Latest / I Am All In with Scott Patterson / You've Been Gilmored: Micol Ostow
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I Am all In.
- 0:08Speaker 2: I Am all In with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
- 0:20Speaker 1: Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one
- 0:23Speaker 1: eleven productions, iHeart Radio. One on one interview. We have
- 0:27Speaker 1: a very special guest, Micole Austo, who is a children's
- 0:31Speaker 1: book editor for nearly a decade and began writing professionally
- 0:34Speaker 1: in two thousand and four. She's written a children's book
- 0:39Speaker 1: about Gilmore Girls, or Gilmore's Book that's geared toward children.
- 0:46Speaker 1: McColl welcome, Thanks for coming on. We're real excited to
- 0:50Speaker 1: have you tell us a little bit about your book,
- 0:53Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls at Home in Stars Hollow.
- 0:56Speaker 3: It is entitled I would be so happy to so
- 1:00Speaker 3: Gilmore Girls at Home and Stars Hollow is actually a
- 1:04Speaker 3: children's picture book, and it's a storybook that tells a
- 1:07Speaker 3: little bit about Lorelei and Rory and their origins in
- 1:13Speaker 3: Stars Hollows.
- 1:14Speaker 4: So it's a storybook.
- 1:16Speaker 3: It's a picture book meant for Gilmore Superband, meant for everyone.
- 1:20Speaker 4: Really, it's a.
- 1:20Speaker 3: Story for mothers and daughters, and it's a chance for
- 1:24Speaker 3: everyone to revisit all their favorite characters and Stars Hollow
- 1:28Speaker 3: and just spend a little time with all their favorite
- 1:31Speaker 3: people in their favorite place. It was so much fun
- 1:35Speaker 3: to write. It was such a good time. I had
- 1:37Speaker 3: such a blast.
- 1:38Speaker 1: So why did you choose Gilmore? Girls?
- 1:42Speaker 3: You know I will tell you the truth. So I have,
- 1:44Speaker 3: as you just said, I've been an editor. I started
- 1:46Speaker 3: my publishing career in editing, and I worked in mostly
- 1:50Speaker 3: very commercial, pop culture driven books. I was the editor
- 1:54Speaker 3: of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Charmed and Angel and
- 1:58Speaker 3: the original Sabrina the Teenage which upon a time with
- 2:00Speaker 3: Melissa Joan Hart. So I got my start in Media Italians,
- 2:04Speaker 3: and then when I began writing, I started writing in
- 2:06Speaker 3: Media Italians as well. And then when I left working
- 2:10Speaker 3: as an editor and started writing full time, I have
- 2:13Speaker 3: done a lot of original work, but I also get
- 2:16Speaker 3: a lot of solicitations for Media Italians because I'm very
- 2:20Speaker 3: obsessed with pop culture and I love reading and writing
- 2:23Speaker 3: pop culture stuff too. So a couple of years back,
- 2:27Speaker 3: I think it was The Office picture Book that sort
- 2:31Speaker 3: of led the charge of this new wave of what
- 2:34Speaker 3: seems like a trend in pop culture picture books that
- 2:36Speaker 3: seemed a little bit kind of discordant, like what a
- 2:40Speaker 3: strange idea Michael Scott Dunder Mifflin as Children, but it
- 2:44Speaker 3: was extremely successful and since then there have been a
- 2:47Speaker 3: bunch and I've also written.
- 2:49Speaker 4: The Friends picture books.
- 2:50Speaker 3: There are two out now and another one coming out tomorrow,
- 2:54Speaker 3: and a few Roman Holiday for the same editor who
- 2:57Speaker 3: who edited me for Gilmore Girls. And when they called
- 3:01Speaker 3: about Gilmour, they were so excited that they were able
- 3:04Speaker 3: to secure the.
- 3:04Speaker 4: License, and I was so thrilled that they came to me.
