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Alyssa Maxwell: Weaving History and Mystery in the Gilded Newport Mysteries Series · Hallmark Mysteries & More

• 0:00
  Eric Rutin: There is incredible excitement for this week's Gilded Newport Mysteries on Homeark, and you can't have the movie without the book series.
• 0:12
  Eric Rutin: And today we are so lucky to be talking to Alyssa Maxwell, the creator of this really cool, fun, cozy mystery series that the movie is based off of here on Homeark Mysteries and more.
• 0:28
  Eric Rutin: This podcast was created by fans or fans and is not affiliated with or sponsored by Homeark or the Homeark channel.
• 0:40
  Eric Rutin: Hello, okay.
• 0:42
  Eric Rutin: So today we are super excited to have Alyssa Maxwell, the writer of the book series that the new Homeark mystery the Gilded Newport Mysteries Murder at the Breakers is based off of.
• 1:00
  Eric Rutin: So hello, alyssa, how are you today?
• 1:03
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'm good, eric, thank you.
• 1:05
  Eric Rutin: thank you for having me on, oh no, super excited, I have to say so.
• 1:10
  Eric Rutin: We got the news that true justice, which we're recording today, on a Friday, and true justice airs tonight.
• 1:18
  Eric Rutin: We're just excited that Homeark was releasing one mystery and then quickly came out with the second mystery coming on board.
• 1:27
  Eric Rutin: So you know, being sleuthers that we are, we could not be more excited.
• 1:32
  Eric Rutin: So, and then when we saw that it was a period piece, which is a whole new thing for Homeark, it really kind of exploded our brains.
• 1:43
  Eric Rutin: So we're excited to talk to you and really find out a little bit more behind the whole story that this, that this is based off of.
• 1:53
  Eric Rutin: Sure so now you're down in Florida, huh.
• 1:57
  Alyssa Maxwell: I am yeah.
• 1:58
  Eric Rutin: I'm in Fort Lauderdale.
• 1:59
  Alyssa Maxwell: South Florida.
• 2:01
  Alyssa Maxwell: I have about 20 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale, I guess.
• 2:05
  Eric Rutin: Okay, so my in-laws are up in Jupiter, so just a little bit north.
• 2:09
  Eric Rutin: Okay yeah, and then Andrea goes to West Palm Beach or they have a vacation place there that they go to all the time, so you're just kind of a hop, skip and jump away from over there.
• 2:27
  Eric Rutin: So so Florida's a little bit different than Newport, but so why don't you just tell us a little bit about you, your background, because I know there is a little more connection to Newport than you know.
• 2:40
  Eric Rutin: Fort Lauderdale, which you couldn't in the fort Fort Lauderdale spring break mysteries, which would have been a whole nother exciting.
• 2:48
  Alyssa Maxwell: That's a lot for the future.
• 2:49
  Eric Rutin: you never know, so yeah, tell us a little bit about you.
• 2:52
  Eric Rutin: Know you and your background and you know.
• 2:55
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, well, I grew up in Connecticut where, you know, I had a really good friend who eventually moved with her family to Newport and when I went to visit her, I we were still teenagers and I fell in love with city.
• 3:10
  Alyssa Maxwell: She was living on the point section in one of the houses that the Newport Restoration Society had just renovated and was now renting out, and you aren't considered a renter.
• 3:22
  Alyssa Maxwell: This is still the case.
• 3:24
  Alyssa Maxwell: You're considered, I think it's, like a custodian or a steward of the house, because these are original colonials but that have been updated so that people can actually live in them.
• 3:36
  Alyssa Maxwell: So anyway, through her I met my husband, or who would become my husband and between you know, my friend and my husband.
• 3:46
  Alyssa Maxwell: I learned about Newport not just as a tourist, you know, as most people see it as very exciting.
• 3:53
  Alyssa Maxwell: They see it in the summer and you know the yachts and the sailing and the parties and the mansions.
• 3:58
  Alyssa Maxwell: But I learned about Newport from the point of view of people who have lived there.
• 4:02
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know not only you know at the time, but for generations.
• 4:05
  Alyssa Maxwell: So I really think that gave me a lot of insight, you know, into what makes Newport special, both exciting and, you know, remarkable.
• 4:15
  Alyssa Maxwell: In an ordinary way, we've since moved, obviously to Florida, but we go back every year so I can, you know, do my research, but mostly so that we can, you know, be a Newport, feel like Newport is again, visit with family and friends, of course, but, yeah, we like to keep that connection going, you know, keep it fresh.
• 4:37
  Eric Rutin: And then how did you so?
• 4:38
  Eric Rutin: You're visiting Newport, all that as a teenager and that.
• 4:41
  Eric Rutin: How'd you end up becoming a cozy mystery writer?
• 4:46
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, well, that that was an evolution.
• 4:48
  Alyssa Maxwell: I had always loved to write and you know it's fairly good at it, even as a kid.
• 4:53
  Alyssa Maxwell: It's just something I love to do.
• 4:57
  Alyssa Maxwell: But I had another friend.
• 4:59
  Alyssa Maxwell: When I moved to Florida, I met her, we worked together and one day she just announced that she was publishing a book, a romance, and I had always thought about writing, but I really didn't know how to get started and through her I learned what it was to develop a plot and develop characters, you know, and actually write a book from start to finish.
• 5:21
  Alyssa Maxwell: She dragged me almost kicking and screening, to writers organizations and she invited me into her critique group.
• 5:29
  Alyssa Maxwell: So that's really how it started, and this was back in the 90s.
• 5:34
  Alyssa Maxwell: I started in romance and it wasn't until I wrote Murder at the Breakers which I started writing it.
• 5:42
  Alyssa Maxwell: I think in 2010 that I made that leap into mystery.
• 5:47
  Eric Rutin: So what was it that like took you from?
• 5:50
  Eric Rutin: Well, you know, murder Breakers still has a touch of you can see a little touch of that, you know romance in it, but that's, you know, the cozy mystery that we all know and love in Hallmark, right?
• 6:00
  Eric Rutin: But what was it that sort of decided to give up just the smoochy-smoochy for some, you know, murder.
• 6:09
  Alyssa Maxwell: Right.
• 6:10
  Alyssa Maxwell: Well, it wasn't just smoochy-smoochy, they were historical romances and they always had kind of a strong suspense or mystery thread running through them.
• 6:19
  Alyssa Maxwell: So it was kind of a natural progression.
• 6:22
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know, I just realized you know you're a closet mystery writer, so why don't you just do it?
• 6:28
  Eric Rutin: Okay, so you, you've always kind of liked the historic type, okay, well, I guess.
• 6:34
  Eric Rutin: So my wife's sister lived in Boston for a long time so we'd go there, my wife, in her summers.
• 6:45
  Eric Rutin: One summer her and her roommate when they were in school actually were in Newport themselves as they had a summer job of being maids cleaning up like current mansions, like people who live there, because obviously, yes, there's a little bit of money in Newport and all that.
