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The latest novel from Zoë Foster Blake, Things Will Calm Down Soon, was only published on October 1, 2024 but has already become a hit.
As well as reaching best-seller status in mere weeks, there’s TV adaptation in the works from the same production company that brought us Nine Perfect Strangers, Made Up Stories.
Film industry publication Deadline broke the news in an exclusive article on October 16, reporting that there will be three executive producers from Made Up Stories – Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky and Katie Amos – as well as Zoë Foster Blake.
“As a female founder, a mother and a lover of books I knew immediately I had to bring Zoe’s brilliant complex and aspirational book to life as a US set TV series. I continue to be inspired to make super fun things I desperately want to see, and the world needs to meet Kit, a woman who reminds me of so many kickass women I know,” Papandrea said.
On her Instagram, Zoë Foster Blake also shared her excitement at the news of a US-set series based on her book.
“I felt very strongly while writing this novel that it belonged on screen, that the story of a female founder, from concept to managing and then selling a business, hadn’t been told before, and in a way that felt relatable to the many women all over the world carefully, imperfectly and wholeheartedly balancing the many tasks, pressures, demands, distractions and people in her life every day,” she wrote.
But is Things Will Calm Down Soon pure fiction, or based on a true story? Here’s what we know.
What is Things Will Calm Down Soon about?
The story follows Kit Cooper, an A-list hair stylist with huge ambition and plenty of responsibilities. As the book synopsis puts it:
“Things Will Calm Down Soon takes Kit from idea to founder of a highly successful hair-care company. Amid spreadsheets, influencers, product launches and a parade of potential investors, Kit is juggling an eager young team, needy family members, a charismatic but unreliable romantic partner, single parenting and far too many school WhatsApp messages. She is certain – positive – things will calm down soon, because how can life possibly keep going at this pace?”
IsThings Will Calm Down Soon based on a true story?
Things Will Calm Down Soon is a fictional story but draws on some of Zoë Foster Blake’s own experiences. After years of working as a successful beauty editor, she launched the beauty brand Go-To in 2014 and experienced first-hand what it’s like to be a business founder. She’s also a mother and no stranger to celebrity, considering her own career and marriage to comedian Hamish Blake.
In an ABC Radio interview she even said she felt like Kit at times, “to the point where I just say… ‘I’m having another Kit day’. Life is not imitating art, I’ve become Kit again.”
She also said the book was a way “to pay forward all of the business advice I’ve been given”.
“So, on one hand I wanted to create a sort of business advice book that if you were looking, if you were in that world you could get a lot out of but it also needed to be just an entertaining novel because maybe you’re not interested in that,” she said.
What have people said about Things Will Calm Down Soon?
Best-selling Australian author Trent Dalton (Boy Swallows Universe, Lola in the Mirror) is quoted on the cover of the book, saying “Zoë Foster Blake is incapable of writing a false sentence. Every crackling page presents a new bone-deep, funny, wise and utterly brave insight into love, family and the breathless abyss of big business … And what an extraordinary tale it is.”
A write-up in the Sydney Morning Herald said it was “funny, smart, and written with an Energiser Bunny relentlessness that mirrors its main character’s ambition and makes you wonder if or when burnout will come.”
A review in The Australian, on the other hand, was much more critical, saying “Large swathes of the narrative are given over to the ins and outs of meetings with potential investors (“testing for synergies”) or lamentations about dealing with suppliers and shareholders who don’t quite get what the company is all about.”
Beyond the mixed response from the media, customers on Amazon have rated it well, with around 50% giving it five stars. “Really enjoyed this book, a bit of business, a bit of romance, and a lot of life,” said one Australian reader.
With no filming or release dates for the TV series yet, you’ve got plenty of time to read it for yourself. It’s available though most major bookstores and retailers including Dymocks, QBD Amazon and Big W.
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