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Book Talk With Victoria Wilder| The Bourbon Boys · Moms That Read

0:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to the Mom's Read Podcast.
0:11
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm McKinsey and I'm Kaylee and we have a very special guest, Victoria, who has written the bourbon boys trilogy and if you have not read that, you absolutely need to go run right now and read those.
0:25
[SPEAKER_02]: But we are going to just chat with her and deep dive into some of the books and get to know Victoria a little bit better.
0:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So what are you currently reading?
0:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, well, yeah.
0:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So thanks for having me by the way.
0:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I, um, so the, I'm not reading anything at the moment, because I'm like in the throws of developmental editing.
0:51
[SPEAKER_00]: My next book from it series of so whenever I'm editing, I typically like don't have time to read fun at the second.
0:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm done.
0:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I do.
0:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I just finished before I started it.
1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I just finished me by Ali Hazelwood.
1:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, um, and I was a huge massive fan of bride that I, like, I, when I finished reading that book, I was like, what do you mean?
1:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to wait for it.
1:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and that was actually, bride was like, how was was the start of the slope of reading every alley.
1:33
[SPEAKER_00]: theoretically books or the women in STEM stories, yeah.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: But man, I just love all of them.
1:40
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.
1:40
[SPEAKER_02]: So anyway, we're currently reading made for our book club.
1:48
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm obsessed with bride and did you love it as much as bride?
1:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, yeah, I mean, I just really, I love how she writes and I just think she's she's also just I mean aside from just being like incredibly like you can tell how like smart and witty she is just by the character she creates, but there's just something so great about.
2:12
[SPEAKER_00]: know about like that the the way that like Cohen is in this story just so might so my cup of tea have a nil main character like yes like a part where he's like a werewolf like you know but um yeah I loved it.
2:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I eat it up.
2:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I just um I really think like I don't know paranormal.
2:31
[SPEAKER_02]: She does very you read any other books and like the Omega verse
2:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, I love Omega version.
2:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so which ones?
2:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we've never the our first like dip our toe into the Omega verse was bright.
2:46
[SPEAKER_02]: We did not know what the Omega verse was before we said.
2:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I have so many recommendations for you.
2:54
[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many incredible Omega verse authors.
2:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, um, you want to start somewhere you should do like,
3:02
[SPEAKER_00]: um baby in the late night hollers and okay that's the look in the series.
3:06
[SPEAKER_02]: The second is um Lola and the millionaires and okay of course we're getting the author but I will find it for you yeah for this we'll we'll we'll look it up we'll look it up okay yeah because I've been interested in like maybe diving a group but I just I don't know anything about it so
3:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, oh, my favorite is like, it's so, it's like silly to say, but it's like a palette cleanser for me.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if I've read too much contemporary and need something different, um, so yeah, like when I read bride and like everybody was up in arms about what nodding is, um, or what a nod is like, oh, like you're not read any.
3:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
3:45
[UNKNOWN]: Oh, yeah.
3:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, yeah, that's how I was like, wait, this is a thing like I just didn't even know because the last thing I had read that included things that shift was twilight and so other than my fantasy books, but it isn't really include anything like that.
4:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll make a little different though because it's not I mean, in some they they do they're shifters and some of them, but the ones that I've read, um, they're like, you know, they basically the society society is
4:13
[SPEAKER_00]: split up between different factions, right?
4:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You're in a bigger, you're in alpha or you're a beta and you know a lot of like the tendencies of how you evolve once you hit a certain age will you know determine who you are and what you are and Omega's are like basically it's a why it ends up being like a very.
4:33
[SPEAKER_00]: delicious, why choose.
4:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
4:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, they're wonderful.
4:38
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can find a really great series and just fall down that rabbit hole, it's like so much fun to do.
4:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I strongly, I strongly recommend make a megaverse.
4:48
[SPEAKER_02]: I will definitely be doing that.
4:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
4:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Who are some of your favorite authors?
4:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Are authors that have inspired you?
4:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, well, the list feels like ever growing.
5:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I, so I was never a huge reader growing up as a kid.
5:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And I like almost hate that I wasn't because now, yeah, I feel like I'll never be able to read all of the books that are out in the world that I would love to read.
5:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but I think it just had to do with finding the genre that I loved and like romance.
5:19
[SPEAKER_00]: The second I started really diving into romance.
5:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I just like, not, not, not, not.
5:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
5:24
[SPEAKER_02]: same.
5:25
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought randomly walked into a library a few years ago and with my kids and I picked up a Sarah Adams book and ever since then, like I have been binging every romance, fantasy, romance to see anything with a smidder romance, I'm like, give me.
5:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's great, right?
5:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know why that's like such a crazy departure because I've always been such like a hopeless, hopeful romantic like I, you know, I'll eat up the cheesy at rom com yes, you know, I would I would binge, you know, like not really anymore because like I love Mason's face, but like a binge hallmark Christmas time, you know, just
6:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, is it like an adrenaline boost of like that happily ever after will they won't they get together thing?
6:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, always.
6:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I was always a movie girl.
6:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So anyway, to answer your question now, when I started writing or when I started reading romance, it was like at the like center of COVID, when I felt like I had hit the very end of Netflix and there was nothing good to watch anymore.
6:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I had a Kindle and I downloaded
6:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I downloaded a couple of books, and then just searching for more, I started following bookstagram accounts, and then found Elsie Silver, and fell in love with hiding, ended up being a part of her.
6:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Arc team for like her very first book sing with like a little cool and those two were like the first two authors where I like was on their arc team like like really felt like these stories like they're just so well done like I don't know so those two those two authors absolutely haven't inspired me.
7:07
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I've also like, you just kind of evolve.
7:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I think when you find more authors like what other rabbit want to go down, right?
7:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Like you find Omega authors that are really incredible.
7:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Katy Roberts does these amazing like, you know, re-doings of like Hades and Persephone and like the Neon Gods series.
7:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that was so good.
7:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I like, you know, Sierra Simone is sort of like my
7:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So new Camelot series is my, you know, Roman Empire series, but I actually kind of think maybe just see her someone in general is like my, I just find her incredibly intelligent.
7:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I just love the way she tell stories.
7:50
[SPEAKER_00]: So she was another favorite, but like I could go down a roster because I feel like there are so many.
7:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Traditionally published authors absolutely, but so many indie authors.
8:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're just like, oh, my gosh, the level of talent that exists and like how they tell the story.
8:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, very inspiring.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But.
8:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know that I even answered your question, but you said you didn't really grow reading.
8:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you always wanted to be a writer?
8:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Was that kind of separate for you?
8:22
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I always wrote in some capacity, like this is a second career for me before I started publishing.
8:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I was in public relations, I did, I did the relationship for
8:34
[SPEAKER_00]: tech companies in video technology and video game accessories.
8:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was like a whole different world that I lived in.
8:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And wrote lots of press releases, lots of marketing material, but I always really loved creative writing.
8:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I always, I commuted into Manhattan.
8:52
[SPEAKER_00]: I live in the Burbs and Connecticut right now, but I always commuted into Manhattan for like the first, I don't know, 10, five years of my tenure career, P.R.
9:02
[SPEAKER_00]: and you just have all this time.
9:04
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like before God, I'm like dating myself.
9:07
[SPEAKER_00]: It was before
9:08
[SPEAKER_00]: like you're cell phone and keep yourself entertained on a train.
9:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I would like jot down stories about like people on the train that we're just like interesting to look at.
9:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And like if you ever commute, if you're a commuter on a train, you like don't talk, like you're not with full.
9:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was like a good way to pass the time and I guess, you know, in a roundabout way, fueled my love for like creating characters just by, you know, seeing someone and thinking about what their story could be.
9:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, okay.
9:40
[SPEAKER_02]: What was the original spark that started the bourbon boys?
9:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I, so it was actually a dinner that I had with my sister and my brother-in-law.
9:51
[SPEAKER_00]: They took me out for my birthday and, um, we got talking about, um, podcasts and bourbon and this whole, um, scandal called Papi Gate and how the bourbon industry was.
10:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, catching slack about people, um, basically about counterfeit bottles of bourbon being sold at excessively like high levels of money.
10:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just found it so fascinating.
10:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it just sort of started this like this whole, I don't know, rabbit whole of, um,
10:25
[SPEAKER_00]: of thinking about what could be really sexy for my next series.
10:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So Bourbon Boys is the second series.
10:30
[SPEAKER_00]: My first one is in this is also based on like a found family in in a Colorado town.
10:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And they kind of like sports industry.
10:41
[SPEAKER_00]: It's really it's fun and light.
10:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah contemporary.
10:44
[SPEAKER_00]: But Bourbon they're just always seem something really sexy about Bourbon.
10:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And I mean for me personally I was never a big bourbon drinker.
10:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but I just found it so intriguing and like what a fun way to incorporate a series, especially of like brothers, um, having this very like what seemingly was a masculine industry, um, and, you know, me learning that it is very much not just for the boys, um, kind of situation.
11:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so do you have any ties to Kentucky or now no ties.
11:31
[SPEAKER_00]: I just figured, you know, if you were going to write a series about making bourbon, you need to go where people say makes the best bourbon.
11:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I took my best friend Pam, I was like, do you want to go on a research trip with me?
11:46
[SPEAKER_00]: like go for it and we went to Kentucky for very long weekend and you know did only a fraction of the urban trail and it is much research and absorbing of everything there as I could and yeah that was the beginning of the urban boys and fiasco Kentucky.
12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
12:04
[SPEAKER_02]: I have family in Kentucky.
12:05
[SPEAKER_02]: So I love the whole kit.
12:08
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, I love the whole Kentucky based thing.
12:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
12:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, so fun.
12:12
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like always so much fun to hear from readers that are actually from Kentucky or, you know, like, said, has family there.
12:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, I do it.
12:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I do it.
12:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Just this, you know, that you did.
12:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I loved it.
12:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I like like the sophistication of the bourbon.
12:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it's in the south and like there's always this ideology about like what
12:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Elevates and Elevates like the personality of them in and I love that so much.
12:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So kind of going off of your inspiration like with your writing process with this being a trilogy.
12:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you kind of know from the start what you wanted this entire series so look like and kind of what was your process when approaching the three different books?
12:51
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
12:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So my process is really chaotic.
12:55
[SPEAKER_00]: I, I, I feel like I am forever saying that I'm trying to figure out how to do it better, but I think I just have to lean into the fact that that is my process.
13:05
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a little chaotic.
