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Meg Reed Investigates—The Cozy Mystery Series Returns · Reality Writes

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to another episode of Reality Rights.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am author Ellie Alexander and I'm here with The Tech Guy.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we're outside again.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's better being outside on uh I mean because we yeah.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: We got a little get to ASMR coffee, coffee version.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's good stuff.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, we don't it's better enjoying the sun and being outside and everything, having people look at us weird because yeah, outside of the coffee shop on a Sunday afternoon, like you do.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it's fitting because this week on Reality Rights, we are gonna do a deep dive into my OG series, which is all based in uh the outdoors.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to be outside for that.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's may maybe not uh quite as sunny of outdoors.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, that would be true.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this bigger Pacific Northwest vibes for sure.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_03: Northwest is it is beautiful, yeah.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: But just not as many months out of the year as this place.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's a little sunnier here, but that's all good.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so this is the podcast where we talk about all things writing, bookish.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this week we are going to really talk about my first series, which some of you know about, and some of you darlings, this might be brand new information for.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was a that was a long time ago.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was a long time ago.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna take you back to the beginning because the series is uh re-releasing, it's gonna be back in print, it's been out of print for quite a while now.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've got some exciting bonus news to share at the end, so stay tuned for that.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, um, I remember the release of the first book in this series was such a huge deal like at a big party at a coffee shop.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, exactly.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh in Vancouver, Washington.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it seemed like a ton of people showed up.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: The news was there.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was like true, Carney.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_03: It was an amazing experience.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like that was when it was really like, wow, this thing is it's real.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, and that was um kind of all of my doing because I didn't want to have just like a basic book event.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Not that there's anything wrong with a basic basic book event.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: A book event is a book event, but because Meg felt like she was sort of fresh and new and different than most of the protagonists I had personally read in Cozy Mysteries, I wanted the launch party to reflect that.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like beer tasting and coffee.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then the irony is I have gone on for all my other future series to write deeper into those worlds of beer and coffee.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the outdoors.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: It is fun.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: But okay, so let's talk about this though.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: So this is a five-book series.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is a five-book series, right?
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: You wrote these a decade ago.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Over a decade ago, yeah.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and one of the reasons that you're re-releasing them is the books are no longer in print.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: They are no longer in print, yes.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: They have not been available for quite a few years.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh huh.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: The last royalty statement that I got um before I was able to get my rights back for them was a whopping$18.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, probably.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: It says public Bowell, we just spent getting these coffees to sit here and record this podcast.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um, before taxes.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: So um they've kind of died a poor little slow death, and I'm super excited to have them back.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So for starters, um, the little quick pitch that I always do is Meg is fresh out of college, so she is very young.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Think 22, 23.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, her whole arc is to make mistakes and grow in the process.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: She fashions herself an intrepid adventurer when in reality she does not have an athletic bone in her body.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, she also wants to be an investigative journalist and work for like a serious newspaper.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: But when I wrote this book in 2012, newspapers were already shuttering their doors.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now they don't even exist, basically.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so, in order to get any job, she claims that she's an adventure enthusiast and starts writing for this outdoor magazine, Northwest Extreme, and she gets sent to all these extreme locations throughout the Pacific Northwest.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was uh, and there are some very recognizable people in these books.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know what you're talking about.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: I think a lot of these characters are based on uh people like real life people.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, say more.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, uh I I really I resonate with Matt.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: Um he's a pretty cool dude.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, really?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think so.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you know, I'm a little biased.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Matt seems to dress like me, right?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: Talk like me, have similar interests as me.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: I think that and I would get along really well.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: I think you would, yeah.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's interesting.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: But these the re-released books are gonna have different titles.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: Why is that?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: The re-released books are gonna have different titles, they're gonna have different covers, they've all had a refresh, is what I'm saying.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's interesting because there was just like big drama in the world of romance writing a couple weeks ago.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah, because there were multiple authors who had um prompts from Chat GPT printed in their books.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like the physical prompt would be like you're reading along, here's chapter one, and then you see the prompt in the book, and then they go along.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: So so For all the authors out there do not make that mistake.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_03: Don't use AI to write your book.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: You can use AI as a tool when when writing your book, but don't use it to actually write your book.