Latest / Reality Writes / Year-End Reflections—Travel, Writing Numbers, and What's to Come in 2025

Transcript

Year-End Reflections—Travel, Writing Numbers, and What's to Come in 2025 · Reality Writes

0:05
SPEAKER_01: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to uh our wrap-up of reality rights for 2024.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: I can't believe we're at the end of the year.
0:13
SPEAKER_01: I am author Ellie Alexander, and this is the podcast where we talk about all things writing, bookish, and everything in between.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here with I am the tech guy, and I can't believe that the year is done.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh that that went fast.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Um real fast.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
0:30
SPEAKER_00: December always goes fast because I think if you know there are a lot of holidays that happen in in December.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: We we just happen to celebrate Christmas.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so there's a lot of planning and excitement and preparation that goes into getting ready, and then it seems like it's here and bam, it's gone.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: And your birthday.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: And my birthday.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Right.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: My birthday.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: My birthday is right around Christmas.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: So there's that.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: There's that.
1:02
SPEAKER_01: Uh so this week we thought we would wrap up.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: We'd kind of do um a review of everything that happened in the world of books and writing in 2024, and then um maybe give a little preview about what's to come in 2025.
1:17
SPEAKER_01: And uh I want to round it out with some advice from for writers who might be trying to finally start that book in the new year.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: That sounds good.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to hear the numbers.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: So for the darlings out there, like uh Ellie put all these together.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: She she tallied everything up.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: So I I am hearing, I'm gonna be hearing these things for the first time, just like the rest of you.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: So any oohs and ahs on my part are 100% genuine.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: Although um, I don't usually do the math piece.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: So Right, right.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's true.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't wasn't validated.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't validated, yeah.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: Well, um, I thought we'd start it off with a little recap of the travel that we did in 2024, which let me tell you was extensive.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: And I thought it might be fun if we um shared a little like of our favorite pieces of some of this travel.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: Some of this you did with me and some you did not.
2:12
SPEAKER_01: So we kicked off uh the year with a trip up to Vancouver, Washington, where I did an event at um the one and only vintage books.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and going back there is always like going back home, probably because it is my childhood home.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so it's always so fun to get to be in that store, be with the booksellers who really helped launch my career, and then um with readers who were like the OG readers who have known me since the very first book was released.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, and now um the going back to Vancouver or the Portland area really uh it involves flying because we when we lived in Ashland, it was you know five-hour drive.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it was no problem, and other than getting stuck in Portland traffic, no matter how you sliced it.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: But um, but after moving to the Bay Area down in Sunnyvale, we like that that's like a good 12 hours with stops.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's a long drive.
3:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh it's just yeah, we don't have that we don't have that much time.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: We don't have that much time.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: And February's not a great time to drive over the passes.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Um it's not yeah weather.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: 12 hours could easily become 18 hours or more in in the winter, yeah.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: And we we did an episode about some of the book travel that we did over the years in the winter, and um, you know, for the darlings out there or any new writers, this is all sort of on us.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: Like it's not like the publishing house is well, some of these I did get um covered, but most of the time it's usually like it's on our own dime that we're doing this kind of travel for folks.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: So right.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, so it's a grind, and we've talked about that a lot on this podcast, and we'll probably talk about it even more going into 2025.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Is that if your goal is to make a living as an author, you have to accept that you're going to travel.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, and a lot of that's gonna be just, you know, driving on your own, on your own dime.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and we don't say that to scare, you know, new authors or prospective authors.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: We love it.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we just we happen to love it.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: It it is it is tiring.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I mean, I'm not gonna lie, like it's it is tiring.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, but um yeah, we've built so many great relationships over the years with booksellers, bookstore owners.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just been amazing.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, we've gotten to see so many great places.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, if we could go back to all of them every year, you know, multiple times, and and that was just our job, that would I would love that.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, so if you know, maybe I'll start a GoFundMe.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: People just pay pay tech guy, tech guide travel fund.
5:05
SPEAKER_01: Tech guy travel book travel fund.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, actually, we do have a new idea that we're gonna launch in 2025 that involves independent bookstores.
5:12
SPEAKER_01: So I'm very excited about.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited, super excited.
5:16
SPEAKER_01: We'll just leave that there as a little teaser.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: How's that?
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so after that trip, uh, we went back up to Ashland a month later.
5:26
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I did events with uh Paddington Station and all the usual suspects.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: That was sort of a two for one because not only uh did I have a new book releasing, so you know, we did a lot of events around that, but it was also pre-planning for Ashland Mystery Fest, which took place in October.
5:45
SPEAKER_01: So um that was great.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: And we did not get bad weather, which we were both like worried about.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I did not get a ticket this time, so that was even better.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, that's a that's a story for another time because it was not my fault.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: I was following Ellie's instructions and we got pulled over and got a ticket.
6:04
SPEAKER_01: So that's we'll talk about that in the after party, maybe.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: Um well, for people who don't know, uh it takes about six to six and a half hours to drive from Sunnyvale to Ashland, Oregon.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: So just you know, just to put that into perspective.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we each way, but to put that into perspective for those uh out there, and it's literally all uphill from until you get until you get to Mount Ashland, and then it's downhill to Ashland, but you we still end up about 2,500 feet higher in elevation than when we started the drive in Sunny Bell.
6:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's a gorgeous drive getting through the bay, and then it's just a terribly boring drive for like four hours, and then it's stunning once you get to Shasta again.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: So although some of those like so the the reason the the boring part is it's just north northern California is all agriculture and it's like ranches and fields and everything, and so uh it's just flat and a lot of it because we're in the valley between the the mountains going up uh the freeway.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: But depending on the time of year, it is pretty impressive to see the crops that are growing.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it you've never seen that many sunflowers in your entire life.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, just millions, millions of them.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, so that that part is kind of that's kind of cool sometimes.
7:32
SPEAKER_01: No, that is cool.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: Well, and this particular drive was also incredible because there was so much snow on the mountain and Shasta, the lake, was completely full.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: And because we've been in a drought in the northwest and in California for so long, that's always just heartwarming to see like, oh my gosh, the reservoirs are full, the mountain has snow on it.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but what made this particular trip very um heart pounding, inducing something like that, is that we had an event late in the day and we turned around and got right back in the car because the next morning we were flying to Costa Rica.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: That was a quick turnaround.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Like in hindsight, maybe we should have spread that out.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it was uh flying back to Sunnyvale so we could unpack, do laundry, repack, and then go to the airport at like 4 a.m.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: the next morning.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: Next morning, yes.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we got home.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I don't even remember, but yeah, it was it was after 11 p.m.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, it was yeah, that was a that was a quick turnaround.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: But we went to Costa Rica, so there's that for work, no less.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: So you had to go for a work trip, and I tagged along for book research, and that research became the book that is laying down the latte, which will be coming out next June.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: June, uh no, next August, August of 2025.
9:06
SPEAKER_01: And I haven't released the cover art yet, but I'm going to do that this week.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: So it looks really cool.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: I like that one.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: This is Andy's book.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: So I spent the time while you were in meetings and at your office in Costa Rica, um, wandering, taking my own coffee tours, taking so many photos and notes, and um, just really immersing myself and imagining what Andy and Jules and Carlos would do while they were in Costa Rica.
9:33
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so once I came home, writing that book just felt like it it flowed so effortlessly because of having that immersive experience.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, and of course, once I was done with work, we extend like we planned the our trip so that we extended on the end of my work trip and uh oh, the hotel we stayed at.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Wow, that place was amazing.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Um and and then yeah, just being able to tour all the places we saw in Costa Rica was just fantastic.
10:06
SPEAKER_01: What was a highlight for you?
10:08
SPEAKER_00: Um I think the the coffee plantation tours.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, well, the number one highlight was meeting my all my teammates down in Costa Rica in person for the first time after working with them for a couple of years um virtually.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: So that that was fun.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: Um I seeing the hotel for the first time was was really cool.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I saw I showed you a picture before because one of our one of my teammates arranged for us to stay there um uh for the work trip.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: And and I showed you a picture and you were like, you didn't believe me.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: You're like, shut up.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: We're not saying like there's no way we're traveling for work, and this is the hotel we're staying at.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, it was.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: It was great, yeah.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: It was pretty fantastic, yeah.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the highlights for me was uh the hotel had a lot of like classes and events and everything because it is kind of like a small resort.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Um, and the first day that I was there, I signed up for a coffee class and I was like, oh, well, this is amazing because we were a little jet-lagged, and especially because we'd come straight from like a whirlwind week of events in Ashland.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: Um I was like, well, all the first day I'll just stay at the hotel and do the coffee class here, and then I'll venture out into San Jose and the surrounding areas later in the week, which I did.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: But I go down for the coffee class and it's just me.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: There's no hill.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: You got a private class.
11:31
SPEAKER_01: I got my own private class.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: And the baristas, I mean, to this day, like they ended up in the book.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh, they were just so incredibly warm and welcoming.
11:40
SPEAKER_01: And we had a little bit of a language barrier.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so one of them was interpreting, and then we were just like laughing and laughing and laughing.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: And they made me, I mean, I made them too, but they continued to just make me coffee after coffee after coffee.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I can't take you more.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're pretty wired when I got back from the office that day.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: That was that was fun.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, the coffee, I mean, wow, it's just amazing.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, my teammates down there send us coffee all the time, so it's pretty, you know, I I feel spoiled, honestly, but but to get it there at the source and and talk to the people who actually, you know, pick the beans and process the beans and roast the beans, and that was that was just fantastic.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: And I know people have uh um uh like you know, they're not everybody loves Starbucks, but um the Starbucks uh like coffee um like roastery uh and and research like farm that they have there in Costa Rica is incredible.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know if you saw if any of you saw the pictures on LA social of the roastery where we were just sitting enjoying coffee while looking over this small little rainforest with a waterfall, and there were, you know, like just incredible wildlife and tons of butterflies, and it was just amazing.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: So I I would have to put that on my highlight list.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, I personally like Starbucks, so seeing this, it was kind of like the roastery in Seattle is an amazing experience, but this was like that uh on steroids.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it was just yeah, it was a phenomenal.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: And we did multiple coffee tours, so again, I it was just that idea of like when I came back and was writing laying down the latte, I could picture Andy walking through the fields and Jules walking through the fields and just the whole atmosphere of it.