13:08
[SPEAKER_00]: I do not have like a full picture of where everybody is going to be at the end of the series because a lot of times when I start writing or have written an outline.
13:20
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, conversations and banter between characters changes.
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Like when I first started writing urban and lies, I kind of wasn't sure who had Lee's love interest was going to be as the best friend, you know.
13:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And then all of a sudden, like, you know, she has this amazing banter with the older brother who's like very stoic and, you know, you're like very unclear who he is and what he's about.
13:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't like, well, I think this has to be a person for her, the chemistry that was just through a few lines of, you know, fictional banter turned out to be, you know, a whole story that I wasn't expecting to unfold.
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew that I knew that by the time I was done with book one, done writing it.
14:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I knew that I wanted to tell Lincoln's story.
14:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Next.
14:12
[SPEAKER_00]: because I knew that Hadley and Ace were a book three.
14:15
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't ready to tell their story yet.
14:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It just wasn't just in field right here.
14:19
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't sure what this is.
14:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Ben's element was going to be and that was so I knew that no matter what they were going to wait.
14:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I was they were going to get the end.
14:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I knew that and you I knew by the time I was done with bourbon and lies kind of the direction that the other two books were headed, um, but my writing process is just, um, you know, it's I think it starts off with a really great, um, twist.
14:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, whether that is in the plot or how the two main characters meet or know each other and then I back it up from there and try to pull calls into why that could be amazing or autotrocious and then I start really loose outline and then I usually start writing.
15:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and a lot of times it's discovery, a lot of times most of the time actually I have to go back and rewrite my beading because okay, how how things end up or how I want it to go might be getting needs to not necessarily change entirely, but like maybe the exact spot that that scene starts needs to start later.
15:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
15:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So a lot of adjustments.
15:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I can see that.
15:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you feel like the suspense or the romance is easier to write?
15:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think.
15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, I'm good at these.
15:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I'm not, I barely have to say it.
15:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So this suspense for me is more challenging because it just is.
15:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And I also try to figure out.
15:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I really love suspense stories where you where there is a twist that I'm not seeing.
16:04
[SPEAKER_00]: But that is into woven into the character's journey.
16:09
[SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't just feel like a afterthought.
16:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So for me, this suspense is really hard.
16:15
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a harder cell for me, a harder to figure out.
16:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's a bad way to say it.
16:20
[SPEAKER_00]: The romance I feel like is the fun part like I, you know, I love writing space.
16:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I love writing ten to the character, the answer and conversation is my sweet spot.
16:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I really love doing that.
16:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So, but I like the challenge of
16:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I like the challenge of suspense and making sure to continue to keep getting better with both elements of it.
16:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I mean, I find writing challenging in general.
16:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think it should be right.
16:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think the suspense is definitely the harder the harder one to get to because I think
17:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
17:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I think everybody is watching, you know, thriller or suspense movie or listening to podcast, you know, it's like everybody's loose in their own way.
17:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, how can I make this suspense or mystery like really hit, but I think it's a good job though of like,
17:21
[SPEAKER_02]: picking what the suspense was going to be and then putting it through the book.
17:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I love a good romantic suspense book and I feel like yours was done really well.
17:29
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I loved especially the second book at the end.
17:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to spoil it because she hasn't read the second book yet.
17:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, please don't.
17:37
[SPEAKER_02]: But the person who pops up at the end had my jaw on the floor.
17:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, yeah, okay.
17:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I love a good twisty.
17:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I love a good twisty.
17:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any favorite romantic suspenses?
17:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Like do you have any favorite romantic suspenses?
17:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Authors or both.
17:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Catherine Cowles.
17:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, for sure.
17:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
17:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Love her.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I've read all of her books almost all she's got me hooked on Katherine cows.
18:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, like those are so good.
18:05
[SPEAKER_01]: But I liked how different like the bourbon voice series was like it what it they're both like romantic suspense, but very different in their own way, which was like really nice because you get a little bit of everything from both of them to her.
18:18
[SPEAKER_02]: I also really like Claire Kingsley.
18:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah, yeah.
18:23
[SPEAKER_02]: I just recently read one of hers, and I like how there's like a little POV from the person who's like out to get them.
18:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that.
18:33
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've read a few of hers, and then I've read recently after she'll just sparrows a few of Devany Perry's romantic suspense books.
18:41
[SPEAKER_02]: So I just Katherine Cowles got me into romantic suspense, and then I went down a rabbit hole.
18:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
18:48
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
18:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, make it through all of her series and then you, yeah, I mean, you are, you went to some great places.
18:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I love Devny Perry.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: They love her Eden series.
18:57
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so good.
18:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
18:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you're even like Samantha Young.
19:01
[SPEAKER_00]: She's got a great, okay.
19:03
[SPEAKER_00]: She got a couple of series, um, uh, based on like, she's got a challenge too.
19:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So who really, yeah, there's a really great suspense author.
19:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So I love hearing, I love hearing who people are reading currently.
19:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
19:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and like I love being a part of that world of authors, I just think they're so freaking talented.
19:23
[SPEAKER_02]: So would you ever write out of their romantic suspense world?
19:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe, I don't know, I think it would be silly to say this is the only thing I'm going to do ever, but I really like writing in this like sub genre.
19:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I think there's just a lot to play with right and you're I think there's I think romantic suspense has a really beautiful way of combining plot with character driven stories.