• 7:01
  Eric Rutin: Yeah, she loved like honey you're talking about the two different sides of Newport.
• 7:06
  Eric Rutin: And then also her uncle was a retired I think he was a colonel or something like that, but he was, they were Newport residents for a long time.
• 7:17
  Eric Rutin: So I've spent a lot of time in Newport there as well and it's, it is a really cool, cool place.
• 7:24
  Eric Rutin: So when this first came out, I was excited, just about it.
• 7:30
  Eric Rutin: And then, like, say, putting it into the the, you know that 1890s, right, that's.
• 7:34
  Eric Rutin: I think that's when it is 1895.
• 7:39
  Eric Rutin: I'm assuming you're a fan of mystery in general, right?
• 7:43
  Alyssa Maxwell: Right.
• 7:44
  Eric Rutin: So do you like?
• 7:44
  Eric Rutin: Do you have like any, you know?
• 7:46
  Eric Rutin: Do you read other mystery books?
• 7:48
  Eric Rutin: Do you watch the Hallmark Mysteries yourself or into mystery movies and all that?
• 7:54
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, I do.
• 7:55
  Alyssa Maxwell: I read really widely, so I couldn't say there's any one author who's my favorite.
• 8:00
  Alyssa Maxwell: I like so many especially historical mystery authors.
• 8:04
  Alyssa Maxwell: I love the Agatha Christie movies, I love Poro and I do watch the Hallmark Mysteries.
• 8:13
  Alyssa Maxwell: A couple of my favorites there are Mystery 101 and the Crossword Puzzle Mysteries, because I happen to love puzzles.
• 8:21
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'm not a good crossword puzzler but I love puzzles of all kinds, so that really appeals to me too.
• 8:28
  Eric Rutin: Okay, well, I say you're not alone with saying you love Mystery 101.
• 8:32
  Eric Rutin: So actually the John Christian Plummer Well, I guess you're in Florida now, but he's a he's an upstate New York guy, so he's not too far away from New England there.
• 8:45
  Eric Rutin: So maybe there's something about those snowy winters that helps motivate you guys to get into this whole crime thing, and all that, yeah, well, you know.
• 8:55
  Alyssa Maxwell: Honestly, though, my books are all set during the summer, because that was when the season was when everybody was in the main book at the time.
• 9:03
  Alyssa Maxwell: That's true, you're right winter books in Newport.
• 9:07
  Eric Rutin: Everything's closed up.
• 9:08
  Eric Rutin: Well, I guess the well you're heroin.
• 9:10
  Eric Rutin: She lives there year round.
• 9:12
  Alyssa Maxwell: She does, yeah, so most of the mansions were shut up by then, right?
• 9:18
  Eric Rutin: Right, okay, all right.
• 9:19
  Eric Rutin: So let's just talk a little bit about so you, it's interesting.
• 9:22
  Eric Rutin: So you, you really didn't get into like the thing of, oh, I'm a teenager, this dream of being a writer and just sort of progress along.
• 9:31
  Eric Rutin: You kind of just sort of like you say I don't want to say stumbled into it, but like say it wasn't the chosen career path.
• 9:39
  Eric Rutin: It sort of seems like it was the one that found you.
• 9:41
  Alyssa Maxwell: I had been working for a reference publisher so I kind of in that, you know, going in that direction.
• 9:50
  Eric Rutin: Gotcha Okay, okay.
• 9:52
  Alyssa Maxwell: And that's where I met my friend who published.
• 9:54
  Eric Rutin: So let's just go back to, I guess, to there and to now tell us a little bit about, like, being a writer.
• 9:59
  Eric Rutin: So how do you like construct a mystery?
• 10:03
  Eric Rutin: Do you take it like at the end, like, okay, I know, this is going to be the killer, with a little bit of a twist, and then you sort of build it backwards and then write it, or is it sort of go and then like, ooh, I like this character and like, how does it really work?
• 10:19
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, it's a combination of the two really, because when I get started I do kind of have an idea of you know who, who done it and why and how.
• 10:27
  Alyssa Maxwell: But you know, as far as building the plot, I have to develop my characters first.
• 10:33
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know my, since I write series, I have a certain set number of characters who recur from book to book, obviously.
• 10:41
  Alyssa Maxwell: But it's getting those secondary characters fleshed out that helps me develop the plot, because you know why would this person do that as opposed to this person who might react differently.
• 10:51
  Alyssa Maxwell: So that helps me build, you know, action, reaction pro action as as I go along in the story.
• 11:02
  Alyssa Maxwell: So you know, I'm not one of those writers that has I don't have what do you call those spreadsheets and things and a lot of storyboards I sometimes will use a program called plotter to kind of get my character set and my setting, or sometimes I'll use a dry erase board.
• 11:25
  Alyssa Maxwell: Other times I'll use index cards.
• 11:28
  Alyssa Maxwell: So it really changes from book to book.
• 11:30
  Alyssa Maxwell: It's weird how that happens.
• 11:31
  Alyssa Maxwell: I don't know why.
• 11:32
  Alyssa Maxwell: It's a kind of like whatever mood I'm in when I begin.
• 11:36
  Eric Rutin: The gilded new port.
• 11:37
  Eric Rutin: What were you?
• 11:39
  Eric Rutin: Was that your first, then, from evolving from the romance to the mystery?
• 11:44
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, murder at the breakers?
• 11:45
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, okay.
• 11:46
  Eric Rutin: Okay, so when you, when you, when you made that jump, were like any of the characters sort of these, I don't want to say they're obviously from your romance, but were they kind of like ones that were sort of existing in you and you're like, oh, you know, emma from whatever, whatever, I don't know, sorry, I don't know the romance book.
• 12:07
  Eric Rutin: Like oh, I can turn this character into Emma, who's now this, or, like you, just sort of had a fresh start and I'm starting this whole new.
• 12:16
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, I would call it a fresh start and, but what helped me with some of the characters were members of my husband's family.
• 12:25
  Eric Rutin: So your husband's family's full of murders.
• 12:29
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yes, no, but the nanny character and who Emma lives with used to be her nanny.
• 12:36
  Alyssa Maxwell: Now she's her housekeeper.
• 12:38
  Alyssa Maxwell: That was having based on my husband's grandmother, who we called Nan, and they have a lot in common.
• 12:45
  Alyssa Maxwell: Aunt Sadie, who is never in the book exactly, she's a deceased character who was Emma's mentor.
• 12:52
  Alyssa Maxwell: She is loosely based on my husband's aunt Sarah, who was sometimes called Sadie, so there was a little bit of that going on.
• 13:01
  Alyssa Maxwell: I discovered Nellie Bly in my research, who was a Gilded Age reporter.
• 13:06
  Alyssa Maxwell: So you know a lot of Emma's tendencies.
• 13:09
  Alyssa Maxwell: Kind of Nellie set those precedents of a woman wanting to be more than a society reporter.
• 13:16
  Alyssa Maxwell: But yeah, I really I would say they were all new characters that came about because of what I was writing, so I felt needed to people that world.
• 13:31
  Eric Rutin: Okay, so Emma is roughly based on a real Like.
• 13:37
  Alyssa Maxwell: I would say she's based on Nellie Bly, but Nellie Bly, as I said, it's a precedent that you know.
• 13:42
  Alyssa Maxwell: A woman was going to aspire to do more than report on balls and fashions, which is what Emma's trying to do as well.
• 13:51
  Eric Rutin: Okay, well, I'll be perfectly transparent.
• 13:53
  Eric Rutin: I've only read the first one, the Murder at the Breakers.
• 13:56
  Eric Rutin: So that's, I don't know how she evolves and you know where everything goes, but I will say that yes, there was the you know for the time period.
• 14:10
  Eric Rutin: She is a very strong personality and especially like how you said her in that you know the societal, the Newport Society, where there's very sort of strict rules for what a woman supposed like she drives her own buggy right.
• 14:28
  Eric Rutin: And why am I going brain at the Vanderbilt, her aunt, the main?
• 14:36
  Alyssa Maxwell: Cornelius.
• 14:38
  Eric Rutin: Alice, right Like.
• 14:39
  Eric Rutin: Alice is always like, oh, you should have the, you know the driver or whatever, and she's like, no, I'll just do my own little thing.
• 14:46
  Eric Rutin: So it's kind of is a pretty progressive woman for for those you know, for that time it's exciting.
• 14:53
  Alyssa Maxwell: But they, but they existed.
• 14:54
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know there have always been strong women throughout history.
• 14:57
  Alyssa Maxwell: They just didn't always get credit for being strong women.
• 15:00
  Alyssa Maxwell: Alva Vanderbilt is is a perfect example, and you know she was from that family and that society, but she really walked to her own, would you say her own, to beat up her own drum.
• 15:13
  Eric Rutin: So with it I mean because it is interesting, because, like I say, historic fiction, but it is does have the Vanderbilt's in it.
• 15:19
  Eric Rutin: Are those actually the real Vanderbilt's there or those fictional Vanderbilt's?
• 15:24
  Alyssa Maxwell: No, those are real Vanderbilt's.
• 15:25
  Alyssa Maxwell: Okay.
• 15:27
  Eric Rutin: So for them there are they pretty kind of true to who they really are as far as their characters.
• 15:36
  Alyssa Maxwell: I tried to make them as close to what I read about them.
• 15:41
  Eric Rutin: Okay.
• 15:42
  Alyssa Maxwell: For instance, Neely Vanderbilt, who is, you know, in the book and he is wanting to date whatever.
• 15:52
  Alyssa Maxwell: Grace Wilson.
• 15:52
  Alyssa Maxwell: But Neely was a very studious kind of person and I tried to write him that way, and once he committed to Grace, he wasn't going to go back and, you know, tell her no just because his family didn't approve.
• 16:06
  Alyssa Maxwell: He was really somebody who was honorable and stuck to his word.
• 16:12
  Alyssa Maxwell: His father, on the other hand, was actually very similar, and that's where the problem came in.
• 16:18
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know, Cornelius Vanderbilt wasn't going to back down either.
• 16:22
  Alyssa Maxwell: So yeah, I really tried to make them as close to how history paints them.
• 16:30
  Eric Rutin: Okay Good and, like I said, I enjoyed it.
• 16:32
  Eric Rutin: One of my favorite little snippets of the book and it gets back to the you know a little bit of woman power there was when the.
• 16:44
  Eric Rutin: I don't want to reveal too much about the story because this will come out before the movie and I don't want to do any spoilers, but I don't.
• 16:51
  Eric Rutin: We obviously know someone dies and, but Emma is.
• 16:55
  Eric Rutin: She's the reporter and, like he said, she writes about balls and those sort of things.
• 16:59
  Eric Rutin: But she also has the inside scoop because her brother is accused and so she writes the story.
• 17:08
  Eric Rutin: But the publishers like no, we're going to give it to the guy the writer just because he's an older guy, even though she's the better writer.
• 17:17
  Eric Rutin: So I kind of felt her, her pain there of that is what has to be the frustration of just being the pigeon hole, like oh, you're going to be writing about what you write about and you know a little how dismissive her, her, her boss was of her.
• 17:32
  Eric Rutin: So what was it about the gilded age really that drew you to it?
• 17:40
  Eric Rutin: Because you could have wrote about like sort of any period.
• 17:42
  Eric Rutin: So why that period?
• 17:43
  Alyssa Maxwell: I could have.
• 17:44
  Alyssa Maxwell: Um, look, it was Newport first and foremost and, in looking at it, the most famous and identifiable part of Newport are those mansions and those people and those names Vanderbilt, aster, morgan, you know, these are names that we still know today, so I thought to appeal to a wide audience.
• 18:10
  Alyssa Maxwell: It always really does help to have something that is familiar and identifiable.
• 18:15
  Alyssa Maxwell: It also gave me tons of material to work with and no lack of research materials.
• 18:21
  Alyssa Maxwell: There's so much written, there's so many pictures and images to be found, so it was just a very rich, exciting, dynamic time period to get into.
• 18:36
  Eric Rutin: Okay.
• 18:36
  Eric Rutin: So it's not like it's like your favorite time in the world.
• 18:38
  Eric Rutin: It just sort of really fit for what you're trying to do.
• 18:43
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, I mean, there are several time periods that I love to read about, watch movies about even you know, possibly write about someday.
• 18:52
  Alyssa Maxwell: But yeah, this is one of them.
• 18:55
  Eric Rutin: Okay, excellent, all right, now we're going to.
• 18:57
  Eric Rutin: We always break in and we do a little fun, little rapid round of questions and they're just silly, little easy questions.
• 19:04
  Eric Rutin: So the first one is what's your opinion of pineapple on pizza?
• 19:10
  Alyssa Maxwell: No, no, no, okay, I'm of Italian descent.
• 19:15
  Alyssa Maxwell: We don't do that.
• 19:17
  Eric Rutin: We will continue this conversation.
• 19:18
  Eric Rutin: Thank you, I agree 100%.
• 19:22
  Eric Rutin: I view people who do that Psychotic.
• 19:26
  Alyssa Maxwell: So unless the tomato sauce and the acid in pineapple.
• 19:31
  Alyssa Maxwell: Wow, that's just too much.
• 19:35
  Eric Rutin: Perfect, though John Christian Palmer did point out, like if you're actually from Hawaii it may be okay.
• 19:41
  Eric Rutin: So I've decided if you're actually Hawaiian, you can have Hawaiian pizza, but anybody else?
