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244 Leeanne Slade | Audible's Best of the Year 2023 & 2024 Romance Author
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Romance author, Leeanne Slade joins us this week to chat about her fourth novel, burnt toast theory and embracing her unexpected and amazing publishing journey as an audiobook first author.
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Transcript
Introduction & Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of the right and Wrong podcast is sponsored by Ingram Spark. Stay tuned to hear more and enjoy the episode. Ooh, a spicy question. I love Because the writing is sort of everything, right? Like you can fix plot holes, but if the writer... So some readers love that and some readers are like, but I wanted more of this. So it's kind of, it's kind of a gamble.
Guest Introduction: Leanne Slade
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Right and Wrong podcast. With me today is an internationally best-selling romance author whose books have been voted as Audible's Best of the Year 2023 and Leanne twenty twenty four it's leann slade hello Hello. Oh my goodness.
00:00:37
Speaker
That was quite a lovely introduction. Is that me? Is that me? This is wild. It is you, yeah. um I mean, it's it's a really impressive resume, ah which we'll get into later on. But let's start with, as always, your latest works, um The Return of Ruby Darling, which came out about a month ago as of us recording this.
00:00:58
Speaker
Tell us a little bit about it.
Leanne's Latest Novel: 'The Return of Ruby Darling'
00:01:00
Speaker
So yeah, The Return of Ruby Darling. It's my fourth and my fourth novel. It's Once again, it's exclusive to Audible. so we'll talk about that in a little bit more detail. But it ah that's a whole that's a whole other thing. But ah yeah, so The Return of Ruby Darling is it's about a girl whose life is in utter chaos, which she starts to believe could be the court caused by Saturn Return, which is when Saturn Returns, the same part of the sky it was in when you were born.
00:01:27
Speaker
And if you're not living your most authentic life, it will wreak havoc until you are. um And she starts to believe she's under this cosmic curse, which leads her to traveling to New Zealand to find her estranged father with the help of her best friend.
00:01:42
Speaker
um And it's basically like a bit of a homage to that crazy period at the end of your 20s, where you really start to figure out who you are and what you want. And you reflect on the years you've already lived and the decisions you've made. And you start to equalize them with what you're heading towards.
00:02:00
Speaker
And it's basically a ah ah late coming of age story wrapped in this lovely friends to lovers story, but also giving that familial mystery of things gone by and and how they affect our future and uh Ruby Darling she's a she's a social media influencer so the life she's living is a little bit inauthentic to who she is and it's basically about her coming to terms with the person she wants to be versus the person the world wants her to be and I just had so much fun writing it it really it really brought me back to a time when I was that age and thinking right well what do I do now what's next what
00:02:40
Speaker
What decisions have I made and how are these going to propel me forward? And it was just wrapping that in a love story was just a really fun and yeah exciting concept to play with.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, it sounds good. It's funny. I was talking to couple of my friends just the other day about this, about how um coming of age generally is seen as a sort of like teenage into adulthood.
00:03:04
Speaker
But I feel like we we were saying how every few years I feel like you people can go through and another coming of age and and not like you can continue to learn and there should be different ah age brackets for coming of age all the way up to like, you know, until
Astrological Themes in the Novel
00:03:19
Speaker
you're old, I would say.
00:03:19
Speaker
Exactly. exactly and that's why but like the because I hadn't heard of Saturn Return before and it was my agent who mentioned it to me and she thought it would be a really fun hook. and I'm not particularly into astrology. like When I was younger, i used to I used to just flick to the back of the magazines be like, ooh, what does this week hold for me? but you know You kind of grow out of that. and so When she mentioned it, I thought, I don't Let me research it a little bit more. and There's quite a few celebrities like Adele and Ariana Grande and SZA. They've all sung about it and really brought it to the forefront of popular culture.
00:03:48
Speaker
But what i loved most about it is I thought, you what, even if you don't subscribe to that kind of mythological way of thinking about the universe, but at you know the age of 28 to 30 is such a pivotal time in your life.
