Lisa Scottoline, ETERNAL

[1:46]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zippy Owens, and you're listening to the award winning podcast, moms don't have time to read books. I'm also the host of Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight, and I'm the editor of the anthology, which you should run out and buy, called Moms Don't Have Time to A Quarantine Anthology. All proceeds of that book go to COVID nineteen vaccine research. And I'm the editor in chief of Moms Don't Have Time to Write a New Publication on Medium, and we're accepting submissions, so please send your personal essays there. And if all that isn't enough, you can follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens, and my website is zibbyowens.com. Okay, now back to this amazing podcast. Welcome to another day of my June Book Blast. This is Historical Fiction Sunday. Listen to these amazing episodes of authors who have taken history and imagined what if it had happened this way or with these characters. Please enjoy. Lisa Scatalini is the number one bestselling and Edgar award winning author of 33 novels. Her most recent novel, which we're talking about today, is Eternal. She has over 30,000,000 copies of her books in print in The United States and has been published in 35 countries. Scotalini also writes a weekly column with her daughter Francesca Serratella for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the series has been adapted into a series of memoirs. She has served as president of the mystery writers of America and has taught a course she developed called justice and fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, her alma mater. She lives in the Philadelphia area. I'm

[3:18]Lisa Scottoline: so excited to meet I'm so excited to meet you. Oh my god. Oh, you are just so great. I'm a fan. I'm just so amazed by what you're doing, and I'm so happy for what you're doing. I am. I I don't wanna get all, are we we're already on? I won't use this. But Oh, you can use you can totally use it. Okay. But as a person of a certain age, to see what you're doing for women of your generation, which is what everything I would want for them and empowering them and just being so real and honest and the stuff that you explore with them. I'm just thrilled to meet you, honestly. I'm thrilled to be on it. I really am. Maybe I'll maybe I'll use it. Should use it. You absolutely should use it because I must tell you that I think it's unique. I think it's absolutely unique because it's so personal to you and it's so real and you've lived a life. And you're opening up to people to say, just say you don't have time. It's okay not to have time. It's okay not to do everything. And though we kind of say that, not everybody is so open about it. So I'm just saying. Aw. Well, gosh. I I have to say, I was just I so

[4:20]Zibby Owens: have, like, so much respect for you and all of this stuff, the funny, the deep mean, you're, like, all over the it's amazing what you've produced. And then when I went on your website last night to just, like, make sure I wasn't missing anything or whatever, I was like, oh, look. She has, like, Zippy Owens, like, GMA, whatever. And I was like, that's my name on her website. It was so cool.

[4:39]Lisa Scottoline: I was so excited when we got that. My daughter Francesca is also an author. We're my co author too. And she's like I said, honey, Zippy. She's like, Mary. Oh my god. You're kidding. This is like tickling me so much. Oh my gosh. Had to hang up. She like, tell me what she's like if she's really like that. We know she's gonna be really like that. Oh my gosh. I should have your daughter on too for You absolutely should. I have so many of your other books. I have the guilt trip. I I was trying to find it in time for this so I could show it to you, but of course. Oh, that's alright. But it's here somewhere. I know. Have your look. There you are. I displayed the one you sent me, but I had the other one and two others and a half, but I can't find them before. Oh gosh. But at least I got my roots done for our big zippy podcast. Oh, I obviously did not. So, you know, whatever. But you're awesome and gorgeous. But I just wanna say straight out, God bless you, honestly. Congratulations. You are doing something that's much more important than books and all that. Even these subjects, you are just, you're standing for something, which is an authentic American woman, and I think it's great. I'm literally about to cry. This is so nice. You should because honestly, I'm about to cry. I just am so happy. You can't even imagine what it's be I'm 65. So to have struggled so much with so much crap in the lot in the world, there's sexism, there's all this stuff. And to see finally that there's people like you stepping into this role and just taking it by the horns, it's it's gratifying. It really is. On a very personal level, you must understand you're carrying a mantle. You really are, dear. Thank you. Now I'm crying. Thank you. Oh my gosh. I'm so moved. Because now I talk to my daughter. It's now you know. It's so so nice. Yeah. Well, it's really true. Women have to help each other, and sisterhood truly is powerful. And we thought that a long time ago, and it's really true. Wow.

