Latest / Reality Writes / Celebrating Book Love—New Releases and Creative Inspiration

Transcript

Celebrating Book Love—New Releases and Creative Inspiration · Reality Writes

0:05
SPEAKER_00: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Rights.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: I am author Ellie Alexander.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: This is the podcast where we talk about all things writing, bookish, and anything else on the top of our mind.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: And as always, I'm here with the tech guy.
0:21
SPEAKER_02: Hello, hello.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm the tech guy.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: And before we get started, I'd just like to ask that everyone out there please share this podcast with a friend, a family, loved one, or just somebody you don't even know.
0:34
SPEAKER_02: Spread the bookish love and writer-ish love, I guess, because we cover everything here on uh reality rights.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: It's um it's all-encompassing, right?
0:44
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: It's definitely true.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: And um it's sort of a good time to be talking about spreading the book love because I had a book come out earlier this week of Victim at Valentine's, the fifth book in the secret book came case mysteries.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: And um, I have another book coming out at the end of the month, Killing Me Souffle.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: The 20th book in the Make Shop Mysteries.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: But um, I've been talking a lot with my writer friends lately, and this is coming up consistently in my coaching sessions when I'm working with new writers, which is it's it's sort of a hard time to be a creative in the world because if you haven't noticed, the world is kind of burning all around us.
1:28
SPEAKER_00: Um and so finding that balance is really hard.
1:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's uh it's like it seems like there's a lot of bad news every day.
1:38
SPEAKER_02: And so being excited for something, you know, is it's it's it I can see where you know there's like maybe feelings of guilt or or like you just people just not wanting to celebrate something because other people are hurting, and that's uh that's a that's a hard spot to be in, especially if you work so hard on something.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: Um but from like a reader perspective, like readers you just want to keep reading, right?
2:09
SPEAKER_02: So you have to you see yes, you still have to keep putting the books out there.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: I know, and I mean I'm I'm curious for the darlings listening.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: I know for me, like reading is also a fantastic escape right now.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: So I love everything that I'm reading as a way out.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: And when I'm writing these stories, it's also such a wonderful way to like kind of check out of the world and create this other world where everything is gonna work out in the end.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: And for the most part, everyone's kind to each other and all of those things.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, so my slant and my my coaching talking points to new writers in this space is always like, no, we need more stories.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: We need to be creating.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: We can't hold it all together at once.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: And so having those moments of escape is important.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, it's harder in practice for me to give myself that advice.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: It's it's much easier for me to tell somebody else that.
3:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: So so let's celebrate the release of a victim at Valentine's.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh a victim at Valentine's.
3:09
SPEAKER_02: Now I and I have lost track.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: I that's terrible because I'm part of this uh even if punctually, yeah.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: But uh is it this is book five?
3:21
SPEAKER_02: Is it what you're saying?
3:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay, book five.
3:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, okay.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Book five.
3:24
SPEAKER_02: Uh in a year, like less than a year.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:28
SPEAKER_02: Not even right.
3:29
SPEAKER_02: This series has is gone from zero to five books in less than a year.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about book six at the end of this episode.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Um I know, it's true.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but so I I'm gonna hold up the cover for all the darlings not watching.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: I apologize, but this is currently my favorite cover because it has all of the Valentine vibes in it.
3:50
SPEAKER_02: It does, yeah.
3:51
SPEAKER_02: Are those balloons?
3:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, those are balloons, heart-shaped balloons.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: They're heart balloons.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a view into the um sitting room at the secret bookcase.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: And my favorite part is there is um a little nod to a crow because when I was writing this book, of course, it was like the middle of summer and super hot, and I was swimming every day at our local little community pool.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: And I had two crow friends who I have talked about before, Jekyll and Hyde, who befriended me and who um started bringing me little trinkets.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: And so that storyline, of course, worked its way into this book, which was so fun.
