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USA Today Bestselling Romantasy Author Julie Hall x Main Chapter · Main Chapter

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, my book butterflies, and welcome to this week's episode of the Main Chapter Podcast.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Brianna, and if you haven't already, please be sure to like and subscribe so we can continue growing and spreading our love of books with the entire world.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Now, this time of year I love to call Fantasy Fall because it's the perfect time to bring all the fantasy and romancey books that you can.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's such a cozy time of year.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I just got time talking to Julie Hall, and her new book, The Secrets of Everlite, I think is perfect for this time of year.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: As follows our FMC Rowan, who is a Faye that lives in the slums, which is called a better fae, and she's actually an indentured servant and makes a living being a thief for her boss, and she wants nothing more than her freedom.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, one day this mysterious fae comes in and buys her contract off her boss, and she's given this opportunity to basically pose as this princess that no one knows what she truly looks like, and enter a competition that is competing for the prince's heart, but she's not there to sworn the prince and potentially become the next queen.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: She's actually there to investigate the other princesses and figure out which of them is actually an assassin who's been sent to kill the prince.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it is a mystery and a love story and just a great romantic.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was posed as Bridgerton leads the bachelor, and you can see those really fun elements in it as well.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: And Julie is such a fun person to talk to.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about her writing style, the plot, and super fun questions.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: I will say this is the most spoiler-heavy episode I've probably ever done.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: All the timestamps are right here where we talk about spoilers.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you have not read The Secrets of Everlite already, I highly advise you come back to this interview or proceed with caution based off of these timestamps because we do talk about the cliffhanger, we do talk about character depths, where there are a lot of plot twists in this book.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we talk about those as well.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: So proceed with caution.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: But all in all, this is a super fun interview that I sent for recording, and I hope you have so much fun listening to.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so let's go ahead and roll the tape.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Julie, welcome to the main chapter.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I am so excited to have you.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I really want to talk about the world building because when I was reading your book, it was surprisingly easy to follow everything, and that's my hardest thing with romanticity.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I feel like I'm really working to understand everything, but I understood the different fake kingdoms and political dynamics.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: So, where do you start when you are building the worlds in your books?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I wish I started from a really organized place.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: So in real life, I'm like type A organized.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a giant planner.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: I love to know everything, all of the options.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when I'm writing, I can't do it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: I tried it and it doesn't work.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so I usually just dive into a manuscript and then it all comes from there.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And there was definitely like whittling that had to be done.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm so glad to hear that you're saying that because one of my concerns with this book is the world is quite large.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Faye world in general has all of these different kingdoms, and then each of the kingdoms have a different princess and all of this.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was a lot of work was done to make sure that I was um clear and who was who.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the first draft of the book had I think 25, and we got it down to I think 16.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So in in the beginning, the world blew up too big, and then I had to shrink it down a little bit.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, so I'm really glad to hear that that it was accessible to you and that that you weren't um messing it up.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as where I come up with it or where it starts, is I just dive into a manuscript and see where it takes me.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I get a kind of a nebulous idea of what I want the story to be, and then the characters start appearing and popping out, and then I start flushing them out and and all of that.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but if I could choose, I would have had a lovely document beforehand, you know, with everything and all of the details on it, but I didn't.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: I can appreciate that because like you, I'm also like a type A person.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: But when I'm writing questions or prepping for an interview, I just start with like the first thing that comes to my mind and then I go from there and same thing.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'll I have 30 questions.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, okay, let me whittle this down to like 15.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not keeping them there for 90 minutes.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I could appreciate that, but I can't believe it was you originally 25 kingdoms because I was even taking mental notes when it was 16, trying to remember like which princess was who and who was getting sent home.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Was it like a logistical nightmare for you at all?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Trying to keep track of 16 kingdoms and making sure you were saying the correct princess when writing?