[6:27]Zibby Owens: Well What a nice Sorry, honey. Start. Thank you. I wish I could give you a huge hug. I know. Did. Feel like that.

[6:35]Lisa Scottoline: Well, please tell me if you're ever in New York or whatever, and we can meet in Well, I'm out there all the time. My daughter lives up there, and I have to visit her, but you're too sweet to go. And if you're ever in my neck at the Next time you're in town, let's all have coffee or something. Okay? We will. I'll give you a big hug and tell you how great you are because I mean it.

[6:51]Zibby Owens: Actually, this this dovetails nicely with like my one of my favorite parts of your book, which is which shows this one little quote. And okay. So this is when they're in the cafe. Elisabetta is there, and her dad is about to come in. But she's anyway, and she's meeting with the editor. She hopes will buy her first piece. And she goes, I admire your writing very much. I read you every day, and your article yesterday was especially interesting. She remembered Nona's advice not to talk too much. I'm sorry. I talk a lot. I know. It's just that I have so many thoughts. You can never go wrong praising a writer for his writing, Guleshie blinked with amusement behind his glasses. But everyone must praise you all the time. Not enough for my satisfaction or with sufficient satisfaction. Hilarious. That's so funny.

[7:35]Lisa Scottoline: That's how I feel. Well, and the funny thing is I also feel like her. You know, I don't write with an outline. The eternal isn't a bigger scope for me. But, ultimately, it's a story of a woman. And I live alone. I'm divorced twice, and I feel that sometimes I'm writing every woman or part of me too just as you are. And when I when I came to that, I thought, what is her issue? And a little bit her issue is she's we say talkative, but that's kind of sexist, really. What it is is, well, you're a woman in full. You have thoughts and beliefs and opinions. And in a society nineteen thirties room that doesn't necessarily plumb them or 2020 US, you know, you're labeled as talkative, but she feels that. She has she's a talkative girl with no one to talk to. And the writer is the counterpart of that. She wants to be that a way she already is that. And isn't that a great message? I mean, that's just so kind of true. So let me just back up because I know we started this episode in such a personal place. But okay. Lisa, your book, Eternal

[8:39]Zibby Owens: is an amazing historical fiction historical novel based in Rome. And by the way, I went to Rome when I was in seventh grade. And I asked my mother this morning if she could dig up some pictures of when we went to the synagogues there because I wanted to see if I could show you. So she has a couple of pictures, but they aren't very good. I'll email them to you after because Oh, now put show on. This is gonna be on video. Right? At least show. They're only on my phone now because I didn't have time to get it. Well, I went to my mom's house, and she was out with her dog. Anyway, whatever. But, anyway, here's I don't know if you can even see these. Oh, I see. I see. I see. I think that's my mother upside down. Maybe this whole picture is upside down. That's It's probably my mom's feet. And then I don't know if you can see these. This is, like, not the best. Yes. I can. Anyway, this is them in the square

[9:29]Lisa Scottoline: forever ago. Anyway, I don't know. That's in the ghetto. That's in the Jewish ghetto. So Exactly. There we were. Well, that's what's so amazing because I went there I've been to Rome several times, but I went there I'm lucky enough to be published. I have, like, 33 novels, so I've been published in Italy. And my Italian editor said, oh, let's go to the Jewish quarter. We'll have the artichokes. And I'm like, you know, Because I knew the history, and I knew it from college because of this course I'd taken with Philip Roth. So I knew about the Holocaust in Italy, and I just was like, this is hallowed ground. Why is there no it was a war crime. Why is there no now now there's a little more there's a small museum there, but there wasn't then. And I still think it's not well known enough as a story, and it was was killing me for forty years as I'm writing, you know, women's fiction and thrillers and domestic drama. And I'm like, someday when you feel like you get the chops, you're gonna write about that. And the long story short is that's how women feel all the time, I think. I'm not ready. I I don't I'm not practiced enough. Whereas men throw themselves right in. So I was like, Lisa, get out of your own way, even at your age, and just write it. And that book is eternal. It's the best reviews of my career. The sales are amazing. And I I couldn't be I couldn't be more

