It’s Penny and Mateo day!
When I think about this book, I think about how fun it was to write, and to revise, too. Trying to get it published wasn’t necessarily fun, but writing it was. And almost nothing about publishing has felt fun for me in about two years.
So I will be forever grateful to Penny and Mateo for that. I hope it’s fun to read, too.
A big theme of this book is trying. Penny tries so hard: to change the world, to be the best daughter and big sister, to reach for her goals, to understand Mateo della Penna, to save the donut shop. The world sucks. She doesn’t always win. Sometimes she’s naive; sometimes she tries too hard.
But I’m still so grateful to her and everyone else who tries anyway.
Here’s Penny and Mateo’s playlist! I’ve barely edited it since I was drafting; it’s in absolutely no purposeful order and is overall kinda silly lol. But here are some personal highlights that most make me think of Them:
Send Me On My Way, Rusted Root: I said it was silly!! But I listened to this song a lot when drafting because it was how I wanted Penny to be able to feel—free and fun, things her anxiety doesn’t often let her feel. But every time I listened to it I was just mentally nudging her there so hard. Let go let go let go
We Don’t Talk About Bruno, Encanto soundtrack: Penny’s little brother’s name is Bruno. He fucking loves this song.
30/90, Tick, Tick…Boom! soundtrack: I mention this so briefly in the book, but there’s a scene where Penny and Mateo are taking a drive and listening to Mateo’s theater nerd playlist, and this is one of the songs on it, and I listened to it so much when thinking about this scene and also Penny and Mateo’s summer in general, way more than any other musical number mentioned. I fucking love it.
Strangers Like Me, Tarzan soundtrack: Also mentioned in this scene. The Tarzan soundtrack is Mateo’s favorite Disney soundtrack, and they’re not wrong!!!
So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings, Caroline Polachek: Penny’s thoughts about Mateo from Day 1 lol
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, Paul Simon: There is one scene that made me cry every single time, from the time I drafted it to every time I read it again in revisions, all the way through pass pages. It involves this song.
I Feel It All, Feist: Penny’s Song, number one.
We’re All Gonna Die, Joy Oladokun featuring Noah Kahan: Penny’s Song, number two. We’re all gonna die; we do our best fumbling through anyway.
I hope something nice happens to you today.
xo
anita
I can’t WAIT to read!! ❤️ I hope you had a good pub day but even more I hope these next few weeks are gentle and filled with more good moments than those pesky nasty post-pub low moments. Also can’t wait to dive into this playlist.
I am SO excited this book is finally out in the world; I love that it made you happy to write; I will always love Penny + Mateo; "Send Me On My Way" is one of those songs that just puts me in an instant good mood, every single time (it's the Matilda memories partially, I think).