Books Right Now Presents:
I’m so excited to feature Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman on Books Right Now! I absolutely love their sophomore novel, Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to interview them.
Intro
RD: For anyone who hasn’t read Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay yet, how would you describe your book in one or two sentences?
TD: Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay is a story about a grieving young writer who starts to believe that what she writes comes true after her husband’s death mirrors the death of her protagonist husband from her debut novel.
WK: It’s both a whimsical and emotional story about grief, family, love, and resilience, and the unexpected roles that coincidence and superstition can play in our lives.
A Deep Dive into Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay
RD: What inspired you to write Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay?
WK: The way we work is that we have to plot out the entire novel because there are two of us. We do all our brainstorming and plotting and know how everything ends before we even start writing.
We were almost through writing Girls with Bright Futures when in March 2019 our phones started blowing up with alerts about the Operation Varsity Blues college admissions scandal. It felt like we had written that into being.
TD: Then something similar happened again when we were writing another manuscript on youth sports mania. Our agent jokingly said something about us being the seers of upmarket fiction.
And we thought, what if that were true? What if what you wrote came true?
We’re a little superstitious, and there are certain things we don’t want to put out into the universe. So we built this character around that idea and explored what would happen if a writer really believed that what she wrote could come true.
RD: What did the co-writing process look like?
WK: Our process has three main parts. The first is intense brainstorming and plotting. Conversations often start with “what if?” We end up with a super detailed, scene-by-scene outline that can be around 70 pages long.
TD: At that point, the book is half written.
WK: The second part is the actual writing, which is probably the shortest part. We divide scenes up with no real rhyme or reason and stay very close in the draft so we can troubleshoot quickly. We surprise each other with scenes, which is one of the most fun parts.
TD: The third part is the edit, which is the most time-consuming. We revise extensively before sending anything to our agent. After that, there are more revisions with the agent and then with the editor. We use Google Docs, make suggestions, accept or reject changes, and by the end it doesn’t even matter who originally wrote which scene. It really feels like ours.
RD: What was the hardest scene to write, and what was the easiest?
TD: The hardest scene was the last scene. We toyed with many different endings before landing on our final choice. It was tough to conceptualize and to say goodbye to the characters in a way that felt right.
WK: The easiest scene was probably the meet-cute scene or the podcast scene. Those changed the least throughout the editing process because we had such a strong vision for them.
RD: What’s one theme or message you’d like to ensure readers take away from your book?
TD: We spent a lot of time and care on the idea of grief and what it means. Grief is lonely and deeply personal, and there’s no one right way to experience it.
We hope readers walk away with a sense of openness and grace toward their loved ones and themselves, along with humor and wonder about the world. We also believe that professional help can be an important part of healing, especially because we don’t always realize how hard we’re being on ourselves while grieving.
RD: Who would be your dream actress to play Thea in a film adaptation?
WK: That’s really tough because our characters feel like real people to us. Some actresses we’ve thought about include Florence Pugh, Margaret Qualley, and Lily Collins.
RD: What would be the ideal theme song for Thea?
TD: Fearless by Taylor Swift!
Meet the Storyteller
RD: What were your favorite books growing up?
TD: I would have to say my number one favorite as a child was Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.
WK: That was very high on my list, along with everything by Beverly Cleary.
TD: And everything by Judy Blume!
WK: My mom was a librarian, and so she had her own summer reading list. Every summer I would be so annoyed because I had to get through this list. And of course, those were my favorite books in the world, like The Count of Monte Cristo, David Copperfield, and Jane Eyre. She always steered me in the best direction.
TD: I also have a very fond memory of reading Gone with the Wind when I had a horrible sunburn when I was probably 12 years old. It was a second degree blistering burn, and I literally could not get out of bed. I just immersed myself in that book and it got me through.
RD: Who are your current favorite authors?
WK + TD: In terms of auto-buy authors, Lily King is a huge one. We both just read Heart the Lover and loved it. I also really enjoy Abby Jimenez. I think she’s just really fun, with a lot of depth and heart. Plus, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Curtis Sittenfeld, and Fredrik Backman. Rebecca Searle is a huge inspiration to us.
We’re a book club of two. We’re constantly reading and passing books back and forth. We’re always on the lookout for authors that are amazing but for some inexplicable reason tend to fly under the radar. We have a Substack newsletter, and that’s who we really try to highlight.
Some authors we’ve highlighted include Ali Larkin, who wrote The People We Keep and Home of the American Circus, John Kenney, who wrote I See You’ve Called in Dead, and Virginia Evans, who wrote The Correspondent. We discovered that book soon after it came out, told everyone to read it, and then it blew up.
Another book we recently read is How to Read a Book by Monica Wood. It was terrific. We also really enjoy Sarah Goodman Confino’s books.
RD: What is the most important thing you’ve learned during your writing career so far?
TD: Neither of us had ever studied or written fiction before we started. We debated whether we needed to go back to school, but instead we dove into every resource we could find.
The most important thing is committing to writing as often as possible and having the courage to put your work out there knowing there will be rejection and disappointment. There’s no other way in this business.
WK: A huge game changer for us was embracing a growth mindset, inspired by the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. We stopped thinking of talent as a fixed commodity and instead focused on effort, attitude, and learning from rejection. For us, having the right mindset is everything.
RD: What are your favorite Seattle bookstores?
WK: Bookstores are our natural habitat. Our absolute favorite Seattle-area bookstore is Island Books on Mercer Island. We don’t even live on Mercer Island, but it’s magical. The owner and staff always seem to know the right book for every person. It’s a true community gem.
RD: Do you enjoy writing in public?
TD: No. We get too distracted. We might go out for coffee and people-watch, but we don’t actually write in public. We do love walking our dogs and talking through ideas.
WK: It’s important to move. Sometimes our best ideas come when we’re moving, and we leave voice notes so we don’t forget them.
What’s Next
RD: What’s next for you? I’d love to learn more about any other projects you may be working on.
TD: We’re currently working on a major rewrite of a youth sports manuscript that we’ve been passionate about for a long time. We’ve learned a lot since first working on it and hope it will make it out into the world before too long.
Thank you for reading! This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The full version of this interview is available on Spotify.
More About Tracy & Wendy
Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman have been great friends for over 25 years. Their debut novel, GIRLS WITH BRIGHT FUTURES, was a suspenseful journey into the cutthroat world of college admissions, which earned starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal, and was named a “Book Club Winner” by REAL SIMPLE and an Apple Best Book. Tracy holds an undergraduate degree from Princeton University and a J.D from UC Berkeley and worked in biotechnology law and non-profit leadership. Wendy was a nationally ranked youth tennis player, and went on to play at the University of Michigan, where she earned her undergraduate degree, followed by a career in medical marketing. Tracy and Wendy both live in Seattle with their husbands. They enjoy sports, reading (obviously), civic engagement, and spending time with their amazing families and friends. You can often find them together brainstorming and walking their dogs, Shadow and Josie.
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