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Liz Tomforde: The Right Move, Female Friendships, and Praise Kinks | S2Ep6
542 Plays2 years ago
Spoilers for the Right Move start at ~27:13
This week Liz Tomforde (@liztomforde.author) is here! We chat all about the Windy City series, her life as an IRL flight attendant for a professional hockey team, and what readers can expect from her upcoming novel, Caught Up! (Windy City #3)
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to see us gush more about The Windy City Series!
Follow Brandi @Brandos.Books
Follow Kendra @Kendra.Readz
Follow Kayla @Kaylas.Bookshelf
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Transcript
Introduction & Guest Introduction
00:00:04
Speaker
Hey, guys. Hello. Hey, guys. Welcome to Bring Your Own, a catch-all bookish most of the time podcast. I'm Brandi. I'm Kendra. I'm Kayla. And today we have with us a very special guest, Liz Tom Ford. Yay!
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, thanks for having me. Thank you for being here. Liz writes contemporary romances and her books showcase healthy relationships with leading men that you cannot help but fall in love with. Expect to find a mix of witty banter, found family moments, and plenty of steam throughout. Outside of being an author, Liz is also a flight attendant for an NHL team, combining her passions for both travel and hockey. Back in 2020, when the hockey season was postponed due to the global pandemic,
00:00:50
Speaker
Liz took her newfound free time and decided to write her first novel. And when she's not traveling or writing, you can find her reading a good book or taking her golden retriever Luke on a hike in her hometown of Sonoma County,
Website Bio & Personal Anecdotes
00:01:02
Speaker
California. Welcome, Liz. Thank you. Appreciate it. That was a great intro. We stole it from your website. It sounded familiar, but
00:01:12
Speaker
I wrote it like three years ago, and I haven't changed it since, and I don't play on it. Perfect. It still applies. It's so awkward to talk about yourself, so I'm like, I'm never changing that. That's just what it's going to be forever. Anytime I'm asked to write a bio, I break out in the hives. It's chasing me out. I agree. Okay, great. Well, before we jump in with our questions for you, ladies, what are we reading? What are we drinking? Kendra, you should go first.
00:01:35
Speaker
Okay, I'm drinking this, I can't even say it tonight. It's only 5 p.m. where I'm at. But I'm almost done. It's called Doctor Tails, and it's a cucumber margarita in a can, and it's at 9.5%, so. Wow! Yeah, and it tastes so good. Usually, like, mixed drinks in a can, I feel like, are so sad with me. Yeah, especially like the margarita kinds, but this is really good. So if I am like on my ass, or like really embarrassing this entire episode, I apologize, we blame it on this.
00:02:04
Speaker
And reading, I don't know. My reading right now is like ass if I'm being completely honest. Like, I'm still listening to Fox Globe. I don't know what I'm doing with my life right now. So I honestly, I'm really not. I haven't listened in like two days. So that's that's it for me. Please move on. OK. Yeah. Before I start crying, I'll go next. Ladies, I'm nothing if not consistent. So who wants to guess what I'm drinking? Coke Zero. Coke Zero.
00:02:32
Speaker
You're so close. It's a Coke Zero cherry. Wow. Go big. And obviously have my book, Banana Water Bottle, as per usual. What am I reading? I'm reading, well, I'm not physically reading anything right now, but I'm listening to an audio book called Unrealistic Expectations by Andy J. Christopher, who is a new to me author.
00:02:54
Speaker
Um, so far I'm really enjoying it. It's about this therapist who recently got broken up with and this guy who recently was like really embarrassed on social media by his, his ex and they fake date because she's got a new book coming out and he wants to repair his reputation. So they're like trying to garner sympathy from the people as well as booster book sales. It's very cute so far. Really enjoying it. Yeah, that's what I'm reading. Only one thing, which is unusual for me, but yeah.
00:03:22
Speaker
Nice. I am currently reading Six Scorch Roses by Carissa Broadbent, which is the second book in the Crowds of Nyaxia series. Well, it's like the novella between one and two. Yeah, so I am definitely enjoying that so far. And I am listening to, I just started, barely started, I'm like less than 10 minutes into the audiobook for Do I Know You by Austin Sigmund
00:03:46
Speaker
Oh yeah. What's with Sigmund Freud? Oh, that was my first book of 2023. They have a long name. Emily Wiberly and Austin Sigmund Broca. They are a couple writing duo. I'm interested to see if you like that one because I didn't like it as much as their first book.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited about it. I'm also drinking, hot girls have multiple drinks at a time, so
Inspiration & Flight Attendant Experiences
00:04:08
Speaker
I have a Pomplamoose LaCroix, and I'm also drinking an Oberon, which is a beer from Michigan that I'm obsessed with. Liz, what are you reading and drinking?
00:04:17
Speaker
I am currently drinking water because I'm at the end of a sickness. So hydrate. But if it wasn't that, I'm not a big drinker outside of being social. So if I were at home right now, I'd probably have some sort of coffee. I'm a big coffee fan.
00:04:36
Speaker
So yeah, I'm on the pumpkin spice kick right now, you know. And as far as reading, I, to be honest, don't read much anymore, which is very sad, but it's part of my life now because it's hard when that's your job.
00:04:54
Speaker
It's very, I very rarely eyeball read anymore, especially. I'll do audios consistently. But eyeball read is like, almost non existent in my life anymore. But, um, audio I'm doing Fake Empire by C.W. Farnsworth. So I did an IG live with her like six months ago. She's the sweetest. Yeah, I'm so glad that like, well, first of all, I never read her and I'm like, what was that? This book is so good. So I feel like everyone needs to read it. But also, I'm so glad that it's getting some traction right now too, because she's literally the sweetest.
00:05:24
Speaker
And then I'm one chapter into eyeball reading to find it because like I said, one chapter and not fully invested yet. Yeah, it is butchering Blackbird, Blackbird.
00:05:36
Speaker
It's like the rom-com murder. They're like serial killers, but it's a rom-com. First shopper is here. So I feel like I have high hopes on this one. So we'll see. Cool. All right. Well, let's just jump right in to our main questions. We're so excited to chat today. So you first self-published Mile High, your first book in 2022.
00:06:01
Speaker
Earlier, like during your intro, we talked about how you began to write during the pandemic. So can you talk us through how your job inspired you to write this book? Because as again, as we mentioned, you're a flight attendant as well. So how and how much of what Stevie and Indy like do and encounter with their job is closely tied to your personal experiences outside of maybe falling in love with an NHL player.
