Annabel Monaghan, NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT
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[0:58]Annabelle Moynihan is the author of Nora goes off-script a novel
[1:03]It is her debut novel and it came out in June 2022 from GP Putnam Sense
[1:09]Writing it was probably the most fun. She's ever had pre-nora Annabelle wrote fiction for young adults and a column for not so young adults
[1:16]She grew up in Los Angeles and nearly every one of her relatives still lives in Southern California
[1:20]She attended Duke University where she studied English and has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
[1:27]And had a brief history as an investment baker. She also used to teach novel writing at the writing institute at Sarah Lawrence College
[1:33]She now lives in the suburbs of New York City with her husband three cents and a little dog who sheds
[1:39]Welcome Annabelle. Thank you so much for coming and mom started time to read books to discuss Nora goes off-script
[1:45]Thank you for having me. I'm thrilled to be here as you have seen on Instagram and everywhere else
[1:50]I've been raving about your book. I absolutely loved it. It's like my favorite book
[1:55]I've read. I literally was talking to my whole movie books team like and I was like this is like the book
[2:01]I want to publish
[2:03]Like here are all the things that I like about it that make it so great, you know
[2:07]So which I'm happy to go through but yeah, I just
[2:10]It's it's so great when a book is a source of entertainment and that you feel like you cannot like get away from it
[2:17]And you're in it the whole time and
[2:20]It involves like every sense and you cry and you laugh and like you're just in it
[2:24]And it's so great and you're so funny and anyway, I just I just loved it. I could listen to this all day
[2:34]But I'll tell you I wrote this book. I wrote it during quarantine
[2:37]So I was in it
[2:39]You know what I mean
[2:39]I wrote this book all at once because I didn't have anything else to do
[2:44]And I felt so joyful while I was writing it
[2:47]So I started waking up earlier and earlier every single day to like check on Leo
[2:52]What's going on with Nora like I just I couldn't get up early enough to just get back to it
[2:58]So I hope that comes across but it was it was the most fun. I've ever had this writing this book
[3:03]That's awesome and hardly anybody says the most fun they ever had was during quarantine
[3:07]So right I know I feel kind of weird about it actually because that was a terrible thing
[3:12]But it's great that the writing process itself was joyful. Yeah, it was it was kind of a nice time for introverts
[3:19]You know just to be kind of locked down in your head
[3:22]Yeah, wait, so go back
[3:24]I have your last book because I read this and I told you does this lava make my butt look big
[3:30]Which I am also going to post when I go to LA next and I can stand next to my lava and show people
[3:35]But I will not show them my butt, but I will show them all in the book
[3:38]Yes, I will show the Volvo
[3:40]And I love Lee Woodruff by the way, she's right love her anyways
[3:44]So I know more about you and that you've been writing a while
[3:47]But take us back like go tell tell me in the beginning you grew up in LA like start from there
[3:51]Just give me this give me the over view
[3:53]It's a 52 year long story. Okay. I grew up in LA and I
[3:58]My ancestors all grew up in LA my family's been there for a long time and I
[4:04]Really wanted to be a writer and I
[4:07]Went to Duke University. They had a really good English program and I took all the writing classes
[4:12]And I was on track to fulfill my dream
[4:16]And I when I graduated from college all of my friends
[4:19]Lizzy included wanted to move to New York City and it turns out you cannot get a job writing books
[4:26]That's not a thing. I mean it was I you know
[4:29]I needed food and I needed shelter
[4:30]so I got a job working in banking
[4:33]and
[4:34]Turned completely away from this thing that I wanted to do and I had it in my head that I would
[4:40]You know work during the day and then write at night because somebody on TV did that
[4:45]Banking isn't that kind of job like
[4:47]You're just you worked during the day you work at night
[4:50]So I did that and I enjoyed it and I ended up going to business school
[4:54]And I met my husband there and I graduated moved back to New York
[5:00]I went back to banking and then that was really like
[5:05]The moment when I was the person who was the farthest away
[5:08]From what her skill set was possible
[5:12]Like I enjoyed that job, but that is not
[5:15]Stuff I'm good at so I got pregnant and I quit and then I was home with children for
[5:22]A while and I didn't write anything until I was 37
[5:26]So I am I am the late start story and it's working out fine
[5:31]Yeah, it seems to be going well
[5:33]So you started with essays or what what happened? You wrote why?