[10:41]Zibby Owens: happy, lucky, blessed, all of I'm the so happy for you, but it's totally you know, you deserve all the praise. This book is great. No, seriously. It's so Thank you. Cinematic. It's so like you can you can see every scene. They're short. Like you keep everybody's interest because you're just like dipping in and out of like little scenes and then you go and you immediately create the character. And I was trying to analyze, was like, what is it that she's doing that creates these characters so quickly? And I was like, is it that she's describing all their noses? Like, because you always are describing people's lips and noses. Is that what it is? Like, I I was like, trying to, like, take it apart. Like, how am I how do I have such a clear vision immediately of all these characters, like, as soon as you do it? Do you know how you even do that? Kind of you to say. I will tell you the secret because I love that there's so many writers and people who wanna write listening to your podcast. The secret is, as Hemingway says, write drunk, edit so well.

[11:39]Lisa Scottoline: So, obviously, I don't write drunk. But when you are gonna write, you have to spill it all out and you have to get it all down. But when you edit, you're really distilling it. I'm so glad your dog goes on the furniture because I have four dogs and they all go on the furniture. And I I knew that you would be a dog on the furniture person. So you what you're really doing is distilling it. And especially for a novel like this because it's historical fiction, but it still has to be a personal story of a woman. And it's a love triangle set in fascist Italy. So we're gonna talk about, like, when she gets her first bra. Like, we're gonna really, and we're only gonna put in what is by the time you edit, you're only gonna leave in what will tell the reader something every time. This course I took with Roth was so amazing. It was like boot camp for writing a novel, although it wasn't a creative writing course. It was a reading course. And he said, everything has to justify itself. And so I think of that. You know, does this chapter justify itself? If it doesn't, out it goes. I read you said somewhere that it was over a thousand pages and you, like, couldn't bear it apart with any of the words. Which believe me, I never feel like that. I'm the most ragingly insecure person on the planet. But I finished this as a thousand page manuscript, which I've never done, which is a little bit unheard of, even I know. And my editor calls me up at 09:30 at night, which they never do. And he's like, this book should begin on page three seventy. And I was like, oh, damn. He is absolutely right. And I don't always take direction well. You know? So I and then I just that night, tore the whole book apart, redid it. I love that it's an immersive read, though. I I don't think it's super long. It's not that long. But it's you've gotta tell twenty years of a story, and it starts out with love and romance and pasta. And that's there for a reason too, because you have to feel what the characters feel as they undergo. You know, it's really about law and justice and the effect of injustice on people. And so I wanted to make it a really you have to personalize that story. It can't be like a a history book, even though the history alone is dramatic. So much in this book is based on this real true life event that occurred in October 1943 in the ghetto of Rome. But what I really wanted to do is dramatize the course of conduct because we know a lot about Nazism, but we don't know enough about fascism. And Mussolini invented it. And when you see what it did to the Jews of Rome and to the country writ large, it's horrifying. I was surprised, and you did such a nice job of explaining

[14:00]Zibby Owens: the Jews who were also fascists and how that was a whole thing then. And I felt like there were so many similarities at most to today in different ways. Like even just like the antisemitism alone, like this is such a timely time that we're even discussing this book. But how you laid out the different groups and, you know, you weren't didactic about it in any way. It was just like, here's this, you know, oh, yes, these people are fascists. And even like within a family, how people could change. And then of course, you like sprinkle in this like really hot guy, right? Like, I'm like, I have a crush on a boy in a book, like, named Marco, who's probably, like he's, like, 16 years old or something. Like, what is wrong with me? But, like, you made him seem so attractive.

