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Cara Bastone: Ready or Not, NYC, & finding the humor in romance! | S4Ep11
416 Plays1 month ago
Spoilers for Ready or Not start at ~33:30
Author Cara Bastone joins us today! She walks us through her writing journey, what goes into producing Audible Originals, how the idea of Ready or Not took shape, and much more!
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Transcript
Introduction of Kara Bastone
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm I'm Kendra. And I'm Kayla. And today we have such a special guest. If you have been listening to our podcast all year, we have not shut the fuck up about one book. ah you And that is Ready or Not by Kara Bastone.
00:00:28
Speaker
ah She is our lovely guest today. Cara Bastone is a full-time writer. Yay! like and but Cara Bastone is a full-time writer living in Brooklyn with her husband, sons, and almost
Influence of Early Romance Novels
00:00:42
Speaker
golden doodle. I had to like imagine that. like What is an almost golden doodle?
00:00:47
Speaker
Her goal with her work is to find the swoon in ordinary love stories. Kara's been a fan of the romance genre since she found a grocery bag filled with her grandmother's old Harlequin romances when she was in high school. She's a fangirl for pretzel sticks, long walks through Prospect Park, and love stories featuring men who aren't hobbled by their own masculinity. Her books include Ready or Not, award-winning Audible originals such as Seatmate, Maybe This Time, Love at First Sight, and more. And she's also the author of the Forever Yours trilogy. Welcome, Kara.
00:01:15
Speaker
Yay. Welcome. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much. We're so excited. Yes, we are
Current Reads and Drinks
00:01:22
Speaker
ecstatic. Before we jump into our many questions for Kara, what are we reading? What are we drinking? Yeah, if you have anything, Kara, you can start. Sure, sure. Yeah. I'm a red zinger gal, so pretty much. okay it's It's just herbal tea. At any minute.
00:01:40
Speaker
this is literally like this exact setup is what you're what i'll be drinking um uh and what am i reading i i'm reading a lot right now but i will say the book i loved the most over the last couple of weeks that i've read is called wildlife by opal way um who also writes under ruby lang uh it was so good i just i want to scream about this book From the rooftops. Yeah, wildlife. Yeah, wildlife. Amazing. Yeah. Okay. Fun fact about your red singer T, my fiance works at Celestial Seasoning's company in Boulder, Colorado. No way! I've been there. I've done a tour.
From Receptionist to Full-Time Writer
00:02:20
Speaker
He's a tour guide. Oh my god, maybe I met him. That's hilarious. Amazing.
00:02:26
Speaker
I'll go next. um I have a pumpkin chai latte today, you know, fall time, so I have to have the pumpkin chai. And then what am I reading? I'm reading A Torch Against the Night by Sabah Tahir, which is the second book in the Ember and Ashes series. I read Air by her, which is a spin-off of this series, and I didn't know it until I was like probably 25% in.
00:02:50
Speaker
So I was like, Oh, I'll just keep going. It'll be fine. There's no spoilers. There are so many spoilers in that book for the original series, but it just made me want to read it more. So yeah, I read the first book last week, absolutely loved it. So now I'm on the second and I feel like it's going to become one of my new fantasy series obsessions. So it's currently what I'm reading. Amazing.
00:03:12
Speaker
I am drinking an iced coffee and a water, so I'm double fisting today. And I just finished an arc of Swapped Away by Bethel Leary. I really enjoyed it. It comes out next year. And then I started um The Flat Shear by Bethel Leary on audio because I want to just get through her backlist now. So yeah, that's that's what I'm reading. That was my first Bethel Leary book. I'm going to be curious to hear what you think. The Flat Shear?
00:03:37
Speaker
I didn't know you read that. Okay. Yeah. Back in like 2021, before I had any accounts or I was talking to anybody about books at all. Okay, cool. I remember that one. Like the way that the guy talks in that book is so like different because it's almost he's like a nurse, right? Yeah. Yeah. He's like a doctor or a nurse. So he's like toxin and very almost like shorthand. So I remember having a really unique, like listening experience with that one.
Creating Audible Originals
00:03:58
Speaker
so I still think that that cover is one of the most beautiful covers of all time. It's really nice. It's the standard. It's like so painterly and beautiful. And it just feels like you're entering. I mean, it's all about flat, but it feels like you're entering their apartment when you're... Yeah. Yeah. Really sets the tone. Our last episode, we were just talking about like covers and if they match the tones of books, it's very fun.
00:04:21
Speaker
I am currently drinking a hot caramel latte. It is officially full in Colorado. It is freezing cold here, which I love. I'm not complaining. That is my drink. I was just telling the girls before we started recording that I am beta reading Hannah Bottom Young's upcoming novel, people People Watching. She just announced the title, so we're allowed to say it. And I'm really excited about that. i'm I've just barely started.
00:04:48
Speaker
So that's what I'm physically reading. And then I just finished listening to Wedding People by Alison S. Batch. It was so fucking good. Kendra and Caleb have been telling me to read it for months. And I'm like, yeah, I'll get there. I'll get there. I'll get there. And kicking myself for waiting so long. It was so, so good. Well, it's at the very top of my TBR. So I was just, I'll drop everything. Oh, you'll love it. I'll do it. All right. It is so good. And I don't know if you're an audio person. Yeah.
Favorite Projects and Personal Influences
00:05:14
Speaker
Okay. The audio is so well done. Yeah, it's really good.
00:05:18
Speaker
all right should we just like dive right into some of our questions we have yeah so many we'll see how many we can get through okay but we were like if we like which ones do we want to skip in case we run out of time we were like none but we will try and make it through we have so much that we would like love to talk to you about so so first just generally can you kind of walk us through your writing journey how did you start and did you always want to write romance so Yes, although I had it in my head that no one could ever make a living doing this. And so it was always kind of a you know hobby. um my My idea was that it would be a Sunday thing, I guess, or or a hobby. But I was a receptionist and hating it. And i one day I Googled how to make money using your creative writing degree.
00:06:11
Speaker
And it brought me to,
New York City as a Muse
00:06:14
Speaker
yeah, right, exactly. It brought me immediately to this gig website, you know, and you can like hire someone to organize your closet, you know, but you can also hire people to write for you from that website. And so I joined it and within like two days I was, I had writing work and so I was a ghostwriter for a long time and I was writing across all genre of genre literature. So like all, I was writing mysteries, I was writing fantasy, I was writing some sci-fi, but romance was what I loved writing the most. And every one of my stories had some sort of romance element. And I was reading romance a ton. I mean, I still do, but it made sense to me that that's where, ah that's how I understood writing. and And that was the lens through which I understood story
Inspiration Behind 'Ready or Not'
00:07:02
Speaker
building and all that. And so yeah, I wrote,
00:07:05
Speaker
I ghost wrote for a long time or from like 2015 to 2019. And in that time, I was ah so also started writing my HQN series, my Forever Yours series. ah And when I wrote that first book, I was like, oh, I just can't sell it. Like, I can't, I can't give it away. Like it felt so personal and so I was so excited about it. And so that was the first one I ever kept. And pretty much after that, I stopped ghostwriting and started writing for myself.
00:07:40
Speaker
When you were ghostwriting during that time period, did that ever become your full-time job? Or are you still working your other job while ghostwriting? A little bit of both. I can't quite remember the overlap, but for a long time, I basically had two full-time jobs. I was getting up like five in the morning, writing literally. I would take a shower, but then I would write through breakfast. I would write on the train.
00:08:06
Speaker
up till I walked through the door of going into work and then I would write on my lunch break and I would come home at 5 p.m. and then write to like one in the morning. And um why my husband, who's my boyfriend at the time, and he would like deliver a sandwich and be like, for the love of God, eat this. That happened for like six months while I was just trying to like get some rubber on the road. And I was so
Crafting Willa's Character
00:08:28
Speaker
excited at the idea that it could be a job. I could see, I was on the boat that could see the island that was having this be my job and i was like i just gotta get there i gotta get there and so it took i would say about a year of real pedal to the metal um until i was able to have i had enough clients and enough confidence in myself to be able to get more clients if i needed it and
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah, the rest is history. Wow. When you said your husband was was feeding you, it reminded me and of a mailman character in particular that you wrote, that I mean you really talk it can't really talk that much about, but yeah. Yeah. but I assume you're talking about Miles from Promise. Yeah. It's just so clear. like if If God forbid my husband and I were ever not together or something,
00:09:21
Speaker
Anyone who wants to know how to love me would just have to read these books and like didn't do those exact same things. they're all and' all in there wow Your backlist is like really extensive. like I was so excited when I finished Ready or Not and I was like, oh my god, I have like so much to like keep going with.
00:09:41
Speaker
And a part of your backlist includes a lot of like Audible Originals. And we were just wondering like, what is the difference between writing a full length novel versus your Audible Originals? Because your Audible Originals are so immersive, like there's like, there's just so much that goes into that production. So we're just wondering. Yeah, it's completely different. It is from stem to stern. It is completely different. It's a Audible Originals is a group project for sure. I mean, I'm the writer, but I write the sound design with the sound design team who helps guide me on what is possible and what
Exploring Slow-Burn Romance
00:10:17
Speaker
literally a listener will understand orally like you know through your ears and then I mean they're really dialogue only there there is some narrative in
00:10:27
Speaker
most of them there's some narrative but when you look at it like how much narrative there is versus how much dialogue there is there's like you know 10 total pages of narrative and then 70 pages of just back and forth dialogue so it's much closer to writing I mean we what my editor and I when we're editing them we refer to it as an audio play it's just it's very different from writing a book and of course the pacing and what can happen in them is then very different because There's no filler. There's no yeah thought filler. It's just like things must happen because, oh well, there's a lot of chatting about what has happened and what might happen and all that. There's a lot of talking, obviously it's all dialogue, but yeah, um the pacing of those books is very different and they're very much shorter. They're like 40,000 words compared to 100 or 110 of ah my novels, but
00:11:22
Speaker
That doesn't make it easier to write. like there's it's The economy of language has to be really, really tight in those. And um when you're reading a book, if something is boring
Family Dynamics and Personal Experiences
00:11:33
Speaker
or you're not connecting with it, your eye just kind of maybe scans you know ah subconsciously. I mean, some readers are going to read every single thing, but some readers are like, all right, I get it. you know And they go down to the end of the page. You can't do that with an audio book. It's like everything must rivet or else it's you you know, they they leave the book, they go to it, they find a different one, they leave the title. So yeah, it is it's been a real lesson and it's, um yeah, maybe like marathon versus a sprint, like the audibles are a sprint, they're absolutely a sprint.
00:12:09
Speaker
yeah I think that is something you do so well in your writing is like I even wrote this in my review for Ready or Not and I feel that way about all of your audible originals too that like you don't waste words in your books and I think that is something that is so beautifully done in your books. So what it's interesting to hear you talk about like the economy of words because I feel like every single sentence in your books matters and it's I love it.
00:12:33
Speaker
Well thank you so much and that is extremely gratifying because that's something I've worked really hard on because when I was first writing uh you know before I was even published I my agent was editing a lot of my work and every single thing would come back and it was like for the love of god less analogies. We don't need more analogies that's why I've really worked very hard on finding the right analogy and then just letting it you know talk for itself I guess.
00:13:01
Speaker
yeah do you have a favorite audible original that you've done so far i well i love them all so much because they become something else and they become the actors you know like they those I feel so much affection for them because they're associated with literal people in the world and and their actual voices. So I feel so tenderly. In terms of the writing, the one that just came out called Maybe Next Time. Yeah, it is so good. I love it so much. and it
00:13:32
Speaker
So my husband is a poet and he's also extremely into sports. And so he was like my main research component for this because it's about it. There's a gym teacher on one side of the love equation and then there's an English teacher on the other side and they like bring the ideas of athleticism and the ideas of writing poetry together
Themes and Storyline of 'Ready or Not'
00:13:51
Speaker
as part of how they fall in love. So basically my husband is both of those characters.
00:13:55
Speaker
ah so cute and And I loved that book and I loved it so much and then watching him listen to it where you know his these some of them are like some pretty little-known poets that are his Favorite like his literary heroes and I was able to mention them and and quote their poems in the audiobook and it just like I watched it grow his heart and And so because of that, I think it'll probably always be my favorite. Yeah. sweet I always think of the moment in that book where you talk about how like the best poetry is like the one that's like super accessible, not the ones that are like super hard. Like I think about that all the time. I think about that like with writing, too. Now, like other books I read, I'm like, no, it should be super accessible. Like it doesn't need to be something that's like super crazy and hard to understand. Totally, totally. Yes, I 100 percent agree. I mean, it it doesn't have to be
00:14:44
Speaker
like jiff peanut butter but it has to be peanut butter. yeah It can be chunky. It can be like the organic kind or whatever, but it's gotta be peanut butter. Yeah. All of your Audible Originals have like really fun and unique meet cutes of like how they interact for the first time or meaningfully interact for the first time in some cases. So how do you go about crafting how these meet cutes happen, especially in the Audible Originals?
