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Fall Cozy Energy—A Sneak Peek at Upcoming Books · Reality Writes

• 0:05
  Ellie Alexander: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Reality Rights.
• 0:08
  Ellie Alexander: I am author Ellie Alexander, and this is the podcast where we give you a behind-the-scenes look at all things writer-ish, bookish, and whatever else is on our mind.
• 0:17
  Ellie Alexander: And I am here with the tech guy.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are back for another episode.
• 0:26
  Ellie Alexander: It is technically uh summer almost, but we're gonna do a look ahead into fall.
• 0:32
  Ellie Alexander: We're gonna talk about fall book trends.
• 0:34
  Ellie Alexander: We're gonna talk about some books that I have coming up, we're gonna talk about some of the inspiration behind the fall reads that are coming out.
• 0:41
  Ellie Alexander: And yeah, we're we're just gonna really embrace fall, even though it's June.
• 0:46
  Tech Guy: So not quite Christmas in July, but we'll take fall in June first as a lead up to that, right?
• 0:52
  Tech Guy: Yeah.
• 0:53
  Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
• 0:53
  Tech Guy: Love it.
• 0:54
  Ellie Alexander: Well, and the way that fall works with traditional publishing and the publishing industry in general is fall really kicks off in mid-August.
• 1:02
  Ellie Alexander: Uh, so if you are looking for those cozy, you know, flannels and a pumpkin spice candle, that's all gonna start hitting the shelves in mid-August because then the holiday season really kicks in by mid-October.
• 1:17
  Ellie Alexander: So there's this really interesting window from August until early October where it is all about fall coziness.
• 1:25
  Tech Guy: Interesting.
• 1:26
  Tech Guy: Yeah.
• 1:26
  Tech Guy: And I have noticed in going into bookstores over the past couple of months, um, well, the the last year really, I've noticed that there are there seem to be a lot more fall-themed books as of the past few years.
• 1:42
  Tech Guy: Why is that?
• 1:43
  Ellie Alexander: Yeah, well, I mean, I think we can thank the darlings, the readings, readers out there.
• 1:47
  Ellie Alexander: This is one way that readers really do shape and influence the industry and what's happening in the broader world of publishing, because I think readers have been craving those comfort reads, and fall is such obviously, it's already my favorite season.
• 2:03
  Ellie Alexander: If you didn't know that already, darlings, sorry for the spoiler, but I am a fall girly at heart.
• 2:08
  Ellie Alexander: But there's something so comforting about curling up with a reed and a hot cup of cocoa, and maybe, you know, there's a the start of a fire and you've got the scent of crisp leaves in the air.
• 2:20
  Ellie Alexander: So it already invokes all of the cozy season.
• 2:23
  Ellie Alexander: And then what's really happened over the last few years, as as more and more readers are seeking out those books, then publishing kind of catches up.
• 2:31
  Ellie Alexander: And both indie publishers and traditional publishers are like, oh, wait, we need to meet this moment and get in on this trend.
• 2:38
  Ellie Alexander: I don't know if you can actually call it a trend.
• 2:40
  Ellie Alexander: I suspect that we're gonna see a big push for fall for the foreseeable future, honestly.
• 2:48
  Tech Guy: Oh, you think so?
• 2:49
  Tech Guy: You think they're just gonna continue?
• 2:51
  Tech Guy: This will be a thing.
• 2:52
  Tech Guy: Like, people want their fall.
• 2:54
  Tech Guy: Give them their fall.
• 2:56
  Ellie Alexander: I know.
• 2:56
  Ellie Alexander: I mean, weigh in, darlings.
• 2:58
  Ellie Alexander: Tell us in the comments.
• 2:59
  Ellie Alexander: I'd I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.
• 3:01
  Ellie Alexander: But I don't, I don't see that trend disappearing anytime in the next five to ten years, certainly.
• 3:07
  Ellie Alexander: And what you're seeing with fall in particular is a lot of genre mashups.
• 3:12
  Ellie Alexander: So, for example, cozy rom-coms, cozy fantasy, cozy mystery, obviously, is a big one.