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit, yeah, it was, which is why again we whittled it down right in the beginning.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was 25, and my editor was like, no, let's get this down to a little bit of more manageable size, um, where the reader doesn't get lost, where you get to know a little bit of the different side characters.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Even if they're small, you want to know a little bit about their character.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: When there was 25, it was just too many of them.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so, um, but we changed names, we changed the kingdoms, we changed that.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was that was hard.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was this one was challenging to me on a logistical standpoint that I haven't had to like face in other books before or other series that I've done.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but also really cool because there's that richness in the world that made it feel more real to me and hopefully to the reader as well.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I could just picture like you writing with like sticky notes around you, being like Princess Willow, River Kingdom, Princess Shayla, Iron Kingdom.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was like, how was she keeping track of this all?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but talking also about the book, one of the big things that was pitched to me when I first was reading it was that it was Bridgerton Meets Bachelor.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I was wondering, were those shows inspiration at all for you when writing the book?
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Or did that comparison come later on?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, they it it really was.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when I get inspiration, I get this asked this as an author all the time.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're always asked, like, where does your inspiration come or what books inspire you?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I get more inspired, inspired by TVs and movie shows, or other way around, movies and TV shows than I do about books.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Books I just kind of enjoy.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I get my ideas from the other thing.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So the funny story behind this one was I was working on another book.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um, do you know what writing sprints are?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Does that has any other like you kind of like sit?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is it kind of like a Pomodoro thing where you write and then you take a break, write and then take a break.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly, right?
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of my favorite things to do is to use The Bachelor to do writing sprints because The Bachelor has so many commercials in it.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's like every three to seven minutes there's a commercial.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I will do if I'm having a hard time with a story, I will sit down with some series of The Bachelor and then do, and I can get like a couple thousand words done within one episode because there's so many breaks in it.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I had been binge watching a ton of The Bachelor because I'd been doing these writing sprints for days.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I had, and then at the same time, I've been watching Bridgerton too, and I had this dream about um, well, why don't they ever throw anybody on The Bachelor who's like his friend, who's then giving behind the scenes, which I still think would be a genius idea.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: They need to do a bachelor and have like a mole plucked in with all of the with all of the females.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's where the idea came from.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, but what if they were Faye?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then I love these Bridgerton vibes and regency, but you know, fantasy and all that.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, it very much did come from what I was reading the time.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually, or writing, watching while I was writing, I actually put that book down and wrote the first third within like a month.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had to side trace like put that down for a little bit and finish what I was working on.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: But that's actually never happened before.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: This was like probably the most inspired I was to write a story that I have ever been.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt like when I was writing, I could really feel the Bridgeton and Bachelor elements because I'm a loyal watcher of both of the shows.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like when she makes her debut on society and she's strolling through the park, I'm like, I can so easily picture this in my mind.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, or the group dates and the dynamics between the girls.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, this could easily be on ABC right now if we were in a magical, a magical world.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Reality shows are so much fun to watch to get just like real people dynamics, you know, how people interact.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, there's uh the real part of it is who knows, but it's just so much good drama that comes from it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, you can really get fun characters um from watching these type of shows and what people do and and all that outrageous stuff.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so yeah, I definitely like put it in a pot and shook it up, and then this is what came out.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Have you tried Love Island at all?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't, I haven't watched Love Island.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: I did my first full like Love Island season this summer, and I'm obsessed.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's a commitment.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: I I was never caught up.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I was binge watching like five or 10 episodes at a time.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: But if you are like a fan of like Bachelor Vergissing, because it's like that on steroids, because there's such a huge group dynamic, and my mom was like equally scandalized and obsessed because I got her to watch it with me.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I would definitely I would definitely recommend Love Island for your next writing spring because they have some good breaks.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have to put that on because they because I run out of bachelor, actually, right?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: They haven't, I was so upset when the bachelorette got canceled because I was like, I'm gonna get such good writing in, and then they canceled it.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, no, what am I gonna do?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I definitely recommend Love Island for your next source of inspiration because they're messy too in there.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: And the particular series are messy, it's a great time.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: But also going back to the world, we see Faye, but we also see werewolves and vampires.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a lot of creatures in the mix here.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Did you read a lot of vampires and werewolf books growing up?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, what a funny question.