What’s Your Book About?

“It’s about a single dad who falls in love with his daughter’s teacher.”

That’s the 13-word descriptor I give most people when they ask me what The Pick Up is about. I perfected it ages ago, back before I’d finished writing it, back when I wasn’t sure if this was a hobby or a career or anything. For most people, it works.

“Yes, but what is it about? What happens?”

That was my mom a couple days before Christmas. We were having lunch at my grandmother’s (for the record, my Nana is awesome and doesn’t give two figs that I write books about guys kissing).

“Well…” I said. “There’s this dad, and he moves back to his hometown and…”

Oh god this is awkward. I thought I’d escaped this kind of thing after I finished my query synopsis.

I am not alone in finding this challenging.

It’s a romance. They meet. They kinda don’t like each other so much at first, and then slowly realize how much better their life is with each other in it. There’s some not quite kissing, then some actual kissing, followed by Kyle saying some awkward things over Chinese food, and then there is more kissing.

Fin.

Oh, and this book also features the world premiere of the revolutionary field of ice cream psychology.

You don’t even need to buy the damn thing now, I’ve given the whole plot away.

I saw this amazing post on Facebook today. It gave book descriptors like “life with Asperger’s”, “YA Gatsby” and “extreme illegal sports”. Short and sweet. I’d read them all.

So what is The Pick Up about? In keeping with these tiny descriptors, here’s my best shot.

• Coming home
• Escaping your awkward teenage years
• Diplomacy via eggplant parmesan
• Astronaut princesses
• Serial texting
• The seductive properties of moo-shu pork
• Why Bluetooth headsets make bad first impressions
• Uncomfortable conversations with your parents

Is that better? You can layer those over my earlier “they almost kiss” summary and you’ve pretty well got the whole story nailed down.

The Pick Up comes out two months today. It’s about all those things and I’d really love it if you’d read it. You can pre-order here, or sign up for my mailing list and I’ll send out links to the major retailers just as soon as I have them.

In the meantime, leave a comment and tell me what your favourite book is about.

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