• 3:20
  Ellie Alexander: Anything that kind of embraces all of those lovely vibes that I'm talking about.
• 3:26
  Ellie Alexander: And you can really see it in the cover design too, because when you look at the fall section, you're gonna get all of the autumnal colors.
• 3:35
  Ellie Alexander: You are gonna see a lot of flannels, you're probably gonna see some kind of like not rusted, but like historic truck with pumpkins spilling out the back, maybe a pumpkin patch, a lovely autumn field, anything like that.
• 3:50
  Ellie Alexander: So you instantly know from the cover, like, oh, okay, I know what I'm going in here for.
• 3:54
  Tech Guy: I just want to know if this many fall books is going to mean that coffee shops are gonna start rolling back the date that uh or pushing up, I should say, the date that they're rolling out their pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin themed drinks.
• 4:08
  Ellie Alexander: I mean, yeah, and the pumpkin themed drinks come out in August.
• 4:12
  Ellie Alexander: And so there's a reason that the book market is matching what's happening in like the food industry too.
• 4:17
  Ellie Alexander: And we've talked about it before, especially living in California for the last few years, because it's so surreal and strange to go in a coffee shop when it is 85 and pure sun out, and they're like, oh, pumpkin spice is in.
• 4:29
  Ellie Alexander: Are you ready?
• 4:30
  Ellie Alexander: Uh, I guess so.
• 4:33
  Tech Guy: Well, you know, and I think uh it's interesting that the books have the theme of fall has caught on so well in books because I know pumpkin spice in particular is a pretty it's a a uh it evokes an emotional response in people.
• 4:48
  Tech Guy: You either love it or you hate it.
• 4:50
  Tech Guy: There's really no in-between.
• 4:52
  Ellie Alexander: There is no in-between whatsoever.
• 4:54
  Ellie Alexander: No.
• 4:55
  Ellie Alexander: So today we're gonna talk about two upcoming fall new books that I have releasing in the next few months.
• 5:01
  Ellie Alexander: And I want to give you the backstory and a little teaser about both of them, and then um we can talk about anything else fallish.
• 5:08
  Tech Guy: Sounds great.
• 5:09
  Ellie Alexander: The first book coming out is titled A Fall to Remember, and it releases on September 1st.
• 5:16
  Ellie Alexander: This is another cozy rom com.
• 5:19
  Ellie Alexander: Now, I say rom-com because my spice level is super light, as in there's no spice.
• 5:26
  Ellie Alexander: You know what I'm talking about with spice, right?
• 5:28
  Tech Guy: Not pumpkin spice.
• 5:31
  Ellie Alexander: Not pumpkin spice.
• 5:32
  Ellie Alexander: Well, I don't know, maybe pumpkin spice.
• 5:34
  Ellie Alexander: Or any darlings.
• 5:37
  Ellie Alexander: I know we have a lot of mystery readers in our mix here.
• 5:40
  Ellie Alexander: So if you're not familiar with the romance genre, there are spice levels.
• 5:45
  Ellie Alexander: I think most darlings are probably, you know, well aware of this, but you could have zero spice all the way to super hot and spicy, which is gonna tell you what sort of um intimate scenery you're gonna get, shall we say, in the book.
• 6:00
  Ellie Alexander: And in mine, there's going to be none.
• 6:02
  Ellie Alexander: Maybe like a sweet romantic kiss, and then everything else happens behind closed doors.
• 6:08
  Tech Guy: So that's a lot like what you do with your cozy mysteries then.
• 6:13
  Tech Guy: The elevated stuff takes place off page.
• 6:17
  Ellie Alexander: Exactly.
• 6:17
  Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
• 6:18
  Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
• 6:19
  Ellie Alexander: Now, for you with uh your fantasy that you read, is there are there spice readings?
• 6:25
  Ellie Alexander: I never really pay attention.
• 6:26
  Tech Guy: I mean, there are.
• 6:27
  Tech Guy: I don't the the the particular stuff that I read isn't very spicy.
• 6:32
  Tech Guy: Uh it tends to be more sci-fi and and you know, fantasy mixed in.