[5:36]So at this friend Elizabeth Wolf who had an idea
[5:40]She said it'd be interesting to write a book about positive thinking for teenagers
[5:45]And I said yes, that's interesting
[5:46]And she called me all the time about it until we actually sat down and wrote it
[5:50]So that was our first book was published by Simon and Schuster
[5:54]It's called click the girls guide to knowing what you want and making it happen
[5:58]And that was super fun, but I always wanted to write fiction
[6:01]So after that I wrote a girl named digit
[6:04]Which is a story of a teenage map genius who fights crime with the FBI as you do
[6:10]And then a sequel to that double digit and during that time I started writing my column and I think
[6:17]That writing my column was I sort of found my grown-up voice and I
[6:23]Became more comfortable talking you know, there's a distance with YA
[6:26]Like you can talk about your 17-year-old self because who cares?
[6:31]I think there's something a little more vulnerable when you're talking about what's actually happening to you
[6:35]Was it wife and a mother and a person in the world and I think that Nora came out of that
[6:40]I think that I wrote enough of those essays that I
[6:43]Became ready to write about grown-up life. Wow, and how did you start the column?
[6:48]Like what did you know at the beginning?
[6:50]It was going to be a column. Did you start it as essays like I feel like having a column
[6:54]Anywhere is a dream for so many people like how to do about that
[6:57]I was actually one of my little kid dreams
[6:59]I dreamed that I would just sit and just write stuff and people would read it
[7:03]And here we are. I was at a baseball game one day and this woman said
[7:08]You know the local paper is looking for a lifestyle column and
[7:12]So I went home and I wrote a proposal probably three pages about, you know, these are my ideas
[7:18]These are my thoughts
[7:19]Even and I sent it in in five seconds later. She says sure you're hired
[7:23]It's actually not that hard to get that job
[7:26]I think I think they were desperate she didn't even know me so I just got lucky starting to write for my local paper and
[7:33]I got my feet wet doing that and then I started sending it to the week
[7:37]And then I sent it to the Huffington Post for a while and then that got weird
[7:41]But it appears in a bunch of places, but mostly it's on my website and in my local paper. Wow and then
[7:48]Did you write other novels that were not this and that are like in the summer?
[7:52]Yeah, no, I wrote a novel for like three years
[7:55]That was so boring and I was so bored writing it and
[8:00]I'm always trying to pitch it to people like isn't this a great idea and everybody says it's so boring
[8:06]It's what's time to let it
[8:08]I'm not gonna ever write and I you know, if that's if there's a lesson in that like I just want to write something
[8:14]That's fun to write because then it's likely fun to read
[8:17]I think that whatever you're putting into a page kind of comes across to the reader
[8:22]So I'm gonna stay away from that boring book. What was the worrying book about?
[8:25]What's about this young girl who moves home and she has an affair with this guy and he turns up dead
[8:32]I don't know it doesn't sound boring, but it's boring
[8:35]Doesn't have legs. You're not gonna read this book city. It's okay. I don't need to read the book
[8:39]I've got plenty to read it's fine
[8:42]It's fine. It's totally fun. I was just curious
[8:45]I was really asking because I
[8:47]There are so few people who just come out of the gate and write a great novel like I feel like they're usually to practice novels
[8:54]Kaking around to like you need to go through the process of trying to write one before you can write a good one
[8:59]Yeah, no, I think I think that's true
[9:01]I've been writing a long time, you know with by taking a lot of breaks
[9:04]But it just seems like this was the time for me to get this book out. Oh my gosh
[9:09]So maybe we should talk about the book. I didn't even
[9:12]Like usually I start with like tell listeners what this is about
[9:15]But I was like so excited just to get going
[9:17]Um, what do you tell listeners a little bit about nor goes off script?
[9:21]So Nora is a romance channel screenwriter. So think the hallmark channel
[9:27]And she ends up writing a more serious script about her divorce
[9:32]And that gets picked up as a feature film and is filmed partially at her house
[9:37]And she ends up falling in love with Leo the man who plays her husband in the movie
[9:43]So where did this idea come from? Was it just a stroke of inspiration one day?
[9:47]No, it was actually a bunch of different strokes of information that all kind of congealed in my head at the same time
[9:53]in 2019
[9:54]I was stuck in bed for a little bit and I just got hooked on the hallmark channel and I
[10:00]No, I'm not the only one.
[10:01]You know, you watch two hours,
[10:03]you just hang out in these like idyllic towns
[10:06]with these privately owned hardware stores and bakeries.
[10:10]And you just like one ends,
[10:12]and then you watch another one,
[10:14]and then you watch another one.
[10:15]And after, you know, three or four in a row,
[10:18]I was thinking, did I just see this one?
[10:20]Like last time I think she was like had a cupcake shop
[10:24]in Chicago, and this time she's an Akron
[10:27]with the ballet studio, but it's the same movie.
[10:30]And I just started getting so interested
[10:33]in like how you construct a film like this
[10:37]for 20 minutes where to the exact minute
[10:41]you can predict when the guy's gonna leave
[10:44]and go back to the city and then have a change of heart
[10:46]and come right back after the commercial break.
[10:49]And I started thinking about who writes these movies?
[10:52]Like, is this one really, you know,
[10:54]I started watching for the credits to see,
[10:56]like is it a super romantic person
[10:58]who is just like, you know, pouring their heart out into them?
[11:03]Or is this all happening around a conference table in New Jersey
[11:06]where they're just like reverse engineering a story
[11:09]over and over again?
[11:10]So I thought a lot about that.
[11:12]And that's where Nora came from.
[11:14]She has, she spent 10 years supporting her shiftless husband
[11:17]and her two kids by writing these movies.
[11:20]And she writes with a little bit of detachment
[11:23]and a little bit of eye rolling
[11:24]because she's never really been in love.
[11:26]And I thought, wouldn't it be fun to run her through
[11:29]that like lightning bolts, you know, toe curling romance
[11:34]and see how she would react and process that?
[11:38]But wait, did you figure out the romance channel?
[11:41]Is it someone writing it or is it a people of integers?
[11:44]It's all different people.
[11:45]It's all different people, but they've got a structure.
[11:48]So you come and you take your story
[11:51]and that you lay it over this structure.
[11:53]And PS, the structure works.
[11:55]They're great.
[11:56]They're so fun.
[11:57]It's so funny.
[11:58]I feel like the romance channel for grownups
[12:01]is like the American girl movies for girls.
[12:05]That is so true, right?
[12:08]So true.
[12:08]I'm literally thinking like there's the bakery in Paris
[12:11]and there's the horse one and there's the gymnast one
[12:14]and there's, it's like all, but they all
[12:16]like have the same thing.
[12:18]So you kind of know like.
[12:19]Yeah, yeah, they all have the same thing.
[12:21]Yeah, it's like the same doll
[12:23]with the hair.
[12:24]Yeah.
[12:24]I think that's absolutely true.
[12:26]And there's a real fantasy that they're selling.
[12:29]You know, every single one of these women
[12:31]has a super lucrative career that started as a fun hobby.
[12:36]Yep.
[12:37]And she has a cupcake magnet.
[12:39]Right.
[12:40]You said fun thing and made it into this amazing career.
[12:44]My favorite is the custom wreath designer.
[12:47]Yep, she has beautiful home.
[12:49]I just wonder how many wreaths she sells.
[12:51]Flattery.
[12:54]Why can you talk about why you were in bed for a while?
[12:57]Were you okay?
[12:58]I was, yeah, I know I was second at surgery
[13:00]and it was all, it all ended well.
[13:02]Yeah, okay.
[13:03]You'll be good.
[13:04]No big deal.
[13:05]All right.
[13:06]Okay, Leo.
[13:07]So who did you have in mind?
[13:10]Did you have anyone in mind or did he just come
[13:12]kind of fully form to like where like I've been trying
[13:15]to people actually have been direct messaging me
[13:17]saying who did you have in mind?
[13:20]Like because I had Bradley Cooper who did you they said to me.
[13:22]Like you have in mind.
[13:24]And I was like, no, I wasn't.
[13:25]I wasn't thinking that.
[13:26]For Bradley Cooper.
[13:27]Yeah, that was not what I was thinking.
[13:29]What were you thinking?
[13:30]I didn't have a pile of it.
[13:33]Yeah, I didn't, somebody who yeah, I mean, more like a dark,
[13:38]you know, yeah, I guess actually more like,
[13:39]no, I think he had it as kind of like giving my brain
[13:43]like dark hair kind of like a stubble like,
[13:45]but I didn't have a particular person.
[13:47]Maybe it's almost like, no, I'm forgetting the guy's name.
[13:49]Do you remember that Jennifer Lopez movie
[13:51]with like the really beautiful man with like the strawberry
[13:55]and like I think maybe the wedding planner.
[13:57]I have to look up this guy's name.
[13:58]I think the wedding planner was Matthew McConaughey.
[14:01]No, then I wasn't that.
[14:02]It was some, I'm going to look it up.
[14:03]I can't remember his name, but he has like these chiseled
[14:06]cheekbones and he's very like, you know, Mediterranean.
[14:10]I want to say the blue eyes.
[14:13]Anyway, I'll think of his name.
[14:14]Who did you have in mind?
[14:16]So I made him up and, but I can see him so clearly in my mind
[14:21]that if I saw him in a crowd, I would say, oh, there's Leo.
[14:24]I mean, he is, he's so real to me.
[14:27]But what I think is really interesting is one of my friends
[14:30]read this very early and she texts me and she said,
[14:34]okay, so he's Brad Pitt and I was like, Brad Pitt's not,
[14:37]I mean, he's just not for me.
[14:39]Like that's not my dream guy.
[14:41]And then I went back and I read what was it that made her think
[14:45]he was Brad Pitt.
[14:46]I don't really describe him in the book.
[14:49]So I find that everybody's just bringing,
[14:51]I mean, he's tall and he has dark hair,
[14:53]but everybody's just bringing whatever their sort of
[14:56]daydream about this guy is.
[14:59]And I've honestly heard every, everything.
[15:01]Huh.
[15:02]I literally wrote the person back and I said,
[15:04]no, I was picturing someone with dark hair.
[15:06]So maybe that's, maybe I actually, that's why.
[15:08]And it is just like that, you know, design your own fantasy.
[15:11]That's what it is.
[15:12]He's, he's whoever you make him.
[15:14]Yeah, whoever you want to be.
[15:17]Right with that whole thing.
[15:17]Like, right, okay.
[15:21]And then Nora, so you talked a little about where she came from
[15:24]from your own experience and essays and everything.
[15:26]I loved that she was so set in her structure.
[15:30]Like I really also related to that.
[15:32]Like that everything was like set up.
[15:34]So she didn't have to think about it.
[15:35]And this is what she did.
[15:36]And I loved even like the rituals of writing
[15:39]how she would bring her pencils and like the fire and like
[15:42]she had her like everything had to follow the same order.
[15:46]And that's the way it was until it just wasn't that way at all.
[15:50]Right.
[15:51]So I mean, a lot of people cope that way.
[15:54]You know, I mean, if you are fully responsible for an
[15:57]entire family and the wellbeing of everyone,
[16:00]you need, you need support.
[16:03]And she didn't have any support.
[16:05]So she created her support by having this structure in her life.
[16:09]That's also my writing routine.
[16:11]So I just gave it to her.
[16:12]That I think that's where the similarities between Nora and me
[16:15]and but I gave her my routine.
[16:17]I light a candle like the tea.
[16:19]I set the intention and I start.
[16:23]Well, I was really motivated by that, to be honest.
[16:25]I was like, that doesn't sound so bad.
[16:27]10 to two.
[16:28]Like I could like if I stopped everything else I was doing or
[16:32]whatever, but like that's, I don't know.
[16:33]It just seems like, okay, this is something people can do
[16:36]if this is their job, right?
[16:38]10 to two.
[16:39]It's still fitting.
[16:39]Hard to write four hours.
[16:41]I mean, it's if you write for four hours a day, you're
[16:44]really writing.
[16:45]I mean, that is, that is fantastic.
[16:47]And if you told somebody, you said, I only work four hours a
[16:50]day, they think what is this a hobby?
[16:53]But writing, I don't know, writing for me for four hours.
[16:56]It's like, I'll get a lot done.
[16:57]I don't need to write for me.
[16:59]I couldn't write for eight hours.
[17:00]Yeah.
[17:01]I had one day where I was editing what became book ends.
[17:05]And I posted somewhere I was like, oh my God, I just spent
[17:08]nine hours in this manuscript.
[17:10]Like it was a Saturday and I had to do all this editing.
[17:13]And and so many people are back and they're like, yeah, welcome
[17:15]to the writing world or whatever.
[17:16]And I was like, oh my gosh, do you do this all day every day?
[17:19]Like I can't, I can't do that.
[17:20]I need like more things.
[17:21]Like, yeah, I don't know.
[17:23]Did you feel good to dive in for that long?
[17:26]Or did you know, yeah, no, it was so productive.
[17:28]I got so much done.
[17:29]Yeah, it was great.
[17:31]I felt like it was like a puzzle because books are so long.
[17:33]Like the essay form is so, it's so easy for me to like
[17:38]move things around like, you know, all that stuff.
[17:40]But a book, it's like, well, I don't know.
[17:42]It's so expansive.
[17:43]It's like trying to wrestle like the snake back into that box.
[17:48]You know, I feel the same way and I actually, I will write an
[17:53]essay if I'm getting just really bogged down just to have that
[17:57]sense of completion because it's very easy to get lost in an
[18:01]all and it's, it can be overwhelming.
[18:06]So I need you to give me your tips for real because I am
[18:09]actually writing an novel now.
[18:10]Are you really?
[18:11]I am.
[18:12]Yes.
[18:13]And I am having a lot of fun with it.
[18:14]And that was literally my goal when I started.
[18:16]I was like, I'm just going to do this for fun.
[18:17]Like if it's like, I don't have time for anything that's not
[18:20]super fun.
[18:21]This is going to be like my break from everything.
[18:22]So if it's not fun, I'm not doing it.
[18:24]But it is overwhelming to like keep going back.
[18:28]Like I don't, how do you stay focused?
[18:31]How do you like, and I was trying to analyze what it is you did that was so
[18:34]effective.
[18:35]Right.
[18:36]Was it the, the buildup?
[18:37]Was it the twists and turns?
[18:39]Was it the dialogue and was it like, I don't, there were so many things
[18:44]that I felt like major novel works so well just from a structure standpoint.
[18:47]But did you know that going in or did it just kind of come out as
[18:51]you wrote it?
[18:53]Like how did that all happen?
[18:54]I wish I knew.
[18:55]I thank you.
[18:58]I do something that's very time consuming that is, I really
[19:01]not sure I would recommend to anybody.
[19:03]But I have to start at the beginning.
[19:06]Like if I'm writing page 70, it really helps if I read the first 70
[19:10]pages because you're not, you're not creating a situation that the
[19:13]novel is not about the situation.
[19:16]The novel is about how the people are responding to the situation.
[19:20]So you need to be in your protagonist's head.
[19:24]And for me to really understand the way you understand how she's feeling,
[19:28]I often, I mean, this just like talk about inefficient.
[19:32]I would read the whole thing.
[19:33]It's like, oh, now she's falling in love and now this is happening.
[19:36]And oh, but now this happened.
[19:38]And now I can feel what her reaction is because I'm in it.
[19:43]Very time consuming.
[19:45]And if you write every day and if you write for long enough, it all stays in
[19:50]your head.
[19:51]If you're writing a novel and you take a week off, you might as well just
[19:55]start again.
[19:57]Yeah.
[19:58]So you have to keep feeling.
[20:00]going. And as long as the feeling is going, then you know what the next thing is. It totally,
[20:06]can you say anything about the novel you're writing or is this soon? I cannot wait to hear
[20:12]so excited. Yeah, well, I've taken a really long time off and that maybe that's why I'm scared to go
[20:18]back. It's been like a month. And I'm like, now I can't even open the document. But sometimes you go
[20:22]back and it's better than you thought. Oh, well, that's good. And sometimes you go back,
[20:27]this happens to me all the time. We're all go back and read something that I wrote. And I'm like,
[20:30]oh, I never saw that coming. Like, as if I don't remember writing it. Yeah, it's nice to
[20:36]draw. Wow. You said to Kyle when he went to your Venet Diesel that you like to get to know your
[20:42]characters or maybe you said this in your speech. So, so well that you know what how they would handle
[20:47]having their heart broken, except I think you said it better than that probably no.
[20:51]I love that. How how do you get to know the characters so well? Or is it just part of that magic
[20:59]of novel writing? Like, did you ever did at the beginning? And I'm sorry to ask them to be like
[21:04]craft related to things. But like at the beginning with Nora, where you like, okay, like this is
[21:09]what she's going to wear because I can picture her room. I can picture her clothes and her jammies
[21:13]and like being under the blanket on the court. Like, did you set out or and say these are the things
[21:19]about her or did it just all come to you as you went? Well, I had I had a situation, right? This is
[21:26]a single mother who's writing these romances to support her family. And she's got she's got a
[21:32]really, she's got to make this work. And she is not going to be fussy as a result, right? She probably
[21:38]has, you know, she puts on her morning sweater. She doesn't have a lot of money. I loved that. The
[21:41]morning sweater. I was like, I did a morning sweater. That is a great term. I love that. It's the only way
[21:46]you know, it's morning. So I, you know, I started with her circumstances. And I really didn't get
[21:52]to know her until I was halfway through the story. So I had her as a practical person and a person
[21:58]who was, you know, hanging on and really, she's really quite competent actually. I was so impressed
[22:04]by the way she pulled a lot of stuff off. But no, I got to know her. And as I got to know her and
[22:09]she started telling me the story about her divorce, then I, you know, I sort of understood that she
[22:15]has these abandonment concerns. And so what would be the best way to break her heart?
[22:21]Maybe she would be abandoned. But I don't, you know, I used to teach novel writing at
[22:26]Sarah Lawrence College. And there were all these exercises we do, you know, what's in your protagonist
[22:32]purse? And do they have a Mac or a PC? You know, all these questions that you should know about
[22:37]your protagonist, that actually doesn't work for me. For me, I have to, I have to just start writing.
[22:44]And I know that's not the most efficient way to do it. But I don't get ideas unless I'm typing.
[22:49]So that's how I got to know her was by writing about her.
[22:52]Wow. So how, how long during the pandemic did it take for like the first draft of this to come out
[22:58]just wondering? The first draft of this, I probably was only about three months. But I mean,
[23:04]my children were sleeping till noon every day. And I was getting up at four. I mean, I was really
[23:08]writing a lot. And I had nothing else to do. So, and the first draft of this book was only like
[23:15]30,000 words. And so I started trying to convince my writing friends that that was a book.
[23:22]And they all said that's not a book. You can't have a book. It's 30,000 words. And so then I
[23:26]ordered the bridges of Madison County on, on Amazon. And I'm like, this is 30,000 words people
[23:34]is it really is it 30,000 words? No way. Yes. Yes. No one would buy it. And so I have a tendency
[23:41]when I write to leave the room too quickly, like something happens. And then the next thing happens.
[23:46]So I went back and I sat in the room with Leo and Nora with the kids for, and I added,
[23:52]I doubled the size of the book just by dwell because I think at the first draft, it was just a
[23:58]a series of things that happened. And then it became an actual full-size book. Wow. So amazing.
[24:05]What, Nat? Like, what are you most excited about when you're doing all these events and having
[24:10]its whole like grounds well of support and people coming. And like I saw in your, I'm like,
[24:14]that's so great. Look at her whole town. Like, shut up for it. And something that like, what happened
[24:17]to Nora, right? I feel like it's just so great. I'm Nora. We're in an actual book. But anyway,
[24:23]how is it? How does this whole thing feel after, you know, suffering through banking and
[24:29]all this stuff and coming here? Like, what is it like now? I can't, I don't know if I could
[24:34]actually describe it. It's like my actual dream come true. You know, people say, oh, it's a dream
[24:39]come true. This was my dream when I was like a little child. And frankly, when I was a little kid,
[24:44]I used to read those penguin classics, books, you know, the little thin paperbacks. And there was a
[24:50]penguin on the back. And I would run my finger over it. And I would dream of writing a book with a
[24:56]penguin on the back. And now here's my book. And it has a penguin on the back. I mean, just it is an
[25:03]actual dream come true. And yesterday, you know, I saw my book in the airport when I was leaving LA,
[25:08]it's just, it's really amazing. And it's amazing to see how excited people get for you.
[25:15]Yeah. You know, it reminds me that we need to like show up and be enthusiastic for people when
[25:21]they're trying to do whatever it is that they're trying to do because it just feels really good.
[25:26]Sometimes I'm like, when people accomplish something in other jobs, like nobody is cheering for them.
[25:32]Yeah. Like when you write your book, at least you get a moment where you're like,
[25:35]you get a pub day. Like how great is that? Like everyone you've known your whole life is like
[25:39]congrats. Like when you're, I don't know, I mean, I guess when you're an architect, maybe like the
[25:44]house goes up and you have that moment where the client sees it and you see it. But like they're,
[25:48]I don't know. I feel like having this creative job that is so and writing and reading, it's such a
[25:55]community thing. Like that everybody gets invested in it. You know, so personal. Yeah. You know,
[26:01]I mean, that's the difference. If you, you know, you're a banker and you close a deal,
[26:06]great. But this is like, I showed you who I was and you accepted it. I mean, it's,
[26:13]it's very personal. Well, it's really amazing. Okay. So what, what next? What are you doing next?
[26:19]Are you going to write it down? Did you already write it? Yes. Yes. I am finishing in the next 10 days.
[26:25]I think that's the deadline we agreed on. And it is a novel takes place in Long Island.
[26:32]And it's another love story. And I'm also having a really fun time with it. So I'm not bored.
[26:38]Good. So great. Right. Amazing. What advice would you have for aspiring authors?
[26:45]I would say keep going. And I, you know, I just don't think that everybody, you know,
[26:51]rushes out of the gate, writes their first thing and it's a hit. And if you are trying to get
[26:57]something published and it's not getting published, that's just because it's not the right thing
[27:01]at the right time. I, you know, if I was to go back to, you know, give advice to my younger self,
[27:07]I wouldn't change anything. Like, everything that I've done has added up to this wonderful
[27:13]thing happening. So you just have to keep writing. But I think that's part of the problem is that
[27:18]if you're not feeling success, you'll stop writing. And, you know, it's a muscle. You know,
[27:24]it's like running. Writing is really is like running. You know, the more you do it, the easier it is.
[27:29]And then you start, you know, craving it. The first thing when you wake up, not always. But, so I
[27:35]would just, you know, say, keep going in it's, you know, it's not too late. Awesome. By the way,
[27:40]Lizzie has texted me because I texted her as soon as we got on the phone. This is our mutual friend,
[27:45]Lizzie Friedman. And she was the one. I'm the one who told you to read her book. So anyway,
[27:50]she sends her love. Thank you for the PR, they're Lizzie. So it was all because of her. Anyway,
[28:00]all right, thank you. I was just, again, I just loved it. I really did. I'm so, it's so nice that
[28:06]there's the book out there and everybody's reading it and are all feeling equally sort of obsessed
[28:11]with these characters in the story and everything. So thank you. It just means world to me. Thank you
[28:16]so much to be. Okay. All right. I hope to see you soon. I'll see you in the summer. I'm sure. Okay,
[28:22]bye. Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't
[28:28]forget to follow me on Instagram at zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[28:33]Also sign up for my newsletter at zibi Owens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet
[28:38]lots of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for
[28:43]the Sound Editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro