LIVE! #80
3 May 2026
Agenda
- Why We're Here / Roundtable Rules
- Introduction to Literary Forensics
- Group Discussion
- Further Study
Why We're Here
We writers want to improve our craft
by reading like a writer
We learn from each other
using Literary Forensics
Roundtable Rules
Always refer back to the book
Practice active listening & serendipity
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but not every conclusion
Always refer back to the book
Reading Teaches Writing
Meet today's author: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Reid majored in Media Studies at Emerson. Worked as a casting assistant in LA and at a high school, landing her agent at age 24.
- In 2013 she published the first of nine NYT best-selling novels, Forever, Interrupted, and in 2025 Simon & Schuster paid Reid a $40M advance for her next five.
- Reid likes to write about strong women (Evelyn Hugo, Daisy Jones, Nina Riva, Carrie Soto), but all of her protagonists let go of their ambition in favor of their loves.
- She believes her core story is always about the search for "found family": those who will love and accept you. She doesn't think a person can be famous and still belong to themselves.
- Reid won't write a book without a hook, takes 4-8 weeks for a first draft, and has never abandoned writing a book in the middle.
- Reid lives with her husband Alex and their daughter Lilah.
- In 2025 she told Time Magazine she is bisexual.
On research:
"I see a story and then I need to
become the person who can tell you that story."
—Taylor Jenkins Reid
"I don't really care what happens.
I don't care how it happens. I just care who it happens to. That, to me, is the story."
—Taylor Jenkins Reid
What do you feel?
What in the book elicited that feeling?
Every feeling and observation is valid...
but every conclusion should be questioned
We practice serendipity
- nothing is too crazy
Always refer back to the book
What do you notice?
Writing Atmosphere
- Setting came first: woman crashes the all-male astronaut program in 1980s.
- She crafted a story that had a reason to take place in that environment, starting with the CATCOM-crew member relationship, leading to Joan.
- Reid likes having a reason to research something: astronomy, shuttle.
- Researches usually reading books, but for this she conducted interviews.
- Paul Dye (longest serving Flight Director), Jeffrey Kruger (co-author of Apollo 13), and other older white men helped her without compensation, and it was Dye who gave her the idea for the spacewalk disaster.
- Reid was stymied by the need to be as factually accurate as possible. Called it the hardest book she has written by a wide margin. She almost quit multiple times, but once she gave up on "perfect" she was able to complete the novel.
- She focused on a gay romance at a time that an astronaut was not allowed to be gay. See: Sally Ride.
Stats & Background
- Marketing: Literary Fiction, Romance Literary Fiction, Fiction Sagas, Family Saga Fiction, Women's Friendship Fiction, Women's Domestic Life Fiction
- Genre: Historical Realistic Long-Form Archplot
- Print Pages: 352; Word count: 97,775
Reading Grade: 7th; Avg. wds/sent.: 9.80
Lexical Density: 46.33; Flesch Reading Ease: 80.61 - POV: Joan & Vanessa; Person: 3rd; Tense: Present (12/29/84), Past
- Publish date: June 3, 2025
- Publisher: Ballantine Books
- Audio book length: (9 hours, 52 mins)
- Narrators: Kristen DiMercurio, Julia Whelan, Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Screen adaptation: on the way...
- Recognition: #1 NYT Bestseller; A best book of the year: Time, NPR, People, Good Housekeeping, them, Marie Claire, Seattle Times, Book Riot, Library Journal, Chicago Public Library, She Reads, Denver Public Library
Upcoming meetings
June 7: King of Ashes - S. A. Cosby (USA, 2025)
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