Latest / The Biscuit Book Club / Michelle Griep - More than just a Regency era expert!
Transcript
- speaker-0: There's a new face here, Corey Lynn. She's with us, a longtime friend, and we are gonna be serving up some great author conversations and some bookish fun with some great guests. And I'm so excited that Corey actually knew this next guest because she introduced me to her book, and I am in the middle of reading it right now and really loving it. So, Corey, do you wanna introduce our first guest? speaker-1: Yes, I do. Today's guest has written an impressive twenty nine books, which at this point feels like a career accomplishment and more like a situation someone should have been monitoring. Michelle Greep is an award winning author of historical romance who spends an alarming amount of time researching Victorian England. She is a farmer, a mom, a grandmother, a book club leader, and a woman who knows what she's doing in the kitchen, which given my own track record is a skill that I admire with bewilderment. her husband participates in her chaos, supporting her author journey every step of the way. And according to photographic evidence that I found on social media, Michelle considers tearing around her farm on her moped a perfectly reasonable recreational activity. So I have had the privilege of staying in her home and I can vouch for the fact that she is an incredible hostess. She has critiqued my own writing, she has drawn my book cover, and somehow she continues to answer my text messages, even despite the ample evidence that that would be a questionable decision. We're gonna talk books, Victorian England, and perhaps investigate a few of Michelle's questionable life choices. Please welcome to the Biscuit Book Club, Michelle Greet. speaker-0: Yay, speaker-2: Thank you. speaker-0: I am so excited. I went to England and I do have to ask how many times have you gone to England? speaker-2: would say seven ish, round there. I haven't been there for a while. That I'm due to go back. We'll see if they let me back in. But yeah. speaker-0: You never know. were you surprised at the food? 'Cause that was one of the things I was a little surprised about. speaker-2: Okay, so like everybody gives English food a bad rap. They're always casting shade on it. But you know what? I happen to like pub food. So I have no hate whatsoever for some fish and chips or sticky toffee pudding or whatnot. and and the Indian cuisine over there, because I love me some good curry. top notch, top notch. So I do love the food. What was your impression? speaker-0: Okay, I did love the food. Love the sticky toffee pudding. I do love the Great British Baking show. So I felt like that helped to kind of wet my palate. I just wasn't I was a little surprised to be having pork and beans for breakfast every single day. Like that just doesn't seem like something that is your breakfast fare. Like, hey, would you like some scrambled eggs, waffles, and pork and beans? Like that's just not something we think of as as a breakfast food. And then the black pudding, I I passed on. speaker-2: Yeah. So yeah. No no judgment on that. And by the way, let's slap a tomato and some mushrooms on there while we're at it, because why not, right? speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. It was the pork and beans that really threw me. Like a tomato I can even see. Even mushrooms, you know, you saute. Those are things that go into an omelet. Pork and beans are something that goes to a a family potluck or something. It's not something that you're like, Yes, I'll like I would like some scones and pork and beans. Yes. But I guess that's just the standard fare. So anyway, I d haven't noticed pork and beans showing up in your book yet, but I have really enjoyed it. Corey's the one who kind of is the got me started in reading some of these novellas because I'm more of a nonfiction writer. But Corey, you have a lot of things to say and ask about her writing. speaker-1: I do, I do. I actually was able to get I got through the book. I think you kept me up till two or three AM. So thank you for that. and so it was it was a it was a quick read, but not because you know, because you make it so easy to read a book. You don't make the author or the reader have to question like, well, what does she mean by that? You know, it's very clear when when you're reading your writing and so I I'm curious to know. Like I love the book, but as I was reading this and thinking about my author issues as far as like self-doubt and stuff, I had a question for you about when you were writing it. So in this novella, you bring some of Charles Dickens' iconic characters to your fictional world. And I was just kind of curious how you felt about putting your personal spin on characters that generations have already known and love. speaker-2: I was a little bit nervous, kinda had sweaty palms as I was typing away on my keyboard. Especially because Scrooge is such you know, everybody love a love hate relationship with him, right? Everybody knows him. Everybody thinks they know Bell. which they don't really, but e I was honestly quite a bit nervous to to put Scrooge in there, which is why I only put him in there a little bit 'cause I didn't want to overdo it, but I knew he had to be there. So yeah, that was a bit of a struggle for me, not gonna lie. but apparently I must have pulled it off because you did finish the book. So that's a bonus. speaker-1: You did a stellar job on how you chose to bring him in and I'll let readers look into that themselves so that there's a little hint as to why they might want to go check this out themselves because you did do a good job with that. But I I will have to admit that when Marcy knew right off the bat who Bell was, she's like, You didn't know who Belle was? And I was like, No. And she's like, How come? And I said, 'Cause I've only ever watched the Disney version cartoon. speaker-2: yeah. speaker-0: Muffin's Christmas Carol. speaker-1: I know. So for those who don't know who Belle is, like me, she is Scrooge's fiance, right? Fictional fiance. So speaker-2: Well Scrooge. speaker-1: Day what is it? I was today years old when I learned all this. speaker-0: And I love the George C. Scott edition of Christmas Carol. That's our favorite. We watch it every year. George C. Scott was so great as Scrooge. I love the cover. And as soon as I saw her, I knew who that was. But when Corey said, I've only watched Muppets The Muppets Christmas Carol, I'm like, I don't think Miss Picky was playing that role. So I don't know who's playing. speaker-2: Hey look at this cool speaker-1: on a book that is a real cool book cover because Michelle actually showed me the cover in person when I was at her house. She happened to have a copy and I was like, that's a really cool cover but nowhere in my mind did I go, this person's relevant for some reason. It just won, you know, what are you gonna do? speaker-0: I love the fact that this is also for book clubs. So it's for for you to enjoy and it's a it's a nice fun read, but it's also for book clubs. And I love the fact that you had the discussion questions in the back. And I know not everybody is in a book club, but I just want to say I've actually really enjoyed having some talks with our kids and just posting questions up and having them respond. So this is even something that you could do, even if you're not part of a book club, you could do this as a family, like if you are doing advent reading or Christmas reading. It's something that you could do ahead of time and then just ask each other questions. But one of the questions that I loved was the story begins, it's number one on this the story begins with waiting before anything changes. What has shaped your life more than the moments of action. And I was thinking for you, you were talking about waiting, and w since that we are talking about books, I was wondering what moments of waiting have shaped you as a writer? speaker-2: Well, I would have to say definitely, like every author wannabe, it's the waiting to get published for the first time. So in my case, I started writing probably, boy, this sounds like I'm a dinosaur, which I am. I started writing in the year 2000, but my first book didn't actually get published until 2008. And even then, that was with a small publisher, not a very big book at all. And it took let's see, 2008. I don't do numbers, till 2015 for my first big novel to to come out with a traditional publisher. So that's what, seven more years. so that's a lot of waiting. But I love the process of writing. And so I just stuck with it because I would kind I I would do this even if I didn't get paid for it. so that was probably the biggest amount of waiting that shaped me because I had to figure out Why am I not getting published? What is good writing? What is bad writing? Why is mine so horrible? and how to fix that. So I would say that probably shaked me the most. Okay. speaker-1: They they say, what is it? Something like they say it takes ten thousand hours of doing something before you become successful overnight. You know, it's that that kind of saying of, you know, it's it's there's a lot going on in the background that you're working on and and perfecting and crafting and then like one minute you're here and the next minute you're in a whole nother level of of being an author or You know, if you have another creative thing that you're working on, I think it takes those hours of just dedication before you get that reward. So I can vouch for that. speaker-0: Yeah. Well, and I just appreciate all of the research because even the language and I do wanna let listeners know this is Belle's Christmas Carol, a Dickens inspired holiday novella. So I know I didn't have this all the way up here, but this is based on Dickens inspired. But I just appreciate all of the research and how the vernacular of the dialect, how the rhythm of patterns of their speech The formality of the way they talk to each other. Was that difficult to immerse yourself in? to get to that point where you could write that way? speaker-2: Not really, because those are the voices I hear in my head. So do I need therapy? Probably. But th that's what I hear in my head. So not not so much. And being that Dickens is honestly one of my favorite authors, and I aspire to be like him in some ways, not in other ways, 'cause he was a little creepy towards the end of his life. But he would make up words, which you know what? If I don't know the language of the time, I'm just gonna throw in a made up word dog on it and And let it fly. And people think, she really knows the language. No, I don't. I'm just making it up. Just like dickens. So there you go. A little peek behind the scenes. I think I ran a speaker-1: a few of those words and I was like, I don't know what that is, but there's no glossary and I don't want to go look it up. So I'll just keep reading. speaker-2: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, actually I was someplace last night and there I came across a word that I didn't recognize and I did look it up and I'm like, I'm gonna have to write that down so I don't forget. I've already forgotten. So I'm gonna have to go back and check that out. But it I've loved how how their speech patterns are. And with all the research, if you could put yourself into one of the books, are they all Regency era? speaker-2: So, hmm, that's a great question. I write Regency and Victorian mostly. I I do have I started out writing time travel of all things because I also love medieval and I adore the Viking Age. But all my stories, even if it's c I've done colonial as well. All my stories though, somehow in some way, shape, or form. tie into England because I am an Anglophile at heart. And so it's always gonna some way be tied back to that homeland. speaker-0: So it has some like there's always a corset involved then is what you're saying. speaker-2: Course, not necessarily. No, not necessarily. speaker-0: So yeah. That that that would be the one down thing about I think living during the Regency era is all of the clothing that they had to wear, the layers and layers of it. I think that would be that would be cumbersome, but speaker-2: Victorian era was was probably worse than the Regency era as far as corsets go. Victor Regency, you have that lovely little empire, you know, gown that's like right below here. So you can have a big belly sticking out, nobody knows because it kind of just drapes over it. But Victorian, man, you are cinched in there and you cannot breathe. So if I had to choose an era to live in, I would probably go with Regency over Victorian. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: So be that being that that's where you're going with this, out of the twenty nine books that you've written, which one would probably be the one you would want to step into for a day and why? speaker-2: Ooh. That's like picking my favorite kid that I wanna hang out with. speaker-1: put that part together. Something we would just say and we would just know. speaker-2: I like speaker-1: No authors don't answer their favorite book question. speaker-2: No, because it's like I love them all for different reasons. however I I do have my favorites, just like I have my favorite kids and grandkids. Don't tell that. And don't worry, they won't listen to this because they don't know what I'm up to. I would have to say my my favorite hero is in a book that you can't actually get right now because it's out of print. And that is my Viking hero, Ragnar. But I In things to come, I have a book coming out in I believe in April, next April, Who is my second favorite hero? So and that one takes place on the cliffs of Cornwall and is a Victorian. Are you speaker-0: Can't believe twenty nine bucks. speaker-1: I know, wow. let's pretend for a minute that you you know, genre labels, sales, and reader expect expectations don't even exist. So if you could explore or had the freedom to explore any genre or worlds outside of what you usually do, what would you what genre yeah, what genre would you choose? speaker-2: Well, I started writing time travel, so that's my first love. And I would go back to that and in fact probably will go back to that eventually. And I would choose writing the Viking era just because I love those big beefy Vikings 'cause they're just kinda out of control and you don't know what they're gonna do. And yeah, that's what I would choose. speaker-1: So I understand you might have some of that Viking material available for readers. speaker-2: I do actually. So this year I learned how to do Substack. That was my new technological challenge for me. And so I started my own Substack. It's just under my name, Michelle Greep. And what I'm posting on there is my first book that I had written that was time travel that you can't get anymore. And so I alternate every other week. One week I put up a chapter, and then the next week I I put up a snarky little article about Vikings. So Could be some historical tidbit or it could be something about my story. It could be whatever I'm in the mood for, quite frankly. so yeah, Substack, that's where I'm at with that story. speaker-1: Not knowing much about it, how do people find you there? speaker-2: You can just go to substack.com and then type in my name, Michelle Griep, and it voila, it should pull me up. I will eventually publish these books as a trilogy. I have not finished writing them yet because this is a spare time kind of of thing. When I run away from Victorian and Regency, I run to the Vikings. So one day they will all come out as a trilogy. speaker-1: And all your spare time between farming and writing and family, right? speaker-2: Right. Right. 'Cause I have so much spare time. speaker-0: How many how many kids do you have, Michelle? And how many grandkids? speaker-2: I have four kids and seven grandkids. one of one of the families lives by us. So I've got my youngest daughter and her husband and two kids near, but then the others are spread to the four winds and we're kind of centrally located, which makes it then a day's drive to visit any of them. So that works out pretty good. speaker-0: I think that that's kind of an important point in the fact that you've written a lot of books, but you have all these kids and grandkids. And I know when I started writing, I would just write around our kids' schedule. And I hear people sometimes saying, well, as soon as our kids are older, I'll start doing this. Or I've always wanted to be a writer, but I'm waiting until they're gone and then I'm like, but then they're adults and they have more kids. Like I don't think that things slow down. It's just a different, it's just a different busy. And so what do you ha what kind of advice do you have for somebody who's been thinking about writing, but thinking that they're going to wait until life gets slower? speaker-2: Yeah, that's a big fat lie. So don't believe it. Your life is not going to slow down. It is going to speed up. yeah, just because they grow up and move out of the house. no, they're gonna come back and they're gonna come back in droves and they're gonna come back with more people. So it is not going to slow down. so you know what? Just write. Just just go ahead and write right now, no matter how busy you are, because you're never gonna slow down, and that's just how it is. speaker-1: And sometimes I think when you do slow down you find other things to fill your time. I've heard many authors say, I've never had a cleaner house than when I'm on deadline. You know, 'cause they they there's a procrastinating piece of that that that comes into play. speaker-2: Yeah. Yeah. When you have a deadline, you're gonna find everything in in in the world to do other than sit down and write because it's stressful. So speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: I was speaker-0: I end up baking because if I have a lot of stuff to do, I'll know that I can break it into twelve minute sections. Like throw a batch of cookies in, set the timer for twelve minutes. Sometimes you just have to do what works for you, but you definitely don't wait for the timing to be perfect because that's never that's gonna be like, well when it's convenient, I'll start flossing and doing sit-ups. speaker-2: No. No. I'm still not gonna do sit ups, but and I would bake, but then I would eat it all. so I only bake when companies come in, otherwise I'm out of control. speaker-1: So I was wondering, Michelle, what would you feel? How would you feel about doing a little rapid fire rapid fire question round with us? speaker-2: Let's do it. speaker-1: Okay. So here's the rules. There really aren't very many, but just two. I'm gonna give you a prompt and then I want you to come up with the first author name that comes to mind. And I know you know plenty, so this should be pretty easy for you. and so I'll hopefully our our pacing here will work because I I'm I'm not used to this kind of technology just yet. So we'll see how it goes. Okay. So which author is most likely to survive Christmas in a Dickens novel? speaker-2: Ooh, I would say Jamie Joe Wright. speaker-1: Which author is most likely to still be shopping on Christmas Eve? speaker-2: I would say that's a that's a good one. But this is fast. I'm just gonna go with more of France. speaker-1: Which author is most likely to turn a Regency era bedpan into a DIY project? speaker-2: Ooh, in real life? speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-2: Or fake. in real life. Mm-hmm. Ooh, that's a good one. who do I know? It's crafty. I would say Tara Johnson. speaker-1: Which author is most likely to note a completely useless historical fact. speaker-2: Ericovich. speaker-1: I agree. A hundred percent. Absolutely. I was actually hoping you would say that. speaker-2: I didn't even have to think about that. speaker-1: Which light which author is most likely to write a character suspiciously based on you? speaker-2: Ooh. I would go with I'm gonna go with Joanna Davidson Paul Tano because she's just so good at characters. speaker-1: And sh and she seems like she could sneak that in suspici that she could sneak. She's speaker-2: Sneak it in. speaker-1: a phenomenal author. I love her stuff. All right. So this is the last this is the last one. It's a good one. Which author is most likely to say, I have an idea, which immediately makes your life and your current book more complicated? speaker-2: Corey Bing bing bing bing bing. speaker-1: I wasn't expecting you to say me, but thank you. I have an idea, by the way. speaker-2: I knew you would. speaker-0: Yeah. We have no prizes for the winners, but speaker-1: Probably why Michelle's like, Corey will not be critiquing my books. She can just be reading my books when they're done. speaker-2: You have too many ideas for me to fit in there. speaker-1: That was really fun though. Like that was awesome. speaker-0: and I love the fact too that as far as ideas go, if some people are stuck on some ideas for Christmas time, this is not only a good book to get, but you have a book club kit available for readers to give them an idea. And I love that that they can request that. How do they get Bell's Christmas Carol book club kit so that they can have access to all that stuff? And who came up with that fun stuff? What kind of fun things do you have in the kit? speaker-2: That is a great question. The kit will be available November 1st, so it's not out yet, but it's coming. And I've got loads of fun stuff in there. So I have an invitation that you can send out to your book club members. I have a playlist so you can have background music playing as they arrive. And that is the music I listened to as I wrote the story. I have a Pinterest board, which you can actually you should just go there right now because there's a lot of fun ideas on there anyway. because I love me some Pinterest. What else do I have in there? Good recipes, cause I I love to eat, which is why I don't bake, because I will eat it all. You cannot leave me unattended with a sheet of chocolate chip cookies. They will be gone. what else do you have in there? I have some game ideas because I hate it when I go to a social situation and we all just sit down and we're expected to small talk because I what do you say? I don't know. But let's play a game and then we'll all get laughing and then we'll just talk normal like normal human beings. So so some some games are in there. And then of course the discussion questions, which a little side note on the discussion questions. I do run a book club and I've run one, gosh, for the last 10 years. and I just kind of have a pet peeve generally with discussion questions because okay, some either they're super existential and I don't even know what they're talking about, and yet I'm expected to answer this question. So it's like, hello, I'm not a philosophy major. I