\t\t\t\t\tAlex Aster at a photoshoot in New York. Photographed by Victoria Stevens, Hair: Rutger, Makeup: Brigitte Reiss-Andersen <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tIt\u2019s really cool to look back at the process because it really informs the writing. Whatever you\u2019re watching, whatever you\u2019re reading, whatever you\u2019re working on can sometimes bleed into what you\u2019re writing, even if it\u2019s your own other book so it was really fun. I smiled every day that I wrote this book.<\/p>\n \n\tIn Summer in the City<\/em>, you decided to set it in both the summertime and New York. Why specifically were those background details important for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI wanted it to be a love story for [Elle], not only with Parker, but with the city itself. And in terms of summer, I think I love summer in the city. I just think it\u2019s so fun. People are outside reading in the parks and there are lots of outdoor restaurants, and it just feels like the city has a vitality that isn\u2019t really there in the winter because it\u2019s so cold people are rushing around and obviously New York City\u2019s famous for people just rushing around. Everyone\u2019s too busy. But I do feel like in the summer, people slow down and they really are trying to enjoy the little nature we have here. They\u2019re trying to enjoy coffee shops and people just feel different\u2026I also think that I\u2019ve seen a lot of summer books that are in tropical locations or something, so I was like, let me see if I can show my love of the summer in New York City.<\/p>\n \n\tElle describes Parker as her \u201ctwisted muse.\u201d Break down the psychology of that because going from writer\u2019s block to being able to draft out a whole screenplay based off the time she spent with him, it\u2019s clear something is going on here.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI think I always am so fascinated by the writing process and not just for books, obviously I only really write books, so that\u2019s the process I know. But I\u2019ve heard of, for example, songwriters when they go through a really bad breakup or something, they have so much to use. I think I heard a famous singer talk about how she didn\u2019t know what she would do if she was happy or not going through breakups because you have so much to draw upon when you\u2019re so full of emotion and feeling.<\/p>\n \n\tI really wanted to dig in what if she just hates him so much that hatred is feeling something because Elle is just not feeling anything. She\u2019s not inspired, she\u2019s just kind of going through life like a zombie, but he just kind of tears that down because she hates him so much. And so hatred is a very strong emotion, or at least she thinks she hates him. I wanted him to be her twisted muse of she just can\u2019t help but feel in those feelings, even if they\u2019re negative, they drag the words out of her. Because I do think writing is sometimes a very emotional process.<\/p>\n \n\tYou\u2019re trying to make sense of the world through words, and a lot of times that happens when you are in a vulnerable or emotional place\u2026So I liked that dynamic as what if the cure to your writer\u2019s block is the guy that you met in a stairwell a few years ago?<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m starting to see little cracks maybe in her past or her character. What is it about Parker that she hates?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tParker does just kind of symbolize something that she does dislike. Sometimes you don\u2019t really dislike someone or hate someone or anything, but it\u2019s just the fact that they remind you of something and that they represent something like your worst fear. I wanted him to represent her worst fears and also her insecurities that as much as she tries to run from her feelings by writing and by succeeding in this way, she\u2019s never going to really truly be whole because she always has this gap.<\/p>\n \n\tHealthy people don\u2019t really determine their worth or their feelings based on external factors or success. And so the same way she kind of judges him thinking how he gets his self-worth, she\u2019s actually looking into a mirror and it\u2019s her. I wanted a dynamic where he would represent her biggest fear that people wouldn\u2019t take her career seriously or that people would assume that she needed help, when she worked so hard to independently be her own support system and her own everything because of the way her mom raised her and what happened with her parents.<\/p>\n I think she\u2019s very prickly. That\u2019s why [her best friend] Penelope calls her a cactus. She\u2019s one of those people that the second you say something, the walls come up. And I think it\u2019s interesting because you would think Parker would be the character that\u2019s determining his self-worth based on that. And at least through the journey of this book, he really doesn\u2019t. She\u2019s the one who does that, and she puts that on him as well.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd they actually had a conversation where Parker pointed out how Elle judged him. Even then, she was making excuses. Do you think that she suffers with a lack of self-awareness because of her positioning in her life? How has her life kind of built her up for this moment?