How ‘The Hunting Wives’ Changed May Cobb’s Life Forever (Exclusive)

The Hunting Wives creator May Cobb didn’t know the place grocery cash was going to come back from when a cellphone name modified her life.

Cobb began her writing journey 25 years in the past, with a nonfiction guide a couple of jazz musician she admits she “nonetheless has to complete,” however after loving books like Gone Girl and Girl on the Train, determined to attempt her hand at thrillers. Her debut, Large Woods, got here out in 2018 and whereas it was effectively reviewed, gross sales weren’t sufficient to make a dent of their funds. 

“We had been barely making ends meet to be completely blunt,” the creator explains. Might’s husband, Chuck, was working within the restaurant enterprise whereas Might stayed residence to care for his or her son, then 6, who has autism and wishes specialised care. 

“Some months, we weren’t making ends meet. We acquired eviction notices, and my mother would are available in and canopy our lease, however the price of particular wants is excessive. We had been actually digging for change out of our automobile for groceries.”

Cobb was within the midst of making use of for different jobs and never getting any traction when the concept for The Looking Wives struck. She wrote the primary a part of the guide in “a feverish dash” all through the summer time of 2018 and after exhibiting it to a good friend, acquired the type of suggestions that will quickly show prophetic. “Get your ass in there and end this,” Cobb’s good friend advised her. “That is gonna promote for positive.”

And some months later, that prediction got here true. Cobb pitched it to a handful of brokers over Thanksgiving week and acquired the decision from Victoria Sanders, who’d turn out to be her literary agent, on a very robust day.

“I keep in mind she referred to as me on a Saturday, and we had had an extremely difficult morning with my son. He simply wasn’t doing effectively,” Cobb remembers. “I simply felt a lot despair, and he or she referred to as, and he or she stated, ‘I see this as a giant publishing deal. It is going to be a giant TV deal. It was a type of calls the place you are feeling like every thing’s gonna be okay.”

That March, on Cobb’s mom’s birthday, she came upon the guide had bought at public sale. Whereas they waited for contract particulars to get solidified, Sanders fronted the Cobbs some cash “so we may reside,” she remembers. “Nobody does that. However that meant we may simply exhale.”

They weren’t out of the woods but, although. The COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Chuck stop his job to care for his or her son so Cobb may end the guide. They had been “actually on the ropes” when producer Erwin Stoff referred to as, keen about producing the collection. 

“That was one other name that was like, ‘Okay, is that this the universe calling me? As a result of he was like, I am gonna promote this for positive. That is positively gonna occur,’ ” Cobb remembers. However when the guide hit cabinets in Might 2021, it didn’t make fairly the splash everybody anticipated. Whereas Looking Wives did discover its followers, it didn’t hit the New York Instances Bestseller checklist, broadly thought of the primary indicator for a guide’s success. 

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“I nonetheless did three extra books after that,” Cobb says. “However I felt like my profession plateaued.” The Cobbs had been “bleeding cash” because the pandemic after which the author’s strike hit the publishing and tv trade exhausting, and her son misplaced entry to most of the companies he trusted, so each dad and mom needed to keep residence with him always. With Might below writing deadlines and Chuck caring for his or her son, “Issues acquired fairly difficult financially,” she added. “We had been nonetheless on the ropes into 2023.”

That’s when creator and showrunner Rebecca Cutter got here right down to Texas to fulfill with Cobb and see the world where the book — and finally the present — occurred. They acquired alongside like lifelong buddies straight away. “I vividly keep in mind we had been on my sister’s ski boat, taking her across the lake, which the Looking Wives was impressed by and exhibiting her the massive homes, and we had been simply spilling our life tales to one another,” the creator says. “And she or he stated, ‘Okay, I perceive the task and the mission is we’ll do that, so we will care for your son.’ ” 

Then one other miracle cellphone name arrived, precisely when Cobb wanted it. 

“I am actually feeding my son dinner, and I used to be simply having a type of days. I used to be doom-spiraling — about cash and the long run and an unsure publishing profession. And I stated to my husband, ‘Can you’re taking over? I would like to enter the opposite room, and simply type of have a second,’ ” Cobb says. 

“I truly got here to my bed room and I used to be [looking at] our checking account, and I used to be nearly having kind of a panic assault the place I used to be identical to, ‘I do not see how that is gonna work like that is.’ However then I look down and my cellphone’s lighting up, and it is Erwin.”

He advised her the present was going ahead, beginning pre-production that January and filming in March. “I thanked him after which I needed to grasp up as a result of I used to be bawling,” Cobb remembers. “After which I hollered out for Chuck and I simply keep in mind, like, staggering into the corridor, collapsing in his arms and telling him we had been going to be okay. And it simply was, I imply, it was that life-changing.” 

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The journey since then has been “nothing in need of surreal.” Cobb was capable of sit in on the writers’ room, see the manufacturing come collectively from begin to end and when she noticed early episodes within the spring, advised Cutter, “That is the type of present that is going to interrupt the Web.”

She was proper. 

“I do not even know methods to describe it aside from it is past my wildest goals,” she says of the response, including that she’s extremely pleased with the difference. “[Cutter] advised me her imaginative and prescient for it, and my solely response to her was, ‘Nicely, the place had been you after I was writing the guide?’ ” she provides with fun. “She simply was not afraid to rejoice the spirit of the wildness of the guide, and I simply love that since you may have actually toned it down or finished issues in another way. And I am actually glad that she did the alternative. She turned it up.”

However as they are saying, there’s no relaxation for the weary — or working authors. Cobb’s subsequent guide, All the Little Houses, comes out in January. The creator describes it as “my twisted, skewed love letter to Little House on the Prairie. It is acquired a trad wife and wealthy bitches, and it is actually like a cleaning soap opera.”

She’s additionally exhausting at work on the sequel, and excited to attempt her hand at extra screenwriting so she will carry her personal work to the display sooner or later and possibly even pen some originals. However above all, she’s grateful for the staff that’s thrown their enthusiastic assist behind her guide and the present it grew to become. 

“I can not say sufficient about how getting a TV present made us,” Cobb says. “It afforded us the chance to look after our son much more — it is actually due to every thing that is occurred. And that is wonderful. I can not even put it into phrases.”

The Hunting Wives is streaming on Netflix now and the guide can also be accessible, wherever books are bought.