Writer Colleen Hoover’s mind-boggling work is almost as famous as her romance novels: she wrote 26 books over a 12-year period. But since her last book, It starts with us — a prequel to the bestseller and soon to be a feature film It ends with us — out in 2022, fans are wondering when the next Hoover sequel is on the way. Like Hoover herself.
“In the last maybe a year and a half, close to two years, I haven’t written at all, and I feel a lot of guilt about that,” Hoover, 44, told PEOPLE for a story in this week’s print edition. “But I was also very busy and my mind was elsewhere.”
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One of those other places is the movies. It ends with us will hit theaters on August 9 as a film she co-executive produced with Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni (who also directed it). Working on the film was “a masterclass in filmmaking,” she says. “I’m enjoying it so much that I want to be more involved in future films now that I’ve had a taste of it.”
From left: Colleen Hoover, Brandon Skelnar and Blake Lively at Book Bonanza in June 2024.
Eric Charbonneau/Getty
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She and her husband Heath, 48, also recently became empty-nesters after all three of her grown sons, Beckham, Cale and Levi, moved out, which required some adjustments.
“A lot of things just happened in my life, and writing took a back seat for a while,” Hoover explains. But fear not, CoHort: she’s not done writing for good. The timing just wasn’t right, although she’s confident it will be again.
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Colleen Hoover and her husband Heath Hoover in 2023.
Taken by Cayson
Many authors stick to a strict schedule or have detailed drafts and plans to continue writing. But Hoover, who says she “ignored every rule, every rule of writing, every piece of advice,” doesn’t find those strategies working for her.
“I try to go with my gut. It’s worked for me, up to this point,” she says. “I write when I feel like it. If I’m late, I’m late. I want to publish books that I don’t feel like I was forced to publish, and I think that’s the key.”
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This isn’t the first time she’s hit a drought, but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier. “Sometimes, there were other times, six months or more went by without me being able to write anything, so I was so inside and I was depressed, but then it always comes,” she says. “And so I’m just trying to remember that it’s been working this long so far. You’re not done. It will come. Your brain is busy right now.”
The fifth and final installment of her love book festival, Book Bonanza, wrapped up in June, and she can’t wait for the film to hit theaters. After that, Hoover says he hopes for calmer days to come. Her process requires a certain degree of obsession to succeed, and obsession takes a lot of time.
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“I have to write; it’s my therapy. I just haven’t had that moment to sit down and start a book enough to become obsessed with it and finish it,” she explains. “The way my writing is going… I have to feel this urge to write and give up sleeping, eating and talking to anyone and just get this book out. And unfortunately, I haven’t had time for that. So I hope it comes.”
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Source: HIS Education