00:06:25
Speaker
Yeah, there's not, that's not happening. I actually wrote a different book during 2020 that Zanders was a side character in that is not published or anything like that. I've never written anything. The only reason I even started writing is because you guys remember during like peak COVID times when Amazon was taking forever to get your books to you or whatever you ordered. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was horrible. And I wasn't a Kindle reader at the time.
00:06:51
Speaker
things have changed. But at the time, I wasn't a Kindle reader. And so I'm just like waiting on these paperbacks. And so I was like, I'll just write my own book in the meantime. So I wrote a book during 2020. It's not published or anything like that. Sanders was a side character. And then when it came time for him to get his own book, I was like,
00:07:07
Speaker
I'm gonna write about my job because no one else, most people don't even know that is a job, like that's a real job. But I was also like, no one else could tell that story, I will tell that story. So as far as how much is based off of real life, everything plane related is written accurately off the way my plane operates, at least. I can't speak for all the teams, but
00:07:27
Speaker
For my team, that's how it works. The cities are where we go, that kind of thing. There's a lot of references to different bars they go to or whatever. They have different names, but there are places that we frequent when we're on the road. The beach in Florida, that's a beach right outside my hotel that we stay at every year, stuff like that. As far as the actual characters, those are all fictional. Have any of the players read your books?
00:07:51
Speaker
Well, you know what, I'm gonna find out really soon. I go back, I go back to work next week, hockey season, we have our first road trip on the 25th. And they found out the boys all found out about my books, I would say the last two weeks of the season last year. So I haven't seen them this summer. So
00:08:09
Speaker
We're gonna have a problem if they have like every one of them. My best friend's mom is a flight attendant so like even seeing like little things like you wrote about in the books I was like oh my god I've heard my best friend's mom bitch about this like all the time. Totally. It works differently private versus commercial but I think every flight attendant or every flight crew person could kind of get some type of like you know feels seen a little bit in that way.
00:08:37
Speaker
Okay, this is totally off topic, but now I'm so curious just as a flight attendant. Have you ever had like embarrassing things happen or just like a really tough something that happened like a really long night like planes get delayed things like that? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, every night is long as in the book, they do red eye flights. And that's accurate. We do red eye flights after every game, not every Yeah, every game. So that part is rough. I've had plane emergencies like
00:09:03
Speaker
inflight emergencies. Um, but as far as like embarrassment, no, I don't know. I've known those guys so long. I'm like, I'm not going to be embarrassed at this point. Oh, that's so fun. I never even thought about the fact that it's like Stevie's first year working with this team. So it's like, she's getting to know everybody, but I'm sure you build relationships with the players over the seasons. Like, are you ever sad to see them go if they get traded?
00:09:27
Speaker
Yeah, I so I'm going into my eighth season with the same team this coming year. And I have a handful of boys and staff, not just not just players, but staff to I'm very close with who are still there. But then I've also had a good amount of my close friends get traded or quit their jobs or whatever it is. And I'm officially at the point where I'm like, I started when I was 26. I'm now almost 34. So like,
00:09:52
Speaker
I'm officially at the point where I'm at the age of the vets on the team and I'm like, okay, when you go, I'm going. It's almost time. So yeah. Oh my gosh.
Writing Process & Character Development
00:10:02
Speaker
If you've been with them that long, you're kind of like the head bitch in charge, right? You know the girl in the book who's a total bitch? Yeah.
00:10:13
Speaker
That's my job. Yeah, I'm in charge of that plane. So I took the last five months off. I wrote caught up outside of like not being at work. And then I will go back and that's all I do when I go back is just be in charge of the airplane. Wow. Yeah. PSA to anyone listening. I think we need more flat attendant romances now because it's fun. Like it gives you an excuse to like put your characters all over the world. Like, yeah, it's pretty cool.
00:10:38
Speaker
That was something I really loved about Writing Mile High was like the travel in it and I brought that back to a little bit with caught up because I'd missed being able to write like different cities and you know that kind of thing. Yeah, I love the aspect of books in general too and there's travel in it.
00:10:51
Speaker
Especially if I haven't been to a place, I'm like, okay, well now I have something to look forward to. You mentioned that beach in Florida, and I'm like, hey Liz, where's that beach at? Let me add that to my list. Totally. Oh my gosh. Okay, so both Mile High and The Right Move feature Black main characters. And I've seen you talk a little bit about this, I think on TikTok. And as a white author, what was your approach to writing these characters? You just mentioned that Xander was a side character in your first unpublished book that you wrote.
00:11:18
Speaker
So yeah, what was your approach to bringing those characters to life? Like did you have sensitivity readers? I kind of just want to know like everything. Yeah, yeah, for sure. My first thing that I ever did was I knew Xander was just getting a book and obviously him and I are not the same race. So my first thing I did was there was a woman, an author, and I was trying to find her Instagram the other day, but it was on TikTok and I don't go on TikTok anymore. So I couldn't find her right now if I wanted to. But her first name is Stephanie.
00:11:44
Speaker
And she did a whole series on writing Black characters as a non-Black author. So that was kind of my first deep dive, watching her whole series, going into the comment section, reading as much as I could, asking my own questions, that kind of thing. Then from there, a lot of online research, reading Black authors. And that was kind of my first thing. And then, yes, two sensitivity readers. And then I had two more sensitivity readers for the right move. But outside of the character's race, the two other sensitivity readers were for
00:12:12
Speaker
fertility issues and someone I wanted to make sure I was reading that correctly. And also someone from the deaf community who helped me with that, if that makes sense. Because that was something I, I don't know, you just want to write it with as much care and like as much love as you can without it being a thing, because there are certain things that aren't my story to tell. I'm not going to tell a story about the difficulties of, you know, anything like that. I just wanted them to exist in their own story.
00:12:38
Speaker
be who they were. And that was that. So yeah, like we got a black hockey player who was like the most sought after thing in like the media. It was so cool. Yeah, I appreciate that.
00:12:49
Speaker
Stevie and Indy's friendship is like one of our favorite parts about the first two books so far. Like I remember when Kendra, cause Kendra, I can't remember which of these two read it first, but I was the last one to read these two books. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. So I remember when Kendra was like, you have to pick this up right now. She was, and like one of the first things that she said to me was,
00:13:10
Speaker
the friendship in it is just like so beautifully written. And they're like, truly girls girls. So can you talk about why it was so important for you to showcase like these two different women having like such a strong bond with each other outside of the romance?
00:13:22
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I that's also one of my favorite things in those books. And something I'm looking forward to continuing in different aspects throughout the rest of the series is I love female friendships in books, because I don't know how long you've all been reading, but I feel like you've all been reading long enough. You remember, like, back in the day, it was always like other women drama being girls. Yeah.
00:13:45
Speaker
So I am trying my best to avoid that because it's hard enough being a woman and today we don't need to read literature as well. So I love Stevie and Indy's friendship. I wrote it a lot off of my best friend who I fly with. Her name's Camille. She's actually the girl who named Indy.
00:14:04
Speaker
when I was writing Mile High, I was like, give me a good girl's name. We're on a flight. And she gave it to me. I was like, perfect. And so I wrote a lot of that. I wrote a lot of that friendship and that bond and that kind of thing during Mile High off of Camille. And then when it came time for the right move, something I really didn't want was for Stevie to have an issue with Indie liking her brother.
00:14:27
Speaker
And so that was like a big part to me, part of it too. I was like, if this is your friend, and this is your brother, you would be happy about this, as I think, you know, most of that trope should be. So that was something that was really important to me. But yeah, I just like love girl friendships. And I'm excited for you guys to see Miller, kind of like, she doesn't have, I'll say this Miller doesn't have many friends period, because of her job, and you'll see that more. So I love the way she's kind of brought into the fold in her book as well.
00:14:56
Speaker
And I thought that was so well done with Stevie as well. Like we got to see her build this beautiful friendship as somebody who didn't have a ton of female friends. It wasn't because she didn't like other women. She's like, she hadn't met India. Yeah. People, girls like to brother to it. Yeah. And you got the, you got the contrast of like, India having like really shitty friends in the right move and then like having a good friend in Stevie. So like that was really nice to see as well.
00:15:22
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I love female friendships and I love when they feel organic. You know what I'm saying? I just, yeah, I liked watching them become friends and maintain their friendship and now being related. So yeah.
00:15:37
Speaker
Speaking of our girl, Indi, Indi is a huge plant lady and I am a plant lady myself. I have a plant named Indi because I like to name my plants after book characters. I loved it. I was like highest honor ever. She's hanging from my ceiling in my living room. I love her. She's being very well taken care of. So I was just so curious, are you a plant lady yourself?
00:16:03
Speaker
And then also just in general for your characters, like how do you decide on like small little fun details for them like that? I see I see a plant on your little table right there, but I don't know if it's real or not. Is it real? This one's fake. And that one's OK. That one's back there. That one's real. Oh, I see. OK. It's been alive for 13 months.
00:16:22
Speaker
Oh, yay! It's really good. I am unfortunately not a plant lady, but I want to be so bad. I got a whole table of succulents outside and those are killing it. But that's because they're the most low maintenance things of all time. And I have this baby going strong. And then this is just for color, but that's fake.
00:16:40
Speaker
It looks nice. It does. I would love, I would love to be a plant lady and maybe one day when I'm not traveling as much, I will sit down and learn the trade because I'm so jealous of you guys who have this like thriving garden in your house. But as far as picking details for characters, first of all, I think the reason why it takes me so long to put books out is because I think on things for like months, like right now I'm thinking about the next book and I'm like trying to find all these little
00:17:05
Speaker
intricacies about who they are and why things work. And I think the biggest thing I always try to find is what about these, even if they're little hobbies or whatever it might be, what is it that works together and pushes their story forward? For example, Indy being a plant lady is partly
00:17:22
Speaker
she's a nurturer she wants to like have something she can like grow that's part of her like really wanting to be a mom but at the same time it's colorful and that's the opposite of Ryan and so it's just things like that like finding things that bounce off each other Stevie is a thrifter and that was like one of my favorite things was like putting her in thrift clothes while Xander's is like so such a diva with his like labels yeah so it's typically things that are opposite that
00:17:50
Speaker
kind of just bounce each other, bounce off each other, but also pushes the story forward in some way. But those are also my favorites, finding those little things, you know? That's so fun. Yeah.
00:18:00
Speaker
Kendra, I'm curious, are your plants still alive? Do they make it with you? Yeah, I just moved apartments, and I have two plants that Kayla inspired me to get. You walk into Kayla's house, and it's like you're in a, what do you call it? Green house. That's not true. Green house. Don't lie. Yeah. Kayla has so many plants everywhere, and she decorates them around the house so wonderfully. Yeah, I have two plants, and now I want to get another one, and I'll also name it after Indy, but I don't want to be like that.
00:18:25
Speaker
I'll take the compliment. You could just name it Ivers, just name it her last name. Oh yeah, I'll do that. Yeah. But I love how you just said like you spend like a lot of time like thinking of the little things because India is my favorite character that you've written. And I remember reading the right move. And it was all the little things about her like adding up like we just kept learning new things about her as the story kept going that like made me fall in love with her so much like
00:18:48
Speaker
Oh, she had a degree that was really high up and was smarter than her ex-boyfriend. That was one thing. Oh, she knew ASL because of her parents. That was one thing. I loved everything about her, so it's nice to hear that you put so much time and care into crafting who she is, because it paid off. Yeah, no, thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, I love... Yeah, partly, I love unfolding characters as they go, but also, yeah, I love when it's not as it seems completely. India is used to just being this pretty girl who is known for being pretty and fun and
00:19:17
Speaker
you know, whatever, but she was, had so much more going to her. And I liked that Ryan was kind of the one to pull that out of her. So yeah. And it was so funny. We like told, we convinced Brenda, like you need to read the right move. Like you're going to love it. I was going to wait for the audio books. Cause like I listened to the mile high audio book and I was like, Oh my God, love. And then I was like looking and I know that you were waiting for a specific narrator.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah for Ryan and I was like, I'll just wait for the audiobook and they were like, no, no, you need to read And she loved it I felt so satisfied when I got that
00:19:58
Speaker
I was like in my hater era too. I was having like a shit reading month and I was like I don't know if now's the right time like I'm not in the right headspace and it like pulled me out of a reading slump like that. When your reader friends agree with your recommendation it's the highest compliment there is. It really is. It's so great. Yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
We read it during like the first quarter of the year, I think. Yeah. And March or something. And it made it like automatically. We were like, okay, we know this is going to be like one of our top reads of the year. So like the entire spring, we were like, Brandy, Brandy, we did. I did get off the back. Yeah.
00:20:35
Speaker
Um, okay. So speaking of Ryan, um, the Shea siblings each have like a different kind of relationship with their parents. Like, so CB has mommy issues, which I love reading about in books cause like hashtags same. Um, she has mommy issues that are like really heavily tied into like her body image, um, issues that she also deals with in mile high. And then Ryan and his mom, though, complete opposite, like they're almost like besties, like they get along so well.
00:20:58
Speaker
Can you talk about crafting that dynamic between the two siblings? Because I think it's something that a lot of people relate to in real life, like having feathers in their family where the mom treats the girl one way like, oh, you need to be home by 10 p.m. Don't eat this, don't do that. And then with the son, they're like, oh, well, he's just out doing whatever. He's fine. It annoyed me so much growing up.
00:21:18
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Let me preface this by saying that I have the best mother of all time. I like dedicated that book to her and I told her later I was like, I don't want people to think that this is because of you because like, you're great. So like, not about her. Yeah, I think
00:21:34
Speaker
to being a woman, I think, usually when like, I shouldn't say usually, but I feel like I hear a lot of when women have body issues or negative talk, there's a lot of times that that comes from your mom, and maybe that's her own issues and it's coming down. So that was a part of it. A big part of it too was with Stevie's storyline was being kind of like the first choice and not and never feeling that way. And then she has a twin brother, she still doesn't feel the first choice, even in her own family. So that was also just part of
00:22:04
Speaker
tying into her story as much as I could. But yeah, I think I kind of just wanted to represent in Stevie's case, at least like, yeah, kind of it happens quite often, but it's also okay to create boundaries for yourself in those situations. And then with Ryan, I didn't want his mom to be in her his book too much simply because I felt it was really towards
00:22:25
Speaker
Stevie's storyline, and I didn't like necessarily feel like I needed to like give her a full redemption arc or anything like that. But with Ryan, I just wanted him to be supportive of his sister in that situation. So that was kind of that for them. And I am happy with that stance. He knows he's the golden boy in the family. He knows he's treated better, but he's also like in a career boundaries for a sister.
00:22:48
Speaker
I felt like that was so true to character too, especially the way that you established their relationship as siblings in the first book. It felt so true to character once we got into his head and thought about how he saw everything. It just made so much sense.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah, I appreciate that. Readers who read Mile High, like in the beginning, maybe didn't like Ryan at the time, but when you think about it, like the things he was trying to do, bring her ex-boyfriend around, that kind of thing, it was all because he thought like that would make her happy. So when you learn about him or you like realize.
00:23:19
Speaker
Oh, no, he was just trying to be a good brother. He was off the mark, you know? Yeah. In the right move, so many people talk about the quote, sometimes the quietest love is the loudest.
Book Themes & Emotional Depth
00:23:30
Speaker
And anytime I talk about this book, I always talk about how like, that is my boyfriend to a tee. Like he is an acts of service guy. He has a really hard time vocalizing his emotions. He has a lot of anxiety surrounding that.
00:23:44
Speaker
And so, like, to see it represented so beautifully in the right move was just so, so special. So it doesn't surprise me that so many people love that line. But did you know that that part was going to be standout? No, no, I didn't know that was I knew that Ryan was access service the whole time I was writing it. Like, obviously, that's what he is. Like, it's pretty clear. But I wasn't till I got to that line, which I want to say is like,
00:24:07
Speaker
70 to 80% into the book. And I literally was writing it while I wrote I wrote it and I sent it to my best friend Allison, who's one of my operators. And I didn't say anything. And she like highlighted that line. She's like, this is what the story is about. And I was like, that's exactly what the story is about. Then I went backwards and added a lot of things where there's conversations where indeed talks about her ex boyfriend being loud about the way he loved her or something like that.
00:24:32
Speaker
That was all added after I got to that 80%. And I was like, Okay, this is what it's about. Then I went backwards and added that and no, I had no idea that quote was going to be as popular was my editor was the one who also highlighted and said, This is your tagline. I like when you're in when you're in a manuscript, you're not thinking like that, like, yeah,
00:24:51
Speaker
my brains to all over the place. So I had no idea that it was going to be as popular as it is. I had no idea this book was going to do as well it has done. I thought it was going to be a complete and utter flop. I'm not going to lie to you guys. Yeah. Like any of my friends know that like last week of January, I was just like, it is what it is. I'll write the next one. Oh my God. You like sitting on a banger and you're like, Oh, whatever. Like it's going to do awful. And then it blows up.
00:25:17
Speaker
I truly, I'm not even trying to be like, oh, you know, no, like I truly was like, it's okay. It's fine. I'll move on. I'll do the third one. It'll be okay. So the fact that so many people have resonated with it is a shocking, but also like amazing to see because I love them so much. I love that story so much.
00:25:33
Speaker
I feel like that line like really encapsulates what like people talk around, like unintentionally talk around in romance books a lot, which is like, it's the small things. It really is the small things. And like, I feel like Ryan is such an embodiment of that. Are there any other parts of like mile high or the right move that you were like, I can't believe this part is like what people latched on to? No, I think that's the biggest thing is that for the right move. I wasn't sure if people were gonna like,
00:26:01
Speaker
Resonate with indie I will be honest like indie is complete opposite of me and she was very difficult to write because of that I'm not a girly girl I Children are probably not my future by choice like we just have different views on things so writing her was really difficult for me and also made me nervous because I was like are people gonna resonate with her and I hope people like her and
00:26:22
Speaker
And I'm so glad that people love her because I love her. She's just so outside of like my personality, you know what I mean? So I would maybe say just the fact that that book has gotten as much love as it has is more of the surprising thing of anything. Yeah. Are there any moments, like I know you say you don't get on TikTok anymore, but like I'll be scrolling on TikTok and on Instagram and people will post like reels of like moments and I'm like, why would you post that? Like let people find out like when they're reading. Yeah.
00:26:50
Speaker
moment of an author where you're like, why is that online? Like that should just stay in the book. Yeah. Yeah. I'll say spoiler if you haven't read the book yet, but the right move when people talk about Ryan learning time language, I'm like, please don't spoil that. Like why are we still doing that? I'm so glad I went into a blind. Holy shit. Yeah. It's such an important part to like the fact that you don't know this the whole time. And all of a sudden you're like, wow, this guy's been in love with her literally his entire time.
00:27:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's probably the biggest one for me. Or even the fact that he, again, spoiled your botter house. Yeah, botter house. I'm like, shut up! Brandy has a very strong feeling.
00:27:26
Speaker
For me, it's the fertility that really pissed me off, which is another... Oh, we hate seeing spoilers also since podcasts just... We gave a spoiler warning when people do spoiler warnings. I don't care what you post. Post the end of the fucking book if you're posting a spoiler warning. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I'm so glad that I had that. Anyways, sorry.
00:27:46
Speaker
No, I feel the same way when that when Brandy was reading it and she was she was like sending some updates in our group chat Canada texted me separately and was like I really don't want this part to get spoiled for I think it was the fertility kinder I think that's like the biggest one for you always she's always talking about don't spoil that part Ryan pain
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah, I pretty much like the last 20% of that book don't spoil it. There's just so many things back to back to back that you learn. So yeah, that's for sure. There's something big and caught up that I just know people are going to spoil and I'm like, don't do that. It's going to ruin the whole thing. Well, now I know I need to block the hashtag caught up on TikTok and Instagram until I read it. I don't want to know. Yeah, exactly. We have asked this for every author that we have interviewed so far on our podcast. So you are no exception.
00:28:35
Speaker
But you said it yourself in your bio that your books are steamy. My personal faves are chapter 28 and 29 of The Right Move. But when it comes to writing, it's true. The chapter numbers memorized, correct me if I'm sorry. Do you have bookmarks for a reason?
00:28:55
Speaker
I can tell you though, I just don't know the chapter part. Sorry, when I saw this, I was like, what chapter? I had to go back and like. And you're like, yeah. Anyway, before I just got like completely. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. No, we love you being horny. Thank you. Never mind. I was going to say that sounds very weird. So I mean, say it. You can say it.
00:29:26
Speaker
We'll come back to you later. Um, but when it comes to writing your actual sex scenes, can you talk about your process for that? Like, do you find it awkward? Like, are you like giggling to yourself, like throughout? Like how, how is that process for you? My first book that I wrote offline that's not published or anything like that, I felt super awkward because my first time doing it, you know, I was like, this is so weird. And I was so much more delicate with my language too. Now I'm like throwing out,
00:29:52
Speaker
every body part there is. Like, you know, like, I don't know, you can say it. Yeah, we say it all the time. Okay. Well, now I feel weird. But yeah, now, no, I, I don't, it's not awkward at all. I don't feel weird at all. I will say because it's kind of a choreography, the sense, there's sometimes the chapters that are harder for me to write because it's not I love dialogue. That's my favorite to write. So it's,
00:30:19
Speaker
the least amount of dialogue most of the time. It's usually the chapters where I'm like, okay, in three chapters, I need to do this. And it takes me a little bit to like warm up to like, let me figure out this choreography in a sense. But no, I don't feel weird about it. Throw out every word I can think of. I don't mind anymore. Yeah, I don't feel weird about it. Thank you. And then I'll let it sit. And then I'll come back and read it maybe like a week later. I'm like, damn. I'm like, that's dirty.
00:30:49
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Literally moments before you logged on, we were sitting here talking about our favorite scene. And Ryan Indy's first scene after the gala is just one of my favorite smut scenes ever written. So thank you for that. I love non-sex smut scenes. They're literally my favorite to read and write. I think they're so hot. And I think every book of mine from now on will have at least one. I love them so much.
00:31:17
Speaker
Yeah. There's a non-sex munt seed in caught up and everyone who's read it has been like that so a lot. I'm like, thank you so much. Oh my gosh. And also when Ryan and her were doing it and he was like figuring out what she likes and he's like, oh, you like me. How good you are. I was like. Yes. Oh my gosh. Of course. Of course.
00:31:44
Speaker
Well, I was going to say that kind of makes sense. You just said you love writing dialogue so much like indie being a praise girl. Like anyway, you can incorporate more dialogue into the sex scene. Like, of course she's a praise girl. I think we all are on a certain level. Oh, yeah. You know, you're so right. You're so right. Speaking of praise, though, like how do you kind of decide like what the couple's thing is, if it is praise, if it's, you know, Dom sub, like what I think or how do you decide that? Yeah, so far, pretty much everything has been
00:32:12
Speaker
praise to a certain extent because i'm a prince girly so like that's just you know
00:32:18
Speaker
Our imitating life. To be honest, I have no problem reading it. I don't know that I'll ever personally write and never say never, but I just don't know that I'll ever write anything that's outside of praise just because I want someone to tell me how pretty I am and how good I'm doing it and all that kind of stuff. But also with my sex scenes, I try to also push the story forward in some sense
00:32:45
Speaker
Yeah, obviously a lot of Stevie had a lot of body image issues. And so a lot of the sex scenes and that were meant to kind of help with that. And then in the right move, just
00:33:00
Speaker
And he basically says like, she can't finish, you know, here comes Ryan. Okay, great. But also the trust from Ryan's point of view, he's been celibate for all his time because of his lack of trust in other women. So that's also pushing the story forward. Yeah. So I always try to have a reason for, for to be, I mean, obviously smut is enough of a reason, but I want there to be a little bit of something out since pushing this story as we go.
00:33:26
Speaker
When I was at the LA Times Festival of Books, I went to a panel that was all about writing sex scenes. And Kennedy Ryan said something that has literally every, I cannot read sex scenes the same after she said that if you can skip a sex scene in a romance book, it's not doing its job.
00:33:42
Speaker
Right and like if it's not moving the story forward in some way and I feel like exactly what you just said Like there's a reason for everything that they're doing. Yeah She's a genius. So listen to everything she says because I am I think there needs to be a Whether it's a conversation that's happening during or it's a subconscious Pushing of the storyboard and if it's a self-confidence thing or whatever it is. Yeah, I agree It needs to push the story in some way
00:34:10
Speaker
Yeah. And it's also fun. Yes. OK, we talked a little bit, a tiny bit about the audiobook for The Right Move. My high already has an audiobook. Brandi loved it. I haven't listened to that one, but Brandi, I know you really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it. Like, I literally anytime I think about Xander, I think about that narrator's voice. Like, he was so perfect.
00:34:30
Speaker
His name is Winston James. His voice is like so deep and sultry. As soon as I heard him, I was like, Sanders. Was he in, did he do jail? Yes, he was. He wasn't jail seekers because that's how I listened to him. Oh, yes. Did he do restore me? Yes. I heard his voice. He does have a very nice voice. I literally was like, I was like, he would say it like that, like Sanders would say it like that.
00:34:56
Speaker
So yes, what can you tell us about the audiobooks in for all your books? Well, especially right move and caught up since those aren't. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, the right move is coming out on October 17th. Part of the reason it's so delayed is because of who I wanted to voice Ryan, but also I bought self publishing mile high in the right move. I, I sold my rights and usually that takes a little bit longer, but caught up. I,
00:35:20
Speaker
I didn't produce it, but I quote unquote self produce that one with through a company lyric audio. They're amazing. And that'll come out on. Yeah. So that'll be coming out on my release day. So ebook, paperback and audio coming out on the summer test. Yeah. So that's exciting.
00:35:36
Speaker
So, for narrators for the right move, Sean Kristin is doing Ryan. Okay. I don't know if you guys have ever listened to Longshot by Kennedy Ryan, but he did August one. Yes. Oh, no. Dang it. I listened to Hookshot. Okay. If you look up his name on Audible, you'll recognize him in quite a few books. Okay.
00:35:56
Speaker
I don't know which name she's going by, the girl who's doing Indie. I think it's Juniper Young, is her name she's doing under Indie. She's not in a ton of stuff, but she has a great voice, so I'm excited to hear her as well. And then Caught Up, that one is going to be Alex Kidd. He does a lot of sports on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes, will be Kai. And then for her, there's a woman named Megan Wicks, and she's only done a few audios. She's done two of Candy Steiner's books. She did Hail Mary.
00:36:25
Speaker
she has this like beautiful like deep voice and I like I was asked I asked for her she didn't even it wasn't even on the list I was like I want her to voicemail her because in my mind that's what she sounded like so I'm excited I actually just got the file in my inbox today I haven't listened to it yet but yeah so I'm excited I love when authors are audiobook girlies and like you said at the beginning that see that I feel like I can tell
00:36:49
Speaker
because, like, there's so much care put into, like, and thought process behind the narrators, everything. Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm so excited. I can't say it yet, but I'm so excited for the audiobook narrators from book four. I already have them scheduled, and they're, like, big names caught up. I'm so excited for who I have, but also big names get booked up so early, and I just realized I was gonna self-publish this in the summertime. So we booked way ahead for book four, and so there's two big names. I'm so excited to have them. They're gonna be great.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah. I'm restraining myself from asking. I don't want to ruin it. Yeah, I can't tell anyway, but it's okay. There are two names that you guys all know and they're both, I think they're great. So yeah. Okay. Yay.
Future Projects & Audiobook Releases
00:37:32
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Wait. So caught up is coming out very soon. Will we know at the end of caught up what book four or who book four will be about?
00:37:39
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. You'll see at the end, you'll see the name of the book for book four, the title, and you'll see who the characters are, but you'll pick up on it throughout the book anyway. Okay. Okay. Amazing. In the same way that Mile High and the Right Move are a nice little duet caught up in book four, also a nice little duet. And then book five, the whole cast is in all of the books at this point, but book five will really be like all four books
00:38:07
Speaker
And then this final one, so. Okay. Yeah. I love that you said they're like a duet because yeah, when I got to the end of the right move, I read that epilogue and I was like, yeah, I'm like, we're really into the future. Like, okay, there's more to come though. Yeah. So caught up, you'll go back in time. You'll go to the end of the regular chapter in the right move. Okay. So.
00:38:25
Speaker
Four years before the epilogue, so right at the end of the right move, you go into that baseball season, that's Kai's Star of Kai stories, like two months later. You won't have a time jump at the end of Kai's epilogue, but you will have one at the end of book four, and then that'll bring you to book five at the end of both those epilogues will line up together time-wise, and then book five will take place there, so yeah.
00:38:44
Speaker
Man, you are a planner. You're like, oh, no. And this is the thing, and that is happening. Gotta be. It's great. I wish I was better in the beginning. When I was writing My Ohio, I thought it was going to be a standalone one-time book. And it happened to me. I was like, I should write a book for Ryan. And then here we are. Yeah. That makes me so excited. Now I get to see Indi and Ryan in book three. I mean, even if just a small portion, I'm just excited to see them together. I love cameos. Yeah, yeah. I love it.
00:39:13
Speaker
They have, they're not both Sanders and Ryan and Indian Stevie are not as prevalent as much as they are in each other's books because they're not siblings. Yeah, but you're still gonna see them a good amount. I want to say maybe four or five chapters worth of them being in it. Take it and you'll see more of Kai's family.
00:39:31
Speaker
in this, if that makes sense, you'll figure it out very soon. And then, yeah, you'll see plenty of them and you'll get to see them just together and you'll see Zanners and Stevie pregnant, but not, no kids yet. So that's kind of, yeah, it'll be a nice little, yeah.
00:39:47
Speaker
This is a little bit of a sidetrack, but why Chicago? I was born there. I was just college there. Yeah. Like, why did you pick Chicago as like the central location for everyone? Okay. Well, first of all, uh, when I wrote that first book offline that Sanders was a side character and it took place in Minnesota. And so logistically for the story I needed it to make happen, it worked out that I was like, well, Chicago makes sense.
00:40:12
Speaker
But when I decided to do this whole thing, Chicago was like such a great sports city. Chicago's a great city anyway, but especially their sports scene is so amazing. And so that was a huge reason why. And like, I don't think there's enough books about the Midwest. There's a ton of books about LA and New York, and there's just not a ton about the Midwest.
00:40:30
Speaker
You're so right. I'm a Midwest girl so much. I grew up for 10 years. I'm not from Illinois, but I grew up in Illinois for 10 years, so it was really nice to see a book take place in the Midwest. I grew up in Madison, so I spent a lot of time in Chicago. Yeah, my family's from Minnesota. They're southeast Minnesota, so not too far from Chicago, but every time I go to Chicago, I love
00:40:56
Speaker
I'm just waiting for more books in Kansas City. That's one team compared to Chicago's like three teams. Yeah, it's like realistic that there would be a top hockey player and a top basketball player and a top baseball player all in Chicago. Like that's realistic. We have a top football player. I don't know what you want me to say. Where's your basketball player? Where's your baseball player?
00:41:23
Speaker
we have baseball yeah i know that's it and the soccer team are you okay i flew that soccer team one time ah fun so you did sporting camp city yeah randomly years ago we went to panama city for some reason they had a game there something so yeah
00:41:47
Speaker
On the topic of sports though, like, are you interested after, because you said this series is going to be five books, right? The Whitney City. Yeah. Cool. So after book five, do you have any interest in writing outside the sports sub genre at all? Like, do you have interest in a billionaire small town?
00:42:03
Speaker
I feel like all my guys are like, not billionaires, but like they're rich. But I would love to do a small town sibling series one day, like five siblings, something like that. That's, I think will probably happen. I'm excited to move out of sports world just because I could say so much, so many words on not describing a
00:42:28
Speaker
I would love to do something a little bit different just so I can have different types of professions and stuff like that. There is a standalone I really want to write outside of the Windy City series that I'll probably do after I finish this series. But after that, I think I would start a whole series and I, I don't want to say for sure, small town, but I could see it being that. So yeah, I would love
00:42:51
Speaker
I would love to be able to write mafia. I love reading mafia. I don't think I have the creativity to write mafia because they do whatever the hell they want. I love small town romances. I would shit myself.
00:43:15
Speaker
Sorry. Most of what I listen to is small-town romance. They're such easy audios. They're great. I look forward to any of my small-town authors who I look forward to. I can't wait for the audiobooks to come out. That's one of my favorite things to listen to on audio. Have you read the Chestnut Springs series? Yes. Can't wait for Hopeless.
00:43:36
Speaker
Yeah, that'll be great. Laura Pavlov is my newest obsession. I don't know if you guys have read her newest series. Yes. Kayla's read the most. I read Into the Tide, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's quick, easy, but like great storyline. Really great humor. I think her humor is awesome. So those are all on, you can do like Whisper Sync, you know, where you get like the cheaper price. So I've listened to all those. They're great.
00:44:00
Speaker
So we've already kind of touched on it a little bit, but let's finally talk about caught up, what can readers expect, and how was the writing process or was it at all different from the first two? Every book of mine I will say has been completely different while I'm writing it. Mile High was the easiest because
00:44:19
Speaker
zero expectation but also like that book is so long because I was just like this would be fun this would be fun like I was thinking about like this is so freaking long the right move was very difficult for me to write I was three weeks late on my deadline my editor was an angel and she's like oh don't worry about it but I had a really tough time with that one imposter syndrome was hitting hard hard time with that one
00:44:39
Speaker
but caught up has for sure been my hardest in a different way. A, yes imposter syndrome and having expectations which like I'm so grateful like having pressure is such a privilege to have, but also so scary sometimes. You don't want to disappoint anyone and you know, so there's that but for different reasons, it was really hard. I knew this story.
00:45:03
Speaker
I knew it, I knew all of it from the beginning, which is not super common for me. I usually know the end and like points that need to happen. I knew everything about their story from the beginning. So my pacing, I can't find it myself pacing it too quickly and having to be like, no, no, drag, you got to like make it feel more natural. Like they shouldn't be having these conversations so early. So I would say it was hard in that aspect because I was just so ready to put it on paper that
00:45:30
Speaker
getting my pacing correct was a little bit challenging, but I'm very happy with where it's at now. Also, I don't have children, and this book is about a single dad with a son, so a lot of voice memos to my friends with kids. I'm like, one of my best friends, Paige, she has a three-year-old, and Max is younger than that, but I'm voice memo-ing her, and I'm like, when Charlie was this age, like, what was he doing? What kind of dishes did he have? Like, what kind of, like, just stuff like that, random things, but things close to where I'd have to need to change them.
00:46:00
Speaker
all that kind of stuff, things that I don't, are not like in my everyday life. So that part was difficult too, and making sure like,
00:46:07
Speaker
His amount of speech was correct because he is really young in this book and I'm not trying to have him like dialogue, you know? Kayla and Kendra give me so much shit because one of my favorite fictional kids, they're like, oh, why is he talking like he's an 11 year old and he's five? I'm like, okay, whatever, leave him alone. So that's so smart that you mentioned that. I love that. Just a smart kid. Yeah. This guy is very young in his book. So that was more so like,
00:46:35
Speaker
how many words should he have in his vocabulary? And then also writing a female main character who I would say I wouldn't say it's like completely gender swap as far as like stereotypical gender swap is what I should say where typically you have a guy who's like commitment, we'll just say like, you know,
00:46:54
Speaker
back in the day, I'm going to say, books were always like, nympho guy, girl who wanted to settle down, right? Exactly. This is very much the opposite of that. I think people know that from the blurb already, but writing a female main character who had her own like, hesitations towards that, but it was also trying to make her likable, which I love. Miller, she might be, might be my favorite female main character I've written, but-
00:47:18
Speaker
people love to hate on female end characters. So like giving them a reason to is scary, but you also want to make them realistic and like, as long as I hopefully the whys have been obvious enough that readers pick up on why her motivations are what they are. So yeah, I'm excited for people to meet both of them. I love both of them individually and together.
00:47:38
Speaker
I'm so excited. I'm also so excited because you've mentioned a couple of times that writing their families has been so fun for you. And we talk in our group chat, we talk all the time about how like sometimes the familial or friendship relationships that exist in romance books are like our favorite part about it. And we already talked about Ryan and Stevie, but I'm so excited that you said that these are like some of your favorite characters you've ever written.
00:48:02
Speaker
Yeah, I, this is probably, I would say, in a sense, my most found family book because it's about a family. Obviously, Kai has a son, but on top of that, you have so many family members in the story organically. Miller's dad is Kai's coach. So he's there the whole time. Kai's brother is on his team. So he's there the whole time. His son is obviously a main part of the storyline. So he's there the whole time.
00:48:25
Speaker
So you have these five people who are intricately put together all the time. And Miller is kind of the outcast because all these guys are on the same team or coach the same team, whatever it is. So Miller's coming in and the way she kind of fits into this family was really fun to write. Where did you pick the name Miller? Are you a brewer spy?
00:48:46
Speaker
No, I love. Did you say Brewers? Yeah. I was like, Oh, sports romance Miller. Oh my God. I'm going to pretend to say yes. I love, um, first of all, I'm from Northern California, so I'm not a Brewers fan, but I, um, love
00:49:08
Speaker
stereotypically male names for women. Yeah, my first book that I wrote offline, her name was Logan. She is in a little bit of the Mile High book. So love that. Stevie is obviously a girl's name, but like it has a little bit of that masculine edge. Miller is typically, I guess, a male name or a last name. But I love female names that have a little bit of like a masculine edge to them.
00:49:31
Speaker
Since we've talked a little bit about them throughout, Logan, I remember reading about her. Can you remind me of her husband's name? Eli. Eli. And I remember reading that. His last name is Madison, so you see his last name all the time. That's right, Madison. Yeah, yeah. I remember reading Mile High and Googling to see if I missed a book from you because I was like, they're obviously so fucking in love in any time that two characters that are side characters in books, I'm like, they have to have a book somewhere. Yeah. But it's not fully published, huh?
