Latest / Two Girls, One TBR / Gemma Vale: Gothic Romantasy & Dark Lore Recs

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Gemma Vale: Gothic Romantasy & Dark Lore Recs · Two Girls, One TBR

• 0:05
  Hey, book babes, welcome back to 2 Girls 1 TBR, your chaotic book
• 0:08
  besties here to wreck your leading list.
• 0:10
  I'm Marley Gray man at a time. And hey, while I have you here,
• 0:14
  before we get going, please go over to our YouTube.
• 0:17
  We are chasing 100 subscribers. Please go over there and
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  subscribe. Like all that fun stuff.
• 0:22
  Also on Spotify, all the platforms that we are on because
• 0:26
  it helps keep the chaos coming. And I'm here today for the last
• 0:30
  day for a while with my very sweet Chelsea.
• 0:33
  Yes, I'm be taking a little break over the summer to be with
• 0:37
  the boys, but I'll still be on Instagram over at Chelsea and
• 0:40
  chapters. We can follow along.
• 0:43
  Oh. Yes, because you are a busy lady
• 0:46
  right now. Well.
• 0:46
  Just just in the, the kids are still young, you know, so it's
• 0:53
  hard. They want my attention all the
• 0:55
  time. So I have to, I have to say
• 0:56
  goodbye to a couple things for a little bit.
• 0:59
  Sometimes you have to do that kind of thing, you know, I'm
• 1:02
  with, but I have the fortunateness.
• 1:04
  I'm with my kids 24/7, so I'm not ever away from them.
• 1:09
  So I think they may get tired of me.
• 1:11
  So that's probably why they allow me to have this time.
• 1:14
  Yeah, this is, this is your time to to get away, your adult time,
• 1:18
  and you'll still be here. You said you've talked to a
• 1:20
  bunch of new people that are going to come on, which is
• 1:23
  awesome, going to bring a fresh perspective from the community,
• 1:28
  so that's good. Now Heather, of course, Heather
• 1:31
  will still be here. And then we have two more, 2 new
• 1:36
  permanent Co hosts that are just the same thing as like Chelsea
• 1:40
  and Heather, but you'll be meeting them in July.
• 1:43
  And then there are several bonus chapter besties that are more
• 1:47
  like the rotating type of host and one girl in particular, she
• 1:54
  is going to be helping me with the Aqatar miniseries.
• 1:58
  So cool. Yes, I'm quite excited and I
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  have plans. I would love to be doing some
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  Instagram lives and some Tiktok lives and do Aqatar since we are
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  getting and counting down in the days.
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  Now we're getting closer to book 6 and see if any of these
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  theories will hold the validity. Yeah, I just, I'm so excited to
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  see like, if we're all wrong, if any of us are right, just just
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  all of it. It's so funny because we could
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  literally tear apart every sentence in her book and like
• 2:36
  create a theory off of it. Well, yeah, absolutely.
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  I I'm very excited to see if all the thoughts that we were all
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  having, you know, where is she going or is it going to be
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  something that's going to completely that no one saw
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  coming, which is always possible as well.
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  But I have a lot of questions, Sarah, I have a lot of questions
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  you need to answer in these books, especially the pool of
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  moonlight. Why is that in Supreme Court?
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  Why I know I still that one is that one is very interesting to
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  me still. And I feel like though, I feel
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  like if it were important to Tamlin, he maybe wouldn't have
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  taken Pharaoh there. It makes no sense.
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  That's a night. That is a very, at least to me,
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  that's a Night Court thing. Why is it in Spring Court?
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  It doesn't make sense. And I think that's a very
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  deliberate thing that she did because I don't think she just
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  would have made that. That just doesn't make sense.
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  Yeah, unless, unless she literally just threw it in there
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  to be like a foreshadowing type thing, I don't know.
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  It's possible. I don't know.
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  I have my theories. But will my theories be right?
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  Yeah, who knows? I'm.
• 3:41
  Still, I'm still leaning towards, I still think possibly
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  the Tamlin has fathered a lot of children that we just didn't
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  know about. I think possibly Gwen and I, I
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  yes, yes, Gwen would have been, yes, Gwen would.
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  I think he is the father of Gwen.
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  And I think it's very possible that somebody from Crescent City
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  could be his child as well. Somebody from Crescent City too.
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  Because I think this is where the pool of moonlight comes in,
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  huh. Because I think somebody who
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  will remain nameless isn't dead and I think they were in love
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  was said to Hamlin, there was love and because I think he knew
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  the bad stuff was coming. And I think in the spring court,
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  if our it's they say there's misty areas in the spring court,
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  which as you know, is a like the area where the portals that kind
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  of thing can happen. And I think somebody went
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  somewhere to Midgard from that portal and had a child over
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  there, but not the red headed one, the different one that I.
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  OK. Oh, oh, oh, oh, OK.
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  Yes, yeah. And it's the one that that I
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  love so much from Crescent City. OK, that's my theory.
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  Very interesting. OK.
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  Because that is why this particular person looks like
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  somebody from the Night Court, because that is a relation.
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  All right. We'll see.
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  Interesting. And I have been searching and
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  stuff that like things that people have been saying in
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  recent times, and there's been some interesting theories out
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  there. Yeah.
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  Even more than what you and I have talked about, yeah.
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  There's a lot I feel like I kind of, well, my algorithm right now
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  is all off campus, but for a while there everything was
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  acatar theory so and I feel like there was a new one every other
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  day. So absolutely, yeah, absolutely.
• 5:35
  So now what are you currently reading?
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  Have you started anything new since we talked just yesterday?
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  No, no, because I have I'm still doing my beta read.
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  I want to try to do that before I start anything new.
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  I I'm taking a little break from my Kindle Unlimited too, because
• 5:55
  I've been paying for that, but I haven't had time to like read
• 5:58
  anything off of there and I'm just paying for it.
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  So I took that off for a bit and then that also helps me like
• 6:05
  stay on track of this stuff. So yeah, for now I'm going to do
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  that. I'm going to keep listening to
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  that Blood and Ash book. Did you listen to it anymore
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  yesterday? No, I mean a little bit when I
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  was driving, not a lot. And it's good.
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  Like I do like his his point of view better.
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  It's a little bit easier to listen to.
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  But once I get because it's just, I think it's just a half
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  because a lot of the graphic audio there, because of all the
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  extra sound effects and everything, they're cut in half.
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  So if it's only a half, I'm that's it, I'm done after that.
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  I'm not going to buy the second-half of it because I'm
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  like, I'm just, I'm over it. I'm ready to move on to
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  something else. Is that series ongoing still or
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  is it I? Feel like it?
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  Well, it's like, so I need to look it up because there's like
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  you get, there's like gods in it.
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  And so like a, all of the titles are very similar.
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  So it's like from flesh and fire or something.
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  And that's like a whole series. And then it's blood and ash and
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  that's like a series, but they're all kind of like
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  connected to each other. And that's where I'm like, I'm
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  so lost because there's like there's basically like a pre
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  series that I haven't read. And that's the one that Heather
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  was saying was like very much the same, like the
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  repetitiveness and all that. So I I'm done.
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  Yeah, I'm done with that. I don't have an interest in
• 7:32
  reading that series. I mean, again, you know, not to
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  yuck anybody's Yelp. I know there's a lot of people
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  out there that sure, but that's not my thing either.
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  I don't want to be on our repetition course.
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  And the more that I think about it, like it is actually very
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  genius the way that she did it. I'm not saying it wasn't like
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  poorly written 'cause it's very beautifully like set up.
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  The world that she created is very deep and she has a lot of
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  like, I mean, I wouldn't say like Easter eggs, but like this
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  thing happens and then this thing happens.
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  Like it's very well thought out. Together.
• 8:06
  Yes, it's very well put together, but when you're
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  listening to like a certain point of view, so like the male,
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  the male, the female main character's point of view, she's
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  just so like she doesn't know anything that's happening.
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  And so you're just so stuck in her point of view for like 5
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  books or four books where it's like she doesn't know anything
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  and she's learning everything for the first time.
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  And you get to the point where you're like, I need to know
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  what's happening. Like I'm so tired of being in
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  her head. So that's all.
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  It's more of just like a preference thing.
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  I just not that it was badly written, but I just, I know,
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  yeah, it's just not my vibe. And I love, I do love her.
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  Like she's an awesome female main character because she's
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  like bad ass and she can fight and all that, but I just like
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  was in her head for too long. And it also could be that the
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  audio, maybe I wasn't clicking with the audio.
• 8:55
  That could be because that could be it.
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  Maybe I would have enjoyed it more had I read it, you know?
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  Like a physical copy of your hand.
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  Yeah, so, so there's all those factors.
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  So definitely not yuck in anybody's jump, but I just, it
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  didn't hit for me unfortunately. What do you think you're going
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  to read next then, once you're done with this, which is what's
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  on the agenda? I would like to I would like to
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  read the Ever Queen because I finished the Ever King, so I
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  want to get to that. And then I have so much, I have
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  so many things. I.
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  Know the feeling. Yeah.
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  I well right now like I'm reading The Kingdoms of Silent
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  Sorrows from AG Harris now. I want to read that too.
• 9:42
  It again, it is amazing. I really like how she writes
• 9:49
  because at first I was a little confused because I was like, I'm
• 9:52
  like boy, this chapter is really long, but I didn't realize
• 9:54
  that's not a chapter that's slow.
• 9:56
  What is it? Prologue.
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  Prologue, there you go, that beginning part.
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  And I was like, oh, OK, that makes sense.
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  That's like 50 some pages. But you need that for context.
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  You need to understand what happened before until you get to
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  the the beginning of it. But it is very good and I'm
• 10:12
  super excited for the series to continue.
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  And I love her artwork. She's amazing.
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  And it's good to know that we that two and three are like
• 10:22
  right behind. So that kind of helps move it up
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  on the TBR. Yes, absolutely.
• 10:27
  I don't, I don't know. After that.
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  I'm not. I mean, I have a lot of things
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  planned in my mind because there's so much coming out, you
• 10:35
  know, over the next few months, you know, because I want to
• 10:40
  read, you know, just like you were saying, I want to read The
• 10:43
  Ever King, the Ever Queen, the Mis Thief, because Stolen Crown
• 10:46
  comes out the beginning of October.
• 10:48
  I want to get those. I would love to get those read.
• 10:52
  I'm super excited about Bedeviled, but that's the
• 10:56
  conclusion to that series. That's in August.
• 10:59
  I just I I mean, there's just so many good books coming out and
• 11:02
  then there's so many. I'm starting new series because
• 11:05
  Raven Kennedy has her new duology and I'm like, I'm
• 11:09
  excited. That's in September.
• 11:10
  Vasmora comes out in September and that's the conclusion.
• 11:15
  It's either September or October.
• 11:16
  I can't remember of the Eating Woods trilogy and it's so good.
• 11:22
  I can't you, you know, I'm just, I have a lot on my plate and yet
• 11:26
  there's all these lovely books still.
• 11:28
  I know, so I. Haven't read.
• 11:30
  Them yet I know and Speaking of Laura Thalassa, I have her like
• 11:33
  that whole series, but I haven't even started that yet.
• 11:36
  So I am kind of glad at least I'm I've contributed to the
• 11:39
  series to make sure that the last one comes out, but I just,
• 11:43
  I haven't gotten to them yet. Well, it's like you were saying
• 11:46
  the pre-orders are important. It's important for us to buy the
• 11:48
  first books. That way we get the 2nd and 3rd
• 11:50
  and 4th whatever. But.
• 11:52
  Absolutely. Pre-orders are extremely
• 11:54
  important for All authors, especially indie authors.
• 11:58
  Yeah, there's something very, very important and it shows, you
• 12:01
  know, there whoever is publishing them that are doing
• 12:03
  it, the, you know, to put them in different bookstores and
• 12:06
  indie bookstores, see those numbers and they're like, OK,
• 12:09
  yes, we'll carry your book, that kind of thing.
