Colleen Oakley: Be Kind to Yourself

Colleen Oakley is the USA Today bestselling author of five novels including The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, which was a Good Morning America Buzz Pick, Marie Claire Book Club Pick for April 2023, and featured by NPR, Today, and Good Housekeeping. Her novels are beloved by New York Times bestselling authors like Jodi Picoult and Taylor Jenkins Reid who raves, “Colleen Oakley is in a world of her own when it comes to creating lovable, quirky characters.” Follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

In this interview, Colleen discusses the shocking thing her son said that inspired her new contemporary novel, Jane and Dan at the End of the World, the tightrope act of balancing different emotions while striking the same tone, and more.

Name: Colleen Oakley
Literary agent: Stephanie Rostan at LGR Literary
Book title: Jane and Dan at the End of the World
Publisher: Berkley
Release date: March 11, 2025
Genre/category: Contemporary Fiction/Book Club Fiction
Previous titles: The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise, The Invisible Husband of Frick Island, You Were There Too, Close Enough to Touch, Before I Go
Elevator pitch: When Jane and Dan go to a high-end restaurant for their 19th anniversary, they find themselves in a hostage situation right out the pages of a novel. Jane's novel, to be exact.

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I was stuck—creatively and in life, kind of. I’m 40-something married mother of four, and am in the thick of what that entails (the Mom taxi, the laundry, the endless scrolling of Instagram looking for advice that I’m hoping will be the magic bullet to make life easier). It’s a cliché but life reminded me of that old Peggy Lee song: Is That All There Is? I think there comes a point at mid-life and marriage — no matter how much you love your kids and your husband —when you’re sludging through and it feels like there are no surprises left anymore.

And then I was surprised.

My oldest son Henry, who was 11 at the time, has always been worldly and bright and a little mature for his age, and he was struggling with environmental anxiety. He had studied climate change and became obsessed with the idea that humans were killing the earth and the animals and the air we breathe, and he was devastated. One day, he walked into the kitchen and said, “Mom, I think we should just blow up the entire earth! Everyone would die and then nature would take back over. We don’t deserve it.”

I stared at him, unblinking, with a hand to my heart. My precious, sensitive son had just suggested such a violent resolution—and so passionately! I was shocked. I couldn’t remember the last time I was that passionate about anything. And then I thought: What a great book idea.

What if a woman in her mid-40s, a harried mother, a failed author, a disenchanted wife, who barely has the will to make it to the grocery store, was taken hostage by an eco-activist group hellbent on saving the world? And what if they were using the plot of one of her (failed) books as the blueprint for their plan? I laughed. I cried. I hugged my son. Don’t worry! I also immediately called a therapist for Henry and he’s now a well-adjusted, kind, and peaceful 14-year-old, who’s passionate about recycling, but not about eco-terrorism. And then, I got to work.

I started writing this book in December 2021 and it’s going to be published in March 2025, so 3 ½ years? The idea morphed and grew multiple times, as most of my books do because I’m a pantser and not a plotter. But this one probably changed the most—and was one of the hardest books I’ve written. Likely because I generally have thought about a book idea for six months to a year before I start writing it. This book idea came to me like a lightning bolt and I immediately started writing, so it wasn’t fleshed out at all, which meant I had to a lot more work to do in the drafting stages.

I definitely reached a sort of creative crisis during the writing of this book. I had taken on a Herculean task—writing a book about marriage and mid-life that rang true, but was also satirical and farcical. There are terrorists in the book—so there needed to be tension and a true sense of danger, but it also needed to be funny! That’s a hard needle to thread. And I got to such a place of self-doubt, I had to step away from the novel for about a month and a half to find my creative center again. I started taking long walks without any music or podcasts to let my thoughts wander, I read The Creative Act by Rick Rubin like some people study a Bible (a few pages every day). I even did yoga! I hate yoga.

When writing your sixth book, you tend to think (or hope, I guess), that you know what you’re doing at this point. But surprise! Every book is different, and such is the creative process that there are aways going to be obstacles— and an opportunity to learn about yourself and grow. And try yoga, I guess.

I hope it’s a fun ride for them, first and foremost. An escape from the world that makes them laugh. And if a few people see themselves in this book—or feel seen as a woman in midlife, a mother, a wife and all that entails, then that would be a bonus.

Try to ignore that little (well, sometimes big) voice in your head that tells you you’re not good enough, you can’t do this. Be kind to yourself. Remember why you started writing. And try to find the joy in the creative process whenever you can. (Sorry, that may have been four pieces of advice, but that’s why I do English and not math.)