Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / To Catch A Sinner From Dylan Allen This Summers Binge Read And More

Transcript

To Catch A Sinner From Dylan Allen This Summers Binge Read And More · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: Have you checked it out yet? Arrow dot Net twenty
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: different podcasts one place. One of the most talked about
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  Speaker 1: ones street Speak with Alexa from Amazon. Yeah, you gotta
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  Speaker 1: check it out. It's AI technology meets somebody who's actually
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  Speaker 1: lived it and oh Alexa isn't as perfect as what
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  Speaker 1: you think she is. Street Speak with Alexa and Clarence
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  Speaker 1: only on Arrow dot Net A R r Oe dot Net.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration. Hi Errow, Hi, how are you doing today?
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  Speaker 2: I am amazing today. It's my release date.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, you're using my favorite word. I'm doing
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  Speaker 1: just as amazing. Yeah, you're using my favorite word. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: because amazing is one of those things. If you don't
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  Speaker 1: know the word amazing, you're not living amazing. And I
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  Speaker 1: feel that you're living right.
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  Speaker 2: I am living it. I'm living my dream. Not absolutely
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  Speaker 2: everything is amazing.
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  Speaker 1: You've got a story here that is going to become
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  Speaker 1: such a In fact, this is the first thing that
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  Speaker 1: I that I wrote down in my notes when I
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  Speaker 1: started diving into it. I said, people usually face plant
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  Speaker 1: into their smartphone. No, they're going to face plant into
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  Speaker 1: this book. This is going to be the book. You're
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  Speaker 1: going to see it swimming pools wherever you're going, because
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  Speaker 1: this is what people want. They want an escape like this.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I wrote it. I wrote it as an escape
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  Speaker 2: it is. I want you to get lost in it.
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  Speaker 2: I want you to start reading and forget and forget
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  Speaker 2: the time is passing, and just enjoy it. Absolutely. Thank
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  Speaker 2: you so much.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you look you look like that. You had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of fun with it? Now? Is that because that
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  Speaker 1: you you kind of change characters a little bit as
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  Speaker 1: the writer, because I too am a writer, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: an Arrow is it may be the radio guy, but
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  Speaker 1: Arrow is not the writer. It's another side of I
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  Speaker 1: used to call it a personality, but they corrected me. No,
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  Speaker 1: it's just another layer. So what was it like for you?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's, oh my god, it was. I had so
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  Speaker 2: much fun writing this book, and there are pieces of
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  Speaker 2: me in the story, but it is also so wildly
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  Speaker 2: different from my own life. And there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: sleuth thing. There's a lot of there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: twist and turns of the sense and secrets, and it
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  Speaker 2: was just it was so fun to know that as
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  Speaker 2: my readers were reading it, they were going to discover
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  Speaker 2: something or they would know something before my heroine or
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  Speaker 2: my hero did, and it was just it was, it was.
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  Speaker 2: I had so much fun writing it, as much fun
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  Speaker 2: as I hope my readers will have reading it. I had.
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  Speaker 2: I laughed out loud so many times, I cried, I sweated,
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  Speaker 2: I was stressed with them. So you know, it's been wonderful.
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  Speaker 2: I love these characters so much. They're like my best
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  Speaker 2: friends right now.
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  Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you described it just like that,
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  Speaker 1: because you are so right when it comes to those
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  Speaker 1: moments where we're sitting back behind the computer or even
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  Speaker 1: a tablet and we're just and we're trying to put
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  Speaker 1: it together and what we go through emotionally as well
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  Speaker 1: as creatively, the reader doesn't get to see that, and
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  Speaker 1: I often wonder I think they need to understand that
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't just happen.
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  Speaker 2: No, my god, no, it doesn't happen. This book took
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  Speaker 2: me two years to write, and I mean, I don't
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  Speaker 2: know how many drafts, ten twelve drafts of and just
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  Speaker 2: going back until we got it right. And every single
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  Speaker 2: word is there because it's supposed to be. Every word
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  Speaker 2: in that story was deliberated and removed and put back,
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  Speaker 2: and it is. It is a labor of love. But
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  Speaker 2: it is just also the most amazing job and work
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  Speaker 2: in the world. I mean, and this part of it
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  Speaker 2: is the best. Talking to people after I've written the
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  Speaker 2: book and getting to talk about it. It's a dream.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I can't even believe it. If you told
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  Speaker 2: me this ten years ago, I would have left and
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  Speaker 2: not even remembered that you said it because it seems
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  Speaker 2: so far fetched. But here I am.
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  Speaker 1: Where did you gain the confidence to be able to
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  Speaker 1: write so openly about emotion? Because so many times people
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  Speaker 1: will hide behind their writing instrument and not set it free.
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  Speaker 1: They want their readers to assume it. No, you don't
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  Speaker 1: want us to assume it. You want us to feel
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  Speaker 1: it and to experience it right with you as it's happening.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I am a reader first. I'm a reader for
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  Speaker 2: and I love stories that do that to me. And
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  Speaker 2: so for me, I think that Romance. The reason I
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  Speaker 2: write romance is because it really it opens empathy pathways, right,
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  Speaker 2: and so once those are open, it just it gives
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  Speaker 2: us a release. I mean, when I'm writing something, I
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  Speaker 2: sometimes go and write my emotions out on the page,
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  Speaker 2: and I want my readers to read, to read that
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  Speaker 2: and feel it and also have that emotional release and
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  Speaker 2: experience because it's cathartic and it's you know, it's really
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  Speaker 2: it's what life is about feeling. I mean, I'm a
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  Speaker 2: very emotional person, and I believe in expressing them. I
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  Speaker 2: don't I end listening to them and not judging them,
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  Speaker 2: and so I write that way as well. I just
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  Speaker 2: you know, and I sometimes I feel like I'm in
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  Speaker 2: a trance and I'm writing. I go back and read
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  Speaker 2: and I don't even remember the words, but it just,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I all of me, every part of me,
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  Speaker 2: is on those pages, you know, and I'm so grateful
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  Speaker 2: for it that people are here for those stories.
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  Speaker 1: So do you go back and defrag and when you
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  Speaker 1: get into that trance, because I told understand what you're saying,
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  Speaker 1: Because there are times I'll walk into a room but
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  Speaker 1: I don't remember leaving because I'm still stuck inside of
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  Speaker 1: putting scenes together, and so I'll defrag so that I understand, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is where I was, this is why I did it,
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  Speaker 1: this is what I need to do. There is my solution.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I do. I do that. I have a spreadsheet.
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  Speaker 2: Actually it sounds so technical and not very artistic. But
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  Speaker 2: I have a spreadsheet of every scene. It's goal, it's conflict,
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  Speaker 2: it's motivation, and you know, just sort of like I'm
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  Speaker 2: and I use it to move the story around. Like
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  Speaker 2: you know, I write, I don't write in order, so
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  Speaker 2: and so sometimes when I'm done, I go back and
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  Speaker 2: I realize this scene shoul actually be the beginning or
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  Speaker 2: at the end, or in the middle. And so my
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  Speaker 2: spreadsheet helps me make those. Make those Yeah, I have to.
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  Speaker 2: I mean I get lost in it. But edit, that's
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  Speaker 2: the writing and editing. You have to be very present
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  Speaker 2: and a little and emotionally distant a little bit. Because
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  Speaker 2: you have to. You sometimes have to kill your beautiful
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  Speaker 2: words and take them out because they just don't I know.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, I don't do them away. I keep
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  Speaker 2: I have a whole I don't know, it's probably maybe
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  Speaker 2: almost one hundred and twenty pages long now of deleted lines,
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  Speaker 2: having stayed in for ten years. For both. Yeah, I
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  Speaker 2: don't throw them away.
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  Speaker 1: Oh I love I love that because that's that's what
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  Speaker 1: musicians are doing too. I mean, I'll sit there and
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  Speaker 1: I'll talk to a musician. They'll say, yeah, I've been
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  Speaker 1: holding on to this for fifteen years. You what you
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  Speaker 1: got to be kidding me?
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  Speaker 2: And then because how did that? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: And don't you think that starts with the openness of like,
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  Speaker 1: if a thought comes to you, write it down. You
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  Speaker 1: don't have to work it right now, just get it down.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Yes, that's how the character's names, that's how they
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  Speaker 2: come to me as well. I hear a name and
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  Speaker 2: I write it down. I hear a you know, I write,
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  Speaker 2: that's all I My notes app is probably the biggest.
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  Speaker 2: It takes up more data on my phone than anything
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  Speaker 2: else because I'm always every time I have a thought,
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  Speaker 2: I wake up the middle and I write it down.
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  Speaker 2: I'm driving, I dictate it on my notes app, and
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  Speaker 2: so I can go back. And the names as well.
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  Speaker 2: I'm inspired by names. I think they're very meaningful, so
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  Speaker 2: I write those down too.
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  Speaker 1: Please do not move. We'll be right back with Dylan Allen,
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  Speaker 1: the name of the book to catch us in her
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  Speaker 1: We are back with Dylan Allen. Well, your formula is
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  Speaker 1: spot on. Because a journalist, a black market ring and
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  Speaker 1: the son of a billionaire. You had me at hello
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  Speaker 1: because now you know, because I mean, because we live
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  Speaker 1: in an age right now to where it doesn't matter
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  Speaker 1: how many millions or billions you're worth. We're all everyday people,
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  Speaker 1: and those billionaires are letting their kids play in the
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  Speaker 1: real world. And that's what I feel I pick up
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  Speaker 1: on this is that it's so real.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know what, though, it's because I
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  Speaker 2: actually had the ability. I talked to a woman whose
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  Speaker 2: father was a billionaire from Nigeria, not Ghana, but still,
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  Speaker 2: and I've never met anyone who's a billionaire before, but
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  Speaker 2: I had, so she gave me a lot of insight
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  Speaker 2: I do. I do research that way, and so it
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  Speaker 2: feels real because she's she really humanized that experience for me,
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  Speaker 2: because all I know of billionaire is because who do
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  Speaker 2: I know this billionaire is what I read one see
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  Speaker 2: on TV or read. And so I was able to
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  Speaker 2: really tap in because she talked about the human hard
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  Speaker 2: parts of living with someone who has gotten money, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and who is also your parent. And it was such
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  Speaker 2: a wonderful resource for me. And yeah, so it feels
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  Speaker 2: real because they are real. DC is real, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the restaurants, the store and the streets, they're all real places,
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  Speaker 2: the monuments, everything is based in reality. Even though it
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  Speaker 2: is absolutely it's absolutely an escapeish fantasy of a romance.
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  Speaker 2: I mean it's not literally fantasy, but it's just it's
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  Speaker 2: kind of you know, it's it's everything great that we
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  Speaker 2: want in love and life. These two bring us.
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  Speaker 1: They don't hold back either. And the reason why I
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  Speaker 1: say that is because I'll never forget that. One of
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  Speaker 1: these multi millionaires told me, they go, yeah, back in
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  Speaker 1: my humble days, and I went, back in your humble days,
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  Speaker 1: you should be humbled today. What are you talking about?
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  Speaker 1: What do you mean bad? But yet what they what
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  Speaker 1: they felt, was what they believed. And I think that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that's one of those moments where I go, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I know what Dylan would do. Dylan would turn this
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  Speaker 1: into a second chance, because you're a master at creating
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  Speaker 1: second chances and forgiveness.
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  Speaker 2: Oh I I thank you. They're my favorite. I love them.
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  Speaker 2: I love them. I love them. I do They're because
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  Speaker 2: they My whole life is a second chance because of
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  Speaker 2: second chances. My parents had second chances that allowed them
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  Speaker 2: to build a life that gave me so many opportunities
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  Speaker 2: to mess up and do it again until I found
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  Speaker 2: I mean, my career is a second chance, my marriage
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  Speaker 2: is a second chance. Everything is I feel like I
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  Speaker 2: love writing them. Jane Austin's Persuasion was the first second
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  Speaker 2: chance romance I read that made me think, oh yeah,
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  Speaker 2: this was about getting a do over and some inspired
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  Speaker 2: by her and that all the time too.
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  Speaker 1: So the book cover, we got to talk about that,
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  Speaker 1: because I am a real big freak on book covers.
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  Speaker 1: I look at this and oh my god, I look
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  Speaker 1: at it and I go, I want that window to
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  Speaker 1: be my writing window. So when you put this book
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  Speaker 1: cover together, do you have this as a writing window?
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  Speaker 1: Because that window is so huge, it's like into a
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  Speaker 1: universe of all its.
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  Speaker 2: Own I know, no, I wish it is, and whoever
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  Speaker 2: has that view I envy. But it's a real view.
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  Speaker 2: That is the National Museum of African American History right
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  Speaker 2: behind the National Monument right.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, that's yes, it is right, yeah, the monuments right there.
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  Speaker 2: Oh my god. Yes, it was a great I love
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  Speaker 2: this book. It's like a little Easter egg hunt. You see,
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  Speaker 2: you see the big thing, and then you start to
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  Speaker 2: see the little details. You see the man on the
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  Speaker 2: guy on the fountain, the little guy. Yes, and like
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  Speaker 2: the stool is meaningful, all of it, and so I'm
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  Speaker 2: I'm so thrilled. Blue box Press with my publisher, my
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  Speaker 2: main US publisher. I love y'all. They there, there are
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  Speaker 2: cover artists, names, allans for things. Alan he designed that
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  Speaker 2: and that was literally his first draft. I think the
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  Speaker 2: only thing he changed was putting you know, the museum there,
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  Speaker 2: and maybe the color of her shoes or something. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it was such a bang up, it was. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it's so I guess it's so beautiful.
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  Speaker 1: Are you thinking binge watch or are you thinking a
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  Speaker 1: full fledged movie here? Because I'm thinking Timer Perry is
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  Speaker 1: going to be the one that's going to pick this
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  Speaker 1: up in a heartbeat, either that her own with Oprah Winfrey.
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  Speaker 1: This is something that somebody is going to.
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  Speaker 2: Pick up from your lips. I mean, you're about the
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  Speaker 2: first person who's told me they think this would be
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  Speaker 2: A fan have to like, you know, limited theories. Well,
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  Speaker 2: you know because and I think so too. In book
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  Speaker 2: two is even wilder. So I can't wait. I think,
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  Speaker 2: I really and it is a I tried to create
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  Speaker 2: an atmosphere. I wanted y'all to see it and feel
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  Speaker 2: it and you know, really be able to imagine it
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  Speaker 2: and bring it to life. So I I think I
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  Speaker 2: think it needs multiple parts. A movie would take it
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  Speaker 2: would be we'd have to take away too much to
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  Speaker 2: fit a two hour frame, don't you think?
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  Speaker 1: Oh I do? I do. I'm so fascinated as a
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  Speaker 1: writer and as a reader that you've got two protagonists,
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  Speaker 1: two character arts, and you've got two motivations here. And
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  Speaker 1: I'm sitting there going what did she do as a
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  Speaker 1: personality on that page to make sure that she kept
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  Speaker 1: this all in their own place and on their own path?
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  Speaker 1: Because that that's a skill to be able instead of
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  Speaker 1: just throwing a bunch of words out there, you you
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  Speaker 1: really put a system of order inside every one of
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  Speaker 1: your characters.
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  Speaker 2: Oh wow, thank you? Well I do. I spend a
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  Speaker 2: lot before I write. I spend a week doing character
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  Speaker 2: like character work that create a whole profile. Yeah, my
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  Speaker 2: character like my character work ups are like thirty forty
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  Speaker 2: pages long. And I know everything. I know everything about them.
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  Speaker 2: I know when I say everything, I know you know
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  Speaker 2: what hurts in their toe, what you know, what happened
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  Speaker 2: when they were for what they don't find funny, what
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  Speaker 2: irritates them, you know what there ticks, their voices, the
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  Speaker 2: way they talk, you know all of their flaws, all
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  Speaker 2: of it. Because and then I can write because otherwise
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  Speaker 2: they sound like me. Yeah, they will sound like me,
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  Speaker 2: and so I just and so writing. That's why it
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  Speaker 2: took me so long. You have to really think into it,
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  Speaker 2: get to know them. For me, not everybody. Some people
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  Speaker 2: are geniuses like and can just hit it. I didn't
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  Speaker 2: have some writer phones who get it in the first draft.
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  Speaker 2: It takes me a minute. But I have to get
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  Speaker 2: to know them very well. And that is and that's craft,
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: you know. I work on my craft. I take every
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: book I write, I take a craft course as every
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  Speaker 2: time I finished a book myself. So I learned something
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  Speaker 2: new about writing.
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  Speaker 1: Ian Anderson Jethrochel would look at you in the eyes
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  Speaker 1: and say, you are a woodsmith. That's what you are.
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  Speaker 1: You rure to work your woods. That's a woodsmith and I.
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  Speaker 2: Could you love?
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god? Where can people go to find out
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: more about you? Because at fifteen minutes goes by way
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  Speaker 1: too fast with you and that's just not enough time.
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  Speaker 2: You can find me at Dylan Allen Romance is d
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  Speaker 2: y A L A N alan A L L E
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  Speaker 2: N Romance, or at Lucywilson Tago dot com, Dylan Allen Books.
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  Speaker 2: I am everywhere you are because I have I have
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: an account on them with every social platform and I
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: have an amazing website. Is a hub for all things dying,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: all in all things Lucy Wilson Pago, so you know,
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  Speaker 2: so visit them. And a happy pub day to everybody
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: who has a book out today. Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 2: It's awesome.
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  Speaker 1: Please come back to this show anytime in the future.
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  Speaker 1: I love your amazing energy.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, and I love yours. Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 2: You're so wonderful to start my day with you. This
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  Speaker 2: is my first interview and this has been amazing. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Will you be brilliant today.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, yeah you too, and thank you Arrow. Have a
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  Speaker 2: great day and keep writing, your writer, keep writing.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's same to you, same to you. I expect it.
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  Speaker 2: Here.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to give you a challenge. I know, I
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  Speaker 1: know they're going to sit there and knock on my
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  Speaker 1: heart when they do this, but I challenge you to
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  Speaker 1: plant a writing instrument in the ground, in a protective
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  Speaker 1: case and come back thirty days to a year later
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  Speaker 1: and see what that ground is going to teach you
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  Speaker 1: as that writer of romance. I'm just I'm feeling something
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  Speaker 1: from the earth right now. And that writers need to
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: put their writing instruments in that earth and then get
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  Speaker 1: something growing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to do it, I am. I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: do it today. I am. And I'll take a picture
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  Speaker 2: of it and show you I'm going to do. I
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  Speaker 2: believe this is that is such a specific instruction that
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: I'm going to take it and I'm going to plant
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  Speaker 2: one of my pens on my favorite ones. I love it.
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  Speaker 2: I love pens. I'm going to do Thank you, Thank
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  Speaker 2: you so much.
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  Speaker 1: You have a wonderful day today.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, well youtobe, you too, thank you. Yeah.