00:15:15
Speaker
Uh, it's such an interesting question because I had never really, the premises didn't have to do with meet cutes, uh, where we would start my editor and I would like, okay, what's next and and what's, how does, how's this project gonna unfold? The first three are, uh, the idea was love at first talk.
00:15:35
Speaker
And because they're audible originals, you know their the idea is that the writing would complement the format of audio. um And so Love at First Talk, you know that's baked in to that. And then the others have all become that because of the format. But okay the it was kind of like how to keep them talking. How to how does the premise keep them talking and in many cases like talking on a phone or talking yeah through you know with love of her psych they're like literally recording for a project that kind of thing so I think the meet cutes actually like
00:16:16
Speaker
we're secondary to how do we make this work for an in-ear experience, I guess. That makes so much sense. I just think like I i was talking to my mom about this actually, because she loves your Audible Originals, about how like unique the premise of each of them is. Like I would have never ever thought or heard of anybody like meeting through an accidental like wrong text because he doesn't know the name and then like I don't know. I don't know. Like every single one I'm like that is brilliant. I've never thought about that before.
00:16:46
Speaker
It's so funny because it's like, how far can this premise go? Like at some point my editor is like, he still isn't asking to tell me your name. For the love of God, tell me your name. and And it's hard to tell like as you're writing it, because sometimes I'll write a ton of it in one day and I'll be like, because it was only a day for me, it makes sense to me that he still wouldn't have asked her name or whatever. But then in the reading it later, you're like, okay, um you know,
00:17:10
Speaker
Five days has passed, and he's still talking to a woman whose name he doesn't know. can How far can we stretch this? you know right That's sweet talk for anybody who hasn't listened yet. yeah Yes, thank you. And then all of your books, including Ready or Not, which we'll discuss more in depth in a second, take place in New York City, and you're a resident. right So what about New York makes it the perfect backdrop for romance? And we've talked about this before, like how many readers of Raider Now or your other books feel that New York City feels like real? Because especially because like to me, who's somebody who's lived in the Midwest almost my entire life, New York City
Upcoming Book: 'Promise Me Sunshine'
00:17:51
Speaker
feels to me just like some completely different planet. to me i've never been I haven't been there yet. I've never visited and I would love to, but like, how does, ah how do you go about crafting that and why why New York? Oh man. um Are either of you New Yorkers?
00:18:06
Speaker
No, I've been though a few times. oh I've never been either. Yeah. New York is a, uh, how do I put this? Oh, you know what? I actually wrote this into not promise the sunshine, but the book that's coming out after I just turned in my, my, uh, first draft of that. And if i'm so excited it is world salad.
00:18:31
Speaker
It's like every, all these different components from across the entire world are tossed into one bowl and then like tossed together. um And I find that deeply, deeply interesting that everyone is finding a common way to live from completely different hemispheres of all aspects of life. It is, there's a lot of natural tension in New York City. And I don't mean that in a negative way necessarily. It's just like,
00:19:01
Speaker
in in terms of how do I make something happen in a story, sometimes it can be as simple as go outside in New York City and something will happen. Something unexpected will happen. like um My-in-law, she's from Boston, but she always tells the story of like she was sitting outside in New York City at a cafe and then totally unbidden, like this man came by with a tray of chicken wings and then just dumped them on on the table.
00:19:29
Speaker
And she's like, what is that? What city does that happen? And the truth is, I don't know what that is. Only New York knows what that is. And like my um my writing about New York is a love letter to New York, obviously, but it is also like a constant churning of like trying to understand what it means to live in New York and who lives here and and what is that thing that I witnessed the other day? like Why did the man put the chicken wings on the table? it like Maybe the answer to your question, I'm trying to figure that out in every single one of my stories. Kendra was the first of the three of us to read Ready or Not. She was like, New York feels like a character in that book. like It just feels so real. and I thought thought that was the perfect way to describe how you write New York.
00:20:18
Speaker
The New York in particular in Ready or Not is really ah personal to me because I am a Midwesterner. I was born in Michigan like Eve and then moved here and then have spent kind of the majority of my time here convincing everyone that I'm gonna stay and that I just loved it so much and it it is my home and it's very different than Michigan. But I think her journey of like having family members talk her into trying to talk her into moving home especially when she was pregnant
00:20:54
Speaker
that was me working through that in my own life and and realizing that, no, it's expensive, it's loud, it's stinky, it's the only place I want to raise my kids. yeah Yeah, I also love that like all the people that you show in, a lot of books I read about New York, they're like actors or like doctors or they're doing something that like, but oh, that can only take place in New York, but a lot of your characters are like normal, average, everyday, like middle class working individuals.
00:21:19
Speaker
I think that's what helps New York feel even more real like it's like, oh, this is like accessible and attainable. Right, right. Well, I take that as a huge compliment because I as a writer, I like will literally Google things like, what jobs do people have? Because I'm like, I don't know. I think that I also end up Googling things like things that people do, because I'm like, what? I don't want them to like go to the store again. You know, they need to do something else. So how do I? Yeah, so like, they can't be architects. They can't be doctors. Like, these are fake jobs. Yeah, people actually have these jobs. Real jobs, you know, right.
00:21:55
Speaker
and uh speaking of ready or not for those um of our listeners who haven't read it which i feel like most most people have but uh can you elevator pitch ready or not for those who have not read it yet oh boy i am so bad just i'll just read it back i have it right here i'll just read the background my my elevator pitch is 110 000 words okay um Okay, uh, here we go. Plucky Gal gets who's pregnant accidentally and has to decide, uh, how to survive. yeah there yeah That was perfect. Literally like sums it up really well. right Yeah. Can you walk us through like what inspired the story?
00:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, totally. um I was pregnant with our first and was really humbled at First of all, how hard it is. I felt like I had no idea that it was going to be that taxing, you know, physically and emotionally to be pregnant. And I was pregnant in, you know, a circumstance where I was really, really supported. And and I didn't have a lot of questions about my future. um I kind of knew who I was having the baby with and what our lives were generally going to look like. So I was trying to imagine a different circumstance and how mind boggling and taxing and and
00:23:29
Speaker
how that would feel it was a period of extreme growth for me. where I went from I mean that's like a big journey in the book but like I was the center of my own world and then I was pregnant and I wasn't and there was loss that came with that and there was excitement and there was react real growth that came with that it also was a really romantic time through all of the grossness that comes with pregnancy and like the I just was like appalled at so many things that were happening to me while I was pregnant
00:24:04
Speaker
And I just felt like really loved and supported, obviously by my husband, who was you know really loving and supportive during that time, but also by so many unexpected people, which is what happens to Eve in that book.
00:24:20
Speaker
and by New York a lot. i Like New York really, my experience was for the most part, I was really well taken care of out when I was out in the city when I was showing. Before you're showing is actually when you need like the most help, and but no one knows you're pregnant and so you're just like, ah you know.
00:24:35
Speaker
not getting a seat on the train and stuff like that and then the you know it is what it is but yeah so I um the ah genesis of that book was my my first was two weeks late and so the night of my due date I got the idea for the story and so I got up out of bed. I couldn't sleep because I was hugely pregnant and I wrote from like midnight to 4 a.m. and and then I was like well maybe the baby will come tomorrow night and so I did it again and again and again for the two weeks and I got like the first four chapters written and then of course I didn't write again for a year but my first and then I think I was like four
00:25:14
Speaker
teen months postpartum or something like that when we got pregnant with our second. And I knew then that I was going to have like five or six weeks until I was sick as a dog. And so I was like, all right, this is the moment I got to finish this book right now. So I started it pregnant with my first and then finished it pregnant with my second. That's so special.
00:25:37
Speaker
Were you aware of the like online consensus around the pregnancy trope, are specifically accidental pregnancy? Because a lot of people don't like it. Not oh yeah always, we always love it. We love the pregnancy trope. A lot of people don't like it. And then I always tell them like, read, read, read it or not. And then I've seen so many people be like, this is the exception. Like, yeah. Well, that and out on the limb. Yeah. So the two books that people are like, okay, all right.
00:26:02
Speaker
Uh, no, I did not know that everyone hated it and I thank God. I probably would. Well, no, I think I still would have written it, but I would have had more strife while writing it. Uh, no, it, it makes a lot of sense to me. Like the things that people don't like about the trope, I, I.
00:26:18
Speaker
I get that. you know um But i it almost falls accidentally into that category. it was That was what needed to happen in order for me to write the story I really wanted to write, which was this rapid period of growth for this woman and how that was able to let in like both her future and her ah her love, her ability to love a specific person. And so that was, that was the actual story I wanted to tell and she had to get accidentally pregnant. and yeah to tell that's That story. Yeah. Yes. Ready or not has an incredible audio book. Alex Finke narrates it. It's one of our favorite audio books of the year. That's how all of us initially read it. Can you talk about the the process for this particular production?
00:27:06
Speaker
this is an amazing story i was so glad that you asked about it okay so my brother-in-law is a talent agent and um i you know so i've done so much with audible uh that when you are publishing through you know trad like you don't have you can choose the audiobook reader but I was not going to be like in the studio with the audiobook which was a different experience for me than for for how to put this like my baby and onto audio I felt like really how do I have um
00:27:47
Speaker
some some more ownership over this process while trusting them to do what they're going to do. And so the answer came to me, let me reach out to my brother-in-law who's, you know, an agent for the stars and be like, who do you have? And so he sent maybe five or six actors over to me reading the first chapter of the book. And I heard her, I heard Alex and was like, this, this is so perfect. And it worked out to sign her. And afterward he was like,
00:28:16
Speaker
Okay, she's also from Michigan and she had just given birth to her first. And so I was like, okay, this is perfect. This is perfect. She recorded it. I was blown away by her skill and her, it's really unique. Her reading style is so unique. She's a theater actor. And so I think she just has that like, yeah you can tell she's she's got that Broadway stamina. She's got the range. She's got humor. I just thought she was, her performance was so good. And then.
00:28:43
Speaker
My brother-in-law was like, okay, let's go, let's have lunch together, the three of us that you should meet. So we did, we sat down and within like three minutes, we both discovered that we have the same best friend.
00:28:59
Speaker
like the from yeah I love the gasp so we we like all went to the University of michigan Michigan together and one of her best friends from the University of Michigan is one of my best friends from growing up and so we were like taking selfies and sending it to our friend Sadie and it it it was just like okay this it felt so perfect I felt like no matter how it's received, the perfect thing has been made for this project. And it's just going to go in the world and be what it is. But I felt like it like everything had lined up. like I was at the optometrist and they did the all the different lenses. Can you see it? Can you see it? Can you see it? And then it all came crystal clear in front of me. I love that.
00:29:45
Speaker
i I remember when like we were all reading it and, um because we had never heard of this narrator narrator before of Alex before. And so we like looked her up and we were like, oh, she's still not not really in that many things, but since she's been in Radio Nautic, I've noticed her on other audio books now. And I'm like, oh my God.
00:30:01
Speaker
Her. Here she is. I know. Totally. Yeah, she's doing work. Yeah. The Ready or Not was her first ever audiobook. I love that. It was a huge... She was amazing. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The humor translated so well with everything and like the heartfelt parts as well, which kind of leads to my next question for you, which is that Ready or Not is like a true rom-com. There is so much heart, but there's so much humor in that book, too. So can you talk about how you balance those two things, like especially like the more serious parts of the book with Eve's pregnancy journey and all of her emotions about loneliness with it, with the like literal laugh out loud moments that you write in? Yeah, I think that is certainly ah like a coping mechanism of mine.
00:30:48
Speaker
um trying to understand the world through the prism of humor ah and trying to, I don't know, like, um humor is like a trampoline. So if you're going to trip and fall on the sidewalk, that hurts a lot more than tripping and falling on a trampoline, um but you still trip and fall, I guess. What romance has done for me throughout my life is in my hardest moments, it has given me yeah a little bounce, like to get up and keep going. and I wanted to do that so much for
00:31:26
Speaker
people who might be in Eve's position, people who are in my position while I was writing it, people who are in Willa's position, like ah anyone who could come to that book with any thought, especially any difficult thought about pregnancy, I wanted it to be a bounce in their step. And you can do that with beauty, stark beauty, painful beauty. I do that personally with humor. And and that was the same for Promise Me Sunshine. My book is that is coming out in March. like that book is about grieving. I also think it's the funniest book I've ever written and I wanted that like the humor to add a buoyancy to the experience so that the person who is reading it can feel seen, can feel like they actually are processing and working through these big things and also feel you know like ah that there's candy in it too. they that at that There's dessert at the end of the meal you know that feels really important to me as a writer.