don't even know what language you're speaking. Or they're way too simple. What color dress was she wearing in chapter two? Okay, who cares what color dress she was wearing? And why are we asking this question? So I try to make my questions more understandable so you don't have to go, what? What are you talking about? And based on also experience because what what experiences are you do you have that are shared with the character? And because that ties you in with the reading experience you had and your real life experiences. So okay, that was a really long answer. I will I will pause now. speaker-1: But I think though what I like about this idea and the way that your kit because I did get a sneak peek to look at it and it's got some really cool stuff in there. And what I like about that is you're saying this isn't just a book or a story that a person reads, but you're taking opportunities to create small communities that feel like they're part of that world. Like so you're creating these opportunities where it's not just an experience of reading a story, but it's actually like Hey, let's let's become let's take that world to the the next level of having a community that surrounds it. And I really like I really like that you do that. And I and I will I can't remember if I saw this, but is it possible for book clubs to somehow have you zoom in with them or do questionnaire or question answer with them? speaker-2: Yeah, absolutely. I love to join in on book clubs. They're super fun to to to chat with. And I do have also book club kits for other my other books too. So you can always just shoot me a message. I I will answer you back because I'm an email freak and I I love to check my email. You can even message me on Insta or Facebook because I'm hanging speaker-1: Where can people find you? Like what are your what are your tags to make it easy for them to locate where you're at online? speaker-2: Yeah, if you wanna make sure I see it right away, I would say go to my website and contact me through that, that contact form there. because that goes to a separate email address. But you can also message me on you can direct message me on Facebook, Instagram. I'm I'm usually hanging out on there watching reels and wasting time when I should be speaker-1: to answer this, but it because I didn't actually have Stan as a question. But I'm just curious as as because of the level that you're at as an author, what does your inbox look like on Instagram? Because I mean, do you I mean how many how many messages are you getting from readers? Because it seems like it would be a little chaotic. speaker-2: Like direct messages or comments? Well speaker-1: Well just like direct messages where they're reaching out in the messenger or you get called a few or speaker-2: get I wouldn't say I get that many. On Instagram I get, I don't know, maybe 10 or 15 a day. It's not that bad. Facebook I would say I would get even less. But as for comments, especially on Facebook, I I will often just go through and like them because I just I can't I can't speaker-0: Yeah, you're putting speaker-1: Really popular. speaker-2: Yeah, I just can't I would love I would really love to take the time to comment back to everybody, but I don't have the that much time. 'Cause there's there's reels to watch, you know? speaker-1: Yeah, I mean if you if you wanted to shake it up a little bit, you'd let let me take over your Facebook account for a day and I'll respond to the comment. speaker-2: No, okay. That'd be great. speaker-1: I have an idea. speaker-2: d I'm sure you do. speaker-0: so Michelle, thank you so much for joining us. I'm looking forward to sitting down, finishing this book, and then actually giving it back to Corey because she's like, Okay, I'll let you borrow it, but I need it back because it goes in my bookshelf next to all of Michelle's other books. But this is definitely a book I'm pass I'm gonna get. my daughter in law loves Dickens and it's I love the fact that it's from Belle's point of view because you do have those characters that you love so much. And then when they're not part of the story anymore, you do kind of Just wanna make sure that they're okay, that they're doing great. So you did a great job on this and I just I really enjoyed what I've read so far. I'm looking forward to reading the rest. So speaker-2: Thank you so much. Thank you for having me, ladies. And just a a little quick mention here, there's a new Scrooge movie coming out in November that has Johnny Depp playing Scrooge. So I think that could be a fun one to watch. speaker-0: Are Muppets inviting? speaker-1: Bring us over to go to the movies with you? speaker-2: Okay. Come on over. Let's go to the baby. We'll get some power. Let's speaker-1: Let's speaker-2: do it. Let's do it. speaker-0: We could we could carpool, C Corey. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-2: Definitely. speaker-0: Yeah, I'll bring snacks. I'll eat beans. Leave the cooking to us. speaker-1: I know, right? Yeah. I mean that w that's probably what w would be better for all of us. So Michelle, you know it's been an absolute joy to have you here. And I think you're just proof that a writer can be able to take the work seriously without taking herself too seriously. And I think that's what makes your f stories so much fun to read. speaker-2: Thank you. You are good for my heart. I try. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. speaker-0: Well, we've enjoyed having you. Thank you so much, Michelle. And we are looking forward to visiting more on the Biscuit Book Club and sitting around the table having a cup of tea, maybe with a splash, a dollop of milk and maybe a scone. But until next time, we'll see you later.