Georgia Clark wrote the novels The Regulars, The Bucket List, and others. She is the host and founder of the popular storytelling night, Generation Women. A native Australian, she lives in Brooklyn with her hot wife and a fridge full of cheese. This year, Georgia’s new novel It Had To Be You hits shelves on May 4th and we had the pleasure of chatting with her about writing, romance novels, and more!
Can you tell us about It Had To Be You?
It Had to Be You is a modern romantic comedy set in New York that centers around two mismatched wedding planners. For the past twenty years, Liv and Eliot Goldenhorn have run In Love in New York, one of Brooklyn’s top wedding-planning business. When Eliot dies unexpectedly, he even more unexpectedly leaves half of the business to his younger, blonder girlfriend, Savannah Shipley. Liv and Savannah are polar opposites: while Liv is a cynical New Yorker, Savannah would see the silver lining at a funeral. But what starts as a personal and professional nightmare transforms into something even savvy Liv Goldenhorn couldn’t begin to imagine. It Had to Be You unites Liv, Savannah, and a diverse group of couples in a braided narrative. My aim was to write something sexy, tender, and charming.
It Had to Be You is your first rom-com. How did the writing process differ from how you approached writing your previous Atria novels, The Regulars and The Bucket List?
In the first draft, the story was more laser-focused on Liv, who was a much darker character. In the first scene, Liv (who back then was “Jude”) showed up drunk and wild with grief to Eliot’s funeral, where she doesn’t recognize her own mother (a purely comic character I ended up cutting) and then gave an epically awful funeral speech. I thought it was blackly funny: my agent Allison described it as “prickly.” Regardless, in the fall of 2018, we sold the book off a 25,000-word submission (we call that “a partial”). Over drinks, Allison suggested making Liv less angry and more vulnerable, and leaning into the warmth of the book’s premise. When my editor Emily agreed, I decided to change tack.
I’d never written a rom-com but felt quite jealous of people doing good ones. I loved the genre, and as a sensitive, romantic queer girl, rom-coms are political for me: representation matters. Because this was my fifth novel, I was feeling confident that I could pull of something more ambitious. How about not just one love story; how about five? I’m a sensation seeker: I liked the extravagance of the idea. I wanted to see if I could pull it off. I started from scratch on a new outline in early 2019 at the blessedly indulgent Rowland Writers Residence. I wrote the (new) first and second drafts that year, all while planning, then having, my own wedding. The final edits were completed in March 2020 as the world was starting to change forever. I loved playing in the genre and finding ways to subvert it while still delivering what readers of romance want. While It Had to Be You features five romantic couples, the pairing at the center of the story isn’t a man and woman, nor is it romantic. It’s Liv and Savannah, two women a generation apart from entirely different backgrounds whose mutual lover’s death ultimately allowed them both to form truer identities. That felt unique in a rom-com. It wasn’t until I finished that I realized I’d told a story about people coming together across deep ideological divides.
There’s a long tradition of romantic comedies set in New York City, on-screen and in books. Were there any movies or novels you drew on during your writing? How much did you want them to influence your book, if at all?
Why is New York so synonymous with romance? Perhaps because finding happiness in this city requires imagination, generosity, and a degree of cool practicality, not unlike maintaining love itself. Love is an intangible shared act of will: where better to conjure it than the city of dreams? Perhaps it’s because the city is so antithetical to love (just ask anyone on the apps): love in New York is a victory, against the odds. I’m a Nora Ephron devotee. I rewatched her classic rom-com trio (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail) to channel timeless, witty, romantic repartee. When Harry Met Sally is probably my fave: the characters still feel so real and fresh and modern (some minor gender politics aside). Having my editor compare my writing to Nora’s in the editor’s letter in galleys was my greatest triumph as a writer to date.