• 12:12
  So that is very important for All authors.
• 12:16
  So now after her Bewitched series here, once all those, you
• 12:20
  know, with Bedeviled concludes, I'm hoping she's doing because
• 12:25
  she had said something back in her newsletter back in, I
• 12:28
  believe it was in February that she might be going dipping her
• 12:32
  toe back into the world from the bargainer.
• 12:35
  And, and I'm super excited because the way it ended, I'm
• 12:40
  not saying it, it was very everything tied up nice.
• 12:43
  That was nice, But I have questions.
• 12:46
  I want to know what happened. I want to see where this goes,
• 12:49
  if that makes sense. Yeah, you want more?
• 12:53
  I want more next. See, now people are kind of very
• 12:57
  polarizing a little bit with the bargainer series because when
• 13:01
  you read Repsotic, of course, Desmond Flynn is very ancient
• 13:08
  and Calypso Cali, she's only 16, but but in the magical world, 16
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  is adult. But they don't have anything
• 13:21
  happen like in that respect between them until she's in her
• 13:25
  20s. But it's just and then like some
• 13:28
  people are like, well, he was grooming her and all that.
• 13:30
  It's not that. It's not.
• 13:31
  It's different, Bella. Yeah.
• 13:33
  It's that same kind of. You know, it's just like.
• 13:36
  It's they loved each other, he loved her.
• 13:38
  He you know that kind of thing. It is what it is at this point.
• 13:41
  It's a fantasy book. It's not like in in our real
• 13:44
  existence of our world where some creepy guy that's in his
• 13:47
  30s wants a 16 year old girl. Had I been reading it, had I
• 13:52
  been reading it when I was 16, I'd been like, hell yeah.
• 13:54
  So it's just us older people that are upset about it.
• 13:58
  I mean, because we're looking at it from different perspectives.
• 14:01
  Yeah, we're looking at it from a a protector view instead of a
• 14:05
  yeah, yeah. Oh, I told you because I got
• 14:09
  married when I was 18 and my my first husband was 10 years older
• 14:13
  than me and now I look back at with very different eyes and I
• 14:17
  let my daughter Absolutely not. I mean, and the but that's
• 14:20
  always the thing too, right? Is that like you would have been
• 14:23
  like, no, no, no, that's not happening.
• 14:25
  And she would have been like, yes, it is.
• 14:29
  Oh, you know, I I was so young and stupid then, so you think
• 14:33
  you know. We all, we all go through it.
• 14:36
  Well, I would say he was my stepping stone.
• 14:38
  Yeah, because I had to do that to get to where I am,
• 14:41
  unfortunately, because unfortunately, yes, that's
• 14:44
  sometimes we have to kiss. What is it?
• 14:46
  They say you have to kiss a lot of toads before you find your
• 14:49
  Prince. That's right.
• 14:50
  So that was a toad. Oh, Lord.
• 14:56
  Oh, also now if you guys, before we bring our guest on, if you go
• 15:00
  over to our Instagram, onto our highlights.
• 15:03
  We have our sips, but the drink for today is the Shadow Crown
• 15:08
  cocktail. Cute.
• 15:10
  So it's a cute name again. One of these days, we're going
• 15:14
  to make some of these. Yeah.
• 15:16
  Maybe I'll have time and now that I'm not, I'll be, you know,
• 15:19
  just listening to the podcast instead of participating.
• 15:22
  Maybe I can make one of the drinks, yes, that y'all are
• 15:24
  bringing on. Yeah.
• 15:26
  Oh, and you have to get some glitter.
• 15:28
  Yes, I do need that that Amazon cart and my saved for later.
• 15:33
  Amazon has they have edible glitter for your drinks and it's
• 15:37
  all different colors, like 20, some different colors and it's a
• 15:40
  best seller. It's like I think each color is
• 15:42
  like 799 or 999, something like that.
• 15:45
  I need to get some because it's still magical and put it in my
• 15:49
  fancy wine glasses that I bought.
• 15:51
  Yeah, because we've been antiquing and.
• 15:54
  Oh, and I just realized, you know, like, for how many years
• 15:57
  you're married, you know, it's supposed to be something, you
• 16:00
  know, like one year. It's like, like at the beginning
• 16:03
  it's like paper. You know what I'm?
• 16:04
  Talking about, yeah. Yes, fifth, because I'll be
• 16:06
  married. 1515 is Crystal so I've been buying crystal pieces so
• 16:12
  there you. Go happy anniversary to you
• 16:14
  guys. When is that?
• 16:16
  When is your actual anniversary? September, September 23rd, we'll
• 16:20
  be married 15 years, but we'll be together in July, 17 years.
• 16:27
  OK, It doesn't even feel like that.
• 16:29
  It feels like we've only been together a few years, but yet my
• 16:32
  son would be. He's a testament to it.
• 16:35
  He's going to be 16 this year, but yet I feel like it.
• 16:39
  I mean, my husband and I, yeah, because we met when we were 19.
• 16:43
  So we've been together 16 years. It's, it's weird.
• 16:47
  Like we've been together almost longer than we haven't.
• 16:49
  We're getting. Isn't that weird?
• 16:50
  Pretty close, yeah. Well, I, I told him like once
• 16:53
  we, because my, when I was married the first time, I was
• 16:56
  married almost 11 years at that point.
• 16:58
  So once we hit over that amount of years, I'm like, I've been
• 17:01
  married to you longer than anybody.
• 17:05
  Yeah. But that's a long that's a big
• 17:07
  chunk of our lives, you know? It is, yeah.
• 17:10
  Yeah, I think back to like my parents, when they got married,
• 17:14
  my mom was 18 or 19 and my dad was like 21, and they were
• 17:18
  married all those years. That is such a tremendous amount
• 17:22
  of time because when my dad passed away, he was 88.
• 17:25
  So they would have been married 60 some years.
• 17:28
  Yeah. Isn't that wild?
• 17:30
  Yeah, I don't. I hope we can get to that.
• 17:32
  But I think we would be quite old because I was, Yeah, I was
• 17:35
  31 when we got married this time.
• 17:38
  So. So to hit those kind of marks,
• 17:40
  I'm going to have to be quite an elderly, ancient old lady.
• 17:43
  But by that point, who knows what modern medicine will do.
• 17:45
  We might be old old vetches in the the nursing home together.
• 17:50
  Yeah, yeah, my grandparents had been.
• 17:53
  They hit 50 years so I would have been a lot longer had my
• 17:58
  grandpa not passed. But yeah, I'm still kicking
• 18:02
  myself. I missed their 50th anniversary
• 18:05
  party. Now, do they still do this or
• 18:09
  because I remember my grandparents and when they got
• 18:12
  they were like 50 years or 60 years, something like that.
• 18:16
  I remember they got some type of letter or something from like
• 18:20
  the president and I remember them getting something.
• 18:23
  But I don't know if this is something maybe you had to
• 18:25
  petition for or ask for it or something.
• 18:28
  I'm sure it's something that you like, yeah.
• 18:30
  That you send in and then they. Yeah.
• 18:34
  And I remember they got something because, mind you,
• 18:36
  this would have been huge. I think for them it would have
• 18:38
  been maybe Ronald Reagan, because I was little, I'm going
• 18:42
  to say, or maybe George Bush, the first one, because it might
• 18:46
  have been the 80s, early 90s. But I remember them talking
• 18:49
  about it when it was there, when they were there.
• 18:52
  It was something but I don't remember.
• 18:54
  But everybody else in my mom's family, I remember like my aunts
• 18:58
  and that all when they had their 25 year anniversary, they
• 19:01
  renewed their vows and my mom refused to do that.
• 19:03
  Yeah. OK, so this says I googled it.
• 19:06
  You can request, yeah, you can request an official greeting
• 19:10
  from the president for for a 50th wedding anniversary through
• 19:13
  the White House greetings office or your local congressional
• 19:17
  representative's office. How cute is that?
• 19:21
  And you can do it online now, which they probably couldn't do
• 19:23
  back in the day. So no, no, the Internet didn't.
• 19:26
  How cute. Like how cute if somebody knew
• 19:28
  that like for them and just did it for them without them asking,
• 19:32
  you know? Because I don't think it wasn't
• 19:34
  my grandparents who did it either.
• 19:35
  I don't. I think it was one of their kids
• 19:37
  did it. For him, there's more actually,
• 19:39
  so you can also do it for the birth of a child, birthday
• 19:43
  condolences, Eagle Scout, Girl Scout, gold Ord, graduation,
• 19:50
  spiritual milestone, retirement, wedding or wedding anniversary.
• 19:54
  I didn't know it did all that. That is so cool.
• 19:57
  Well, that is. Neat then.
• 19:58
  Yeah, that's really, that's really sweet.
• 20:01
  I remember, I remember they had it and I remember it was my now
• 20:04
  in my grandparents house. It never changed my entire life.
• 20:08
  I don't think any pieces of furniture ever moved in that
• 20:11
  house. It was always the exact same
• 20:13
  thing. And my grandpa had his chair
• 20:16
  because there was the the living room.
• 20:18
  And of course, that was a time where they had the the
• 20:20
  televisions that were the big console TV's that sat on the
• 20:23
  floor. It was, it was difficult when
• 20:26
  they went to a different kind of TV.
• 20:28
  My grandpa didn't like it, but he had a chair and then right
• 20:31
  behind him was the China closet. And that's where they kept
• 20:34
  everything. And it was like all the old
• 20:36
  their papers. My grandpa did.
• 20:38
  I mean, she had her China and stuff in it, but it was full of
• 20:41
  all kinds of stuff. And then she had a, her Bulova
• 20:45
  watch, you know the brand Bulova.
• 20:47
  She had her watch in there. My grandpa would get it out
• 20:50
  every now and then and he would wind it up.
• 20:51
  And then now mind you, there was 9 grandchildren in my family and
• 20:57
  I, I was the youngest girl. But my grandpa, he had a pocket
• 21:00
  watch. Now this wasn't exactly an
• 21:02
  expensive pocket watch. It wasn't like, you know, any of
• 21:04
  that kind of stuff. But he would always wind it up
• 21:06
  with me and he always would tell me when he died that it was
• 21:09
  mine. And so when he passed away, my
• 21:12
  aunt, that day, she got it out and she gave it to me.
• 21:15
  So I have my grandpa's Papa, his pocket watch, and he's been gone
• 21:20
  since 1997. I was 17 and then I was 23 or 24
• 21:30
  when my grandma died. So I haven't had grandparents
• 21:32
  since I was at age. All my grandparents were gone.
• 21:35
  This act was came late in everybody's life, so so
• 21:41
  everybody was older. Yeah, yeah, We had our I mean,
• 21:45
  my, my grandma passed when I was 19 or 20.
• 21:49
  My grandpa passed around like just a couple of years after,
• 21:52
  but that was my other on my other side.
• 21:55
  And then we still have my, my one grandma.
• 21:57
  She's still, she's still alive. She's yeah.
• 22:02
  It's funny though. She is.
• 22:04
  She's my grandma. That is, how do I describe her?
• 22:10
  She goes on dating websites. Oh, she's feisty.
• 22:14
  Yeah, she sees a lot of She sees a lot of unsolicited Dong pics
• 22:20
  and then tells us about them. It's quite funny, but it's also
• 22:23
  like. This is your grandma that was
• 22:25
  from England. Yes.
• 22:26
  Oh, OK. Yeah, yeah.
• 22:29
  So. She is, that is my spirit
• 22:31
  animal. Oh yeah, she is.
• 22:33
  She is still very spirited. Very.
• 22:37
  Yeah. She's in her 80s, yeah.
• 22:40
  But she's like, yeah, you would not know that she's in her 80s
• 22:43
  when you look at her. So it's she's.