• 19:46
  Eric Rutin: I agree with you 100% wrong, just wrong, okay.
• 19:50
  Eric Rutin: Yeah.
• 19:51
  Eric Rutin: So you are on a nice little yacht off the coast of Newport and a big, crazy storm comes and hits and drags you to some little island that you're stuck on, deserted by yourself, never to be found for years.
• 20:06
  Eric Rutin: What book are you glad that you brought with you?
• 20:13
  Alyssa Maxwell: Oh, gosh, oh, can I have a complete work of Shakespeare?
• 20:19
  Alyssa Maxwell: Because then at least I have comedy, romance.
• 20:22
  Alyssa Maxwell: I've got history plays.
• 20:23
  Eric Rutin: So you travel light on these three hour tours, huh, okay, I'll give you that.
• 20:31
  Eric Rutin: So you're taking interesting going the whole Shakespeare route, all right, but you're right, it gives you a little bit of everything.
• 20:37
  Eric Rutin: Okay, all right.
• 20:40
  Eric Rutin: So you grew up up there in Connecticut but you're down in Florida now.
• 20:45
  Eric Rutin: So what's worse, a Nor'easter or, and I'll say, like a reasonable hurricane, so not like a category five, whatever you know, that's just what, devastating, but, like you know, a normal sake in hurricane.
• 21:03
  Alyssa Maxwell: Mm, hmm, I think I've lived through both.
• 21:07
  Alyssa Maxwell: I think the Nor'easter was less scary than the hurricane, really only been through one bad hurricane and that was Wilma in my area.
• 21:19
  Eric Rutin: Okay.
• 21:20
  Alyssa Maxwell: That was pretty scary.
• 21:23
  Eric Rutin: So you have the Gilded Age mystery right that you write for the Gilded Newport HBO has.
• 21:32
  Eric Rutin: I believe it is called Gilded Age, if I'm not mistaken.
• 21:35
  Eric Rutin: Do you watch?
• 21:37
  Eric Rutin: Do you watch that?
• 21:37
  Alyssa Maxwell: show?
• 21:38
  Alyssa Maxwell: Oh, religiously, of course.
• 21:40
  Eric Rutin: So you love it, huh.
• 21:41
  Alyssa Maxwell: I do, I do, I, I.
• 21:43
  Alyssa Maxwell: Well, part of the fun is knowing which house they filmed in which part of Newport they've used.
• 21:49
  Alyssa Maxwell: That's, that's fun.
• 21:51
  Alyssa Maxwell: But I watch anything.
• 21:53
  Alyssa Maxwell: Period, pretty much.
• 21:54
  Alyssa Maxwell: I feel like there can be few and far between, so if anything comes out, I will watch it.
• 22:01
  Eric Rutin: So my wife loves it too and so I've gotten into it.
• 22:03
  Eric Rutin: And why don't necessarily love it?
• 22:06
  Eric Rutin: I do enjoy it and I think it's fun.
• 22:08
  Eric Rutin: When reading your book I was like kept going to there to sort of reference things and like they would.
• 22:18
  Eric Rutin: The Astros are not a very big character.
• 22:21
  Eric Rutin: At least in the first book they're mentioned, but they're not like a very big character.
• 22:24
  Eric Rutin: So I don't know if they come down the road getting a little bit more.
• 22:28
  Eric Rutin: But but just like the band of us the guest or so I was I was very into it and I could say I had a lot of cross reference.
• 22:35
  Eric Rutin: So it was.
• 22:36
  Eric Rutin: It was a lot of fun for the timing.
• 22:38
  Eric Rutin: So, okay, all right.
• 22:41
  Eric Rutin: Well, we already asked my other one was going to be if you're a Hallmark mystery fan and what your favorite.
• 22:46
  Eric Rutin: But you already answered that.
• 22:47
  Eric Rutin: So mystery one on one, and then Tess and Logan over there for Crossford mysteries.
• 22:53
  Eric Rutin: The right answer, by the way, is gourmet detective, but we'll still let you mystery one on one, and cross reposals is definitely so, while there's a new one of those that was that we've just discovered is going to be coming out down there.
• 23:10
  Eric Rutin: So actually I'm going to go off script here with some of my questions.
• 23:13
  Eric Rutin: So what's interesting?
• 23:14
  Eric Rutin: If you look at the Hallmark mystery that is on air and we'll actually get into a little bit more of the specifics of it.
• 23:20
  Eric Rutin: But then you know, compared to the book cozy mysteries, the books are definitely a little bit spicier and not as G rated as the what gets on the Hallmark and your book.
• 23:35
  Eric Rutin: Well, it's not real bad.
• 23:38
  Eric Rutin: You definitely.
• 23:39
  Eric Rutin: Like you know, you have smoking characters, you have drunk teenagers and you know all those sort of things.
• 23:46
  Eric Rutin: Yeah, you know, and you have illicit, you just have to say a thing, but whatever, you just have much more adult things that are taking place in that scenario and Hallmark.
• 23:54
  Eric Rutin: But some of these cozy mysteries or even said like you know, the Agatha Christie, a lot of some of these have just not you know.
• 24:02
  Eric Rutin: You go back, they have not aged.
• 24:04
  Eric Rutin: Well, you know, if you look at the lens of 2023, 2024, you know, agatha Christie, obviously there's some racism and things like that, but once again she's writing in the 20s and very different time.
• 24:17
  Eric Rutin: But Hannah Swenson like reading those Hannah like the Jenna fluke books are a little bit you know starts with with Hannah having an affair with her, her professor and stuff like that.
• 24:33
  Eric Rutin: So yeah, so it is a little interesting how the books are not quite as well.
• 24:40
  Eric Rutin: I guess I'll close it, but it's not quite as home or cozy as as what you see on screen.
• 24:44
  Eric Rutin: So that's just a little whatever.
• 24:47
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, yeah, that is true.
• 24:49
  Eric Rutin: But Okay, actually, no, here is my last actual question.
• 24:54
  Eric Rutin: Sorry, the other rapid form.
• 24:56
  Eric Rutin: Even if you were a serial, what serial would you be?
• 25:01
  Alyssa Maxwell: Oh geez, that is not anything I have ever thought about before.
• 25:10
  Alyssa Maxwell: I don't eat a lot of cereal other than Cheerios, but they're pretty bland and not very exciting, so I wouldn't want to call myself a Cheerio.
• 25:21
  Eric Rutin: I'll tell you where the story or this question came from.
• 25:23
  Eric Rutin: I was reading a little buzzfeed thing one night when I was like just awake, try and fall asleep, and I had like weirdest interview questions.
• 25:31
  Eric Rutin: And the one, one of the things, a woman was asked that and she actually answered Cheerio because she loves Cheerios or she's like, and the interviewer is like, yeah, no, that's not the right answer, it should be fruit loops because they're fun and whatever.
• 25:46
  Eric Rutin: And she didn't get.
• 25:47
  Eric Rutin: And she's like, well, I didn't get the job either.
• 25:49
  Eric Rutin: So I was like I think we're going to start asking people kind of see what they would be, just because it's such a weird random question, and then tell you know, but the best is how he said, no, you're wrong.
• 25:59
  Eric Rutin: And it's like what do I think?
• 26:02
  Eric Rutin: No, you're wrong.
• 26:02
  Eric Rutin: Okay, all right, let's move on.
• 26:06
  Eric Rutin: So let's get into like sort of a I imagine, a pretty big moment for you and you know the reason why we're talking.
• 26:12
  Eric Rutin: So you wrote these.
• 26:13
  Eric Rutin: There's 10 of them, right, with any Leavens coming out if I'm not mistaken, there's 11 out and number 12.
• 26:18
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'm doing a final read through right now.
• 26:21
  Eric Rutin: Gotcha.
• 26:21
  Eric Rutin: Okay, so I'm one behind, all right.
• 26:22
  Eric Rutin: So yeah, so you have this nice series of 11 books and you're writing them and enjoying people reading them and this, that and the other.
• 26:28
  Eric Rutin: So all of a sudden you get a call from Hallmark or a producer or something like that.
• 26:33
  Eric Rutin: Tell me about what that was like, or were you?
• 26:37
  Eric Rutin: Or did you actually approach and say, hey, I think my book would be translate Well?
• 26:41
  Alyssa Maxwell: how did this go?
• 26:41
  Alyssa Maxwell: From you, from your pages, to the screen Actually, is an interesting story of luck.
• 26:48
  Alyssa Maxwell: The preservation society of Newport County has been really supportive of the series and they carry the books and all the gift shops at the mansions and their gift shop in town.
• 27:00
  Alyssa Maxwell: So the producer who found this project just happened to tour the breakers one day and in strolling through the gift shop, as they make you do when you exit, the house.
• 27:12
  Alyssa Maxwell: He saw it.
• 27:13
  Alyssa Maxwell: He saw murder at the breakers.
• 27:15
  Alyssa Maxwell: So he thought, huh, I've been looking for a good Newport project to produce and he had Hallmark in mind for that.
• 27:23
  Alyssa Maxwell: So he bought it.
• 27:24
  Alyssa Maxwell: He read it and then he approached my agent and this is pre-pandemic.
• 27:31
  Eric Rutin: So this is how it's been going on Interesting.
• 27:34
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, yeah, it's been a while yeah.
• 27:37
  Eric Rutin: And so when you get this call and like I say, since you're a Hallmark fan yourself, what was it like?
• 27:41
  Eric Rutin: Was it like kind of a whoa, I'm a fan and I'm going to be there, Like that's going to be me now.
• 27:47
  Alyssa Maxwell: Well, my agent called me.
• 27:50
  Alyssa Maxwell: There had been other interests in doing something in film for this book.
• 27:58
  Alyssa Maxwell: But options and shopping agreements happen all like I don't want to say all the time, but they're not that rare.
• 28:06
  Alyssa Maxwell: But what's rare is to have it follow through and actually get made into something that's going to be shown to people.
• 28:13
  Alyssa Maxwell: So I was elated at first, but then gordedly optimistic and there were times when I kind of thought I don't think this is going to happen because months would go by without hearing anything.
• 28:26
  Alyssa Maxwell: And that's kind of how it goes If they're not going to do it, you just stop hearing from them after a while.
• 28:32
  Alyssa Maxwell: But that didn't happen and it would then pick up again.
• 28:37
  Eric Rutin: Interesting.
• 28:38
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah.
• 28:40
  Eric Rutin: Sorry, that's fascinating because what we always hear about Hallmark is and maybe this is the other end for you at your end is like a long drawn out process.
• 28:49
  Eric Rutin: But then we hear from once again the murder mystery 101 is he gets it and he's got six days to write the script because they're filming in six weeks from that point and it seems like it's such a fast condensed window.
• 29:08
  Eric Rutin: But it's amazing because your side is exactly the opposite.
• 29:13
  Alyssa Maxwell: This long drawn out which I hadn't written.
• 29:15
  Eric Rutin: I assumed you like.
• 29:16
  Eric Rutin: They called you in October and said, hey, we want to do this, so okay, interesting.
• 29:22
  Alyssa Maxwell: No, no, no, years years.
• 29:25
  Eric Rutin: So you kind of forgot about it for a little bit there and all of a sudden comes back.
• 29:28
  Alyssa Maxwell: I would forget.
• 29:28
  Alyssa Maxwell: And then I hear something and oh yeah, it's still being talked about.
• 29:33
  Alyssa Maxwell: I think Hallmark wasn't sure at first that they wanted to do a period piece.
• 29:39
  Eric Rutin: Right, because there's a little investment that has to take place.
• 29:42
  Alyssa Maxwell: Right, that had to happen, but what did happen quickly, though, is that it was under.
• 29:47
  Alyssa Maxwell: First, it was just like a shopping agreement, like I mentioned.
• 29:51
  Alyssa Maxwell: Then it was underoptioned, and they renewed the option, and all right.
• 29:55
  Alyssa Maxwell: Then, all of a sudden, back in this past September, we got the call we're going to do it, we start filming next week, and so, you're right, once they get the green light, it's very fast.
• 30:10
  Eric Rutin: Okay, interesting, all right, so help us who are not accomplished writers.
• 30:17
  Eric Rutin: What's a shopping agreement versus an option?
• 30:21
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, and a shopping agreement is when a producer wants to produce it, but they are now going to shop it around to different production companies, so it's a production company that actually takes out the option.
• 30:35
  Eric Rutin: Okay.
• 30:35
  Eric Rutin: So that's the first stage where he's just like, hey, I want to work with you, I'm going to go talk to 80 people.
• 30:40
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, I like this material.
• 30:42
  Alyssa Maxwell: I want to develop it.
• 30:43
  Alyssa Maxwell: Let me see who will develop it with me.
• 30:45
  Alyssa Maxwell: And then the single person is the option of whatever it could be, you know it could be a pair yeah.
• 30:51
  Eric Rutin: What I meant.
• 30:51
  Eric Rutin: Right, but it's a single.
• 30:53
  Eric Rutin: You only have one option at a time.
• 30:56
  Alyssa Maxwell: Oh yeah.
• 30:57
  Eric Rutin: Right, yeah, yeah, okay, I got to understand.
• 30:59
  Eric Rutin: Okay, very cool, that's interesting, thanks.
• 31:01
  Eric Rutin: We, like I said, we haven't had this side of the discussion before.
• 31:06
  Eric Rutin: So what's interesting too?
• 31:09
  Eric Rutin: Because we just talked to the producer for true justice and he is talking about how he gets the notion and sort of goes through things or finds, like strolls through a a you know gift shop and comes across a book.
