Francesca Cocchi

Francesca Cocchi is a writer and editor who has covered food, commerce, and other lifestyle subjects for national outlets, including Food Network Magazine, The Pioneer Woman Magazine, and NBC's TODAY. She holds a degree in English literature from Villanova University and attended New York University's Summer Publishing Institute. A proud Jersey girl, she grew up down the shore in Monmouth County and currently lives in Jersey City with her husband and their dog.

How did the idea for Have a Great Summer first come about?

The idea for Have a Great Summer came to me when my husband and I applied for our marriage license at the city clerk’s office in Hoboken, New Jersey. It felt like being at the DMV — not exactly romantic — and I felt sort of rushed through the paperwork, including the part where a friend of ours served as our witness. When the documents were ready my husband picked them up and I remember asking if he checked them over to make sure everything was correct. He said he did but … we realized later that they’d spelled my last name wrong. Luckily we caught the mistake in time to get it fixed for our wedding, but I remember thinking this would be a really funny thing to happen in a rom-com — especially if, say, the type-o wasn’t just a misspelling, but the name of another person altogether …
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Lina starts her editorial career at a national wedding magazine, then winds up back in her hometown covering weddings for a local website. How much did your own editorial background inspire Lina’s fictional career?

So much! Something people may find surprising is that when I first started writing Have a Great Summer, I imagined Lina as a lawyer. The opening scene still took place at the city clerk’s office, but Lina was there to pick up paperwork for a case rather than an article she was writing. It only took me a few chapters to realize she’d be a much more compelling character if she had a different career that I could relate to more. Lina’s stint at the fictional bridal magazine Ever After is inspired by my own Devil Wears Prada-esque years at Hearst Magazines, while her job at Shore Life pulls from my time as an intern at a New Jersey newspaper called The Asbury Park Press. Channeling my own real-life career experiences, anxieties and triumphs working in the editorial world wound up becoming a huge element of Lina’s character development. Not to mention, it’s a fun nod to some of my favorite rom-coms that center around magazine/newspaper editors, like The Holiday, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and 13 Going on 30.

Have a Great Summer toggles between two timelines: One is in 2009, when Lina is in high school, and the other is present day, when she’s 29/30. What made you decide to structure the book this way?

The only thing I love more than a funny meet cute is a funny meet-again cute. I always knew that I wanted Lina and Sebastian to have a complicated history, and pretty early on in the writing process I found myself wanting to fully explore that history on the page via a second timeline. I love the high school scenes because they not only help readers understand Lina as a character and her relationship with Sebastian better, but also because they gave me the opportunity to dive back into my own high school memories for everything from music and fashion references to the feelings of having a massive crush. Toggling between the two timelines was also a cool way for me to explore teenage Lina and almost-30 Lina both coming of age in their own ways. 

One of the ways Lina and Sebastian connect with each other is through their shared love of food. What role does food play in your writing?

Food writing has been a big part of my editorial career, so I think there will always be an element of it in my books. Throughout Have a Great Summer, Lina, Sebastian, Maren and David all use food as a way to connect and express their care for one another, whether that’s by sharing cookies at a sleepover, making a mess of the kitchen while cooking together or giving up the better cup of coffee for someone else. Jersey food culture was also a big source of inspiration for me. We take our food — whether it’s coffee, pizza, bagels or boardwalk snacks — very seriously, and so does Have a Great Summer.

You’ve described Have a Great Summer as a love letter to the Jersey Shore. What made you want to highlight this setting?

I wanted to write about the Jersey Shore I know and love, because it’s nothing like what everyone saw on MTV. It’s funnel cake on the boardwalk and fireworks over the beach and Bruce Springsteen on the speakers. It’s claiming a spot on the sand with your friends and hoping you’ll spot your crush a few towels away. For my high school friends and me, it was also working every summer as a lifeguard or a waitress while dreaming of big city jobs in Manhattan, just an hour and a half away on the train. I wanted to truly capture the backdrop of my childhood and teenage years — charm, angst, hope and all. 

