Garth Stein, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN
[0:02]Hi, I'm Sivi Owens, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast that you're listening to right now
[0:07]Thank you so much. Called moms. Don't have time to read books
[0:10]It is a daily podcast
[0:12]365 days a year and each day we talk to an author about all of the things related to their career
[0:18]Their book their life and more in 30 minutes or less because who has time?
[0:22]I am now an author myself
[0:24]Although I wasn't when I started this podcast and you can get my new memoir book ends
[0:29]A memoir of love loss and literature wherever books are sold starting July 1st and my children's book princess charming
[0:36]You can learn more about me at zibi Owens.com
[0:39]But really you're here to learn more about the authors and that is what we're going to do
[0:43]Also, be sure to check out all the other podcasts in the zcast podcast network
[0:49]You can learn more at zcastnetwork.com and definitely check out those shows as well
[0:54]Also just a quick note that submissions for the zibi awards are open
[1:02]And will close on September 15th. Go to zibi Owens.com and you will find the zibi awards open submissions
[1:10]Where we celebrate all the under-celebrated parts of a book like the best spine the best authors note the best table of contents
[1:17]And authors can nominate their own best publicist best editors and so on
[1:23]There will be an in-person award ceremony in October in New York
[1:25]You will not want to miss it. Go to zibi Owens.com
[1:29]Garth Stein is the author of the art of racing in the rain and also the cloven
[1:35]Garth is the internationally best-selling author of the contemporary classic the art of racing in the rain
[1:41]Which became a major motion picture starring Kevin Costner, Milo, Vince, Minklia and Amanda safe read and that was released in the summer of 2019
[1:49]The art of racing in the rain has sold more than six million copies worldwide
[1:52]Been translated into 38 languages and spent more than three years on the New York Times bestseller list
[1:58]The novel inspired a young reader edition as well as four children's picture books
[2:02]He is the author of three other novels
[2:04]Which we talk about in the episode and he says nobody ever read them but whatever a set in light
[2:09]How Evan broke his head in other secrets and Raven stole the moon
[2:12]He's the co-founder of Seattle seven writers and the chair of the author leadership circle of book industry charitable foundation
[2:19]Which goes by Bink which we talked about also
[2:21]Garth's first graphic novel the cloven book one in collaboration with illustrator Matthew Southworth
[2:27]was released by fan-to-graphics in July 2020 and book two will be launched at San Diego's comic-con in July of
[2:33]2023 we had a blast talking and I will be taking Garth up on his
[2:39]suggestion of or my suggestion rather of having him right for zippy books
[2:43]We'll see if we can make this happen. Welcome Garth. Thank you so much for coming on mom's don't have time to read books to discuss
[2:50]The art of racing in the rain and your career and just all the good stuff. Well, thanks for having me
[2:56]It's pleasure. It was so great meeting you in Seattle in person. That was such a highlight
[3:01]So thank you to Jen risko from shelf awareness for introducing us everything that was wonderful
[3:07]Yeah, that was a lot of fun. It hasn't rained here since you were here. So that's all really. Wow. Oh my gosh
[3:14]Well, I want to hear about
[3:17]So many things I want to talk about your book
[3:19]But also how you started what was called the Seattle eight or what was it called the Seattle seven writers
[3:25]Seattle seven writers and how you really started this whole Seattle lit scene and everything and how it's grown
[3:31]But let's back up for two seconds and how you became an author
[3:36]in the first place and
[3:38]All of that and the story that you told me about the difficulty you had in selling the art racing in the rain
[3:43]Which of course went on to become like a massive bestseller
[3:47]Yeah, you heard the racing in the rain took off
[3:49]It was actually my third book believe it or not
[3:51]I wrote two books previously that that nobody paid any attention to and interestingly
[3:56]When I when I was listening to some of your podcasts
[3:59]I was scrolling through and and one of on my first book
[4:03]I had four editors talk about being an orphan who was a disaster and
[4:08]My fourth editor on that book was Greer Kessel Hendricks. Oh no way you had on now. She's my first writer. Yeah. Oh my gosh
[4:16]It was kind of cool that
[4:18]I know people from back in the day, but
[4:21]Yeah, I used to make documentary films. That's what happened
[4:24]I was a group in Seattle and I went to New York to go to school and then I started making documentary films and I
[4:29]Love I love it. I love that the process and I love doing it
[4:33]But it was all about raising money, you know back in the pre-digital age
[4:37]You know and and then I didn't have I was making a film about these two homeless rap musicians in Brooklyn
[4:43]And I ran out of my grant ran out and I said geez now I got to stop everything and
[4:47]Go raise more money and so I said well, let me keep doing something creative while I'm doing that
[4:52]And so that's when I started writing
[4:54]What I thought was going to be a short story or maybe a treatment for a film and it turned out to be my first novel
[5:00]Ravenstool the moon and
[5:02]Then I was like, oh, okay, this is this feels right, you know
[5:05]There's sometimes when you're doing something and you're like, oh
[5:08]I resonate in a different way when I'm doing this and so
[5:12]That's when I turned to writing full-time and it wasn't until my third book then that
[5:17]People everyone else thought I was a writer
[5:24]Okay, so how did you decide to write from the point of view of
[5:29]A dog and then how did tell me tell us tell me the story again about
[5:34]How hard it was to sell that idea
[5:36]Yeah, it didn't it didn't occur to me that that one was not allowed to use non human narrators in a book because you know
[5:45]I grew up like you did reading Charlotte's web and stuff like that. I mean
[5:49]You can't tell
[5:51]Anybody you show this web is not a legitimate book because there's not a human narrator
[5:55]So I had this idea. I was racing sports cars here in Seattle
[5:59]I'd moved back to Seattle after a certain time and I was racing cars and
[6:04]had a family and had a dog and had everything and and I was like
[6:09]What a great set up for a setting for a story would be to race a dog
[6:14]Trying to interpret like his dogs love cars as we all know and
[6:19]And then I saw this documentary film
[6:22]Made a Mongolia that was about the belief among the nomadic people in Mongolia
[6:26]The next incarnation for their dog will be as a person and I was like oh hold the door here because
[6:32]If you've got a dog who really wants aspires to be a person in his next lifetime
[6:38]And so studies all of human interactions to glean clues about how to be a good person
[6:43]Well, that's a great character, right?
[6:46]So suddenly Enzo the dog was born and I just started writing it and I
[6:51]I came very quickly to me oddly usually I struggle four months
[6:55]I wrote the first draft and I sent it off to my agent in New York and he said
[7:00]This is a disaster. You're ruining your career. Why are you doing this?
[7:04]Gold write me something I can sell etc etc etc and I
[7:09]Didn't know exactly what to do so these two words popped into my head and I said you're fired
[7:13]And I didn't know what to do. I went home
[7:17]And I sheepishly told my wife I'm like, I don't know and she's like you're gonna find the new invasion
[7:22]That's what we're gonna do so I sent it out to agent after agent
[7:25]They all said the exact same thing or like what we like the writing and we like the story
[7:28]But it's narrated by a dog and we don't know how to sell a book like that
[7:32]And I was finally at my wits end and I was at a also at a fundraiser for King County Library
[7:38]Systems here in Seattle and I was talking to another writer and I was telling them of all my problems
[7:44]I'm like, I've got this book and I think it's really good
[7:46]But it's narrated by a dog and no one will touch it and he looked up and he said well
[7:50]You should talk to my agent. He sold my book and it's narrated by a crow
[7:55]So I just said give me his name right and I got his details and sent him off my pages and two days later
[8:01]He called me up in my my great lovely agent Jeff Kleinman and he said I love this book
[8:07]You have to let me represent it and he was right and
[8:10]He got it into the right-hand people and ended up with with Harper
[8:14]at Harper Collins the Harper imprint and
[8:17]They did a great job with it and it went on to be you know to live for three years on the New York Times bestseller list
[8:22]Thus proving that people will read a book nerd by a dog. So
[8:28]And then now it's also a movie and everything. I mean yeah, and where you were you involved were you involved with that piece of it or no
[8:36]No, I will not really I mean they didn't want me around they really prefer to not have the
[8:41]The writer around I think because they have to make changes and they have to do things and you know
[8:45]They offer the book is like but on page 37. It says it's a yellow house and so that I know we have to paint the house yellow
[8:51]You know it's just like
[8:54]They need to be kind of especially over the book that was going to be I knew was going to be difficult to kind of translate into
[9:01]Into a movie because it's narrated by a dog, right?
[9:04]Your dogs are you know
[9:06]Movie directors famously say never direct anything with a dog or a kid in it because they're impossible to direct
[9:13]So you know, I was a little concerned
[9:15]But Patrick MC picked it up and he set it up at Universal and it sat in in in whatever they limbo for 10 years
[9:22]And and then finally I got a phone calls from a director in England saying I'm going to be directing your film and I was like
[9:29]Get out of here
[9:31]It's always fun because they shot most of it up in Vancouver, which is right near me and they shot enough in Seattle to show the space needle
[9:37]You know, and I got to take my kids and my my mother my 90-year-old mother
[9:41]I took her up to
[9:42]Vancouver and we we walked around on the set and it was amazing was a racetrack thing
[9:46]They had set up and my mother turned me and she's like
[9:49]All these people I'm never going to complain about the price of a movie again
[9:54]Wow, it was a lot of fun. The process was a lot
[10:00]fun. You know, they had to make their changes to the story, which is fine. They, you know,
[10:05]they can't change the book, right? The book is the book. And my big fantasy came true,
[10:11]which is why I said one day it would be so cool to like get on an airplane and have to fly some
[10:16]place and on the seat back video screen. There's like the art of racing in the terrain. And
[10:22]it's true. It came true. I was like watching it on a movie on an airplane that was like,
[10:26]this is surreal. But it's a lot of fun. Wow. It's so cool. I hope somebody like took a picture
[10:33]of you in the seat watching the movie. Yes. Dude, I had so much fun in the red carpet,
[10:38]but that stuff is intoxicating. You know, I went down to LA for that and was hanging out with
[10:41]movie stars and a lot of talking to Kevin Costner and Amanda Seifred and all that. And it was really
[10:46]cool. And then I realized that, man, if you live your life like that full time, it's a distorted world,
[10:53]everywhere you go, there's someone, they had a groomer following me around, like how do my cheeks
[10:59]and making sure my eyebrows were, you know, sticking up or something. It was like, this is really
[11:04]cool for a week. Okay. Then I want to go back to, you know, turn that whatever you call it in back
[11:11]into a pumpkin. I leave the pumpkin life here in Seattle. So when you were writing the book, there
[11:17]was a lot about being a dog that like I didn't even know, right? There is the scene where
[11:23]Enzo gets left alone for three days and talk about how the, you know, dogs can live without
[11:30]food. And this is how they reserve their energy. And this is what they need. And this is like,
[11:34]this is why and all of that. Like, did you just know all that stuff? Like, because I'm a dog owner.
[11:40]I don't know all the details of dog life or did you research or like, how did you know so much?
[11:45]That's a good question. I mean, I pick up stuff. That part of what I do, you know,
[11:50]my kids make fun of me. The dad, like, I have an answer for everything. Even if I don't have an
[11:54]answer, I can always come up with an answer that is very convincing. So most of the stuff I found
[12:00]I was really dealing with Enzo, the character rep. That's why I never thought it was a problem
[12:05]to have a dog as a narrator because I didn't seem as a dog as a character in the story.
[12:10]And so in channeling my character, he said things. Now, I don't even know if they're true.
[12:17]He says, well, you know, one of the things dogs have is that they can go for several days
[12:21]without food because you know, maybe they don't have anything in the woods and they don't run
[12:25]into any prey for a while. It made sense to me. And he says, you know, people, of course,
[12:30]in exchange for their big brains and their opposable thumbs are also susceptible to salmonella,
[12:36]whereas dogs aren't. And which is that is true. I learned that from my vet. So, you know,
[12:41]there are little things that I tried and put in there, but mostly it was like kind of many of
[12:44]things are not actually true. Like Enzo is convinced that dogs are the evolutionary rollout of
[12:54]not of monkeys, but of dogs. People are evolved from dogs, not from monkeys. So he has a whole
[13:01]this whole kind of theology that he sketches out in the book as he's trying to understand his role
[13:06]in the world and his role in humanity or as a perspective human. So.
[13:13]Well, yeah, I figured that was not necessarily true or provable.
[13:19]You never know. You never know. I mean, you never know. But there is also, I mean,
[13:24]you hear this all the time that dogs can sense illness more than people, right?
[13:29]They can often fair it out like a cancer that's brewing or they know, but how do they say it?
[13:35]And I think that's one of the things about Enzo where he's like, well, I knew what was wrong with her.
[13:39]Like, I knew what was going on.
[13:41]Well, that that is real. Now, I didn't do extensive research, but what I was making
[13:46]doc, my sister grew up in a very severe form of epilepsy. And I made a documentary about it.
[13:52]Back when I was making a documentary films, because she had brain surgery back in 1993.
[13:56]And it was a film that was put on PBS and the whole deal. It was pretty successful.
[14:01]It was following the family around for this. And I learned in the process of making that film,
[14:06]but in fact, there are dogs that were trained to smell the aura of an epileptic seizure.
[14:13]Most seizures, not all, but most seizures when the brain chemistry starts to go,
[14:18]it changes the whole everything. And so a dog can actually sense it before the person can.
[14:25]So the dog will then an epilepsy dog will then take the person,
[14:29]hear his person and into the where other people are and where there's something going,
[14:34]oh, alert the person that you're about to have a seizure. So you might want to sit down and find
[14:38]yourself someplace safe to be. So that then I looked into more research of it and sure enough,
[14:43]there's dogs who can smell skin cancer, lung cancer, they can smell your breath. I mean,
[14:48]dogs, their sense of smell is actually crazy, crazy, accurate and specific. So if we could
[14:56]only talk to them and reason with them a little bit more clearly, because sometimes your dog just
[15:02]wants to chase the tennis ball. It's like, no, come on, you got to get to work smelling people.
[15:08]My dog is the only dog I think that does not like to chase anything or play with any toy or
[15:14]whatever. She just like, she just like, it's under my desk and you throw a ball just like,
[15:19]no, thanks. Yeah, right. You get it, right? Yeah. We and talk about the Seattle seven and how you
[15:26]just sort of founded this whole movement there. Yes, Seattle seven writers was it started
[15:31]as seven of us. And one of us was a former member of the weather underground. Thus we took the name
[15:38]the Seattle seven because of the real Seattle seven, which is referred to in the big of a bowski,
[15:44]as well, it was supposed to be the Seattle eight. That's why I was funny that you said
[15:48]that big of a basket. Well, yeah, they're actually Seattle eight, but they only had seven of us,
[15:52]you know, that kind of funny thing. It started out as seven writers who would get together and we
[15:57]said wine and wine. So we'd get together to complain about the business and drink wine.
[16:03]And because we found that we couldn't really do these kinds of complainings around civilians,
[16:09]you know, I don't like my agent, my marketing budget isn't big enough, you know,
[16:13]this and I don't like the thought they used for my last book. Like these are things
[16:17]it's only people who are in the nitty gritty of the business would Dan to complain about. So we
[16:22]kind of had a safe space. And then the art of racing in the rain hit, right? Now I was going
[16:27]everywhere and I was doing all sorts of events and I started doing benefit events where I would go
[16:32]and like changing handbook store for instance in Arizona and they would do a event for me,
[16:39]not in the store, but in a shopping center and then they would donate proceeds of the sales to
[16:44]an animal welfare group. And I was like, and that's actually win, win, win. Everybody's happy about
[16:49]that, right? So I brought it back and we started doing events as seven of us and we ended up
[16:54]growing to be about 80 or not. I think we're 83 in the like a max, 83 local writers in the
[17:00]Northwest. One of our favorite things was back in 2011, we did an event. I'm pretty proud of this,
[17:06]it's my idea called the novel live. And we wrote 36 writers wrote a novel live in six days.
[17:15]It taking two hours since at the typewriter and we were simultaneously on the internet and people
[17:21]could like chat in and we would auction off character names and stuff like that. So you could name
[17:26]your favorite uncle one of the characters after your uncle or something. And it was all a fund
[17:32]razor for literacy, but it was a lot of fun to get writers kind of like out of their comfort zone,
[17:37]put them on a stage, put a video camera in their face. And we would simulcast the computer would
[17:42]be projected on the screen. No, as they wrote. Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's like my worst nightmare.
[17:47]It was so much fun. It was great. I would be like, I don't know that I could, I don't think I could
[17:51]do it. I mean, we had a screen that you could put up if you wanted to like feel like you were
[17:56]private. Well, was it any good at the end? No, but it was published. It was published. Yeah,
[18:04]Hotel Angeline is the title that it came out as. And you know, we still get royalty checks. I
[18:09]have one right here. It still sells them. We donate 100% of the profits went go to literacy. So I
[18:15]have to turn this around. And what I'm going to do since Seattle 7 dissolved after 10 years
[18:20]of doing all this great work, we kind of separated and said, let's go do other things. And one
[18:25]of the things that I want to do is to become the author, the chair of the author leadership circle
[18:30]of bank, which I know you're a big supporter of. So bank foundation supports booksellers and bookstores
[18:37]who need like emergency funding because of natural disaster. For instance, the flooding that is
[18:42]going on in this started because of Hurricane Katrina. But if you think of all the fires in California,
[18:47]the floods in the Southeast and all the things that can go wrong, bookstores can come to bank. And
[18:53]they can say, I need like two grand just to like keep my lights on. And then we can turn that
[18:58]grand around in 48 hours and make sure that these bookstores remain part of our kind of literary
[19:03]ecosystem. So, you know, that's one of the things. So this money that we made from Hotel Angeline,
[19:09]go straight to bank and then bank can do great things with that. So I'm a big supporter of.
[19:14]And it's not just the store. It's the it's the booksellers in their lives.
[19:18]If they have a personal crisis or whatever.
[19:21]Yeah, trust me, I have to have a tooth. I don't know. Am I supposed to do a root canal or an
[19:26]extraction? People say, don't do a root canal. I'm so confused. But can you have to pay for that?
[19:31]Someone's got to pay for that. And, you know, if you're working two jobs and your car breaks down
[19:37]and you got your kid to school and all that, it's like, it's a problem. You may lose both jobs,
[19:41]you know. So we try and like give them some money so that they can get their car back on the road
[19:45]not have to. We can't lose booksellers. I mean, it's such a delicate system. There's,
[19:52]it's not a high-profit world. And so we as writers, we need to also support sometimes writers
[19:59]like to go.
[20:00]cave, you know, dwelling, you know, like going to the cave and pull a rock over and say,
[20:04]I see nothing, I hear nothing, you know, we're, we're surgeon Schmidt or whatever from Hogan's
[20:09]heroes. We have to push the rock away and come out and interact with, with booksellers,
[20:14]with librarians, with our readers, with our fans, you know, best part of our obligation is to,
[20:19]to, you know, cultivate the, cultivate the vegetables. So have you seen this new show called
[20:25]the offer about Paul Ready, who founded Hogan's? Oh, my God. It's awesome. That's probably why it was
[20:30]in my head. Oh, my God. I can't stop thinking about it. I cannot stop me. It's so good. It's amazing. I,
[20:36]I love the period cars and all that stuff. And it's, they did such a good job to do to place out
[20:41]Pacino. Oh, my God. It's freaky. I am obsessed. I, I think I'm going to watch the whole thing again.
[20:47]And it's crazy. It takes so much time. It's so good. Anyway, but, you know, there are two kinds of people in
[20:51]the world to be there are the people who believe the godfather is one of the three best
[20:55]films ever made. And there are those who don't. And I'm glad that you were one of us. So
[20:59]the godfather is awesome. Well, now I think the offer is one of the best things that were made
[21:03]the, the, the movie about the movie about getting, I'm getting off topic. But when you said
[21:06]Hogan's here, I'm like, Oh, my gosh, already already. Yeah. Amazing. Well, I do think think is really
[21:13]important. And during the pandemic in particular, I just, you know, it was just like the,
[21:18]what are the books I was doing? Like, what's everybody gonna do? So I'm actually going to look at two
[21:22]spaces this afternoon for bookstores. Can I know you want to open a bookstore? Yeah. It's been like
[21:27]a lifelong dream. So I'm finally like, I don't know. I'm going to do, I'm doing, I'm going today.
[21:33]So hopefully, we'll see. I don't know. I'm excited. Yeah. Okay. Well, well, the advice they give
[21:38]people who want to get into race car driving is if you want to make a billion dollars start with
[21:42]two. So I think it's the same with the book selling world. So I'm sure you'll be fabulous at
[21:48]it because, you know, you have such a keen eye, but it's not, it's, it's a tough world, man. And
[21:54]good luck. But the people are amazing. I love going to conferences of, you know, the bookstores
[21:59]all get together and have their, their, their conferences, their regional meetings and, and the
[22:04]American Bookseller Association. And the people are so great. I wish I could have a bookstore,
[22:09]but I'm supposed to be writing books. So what are you working on now? I'm working on a couple of
[22:16]of things. I've got a book two of my graphic novel series is coming out. We're going to launch
[22:21]that in July of 23. So we're, we're finishing up the artwork. It's a long process. I can write a
[22:28]script way quicker than my illustrator can illustrate it. But, but it's great. It's called the
[22:33]Clovin. And it's about genetically modified goat people who live, live among us, but they hide
[22:41]right in plain sight. They live with the, among the homeless population where, where people don't
[22:45]want to look. So they say, oh, I don't see that. I don't see those hooves. I don't see those hooves.
[22:50]And so the Clovin is this adventure is one of, one of, one of these experiments gone awry. And it's
[22:56]sort of a, I mean, it's black comedy satirical. And the second book is coming out next summer. We're
[23:03]launching a comic on. And, and then I'm working on two novels alternately. I hate doing that. But
[23:10]one hasn't come up and grabbed me said, I need you full time yet. But it's probably going to
[23:15]happen. I'm sensing it's going to happen with one of them. One of them is about two, eight, seven
[23:18]year old ladies who become new best friends based kind of on my, the, the adventures of my mother
[23:24]who wanders around with her best friend, getting into mischief and, you know, drinking too much wine
[23:29]at lunch and stuff like that, which I think is hysterical. And then the other is kind of a speculative
[23:34]fiction about what this world is headed toward, you know, with artificial intelligence. And
[23:41]well, it grapples with this comedy of the soul and consciousness and what it means to be a person.
[23:47]And, you know, when we start looking at these, these photos that we're seeing from outer space of
[23:52]like Jupiter and stuff, just like amazing to think that we are a little teeny,
[23:59]anybody speck of dust, you know, among this vastness of this universe. And to think that we know
[24:06]all the answers about how things work is just egregiously full of hubris, I think, you know, I mean,
[24:14]we don't know anything. We're lucky we know what we know. And we should be happy with that.
[24:19]But we should always be striving to understand like sort of the bigger context, which is,
[24:23]which is vast. So I'm grappling with those kinds of ideas in my new book.
[24:27]Nice and light, you know, I know, I know my agent's like, just write a book narrative by the cat.
[24:33]No, I love the idea of the 87 year old women. I think there is a huge void. And I'm trying to
[24:40]address this to be books. We have some books focusing on older characters and, you know,
[24:44]not that I can ever convince you. But if you wanted to send zippy books, we would be excited.
[24:50]But I love it. I absolutely. Are you kidding me? No, my God, you're, you're going insane. You're like a
[24:56]gigantic brand of, how did you, how do you have time to do all this stuff? You got
[25:01]podcast, you've got your big stores coming up. You got a publishing now.
[25:06]I think all this morning and I'm like, okay, I've got another idea, you know, because we don't have
[25:09]enough to do, you know, let's do that. Let's do that. Let's do that. I know. I don't know. It all like
[25:13]is making sense to me and coming together is like of a piece of this like literary lifestyle brand.
[25:17]So it's all just different elements. So it's all making sense to me in my head. But
[25:21]well, God bless you for doing it because it's so important, you know, because, you know, look,
[25:25]I think that, you know, I read your memoir, which I thought was fantastic by the way.
[25:30]I think everybody should rush out and buy a copy because it's really, really good.
[25:35]But, you know, dealing with this, it's, it's really important that we,
[25:39]that literature is a part of our lives as human beings because it, it makes us, you know,
[25:45]feel a greater sense of empathy. Yes. You know, we have to put ourselves as someone else's
[25:49]shoes and say, geez, what would I do in this situation? You know, and then by doing so, we learn that
[25:55]we all may have different opinions and different backgrounds and all that kind of stuff. But we,
[25:58]I mean, as goofy as it sounds, we all share, you know, this connection, this human connection of
[26:04]and the desire for, you know, meaning talking, communicating of love, of sharing, all these things
[26:12]enhance our empathy and they make us better as a society. And so we need to have a place,
[26:18]someone like you to be our champion of, you know, the literary world. So thank you for the,
[26:23]the great deeds that you are doing. Well, I'm so honored you read my book. Thank you. And
[26:28]thank you for those kind words. I know, I think that the connection that books make is, is
[26:32]unlike anything else. Like, you know, you and I talking about both watching the offer. Like,
[26:36]that's awesome. Right. But all these people reading books, right. It's like, it's the same thing.
[26:41]It's like 10 hours of time that we all spend. But then like, wouldn't you do with that? Like,
[26:45]I want to talk to people who read that book. Like, I want to talk to people who read that show.
[26:48]And I was just saying, like, this total stranger had a book event for me the other day. And I was
[26:54]sure why not? Like, I'm up for anything. You know, and then at the end of my post, I was like,
[26:58]you know, nobody's a stranger who has read the same book. You know, like, once we've all gone
[27:03]through this collective experience together, like, there's just something that we have to harness.
[27:07]And I think we have to like, it's so unique. And I think we're competing with people, younger people,
[27:14]if you will, who like won something in three seconds. And we have to resell the idea of a book.
[27:19]Like, it doesn't sound good. Like, spend 10 hours and sit, still, don't do anything else.
[27:25]And use your brain only. It's like, nah, I'm not going to do that.
[27:30]It is absolutely. And you're absolutely right. It is hard to, the competition is
[27:35]staff, you know, with this, like Twitter has no offense, but kind of destroyed our ability to
[27:41]concentrate, you know, why is that not offensive to me? I get it.
[27:45]You know, I just don't want to be struck by the bolt of Elon Musk's lightning or something like that.
[27:49]Oh, yeah. You can do big, powerful things. I'm sure if I say anything, although I don't,
[27:56]he doesn't like Twitter anymore. So this is not a big deal. But, you know, it is a attention span
[28:00]is a big issue for sure. And, you know, this idea, look, we're, we're moving. You know, I hit that,
[28:08]but I've been assigned to paint rooms and so forth. And so I've been listening to the audio book of
[28:13]War and Peace. I never read. And it's 55 hours of audio book. Oh my gosh. And I'm 30 some hours
[28:21]into it. And it's a great book. I mean, it's great. I mean, no wonder it's considered a great book
[28:26]because it is. And so here I am listening to it and painting. And I'm thinking, this is perfect,
[28:31]right? I'm, I'm, I'm just, and why do I have to justify my time? Why do I have to double?
[28:38]I mean, I don't mind doing it. But in the old days, you could actually just sit down and read
[28:42]the book and not do anything else. Here I am. Well, I can, I can kind of justify reading the book
[28:48]because I'm doing something else while, you know, constructive. And I think that's, that's unfair
[28:53]to literature. But it's part of how our world is going, you know, that we have to like, if you
[28:58]are doing three things at once, you're not really getting enough done. And we should be able to
[29:04]indulge in literature and, and hold that space. And I think that, again, that's, you know, mom's
[29:09]don't have time to read. You're pointing up this exact problem, you know, we have to hold the
[29:15]space to be human, right? And, and without that, you know, it's going to be a dark, dark world
[29:22]that we're heading on to. I totally agree. All the things we don't make time for, that's what
[29:26]it's all about. But they had everything gets pushed on the back burner. And before you know,
[29:32]it's all over. So I'll leave you with that lovely thought. That's so depressing.
[29:40]You're going to go back and, go back and edit that in a more positive way, okay?
[29:47]And then it's over. No, it's over. Sorry. No, but like, look, life is short. We all make choices
[29:53]every single day. All we have is today. And we make the choices of how we're going to spend our time.
[29:57]You're going to spend your time painting and listening to warm pieces.
[30:00]that's like such a cool image, by the way.
[30:02]Oh my gosh, that's just so cool.
[30:04]It's like the most badass literary visual I could think of,
[30:07]like you with your tattoos,
[30:09]like making your stuff weird.
[30:11]It's like the overlay, it's like a movie.
[30:13]It's like that, anyway, that's awesome.
[30:15]But, you know, or you choose to spend another three hours
[30:19]doing whatever stupid stuff that adds up to nothing.
[30:21]I don't know, we all get to make our choices
[30:24]and I think without books and disability
[30:26]to like literally read each other's minds.
[30:29]You lose out, like hugely, hugely.
[30:32]Anyway, but I don't need to tell you this
[30:34]because you're on the same page.
[30:35]I'm on the same page.
[30:36]Anyway, all right, well, nothing like a little,
[30:40]what's so cool.
[30:42]Meaning of life conversation did not make any doubt.
[30:45]We've squandered our half hour,
[30:47]talking about the meaning of life.
[30:48]What is going on?
[30:49]Oh my gosh.
[30:53]Anyway, well, thanks for coming on.
[30:54]Mom's done a time to read books.
[30:56]I really appreciate it.
[30:58]Yeah, it's been a pleasure.
[30:59]And look, I want to come on for the Clovin,
[31:02]when it comes out and go, my lady book comes out,
[31:05]I have a title, I'm not telling it.
[31:06]But when it comes out, and maybe you and I will talk about it
[31:09]being a zinni books production, that's all for us.
[31:12]Oh my gosh.
[31:12]I'm all for us.
[31:13]All ladies would love it, man.
[31:14]It's so, all ladies are so funny.
[31:16]I mean, in a good way, right?
[31:18]I just love my book.
[31:19]All ladies are just us in a few years,
[31:22]just me in a few years.
[31:23]Like they're just as smart and engaged
[31:26]and like open, there is, it is such an untapped market.
[31:30]It's ridiculous.
[31:32]Yeah, and they buy books and they read.
[31:34]Yeah, so it's all good.
[31:36]And I'm all about it.
[31:37]Yeah, okay.
[31:38]I can't wait to read it.
[31:39]Okay, all right, I have a great day, guys.
[31:43]Thanks, you too.
[31:43]Okay, bye.
[31:46]Thanks for listening to this episode of Mom's
[31:48]Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[31:49]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[31:51]at Zibi Owens and at Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[31:54]Also sign up for my newsletter at Zibi Owens.com
[31:57]and sign up for my virtual book club
[31:58]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[32:01]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound
[32:04]for the Sound Editing.
[32:05]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[32:07]for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.