Colleen Hoover, REMINDERS OF HIM: A Novel
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[2:04]Colleen Hoover is the author of Reminders of Him, a novel.
[2:08]In case you haven't heard of her, even though lately she's been all over the place with many, many, many New York Times bestsellers on the list.
[2:15]At the same time, Colleen Hoover is the number one New York Times best-selling author of many novels, including regretting you.
[2:21]It ends with us and the psychological thriller, Verity.
[2:24]Apparently her books have really taken off because of the book talk adoption of her work and that has really spurred the backless sales as well.
[2:33]Hoover and her family founded the Bookworm box in 2015, a bookstore and monthly subscription service that offers signed novels donated by authors.
[2:42]All profits go to various charities each month to help those in need.
[2:45]Her novel Confess was filmed as a series by Austruck and was released in 2017.
[2:50]In July 2019, Wayfair Entertainment, headed by Jane the Virgin star Justin Baldoni, announced that they optioned it ends with us for film.
[2:58]Colleen lives in Texas with her husband and their three boys.
[3:01]I could not put this book down by the way.
[3:04]Welcome, Colleen.
[3:05]Thank you so much for coming on Mobs Don't Have Time to Read Bex to discuss reminders of him.
[3:09]Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
[3:12]I absolutely love this book.
[3:14]I read it over the Christmas holidays and it was so immersive and amazing and emotional and just I can't wait to see what happened.
[3:24]Okay, Colleen, tell visitors what this book is about and what inspired you to write it.
[3:30]Reminders of him is about a woman named Kenna and she has kind of had a really difficult past a lot of people or support in her life.
[3:39]And she made a mistake and while she was paying for that mistake in prison, you know, other family members, not her family members, but they were raising her daughter and when she gets out, she wants to reconnect with that child and it's not as easy as she was hoping it would be.
[3:56]And, you know, the book is sort of about her journey there and I honestly don't remember what inspired it in 2020 was such a year that I kind of feel like I wrote this book from the emotions of 2020.
[4:13]It's a sad book. It's not, you know, very humorous at all. It is definitely kind of a dark journey to get to the happy ending.
[4:21]Well, I have to say the physical relationship between Kenna, well, can I even say this, does this give anything away.
[4:29]There is one physical relationship.
[4:31]I think there's a lot of spoilers in this book, you know, there's not really any twist.
[4:36]Okay.
[4:37]Well, her relationship with Ledger, which starts early is so sort of hot and heavy and just the way you write about that sort of the physical emotions and so, you know, all of it.
[4:50]I think about writing about all of that like, like, do you get embarrassed. Do you like, what does that feel like like tell me like how do you create that sense of tension on the page.
[5:01]I really don't enjoy writing the hot and heavy scenes.
[5:06]They're probably the scenes that I go over the least as I edit.
[5:10]I like, you know, the connection between characters, but the actual act itself is my least favorite part to write.
[5:18]But with Ledger and Kenna, you know, one of them to me without knowledge of, you know, their past or anything that's going on so they can form that connection without the judgments.
[5:29]And I think that helped create the angst throughout the book.
[5:32]And that way you did that so well, you also handled loss so beautifully. Right. And everybody is coming at this loss from a different perspective. Right.
[5:40]Kind of morning the person she would have been in love with at the time and the parents and the family friends and everybody like loss affects everybody in so many ways. Right.
[5:52]Like, was there a place that that you tapped into for yourself to go through that all of that pain, especially from such a traumatic loss.
[6:01]You know, not a very emotional person and surprisingly, not going to wood.
[6:05]I haven't lost a lot of people that I'm close to in this life. So when I do write about those things, I kind of have to invent those feelings.
[6:13]And I think what kind of helps me write such emotional scenes and past are is the fact that I'm not so much of an emotional person. So I have to push really hard until I feel it myself.
[6:28]And I kind of think that takes my books to a little bit of a darker place and then I probably would otherwise.
[6:36]Do you have the home that ledger was renovating? Do you have an actual home? Like, could we see what that place is looking like because I'm still like, I need to do that.
[6:49]I need to do that. I have, you know, like an idea of it, but I don't Pinterest a whole lot, but I see authors Pinterest the places that are in their books and the people.
[7:00]My issue is that when I write people and sometimes locations it's more of a blur like I'm not so into the physical descriptions of anything as I am what's going on between the characters.
[7:14]So yeah, I would have to really sit down and do that. That sounds like a good idea.
[7:19]In case you didn't have enough to do this afternoon, you know, you can add this. You can add this to the list. So you've written 22 novels and right now you have like what five New York Times bestsellers or something on the.
[7:32]I haven't checked to this week, but every week there's like more and more bestsellers and you've also benefited from this sort of resurgence on book talk and all of that. What has that been like for you?
[7:44]I feel like my husband and I wake up every day and we're like, is this really happening? Like why? Why? Yeah, it's been insane, you know, because I feel like when these books released the ones that are on the New York Times right now, you know, it's been years.
[8:00]And so I feel like I've already celebrated them. They hit the New York Times when they released. I thought that was as good as it was going to get.
[8:07]that. And so to have this resurgence is just mind blowing and very surreal.
[8:13]Wow. Do you feel any more pressure like or to come up with new ideas or like does it does it affect you when you sit down and like open a new word doc or whatever you do to write your next.
[8:24]Not so much the recent stuff because I'm already affected years, you know, it's been I've been writing books for 10 years and it's never easy every single time I sit down to write a book.
[8:35]I feel like I'm not going to be able to finish it. I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel like I forgot how to write books. So I don't know that any pressure has been added because that pressure has always been there.
[8:46]Wow. So what will it take to get you to have the confidence that like you have this thing down.
[8:55]Retirement.
[8:57]I don't know. I don't know that I want to have that confidence. I feel like, you know, just having that imposter syndrome and second guessing myself. I've realized is part of my writing process.
[9:08]And that's what pushes me to try to do my best. So I'm okay with it. Now I've accepted it. It's always going to be this way. And you know it's just part of the process.
[9:20]And what is it like when you sit down to write like when you think of a new idea or you decide you're ready for the next one. Like, you know, is this your desk that I'm looking at now, like is this where you sit right or like what does it take me through it visually?
[9:32]I really write anywhere. You know, sometimes I write at home in bed. Sometimes I write here. Sometimes I put my headphones on and write at the kitchen table.
[9:40]It really just depends on where I'm at when creativity strikes. I cannot keep a schedule for anything like I and I can't schedule myself to sit down and write so many words a day.
[9:52]It's just very chaotic to say the least, like I could write 16 hours a day for.
[10:00]One to two weeks straight and then not right for three months. I don't I don't have a process.
[10:07]I think that's my process is not having a process. Well, you know, it's hard to it's hard to plan
[10:14]inspiration, right? So right? I totally get it. Are there any projects that you started and you got
[10:21]pretty far along with and you were like no, actually this isn't going to be a book? I actually
[10:26]started about six different things back in 2020 before reminders of him finally stuck and
[10:33]became the book that I wrote. So I have quite a few for the first time ever loose outlines and ideas
[10:40]that I may go back to. That doesn't happen very often. Usually when I start a book, that's the book
[10:46]that I stick with and finish. But I do have some loose ideas. I'm kind of waiting just to see what
[10:51]happens with this release. There's a character in reminders of him. I would like to write a book
[10:56]about. But I kind of want to, you know, just see what the reaction reception is. Which character?
[11:03]Roman. Oh, yeah. Interesting. Well, I feel like you do such a good job of making your characters
[11:11]just completely come to life. And I know that sounds hokey and I'm sure you hear that all the time.
[11:15]But it's a real art to figuring out how to get the essence of a person, right? So like,
[11:20]how do you, or does it all just happen? And you don't really know how. But it's like,
[11:25]because your character seems so real to me and flawed and real and multidimensional. And like,
[11:33]how do you do that? I don't know. Okay. I mean, it's just, I feel like I want to be able to relate
[11:41]to characters that I read about and write about. You know, it's very hard for me to write,
[11:47]like, I love to read about like billionaires and, you know, people that I don't interact with every day.
[11:53]But when I sit down to write, I just never can't go there. And so I tend to write people that
[11:59]you would just run into in everyday life. I don't know. That's just what I enjoy writing. I don't know
[12:04]that there's any kind of process I go through to create the characters. And how much like do you do
[12:10]any research? I know, for instance, like working at, maybe this sounds like a silly question,
[12:15]like working at the supermarket, right? Deep, like for Kenneth's job and the break room and all
[12:22]like just that whole little piece of her life, right? Yeah. I've had a lot of jobs in my life.
[12:30]I do pull from things that I've done, but not always. And it really depends on the subject,
[12:36]whether or not I put a lot of research into it. You know, because I write about normal everyday
[12:41]people, I don't really have to do a lot of research. I know that I did with maybe someday with
[12:46]one of the characters with it ends with us. I just, you know, I had to talk to my mom a lot about
[12:52]Lily's character. And so it really just depends on the book. But with reminders of him, it was,
[12:58]you know, I kind of talked to my little sister about Kenneth's past. My little sister is very
[13:03]into prison reform and has focusing on that, which she was working on her master's degree for
[13:09]nonprofit. And so she helped me a lot in that area. But yeah, it really just depends on the book.
[13:15]Okay. Is this what you thought you would do? Like when you were a little girl, this was what I
[13:21]hoped I would do, but I don't know that I ever thought I would actually make a career out of it.
[13:27]You know, I didn't start writing my first book until I was 31. And that was just a fluke. I was
[13:32]just writing a fun story. Never imagined this in a million years. Never, you know, it was my dream
[13:38]to hopefully someday write or finish a book. But I never even dreamed that I could hit the New York
[13:45]Times. Like that was just so far out there. You know, that that wasn't even on my list of dreams.
[13:50]So it's just insane.
[13:54]Is what opportunity has opened up that you are that you're like, thank God I wrote the books because
[13:59]this happened. Being able to buy groceries without having to make my checking account go negative.
[14:06]Like yeah. So just little things like that, not worrying about how I'm going to pay for my kids
[14:11]college. You know, like our whole lives have just changed in that regard. But career wise or
[14:17]anything. Like I don't know that I want more doors to open up because I am extremely happy with
[14:23]what I do and where I'm at.
[14:25]What are you working on now?
[14:26]I can't really say because I haven't announced it yet. I'm working on a book that I signed with
[14:32]a publisher but refused payment for it because I wasn't sure if I could complete it or
[14:38]or make it exactly what I wanted it to be. So I'm waiting to see if I get there and if I'm happy
[14:42]with it before I announce it or accept payment for it.
[14:48]Okay. That's one way to take off the pressure.
[14:53]Yes. Yes. Well, this one is tricky. Like I it's a book that I have said I wasn't going to
[15:01]write and then I got an idea for it. So I just don't want to get people's hopes up.
[15:05]Okay. Now I'm now my wheels are turning trying to figure out what you're talking about. But
[15:10]that's okay. Have you benefited from the author community? Like how do you feel about being an author?
[15:17]What has that been? Oh my gosh. How have I benefited? I don't think I'd be where I am without
[15:21]the author community. All of my best friends, you know, are authors that I've met in this industry.
[15:28]It's just been so amazing, so supportive in the reader community.
[15:32]Like I just look at the charity we started a few years ago and the things that people have
[15:37]done to help that charity, the donations we've received. It's been incredible.
[15:42]Yeah. Tell me more about that. About the charity? Yeah. Yeah. So my sisters and I have two sisters.
[15:48]We started a charity back in 2015 called the Bookworm Box and it's a subscription box and we also
[15:55]have a brick and mortar store in Silver Springs, Texas where all of the books in the store are
[16:00]signed by the author and donated and all of the money goes to charity. And we also have a book signing
[16:05]every year called Book Bananza. We hosted in Texas every summer. We had to postpone the last two
[16:11]because of COVID, but painters crossed that we'll be able to do it again this year. Wow.
[16:18]That's amazing. Do you what types of charities do you support with? We donated to hundreds. We
[16:25]tried to send out donations every month, but I know with Book Bananza with the income this year,
[16:29]we donated over $100,000 to different food banks across America. And also with Book Bananza,
[16:36]we were able to build a school in Malawi. Wow. Amazing. So like, what do you do and you want to
[16:44]forget your job? I watch TV. I love watching TV. Like, I'm very easy to please movies. Oh my gosh.
[16:52]Me and the boys will just, you know, sit down and try to find something we can all agree on,
[16:58]which is a challenge. But that's probably my favorite past time. I get an inspiration from
[17:05]watching movies. Sometimes I don't even make it through the movie because, you know,
[17:09]like something someone says on the TV will spark an idea. And that idea will spark something
[17:14]else. And over like, I have to go right by and we used to it. Wow. Amazing. What about when
[17:22]you're like super stressed out? Do you get stressed out about deadlines and writing and all that?
[17:26]Or do you, are you more like chill about everything? I'm pretty chill. I'm going to be honest.
[17:32]Like, I'm not too hard on myself. I try to arrange my life and my schedule to where I don't
[17:38]have a lot of deadlines. Luckily, that's been my goal since I started is to never make this feel
[17:45]like a job. Like, I want it to feel like a hobby. And in order for it to feel like a hobby for me,
[17:50]I don't like to owe people things. And so I've gotten to the point where I'm trying to write
[17:56]what I want to write first and then figure out what I want to do with it, whether that's
[17:59]go with the publisher or self-published or, you know, put it on Wattpad for free. I've done that
[18:04]before. Yeah. So it just, it just depends. But I do try. That's my main goal in my life is to keep
[18:10]my life as stress free as possible. So it's been working out pretty well. Wow. I need to take a
[18:17]dose of that. Sounds good. What advice would you have for aspiring authors? Oh, gosh, that's a good one.
[18:26]I, you know, I've been in this industry a long time. And I think the thing that I see the most
[18:30]with authors is they compare themselves and their success or lack of success to other authors. And
[18:37]to actually make it in this industry is like winning the lottery. It is hard. There are a lot of
[18:42]books out there. So my advice is to go into it and write the book that you want to read. Write
[18:48]the book that's in your heart. Don't write to try to sell books. Don't write to trend because
[18:54]whatever's trending now is not going to be trending when you finish your book. And be happy that
[18:58]you completed a book. I mean, that's the biggest accomplishment whether people read it or not. And
[19:03]I know that's easy to say. Like, I know people want to make a career and pay their bills with their art.
[19:09]But it is, it's very difficult. And I hate it when I see people kind of give up and walk away when
[19:15]they don't see the success that they hope to see because they should be so proud that they wrote
[19:20]this book. But that's amazing. And if you were going to change a couple of things or one thing or
[19:26]anything about the publishing industry as a whole, what would you do? Like, if you were going to start
[19:29]your own publishing company? That's a very good question. I don't know. I think that the thing that
[19:36]I would have changed 10 years ago has kind of been changing and that's the gatekeeping. And, you know,
[19:42]the indie book world has really blown that up. And so many authors have been able to get their
[19:49]books out there that I don't think myself included would have been able to get their books
[19:54]anywhere if it weren't for indie publishing. So I think it's going in the right direction.
[20:00]absolutely change piracy. There's a way you could stop that.
[20:05]All right, awesome. Any books you've read lately that you're obsessed with?
[20:09]I'm on an Emily Henry kick. I got her arc book lovers and I absolutely loved it.
[20:16]I've read it twice already. But yeah, I've just, I've read pretty much her entire backlist this year.
[20:22]Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, she's great.
[20:25]Okay. Well, thank you, Colleen. Thanks for coming on and thanks for having me.
[20:30]You know, I'll sorry for the interruptions today.
[20:34]You're good. You're good. All right. Thanks a lot. Take care. I have a great day.
[20:37]You too. Bye-bye.
[20:39]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[20:43]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zebi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[20:48]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of
[20:53]authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the
[20:58]sound editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and