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I absolutely did.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So my first love for books actually was more of like the paranormal stuff.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, LJ Smith, who did who wrote like the vampire diaries and the secret circle.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, most people know the TV show, right?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I like read those books.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm dating myself so hardcore right now.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I read those books when I was a teenager.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was my first love of reading.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I did not like reading up until then.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was a bit of a slow reader too.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: It took me a while.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and yes, I vampires, werewolves, all of that stuff.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Faye was actually even later.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was more, you know, witches and ghosts and things like that.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and a lot of my other works are more like urban fantasy paranormal and dive into like almost like a Buffy.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was a huge Buffy fan too.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Buffy was a giant inspiration for my creativity and a lot of my a lot of my books and writing as well.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: She that's uh that's an OG all-time favorite TV show.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so anyway, yeah, the answer the short answer to that is yes.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I did not grow up doing like allow vampires and werewolves.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I actually didn't watch my first Twilight movie until a couple years ago, and I haven't read the books.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: The closest I've gotten into it was Ali Hazelwood books, where she's like the bride and mate, the Omega Verse.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And even then, I feel like that is like my limit.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So when I saw there were vampires and werewolves, and I was like, okay, we are stepping out of my comfort zone.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: I am owned the vampire and werewolf sphere.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's like a very slow, right?
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: This one is kind of a book.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's they're kind of talked about.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like slowly easing you into that world.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I did not dump you into it.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Which I appreciate because I hate when I'm just dumped into something and I'm like, oh my gosh, where do I go?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's there's things and there's teeth, but I appreciate that I'm eased in.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: So now I'm mentally prepped for the second book when we're when they're gonna have more of a role.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then also really big in this book is the wealth inequality and also indentured servitude.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Why did you want to make that such a big plot device that you explored in the secrets of Everlite?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good and big question.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was really nervous at actually going into this because that you have to handle it with such delicacy as well.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and you know, I my daughter is actually Ethiopian, so she's a person of color as well.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so some of these issues I I tread very carefully on, but I also feel like I see stuff.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I I certainly don't know what it's like at all.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: But from an outside perspective, I see some of the stuff that my daughter even goes through right now.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I think that one of the things that drew me to that is just the the perceptions you get of people in certain categories.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and of course, in the book, it's like very, you know, indentured servitude.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have highborn fay, you have that.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: But but beyond that, just looking at um what perceptions you might get of people and what they really are.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that the characters, all of all of the main characters have that going for them.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Rowan, the main character, and then Drive, the Neo, you have a surface level of what they are that's been defined by their socioeconomical level that is not true to who they are as people.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so kind of digging back those layers, but then also talking about what's different.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting into that actually a lot in book two of what some of the characters are perspective, their perspective of life and how it differs from the other characters based on how they were, how they were raised, what they what they came into contact with, and then also challenging their beliefs on, you know, what should change, what shouldn't change, what's what um all of those things are very complex and need to be dealt with very, very delicately.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then also in the realm of my biggest um the big the thing that I want to do through writing is really have people sit down and be entertained while they're reading it.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I don't want to take away from the entertainment of the book, too.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like slowly, gently weaving these these kind of truths in or these ways that might challenge how people believe without taking away the story from them and the enjoyment of the story.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: So because it's an important part of the book, but it didn't feel super heavy.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like we know there's like high stakes here, but it didn't feel like it was overcrowding the book, which is how I feel like you have to reach people.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's interesting how you're talking about real life inspiration, because even though it's magical and fay, it's interesting how life can or art can imitate life in the parallels we could pull.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it was really fascinating when exploring that in a magical world.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I look forward to seeing how it expands over across the rest of the series.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: But Rowan, she starts out as an endangered servant before going into this competition.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: I really liked her.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: She was this straight scrappy character, but she was really smart.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: When you were writing her, was there anything about her that surprised you the most?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh goodness.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's a great question.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: What surprised me about Rowan?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, actually.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um yeah, I wish I had some like really great answer on that on what surprised me, but no, she kind of stuck in her lane.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like Rowan really behaved really well.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: If anything, I would say that it was the guys that maybe stepped out a few times and showed me some things that I wasn't prepared for.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, yeah, I told said you in the beginning, told you in the beginning that I wasn't a plotter and I'm not, but what I do do before I start is get a real good feel for the main character, especially the female main character.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: The guys sometimes develop a little bit more.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: So Rowan was pretty well fleshed out in my head on who she was and how she thought and all of those things, um, you know, right from the get-go of the book, and she kind of stayed true to herself.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, we like you knew her, so there were no surprises.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt like she didn't do anything too unpredictable, where like she stepped outside her comfort zone and she fought for things, but it was all like, oh, this feels like Rowan.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: There wasn't anything too surprising.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: But then speaking of surprises, you're definitely right with the boys.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so this is where we kind of get into a little bit of like a spoiler, big spoiler is originally we have Neo and we have Prince Dryden.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was set up to almost be a love triangle, and in surprise, they're the same person.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, what was your inspiration behind doing this inside of that traditional love triangle we see in so many romanticity books?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, like love triangles get such a bad rap these days.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: People like, like sometimes really hate the love triangle.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: I am always looking for interesting ways to do tropes.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how do you how do you do?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is one of my experiences with that is how do I do a love triangle but kind of flip it and not really have it a love triangle?
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: So even talking to people, I'm like, it's a love triangle, but it's not.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then they say, is it a Y choose?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's not a Y choose.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, how do you even?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I just tell people it's kind of a love triangle and like leave it at that.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but yeah, I I thought that it was a really interesting twist.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: I know that a lot of the readers are gonna be thinking that Neo is Dryden until they see Dryden, right?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I had that with my beta readers and stuff.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, oh, I totally thought it was the same person, but then she showed up to the to the introductory ball and it was like a completely different person.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that met really threw me.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, halfway through the book, you do find it's the same person.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that there's gonna be for me, I thought that that was a lot of fun.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of wish that I could like sit on people's shoulders when they were reading it and be like, hee hee hee, you don't know what's coming, but yeah, but it's coming now.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny because when I thought it was going to be a love triangle because it did take me by surprise.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was debating, I was like, okay, who am I gonna root for?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because even if you were seeing more Neo's personality, I'm a typical romanticy reader and I'm like, but Neo's got blonde hair and Dryden's got dark hair.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I love a dark-haired Moody Prince.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's my weakness.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's almost like am I shallow for thinking this?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I know a lot of readers feel the same way.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, did you have like that blonde like protagonist that like people like struggle to love in mind when you were making like Neo versus Dryden and developing what they physically look like?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's so funny you should bring that up because people that is a hundred percent true.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I laugh so hard when you see like the TikTok videos and the Instagram reels when they're talking about how they like, ew, they're blonde.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I don't like it's so it's it's a real thing.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I like my dark-haired guys too.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, when I was writing it, I was like, oh, this is they're gonna have a hard time.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, I set up the book for you to fall in love with Neo first.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then you Dryden takes a little bit longer to get used to, right?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I I in my mind, I still kind of keep them separated a little bit because as Neo, he shows her different things.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then as Dryden, he shows her different things.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as I'm writing this, this second book, and this is an utterly spoiler, you guys not for the second book, but if anybody is still here and hadn't read the book, you completely ruined it.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um but merging, I'm having to do much more merging of those two sides of that character in the second book, which is which is really interesting.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this is this is the book where they really do get to know each other a lot more deeply.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but yeah, I mean, I totally made them physically different to set up that dichotomy of the reader being like the blonde versus the dark-haired guy.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: But then the twist is it's the same, so you get both.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Fair enough.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: I do have a habit of falling in love with all of the main characters.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I just wrote a trilogy um that had a love triangle in it as well.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: But then the last book is the guy that didn't get her, he gets his own story.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I do like that much.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love and I and as a reader, I get anxiety over who to pick.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where love triangles get a bad breath.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, is that people get anxiety that they're gonna fall, like they're gonna like the wrong with the other one, and she's gonna pick the other guy.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, you know what?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna fix that in this one, and I'm gonna have both guys have their happy ending because I love them both too.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, love triangles can be tricky.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: My very first interview for this podcast was for Netflix's finding her edge.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I read the book, and in the book there was a love triangle, but it was so obvious that she should be with Freddie, and then they completely changed it into show where they made Braden like the better pick, but then she still ends up with Freddie, at least in this season.