Besides your Jersey Shore roots, what inspired you while writing Have a Great Summer? 

I thought a lot about weddings — all of the traditions and etiquette and drama associated with planning and attending them. I got married a few years ago, and I’m 31 now and very much in that life stage where I go to so many weddings that I feel like I could be a professional guest. So that was a big source of inspiration for Lina’s job and several important scenes. I also love all those early 2000s wedding rom coms, like 27 Dresses and The Wedding Planner, so it was fun to write something that fits within that canon. 

Lina and Maren’s relationship was also deeply inspired by my own female friendships. When I think back to middle and high school, I think about the crushes I had on boys, but I also think about how much fun I had talking about those crushes with my girlfriends. The way we analyzed brief interactions, dissected text messages and masterminded run-ins makes me wonder: Was it ever really about those boys at all — or was it more about having something to obsess about with my best friends? I definitely explored that question in Have a Great Summer.  

Lina had big city dreams and feels some shame around the fact that she never made it out of her hometown. How do her feelings about Brantley Beach evolve throughout the novel?

I think a lot of us can relate to the feeling of wanting to “make it,” and to having a very specific checklist associated with what that entails. For Lina, moving on from Brantley Beach and making it as a writer in New York City is number one on that list. She’s seen people she loves like Sebastian and Maren move away seemingly as fast as possible, and she feels like the straggler who’s been left behind. But for Lina, I think being “stuck” is actually more of a feeling than a physical state. She’s unsatisfied in her career and her love life, but it’s easier to blame her unhappiness on her environment. Plus, she’s avoided parts of her home that she used to love, like Bubba’s, in order to avoid painful memories from the past. But as the story unfolds, Lina comes to realize that her hometown is a huge part of who she is, and that “making it” can come in many forms. Her life hasn’t turned out exactly the way she thought it would, but it’s a pretty amazing life in its own right. 

How does Lina’s work as a wedding columnist influence her perspective on love, commitment, and her own romantic choices?

Writing about weddings every day for seven years has definitely left Lina feeling a bit jaded about them—and not just because her own love life isn’t much to write home about. The conversation with her boss early in the book makes it clear that her job isn’t really about love at all—it’s about capturing the more materialistic elements of weddings in order for the website to cash in via advertisements and affiliate links. I think all of this has made Lina a little skeptical of weddings and, by extension, dating and relationships in general. Deep down she longs for a big, genuine love story, but she guards her heart and plays it safe to avoid being disappointed. By the end of the book, we see Lina realize that some love stories are worth that risk.

How do friendship and shared memory act as both grounding forces and catalysts for change in Lina’s life?

I love that we get to see not only Lina and Sebastian in both timelines, but also Maren. She’s had a front-row seat to every era of Lina’s life, which is why she’s wary of Sebastian when he comes around again. Unlike David, who became Lina’s friend as an adult and quickly roots for her second-chance romance, Maren remembers what happened last time Sebastian broke her best friend’s heart. I wanted Lina to receive different advice from her to closest friends so that she could come to her own decision about the relationship in the end. 

Throughout the book I also think Lina comes to realize that there is more than one kind of love. Her friendships and family relationships enrich her life tremendously, so much so that toward the end of the story, she feels content even though she isn’t sure romantic love is in the cards for just yet.  

At its core, what is the story suggesting about whether we ever truly outgrow the versions of ourselves developed during our most formative summers?

In the end, Lina realizes the girl she was at 15 and the woman she is now on the cusp of 30 aren’t two drastically different people. She is the sum of all of her experiences—the ones that broke her heart, the ones that gave her hope, and everything in between. Writing this book healed the inner-teenager in me right along with Lina’s, and I hope readers have a similar experience. 

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Website: https://www.francescacocchi.com/
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Purchase the book here: 
​​https://www.amazon.com/Have-Great-Summer-Francesca-Cocchi-ebook/dp/B0FP7PK1S9/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0