[14:45]Lisa Scottoline: Well, I'm extremely lonely and celibate and it's really fun to sort of that's the great thing about writing as it is about reading. We're engaged in this compact of imagination. Oh, I just thought of that. It's kind of true though, isn't it? So we both can imagine Marco together and he's sexy and he's cool and he's just magnetic, but he's got this secret, you know? And there's Sandro who honestly, he speaks so much to what was a close second. He was a close second. No. I know everybody's either team Marco or team Sandro, but it's really fun to just imagine because also you want to write what does love do for us. What is love? What does it do? This is a book about not only romantic love, but the love between friends. Marco and Sandro are great friends. Their families are friends. There's love of country. There's love of God. And and how does love heal? And how does love like, if you know, we wrote the tagline, the, you know, the idea that, you know, what war destroys, only love can heal. And and you're absolutely right. Regardless of your political view, there is no doubt that fascism is rising around the world, and antisemitism is rising at the same time, and these things are linked. And what you do is you tell a story that's about history, and you allow people to extrapolate whatever they will. Because I've heard from both sides of the political spectrum, both of them love this book.

[16:08]Zibby Owens: And that's exactly what should happen. And even your main character, Elizabeth, who was like, she's so vibrant. Like, again, I know I keep talking about these characters. It just when you read books, you're not always meeting characters who you feel like could be on the pages of Us Weekly or something. Do you know what mean? Which I feel like your characters could I feel like they should be photographed on the street. And obviously I'm just talking about the weekend, it's nice. It's almost escapist to feel like, Oh, what's it like being a gorgeous Italian woman being pursued by two men and then like getting to like decide like what type of pasta, like that's the game of the day is like what type of pasta will my boss make? Like what kind of life is this? This is amazing.

[16:55]Lisa Scottoline: It's so great. And that's what I sort of was my test was. Maybe I think because this is my first work of historical fiction, I think it's good that I was kind of a rook because I think it's really important that you not that you that's kind of what I was saying about what you do. Shed all of the expectations and the fear and the insecurity about the way it should be done. Just sit down and do it. Because what really struck me was the pandemic. That's why I love as you see your little display But there, have you up it's so interesting because the essays, you know, in that book, Moms Don't Have Time To, the quarantine anthology. We have gone through something, and we are going through something. And I know you've been touched by by COVID personally, as have I. And what is really interesting and instructive about that for people, all of us, is that last March, we didn't realize we were entering a historical period. Right? We were just living our life and it was March. And I had plans in April, and my daughter's book was out in March, and she was gonna go on her first book tour. And then bit by bit, we go, oh, there's not gonna be this, and now people are getting sick, and then I know people get it. And what I that's I brought that perspective to eternal. Because I said, these young people were just young people. They were hot. They were sexy. They wanted to kiss. They wanted to wear bras. They wanted to become something. She wants to become something. She doesn't really she thinks she wanna be a journalist. She chooses the exact wrong time because Mussolini only allows censorship. But they were entering the most devastating period of history, global history, that man would ever know. But they didn't know that. They just lived a life that I did today. And that is really interesting considering that we just entered the most devastate you know, in recent history, this pandemic has taken so many lives and affected world economies. You don't need me to tell you But my what what I took from it was that you don't know you're part of history. And then what's happened is you are all part of history. And not only that, you're part of your your culture's history, you're part of your religious history, and above all, you're part of your family's history. Right? Elizabeth carries with her the scars of her family. Marco is buoyed up by his family. Sandra is very connected to his family. So you have to make it real, and it kinda and it kinda helps to try to be aware when you're living your life in its darkest moments and its brightest. That's also what I love about what you do. You don't sugarcoat. There will be divorce. There will be hardship. There will be financial ups and downs. Kids will get sick. You will have to be torn in lots of different places. You will handle all of it. Elizabeth just says at the at the end of the book, she feels bad in the beginning because she her she realized her family is low class. And it just came to me as I was writing it. She says to herself, after the war, there was only one class of people, and that was survivors. I think that's what women do best. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

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[22:48]Zibby Owens: That's beautiful. Thank you. I know because I read all your background blah blah blah that Philip Roth was your teacher and I read all about your class and how Primo Levi and how you've been thinking about doing this for so long and, you know, this is your magnum opus and everything. I also Thank I just wanna hear a little bit about the rest of your career. You've written so many books and you go in so many genres and I love all your humorous essays and all those essay books and working with your daughter. Like how do you create so much content and keep innovating so that we end up here with Eternal? Like what what is it that every day you wake up and think to yourself or say to yourself or like, how did it start and how do you just keep this machine going?