00:32:19
Speaker
There were moments where there were literal tears on my face, reading Promise Me Sunshine, and then I would be laughing yeah because of the next page. It was so good. i don't I don't know why. The moment that sticks out to me the most and and ready or not like i that I can vividly remember. like laughing at, like I, you know, I have my headphones and then all of a sudden my husband hears me laughing like an idiot. And he's like, are you, what are you laughing at? Um, is when Eve is, this isn't a spoiler, really. It's just a line. Um, Eve is talking about her Kindle, how it chugs Gatorade every time. I was just having that part in my book journal page. Cause I would thought that was so fucking funny. Yeah. I remember i I was walking up the stairs and I heard that and I had to like pause because it was great. Also, Alex's delivery on this specific line when ship gets a haircut and Eve notices for the first time in in the ah theater. And I don't know, I think it's just her delivery about it. She was like, does your haircut mean you love me? I don't know why that just made me laugh so hard. It was so funny. There's a lot of, I would say like relatable nonsense.
00:33:22
Speaker
in this book where it's like there's no reason for that to make sense really but there's something especially in Alex's delivery that like it's for the people it's like they're gonna get it they're gonna yeah yeah they'll get So and now we're kind of getting into spoiler territory by the way so if you have not listened to Ready or Not then Go read it, come back and listen. But can you kind of walk us through Willa's journey in this book? Many readers, and I think a lot of us included, we kind of had to go through our own journey ah with Willa because we were like, what's going on? Like, why is she not being super supportive at times? It felt like that. So can you talk about how you went about creating space for her in the story? Absolutely. I felt that was
00:34:06
Speaker
one of the very most important components to have in the story, which, you know, one of my journeys as I've grown up is pretty much every time I've had what felt like ecstatically good news, there are people that I share it with and I don't get ecstasy in return. You know, I get something complicated because of course like people bring their whole lives in a backpack on their backs into every single room they go into and I felt that most potently I think around pregnancy and it's this balance friendship is this balance of okay what do I need and and what can you give me and what can I give you and what do you need and it's it's not always like here we are meeting perfectly in the middle of what I can give and what you need you know especially as
00:34:57
Speaker
you I guess age or things happen to you like getting married or having kids or breaking up or having an illness or having a parent die or all of these things that um complicate this flavor of the relationship and and the answers that once were chocolate or vanilla are you know lentil soup and it's like what is this you know it's not what I thought was gonna happen. um But I really wanted Willa to be valid and I wanted her to be complicated, but not ugly, I guess, where her love is very palpable, but what she can give, there's a limit to it. And like loving unconditionally doesn't mean stabbing your own self through the heart, you know? Like she is trying to also take care of herself in those moments and with with grace sometimes and not with grace other times. And yeah. um
00:35:54
Speaker
Pregnancy is really a fraught topic and it can be really painful for lots of people for all different reasons. And I just felt that it deserve it deserved nuance and ah Willa's journey I think was the biggest way that it got that nuance in the story. yeah I think of the moment a lot where like you're at the towards the end where Eve is about to go to I think it's like a pregnancy class and originally Willow was like yeah like I'll go with you and then like she says like no I can't and at first I was like I was like expecting it to happen and then when it didn't I was like why was I expecting that like why would I want her like I wouldn't want my best friend to go through that type of pain like right i thought that was like a really like eye-opening moment for me to be like okay yeah like she needed to take that space for herself and I'm glad that like even Eve had that realization of like all right yeah like
00:36:43
Speaker
This doesn't mean you don't love me and support me through this. Like you just need to like take care of yourself. Absolutely. And and I, you know, there really is no love story between Eve and Shep without Willa taking care of herself that way. You know, like Willa was the person who was taking care of Eve throughout her life. And it all, um, I think that was like one of the other big things that I wanted to be in there. You know, the whole, the trite is, um, one door closes and the other window opens or whatever it is. yeah ah But i I have found that to be true in my life and it's like, yeah, is it is this a bad thing or is this an opportunity in sheep's clothing and and what can happen because this thing has happened?
00:37:29
Speaker
Yeah, I reread Ready or Not earlier this month and it was honestly a moment of self-reflection for me with how much more grace I had for Willa on my second reread. Oh interesting. It was like ah truly a moment where I paused the audiobook and I was like I was so hard on her for my first read of Ready or Not until the end and that was like I don't know it was it was a really interesting experience to be like having a full understanding of Willa from the beginning and yeah how much more grace I was able to have for her in the book. Totally actually I did the same thing. I read i reread Ready or Not recently and I thought to myself like speaking about the humor. I don't even know how much Willa knew that Eve was having a hard time. I think you know Eve is
00:38:15
Speaker
funny and and was trying to make it seem like things were okay. So I had even more sympathy for Willa. And I wrote it, but I found that there was more there on on a subsequent read. I love that we all recently reread it because I reread it last week. Oh, wow. Randy read it the week before and then Kim read it two years from Luke.
00:38:38
Speaker
It's a very re-readable book. There's always more that you can get from it, which I love. Yeah. And all the jokes still land every time, which is like- I know. Even when you're expecting them, I'm like an artist smiling. I'm Eve. So good. Yeah. We love Eve's Brothers. And one thing that I noticed in Ready or Not, and in the second book in your first series, and even in Love at First Psych, there's always this like,
00:39:02
Speaker
age gap between the siblings and I have that with my siblings like I was an oopsie baby on my on my dad's side oh my god my oldest brother is like in his 40s and I'm in my 20s so like there's a pretty significant gap yeah but I love that you the like I just love that that's always something that's reoccurring in your work like why do you think that's an important dynamic for you to showcase and why was it important for Eve to have that type of relationship in her life?
00:39:27
Speaker
I will say that I think that it is subconscious to a certain extent, just because it it is in my life too. I was not an oops baby, but there was like, I had a lot of siblings, so there was just like pretty slow and steady for my parents, but ah my oldest brother is a lot older than I am. And um because of that, I had a lot of different people raise me.
00:39:48
Speaker
and at the same time. And I also um have a lot of intergenerational friendships as well. And I'm very close to my aunts. And I think that I kind of can't imagine growing up without all these different perspectives from people at different points in their life. um And you know there are just different wisdoms to be had from different stages of life and they're all very valid and I Want to be able to include those in my stories. I also yeah, I gravitate toward big families and you know big found families too but particularly brothers I have I have three brothers and from my family and then there I have three brothers from John's family and then there's brothers-in-law from the various people who are married to various people. So like I just have a lot of that energy in my life and um I just particularly for Eve, I just felt she needed that. I just felt like there's a thing that happens when talking to your brother that
00:41:07
Speaker
Doesn't for me happen on almost any other circumstance except with maybe one or two friends and Yeah, she needed that ah like unconditional Love that's laced with teasing and also like a you'll be fine like that's terrible, but you're adding you'll be fine and Yeah, so I really wanted to have that especially in in ready or not Love. So talking more about the romance side of Ready or Not now, if you didn't read the back of the book, which Kendra did not the first time that she read this. Oh, cool. You went in totally fine. So someone might assume that it's going to be like a love triangle between like Ethan and Shep or that Ethan is the only love interest and Ethan is Eve's baby's father for those who are maybe forgetting names.
00:41:54
Speaker
So can you kind of talk about if that was intentional or was Ethan ever supposed to be somebody that we were rooting for? Yeah, so I didn't know who she was going to end up with at the beginning, but I knew I didn't want it to be really a love triangle in the classic sense. um And, but I, so, you know, I told you, I wrote it in this compressed timeline of like, I wrote the first several chapters in the first two weeks. So but within the first couple of days of writing, I had written the scene. All I knew was that Willa was not going to show up for Eve to tell Ethan. And so, but I didn't know that chef was going to show up out of the blue.
00:42:42
Speaker
And so when suddenly she he shouts to her across the street, she looks up and he's there, I was like, oh, this motherfucker is in love with her. And from there on out, I was like, OK, so it wasn't good. And then I knew I really didn't want it to be a love triangle because I kind of felt like if there was any chance for her in Ethan, it would slow down.
00:43:07
Speaker
her, I think she would have really given it a lot, a lot, a lot of thought and yeah really thought about, can I make a life with this person? And I wanted to keep that sort of emotional integrity intact for her, but also I didn't want to write that story. So I had to kind of take Ethan out of the game, but I didn't want him to be a villain. yeah So I had to ah keep him in the, I wanted him to be eventually a good father and I wanted him to be a good co-parent. So how do you do that and keep him totally out of the game romantically? And that's kind of how his story unfolded. And I was really pleased with the way it did. I felt like ah he comes across as very believable. Yeah, definitely. And all of your books, including Ready or Not, are slow burns, which I think we all love. It just makes
00:44:02
Speaker
you know, when they do get together that much more satisfying. So because that intimacy had been created outside of the bedroom, like I said, it just made it more satisfying. So how do you go about crafting the non sexual intimacy between your two characters, specifically Evenship? Yeah, um, that's what I like to read, really. I love I love the tension before anything happens. I guess it's you know classically the will they, won't they, even though obviously they will. every um But it's kind of the when when will they, you know, of that. And I take that very seriously. I think that the how you fall in love with someone, it usually pretty much only like happens once with that person. And then you build on that love.
00:44:53
Speaker
you know, for however long you're going to do that. But I think that's just a really unique and special time for people. And if you learn a lot about yourself during that time. um Like, it's not that different from how you might react in a crisis. it's Like, there's a lot of like tension and quick thinking and and and, you know, you see who you are, who you are as shown in these moments. um All of that is really interesting to me. ah And I, I mean, I love a good insta-love.
00:45:23
Speaker
I've never been able to convincingly write in InstaLove. And I think it's a hike up the mountain. And when you get to the mountain, the higher you are, the the bigger the view, you know, and you can look back and maybe even really believe it. And um I wanted people to recognize bits of their own love stories in it. I just wanted it to feel like they are these are two real people, and this is really how they fell in love. It's not just because it's within the two covers of a romance book. It's like, this is actually it. And and and for me, the recipe there is a slow burn.
00:46:00
Speaker
Even though not all my books, some of them take place in a really compressed timeline. It could be categorized as insta-love, because it's like within 72 hours or whatever. you know one Seatmate is like the bus ride from Boston to New York. It just takes seven hours of listening to right to get the interview. But it's there, you know you know? Yeah. Do you have a favorite like even-chep moment from the book? Oh, man. I love the Christmas market. I love ah them.
00:46:30
Speaker
I love her. I love the oh gosh yeah i love all of it the food in the Christmas market, her and his coat on the train. I just love that moment. um i also it's I think maybe my the moment that really makes like real happiness happen for me is it's after they've sort of gotten together a little bit and she leaves for work and she comes back and he's still there and he's watered her plants for her. yeah that that was like all right this yeah I felt like i at that point everything else was kind of frosting. like I had yeah done what I came to do and then the rest was like a victory lap for this couple. you know Kendra and Kayla, what are yours? Oh, mine?
00:47:14
Speaker
Honestly, a moment that I always think about is when he makes her a powerpuff girl. I just thought that was really sweet. And like it was just so like cute and like childlike. And like I don't know. I think about that all the time. And he was just so excited to show it. That took time and effort. Yeah. Um, I already talked about it, but I do love the haircut moment. Like when they're watching Thor one day and then they cut and like go to the movie theater and he, he, or he's gotten a haircut and she's just like sitting in the theater, like freaking out, thinking about his haircut the whole time. Yeah. I really love that.
00:47:47
Speaker
I think mine is mine is the bike and um specifically the line I think it's fine. I didn't mean to steal it. The line I think about the most from this book probably is um what if we break up an ear can the baby still ride on your bike? Yeah, I think about that all the fucking time. I love that. I think one of the things I love so much about watching people fall in love and talking to people who are in the will they, won't they stage and all that is how transparent it is for everyone on the outside and how opaque it is for the people who are on the inside. Cause like, yeah, like Eve is sitting in the movie theater being like, does your haircut mean you love me?
00:48:27
Speaker
That is such a nonsense statement. She's like, oh, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Meanwhile, he's like giving her a hand massage, baking her bread. It's so obvious. Come on. But I just think that's such an interesting thing that doesn't really happen in almost any other circumstance in your life when you just like can't make one plus one equal two. You're like, no, I'm pretty sure one plus one equals 50 because how could he love me? You know, but there it is. Yes.
00:48:53
Speaker
And I love, like Shep is like, I see on Instagram, like perfect big boyfriend and like I would describe him as that. But I also always think of the moment when Ethan comes over drunk and ah oh yeah you kind of see like Shep is more than just like this. Like, I mean, he's a nice guy through and through, but like he's like, you've got the love of my life pregnant. Like this is easy for me. Like I just love them because it just made him feel like 10 times more real. Like, of course he's having like all these like complicated emotions around the situation. Like, oh, no she's so good. Oh, when he tells Eve, like, I'm not doing this because I'm just like a great person. do yeah I love you. like ah ah I really wanted to model that in Shep because just this idea of like your your moods are not your partner's responsibility. he And he has this these this big interiority. He's really working through all of these problems. But at no point was he going to make his like
00:49:47
Speaker
pettier feelings going to be something that she had to deal with, certainly not while she was pregnant. And if he couldn't understand that, i.e. Ethan, yes he wasn't the right partner for her at that moment. And I really felt it was important that he would understand that. And and you get to see glimpses of it in there towards the end. Yeah.
00:50:08
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, will we ever get an Ethan book? I mean, we all, we all love Shep, love him. But you know, Ethan, Ethan is, i we just have thoughts about him and we love a good single dad. Uh, like a little short story, like a little update, a newsletter update, something, you know? Okay. Here's what I'll say. There are four books for this.
00:50:31
Speaker
Contract so okay there's a ready or not mm-hmm promise me sunshine. There's a Third, tentatively, well, we don't really have the title yet that is done in the first, yeah. And then I have planned the fourth. I will tell you this, the only reason they're all connected is because Ethan is the only character that's in all of them. I'll take it, I'll take it. That is such great news. Okay, and our final ready or not question is just how much has this book changed over the course of like,
00:51:06
Speaker
told us about the first time you thought of the idea, you're beginning of writing it to where it is now out in the world, your perfect little baby. Yeah, it's changed a lot. And the spirit of it remains the same, really like what I set out to do. It surprised me the way it manifested, but ah it's there. It's what I hoped it would be, really, and more. But I wrote the first draft without an editor.
00:51:34
Speaker
So, you know, I say this in the acknowledgments of Promise Me Sunshine, but it's like, I am the person who goes to the grocery store and gets all the ingredients and I know exactly what's going to taste good with what, and I put it all into a grocery bag. and then my editor is the reason you're not the reader isn't eating those groceries like on the floor with a plastic spoon like my editor is the one who sets the table and and and helps me cook the meal you know and um I wrote that book in moments really I knew that there are these moments that they had there I felt so clearly and I wanted them to have and how to get from moment to moment with a narrator like Eve who
00:52:20
Speaker
um is just thinking whatever she's gonna think when she's thinking it. And and there there isn't like a this, there's not really an A, then B, then C, then D but with her, um with how she lives her life. And thus there wasn't really with the book either. And my editor, she cut some scenes, she um stitched certain ones together. We moved you know this chapter, we had to move it here. And then you have to like take all the little threads and move them back to the other, you know all of these things. and
00:52:53
Speaker
It's a patchwork quilt of a dream of many people that all helped me write this book. you know And if you read the first draft of it, you'd be like, yeah, it's great. It's all it's there. But you would also feel like it needed to have its teeth lost and and and it it did and it took a lot of work but it really really paid off in the end I feel. Absolutely you know something I'll i'll say about this book too is so I've been with my husband we've been nearing now for six years we've been together for almost a decade
00:53:30
Speaker
and I still don't know. I have the zero idea if I ever want to have kids when I want to have kids. You know it's always been like a scary thought for me to be honest and I still don't know but I will say that like I think ready or not for a lot of people makes it seem a lot less scary because like you talked about how you know when you got pregnant with your partner like um you had the support already you know you were you were like you were not in the same position that Eve is in and I would be the same way I'm not in the same position I have the support but like I think that this book to me shows like the it is scary but you know that's okay like you you you can make it through that and I love I love that's what I love about
00:54:11
Speaker
I think the most about this book is is how realistic it shows pregnancy and the not the glamorous sides of things, you know the scary sides of things, you know the great sides of things like when the baby first kicks, just like the fun moments that happen along the way. and so i Thank you for that, I guess. Oh, yes. That fills me up. It was so much joy. i mean that's really That was my goal in writing it, is to have people read it and feel that way.
00:54:35
Speaker
Well, now that we've finished, we do have time for a little game, if you are up for it. i am It's just a little superlative game. I don't know if you were able to look at, we tried to put these in like last minute, so you hopefully wouldn't see them, but if you have, that's okay. and So we're just gonna name a superlative and you can assign a character um to the superlative. We're gonna go with Love Lines, Ready or Not, and you can do Promise Me Sunshine as well.
00:55:01
Speaker
just to kind of help like tease tease a little bit of those characters um so we get people excited about it so okay all right first one who is most likely to win a nobel peace prize okay i'm going to go with marigold from love at first sight because she's like the only like studious character yeah i've never really written oh yeah probably she would work super hard and like earn it oh my gosh love that Who is most likely to write a best selling romance novel? Oh, well, Robbie from Love at First Psych. danielly Yeah, he is a huge romantic. Like what a cheese ball. Oh, I love that so much. Who is most likely to have a viral tik tok accounts or tik tok video? Okay.
00:55:48
Speaker
I think it's probably Ethan, because I think he's really hot. Yeah. um what do you What do you think it would be? Dog bar content. Okay, that's what I was like, hot hot behind the book, has like the baby strapped to his chest making up. Yeah, baby yeah baby at the bar making up. That's not that's not okay. But yeah, that'd be funny. All right, who's most likely to kill it at karaoke? And what song are they singing?
00:56:16
Speaker
Okay. Oh man. Well, I think, I think it's Lenny from Promise Me Sunshine. Are we doing Promise Me Sunshine? yeah yeah Yes. All right. Lenny from Promise Me Sunshine probably kiss by Prince. Hell That's fun. That's fun. I love that. I love that. I can like actually like envision that right now with Miles watching. um Who is most likely to win Survivor?
00:56:44
Speaker
Oh, Willa. and this is
00:56:48
Speaker
um Who is most likely to have their own bookstagram account? Bookstagram account? Oh, my God, who? Oh, probably Vera.
00:57:00
Speaker
I think from Call Me Maybe. Yeah. It's probably a joint Bookstagram account because I'm pretty sure she wouldn't know how to run a Bookstagram account. So cute. So I think Cal... He's doing all the language. She's like, post about this one. He's like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She would like put, she could like, you know, pose the picture and all that. She'd do the photos, but that's probably it. He'd love helping her too. I know. All right. Who's most likely to help you bury a body? Well, I guess I think Willa.
