people and the missed calls requesting comments and interviews she was never going to give, and the calls that never came from the people who should have called and somehow everything would seem better when she hung up the phone. Except this wasn't the kind of bad day that was made better by a phone call. This was the kind of bad day that came along once in a lifetime because the bad luck, the ride and the train and the texts and the missed calls, it was all layered on top of something worse. My father died. The words were a knot in her throat. My father died and we hadn't spoken in five years and I don't know how I feel. She couldn't say them to the stranger. Instead she stepped toward him, tilted her head to the side, and tried for a different kind of feeling. If I let you give me a ride, what happens next? Something flashed in his eyes. Heat that felt good. The heat wasn't alone, though it came with regret or some cousin to it, like that decent guy didn't want to be so decent but would be nonetheless. The car pulled up beside them. She tilted her chin toward it. I'll be fine. It was nice meeting you. We didn't meet, he said. No names, remember? Maybe we will, she replied. Someday they wouldn't, but Alice stored the idea away like a memory anyway. Lightning flashed. Rushed. She counted. One, two, three, four. A heavy rumble of thunder. Five miles, he said. She didn't look at the car this time. You should go before. Before I make a bad decision. You're right. He didn't move. They were so still, hanging like the salty humidity around them. Them. Was he going to kiss her? Was she going to kiss him? Surely not. That wasn't the kind of thing Alice Storm did right in public in Wickford, Rhode island, in full view of a thousand insects and the driver of a Kia Sedona rideshare timer counting down on the dash. And still she was tempted. One kiss, one out of character decision, one stolen moment, one last reprieve, a mad scramble to avoid the unavoidable. Another rumble, this one in his chest, lost in a much louder one above, a wicked crack breaking everything apart. The sky. Rain suddenly everywhere, all around them in heavy sheets, the darkness. A flash of lightning so bright and close that they should have felt the heat of it. And then her name shouted from what seemed like inches away.

[Sarah McLean]

Alice.

[C]

She turned. The bright light hadn't been lightning. It had been a camera flash. Alice. The photographer shouted again, compact, wrinkled, unshaven, as though he'd been waiting for the train for hours. And maybe he had another shout, another man running from the far side of the street where the three cars had been sitting, dark, watching, waiting for something worth photographing. How had they known she would be there? How had she not known they would be there? There were two stories this week after all. One storm gone, the other returned. Alice, were you and your father still estranged? Why didn't you come with your brother and sisters? Are they speaking to you? Are you welcome at home? Years of training kicked in. Head down, stay on course. But there was no course. Benny and his Honda had bailed on her and she was alone under the streetlight in the rain outside a closed train station, surrounded by the enemy, unmoored. Please. She held up a hand, knowing it was futile. Don't. Before she could finish, what had she been going to say? Even she was in motion, pushed behind the not a boy scout, but honestly, kind of a boy scout, her view blocked by his wide shoulders plastered with rain soaked white cotton. Get back, he said, his tone unyielding. They didn't get back. Of course they did. Pictures of Franklin Storm's daughter today were worth this decent man's annual salary, and the paparazzi knew it. More flashes as the rain poured and Alice felt just slightly like she was drowning. Who's your boyfriend? Is it serious? God damn it, the man who was decidedly not her boyfriend sure sounded serious. Get in the car. A lifeboat. She turned to get her bags and he grabbed her hand, strong and sure.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Her.

[C]

No. The word stopped her in her tracks. Get in the car, Alice. He said her name like he'd been saying it for a lifetime, and she obeyed him instantly, unsurprised to find the driver already opening the rear door behind her. She heard long legs growl. I said get back. Another rumble of thunder covering up whatever happened to cause a sharp shout and a high pitched what the fuck? As she climbed inside the car, the driver looking past her as he said those deserved that. Once inside, Alice docked her head and waited as her unexpected rescuers shoved bags into the trunk and joined her, the driver turned around, excitement in his eyes. Guessing you don't want to head where the app is sending me? Not yet, came the terse reply from her companion, whose name she still didn't know. She should ask him, but maybe if she didn't, he wouldn't ask her either. Either. Or anything else. Anything like why are paparazzi waiting for you in this sleepy Rhode island town in the middle of the night? Why aren't you speaking to your family? Come to think of it, who is your family? Think you can lose them? A big smile. This driver was going to get free beers forever on this story. Dumbasses are from New York City. They know nothing about Rhode Island. Let's lose them, then. Yes, sir. The car peeled out of the drive, barely missing the man who leaped out of its path, the engine straining to live up to the full requirements of a getaway car. Then to the motel. We'll drop her first. It was a prompt, which she'd answer eventually, just as soon as she looked away from his hand, balled into a fist attached to that forearm that boasted the compass. Wet with rain and in the flash of the streetlights beyond, red knuckled like he'd hit something. Later, she would chalk it up to a wild combination of grief and loneliness that she liked, those knuckles scraped and raw. But in the moment when he turned his fist over and opened his hand with a ragged here. She liked it for other reasons, especially when she recognized the small rectangles on his palm. A pair of external SD cards. Her eyes flew to his and he said, from the cameras, that was it. Nothing more. No pressing her for information he was frankly owed, considering he'd committed some light assault for her. There was something powerfully appealing about a man who still didn't seem to care who she was or why she'd brought chaos into his life.

[Jennifer Prokop]

Life.

[C]

Are you okay? He asked, the second time since they'd left the train. No. But this helps. Where to, sweetheart? The driver this time. Where was she going? She'd been so sure of her path, so certain she'd been on the right one, and now nothing made sense. Nothing but this moment. She'd been in danger, and now she wasn't. And tomorrow everything would return. But tonight this made sense. He made sense. She reached out. Not for the SD cards. Instead she put her hand in his, capturing the rectangles between their palms, reveling in the heat of his touch. Rough and firm, steady like the train. Unlike everything else, the Quahog Key.