Megan Tady, SUPER BLOOM: A Novel
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zippy Owens, and you're listening to moms don't have time to read books.
[0:06]This 30-minute podcast features a new author interviewed by me every single day, 365 days
[0:12]a year for about 30 minutes.
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[1:03]I'm so excited to be sharing this episode with you with Meghan Tady, the author of Super
[1:09]Bloom.
[1:10]This is actually one of our zippy books, which come out once per month that we publish
[1:14]in-house.
[1:15]And we just love this book.
[1:17]We're so excited.
[1:18]Meghan Tady is a writer and editor running the company WordLift.
[1:22]Her writing has appeared in The Huffington Post and Ms. Magazine, among others.
[1:26]Super Bloom, her debut novel, publishes today May 2nd by Zippy Books.
[1:32]She's working on her second novel, Champions for Breakfast.
[1:34]Meghan lives in Western Massachusetts with her family.
[1:37]Enjoy this episode.
[1:38]I am so excited for Super Bloom.
[1:41]And by the way, this makes a wonderful Mother's Day gift.
[1:44]Welcome, Meghan Tady.
[1:45]I am so excited to have you on mom.
[1:48]So I have time to read books today to discuss Super Bloom.
[1:51]Thank you, Zippy.
[1:52]It is just so thrilling and quite surreal to be here after listening to pretty much every
[1:58]episode for a long time.
[2:00]Yeah, this is just a total dream come true.
[2:02]So thanks for having me.
[2:03]Oh, it's a dream come true for me when I get to interview an author whose book I got to
[2:08]witness from like the very first draft or whatever you showed us, whatever draft that was
[2:13]for you, which we can get into all the way through the whole journey until now we have
[2:18]this beautiful purple and green, amazing book with a woman with the cucumbers under eyes and
[2:25]oh my gosh, and the book is so good and I'm so excited that we're publishing it.
[2:29]So yeah, I still have the picture of me getting the offer email and I was in an actual
[2:36]writer's group, Zoom chat, you know, and I we were just talking about each other's manuscripts
[2:42]and the offer came in and they have a photo of me just like my hands over my mouth like
[2:47]oh, that's happening.
[2:49]And what you saw was there were many, many, many drafts.
[2:53]My journey's been really quite long.
[2:56]We can get into that.
[2:57]Yeah, it's been, it was a long journey.
[2:59]Wait, okay, so start off by telling listeners what Superbloom is about, please.
[3:05]Superbloom is about a massage therapist named Joan Johnston and she is living in Vermont
[3:10]and she's working at a luxury spa.
[3:13]She's grieving the loss of her love Samuel who died two years ago, six months into their
[3:19]epic love story and she's about to get fired because she's just really struggling at work.
[3:26]Her boss gives her one chance to save her job, which is to get a glowing review from
[3:31]the most demanding client, famous romance novelist Carmen bronze.
[3:36]She without getting too much away, doesn't do so great in that massage, but Carmen
[3:42]gives her another chance and says, look, if you give me dirt about the spa where I want
[3:47]to set my next best seller, I'll give you that glowing review.
[3:51]Joan begins to do that, but along the way, she wonders that actually she's the one
[3:55]to write that book instead of Carmen and chaos ensues.
[4:00]Amazing.
[4:01]Now we can go back to the whole journey.
[4:03]Okay, take us to wherever this journey begins.
[4:06]When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
[4:08]Did you know you wanted to be a writer?
[4:10]Like go all the way back, were you a big reader as a kid?
[4:13]Set the scene.
[4:14]Yes.
[4:15]I was a huge reader.
[4:16]I was the kid writing in my room, hanging out in my room with my notebook, writing
[4:21]little stories, so much so that my grandmother gave me a typewriter when I was eight
[4:25]and I would pack away at the keys.
[4:28]I had a huge imagination and we had this beautiful backyard that I would play in for hours,
[4:32]just imagining all of these stories in this make-believe world.
[4:37]And then in high school, I joined the newspaper staff and I just loved the writing, the
[4:42]fast-paced deadlines and that really inspired me to pursue journalism.
[4:47]So that's what I went to school for.
[4:49]And along the way, I was really reading a lot of very, very good, very, very, you know, thick
[4:56]literary fiction and I never imagined that I could do what I was reading.
[5:02]So I graduated, I started trying to be this investigator, reporter.
[5:07]It was at the time where a lot of newspapers were shutting down and things were going
[5:12]online and mediums were trying to figure out how to contend with that.
[5:16]So I had to do all sorts of other jobs to do the investigative journalism that I wanted
[5:22]to be doing.
[5:23]I was waitressing.
[5:24]I was working at YMCA's and I was sitting in my car on my lunch break doing interviews
[5:30]with people and then writing these stories up, you know, in the evening.
[5:34]And it wasn't until probably my 30s where I started to wonder if I had some fiction
[5:41]in me.
[5:42]I started writing some short stories, taking a few classes.
[5:46]And even still, I was sort of like, you know, who me, like, do I, do I possess this
[5:51]in me?
[5:52]Can I do something like that?
[5:54]And then my husband took me on a surprise trip to Vermont.
[5:57]I had a massage.
[5:59]This was eight years ago.
[6:02]And I kept wondering the whole time, you know, about the woman, the body worker, who was
[6:06]working on me.
[6:07]And I, you know, it's like, what, what is she thinking?
[6:10]Am I her first massage of the day or fifth massage?
[6:14]What is this like to be working here?
[6:16]And that's my journalism mind.
[6:17]I wanted to pull her side and interview her.
[6:20]But I walked away from that with this flood of idea for this novel.
[6:24]And I came back from that trip being like, okay, I'm going to try.
[6:29]I'm just, I'm going to try.
[6:30]And then it took me eight years to get from there to now.
[6:35]That's really not so bad.
[6:38]And it isn't.
[6:41]I thought I queried, you know, I wrote the book in a year.
[6:45]And then I queried thinking always going, wait, how long did it go?
[6:49]You, you had the massage.
[6:50]You had a million ideas.
[6:51]Yeah.
[6:52]This is a point at which a lot of people drop out of the process.
[6:55]Like this would be a great idea for a novel.
[6:57]And then that's the end.
[6:59]Right.
[7:00]This is an idea for a novel.
[7:01]And in eight years, it's going to be on a shelf.
[7:04]So after you left, did you, had it, and how did you make sure you didn't forget
[7:07]the idea?
[7:08]Because I feel like I'm always having ideas and then they fly out my head the second
[7:11]I have them.
[7:12]Well, I actually, my husband also gave me a journal for my birthday.
[7:16]It was like the best birthday.
[7:17]Thank you husband.
[7:19]And I started writing the early pages right there on that trip.
[7:23]And I came home and I just felt really determined.
[7:27]And I wrote that my first, very first version of that book in about a year.
[7:32]And I queried agents really early with not a ton of feedback, thinking I was going
[7:37]to be someone's unicorn, like an agent was going to burst out of their room.
[7:42]You'd be like, I found her and I heard, I heard nothing.
[7:46]I heard crickets and I was like, OK, I have a lot to learn.
[7:51]I really had to get humble.
[7:53]I had to study the craft.
[7:56]I started reading voraciously in a way I had never done before.
[8:01]I was also raising two young kids.
[8:03]I have a four year old and a seven year old.
[8:05]So those I was having those kids and raising them at that time.
[8:09]And I was running my writing and editing business.
[8:11]So I was really writing this book on the fringes of my life.
[8:17]And 15 minutes here are Paw Patrol in the background trying to get this down and really
[8:24]nail it.
[8:25]And it took a while.
[8:27]I think we're often, we often are galed with these overnight success stories of writers
[8:34]or we don't hear the grind behind them.
[8:38]And it's quite shocking to realize how much you've got to really dedicate yourself to
[8:43]this and buckle down and commit to it and study it, study it over and over again.
[8:50]So that's what I had to do.
[8:52]Wow.
[8:53]Go back to the business you were running and how you ended up starting that at the same
[8:58]time.
[8:59]Yes, so my business is called WordLift and I had been working at a nonprofit as a sort
[9:05]of journalist and we were working on media issues and I left there about three years.
[9:11]And I saw that there was just a lot of really bad copy out there, you know, bad websites
[9:17]and people who were incredible at what they did but couldn't articulate it.
[9:21]So I thought, well, I'm just the gal to start that.
[9:24]So I did and it took a little while to build and I hadn't started writing this novel yet.
[9:31]So I had the business going for a few years before the novel.
[9:35]I also began writing for independent school magazines and that became a really big part
[9:40]of my business and that it was lovely and I still am running it.
[9:45]I love being my own boss.
[9:46]I love calling the shots, setting my own hours and it still affords me, you know, what
[9:52]I love, which is storytelling and interviewing a lot of people, whether I'm interviewing
[9:57]someone about their business so I can understand.
[10:00]and how to write their website copy,
[10:02]or I'm interviewing an alum from a magazine
[10:05]who started an incredible business
[10:06]and I can write a beautiful story about them.
[10:09]So my life has really been steeped around words
[10:14]since I was very young
[10:16]and I feel really fortunate about that.
[10:18]Now, you query agents, you got crickets.
[10:21]Why did you not give up then?
[10:23]Like that's another point at which other people might drop off.
[10:26]Yeah.
[10:27]I, it turns out that I'm a very determined little
[10:30]energizer bunny.
[10:32]I was like, you know, I had moments
[10:36]where I thought that I might quit
[10:38]and in fact took long breaks.
[10:40]It wasn't like I was for eight years
[10:42]like slogging away every day.
[10:44]I had to take some breaks
[10:46]and I had to give myself some mental breaks
[10:48]because it was so hard.
[10:50]There's so much rejection.
[10:52]But I, I just felt like I could do it
[10:56]and I wanted to crack it.
[10:58]So I just, I started taking more classes.
[11:00]I was listening to all sorts of podcasts.
[11:03]Yours included around querying.
[11:06]What other authors have gone through?
[11:08]It wasn't until multiple years into working on the book
[11:12]that I started really studying structure
[11:15]and inciting incidents and what makes for a breakout novel.
[11:19]You know, what, why are certain novels working
[11:22]and why don't they work?
[11:24]I definitely had a lot of tears along the way.
[11:27]You know, just like, should I shelve this book?
[11:30]I know a lot of writers that happens.
[11:33]And so I got to a point where I said,
[11:35]should I work on something else?
[11:37]And in fact, I did a little bit.
[11:39]But I loved these characters.
[11:41]I just felt like I owed it to them to keep going
[11:44]after all this time.
[11:46]So I did and I'm so, I'm so glad I did
[11:48]and actually had the timing been different.
[11:51]We wouldn't be working together.
[11:54]So I'm so grateful.
[11:56]You know, I'm so grateful that things worked out
[11:58]the way that they did,
[11:59]even though there were moments where I felt so dejected.
[12:05]Well, I'm really glad for all of your prior rejections too.
[12:07]So we could publish your book.
[12:08]No, which by the way, by the time it arrived
[12:11]in my inbox was in great shape
[12:14]and ready to be snatched up.
[12:16]So I don't know what it looked like before,
[12:18]but yeah, very exciting.
[12:20]So let's go into the characters
[12:22]and more about the plot and development of the characters.
[12:25]Did Joan and Carmen and all the supporting cast
[12:29]change over time or were they basically who they were
[12:32]from the beginning?
[12:33]That's a great question.
[12:34]In the beginning, Joan was,
[12:37]when you first meet her, she's in a bad way.
[12:40]But earlier versions, she was very prickly
[12:44]and the sort of unlikable character.
[12:47]And a lot of the feedback I was getting from early readers,
[12:51]from agents was she's just too unlikable.
[12:55]And I sort of, I pushed against that at first.
[12:57]I, you know, I wanted her to show that she was in a bad way.
[13:01]But I, along with my wonderful editor, Brydie,
[13:05]made a couple of very subtle changes in that first chapter
[13:08]that shows that she's yes in a hard place,
[13:11]but also has something deeper underneath
[13:15]and a lot of love to offer.
[13:16]And doesn't like herself this way.
[13:19]So there are just some key changes that we made,
[13:22]a couple of lines that were so, so important.
[13:26]At the same time, Carmen was also a little one note.
[13:31]I really, in the beginning, wrote her as this romance novelist
[13:35]partly as a lark thinking this will be so hilarious
[13:38]that she's a romance novelist.
[13:40]But I thought it's been years since I've read romance.
[13:43]So maybe I should take another look at that.
[13:45]So I began to read more romance,
[13:48]listen to other romance writers talk about their craft.
[13:52]And I was blown away.
[13:53]You know, I was like this, this genre is way more feminist
[13:58]than I remembered.
[13:59]It's way more interesting than I remembered.
[14:02]And I decided that no, this isn't like a joke
[14:05]that she's a romance novelist.
[14:06]This is an incredible thing that she does.
[14:09]And there's a reason people get so much out of this genre
[14:13]that is also propping up the rest of publishing.
[14:16]As I found out, you know, this is a book within a book.
[14:20]Joan writes the beginnings of her own romance novel.
[14:24]It's hard, it's really hard to do, it's right.
[14:28]And to do it well.
[14:29]So I had to learn a lot along the way.
[14:32]And the supporting cast, it was just about making them
[14:36]not so one note.
[14:37]So just like a painting, going back in and back in
[14:41]and giving them little things here and there
[14:44]that yes, allows them to be quirky and supportive,
[14:47]but also, you know, having their full, full lives around Joan.
[14:53]I love that.
[14:54]I love that.
[14:55]I've never heard it described that way.
[14:56]That's amazing.
[14:58]I feel like some of my, my attempts at character writing
[15:05]via painting would be just like throwing giant splotches
[15:09]of paint and like giving up.
[15:10]Do I mean like, I'm so frustrated.
[15:13]I'm throwing paint all over you.
[15:14]But anyway, yes, yes, I know, I know for sure.
[15:18]And I've even cut a character.
[15:20]There's a character that you never even saw early on.
[15:23]There was just too many on the page and it meant that
[15:26]everyone else was a little scrunched.
[15:28]So if I was going to let everyone else have a little bit of
[15:31]room, I had to cut her.
[15:33]And that was hard.
[15:33]I'd been with this, had this little character for a while.
[15:36]But she wasn't serving the story in the way that I needed to.
[15:39]So I said goodbye.
[15:41]And you know, she was on the cutting room floor.
[15:43]And those are hard decisions to make.
[15:45]But ultimately, I think it was a really good choice.
[15:47]It's like the whole kill your darling's thing.
[15:49]Yes, for the parts that did take place in the spot.
[15:54]Did you end up going back and interviewing people
[15:57]like you originally wanted to?
[15:59]I did.
[16:00]I felt like it was too creepy to ask my massage therapist
[16:03]during that, that spa day.
[16:06]If I could, I wanted to take her out to breakfast.
[16:07]I felt like that was just, I would come off as a weirdo.
[16:10]So I didn't do that.
[16:12]But I interviewed a bunch of bodyworker, either friends
[16:15]or just people I began finding or researching folks who had
[16:20]worked in a variety of settings.
[16:22]Whether it was a luxury spa, they owned their own business.
[16:26]They had worked for a franchise like massage and V.
[16:29]It was important for me to get that piece right and to also
[16:34]show that some people don't love that profession.
[16:38]It's not naturally right for them as it is for Joan.
[16:42]It's not right.
[16:42]But for other people, like her best friend's share,
[16:46]they're so good at it.
[16:48]They love it.
[16:49]It feeds them.
[16:50]Their bodies can sustain it.
[16:52]Some people I think try this work and find that because it's
[16:55]so physically taxing, their own bodies can't do it.
[16:59]And I couldn't really relate to that.
[17:01]There's no way that my body could withstand that.
[17:05]So as I interviewed these people, I found so many incredible
[17:10]stories that happen in these tiny rooms that are so intimate.
[17:15]You never know who you're getting to get on your massage table
[17:17]unless it's a repeat client.
[17:19]You never know what the day is going to bring.
[17:21]And each setting, whether you're working for yourself
[17:24]or you're working in a spa, has its pluses and minuses.
[17:27]So I really wanted to know it well.
[17:31]And luckily, I met some great people along the way
[17:34]who were willing to share these stories with me.
[17:37]That's amazing.
[17:38]By the way, if you have that list of people stored away
[17:41]somewhere, we'd be happy to send them books and things
[17:43]like that.
[17:43]So I think we have.
[17:45]I think we've got great.
[17:46]Yes.
[17:46]Yes.
[17:47]I'm always behind the ideas here.
[17:50]That's great.
[17:50]Perfect.
[17:51]One thing that you did in a really interesting way
[17:54]was a capture that new love and all of those feelings
[17:58]where the world is your oyster.
[18:00]You fall in love and you're like, oh my gosh.
[18:02]And everything's clicking into place.
[18:04]And maybe you don't take the time to meet each other's
[18:06]old friends or families or all of this stuff.
[18:08]You don't even stop to get out of your love, bubble,
[18:12]enough.
[18:13]And then that is when the tragedy strikes for Joan
[18:17]with all these repercussions.
[18:19]Because new love, while it feels so essential
[18:23]to who you are is a person and everything.
[18:26]And yet you realize on the outside,
[18:28]people might not even know about it.
[18:30]And does that minimize grief or love?
[18:33]What does that mean when people say,
[18:35]well, they've only been together for this long?
[18:37]Or all these qualifications on loss and grief
[18:40]when there is that intensity at the beginning where,
[18:43]I don't know, does it hurt more?
[18:45]Does it anyway?
[18:46]Tell me about that.
[18:47]Yeah.
[18:48]I think we hear a lot of love stories,
[18:50]sad love stories where people have been together
[18:53]for years and years and someone passes away
[18:56]or something happens.
[18:58]And I wanted to write a story about an epic story
[19:03]that's about to be so epic.
[19:06]These two people, these quirky people
[19:08]have found each other.
[19:09]And they're so thrilled.
[19:11]They are just ready to take on the world.
[19:14]And yes, it's early days.
[19:16]But kind of like when you know, you know,
[19:18]and they just knew.
[19:19]And unfortunately, Samuel dies six months
[19:22]into this really intense courtship.
[19:24]And Joan is left holding the bag.
[19:27]She's left with all those big feelings
[19:30]that only one other person shares and knows about.
[19:33]And yes, you know, a few people, her friend knows about him,
[19:38]but they haven't really met him.
[19:39]So when she goes to this funeral,
[19:42]she's a little status list.
[19:43]She's not the widow.
[19:45]She's not even totally the ex-girlfriend
[19:48]because people don't know her well.
[19:50]And so there's a pain in that.
[19:52]People not recognizing the importance
[19:53]that she felt in Samuel's life.
[19:55]And so she's sort of still like,
[19:57]but we were gonna be so great.
[20:00]together. And I can imagine that that sort of pain is just so hard to feel and then to not
[20:09]have it be recognized by people around you. So I wanted to explore that for her and give
[20:14]this to her, sorry Joan, but then have her walk through it and figure out how to get past it.
[20:21]And the answer for her is writing these fictional characters that are stand-ins for herself and
[20:29]and they allow her to write the story that has the happy ending she didn't get that pushes
[20:35]them out into the future. It ended up being also a really interesting tool, writing tool, because it
[20:42]allowed me to give things about Samuel to the fictional character chord without getting stuck in
[20:49]backstory, which is without getting bogged down, without having the reader have to read so many scenes
[20:56]with Samuel when you already know he's dead. That is that is a hard thing to do. So I could give those
[21:03]pieces to a new living breathing character and that made it a little bit more fun, a little more
[21:09]lively. And that's ultimately the way Joan begins to mend her broken heart and also find this
[21:17]hidden potential, this hidden passion that's been buried for a long time.
[21:23]I love how strategically you're an analytically you're treating the book and
[21:29]know it's awesome, right? The structure and this and that and pace that you know it's these are
[21:34]tools. It's awesome. The way you're thinking it's great. Thank you. Thank you. That's so kind.
[21:42]Really interesting. And you have another novel that we've already acquired. You want to talk
[21:47]about that? I do. I do. What a dream. Yes, it's called champions for breakfast. And it is
[21:54]a completely different novel. It's about a mother and daughter alpine ski racing champions.
[22:02]The mom is an Olympian former Olympian and they are estranged, but they get stuck in a
[22:08]Swiss town called Zermatt, when an avalanche socks in their town. And the only place to stay is
[22:15]a youth hostel. So they are stuck having to work things out together and figure out their future
[22:22]until the avalanche is cleared. So that this has been a really fun, wonderful novel to also
[22:29]research. You know, I love the research. I love the interviews. So I've been interviewing former
[22:34]Olympians, especially skiers about what it's like to work your entire life for something and then
[22:43]around the age of 30 ish you're done. And you have to transition to kind of civilian life and figure
[22:49]out what's next. And a little bit of the trauma that's involved in that. And just I've been doing
[22:58]interviews of folks who live in Zermatt. I took this idea of the avalanche from headlines. It
[23:05]actually happened in 2018 that 13,000 tourists were stranded in Zermatt when an avalanche
[23:12]happened and it blocked the road. So I've interviewed, you know, the people who run airs
[23:18]or mott who airlifted tourists out. And I've interviewed the tourism director there. You know,
[23:23]how did you even notify people about what was happening? So it's been really fun. I can't wait,
[23:30]I'm sending it to my editor in a few weeks and I can't wait to sort of, you know, dig in and keep
[23:36]going. So yes, it's, and it's a dream to be working on my second book. Oh my gosh. I mean, really,
[23:44]it's like this wonderful trajectory and it's just so fun to be a part of it. Now that the book,
[23:51]now that Superbloom is coming out into the world, which by the way is crazy timing given the
[23:55]Superbloom is going on in California. Talk about that. Yeah. It's really wild. So the name
[24:01]Superbloom for the novel is based on actual Superbloom's happening in nature where there's wild
[24:08]flower seeds that are lying dormant for many years in deserts. And they only bloom when the right
[24:14]conditions happen a lot of rain and a lot of heat. And when they bloom, they're just actually
[24:20]so incredible. They're so vibrant. They cover these mountainsides. And I hadn't heard of them until
[24:26]2018. I was a few years into my book already. I had a different title. I heard an NPR story sort of like
[24:34]what happens with Joan in the book. And I said Superbloom, what is that? And I quickly looked it up
[24:41]online and saw the Google images. And I, my mind, I was like, that's the title for my book. That
[24:47]is the metaphor for Joan. She is the seed lying dormant waiting for the right conditions. And the
[24:55]trust that one day, the right conditions would happen. And she would bloom basically. So I feel like
[25:01]not only is that happening for Joan, it's happening for me. And now it's happening in the real world
[25:08]in California at the time when my novel is coming out. And I just, I'm getting all these messages
[25:13]and texts from people, you know, with, you know, this is happening. Have you seen the headlines? Yes,
[25:17]I've seen it, although keep sending it to me because it's amazing. And the timing couldn't be
[25:22]are incredible. I mean, what a gift. What a gift. Oh my gosh. Wait, what was the last title? What was
[25:29]the previous title? It was big inspiration, huh? Which just, it wasn't, you know, I was imagining
[25:35]that Joan was going to have this big inspiration. And so it was kind of, that's what it was. But it
[25:40]wasn't, it wasn't quite there. It wasn't it. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I know. I don't change a lot,
[25:48]but I'm always so interested. I know. I love titles. Did you have a vision for this book
[25:53]cover? And was this close to what you had thought or did you think, did you have it in your head
[25:57]sort of in a different direction? I had no vision. But I, you know, you all sent me a couple of
[26:06]versions from the amazing designer, Alice and Salzman, who I was blown away that we were working
[26:12]with her. I have so many books that she's designed on my shelves that I've stared at for years,
[26:18]wondering if this was a possibility for me. And so to know that she was designing my cover,
[26:23]I just couldn't believe. We got so many great options. When I first saw the Cucumber eyes,
[26:30]I loved it. But I was like, is this Joan? I, you know, I didn't know for sure. And we looked
[26:35]at a few others. There were, there were flowers on the mountainside. There was a pin that was
[26:39]also a flower. There were some great ones. But I think everyone really realized that this cover
[26:45]is so unique. It's going to totally pop everywhere. I loved the idea of people sort of mimicking
[26:53]the Cucumber eyes and what we could do with that. When we first got the book, my daughter and my
[26:59]husband and I took some photos of us wearing Cucumber eyes and quickly realized that they fall off
[27:04]your face really easily. So my dog kept my dog like eight half a Cucumber as that was happening.
[27:12]What I think it's going to be really fun. And I just get such a kick out of seeing it everywhere
[27:18]and the different things people are doing with the eyes. Amazing. Oh my gosh. So having gotten
[27:24]through all of this and to this point at least, what advice would you have for aspiring authors,
[27:30]especially those who might be considering putting their manuscript aside or giving up the dream?
[27:36]I think you risk a broken heart. If you think you can dash off a manuscript in a very short amount
[27:46]of time and wow, an agent, it's sort of like I tried to do. It's a kind of thinking, you know,
[27:54]maybe I could play on the women's soccer team in the World Cup without ever, you know,
[28:00]being like, maybe I think I could have a knack for this, you know, like without ever practicing
[28:06]for years, for years, really working on your craft for a long time and being humble to that.
[28:13]And at first, I believed that if I wasn't swooped up quickly, it meant that I didn't have the
[28:18]chops. I didn't have the talent. We hear so many overnight stories or the very rare stories of
[28:24]people being swooped up and they're, you know, 20 and they've written this and it's a best seller
[28:30]but those stories, most people are grinding it out. So just be prepared to do that and
[28:37]and do it because the writing makes you really happy. I feel like my best days are when I've
[28:43]written even a little bit. I feel like I'm a better human because I love the actual writing
[28:49]so do it for that, not because you think this is going to be an instant overnight success.
[28:55]I love that. That is great advice. Meg, I'm so excited for you. I can't wait to just
[29:01]be in the wings as you shine on stage here as the book comes out and just so excited for you.
[29:08]And, you know, you're now you're scattering through the seeds of this book all over the place,
[29:13]you know? Wow. Thank you. So are you. So are you. I was like,
[29:20]blowing them, you know, I'm sort of just like ushering them forward, but you're the one who's
[29:23]released them us. I'm just like giving them a nudge, just a little nudge. Thank you so much,
[29:28]Libby. When we first met on Zoom, you said you wanted this to be a dream experience for authors
[29:35]and it has definitely been that for me. So thank you so much. I'm so grateful and I am having
[29:41]the time of my life. That's for sure. I'm so relieved. So happy and so relieved.
[29:48]Yes. Trying so hard to make it all fun because, you know, you just can't control. We can't
[29:55]control what happens, right? But all we can control is the process and the journey and knowing.
[30:00]that we're a team going through this and doing our absolute best to get this book out.
[30:05]And yes, into people's hands. So it's a great team. So thank you. Thank you.
[30:11]All right, congratulations. Thanks. Everybody's super blue and Meghan Tady. Go get it right this
[30:15]second. Okay. Thanks, Nick. This isn't going too bad. I might be able to pull this off.
[30:23]As soon as I've formed that thought, the massage turns into a game of whack-a-mole.
[30:28]There, yes, there. Carmen says, I press there over an inch.
[30:34]I inch over. Two far left. Shifting right. Two far right. Shifting left. Circular motion.
[30:41]I hula hoop my thumb. Scratch for a sec. I scratch. Tickle. That's a rare one.
[30:49]Karate chop. I thump her with the edge of my hand. Hard. Wham. Now soft like a whisper.
[30:57]I barely brush her skin. Little raindrops. I lightly tap my fingers.
[31:03]Belly flop. Um, whack. I whack. Beached whale. My hand flops from the palm to the back of my hand.
[31:12]The worm. Is candid camera still a thing? I inch my fingers up. Carmen's spine caterpillar
[31:20]tik-tik-tok, but a cat's game. I draw an imaginary grid. The X is an O's canceling each other out.
[31:27]None of this makes any sense. I feel like I'm yes, ma'am, a madwoman.
[31:33]When I resume my usual massage, Carmen shouts harder. I worry my thumb will puncture her skin.
[31:40]Are you even pressing?
[31:42]Sleeves rolled up. I hover my hands over Carmen's back as if I'm about to thrust them into a large
[31:50]bat of bread dough. Then I begin spreading oil under her skin. She weighs as much as an empty laundry
[31:59]basket, though she's far from frail. Her body's life and lightly muscular and her skin is smooth,
[32:08]but her muscles are as tight as promised, with sharp pellets like little BBs under her skin.
[32:15]She groans and groans as I dig into her lats. In an effort to save my thumbs,
[32:22]I move to the head of the massage table, where I use my elbows to slide the skin back down
[32:27]toward Carmen's sacrum, giving my hands a break for a merciful, but short 60 seconds.
[32:34]I press my thumb into her right shoulder blade, gliding across her oiled skin,
[32:40]and fanning the muscle just below the surface. Her rhomboid miner is inflamed,
[32:47]likely a byproduct of all the writing she does. I imagine her sitting at a vast desk
[32:53]overlooking a bubbling brook, typing her books at a leisurely pace, and I can't help but feel a
[33:01]pain of envy. I wish I could ask her where she gets all of her story ideas, but I've got to
[33:08]pretend she's gertrude, put your bottoms on, not a famous novelist who doesn't want to be
[33:14]hounded with questions while she's getting a massage. I dance each fingertip across her rhomboid
[33:21]to the spine. Just right of the spine, I pivot my thumb working it like a snow plow to push
[33:29]the skin and muscle up toward Carmen's neck and skull. Whisps of her curly hair get trapped
[33:36]underneath my thumb, and I pull them away slick with oil. This isn't going too bad. I might be able
[33:44]to pull this off. As soon as I've formed that thought, the massage turns into a game of whack-a-mole.
[33:52]There, yes, there, Carmen says, I press there over an inch. I inch over, two far left,
[34:00]shifting right, two far right, shifting left, circular motion. I hula hoop my thumb, scratch for a
[34:08]second. I scratch, tickle. That's a rare one, karate chop. I thump her with the edge of my hand,
[34:16]hard, lamb. Now soft like a whisper. I barely brush her skin. Little rain drops.
[34:24]I lightly tap my fingers. Belly flop. Um, whack, I whack. Beached whale. My hand flops from the
[34:34]palm to the back of my hand. The worm. Is candid camera still a thing? I inch my fingers up Carmen's
[34:42]spine caterpillar-like, tick-dacto, but a cat's game. I draw an imaginary grid,
[34:48]the X's and O's canceling each other out. None of this makes any sense. I feel like I'm
[34:54]yes, ma'am, a madwoman. When I resume my usual massage, Carmen shouts harder. I worry my thumb will
[35:02]puncture her skin. Are you even pressing? This massage is slipping away from me. I can do better.
[35:11]I'm tempted to say. But I'm also starting to hate Carmen bronze. And I love that the idea of
[35:17]having to cater to someone's crazy whims just because of her celebrity status. Doesn't she have
[35:23]anything better to do than a right nasty reviews that get people fired? Thanks for listening to
[35:29]this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[35:34]at Zebioans and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. Also sign up for my newsletter at
[35:38]Zebioans.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on Zoom every
[35:43]other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan in fact, Texture Sound for the Sound Editing.
[35:47]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.