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know why you'd want to.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like for me, the creative process is what brings me joy.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like writing this series was so much fun for me.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: But we could we could do, and we should at some point, we could do a whole episode on that.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it was such interesting timing because what that told me is neither of those authors even bothered to go back and like do a quick pass of their books themselves.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, while that story was hitting headlines, I had just finished rereading in some level or iteration all five of those books of my books five times.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: So in the last three months, I have touched these books five times with developmental edits, copy edits, line edits, page proofs, last pass.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I can ever see these books again in my life.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: No, that was uh that was a lot of work.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was the first time, yeah.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: It was I uh like you love writing so much, but that was the first time I've seen you like uh stressed, I guess would be the best way to describe it.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um just like because you're you're very good about setting deadlines for yourself and and and nailing those, usually beating them by a significant amount of time.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: But this you were definitely feeling the heat on this one because it was just such a monumental undertaking.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_03: It was a grind.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: But by refreshed, uh let's let's explain that for the darlings out there because I I think a lot of people think maybe like these books are completely rewritten or something, and it's not that, right?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's not that.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's um I learned so many things along the way, and this is like that note for any of you darlings who might be writers too.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I dated a lot of stuff.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, prices and social media and technology and things that um that really don't change like that aren't necessary in terms of the arc of the story or the plot or anything like that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I just tried to take out any references, slang, things like that that really date it.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um because it'd pull readers out of the story, it would pull readers.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: Some readers.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think it would pull the bulk of readers out of the story, sort of like I could have re-released it as like, hey, this is circa 2014.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just I don't, I I think a lot of those references, like these were the first books that I had written short.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote a memoir before I wrote this series, but this was the first mystery series that I wrote.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I learned so much myself in the process.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the things that was grueling about going back and rereading them is I am always my own the worst critic too.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so there were a thousand other things that now, with what I know and how much I've learned and just how much writing messel I have at this point in time in my career, I would really love to just have completely rewritten them.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: But A, that would have been way too much work.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And B, like, I think it's like I try to take my own angst out of the equation.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if it it was an author who I had been following, like it would be fun for me to go back and read their first series and see them grow.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I I'm trying to approach it like that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, some of it was a little bit painful.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: It was funny to see you go through some of the stages of like, you know, in your in your course in the mystery series masterclass, you teach new writers about how to like basically to how to eliminate things like self-doubt, like imposter syndrome, things like that.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: And it was funny to see you kind of go through those stages and then use your own tools to like combat that because you were like, you know, you you were like, I can't believe I wrote this, and like, you know, I can't believe like, and so you you did you were updating some of that too, and and but it was really cool to see you kind of work through the steps as though you were like uh I know reviewing a first-time writer's book.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, you were doing, I was doing it definitely, and then I had fresh eyes on this too, um, with editorial help and support uh from my team at Storm.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So that was really fun too to have somebody else's lens on something that's old and making it slightly new again.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: But the bones of the story are all there.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like a fresh coat of paint is maybe my best description, or you know, like if you have a nail polish and then you put like a little shiny coat on the top, like that fresh coat of cake.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Fresh coat of paint um in pink.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the other thing in going through the process is I also love Meg.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: I love these characters, like like you're saying, if you're not picking up on the Starlings, Matt is very much the tech guy.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um Meg uh has touches of me, especially in my early 20s.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Gam, her grandmother, is based entirely on a dear, dear friend of mine, Judy.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um Jill, her best friend, is an amalgam of two of my best friends.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, like um, yeah, Dave, uh the the Aussie in the book is based on um a professor, yes, a real-life character.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_03: Wait, we're gonna call Dave a professor.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: He was a professor.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh I mean, goodness.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: The uh the the requirements were a lot less strict in the 90s.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so this series came about in many ways, but one of the ideas was that um I in my sophomore, no, yeah, sophomore year of college, I took a full semester in New Zealand and Australian under a course that was called Eco Challenge.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, ecotourism.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, ecotourism.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and basically we went like hiking, whitewater rafting, beer drinking, beer drinking, yeah.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like one of the things was you could zipline into a pub um off this little hill, then you got a free beer.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like we whitewater rafted over a waterfall.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: The legal implications for any sort of like accidents, especially in Australia, were pretty low with the time.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I can't believe that I did half of the things I did.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: And most of the group who I went with really were these like adrenaline junkies.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you were Meg in that.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was 1000% Meg.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love to watch that.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm obsessed with any kind of adventure outdoor show.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do I want to do it myself?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, not really.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Am I good at it?
