EntertainmentCarley Fortune on book adapted by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: “Very significant”In an interview, the author spoke about the success of her books After That Summer, Meet Me at the Lake and This Summer Will Be Different today at 4:00 p.m.

Carley Fortune She began her career as a journalist and worked as an editor for 16 years until she decided to change jobs and follow her dream of writing her own stories. After That Summerhis debut novel, soon became a bestseller from The New York Times, bringing relief to the Canadian writer and proving that she was following the right path.

Published in 2022 by Buzz in Brazil, the work gained a legion of readers around the world after going viral on TikTok. After That Summer tells the story of Persephone Fraserwho feels like he made the biggest mistake of his life as a teenager and never returned to the place he always considered home.

One day, Percy receives a phone call about the death of his mother Sam Florekher best friend and first love, who takes her back to Barry’s Bay and shows that the connection between the two has not faded with time and distance.

However, until she confronts the decisions she made, Percy and Sam They can never know if the love they feel for each other is truly greater than the mistakes they made in the past.

The success of After That Summer attracted Prime Video, which is developing a series based on the story. But the streaming platform is not the only one interested in the works of Fortune. The second book published by the writer, Meet Me at the Lake (2023), will be adapted by Archewell Production, founded by Prince Harry and for Meghan Markle.

At the beginning of the month, the author came to Brazil to participate in the São Paulo International Book Biennial and promote her third title, This Summer Will Be Different (2024). In an interview with Rolling Stone Brazilin partnership with CinemaBuzz, Fortune spoke about the success of his books, the progress of literary adaptations of his works and gave details of his next book, One Golden Summerwhich arrives in 2025. Check it out:

This Summer Will Be Different is his most recent novel. How does the work stand out from your previous publications?

Carley Fortune:It’s a love story, but it’s a best friends story, which is a relationship I’ve never explored before. It’s about coming of age in your 20s, how things seem easy or difficult in your 20s and how much they change. [A protagonista] Lucy He’s really discovering himself and trying to find his independence, trying to figure out where he belongs in the world. And there is also a new scenario. My previous two books were set in the Lakes, this one is set on Prince Edward Island, which is a beautiful place on the east coast of Canada. I think it’s a really fun escape.

You recently announced your fourth book, One Golden Summerone spin-off of After That Summer. When you wrote the book, were you already planning a story about Charlie Florek?

CF:No, but as soon as I finished After That SummerI was thinking about him. And readers have been asking me for a story about him since the book came out. I’ve had people come up to me personally and give me their ideas about who his love interest should be. And so I thought I’d revisit it. But what matters is that I’m in the right space to give you the right story, and it took me a little while to get there.

What can readers expect from One Golden Summer? Will Sam and Percy appear in the story?

CF:Yes, Sam and Percy are here. You will definitely see them. I also wrote a little bonus chapter, which will be published in my newsletter at the end of the year, which is about Sam and Percy and is set in Barry’s Bay in winter, around Christmas time. So there will be a little more of them. Even before the book was released.

One Golden Summer is a little different from my previous books because it is set in a single timeline, in the current summer, and takes place in the same number of years since After That Summer was published. So three years after the events of that book.

This is the total point of view of Alice, who is at the lake with her grandmother during the summer. She spent a summer at the lake when she was 17, watching Sam, Percy and Charlie like teenagers from afar, but never spoke to them. I think it’s a really fun story and I’m really excited about it.

Two of his books, After That Summer and Meet Me At The Lakewill be adapted. Are you involved in the projects?

CF:I am executive producer on both projects. In After That Summerthe writers are writing, it’s happening and I’m so excited. And in Meet Me At The LakeI can’t say much about how things are going, but it’s moving forward and, yes, I’m very happy with both projects.

What was your reaction when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wanted to adapt your book?

CF:I was very happy. What I mean to say, Meet Me At The Lake It was the most difficult book I’ve ever written. Of all my books, it was the one that gave me the most work, and it deals with a really important subject within the context of the novel. It’s about grief and mental health, and having gone through such a difficult time writing it and having it acknowledged in that way was really meaningful to me. And I also think it’s a very important story. It’s a very fun story, but very important. So I’m really grateful that it’s finding a larger audience.

After the success of After That Summerdid you feel pressure when releasing your next books?

CF:When I was writing my second book, my first book hadn’t come out yet. So, fortunately, I didn’t get any kind of feedback from the public about After That Summer. But even so, I felt pressure because I had an editor, a publishing team, a deadline and it was really difficult for me to write that book.

I spent two hours a day, when I was writing the novel, telling myself that I couldn’t do it, that my first book was a fluke, that I thought the book would be rubbish. It was really very challenging, even without knowing the success that After That Summer would do. So it was difficult. This Summer Will Be Different It seemed much lighter to me.

His books are highly recommended by readers on social media. Can you recommend any books you’ve read recently and loved?

CF:There are two that I love. One is called The Husbandsfrom Holly Gramazio. It’s about a woman who discovers that her attic can send her new husbands, so she gets a husband and then can send him back if she doesn’t like him and get a new husband. It’s a really fabulous book, fun, dark and funny, very different.

And another is The Mystery of Timefrom Kaliane Bradleywhich is about a government project where they are bringing people from the past to the present to try to adapt them to the present. Each of them is partnered with a present-day person, called a bridge, to help them live in the present, and this woman [a protagonista] is an explorer from the 1800s. It’s a kind of dystopia, it’s a kind of romance, it’s a time travel book.