Marissa Matteo began her career as a celebrity ghostwriter, authoring nine books, three of them New York Times bestsellers. She has spent the past ten years as a television writer, a career she holds onto with her fingernails out of pure love for TV.
In September 2027 she becomes a debut novelist at the ripe young age of 45, when Crazy Normal is published by Crown. But her proudest and most daunting achievement is being mother to Ruby (8 years old and an aspiring director) and Cassius (6 years old and an aspiring flea).
← All profilesLove is not self-sacrifice. Love is going after your dreams right alongside your kids.
Marissa Matteo, Author & Television Writer
Read it the way it ran in print.
“If I’m honest I didn’t want to die having only written books for other people.” That’s where her feature opens in the October 2026 issue, pages 38–41. Below is the actual spread, page for page, exactly as it appears in print.
You have spent twenty years writing for other people at the highest level: ghostwriting New York Times bestsellers and developing television. By every measure, you have an extraordinary career writing for everyone but yourself. What kept bringing you back?
If I’m honest I didn’t want to die having only written books for other people. That’s the short answer. The longer answer is that the mother in this book, Maureen, kept calling me back. And not softly either. She’s a terrible nag. Maureen is an amalgam of all the moms I have loved in my life, from my own mother, to my grandmothers, to all my friends, and myself.
In many ways, this is her story and I could not finish writing it until I had kids myself. I could not access how utterly happy, hysterical, and insane motherhood makes you. And yes, it makes you a nag. But sometimes that is the only way anything gets done.
Your kids are watching you publish your first novel under your own name. What do you hope this teaches them about following your dreams even when life gets busy?
I hope it shows them that following your dreams almost always happens when life is busy. The carousel is not going to stop spinning because you want to grab the brass ring. You have to get on the carousel and reach for the brass ring no matter how many times around it goes. No matter how dizzy you get.
I take my laptop with me almost everywhere I go: on the sidelines of gymnastics, piano lessons, swim team, basketball, etc. So much of my writing is done in the middle of absolute chaos and my kids see that. I make sure they witness me showing up for myself in the middle of all the “Mom, watch this” and the “he’s breathing too close to me” and the “she’s LOOKING AT ME” insanity. I hope they always remember that you can do both things at the same time. Love is not self-sacrifice. Love is going after your dreams right alongside your kids.
Read the full feature in the October 2026 issue.
Open the issue
