December 2025 Q&A with Emma Mugglestone on In The Long Run

Welcome to Kelly's Writerly Q&A, a monthly podcast!

Listen to my 20th episode where I chat to Emma Mugglestone, contemporary romance author of In The Long Run. A fake dating rom com that will make you hungry to excercise and then have you eating a crossiant afterwards.

We discuss:

• Signing with Penguin!
• How this book is making readers hungry.
• What's the book about?
• The opening scene that drew me in immediately!
• All the layers and charcter details that make this book shine.
• Emma's amazing publication story!
• Pressure and how Emma managed to write this book after it was sold.
• Emma's first yes
• Books that have inspired us
• Rejection
• The importance of entering writing comps
• Writerly merch
• And what's next for Emma

Thank you for listening!

Want to be a guest on Kelly's Writerly Q&A or Pictures and Pages with Amy Freund in 2026? Fill out an EOI

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Music credit to Levgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay

Chapters

• 0:13 Meet Emma Mugglestone
• 1:03 Penguin, the dream!
• 1:44 How this book made me crave croissants
• 2:28 What's this book about?
• 3:58 The opening scene really drew me in
• 4:18 Fake dating, layers and all the character details that make this book shine
• 7:16 The amazing way this book came to life
• 14:27 How did you manage the pressure of having to write this story after it was sold?
• 21:28 Tell me about your first yes
• 22:52 The books that inspired us
• 26:03 Rejection
• 28:40 Enter writing comps
• 29:00 Let's talk about writerly merch
• 33:01 What's next?
• 34:47 Write Till Christmas
• 35:25 How to become a guest on this podcast