00:50:01
Speaker
It was for a hot second. I got it unpublished. I did not publish it. I had somebody else published it. It was a terrible situation. We won't talk about it. But I got it unpublished, finally. It also is just not reflective of, I think, my writing at this time. And if I ever put it back out, it needs a full rewrite, like 1,000%. Because like I said, during COVID, I was bored out of my mind. And I was just like, let me write whatever I want. Whereas now, I feel like
00:50:27
Speaker
there's so much more structure to writing a story than just sitting down and doing it. So maybe one day I'll put it back out, but it's not the top of my priority list. But they were my first couple and that's where you meet Zander's he was he was kind of the
00:50:41
Speaker
hated rival. And so he had his little redemption arc. Yeah, most people who read Mile High with no context in the first books hate Xander's in the beginning. But if the old school people who read like my old readers who read the first two books love Xander's right from the beginning because you saw a little bit of his redemption already. So yeah, but he's yeah, he's a fun character, but he's easily unlikable as well. But I love him. So whatever. Yeah.
00:51:07
Speaker
Would you say that like, I mean, obviously it's living so fresh in your mind. Would you say caught up is your favorite book you've written so far?
00:51:13
Speaker
They're all so different. Yeah. I'm like asking you to pick one of your children. I'm sorry. Yeah, for sure. I think like, because if I'm thinking about in the way of like, what did I enjoy the most? I enjoy Mile High the most still to this day. I think they're all different. I think Mile High is the funniest in my personal opinion. And I think it had, for me, it was my most enjoyable writing experience. I think the right move was the most like swoony. And then I think caught up is going to be probably the most emotional.
00:51:42
Speaker
which I didn't know that until I had like, all of a sudden people started raving it. Like if you, like my inner circle started raving it and telling me they're crying, I was like, oh, I was like, I was so drained when I was writing it. I was like, I thought I was emotionally dead. So thank you so much for telling me. So I think that would probably be the most emotional.
Publishing & Book Release Updates
00:52:02
Speaker
So I think they're all completely different and I love them for different reasons. Also, you just got picked up by Berkeley. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.
00:52:10
Speaker
I love this trend of Berkeley picking up indie romances that are like hundreds of pages long because usually their stick is like 350 max. And I'm like, okay, if you're going to pick up all these indie authors who are writing these long books that we love, you need to give the same grace to your standard roster.
00:52:27
Speaker
That's a bit, I mean, to be honest, before I wrote books, I didn't know there was even a book community. Like I was not in it. I was not online and I didn't know it was a thing. So I didn't even know anything about anything. And then one day I was just like, I'm gonna write this book and I'm gonna put it up and sell it and hopefully I make my money back on editing.
00:52:44
Speaker
And so truly didn't know anything about it. I didn't know there was even like a word count, you know? My books are so long, so it's obvious. But yeah, I'm really excited to be picked up by Berkeley. They're so great to work with. And a huge concern of mine was, are you guys going to take apart my story? Because I still have my ebook rights and my ebook rights will remain mine. And that's what like 80% of readers, I would say read, at least like what I can see on my like, you know,
00:53:12
Speaker
pie charts of what selling and all that kind of stuff. So I didn't want the paperback to be different from the ebook. And I also didn't want to change their story. It's been out for over a year already. So they, even though it's so long, they did not change the story at all. They didn't pull things out, nothing like that, which is awesome. So yeah, it's going to be a chunky book on the bookstore in the bookstore. So yeah, are they going to change? Are they changing the covers at all?
00:53:35
Speaker
Yes, yeah, which they weren't going to. I should say that I should preface this. They were totally open to me keeping my covers, which was also very cool because those are not like.
00:53:45
Speaker
normal traditional covers. Um, it was not, it was not their say, there was a retailer who they're hoping to get those books into that store and that retailer wanted a different type of cover. They came to me and asked me for my, if I was okay with that, I'm not going to be the author is like, no, you know? So I was like, of course, yes, let's change them. And I've gotten a sneak peek at what's happening so far draft wise. And they're like a hundred times better than I ever thought. So I'm actually really excited for new covers. Yeah. Yeah.
00:54:15
Speaker
And hopefully down the road they'll pick up caught up in the rest of the series. This is so new for traditionally published publishing houses to do that it's really kind of a test run and as long I think as long as they do well and stores want them in store it sounds like the rest will go but can't say they will for sure but hopefully so then the whole series will also match the Berkeley covers at one point hopefully.
00:54:39
Speaker
Just gives me an excuse to buy more books. And the Berkeley covers have very lengthy bonus chapters that people have been asking for. So yeah, I don't know if people know that actually.
00:54:58
Speaker
chunky, chunky bonus chapters in each of those books. So hopefully that'll also be a reason to buy them. So yeah, absolutely. Can you remind people or like tell us when the last day is to buy the indie covers if they want that? I don't even know yet because Berkeley doesn't know yet. Oh, they're being super graceful with me, which I'm so stoked about. I thought it was going to be as soon as the announcement is out. Paperbacks are down.
00:55:22
Speaker
but they've been awesome with letting me give readers time. I would assume once the covers are finalized and put out into the world and shown to people that will be the transition date and on my end it looks like it's soon but I don't have a specific date.
00:55:37
Speaker
But I would say buy them soon. Buy them if you want them. If you're listening right now, go order your copies. So people know Conab will still come out and be able to still match the current Skyline covers. So if you want your series to match, you gotta buy the first two now.
00:55:54
Speaker
The yellow is beautiful. I'm so excited. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so excited. I already know what book four is going to look like. And I'm just like, I can't wait to see them all together. So yeah, I'm so stoked for Caught Up to come out. So cool. So are we. Oh my God. Thank you so much for being with us here today. Yeah. Thank you guys for having me. This is so fun. Awesome. So Caught Up.
00:56:19
Speaker
comes out on October 10th on all platforms, ebook, paperback, ready for purchase and the audio book on the same day. So exciting. Yeah. Again, Liz, thank you so much. Go ahead and pre-order caught up. If you haven't, like we just mentioned, it's going to be out everywhere. Audio, which
00:56:37
Speaker
We have a lot of audio girlies that listen to this podcast, so they're probably like foaming at the mouth right now. And we are so excited to see where the Windy City series goes. If you enjoyed listening to us talk to Liz, you can rate this podcast five stars. We'd really appreciate it. And yeah, tune in next week when we have something else or something new. I'm forgetting what we're recording next, but it'll be us. It'll be mine. Thank you so much, Liz. Bye, guys. Bye. Bye.