4:25
SPEAKER_02: Nice.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
4:27
SPEAKER_02: You were uh disappointed when the pool closed for the season because no more, no more crows to feed.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: No more crows to feed.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: And literally in my swim bag, I would have like, you know, my sunscreen, my rash guard, my hat, and then peanuts.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: And they they got so used to me.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: And they would do these like cool flyovers and like hop along the pool next to me and thanks for bringing them peanuts.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And then um, yeah, they started bringing me, they brought me like stickers, and then at one point in time, I know we've already talked about this, but they brought me keys and somebody keys.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: Apologies to uh whoever left your keys at the pool because the crows have them.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: Um I know, but that led to me thinking, well, we should that like this could be a story, like of, you know, a like uh an older man or woman living alone and they befriend uh a murder of crows, they start feeding, and then they the this person could train them to be like their uh gang, essentially, to go out and steal for them and like start start training them to bring money back, you know, like make a living off of a murder of crows.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: And when you say like an older single man, are you pretty much just thinking yourself like you'll just quit your job and have a murder of crows?
5:47
SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean, everybody's gonna, yeah, you gotta have you gotta have a backup retirement plan.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: So I'm not I'm not saying I'm not saying that that's mine, but I'm not not saying that that's mine.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: Good.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: Just yeah.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it's alien.
6:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying it's crows, but I've been doing I've been doing a lot of research on on crows, on the American, yeah, crow.
6:09
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: So there's I won't give away any spoilers, but there is this little secondary thread that runs through this particular book, and the crows are involved in um kind of helping Annie solve the murder, which is um, I don't want to say it's not plausible because I did a deep dive on crow research once I started learning.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, you and um Sky Guy, our son, were really encouraging me to feed the crows and say what they would bring me.
6:36
SPEAKER_02: Well, because there were so I mean, you just you go on the internet and you can watch like there, well, there was an article I remember it was like this was like 20 years ago.
6:44
SPEAKER_02: It was um in Seattle, a young girl in Seattle that I think they lived in an apartment complex on like the fourth story or something.
6:53
SPEAKER_02: And she started feeding crows, and then uh one day she noticed that uh they had brought like you know, like a washer or a nut or something, you know, for like a steel nut, like for a screw and uh or bolt.
7:09
SPEAKER_02: And um, and she was like, Oh, that's interesting.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: So she kept feeding them, and then the gifts started changing.
7:14
SPEAKER_02: It was like earrings and you know, necklaces and things just started she she started having and she I remember distinctly there was a picture in the paper of like uh like over a hundred things that these crows had brought for her, and it was amazing.
7:29
SPEAKER_02: So we wanted to see you get to that point with these crows.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: I didn't quite get to that point, but um, you know, maybe in the book Annie does, and um we'll have to see.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: We'll just uh leave it at that.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: But crows are incredibly brilliant, is what I learned in my research too.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Like people have trained them.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they can open like uh vending machines to get peanuts, and they'll go for like higher levels of nuts since like you train them based on like, oh, you can just start with these like gross sunflower seeds, and they're like, eh, okay, bring me something better and working all the way up.
8:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
8:03
SPEAKER_02: No, they're very intelligent.
8:05
SPEAKER_02: Uh they've they they can use tools.
8:08
SPEAKER_02: You they can make and use tools because there's there are like studies and videos that show them bending paper clips to make hooks to be able to pull food out of a tube where they couldn't get their head in to get the food, but they would use it like a hook to pull the food up out of the tube.
8:27
SPEAKER_02: It's just incredible.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: So clever, those crows.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And I sort of love reclaiming them because I think, especially in the mystery genre, crows are always used as these harbingers of like evil or something.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that is not how they appear for Annie and Fletcher in the series.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: They're definitely um they're guardians and protectors.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: And this is the first book in the series where they make an appearance, but I will tell you, they are going to continue now to make even more appearances.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
8:55
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: All right.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: And when I first started this book, I just had a touch of the crows in in the story.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: And then when I sent it to my editor for her first round of editorial feedback, she's like, I love the crows.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: Can we do more crows?
9:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, sure, yeah.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Let's go all in on crows.
9:11
SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: Very cool.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, well, I thought we would give darlings a little overview if you're not familiar with the series.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And um then I want to give you a little peek behind the scenes in terms of um the characters, because they all have little Easter eggs in terms of their names.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious if anyone has picked up on them yet.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: So, as you mentioned, this is book five.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: This series is set in a fictional town in Northern California, Redwood Grove, which is kind of a mashup of quite a few places.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Los Altos, Redwood City.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: There's a touch of kind of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and then it is centered in an Agatha Christie inspired bookstore, which is in an old English estate.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: So think like Pemberley, you know, like Jane Austen.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that is a real place, which we've talked about on a previous episode of Reality Rights called Philoli, which is a gorgeous garden here not far from us.
10:07
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that place is amazing.
10:09
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's amazing all year round, but especially around the various holidays throughout the year.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so Annie Murray is a former criminology student.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Her best friend Scarlett was killed right before graduation, and she spent the last 10 years trying to solve that cold case, as well as working at the secret bookcase, this Agatha Christie inspired bookstore.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: And over the years, she's kind of opened herself up more and more.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And in this installment, um, we are gonna learn a lot more about Scarlett's murder because that secondary subplot has been running through all four books up until this point in time.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
10:52
SPEAKER_02: It's uh I I like I I like mysteries that have um a mystery like at another level that spans the you always get that with um with mystery TV shows too, which is which is great because it gives you something like it advances a little bit more each from book to book within the series, which is really cool.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: And one question that I have been getting bombarded by the darlings is when are we gonna know about Scarlet's murder?
11:22
SPEAKER_00: And I promise in this book you're gonna know.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I really love from a writing perspective with this series is I have so much editorial support with um my publishing team.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And also their model, like you alluded to at the beginning of the podcast, is very different.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, so the first two books released last June, and then book three in September, book four in December, book five, book six will be coming in a few months.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's easier, I think, as a writer, to, for the lack of better wording, uh string readers along a little bit with that scarlet subplot, because you're not having to wait years in between books, because that can be really frustrating with a with a subplot like that, because each book you're finding out, like you said, that little nugget.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: But if you're having to wait years and years and years to have any resolution, I know for me as a reader or as a watcher of TV or movies that do that, um, it can be frustrating.
12:15
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
12:17
SPEAKER_02: Well, especially since, you know, if if you do have to wait longer in between books, you don't, like at least I don't always get a chance to read a book right when it does come out.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: And if then if if you put it off even longer, what I end up having to do is go back and read another book or two in the series to get caught up.
12:36
SPEAKER_02: That's where it's like you wish you had the little like previously on, you know, the beginning of a book.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: Like that that would be kind of cool, right?
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Do that.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Why has no one done that?
12:48
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
12:49
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
12:50
SPEAKER_02: I I just I actually just thought about that when I said it.
12:53
SPEAKER_02: That like, wouldn't that be I mean, because then, right?
12:56
SPEAKER_02: Then then you could actually for people who don't want to read a full series, but just want to pick up a book in the series, which I don't know, those people are weird, but um that like yeah, I know totally come at me because you know if it there's a reason books are called book one, book two, book three.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: You don't read book three and then go back and read book one, like whatever.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, I digress.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: Um, you can read in whatever order you want to read.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: That's totally fun.
13:20
SPEAKER_02: But wouldn't it be cool if it had like a previously on uh, you know, uh before like at the beginning of each book?
13:28
SPEAKER_02: I think that'd be cool.
13:29
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: That is so smart.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna actually, well, it's too late for this series, but I'm gonna think about that for future books.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Because as a writer, it's also really hard um to balance and manage that because I don't want to bore readers who've come along with all, you know, five books at this point in time, feeling like, okay, yeah, I already know that.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, get get on with it.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: But you do always then have to pepper in enough information for a reader who's gonna pick up a victim at Valentine's Day and not have any baseline of what has happened in the previous four books, because each book does stand alone.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: It has its own murder that all gets wrapped up and solved.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: So readers do often, I'm always surprised, pick up a series part way through, near the end.
14:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
14:13
SPEAKER_02: Well, and and characters come and go too.
14:16
SPEAKER_02: So it's like you because I know I I know because I've seen reader questions come through for you, like not maybe not yet for this series, but definitely for your Bake Shop series, which is, you know, now going on 22 books, where you, you know, it's like, wait, where did where did this person come from?
14:36
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, Well, what book are you reading?
14:39
SPEAKER_02: Well, book eight.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: Have you read the first seven?
14:41
SPEAKER_02: No, I just started right here, and it's like, you know, or started on book seven, and you're like, well, the there, you know, like I it just if you read out of order, you're gonna get like, you know, maybe this character is now appeared, or maybe that character disappeared three, you know, books ago, they moved out of town or whatever happened.
14:59
SPEAKER_02: Um, but uh yeah, the previously on thing is really cool.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh it would have spoilers, obviously, um, because things would happen so you could choose whether or not you wanted to read it.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: But that that would be super helpful.
15:11
SPEAKER_02: It would be helpful for me because a lot of the times some of the authors I read, some of the series I read, it is like one book a year.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, that's a long time in between to remember wait, what happened in the you know, even the last book, but certainly two or three books ago.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Um especially when you're not just reading one author's series.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: You should readers like myself, I'm reading multiple series, and so like I'm jumping between things.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I love that.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have there's a little segue on that too.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh my good friend Mel is a writer and she works at a local bookstore too.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: And she texted me last week and she's like, For the love of God, why don't you put numbers on the spines of bake shop?
15:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm I just got a new shipment of your bake shop in for the store, and I can't figure out where they go.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh, well, first of all, that's not me.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: That's the publisher.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: But um, second of all, I think they don't do that on purpose because A, they want readers to be able to pick them up wherever.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: And also then sometimes just based on what's available, they might not be able to have like one through 20 on the shelf or whatever.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: But um, it is funny.
16:17
SPEAKER_02: I can tell you absolutely from an advertising and marketing standpoint that that would be the worst thing that you could do from um from a sales perspective, because you think about it, if you're a new reader going into a bookstore and you see a series that looks really great, but they don't have book one.
16:35
unknown: Yeah.
16:36
SPEAKER_02: They then they only have book three, book seven, and book eleven.
16:40
SPEAKER_02: You're just gonna you you might take a picture, jot down a no, like I'll get to that later, but you're not gonna buy it right then and there, you know.
16:47
SPEAKER_02: So true.
16:48
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
16:48
SPEAKER_02: That's just psychologically, like you it you don't want you because it it's also just, you know, people see numbers missing and they're immediately like, well, I can't start that series.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: I'll go for this book instead.
17:01
SPEAKER_02: You know.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that would be me because I do feel like I have to read a series in order.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh huh.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: And uh, like I said, some people might not care about that, but I there are enough that would that from a from a marketing standpoint it wouldn't make sense to number them on the spines.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Tune in, darlings.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: Tell us, chime in, I should say.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, what are your thoughts on starting a series out of order?
17:23
SPEAKER_00: This is a controversial topic.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: I've brought it up so many a time.
17:27
SPEAKER_02: Please don't chime in on that.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: Great.
17:33
SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
17:35
SPEAKER_01: We about talked about like dog eared pages versus book, uh, ebooks versus print books, uh, like hardcover versus paperback.
17:44
SPEAKER_02: Like, what else can we like?
17:46
SPEAKER_02: They're saying like the the the reading world is more um the the camps are more solidified than like Apple versus Samsung when it comes to mobile phones.
18:00
SPEAKER_02: It's just it is it is just bizarre how um they're very it's a very passionate bunch.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: It's a passionate bunch.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: We should do a podcast all about that, just like hitting on every topic that's pros and cons, yeah.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
18:18
SPEAKER_02: The controversial world of reading.
18:21
SPEAKER_02: Yes, it has nothing to do with book content or anything.
