Katie Sise, THE BREAK: A Novel
[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
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[0:54]Katie Seis is the author of the break a novel former television host
[1:02]And jewelry designer Katie Seis is the best-selling author of novels of domestic suspense open house
[1:08]And we were mothers her latest novel break is coming out right now
[1:12]And will also be our zibby's virtual book club pick for November
[1:17]So if you would like to discuss the book with fellow zibby's virtual book club members
[1:21]There are thousands of you out there or would like to come meet her for Q&A
[1:25]We will be doing that on November 15th
[1:27]So go to bookclubs.com and search for my book club zibby's virtual book club
[1:31]You can also get there through zibbyowens.com
[1:34]After graduating from University of Notre Dame
[1:36]Katie moved to New York City to act on stage and film
[1:39]She then got a job at a fashion boutique and stumbled into a career making jewelry
[1:44]Until lucky magazine called her a designer to watch and then her work was featured in every magazine
[1:50]And worn by people like Beyonce, you may have heard of her, Cameron Diaz
[1:54]And Hathaway Kelly Ripa and Drew Barrymore, and so many more
[1:57]So Katie has extensive on camera experience
[2:00]She co-hosted a TV show on the Home Shopping Network and many more
[2:03]But her jewelry and television career led her to write her first book called Creative Girl
[2:09]Which ignited her passion for writing
[2:10]She learned the craft of storytelling while working as a ghostwriter
[2:14]On New York Times best-selling suspense books
[2:16]And went on to publish three YA novels under her own name with Harper Collins
[2:20]The Boyfriend app, The Pretty app, and The Academy
[2:23]Katie lives an hour outside New York City in the suburbs of Westchester County with her family
[2:27]Welcome Katie, thank you so much for coming on mom's don't have time to read bugs to discuss your latest novel The Break
[2:33]Thank you for having me. I'm so excited
[2:35]It's so great to have you back
[2:37]So tell listeners to start what the break is about
[2:40]And by the way, this is the book that Zibi's virtual book club is reading for November
[2:46]I think, right November?
[2:47]Okay, so tell everyone about it
[2:50]Okay, so the break is the story of a young woman who goes in to deliver her baby in New York City hospital
[2:56]And she's a very very traumatic birth and she can't remember much of it
[3:00]So when she returns home with her beautiful perfect newborn
[3:03]She has this sense that something is really wrong and sort of can't get back on her feet
[3:07]Can't remember details from the birth and her husband hires this very young beautiful
[3:12]22-year-old aspiring actress who he knows her husband's a screenwriter and he knows this actress June through his agency
[3:18]And so June arrives and a few days into her employment, they're rowing my main character
[3:24]Accuses June of harming the baby
[3:26]She sort of suffers this psychological break and then she looks down and sees that her baby is actually
[3:31]Okay, she's sleeping peacefully in her bassinet and days later June disappears
[3:35]June the baby said her disappears and neighbors have sort of heard this break that she had when she was accusing
[3:40]June of doing these things and Rowan becomes a suspect in June's disappearance
[3:43]And so sort of through the haze of postpartum anxiety and having this newborn that she's feeding and taking care of and loving
[3:50]Around the clock she has to put her mind back together and face some darker truths to get to the bottom of what's happened to June
[3:56]Well, you have this very chilling scene where she's flashing back and
[4:02]Rowan is pushing June the babysitter like closer and closer to the window and is thinking to herself like I get you know
[4:08]This is it like I have to do this and then
[4:10]Luckily, she snatches of peak and sees her baby still there, but she was like oh my gosh
[4:15]I can't believe I would even think about doing that like what's wrong with me
[4:19]Oh my gosh, and just like I feel like this totally tenuous grasp on
[4:24]Sanity when you're a new mom. You've completely encapsulated and this this of course is like an outer boundary of it
[4:31]I love how you have her mother-in-lawsters like tiptoe in
[4:35]Like
[4:36]Okay, you need some help in here
[4:38]Crazy person who's screaming and scary the neighbors. Oh my gosh
[4:43]And there was it was interesting to sort of weave in those moments of
[4:47]Those of us who have had children and you know those postpartum moments when you're just feeling like as
[4:53]Particular the intrusive thoughts like I thought were really interesting to research and I didn't even know about postpartum anxiety when I had my first
[5:00]I didn't really I'd heard about postpartum depression, you know
[5:02]And I remember thinking like well, I don't have that, but I felt this
[5:06]These fears it's like someone's handed you this baby who you love more than anything in the world
[5:11]But now you have all these fears creepin like well, what if something happens? What if I use something wrong and
[5:15]For me at least particularly with my first and I would say honestly with all four of mine
[5:20]I would just be so nervous that something was something I don't know
[5:23]So everybody I think that has read it who has said the idea of having to get to the bottom of something big while your mind is in that state
[5:30]You know feels like it's even more of a pressing pressure to get something done that feels really hard
[5:35]So this follows your novel open house why go to this plot and
[5:41]Why this story like where did this come from in your own life or imagination?
[5:45]So I've been writing now for you know since I was little
[5:48]But I would say I think I think maybe professionally for like 12 years or so and this has never happened to me
[5:53]Even when I was younger and I would be thinking about books all the time this story came to me in a dream
[5:57]So I I just saw this woman and she was facing a wall and sort of just like almost like a
[6:03]Almost like clawing at wallpaper yelling for someone to give her back her baby
[6:07]And I and I remember waking up and feeling like oh my gosh
[6:09]What was that you know?
[6:10]What was that dream and for some reason I couldn't get her out of my head and I just like I kept seeing her and thinking about the dream
[6:14]And so it actually really came from that and I thought for a while that I wouldn't be able to write it because I thought that it would be
[6:20]Sort of too dark
[6:21]But I kept thinking about her and you know how when ideas bounce around for a long time you sort of think like okay
[6:25]This this is something that needs to that I need to write even if it doesn't ever become published
[6:29]I need to at least try to write her and see where she is and what's happening
[6:32]And that's sort of how the book came to be and I would say that this one
[6:35]Compared to all the other books that I've written these characters feel the most like me
[6:38]So a lot of times people will ask like with we were mothers
[6:40]They're like well are you like that that woman or is that like a friend of yours?
[6:43]Was that you or and and they really haven't been but then this time around I felt like rowing
[6:48]She's a mystery writer
[6:49]She feels a lot like I felt when you know
[6:51]Obviously the circumstances are different. Thank God and then June the actress who comes sort of into their lives
[6:56]Reminds of you of myself at 22 like a very wide-eyed and trying to figure it all out and everything feels very amazing and on
[7:02]Edge and you're trying to figure out where you fit in and where who you can trust and what you should be doing and you're almost like
[7:06]Faking it to you make it a little bit and you're and you're trying to sort out your entire life and you're only 22
[7:12]Which when I look back on it
[7:13]I'm like how does anybody ever ever do that at 22 and it was set in New York where I was
[7:18]You know during that time. I love New York City. I think part of writing this book was it was the pandemic
[7:23]Had I've been back to New York?
[7:24]I only had the fix of Manhattan in a long time
[7:26]And I think part of it was a bit escapist to write about that setting instead of setting it here
[7:31]Where I normally set my books
[7:32]I like to set my books sort of like in the idyllic, you know
[7:34]Country side because that's what I I see around me
[7:37]Battelle listeners where here is okay
[7:39]So here is an hour north of New York City and it's very different from New York City
[7:43]There's a lot of farms and and there are a lot of just open green spaces
[7:47]And woods and some really pretty stone walls that I love and older houses that I love to just look at and think about what
[7:54]Happens behind closed doors
[7:57]I was a lot of my work
[7:59]But this time I think I just needed to write something
[8:02]And there's that glittery feel of Manhattan
[8:04]I think in the story where anything feels possible and I oh, I love that about living in New York
[8:08]I always felt like anything
[8:09]It's possible
[8:10]Well Manhattan does not feel glittery today as we're talking
[8:13]It is one of these disgusting drenched rainy days where nothing feels glittery
[8:18]Everything feels dampened and depressing
[8:20]So I'm gonna live through your sorros colored glasses at the moment
[8:26]Feel free to do that
[8:29]Also, I will say our the beautiful countryside that I'm describing is also really gray right now and and drizzly
[8:35]I just did preschool drop-off and brought the wrong umbrella and that was a that was a thing
[8:39]About the pink one and not the glitter one so
[8:43]And how old are your four kids?
[8:45]So there my boys are 11 and 8 and then I have four-year-old girls
[8:50]Twin girls who are four and a half almost this month amazing
[8:53]So do you write when they're all at school and do you have do you have like a routine?
[8:57]Yeah
[8:58]So I I really only write when everybody's at school partly because I my brain isn't really ready to work in the afternoon
[9:05]I don't know whether even if they weren't home
[9:07]I'm not I'm no good in the afternoon
[9:09]So I write in the morning
[9:10]I drop everybody off and then come back and I try to write for about
[9:13]Anywhere between an hour and a half and two hours and it helps if I tell myself
[9:17]Okay, I'm gonna do at least 500 word and then if it feels good
[9:20]I can keep going and do like a thousand or 1500 a day is usually that's like a great day
[9:25]When I was younger, I could crank up more like two to three thousand words a day
[9:28]But I just I don't have those bones right now. I think maybe maybe when my little girls are in full day school or something like that
[9:35]I might try to get back to that piece, but right now I just try for 500 to about a thousand
[9:40]And so you like me we're both published by little a for our
[9:44]her work and even though people might not
[9:48]Know you as a household name you've sold more copies of your books and like anybody in the planet
[9:55]For all of your books tell me about your experience
[10:00]with Little A and how it feels to be so successful
[10:03]and everything that comes with being published by Little A.
[10:06]I really loved it there and we share our editor Carmen
[10:08]who's wonderful.
[10:09]It really starts with her.
[10:11]You have these conversations with her
[10:12]and she's so calm and she's really wise.
[10:15]Her instincts are really good.
[10:16]I feel like we understand each other really well.
[10:18]So usually the idea generally starts there
[10:20]like I'll pitch her an idea.
[10:22]Now of course certainly it didn't work that first way.
[10:23]First when we sold the first book,
[10:26]I had to write the whole novel first,
[10:27]which is what I usually will tell people
[10:29]who have their first novel coming.
[10:30]Even though I had written young adult before,
[10:32]I say when you're doing something new,
[10:34]it's helpful to have that full manuscript.
[10:35]I have found in my experience.
[10:37]But then now that I'm with Carmen and with Little A,
[10:39]often I'll pitch an idea
[10:41]and then I'll be able to tell right away
[10:42]if Carmen likes it and I'll go for it
[10:44]and she's very trusting.
[10:45]I usually write the whole first,
[10:47]the first draft really without any help
[10:49]or even input, I usually,
[10:51]and if I did once call her,
[10:52]I think in the middle of the break
[10:53]and I can't even remember the question
[10:55]it was a plot question and she sort of just said,
[10:57]you know what?
[10:58]I trust your instincts.
[10:58]And she said, you know what your readers want,
[11:00]which was really empowering to hear from your editor
[11:02]because I felt like, okay, I do know usually, hopefully.
[11:06]And I've loved being with Little A
[11:08]because I think that they have a really keen sense of
[11:11]what readers wanna read,
[11:12]but they hold you to a good standard
[11:15]in terms of what they wanna publish
[11:16]and where the writing quality needs to be.
[11:18]And so that's on my shoulder as well too.
[11:20]And sometimes that means
[11:21]that I have to stop a little early for the day
[11:23]if I'm sort of feeling like it's not going
[11:25]where I need it to go into the level I want to go,
[11:27]I will stop and I just tell myself,
[11:29]okay, I have plenty of time to finish this draft
[11:32]and it will go in when it's meant to go in.
[11:34]I love a good deadline.
[11:35]I feel like I'm a role follower in most ways.
[11:38]And so I'll hit my deadlines.
[11:40]And yeah, I've loved working with them.
[11:41]How about you?
[11:42]Yeah, me too.
[11:43]You have such a huge audience.
[11:45]And I do think one thing with any Amazon owned companies
[11:49]is because the traditional bookstores
[11:52]don't always wanna stock the books.
[11:54]You might not get as many sort of in-store eyeballs
[11:57]if you will on the books.
[11:58]And you are ineligible essentially
[12:01]to be on the main lists and best selling lists and everything.
[12:05]But then there's somebody like you
[12:07]who should buy all means beyond like every single list
[12:10]based on sales and based on all these other metrics.
[12:13]That's not necessarily my issue.
[12:16]I wouldn't be qualifying anyway, I don't think,
[12:18]but I don't know if I was just wondering,
[12:20]do you ever have any regrets or do you feel like Amazon's
[12:23]powerhouse marketing has enabled you to find your audience
[12:25]even more successfully?
[12:27]Yeah, I would say the latter.
[12:28]Because I, and while I, of course, I would love,
[12:30]I mean, I would literally frame it right here on the wall
[12:33]if I was on a list.
[12:33]I would of course love that.
[12:34]But I will say, I love having readers.
[12:37]So I have found that I have seen people,
[12:40]so my agent, I remember sending me a copy of someone
[12:42]reading it at the pool.
[12:44]And I actually, I could only see her here
[12:45]I assumed it was his wife.
[12:46]And I was like, oh, is Beth liking it?
[12:47]He's like, that's not bad.
[12:49]That's a random reader at a pool where he was on vacation.
[12:52]So I love having that experience where people have read it
[12:55]or I'll say one of my books and someone will say,
[12:59]oh, I read we were mothers or I read open house.
[13:01]That's your book.
[13:02]And I think I enjoy that almost more
[13:04]just that people have read it.
[13:05]I just, I can't believe people read my books.
[13:07]I still feel like my parents are going to read them
[13:10]and my sister, because I'm going to force her to.
[13:12]But that people have read them is really exciting.
[13:15]And I even like, I know this is crazy to say,
[13:17]but even when people don't like them and they go on and say,
[13:21]and do their reviews and they don't like them,
[13:23]I still feel like thank you so much for reading this.
[13:25]Like, I hope you've like, I don't mind even hearing why
[13:28]because sometimes that's helpful.
[13:29]Yeah, I love having readers.
[13:30]I think that's more to me than I love having readers.
[13:32]That's really been my dream since I was little.
[13:34]Oh, I guess also part of that is because I love the whole concept
[13:38]of entertainment.
[13:38]Like that's why I work in entertainment.
[13:40]I used to, when I first came at us,
[13:42]I was studying acting in college.
[13:44]And so I was acting for the first year or two years
[13:46]and making like a dollar a day or zero dollars.
[13:48]And so needed to switch out of that.
[13:50]But I love the idea of entertaining people.
[13:52]Like, I feel like at the hardest times in my life,
[13:54]I've turned to a book or a movie.
[13:56]And that's my thing is escaping through somebody else's story.
[14:00]And so to be able to do that and have people actually
[14:02]reading the books feels like the most important part.
[14:05]Really, and really fun, totally.
[14:07]And so not only do you have four kids and have three books
[14:10]and have many years for adults, like five years, four years.
[14:13]And somewhere around that, I remember I wrote we were mothers
[14:17]and she had twins in that book.
[14:18]And I was like, oh my gosh, this sounds so hard.
[14:20]I was writing the character and I was like,
[14:21]I don't know how she's doing twins.
[14:23]This is hard stuff.
[14:24]And then I turned in my manuscript, went to my sonogram.
[14:28]And they were like, do twins?
[14:29]I had my four-year-old with me.
[14:31]So I told them, don't say, he was three at the time.
[14:33]I said, don't say anything about this being a pregnancy.
[14:36]Like he just needs to think we're looking at a screen
[14:38]because I didn't want to tell him yet.
[14:39]It was early.
[14:39]So she couldn't use the word pregnancy.
[14:41]It was like that game where you can't say certain words.
[14:43]She was like, she couldn't use the word pregnancy.
[14:44]So she looked at me and she said,
[14:45]so do twins run in your family?
[14:49]And I said, no, do they now?
[14:51]And she said, yup.
[14:53]And so, I guess.
[14:55]That would have been about five years ago.
[14:57]So yeah, so three books and five years for adults.
[14:59]And I think, and there's two more in the pipeline
[15:01]with little A, one coming out called the vacation rental
[15:04]and then one following that.
[15:06]And I think we're going to try to pick up the pace a little
[15:08]so that they publish every year and a half.
[15:10]Wow, that's amazing, really amazing.
[15:12]So in addition to all of that,
[15:15]you have your own bedding tennis career.
[15:17]Oh, yes, this is so exciting.
[15:20]I can't even stand it.
[15:21]Okay, talk about that.
[15:23]Okay, so moms don't have time to play tennis,
[15:25]is maybe, so okay.
[15:28]I stumbled upon tennis maybe three years ago.
[15:31]I played a little bit when I was little,
[15:32]but nothing serious.
[15:33]And I loved it so much.
[15:35]I don't know if it's a satisfaction of hitting that ball.
[15:38]It's good exercise.
[15:38]I'm not good at going to the gym.
[15:40]So playing a game gets me excited
[15:42]and like laughing and having fun.
[15:43]And I became totally like crazy obsessed with it.
[15:47]And so this weekend, as I was telling Zippy earlier,
[15:49]my team and I went to USTA Nationals in Oklahoma City.
[15:53]And we got third, our team got third place.
[15:56]The full metal rackets is our team name.
[15:59]And we had, oh my gosh.
[16:01]It was really the first time I'd gone somewhere.
[16:03]Sort of since, you know, I had the girls in 2018,
[16:05]pandemic hit, I hadn't really gone,
[16:07]you know, I don't really got anywhere,
[16:08]other than I think like to New York City
[16:10]to your like one of your events.
[16:11]Like I was just having a fair and a while.
[16:13]And so we went to Oklahoma City.
[16:15]We had the best weekend.
[16:16]And I was telling Zippy earlier that my son,
[16:18]was supposed to sing the National Anthem.
[16:20]He's 11, he loves to sing.
[16:21]And he was supposed to sing it at USTA, at the Nationals,
[16:24]but it fell throughout the last minute.
[16:25]And they texted us and he couldn't do it.
[16:26]And he was pretty upset.
[16:27]And we had the conversation about, you know,
[16:29]creative people here know all the time.
[16:31]There's rejection all the time.
[16:32]You just keep going till you get a yes.
[16:34]And then sort of this very surprising thing happened
[16:37]where my partner Seth arranged for him to sing
[16:40]at the Jones Assembly, which is this unbelievable music
[16:43]venue where, you know, there's lists on the wall
[16:45]who is saying there.
[16:46]It's just, it was the loveliest place.
[16:48]It was so unbelievably gorgeous.
[16:50]And a man there named Dalton Metas
[16:53]and sort of gave us the backstage tour
[16:54]and the singer that was on that night said,
[16:57]I'd like to introduce Luke Sweeney.
[17:00]He's 11 years old.
[17:01]He was supposed to sing the National Anthem today
[17:03]at Nationals.
[17:04]He's gonna sing it for you all now.
[17:06]And then Luke got up there and just
[17:08]sang this beautiful rendition of the National Anthem.
[17:10]And everybody was screaming and cheering and cheering for him.
[17:14]And it was this really, really magical night.
[17:16]It was awesome.
[17:18]It was wonderful.
[17:18]Oh my gosh, I can't believe it.
[17:20]So where is your tennis team from?
[17:22]Your club or where is it from?
[17:23]They're from, we play out of Chestnut Ridge,
[17:26]which is a tennis facility.
[17:28]It's indoor and outdoor courts in Mount Kisco.
[17:31]So it's about a 10 minute drive from my house.
[17:33]And we practice a lot.
[17:36]And then we play about it.
[17:37]We've been playing since April.
[17:39]It's about a match a week.
[17:41]So you play it like six in the evenings once a week,
[17:43]which I love because it's in the shade.
[17:44]And we had a great time.
[17:46]And so we just kept, we just sort of kept like,
[17:48]we knew our team was kind of, it was pretty good.
[17:50]We kept winning and we were like,
[17:51]you know, it's my first year playing USTA.
[17:53]So I thought maybe that's how it goes.
[17:54]But everybody's like, no, you don't just go to Nationals each year.
[17:57]So we had a class, we had a really good time together.
[17:59]And it's such good exercise.
[18:01]And I love the chest component of it
[18:03]where you finally learned to hit the ball over the net.
[18:05]And then you have to start to learn,
[18:06]okay, well, now I can do that.
[18:07]So now we're supposed to stand.
[18:08]Like it's a little chest match during doubles,
[18:11]which I like.
[18:12]And I love being on a team.
[18:12]I haven't been on a team since I was a teenager, you know,
[18:15]kind of forgot about that aspect.
[18:17]Wow.
[18:18]Yeah, it was fun.
[18:19]It was a lot of fun.
[18:19]That's amazing.
[18:20]How great to embrace a new activity
[18:23]and just like pick it up.
[18:24]I've been playing tennis my whole life.
[18:26]I have not seen any of your quite good.
[18:29]I've seen your forehand.
[18:30]Love it.
[18:30]No, I feel like the success that comes
[18:35]with that kind of a victory is so different
[18:37]than the other little mini successes you can get,
[18:39]even as writers or as parents or whatever,
[18:43]but having that sort of physical accomplishment
[18:47]and widespread heralding of what you're doing.
[18:51]That's so neat.
[18:52]It's just so awesome.
[18:53]Really different.
[18:54]Really different.
[18:55]Different than anything I've been in like 25 years.
[18:57]You know, that's what it,
[18:57]it's this different feeling.
[18:59]Good for you.
[19:00]That is so cool.
[19:01]And it used to be,
[19:01]didn't you also design jewelry?
[19:03]Like in your spare time,
[19:04]you were like a major jewelry designer
[19:06]with like a huge following in the entertainment work.
[19:09]Like tell me about that.
[19:11]How do you do all of this stuff?
[19:12]So I haven't, so when I was,
[19:14]I don't know about huge following,
[19:15]but thank you, but that's generous.
[19:16]But when I was in my 20s,
[19:18]so when I was acting,
[19:19]I was bartending on the side to make money.
[19:22]And so I'd bartend at night,
[19:23]probably like four shifts a week or so.
[19:25]I waitressed a little,
[19:26]but I was a horrible waitress.
[19:28]I was actually okay at bartending,
[19:29]but horrible waitress.
[19:30]I sort of realized that I needed a new job.
[19:33]I remember thinking like, okay,
[19:34]the nights were sort of hard.
[19:35]I was a little tired.
[19:36]And then I took a job at this woman's boutique.
[19:39]It was a clothing boutique in the meat packing district.
[19:41]And so at this point, I was 25.
[19:44]I'd been bartending and waitressing for about three years.
[19:45]I was 25 and always writing,
[19:47]like always writing waking up in the morning and writing.
[19:49]And, but I hadn't published anything
[19:50]or it really even come close.
[19:52]I was also so young.
[19:53]I didn't really understand the idea
[19:54]of like going to classes,
[19:55]going to workshops,
[19:56]trying, I didn't totally,
[19:58]that was so young,
[19:58]like June in the break.
[20:00]that age and trying to figure it all out.
[20:02]So I was at this clothing boutique and I was that age
[20:04]where you sort of like feel like you can do anything
[20:06]and there isn't really that,
[20:07]there isn't as much of a kernel of doubt
[20:09]that I would probably have now as a 43 year old mom
[20:13]and sort of overthinking things like I tend to do.
[20:16]And I remember thinking,
[20:17]I was in the boutique and she had amazing stuff
[20:20]and I remember thinking like, well,
[20:21]I could make jewelry too as one thing.
[20:23]So when they're, you know, I don't know,
[20:25]I don't know, that was my plan.
[20:27]So I made some necklaces and I remember,
[20:29]I started wearing them to the store
[20:30]because I was very bold
[20:31]and I remember this woman loving the necklace
[20:33]and I said, oh, I'll sell it to you.
[20:35]So which is like not really an okay thing to do
[20:38]because like the woman who owns the boutique
[20:40]is still one of my closest friends today, thank God.
[20:42]And so she finally said, all right, look,
[20:44]I'll make you a space.
[20:45]You can have this little shelf here.
[20:46]You can put your pieces there and we'll sell them in the store.
[20:48]And then it was just one of those crazy things
[20:50]where it just kind of took off like some celebrities
[20:52]would come in like I loved Kate Winslet.
[20:54]I saw Titanic 12 times in the theater.
[20:57]I remember she came in and bought a piece
[21:00]and I was so nervous.
[21:01]I couldn't even tell her that I was the one that made them
[21:03]like, she, I remember her being like,
[21:04]this is so lovely.
[21:06]And I just really, I could have like told her the lines
[21:10]from Titanic back again.
[21:11]You know, I could have done all her monologues
[21:13]but I just sort of sat there and was so happy.
[21:15]And then all these magazine editors started,
[21:18]they just started featuring the pieces
[21:19]because I was sort of also, I'm like pretty scrappy.
[21:22]Like I will, if somebody says to me, well,
[21:24]can you do this?
[21:25]I won't say like unless I really can't do it.
[21:28]I won't say no.
[21:29]They would be like, well, we're doing a piece on leather.
[21:32]Can you make leather jewelry?
[21:33]And I would have no idea how to make leather jewelry.
[21:35]But I would be like, oh, I can definitely make you leather
[21:37]jewelry.
[21:38]And then I would stay up all night trying to figure out
[21:40]how to make leather jewelry on our kitchen table.
[21:42]And I would go to the district where you buy jewelry
[21:44]and buy some weird leather stuff and then like try to make it.
[21:46]And so things would happen like that.
[21:48]And then I thought to myself, well,
[21:51]my background is in acting.
[21:52]So I should just try to take this like style jewelry thing
[21:55]and maybe try to like do something on camera with that.
[21:57]So I started being a TV host.
[21:59]And I would do some random stuff like some stuff
[22:02]on like the oxygen network.
[22:03]I remember I did Elizabeth Hassellback's baby shower.
[22:07]And I loved the view because I was wondering the day.
[22:09]So I would make jewelry while the view was on.
[22:11]And then like I would hear the soap operas in the background,
[22:13]which I would tell myself was good for story,
[22:16]which I still think is something TV is really good
[22:18]for like getting a knack of how story flows for books
[22:21]or can flow.
[22:22]So I'd make jewelry all day and listen to the view.
[22:24]So I went to her baby shower
[22:27]and got to meet with Meredith Bierra.
[22:30]And it was crazy.
[22:31]Anyways, so that kind of stuff kept happening.
[22:32]Oh, and then I hosted this show on the home shopping network,
[22:35]which was, they would fly me down to Tampa.
[22:37]I'm like, in my mid 20s,
[22:38]it's the most fabulous thing that's ever happened to me.
[22:40]They would fly me down to Tampa.
[22:41]And I would talk about jewelry and stuff
[22:43]and actually get paid for it.
[22:44]It was like I had a job that had to do with TV,
[22:46]which was really fun.
[22:47]And then sort of around age 28, 29,
[22:51]I remember thinking to myself,
[22:52]like there should be almost like a book about,
[22:55]and of course there are other books about, of course,
[22:57]there are other books that had to make a creative living.
[22:59]But I remember thinking like there should be one
[23:01]about how the path can be so circuitous.
[23:04]And you hear all these nose all the time you hear no
[23:07]and you just kind of keep on figuring like your way in
[23:10]and you kind of try to look at yourself
[23:11]and what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are.
[23:13]And so I wrote a book proposal.
[23:16]I remember I took a class,
[23:17]but then I realized how helpful it was
[23:19]to actually take a class and try to figure that out.
[23:22]Took a class, wrote a book proposal and submitted it
[23:24]to my agent who is my still my current agent to this day.
[23:27]So that was the first book.
[23:28]And then the rest have all been fiction.
[23:30]And I got a first note for the first novel
[23:32]that I wrote, like I wrote like a 350 page novel.
[23:34]We tried to sell that.
[23:35]We got to know, I still want to sell that book.
[23:37]It is a paranormal young adult about a girl
[23:41]who just wants to escape her body.
[23:43]And I still want to sell it.
[23:44]Maybe I'll go working.
[23:46]You should go working on it.
[23:47]That'll be your afternoon.
[23:48]That'll be my afternoon.
[23:49]Katie, you are so awesome.
[23:51]I am so impressed with not only the break
[23:55]and all your other bugs and your creativity and your tennis,
[23:58]but honestly, this relentless drive and can do attitude.
[24:02]It's amazing.
[24:03]It's so cool and you're really inspiring.
[24:06]So thank you for coming back on mom's own time to read bugs.
[24:09]Excited to talk to you in just a few weeks
[24:11]or book club, although I don't know when this will air.
[24:14]And I'm just so excited.
[24:15]To know you, so thanks.
[24:17]So excited to know you.
[24:18]Thank you so much, Debbie.
[24:19]OK.
[24:19]Hi, Katie.
[24:20]Have a great day.
[24:20]Bye.
[24:22]Thanks for listening to this episode of Mom's Don't Have Time
[24:25]to Read Books.
[24:26]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, at Zibi Owens,
[24:29]and at Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[24:31]Also sign up for my newsletter at zibiowens.com
[24:34]and sign up for my virtual book club
[24:35]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[24:38]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan.
[24:39]In fact, texture sound for the sound editing.
[24:42]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[24:43]for providing this fantastic intro.
[24:45]Now, trim music.