13:35
SPEAKER_01: And then the other thing um that was so consistent everywhere we went, whether it was Starbucks or a small family farm, was the idea that you know Costa Rica is so focused on preserving what they have.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: Preserving the farms, the way of life.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: Like, um, so there's a whole theme of that that got worked into the book that felt really authentic because it's true.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that that was that was one of the really impressive things about the Starbucks um farm was that it's a research facility.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: And what they're doing is they're trying to figure out ways to breed new types of coffee plants that require less water uh to grow.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: So you know, less impact on the environment and and are you know more sustainable and everything.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: And I I thought that was really cool.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, I also thought it was amazing when we went to kind of some a couple of the private coffee plantations to see like how how much of the work is just manual, like it's manual labor.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: Like people get these huge baskets and they go pick all these coffee beans by hands.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you you compare that to some of the like if you've ever watched like oranges being harvested off trees where this machine goes out and grabs the trunk and then just shakes the crap out of it and all the oranges fall down.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean that it just it was it was pretty incredible.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: And I I'm I have so much respect for them.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: So it I don't know, makes me enjoy my coffee every day a little bit more.
15:04
SPEAKER_01: Seeing where it comes from and stuff, seeing where it comes from, seeing that it is true, truly a labor of love.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
15:11
SPEAKER_01: Um, so you will all, darlings, get a taste of that uh next summer in 2025 when that book comes out.
15:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Costa Rica was like obviously a very big trip.
15:21
SPEAKER_01: Then um later in June, we headed north to Seattle.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: This was another, it was the theme for me this year of tagging along on work trips for you.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: We went to Seattle for work and um I wrote all around Seattle for a week while you um were doing your thing, and then we headed to Leavenworth uh for her 11th big weekend of book events, too.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Always fun.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: Leavenworth was always fun, always fun.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter what season, what time of the year it is, it's just it's always it's always just so cool and so different.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: And we met some new people there because we we know several people in Leavenworth, um, you know, just from having gone there over the years.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: And of course, you're something of a celebrity there.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: So um uh it just like it was great meeting some some new people and and seeing some of the new businesses there and seeing some of the old businesses thriving.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Um you know, it was just it was really cool.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then of course, uh um, you know, the breweries.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: It's rough.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: It's it's rough.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you if you ever go to Leavenworth, you have to go to icicle brewing.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's just uh I'm giving them a shout out because it's just fantastic.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the people there are amazing, the beer is is really, really, really good.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Um the food is phenomenal as well.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the setting.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can't like you can't beat it.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh sit outside if you can, even if it's cold.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: Um doesn't matter.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Sit outside because the view of the mountain, the mountains are just right there, you know.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: It it's kind of like, I mean, it is definitely like being in Bavaria.
17:03
SPEAKER_01: And then you'll watch the carriage go by.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Totally.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: And um, one of the carriage drivers is like such a Sloan fan.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: She has like gotten so many people addicted to the series.
17:15
SPEAKER_01: Like, she doesn't let them leave the carriage if they don't go into a book for all seasons, which is like the sweetest thing ever.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: That was amazing.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: She was one of the one of the people that that you met, and that that was just like the look on her face and her reaction when she found out who you were.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: It was that was really cool.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I I enjoyed that.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: It was equally cool for me.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: Um, we sketched out an idea for uh Sloan, uh Sloan's next full-length book while we were outside at Blue It, which is also um a must-stop if you're in love and work.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: We don't get kickbacks for any of this.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: Like it's not like we're getting paid to recommend these places, but Blue It opened a few years after I had already been writing the series, and it is like Nitro.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: It was like, didn't I manifest this?
18:01
SPEAKER_00: Right.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: No, it is it's totally um uh so for those who don't know, icicle brewing is like is the uh inspiration for Dirkeller, and then uh Blue It is the like it wasn't the inspiration for Nitro, but it it like Uva in Ashland, it I I think you manifested it because I know the first time we went, we were just we were both just sitting there silently at the table, like looking around, going, This is I I expected to see Garrett and Sloan.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: And then they turned the second floor into rentable rooms, just like I was like, what is happening?
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Like, did they read this series?
18:45
SPEAKER_00: And they were like, you know what?
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Here's an idea.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: Let's start this.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: But again, another amazing brewery, great beer, wonderful food, uh, and and really, really great people too.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: If um if you haven't seen it, there's an old it's I don't know, it's gotta be like three or four years old now.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe more, but there's a uh yeah, there's a maybe five, maybe five, six, seven, I don't know.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: It's many years old at this point.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: There's a um there's a video on Ellie's YouTube channel where we go and interview it.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: It we do a tour of Leavenworth, but we do a uh like uh QA with uh master brewer at the time at Blue It.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know if he's still the master brewer, but anyway, yeah.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's really cool because he talks all about their process and stuff.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: And it's a very small brewery compared to Icicle.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Um it's very small, but uh but looked to be thriving just like Icicles.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, it was bad while we were there.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: Um then uh we made a return trip to Portland in early October.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: I did a joint event with Emmeline Duncan at Mills Books, and um we proved that we have now assimilated and truly become Californians.
20:01
SPEAKER_01: This is our third year in California, and we got off the plane in Portland and we had to go straight to the store to buy raincoats.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: So thank you, Columbia Sportswear.
20:13
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, uh lights hours.
20:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we had looked at the weather forecast and and packed seemingly accordingly, but no, it was torrential rain all.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh yeah, we remember this.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but so the employees at Columbia Sportswear got uh they were laughing at us, which you know we deserved, but we got nice dry raincoats, so it was great.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, we got to see the Timbers too.
20:47
SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, that's right.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes, ooh, because I miss them, but uh yeah, uh MLS soccer for those who don't know.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh we when we lived up in the area, we were longtime seasoned ticket holders, and I'm just a diehard Timbers fan, and and uh got to go to the match, and I got to see some friends that I hadn't seen in in quite a while.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: So that was super fun.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: So fun.