• 31:21
  Eric Rutin: He didn't say how the the window could be so long.
• 31:26
  Eric Rutin: I kind of once again envisioned it being a fairly short thing.
• 31:29
  Alyssa Maxwell: But that's very interesting.
• 31:30
  Alyssa Maxwell: So of course the pandemic slowed everything down, and then there was the strike.
• 31:36
  Eric Rutin: Right.
• 31:38
  Alyssa Maxwell: Which, even though this was Canada, it still affected them too.
• 31:40
  Alyssa Maxwell: So yeah, I guess you're right, they, they, they did this.
• 31:44
  Eric Rutin: the sort of the tail end of the strike, though, so the still strike was going on, so but I think the writers part of it had ended, but okay.
• 31:53
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah.
• 31:54
  Eric Rutin: All right, so you have your book, and we were just talking a little bit about it, you know there's a little bit of spiciness in it and things like that.
• 32:02
  Eric Rutin: And then you get Carrie and I'm going to mess up her last name, frenzes who's the screenwriter, who comes in to sort of take it from your pages to to the, to the screen.
• 32:14
  Eric Rutin: Did you have a lot of interaction with her and there?
• 32:17
  Eric Rutin: Or is it sort of like, hey, here's your book and then you're like, just like us, waiting to see what comes out of it?
• 32:25
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, I had absolutely no input.
• 32:28
  Alyssa Maxwell: Okay, my, my creative part in this was writing the book.
• 32:34
  Eric Rutin: Okay.
• 32:35
  Alyssa Maxwell: Once you have sold the rights to the production company, you're basically done, unless you're such a famous author like JK Rowling or someone like that, and it's probably best that way, because I'm, I'm, I'm sure I'm too close to the work to be able to say, oh yeah, yeah, you could take that scene out or take that character out, I want to keep them all so it's got to be a little scary though, isn't it?
• 33:01
  Alyssa Maxwell: What's that?
• 33:03
  Eric Rutin: It's got to be a little scary, because you have this thing that you just love and this, yeah, that you created and someone else is going to just I mean in a nice way, but completely dissected because they've got to make it fit 124 minutes and TV is a very different medium than a book.
• 33:21
  Eric Rutin: So, it can dramatically change.
• 33:25
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, and I figured they they understand what keeps a TV viewer watching.
• 33:30
  Alyssa Maxwell: Right, you know, I hope I understand we keep somebody reading, but I probably don't have a handle on what keeps people watching after the first 10 minutes of a show.
• 33:39
  Alyssa Maxwell: I will say, though I believe it's pronounced for friends, kerry, for friends.
• 33:44
  Eric Rutin: Okay.
• 33:45
  Alyssa Maxwell: And she was a writer on Frankie Drake and I was also a fan of that show, so you know I felt a little bit OK that when I learned that she was the writer.
• 33:55
  Eric Rutin: I will say that you do know how to keep a reader interested, because you got my wife mad at me, so you, maybe you should feel a little bit there, because I put on my air pods and I go walk the dogs and I listen.
• 34:09
  Eric Rutin: I listen to the book, and so I be walking the dogs, listen to it, and then I'd finish walking the dogs and I get home I'm like I can't go now because it's whatever, critical stuff's happening, so I leave my AirPods in as I'm doing dishes or whatever.
• 34:24
  Eric Rutin: My wife would be talking to me and I'd have no idea what she's saying and she's like why have your AirPods in?
• 34:30
  Eric Rutin: You know I'm trying to talk to you, you shouldn't do this, and I'm like I gotta know what's going on.
• 34:33
  Eric Rutin: I was about to whatever or this is happening.
• 34:37
  Eric Rutin: So you did keep me entertained enough to get my wife mad at me.
• 34:43
  Alyssa Maxwell: So great, that's great.
• 34:46
  Eric Rutin: Yes, so did you see the?
• 34:48
  Eric Rutin: Have you afterwards, after it's all done, have you seen the script?
• 34:52
  Eric Rutin: So you know, do you know what's it coming and how it all there?
• 34:57
  Alyssa Maxwell: I do, but I really I don't want to comment, Right?
• 34:59
  Eric Rutin: No, I just, I was just curious if you did get to see all that.
• 35:03
  Eric Rutin: So I guess the one thing you can say, I can ask is very broadly, because we've talked to a couple of them and like, once again, the curious cater, which is based off a book, some of them sort of follow, or even we're talking about Hannah Swenson.
• 35:19
  Eric Rutin: Some of them sort of follow the framework of the story.
• 35:23
  Eric Rutin: Other ones take literally one scene and build out Would you which, would you say yours sort of is a little more, follows the overall or is it more?
• 35:35
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yes, it did.
• 35:36
  Alyssa Maxwell: Please me no end Right.
• 35:40
  Eric Rutin: And I was saying how you're saying that you just sort of sell it and you don't get anything to say.
• 35:45
  Eric Rutin: It probably would be very frustrating for the book author to see it be just essentially one chunk For example, curious cater grilling season when the exploding barbecue.
• 36:00
  Eric Rutin: It's like a side bit of it.
• 36:02
  Eric Rutin: But the writer found it just really interesting so he kind of made is the big pivotal moment and it was such a secondary thing there and then everything else that happened in the movie didn't happen in the book.
• 36:12
  Eric Rutin: So you so yeah.
• 36:14
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'm excited.
• 36:15
  Eric Rutin: I'm excited to hear that it that it holds.
• 36:17
  Eric Rutin: Like I say obviously to, just as we said, because TV is different, but I'm excited that it holds because it's a very good story.
• 36:25
  Alyssa Maxwell: Thank you.
• 36:26
  Alyssa Maxwell: Thank you so much.
• 36:28
  Eric Rutin: What do you think of the casting with alley scope?
• 36:33
  Eric Rutin: Be Danny Griffin?
• 36:35
  Eric Rutin: Nathan with white wit?
• 36:37
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'm not sure I can see them at all.
• 36:38
  Alyssa Maxwell: What you?
• 36:39
  Eric Rutin: envisioned.
• 36:45
  Alyssa Maxwell: No, not necessarily.
• 36:47
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'm thrilled with Alice, is it scobey scope?
• 36:53
  Eric Rutin: scope.
• 36:54
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, I'm going to the real point of finding out exactly how to pronounce that.
• 36:58
  Alyssa Maxwell: I was thrilled with her.
• 36:59
  Alyssa Maxwell: I thought she was just a perfect Emma Okay.
• 37:04
  Alyssa Maxwell: So whether she's exactly what I envision in my head, I don't.
• 37:09
  Alyssa Maxwell: I don't know, but I just thought she captured her just beautifully and I think the gentlemen are going to make for a very interesting dynamic, you know, between the two of them.
• 37:24
  Eric Rutin: I will say that very happy.
• 37:26
  Eric Rutin: So the gourmet detective is my favorite mystery, and she played the daughter in that, so she, and so when I saw that, she was cast.
