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Game Night with Giana Darling | S3Ep8
362 Plays2 years ago
Author Giana Darling (@gianadarlingauthor) is here for a fun bookish game night! We play three mini bookish games while Giana dishes about her latest releases and what's to come!
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Follow Kayla @Kaylas.Bookshelf
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:06
Speaker
Hello. Hello. Welcome to Bring Your Own at Catch All the Gishmas This Time podcast. I'm Brandi. I'm Kendra. And I'm Kayla. And for today's episode, we have a very special guest. We have Gianna Darling on today. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We're so excited to have you. Of course, of course.
00:00:27
Speaker
Gianna is a USA Today and top 40 Amazon best-selling Canadian romance writer who specializes in the taboo and angsty side of love and romance. She currently lives in beautiful British Columbia, but before becoming a romance novelist, she was a food journalist, a food blogger, a coach, a French tutor, and the owner of a pie company, which I didn't know, which was so insane to me. I would love to know more about that.
00:00:50
Speaker
For the last few years, she has been living all over Europe, mostly in her second home, France, but she's finally settled with the love of her life and her hometown on an island off of Vancouver.
Gianna Darling's Background and Career
00:01:00
Speaker
So again, welcome. We're so excited to have you here. Yay. I'm so excited to be here with you guys. I love hanging out with you three. Oh my God. That's so nice. Thank you. Awesome. But before we get started with our questions, we got a couple of games we're going to play. Ladies, what are we reading? What are we drinking?
00:01:16
Speaker
I'll go first. Okay. Oh, sorry, Kayla. I saw you go. I'm drinking, John, do they have Sonic in Canada? No. Y'all are missing out. I'm drinking a diet chili limeade from Sonic. And currently I am reading a book called The Ones We Hate by Katie Golightly on Kindle Unlimited. And then I'm listening to Just For The Summer by Abi Jimenez.
00:01:41
Speaker
I have my handy dandy Love Island water bottle that kind of got me last year for Christmas. And then of course I do have a Coke Zero with me because that's my drug of choice. And then I am also listening to Just For The Summer by Abby Jimenez rereading that. I'm almost done. Probably finish it tonight and yeah. That's like all I've been listening to.
00:02:06
Speaker
And the audiobook is exactly how I thought it would be. Perfect. Perfect.
Current Reads and Drinks Discussion
00:02:10
Speaker
So yeah. All right. Good to know. No notes. No notes. Good. I am drinking a white ale beer right now. It's 5 o'clock. And I am currently reading The Ex-Fows by Jessica Joyce and listening to an arc of Wild Love by Elsie Silver. Yeah. Hating. Love that. Yeah. Gianna, what about you?
00:02:35
Speaker
I'm drinking. I'm so basic. I'm drinking from my white Stanley water bottle. I love that. I'm a hydration queen and I'm drinking electrolyte packet in orange flavor. Love that. And I'm actually
00:02:54
Speaker
privileged enough to be reading an arc of Candy Steiner's next. Oh, yeah. Oh, watch your mouth. Oh, no, wait. No, no, no, no. That last one. Okay. One with Daddy P and I'm a big fan of daddy's as you guys probably know. Living for it. And I love candy's books. So I'm quite enjoying myself.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yay. All right. Shall we dive in with some questions? Let's do it. Okay.
Taboo Romances and Societal Norms
00:03:20
Speaker
So, um, as we mentioned in the intro, Gianna, you are really big on Tabu romances. I think you're, I think I've read the most Tabu romances from you. Why did you choose to write Tabu? Like why that over anything else? And is there a limit that you're like, I can't even touch that? You're like, no.
00:03:40
Speaker
Okay, well, I would say that I don't really have any triggers, but that's probably more as like a reader than as an author. And there definitely is a limit for me. I'm personally not interested in writing like incest, doesn't vibe check for me. Sure. But like to each their own, but that's kind of a limit for me. Not that this is like in any way too forbidden a limit, but I'm not really interested in like a why choose situation. Okay.
00:04:09
Speaker
I like like a menage, like a throttle. I can ride or die for a throttle, but anything more than that, I'm like, that's too many people. It's asking too much of body parts and it's just like a lot. So I don't know, maybe those are some of my limits, but I would say not to be super cliche, but like
00:04:29
Speaker
I didn't choose taboo romance, taboo romance with me. I'm almost only interested in forbidden things and I think it's because I love human psychology and I love that so many of our rules and regulations are just societal constructs. Society tells us to believe a certain way and we're all like, okay, sure.
00:04:57
Speaker
I think that the questions that I ask myself that lead to these story ideas are like, well, why do I think this way? Why do I personally think this way? And what evidence do I have to believe that something is wrong or not? And so I love
00:05:13
Speaker
I love the challenge of telling a romance that you think is implausible or shouldn't work, and then making you believe that not only does it work, but those two people are actually soulmates, and there's no ever any eventuality where they should not end up together. Yeah.
Inspiration Behind 'Serpentine Valentine'
00:05:30
Speaker
You do that really well. Every time you say, like, when you say soulmates, I'm like, yeah, let's do some little soulmates. Literally.
00:05:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's just what I love to do. I don't think, it's not about being dark for me. Like I do write dark romance, but I also have non-dark romance and yeah, they're still forbidden just because I just need that angst in my life. Like Fluff and Gianna don't vibe.
00:05:54
Speaker
That's fair. And like, we'll touch on this later, but you write some of the most like romantic scenes. Yeah. So it's still like, it's still, you get that like fluffy feeling like they're just so sweet. But then outside of all that, it's like, whoa. Okay. Yes. And like more, even more reaffirms that like,
00:06:12
Speaker
They're meant to be together. But in your latest book, Serpentine Valentine, which is a sapphic medusa retelling, you talked a little bit before about how you like love mythology and are very like enamored by those stories. And it's so clear in this book, we all got a chance to listen to the audio arc. We are so grateful. Thank you so much. Is this a story you've been wanting to write for a while or did it just like come to you? Can you tell us a little bit about this book?