[23:31]Lisa Scottoline: Well, you're so kind to say that, and thank you. And I think that's the commonality we have. I mean, part of it is that long story short is I was divorced the first time when my daughter was born. So it really became necessity with the mother of invention. I just said, well, I had been a lawyer, and I love law and justice and all that stuff, a trial lawyer, but I said, you've gotta you've gotta I wanted to stay home with her. I just kinda love being with her. And so I'm a single mother when my daughter's age zero with no money. And I said, why don't you try to be a writer? And there's five years of rejection, you know, favorite rejection letter, I'll never forget, New York. And I say it because I want people to hear it because we we fail. And it they said, we don't have time to take any more clients. And if we did, we wouldn't take you. I see that guy from time to time at parties. I'm like, hi. I don't have time to talk to you right now. I'm not above that, busy. So but I think it's really important because and I think so much of what you do is about that, that we just persevere. You fail. You fail. You know, the good thing about failing is it means you're taking risk. So that's what I started to think as I got older. I said, don't be so afraid. You're writing thrillers. You're writing mysteries. Then you're writing stories that have a woman protagonist because I'm trying to write mostly women's voices, honestly. And I'd like the books to move fast, and other people categorize them, but I don't. I think they're just stories about families and love. That's what I think. And so my only thing I say to myself is be not afraid. And I still have to say that. And I hope that other women hear that because look at you. You've done all those things. I'm amazed by how much you can produce and how and how authentic and important it all is. Because that's the key, the quality, and it's all there. And I wanna say to people, right, we're very lucky, but we're just ordinary women, and anybody can do it. I really encourage people to write. You don't have to have gone to a master's program. You don't have to have done anything. You just have to live your life, read a lot of books, and give yourself the time and the permission to devote to something you really want. I'm so full of advice in this regard. I never shut up. No. I think it's great.

[25:33]Zibby Owens: I did not even get into an MFA program, have to say. So, you know Well, they're locked, girl. There there we go. That's

[25:39]Lisa Scottoline: the truth. That is the truth. Oh my gosh. Yeah. They're gonna come to you soon. Zippy, would you mind giving a lecture? You should say, I don't have time to and I wouldn't make time for you.

[25:48]Zibby Owens: I'll just I'll say, Lisa Scattellini says that this is this is my line now. I'm gonna come back with this. Tell me about writing with your daughter. That's so nice. I wonder if I could ever if I'll ever be doing that. I mean, that's just such goal. Tell me how that started and what that's Well,

[26:06]Lisa Scottoline: you know, when you're a single mom of one, it's amazing. And I didn't she she just is talented in a lot of things and smart. And we're best friends. And she's 35 now, but we are super tight. And at some point, I started writing a column, a woman's column a column about my life for the Philadelphia Inquirer, which was collected into these books. The first one was called Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog. So you know where I'm coming from. Right? And it's not man bashing, it's dog loving. And then my daughter people started saying, you talk about your daughter, does she ever like, do you ever shut up? Let her talk. So then she started to write, and she was an English major at Harvard, and she started writing. And, like, she says, we don't write together per se, which is I think what we do is what every mother does for every daughter and every son, which is step back, love your kid up, and let them find their own voice. So it's really been wonderful for me to see that my amazing daughter, Francesca, has wrote she said to me about eight year ten years ago, I guess, I wanna write a novel. I'm like, go for it. You can do it, honey. Be not afraid. And she produced Ghosts of Harvard, which was just last month nominated for best first novel. Oh my goodness. It's a terrific book. It's coming out in paperback in a in a month. And I'm just but you know what? I'll tell you the story my dad said. He went to my signing, and someone said, you must be so proud of your daughter. And he said, lady, I was proud of her the day she came out of the egg. Aw. I know. I love my I my parents were the best. I mean, anything I did was golden. I I could fart, and they would applaud. It was a me it was a great way to grow. And I I hope I raised her that way. You know, that she I love her. It's unconditional. And I think when people feel loved and nurtured and encouraged to find what they want in their path, they're happier. And that's all any mother wants for any child, isn't it? I mean, you've got four. You know? Yes. That would yeah. Right. That's all you can Are we crying yet? I mean, seriously, this is like This is how I am. It's so sad. No. It's it's oh my gosh. It's it's But it's great also to have someone so open to talk to, really. It really is. That's so much that's so great. Oh my gosh. Okay. So you write with your daughter. You still write this column, right, every week for Right. Been doing it for twelve years, And it's just a woman's life. I try to make it funny. It's I post it on my Facebook page. They can buy them in books. But I really just want to get a life out there. And I think the point is part of it that you counteracting that aloneness, especially when you're me. You know, we're I'm a single mom with one daughter. Like, she said, I got nominated for best first novel. I said, you were always best first daughter. Like, you are. We we always felt a little odd. And then you as a family, because it's not Norman Rockwell, there's not a big table. There's not a husband and a wife. You know? And as a divorced parent, I was felt bad that I didn't give her that. Until at some point I said, you know what? Not everybody has the, quote, conventional family. It's more and more true, but I'm still surprised that there's backlash against it. So there's two dads and there's two moms and there's whatever there is just so there's love. And I forget the question, but I'm sure the answer is love. Great. Wait. So you were divorced when your daughter was born. And then what happened? What was your second divorce all about? What happened? And then I remarried, and I was a stepmother of three, two of whom lived here, one was in school. And then after that divorce, I was not a stepmother anymore. And so you start to really learn, and I wrote about that in a novel. I mean, you the all of my novels have emotional truth, and they all as you know, you have to really plump something whether it's literally true or emotionally true. I always think of it with the humor columns by saying, if it doesn't make us cringe Francesca and I say this to each other. If it doesn't make me cringe, it won't make you laugh. So it has to be real true. It has to be finding out that you have you know, see your first great chin hair and realize that you're turning into an Amish man. Like, no one tells you that. Like, I pluck for a podcast. I pluck for you, Zippy, just in case you could see. No. Okay. I may Thank you for laughing. I don't wanna tell you that. I'm a little embarrassed about that. And that's what's true in the novel as well. I have to open up. I just have to go, wow. Open your heart up. Because that's what I love about your collections. And I think people hear it in your podcast. I must tell you that I think truth has a ring. There was a ring of authenticity. I knew it as a trial lawyer. I know it now. You can hear it right now. I believe what I'm saying. Right? I hear when you believe what you're saying. I hear that you do believe what you're saying. And as long as you do that, you can do that in print too. So you have to say, I plugged my chin for a podcast, and people go, that sounds true. And that's the connection. That's what a book does. And whether that's nonfiction or fiction, when somebody says something true in public, in the written word, orally, anyway, it resonates soul to soul. And that's what's so wonderful, honestly, about books and us talking to each other. It's just a remarkable, wonderful human connection. There's nothing more important.

[31:16]Zibby Owens: Wait. And tell me about your

[31:18]Lisa Scottoline: experience being affected personally by COVID. Well, I think it's just if you have a heart at all, it's horrifying and isolating. And I know peep close family members fell ill and survived, but have long haul symptoms. And also there's all the emotional stuff that's a little codependency stuff like, I wanna wear a mask, but they don't want me to wear a mask. The cool kids don't wanna wear a mask. All of this mishigoth that is so unnecessary. And so I think there's extra layers. And we I don't wanna keep saying we women, but I do think we're so attuned to everyone's health and welfare and emotional needs and physical needs that I think moms at home, I don't have to teach a kid physics. Thank God.

[31:59]Zibby Owens: But Literally, my daughter had her final today in science and it was all like, the nucleus and the this and the cell and whatever. And I was like, I can barely do this. This is my least favorite class the first time around. I cannot even help you. Like, I, like, I can't believe it. Like, I'm gonna hinder you in your ability to eat this test. Totally.

[32:18]Lisa Scottoline: I totally get that. It was my daughter Francesca at home with me because I said, please come home. I'm a little worried. And we needed each other. We had to help each other. She's on her first book tour. You know, we're figuring out the zoom. I do it. She drew my eyelashes in. I had to do it myself this morning since she went back to New York. So, you know, oh, did you know you have to drew eye eyebrows on for your zoom? Yeah, you do. So we all help each other and we muddle through and it's love in action truly. It really is. So the pandemic touches us all in horrific ways and in ways that remind us how much we need and love each other,

[32:53]Zibby Owens: I think. Wow. Okay. Having finished yet another triumph, right, which is fantastic. And by the way, I will have you know, I emailed my when I emailed my mother for the pictures, I said, you're gonna love this book, by the way, because we don't always agree with our books. But I know, like, when she's gonna love something that I've also loved. And I gave her last year a subscription to Page One Books where they pick books they think that you'll like and then that you give feedback and whatever. Anyway, said, you have to get this book. And she said, already got I just got sent it by Page One Books as her book of the month. I know. I was like, oh, So nice. Yeah. So the bookstore knows my mom as well as I do. But anyway. I think well, that's your mom.

[33:32]Lisa Scottoline: Love your mom. I love your mom. Tell your mom I love her. Well, that's good. There's the generations in this novel too. I mean, I have a crush on Marco and Sandra, but I also have a crush on Bebe and a little bit Massimo, the dads. Yes. So that's really weird. I've lost my damn mind, honestly. Yeah. We have to go to the bicycle bar and, like, hang out and Right. I'm watching the Giro d'Italia like a freak. Okay.

[33:54]Zibby Owens: Do you have any well, wait. First, what are you working on now? And then what advice do you have for aspiring authors?

[34:00]Lisa Scottoline: I am just finishing the next domestic thriller. It is due Memorial Day, but I have I have one more chapter to write. I have the big emotional I love emotionality in novels. I don't care what the genre is. I never cop to any of that. Look at me. I'm a big I'm a big cupcake. I wake up. I'm all mushy. I got the dogs. I got cats. I got chickens. I kiss horses. I don't know what to tell you. I can't so I love when there's heart in things. So I'm finishing the next thriller. What was the other question? And then I'm gonna write historical fiction again. I'm so excited about this next idea because I think, look, here's the thing. At my age, I wanted to find a new gear. I wanted to write on a bigger canvas. And that's what I'm trying to do. And still write the thrillers because I think they matter so much. They're just a a really, really intimate story that's a narrower focus and some have a bigger focus. Some will go deep, some will go across, and that's the great joy and the blessing of my life, honestly. Look at all these books, by the way, all from independent bookstores and all signed. This is my signed collection. You should see my dining room. Oh my gosh. I know. So I I live a life in books, and I I know how lucky I am. Wait. What is your next what's your next topic for historical fiction? Can you say? You know what? I can't because I haven't even told my editor yet. Okay. I think I should really like try to Even though I love you, Zibby, I can't get fired at this point. No, no. Don't let me get you fired. That's hilarious. Okay. Well, I'll be staying tuned when you announce it or whatever. Okay. Advice to aspiring authors. Okay. Here I'm gonna say, I have so much of it, but here's the headline. Just do it. Just sit down and write. Don't judge it. Phil Ross said, it's not for you to judge it. Get out of your own way and write it. And I also wanna say this. I always visualize it as kind of protecting your candle. Your writing, your wish to be a writer, your wish to write something is a little candle. You have to cover it with your hand just like people do. I always think they call Kinmen running around the house and the others, you know, in these drafty houses. The candle is your wish. You know, we say to seven year olds, what do you wanna be? They say a fireman. We don't ask them when they're 30. We don't ask them when they're 40 or 50 or 60 or 70. You're allowed to want to do something new. And that's what I said to myself with eternal, even at my age, with supposedly some credentials behind me, but it was a leap. And I guess I just wanna say to people to take that leap and just give it a shot. I love it. Lisa, thank you. Thank you.

[36:25]Zibby Owens: Oh my god. You're the coolest. Thank you. I hope I didn't get one at all. Making me feel so good. And thank you for this beautiful novel and all of your work and for making me laugh and all of the funny books I have of yours. And oh my gosh. It's just such a joy. So You're very sweet, and I can't wait to tell Francesca. And thank you so much for all that you're doing for all of us of all ages,

[36:47]Lisa Scottoline: all women. There there's really no greater purpose, so thank you for that. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye.

[36:54]Zibby Owens: Thanks for listening to part of my June Book Blast. I hope you enjoy it. Come back tomorrow for more. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens and at moms don't have time to read books. Also, sign up for my newsletter at zibbyowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the sound editing, and thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.