Editorial Content for Hot Desk
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Laura Dickerman’s debut novel was written for readers and devotees of the publishing industry. Rife with literary references, HOT DESK introduces us to characters who live in the world of competing imprints, literary giants, and the editors who vie for their latest writings, if not their entire catalogs.
Rebecca Blume works for Avenue Publishing in the post-COVID era. “Hot desking” is the new workforce rage --- sharing office desks in a hybrid work schedule. But Rebecca is sharing with Ben Heath, an editor from another imprint, Hawk Mills. A lone cactus decorates their desk and becomes the focal point of a budding flirtation when both start leaving notes for the other posted to the plant's pot.
"For anyone who likes a good Nancy Meyers movie, episodes of 'Nobody Wants This,' or Curtis Sittenfeld’s fiction, HOT DESK is for you. It’s funny, romantic, and a surprising delight from a promising new author."
When not penning short missives to each other, Rebecca and Ben become adversaries for the prized estate of Edward David Adams, who is known in the publishing world as “the Lion.”
In the 1980s, the Lion started the East River Review, the literary journal in which all the up-and-coming authors wanted to be featured. His future wife, Rose, and Rebecca’s mother, Jane, were interns there, reading submissions from the slush pile and looking for the next big name to thrust into the literary limelight. Their friendship bloomed.
Rebecca is hand-selected by Rose to handle the Lion’s estate and an uncovered manuscript about a love triangle that hits close to home. Tasked by Rose with getting Jane to read the manuscript, Rebecca begins to learn more about that period in her mother’s life, which she has remained quiet about.
Written in chapters that alternate between the ’80s and present-day New York, a history unfolds that looks closely at the competitive book industry and the relationships of two generations of a family in the business.
For anyone who likes a good Nancy Meyers movie, episodes of “Nobody Wants This,” or Curtis Sittenfeld’s fiction, HOT DESK is for you. It’s funny, romantic, and a surprising delight from a promising new author.
Teaser
In the post-pandemic publishing industry, two rival editors are forced to share a “hot desk” on different days of the week, much to their chagrin. Having never set eyes on each other, Rebecca Blume and Ben Heath begin leaving passive-aggressive Post-it notes on the pot of their shared cactus. But when revered literary legend Edward David Adams (known as “the Lion”) dies, leaving his estate up for grabs, their banter escalates as both work feverishly to land this career-making opportunity. As their battle for the estate gets more heated, Rebecca learns of a connection between her mother, Jane, and the Lion. The story travels back four decades earlier to when Jane arrives in Manhattan and meets Rose, soon her best friend. But one fateful day during the April blizzard of 1982 will change the course of Jane’s life, and their friendship, forever.
Promo
In the post-pandemic publishing industry, two rival editors are forced to share a “hot desk” on different days of the week, much to their chagrin. Having never set eyes on each other, Rebecca Blume and Ben Heath begin leaving passive-aggressive Post-it notes on the pot of their shared cactus. But when revered literary legend Edward David Adams (known as “the Lion”) dies, leaving his estate up for grabs, their banter escalates as both work feverishly to land this career-making opportunity. As their battle for the estate gets more heated, Rebecca learns of a connection between her mother, Jane, and the Lion. The story travels back four decades earlier to when Jane arrives in Manhattan and meets Rose, soon her best friend. But one fateful day during the April blizzard of 1982 will change the course of Jane’s life, and their friendship, forever.