18:25
SPEAKER_02: It's like, yeah, yeah.
18:27
SPEAKER_02: You can't maybe hey, maybe this is where we could find the common ground for everybody.
18:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, is you know.
18:35
SPEAKER_02: Maybe probably not.
18:36
SPEAKER_02: It's probably not, yeah.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: You never know.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, but back to this series and Eviction by Valentine's Day.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: So the premise of this book is that Annie is hosting a completely immersive romantic matchmaking weekend at the store.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: So this concept came out, came about in a few ways.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: First of all, and we talked about this on a previous episode too.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: We used to always have bookstore date nights.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: So we would go to the bookstore, get like a fun coffee and a treat, and then go our separate ways, rouse, come back with stacks.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: It was perfect.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was kind of in my mind.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: And then there are quite a few of my favorite indie bookstores who do blind dates with a book where they just wrap books in craft paper, and they usually have like a few little like clues, a few notes about like spicy or not spicy romance.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: This one might keep you up at night.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: And then you just get to buy a book and have no idea what you're about to read.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then thinking that the bookstore is a great place potentially to find love.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: So for this book, readers are getting matched for the weekend and they have to go and do all these sort of adventures.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: So, like a scavenger hunt throughout the bookstore, and there's a hike and like coffee and speed dating and the whole thing.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I just I love that for myself, uh, which is why this concept came to be.
20:03
SPEAKER_02: I just came up with uh I'm gonna write it down now.
20:07
SPEAKER_02: I'll let you take the next topic because I just came up with a great uh rom-com idea based on what you're saying.
20:14
SPEAKER_02: So cool.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we'll work up.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, you work on that because then after I wrote this, like I said, you know, uh, I think last June or something, and um I'm in the pool, it's summer.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: This book is set in February, it's kind of stormy, it's dark and stormy.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: They're, you know, coding up in the bookstore all this delicious stuff.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And then I get an email a week or so ago from my local bookstore here, who's favorite books, and they are hosting for Valentine's Day a book date night.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: And there's gonna be a scavenger hunt through the store and all these things.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: And and I have not told Lee or any of the staff about this concept or this story or whatever.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: So I scored us tickets.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're doing.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, good.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm sucking.
21:01
SPEAKER_02: No, that's okay.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: You you already saw that uh I came home today with your Valentine's present and put it in the fridge.
21:08
SPEAKER_02: So don't look in that green bag that's in the fridge.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go peek in the green bag next.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: I'll let you know.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh but we will we'll try to document our um our book date store, our book night at the date store.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: No, our date night at the bookstore.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: And uh hopefully there won't be a body.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: But you never know.
21:29
SPEAKER_02: Uh you never know.
21:30
SPEAKER_02: You never know.
21:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it depends on how well the dates go, I guess.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
21:36
SPEAKER_02: There could be bodies.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: It could be bodies.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: It is Valentine's Day.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: It would be dangerous.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: And then the other thing that I thought would be fun to share, and this will be this will be a little teaser for anyone uh who is new to the series, and for those of you darlings who have maybe already read the first book, the first couple books, maybe you're all caught up in this series.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Is um you might already have an inkling of um some of the characters' names.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: So uh the first character that gets introduced in book one is Hal Christie.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Um and these names are little nods to um some of my favorite characters, writers, etc.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: There's another, there's a writer I know that has that last name.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: She's pretty popular, I think.
22:23
SPEAKER_02: Is there?
22:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty sure.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: Pretty sure.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is not a spoiler, but Hal is convinced that he is the long-lost grandchild of the late great Agatha Christie, hence Hal Christie.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, and there is a little thread that's running through this part of the series where um he's still trying to convince people that it's true.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, and there's gonna be more to come with that.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'll say for now.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, Hal owns the secret bookcase, and he has lovingly restored the store over the years and like made the estate into the wonderful, charming space that it is.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: But he's also getting up there in age, and he's gonna maybe be ready to retire soon.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: So um we'll continue to see him as the series goes on, but we um he may be taking on a different role.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say that.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: Then there is Annie's partner in crime, Fletcher Hughes.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: Emphasis on Fletcher.
23:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a I seem to remember some sort of amateur detective with that name.
23:33
SPEAKER_02: Um wasn't it was a woman.
23:36
SPEAKER_02: Could be a shame, and it wasn't her first name.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: It was not her first name.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Cabot Cove, anyone, darling?
23:43
SPEAKER_00: You're here?
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, these are easy.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: Come on, these are a soft you got it.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Um Annie's best friend who died, the cold case that she's working on.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Her name was Scarlet.
23:55
SPEAKER_02: Oh.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: As in I got it.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you already have it.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: We want to give a clue as to how I could have You took a trick it from me.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say that.
24:07
SPEAKER_02: It was like, could you give a clue?
24:09
SPEAKER_02: But no, yeah, you already did it.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: So sorry.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Great mind.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, Professor Plum is also Annie's cat.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: The cat who was originally Scarlett's cat, uh, but Annie adopted Professor Plum.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: So, you know.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: You know, there is like a quick aside here.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, some of the darlings have heard this, others probably haven't, but um prior to you writing cozy mysteries, you you you are you were were still are, but you were like a uh at the time a prolific cozy mystery.
24:43
SPEAKER_02: Like you devour so so that I could never keep up with them.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: But every birthday, holiday, you know, Christmas, whatever, uh I would get you cozy mysteries.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: And I needed to enlist the help of our son, who at the time, you know, was like four or five years old, and he remembered like every book, but most of them he could remember based on the animals that were on the cover.
25:07
SPEAKER_02: And to this point, you've never had an animal on the cover of your your mysteries except for this series, which Professor Plum appears on the cover of each book.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Every book, it's true.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: I've never had a pet in any of my series either.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: It's a game changer, and Professor Plum uh is involved in some of the uh reveals of clues, even we might say.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: And uh he's one of Annie's um most trusted listeners, too.
25:37
SPEAKER_01: So he's secretly the killer.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: He is the killer, yeah.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh what's the title for that?
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
25:48
SPEAKER_02: Nice, yeah.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: Love it.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, so Annie, this this might be harder.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Annie is a nod to uh not something mystery related, but in the literary world, one of my favorite fictional characters growing up.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: And I think that Annie would be the adult incarnation of this character in some way.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I bet the many of the darlings will know.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: I doubt that you will know because I'm sure you didn't read this series growing up.
26:22
SPEAKER_02: Was it Anne of Greengables?
26:24
SPEAKER_00: It is Anne of Greengables, yeah.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh, both points for the nailed it.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: Nailed it.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: Nailed it.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: I knew it wasn't like little orphan annie, so I just that's could have been.
26:36
SPEAKER_02: That's yeah, but I I knew like it when you said literary world, I was like, okay, it's gotta be Anne of Greengables.
26:42
SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: If Anne is all grown up, I could imagine like Annie sharing some of the like precocious tendencies.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And um, yeah, that's where I kind of drew inspiration.
26:54
SPEAKER_02: And then I know things.
26:56
SPEAKER_02: What's that?
26:56
SPEAKER_02: I said see, I know things, yeah.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well done, well done.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Bonus point to the tech guy today, darlings.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then uh the last two characters who kind of round out this world are her uh love interest, uh Liam, and her best friend Priya.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: And for these two characters, I did not go with literary slash mystery inspiration, but I did what I often do when I am starting a new series and trying to find my way into a character's head.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this happened with Juliet Jules for the Bake Shop series.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: Once I landed on the name Juliet, so many other things fell in line about her and her world and her romantic tendencies and all of that.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: So um I searched for names based on attributes that I wanted for the characters.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: So Liam, this is a fun little fact.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Liam is male spilled backwards.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I thought that was like a fun little book nod, like book mail.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: I talk about book mail all the time.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: But um, I looked up the word like warrior, protector, guardian, um, and Liam said tech guy.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, I did.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Remet.
28:16
unknown: Okay.
28:17
SPEAKER_02: Um but what else did it say?
28:22
SPEAKER_00: I love that it was like tech guy.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: And then there was your picture and a little like alien Star Wars.
28:29
SPEAKER_01: Right, totally.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: Mash-up.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: The little green men meet Darth Bear.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh no.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh I didn't know this, but it duh, it makes so much sense.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: Is Liam is also short for William.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: It's the end of William.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, I didn't know that.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: I didn't either.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: I know.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And um William was my grandfather's name.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: So uh then I was immediately like, okay, here's the guy.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: And I started sketching him out from there.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: And then Priya, Pri for short.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, the name Priya means beloved, dear, and cherished.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: And what I wanted with Priya is because Annie has had such residual grief from losing Scarlet, especially during such a formative time, you know, in your early 20s when you're just getting ready to strike out in the world and um she died in part because of this case that they were looking into together for their college thesis.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: I wanted Priya to become Annie's like confidant and dear friend and like most beloved person in the world.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, and to show Annie that, you know, she can build new friendships and these connections.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so once I found that name, I knew that one was perfect too.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: Cool.
29:40
SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: Little Intrader.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: Behind the scenes.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Behind the scenes, loving it.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh um book six in this series is coming out in June.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's right around the corner.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Right around the corner.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, literally, it's gonna be here before we know it, which is terrifying, but true.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it is titled uh The Body at the Book Fair, and this will be the culmination and the last book in this series, which is interesting.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: I know it's done.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: But that was planned.
30:16
SPEAKER_02: This is not like other series that get cut short by this is planned, like this is collaboratively planned with your this is collaboratively planned, 100%.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: And what's exciting about it is it's not done done.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: It's just done in this evolution, which I think is so fun.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And this actually was my publishing house and my editor's idea, which I absolutely love.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: So we are now after book six finishes, and everything will be revealed in terms of Scarlet, and that whole subplot will be finished and wrapped up in a nice little bow, hopefully, for readers who are invested in that story.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: Then we are going to spin off to a brand new series in this same world with the same characters.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: So Annie and Fletcher will be um taking on a new role at the secret bookcase.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: The crows will be involved.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, all of the same favorite characters are going to be part of this world.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we'll get touches of the secret bookcase and Redwood Grove, and then Annie and Fletcher will be off doing some adventuring um on their own.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: And that is called the Novel Detective series, and it will come out in January of 2026.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: Which is not that far off.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: No, I know, yeah.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: So the series will wrap in June, then there'll be a little six-month break, and then bam, we're right back into Annie's world again, which is so fun.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: Um that's awesome.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm already working on that series as we speak.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, we've got a cover reveal coming up for that, right?
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Up and out.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: Right now.
32:02
SPEAKER_02: Book just came out, time to reveal in the next cover.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: No rest for the weary.
32:09
SPEAKER_02: I know.
32:10
SPEAKER_02: That's amazing.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: We got a lot of murders to solve, all right?
32:14
SPEAKER_00: A lot of us reading, hopefully, for you, darlings.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: That's my that's my singular goal these days.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: There you go.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that's it in a nutshell.
32:27
SPEAKER_02: All right.
32:28
SPEAKER_02: So a victim of Valentine's available everywhere now.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Available everywhere now.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: Go grab your copy.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: Tell me.
32:36
SPEAKER_02: And in all formats, right?
32:39
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
32:40
SPEAKER_02: Which is just this series works a little differently.
32:44
SPEAKER_02: So I know that some of the darlings out there get anxious when the like paperback version isn't available for pre-order, right?
32:50
SPEAKER_02: When the ebook is, and there's nothing we can do about that.
32:54
SPEAKER_02: So it's just the way it works, but it's available now.
32:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, on that note, um, happy Valentine's Day, darlings.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh, tell us what you're doing for the holiday or if you're doing nothing.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: And um, until next time.
33:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, happy Valentine's Day.
33:13
SPEAKER_02: I hope you get to go on a date at a bookstore too.
33:17
SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, until next time.