• 6:37
  Tech Guy: But there are definitely there's fantasy.
• 6:39
  Tech Guy: Well, I mean, you've probably seen the covers, right?
• 6:41
  Tech Guy: Um uh so the fantasy genre in particular, things can get a little racy.
• 6:48
  Ellie Alexander: Racey reads.
• 6:49
  Ellie Alexander: We're here for it.
• 6:50
  Ellie Alexander: Uh yeah.
• 6:51
  Ellie Alexander: So for my for a fault to remember, it is just like a sweet rom-com.
• 6:56
  Ellie Alexander: What I'm drawn to as a writer are the emotional arcs, the idea of weaving in multiple stories.
• 7:04
  Ellie Alexander: So everything that I've written so far in branching into this sort of cozy rom-com space, I feel like is an easy crossover for any of you, darlings, who may have read my mysteries and enjoyed them or my standalone Lost Coast Literary.
• 7:19
  Ellie Alexander: It's all in the same sort of vein and style.
• 7:22
  Ellie Alexander: I can't separate out who I am as a writer.
• 7:25
  Ellie Alexander: It would be really hard for me to write something that didn't have a touch of coziness.
• 7:30
  Ellie Alexander: Everything ends up having a touch of food.
• 7:32
  Ellie Alexander: This book in particular has all kinds of fall food embedded in it.
• 7:38
  Ellie Alexander: And then it's a love story that involves two different couples and their stories weave together, which is so fun to do and so different for my brain because my brain has been super trained on get to a body, not that kind of body, get to a dead body, solve the crime, and close the case.
• 7:59
  Tech Guy: Yeah.
• 8:00
  Tech Guy: So again, for the listeners out there, nobody.
• 8:04
  Tech Guy: Nobody, no crime.
• 8:05
  Tech Guy: Uh nobody, no crime.
• 8:07
  Tech Guy: This is because that was a problem that uh uh like I think there was with Lost Coast Literary, especially, right?
• 8:15
  Tech Guy: You um had written so many cozy mysteries up until that point that I think some people went into that thinking that it would be a cozy mystery, and it wasn't.
• 8:23
  Tech Guy: And this is a rom com.
• 8:25
  Tech Guy: So rom-com.
• 8:27
  Tech Guy: Uh yeah.
• 8:28
  Tech Guy: Fall com fall-themed rom com.
• 8:32
  Ellie Alexander: Fall-themed rom com.
• 8:33
  Ellie Alexander: So this book takes place at ha at Half Moon Bay, which is a real place, and it takes place during the annual pumpkin festival, which is actually also a real festival.
• 8:45
  Ellie Alexander: And when you think pumpkin festival, you know, my initial idea behind that was like, oh, you go through a sweet little pumpkin patch and you're trying to find like the biggest pumpkin in the patch.
• 8:57
  Ellie Alexander: Oh no, this pumpkin wayoff involves bringing in semis and like cranes to lift the pumpkins.
• 9:04
  Ellie Alexander: And people come from all over California.
• 9:07
  Ellie Alexander: And I find it so fascinating because some of the people who compete in the pumpkin way off are professional farmers, obviously.
• 9:14
  Ellie Alexander: But then some of them, like it's just sort of their hobby.
• 9:17
  Ellie Alexander: They're babying these giant pumpkins that end up coming in at thousands of pounds in their like backyard.
• 9:23
  Ellie Alexander: I don't know who has a backyard big enough for that, actually, but it's wild.
• 9:28
  Tech Guy: Um, these are pumpkins that you would have to carve with a chainsaw.
• 9:33
  Tech Guy: Um there's a this is not, you're not pulling out a steak knife or those little orange pumpkin carving pattern kits that you always see showing up in the stores around Halloween time.
• 9:44
  Tech Guy: They would not work on these pumpkins.
• 9:46
  Tech Guy: These pumpkins are the size of cars in many cases.
• 9:50
  Ellie Alexander: As is always the case when I'm working on a new book, we go do research trips.
• 9:55
  Ellie Alexander: So we were in Half Moon Bay, and there was this lovely uh in in the book, I call it a green grocer because I like that concept of sort of the idea of like a boutique y grocery store.