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not in any way, shape, or form.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: But that that uh that that is actually interesting.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like you thinking of you as like, you know, uh 20-year-old um on this trip uh for an entire semester, which is ridiculous.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_03: So um, but like that was that was something that I think there was a small but vocal uh uh subset of readers who didn't like Meg because Meg makes some terrible mistakes.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Terrible choices, also terrible choices.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And to that I say, have you met many 20-year-olds?
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love the 20-year-olds in my life, but also like I feel like your 20s is are sort of a time where you're figuring some stuff out, right?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_03: Totally, totally.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think back to my 20-year-old self, it's amazing I'm alive.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: Except honestly.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: I yeah, we'll just leave it at that.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's amazing.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I do think that's the part of um going back to Meg that really resonated with me this time, reading her.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and you can over the five books, you can really like see her growth arc and you can see her stepping into herself and finding her power.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I love that.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: And this cozy sort of broke all of the rules early on, especially it sounds funny, but um it was published in 2014.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: We sold it in 2012.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and like no one had been writing a book that A, there was nothing set in the Pacific Northwest at all as far as cozy's, and nobody was writing 20-year-olds, and certainly like she was drinking beer and she said, damn, and her grandmother is this Reiki healer, and like again, all things in my real life.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I remember that my agent was like, I I think this is gonna sell fast because like Portland at the time was the place that was getting all the attention.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: The New York Times had written an article like for a good reason.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: For good reasons, yeah.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: The New York Times had written an article about how um Portland was the place where young people were coming to retire because people like 20-year-olds would come and just like couch surf and hike and drink beer at night, that kind of thing.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but then and it did, it sold super fast.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: He sold it in three weeks, like it was quick.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: But then I don't think the publisher really knew what to do with it.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um I oh this is like little disclosure, I cried when I saw the covers the first time.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they just like did not at all speak to what I thought Meg her whole vibe and aesthetic was supposed to be.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because you got pickup by a uh publisher who was like kind of their lifelike was the traditional cozy.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Totally, like, yeah, the biggest cozy publisher.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, great, they were fantastic to work with, but I don't think they got like this series at all.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember like asking, begging, crying, like, is there any way?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like, no, and I was a nobody at the time, like I didn't have um any sort of sway.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not that most authors do anyway.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's one important thing for darlings to understand.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't always have a lot of say in cover art and things like that unless you're a giant like Stephen King, maybe.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_03: Well, actually, speaking of authors, uh, this the original series was written by somebody different.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: If people were to go and look up the Pacific Northwest uh mysteries, they wouldn't see Ellie Alexander.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: They would not.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: They would see Kate.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: That is a mystery.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um so these this is the this is the uh well the series name is different too, right?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right, yeah.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: These were originally the Pacific Northwest Mysteries, they are coming back as the Meg Reed investigates, which I actually love.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's perfect.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and this is this is like Ellie's version.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Ellie's version, absolutely.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_03: These are Meg Reed investigates by Ellie Alexander versus the Pacific Northwest Mysteries by Kate.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: So exactly.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um new titles, new covers, little refresh.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: But there's more.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: There is more, yes.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_03: And this is exciting.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is very exciting.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get to that, I'm not trying to like drag you.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: But wait, but wait, there's more.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do think we should talk a little bit about like uh the first time I met Meg fictionally.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_03: Most people probably haven't heard that.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: Most people may not have heard the story.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you have.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Although we could have shared this.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: I get I forget what we've shared and what we haven't.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, darlings, if you've heard this already, sorry.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Just fast forward and move on.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um We were hiking in the Columbia River Gorge at Angel's Rest.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: And at the trailhead, there were these giant burly mountain men, and then this young hiker all in pink.