00:06:40
Speaker
Okay so I will say that there were two stories kind of in my youth that lodged in my mind as like fairly unjust and it really just stuck in my craw and would never let go and one of them is
00:06:57
Speaker
the story from the Evil Queen's perspective in Snow White. I used to cry when she died because I was like, oh my gosh, she was like run, chased through the woods by animals off a cliff and then a boulder falls on her. It's a pretty horrific way to die. The lady was the most beautiful in the land, like whatever, you know? So what? She was a little bit vain.
00:07:20
Speaker
Always a little bit of a hard one to swallow for me and then even more so like on a very serious note When I first got into mythology, which was when I was like a child I remember getting I say I even still have this the book that was a children's book of mythology and there was a Medusa retelling and it was quite glossed over but essentially Medusa was punished for a crime that was committed by Poseidon and
00:07:46
Speaker
And a woman was the one that was punishing the woman. And I just thought, wow, this is just math that does not math for me. I do not understand how in any way this makes sense. And so
00:07:59
Speaker
Basically, since I started loving mythology when I was really young, the myth of Medusa had always stood out as being really horrific. And let's be honest, most of mythology is terrible to women. There's not a woman that really comes out on top in really any culture's mythology. Some, yes.
00:08:18
Speaker
Nordic mythology is a little bit better for women. There's some Celtic myths that are better for women, but specifically the very popular Greco-Roman myths. Women have a very hard time with it. So I did know that I felt like I wanted to be someone who gave Medusa a happily ever after, and I knew that kind of in the back of my mind for a long time.
00:08:41
Speaker
But it wasn't until like a year and a half ago when all of a sudden, I think it was maybe just like the atmosphere of society at the time with like the Me Too movement having happened and just women kind of feeling like they're taking back their power, the Barbie movie coming out, you know, smash the patriarchy vibes being really high.
00:09:00
Speaker
that I felt like I needed to tell Medusa's story. And not just Medusa's story, but like women's story and like getting up for themselves and coming together as a sisterhood and all of the themes that are really prevalent in Serpentine Valentine.
Quote Identification Game
00:09:15
Speaker
Yeah, I remember when I was reading it I was texting them and I was like, I, a lot of your commentary on what the FMC was going through reminded me of like Chanel Miller's memoir know my name and like her commentary and I was like I wonder she read that because like it was like so in line.
00:09:31
Speaker
I haven't read that. I think it's a very difficult read. What's it called? But it's Know My Name. Yeah. And Chanel Miller, she was the victim in the Brock Turner case at Stanford back in like 2000 and I forget the year. But like her commentary and like how she processed everything I thought was just like so brilliant. And I was like, wow, like they felt very in tune. So yeah. Well, thank you.
00:09:55
Speaker
Now we're going to switch to a lighter topic. But we have our first game up. This is probably going to be the tamest one of the group. So hopefully it's a breeze. I think you'll do great at this. But it's just a simple quote game. So we're just going to give you quotes from your characters and you have to tell us who said it. And this does include fallen men as well as serpentine valentine.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, we wanted to just like narrow it down so it wasn't like your entire like the entire thing. So but those are the books that it does include. So Kendra, you want to do this one? Okay. If I have to kill every last man on the planet to be with you, you better believe that I fucking will and I'll do it with a fucking smile. Is that too scary?
00:10:47
Speaker
It sure is. It sure is. I mean, you know when there's fuck more than once in a row? All right. Next one is, how is it possible that we could even coexist on the same planet, let alone fall into something that was more than that? Oh my God, I wrote that. You did. It's one of my favorite quotes from that book. I pulled that one. I don't even know. Is it Serpentine Valentine?
00:11:13
Speaker
No. Who is it? It's Priest in Dead Man Walking. Oh, wow. I don't even remember writing that one. It was like his internal monologue. He was just like, yeah. Honestly, I black out when I write my books. And sometimes when I go back and read them, I'm like, wow. I'm like, damn. OK. Next one. Whatever we might have been separately, we were something different together. I feel like this one was kind of hard. That could be a couple of different people. I know. Yeah.
00:11:43
Speaker
I think Serpentine Valentine. No. But it is an L name. It is an L name. It's Lyla. Lyla and Nova. Okay. We always had each other though. I hope you know that would have been enough to make me happy forever. As a hint, this isn't romantic. It's a platonic relationship.
00:12:03
Speaker
There's so many relationships that could be. You are so good at writing platonic relationships for real. I just love my friendships. See, I want to say, is that Cleo and May? That is such a good guess. It's not. Who is it? Can I give you a hint? Yeah. It's a familial relationship. Is it HR and King? No, that's a really good guess. Who is it? Lou is saying it to Bea.
00:12:28
Speaker
Aw.
Book Signings and Fan Interactions
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah. Aw, I love that. I feel like the last Lou and Bia vibes that I have in my head though are from Dead Man Walking, where Lou is a little bit, you know, spicy. Yeah, she's spicy in that book. She's a little spicy in that one. I love that. Okay, here's the next one. I know it's not enough to erase what happened to you, but I'm going to love your body until it's singing and any thought of him is lost, at least for now.
00:12:56
Speaker
That's different time all the time. Yeah. That's Miss Luna girl. Yeah. She's so sweet. Oh my gosh. She is. He wanted me, it seemed, but that didn't mean he'd stay. In the history of my life, no one ever had. That's kind of sad. That's super, super sad. And it could be. I'll give you a hint. This one is a repeat. Oh.
00:13:25
Speaker
This person already had a quote early. Oh, this person already had a quote. I thought you meant a book. And I was like, that's the letter. Oh, no. No, no, no. Sorry. She's not being abandoned. But she's had bad memories. I can't even remember which ones we did. I'm just going to say, is it? I don't know. It's Lila. Oh, sweet girl. Yeah. Yeah. Flower child. Yeah, but that must have been early because then she gets the Booth family and then people stay for her.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yeah, that was like right after Nova like started showing interest and she was like really wary of it because she thought that he was just gonna think it was like a drunken mistake.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah, well, he didn't give a reason to believe in him for a minute. He really did. Literally. Nova had to like ground to make up with me. I won't lie to you. He did. He did. He did. He did. It's scary. I mean, you can't always have the man fall first. Sometimes the man has to be, let's be real, men are sometimes very dumb and they don't even know. Sometimes? Yeah, sometimes it's a euphemism. Yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
I wish, as I only ever wished for him, that I was born a different kind of girl. Is it Harley Rose? It is. Yeah, it is a good job. Nice. She wishes, she wished she was better, but she just couldn't help herself. She's perfect. She is perfect.
00:14:48
Speaker
I love it so much that you guys love her because she's my least loved heroine. Which doesn't make any sense to me. That blows my mind. It's crazy. We were selling Danner and HR at Sweetgrass so much. We were like, we love them so much. We were. Did you see the art print? I love your art print. Yes, we did. Gianna. Gianna, we saw them. I wish you could see my jaw. I was like,
00:15:15
Speaker
I know it's so good. Their chemistry, their sex scenes are some of my favorite sex scenes ever. I love the contrast of bad girl, good guy, but then flip it in the sheets. I do have to say, after Sweetgrass, our group
00:15:33
Speaker
was kind of like had like a decompressed moment after the signing and we were sitting in the hallway and one of our friends Chas was holding the all the special editions of of them and we were going through the different art each of us were like going through the different pieces in there we were like oh oh you know like at each one jaw drop and a girl walks by a girl walks by and she's like
00:15:57
Speaker
Are those books good? And everybody just goes on a whole tangent about all the different ones. We could not shut up. And she's like, which one is your favorite? And all three of us immediately go back.
00:16:09
Speaker
I love it. Oh my gosh. It always means even more when you hear it, like when I hear it for dinner and HR because they're my like little underrated babies. So thank you. Oh my God. I got a horse. I'm happy to. Okay. Just two more. This one is my favorite quote from this book. Need a second. Haven't left you since it happened and I'm having a hard time doing it now. Oh my God.
00:16:37
Speaker
I'll give you some context. This was after the FMC was in like a life threatening situation. And that MMC said that to her.
00:16:47
Speaker
Is it King and Cressida? Yeah. Yeah. It's very King. King is my sweet baby. He's like the sweetest of them all. He's just like not even afraid to be such a gush. If you would have seen the quote written out too, I feel like you would have got it instantly because they dropped their G's. They dropped their G's. They dropped their G's and they don't. Like the pronoun.
00:17:13
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Yeah. He didn't say I. He said having a hard time. Yeah. Okay. Last one. Hush for a moment. Let me look at you. It's been too long and I'm too greedy to speak before I get my fill of view. I could be almost anybody, but I know now there is a similar line in two different books, I think, but I'm going to say it's Oxman and Mae. It's actually Lex.
00:17:42
Speaker
Oh, wow. There's like a similar lining caution to the wind as well. Does that make sense? Okay, so our next round of questions related to what we were just kind of talking about is that you go to a lot of signings and we got to meet you at Book Bonanza last year and we saw you at Love in Vegas and we didn't get to your line was
00:18:03
Speaker
So crazy at Sweetgrass. Your line was so full, which was amazing. I love to see it. We didn't get a chance to get all the way to the front. But can you talk a little bit about how you prepare for these kind of events? Like what's your favorite part? Is it really draining?
00:18:18
Speaker
Oh my gosh, it's so draining. Yeah, so draining. But like, I mean, I haven't had a baby. So take this metaphor with a grain of salt. But it's like, when people have a baby, and you know, it's obviously very painful. But then they say that like, you just forget another baby. I think like,
00:18:35
Speaker
this is the metaphor I'm equating to assigning like you are so
Superlative Game with Characters
00:18:40
Speaker
exhausted afterwards and I always forget so for example after sweetgrass I had plans to go I went home with my publicist and her daughter and I hang out with them and then I was supposed to go to Santa Barbara with another bookish friend and I ended up canceling
00:18:54
Speaker
that last bit of the trip because I was so run down because you're meeting and talking with so many different people and you're also just so excited, right? That is kind of draining. So it is very draining, but people at the signing loft and say, Oh my gosh, you know, you've been doing this for four hours now. You must be exhausted. And I'm always like, I'm not exhausted.
00:19:14
Speaker
because you're vibing so hard on meeting your readers who sometimes you've talked to for years or you know they've shared incredibly moving stories with you about how your books resonate with them and it is just the most glorious incredible
00:19:32
Speaker
gratifying thing in the whole entire world. It's very hard to explain, but it's a very solitary job, obviously. You're kind of in your office alone, writing for hours on end, and a lot of the people in your real life don't even really comprehend your job. You're like, I write books, and they're like, oh, okay, cool. Whatever. What's that mean? I know for readers too, you're like, oh yeah, I have this whole bookish community, and people are like, okay, whatever.
00:19:57
Speaker
So actually being in that atmosphere with people who get you, who get your passion, who want to talk about books with you and like who see them as real people the way that you see them as real people, it's just
00:20:11
Speaker
It's unlike anything else in the world, so it's incredible, and it's why I've been doing so many signings. I'll probably have to taper off a bit because it's just a lot, but I love them, and there is a lot of preparation that goes into them, especially now. I'm doing exclusive, finding exclusives, so you need to make sure that you order those from a different printing place than your normal ones because they have fancy things like foil or leather bound.
00:20:37
Speaker
sprayed edges or whatever it is. And I mean, everything goes wrong that can go wrong, basically. Like one time, you know, all my books ended up at a different address that was actually out of the city. I was at Love in Vegas. It was my first signing. And the books went to the wrong address in California instead of Vegas. And I had my husband called and paid a taxi driver to pick them up from the front porch and drive them to Vegas.
00:21:03
Speaker
I know, MVP there. But things like that often happen or this time Amazon was like, yeah, half your books aren't going to get there in time. And I was like, oh my God. So then I prime shipped all the books, which meant I paid full price for my own books to get them there.
00:21:22
Speaker
And then you know what? Amazon delivered the rest of the order. So there's always things like that that happen. So it's quite a high stress lead up as well, which kind of adds to the whole it being a draining experience. But it's so gratifying. I know probably for readers too, it's very exciting, but also very exhausting.
00:21:41
Speaker
Yeah, you're like exhausted come like the end of the day. We just like all sit there and then we're like immediately. Let's go eat. Exactly. We do the same thing. Like I feel like his authors never really get time to see each other. We'll go for a dinner together, but it's very quiet. A lot of silent eating. That's like, shut the fuck up and eat your food. Yeah. I'm curious. So like sweet grass was kind of,
00:22:07
Speaker
because it was only one day. So it was kind of a long, it was a longer signing because it was six hours is, or at least I think all of us have only been to signings where they've been two days, like split over two days and they've been like, you know, three or four hours each. Do you like feel those extra two hours? Do you even feel the time or is it by the time it's over? Are you like, Oh my God, that was so fast. Or like, well for sweet grass, I was actually there from 7am until 7.30pm.
00:22:32
Speaker
So that was a lot. And I only ate like a little breakfast sandwich at like 8 a.m. So I was there early to pre-sign because I really wanted to try and get the line moving as efficiently as possible. And if, you know, for pre-orders, people could just pick up their pre-orders if they didn't want to stand in line, you know, all that stuff. So I was signing from 7 a.m. until 7 30 p.m.
00:22:53
Speaker
Because I stayed over because I still had a line and I really just feel like if people want to see me and they came to see me I will stay there until even at book bonanza They literally kicked me out of the room, but I just set up a table outside of the room. I remember that like people are all
00:23:10
Speaker
Like it's just so upsetting to not be able to see someone that you wanted to see so and I get that It's tiring and if authors don't want to do that That's so chill and cool by them like you got to take
Favorite Scenes and Writing Process
00:23:20
Speaker
care of yourself But just for me personally I really want to try and see all the readers that want to see me so I
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I will always stay extra. But then by the end, at Sweetgrass, I was actually lightheaded. Like, it was a reader actually sent me a message and she was like, Hey, just so you know, this is really hilarious. I'm not upset. But this is what you wrote in my book. And I just wrote her name with a heart and didn't sign it.
00:23:43
Speaker
Like I just wrote her name and that was it. So yeah, like by the end your brain is kind of scrambled and I was a little bit lightheaded, but I also don't want to take time to eat even if I can eat because you know there's a line and you want to get to people. So you really are just running on adrenaline, but it works because everyone's so excited that you just kind of feed off of that energy and it ends up being full with it.
00:24:09
Speaker
Yeah, I was gonna say like we went out to the car, like we were making dinner plans, we went out to the car, we decided to come back and use the restroom, blah, blah, blah, blah. We walked in and your line was still like all the way in the ropes and we were like, holy shit, like this is after the signing was over and you were like still signing. I just think that's like, that's so incredible. I hope like obviously that you, like you said, you get joy out of it too, but that must just be so, that's a lot. It's so, the other thing is it, it,
00:24:37
Speaker
Like what a dream come true. Like that's for me, I'm just, I mean, I'm also all about gratitude and I just feel like what a dream that is that people want to see you that badly, that they're willing to wait in a long line or that they're willing to stay after a signings over. I mean, how can I complain about that? I mean, it's just the most beautiful, wonderful thing in the whole world. I love that. So we kind of already talked about this too. We just talked about your special editions that you've, uh,
00:25:03
Speaker
that you had at Sweetgrass, your exciting exclusives, the leather ones, but you- Stunning. Stunning. Yeah, kicking myself so bad. You often have special editions of your books at signings or just in general, like you have quite a bit, especially of the fallen men series. Do you have a favorite special edition that you've done? And this doesn't have to be for just fallen men, it can be for any of your books.
00:25:28
Speaker
And like I have to assume are you like super involved in the process? Do you like pick every single detail or like how involved are you in that process? I am so obsessive. I actually pays off because I get people in my inbox like honestly, there's so many book box companies out like every week that I get it in every and Before I ever agree to do it. I literally give them a warning. I'm like, hello. I'm Jana. I'm Canadian. I'm very sweet and
00:25:53
Speaker
But I am very obsessive about my covers. So I just need to be up front and getting into this that I'm picky and because I hate conflicts. So if I don't preface it, I find it really hard to be honest about whether or not I like a cover or not. And sometimes I don't. Sometimes I've got Joss back and I'm like, I hate every single thing about this. And I feel so badly because I know that they spent time and energy on it. But I'm like, no, this is just not okay.
00:26:20
Speaker
So usually I try to have conversations out front being like, okay, what's the concept? Yes or no. For example, like I hate personally, I, maybe I'll rephrase this so I don't say.
00:26:34
Speaker
I don't feel like illustrated covers are on brand for me as a human being and for my work. Correct. I would agree. Yes. I agree. I agree. So when someone shows me one, I'm like, hmm, hard pass. No. Yeah. And I'm like, I'll try to be open-minded. And I have sometimes been like, I don't like them, but if you want to show me, we can see. And every time I'm like, no. So yes, I am very involved. I just...
00:27:02
Speaker
I'm such a visual person, I physically cannot handle a book cover that I don't feel is representative of the book.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah, it actually gives me anxiety. Even when I do a book box with people that I'm friends with or have done it before, sometimes I get anxiety. One of my best friends does book boxes. They just did Serpentine Valentine. That is one of my favorite special edition covers ever. Oh, lovely. Yes. It's so beautiful. It's so perfect. I'm obsessed with it, but she's one of my best friends. Even if I had a tweak, I'd be like,
00:27:34
Speaker
Yeah. So it is hard for me, but that is one realm where I will always stand up for myself. Yeah. And it pays off. I love your cover so much. Thank you. I love doing covers. I love doing swag designs. I love all that stuff, like the visual side, because it's so much fun, which is why I have a lot of special editions and stuff like that.
00:27:57
Speaker
Honestly, the leather bound covers really just came to life because I was tinkering around on a site one day and saw they did leather bound. And I was like, it would be physically irresponsible of me not to have leather cuts for the fall. Like it was actually irresponsible of me.
00:28:13
Speaker
I can't even do that. I will say they look gorgeous in pictures, but I really also don't think the pictures quite do them justice. They're just like when you see them and you feel them, they feel nice. They're so nice. I actually like, this is weird, but I do love them on my cheeks sometimes when I pick them up. But they're just so soft and silky. They're amazing. Even your interiors, I think, are really well done.
00:28:42
Speaker
It's like it makes sense you saying that like you are so meticulous with it because like it shows like I love that. I just like I love details like and that's visual details but also like in the books like for example in The Fallen or even we were talking about mythology like in this mythological retelling of Medusa like
00:28:58
Speaker
I love the breadcrumbs that you can put in there. And for some people who don't care about that stuff, it doesn't bother the narrative. But for someone who's very meta that looks for those things, I love having, you know, like Morgan, for example, Professor Morgan Morgan, the name means like of the ocean.
00:29:15
Speaker
And that's Poseidon's character. So like that's super meta. No one cares about that. But if they do, then that's there. Yeah. Like in the fallen, there's always little breadcrumbs about things that could happen, you know, or that are upcoming that I love to do
Upcoming Projects and Writing Journey
00:29:30
Speaker
as story breadcrumbs instead of visual breadcrumbs, just like for anyone that has open eyes and likes that kind of thing. Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
OK, game number two, we play this with you on Instagram. It's a superlative game. We try to switch them up as much as possible so you can like to say whoever. So they're all like most likely to do. And then you just insert who and they can be from any of your books. You can go nuts. Yeah. OK, so last time we said who's going to win Survivor. But this time we want to know who you think is the first person voted out of Survivor.
00:30:07
Speaker
Oh my God. That's a fantastic question. There's so many people who I feel like would be voted out first, but I'm going to have to say Nova because he's just too much of a threat. He's a physical. He's so charismatic. He's so charming. He's, everyone would love him right away and therefore he'd have to go instantly. Like there's no way that he could get by because he's just so obviously, if he got to the end, he'd win or the merge, win every challenge.
00:30:34
Speaker
Everyone would let him pass the merge. You can't let that go. So he'd be out right away. Are you watching this season, Gianna? Oh, of course. Sorry, sorry, sorry. I have told my husband before, like there's no one on this planet I would leave him for other than Jeff DeProst.
00:30:51
Speaker
Oh my god, he's just like ageless and he really is. I just would love it. Sometimes I think of it being on Survivor and if he put the immunity necklace, oh my god. Oh my god, either die or have an orgasm or both. What a way to go.
00:31:12
Speaker
Next one, who is most likely to win Miss or Mr. Universe? Oh my god. There's a lot of candidates for that. Okay, I think I think I am going to say Lulu. But I think a close tie is Lila because they're both gorgeous. They both have stories that are very like heartstring pulling and you need that.
00:31:40
Speaker
But I'm going to give Lulu the edge because she also volunteers and feels very passionately about the cause that she supports.
00:31:49
Speaker
And I think she's very just likable. I think she would win. I think hands down she would win. Her story would get a lot of people too. Oh, so many people. I think she's very relatable despite being so gloriously lovely. I can't really choose a boy because there's no way in hell any of them would get anywhere near any of that. Even if Lulu was involved.
00:32:14
Speaker
The boys would be in the parking lot drinking beer next to their bikes. That's as close as they would get to be involved in that circus. They were all putting on a suit for that, yeah. I think, though, out of your whole universe, I think who could swindle would be Dante. If no one knew his criminal activity, right? I'm going to go up there and do it.
00:32:37
Speaker
I can see him honestly the only way he would do that though is as like a huge joke like if yeah one day and Elena was like you would never and he'd be like yes I would come home and he'd be like look at me go
00:32:56
Speaker
Exactly. They hit him the crown. He's like double burning on like live television. A hundred percent. This is for my wife to prove. Yeah. And then just mic drop and then out of there. Yeah, I love. Okay. Have you seen Love is Blind on Netflix or No of It?
00:33:13
Speaker
No, but I know of it. Yes. And so, yeah, they can't see each other, but they have to fall in love. They have to get engaged in order to see each other. So which one of your couples do you think would make it to the engagement part? Like who would fall in love sight unseen? So we're taking away their original love story and this is how they meet. Yeah. I mean, obviously Cain and Cressida.
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think obviously, just because King is so good with his words and he's so emotionally available, that any woman honestly would be like, holy shit. He would cause such a love triangle on that show. The girls would be like, oh my god. He was so nice to me. He was just speaking to me. He wasn't as nice to me. Yeah. Yeah. They have no idea how he's talking to Chris. And the writing poems to you, you're done. Yeah.
00:34:03
Speaker
Cressida is so wooed by that verbal affirmation that it would be done. I love that. Okay, next one. Who's most likely to have Cowboy Carter as their number one album on Spotify wrapped this year? I mean, Harley Rose. Yeah. Love that. They would love that album so much. They would love that album. They would love it right now. He's going to help me. I forgot.
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. 100%. Who's most likely to go viral on TikTok and become a meme? So like they go viral on TikTok, but like for an embarrassing moment, like an embarrassing thing. I think boner and curtains. Like definitely boner. I think like one causes the other to just have this embarrassing moment. And then everyone around them is just so ready to capture that on film because it happens so often.
00:34:59
Speaker
that it's definitely Curtin's or Boner. Yeah. He's also willing to make the fool of himself. Like Boner has the most ego and the least ego of anyone in the club. Like kind of strangely enough, like he's so arrogant, but it's all kind of a joke to him. So yeah, probably him. I love that. Yeah. Okay. Most likely to give a Ted talk and what would their Ted talk be about? I mean, this one,
00:35:27
Speaker
I think is obvious too, but it would be Lex. She would obviously talk about female power and security. I think it would be all the women in the room would be crying.
00:35:46
Speaker
would do a really good job of that. She's probably doing that, honestly, right now. Yeah. That makes sense for where the book ended. Most likely to die first in a horror film. Oh, my God. That's such a good question. I need to think about this. I think Giselle from the Evolution of Sin trilogy
00:36:07
Speaker
She's just like, she's an artist. She's kind of in her own head. She's a bit daydreamy. She gets distracted. She would be dead instantly. Yeah. Just go leave your girl. Poor girl. We love you. Who's most likely to write a best-selling romance novel? Okay. This is going to be weird because I'm not choosing a woman. It's actually between two men. Okay. But I think
00:36:31
Speaker
Dante or King? Yeah. I was thinking King. I think King too. I think King would also get a kick out of doing it like under an alias and being super successful and just like not saying anything about it and just doing it because he loves love. And I think he would do it really well. I think he would write the female perspective really well. King has like good
00:36:54
Speaker
female friends too and he understands women. So I think King would do a really good job. I think honestly Dante would too, but he would probably do more like romantic suspense. Oh, yeah. Straight romance novel. Yeah. Why did you just write our life? Exactly. And like, because Cressida might seem like an obvious answer, but actually I, she wouldn't write a romance novel if she was to write a book.
00:37:20
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. She's like way into classics and academia. Exactly. She'd write more like a literary fiction novel than she would like a romance novel. Yeah, that tracks.
Story Creation Game
00:37:30
Speaker
Which villain of yours, you have a lot. Which villain of yours do you think is most deserving of a punch to the face?
00:37:38
Speaker
Oh my God. There's some of them deserve more than. Oh yeah. Get their. What's the word? Come up. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well.
00:37:53
Speaker
I mean the prophet I think is the worst villain in Deadman Walking just because he's so sick. They do damage to not just one character but like a whole bunch of characters and like lasting damage that will echo throughout so many books in that series.
00:38:12
Speaker
I think that they're the most despicable, tied with Professor Morgan, obviously, and Serpentine Valentine. I also am going to throw in Seamus Moore, who is the father of the Lombardi siblings in my library. He is absolutely the worst father in the history of the world and definitely deserves
00:38:33
Speaker
to be beheaded. I will say my favorite villain, though, which is a different question, but I'm in a segue just because like I actually love this villain is Javier Ventura. Oh, he's under read. He's fun. He's kind of like he has fun with his villainy and he's still around like he's a villain that's been around for a while. He hasn't gotten his comeuppance yet. And I like having a villain who isn't just a one in dinner.
00:39:02
Speaker
I, everything that has happened after meeting Javier, I was like, is this Javier? Is this Javier? Is this Javier? It's a good place to, yeah, mentally. It's fun. It's been really fun. You're like, it is. It all is. Okay. And the last superlative question is who is most likely to like kill it at karaoke and what are they singing?
00:39:30
Speaker
Oh my gosh, I totally adore this question. I figured because all your playlists are so well thought out and everything. It's funny, I don't really have any character at the Mo who's super into singing, probably because I am tragic as a singer. So that's probably why. But I'm going to have to say Harley Rose.
00:39:54
Speaker
would crush it she loves music she's obsessed so she knows the lyrics to everything she's got like a wide variety of things she's into genres she's into so she could go up you could probably do like karaoke roulette with her and she'd crush any kind of song that you threw at her i was thinking of her danner just because like there are just like some really special musical dancers are really good singer i for some reason i didn't really think karaoke because he doesn't really seem like he'd be that
00:40:18
Speaker
I couldn't imagine him getting up in front of her. But he's definitely like the performer. I mean, he's the best singer and plays the guitar. And yeah, he's beautiful. Well, that was so fun. Thank you. Yeah, we do too. It's so much fun to play with people. But again, I feel like all the questions that we have, we already organically end up talking about them beforehand anyway. But this one, I'll still kind of touch on this. So we'd love to talk.
00:40:45
Speaker
in our group chat about how your books have obviously excellent spies but they also have like some of the most tender and like heart aching romantic moments which like you're able to strike that balance just so well so do you have a favorite spy scene that you've written and then along with that do you have a favorite like tender moment and do those two coincide or do you have different ones there?
00:41:15
Speaker
Oh my gosh, that's hard. I mean, it's not really possible to pick just one. I will say I obviously just got Nazi for work art or art made for the fallen men's series. And I chose like my favorite or the most iconic sex scene from every book. So like a lollipop scene with welcome to the dark side is one of my favorites. I just feel like that's so iconic. Like it's just very much them. I love that scene. They're so hot.
00:41:42
Speaker
I love it. Also an underrated scene, but one of my favorites is there's a bondage scene with pearl necklaces in the Evolution of Sin trilogy that I like to live and die for. It's super hot. Yeah, I love that scene.
00:42:00
Speaker
I really like the, and I think that this is a, there's two scenes that I will say that are like a tender and sexy scene cross-section that I really love. And one of them is in After the Fall when he writes poetry all over her and this like fever and then they have sex. And I just think that it's like, it is the definition of worship. Like he's worshiping her in literally every way he knows how with his words, with his mind and with his body.
00:42:27
Speaker
So I love that scene. That's so beautiful. And then I also really love the scene in Caution to the Wind when he ends up painting her and it's kind of a big transition in their relationship where like he really realizes how beautiful she is to him and how like elemental she is to him and where May realizes that she's
00:42:49
Speaker
like beautiful and worthy and it's just a really lovely scene that starts out kind of one way and ends another way with them coming together in a really new close way. And I think that this is why I will always prefer erotic romance. I read closed-door romance for sure and I can find it enjoyable, but I just think that sex is such, it's the pivotal difference between a platonic relationship and a romantic relationship a lot of the time.
00:43:18
Speaker
I love seeing how
Book Recommendations and Personal Plans
00:43:20
Speaker
sex can take a relationship to the next level or how you can communicate in this new and wonderfully intimate way in the bedroom or, you know, with your bodies that you don't see in closed door romance. Yeah. I think you're so good at building trust like between your characters in the sex scenes. I think of Dante and Elena's sex scenes all the time, Gianna. Like you're actually like, especially in the second book of the duet, I'm like,
00:43:48
Speaker
Let me tell you, when Kinder was reading that, she was texting me being like, Kayla, this woman is crazy. And she was like, text me about some of the different scenes. I was like, Oh my God. I love, so that's, like, I think that that relationship, this sex is so fundamental to their bond because Elena had come from a place of trauma and of like,
00:44:12
Speaker
Essentially hating sex and hating her own body And her own body had kind of betrayed her in a lot of ways like in her fertility journey and everything and Dante literally teaches her how to love her body and how to love with her body and it's such a beautiful Teach me moment and it just is brings It really like brings a new level of Elena to Elena
00:44:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So good. Thank you. Okay. So you've mentioned this on social media and I think we talked about it too when we interviewed you on Instagram, but you took a break and you said during that break, you wrote six books, two of which have come out. Um, is there anything else that you can tease about the remaining four? Oh, happily. Um, so the three of them are the Sebastian's trilogy.
00:45:04
Speaker
which is called the Impossible Universe trilogy. And it is a MMF Hollywood romance. It's the brother. Yes, it's the brother of the Lombardi squibblings. And I love him. Sebastian is one of my favorite characters I've ever written ever and always. I adore him. And so I was going to release it this year, but I have the three books and I want to release them like back to back to back, one a month for three months. And with also releasing.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah, one a month for three months. I love that. You know, there's a lot of big cliffhangers and everything. So even though it's already all ready to go and the narration is so... Oh my God, Gianna. It's the first time that I've ever done duet narration. Oh my God.
00:45:54
Speaker
So I'm very excited about this trilogy. It's one of my favorite things I've ever written. I've been dying to write an MMF romance for my whole career and to write this specific one because I loved Sebastian so much and I had this family in my head since I was 16. So it's a very poignant story for me because it's also he's the last sibling in the Lombardi family. I will say it's such a giana, darling.
00:46:19
Speaker
messy romance story where like not everything is as it seems between book one and two there's like a 10-year time jump um book one was intended to be a novella but it's me so it's just like a normal book and yeah i'm really excited about it um i will now release it in january february march of 2025
00:46:41
Speaker
And then the other one is the one that I'm now releasing this year instead. I kind of switched them. And it's my first sports romance. And you are an athlete. I'm an athlete. I'm a coach. Sports are such a big part of my personality in my life. If you had asked me years ago if I'd be known for motorcycle romances and sports romances, I would have been like, no, you idiot. So it's kind of funny that I haven't yet. But I wrote this one.
00:47:08
Speaker
So randomly, like I had other sports, romance ideas, and then just kind of like with the Medusa retelling, it kind of hit me upside the head. Like this past spring, so like almost a year ago, and I just wrote it in a fever and it's age gap. It's forbidden. It's delicious. And I'm very excited to share more about that. Can you share what sport it is? Oh, it would be fun if I did, but I'm not.
00:47:34
Speaker
We'll be patient. Time for our last little game. This one, we had so much fun playing this in the past. It's called Pitch a Book. So have you seen those like graphics on Instagram that are like pick your favorite color and pick your like birth month and it gives you like a phrase or something like that?
00:48:00
Speaker
Oh, maybe, yeah, I think so. Maybe. OK, so basically what we're going to do is we're going to have you pick a color from a list that we'll read to you in just a second. We're going to get your birth month. And then we're going to have you pick a drink from a list that we'll give you in just a second. And these are going to be the elements that are going to create a story. And you're going to tell us how you might make that work in Gianna Darley's head. So now you're going to make me want to write this book, probably. Yeah, fingers crossed. We would love that.
00:48:28
Speaker
Don't get your hopes up too high. They're a little random. Last time we did this, Kayla was marrying her stepbrother in a marriage convenience. It was a whole thing. I don't mind that though. I don't mind that.
00:48:53
Speaker
According to these two, it was actually how I met my current husband. Like that was our story. He was my ski instructor, I think is what it was. Something like that. Yeah. Thanksgiving at their house is wild.
00:49:07
Speaker
OK, so I'm going to start. You're going to pick a color. I'll read you the color options. And this is going to be just your base trope. It's the base trope of the book. So the tropes are enemies to lovers, billionaire, dad's best friend, marriage of convenience, surprise pregnancy, second chance, single parent. You don't like you don't like surprise pregnancy. You're not a big fan. OK, so be careful. Yeah. What is your favorite color?
00:49:38
Speaker
I can just say whatever it is. I'll do the closest thing. I'll do the closest thing. It's red. No. Are you serious? Oh my god. You want to pick another color? You can pick another color. You can pick a pink. Okay. A pink is enemies to lovers. Yeah. Wait, pink is okay? Pink is enemies to lovers. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Easy.
00:50:05
Speaker
And so next is gonna be your location, and this will be based off of your birth month, but we're gonna read you all the locations that you have, and we don't know your birth month, so this will be, we like just listed these. Small town, deserted island, on a plane, the Empire State Building, a farm, space, Whoville from like Dr. Seuss, Switzerland, on a mountain, Wisconsin, a Chili's or a cruise ship.
00:50:37
Speaker
Okay. Well, I'm born in August. Okay. Switzerland. You're like, yeah, you've gotten some good ones. Gianna went to birthday. August 23rd. Oh, I'm the 26th. We're close. Oh, you guys are close. You're a Bergio girly. Yeah, I am. Oh, you're so good. That tracks. No, I'm a Leo. Yeah.
00:50:58
Speaker
All right. The last option is going to be based off of a drink that I'll list for you in just a second. But these are the wild card options that are really going to take your book to the next level. You know what I mean? So the options are he only speaks in Klingon, like from Star Trek. She has a secret twin who is out for revenge. Oh, I love that one. Yeah. The MMC used to be a porn star. Love.
00:51:22
Speaker
They're ghosts. They're step siblings. There's a 40-year age gap. Oh, that's big even for me. Right? We wanted to push it a little bit. The Easter Bunny is the FMC's dad, or he's a furry. So this is two-part. Are you a coffee drinker or a tea drinker? I'm just super nervous. I drink both. What's the better option?
00:51:51
Speaker
What's like your go-to if you had to pick, right? Okay, coffee. Okay. So I'm going to give you four options to choose from. A latte, black coffee, a cappuccino, or a frappuccino. Latte. Okay. So he only speaks in Klingon. Okay. Got a little language barrier there. Little language barrier.
00:52:12
Speaker
Okay. Okay, so just to recap for our listeners. This is an enemies to lovers romance that is set in Switzerland, and our MMC speaks Klingon, at least at the beginning of the book. Okay, I got it already though.
00:52:30
Speaker
Okay. So do I have to name them? I'll just say hero and heroine. Yeah. Okay. So our hero and heroine attend a very prestigious boarding school in Switzerland. It's internationally renowned and it's academic enemies to lovers. They are the two top in their class. She hates him because she feels like he makes fun of her all the time because whenever she tries to talk to him, he only responds and clang on. And love.
00:52:58
Speaker
am a big nerd and he calls her lots of things in Klingon that she doesn't understand and she eventually actually learns Klingon ostensibly to insult him back and understand him but then they actually then start bonding over it and she gets becomes like
00:53:15
Speaker
really into the same things that he's into when they perform this little bond. And he actually reverts to Klingon because he's got a lot of social anxiety, and she discovers that. And so when he's feeling a little bit unsettled, she'll speak to him in Klingon, and that's how they perform. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
00:53:35
Speaker
That was perfect. They're cute little nerds. Yeah, they're cute little nerds. I love that. I think I could spin anything into a romance, honestly. You could. Completely terrifying.
00:53:50
Speaker
That's hilarious. That was perfect. Thank you so much. So we have just a couple more questions before we wrap up this interview, which has been so fun. So we thank you so much. But for people out there, to all of our listeners who might not have read a Gianna Darling book, where do you recommend that they start? Because you have such a full and varied backlist. You got a lot out there. So where do you recommend people start if they're new to you?
00:54:17
Speaker
Um, I usually say lessons in corruption. I think that it's, I mean, the fallen men is my most popular series, but even more than that, it's probably the easiest entry point in terms of subject matter as well. Like the affair is about cheating. The, uh, the enslaved duet is captor captive. You know, any heroes in love duet, um, is mafia and I love it. And I think you can start with it, but I'd rather you start with the affair or the enslaved duet because they're all kind of linked. Um,
00:54:47
Speaker
Serpentine Valentine is a sapphic romance. Not everyone's into that. So to ease people into trust and we had to tell them whatever kind of story I want to tell, I think that Lessons and Corruption is a great starting point because yes, it's in an MCU series, but it's the least dark of all the books and kind of the least like even forbidden I think of a lot of the books. So it's a good way to start and he falls first and it's got a lot of tropes that people enjoy. Usually reverse age gap is not really like a one that people enjoy, but King is so mature.
00:55:17
Speaker
that I don't really think that it reads as problematic for people who don't like that. So I think lessons in corruption. And then you get seven whole books to read. Right. And you're sucked in. And then you go back. You'll probably love me enough to try my other books. Yes. Absolutely. I mean, hopefully that's the dream.
00:55:34
Speaker
Yeah, it works. Okay. And our last question is just, what are you looking forward to the most through the end of this year, book related or not? Just something you're hoping. Um, well, I am going to Europe for almost a month in August and September for my sister-in-law's wedding in Copenhagen. My husband's family is like Danish, so it's, it'll be fun to go over there and meet a bunch of
00:56:03
Speaker
Danish family members I haven't met before and I've actually never been to Denmark so that would be fun and then right after that I have my signing in Scotland for rare Edinburgh which will be really fun and then we go on our two-week honeymoon finally we got married so I'm really excited for that
00:56:25
Speaker
Your wedding photos and all the videos you shared, I felt so trusted that you were sharing that with us. And I loved all of it. Your wedding was stunning in both locations, so I was like, oh, this is great. I was taking notes. Honestly, I have to say, you know you found the right man when you say, I've always had this dream of getting married on a beach in Mexico, but I also feel like we should probably just get married here for everyone that can't go to Mexico. And his response is,
00:56:51
Speaker
We deserve our dream wedding. Let's do exactly what you want. Aww. I love. Aww. That's beautiful. Romance hero worthy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Gianna, thank you so much for spending some time with us and hanging out.
00:57:07
Speaker
guys i love hanging out with you like honestly it's so much fun so thank you for having me honestly i could talk to you for hours i really appreciate you making the time amazing we'd love to have you back on windows yeah yeah when your sports book comes out you're gonna be here let us know yeah but you know i'll holler at you all right bye guys bye