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And everyone's like, What?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's it's interesting to see how love triangles used to dominate like the 2010s.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now people are kind of getting over it.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, but Dryden and Rowan, they have such a great chemistry.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have like a favorite scene writing between them?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you had to pitch to a hardcore romance reader, you should read my book because XYZ, XYZ scene happens, what would it be?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I my favorite scene to write, I think, was when she sneaks into his room.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is like one of the emotional payoffs, too.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: You've been waiting a while.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: I made the readers wait kind of a long time to get that emotional payoff, right?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was this is a fruit slow burn, in my opinion.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when she sneaks into his room because she thinks that one of the princesses is going to come to assassinate him and uh ends up in his bed.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's my that's one of my favorite scenes.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then my other favorite scene, I think, is when they were in that cabin and they'd both been shot.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, well, Dryden was like a pin cushion and shot with arrow.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: But then she finds out how she's injured too and is like, let me take care of you.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Those are just like that's like a stereotypical, beautiful, romanticy moment, you know, where let me tend to your wounds and they both get to do that for each other that kind of made my heart melt.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, those are both really good scenes.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: I also really liked the scene towards Ian where she was having the panic attack after being in the dungeons for so long and she had like the dark comforted her.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh my heart.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: I was kicking and giggling my feet during during that one.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so going into a little bit of a darker note, we have a very significant character depth that happens.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Is it hard for you to choose which characters you're gonna kill off?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because as the reader, it's always hard to see that sacrifice, but what is it like coming from the writer's side?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, it is.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: I have a really hard time killing characters off.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do not do it lightly.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do not do it that often, actually.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: This series, I'm not gonna lie, has more deaths um uh than I typically write into my books.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, no, it was it was really hard because that character, too, are we allowed to say or say we I'll I'll have the spoiler disclaimer.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay, okay.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about Shayla, right?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yes.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she was such a great side side character, such a great found family.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Rowan found a sister in her.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, she was so amazing.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: And and I didn't realize that I was going to have to kill her until we got pretty close, actually.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was not because I'm not a huge planner, right?
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: It was not in forecasted from the beginning of the book.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: It was when we got into the book or maybe halfway through, and I thought, oh my gosh, I have to kill this character who I who I love, who I would love to continue in the series, but I I just feel like her death is necessary, uh necessary for the book and to to move it forward and to give some emotional depth depth to the other characters.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, that one was hard on me.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a couple that are coming in the next book too that are really hurt.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like to hear that.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't take character deaths lightly.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: They they hurt.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, they're they're as an author, I think that lease you hear.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, authors sometimes being like giggling about killing their characters off.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm never one of those.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: I really, I agonize over it, especially since in my mind too, my mind goes in different directions.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And all of my side characters, I feel like I could write full stories for.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I kill one off, I'm like, I just killed that story.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now I I don't typically write all the side character stories.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, but um, but by the time I get so far into it, I know those characters so intimately.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and side characters are a big deal to me.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm they got found family, and so I don't just throw characters in lightly.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: They all have, you know, a specific plan and purpose and personality and are great for all their own reasons.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that found family trope, I feel like is so important in romanticity.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Shayla's death kind of reminded me, even though it's a completely different of Adina's death and powerless.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you read the powerless trilogy.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: The Sarvest.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I do too, but the whole best friend dying.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then I don't know if you read Adina's novella.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: No, you'll get no, I'm not going to.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, like I read it on a plane, which was so bad because I was like sobbing and I was flying alone.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was like next to a stranger, like in the window seat crying.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, I am a happily ever after girl.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot read it.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I used to, I don't do this anymore, but when I used to go to the bookstore, I would flip to the back of the book to make sure that the bank didn't die.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I actually really love the happily ever after era we're in right now because most stories don't happen that way.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still mad at Veronica Roth.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but so you mean it divergent.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: I in fact I call it Veronica Rothing right now when people do stuff.