• 10:05
  Ellie Alexander: So not your average, like big box grocery store, but we're thinking something that has like a sweet little deli counter and a coffee area, and they're selling beautiful blooms from the local market, and then they're importing pastas and wines, and it's very boutique and specialty.
• 10:23
  Ellie Alexander: And that really does exist in Half Moon Bay.
• 10:25
  Ellie Alexander: And the town of Half Moon Bay is so sweet and charming and walkable, and then you're right on the coastline too.
• 10:31
  Ellie Alexander: So it's such a stunning location for something that's fallen, maybe not expected, because you don't necessarily think of the California coastline as being the hub for like a big pumpkin festival.
• 10:43
  Ellie Alexander: At least I didn't when we first moved here.
• 10:45
  Tech Guy: No, that was a surprise for sure.
• 10:47
  Tech Guy: And the grocery store that you're referring to there in Half Moon Bay is amazing too.
• 10:51
  Tech Guy: It just uh has aisles and aisles.
• 10:53
  Tech Guy: Because you think of fall, you think, you know, preserves and and canned jarred, you know, goods and and foods and stuff, and they have it all.
• 11:02
  Tech Guy: And it it's just you can't help but not think of fall when you go in that grocery store because it there's just so many things to choose from.
• 11:11
  Tech Guy: And uh I wanted to take a lot more home than we did.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_02: You could even say it's easy to fall in love with it.
• 11:21
  Tech Guy: Oh boy.
• 11:22
  Tech Guy: You some people, some people could say that that's uh yikes.
• 11:32
  Tech Guy: I don't think anybody's coming here for the for the puns.
• 11:35
  Tech Guy: Maybe, maybe, you never know.
• 11:37
  Ellie Alexander: I mean, they know me as a right, as a pun, a punster.
• 11:42
  Ellie Alexander: Okay, so the way that this book came to be was that a few years ago, I had seen this video that went viral on Instagram that a woman shared of her and her mom taking a trip to Portugal.
• 11:59
  Ellie Alexander: And she shared the videos and the photos that her mom took on the trip.
• 12:05
  Ellie Alexander: And it was chef's kiss, no notes.
• 12:08
  Ellie Alexander: So instead of the lovely like rivers and lakes and stunning hillsides of Portugal, we see her mom's like toenail and the back of her head, or like a stranger's butt.
• 12:20
  Ellie Alexander: Like it's just so classic.
• 12:23
  Tech Guy: It was uh definitely you could see what her mom had intended to take a picture of, usually in the background.
• 12:34
  Tech Guy: But for whatever reason, every time she went to take a picture, she moved the camera.
• 12:39
  Tech Guy: And by the time the shutter, you know, on her phone, I'm assuming she was using her phone, but it regardless, by the time the shutter closed and the picture was actually taken, she was pointing the camera somewhere else.
• 12:52
  Tech Guy: And so things were, you know, very blurred.
• 12:55
  Tech Guy: Um, a couple of times she was taking a picture of her face instead of what she was looking at uh out in front of her.
• 13:03
  Tech Guy: It was, yeah, it was it was pretty amazing.
• 13:05
  Ellie Alexander: It was pretty amazing, but it was also so sweet and charming.
• 13:08
  Ellie Alexander: And the comments, I mean, the video went super viral.
• 13:11
  Ellie Alexander: It got millions and millions of views.
• 13:12
  Ellie Alexander: And the reason it got millions and millions of views is was because it really struck a chord with people, it resonated, and everyone was like, She's my mom now.
• 13:20
  Ellie Alexander: How do we adopt her?
• 13:22
  Ellie Alexander: Like she was just clearly like in the moment.
• 13:24
  Ellie Alexander: So I loved that concept.
• 13:26
  Ellie Alexander: And I had actually been having a brainstorming session with my editor, and I was like, you know, it'd be really fun to have this concept of like an accidental influencer, because you know, we are deep in influencer culture these days.
• 13:39
  Ellie Alexander: And I don't think we see a lot of influencers necessarily who maybe are a little bit more mature or retired and off enjoying Portugal from a different lens.