• 22:45
  Spry. Yeah, obviously.
• 22:47
  So since she's on the dating sites.
• 22:50
  She had us cracking up. So on her birthday a couple
• 22:52
  years ago, because she lives down in San Diego, we went down
• 22:57
  there and she was telling us the story about one of them.
• 23:00
  How so These guys get on like FaceTime with her and he gets on
• 23:06
  the screen with it? Out.
• 23:09
  Wow. Yeah, 'cause men are like
• 23:10
  monkeys. It doesn't matter what age they
• 23:12
  are, they want to show it up. Yeah, but I wish, like I wish I
• 23:16
  would have recorded her telling this story 'cause it was so
• 23:18
  freaking funny. And she said she got on there
• 23:20
  and she told him you you'd break me in half with that thing.
• 23:25
  And and. Then she like clicked.
• 23:27
  Disconnect, right? After no.
• 23:30
  Oh my God, that's hilarious. Yeah, that's.
• 23:33
  Just that's interesting that he decided that was how he was
• 23:36
  like, but was he older as well? I can't see, I don't know
• 23:39
  because I think she does talk to like some younger, well now I
• 23:42
  wouldn't say younger, but probably like in their 50s,
• 23:44
  sixties. Still.
• 23:47
  Yeah, but Anna, he was that impressive.
• 23:50
  So. But then I have questions for
• 23:53
  your grandma now. Now, because, well, we know that
• 23:56
  now they say the other part, the bell area, they say gravity
• 24:01
  takes, you know how like gravity takes over for us in this area.
• 24:05
  They say that part of men, gravity happens.
• 24:08
  There was this guy that that he would go to my aunt's bed and
• 24:13
  breakfast, OK, There was the his, I think it was his daughter
• 24:18
  or his stepdaughter. She would come.
• 24:20
  And also it was her mom and dad. All right, so we'll go with
• 24:23
  that. And he had his were low and they
• 24:28
  would touch the water in the toilet and they would call him
• 24:31
  hanging. Baskets, stop it.
• 24:33
  Why do we have that information that she would tell this
• 24:37
  information, but we all found that information out.
• 24:39
  But yeah, it would touch the water.
• 24:42
  So hanging baskets is what she referred to it as.
• 24:45
  So my question is, does this happen to the majority of men?
• 24:50
  Is it the same thing with gravity?
• 24:51
  Like with us? Like after having children, so
• 24:54
  do all their balls. Do you better?
• 24:56
  You better start measuring Daniel and let us all know.
• 25:03
  This made me laugh so hard. And she she was the lady and she
• 25:06
  was so funny because I met her a few times because she would come
• 25:09
  often to my aunt's bed and breakfast because in the fall it
• 25:12
  was always a big time up there because it's the Pennsylvania
• 25:15
  Wilds, all that kind of stuff. And and yeah, yeah, that was
• 25:20
  that was one of the things with that.
• 25:21
  And then she loved my cousin by the oldest cousin because they
• 25:26
  would have been similar of age at that point.
• 25:28
  And she would make comments of when she seen him about what
• 25:33
  happened to her body. And I was like, I'm like, I
• 25:36
  don't want to know that information.
• 25:41
  People are hilarious. Oh my God.
• 25:43
  See, we've learned something now.
• 25:44
  Today we learned. Now, if you're having a 50th
• 25:46
  winter anniversary or special occasion, you can get something
• 25:50
  sent by either the president or by the presidential office or by
• 25:55
  congressman's or whatever. And we learned that there's a
• 26:00
  your grandma got unsolicited Dick pics.
• 26:03
  And then I know that there's a hanging baskets.
• 26:06
  For Jemma, when her when her episode starts that we've talked
• 26:10
  about all this. You need to record your grandma.
• 26:13
  You need to have her tell some of these tales because I think
• 26:16
  they would be hilarious. And that was after getting a
• 26:18
  couple drinks in her. So I'll have to.
• 26:20
  Next time we go down to San Diego, I'll have to take her out
• 26:23
  to dinner and do that again. Well, have you seen this girl
• 26:27
  that's on Instagram? She she likes kind of like the
• 26:30
  70s kind of thing. She sings and she has a cookbook
• 26:33
  out. It's Stand by Your Pan.
• 26:35
  That's her cookbook. But she does a whole series is
• 26:39
  my grandma is a hooch and her grandma and she talks about all
• 26:44
  like her grandma's 5 husbands and they've all like some of
• 26:48
  them they haven't found good stuff and some of them have
• 26:52
  mysteriously died. But she talks about all these
• 26:54
  different things and her grandma was quite the quite the lady and
• 26:59
  she just her grandma had just passed away now here recently.
• 27:02
  So I was so glad she was able to do all these videos.
• 27:05
  It's not her grandma talk, but it's all the stories from her
• 27:08
  grandma. So you you have to go check her
• 27:10
  out because it cracks my heart inside when she tells the
• 27:14
  stories of her grandma. So everybody we will be right
• 27:18
  back with with Gemma. Yay, she's coming.
• 27:24
  It is time to welcome our absolute rising star of a dark,
• 27:28
  romantic SeaWorld into our screens.
• 27:31
  Welcome Gemma Vale. Welcome to the podcast ma'am.
• 27:35
  Thank you for having me. Well, thank you for joining us.
• 27:39
  How are you doing today? I'm good, thank you.
• 27:41
  I'm I'm good. It's been a writing day, so it's
• 27:43
  been a nice kind of decompressing day.
• 27:46
  It was meant to be a PR box day, so I'm a bit gutted that I
• 27:49
  didn't get a chance to do that, but it's been a Nicish day
• 27:52
  anyway, so yeah, it's been good. Thank you.
• 27:55
  Now your book comes out not very far away.
• 27:58
  It's what, July 10th, correct? It is because now I can hold it.
• 28:03
  It's in my house. So exciting.
• 28:05
  I want 1 so bad and the audio book is done and pre-orders are
• 28:12
  ready and correct. Where do I find the pre-order by
• 28:16
  the way? Say that again, sorry.
• 28:17
  Where do we find the pre-order for your audio book?
• 28:20
  So apparently the US Amazon doesn't like pre-orders for
• 28:26
  audio books. Who knew?
• 28:28
  Wonder why? So yeah, anywhere else can Ord
• 28:32
  pre-order the audio book but the US just cannot I'm afraid.
• 28:35
  So you kind of have to wait until July 10th.
• 28:39
  OK. And then what about your?
• 28:41
  What about the physical book? So yeah, paperback and ebook are
• 28:46
  now available for pre-order, which is amazing.
• 28:49
  The hardbacks taking a little bit longer just because Jodie
• 28:52
  the book artist, we're having so much trouble with Ingram Spark
• 28:56
  with the template to get the book cover up and it's just the
• 29:00
  sizings have to be so particular and every time you upload it
• 29:04
  takes 2 days for them to come back and say no, it's not right.
• 29:08
  So then we have to try and fix it and hope for the best.
• 29:11
  And it's been weeks, absolute weeks.
• 29:13
  So hopefully she's back from holiday this week and the
• 29:16
  hardback pre-orders can be done and then that's one last thing
• 29:20
  to, you know, worry about. Yeah, so exciting.
• 29:23
  It's exciting. I know it feels down to the
• 29:26
  wire, but it'll get done. You'll do it.
• 29:28
  Yeah. I, I knew it was going to be
• 29:31
  like this. I knew it wasn't going to be
• 29:32
  straightforward. I knew it was going to be, you
• 29:34
  know, days later. I mean, my PR boxes were
• 29:37
  supposed to have gone out a week or two ago and I'm still like
• 29:42
  the proof copies are still waiting to come, the envelopes
• 29:46
  or the packaging is still waiting to become.
• 29:48
  And I'm like, it's fine, it's fine.
• 29:50
  It'll come when it comes and they'll get sent out and they
• 29:52
  get sent out. I've got 4 weeks.
• 29:54
  It's fine. Yeah.
• 29:56
  Well, and your audiobook journey has been quite, quite a journey.
• 30:01
  I guess your journey is the right word because you ended up
• 30:05
  going into a studio. And how does it feel to have it
• 30:08
  all done after you recorded? Oh, it was I think the the
• 30:12
  hardest thing I've ever done in this whole journey, mainly
• 30:16
  because it's so far out of my comfort zone.
• 30:18
  I'm not someone who has done any form of radio media or anything
• 30:23
  like that at all. And it was only from the
• 30:26
  confidence of people hearing me share snippets that they were
• 30:29
  like, you should do the audiobook.
• 30:31
  So I was like, OK, I'll try it. And then trying to do it myself
• 30:34
  and realizing immediately that that was not going to be the
• 30:36
  right thing for me to do. Jamie at Echo Studios has been
• 30:40
  absolutely amazing. He literally sits there and
• 30:42
  listens to me for hours talk about the book.
• 30:46
  And now that it's done, I've literally been speaking to him
• 30:48
  this evening. He should send me the files
• 30:50
  tomorrow so that I can upload everything and then that's it.
• 30:53
  And it's like the biggest hurdle to get through has been done.
• 30:57
  And I feel like that is it, that's I'm done now.
• 31:00
  Everything else is going to be much, much easier to deal with.
• 31:02
  Yeah. And you, I mean, not everybody
• 31:05
  does an audio book right away. And so that is in itself a huge
• 31:10
  feat that you have already gotten that done before the
• 31:13
  physical has even released. So you're, you are way ahead of
• 31:17
  the scale, even though it feels so chaotic, You're, you're
• 31:20
  ahead. It's do you know when like I had
• 31:24
  an idea that when I was going to go down this journey of
• 31:27
  self-publishing, I was like, I'm going to do it to the best of my
• 31:30
  ability. And I'm going to try and make
• 31:32
  sure that everyone who likes to enjoy books in any medium, you
• 31:36
  know, whether that be audio or whether that be e-book or
• 31:39
  physical, they can all enjoy the release date.
• 31:43
  And I just thought I have to make sure that everyone can get
• 31:46
  that, which is why I haven't gone through Kindle and limited,
• 31:48
  you know, So people that do read on Kobos or anything like that,
• 31:51
  they can still access it. People that don't want to let
• 31:55
  necessarily listen to Audible, they can also listen to it.
• 31:59
  So I'm not signed into a seven-year contract with ACX.
• 32:02
  So I wanted to make sure that if I'm doing it, I'm going to give
• 32:04
  it my absolute best. And I knew it was going to be a
• 32:08
  hectic 4 months, but I was thinking, you know, even when I
• 32:11
  was having trouble people with the audio book, I was like,
• 32:13
  there's no, at no point was there an option to go, this
• 32:16
  isn't happening. It was, it's happening.
• 32:18
  It's just when am I going to get it done and how am I going to
• 32:20
  get it done? So I wanted to make sure that
• 32:22
  everyone was able to get involved in launch day and to
• 32:25
  make sure that no one was having to miss out or no one was having
• 32:28
  to wait at any point. That's amazing.
• 32:30
  Yeah, I'm excited. Amazing.
• 32:32
  Oh, absolutely. And I have started your buck and
• 32:36
  I'm about like 30% in where she has gone somewhere else.
• 32:43
  So I'm like at this like pivotal point in the book, I'm like, Oh
• 32:47
  my gosh, I I really want to continue.
• 32:50
  But now that the audio book is done, I'm like, do I wait and
• 32:53
  immerse myself or do I reread so.
• 32:57
  So you think? I'm going to keep going,
• 32:59
  Heather. I have the arc.
• 33:01
  Yes, yes, and I love it so much that I want to continue, but I
• 33:09
  love Gemma's voice and I know I would get even more immersed
• 33:13
  into that and your lyrical writing and your descriptions
• 33:17
  are so good that I just know like it's a good like read along
• 33:21
  for anyone that does immersive reading, read alongs.