21:11
SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, it's always fun to do anything at Powell's.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: Um, and of course, I stocked up on so many reads while I was there for my own self, which is half the problem.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: I know these trips always end up costing us twice as much because we we I it's bet it's better when we have to fly because we can't buy as many books.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, but still we end up spending a lot.
21:37
SPEAKER_01: But we're supporting small bookstores.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Totally.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not complaining, I'm just saying like it might be a problem.
21:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: It's fair.
21:46
SPEAKER_01: It's fair.
21:47
SPEAKER_01: Next year in 2025, I'll have to track how many books I buy at all my book events.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I want to see that number.
21:54
SPEAKER_01: That's dangerous.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: Um, we had a little week of respite, and then it was up to Ashland for the second.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: An annual Ashland Mystery Fest.
22:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, which uh I have numbers just on that.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: Do you want to hear numbers yet, or should we get through all the travel and then we'll talk about that separately?
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's get through the travel and then we'll come back and talk about that because that'll be a whole thing.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: Um then I went to St.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: Louis.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about timeline for this, right?
22:19
SPEAKER_00: So that was uh we so Ashland Mystery Fest is what Thursday through Sunday, right?
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Um but we always we we have to be there several days before because there's a lot of logistics and setup and and everything.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: Um and then we lived there for seven years.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: So we have a lot of friends and we have to we want to see them and and be able to do all that before Mystery Fest starts.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And so we we were there for the whole week.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: We got back Sunday evening, right?
22:51
SPEAKER_00: And then you flew out the next like this St.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Louis trip that you're about to talk about now was for that Friday, the next Friday.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, yeah.
23:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that was incredible.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, that was like a little mini reunion because there were four of us from Ashland Mystery Fest, and we'd just seen each other and we're like, hey, now we're all in St.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: Louis together.
23:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh it was my first time going to St.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Louis.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: I will definitely be back.
23:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that was a joint event with um the St.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: Louis uh library system and um novel neighbor bookstore, and it was such a fun panel weekend.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, I talked about it, but when I arrived at the hotel, there was like a murder scene in the front lobby.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: There's like blood on the floor.
23:36
SPEAKER_01: I texted you, I was like, what is happening?
23:38
SPEAKER_01: I asked the lobby guy, he had no idea.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: And then Gigi was like, I just saw there's like a murder mystery dinner going on at the hotel, unrelated to our event at all.
23:48
SPEAKER_01: So that felt very funny.
23:50
SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I flew on from that and had like uh I think a day or two, maybe a day and a half, and day and a half flew straight to Las Vegas for alternation.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a day day and a half, and we flew out Monday morning, right?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: So you got back, you got back Saturday evening, Saturday like five-ish, you know, and then we flew out first thing Monday morning for author nation.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so um that was a lot of travel, like even reading it all back.
24:21
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, wow, uh, would you like to know how many miles?
24:25
SPEAKER_01: Or do you have a guess of how many miles we covered?
24:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh, for the year?
24:31
SPEAKER_01: For the year.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh 18,000.
24:36
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, 18,540.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
24:42
SPEAKER_01: Did you do the math while we were even secretly?
24:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just I I did kind of add it up in my head, yeah, a little bit, but uh just guesstimates.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: 18,540.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
24:52
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: 2024, 18,540 miles.
24:57
SPEAKER_01: And technically, we had some other bonus book related travel.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: We did uh I think three trips to Santa Cruz because I'm working on um two things that are set there.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh so I didn't even count those because those weren't like public events, that was just research only.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, just research only.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's there were probably more of those about I don't count those either because those are always just like it's always fun to go to Santa Cruz.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: It's not very far.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: So no, but still, still with that, we probably hit 20,000 miles of travel this of book travel in 2024.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot.
25:34
SPEAKER_01: It's impressive.
25:35
SPEAKER_01: All right, well, that leads us to how many books were released, how many books were published in 2024?
25:44
SPEAKER_01: How many books did I send out into the world?
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I don't know.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: You worked on marketing for all of them, so yeah.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: I know.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: I had to think too six.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: Six okay, yeah, yeah.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: All right.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, two big shops.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: That's a lot of books.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: Two bake shops and four secret bookcases.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, and that includes that.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was a brand new series, too.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: So that series launched in in 2024.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: It started in 2024 and and included four books being released.
26:21
SPEAKER_01: Four books in one year.
26:22
SPEAKER_01: That's a first for me for sure.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: That's yeah, yeah, wow.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: I know.
26:27
SPEAKER_01: Wow, yeah.
26:28
SPEAKER_01: So 2024, six books, um, which led me to this is my word count for the year, how many words I wrote last year.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Oh boy.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be this is gonna be tough that you wrote last year.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: See, this is harder because it's not the books that were released.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Like you've been you're working ahead and you've got other stuff that aren't even tied, other books that aren't even tied to these series.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Um 325,000.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: Just shy of a half a million.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: Ah, see, oh my first answer was gonna be half a million.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: Dang it.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: I had to check that five times because I was like that.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: 4,991, 490, 4,201.
27:23
SPEAKER_01: 491,321 words.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: 491,320.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: That's that is that's a lot of writing.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of words.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I had so much fun doing it though.
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's no part of me that's like, oh gosh, that was a slog.
27:40
SPEAKER_01: Like, no, I love that part of it.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: That's so let's let but but let's let's because this is a writing podcast, let's put that in perspective because I think um uh I think maybe some like new authors or prospective writers just they they might have already hit stop at this point.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Like I just yeah, they're done.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: They're like, I just that there's just no, and or you know, that there's probably like well, in the after party I can say it, but I can't say it here.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: But there's probably a lot of bad language that was just used because they were like, you know, the WTFs, right?
