Emma Grey: Writing Through My Grief

Emma Grey is an acclaimed Australian journalist and young adult fiction writer. Her writing has appeared in The Age, Canberra Times, and Herald Sun. The Last Love Note is her debut adult novel. She lives in Canberra, Australia, with her family. Follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Emma Grey

In this post, Emma discusses the painful and cathartic process of writing her new contemporary romance, The Last Love Note, what she hopes readers get from the experience, and more!

Name: Emma Grey
Literary agent: Anjanette Fennell, Story as Life
Book title: The Last Love Note
Publisher: Zibby Books
Release date: November 28, 2023
Genre/category: Contemporary romance
Previous titles: Unrequited: Boy Band Meets Girl; Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess; I Don’t Have Time (Co-authored with Audrey Thomas)
Elevator pitch: Two years after losing her husband, midlife widow Kate Whittaker is still processing her loss while wrestling with the idea of opening her heart to someone new. The Last Love Note is a novel hard-won through the author’s personal experience.

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What prompted you to write this book?

My husband, Jeff, died in 2016. I was 42, with a five-year-old son and two teenage daughters from my first marriage. I needed to find a way through my grief and, as a writer, I knew that would be through words.

I’d wondered about writing my story as a memoir or self-help book but chose fiction. It meant I could take the depth of my genuine emotions and pour them into a character’s world. Writing my grief through Kate’s eyes was cathartic and liberating.

All along, I wanted the story to be deeply poignant but also uplifting and joyous. I wanted Kate to juggle the emotions of second-chance love after loss, and to use that challenge to convey the complexity of grief.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I went through my grief in tandem with my protagonist, so there were six years between writing the first words and the last. I’m Australian, but I began writing it in the New York Public Library. I’d been flown to the U.S. for a memorial conference in my husband’s honor. There, I had reached a desperate low—it was a beautiful experience, but it was like being at a second funeral.

After that, I took myself to New York—a city that has endured so much collective grief, yet is brimming with dazzling hope. It felt right to begin what I knew would be an important work for me, a book inspired by my loss, and one that is hope-filled for my future. Taking my own experience and fictionalizing it gave me an opportunity to explore loss with abandon.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

We’re told to “write what you know,” but I hadn’t realized just how powerful that can be. It’s also much easier as an author, not to have to stretch your imagination too far inhabit a character’s world. The result is transparent and “close” for the reader. It made the truly fictional aspects of the book so light and freeing (my character has found a second love story, but I have not) which was great fun!

Publishing with Zibby Books has been eye-opening. The emphasis on placing the author at the center of the process is fresh and exciting—the team keeps authors in the loop all through, whether we’re wrangling font choices or cover designs or planning a tour. I’m thrilled that my agent, Anjanette Fennell, slid into Zibby’s DMs’ about a year ago, suggesting she read this book…

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I’m a panster, so the writing process is always full of surprises, as I don’t plot. This one tracks through the past and present timeline, and I love the challenge of that – particularly when you don’t have a preconceived notion of where it’s headed.

I planted a secret between two of the main characters, very early on. When I did that, I didn’t know what the secret was, just that there was one. It wasn’t until almost the moment this was unveiled to Kate that I finally knew the answer myself, and that chase for the truth is what keeps the writing process spontaneous and interesting.

The editing stage is where the real magic happens. The initial draft burst out in about five weeks, but several years and 11 drafts later—we have the final version. I cut 30,000 words during the structural edit and rewrote another 40,000. The book is much stronger for having the courage to be ruthless and the patience to know it’s not yet where you want it to be.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I want this to be a cathartic, hopeful read, whether readers have loved and lost or not. It’s a romantic comedy, but with a complex mix of deep emotion, humor, and a hard-won ending in the tradition of those big movie romcoms many of us grew up loving. I love hearing that readers are shedding tears of sadness and tears of joy.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

My agent’s brilliant advice at the start of a new book is just to “race to the end.” It’s about getting through that messy first draft, without too much tinkering. Once you have a story on the page, that’s where the real work starts and where the best writing happens. Remember, we all look at our stumbling first drafts and think, “What is this? I can’t write!” You can!

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