Ask the Author: Carley Fortune
Answered Questions (16)
Carley Fortune
Any more books upcoming?
Yes! I'm working on my fifth book now, which will be released in 2026. I'll be sharing the GORGEOUS cover and title later this summer. For now, I'll share that it's a childhood friends to lovers story and takes place in one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited—a place I've never written about before.
A winter Barry's Bay book?
I don't have any plans to write a wintry book set in Barry's Bay. BUT there's a bonus chapter in the collector's edition of EVERY SUMMER AFTER (out Aug. 5, 2025) that is set in Barry's Bay at Christmas. It's told from Percy's point of view and it takes place after the events of EVERY SUMMER AFTER but before ONE GOLDEN SUMMER.
Yes! I'm working on my fifth book now, which will be released in 2026. I'll be sharing the GORGEOUS cover and title later this summer. For now, I'll share that it's a childhood friends to lovers story and takes place in one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited—a place I've never written about before.
A winter Barry's Bay book?
I don't have any plans to write a wintry book set in Barry's Bay. BUT there's a bonus chapter in the collector's edition of EVERY SUMMER AFTER (out Aug. 5, 2025) that is set in Barry's Bay at Christmas. It's told from Percy's point of view and it takes place after the events of EVERY SUMMER AFTER but before ONE GOLDEN SUMMER.
Carley Fortune
You don’t need to, but I think it makes for the best reading experience!
ONE GOLDEN SUMMER is set a few years after the events in EVERY SUMMER AFTER. It can be read on its own, and its protagonist, Alice, is a brand-new character with a journey that can be easily followed without reading EVERY SUMMER AFTER. But ONE GOLDEN SUMMER will 100% spoil the events of EVERY SUMMER AFTER, but that might not matter to you!
ESA is about young love, and OGS is about the complexities of falling in love as an adult. ESA was very much inspired by my teenage years growing up on the lake in Barry’s Bay. OGS draws on what going to the lake and the cottage means to me now. Depending on your taste and where you’re at in life, you may be drawn to one over the other.
However, I do think you’ll get much more out of OGS if you read ESA first, paying attention to Charlie Florek, who you’ll get to meet as both a teen and an adult.
ONE GOLDEN SUMMER is set a few years after the events in EVERY SUMMER AFTER. It can be read on its own, and its protagonist, Alice, is a brand-new character with a journey that can be easily followed without reading EVERY SUMMER AFTER. But ONE GOLDEN SUMMER will 100% spoil the events of EVERY SUMMER AFTER, but that might not matter to you!
ESA is about young love, and OGS is about the complexities of falling in love as an adult. ESA was very much inspired by my teenage years growing up on the lake in Barry’s Bay. OGS draws on what going to the lake and the cottage means to me now. Depending on your taste and where you’re at in life, you may be drawn to one over the other.
However, I do think you’ll get much more out of OGS if you read ESA first, paying attention to Charlie Florek, who you’ll get to meet as both a teen and an adult.
Carley Fortune
It sure is! I put little nods to both Fern from Meet Me at the Lake and Lucy from This Summer Will Be Different in the book. As a photographer, it made sense that Alice would have shot these women, who are both successful business owners. But I also felt that One Golden Summer was the right book to tie everyone together, just like how Alice completed the foursome of Percy, Sam, Charlie, and herself.
Carley Fortune
Good question! It's a standalone novel, but it's connected to my first book, Every Summer After. You can TOTALLY read One Golden Summer as a standalone, but it will spoil events that took place in Every Summer After.
Carley Fortune
Oof! That's tough. I suppose Every Summer After is my baby because it's my first. If we're comparing books to infants, then Meet Me at the Lake was certainly my most difficult birthing experience!
Carley Fortune
Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so proud of This Summer Will Be Different. I can't share much, but the book has been optioned and I'm VERY excited about what lies ahead for (fingers crossed) seeing Lucy, Felix and Bridget on the screen.
Carley Fortune
I'm not sure if I'll write a sequel to Every Summer After, but you'll definitely get more Percy and Sam in One Golden Summer, which is out May 6, 2025.
And! We're releasing a deluxe edition of Every Summer After in August (which you can preorder now) and it has an exclusive bonus chapter, told from Percy's POV, which takes place after the events of Every Summer After.
And! We're releasing a deluxe edition of Every Summer After in August (which you can preorder now) and it has an exclusive bonus chapter, told from Percy's POV, which takes place after the events of Every Summer After.
Carley Fortune
I did. I have a Bachelor of Journalism from Ryerson University in Toronto (now Toronto Metropolitan University).
Carley Fortune
Yes! We are releasing a deluxe hardcover edition of Every Summer After in the U.S. and Canada on August 5, 2025. It's available for preorder now, and oh my goodness, it looks gorgeous!
The water on the cover shimmers. There are sprayed edges, so the cover art wraps melts into the pages. We've chosen new fonts for the cover (I wanted something that felt like a 90s YA novel).
Best of all, there's a new bonus chapter that takes place after the events of Every Summer After and a new introduction written by me.
The water on the cover shimmers. There are sprayed edges, so the cover art wraps melts into the pages. We've chosen new fonts for the cover (I wanted something that felt like a 90s YA novel).
Best of all, there's a new bonus chapter that takes place after the events of Every Summer After and a new introduction written by me.
Carley Fortune
Absolutely. In fact, I'm writing a book set in a new location right now!
Carley Fortune
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Right now I have no plans to write a sequel to TSWBD, but I was just back on Prince Edward Island for a holiday, and I have to admit that the pull to set another book there was strong!
Carley Fortune
Yes! I'm currently working on my fourth book, which will come out in May 2025!
Carley Fortune
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Right now, I can't see recovering the same ground from Will's POV, but who knows what I'll feel like doing in the future. I have to be honest: It sounds like a lot of work to replicate a book from another character's point of view! I'd have to refer to Meet Me at the Lake constantly!
Carley Fortune
I did! And thank you so much. When I was in fourth grade, my family moved from Australia back to Canada. Instead of settling in Toronto, where I was born, my parents decided to make our cottage in Barry's Bay our home. Readers of EVERY SUMMER AFTER will know that Barry's Bay serves as the setting for the book. I grew up much like Sam does in the book. We lived down a dirt road, in the middle of the bush, on Kamaniskeg Lake. Most of the homes on the road were cottages, but we were year-round residents. I spent my summers swimming and reading on the dock, and when I was older, working at my parents' restaurant in the evenings. In a lot of ways, ESA is a love letter to the Barry's Bay and Kamaniskeg Lake. (There really is a jumping rock!)
My parents sold the house ten or so years ago, but every summer, I rent a cottage in the area. In 2020, I stayed there for all of July and August and I was feeling very nostalgic for the summers of my youth — that's when I started writing ESA.
My parents sold the house ten or so years ago, but every summer, I rent a cottage in the area. In 2020, I stayed there for all of July and August and I was feeling very nostalgic for the summers of my youth — that's when I started writing ESA.
Carley Fortune
I don't think I've ever experienced writer's block as we tend to think of it. I was an editor for 16 years, and I view writing as work. Some days the work comes more easily and the words flow, and other days I spend an hour (or more!) trying to ignore the voices in my head telling me that I don't know what I'm doing and that I have no right writing. Whatever kind of day it is, I still write. It doesn't have to be perfect — or even good — but I know something is better than nothing.
I do come to moments in a manuscript where I'm not sure where to take the story or how to solve a problem, and whenever that happens, I move my body. My preference is to go for a run. Walks work, too. I find I have so many breakthroughs (big and small) while I'm exercising or after I've got my blood moving. For me, a stuck body often equals a stuck mind.
I do come to moments in a manuscript where I'm not sure where to take the story or how to solve a problem, and whenever that happens, I move my body. My preference is to go for a run. Walks work, too. I find I have so many breakthroughs (big and small) while I'm exercising or after I've got my blood moving. For me, a stuck body often equals a stuck mind.
Carley Fortune
So many readers have asked me this one. I'm currently writing my second novel, and I hope to share more details about it later this summer. Spoiler: It's not Charlie's story — or Sam's, Delilah's, Sue's, or anyone else from EVERY SUMMER AFTER. But never say never! Charlie was my favourite character to write, and I have a soft spot for him.
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