• 13:49
  Ellie Alexander: So I loved that concept.
• 13:51
  Ellie Alexander: But initially I was thinking maybe it would be a mystery series and that this accidental influencer would stumble upon a body, that kind of body, while she was, you know, taking a bad selfie or trying to record the coastline.
• 14:09
  Ellie Alexander: That conversation turned into my editor saying, I love this concept, like run with it however you want.
• 14:17
  Ellie Alexander: But we were really hoping that you might consider writing another rom-com for us, because I have done two cozy rom coms.
• 14:25
  Ellie Alexander: And those were both holiday related, as in like Christmas winter-y.
• 14:30
  Ellie Alexander: And so my editor was like, we would love something fall.
• 14:33
  Ellie Alexander: And so I ended that conversation, and I wasn't necessarily thinking of this idea fitting into that concept.
• 14:41
  Ellie Alexander: But as I was exploring fall ideas and thinking about Half Moon Bay as a setting and the pumpkin fest, and I'm like, well, wait a minute, this is perfect.
• 14:48
  Ellie Alexander: And so those two combined um and turned into a fall to remember.
• 14:54
  Tech Guy: Yeah.
• 14:54
  Tech Guy: And the thing I like about this protagonist in particular is that it is that she's very authentic, right?
• 15:02
  Tech Guy: It's not she's an unwilling, unwitting uh influencer.
• 15:07
  Tech Guy: This is not what she set out to do.
• 15:10
  Tech Guy: This is not necessarily what she wants to do, but um, she is very popular and and and has grown a following through just being who she is and and being very authentic, which is pretty different from a lot of influence social media influencers out there, right?
• 15:27
  Ellie Alexander: Right.
• 15:28
  Ellie Alexander: And I think that's why the the original video really hit so well because I think people are like, oh my gosh, yes, I want to see more of this.
• 15:35
  Ellie Alexander: And I see like your connection with your mom and the sweetness of it.
• 15:38
  Ellie Alexander: So I borrowed from all of those themes while working on this book.
• 15:42
  Ellie Alexander: And so the concept is that Miranda Brown is her name.
• 15:46
  Ellie Alexander: She uh goes on this trip to Catalina Island and she comes home and she shares her videos and her pictures with her son Pete and her niece Elise.
• 15:57
  Ellie Alexander: And they just have so much fun with it that they put it online and of course the video goes viral.
• 16:02
  Ellie Alexander: And so this travel company comes calling, think like Expedia, right?
• 16:06
  Ellie Alexander: Some big travel company comes calling and they're like, we want you to be an influencer.
• 16:11
  Ellie Alexander: So they send a team to Half Moon Bay to have Miranda give everyone her lens and her take on the fall pumpkin festival.
• 16:21
  Ellie Alexander: And that's sort of the premise for where the love story goes from there.
• 16:26
  Tech Guy: Yeah, this is it's such a great setup.
• 16:28
  Tech Guy: And I think the authenticity is what makes it work so well because it is a situation that you could actually imagine happening in real life.
• 16:36
  Ellie Alexander: Not only that, then while I was working on this book and researching, um uh you found a few other sort of accidental influencers in this same category, like somebody who's eating an ice cream cone and walks through a proposal video.
• 16:50
  Ellie Alexander: Like there's so much, there's just like such fodder out on uh the internet to be able to borrow from.
• 16:56
  Ellie Alexander: So um, it wasn't that hard to find inspiration, at least for the story arcs.
• 17:02
  Tech Guy: Yeah, there's always, you know, somebody's in a situation and things happen.
• 17:07
  Tech Guy: It reminds me of uh we used to go to Alaska all the time.
• 17:11
  Tech Guy: We had friends who lived up there, and and uh I remember one time I was with a friend of mine and we were standing maybe a hundred yards apart, and I was standing in a stream and fishing, and I'm a novice fisherman.
• 17:25
  Tech Guy: Like I was just doing what he was doing, just mirroring his motions and everything.
• 17:29
  Tech Guy: But we were we were catching fish and everything, and all of a sudden I heard this talking and and I could hear camera shutters going off and stuff.
• 17:37
  Tech Guy: And I looked over my shoulder, and there was a pedestrian bridge going across the creek behind me, and there was an entire tour group of people taking pictures of me as though I were a native Alaskan fishing, you know, and I'm like, no, no, no, I know I'm not okay.
• 17:54
  Tech Guy: Oh wow.
• 17:55
  Tech Guy: So it was it's just situations like that that um, you know, happen, and you think, oh, you know, this is kind of a one-off thing, but it they happen all the time, and I think it'll lend itself to the realism, I guess, in the in this story.
• 18:11
  Ellie Alexander: Exactly.
• 18:12
  Ellie Alexander: Originally we were gonna do a duet, which is the way that a lot of romances are published.
• 18:18
  Ellie Alexander: And uh, that's what we did with the cozy kind of Christmas include into love last year.
• 18:22
  Ellie Alexander: But I did not have time in my writing schedule to write two rom-coms.
• 18:26
  Ellie Alexander: And, you know, frankly, it's a lot harder.
• 18:28
  Ellie Alexander: I had a meltdown at one point and said to my editor, I can't, I can't write these fast.
• 18:34
  Ellie Alexander: I can write a first draft of a mystery pretty quickly now because it's just in my DNA.
• 18:40
  Ellie Alexander: I've written so many that I know the formula, I know the system.
• 18:44
  Ellie Alexander: Now, that that's not a finished book, but like it's not the same when you're working in a new genre.
• 18:49
  Ellie Alexander: I needed more time and space.
• 18:50
  Ellie Alexander: So there will be a follow-up to this book that will come out next fall, as in fall of 2027.
• 18:57
  Ellie Alexander: But this one releases September 1st.
• 18:59
  Ellie Alexander: And the other very exciting thing that uh kind of ties back to an episode that we did a few weeks ago on book trends is that this book is going to have sprayed edges, fall sprayed edges.
• 19:14
  Ellie Alexander: I know it's my first sprayed edge.
• 19:17
  Tech Guy: Yeah, no, we just did an episode on on book trends and and talked about sprayed edges.
• 19:22
  Tech Guy: You're right.
• 19:23
  Tech Guy: And we were both like there, they are definitely something that we do like.
• 19:29
  Tech Guy: Uh you have an issue with them just because you can tend to get your books wet uh from spills and things.
• 19:37
  Ellie Alexander: And baths and all those things.
• 19:38
  Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
• 19:39
  Ellie Alexander: Yeah.
• 19:39
  Tech Guy: It's we've seen we've seen the artwork of what the sprayed edges will be, and the book looks beautiful.
• 19:45
  Tech Guy: Um I'm really excited about this one.
• 19:47
  Tech Guy: Yeah.
• 19:48
  Ellie Alexander: And if you are a lover of a collectible and a sprayed edge, darling, then you can pre-order it now, or you can find it at your local library or anywhere.
• 19:56
  Ellie Alexander: Books are sold in September.
• 19:59
  Tech Guy: That's awesome.
• 20:00
  Tech Guy: All right, but you said there were two.
• 20:02
  Ellie Alexander: There are two.
• 20:02
  Tech Guy: Two fall books.
• 20:03
  Tech Guy: Two fall books.
• 20:04
  Ellie Alexander: There are two.
• 20:05
  Ellie Alexander: The other exciting fall book that is releasing at the end of September is The Pumpkin Vice Cafe.
• 20:12
  Ellie Alexander: This is book 23 of the Bake Shop Mysteries.
• 20:16
  Ellie Alexander: And this is where the Bake Shop and Jules and Team Tort are getting a little glow up because this will be the first book released in trade paperback.
• 20:24
  Ellie Alexander: The cover art is stunning.
• 20:26
  Ellie Alexander: It matches the original series, but then it's just like slightly elevated.
• 20:31
  Ellie Alexander: And this book is also all the five fall vibes, so much pumpkin.
• 20:38
  Ellie Alexander: Everything that tort is baking is just like think cardamom and spiced apples and caramel.
• 20:44
  Ellie Alexander: And I spent way too much time thinking about the food for this book than anything else.
• 20:50
  Ellie Alexander: Um and the recipes are maybe my favorite to date.
• 20:57
  Tech Guy: Yeah.
• 20:57
  Tech Guy: And speaking of the recipes, that is something that is always fun to talk about because I don't think that readers, the darlings out there necessarily understand that how far in advance you're working on these things seasonally.
• 21:12
  Tech Guy: So especially when a book is set somewhere seasonally, you are never writing it anywhere close to the season that the book is set in.
• 21:21
  Tech Guy: And so that was the case here too, where you're working on uh Pumpkin Vice Cafe, and we our house smelled like fall in essentially summer, uh you know, early, early late spring, early summer here in in uh in California.
• 21:37
  Tech Guy: And that is weird.
• 21:38
  Tech Guy: I uh all the years you've been writing, I still have not gotten used to that.
• 21:42
  Tech Guy: Um, just you know, I I can't wait for the next Christmas book because it'll be June and we'll be eating things with peppermint in them.
• 21:50
  Tech Guy: And you know, it's 85 degrees out.
• 21:54
  Ellie Alexander: How do you feel about a spiced pumpkin bread right now?
• 21:58
  Ellie Alexander: One other exciting thing.
• 22:00
  Ellie Alexander: That we're going to do leading up to the release is I am doing a bake-along that will start in July.
• 22:06
  Ellie Alexander: So I have gone back and baked a recipe from every single book, all 22 books in the Bake Shop Mystery series leading up to the release of the Pumpkin Vice Cafe.
• 22:16
  Ellie Alexander: So we're going to be sharing them on social media and um with you.
• 22:21
  Ellie Alexander: So if you are a baker and you want to bake along, get ready for that.
• 22:25
  Tech Guy: Yeah, there are some good recipes in there.
• 22:27
  Tech Guy: And oh my, it has been a lot of food, a lot of, lot of sweet, sweet stuff.
• 22:32
  Ellie Alexander: Um Yeah, they're all desserts.
• 22:34
  Ellie Alexander: I know.
• 22:35
  Tech Guy: I know.
• 22:36
  Tech Guy: Yeah.
• 22:37
  Ellie Alexander: The thing you should know about the Pumpkin Vice Cafe, unlike a fall to remember, there is a body.
• 22:43
  Ellie Alexander: It's a murder.
• 22:43
  Ellie Alexander: Okay, we're back to murder because it's big shop.
• 22:46
  Ellie Alexander: This book features uh one of my favorite characters, Lance, who is preparing for um an upcoming bash, shall we say, without giving away too many spoilers.
• 22:58
  Ellie Alexander: And um his event planner meets an untimely death.
• 23:03
  Ellie Alexander: So he, of course, has to coerce Jules into joining him to try to solve the case.
• 23:10
  Ellie Alexander: And it's got all of your usual bake shop favorites, Andy and Marty and Bethany and the professor, and oh, Richard Lord makes a very interesting appearance.
• 23:20
  Ellie Alexander: There could be some kind of crossover character.
• 23:23
  Ellie Alexander: I can't say more, but I'm very excited about this one.
• 23:26
  Tech Guy: Right.
• 23:27
  Tech Guy: So two things.
• 23:28
  Tech Guy: Uh fall to remember, rom-com.
• 23:31
  Tech Guy: No, no body.
• 23:32
  Tech Guy: No, no body, no spice.
• 23:34
  Ellie Alexander: No body, no spice.
• 23:36
  Tech Guy: The pumpkin vice cafe, a murder.
• 23:40
  Tech Guy: It is this is a this is a cozy mystery.
• 23:43
  Tech Guy: Let let the let the readers out there know, uh, does this book have a pumpkin spice recipe in it?
• 23:50
  Ellie Alexander: It has multiple pumpkin recipes, yes.
• 23:53
  Ellie Alexander: Yes.
• 23:54
  Tech Guy: All right.
• 23:55
  Ellie Alexander: And I'm sharing a bonus pumpkin recipe that is referenced in the book, but doesn't make the cut for the final recipes in the back as part of the bake-along.
