Christmas in July: screenplay

By Jay Asher

From Jay Asher, #1 international bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why, comes a Christmas romance about a couple who fall in love…while filming a Christmas romance.

Amanda Fox is determined to never date anyone in showbiz again. The former star of a high school drama, she now focuses on life

• Language: English
• Publisher: Faulty Bracket Publishing
• Release date: Oct 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781734039702

Jay Asher

Jay Asher is an author of Young Adult novels, and is perhaps most well known for his novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, hich has appeared regularly on The New York Times bestsellers list for the past nine years. It has sold over 2.5 million copies in the US alone and is currently in production to be athirteen-part series on Netflix. His second YA novel, The Future of Us, was co-authored with Printz-honor winner Carolyn Mackler. His other novels also unclude What Light in 2016. His novels have been translated into over thirty languages.

Book preview

Christmas in July

Christmas in July

- screenplay -

Jay Asher

This is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, places, and events leapt straight from

the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

---

Copyright © 2019 by Jay Asher

---

Under the Mistletoe lyrics © JoanMarie

Uh Oh, Beautiful lyrics © JoanMarie

---

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

---

First edition: October 2019

---

ISBN 978-1-7340397-1-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-7340397-0-2 (ebook)

Also by Jay Asher

NOVELS

---

Thirteen Reasons Why

---

The Future of Us

(co-author: Carolyn Mackler)

---

What Light

GRAPHIC NOVEL

---

Piper

(co-author: Jessica Freeburg;

illustrator: Jeff Stokely)

TO:

---

Isaiah Asher

&

Joyce C. Hall

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

Reading a Screenplay

Act I

Commercial Break

Act II

Commercial Break

Act III

Commercial Break

Act IV

Commercial Break

Act V

Commercial Break

Act VI

Commercial Break

Act VII

Commercial Break

Act VIII

Under The Mistletoe

Listen

Author’s Note

After I published my first novel, a very serious high school drama (Thirteen Reasons Why), people asked if there was another genre I wanted to write someday. I always answered, Yes, a Christmas romance. They thought I was joking. When I later published a teen romance set on a Christmas tree lot (What Light), they finally realized I had been sincere.

Writing that book, I did two things to keep me wrapped in the Christmas spirit no matter the season, and because we don’t have true seasons where I live in California. First, I lit scented candles (evergreen tree or gingerbread cookie). Second, I played non-stop country Christmas tunes (Alan Jackson’s Let it be Christmas and Lady Antebellum’s On This Winter’s Night albums were great companions).

As someone who seeks Christmas love stories regardless of the medium, I eagerly await the flurry of them on television each winter. While writing What Light to some great holiday songs, immersed in a story of love taking root, the idea for a Christmas movie-within-a-movie starring a country music singer took hold. I took a break from writing my book and wrote the following script.

After I finished writing and chose to publish it as a book, I considered novelizing the screenplay first. But to keep the concept of the movie-within-a-movie clear and fun, I decided…no!

Whatever season you read it in, I hope the story of Amanda and Cole makes it feel like the coziest Christmas in your heart.

---

- Jay

READING A SCREENPLAY

Sample Scene

INT. AMANDA’S HOUSE / OFFICE - NIGHT

Cole looks at the framed DVDs of Amanda’s Christmas movies.

COLE

I bet I’ve seen all of these. Some of them twice.

How to Read that Scene

INT.(inside) or EXT.(outside) SETTING - DAY or NIGHT [indicates the start of a new scene]

This is what a character does and what the camera sees.

CHARACTER NAME

This is what the character says.

Act I

Fade in:

---

INT. AMANDA’S HOUSE / OFFICE - DAY

Like a musician’s framed gold record, a framed DVD case and disc from a TV Christmas romance hangs on a wall. Within that frame is also a sprig of mistletoe. The wintery DVD artwork shows AMANDA, late 30s, hugging a male actor. Next to that frame is a frame for another TV Christmas romance with similar imagery (but Amanda with a different male actor) and another mistletoe. And then another frame of another Christmas romance and Amanda with another man. This set-up repeats with another frame, and another, and...

Next to the last frame, a second-story window overlooks a swimming pool. Amanda, in a sundress and sunglasses, sits with her legs in the pool. From beside her, PATRICK, 10 years old, leaps into the pool. Cannonball!

---

EXT. AMANDA’S HOUSE / POOL – DAY

Amanda is splashed by Patrick’s cannonball. She laughs and, when he comes up, splashes him with her foot.

PATRICK

Wait! I don’t want to get wet!

She splashes him again.

AMANDA

And that’s for being sarcastic to your mom.

Sitting at an umbrella-shaded table, OWEN, mid-40s, flips the page in a script. More scripts are scattered on the glass tabletop.

OWEN

Most of these will be cast within a few weeks, so we need to choose now.

You know, before Christmas.

AMANDA

Do any require me to audition?

Patrick is about to splash her with his arm.

AMANDA

Don’t you dare.

OWEN

The ones we’re interested in would love to have you. All you need to do is say yes.

Amanda raises her eyebrow at Patrick: See? Momma’s still got it.

He splashes her.

AMANDA

What can I say? When you got it, you