Susan Yoon is a writer of books for children. Her debut picture book, *Waiting for Tomorrow,* illustrated by Julie Kwon and published by FSG/Macmillan, will launch October 24 and is available for pre-order now!

For the life of me I can’t remember how I first came across Susan Yoon’s Instagram feed, but I am so glad I did!! Warm, funny, and packed full of the beauty of everyday things, her posts always make me smile.

What I do remember is that the first time we chatted it was about our twin Mac Barnett’s Book Club Show Book Club hats, and that that’s when we discovered we had something else pretty major in common; our debut picture books were both launching in October of 2023! Susan’s beautiful story, Waiting for Tomorrow, illustrated by Julie Kwon and published by FSG/Macmillan, is available for pre-order now!

RAIN

I love everything about it — the gloom, the smell, the shine it leaves on all the plants and rocks! One day, I would like to move somewhere where it rains 70% of the time. Rainy days are some of my most productive days when it comes to writing, too.

2. SALTED BUTTER

There’s honestly nothing like a slice of cold salted butter on a morsel of any kind of fresh bread. Shoutout to all breads except sourdough, because why are you so heavy and sour and how have you taken over all the bakeries in North America?

3. THE COLOUR ORANGE

It’s not a colour I like to wear because finding the right shade of orange in clothes is nearly impossible - but it’s everywhere in nature. Persimmons, apricots, clementines, strands of saffron in water. When I see it I swear I can feel my heart expand.

4. WEEDS AND WILDFLOWERS

I think it’s beautiful to see life adapting and thriving against the odds. Shoutout to pigeons.

5. BIG CITIES WITH WALKABLE NEIGHBOURHOODS

I dislike walking in the woods but I love walking in the city, where there are people and noise and bustle. Whenever I’m in the suburbs or the woods I don’t do so well and start getting mad at everyone.

6. CAKES OF ALL KINDS

I love them all but I’m particularly fond of layer cakes with salty-sweet Swiss buttercream and a Ukrainian cake called smetannik, a perfectly soft moist crumb assembled with sour cream icing!

7. SEASHORES

There’s something super alive about seashores, especially at low tide. There’s life, and evidence of life, in the sand and in the water, and there’s you too, making toe prints into the wet sand. The neatest part though is that when the waves crash and the wind blows, you kinda get to disappear into their sounds and you become indistinguishable from the wind and the waves and the universe and then you’re like, oh yes, I’m just a small part of this whole thing.