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Engineering A Love Story How Much Can A Woman Risk From Kathleen Reidy · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: I know it always seems kind of fun just to
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  Speaker 1: jump onto Spotify or iHeartRadio and, oh, there's my favorite podcast.
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  Speaker 1: But what would happen if that one author that you've
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  Speaker 1: got for a podcast host is actually hosting 21 different podcasts?
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  Speaker 1: It's the thing. We're all doing a network of podcasts.
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  Speaker 1: That's why I always say go to their websites, arrow.net, A-R-R-O-E.net.
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  Speaker 1: It's that one place where you can find four stories.
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  Speaker 1: You've got your favorite park. You've got your favorite place
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  Speaker 1: of solitude. Where are you writing this down to preserve
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  Speaker 1: for a future self? A little bit too heavy for
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  Speaker 1: you today? Oh, it's not when you go to Forest Stories.
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  Speaker 1: Only on Arrow.net. A-R-R-O-E dot net. Enjoy your exploration.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, Arrow.
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  Speaker 3: It's so great to meet you.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it's great to meet you, too, because you've got
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  Speaker 1: a book here that really does inspire me in so
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  Speaker 1: many different ways, especially when it comes to being that
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  Speaker 1: one person in the herd of many. And you stood
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  Speaker 1: out and you stay forward and you write a book
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  Speaker 1: about it. I mean, that's so inspiring when in an
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  Speaker 1: age where people would rather just clam up and walk forward.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 1: What was it like for you, though, to get the
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  Speaker 1: courage to write Engineering a Love Story? Because I am
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  Speaker 1: a firm believer that there's more to writing than just
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  Speaker 1: using our thumbs on a smartphone and that we are
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  Speaker 1: entering an age where writers are going to come out.
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  Speaker 1: They just need people like you, Kathleen, to open that door.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it encourages the right word, not just to sit
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  Speaker 2: down and do it, but then to tell people that
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  Speaker 2: you're doing it, especially when you're a little bit older,
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  Speaker 2: you know, and I've had I had a career and
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  Speaker 2: then was kind of on to a second career, which
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  Speaker 2: was a little bit more book related because I became
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  Speaker 2: a librarian.
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  Speaker 3: So then it didn't.
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  Speaker 2: Seem like too far afield to be like, oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'm right.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm writing a novel.
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  Speaker 2: But it's still like the first time you say those
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  Speaker 2: words out loud to people that that.
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  Speaker 3: Don't know you're doing it. It does take some courage.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's one of those things where you kind
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  Speaker 1: of mention it. It's like podcasting and then everybody kind
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  Speaker 1: of rolls their eyes. You're going, yeah, everybody's writing a book.
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  Speaker 1: And it's like you have no idea what goes into
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  Speaker 1: writing a book, man. And you have no idea what,
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  Speaker 1: as Julia Cameron would say from The Artist's Way, it
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  Speaker 1: cleans out the closet. And is that one of these,
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  Speaker 1: that types of books where it just feels like now
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  Speaker 1: that it's out, you've got more room to grow?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, yes, now that it's out, but even
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  Speaker 2: just the starting of doing it, which I think is
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  Speaker 2: what Julia Cameron would probably say. You're not even doing
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  Speaker 2: it necessarily in the beginning for anybody else. you're just
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  Speaker 2: doing it for yourself, at least for me. And then
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  Speaker 2: it just became such a meaningful, wonderful experience. Just that,
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  Speaker 2: even if it hadn't gone beyond that, right? And then
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  Speaker 2: I met all these other writers and the writing community
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  Speaker 2: and writers in general and having new writing friends are
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  Speaker 2: just the most generous, kindest people. people um and that
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  Speaker 2: made was all so meaningful and made my life richer
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  Speaker 2: and so then now to get to this point you
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  Speaker 2: know however many years later and actually have the book
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  Speaker 2: that beautiful book um you know yes that that is
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  Speaker 2: great it is it is the ultimate kind of you
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  Speaker 2: know i don't know victory is the word i want
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  Speaker 2: to use but definitely a great feeling of satisfaction but
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  Speaker 2: all that other stuff along the way um were you
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  Speaker 2: know the biggest the biggest hurdles i guess.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I love the idea that you picked 2000 as
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  Speaker 1: the year. And the reason why is because we are
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  Speaker 1: such a throwback generation right now to where everybody wants
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  Speaker 1: to go back and relive those moments. You can see
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  Speaker 1: it all the way around us right now. So to
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  Speaker 1: go back into that moment. But yet, I don't feel
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  Speaker 1: like that you've taken us back there like, oh, you're
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  Speaker 1: living in your past. No, it feels like it's this
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  Speaker 1: moment of now. And that says a lot about your writing.