• 24:05
  Tech Guy: Oh, okay.
• 24:06
  Tech Guy: Perfect.
• 24:07
  Ellie Alexander: So much pumpkin, so little time.
• 24:10
  Tech Guy: Well, and for the darlings out there, this is great because you'll be getting these recipes in seasonally appropriate timing.
• 24:18
  Tech Guy: Uh so unlike unlike how we have been consuming them the past few months, um, these will be good for baking in the fall.
• 24:27
  Ellie Alexander: That's right.
• 24:28
  Ellie Alexander: You can save them, or you can bake along in the summer, either way.
• 24:31
  Ellie Alexander: I do actually have a third fallish book that's releasing too.
• 24:37
  Tech Guy: Wait, I'm not even sure I know about this one.
• 24:40
  Tech Guy: What is this one?
• 24:42
  Ellie Alexander: This is the next in the novel detectives.
• 24:46
  Ellie Alexander: And it's a different kind of fall vibe because it's set at the secret bookcase in um kind of like dark and stormy weather when a group of ghost hunters takes over the store to record overnight because they're sure that the bookstore is haunted.
• 25:04
  Tech Guy: Oh, wow.
• 25:05
  Tech Guy: So we have we have fall rom-com, we have fall murder, and now we have fall ghosts, perhaps?
• 25:12
  Ellie Alexander: Oh, not ghosts, really.
• 25:14
  Ellie Alexander: No.
• 25:15
  Ellie Alexander: I mean, I unfortunately it's Annie, so she's pretty grounded in reality.
• 25:18
  Ellie Alexander: But there'll be ghostly vibes for this one.
• 25:20
  Ellie Alexander: This one's coming out closer to Halloween, a murder at midnight, and um Annie and Fletcher are taking on ghost hunters and um also a body, because you know me, we gotta get back to the basics, which involves a crime scene.
• 25:36
  Tech Guy: Nice.
• 25:37
  Tech Guy: I love it.
• 25:38
  Tech Guy: That's a lot of fall books.
• 25:40
  Ellie Alexander: I know.
• 25:41
  Ellie Alexander: I had to save that little bonus for the end.
• 25:44
  Tech Guy: Yeah, I had totally forgotten about that one.
• 25:46
  Tech Guy: That is that is amazing.
• 25:48
  Tech Guy: So, all three of those.
• 25:49
  Tech Guy: Okay, so let's recap for the darlings out there.
• 25:52
  Tech Guy: Can you go through the titles with the release dates again?
• 25:56
  Ellie Alexander: Absolutely.
• 25:56
  Ellie Alexander: Okay, so we're kicking off fall with a fall to remember, Cozy Romcon on September 1st.
• 26:03
  Ellie Alexander: Then Bake Shop number 23, the Pumpkin Vice Cafe, comes out on September 29th.
• 26:10
  Ellie Alexander: And last but not least, to round out 26, this is the last book for the year, is a murder at midnight on October 13th.
• 26:19
  Ellie Alexander: And they are all up for pre-order now.
• 26:21
  Tech Guy: Uh, okay, you beat me to it.
• 26:23
  Tech Guy: That was gonna be my that was gonna be my very next question.
• 26:26
  Tech Guy: Uh so for the darlings out there, all three of those books are available for pre-order right now.
• 26:31
  Tech Guy: I wonder if you can see the sprayed edges online for a fall to remember.
• 26:34
  Tech Guy: Ooh, I don't know.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't checked.
• 26:36
  unknown: Yeah.
• 26:37
  Tech Guy: Might be a preview, so go check it out.
• 26:39
  Tech Guy: All right.
• 26:40
  Tech Guy: Well, with that, I think we're gonna wrap up this episode of reality rights, this fall ish episode of reality rights.
• 26:48
  Ellie Alexander: Fall in June.
• 26:50
  Tech Guy: Fall and June.
• 26:51
  Tech Guy: Welcome to our world.
• 26:54
  Tech Guy: Totally.
• 26:54
  Tech Guy: All right, until next time.
• 26:56
  Ellie Alexander: Till next time.