• 37:36
  Eric Rutin: I was so excited to see you know someone from that show going on.
• 37:40
  Eric Rutin: It's also really exciting to see.
• 37:42
  Eric Rutin: The other thing, like I said, the changing of from the books to the movies is you wrote a 21 year old and they cast.
• 37:49
  Eric Rutin: I think she actually is 21,.
• 37:51
  Eric Rutin: Whereas often homework will cast a little more established stars, all of a sudden your 21 year old becomes 32.
• 37:58
  Eric Rutin: Right, right, they've done that, and some of the other ones too.
• 38:03
  Eric Rutin: So it was really exciting to see them go young with this and I think it's going to, you know, between the period piece and young is going to attract a whole different audience.
• 38:13
  Alyssa Maxwell: I hope so.
• 38:14
  Alyssa Maxwell: I hope you're right.
• 38:15
  Eric Rutin: Now are you very familiar with any Griffin.
• 38:18
  Alyssa Maxwell: No, I'm not no.
• 38:20
  Eric Rutin: Okay, I'm going to tell you a little thing.
• 38:21
  Eric Rutin: I was not either, but we put.
• 38:24
  Eric Rutin: I posted on Instagram a little thing about how it's excited and I did some pictures, the, you know the hallmark pictures, it.
• 38:34
  Eric Rutin: Other than when we revealed what the final episode of the like the unproduced story for mystery one on one would be, and I think the post of yours with with those characters, exploded beyond.
• 38:52
  Eric Rutin: I make handful.
• 38:54
  Eric Rutin: Our second best post, right, wow, the Danny Griffin has a legion of very, very loyal fans.
• 39:05
  Eric Rutin: No, I'm guessing the women find them dreamy.
• 39:09
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yes, so I think yeah.
• 39:14
  Eric Rutin: I think I would like, every time I would open up, it'd be like you have a hundred more likes and 60 shares and I'm like whoa, yeah, wow, I didn't know you know, I didn't know, I'm going to figure out a way to do that.
• 39:31
  Eric Rutin: Yeah, so it.
• 39:32
  Eric Rutin: I think the cat, I think they did a good job casting.
• 39:35
  Alyssa Maxwell: Now, there they did go younger than the character, I think, and the character of Jesse is about 10 years or more older than all right.
• 39:45
  Alyssa Maxwell: He seems more in his 20s.
• 39:49
  Eric Rutin: Yeah, you're right, and I don't want to talk anymore about anything else because I think it can start.
• 39:55
  Eric Rutin: We'll start getting into a little bit of spoilers, because if you start talking characters Right, I don't know where they go with it, but I don't want to reveal, because you got some good twists and I'm hoping that they kept some of those, like not just the the murder aspect but the character development twists and things like that.
• 40:19
  Eric Rutin: So so do you have a big watch party plan for when this comes out?
• 40:27
  Alyssa Maxwell: I don't have a huge watch party plan because we're going to do it at a friend's house Because her TV room is bigger than mine.
• 40:37
  Alyssa Maxwell: I think you will have about, you know, 1012 people.
• 40:41
  Alyssa Maxwell: But I have friends in other places who are also planning watch parties.
• 40:46
  Eric Rutin: So between all of us, yeah, well, it'll be scattered, but I think for yours you should make it have to be like costume, so you all have to dress in inferior.
• 40:59
  Alyssa Maxwell: Well, you know, maybe I'll give Julian fellows a call to see if we can borrow some of those.
• 41:05
  Eric Rutin: Well, that's the other thing, the costuming in this.
• 41:09
  Eric Rutin: We're going to talk to the two costumers from the show.
• 41:14
  Eric Rutin: I mean, oh my gosh, and like we've only seen six pictures, I think, but absolutely insane costuming for this, like the pictures they show of always slash Emma.
• 41:28
  Eric Rutin: It's gorgeous, gorgeous.
• 41:31
  Eric Rutin: So I guess that that's probably part of the.
• 41:35
  Eric Rutin: I think the maybe the little hesitation with Hallmark was they.
• 41:41
  Eric Rutin: You know, you couldn't just go to the regular old closet and grab some of their clothes and reuse and like they had to do a little investment in costuming to.
• 41:49
  Alyssa Maxwell: Exactly Right, and they needed houses that were going to stand in for the Newport Nances.
• 41:56
  Eric Rutin: Right.
• 41:58
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know you have to pay for that privilege.
• 42:00
  Eric Rutin: They should just build a new breakers.
• 42:03
  Alyssa Maxwell: That would.
• 42:03
  Eric Rutin: I mean, how expensive?
• 42:04
  Eric Rutin: Could that be right, Okay?
• 42:08
  Alyssa Maxwell: and I will come up and make sure that they get it right.
• 42:11
  Eric Rutin: Perfect.
• 42:11
  Eric Rutin: Okay, so you've got 11 books in the series and I know this is obviously turning into the movie and so nothing against it.
• 42:19
  Eric Rutin: But of the 11, which is your favorite?
• 42:22
  Eric Rutin: And I know people say, no, I love them all.
• 42:23
  Eric Rutin: It's like my children Everyone has a favorite kid.
• 42:27
  Eric Rutin: So which is your favorite book?
• 42:29
  Alyssa Maxwell: Gosh, I mean, it does change from time to time.
• 42:31
  Alyssa Maxwell: I love murder at Kingsco, even though that's probably the smallest house, the smallest mansion I set a murder at.
• 42:40
  Alyssa Maxwell: But there is faced with a real dilemma toward the end of that book and she has to make a tough decision and I just number is in the series.
• 42:52
  Alyssa Maxwell: Oh gosh.
• 42:55
  Eric Rutin: Middle little late in the middle.
• 42:56
  Alyssa Maxwell: It's in the middle.
• 42:57
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, murder at Kingsco.
• 42:59
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, so you jump around or what's that?
• 43:04
  Eric Rutin: can you jump around, or do you really have to go one, two, three, four to understand what's going on in that one?
• 43:11
  Alyssa Maxwell: I think I put enough in each book that you get the idea of who she is and what her life has been and where she's going.
• 43:17
  Alyssa Maxwell: But you know, with the series is always best to start with the first book because you know her life evolves from book to book.
• 43:25
  Alyssa Maxwell: So you know plus, there are spoilers in the later books that you know you'll have the answers to questions raised in the earlier books.
• 43:35
  Eric Rutin: So you know I'm going to go to Kingsco right now, going breakers to Kingsco.
• 43:42
  Alyssa Maxwell: You could possibly.
• 43:44
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know it's funny, I mean, I've these books started coming out 10 years ago, right?
• 43:50
  Alyssa Maxwell: So for me to, just off the top of my head, tell you which number of particular book is that we have to see a list.
• 43:57
  Eric Rutin: I'm guessing, you don't know if there's anything like they're like oh, we already want to go do the next one, or anything like that.