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI love that you pointed that out because it really is. I smiled writing that because I was like, she\u2019s being so hypocritical, and I like that he calls her out, \u201cYou literally did the same thing to me.\u201d I think it\u2019s because she\u2019s the older sister. But most of all, because she\u2019s a hermit, she hasn\u2019t allowed people into her life except for Penelope. When you\u2019re not around people a lot, I do feel like people lose their self-awareness because they just think everyone else is out to get them, but they don\u2019t understand how their own emotions and their own actions can also do that to other people. So it\u2019s not like she thinks of herself necessarily as a victim, but I do think that she just believes that he wants to hurt her and that she has not hurt him.<\/p>\n \n\tShe doesn\u2019t understand how her actions can be hurtful to him and I think that that is what she learns, and especially in the ending, she learns throughout the story that she can hurt him too. She just believes people like him are strong enough not to be hurt by stuff like that and I think that because she\u2019s been hurt emotionally because she lost her mom and because she basically doesn\u2019t really have parents, I think she just has this big wound. I think people that are hurting, they often cannot see the hurts that they also give to other people.<\/p>\n \n\tWhy specifically did you want to use the \u201cenemies to lovers\u201d trope with Elle and Parker?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tI just love enemies to lovers. I just love reading it. I like the idea that he feels like he has to make up for something that he did, but I do like that dynamic where the first impression or something that happened is they hate each other. Parker doesn\u2019t really ever hate her, it\u2019s kind of on her end that she makes all these assumptions about him. And I like kind of proving her wrong of like, \u201cOh, you thought this about him actually, he\u2019s like this<\/em>.\u201d And also knocking her down a peg of you think that you are so great, but you\u2019re judging someone. I think that it just lends to a lot of fun moments when you force proximity. The people who don\u2019t like each other, you shove them together, so they\u2019re sharing a wall. They live in the same floor.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tAlex Aster at a photoshoot in New York. Photographed by Victoria Stevens, Hair: Rutger, Makeup: Brigitte Reiss-Andersen <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tHow would you as an author describe Elle? Why did you want to make her so complex and slightly grumpy?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tShe\u2019s just scared, I think, of being hurt. And this isn\u2019t a descriptor, but I guess she\u2019s just kind of living life on the sidelines and is starting to realize it. She\u2019s like, \u201cI wonder when I started noticing when my life is boring?\u201d She is starting to realize life is passing her by, and she\u2019s kind of on the outskirts and she\u2019s writing stories instead of living them.<\/p>\n \n\tShe\u2019s very successful in her career. I wanted also to have someone display that sometimes you can look like you have everything together, but you really don\u2019t. A lot of times it is real, whether it\u2019s Parker [or] whether it\u2019s Elle, that you pour so much of yourself into your job, that everything else suffers.<\/p>\n \n\tI think that\u2019s cool too, because as we evolve and grow and change as people in general, sometimes there is some of that tug of war.<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tYou want to change, but it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s so much easier, I would say, to just sit and stay in your apartment. It\u2019s so much easier to just not. I think the isolation of the pandemic and of also being an adult and making friends is really hard. It\u2019s very easy to just not have friends and to be alone and to just either use your career or something else as like a crutch. I wanted to also speak to kind of adult loneliness. She has Penelope, but when she\u2019s in New York for the summer, she kind of realizes \u201cIf I don\u2019t go and make friends, I\u2019m going to be alone.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt was important for me to have those friendships in there too, because I wanted to show that it wasn\u2019t just her love story with Parker, it was with the city. It was with discovering the beauty of having friends and having a life outside your apartment, outside your career. I think it\u2019s maybe common, unfortunately for people to just grow up and after college, after high school, it\u2019s hard to make friends after.<\/p>\n \n\tIf you were to bring this book to life via series or a movie adaptation, who would you want to play these characters?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tThis is one of my biggest things, why I\u2019m so excited for the book to come out. I really want people to tell me what they think. [Fancasting on TikTok<\/a> is] so good. I\u2019ve seen for other books\u2026 I\u2019m like, \u201cOh my gosh, you should work and casting. You did such a good job!\u201d <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
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