• 33:24
  This is a great book for that. So I'm and I love that as
• 33:28
  Gemma's voice and she's doing the characters so we know like
• 33:32
  how they're supposed to sound and how the writing is supposed
• 33:35
  to like beat in this, you know, kind of way.
• 33:40
  So I'm excited for it, Gemma. I'm not going to lie it I'm, I'm
• 33:45
  over the moon to hear that. But I'm also terrified because,
• 33:48
  you know, audio books nowadays, they're either fully immersive
• 33:53
  or they're what's it called when you've got the all of the
• 33:56
  bathroom soundtrack was Yeah. And I'm like, I'm pretty, I'm
• 34:00
  technically competing against these, you know, professional
• 34:03
  narrators. And here I am never before doing
• 34:06
  anything like this. And so I am a little bit worried
• 34:09
  that I'm not going to sound as nice as what, you know, a
• 34:13
  professional would sound. But also money, you know, I
• 34:15
  couldn't afford to spend 50. Oh yeah.
• 34:18
  You are a professional now. You've done it, yes.
• 34:20
  So yes. I thought you're going to sound
• 34:22
  cut off then no. Count yourself as a
• 34:27
  professional. You have done it, so now reword
• 34:31
  what you're about to say. Thank you.
• 34:33
  Yes, no, I'm not normally a negative Nancy, but I just
• 34:36
  thought you know, you hear so many amazing people talk and I
• 34:40
  couldn't afford to to have them. And so getting the confidence
• 34:44
  from people to say you need to do it yourself.
• 34:45
  I was like, OK, I'm going to give it a go and try and read it
• 34:48
  to the best of my ability. And see you know, I've never
• 34:51
  done a male voice before, let alone having to do 6 male
• 34:54
  voices. So that alone terrified me.
• 34:57
  But hearing that you're, you know, you're really excited to
• 35:00
  do an immersive read gives me some confidence that hopefully
• 35:03
  people will like it too. Well, and you worked with Jamie,
• 35:07
  so he's got your back. So he's going to know like, hey,
• 35:10
  this voice doesn't sound the same throughout or you know,
• 35:15
  here, here you need a different pitch.
• 35:17
  Like I'm sure he coached you. He helped you with all of that
• 35:20
  as well, which a lot of people don't actually have is like that
• 35:23
  coach. So that was a a good move.
• 35:27
  I think with also editing. I don't know how audiobook
• 35:31
  people edit all of that and get all the white noise out and
• 35:36
  different clicks or things like that that they do.
• 35:38
  Like I was with you on this journey because I was like, I
• 35:42
  don't know how to do any of this stuff.
• 35:44
  So please like let us know. So I, I love that you went to
• 35:50
  the studio and did that and I'm sure it was a lot quicker and
• 35:53
  faster for you and you can feel better about the production too,
• 35:58
  so. It was just nice showing up and
• 36:00
  then just being like, right, OK, let's get reading and play, OK.
• 36:04
  Yeah, let's read. See what it sounds like.
• 36:06
  Is it all right? OK.
• 36:07
  Yeah. Is my tone and my register
• 36:09
  staying the same across numerous days?
• 36:12
  And he's like, yeah, brilliant. And then it's like, OK, see you.
• 36:14
  Bye. Don't need to worry about it
• 36:16
  now. Bye.
• 36:16
  You did the editing. OK.
• 36:18
  And that in itself was, yeah, that was worth the money.
• 36:21
  I mean, it was £200 a day to use his studio, which is actually a
• 36:25
  better rate than anywhere else I could find.
• 36:27
  And but you know, I was on a deadline to try and get it done.
• 36:30
  And so I just had to go with someone and just knew that I had
• 36:33
  to fork out the money and hopefully recoup that back at
• 36:36
  some point with sales. But it's been the best money,
• 36:39
  just like the book cover really. It's been the best money that
• 36:42
  I've spent so far because I hopefully, I mean, just
• 36:45
  listening back to the things that he's shared with me, it
• 36:48
  sounds like a proper audio book, which just blows my mind.
• 36:51
  It's. Exciting.
• 36:53
  Now, how many days did it take you to record?
• 36:55
  So he was anticipating that because it's around 16 hours of
• 36:59
  reading, it might take around 5 days.
• 37:01
  But we got it done, including the opening and end chapters.
• 37:05
  And I've got a snippet of the next book at the back of this
• 37:09
  book. I saw a chapter of that and he
• 37:11
  was expecting it to be 5 days, and we did it in three.
• 37:13
  So we actually, my God, completely smashed through it.
• 37:16
  Yeah, which overseas. Nice.
• 37:21
  You're saving, you know, I'm saving two days worth of money
• 37:23
  there, which is amazing. So yeah, I really tried to as
• 37:28
  soon as I got in, I didn't have lunch.
• 37:30
  I just smashed it out for four or five hours or some days I
• 37:33
  think we did a six or seven hour day and I just had to get it
• 37:36
  done. I was like, I'm on a deadline.
• 37:38
  I just take a box, that's it. Move on to the next thing you
• 37:41
  know. Great.
• 37:41
  So neat. That is absolutely.
• 37:43
  I love watching you on Instagram.
• 37:45
  I love watching you through this whole journey and stuff.
• 37:48
  But I have to tell you though, my absolute favorite thing that
• 37:51
  you do is when you're grand and you put the the filter on with
• 37:54
  the glass. You crack my heart every single
• 37:57
  time and I laugh so hard when I wash them.
• 38:00
  Love your personality. Yeah, it comes through on your
• 38:03
  videos. I just know I think besties if I
• 38:06
  lived over. By I really, I really feel like
• 38:09
  people probably find my account so jarring because here I am
• 38:13
  writing these really serious dark passages, you know, a lot
• 38:17
  of grief and trauma. And then on the flip side, I'm
• 38:20
  like this wacky person showing my personality.
• 38:24
  But I mean, there is a method in my madness.
• 38:26
  I want to show people the real me.
• 38:28
  And you know, as much as my husband will probably say that
• 38:31
  I'm not very funny, you know, I come, I seem to film myself very
• 38:34
  funny. But I just thought with social
• 38:37
  media, I always treat it like, or as soon as I came on social
• 38:41
  media in September, I treat it like a, a sales funnel.
• 38:44
  So I'm like, right, I've got this big pool of people here
• 38:47
  that love reading and writing. How can I capture their
• 38:49
  attention? And I was like, right, I'm just
• 38:51
  going to be myself and show myself in these really funny
• 38:54
  ways. But making it niche specifics
• 38:57
  and making get readers and writers.
• 38:59
  Is that right? Once I've captured their
• 39:01
  attention, then it's like, no, I'm actually a writer too.
• 39:04
  And this is everything I'm doing.
• 39:05
  And it's like filters all the way down.
• 39:07
  So hopefully, you know, them buying my books.
• 39:09
  At the end of the day, this is a business and I'm really trying
• 39:12
  hard to treat it like that, but also having fun with it.
• 39:15
  Like the amount of book accounts that I see that are so serious
• 39:18
  that, you know, taking the rate of star rating is very serious.
• 39:21
  They're all very, some of them are quite negative.
• 39:23
  And I'm like, I don't want to be that person.
• 39:26
  I want people to come to my space and feel like they can
• 39:29
  have a laugh with me. They can share their grief, they
• 39:31
  can share their trauma. We can connect on a much deeper
• 39:34
  level other than just the humor, you know?
• 39:36
  So, yeah, I'm hoping that that is coming across in that way,
• 39:39
  Yeah. Sure.
• 39:41
  Yeah, absolutely. I again, I absolutely enjoy your
• 39:44
  account through it all. Just eat, but you know, and also
• 39:47
  seeing and watching you go through the whole process of,
• 39:50
  you know, self-publishing your book and you talking about, you
• 39:54
  know, what goes into self-publishing and then seeing
• 39:57
  you go through your audio book journey.
• 40:00
  That has been I, I mean, I absolutely love it from a reader
• 40:04
  standpoint seeing that and I think also with the audio book
• 40:08
  being that you are reading your book to us, I think is going to
• 40:12
  be. I think that will be such a
• 40:14
  wonderful experience for everyone.
• 40:17
  Yeah, like Heather said, it'll be read and as as it should be
• 40:20
  read out loud. So that is very unique and neat.
• 40:24
  Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited for it, but I
• 40:27
  will not be listening to it, No. You.
• 40:31
  Not at all. I mean, you've already listened
• 40:34
  to it in a way. Oh, my God, Jamie said to me.
• 40:38
  He was like, do you want me to share some snippets with you
• 40:40
  before I finish? You know, just show you little
• 40:43
  snippets of things that I've already edited.
• 40:44
  And I was like, no, I'm good. You know, whatever I put up on
• 40:47
  social media is enough. That's fine.
• 40:49
  I was going. To say you could definitely like
• 40:51
  grab some clips and put them on social so we could like amp up
• 40:56
  the audiobook and share it with everyone.
• 40:58
  Yes. So when he sends me the final
• 41:00
  files tomorrow morning, I need to because when you I didn't
• 41:04
  realize this, but when you upload audio files on to say ACM
• 41:07
  or in audio who deal with like Apple Books or any other audio
• 41:11
  medium, you have to upload every single chapter, even the opening
• 41:16
  credits, even the blurb at the back or what you know, the
• 41:18
  acknowledgments all are separate.
• 41:20
  So I've got to upload effectively 120 separate files
• 41:24
  onto 2 platforms tomorrow. So once I've done that, I'm
• 41:29
  going to take some of the snippets that I think will be
• 41:32
  quite nice and then share them on social so people can hear the
• 41:35
  finished product of what is the the audio book.
• 41:38
  Yes, I would love that. Just saying but.
• 41:45
  Tell us about. Your OK so tell us about your
• 41:49
  main characters in the book and their journey.
• 41:51
  So because I'm a discovery writer, I don't really know
• 41:54
  about them until I'm writing them.
• 41:56
  And I'm like, I have a general idea of what the kind of
• 41:59
  characters are going to be like when they start out.
• 42:01
  Like this is this person, this is how they are, this is the the
• 42:04
  way that they're feeling. And then it's like, right, what
• 42:06
  journey are they going to go on and how are they going to
• 42:08
  develop personally? And so I don't have a clear mind
• 42:11
  of what that person is and then a start.
• 42:14
  But for Daughter of the Night, it was very much, I don't think
• 42:17
  I realized just how much of myself I poured into Sarin, the
• 42:19
  female main character in the, you know, she's dealing with a
• 42:22
  lot of darkness. She's got she's possessed by
• 42:25
  something, you know, that's inside of her.
• 42:27
  She can't control certain things.
• 42:29
  And I really wanted to make her journey one about although there
• 42:32
  is darkness in her, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad
• 42:35
  thing and also that you kind of have to go through it to get to
• 42:40
  the other side. And I really wanted that to be
• 42:42
  her journey. So that was Sarin in a nutshell.
• 42:44
  And her writing passages are very much, they're a lot.
• 42:48
  They're heavier on the lyrical sides.
• 42:50
  The poetic prose is heavier and denser.
• 42:53
  Whereas Kale, the main male character, I wanted him to be
• 42:56
  different. I didn't want him to be the
• 42:58
  typical broody shadow daddy. I wanted him to be intellectual.
• 43:01
  I wanted him to have glasses because, you know, glasses can
• 43:05
  be quite hot too, you know, and I also wanted him to not have
• 43:10
  the relationship with Sarah and where he then encapsulates her
• 43:14
  and that she then loses her personality.
• 43:17
  I wanted him to be almost like in the background, like he's
• 43:20
  there, but this story is about this person and she is going
• 43:24
  through it and his journey is for another book, you know.
• 43:27
  So I definitely wanted to make sure that they had their own
• 43:30
  identities, but that he wasn't overshadowing her in any way.
• 43:33
  And so he's just there to enhance her story until we get
• 43:36
  to, you know, book 2 and book three further on down the line.
• 43:40
  But then I've got the evil characters are the characters
• 43:44
  that I most enjoy writing mainly because they can be, you know,
• 43:49
  your most unhinged thoughts can go into these people and you've
• 43:52
  got people that are conniving, you don't really know what
• 43:55
  they're like. And you've got people that are
• 43:57
  from the get go, you know what their personality is.
• 44:00
  So I wanted to have evil characters but show them in
• 44:03
  different lights so they're not all this is an evil person.
• 44:06
  It's like you want to question their identity and are they
• 44:09
  really evil or are they just misunderstood, you know?
• 44:12
  So I wanted to make sure that they were also very different
• 44:14
  and unique in their own. Journeys as well.
• 44:16
  Yeah, because who who I have met so far, Well, Kale has 1 chapter
• 44:21
  in the beginning and I haven't I've met him later on, but not
• 44:25
  in his own point of view again. So we're still with Sarah.
• 44:29
  Sarah's sarin. Sorry, I say names really wrong
• 44:33
  in my head. They sound right and then I say
• 44:35
  it out loud and it's very wrong. That's why I'm not an audio
• 44:38
  narrator. But anyways, Sarah's.
• 44:42
  But yeah, like she goes through it in the beginning.
• 44:44
  I mean, she is like, I don't want to spoil anything, but I
• 44:49
  mean there is a lot of darkness and she's dealing with darkness
• 44:53
  while hiding as well. And I love her.
• 45:00
  What, what is her? What is the old lady's name in
• 45:03
  the beginning? I love her, yes, love her.
• 45:06
  And I feel like she's a big character.
• 45:09
  And then we meet Kale again kind of later on in this hunt in a of
• 45:14
  a sense. And he is, he is kind of like a
• 45:18
  villainous character right now, but I feel like there's
• 45:23
  something else to him. Like, like, I like we know he's
• 45:26
  a main character, right? So like, we know things might
• 45:29
  evolve, but I don't see that right away.
• 45:31
  Like, I'm like, damn, he's mean. Like this guy is a brute.
• 45:35
  So I'm excited to read more about him and he.
• 45:38
  Yeah, the glasses and. Yeah.
• 45:44
  I do. I didn't want to make him a
• 45:45
  brute in the sense that he's what's the word that people say
• 45:51
  when they're. Grumpy.
• 45:54
  Or no, like he's physically he's abusive.
• 45:56
  I didn't want him to be coming across as abusive and then oh,
• 46:00
  that's OK behaviour, you know, right.
• 46:02
  I wanted it to be like, he's that way inclined, but not, not
• 46:07
  in a physical sense, but more in a a mental sense, I suppose.
• 46:11
  Like I didn't want him to just, I didn't want to glorify that
• 46:14
  type of behavior in this book, you know?
• 46:16
  That's not what this book is about.
• 46:17
  I know there are books that are out there like that, but this
• 46:20
  was more he is dangerous in his own way, in an intellectual way,
• 46:24
  rather than in a brute force kind of way, you know?
• 46:26
  Yes, yes. I don't want to spoil anything.
• 46:29
  So I don't know like how much more I can really describe about
• 46:34
  what I've seen. But yes, like he is forceful,
• 46:40
  but because of his care of what his character is in a sense.
• 46:46
  And but yeah, I didn't see like that kind of abusive nature.
• 46:49
  It's just like he's. It's his.
• 46:51
  Tongue so like a strong personality.
• 46:54
  Yeah, but he's he is somebody. He's like his title.
• 46:59
  It is. Got it.
• 47:00
  So, OK, Yeah, so. So it makes sense.
• 47:04
  On his job. Yes.
• 47:07
  It's his career, OK? It just it's hard in him but and
• 47:13
  so. I will say is we will know more
• 47:15
  about him in So it's meant to be book 1.5, which was a prequel
• 47:19
  novella. But because when this came
• 47:21
  through, I was like, this is a really small book and if it was
• 47:25
  a prequel novella, it would be half.
• 47:26
  And I was like, that is tiny. So he is probably going to have
• 47:30
  a proper book. So he will officially be book 2
• 47:32
  and we will know all about his journey leading up to meeting
• 47:37
  Sarens. So you'll have a better
• 47:38
  understanding of who he is, what drives him and his fashion
• 47:43
  fascination with certain things as well in the background.
• 47:45
  So we'll get to know him a little bit more, but then he
• 47:48
  obviously change. He doesn't, obviously, because
• 47:50
  you don't know, she don't know. I'm like, he goes through.
• 47:57
  So I always treated this as something like Game of Thrones
• 48:02
  or a darker version of Acatar where you've got all of these
• 48:05
  characters, they've all got their own separate arcs, but
• 48:08
  they all kind of intermingle in the same storyline.
• 48:11
  And so he's got his own journey that he needs to go on.
• 48:15
  And I'm really excited actually, to start writing where he's
• 48:18
  going to be for what will now be Book 3 for the next Goddess.
• 48:22
  So yeah, I can't say any more, I'm afraid.
• 48:26
  OK, now how many books do you anticipate being in this series?
• 48:30
  You are talking about three of them.
• 48:31
  Are you going beyond that? So there will technically be 4
• 48:34
  because KL has his own and depending on how people find the
• 48:39
  last book, so book four, there could potentially be another
• 48:44
  prequel or like the penultimate thing, like a war, a penultimate
• 48:50
  war. But it because ideally I'd like
• 48:52
  to give each goddess her own story.
• 48:55
  And I wouldn't want to combine a war with a goddess in the same
• 48:58
  book. I'd like to give her her time to
• 49:00
  shine and have her own journey. Yeah.
• 49:04
  And so I am trying to write this series within other books that
• 49:08
  I'm writing. So I'm kind of doing a Rebecca
• 49:11
  Yeros where I'm like, oh, there's going to be a
• 49:12
  contemporary romance. Oh, there's going to be the next
• 49:14
  installment of Onyx, You know, the Empyrean series.
• 49:18
  So I'm trying to give myself a bit of a break from the world
• 49:22
  because it is really difficult to go from being so ingrained in
• 49:26
  it, engrossed in it, to then stepping out and be like, Oh my
• 49:29
  God, I need to get back in that headspace.
• 49:31
  And my mind is almost like I'm just not there yet.
• 49:34
  I need to get this other character from my psychological
• 49:36
  horror out before I can get back into that world.
• 49:40
  That sounds awesome. I was going to ask if you have
• 49:42
  other workings going on. Most people do, which we don't
• 49:48
  understand how you keep all of that straight up here, but
• 49:51
  that's amazing. I don't know how it's how it's
• 49:54
  doing. For all right, I'm down.
• 49:57
  Yeah, so think, think witchy vibes mixed with bullying mixed
• 50:06
  with a lot of death. A lot, a lot of death.
• 50:09
  Yeah. Sacrifices and such.
• 50:15
  I don't like you off. Yeah, sure.
• 50:19
  It's so weird because I had this concept and it immediately came
• 50:23
  to me and the first opening scene came to me and I was like,
• 50:26
  Oh my God, I need to write this down and this character will not
• 50:29
  leave me alone. And I feel like I just need to
• 50:33
  get it out, but I've already had, I've already had the first
• 50:37
  3 chapters read by an agent and they want the manuscript before
• 50:40
  it's finished. So that could potentially be my
• 50:43
  in for being traditionally published.
• 50:45
  But I'm enjoying the self-publishing route.
• 50:48
  So who knows what, who knows what's going to happen.
• 50:50
  But in the meantime, I've got that going on.
• 50:52
  I've got a geology that will not leave me alone as well.
• 50:54
  That's that's more dark fantasy romanticy.
• 50:58
  And that's a main, that's a male main character.
• 51:01
  So I wanted to do it from a different perspective.
• 51:03
  Yeah. So I wanted so cool.
• 51:04
  Yeah. I'm hoping that I can nail male
• 51:06
  a male voice because I'm having experience with doing that with
• 51:09
  daughters and I. But there's just so many things
• 51:11
  going on. And then I've had another work
• 51:13
  in progress come to me and I'm like, what is going on, Gemma?
• 51:15
  Concentrate on the things that you've got before you start
• 51:17
  moving on to other things. So yeah, there's a lot going on
• 51:20
  at the minute in my head. Now I have a question of
• 51:22
  throughout now your series that you have right now, the one
• 51:24
  that's coming out here on the 10th and anything of the other
• 51:28
  books that you're doing, how spicy are your books?
• 51:32
  Are you a fade to black? Are there, you know, scenes that
• 51:36
  we know things? What What is your spice rating
• 51:40
  for your books? So Doors to the Night is 0
• 51:42
  spice. It's like a Smith.
• 51:44
  There's like a smitch. A smitch is something maybe, you
• 51:47
  know, coming. The story.
• 51:49
  Yeah. And then the next book.
• 51:51
  I almost said it then. I'm so glad I didn't.
• 51:53
  The next goddess. It's so difficult.
• 51:58
  That is like 5. It's so different.
• 52:01
  And I can't wait to start. I've already written her first
• 52:04
  chapter and I'm just like, yes, that is the vibe that I want.
• 52:09
  Whoa, yeah. So it's going to be like, whoa,
• 52:11
  different character, different, different goddess, different
• 52:15
  perspective. Hers is so her journey is so
• 52:18
  different. I mean, Sarin is very much
• 52:20
  timid. You know, she's hiding, whereas
• 52:23
  this girl is, you know, people come to her for something and
• 52:27
  she is the girl. And the opening seat, like, I
• 52:31
  mean, the opening scene is spice.
• 52:33
  So it hits you in a do. You love a book like that,
• 52:37
  everyone. I do as well.
• 52:39
  Sounds awesome. I mean, I shared it.
• 52:42
  I shared it to my sister-in-law who's also my Pennsylvania.
• 52:44
  And she was like, yeah, we may need to be careful a bit because
• 52:47
  it might be virgin on porn. And I was like, no, I'd be fine.
• 52:51
  I'd be fine. Warnings.
• 52:56
  Are good. Whereas say the next, the next
• 53:00
  goddess, the outline is already planned for her.
• 53:03
  The last one, hers is very much a there's already a relationship
• 53:07
  and there's a bit of spice, but then it's lovers to enemies.
• 53:11
  So that's very different as well.
• 53:14
  I do like that too. So betrayal?
• 53:17
  Or is it something else? Is it betrayal?
• 53:20
  Yeah. Yeah, I like that.
• 53:23
  I don't know why but that always like gets me go.
• 53:25
  I'm like. Oh.
• 53:27
  Dang, how are they going to come back from that?
• 53:30
  Yeah. That one's bad.
• 53:32
  I like it when it's really deep hurt.
• 53:35
  Like, I can't believe that. So this will be like an
• 53:39
  established couple. And, you know, she's very
• 53:42
  different from Sarin and the next goddess, but yeah, she's
• 53:46
  different in her own way. She's got her own trauma that
• 53:48
  she's having to deal with. And then all of a sudden she's
• 53:51
  betrayed by someone who's meant to be the love of her life.
• 53:54
  And then she has to go on her own journey as well as dealing
• 53:57
  with possession as well. So yeah, there I really wanted
• 54:01
  to make the goddesses very, very different, have their own
• 54:03
  personalities, their own journeys, and but yet they're
• 54:07
  all intertwined and it's all based on women empowerment and,
• 54:10
  you know, dealing with stuff head on.
• 54:13
  The men aren't the men are there to support their characters
• 54:16
  journeys, but you know, they get involved and there's there's
• 54:19
  spice and there's romance. So yeah, the next book will be
• 54:22
  really, really fun to write because it's so different to
• 54:25
  Sarin. Awesome.
• 54:26
  Now, how about your thriller? Is it going to be spicy in it or
• 54:29
  is it or is none of that kind of stuff in that particular book
• 54:33
  since you said? No, so this one is about young
• 54:37
  girl who's getting bullied. And I really wanted to in All in
• 54:42
  all my books, I want to try and tackle some form of something
• 54:45
  that people have probably dealt with.
• 54:46
  And you know, I've dealt with bullying not to this extent, but
• 54:49
  I wanted to show people that it, you know, it happens.
• 54:53
  You're not the only person, but also doesn't define who you are.
• 54:56
  And so this girl is young, she's in school and she's turned
• 55:00
  coming up to 18. And there's not really there's
• 55:04
  male characters in there, but this is her, this is her getting
• 55:07
  revenge. You know, it's very much, I
• 55:09
  don't know if you've ever watched the film Carrie from
• 55:12
  like way back when. So it's think those kind of
• 55:16
  vibes mixed with Wednesday. OK.
• 55:21
  Yeah, so This is why she just will not leave me alone.
• 55:24
  But the duology that is very much romanticy, that is, yeah,
• 55:30
  there's kind of this stuff going on, this stuff, stuff, lots of
• 55:33
  stuff. I like it and you have a lot of
• 55:37
  things on your plate. You are a busy woman, I have to
• 55:40
  say. Yeah, yeah.
• 55:41
  I mean, I wouldn't be able to do it without my husband who's
• 55:43
  support. I mean, he's supporting me from
• 55:45
  afar because he's in America at the minute, but you know, he
• 55:49
  allows me to the time and the freedom to be able to explore
• 55:52
  this. And yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be
• 55:55
  here without him, really. So.
• 55:57
  Yeah, because. Not only are you an author, but
• 55:59
  you're a mom and a wife. So and you're doing all these
• 56:04
  things what so that you can kind of connect with some of your
• 56:09
  readers. And I know you have a lot of
• 56:11
  reels up and stuff, but tell us just about you a little bit like
• 56:15
  what was before writing and what do you what are like some of
• 56:18
  your favorite books? Hobbies.
• 56:21
  Yeah. OK, so I was in finance for 10
• 56:25
  to 12 years and I hated it. I was an accountant slash
• 56:30
  financial analyst. So that's where I kind of get my
• 56:32
  geeky, you know, analytics from. And I got kicked out.
• 56:38
  I got pushed out when I was pregnant with my first child,
• 56:41
  who's now 8. And we decided as a family,
• 56:44
  because we've got no family support here, you know, my
• 56:47
  parents are dead. My in laws live abroad.
• 56:49
  We were like, we can't, we can't afford like full time childcare
• 56:53
  and trying to, you know, manage me working.
• 56:56
  So yeah, we decided that I wasn't going to go back to work.
• 56:59
  And six months later, I got pregnant again.
• 57:01
  You know, fun times. That was not expected.
• 57:04
  But here we are with a 15 month age gap between my two children.
• 57:09
  And then since then I've been, I'd retrained as a personal
• 57:13
  trainer. I did Women's Health, so
• 57:15
  specializing in core and pelvic floor because I had issues
• 57:19
  myself with diagnosis recti and they said I needed surgery and I
• 57:23
  was like, no, I'll fix it myself.
• 57:24
  So I retrained and then taught other women and then realized
• 57:27
  that that wasn't feasible with two kids.
• 57:29
  And then I got pregnant again, which just wasn't an option for
• 57:33
  us to, to go down that route. So unfortunately we, we
• 57:37
  terminated, but it was just right.
• 57:39
  I need to figure something out. I need to do something for me.
• 57:42
  It's now my time. And so I was like, what can I
• 57:44
  do? And for about two or three years
• 57:46
  I really struggled mentally until last year when I sought
• 57:50
  therapy and had it was called hypnotherapy.
• 57:55
  And after four sessions of that, she was like, you don't need to
• 57:57
  be here anymore. You're fine.
• 57:58
  You can go back and if you need me, let me know.
• 58:01
  But she's like, you're, you're, you've completed therapy.
• 58:04
  So, so excellent, brilliant. And then I decided, OK, there
• 58:08
  was a fork in the road. I love, I love cooking.
• 58:11
  I have a real connection to food and cooking with my mommy passed
• 58:14
  away. And I was like, I'm either going
• 58:16
  to grow a social media account where it's about reliving
• 58:20
  people's food memories. So say, oh, my mom used to cook
• 58:25
  me this. I'm going to, I would get
• 58:27
  people's recipes and I would cook them for them to help
• 58:29
  relive, you know, and the the loved ones that have gone.
• 58:33
  And then I was like, I'm either going to do that or I'm going to
• 58:36
  write. Now bear in mind, I'd only
• 58:38
  written for a year before that because I tried to write a
• 58:40
  dystopian. That didn't work because I was
• 58:42
  trying to plan it too much. And so I was like, which one
• 58:46
  would I feasibly have time to do to create content for?
• 58:50
  And as I know I'll go down the writing route.
• 58:52
  And then September 2025, I came on social media.
• 58:56
  I started vlogging everyday, writing for 30 days to get
• 58:59
  Sarin's story finished. And that's just kind of it
• 59:03
  really. And I love reading.
• 59:06
  I love reading anything. I'm not really a romantic person
• 59:08
  because I cringe a little bit at romance.
• 59:13
  I know, I know to hate me, hate me all you want, but I I really
• 59:18
  liked. So I love Carissa Broadbent.
• 59:20
  And when I read her Daughter of No Worlds, I was like, Oh my
• 59:23
  God, The way that she combined someone possessing someone else,
• 59:26
  I was like, yes, that's where the vision came for Sarah.
• 59:29
  And so they're the kind of vibes that I like to read.
• 59:32
  But hobby wise, I mean, I love, I love embroidery.
• 59:37
  Embroidery. There I have my.
• 59:39
  Really. Oh, no way.
• 59:40
  No way. There's, Oh my gosh, a.
• 59:44
  Bookworm from a book. That's so good.
• 59:49
  I tried, it actually is so doesn't look that bad, but I
• 59:53
  would like to try more when I have time.
• 59:56
  It's the time, yeah, it's so, so much the time, isn't it?
• 59:59
  But I love Lego, I love colouring, I love gaming.
• 1:00:02
  You know, I'm not really a overly social person, so
• 1:00:05
  anything that's kind of involving being at home in my
• 1:00:09
  own environment or with my kids, I love.
• 1:00:11
  Or we, I exercise quite a bit, I weight lift.
• 1:00:14
  So it's either that, you know, I'm a very simple person, kind
• 1:00:18
  of. Do you have ADHD?
• 1:00:20
  Because that's a lot of hobbies. Yeah.
• 1:00:23
  So why do you say that? Because I shared a story that
• 1:00:28
  was like, Oh my gosh, I've got, I've literally got two stories
• 1:00:31
  up at the moment and I'm writing in between stories.
• 1:00:34
  I'm flipping. And someone was like, quite
• 1:00:36
  well, someone quite a lot of people said to me, do you have
• 1:00:38
  ADHD? And I was like, no, no, I don't
• 1:00:40
  have ADHD. I think I've got ADHD.
• 1:00:44
  Yeah, I really do. That's why I'm such a mood
• 1:00:47
  reader because I could be like in the middle of like a war
• 1:00:50
  scene in a fantasy novel and be like, all right, so this is
• 1:00:56
  good. Like love it.
• 1:00:58
  But sometimes it's like a little overwhelming senses wise.
• 1:01:01
  And then I'll be like, I'm just going to, you know, start
• 1:01:03
  casually this book for a little bit.
• 1:01:05
  Just get my head out of the game and I'll come back and I'm so
• 1:01:09
  back and forth. Like I sometimes read like 3
• 1:01:11
  books at one time and I could do like audiobook while I'm driving
• 1:01:15
  the kids to school and that's a completely different book.
• 1:01:18
  Or, and then come home and kindle something and then like
• 1:01:22
  physical read something else, like all over the place.
• 1:01:26
  It's just my mind. It just like has to take those
• 1:01:29
  like weird breaks. And then I, I mean, I love
• 1:01:32
  everything I'm reading. It's not that I don't like this
• 1:01:35
  book. It's just no, my brain just
• 1:01:37
  telling me like, OK, that was really cool.
• 1:01:39
  Let's find something else really cool.
• 1:01:42
  See, I I can't do that. I have to read, I have to read
• 1:01:45
  one book at a time. I, I can't do multiple things.
• 1:01:49
  But I do agree with you on the thing of being home.
• 1:01:52
  We are very much a homebody kind of family, except here recently,
• 1:01:56
  just the last few weeks, my husband and I have been doing
• 1:01:59
  some antiquing together. We've been going to the peddlers
• 1:02:03
  malls that are here and I've been looking for depression
• 1:02:07
  glass, especially green depression glass because it's
• 1:02:10
  called Vaseline glass or uranium glass.
• 1:02:14
  It's called because if you put it under UV light, it glows and
• 1:02:17
  so. I've been looking for that.
• 1:02:19
  So, but I've gotten him to do it.
• 1:02:21
  It shocks me. I did not think I could get him
• 1:02:24
  to do it because my husband's a very big on gaming and that kind
• 1:02:28
  of thing. That's his personality.
• 1:02:30
  He likes to do that and something I don't know, he he is
• 1:02:35
  Joyce with me and he likes going right.
• 1:02:37
  And I think what what have we been to like what 5-6 places
• 1:02:40
  here in the last like couple weeks?
• 1:02:42
  Amazing. It shocks my brain that he wants
• 1:02:44
  to do this with me. But so that's my fun thing.
• 1:02:46
  But yes, I agree with you. I love being home.
• 1:02:49
  That is I'm not these two have more the the traveling bug.
• 1:02:53
  They like to they like to go a lot of places.
• 1:02:55
  I'm just not big on people. I always tell them I don't like
• 1:02:59
  big crowds. I'll.
• 1:03:01
  Do it I. Don't like it for an experience.
• 1:03:04
  I love seeing like culture and eating different foods and
• 1:03:10
  experiencing that, seeing architecture because it's so
• 1:03:12
  different throughout the world and even nature is so I enjoy
• 1:03:18
  that aspect of travelling. Am I freaking out the whole time
• 1:03:23
  about like agendas and do I have my passport with me and is it in
• 1:03:28
  the right place? Yes.
• 1:03:29
  Like I'm terrified I'm going to lose something on my European
• 1:03:33
  trips but we get it done. It's fun, but it's stressful in
• 1:03:38
  a sense. I like to go see historical
• 1:03:41
  places and things. Just I like things that where
• 1:03:44
  there's not lots of people, you know what I mean?
• 1:03:47
  I just can't do crowds. Like when it's Christmas time,
• 1:03:49
  the holidays, you know how the stores get like insane and
• 1:03:53
  there's tons of people. I don't want to do it.
• 1:03:56
  I get panicked and I get real hot and I have that, you know,
• 1:04:01
  flight feeling and stuff like I can't, I can't do it.
• 1:04:05
  So that's why most like Christmas and stuff I do online
• 1:04:08
  because I can't do it. I can't do crystal.
• 1:04:11
  I like to be in my own little cocoon.
• 1:04:14
  That's me. Gemma these. 2 with the travel
• 1:04:16
  bugs. Yeah I have, you don't have to
• 1:04:20
  give away anything cuz I don't want you to put yourself at risk
• 1:04:24
  like your location wise but I have family and none eaten.
• 1:04:27
  Kent, Coventry. Whereabouts are you over there?
• 1:04:32
  So I'm originally from Coventry, but I relocated with my husband.
• 1:04:36
  Yeah, because when I was working, I used to work for
• 1:04:39
  Jaguar Land Rover and I really started.
• 1:04:43
  My uncle. I know, right?
• 1:04:46
  Yeah. So I used to work near Warwick
• 1:04:49
  or like Gaidenway, and then my husband was working kind of
• 1:04:53
  nearer London. So we were like, oh, central,
• 1:04:55
  we'll kind of meet in the middle.