00:57:30
Speaker
I think will would. Yeah. I think she would. She is loyal and I think she would also know how to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And he would be like, how do you know that actually? Yeah. Yeah. Chef chef would try. He would really try. But I don't think in the end, bearing bodies is, ah you know, his forties. Yeah. Who is most likely to give a TED talk and what would the TED talk be about? Oh, God. Oh, man. ah I have no idea. I have absolutely no idea. Are any of my character's experts on anything? I would say Miles would give a really good TED Talk okay about a specific thing. I won't say, sure but I think he would, I think he would kill. I don't know if he would get up on the stage. Yeah. Give a TED Talk to Lenny personally. yeah here this I think it would be very boring. i be a lot of like and Do you think that Eve could give one on conservation?
00:58:25
Speaker
Oh, yes yes, absolutely. Definitely. It should be funny. She'd probably yeah. Yeah, yeah that's as you have a great answer. Yeah. okay Yeah. Okay. And lastly, ah most likely to be the final person in a horror film.
00:58:40
Speaker
Okay, so here's my question. I'm not a horror person. What does that you mean? Is it like, who, what are the... Like you survived. like yeah yeah like well it survive Typically the person who survives is a little bit of everything. Like they're not the jock, they're not the nerd, they're not the brains. Okay. So they're like a little bit of everything and they're very scrappy. Okay. So then I think it would have to be Jessie from Sweet Talk. Who is like, it's, she's very competence. Competence is really her,
00:59:09
Speaker
is really her thing. And she's not scared. I don't think she would be scared for any of it at any point. Yeah. And she wouldn't follow people's bullshit. They'd be like, let's split up. And she'd be like, no. Yes. She does not do that. yeah Love. OK, so before we go, which one of your books should readers pick up if they just finished Ready or Not and they're waiting for Promise Me Sunshine to come out and they just want more of your work? Well,
00:59:36
Speaker
Honestly, any of them, but I would say if you want more like ready or not, my forever your series from HQN is, is yeah, maybe flirting with forever from that. That's the one about a public defender. Um, and yeah, there's age gap, the best guy. Like he was so sweet. I know. I love him. I love him. I, um,
01:00:02
Speaker
I really, like he's maybe my only character that I had like an actual, actual crush on. Like, I was like, I've been blushing. Yeah, he was. And yeah, when they, when they hook up to, I was like, Oh, okay. So I interviewed for that one. I interviewed ah a good friend who is a published offender, um, or was at the time about that book. And, and, um, I found out like a year ago,
01:00:30
Speaker
that he was like, yeah, of course I read it. You interviewed me to be able to write this book. And I was just like, oh, oh, no. You kind of talked with me. Look away. Look away. That was not for you. Funny. Yeah. for you That's hilarious. hush And we have all read Promise Me Sunshine. We are just so blown away. All of us, definitely one of our top books of the year. So good. Oh, it's so great. ah So good. What can you tell our listeners about Promise Me Sunshine at this point? OK. And I mean, you know, it's out in the world, really. ah The ARC copies are they're churning churning up a storm out there. um
01:01:16
Speaker
Okay, so I wrote that book about grief, um about losing a friend, and I wanted it to be an accurate representation of what, of the confusion and the ah tornado that grief is and and and, you know, nonlinear healing and all that. I really wanted it to to what it would mean to fall in love with someone. It's very similar to my personal romance with my husband. We fell in love while I was going to through like a really, really terrible time. And I thought to myself, how could anyone ever?
01:01:52
Speaker
love this absolute mess and but you're in there you know like even in the the mess of that grief like who you are is in there and um it's very it can be very lovable it can be very like tender and emotional time where you kind of find out who you are and so yeah ready or not was falling in love through bringing someone into the world and promise me sunshine is falling in love through saying goodbye to someone who's died. How's that like chills? Yeah, I'm gonna cry actually. yeah And and as they were, I didn't know I was gonna be writing ah book three and book four ah when I wrote Promise Me Sunshine and so I really wanted it to feel like bookends ready or not in Promise Me Sunshine. And there is, you know, it goes on but I do think they are kind of two that are in conversation with each other ah about these huge life events and how to be loved during those events.
01:02:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I love that. That book was just incredible. Like, yeah. Oh, my God. Definitely. There's a group chat that we're in that is devoted specifically to just sending quotes that we can't stop thinking about. Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. For for those that are listening and would like to read it early, like like Cara said, there are art copies out there on NetGalley. You can request it. So go request it if you want to read it. Definitely. Definitely.
01:03:13
Speaker
Yeah, and there will be a couple more giveaways through my Instagram too, for the physical copies, like the galley copies. And then it's out on March 4th. So it's not, for right now it seems like forever. I know, but I really can't wait. But yes, yes, it'll it's it'll be here just like that. and And I can't wait. I can't wait to have them on the shelf together. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And oh my God, by the way, your covers are like gorgeous. I know. I cannot take credit for that at all. That is, yeah uh my publisher and the artist I like can you believe what she does with light it's just like no they glow yeah it's gorgeous love her Cara thank you so much for joining us today this was truly just like the best discussion we've been so giddy about having you on the podcast because ready or not really changed the trajectory of like all three of our reading years wow wow yeah yeah so it's just been such a pleasure well thank you so much for having me it was a
01:04:13
Speaker
joy to talk to you in any time like truly any time. Well that's good to know because we're we're hoping that you might come back around the time promising sunshine. Let's do it. I can't wait. We will not like truly we will have so much to say and like like Brandy said like you changed our reading years like for the better like I think we've all I'm just very glad that you're in romance.
01:04:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm all about like giving people their flowers and like your work has just been so incredible like to me Like you quickly become one of my favorite authors like I love what you do I read the snippet of what's gonna be after promised me sunshine and I haven't like shut the fuck up about I'm like all right yeah like I'm like, what's it like what is going on? um But yeah, I just I think you're an incredible writer and I'm so glad that you're here and you're doing what you're doing And I think everyone should just read more of you because you're incredible. Well, thank you so much. I I so appreciate it and you know
01:05:05
Speaker
It's a solitary experience writing, and so then when you put it out in the world to get even like one tenth of what you three have given me, you'd you'd be grateful for that. you know and and it just It's such a positive experience, but you've made me feel so happy and proud, so thank you.
01:05:22
Speaker
You're so welcome, and thank you. so To those of you who are looking to read Kara's books, um you can find them on Audible, and especially obviously the Audible Originals. Promise Me Sunshine comes out March 4th, 2025, so make sure you pick it up as soon as possible if you have not read Ready or Not, and you're a listener to our podcast. What are you doing here?
01:05:44
Speaker
Amazing. Thanks, Kara. Thank you so much. Thank you.