19:54
[SPEAKER_00]: which can sometimes was, you know, can be a challenge in contemporary romance, right?
19:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you need something, you need some kind of conflict, and it's really great to be able to write a channel one that is woven nicely into the storyline.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
20:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, okay.
20:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So are your characters that you write based off people in the subway or are they just like completely made up?
20:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I mean, they're, they're all made up.
20:20
[SPEAKER_00]: They're all fictional people.
20:21
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not based on anybody I know.
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, maybe people I've met or seen, you know, like little features or, um, details about them.
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I, I had ended up in the emergency room on a New Year's Eve and the woman that was like checking me out at the front desk.
20:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Man, oh man, she was so much.
20:40
[SPEAKER_00]: like like the two women like Romy and Prue from the stories like she was a combination of the two of them, where there's just loud and fun and entertaining.
20:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Look at these there's like those pieces like people that I like elements and people I've met or people I know woven some how into characters but yeah, they're the part about them being fiction is so much fun because you can like make it up as you go along.
21:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
21:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So who's your favorite bourbon boy?
21:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my gosh.
21:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
21:11
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think this is a trick question because When you're like currently writing, it's really easy to love who you're writing cry, right?
21:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's not like it's the same when I'm reading.
21:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like hyper fixated on this one at mail.
21:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for sure.
21:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So like right now, I think my favorite is Ace, um, he's just like, there's just, there was, there's always kind of been something about him.
21:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I even, I didn't even realize I had done it, but I introduced him first, like he's the first male that you see in the story.
21:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I really do keep people into thinking he was going to be the M.M.C.
21:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Death, yes, what can it say?
21:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so that was kind of fun to figure out, um, but yeah, like I, I don't know, I late, they all have like really different different elements that I enjoyed writing like I really loved how Lincoln was had more of a playful side to him and writing grant was just very great.
22:13
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like such a heavy character.
22:15
[SPEAKER_00]: He was baggage and history, um, but to see him laying up was really fun, but I think the three of them.
22:24
[SPEAKER_00]: But if if I had to I mean, I don't know if I had to really pick maybe.
22:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
22:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think this would be ace.
22:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I was reading bourbon and lies listening to and like from the minute I was reading bourbon and lies.
22:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I was so ready for ace a story and then we got ace a story and I just gobbled it all up I loved his story
22:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I told her I was like, after finishing bourbon in laws, I was like, I can not wait for a Senate at least for you because just everything had leases to a Senate bourbon in laws, just in his open mouth response like, oh, dear God, what is this woman going to say?
22:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I love that so much and I can't wait to read his book.
23:03
[SPEAKER_02]: it's fun like that chemistry that you can find between two fictional characters is so much fun when it exists and especially when one of the characters is unhinged you know which we love first shirt with we have a lot of lot he crossed a lot of lines like very great yes
23:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
23:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, say, was really hard for me at the time.
23:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I struggled when I was doing my editing with Book 2, because I didn't, I had expectations for Book 1, but they kind of, it book one exceeded my expectations, so people enjoyed it so much.
23:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I'd put so much pressure on myself about Book 2 and writing a really great story, but making the FMC different.
24:03
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think she was tricky because she had this very heavy traumatic thing happen to her.
24:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But there had been enough time that had gone on that she really sort of just became this like superwoman type person.
24:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
24:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So it was a lot, it was hard to balance having her be really strong but also fine where she could be vulnerable.
24:26
[SPEAKER_00]: So I definitely, she was, she was hard.
24:29
[SPEAKER_00]: She was a tricky character for me.
24:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
24:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so as you're going through kind of like the layout of your books, what is your favorite trope to write within them?
24:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.
24:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
24:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I really love any kind of trope where I can write great banter.
24:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So not necessarily enemies to lovers, because I think that has to be like a really specific, um, like combination of things, but I think it's like that eight to,
24:55
[SPEAKER_00]: love scenario.
24:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes second chance allows for that too if there's animosity.
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really fun, although I think if you were to look at tropes and look at all of the books I've written, people would say that I'm a found family person because that kind of rings true.
25:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's just like it comes naturally.
25:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if I love it so much, but it's like love it as much as like writing banter, but right.
25:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so in your research for all of these bugs, what is the weirdest thing you've had to Google?
25:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh gosh, my goal of history is really messed up.
25:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, especially for the book and my new series, I'm just like, oh god, clear history.
25:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say, I don't know, because I had to like research a bunch of things about like hidden weapons and blue laws.
25:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Like can you take your clothes off and Kentucky after midnight in a bar?
26:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, so like there's things like that, like, what is the, like, what's the, you know, concealed to carry detail, like, you know, it's like, what, like, where do you need to be cut in the throat in order for you to bleed out?
26:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, how long does that take?
26:15
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like, right, like, time on that.
26:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's absolutely ended up in the book, which is things like, I need to know this.
26:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
26:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, my gosh.
26:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Very useful information, you know?
26:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Very useful.
26:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my gosh.
26:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so do you listen to music when you write or do you have a particular song like for different characters as you're writing?
26:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I do.
26:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Like so sometimes I do sometimes I don't.
26:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I find sometimes I'll be super focused and it's quite as hell in here.
26:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I will often times find a song that I feel really inspired by and I'll just have it on a repeat for an entire day of all.
26:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but I do I create my own Spotify playlist for each book and while it's a great like marketing tool.
26:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I do actually genuinely use it.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's my writings.
27:00
[SPEAKER_00]: That's my writing playlist.
27:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
27:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
27:02
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah.
27:03
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always um, there's always like a series of songs that tend to be what brought the story to life for me.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so he's listening to music.
27:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, okay.
27:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there a particular scene out of the book that like you are especially proud of that you like wrote or like that the audience stuck to and you didn't expect them to um you know I think I think this I think the scenes that I knew we're gonna hit hit um because I feel like you know at the time when you're when you've reworked
27:44
[SPEAKER_00]: you've reworked a chapter, reworked, look chapters, and you're like, oh yeah, that feels really good.
27:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I knew the scene in book two where Fay puts Lincoln on his knees in front of a crowd was gonna hit really hard.
27:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it is.
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So like I knew that, that one just felt really good to write.
28:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
28:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I also love these sort of very traumatic opening chapters where you kind of really feel the grittiness
28:12
[SPEAKER_00]: whatever's happened to one of the main characters, like I really felt really great about the intro scene for Urban and Lies, you know, when you're coming up to that field and you're, you know, finding out why his, you know, why Grant's partner isn't answering on the walkie.
28:28
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, so like to me, and like, Julia getting out of getting into the car and going to the crime scene.
28:34
[SPEAKER_00]: And like to me, I was just really proud to have written that because I wrote what I pictured when I was, when I was, you know, thinking through it.
28:42
[SPEAKER_00]: maybe one of my favorites.
28:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so how do you manage to keep track of details, character arcs, et cetera, across the series, like how do you organize all of that?
28:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Gosh, with a prayer, I don't know.
28:58
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I have really, I have really great beta readers and a key-a that helps me keep track of those things.
29:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, I'm lucky enough to have
29:14
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, folks that will do content polls for me and help me keep track of those, um, but yeah, it's hard.
29:21
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, it's tricky, like, who owns what shop?
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And what is there?
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
29:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
29:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I feel like I've gotten a little bit better now that I am working with, um, audio production because you do need to keep track of, okay, well, you know, this person is in her early
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: 50.
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So she shouldn't sound like an 80 year old.
29:44
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like 20 tells me that I think helped you.
29:47
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope I feel like I remember more.
29:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I need to just add to someone else to be able to, you know, portray it.
29:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you felt like when you were writing and you've gotten so far into a book, have you felt like you needed to go back and change something based on like kind of how the story unfolded, like as you got into it.
30:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yes, oh yes, um, yeah, I think that is I think that is part of my process.
30:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think a lot of my developmental editing has has a lot to do with what feels right and feels natural for the characters.
30:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So while they have this phrase called sometimes you have to cut the darling, you know, in a lot of times that could be a character as seen that you were like really hoping would work.
30:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sometimes you just have to say it doesn't it's not working, it's not feeling natural.
30:36
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not flowing properly like this will feel like.
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: This will feel awful and I've had to do that on your eyes.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, often I go back and have to make adjustments to the story because it just doesn't feel right or the way the characters have evolved and you know, the first half of the book might feel, might feel like something's off.
30:57
[SPEAKER_00]: So I need to go back and change maybe an interaction that they've had or like an internal dialogue that I wasn't expecting.
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it is, it is a process.
31:07
[SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like every author I talk to kiddles their storytelling differently.
31:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like trying to be kinder about they're not being a right in a wrong way.
31:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Just the way that works for you.
31:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, everybody has their own process.
31:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Like every author we've talked to is that I can completely different process.
31:26
[SPEAKER_02]: So whatever works for you, because it seems to be working for
31:30
[SPEAKER_02]: for them.
31:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
31:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, the goal is to put out right a great book.
31:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
31:34
[SPEAKER_02]: So as long as it gets there, that's the game plan.
31:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
31:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
31:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So is there a scene that you can tell us if not it's okay, but is there a scene that you can tell us from any of the books that you had to cut out because it didn't fit?
31:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, um, I think most of I think most of my
31:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to remember, if I did, if I cut something out, I clearly didn't love it enough to remember it.
32:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I think like anything that really needed to stick stayed there, I would definitely say that like maybe at the point in which you entered a scene, maybe you ended up different, but like the location maybe is the same that type of thing.
32:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, no, I mean, I think people really love grays.
32:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and I, it was going to really hard for me to think people wouldn't love him.
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
32:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think when you get to book three, I think you question a little bit like,
32:46
[SPEAKER_00]: If he's looking out for everybody's best interest, but I mean, I did them on purpose, you know, like there's purpose for him in each story.
32:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I think people, like with every book, right, you have like a great side character and yes, people ask like what their story.
33:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I tried to give as much of Chris's story as I could.
33:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So stay, we need a, we need a gris like novella.
33:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, you're going to, when you get to book through, you're going to love gris.
33:21
[SPEAKER_02]: Here's a, here's a super fun character.
33:23
[SPEAKER_02]: So do you see yourself in any of the characters that you, you've written or like which one is the most like you?
33:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, I mean, I think there are parts of me in all of them, um, but I don't write books about me.
33:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
33:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, like they're like, I look at the way that I tell stories as if I'm a director and in the director's chair and I have a plan for them.
33:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of my, like a lot of whatever I've experienced comes through maybe as in their internal dialogue, um, you know, like how Lini sees herself in that story.
34:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been in situation where I've seen myself in similar ways, right?
34:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I did not run from a serial killer.
34:13
[SPEAKER_00]: However, I have no where you have heard someone bad mouth you and you're the kind of way.
34:19
[SPEAKER_00]: like that sucks.
34:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think there's like elements to like life experiences that I've had that, you know, come through and start in scenes, but now these girls are their own girls.
34:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, guys do, they're not modeled after anybody other than like,
34:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe a really great version of a fictional character.
34:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, okay, okay, so talking about the couples.
34:47
[SPEAKER_01]: If the series was to be adapted into some sort of film, TV series movie, do you have people in mind, like you visualize as who would represent the couples like who would be like the perfect person for that role?
35:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I have my, I have thoughts.
35:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I, it's funny.
35:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I, um,
35:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I love to keep an open mind about it, right?
35:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Because any, you know, like you think about, okay, well, Lini is a redhead.
35:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're like the redheads of the world.
35:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
35:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, like, you know,
35:18
[SPEAKER_00]: You could be a blonde and dye your hair red, like she really, you know?
35:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
35:22
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, do I have thoughts about great FMCs totally?
35:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, like I see, I look at, um, say, and I'm like, oh, my gosh.
35:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I could picture like dove Cameron.
35:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
35:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
35:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
35:36
[SPEAKER_01]: See it in the face.
35:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, um, like I could see like Gina Rodriguez as Hathley, because I just love her and just do everything she does.
35:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so I don't know.
35:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think it's like visually you can picture certain um actors and like fan cast them.
35:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but truly truly the only one that I thought of while I was writing them.
36:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
36:01
[SPEAKER_00]: It is um.
36:03
[SPEAKER_00]: is for Griss.
36:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
36:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I know.
36:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And like everyone's like, well, who would you picture for like, Grant or Lincoln?
36:12
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm like, I'm like, wondering if I can send you a picture of like, who, okay.
36:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I don't know if you would know what he looks like, but his name is Sam Watersen.
36:24
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like an older actor.
36:27
[SPEAKER_00]: He He had like all he had like he had his day like in the late 70s and 80s, but like as he's gotten older He 100% is is in the I'll put a picture when I post the podcast that people can see.
36:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that so much
36:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And like he's got like that stash.
36:48
[SPEAKER_00]: That's really a character in it of itself.
36:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's got like that that gravel that gruff weight.
36:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
36:56
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, like fan casting is fun, but like man, Sam Waters and to me was griz.
37:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like as I'm writing him, I could picture him leaning on the wall like that and talking like that and the smirk with the stash.
37:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes.
37:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Also in daily like the covers of the books have the most realistic style men that I've ever seen and I'm like, I don't know if I could ever find someone to match what they look like as those are so good.
37:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I know they were stunning so my the cover design the cover illustrious side two designers I had an illustrator do the do the character art and then I had my cover designer do like the typography and all of that.
37:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but Lonnie Carr who goes under the whiskey ginger did the character illustrations and they're so beautiful.
37:41
[SPEAKER_00]: They're so good.
37:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, gorgeous.
37:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And like the first time when I first saw like her sketches of them, I was just like,
37:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so now what's inside needs to be incredible like I got excited and equally nervous because I'm like, oh my god, well, are going to go wild over these and so when she when she's, you know, shared the bourbon and lies, you know, first draft with me, I was like, oh gosh, you're going to need to do the whole series because we weren't sure first if it was, if this was going to work, right, Jean.
38:13
[SPEAKER_00]: didn't she hadn't done romance covers in the past?
38:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, she was doing tons of art.
38:18
[SPEAKER_00]: She, you know, she's doing designs for like anthropology and like some country singers.
38:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know, she's artwork everywhere.
38:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was like, on a whim, would you ever consider doing cover art for a book?
38:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And she was like, you know, it's on my bucket list.
38:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And absolutely, that was like, you're doing a beautiful scenario.
38:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I just need an illustration of Grant and a cowboy hat on a horse, please.
38:41
[SPEAKER_01]: That's like, oh my gosh.
38:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I know there is a version of him on the back of the paperback on a horse, but he's wearing his baseball cap because he hadn't at that point like that was like, I got it right here.
38:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, missed that.
38:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to set it to.
39:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man.
39:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
39:02
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
39:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's all I needed.
39:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
39:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I can visualize the couch.
39:09
[SPEAKER_02]: I was always so happy you kept the covers because the books are getting very released.
39:15
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
39:15
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to be released.
39:17
[SPEAKER_00]: by both Bloom and North America and Etria and UK, Western Zealand and on the publishers, like, loved the covers, you know?
39:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, such a fun whole series.
39:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they're had that really vintage throwback style to it.
39:34
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was like, that was like a big hope.
39:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, if we're gonna do, try to print, they really wanna maintain that vibe and they loved it.
39:42
[SPEAKER_00]: They're all about it.
39:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So I was very lucky that they agreed.
39:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was such like a visual person when I read and so like the cover was what set the mood for me as I was going and I was like, okay, I know exactly like what I'm visualizing while I'm reading this book and it's the same.
39:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've you got books based on covers all the time.
40:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you know, that's the game.
40:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
40:05
[SPEAKER_02]: If you had to go on a road trip with any one of your characters, who would you choose?
40:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh man, um, okay, so like who would be fun in the car?
40:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Honestly, I think Hadley would be the most fun thing.
40:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Hadley would definitely be my pick, I think.
40:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I wouldn't be bored.
40:23
[SPEAKER_00]: I think if I went on a group with Grant, it would just be like a lot of listening to music.
40:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I feel like minimal proactive.
40:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe linking would make it fun too, right?
40:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But then I feel like the girl's being the back, and kids in a long drive sounds awful.
40:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It is.
40:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
40:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it is.
40:42
[SPEAKER_00]: But yes, I think I think Hadley would be good one.
40:45
[SPEAKER_02]: I'd add that too.
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: She's a fun time.
40:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So how do you deal with writers block or burnout when you're writing in your series or any of your books?
40:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I think you just keep writing.
40:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, sometimes you have to take great, right?
40:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Like sometimes if the if scenes aren't coming to you, if writing is just feeling like pulling teeth, you need to walk away for a little bit, right?
41:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And it could be as quick as like,
41:08
[SPEAKER_00]: leaving and going for a walk, I live in a beach town, so the deep, a drive to the beach, you know, walk on the boardwalk isn't that far for me.
41:16
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I have two kids, so sometimes just getting lost and something that has nothing to do with the book universe.
41:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a good palette for us there.
41:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes that does the opposite.
41:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it actually, that's what creates the block because you're like, oh, there's, you know, fifth grade drama, like, I don't want to be a part of this.
41:34
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, I think I think the way that I deal with it is, you know, give yourself a breather.
41:40
[SPEAKER_00]: I think what's really helpful is having like a team that's supportive, so like I've got an exceptional PA and editor, an agent that sort of helps boost my morale
41:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and then just to keep writing, um, yeah, I'm finding that if I, if I take too long away from my keyboard or my story, it's harder for me to get back in.
42:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so all of that sounds so counter-intuitive because I'm like, get up and walk away, but then just to keep writing like, right.
42:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's real.
42:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think for like a block true writers block where you like really can't write anything for months out of time I've been lucky enough to not experience that I have a lot of colleagues that have and sometimes that's what they need is a break.
42:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they just need a mid to like get out of it and to feel inspired again.
42:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's what I think that's the core of it right you just need to feel inspired.
42:38
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't love what you're writing the people that are reading it probably won't love it either.
42:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know.
42:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that makes sense.
42:45
[SPEAKER_02]: That makes sense.
42:46
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the funniest or most unhinged message anyone's ever sent to about your books?
42:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, gosh.
42:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I get a lot of, I get a lot of great messages.
42:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
42:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's so very lucky in that regard.
43:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Um.
43:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I've got in like really, I don't know if it's like on hit.
43:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to get audacious messages that I book, like I've used a word that they don't like far too many times, you know, I know, which I just, which I just find, uh, I mean, there is, there's audacity in sending that to an author, right?
43:21
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a lot of them kind of like, you know, good for you, like, we're gonna tell me.
43:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know.
43:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not experienced two, you know, atrocious of human beings, which is really, I don't think so, but it is wild to get messages about, you know,
43:45
[SPEAKER_00]: making somebody's day, like so much better or to feel like you're whatever you wrote, like relieved them from whatever stress they're dealing with in real life.
43:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Like to me that's not an end just just wonderful.
43:57
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
43:58
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
43:59
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
43:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Good to do that because I get it.
44:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Like sometimes life is heavy and you just need to escape it to be able to write things that people find can be in escape just feels good.
44:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
44:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that.
44:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so I guess I guess the last couple questions that we have for you like what is next for you with this whole rerelease is coming up and can you tell us anything about like any upcoming books or series.
44:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, going on.
44:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, definitely.
44:24
[SPEAKER_00]: I am.
44:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, so you guys know, so for the bourbon series, the bourbon boys will re-release in early 2026.
44:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
44:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Bloom and Aetria will release in North America and Australia and New Zealand and the UK and it's going to be pretty fast.
44:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So like January's verbatilized February's verbatilized secrets is verbatilized and then April will be release the first book in my whiskey women series.
44:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, which actually for us.
44:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, so we're going to, we're going to take a little trip away from Fiasco, Kentucky, and go to a place called Rumor Tennessey.
45:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and it'll look okay on it'll be at three book series, um, three sisters, um, and sort of their entire journey.
45:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh,
45:10
[SPEAKER_00]: But there is a connection character.
45:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm gonna say have we met any of the characters?
45:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so you have technically, technically you have not yet met the FMC.
45:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I'm for one in Whiskeyman, but you have met the male main character.
45:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So once you read Burbin and Proof, you will meet this like Dashingly delicious man named Julian, also known as the jeweler.
45:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's about Julian, oh my gosh.
45:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So Julian is a jeweler, goldsmith by day, and by, you know, grayish night, he cleans crime scenes.
45:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, as favors.
45:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
45:53
[SPEAKER_00]: So it is really in story.
45:55
[SPEAKER_00]: He will be the mailman character.
45:57
[SPEAKER_00]: for the first book in the series.
45:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So I can't wait, I'm writing it now.
46:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm in the throws of editing.
46:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Probably why I totally missed the original time.
46:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go by.
46:08
[SPEAKER_02]: It's understood.
46:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It's understood.
46:11
[SPEAKER_02]: We are so, I am so excited.
46:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that is exciting.