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, did you Veronica Roth that character?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because she'll ever watch me meet her someday and I'll have to be like, I'm sorry I don't like you because you did that.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the main characters, I like the happily ever after we don't die.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we don't die stuff.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, reading that individual story, oh my gosh, no, knowing that she like dies this brutal death and like, oh, forget it.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then you see it from like the perspective of like her love interest.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's yeah, it's kind of psychological torture to make that.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: But not unless you can bring them back to life.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: See, here's the thing we write fantasy or paranormal.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you can bring characters back to life.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm okay with that because then you get you know that the emotional angst, but then you get the payoff.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um but it's yeah, I feel really strongly about this.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I also have Kit's novella on my shelf, but I have not read that one yet.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like that'll be just me interesting because his character art is interesting to see with his madness, but that's another, that's another story.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: But going back to the secrets of Everlite, there is a lot of foreshadowing and Easter eggs that happen.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: What is your approach when you're trying to drop hints?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: And do you ever fear that you're gonna expose something too quickly or make something too obvious?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, of course.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer to that is yes.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am worried about both of those things.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, especially since when I'm again not plotting, so sometimes I'm dropping stuff that I'm like, I think I'm gonna do something with that in the future, but I'm not sure.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So by the end of the story, when I'm turning in the final draft, I have to go back and make sure I have plans for that, right?
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's where I get stretched with if I dropped an Easter egg of something that's gonna happen in another book, I have to actually have a plan for that.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but yes, of course I I worry that I'm going to be too vague or that I'm going to not be vague enough in the characters.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the the I don't want the comment from the reader that um is, you know, oh, I knew it was gonna happen the entire time.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: That one hurts my like author soul, right?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: But then you do want to drop stuff so that there's an aha moment that when everything gets revealed, you can see those breadcrumbs that I left behind.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's delicate.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's delicate.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: Were there any like Easter eggs that you wrote and then decided to edit out because you were like, oh, that's too obvious.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give it away.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, oh, now you're you're challenging my.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_01: I know it's probably been like a solid year, year and a half.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm writing the second book right now.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like deep into the second book.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And and when you are saying that, I'm thinking about something that I wrote into the first chapter that I need to cut out because I'm not gonna use it anymore.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I like added this magical relic, and I was like, I'm well into the book right now, and I'm like, that's not part of it.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: I need to go back and yank that out because I didn't actually end up using it.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I can't really remember with the first one.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: We did go back and do a lot of editing.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know I put in, um, I put in a couple things that weren't there before um to give the reader a little bit more of a heads up or or less of a heads up and hopefully more of a oh, okay, I see how that made sense now.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, back there.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, well, as we wrap up on The Secrets of Everlite, I need to ask about this gut-wrenching cliffhanger.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, first we start out with Dryden and Rowan talking, and she tells him basically for his own good that he she does not love him.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: So he'll be more open to letting her leave and have her freedom.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: When she says, I don't love you, do you think he actually believes her, or he's just kind of resigning to the fact that she wants to go and there's nothing he can do about it?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, um, no, I think he believes her.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that and I mean it plays when they re-reunite in the next book, because they do, you know, um, the next book is very heavy on on the both of them.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're separated for a while, and then I kind of do a uh time pop um so that uh you don't have to read a ton of stuff that happens with them apart.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's definitely kind of a sticking point.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I think that it's more of a he was so hurt by the rejection that that he believed it.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like if he was thinking from a place that wasn't so hurt by her rejection, I think he would be able to see through it.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: But him getting past that rejection, him getting past feeling like she were didn't want to be with him for whatever reason, or he wasn't enough, I think is probably is a little bit of the conflict that's going on in the second book.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but in a delicious way.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: That hurts my heart.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, these two characters can't stay apart.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that hurts my heart because I really was like hoping you would be like, no, he doesn't, he he's just like letting her do her thing, but dang, he really, he really believes it.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: I will say he believes it, but it doesn't stop him from okay.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'll that makes sense.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'll take that.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like a somebody who is hurt and has a is having a hard time staying past the hurt, but is going to do move heaven and hell for this character.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you see him do that in the next book, which to me I'm I'm probably giving way too much away.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm like I'm in the middle of this book.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're like the first person I can talk to really about a lot of this stuff.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I know, right?
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: So honored.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: For me, her her being pursued was really important because of who she was, because of where she came from, because of what her hangups are, because of who he is, right?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: The reason she doesn't want to or doesn't think she can be with them is because of who he is and who she is.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so I really felt strongly that their needed to be, she needed to be strongly pursued.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and you know, Dryden needed to show his character, and I think that he does both beautifully, and it's been so much fun to write.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: This next book's more of a quest.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're not in the Ember Kingdom, they're all over Valoria.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's been a lot of fun to write.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: So well, that perfectly answers my question of if there's anything you can tease, because I know you generally have to keep things.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: I already like just told you everything.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then my last question is we see that for the at least the plot is the cliffhanger, she gets kidnapped.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: How do you decide when to stop?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, like this is a good stopping point before having to start the next book.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, when I was like, the readers will hate this.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: I did hate it.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's more of a I felt like I closed up the big um, you know, the overarching conflict that was going on in The Secrets of Everlight is this courtship season that they have.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: These all these princesses coming very bachelor-esque, Bridgetin style, but one of the princesses is trying to kill the prince, and then she's undercover trying to figure out which one it is, right?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: All of that gets wrapped up.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: You find out why it's happening, you find out, you know, what the repercussions of that are.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I felt like that story was wrapped, their story is not wrapped, and then the bigger story wasn't wrapped.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: So when I felt like I could have, I could have ended it, I think probably right after that happened, rather than putting the next few chapters, next couple chapters, or the next maybe chapter, I can't really remember.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: But I wanted to give you a tease of what's gonna happen next.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I want the reader to be excited about where the story's going.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if I had just ended it right after that happened with kind of maybe more of an ambiguous, oh, will they won't lay?
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna get together?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it would have been as exciting as knowing, okay, oh shoot, she's kidnapped now.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: The the stakes are still are still high.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that are all those are all my questions related to the secrets of Everlite.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: We have a few minutes left.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I always like to end with some fun questions.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: And something that I ask nearly every interview is I like to ask authors, what is their least favorite trope to write or to read?
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like something they can never see themselves writing.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times people tell me unplanned pregnancy.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_01: Last week I got friends to lovers because people were like, they're there the whole time.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean you're suddenly attracted to them?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: The one of the most unique answers I got, someone was like, I hate when she's living her life and it suddenly gets cancer.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it could be those are all, yes, those are all awful.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: My husband and I laugh about the um surprise we're related one.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh god.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Surprise, you know, we're like, that's the worst.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're like in Star Wars, they did it.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: And um, anyway, I think that that one's really funny because that's that would be awful.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're, you know, I was what there was a TV show years ago called The Mist, I think.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And there were these two, these two teenagers who were in love, and then you find out they're half siblings, and I'm like, ew, yeah, no, that's not that's that's awful.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: They've kissed, yeah.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, another one that I don't love, and I'm probably gonna get a ton of hate for this because it's super popular, but I will be honest that I will never write it.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: I am so into like OTP, true love, one person, the why choose.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wrap my brain around it.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: And there's, I'm not throwing shade or even like hate to it.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is totally fine.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: But in my mind, I'm such a like Disney child of the you know 80s and 90s Disney that I'm like, no, there has to be one.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: And she they fall in love and they live happily ever after.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And my brain can't encompass this, it's probably as close to that as I can get, right?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: My mind, Dryden is kind of a couple different people.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so this is probably the closest I will ever get.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I get asked that question a lot.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna write a Y choose?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, no, because my brain can't handle it.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: My brain is not like I don't like wide choosing.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I've ever read a Y choose, actually.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And oh my gosh, OTP.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: I have not heard the phrase OTP probably since high school.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for bringing me back to that.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like well, I was like, what's that mean to get?
