The Hardcover Lover: Blog Tour: The Museum of Heartbreak + GIVEAWAY

Title: The Museum of Heartbreak

Author: Meg Leder

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: June 7, 2016

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In this ode to all the things we gain and lose and gain again, seventeen-year-old Penelope Marx curates her own mini-museum to deal with all the heartbreaks of love, friendship, and growing up.

Welcome to the Museum of Heartbreak.

Well, actually, to Penelope Marx’s personal museum. The one she creates after coming face to face with the devastating, lonely-making butt-kicking phenomenon known as heartbreak.

Heartbreak comes in all forms: There’s Keats, the charmingly handsome new guy who couldn’t be more perfect for her. There’s possibly the worst person in the world, Cherisse, whose mission in life is to make Penelope miserable. There’s Penelope’s increasingly distant best friend Audrey. And then there’s Penelope’s other best friend, the equal-parts-infuriating-and-yet-somehow-amazing Eph, who has been all kinds of confusing lately.

But sometimes the biggest heartbreak of all is learning to let go of that wondrous time before you ever knew things could be broken.

A Day in the Life of Meg Leder

6:45 AM: My alarm goes off, playing the local classic rock station. I don’t love classic rock, which is good because if the song is terrible, it’s an incentive to get out of bed earlier.

7:30 AM: The latest I can hit snooze without being late for work. At this point, if I’m not out of bed, I need to be, so I can shower and get ready.

8:00 AM: Eat breakfast. Usually a bowl of Cheerios.

8:14 AM: The time every morning when my cat gets super needy and cuddly, which is ironic because…

8:15 AM: The time I need to leave for work, which usually means booting a purring cat off my lap. This always earns me a crabby meow.

8:20AM : Subway ride into Manhattan, AKA cramming myself into a packed subway car. I like to have a book to read because it’s the only way I can stay calm and manage the mild claustrophobia.

9:00 AM -12:30 PM: Work! I’m a nonfiction editor at Penguin Books, so I spend my days publishing quirky narratives and beautiful illustrated non-fiction with authors like Keri Smith, Johanna Basford, and Abbi Jacobson.

12:30-2:00 PM: Lunch. On the days I don’t have a business lunch with a literary agent or an author, or I don’t have plans to take a walk along the Hudson River with my friend Meredith, I write. I shut my office door, close my email, and try to get in as much writing time as I can. I do most of my writing on the weekends, so I feel especially productive when I get writing time in on weekdays.

2:00-6:00 PM: More work! Reading, editing, and meetings… lots of meetings.

6:00 PM: More writing if I can fit it in. Most days, though, I’m trying to get back to any work emails I didn’t get to during regular business hours.

6:45 PM: Hop on the train back to Brooklyn. Usually it’s not as crowded when I leave later, and sometimes I’m lucky enough to get a seat. Score!

7:30 PM: Crossfit. I’d like to pretend I’m buff and strong and super awesome at lifting weights, but I’m not. Still, I like trying to get stronger, and I’ve found working out is the perfect way to let my subconscious mull over whatever I’m writing.

8:30 PM: Dinner. I eat too late!

9:00 PM Watching old episodes of Game of Thrones or Orphan Black. And of course, hanging with the cat.

11:30 PM: Bed! My cat curls up next to me and falls asleep right away, but I usually spend the next hour worrying about work. When I do too much of that, I try to focus on my writing instead, thinking about what I want my characters to do next. I’ve come up with some of my favorite ideas during that time—the problem is I need to remember them by the next morning! I’ve started keeping a notebook in my bedside table so I can scrawl down a reminder—enough to jog my memory so I can see if that so-called brilliant idea is as brilliant when the sun comes up.

Okay, so who else is jealous of Meg's editing job? I know I am! She gets to work with the authors of Wreck this Journal and two of the most popular adult coloring book series out there! It must be so cool to be able to spend days with some of nonfiction's hottest commodities right now. Plus she writes her own stuff! So freaking cool.