00:04:01
Speaker
And I think we can all relate to those questions of you know you're solidly an adult, but yet you don't always feel like you are and how that plays into just life in general and the decisions that we make. And It's a fun age to write around 28, but I really sort of leaned into the, or like as you said, like the coming of age aspect of that, but in an adult context. So yeah, it was it was fun to play with definitely. And hopefully it feels relatable.
00:04:28
Speaker
It felt relatable to me when I wrote it. So hopefully it comes across that way. Yeah. ah Did you have to learn much about astrology for this or or was it very service level?
00:04:39
Speaker
Very surface level, thank goodness. But I i think i it was kind of it was conscious decision because i know you know where some people may come to that and think, yes, I'm desperately looking for the astrological side of it.
00:04:51
Speaker
And other people would come into it a little bit more skeptic. So I really wanted to to balance that. but Ruby, as a character, she plays into that notion of, I believe, but her love interest, her best friend, Nate, is very skeptical. So they balance each other out in that aspect. And the story is very much about her finding her father, but finding herself and the Saturn aspect of it is just kind of a little driving force behind her to get her where she needs to go.
00:05:19
Speaker
But it's it's fun. It's very, there's, there's quite a lot of jokes around it. And I think one of my favorite lines in the book is something Nate says to her, he goes, he's like, really of all the planets to blame, I think earth would be the obvious one. if it's a, yeah, it's quite tongue in cheek with it.
00:05:34
Speaker
Sounds great.
Availability & Future Releases
00:05:35
Speaker
um And you mentioned this is exclusively on Audible. So does that mean that there is not like a physical copy of this? You you can't find this in bookshops?
00:05:47
Speaker
Not yet. No. So yeah, the the Audible, into I get that question so much. i mean, why my DMs, that every time a new book comes out, I'm flooded with, where can I buy this? Where can I read it? Can I find it on Kindle?
00:05:58
Speaker
And the best way I always describe it is that I'm audio first, not audio only. So as part of my... My partnership with Audible, they have my books because this is my fourth one with them now. um They have my books for an exclusive period. And anybody who's involved in publishing will know how the back end of things work. But we're currently in the process publishing.
00:06:22
Speaker
making things happen. um And we will get there. The paperbacks and the digital release will come. come So that's basically all I can say about that now, but we're working on it. But it's ah it's been a really interesting way of doing
Publishing with Audible Experience
00:06:35
Speaker
it, to be honest. because i think when I first started to get into, you know, looking into publishing and, you know, could I do this as a career, you know, as we all do as early writers, you think, oh, maybe one day. ah ah never imagined I would do it the way that I have and go the audio route because I just didn't really know that it existed. I didn't think of it as an option.
00:06:53
Speaker
and But when we got into conversations with Audible via my agent, I quickly realized, was like, actually, you know what? This could be really fantastic. And the support that they've given me as my publisher um in terms of like marketing support and the narrators they've brought on board, you know, i I feel really, really lucky. It's been such a positive experience. I know that's not always the case.
00:07:16
Speaker
and You know, speaking from different authors and things, there's so many different ways that this journey can go. and but you know, I'm four books in now. I've got another book coming out in October, which is so like a Christmas spinoff of my first book, The Rebound.
00:07:30
Speaker
And again, it's just the support and almost like the direction that I've had from Audible. theys They're very open to me pursuing my stories as, you know, how I how i see fit and supporting me on that journey. So it's been...
00:07:44
Speaker
creatively a really fantastic experience that I potentially might not have got elsewhere so like yeah it's different and I appreciate people saying oh you know I want to buy it and I want to read it and I always think that will get there like there's a little it's just a little while it's just a little while but the benefits I've had from doing it this way I've almost like can't balance the need to just wait a little bit if that makes sense her Well, audiobooks, I think, are bigger than ever. and And I hear this from many different parts of the industry and they can are continuing to grow. And it's, I think audiobooks um open up sort of stories and reading to to a whole new audience who wouldn't necessarily...
00:08:22
Speaker
have the drive or the time to like sit down and physically um read a book. So it's cool that this is like a new kind of emergent part of being an author. Like this is a new route in. And like you said, it's sort of like as an author, you kind of, you will put your story out in different ways. And like the traditional route, which is the kind of one that everyone's used to is that first the physical copy comes out then, or the nowadays now, or the digital copy comes out and it'll be just words on a page or words on the screen and then the audio the audio stuff comes later generally.
00:08:56
Speaker
But you're just doing it a different way around. The audio stuff is first and then later on we'll figure out yeah the physicals and the Kindle stuff. Absolutely. And i it's when we first started talking to Audible, it felt really serendipitous because I worked in radio for about 10 years before um becoming an author.
00:09:13
Speaker
And so I had that real love of the medium. like The audio medium for me was just you know a big part of, I say who I am, but you know what mean? It was my day-to-day job. it was you know I was constantly talking about it and you know selling it to prospective clients and things. So when Audible came to the table, it was like...
00:09:30
Speaker
actually like I know this, you know, I know this medium and I know how impactful it is. And I know how people can build such strong relationships with the audio medium and, and how important it is to a lot of people. So I thought, do you know what, actually that it feels like it works. And then obviously with the narrators that wal do bought um Audible brought on, it was like, whoa, okay. Hello. and Now we're talking. So yeah, it felt, it felt different, but it also felt right in so many ways. Yeah.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah. And I would, I would imagine it's going to become a more and more common thing. Um, as, as time goes on is to be like an, an audio first, especially if audio, if audible with with the resources of like Amazon are like really pushing to make that a bigger part of the industry. I think it'd be more and more.
The Rise of Audiobooks
00:10:16
Speaker
Yeah. I think as well, I think a lot of, um,
00:10:19
Speaker
Traditional published authors have started to lean into doing audio first or audio originals and like Ali Hazelwood, obviously a huge romance author. She's doing one. Lisa Jewell's doing one.
00:10:30
Speaker
with Audible. So it's, I think it's becoming more popular. And yeah, as I said, it's it's audio first. It's not audio exclusive because, you know, I appreciate that, you know, anyone with, you know, audio processing difficulties and, you know, anyone deaf, it' it doesn't open the door for them to engage in those stories, but it will, we will get there. So it's still on the table. It's just, it's, there's just a little pause before that.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think it makes sense. and And you said this is your fourth one with Audible. and I also saw that you recently announced that you had signed a four book deal.
00:11:06
Speaker
is that another four after Ruby Darling? Another four. Yeah. So, I mean, again, that, that feels wild to me because I think when you go into publishing, you think, oh, you know, I hope that I could do this and I hope I could do more than one. and I just feel honestly so grateful to be in a position where now I'm contracted in until sort of 2029, which is such an amazing position to be in, you know, and they've they've been honestly been so supportive of me and the fact that they're embracing more of my stories and I get to keep doing this and, you know, making it my career, basically.
00:11:39
Speaker
It's, yeah, I feel incredibly lucky. Yeah, it sounds great. One thing I'm really curious about is you're writing stories knowing that it's going to be audio first.
Writing for Audio Format
00:11:51
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. it is that Change the way that you approach writing the stories, as opposed to knowing that they're going to be kind of words on a page first. you know I get that question a lot. And honestly, the answer not too much. It's not really. So i obviously, when we when I started writing in general, like my first book, before we took it out on submission, we had no idea where it was going to go, where it was going to end up. you know Very typical sort of publishing submission process.
00:12:17
Speaker
and When we signed with Audible and we knew it was going to go that way, we mate we edited with things in mind. But it's very much more on... like a cadence level or word repetition, which really do stand out much more in the audio format. so I'm constantly aware of things like that. And also just little things like dialogue tags.
00:12:37
Speaker
yeah You just need to be completely clear. Whereas obviously on the page, you know, a line break will tell you who's, you know, it's a different person talking, but in audio, you just need a little bit more sometimes. But other than that, it's very much, you know, I'm writing a novel and it's, it's performed as a novel. It's not a, um,
00:12:56
Speaker
you know, like a radio playate play or script or anything like that. very much is a full novel. So it's iss kind of the best of both worlds, really. i get to I keep that in mind that it will be the audio version, but at the same time, I still write it as it as it would be on the page.