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Um so put that into perspective.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that is like you've been doing this a while, so that is not something that somebody new to writing should even come close to striving for, right?
28:26
SPEAKER_01: I mean, no, no chance.
28:28
SPEAKER_01: When I wrote uh my very first mystery, Scene of the Climb, it took me like two and a half to three years to write 75,000 words, so it's definitely muscle memory.
28:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I've written, I think like 42 mysteries at this point.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: So it's just and it's what I do.
28:47
SPEAKER_01: I also do this full time.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: I have a routine, I have strict writing hours, I have all those things.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: So um, no, I don't um think anyone who is starting out should aspire to that.
28:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but we are gonna talk about some tips at the end um who are starting writing in 2025, and we'll go deeper into that.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but the the other thing is like I mean, this is what you do, this is your career.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: So you this is for I mean, you have writing hours, like literally don't go in her office during writing hours, uh, writing hours.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, besides that, I mean, I there were days where it wasn't easy for you either to, you know, like you, you like just like everyone has like a hard day at work, you had hard days too.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't like you just like I'm gonna write 500,000 words this year, no problem.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, it was that is a big deal for you, you know.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: So no, I mean, yeah, it was a big stretch for me.
29:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I also have publishing partners like my editorial team at Storm, they they're much more hands-on than some of my other editors.
29:54
SPEAKER_01: So um, the process even of working with them has been very different, where I kind of send in a uh not a rough draft, but maybe like a loose second draft, and then I get a lot of feedback and input, and then I I get back to work with that.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: Whereas with my editor at for the bake shop mysteries, I I send her pretty much a finished copy, and then she still has thoughts and notes.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, it's definitely a stretch.
30:18
SPEAKER_01: And when I say I love it, I definitely have bad days.
30:21
SPEAKER_01: I have days where I'm like, I don't know where the story's going, but um, yeah, I stick with it.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: So I'm thinking about that right now.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like 500,000 words.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm like wondering, what did I do in 2024?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I did anything that can touch that.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: So wow.
30:37
SPEAKER_01: You definitely did, but yeah, seeing that number, that's that's a lot of words.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, and when I am working now and I think like I have no new way of saying, you know, pastry, that's probably because I wrote pastry in there in those half a million words, probably I don't know, 500 times.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: What recipes am I going to include now?
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
31:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, that included uh two new works in progress, too.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: Um, so in addition to books, uh the way that my writing schedule works, a lot of the books that I wrote this year will be coming out in 2025 and 2026.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: Um, so what was published, those six books were written in like 2023, 22.
31:27
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I'm always ahead of the game, but that word count for this year included two new projects that are coming that we'll talk about.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: Um Ashland Mystery Fest.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: Second annual.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Second annual.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: Second annual.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Huge success.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: What was the highlight for you?
31:46
SPEAKER_01: Did you have like a favorite?
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Um I I liked seeing um I I liked seeing how excited everyone in Ashland.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Like talking about business owners, um, you know, like the uh wonderful folks at Travel Ashland, um the, you know, just all the all the locals, how excited they were, and just hearing from them about how thankful they were for the work that you and everyone else who helps put this on does because and ultimately for the readers who come because that like it it I don't know if people truly understand like what what it means to a small community like Ashland to have how many people came?
32:35
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, oh that's good.
32:37
SPEAKER_01: Uh well so we by the numbers, yeah, yeah.
32:39
SPEAKER_01: We had uh 13 authors, 13 featured authors this year.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: Would have had 14, but um what couldn't come at the left.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we had yeah, that was unfortunate because I know she wanted to be there.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, hopefully 21.
32:53
SPEAKER_01: Um 53 events over the four days.
32:57
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 53 events, like I can't believe that.
33:00
SPEAKER_01: And we had readers from 26 states, 92 cities, and the UK and Canada.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: And how how many people total did they?
33:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
33:11
SPEAKER_01: I never got final numbers.
33:13
SPEAKER_01: I know it was over the city.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I want to say it was like 1500 or or something like that.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, uh back to my so those numbers are amazing.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: And and the like, I don't think people really truly comprehend like what it means to all the local businesses to have a you know, a thousand, fifteen hundred, two thousand people come in for two, like for four days to a conference, many of whom are coming to Ashland for the very first time.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: And you know, they're staying at hotels, they're staying at BB's, they're eating at restaurants, they're shopping at the local stores, um, they're buying the local beer uh and wine and wine because uh, you know, Rogue Valley's known for its wine.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: Um it is like and and so the highlight for me was just seeing like how thankful the all the local business owners were for the event.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just it's a huge, like uh they're just Ashland's just so as a city, Ashland is just so happy to host this thing.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: Like they they love it.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: And and it was it was great to talk to um, especially uh again, going back to the folks at Travel, Ashland talked to them about like, you know, what we can do to make it better, even you know, even better next year, and like all the thing.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: And and it's it's so great because the event had just barely started, and they're already thinking, like, okay, next year we can do this, and we can have this here, and we can do that.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: And so it can't grow much bigger than it are than it was this year because Ashland is just not the community, is just not big enough to support much more.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: But um I don't know.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the to to see, I guess the other highlight for me.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, I know I'm just rambling here, but the other highlight for me was um seeing the scale like it changed from the first year to this year.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Um that was incredible.
35:11
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I totally agree.
35:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just 92 cities alone, like readers, darlings, you came from everywhere, which was so great.
35:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, that is a similar highlight for me.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: Like the key highlight was just getting to be an observer and watching readers like with their totes and their lanyards and everything, um, recognize each other and just like squeal and hug each other on the street, and the level of joy that readers brought too was just oh, chef's kiss.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: So lovely to see.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: And I know one thing that darlings have been asking for is like streaming for it because I know not not everybody can come to Mystery Fest, and and I get that, and and I totally appreciate that.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: It is not, trust me, like we just traveled 18,000 miles and it was it was not inexpensive to do that.
36:00
SPEAKER_00: Um so uh I totally get it, and and just life, right?
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Just having the time to do it.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I would say, like, and Ellie can vouch for me here, this is something that I've been thinking a lot about, and and something that I do want to try to make happen.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: The pro the challenge, I don't want to say problem.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: I almost said problem, but the challenge is the hurdle that we have to get over, is that Ashley Mystery Fest isn't like any other mystery festival.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: Most most book festivals, author fests, or whatever you go to are like Author Nation, where you go and everything is it at a hotel in one spot.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: In one one building in the grand ballroom and all the attached mini ballrooms that they have.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's much easier to set up like you know, streaming equipment, everything.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: But like she said, 53 events all over town.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: I I don't I can't get approval from my boss um to to uh to buy that many cameras and microphones.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Um I would need it, I I I mean honestly, I would need a production company to to pull this off uh because we have we have multiple panels going at the same time.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Um we have multiple author events going at the same time.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: It would just it's a it's a lot.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: So we will try to do it.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: We will in it and it might have to be just like maybe we do a few key panels and and that's it to start and we'll see where it goes from there.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: But uh, I just wanted to say because that is a we get asked that all the time, and and it is something that I want to try and do for people, but we just it I just wanted to put it in the yeah, I wanted to put the logistics into perspective for everyone because it would take a lot.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Um yeah.
37:52
SPEAKER_01: We are already planning for 2025.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I will have an author list to share early in the year.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: Um, like you mentioned, Trevor Ashland and everyone in the city is excited.
38:03
SPEAKER_01: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is remaining open, so they are gonna be part of next year's Mystery Fest, which is gonna be amazing.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: That's that's gonna be incredible.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: To have the cabaret and uh and the Shakespeare Festival going at the same time.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: That will be what a fun treat for everyone that gets to come.
38:22
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I know.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited.
38:23
SPEAKER_01: So I hope that many of you, darlings, will have an opportunity to come join us.
38:28
SPEAKER_01: And um, like the tech guy said, because it really is a festival and um it's so reader focused, you know, that we want to continue to build community, and Ashland is such a community in and of itself.
38:42
SPEAKER_01: Um we that is always gonna be my focus.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: So, like anything that we can do always to preserve that even as it grows.
38:50
SPEAKER_01: This will never be anything that just takes place in a giant hotel room because there's nothing wrong with that.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: Like a lot of those conventions are great, and many of them are teaching focused and all of those things.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: But this is about readers getting to, you know, dress up for an Agatha Christie ball and do craft hour together and all of those um more intimate things.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: And um also for the all the people who have asked, like, you know, you should do this in Leavenworth and you should do this here and is it like again, that's something uh like trust me, we would love to, absolutely love to, but I I think one of these times I'd love to just do a year-long montage of just you working because I don't like I don't think people understand, like she has throughout the year leading up to Mystery Fest.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: How many meetings do you think you have with uh travel Ashland Chamber and business owners in Ashland?
39:48
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's got to be dozens, right?
39:50
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, and and that's just meeting with them.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: So that's not even the work that they're doing on the back end, which is even more work.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: Um but then you're you're also meeting with all the authors, um, you know, ahead of time and everything.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's a ton of work.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: And so for every city that we did this in, you'd have to do all of that same work for each location.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: And that that is just, I mean, I guess people have to decide like they want new books from Ellie Alexander, do they want more mystery festivals?
40:19
SPEAKER_01: Right, I know.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Going back to the word count, what did I say?
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Right, half a million words or more mystery festivals.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: So who knows?
40:27
SPEAKER_00: There may be, I don't know, at some point in time, and uh maybe we go back to that GoFundMe thing, but if if my full-time job could be working mystery festivals with Ellie as you know, like marketing director and stuff, um, then maybe.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, until then we're gonna we're gonna try.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: We'll try, we'll do our best, right?
40:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
40:51
SPEAKER_01: Um, okay, 2024 brought the release of 13 books of students from uh our author academy.
41:00
SPEAKER_01: That's incredible.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: Coaching, I know.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: So third third, your students released published published 13 books in 2024.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: That is that is amazing.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: That might be that might be the best stat, I think.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so too.
41:15
SPEAKER_01: I have the you can't really see it, but I'll share a picture of their stack.
41:18
SPEAKER_01: It's awesome.
41:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, and like Courtney, I got to have my book signed by her at Ashland Mystery Fest.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: And there's no bigger gift than that to like follow through on their dream too.
41:32
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that is that's my favorite stat by far.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: I saved the best for last.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: That's that's really cool.
41:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
41:41
SPEAKER_00: And that's like well, after talking about all the work that you've done, that we've done over the last year, then to think that you know, that many of your course students, like the amount of work that they did to get to the point of having their books published, I mean that's just yeah, that's amazing.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: So cool.
42:02
SPEAKER_01: So cool.