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  Speaker 1: You make us feel like it's now.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, well, thank you.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I appreciate that. I am very intrigued by
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  Speaker 2: that moment, both because of sort of.
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  Speaker 3: What it meant in my own life. 2000 was a
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  Speaker 3: really intense year for me.
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  Speaker 2: And so sort of revisiting that, it had a vividness
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  Speaker 2: to it in my mind that I wanted to recreate
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  Speaker 2: on the page.
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  Speaker 3: I do think there.
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  Speaker 2: Is some, I don't know if nostalgia is the right
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  Speaker 2: word for that time period, but people are interested in it,
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  Speaker 2: you know, just being more disconnected.
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  Speaker 3: Like, Actually waiting for the phone to ring.
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  Speaker 2: Kind of that yearning that you had in that time period.
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  Speaker 2: And it was just an interesting year, like in where
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  Speaker 2: the specific months that this book is taking place. It's
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  Speaker 2: like we got past Y2K.
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  Speaker 3: And the world didn't end. And we had the dot-com boom.
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  Speaker 3: And that was like, the dot-com boom is like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: so exciting.
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  Speaker 2: But by the middle of 2000, like the stock market
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  Speaker 2: had crashed.
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  Speaker 3: And a lot of those companies started going out of business.
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  Speaker 2: And then you have the 2000 presidential election, which was
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  Speaker 2: the whole crazy thing.
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  Speaker 3: So it was this weird mix of like.
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  Speaker 2: new millennium excitement, but also a lot of uncertainty. And
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  Speaker 2: I think that does resonate with the current year, the
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  Speaker 2: current climate in some ways, both around tech, sort of
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  Speaker 2: optimism and pessimism, and also political uncertainty.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, that's my favorite place to be. Optimistic pessimist is
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  Speaker 1: what I call myself. I mean, that to me is
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  Speaker 1: where art really lives because you're on the corner of
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  Speaker 1: walk and don't walk.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. Because there is always that. And it's a
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  Speaker 3: little bit about.
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  Speaker 2: What story are you telling yourself about the moment and
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  Speaker 2: about yourself.
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  Speaker 1: In that moment?
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  Speaker 2: And then what story are you going to put out
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  Speaker 2: in the world about the moment?
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  Speaker 1: Please don't move. We've got more with Kathleen Reedy coming
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  Speaker 1: up next. The name of the book, Engineering, A Love Story.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming back to our conversation
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  Speaker 1: with Kathleen Reedy. The name of her book, Engineering, A
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  Speaker 1: Love Story. Now, in a very creative way, aren't you
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  Speaker 1: also teaching readers to slow down and take the pacing correctly?
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  Speaker 1: Because we're rushing through life. That just seems to be
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  Speaker 1: who we are in 2026. But yet, in reading your book,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like it's like you're going, hey, slow down.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy it. Enjoy this moment of right now.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, I mean, that's nice. That's a nice way to
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  Speaker 3: look at it.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I do like books that do slow down.
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  Speaker 3: I like character-driven books.
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  Speaker 2: That take their time and let you really get to
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  Speaker 2: know the characters and so you really can feel them
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  Speaker 2: in that moment. It was important to me to try
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  Speaker 2: to write a book where the characters felt.
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  Speaker 3: Really real and the moment felt real.
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  Speaker 2: And so if readers come away with that, then yeah,
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  Speaker 2: then I would be thrilled. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And you know that there's going to be some finger
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  Speaker 1: pointing when people finally meet Seth Murphy, because we all
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  Speaker 1: are going to sit there and go, oh, I know
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  Speaker 1: a Seth Murphy. Ah, this book. I can relate with
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  Speaker 1: this book. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Well, also that, I mean, that's good.
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  Speaker 2: If people can relate and they feel like this is
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  Speaker 2: a person that they know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I want them to, I want them to know Seth Murphy.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, and develop those relationships because I know
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  Speaker 1: as a writer, I mean, I mean, how many times
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  Speaker 1: did you go back into the paragraph, go back into it,
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  Speaker 1: go back? Did you turn into a perfectionist at all
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  Speaker 1: when you were creating this? Because I mean, there's so
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  Speaker 1: many different areas that you cover. It's like, Oh my God,
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  Speaker 1: she had to have had a, what I call a
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  Speaker 1: wine glass moment on this one.
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  Speaker 3: I wrote that book for a long time.
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  Speaker 2: I wrote the first draft really quickly and I had
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  Speaker 2: no idea what I was doing. I mean, I've been
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  Speaker 2: a huge reader since I was a kid. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a librarian, like I just read all the time.
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  Speaker 2: So there was some like instinct level kind of like,
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  Speaker 2: this is the arc of a story. And I wrote
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  Speaker 2: a first draft, but I didn't really know what I
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  Speaker 2: was doing. And I don't think there's a single word.
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  Speaker 2: from that first draft. You know, people talk about you
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  Speaker 2: write your first novel and you put it in a drawer.
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  Speaker 3: Like that first draft was that novel. And then there's
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  Speaker 3: this novel. And even though they're, you know, even though.
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  Speaker 2: They're the same novel, they're not the same novel. Um,
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  Speaker 2: so there was a lot of rewriting. It, it, um,
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  Speaker 2: it took me a long time to figure out.
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  Speaker 3: What the novel was about.
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  Speaker 2: Yes.
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  Speaker 3: Because I had this thought that it was going to
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  Speaker 3: be like a love story.
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  Speaker 2: I was going to write a romance and it was
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  Speaker 2: about these two people and about how they decide to be,
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  Speaker 2: you know, no spoilers, but whether or not they decide
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  Speaker 2: to sort of be optimistic in that optimism, pessimism kind
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  Speaker 2: of thing. And, but I struggled a lot with the
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  Speaker 2: setup because I hadn't really come to.
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  Speaker 3: Terms with, with what it was about.
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  Speaker 2: And that really is about like her, her emotional journey
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  Speaker 2: to kind of understand like, Not just like, what.
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  Speaker 1: Do I want?
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  Speaker 2: But like, how much do I get to want? What
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  Speaker 2: am I going to allow myself to want? And that's
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  Speaker 2: a more subtle thing. And then again, sort of back
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  Speaker 2: to your question at the beginning, like the courage to
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  Speaker 2: sort of, you know, it's a quieter, more internal, more
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  Speaker 2: introspective narrative question. And to admit that that's what I
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  Speaker 2: was doing. As opposed to, it's a romance novel. It
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  Speaker 2: is a romance novel.
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  Speaker 3: It is a love story. That is like the A plot.
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  Speaker 3: But then there is that B plot that is... about
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  Speaker 3: her like emotional arc.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I, I totally feel that Hallmark is going to
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  Speaker 1: pick this up. I really do. When, when, when my
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  Speaker 1: wife falls in love with a book like this, I'm going, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to Hallmark. I know it is. I just,
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  Speaker 1: I just feel there's, there's, it's going to be there.
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  Speaker 1: Where can people go to find out more about what
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  Speaker 1: you're doing? Because I want them to focus on your journey.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, that's so nice.
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  Speaker 2: So my website is just Kathleen Reedy.com. Um, And I
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  Speaker 2: do also write on Substack, especially for writers.
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  Speaker 3: I write a lot. So that's KathleenReedyWriter.substack.com.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a lot about like both writing, but also
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  Speaker 2: sort of how to get your book into libraries and
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  Speaker 2: librarians advice and finding comparative titles and things like that,
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  Speaker 2: that hopefully are helpful to other writers.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you got to come back to this show anytime
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  Speaker 1: in the future. I want to talk to you about
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  Speaker 1: being a librarian and how people can become smarter with
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  Speaker 1: writing their words so that the librarian doesn't have such
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  Speaker 1: a challenge when it comes to filing that book.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. That'd be great.
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  Speaker 1: We'll do it, man. Will you be brilliant today? Okay.
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  Speaker 2: I will.
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  Speaker 3: You too.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.