I revisited Four Weddings and a Funeral, Serendipity, and Notting Hill; the latter helped inspire Clay’s and Zia’s story. I liked the idea of working straight from a well-known trope—waitress meets movie star. It’s a classic; it’s compelling. It was sexy and fun getting to know Clay and Zia; I enjoy writing about fame and the strange demands it makes on individuals. In early drafts Zia was more of a party girl; my smart developmental editor Sarah helped mature her into someone wise and responsible, recovering from trauma. The simple trope evolved into an entirely believable love story.
And of course, there’s a boundless amount of wonderful rom-coms reads. I’m obsessed with the queer/modern/cool vibe of Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue, the accessible sexiness of Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date, and the underrated Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke, another clever kaleidoscope of-love-stories. The Hating Game, The Kiss Quotient, Talia Hibbert for ultimate URST. It’s not a rom-com but The Nest was a well-executed ensemble story that stuck with me.
I also read a lot about the wedding industry (such as One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding by Rebecca Mead), to get into Liv’s more cynical brain, and was necessarily reading wedding planning books for my own purposes (I think every bride-to-be is given a copy of A Practical Wedding). I wanted to absorb the warmth and wisdom from these rom-com classics in order to create my own.
Ironically, you were planning your own wedding as you were writing It Had to Be You! How did planning your own wedding influence the book, and vice versa?
I never had any doubts about getting married to my wife, but to be perfectly frank, I found wedding planning incredibly stressful. Not just the overwhelming logistics and financial burden: turns out getting married to an American in America brought up a lot of family and identity issues for this Aussie ex-pat. Of course it helped the work, making Savannah’s understanding of the industry authentic. But the best thing about writing this book over planning my wedding was the escape it provided! It was a true balm: the tone and humor and heat of this story were very soothing and fun. It was a pleasure to spend time in these character’s worlds, doing all the careful writerly work of making something feel airy and honest and beautiful.
The opening page of the story states the thematic territory: tradition and ritual didn’t arise from some universal experience of love and commitment. Rituals were reinvented and reinterpreted all the time. All of the characters are negotiating the tension between tradition and modernity: between who they should be vs. who they are. That’s essentially the conflict most couples wrestle with in wedding planning, and I was no exception: Do I want to wear white or do I feel I should wear white? What is my true desire? Who am I? On the flip side, while weddings are steeped in tradition that can be stifling, they’re also a Bacchanalian space outside of regular life where change happens and surprises occur. And there was something interesting about seeing all that through the lens of people not getting married, but helping others get married, as a day job. How does constantly assisting with the performance of love affect your own love life? I’m always interested in paradoxes like that.
You’ve created a beautifully diverse and authentic cast of characters who are navigating love in different ways. Who was your favorite character to write and why?
I truly enjoyed being in every single one of these character’s heads: I’m a Pisces, prone to fantasy, so all I ever really want to do is lose myself in a dreamy otherworld . . . It was fun being in Zach’s head: not only is he outrageously charming and funny and a total horndog but as I spent time with him, I realized how deep Zach’s river ran: he’s a sensitive soul, and more complex than people give him credit for. I also really enjoyed channeling Gorman. I relate to his ambivalence about marriage as an institution, his artistic ambition, and his dry-as-a-bone sense of humor. Gorman’s a dark horse; maybe I am, too.
Do you have any plans for future projects? Will you stick to writing rom-coms (we hope so!)?
I had so much fun working in rom-com, of course, I had to do it again. My next book is another ensemble comedy/drama that takes place in a wild and beautiful setting: I promise you will have never read a book set there before. Its centered around two families, one Australian, one American, with a sweet-and-sexy queer rom-com at its giant beating heart. As someone who came out at nineteen, it’s bizarre to me that I haven’t written a central girl-on-girl love story yet. My next book will remedy that: fans of queer rom-com will fall hard for Liss and Amelia. I’m having a ridiculously good time hanging to with this funny, charming cast, telling a beautiful, feel-good story surrounded by the natural world. I’m incredibly excited to share it with everyone, as soon as I can.
Will you be picking up It Had To Be You? Tell us in the comments below!