• 44:03
  Eric Rutin: If you do you're not going to tell me.
• 44:08
  Alyssa Maxwell: And I honestly, I don't know at this point.
• 44:11
  Eric Rutin: Well, we're very big fans over here and strongly say if they're going to do one, they have to do three because, like you're saying, characters develop, you get to know them a little bit more.
• 44:24
  Eric Rutin: You have the luxury, when you write the book, to be able to explain more, to go into more detail, but in the TV version things get edited.
• 44:35
  Eric Rutin: So we really think there should at least, if you're going to do it, you should at least do three.
• 44:39
  Eric Rutin: So we are saying they should do more.
• 44:41
  Eric Rutin: I expect the ratings are going to go bananas for this based off of, like I say, just a little bit of post that we've done and how successful it's been.
• 44:51
  Eric Rutin: But so you, you obviously have the said the 12th one coming out.
• 44:56
  Eric Rutin: You have anything else going on, do you have like other?
• 45:00
  Eric Rutin: I have a second theory.
• 45:03
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, I have a series called a lady and ladies made mysteries and that's set in England in the early, well then begin right after World War.
• 45:10
  Alyssa Maxwell: One ends so kind of you know, within a month of armistice day, and that's I.
• 45:16
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'm writing now the ninth book in that one.
• 45:21
  Eric Rutin: So how is it writing?
• 45:21
  Eric Rutin: Jumping like back and forward between.
• 45:26
  Alyssa Maxwell: Do you ever like?
• 45:27
  Eric Rutin: awesome writing, emma, and this one and kind of shift my character.
• 45:34
  Alyssa Maxwell: Dual sleuths in in the lady and ladies made by the lady and her maid.
• 45:38
  Alyssa Maxwell: I know I don't have a problem with switching back and forth, but I write every six months, you know.
• 45:46
  Alyssa Maxwell: I write, you know, within six months and then when that books done, I immediately have to start on the on the next one.
• 45:52
  Alyssa Maxwell: That's been a little grueling, I have to admit.
• 45:55
  Eric Rutin: So you give yourself six months, so you're saying has a problem.
• 45:58
  Alyssa Maxwell: What's that?
• 45:59
  Eric Rutin: you're saying you give yourself six months to complete.
• 46:03
  Alyssa Maxwell: Right.
• 46:04
  Eric Rutin: Right.
• 46:05
  Eric Rutin: So I don't have a lot of downtime when you write, do you?
• 46:10
  Eric Rutin: We're supposed to be done, but now, but you just open the door.
• 46:13
  Eric Rutin: Sorry, but do you?
• 46:15
  Eric Rutin: Do you?
• 46:15
  Eric Rutin: Do you kind of like the one who's a structured writer, like I'm going to write from 10 o'clock to three o'clock every day, or are you just sort of I feel motivated and I'm going to write as long as I'm done in six months?
• 46:31
  Alyssa Maxwell: I do sit down every day, every weekday.
• 46:33
  Alyssa Maxwell: I don't write on the weekends.
• 46:34
  Alyssa Maxwell: I give that's my time to recharge, and you know, relax and enjoy.
• 46:38
  Alyssa Maxwell: I do sit down every day, but whether I write five pages or seven or eight or nine, that varies depending on.
• 46:48
  Alyssa Maxwell: You know, it's my brain working that day, things like that.
• 46:53
  Alyssa Maxwell: So but I try.
• 46:56
  Eric Rutin: So like a screenplay, are all you know essentially like 103 pages and stuff like that with your books?
• 47:02
  Eric Rutin: Are they all essentially the same length, or is it just however long it takes to tell the story, or they average 80,000 words.
• 47:09
  Alyssa Maxwell: sometimes you know a few less, couple of times a few more.
• 47:12
  Alyssa Maxwell: Okay, so set in stone, but yeah.
• 47:17
  Eric Rutin: Interesting.
• 47:18
  Eric Rutin: Okay, do you ever sit there and when you sit down and you're, okay, I'm going to write and just look into, stare and stare and stare and stare and nothing's coming.
• 47:27
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah, what helps so is I go back over what I wrote the day before, so that just kind of gets me back into the characters and the flow of the story.
• 47:35
  Alyssa Maxwell: I also I find it right better if I've got some kind of music going, Usually classical.
• 47:41
  Eric Rutin: Okay, interesting.
• 47:43
  Eric Rutin: Well, you kind of go with the period, then with it.
• 47:46
  Alyssa Maxwell: Yeah.
• 47:48
  Eric Rutin: All right, all right.
• 47:50
  Eric Rutin: Well, this was absolutely, fantastically interesting, illuminated some things that just you know that we don't know being fans.
• 47:58
  Eric Rutin: It's as we, we talked to the different people throughout the process we just learned more and more.
• 48:03
  Eric Rutin: You know how movies come to be and, like I say, it was fascinating for me just learning that you started talking so long ago, that it you know.
• 48:12
  Eric Rutin: I just thought you all of a sudden got a call and they're like hey, we're making your book into a movie and you're like Woohoo.
• 48:19
  Eric Rutin: Yeah it's not that at all, so but okay.
• 48:23
  Eric Rutin: Well, thank you very much for joining us.
• 48:26
  Eric Rutin: I look forward to reading the next book, even though I want to jump ahead to the fifth book or whatever, whichever one it is, but I will.
• 48:35
  Eric Rutin: I will stay true and go in order.
• 48:36
  Eric Rutin: I think I can see Emma progresses she's supposed to and I do have questions about the relationships and stuff based on the first one.
• 48:46
  Eric Rutin: So I'm curious if, because the end, it ended not as I expected, I'm curious to see if it continues or not.
• 48:58
  Eric Rutin: So, like I said, you definitely left it with with enough question marks that have you itching for for the next one, to see where it goes.
• 49:09
  Alyssa Maxwell: I'll tell you this much the next one takes up almost where the last one.
• 49:13
  Alyssa Maxwell: The first one leaves off.
• 49:16
  Eric Rutin: So she's just stumbles on.
• 49:17
  Eric Rutin: She's like this, one of the other ones you just stumbles on.
• 49:19
  Eric Rutin: Gotta stay away from her.
• 49:20
  Eric Rutin: She's just on murder after murder.
• 49:22
  Eric Rutin: I don't know.
• 49:23
  Eric Rutin: If you want to be careful for your health, stay away from Emma.
• 49:27
  Alyssa Maxwell: Exactly.
• 49:27
  Alyssa Maxwell: Don't invite her to your party.
• 49:29
  Eric Rutin: Good chance you'll die Right, okay, well, thank you very much.
• 49:34
  Eric Rutin: It's been a pleasure and I wish you all the success with both your book coming up as well as the movie is so successful that they want to do the next one, and the next one, and the next one.
• 49:45
  Eric Rutin: Thank you so much.