00:13:12
Speaker
Okay. Right. So when eventually these things do come to, uh, like a physical book, you, there might be some, um, like formatting adjustments, but it wouldn't, you wouldn't be doing like a full big edit. Thank goodness. Yeah. thank goodness Yeah. That would be a lot of work. That would be a lot of work, but no, it's very much, yeah. Written as a novel. And I think just because that's the medium I've always started to write in, it was, uh, yeah, it was just very sort of second nature for me to do it that way.
00:13:40
Speaker
Okay, okay. And when it comes to the writing, the process itself, are you a planner or a pantser? I'm a bit of both. So I used to be a pantser through and through. i was just like, let's just go. It's all vibes. Like, we'll just figure it out when we get there.
00:13:55
Speaker
And then i think when you've done that for a few books, you start to realize how counterproductive it is. You're like, hang on a minute. We've written this four times. We're still nowhere near where we need to be. You know, this is all wrong. This doesn't make sense.
00:14:08
Speaker
So I now, i I lean into the collaborative aspect. I always speak to my agent and her assistant. I'm like, right, this is what I think. Let's get some feedback. But it always evolves. This is what always say about it as well, because we've sort of fourth book in now, especially my third, which was The Glitch.
00:14:25
Speaker
I pitched that as a sort of start to finish idea. This is what the book's going to be. And then I started writing it and I was like, ooh, ooh. hang on a minute. Oh, what if we, oh, so I need to have that space to breathe and to let the story evolve. Otherwise it doesn't lose its spark for me, but it just, it feels so much more exciting to have that breathing space to let the story evolve. So yeah, I tend to, I tend to send a few emails now and then go, um, by the way, so I've I've changed this and I've changed this. I know we agreed that, but it's different now, but it usually, it usually works out for the best. Everyone's on board. And once they read it, they're like, Oh, there that does make sense.
00:15:04
Speaker
So yeah, a little bit of both. so yeah a little bit of both If you're thinking about publishing your own novel, if you have a story that's ready to be shared with the world, then look no further than IngramSpark.
00:15:17
Speaker
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00:15:28
Speaker
And you can get started for free at IngramSpark.com forward slash learn more. I think that often comes with like the experience of writing is that like you want, yeah, like you want to keep the freedom like you say, but at the same time you're like, especially when you're on deadline, like when you have a a deal and it's like, this needs to be done by a certain point.
00:15:49
Speaker
You realize the kind of benefits of not necessarily, you know, some people love to plan every single thing down to like the word count of where different things are going to happen in the story. You don't have to go that far. Yeah. yeah but just having the structure, knowing kind of where it's going, but witherun do the one. Yeah, and how you're going up. That's always the big one because, yeah, I think my third novel particularly was quite ambitious in nature of what I was trying to do. It was two points of view, two timelines, and not to spoil it, but quite a substantial twist at the end.
00:16:22
Speaker
And when I started writing, I thought, what on earth have I got myself into? But thankfully... it literally all came together pretty much in the last week before the deadline. I was like, Oh my goodness, I figured it out.
00:16:33
Speaker
So I, but I think if I hadn't, if I hadn't had that breathing space to just let it, let it come, I i don't know what that book would have ended up. Yeah. was And that was that the glitch? Yes, that was the glitch. So that was ah yeah. For a third novel, I really went, went all in and I felt, yeah, there were multiple times I felt really overwhelmed with that. was what on earth have I done? Everyone's expecting this. And I,
00:16:55
Speaker
it's too much but yeah it just I think my my notion with everything like that is just keep going just keep going just keep going and yeah even if it takes longer than you thought it would you will get there in the end because you have to yes persevere no choice and then and you mentioned you've had some amazing narrators for the glitch you had the Hunger Games and Sam Claflin and Sam Claflin honestly my reaction when they when I got the email that Sam Claflin because I'm a huge Hunger Games fan oh yeah huge
Impact of Renowned Narrators
00:17:25
Speaker
And so I literally, I was, I was bathing my, my children and I sort of it flashed up and I read it and I honestly, this is so embarrassing, but I dropped to my knees and I shouted Finnick really loud. And my husband was like, what's going on?
00:17:38
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Has somebody died? What's happened? And I was going Finnick. And he was like, I'm really happy for you. But like, seriously, let's, let's, let's tone it down a bit. Like breathe. So yeah, just to say was a little bit, and then Daisy as well. I mean, yes.
00:17:52
Speaker
yeah Unfortunately, she was never in the Hunger Games, but she's also brilliant and fantastic. Of course, of course. Yeah. So she just was, she just knocked out of the park as well. But I think Claudia Jesse did and The Rebound, which was my first novel. and obviously that was my first experience of having somebody take your words and bring them to life in their own way. Because when you're writing, you have quite, not set in stone, but you you know how you want certain things to be delivered or you, you know, you have,
00:18:20
Speaker
and um In your mind, you see and feel and hear the words slightly differently. So you really have to hand it over. But Claudia was the first one who obviously narrated one of my books. And i just the first time I listened to her, was like, oh my God, she's nailed it. like There were so many like little inflections and the comedic timing was pretty much exactly how I'd imagined it. And so she really set me up. And obviously since then, everyone else who's come on board has just been...
00:18:45
Speaker
just as good and i've just yeah it's such a it's such a relief to be able to sort of send a book off and and then get the first listen and oh yes this is exactly you know thematically and delivery wise it's it's where i wanted it to be but it's just because that's just so talented i have to be honest so talented Yeah.
00:19:06
Speaker
Audible have got you some, cause, cause for the return of Ruby Darling, you've got Poldark's Eleanor Thompson and yeah you've just had some incredible actors. Yeah. I mean, i mean, her voice is literally, I mean, to listen, to spend 10 hours listening to her is just a dream.
00:19:21
Speaker
So such a beautiful, and I got to listen to her record it. I went up to London with some of the Audible team and sort of had a little behind the scenes. And again, that's quite nerve wracking because, you know,
00:19:32
Speaker
Not that you feel protective of it, but you as I said, you have this real clear vision in your mind of how it's going to sound. And obviously everyone has different different ways of working and how they how they're going to go with it and how they're going to interpret the character. But I just sort of sat down and listened to this snippet and I was like, oh my God, that's gorgeous. Because she just has such a beautiful, rich tone to her voice, which wasn't how I imagined Ruby, but it was better.
00:19:55
Speaker
So yeah, I just, I left that experience with a huge smile on my face and was like, yeah, we're in great hands here. We're in great hands. I guess it's sort of like um the the experience authors have with their cover as well, where they really know yeah what it's going to be. You can get an essence, you can give sort of like things of what you think you want to share, but then you you won't really see it until it's kind of finished by the artist.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's a huge one. I mean, obviously it's it's slightly different for me with the, with the audible route in the sense of, you know, you don't get the the full jacket, et cetera, but yeah, Yeah, it's it's a funny one with the covers because you just, I suppose you can't, as authors, we don't have too much say in it. And you just have to completely relinquish control of that and say, like, from a marketing perspective, you know what's best. So yeah you go with that. But thankfully, I mean,
00:20:46
Speaker
but the cover for the return of Ruby Darling is, it's beautiful. The illustrator is an Australian guy called Guy Shield. And as soon as I saw it, I was like, Oh my goodness. Right. Okay.
00:20:57
Speaker
This is something else. Cause it's just stunning. I'm just, I'm yeah, I'm really thrilled with that. Really, really thrilled with that. And the um audible surprised me. um And I was on the train back from another visit to London and I went past a billboard of the return of Ruby Darling, this huge um billboard on the side of the train station. And I was just like, oh my God.
00:21:18
Speaker
And yeah, that cover that big just looked phenomenal. Yeah. Blown away by that. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's always a good, good experience to have. um Does it, when it comes to the two things, like I've spoken to a lot of authors, I kind of, kind of understand it varies from publisher to publisher, but there's generally not, like you said, not too much interaction with the cover.