42:03
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I just feel like, you know, especially as we lean into 2025, like anything that we can do to create and put more art and light and joy out into the world, like let's do it.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: Um, which brings me to a little preview of what's to come.
42:20
SPEAKER_01: Oh uh in 2025.
42:23
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so how many books did I release?
42:27
SPEAKER_01: We release this year?
42:28
SPEAKER_00: Six.
42:30
SPEAKER_01: Guess how many are coming in 2025?
42:35
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, wait, wait, I know.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: Um it's more than six.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: More than six.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: It's um is it is it nine?
42:49
SPEAKER_01: A little higher.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: Higher?
42:52
SPEAKER_00: God, eleven?
42:54
SPEAKER_00: Twelve.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Twelve.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: What wait, I don't even know.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: Like I I know okay, two bake shops.
43:01
SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: Because it's always two bake shops.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh how many secret bookcase mysteries?
43:10
SPEAKER_01: There'll be one more secret bookcase mystery.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, there'll be two more secret bookcase mysteries.
43:15
SPEAKER_00: Two more, okay.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: Plus, I'm doing a spin-off.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: Okay, see, I didn't want to spoil anything because I'm like, I don't know what people know.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't tell you.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: I knew about this, but I I didn't know that they knew about this.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: So, I know that's what I'm saying.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: It's a little pretty a spin-off.
43:34
SPEAKER_01: A spin-off, uh-huh.
43:35
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
43:36
SPEAKER_01: So we'll have um a victim of Valentine's Day, and then an unconventional crime will come out in June.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: And Scarlett's backstory gets wrapped up with that.
43:45
SPEAKER_01: And then we're doing a spin-off novel detectives where Annie and Fletcher are um striking out on their own and running a little detective agency in the secret bookcase.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
43:58
SPEAKER_01: So there'll be two of those.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so two bake shops, two of those.
44:03
SPEAKER_01: Or I mean two secure bookcase.
44:06
SPEAKER_01: Um novel detectives.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: I know I know where five are coming from.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: I know.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I just realized it's more because I'm doing this math.
44:17
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, see, this is why I always check the math.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
44:21
SPEAKER_01: I thought I'd check the math, but as I'm saying this out loud, I'm so we've got so so now we've we're up to six, right?
44:28
SPEAKER_01: We're up to six.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Two, okay, six.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
44:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, I have a holiday rom-com that I wrote during the pandemic that has been sitting in a shelf forever.
44:38
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna come out uh next fall.
44:41
SPEAKER_02: Yep.
44:41
SPEAKER_01: And um I am re-releasing all of my original Pacific Northwest Mysteries.
44:49
SPEAKER_01: So that's five.
44:51
SPEAKER_01: Um, the Meg Reed series for any OG OG followers.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: They're coming out as Ellie's version um with a little refresh, the covers I imagined, all of those things.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: Where'd you get the Ellie's version thing?
45:03
SPEAKER_00: That sounds familiar.
45:04
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: I just I came up with it on my own.
45:07
SPEAKER_01: Okay, cool.
45:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, totally sounds sounds like an original.
45:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:12
SPEAKER_01: And then um, there will be a bonus Meg's return rom-com.
45:19
SPEAKER_01: Holiday rom com.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: We'll tie into that five.
45:25
SPEAKER_01: And uh we'll pick up 10 years later after we left off with that series.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: So 13.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: 13.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Hey, that's somebody's lucky number.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, it's like I planned it that way.
45:38
SPEAKER_01: I didn't.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: And this will be a new record for you, right?
45:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh this will be a new record.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: That's that's amazing.
45:46
SPEAKER_01: Um, now half of these are already written.
45:49
SPEAKER_01: So, like the Pacific Northwest series was written, I don't know, 15 years ago.
45:53
SPEAKER_01: The holiday rom-com was written years ago, two of the secret bookcase I've already written this year.
45:59
SPEAKER_01: So, like, um, I'm not writing all of that next year, but nonetheless, yeah.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: Although when you say Ellie's version, like you you are going back through and kind of tweaking a few little things in the Pacific Northwest mysteries because things like technology has advanced slightly since uh so many lessons learned.
46:18
SPEAKER_01: Um we'll have to do a whole podcast list on that because I really think from a writing perspective, I have a lot to offer um in terms of helping writers make sure that your stories stay a little more evergreen.
46:28
SPEAKER_01: I definitely did not understand that when I wrote that series at all.
46:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you don't want to you don't want to time lock yourself.
46:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, but that's that's its own story.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, so it's gonna be a busy year, but it's gonna be fun.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then that leads me to the last thing that I want to share, which is a little advice for anyone who's starting out.
46:48
SPEAKER_01: I know this time of year is when, you know, darlings, you might be doing a New Year's resolution or an intention board or, you know, like whatever it is.
46:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, if you've been wanting to write, this is your sign to do it.
47:01
SPEAKER_01: And there are just a few simple things that I think can make a huge difference.
47:08
SPEAKER_01: The first and foremost is two ways of setting goals when you start.
47:13
SPEAKER_01: So set a stretch goal.
47:15
SPEAKER_01: Let's say that you want to write your first book in 2025.
47:19
SPEAKER_01: Set a goal to do that by November, or you know, like whatever you think it is.
47:25
SPEAKER_01: Like if you've never written a book before and you think there's no way I can write a book in a year, set a goal that's like, I'm gonna finish that by November, December.
47:32
SPEAKER_01: Like, tell yourself I'm gonna do it.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: That's number one.
