ALL THE SIGNS
by Jessie Rosen
(6 May 2025, G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
Interiew by Anna Roins
AN INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER
Leah Lockhart is more than her astrology. She’ll search the world to prove it.
Leah Lockhart is proudly science-minded and woo-woo averse. But the life she’s carefully curated is knocked suddenly off course, first by a destabilizing case of vertigo, and then by an astrology reading that claims she’s living way out of line with what was written in her stars.
Incensed, Leah sets off on a mission to prove that astrology is bogus by comparing her life to that of her Star Twins around the world—people born under her exact same map of the stars. But her even deeper guides on a whirlwind journey through Venice, Istanbul, New Orleans, and beyond turn out to be three people already in her orbit: the mother she thinks abandoned her, the father she thinks saved her, and the former boy next door whose love could be the path to her truest self.
AUTHORLINK: Thank you for joining us today, Jessie! How lovely to have you. Tell us what inspired you to write ALL THE SIGNS?
ROSEN: All The Signs was inspired by my own deep curiosity around astrology. I’ve always been a sort of fence-sitting skeptic about the pseudo sciences; I love the idea of believing but can’t quite rationalize full belief! But the more astrology entered the cultural conversation (especially where I live in Los Angeles), the more compelled I felt to learn more. Then, a few years before my 40th birthday, I went through a really confusing time, questioning everything from my career to my choice of city. I wondered if astrology might have some answers, then ultimately embarked on the same journey my heroine goes on in the novel – trying to find people with my exact same astrological charts to see if we were having similar experiences. Everything I learned inspired this book.
AUTHORLINK: That is such a “novel” idea. We can see the movie now! What do you believe is the book’s central theme, and is it the same as your first intention in writing pen to paper for the first time?
ROSEN: The central message of the book is that it is always worth the effort to know yourself, develop a path to your intuition, and live out your truth. And yes, this was the idea I most wanted to explore when I first set out to write the book. What came into the mix of the conversation was how nurture and nature combine to affect the experience people have with their journey toward knowing self, but I loved exploring that element.
AUTHORLINK: It’s sometimes scary embarking on that journey to know oneself better. We appreciate this! What challenges did you face in publishing this book along the way?
ROSEN: The timeline! My team and I decided to release this book one year (to the day!) from my debut novel The Heirloom which gave me about 11 eleven months to get from zero to a polished final draft. I had to use every writing trick in my book to get that work done, but I learned dozens more in the process. Worth all the pain. (Except the back pain, which I really could have avoided with proper sitting posture…. Lesson learned!)
AUTHORLINK: Oh wow! Eleven months. We’d love to learn about your writing ‘tricks’. 😊 You started with the award-winning blog 20-Nothings/ 30-Nothings and have sold original TV projects to ABC, CBS, Warner Bros., and Netflix. How did that feel?
ROSEN: It was an absolute thrill to work in all the writing mediums I’ve had the chance to experience over the years. In many ways, each was a different, exciting adventure in my very windy career, but I think they’ve built on each other in terms of bringing experience that all led to writing novels. I will say, I miss the wild dynamics of life as a TV writer most right now, but fingers crossed, a book will find its way to something on screen sometime in the future.
AUTHORLINK: We’re sure of it! What are you working on next?
ROSEN: I just got back from a research trip for what I hope will be my third novel. For now, I can say that it will involve travel, family dynamics, women finding themselves (of course) and, in an exciting expansion from what I’ve written so far, some big source material as inspiration.
AUTHORLINK: Excellent! What did you love about ALL THE SIGNS when writing it?
ROSEN: I absolutely loved writing the travel portions of this novel, by no surprise. Immersing myself in locations I’ve visited by bringing them to life in chapters is a total delight, which is helpful because not every element of writing is so delightful. Part of me wishes Leah could have just bopped around the world for the entire book, but I did eventually have to bring her home. As readers will see, though, even that had an extra element of travel writing.
AUTHORLINK: Wonderful. Who would you love to invite to dinner (past or present)?
ROSEN: I’m going to pick three writers in honor of this moment: my first hero Louisa May Alcott, my second hero Nora Ephron, and my current hero Kevin Wilson (I’m reading his latest novel right now!).
AUTHORLINK: Terrific choices, Jessie! it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you! Thank you for your time. We look forward to your third novel and seeing your stories come to life on the big screen.
ROSEN: Thank you!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jessie Rosen is the author of ‘The Heirloom’ (Putnam Books, 2024). She got her start with the award-winning blog 20-Nothings and has sold original television projects to ABC, CBS, Warner Bros., and Netflix. Her live storytelling show—Sunday Night Sex Talks, was featured on The Bachelorette. She lives in Los Angeles. You can find out more about Jessie, here:- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8125522/ https://jessierosen.com/ and https://www.instagram.com/jessierosenwriter/?hl=en