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: They they were they were like guys in their 20s wearing flannel and hiking.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: They were like quintessential Oregon hikers with REI gear, uh in reality.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: In your head, I'm sure they were like, you know, lumberjacks.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: They were lumberjacks on a hike.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: Never picked up an axe in their entire life.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, definitely not.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: And a young woman in pink.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, all in pink.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we got up to the top of Angel's Rest, and I was like, well, including pink boots.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: Including pink boots was yeah, was incredible.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I was obsessed with her.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I had been wanting to find a character, like I had already I'd been doing much more serious work in the world.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I had been working for the Alzheimer's Association, and I had written a book on Alzheimer's and childhood education, early childhood education, and I kept thinking, like, I cannot write a Cose mystery.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love them, I read them to escape myself, but I can't do something that's light and fun.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what in the world would I write about?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's all been written before.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then she appeared, and I was like, Well, there's my character.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, done.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, bring it on.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_03: I know, it was funny, and then that's all you talked about uh all the way home.
• 17:48
  unknown: Right?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:50
  unknown: Uh-huh.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: But that's uh, and then Meg was born.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then Meg was born.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I hiked Angel's Rest probably another six times, you know, times with my dad, another time with you, one time on my own, um, just to make sure like I got all the outdoor stuff right.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I loved early on, and I was absolutely never anticipating, was um meeting readers who had mobility issues and would say, like, I felt like I was actually hiking on a trail for the first time with Meg.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, to this day, nothing makes me happier just to feel like, oh my gosh, yeah, I was able to um hopefully impart what it feels like.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, maybe she gets a little too close to the edge sometimes.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, speaking of getting too close to the edge, I come home from work one day.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: You're in the midst of writing uh what was Scene of the Climb, the first book in in the series, um uh, which is now going to be a murder on the mountain.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_03: A murder on the mountain.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and you're like, yeah, it was so interesting today.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: I called up the Hood River County Sheriff's Office and just said, what happens if someone pushes someone off the the side of Angel's Rest?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, What?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh my god, you're now you're on a list.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure they're having people on their way here right now.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_03: What?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: You asked them what?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Because you were like, like, how long does it take you, you know, emergency crews to respond?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: And how that that sounded suspicious, AF.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's badly.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:27
  unknown: Why?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: So they were super healthy.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: They were so great, which is even more terrifying.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like they were like, Oh, yeah, it takes us about 18 minutes to like, you know, and I'm like, they give you a timeline.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: So now you know.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: So then the next time you asked me to go hiking, I was like, No, no chance.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, definitely not.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and then I feel like, you know, once um the first book was published, now a murder on the mountain, uh our whole like the next three or four years was just Meg research.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like everywhere we would go, we'd be like, Okay, where's she gonna go next?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, when we hike a lot, uh, we do a lot of outdoor stuff, and so living in the Pacific Northwest at the time was uh it was just perfect because literally everywhere we went, we were like, oh, what if Meg did this here, or what if Meg did that here?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: So we were in uh Hood River one time, and we saw there was a uh sale uh windsurfing competition.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_03: For those of you don't know, just Google Hood River, Oregon, and you'll see the first thing that will come up is something about windsurfing because it is just the like the quintessential spot for windsurfing, probably in the world.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um is just and uh the stuff that men and women on those those kiteboards and everything do is just incredible.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Dumb to five.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: But uh um so we did that, and then uh the uh caves.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_03: Uh yeah, uh like I mean everything, everything, everywhere we went, uh up Mount Hood, you know, almost up there, yeah, for uh Timberline and everything.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: It was just yeah, it was incredible.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so everywhere we went, it was like this is something Meg do.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Right, and what what was great about it is it would always be um well, this is how Meg would do um something related to windsurfing.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: I did attempt to windsurf myself terribly, it went really well.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: We had professional windsurfers who came to the book launch party for that, and they were so great.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they were talking about all the things that like Meg did wrong basically in the books, which was great.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's always good to hear from the experts and go, yeah, I know she's she would have dumped sure.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: But right.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Uh huh.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then the Silcox Hut is the setting for book two, which is set like up at the top of Mount Hood, and you have to take this snow cat to get up to it.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we were there one Christmas, and I was like, Oh well, this is perfect because she can get snowed in there, there's no electricity, and you are like 8,000 feet at the top of a Mountaining.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: Actually that book that that reminds me that was a that's another good one because the title of that was Slade on the Slope.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: Slade on the Slopes We got so much feedback.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_03: If that is not grammatically correct, it's slain, blah, blah, blah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and it was like, no, no, no.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: This is again, these are all puns, so it was just like, you know, this uh um uh we like slayed meaning You slayed it ski terminology, ski surfing terminology, and and so it was just a way to add a pun into the title of the cozy mysteries.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like, don't take it so seriously.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, but people did.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I heard about that for sure.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my goodness, one woman like walked down to her local library to look it up in like the big scenario.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I forgot about that.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And she sent me a screenshot and was like, now what I need you to know is that slayed is not a word, it is slain.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, that was intentional.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, right, go to the mountain.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: That was the borders aren't like, hey, you really slain it out there.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh um, book four, she goes on a mud run.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a great story because you signed up for a mud run.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, an obstacle.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was an obstacle, uh inflatables.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Inflatables, yes.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_03: Inflatables.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so did Sky Guy.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sky Guy was little the time, and I was going to do it too.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And in true Meg fashion, I was just out for a walk with my friend um near Fort Vancouver, where that book is set, and I tripped and fell on a crack in the sidewalk and broke my arm and ended up in a pink cast.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I couldn't finish the mud run, but I was like, that's just so perfectly it wasn't supposed to be a mud run, but it's right through Pacific Northwest fashion.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: In the middle of summer, it had rained the night before.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so this this run was like there were 24 massive inflatable obstacles that you you it was like a 5k run, and you're doing this run, and then you come across this obstacle, you got to go over the obstacle, you gotta go under it, you gotta go through it, whatever.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's all like and it's an endurance race because it it was tough.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: But because it was so wet, God, if unless you were at the very beginning of the pack, the whole run was just mud, like you'd get to the obstacle and it was just covered in mud because they're around the middle of this field, and so trying to climb up there, yeah.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: And of course, of course, Sky got finished way before me because he was just even younger, he was just such a little like runner, and he just loved it.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_03: He just like scrambled up the thing, and I'm just like, How am I gonna get up there?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was just covered in mud by the time we got back.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, by the time I got done.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: So thus uh what what was that one called?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: First degree mutter.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I also got feedback on that.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, mutter isn't a word.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I know it's murder with mud, but yeah, thanks.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was intended.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I I should go back through emails that I received back in the day from readers who were like, um, I believe that there's an error in the title.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, but it's a mud.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: But again, this does also speak to sort of um, I don't think the covers ever exactly jive to.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting because these new covers, if you've seen the cover for Murder on the Mountain, um I love it because it's pink.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, ooh, um, it's pink, it's Pacific Northwest vibes.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: You get the coffee, um, there's a backpack and an umbrella and all the things.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Definitely more, much, much, much more along the lines of what you wanted originally.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I do think that's part of it.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I think, you know, um, she was just a little ahead of her time for a subset of readers, um, which I don't think is true anymore.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's cool to see like how far the genre has come in the last 15 years.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I love that piece.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: As a reader, as a writer, um getting to see some of my writing students who've gone on to write things that are completely um impossible to think that they might have been published 15 years ago.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: Right, totally.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh the genre has definitely come a long way.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_03: It's like modernized exactly, which is which is really great.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, for sure.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so So about the more yes, so that's what I was gonna say.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so it things you should know.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you have already read The Pacific Northwest Mysteries, originally published by K Tyre Seeley, these five that are releasing in the next they'll they're gonna release like every two to three weeks from yeah, this summer through September.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all five books will be back.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be back in ebook and print.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but if you've read the series just repeat that again.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, starting yeah, okay.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: When these books go live for free order, they will be available as ebooks only.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: But that is only because of the way publishing works.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: The paperback is coming.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: I repeat, the coming is coming.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's coming.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: So do not worry.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh for those print readers out there, that is still going to be a thing.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know, and I cannot wait to have a whole set of five with a five new cover.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, okay, but if you've read the original series, this is not new.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: But if you want to go back and read them, they will have like a little freshening up.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just a touch different, I would say, but the guts of the story are the same.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: However, if you have read them and you love Meg, which thank you so much.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've heard from many of you darlings, that I didn't even know you knew about Meg because it's kind of like sort of a secret, because it's interesting.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: That was my first series that got published, and then the bake shop mysteries sold right after that.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and those really took off.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that I wrote as Ellie because that's how publishing works, especially if you're just starting out.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of times, if you're writing for more than one house, they'll have you come up with a pen name.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, all of that stuff really took off, and all of my Kate stuff kind of disappeared.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm always surprised.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for those of you who are super sluice and have found the Meg series, if you have read them and enjoyed them, there's gonna be something special coming in October.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: Ooh, what's that?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is a brand new Meg.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: This is where I insert the dun dun dun.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: Except it's more like dun dun dun dun.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's true.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be a holiday rom-com.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: So not a mystery, but Meg and all of her friends, Matt, Jill, Gam, mom, the whole OG cast is coming back.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: The story takes place a decade later.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: So they've all gone off, grown up a little bit, been out in the world, doing their thing, and they are reuniting for Matt's 30th birthday in Bend, Oregon.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's working for a tech company.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: Shocking.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Shocking.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and it is going to have all of the cozy Christmas vibes, and it's um three intertwining uh romances.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh light, sweet romance, not spicy.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: No eyes.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: No one dies, not a body, no bodies.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Meg's coming back for love.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna say that.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and the title is A Cozy Kind of Christmas.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I should have cover art to share with you soon, and that will be out in October.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, nice.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's a good that'll be in that.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_03: So that all five of the books will release before that.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_03: So if no one has read Meg yet, they can be introduced to all the characters before the rom-com comes out.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I would highly recommend if you haven't read Meg, um, this it would be great to read them all.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to, like you could read the holiday rom-com as a standalone, but um, there's a big subplot that runs through the series of Meg's dad's death pops.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so like having that backstory, I think is good personally as a writer.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, it also works as a standalone.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: But holiday, holiday cozy Christmas vibes.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and so when the when these five books start releasing, when does the first one come out?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: The first one, A Murder on the Mountain, comes out July 21st.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, so less than two weeks.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: From the airing of this episode.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, okay.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: And then every two weeks after that.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Every two to three weeks, yeah.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they will all be out by September.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: With a holiday special coming in October.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: All good stuff.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's a that's a lot.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: So six six books, hopefully, that uh a lot of people probably didn't even know about.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Plus some other bonus stuff that um maybe we'll have to share next time.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, on that note, until next time.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time.