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, one true pair, yes.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I know my daughter would be like, Mom, you're being so cringy.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I have a 14-year-old who tries to keep me up.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: She told me that I'm no longer allowed to say sus.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, that is so cringe, it's so out.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so she teaches me the new, some of the new stuff, um, but not all of it because she likes to be able to talk and code to her friends.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you know it's up to us kids to teach to teach their parents what uh what the new slang is, whether they like it or not.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: My mom learned the cuss word dead ass for the first time.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, she hates it, but I was like, people say it.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: And she was like, Don't say it.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like it.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that's hilarious.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's hilarious.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have learned to stop using it in my books because my first series, I use slang words that are so outdated right now.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like they're just like, I can't even, I need to go through and pull those things out.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like peeps, I think I use and stuff.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Yeah, it's hard to like when you're reading a romantic scene and then it's like dated with like the modern language or like a couple of years ago because it just takes you out of it a little bit.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: But so it's I will say it's easier with like this.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Is I'm right, this is kind of like a horror uh historical romantic.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: So you're not gonna use those.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's easier with my urban fantasy paranormal stuff.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's set in a present day, right?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's more normal to use like a colloquialism slang or whatever.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so this one was easier because I was like, nobody would say any of those words.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's nice.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: That's nice.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so my second to last question is you have all these kingdoms.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: If you were in the Secrets of Everlight, if you could choose one kingdom to be the princess of, which would it be and why?
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, what a fantastic question! I wish I had had it beforehand because I would have like looked at all of the kingdoms, right?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: And thought which one I know.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to give you an answer.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um solely because I've spent a lot of time, and this is another like little teaser for the next book.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've spent a lot of time in this kingdom thinking about what it would be like with the Bloom Kingdom, which is primrose and kingdom.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: There, the next book has a a decent amount of time in that kingdom, and so I've had a really fun time um like showing you what it would look like in that kingdom.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so, anyway, that's my cheater answer because I haven't given as much given as much thought.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: But now I'm gonna go and like look at all of them and think about I love flowers, so the black kingdom would probably be my answer as well.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And my last question to end our time together is by the time this interview comes out, the book will be out in the world, people will be reading it.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: What do you hope they feel or take away when they are reading The Secrets of Everlite?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: I really just hope for like a good time.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I think I said this earlier on in the interview.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like one of my goals as an author is just to entertain people.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: I consider myself more of a storyteller, even than a writer.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you can read the book and enjoy it and feel we'll get an epic hangover.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love book hangovers too.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: But if you read it and enjoy it, like that would just make my little author heart so happy because what I'm here to do is to give people a little bit of an escape for a few hours into a different world that would be really fun to live in, but that they, you know, can read from the safety of their own couch.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure so many people will love the book.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: I love the book.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Go be the escape.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: I love reading fantasy in fall.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this is coming out at the perfect time for the little fall fantasy that I always say.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: But thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: I so, so enjoyed our conversation.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for listening.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you enjoyed that.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to read The Secrets of Everly if you haven't already.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you listen to this interview in the full, I hope you already read it.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_01: But regardless, I'm so excited that you're here.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited for the rest of the series.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to follow Julius and we can talk about all the updates that are to come.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you have a great part of the fall and a great weekly butterflies.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you next time.