• 1:04:57
  And then so yeah, we relocated or I relocated from Coventry.
• 1:05:00
  So I'm about 30 minutes away from London, so I'm not far.
• 1:05:03
  OK, nice. That's awesome.
• 1:05:05
  You said your husband's over here in the United States for a
• 1:05:07
  while working. What state have you?
• 1:05:09
  Yes. Now.
• 1:05:09
  Have you been over here to the United States then as well?
• 1:05:12
  No, no, we're actually, we're looking at maybe moving to the
• 1:05:17
  US, potentially the US. Yeah, maybe, maybe.
• 1:05:22
  I mean, he's just, he's got. Is he from the States or is he,
• 1:05:26
  Oh no, he's not okay. No, So he just works with a lot.
• 1:05:29
  I mean, all of his clients are pretty much based in America,
• 1:05:32
  and so he's just, like, popping over there whenever he can.
• 1:05:35
  But this is his longest trip so far.
• 1:05:36
  It's only 12 days. I say only 12 days, but 12 days
• 1:05:39
  feels very, very long. You know, it's a lot.
• 1:05:42
  Good. Yeah, it's a lot.
• 1:05:45
  But no, yeah, it's, we are considering potentially moving
• 1:05:48
  because it's just easier for him with work and, you know, like he
• 1:05:52
  works really long hours because he's working a lot of the time,
• 1:05:54
  New York hours. And so by the time he's home,
• 1:05:58
  it's like 8:00 PM and then he eats and then sometimes he'll go
• 1:06:01
  back to work until 1:00 AM. So it's just, you know, it's not
• 1:06:05
  the greatest dynamic, but and the UK just doesn't feel like
• 1:06:08
  the best place to be at the minute.
• 1:06:10
  So, yeah, it's a it's something that may be on the horizon.
• 1:06:13
  And he's in Chicago at the minute.
• 1:06:14
  And he keeps showing me the, you know, I think he's by Mission
• 1:06:17
  Lake, MI And I'm like, Oh my God.
• 1:06:19
  Pretty nice. Yeah, Yeah, the pier is there.
• 1:06:23
  What number? But yes, it's it's very pretty.
• 1:06:27
  I've been in the winter time, though, and it's very cold in
• 1:06:30
  Chicago. Yeah, it's really cool.
• 1:06:35
  Yeah, I've heard that, yeah. Well.
• 1:06:38
  Was that she was just going to say, oh, you guys, she's going
• 1:06:42
  to ask where she's going to move to.
• 1:06:43
  That's where I was going to say, Do you have a location in mind?
• 1:06:49
  No, I don't think we do. It's just we only moved into
• 1:06:51
  this house like 2 years, almost two years ago.
• 1:06:54
  But we're already. My husband's one of those where
• 1:06:56
  he does something and then within a year he's got an itch.
• 1:06:59
  He's he's up. He's absolutely got ADHD, by the
• 1:07:02
  way. He's got ADHD.
• 1:07:03
  OK. He's.
• 1:07:04
  Yeah, like without, without a doubt, he's got ADHD.
• 1:07:07
  I'm like, I don't have it. You have it.
• 1:07:10
  But now I'm thinking maybe we both just have it.
• 1:07:12
  He's just got a more advanced version of it than I have or
• 1:07:15
  we're. Just not on the same page.
• 1:07:17
  We're on different pages, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you can have a
• 1:07:20
  conversation with him and then he's just like he's gone or he
• 1:07:24
  starts talking to you about something that you're like,
• 1:07:26
  what? You just, you just having a
• 1:07:27
  conversation in your head and now you're verbalizing it.
• 1:07:29
  That is him. But he's he's very much a person
• 1:07:32
  where he'll buy a car within a year.
• 1:07:34
  He's like, oh, I need a different car now.
• 1:07:35
  And you're like, Oh my God. Oh.
• 1:07:38
  You know, we we stayed in our previous house for five years
• 1:07:41
  and that was like, because he's ex, he's from an Army family.
• 1:07:44
  He's very much used to kind of moving around.
• 1:07:46
  And so he's like, Oh my God, five years is the longest time
• 1:07:49
  I've ever stayed anywhere. And so now it's like O2 years.
• 1:07:52
  Yeah, right. We should be looking to move at
• 1:07:54
  some point now. And I'm like, no, no, let's just
• 1:07:58
  stay. Well, my husband, we, well, we
• 1:08:02
  bought our house. We're four years in our, in our
• 1:08:04
  house. And my husband told me
• 1:08:07
  yesterday, he said, well, within five years, he said we're going
• 1:08:09
  to be somewhere else. I didn't know that, but he
• 1:08:12
  informed me of it. But he, he has OCD.
• 1:08:15
  So he, he cleans all the time and we have a tree outside our
• 1:08:19
  house. And if it rains, you know how
• 1:08:22
  with a tree it just makes stuff dirty and so he has to clean all
• 1:08:26
  the time. So he told me he wants the next
• 1:08:28
  steps. The leaves.
• 1:08:30
  Yeah, he picks up the. Leaves in the yard.
• 1:08:32
  He has a weed torch, yeah. He has a weed torch he has, he
• 1:08:37
  has the leaf blower. He picks the dandelions out of
• 1:08:41
  our yard when they're our yard isn't very big, so.
• 1:08:44
  You guys have curb appeal. He is great at that.
• 1:08:48
  So I. Guess we could go.
• 1:08:49
  With that prestige. I mean, that's not a bad thing.
• 1:08:52
  That's not a bad thing. Well, compared to my ex, my
• 1:08:55
  ex-husband was very messy. He was not.
• 1:08:59
  He was not the clean guy. But now this one here.
• 1:09:02
  You know, when I first married my husband, you know, or when we
• 1:09:05
  were first together, this was before we got married.
• 1:09:07
  Like I would clean. I always thought I was a very
• 1:09:10
  clean person. I keep my mom's Italian, you
• 1:09:12
  know, they clean and the bleach and you know, you clean.
• 1:09:15
  But then he was following behind me, cleaning after me.
• 1:09:19
  And I took offense to it, you know, because I'm like, I know
• 1:09:23
  I'm cleaning and I know I'm not, you know, dirt and but no, it's
• 1:09:26
  just his mind. He has to make sure that it's
• 1:09:31
  things are certain done certainly.
• 1:09:33
  But after this many years, because like I was telling
• 1:09:35
  Chelsea earlier, we'll be together 17 years in July and 15
• 1:09:41
  years married in September, I just let him go.
• 1:09:43
  I just know certain things and I just don't do them.
• 1:09:45
  He was up on our roof yesterday because I mowed the grass and
• 1:09:49
  then when he got home, he weed eats.
• 1:09:51
  I don't do that. He did that and then we torched
• 1:09:54
  and then he was up on the roof cleaning our gutters, walking on
• 1:09:57
  our roof. I mean, I'm all for that,
• 1:10:00
  Happily. Yeah, that's fine.
• 1:10:03
  Yeah. My husband like waits till the
• 1:10:05
  last minute to do it or hire somebody so.
• 1:10:10
  Well, I can't get up there. I I can't get up.
• 1:10:12
  I'm terrified of heights. And so, yeah.
• 1:10:14
  And he was up there. I held the ladder.
• 1:10:16
  I just don't. Want to all the spiders?
• 1:10:19
  No, it was under. Well, it's because we know he
• 1:10:22
  knows it's going to rain today and we have two trees on either
• 1:10:26
  side of our house and they kind of go over the top of our house
• 1:10:30
  kind of and there's leaves dropping.
• 1:10:33
  You wouldn't think in the summer like so many leaves would be
• 1:10:36
  dropping, but they are here and it was clogging up our gutters
• 1:10:39
  and so interesting. He was on the roof.
• 1:10:42
  You should see him and he gets up there and with Crocs, that is
• 1:10:45
  what was on that man's feet. He had Crocs on.
• 1:10:48
  I said you're going to fall off the roof, men, men.
• 1:10:51
  Also, just a side note, I've told you all before, but the
• 1:10:54
  reason why anybody's having major allergies right now, it's
• 1:10:57
  the overpopulation of male trees that is what's causing our
• 1:11:01
  allergies. We.
• 1:11:02
  Take that back in this as well. No, like all my kids are waking
• 1:11:09
  up with a cough and like it goes away at the end of the day or
• 1:11:12
  the middle of the day. I mean, but my husband's been
• 1:11:15
  like, you know, snotty and lugging and stuff like that and.
• 1:11:19
  I made my oldest, he takes allergy medicine now and he's
• 1:11:22
  been doing better too. I got him Zyrtec and that's
• 1:11:27
  what's been working for him. I have been sneezing a whole
• 1:11:30
  bunch too and I don't have any allergies.
• 1:11:31
  I just again, men overpopulation of men trees.
• 1:11:35
  So there you go. There's that information.
• 1:11:39
  Well, I hope if you move over, well, I hope if you do get it,
• 1:11:42
  get to move over here, you move somewhere close to all of us
• 1:11:45
  because we're all, we're scattered about the country
• 1:11:47
  here. Heather is in North Carolina.
• 1:11:50
  I am in Kentucky and Chelsea is in California so you have some
• 1:11:55
  beautiful options there. Yeah, my grandparents come.
• 1:11:59
  California sounds pretty enticing, I'm not gonna lie.
• 1:12:01
  Yeah, well, so when my grandparents moved from the from
• 1:12:05
  Coventry, they came first they went to Canada, then they went
• 1:12:09
  to Michigan, and then they moved out to California.
• 1:12:12
  So they brought my, yeah, my mom when she was 2.
• 1:12:16
  They did all that. So, but yeah, California, I
• 1:12:20
  mean, I love it. I love it here.
• 1:12:22
  There are some parts that are not so beautiful as we'd like
• 1:12:25
  them to be, right? Yeah.
• 1:12:29
  And but it's, and maybe some policies could be changed in
• 1:12:33
  California. But I work at a beach city, so
• 1:12:37
  it is, it is very nice. I enjoy, I enjoy where we're at.
• 1:12:41
  We're we're an hour from the beach, an hour from the
• 1:12:43
  mountains. And then national parks, you
• 1:12:46
  know, like are just absolutely gorgeous.
• 1:12:48
  Those are like 5 hours away. So, yeah, yeah.
• 1:12:52
  Where I'm at, I'm in Kentucky and it's, again, there are some
• 1:12:57
  interesting people here, but it is very beautiful here.
• 1:12:59
  And it is much cheaper to live in Kentucky than a lot of other
• 1:13:03
  places. And also around the Kentucky
• 1:13:06
  Derby. Yeah.
• 1:13:07
  What's that? I said I'll show you around if
• 1:13:09
  you come out. Yeah, I can show you around
• 1:13:10
  Disneyland and and some of the other places.
• 1:13:14
  Love, I'd have to go to the the Harry Potter village.
• 1:13:17
  Those, yes. The floor I think the Florida 1
• 1:13:20
  is better though. It is.
• 1:13:22
  Yeah, OK. Yeah, Yeah, I know.
• 1:13:26
  The California one only has Hogsmeade, whereas Orlando has
• 1:13:31
  Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, so it's bigger.
• 1:13:35
  And two different. Perks which not.
• 1:13:38
  Saying, yeah, I still love it, but it's like it's small.
• 1:13:42
  It, it I wish it was bigger. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:44
  Well, which one do you think? I mean, do you guys think is
• 1:13:46
  better? Is it better to go to Disneyland
• 1:13:48
  or is it better to go to Disney World?
• 1:13:50
  I have been to neither. Well, they're different.
• 1:13:52
  I don't know which one do you think is better.
• 1:13:56
  Have you been to World? I haven't been to World, I've
• 1:13:58
  been to Japan's Disney. Disney that's cool Sea and
• 1:14:02
  that's way better than yeah, Disney Sea is awesome in Japan.