Interaction with Narrators
00:21:41
Speaker
um There can be in some circumstances things that, but like when it comes to, obviously, like we said, you you write for audio book first. Do you have any kind of say or like interaction with the narrators in terms of picking them in terms of like when they're actually doing it?
00:21:59
Speaker
Yeah. So early on I get a yeah kind of like a short list of what Audible are thinking for the character and who theyre who their prospects are. um And I get to give my opinion on that. My agent chips in as well. So we get a full sort of 360 opinion on it.
00:22:14
Speaker
And then yeah yeah to be honest, I'd love to be like, oh no, we you know I'm really stern about this person, this person, but every name they come to me with, I'm like, all of those would be fantastic options. So I'm like,
00:22:26
Speaker
This is just to an excellent position to be in. And so, yeah, we kind of narrow it down. I'll go away and have a listen to lots of different interviews they've done and also lots of performances, just if there's any accents involved, um that sort of thing.
00:22:38
Speaker
But yeah, and then they'll go away. we kind of come to a final decision together. And then it's been interesting because as I said, with Eleanor and then Claudia has just, um she's just recorded this Christmas, which is coming out.
00:22:53
Speaker
As I mentioned, my, my spinoff of the rebound, she's just recorded that. And I got to hear her in the studio as well, but audible, the way they work at, they have um the in-house directors and producers. So It's very much in their capable hands. And yeah, whenever I come in to listen, it's just a case of they've kind of already picked up on anything. They ask me at certain points, is there anything specific you want to know at this point or you want to pass on to them? But it's always been really well taken care of. So at that point, I can just concentrate on the writing and then hand over the production to Audible and just be confident that it's in solid hands.
00:23:30
Speaker
Okay, that sounds good. Do you ever meet the narrators in terms of they might want to speak to you to ask you questions about how they're going to do their performance? I haven't. Although saying that the um the actor who did the glitch in German for Audible, he messaged me and the lady who did the rebound in French and messaged me.
00:23:52
Speaker
ah They both had quite a few questions just asking about like the book and the essence of the character. And that was so lovely. i't I was like, my goodness, people, you really can. It felt like you're really on board and you're excited about the project. It it made a massive difference.
00:24:07
Speaker
um But yeah, I got to work really closely with ah Claudia when she did this Christmas and we did some filming together afterwards. and and I mean, the the brilliant thing about Claudia obviously is the way that she vocally,
00:24:20
Speaker
brings each character to life not just the main character that she's reading she really just goes full I mean with her in particular I didn't even need to think too much about dialogue tags because every single character that she narrates has ah really ah pronounced difference in the in the vocal performance so she yeah and obviously I a completely fangirled when I met her was just like my god I love you so so it was a it was a fun experience but lots of ah lots of gushing from me but yeah so in terms of what they need to do that's well. I mean, when you look at like Daisy and Sam, they're such esteemed actors.
00:24:56
Speaker
I always feel like, what could I possibly say to help you? but Like, just do just do you, you will be amazing. It's almost like one of those situations. Yeah, yeah,
00:25:07
Speaker
Okay, that's cool. That's, sir I guess in some ways it's nice not to have the pressure of having to like be there and like direct in many ways to have someone who's a professional taking charge yeah these other professionals.
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think, ah you know, never say never. One day if Audible said to me, would you like to sit in and, you know, not direct, but you know what mean, give an opinion on the day. Like that would be exciting. But at the same time, i just, yeah when i yeah, I don't need to. I just feel like, I think as well when when I'm writing, I suppose one thing maybe I do is I am.
00:25:41
Speaker
I will make clear within the script sometimes like with italics or whatever, like just where certain inflections are, but it's always really well picked up on by them anyway. So it's not, it's not overly done, but yeah, it's, it's definitely a surreal experience. Like literally just talking to you now and so like dropping all these names, like it's, it's just like, yeah, what is life? This is just yeah wild. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing.
00:26:06
Speaker
Um, And May, I'm excited to see what incredible um actors you get fit for your next four. I know, me too. Me too. Every time I get a new list, they're like, casting update. I'm like, whoa, here we go. ah Yeah, it's like a it's like fantasy casting, isn't it? Yeah, it really is. I think it's hard because when you as a writer, you always have um an image of...