- 3:08Speaker 3: It was just not it was a no brainer, obviously,
- 3:11Speaker 3: Like I had watched the show in its original incarnation
- 3:14Speaker 3: live with my friends, like every Tuesday night we would
- 3:17Speaker 3: cook dinner together post college.
- 3:19Speaker 4: That was That was how I learned to cook. I'll
- 3:21Speaker 4: tell you honestly.
- 3:21Speaker 3: We would play off who was in charge of cooking,
- 3:24Speaker 3: and we would watch the show together on Tuesdays, and
- 3:26Speaker 3: then we would rewatch it long after the fact binging,
- 3:31Speaker 3: and then of course we watched the Netflix revival.
- 3:33Speaker 4: And so I mean, how could I say no? Who? How?
- 3:36Speaker 4: Like there was no chance in how I.
- 3:38Speaker 1: Don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, I
- 3:40Speaker 1: guess you couldn't.
- 3:41Speaker 4: I couldn't.
- 3:42Speaker 1: So let me ask you this, why do you think
- 3:43Speaker 1: the call? Why do you think the show is such
- 3:47Speaker 1: a cultural staple for TV fans, and it seems to
- 3:51Speaker 1: still be growing globally.
- 3:53Speaker 4: It is.
- 3:54Speaker 3: I wish that I could tell you why trends take
- 3:59Speaker 3: off when they do, because obviously we'd all be, you know,
- 4:01Speaker 3: phenomenally successful.
- 4:04Speaker 4: It's much more than a.
- 4:05Speaker 1: Trend twenty three years and it's getting stronger. It's snowballing.
- 4:10Speaker 3: I don't know exactly why it feels like there's something
- 4:15Speaker 3: happening right now, but maybe it's because it's on Netflix
- 4:18Speaker 3: right now, and so the youngsters are watching it right now.
- 4:22Speaker 3: Like I have an eleven year old daughter, and everyone
- 4:25Speaker 3: her age is now binging it with their moms. And
- 4:27Speaker 3: I learned this because a couple of mom friends I
- 4:30Speaker 3: have we're watching it with their daughters a year or
- 4:32Speaker 3: two ago. So now my daughters are old enough to
- 4:35Speaker 3: watch it, and we've been watching it when we've been
- 4:37Speaker 3: watching it because I've been working on the book, but
- 4:39Speaker 3: we would have been watching it at this age anyway.
- 4:42Speaker 3: And I think it's just it's so heartfelt, first of all,
- 4:46Speaker 3: So there's so much earnestness in there underneath all of
- 4:50Speaker 3: the fast talking and all of the screwball comedy and
- 4:53Speaker 3: all of the wit, and that to me, that always
- 4:57Speaker 3: gets me that no matter how much you're laughing out
- 5:00Speaker 3: and you're always laughing out loud, there's really a gut punch,
- 5:04Speaker 3: whether it's sentimental or whether it's agonizing, depending on the
- 5:08Speaker 3: episode or often within the same episode. There's always so
- 5:12Speaker 3: much emotion and then there's also there's so much intelligence
- 5:17Speaker 3: to it. It's such a sharply written show and there's
- 5:20Speaker 3: so much to pay attention to, and no matter how
- 5:23Speaker 3: many times you watch it. Oh, we watched the episode
- 5:26Speaker 3: where Rory meets Christopher's parents just the other day, and
- 5:31Speaker 3: there's that moment just after she's introduced.
- 5:33Speaker 4: Where she curtsies and Laura Lai whispers to her, she just.
- 5:37Speaker 3: Curtsy and I had missed that, and my daughter and
- 5:41Speaker 3: I almost fell off the couch laughing. I have seen
- 5:44Speaker 3: that episode so many times, but somehow that moment between
- 5:47Speaker 3: the two of them killed me all over again, and
- 5:49Speaker 3: the two.
- 5:50Speaker 4: Of us died. So it just it begs for constant rewatching.
- 5:54Speaker 3: It hits you in all your fields and it just
- 5:57Speaker 3: challenges you. But also it's so soothing, so it really
- 6:01Speaker 3: is perfect for all ages and all occasions.
- 6:05Speaker 1: You know, it's very healing isn't it. I mean, I
- 6:09Speaker 1: think about the mother, the estranged mother and daughter and
- 6:12Speaker 1: they're not talking, and they've had a huge fight and
- 6:16Speaker 1: they've moved out of the house or they're still living
- 6:18Speaker 1: in the house, but they're just really acting in the
- 6:20Speaker 1: rebellious way. And they sit down watching Gilmore's Up Girls
- 6:23Speaker 1: episode and they laugh and laugh, and at the end
- 6:25Speaker 1: of the episode they look at each other and say,
- 6:27Speaker 1: what the heck were we mad at about? Yeah, we've
- 6:30Speaker 1: just bonded again. You know, we're close again. We appreciate
- 6:33Speaker 1: each other again. So I think it's true for mothers
- 6:36Speaker 1: and it's true for daughters. So it's a very powerful
- 6:39Speaker 1: salve that people apply on a weekly basis, and now
- 6:42Speaker 1: they can binge it every day. And I mean, it's
- 6:47Speaker 1: a wonderfully therapeutic show. It really truly is. All Right, So,
- 6:53Speaker 1: since your books were written for all ages, what topics
- 6:56Speaker 1: does your book cover from the show?
- 7:00Speaker 3: It's really about finding your place and finding your home
- 7:06Speaker 3: and making your home and making your family. And I
- 7:09Speaker 3: think it's really really the same themes that the show
- 7:13Speaker 3: covers in terms of Lorala finding her strength or coming
- 7:18Speaker 3: into her strength, because it was always there obviously, and
- 7:22Speaker 3: making her way and sort of growing into herself and
- 7:28Speaker 3: understanding that home and family is what you make of it.
- 7:33Speaker 3: And certainly we all love watching her reconcile and make
- 7:40Speaker 3: peace with Emily and make peace with her family, but
- 7:42Speaker 3: we also I think so many people what they love
- 7:45Speaker 3: about the show is the understanding that we all have
- 7:49Speaker 3: our different experiences of family and it doesn't necessarily have
- 7:52Speaker 3: to look like that traditional, really outdated idea of the
- 7:55Speaker 3: nuclear family, and that what Laura and Rory built for
- 7:59Speaker 3: themselves in Stars Hollow as a home is so much
- 8:03Speaker 3: more than that nuclear family that was sort of fed
- 8:06Speaker 3: to us once upon a time, And that's the book
- 8:08Speaker 3: is really about what a family and a home is
- 8:13Speaker 3: and how and how we all define it for ourselves
- 8:15Speaker 3: and just what that home was and Stars Hollow and
- 8:18Speaker 3: how we all, like you said, I think the reason
- 8:20Speaker 3: it's too thing is because we all feel like it's
- 8:22Speaker 3: our home. Like when we're having a bad day, we
- 8:24Speaker 3: come home to Stars Hollow, or.
- 8:26Speaker 1: At least we wish it. Well, yeah, we're like our home. Fascinating,
- 8:32Speaker 1: absolutely fascinating. So you worked in editing for how long
- 8:37Speaker 1: before you got the idea to write this book?
- 8:41Speaker 3: I was an editor for about ten years, but it's
- 8:44Speaker 3: been I mean, I left in Oh gosh, I'm always wrong.
- 8:48Speaker 3: I want to say two thousand and seven, but I
- 8:51Speaker 3: bet you I'm off by a few years. And I've
- 8:52Speaker 3: been writing. My first published novel came out in two
- 8:57Speaker 3: thousand and five, I think, and I've been public since then,
- 9:01Speaker 3: so there's been a lot of overlap.
- 9:03Speaker 1: So these types of picture books aimed at all audiences,
- 9:08Speaker 1: but maybe specifically kids, that they're really popular. They sell
- 9:12Speaker 1: really well. So the publishing business is pretty happy about
- 9:16Speaker 1: that because they find so what doesn't sell well in
- 9:20Speaker 1: terms of celebrity books or you know, I know a
- 9:23Speaker 1: lot of celebrities they want to write novels, or they
- 9:26Speaker 1: you know, they want to write tell alls and all
- 9:28Speaker 1: this stuff. Do those things sell?
- 9:30Speaker 4: Yes? I think most It's a complicated equation.
- 9:37Speaker 3: Celebrity books do sell well, but you have to factor
- 9:40Speaker 3: in that they also get paid so much that you're
- 9:44Speaker 3: still probably taking a loss at the end of the day.
- 9:47Speaker 3: Most publishers, I think, are probably making most of their
- 9:51Speaker 3: money from their backlist, from the things like Catcher and
- 9:55Speaker 3: The Rye that are just selling over and over and
- 9:57Speaker 3: over again into.
- 9:57Speaker 4: Libraries and schools, and things like that.
- 9:59Speaker 3: Maybe not libraries because they're only buying the one or
- 10:01Speaker 3: two copies a year, but they're Yeah, they're selling off
- 10:05Speaker 3: of they're making their profits off of their backlist because
- 10:07Speaker 3: the things that generate the most money are often the
- 10:11Speaker 3: things that cost.
- 10:12Speaker 4: Them the most.
- 10:12Speaker 3: But the celebrity titles and the pop culture titles are
- 10:15Speaker 3: the ones that make the biggest splash these days, for
- 10:17Speaker 3: better or for worse.
- 10:19Speaker 1: So they have to have them, even though they're losing
- 10:21Speaker 1: money on They have to.
- 10:22Speaker 3: Have them because that they're always losing money on them.
- 10:25Speaker 3: It's really a question of the license costs a lot
- 10:28Speaker 3: of money. The author does not always cost a lot
- 10:32Speaker 3: of money in the and the art usually comes from
- 10:34Speaker 3: the licenser. It depends on the project. It's it's not
- 10:37Speaker 3: always it depends on the project.
- 10:41Speaker 1: Plus depending on the celebrity, you got to pay an
- 10:43Speaker 1: upfront bonus, which is probably problematic.
- 10:47Speaker 4: Yeah, are you are you looking for a ghostwriter, Scott
- 10:50Speaker 4: or a co writer? Is this?
- 10:52Speaker 1: I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know what they're right? Would
- 10:55Speaker 1: I write?
- 10:55Speaker 4: Well, that's what I'm for, that's my job.
- 11:04Speaker 1: This is a section we called You've been gilmoord uh
- 11:07Speaker 1: oh All right, you ready? What is your favorite episode
- 11:11Speaker 1: and why?
- 11:13Speaker 4: My favorite episode?
- 11:14Speaker 3: I'm a real sucker for a holiday themes. So I
- 11:19Speaker 3: love is the deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving where they go
- 11:22Speaker 3: to Lane's family and they have to do like four
- 11:25Speaker 3: Thanksgiving dinners. I love anything where they have to do
- 11:30Speaker 3: anything anything holiday related. Whenever there's a holiday lurking, I
- 11:33Speaker 3: make my family watch nothing but holiday themed episodes of
- 11:36Speaker 3: our favorite TV shows. So so I love that one.
- 11:40Speaker 3: I love the Festival of Living Art.
- 11:42Speaker 4: I love that one.
- 11:44Speaker 3: I obviously love Why don't have a spoiler alert? When
- 11:47Speaker 3: Lorelai proposes? That killed me?
- 11:50Speaker 1: I almost yeah, we already, uh we already we just
- 11:52Speaker 1: did that one.
- 11:53Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, no that that kills me every time.
- 11:56Speaker 1: Did you like that proposal? Did you like that she propos?
- 12:02Speaker 4: Did I like it? That's a good question. I mean,
- 12:05Speaker 4: I definitely was very moved by it. I wasn't I
- 12:08Speaker 4: didn't see.
- 12:08Speaker 3: It coming, and I was so upset at what was
- 12:11Speaker 3: going on with Rory.
- 12:12Speaker 4: I felt very.
- 12:16Speaker 3: I felt very protective of Lorelei in that moment, and
- 12:20Speaker 3: I really wanted her to have what she needed and
- 12:23Speaker 3: what she deserved, which I thought was luke. So I
- 12:27Speaker 3: liked it in that, I was like, Oh, good for you.
- 12:30Speaker 3: But I guess I would have liked I would have
- 12:34Speaker 3: liked her to have to be taken care of more
- 12:37Speaker 3: like to you know. But I think I think everything
- 12:40Speaker 3: in the end it worked out the way. I was
- 12:43Speaker 3: happy with the finale, let's put.
- 12:45Speaker 4: It that way.
- 12:47Speaker 1: I haven't a lot of.
- 12:47Speaker 3: The complaints that a lot of people have in terms
- 12:50Speaker 3: of how things were handled toward the end of the series,
- 12:55Speaker 3: but I understand what was going on.
- 12:59Speaker 1: Who's your favorite Gilmore Girls character?
- 13:03Speaker 3: That is a really tough question. I mean, I love
- 13:09Speaker 3: them all for so many different reasons. I think Laurelize
- 13:12Speaker 3: the one I associate the most with. And probably the
- 13:15Speaker 3: best compliment that I ever got as a writer was
- 13:18Speaker 3: when one of my editors told me that my manuscripts
- 13:21Speaker 3: are like a Gilmore Girls script and she feels like
- 13:24Speaker 3: she has to go look up all the pop culture references.
- 13:27Speaker 3: She said, it's like reading the note the liners from
- 13:30Speaker 3: the Gilmore Girls DVDs that she used to have. And
- 13:33Speaker 3: I didn't even know that that was a thing, but
- 13:35Speaker 3: it was so flattering. So but also, I mean, everyone's amazing,
- 13:40Speaker 3: Like Suki is so amazing and Lane.
- 13:42Speaker 4: It was just Adam Brodie, Come on, this cameo was fabulous.
- 13:47Speaker 1: So mm hmmm, is Luke the best match for Laurel?
- 13:51Speaker 4: I I think so, I think so.
- 13:54Speaker 1: I mean, is there any doubt? Yeah, I mean there's
- 13:58Speaker 1: some doubt, you have some doubt.
- 14:00Speaker 3: No, I just I get a little bit gas lit
- 14:03Speaker 3: by everyone else's questions, like I mean to me, yeah,
- 14:08Speaker 3: I mean, I was like, do you think so?
- 14:10Speaker 4: I hope so right?
- 14:12Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, I thought so. Who's your favorite boyfriend for Rory?
- 14:17Speaker 4: None of the above.
- 14:18Speaker 3: We were talking about this at breakfast. I think my
- 14:21Speaker 3: daughter was like Lane Lane, but I don't know. I
- 14:25Speaker 3: I think maybe Dean out of the out of the Dean,
- 14:29Speaker 3: Jess and Logan projecta, I would say Dean was maybe
- 14:36Speaker 3: the least problematic in his first iteration. But also I
- 14:41Speaker 3: would definitely definitely have fallen for Jess and Logan, even
- 14:45Speaker 3: though I don't think they were great for her.
- 14:46Speaker 4: In the long run.
- 14:47Speaker 1: Mm hmmmm hmm. Do you have a favorite season of
- 14:51Speaker 1: the series. I liked the.
- 14:55Speaker 3: Yale the early Yale years, so maybe like season four ish,
- 14:59Speaker 3: and I was happy with the way things were wrapped
- 15:03Speaker 3: up at the end of season seven, Like I was
- 15:06Speaker 3: glad that Luke and lore. I.
- 15:08Speaker 4: You know, I would have liked more confirmation.
- 15:10Speaker 3: I would have liked like another proposal, But but I
- 15:14Speaker 3: don't have a favorite.
- 15:16Speaker 4: It's too much. It's too hard to choose.
- 15:19Speaker 1: Okay, Uh, what was your favorite part of the series.
- 15:23Speaker 4: Favorite part of the series, do you know? I will
- 15:28Speaker 4: say I liked. It's not a favorite.
- 15:30Speaker 3: Again, it's too hard to choose, But I really liked
- 15:32Speaker 3: in the revival, the wave of the show handled Richard's absence.
- 15:38Speaker 4: I thought that that was.
- 15:39Speaker 3: Pretty impressive, and I really appreciated the fact that the
- 15:44Speaker 3: actors had a chance to mourn him. It's a weird
- 15:49Speaker 3: thing to say as a favorite, and it's not a favorite,
- 15:51Speaker 3: but I thought that that was like his absence was
- 15:54Speaker 3: really palpable and they acknowledged it.
- 15:56Speaker 4: So that was that was pretty impressive to me, right.
- 16:00Speaker 1: Okay, what is your favorite Gilmore Girls era era? If
- 16:07Speaker 1: you were to divide them up into eras, I guess seasons.
- 16:11Speaker 1: Maybe it's maybe, maybe it's what's your favorite season?
- 16:16Speaker 4: Well, I guess season. I liked.
- 16:22Speaker 3: I liked anything to do with hep Alien. I loved
- 16:25Speaker 3: when Lane went on her Christian tour with her rock band.
- 16:29Speaker 4: I loved I loved when Dean built Rory a car,
- 16:34Speaker 4: so the beginning of their relationship was great. But I
- 16:37Speaker 4: also loved when Jess came in and ruined that.
- 16:39Speaker 3: So you know that era, the Jess ruins everything between
- 16:44Speaker 3: Lauri and Dean, Rory and Dean, and when Luke and
- 16:46Speaker 3: Laura Lifers got together, I lost it. So that, yeah,
- 16:52Speaker 3: did not like when April came along.
- 16:53Speaker 4: That was the opposite of my favorites.
- 17:00Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well, look great talking to you. That's
- 17:03Speaker 1: all the time we have with you.
- 17:05Speaker 4: Thank you so long.
- 17:06Speaker 1: But it was it was a real blast. And uh,
- 17:10Speaker 1: your book is called Gilmore Girls at Home in Stars
- 17:13Speaker 1: Hollo by mccol ostro. Is that Ostro or.
- 17:18Speaker 4: Astro aus Stow?
- 17:22Speaker 3: Ah, you're in such good company, don't worry McCole austow.
- 17:28Speaker 1: Yeah, and so pick up a copy everybody. It's a fascinating,
- 17:35Speaker 1: fascinating book. We've had a wonderful time getting to know
- 17:38Speaker 1: you a little bit. And uh, thanks so much for
- 17:41Speaker 1: coming on for your time.
- 17:42Speaker 3: Thank you, and let me know when we're going to collaborate.
- 17:45Speaker 3: I'm right here.
- 17:46Speaker 1: Well let's do it. Yeah, yeah, let's collabse let's do it.
- 17:50Speaker 1: I'm getting idea. Okay, yeah, that'd be great, that'd be great.
- 17:55Speaker 1: I'm really interested. I did a go around once and
- 17:57Speaker 1: I never made a deal with anybody. Uh, but I
- 18:01Speaker 1: got some you know, fifty to fifty offers and some
- 18:04Speaker 1: ninety ten offers, and I just you know, nothing really
- 18:06Speaker 1: seemed to write for me. It wasn't the right book
- 18:09Speaker 1: in the whole thing. But yeah, so let's talk about yeah, yeah,
- 18:14Speaker 1: all right, cool, all right, all right, great, talking to
- 18:18Speaker 1: you all the best. I take care hey everybody, and
- 18:51Speaker 1: talk forget. Follow us on Instagram at I Am all
- 18:55Speaker 1: In Podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.