• 1:14:05
  That would be cool. Yeah, that's number one, But I
• 1:14:08
  just love Disneyland because it's the original.
• 1:14:11
  So. So you got the original castle,
• 1:14:14
  the original Fantasyland. It's just.
• 1:14:16
  Yeah, like there's. Something about it.
• 1:14:19
  Disney is there and you could tell like yeah, I've been to
• 1:14:23
  Magic Kingdom in Orlando and it's more generalized for the
• 1:14:28
  bigger populations that come over from all over and it
• 1:14:33
  doesn't have that like homey feeling like Disneyland does
• 1:14:37
  that like smaller kind of hub because it.
• 1:14:40
  Yeah, like they've, I don't like even some of the signage and
• 1:14:44
  some of the rides and how they've closed together.
• 1:14:48
  Yeah, doesn't feel as Disneyland to me.
• 1:14:52
  I grew up in Disneyland doing Disney things like that.
• 1:14:55
  So I am a little more biased, but I've been to both.
• 1:15:00
  And I got to say there's there's just like different things in
• 1:15:03
  each. I mean, Orlando, you have more
• 1:15:06
  different parks, like different kinds of characters in each of
• 1:15:10
  the parks. You can spend a whole week over
• 1:15:12
  there kind of thing. So it's just kind of what you
• 1:15:15
  want to do. I love Epcot drink around the
• 1:15:18
  world, It's my duty when I go. It's very fun.
• 1:15:23
  Now and at Disneyland, do they have in the areas around it,
• 1:15:26
  like the places where you can live?
• 1:15:28
  Because like down in Orlando, they actually have the Disney
• 1:15:31
  towns where you can actually buy a home and live at Disney like
• 1:15:35
  they have that. Celebration Island and all that,
• 1:15:37
  or whatever it's called. Yeah.
• 1:15:38
  No, there's some of that. And they also have a big like if
• 1:15:41
  you have like big fifth wheels, your big motor homes and that
• 1:15:44
  kind of stuff they have, it's right outside Orlando because I
• 1:15:48
  was following a family. They were from I think like
• 1:15:51
  Mississippi or something like that.
• 1:15:53
  They sold their home and they have a big beauty.
• 1:15:55
  I mean, the fifth wheel. I mean, it's beautiful.
• 1:15:57
  And that's where they're living. And that until they find their
• 1:16:00
  house or their house is ready in celebration and they were going
• 1:16:04
  to live all year round at Disney.
• 1:16:06
  Cool. See, I want to.
• 1:16:07
  I want to go to. I want to go to England, though.
• 1:16:10
  Gemma, you come out here. Let's just swap for a bit.
• 1:16:12
  Yeah. I want to see all my family and
• 1:16:16
  my cousins. I would love.
• 1:16:17
  You say that and then the. Weather and Ireland love to see
• 1:16:21
  it. The weather is just so the
• 1:16:24
  weather is so awful. I mean, we can, it was absolute.
• 1:16:28
  It's been pouring down all week. But before that we had 34, You
• 1:16:33
  know, I mean, that's probably, I don't even know what that would
• 1:16:34
  be for you guys. But we had a heat wave that was
• 1:16:37
  insane. And then it was like, oh, no,
• 1:16:40
  you've had that. Now you're going to have a week
• 1:16:42
  worth of rain, you know? And it's just, it's just so like
• 1:16:46
  summers aren't as summary as they used to be now.
• 1:16:48
  But I mean, London's great. You know, I go into London quite
• 1:16:51
  a bit because I'm not that far away from it.
• 1:16:53
  And it's a quick train ride in. And it is, the parts of it are
• 1:16:57
  beautiful. But I guess it's like New York
• 1:16:59
  or wherever else you go, there are parts that are not so nice
• 1:17:01
  and places that you probably don't want to visit.
• 1:17:03
  But yeah, I do like the English Heritage, but just never been to
• 1:17:07
  America, so I'd love to see what that's about because it's so
• 1:17:11
  big, so big. Here there's places I haven't
• 1:17:14
  even been and I traveled for a long time as a nurse, like going
• 1:17:18
  to different States and I thought I've been to a lot of
• 1:17:20
  places. I have not been to all of them.
• 1:17:23
  And then it's very different here, like all the different
• 1:17:26
  sections, you know, you get, you know, you have New England and
• 1:17:30
  you have that section and then you go into the South and it
• 1:17:33
  gets very hot down here. It's like the only, the best way
• 1:17:36
  I can describe the heat of the South in the summer, like
• 1:17:40
  yesterday was 93° here. It was like you open the door
• 1:17:44
  and you walked outside into somebody's mouth.
• 1:17:47
  That's what the humidity feels like.
• 1:17:49
  It's, I mean, it's like the humidity, it just, it's the
• 1:17:52
  heat. And this isn't even the hot heat
• 1:17:55
  of summer yet. We haven't even hit that yet.
• 1:17:59
  And then like you go into the Pacific Northwest, it's much
• 1:18:02
  more like you have Evergreen trees.
• 1:18:05
  It's mountainous. It's, it's, it's, that is more
• 1:18:08
  of a rainy kind of area, the Pacific Northwest.
• 1:18:12
  And then you have the, the Southwest in the United States
• 1:18:15
  and it's, you have more of your deserts and all that kind of
• 1:18:18
  stuff because is it Arizona has the painted, the painted
• 1:18:22
  mountains and stuff, the canyons and things like that.
• 1:18:25
  The Grand Canyon, you know how they have the, the, the painted
• 1:18:28
  ones. So it's like all different
• 1:18:29
  colors, the levels on the rocks, I mean, and then you go into the
• 1:18:34
  Midwest in the United States and it's flat.
• 1:18:36
  And that's where tornadoes happen.
• 1:18:38
  So don't move to the middle. Don't go to Kansas.
• 1:18:44
  I've lived in Kansas. It's its own journey.
• 1:18:48
  Yes. I've seen a tornado so.
• 1:18:54
  Florida not. Hurricanes so so no Florida
• 1:18:56
  floor unless you're if you're on the east side of Florida, the up
• 1:19:00
  towards like the Gulf, that area, I mean they do get
• 1:19:03
  hurricanes, but it's a little different.
• 1:19:05
  But when hurricanes happen, it seems to be, yeah, Florida
• 1:19:08
  hurricane's bad. Don't, don't go there either.
• 1:19:11
  There's certain places. Just California.
• 1:19:13
  You just come to California. It's.
• 1:19:15
  Great. California seems like you're jam
• 1:19:16
  because it's sunny a lot like most of the time it has good
• 1:19:19
  weather. It's hardly ever below 40°F.
• 1:19:23
  I don't know what that is in Celsius.
• 1:19:25
  So and yeah, it's, it's a good time out in California.
• 1:19:29
  There's lots to do. There's just it's a big state,
• 1:19:32
  lots to do, lots of sea, lots of places to live that are nice
• 1:19:36
  communities. There's Napa Valley, there's
• 1:19:39
  Sequoia trees. Oh yeah.
• 1:19:41
  I want to see those kind of things.
• 1:19:43
  I only time I've ever been to California is when I flew into
• 1:19:45
  San Francisco because I was going to Oregon.
• 1:19:47
  So I never went anything. Nothing that's.
• 1:19:50
  No, I know it was just the airport, but that's the only
• 1:19:53
  time I've ever been to California.
• 1:19:55
  Yeah, see, you have lots to look forward to if you decide to
• 1:19:59
  move. Over here, I know.
• 1:20:01
  Gemma, do you have anything else that you want to say, like for
• 1:20:05
  your readership or for you know? This your debut novel coming
• 1:20:09
  out. Was there anything that you
• 1:20:10
  haven't gotten out yet? Pre-order pre-order because you
• 1:20:14
  don't understand how much pre-orders mean.
• 1:20:16
  I mean I'm trying my pre-order reports are not working so I
• 1:20:20
  would love to share stats but I I have no idea how many
• 1:20:23
  paperbacks I've got pre-ordered. I people are pre ordering the
• 1:20:26
  hardbacks. There's no printer that's
• 1:20:28
  connected to the background but my pre-order reports are not
• 1:20:31
  working. But I'm trying to get, I think
• 1:20:34
  for my genre, if I get between 300 to 500 pre-orders on any
• 1:20:39
  medium, whether that be audiobook, ebook, paperback, I
• 1:20:42
  can be in the top five category for my genre, which that is
• 1:20:46
  insane. OK, that's our goal.
• 1:20:48
  Yeah, let's do it, folks. Yeah.
• 1:20:51
  It's just, yeah. And it's just means so much for
• 1:20:53
  people because it bumps you up on the algorithm with Amazon and
• 1:20:56
  wherever, and people are then seeing your book.
• 1:20:59
  So yeah. Exactly.
• 1:21:00
  If you haven't yet. Now where?
• 1:21:02
  Where can everybody do your pre-orders?
• 1:21:04
  Where do they go to your website?
• 1:21:06
  Where do they find that? So the link the the link in my
• 1:21:09
  bio is probably better because I've got the link set up for the
• 1:21:12
  US and the UK or international because people that are on
• 1:21:16
  Kobos, they have to pre-order from a different area to those
• 1:21:19
  that pre ordering from Amazon. So yeah, link in my bio for
• 1:21:23
  everything. But yeah, just to support.
• 1:21:25
  I mean, even just people follow me or liking things on my
• 1:21:28
  journey is just amazing. To be honest.
• 1:21:30
  That support is just yeah, you have no idea how much that fuels
• 1:21:34
  me to keep going and to share my journey to help other people who
• 1:21:37
  are also trying to pursue this Ave.
• 1:21:39
  And then when your episode is up, people, you can also go on
• 1:21:43
  to our Lincoln bio and I will have her listed her Lincoln bio
• 1:21:48
  so that you can click and find all her stuff.
• 1:21:52
  And also where can they find you on Instagram?
• 1:21:54
  Are you on Tiktok too or are you just on Instagram?
• 1:21:57
  Nope, I'm on Tiktok, so same author dot Gemma Vale.
• 1:22:01
  And yeah, I was on YouTube. I came off it, although I've got
• 1:22:05
  some of my old vlogging videos on there for people that are
• 1:22:07
  probably starting out or wanting to finish their first draft.
• 1:22:09
  You can see all my journey of that over there, but I don't
• 1:22:12
  post on there anymore. But yeah, I'm on YouTube and
• 1:22:14
  Tiktok, Instagram and take talk, OK?
• 1:22:17
  Well, hey, well, thank you so very much, Gemma, for coming and
• 1:22:19
  visiting with us and hanging out with us.
• 1:22:21
  And then after your book comes out, maybe this fall, you can
• 1:22:24
  come back and visit us and we can talk more about how
• 1:22:28
  everything's going on your journey.
• 1:22:30
  Does that sound good? Yeah, I'd love that.
• 1:22:32
  Yeah, no, thank you so much for having me, guys.
• 1:22:34
  I've been anticipating this chat with you all for feels like
• 1:22:37
  weeks and weeks but it's been so lovely to see you all.
• 1:22:41
  I can tell you you are very lovely and I so enjoyed our
• 1:22:44
  conversation and you were the sweetest.
• 1:22:46
  Lady, Oh, thank you. Oh, thank you.
• 1:22:49
  Thank you very much guys. And then and then everybody, Oh
• 1:22:53
  well, everybody remember to to check us out the 2 girls 1 TBR
• 1:22:58
  on Instagram and TikTok. And also please go over to
• 1:23:01
  YouTube to 2 girls 1 TBR and subscribe to us.
• 1:23:05
  We are chasing 100 followers or subscribers.
• 1:23:09
  I guess you would be called. But otherwise, goodnight
• 1:23:12
  everyone. Goodnight.
• 1:23:14
  Bye Gemma.