47:34
SPEAKER_01: So you really have something that is gonna stretch you, um, but you have a firm date in mind.
47:41
SPEAKER_01: And then intermixed in that, set small, manageable goals to help you get there.
47:47
SPEAKER_01: So that might be writing 200 words a day, that might be writing a thousand words a week, that might be writing five days a week, like whatever it is, but set little small goals.
47:58
SPEAKER_01: And then the second piece of that is celebrate the wins when you do that.
48:02
SPEAKER_01: You know, if you if you're like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna write 500 words three days a week this week, and you do it at the end of the week, like give yourself credit for that.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: That's huge.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: So the and just to clarify, the the stretch goal is the only one that should be a stretch.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: The the other the other goals should be realistic and achievable.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, you don't want to set mini stretch goals in addition to the big stretch goal because that's a recipe for not accomplishing what you're setting out to do.
48:38
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:38
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
48:39
SPEAKER_01: And every time you do those small goals, and that's why I want you to celebrate them too, because that's just gonna reinforce like, oh hey, I did that.
48:47
SPEAKER_01: I wrote 200 words this week.
48:48
SPEAKER_01: I didn't think I could do it, or I wrote a whole chapter, or you know, like whatever it is.
48:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, the second thing, or I guess this is third.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even, I shouldn't have numbered these, but I didn't.
48:58
SPEAKER_01: Um trust your intuition.
49:05
SPEAKER_01: There are gonna be so many people, and you're gonna see a zillion things on social media and YouTube and podcasts, and even if it's me, um what feels right to you with your story is probably right, like especially in those early stages.
49:22
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be time later for lots of feedback and input and ways to make it stronger.
49:28
SPEAKER_01: But when you're in the process of first trying to get a story out, trust yourself.
49:35
SPEAKER_01: Don't listen to the point.
49:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
49:39
SPEAKER_00: Can I add D or number four?
49:43
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
49:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, make 2025 the year where you eliminate comparison.
49:53
SPEAKER_00: Don't it doesn't matter what anybody else is doing.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: It it honestly doesn't matter what anybody else is doing.
49:59
SPEAKER_00: So again, that's one of the reasons that I brought up the whole thing about like putting the 500,000 words into perspective.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: Right.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter that Ellie wrote 500,000 words.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: If you write 5,000 words next year, if that's if that's what you do, like it you that's you wrote 5,000 words.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: Um don't compare yourself to others.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: You're always, always, always going to find somebody else that's doing whatever you're trying to do, what you think is better than what you can do.
50:32
SPEAKER_00: And it will just it will eat away at you.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: It will it'll send you down a dark path.
50:39
SPEAKER_00: And it just doesn't matter.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: There's there's so much room out there for everybody to succeed, and you just need to eliminate the comparison.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it social media has done that's the the like one huge disservice that social media has done, because I will guarantee you, guarantee you 100%, that a lot of the people on social media who are telling you that it's so easy that you can achieve these incredible feats with the very little effort and everything, that they're not doing it themselves.
51:12
SPEAKER_00: They're making a living telling you that you can do it.
51:15
SPEAKER_01: Right.
51:16
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
51:17
SPEAKER_00: But but they're not doing it themselves.
51:19
SPEAKER_00: And it just eliminate comparison.
51:22
SPEAKER_00: Like you you do you do you.
51:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's your mantra for 2025.
51:28
SPEAKER_01: I love that.
51:29
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
51:30
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I kind of would want to wrap it there, but I have one more little one.
51:33
SPEAKER_01: But yours is um by far the best.
51:36
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
51:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
51:39
SPEAKER_01: Um, and I mean, I have like a whole shirt and like stickers and a mug at one point that is like comparison is the thief of joy, and it really is.
51:48
SPEAKER_01: And if you're going to write, you have to infuse joy in your writing.
51:51
SPEAKER_01: Your writing, that doesn't mean that your writing has to be joyful.
51:54
SPEAKER_01: It means that you need to find joy in the process of writing.
51:59
SPEAKER_01: Um, my last one, and I think this is a really important one because you're gonna get stuck, and I get stuck, and everyone gets stuck.
52:06
SPEAKER_01: We've done a whole topic on writer's block, which I think is bunk, but um, we all do get stuck.
52:11
SPEAKER_01: If you get stuck, write something, write anything.
52:14
SPEAKER_01: Write a little like tiny um spin-off about a character or a prequel or a little side story or something totally unrelated, or write something that's in a different genre.
52:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying like start a whole nother book, but just write something tangential.
52:30
SPEAKER_01: Tangential, I can't say that word.
52:33
SPEAKER_01: Um, close enough, right?
52:34
SPEAKER_01: Um because uh that often gets you out of your headspace.
52:40
SPEAKER_01: And when you come back to what you're actually working on, you can be like, oh, okay, now I now I know where I'm going.
52:46
unknown: Yeah.
52:46
SPEAKER_00: That's a good one.
52:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
52:48
SPEAKER_01: And then last but not least is if you want to write and complete a book by the end of 2025, write every day, even if it's 20 words every day.
52:59
SPEAKER_01: Write every day, make it a habit.
53:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
53:03
SPEAKER_00: Cut back on the social media time a little bit and use that for writing.
53:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
53:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: All right, well, I think that rounds out uh 2024, darlings.
53:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh I will have to say, until 2025.
53:19
SPEAKER_00: That's right, until 2025.
53:21
SPEAKER_00: Happy New Year.
53:22
SPEAKER_01: Happy New Year.