00:26:29
Speaker
who you'd, you know, in an adaptation, say, you know, you kind of visualize, especially I'm such a, ah when I write, I see everything in my mind. And basically, I'm kind of watching a movie in my head that I write down.
00:26:40
Speaker
So you get quite a strong visual sense of who you want to be the the main character or who they could potentially be. And so when Audible come to me, and literally the names for the narrators are some of the people you've envisioned when you were writing.
00:26:54
Speaker
that's when it's surreal. You're like, oh, hang on a minute. This is, uh, this is all just lining up really, really perfectly. Yeah. Amazing. Um, we're at the point in the episode where I, ah ship you off and strand you and ask Leanne, if you were stranded on a desert island with a single book, which book do you hope that it would be?
00:27:16
Speaker
I, right, i so I knew you were going to ask me this question because obviously I'm i'm a big listener of the podcast. i I've been thinking about this for ages and was like, what am I going to go going to go But I have decided I'm going to go with The Simple World by K.A. Tucker, which is a romance novel I read a few years ago about a girl who goes to Alaska ah to meet her estranged father and Spoiler alert, she falls in love with a um pilot out there.
00:27:41
Speaker
And the reason I'm going to pick this one because I love this book. It really it's so romantic. It's it will take you through every single emotion possible. But also it's set in a really cold place. So if I'm on a desert island, it will be the perfect novel to transport me somewhere colder because I am very fair skinned and I get very bad heat rash.
00:28:04
Speaker
So I'm like, you know what, if we want a novel to take us somewhere else, let's let let me take it, go somewhere cold. That would be my that would be my answer. Okay, that's a fun choice.
00:28:16
Speaker
um I think clever as well with the heat thing. Yeah, well, that's what I come to books for is just because I want to be somewhere else or I want to experience something new. And yeah, that's definitely a novel that all...
00:28:30
Speaker
bring me, bring me joy, but also might make me feel a little bit chillier, even if it's just in my mind. Yeah, that's a good one. It's funny. Cause I've thought desert island is obviously just, um, desert island discs.
00:28:44
Speaker
And I've always thought like, I wonder if people would give different answers if I just suddenly changed it And I was like, you're stranded in the Arctic with a single book. Yeah. taste Yeah. A book that I hate so I can set it on fire.
00:28:58
Speaker
joke. create some more that's nice um
Conclusion & Patreon Promotion
00:29:03
Speaker
so next up we are going to chat about um a bit more of the the publishing experience um go a bit deeper on that talk about how leanne found her agent and the the initial deal with audible and things like that that will all be an extended episode available at patreon.com forward slash right and wrong um you'll probably have to stay pretty tight lipped about everything until it gets to the end of the run but yeah that's always the fun part trying not to say anything that you're not supposed to say yes yeah exactly um well thank you so much uh leanne that brings us to the interview it's been so fun chatting with you and hearing all about your your amazing uh writing and publishing journey
00:29:48
Speaker
Thank you for having me. As I said, I've been listening to this podcast for such a long time. So yeah, it's been such a great tool for me figuring out the crazy world of publishing and writing. So yeah, I'm so excited to be here.
00:29:59
Speaker
So excited. Thank you. For everyone listening, The Return of Ruby Darling and all of Leanne's other ah works with Audible are available online. You can go and get them at audible.com or on the app, I presume.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. You can keep up with what Leanne is doing on Instagram and TikTok at Leanne Slade Author, or you can head over to her website, leanneslade.com.
00:30:24
Speaker
To support the podcast, like, follow and subscribe. Join the Patreon for ad-free extended episodes and check out my other podcast, The Chosen Ones and Other Tropes. Thanks again to Leanne and thanks to everyone listening. We will catch you on the next episode.
00:30:37
Speaker
Shout out time. One of my amazing patrons, Lee Foxton, is querying their debut novel. It's a family drama, commercial fiction, along the lines of Jojo Moyes and David Nichols.
00:30:48
Speaker
Fingers crossed, I am rooting for you. Good luck.