46:13
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so excited.
46:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
46:17
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't wait, like I'm excited to be in a new town, like it's a new small town.
46:22
[SPEAKER_00]: It's definitely a little bit grittier than the bourbon boys, but yeah, it's just, it's a fun, I think it's gonna be really fun series, and I think it'll hit pretty hard, so.
46:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, well, absolutely love when like series follow, like a band of brothers or sisters, because I just love seeing reoccurring characters in the books.
46:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
46:44
[SPEAKER_02]: So, will you be any of the barbing boys in the books or maybe maybe?
46:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I just feel like it's really hard to say goodbye.
46:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Like if you read, so if you read bourbon and secrets, if you read bourbon and proof, you actually will have met some characters from my first series.
47:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
47:08
[SPEAKER_00]: No, there is a pilot that takes, um, say somewhere important in book two, his name is Henry is the mill main character of my book, Hyden Peak from my first series.
47:21
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, uh, if you read Bourbon and proof, um, you will meet, um,
47:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, a few people, you'll meet G, who's also the FMC from Hyden Peak, but you'll also meet Tessa and Law, who are the main characters from a peak performance, which is the fourth book in my first series.
47:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I love that.
47:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, like to weave those in for people that have been around for a long time, but it's also like a really fun way.
47:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, when there's a law between series releasing and people are like loving my writing, then they can, you know, find new places.
47:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
47:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so excited about that.
47:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
47:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you for hopping on and chatting with us about all the books.
47:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We're so excited for the new series coming up and yeah, definitely check out the real release or read it now.
48:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I read it on my candle.
48:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, yeah, you want to read it now, honestly.
48:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I definitely recommend the audios.
48:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the audios came out so great.
48:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, wow,
48:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Naryators, to me, are just this insanely talented, you know, world that if you have never listened to an audio book, it's not like just a book being read aloud, it is, you know, so many are talented enough to basically act like,
48:42
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Samantha Brentmore and Connor Cresce did bourbon lies, and they were sectional, Lee Samuels and Megan Wicks did bourbon and secrets, and then for bourbon and proof it was Victoria Connelly as Hadley and then Shawn Masters as Ace.
48:58
[SPEAKER_00]: And like they all just brought like something new and really delicious to the table.
49:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they're married and duet, which in my opinion is like the best ideals for intimate scenes, you know?
49:12
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, the audios were a blast.
49:14
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, the audios for the bourbon boys and lights out, audio are my top audios of all time.
49:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I love that.
49:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
49:26
[SPEAKER_02]: They were like, I just love a good duo.
49:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And then I loved the gravelly.
49:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, they sound the way they were from Kentucky.
49:32
[SPEAKER_02]: You know what I mean?
49:33
[SPEAKER_02]: They did a good job.
49:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it's so tricky too, like when you're talking with producers about how you want characters to bound, you know, do you want them to have like a accent or, you know, do you need to know exactly where they're from.
49:48
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a tricky balance of figuring out, okay, what can I, what can I give them that sounds like
49:53
[SPEAKER_00]: a place that they could be from without making the reader so aware of it that it bothers them, right?
50:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
50:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you get to like hand-picked these people?
50:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Like were you able to be in the process of that?
50:05
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all.
50:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I feel lucky too.
50:08
[SPEAKER_00]: So the reason that the audio was not simultaneously released, the way that it was shattered out was because I produced the audio, myself with one nightstand studios.
50:18
[SPEAKER_00]: So professionally, I had people doing it for me, but financially, I paid for it, and was able to choose all of my narrators, pick out who I wanted, worked around their schedules, and that was just a really fantastic process, and it felt like I was learning, it was basically learning a new part of this industry because one of their narrators that I love an adore, so you need to find people that,
50:44
[SPEAKER_00]: aren't just like favorites, but you also need to make sure to think that with your character.
50:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, yeah, it's definitely challenging, but I think when you find the right folks and you have like a really great production company to know you, you know, execute it.
51:01
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so worth it.
51:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I feel really lucky.
51:05
[SPEAKER_00]: The success that Urban and Lies had with
51:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel really lucky to my readers.
51:14
[SPEAKER_00]: They got to have all your books because they were, they loved it, you know?
51:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, absolutely.
51:20
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're so good.
51:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure you check out the audios or read on Kindle and Limited, ASAP.
51:27
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to be buying the new way.
51:29
[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to, you're going to a book on next year in July, right?
51:35
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to too.
51:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to I'm going to book Besties in Knoxville and that's where we're going to Yeah, it's not missing the smokey's in Nashville.
51:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
51:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, I've heard of that one.
51:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
51:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
51:46
[SPEAKER_02]: So we will see you at the Knoxville one.
51:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
51:51
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys going just as readers are going to have like a booth and everything.
51:54
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just going as readers.
51:55
[SPEAKER_02]: We're not that popular yet.
52:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe one day.
52:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe one day.
52:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe one day.
52:02
[SPEAKER_02]: We should do a little something while you're there than I would love.
52:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
52:05
[SPEAKER_01]: That would be so much fun.
52:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we're so excited to go with that.
52:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you again for joining us.
52:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Check out.
52:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
52:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Whiskey women in April.
52:14
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so exciting.
52:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yes.
52:16
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
52:16
[SPEAKER_02]: And we will see you guys in the next video.
52:18
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye.