Love in pajamas

After the death of her father, Elena and her mother are left with a large debt that has turned their lives upside down.
Then new people move into the house next door, a widower with his two adult children. Elena's mother gets along very well with the man. Elena wants nothing to do with the neighbors, especially not with the oh-so-perfect neighbor boy who is extolled by everyone. She is therefore determined to ignore him, and when the son of the house seems to think the same, it suits her just fine.
But that is beyond Elena's mother, who traps them. How can a first meeting between two people in pajamas go well?

E-book

Appears 24/02/23

Interview author

Yesterday, Love in Pajamas, your second novella was published by Hamley Books (after There are Fireworks in the Air). Yet in many ways this is a very different kind of story. Love in pajamas is a novella with some deeper themes. Why do you think this is possible within feelgood?

Gee, that's a good question. I personally think that intense themes plucked from life are quite acceptable in a feelgood. Maybe then it's not immediately a classic feelgood in the word, where you have the typical boy meets girl situations, but in the end it always ends well and the characters get their happy ending. I don't see why this shouldn't be allowed in stories like this, after all, we also go through beautiful and not so beautiful things in our daily lives, right?

One such theme is goodbye and mourning. After all, main character Elena has lost her father. Why did you feel this theme was important enough to use in your story?

I myself lost my father some time ago, though in less dramatic circumstances as in this story. My father left no problems, and he had lived a beautiful life. For the situation in this story, I based myself on something I had heard in the office, where my colleague really got into this situation and had to pay for it for years. Very intense. Yet she never let down her guard and accepted her father's flaws, even though he left them with many problems.

They are left with a large debt load, making the loss even heavier. The new neighbors also have a deeper story to tell. Yet (of course) there is also room for romance and love. Did you find that combination and balance difficult?

No, actually this came naturally in the story, because I believe very strongly in the fact that some doors close and then others open again, creating space for new happiness after misery and sorrow. In this case I found it important that the whole incident with the father was also behind them, because of course you can't just tell everything. There must also be room for grief, to give everything a place and then gradually move toward a new life. Someone said to me recently, "There is a life before and a life after grief," and I wanted to apply that here as well. You can't expect people to grieve for the rest of their lives. Life goes on, is a cliché, but it is true.

How do you make sure that stays nicely balanced?

I write a lot on my gut and wanted to put the story of the father and the grief into a kind of flashback that is told throughout the story, and then move up to happiness, as it were. Obviously it's not a surprise how the story will end, and that's fine with me, especially around Valentine's Day. But I do like the opportunity to describe how life and new relationships turn organically and fluidly in a life scarred by grief.

I knew from the beginning what I wanted to tell, and let the rest flow from my fingers.

What do you hope readers take away after reading this story?

That there is always room for a smile, a laugh, hope, happiness, new love, regardless of the sadness you carry with you and what has happened. That can come in small bits, but also in big steps. But above all, always and forever allow yourself time to grieve when you have lost someone or something. Every step always becomes a step in a new direction. In this story, I wanted to give hope after misery, and my characters the happiness they deserve. (I grant that to everyone).