That's Not How It Happened

By: Craig Thomas

From the Emmy-nominated co-creator and Executive Producer of How I Met Your Mother, this smart, funny, bighearted novel for fans of Kevin Wilson and Monica Heisey, follows a family turned upside down after a major actress-turned-producer decides to make a movie version of their lives.

Paige didn’t set out to be a stay-at-home mom, but when her husband’s screenwriting career took off right before they had a son with Down syndrome, the decision was made for her. Now, with the children she's devoted her adult life to nearly grown and unsure what's next, she writes a memoir about the challenges of raising a child with a disability. When Hollywood shows up at her door eager to make her “inspiring” story into a movie, she’s shocked, excited, and only a little terrified.

This movie just might be the comeback opportunity her husband, Rob, desperately needs. His screenwriting career has fizzled in recent years. But the movie is going to need a screenwriter, and who better to adapt his wife's memoir than him?... Meanwhile, their son, Emmett, doesn’t understand why people think his Down syndrome is the most important thing in his life—but he hopes his newfound fame might somehow get him closer to meeting his idol, Eddie Vedder. Their daughter, Darcy, couldn't care less about the whole thing because she’s hardly even in their mom's book. The “normal” child who nobody ever worries about is feeling more forgotten than ever as her love life implodes and college decisions loom.

As their lives are chewed up and spit out by the Hollywood machine, triggering old resentments and launching new betrayals, will any of them even recognize the "inspiring" family in this film? Or will this "feel-good" movie be the end of them?

©2025 Craig Thomas (P)2025 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited