Alexandra Auder, DON'T CALL ME HOME: A Memoir
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[1:03]Alexandra Otter is the author of Don't Call Me Home, a memoir.
[1:08]She is a writer, performance artist and actress based in Philadelphia.
[1:12]Born in New York City to mother Viva, a Warhol superstar and father Michael Atter, an award-winning
[1:18]filmmaker who directed Chelsea Girls with Andy Warhol.
[1:21]Alexandra has been a featured character in HBO's High Maintenance and has acted in the
[1:25]films of Wim Wonder's Jody Foster and Rainer Judd among others.
[1:29]She resides in Philadelphia with her husband and two children.
[1:33]Welcome to the podcast, Alex.
[1:35]Thank you so much for coming on your book is gorgeous.
[1:38]Look at that.
[1:39]Thank you so much to be.
[1:40]It's just my pleasure to be on here.
[1:42]Thanks for having me.
[1:43]Of course.
[1:44]Okay.
[1:45]Tell listeners, please about your memoir.
[1:47]Great.
[1:48]Well, thank you for asking.
[1:50]The floor is yours.
[1:52]This is like my first interview about it.
[1:54]I mean, I did one other thing last week, so it's very exciting and I'm a little ball
[1:58]of nerves.
[2:00]But generally, you know, it's like being pregnant for years and years for me, you know,
[2:05]being pregnant for like 20 years.
[2:08]And then having a scheduled C section, you know, we don't know what to expect if it's
[2:14]your best.
[2:15]Yes.
[2:16]Yeah.
[2:17]So I started writing this actually at Bard College for my what we called then my senior
[2:24]project and coincidentally, my daughter is now there and it's where my husband, but
[2:30]it was fiction.
[2:31]And so a professor of mine said, you know, let's work on this a little more when I graduated
[2:37]Elizabeth Frank and we did and it was still fiction and she gave it to her agent, Joy
[2:42]Harris and Joy said, you know, this is a big caveat and I had to look up that word
[2:46]at the time.
[2:47]But I think it should be nonfiction.
[2:51]And at that time, at least for me, and again, I was in my early 20s, I was, I thought
[2:56]of nonfiction of kind of cheating, you know, she was like, read the Liars Club, you
[3:01]know.
[3:02]And so after I read that, I was like, oh, okay, but I thought of memoir as like celebrity,
[3:06]who, you know, fiction was where it was at, you know, this is in the 90s, early 90s.
[3:12]So anyways, I put it away, put it in a drawer and then, you know, many years past that I
[3:18]was like, okay, maybe I will, I had my first kid and I was like, well, maybe I will
[3:22]try to turn this into nonfiction, did that, then another amazing writer who I've always
[3:28]been a fan of, Joanne Beard, who I'm going to be in conversation with, near Bard, eventually
[3:33]which is a dream come true.
[3:34]Wow.
[3:35]I knew her anxiety.
[3:36]Yo, the studio, she was a student of mine and she said, you know, let's, let me look
[3:40]at what you have.
[3:41]So then she helped me, then, you know, we just, I couldn't get an agent, I could never
[3:45]get an agent.
[3:46]Nobody wanted it.
[3:47]So I put it away in a drawer, another 10 years past, then, you know, long story short,
[3:55]pulled it out, just pre COVID and poked around with some agents and an editor and making
[4:02]a very long story short managed to find an agent and rewrite the entire thing, do a proposal
[4:08]for you.
[4:09]Don't make a long story short.
[4:12]I was like, just stop me if I'm blabbing, no, no, it's good.
[4:18]Okay.
[4:19]So what was it?
[4:20]Well, I had, you know, actually I have to say like Instagram really made this happen
[4:24]because I was, I'm like the only yoga teacher you'll ever meet who's retired, like
[4:29]because it doesn't happen because you know, you can't retire a theory over the future.
[4:33]So I did these kind of satirical Instagram videos and I got this New York Times profile.
[4:40]And so the woman who profiled me said, you know, we start talking, she's a writer
[4:43]and I said, I had this book hiding in a drawer, you know, and she said, well, you're
[4:47]going to sell this after this profile and I just didn't pay attention because I don't
[4:51]know.
[4:52]I was like, whatever.
[4:53]I'm almost 50.
[4:54]I'm not going to sell this fucking book.
[4:55]Sorry.
[4:56]Yes, you are.
[4:57]I have a very naughty mouth.
[4:58]So that's okay.
[4:59]Bring it.
[5:01]So I did take that and I was like poking around with more kind of yoga autobiographical
[5:08]essay style things and then through this process, a lovely editor, Jen Martin of Riverhead,
[5:15]who I managed to get in touch with and had been a fan of my yoga teaching.
[5:19]So well, what do you really want to do here?
[5:21]Do you want to sell your old book or these essays or you don't want to write it?
[5:25]And I said, my old book and she said, well, let's do that, you know, so she just connected
[5:29]me to a list of agents.
[5:30]She was like an angel coming out of the blue and Mariah spends a Janglo Nesbit was like,
[5:37]let's do this.
[5:39]And it was about a year really of getting the proposal together, you know, because I had
[5:44]this old manuscript, huge manuscript, you know, very big and dense and way too complicated
[5:51]and way too long.
[5:53]So we turned that into a proposal and Mariah helped so much.
[5:58]I mean, without her, I don't know, you know, just so much of crafting and getting it
[6:02]to look at it was an 80 page proposal.
[6:05]And yeah, she made it happen.
[6:06]And then I said, you know, I really am worried here that Armageddon is going to happen
[6:10]before because it was during, you know, it was like leading up to the election between
[6:15]Biden and Trump.
[6:17]And I was like, I think something bad is going to happen.
[6:20]And I don't care about the rest of the world.
[6:21]I just want to see this book in a bookstore.
[6:25]I do care about the world.
[6:28]But so then COVID happened.
[6:30]And I was like, I fucking told you, I was like, this the world's going down.
[6:33]So I just, I actually gave up on it to get because I was like, this never going to happen.
[6:37]Like, we're going down.
[6:39]So yeah, then she did eventually like a year into COVID.
[6:43]She was like, we're going to send this out.
[6:46]And I really actually did feel like this was my last chance, you know, kind of for
[6:49]this, not last chance and like had a lovely life, you know, love my kids, love my husband,
[6:54]blah, blah, blah.
[6:55]But it was a dream that I will say was eating at me, you know, like that I had given
[7:00]up on.
[7:01]And I was like, well, I guess this didn't happen in life, you know.
[7:03]And I was like, had to kind of reckon with that to just set that aside.
[7:08]That's not going to happen.
[7:10]So waiting for the calls, you know, I'm learning, and I was learning all this as we go
[7:14]along.
[7:15]What's a call?
[7:16]You know, you've got a call with so and so.
[7:17]And I was like, so I'm auditioning for them and Mariah was like, no, no, they're auditioning
[7:20]you.
[7:21]And I was like, I think, no, I was like, I'm auditioning, right, and they were like,
[7:24]no, you're auditioning them.
[7:25]And I was like, no, they're auditioning me.
[7:27]And so when we got our offer from Viking with my amazing editor, Meg Leader, I was actually
[7:35]sobbing and crying.
[7:37]It was the day before Biden won.
[7:40]And so it was, you know, I don't know if you remember how tense that was.
[7:43]Yes.
[7:44]And I was just so tense for so many things.
[7:46]And yeah, so we happened to have a school bus at the time.
[7:49]My husband bought a school bus to like travel during COVID.
[7:52]What?
[7:53]A humongous school bus that we had like a bed and a couch in.
[7:57]And we got in the school bus and drove around Philadelphia, Mount Airy neighborhood of
[8:03]Philadelphia, celebrating both for my book deal and for Biden.
[8:07]Oh my gosh.
[8:10]And random people would get on the school bus.
[8:11]It was really for the election, but I, you know, also was for my book.
[8:15]You're like, that might be their celebration.
[8:18]But here's what I'm so very really what I'm talking about.
[8:21]And then it was actually like another, I mean, don't really say that.
[8:24]But like another year or more to actually finish the book after that.
[8:28]You know, I think there was a long time.
[8:31]So yeah, so here I, here you are.
[8:33]Oh my gosh, congratulations.
[8:35]What are the first person who my publicist was like to hear, you know, when she first
[8:39]started putting stuff out, she was like, you're going to be on the Zibi podcast.
[8:43]And so I had that in my little, I still write things down, you know, by hand in an address
[8:47]book.
[8:48]It's really been like Zibi podcast, Zibi podcast, Zibi podcast, Zibi, like I was sitting
[8:53]here at like 10 to 15, like here, so I was like, oh my gosh, you're so funny.
[9:01]Well, I'm honored.
[9:02]And as soon as I got Fitzgerald, I was like, yes, yes.
[9:05]Thank you.
[9:06]Can't wait.
[9:07]Okay.
[9:08]Content of your book.
[9:09]Let's go there.
[9:10]What made you keep coming back to the story, your family, all of it.
[9:13]Yeah, that's a hard question.
[9:15]You know, why did you write it?
[9:16]You know, and you get these like grids, you know, from the marketing and publicity team.
[9:20]No, my owner just happened.
[9:23]But I'm kind of, but on some little, true, like when I was, you know, way back when
[9:28]I was like, this is the story that I'm writing.
[9:31]I knew, I guess I knew there was, you know, a very idiosyncratic thing with my story that
[9:39]I had this one, many of us have kooky moms, I mean, and some others, you know, it's
[9:45]definitely a trope of theme obviously in memoir women and their mothers.
[9:49]But I knew that because my mother had been this Warhol star because I'd grown up in
[9:53]the Chelsea hotel and I was of this era, you know, born in 71 and a teenager in
[10:00]downtown Manhattan in the 80s.
[10:02]And, you know, my mother at that point
[10:03]was on the periphery of the avant-garde art scene.
[10:06]She was also meshed in our world.
[10:08]So I was like, okay, there's something definitely unique.
[10:10]And I want to tell her that I felt compelled to tell.
[10:14]But at the heart of the story, it was really this,
[10:17]you know, a love story, I guess,
[10:19]and I sound a bit pessimistic here,
[10:21]but as all love stories tend to go awry, I feel.
[10:24]I knew there was a love story here between my mother
[10:26]and I that, you know, falls apart.
[10:28]So again, classic themes,
[10:31]but Viva, my mother being who she is,
[10:34]I also felt very compelled to just write her to describe her
[10:39]because she's one so funny.
[10:41]And I hope people get a lot of, you know,
[10:44]laughter and humor from the book.
[10:45]And there's a lot of dark humor too.
[10:46]And too, she appreciates dark humor.
[10:49]So I, there's so much that she rams and says
[10:53]that was running through my head
[10:55]that I think I was sort of composed and compelled
[10:58]to write it down.
[10:59]But you know, I think at that time,
[11:01]I didn't have necessarily the voice, you know,
[11:04]clicked in which maybe why I had trouble finding someone
[11:06]to like trust it and want to bring it out into the world.
[11:09]And so I think all of the aging process over the years
[11:13]gave me that perspective.
[11:15]So I ended up kind of snapshotting into what I call
[11:19]the now in the book, which takes place here
[11:21]in this house in Philadelphia,
[11:22]like one Christmas in 2018 where my stepmother,
[11:26]my mother, my sister, all gather here.
[11:30]And they're obviously these major characters in the book.
[11:33]And you kind of get a little, little crumbs
[11:35]and clues as to how it all turned out.
[11:38]Because I think there's definitely times in the book
[11:40]where one might be like, God, did they survive this, you know?
[11:43]So we did survive and, you know,
[11:45]Vida still around and she's an older woman at that time.
[11:48]And it's a bit of comedic relief as well.
[11:52]But yeah, I think it's a universal story
[11:56]in the sense of, you know, women,
[11:58]it's very, I do also things very feminist,
[12:00]it's like women enduring each other and women enduring,
[12:03]like each other and just enduring.
[12:05]Yes, you know.
[12:07]Yeah, that's so funny.
[12:09]You know, we published a book this month called Burst
[12:11]and the main character is Vida of all.
[12:14]Yeah, that's funny.
[12:16]I saw that book and I'm excited to read it.
[12:18]Yeah, Vida and chair letter, the characters.
[12:20]And in fact, when I originally got sent your book,
[12:22]I forwarded it to Mary Otis and I was like,
[12:24]can you believe that this is the name?
[12:26]Like maybe you can change your hair while
[12:28]and had you think she had ever heard of Vida, my mother?
[12:31]I mean, I don't know.
[12:32]I did, there was no recognition there.
[12:34]She was just like what I wanted to say.
[12:35]Yes, a war hall gave that name to my mother.
[12:37]And I still, I actually have a very casual friend
[12:41]who named her daughter, Vida, not after my mother.
[12:44]I don't think, but I actually can't deal with that.
[12:48]No, I don't like, I don't want to see you traveling Vida.
[12:52]But how did everyone in your family handle the fact
[12:57]that you're writing about them and that this is coming out
[12:59]and like how do they feel now?
[13:01]And how are you navigating that whole landmine of motion?
[13:05]You know, I'm not sure.
[13:05]Maybe you can help.
[13:08]I'm like in kind of gentle denial, I think.
[13:11]I mean, my father and my sister who are the main people
[13:15]besides her, my mother, my birth mother,
[13:18]and my son, who happens to be a famous artist in each room.
[13:21]And my father's no longer married to her,
[13:23]but we're very close with her, my sister and I.
[13:26]So they have been so wonderful.
[13:28]My sister is a huge enthusiastic supporter of the book.
[13:31]My father as well, like he's friends.
[13:33]He was just like, what a, it's so wonderful.
[13:34]That's good.
[13:35]He's like, I can kind of say anything about him.
[13:38]He's an artist and also in the true sense of the word,
[13:42]like he would never challenge or question
[13:44]somebody's choice to make their story, you know?
[13:47]So I could have portrayed him as like a, you know,
[13:49]junkie and the gutter, you know, he'd be like,
[13:51]that's fine.
[13:52]Is this what you think, you know?
[13:53]That's cool, man, you know?
[13:56]So my mother, Viva, on the other hand, yeah, I think she
[14:00]hasn't read it and I projected it'll probably be a bit
[14:05]difficult and she read a version way back when
[14:08]and she was a big supporter of it.
[14:10]It was a very different version.
[14:12]I've been very relieved that the reactions are
[14:14]like this is a love story and this is beautiful
[14:16]and people relate to Viva.
[14:19]So I would love for her to see that I don't know she will.
[14:23]And yes, I have fear, I have nervousness,
[14:27]I have denial, I don't know.
[14:31]Yeah, sometimes, you know, we've mostly always been
[14:33]in touch with, you know, gently estranged right now.
[14:38]COVID did some things to us, her perspective on it,
[14:41]which you might be able to read into.
[14:44]And that wasn't, I could handle that really, you know,
[14:47]like that's okay, she's I'm used to that with her,
[14:50]but she did get fixated on the book
[14:52]and what she assumed was the story and I hadn't finished it.
[14:56]So yeah, it's, you know, hopefully not gonna be a horseshoe
[15:00]but I'm happy for her to tell her story.
[15:03]Like I said, I had a New York Times interview last week
[15:07]and I gave the lovely journalist, my mother's information.
[15:10]I have no problem her saying, you know, her side of things.
[15:13]And I absolutely respect that she has a different version
[15:16]of things, you know, but I don't think she believes
[15:20]other people's versions have legitimacy.
[15:24]We really understand.
[15:26]Yeah, I wrote a memoir and my take was just to, I don't know.
[15:31]Very selective portrayals, not that they didn't,
[15:35]I mean, everything I included did happen.
[15:36]There was just a lot that I did not choose to include
[15:39]that would just make life miserable
[15:41]because a book comes out and then that's it.
[15:43]Everyone's on with their lives,
[15:44]but it can wreck, it can wreck everything for the rest of the year.
[15:48]Yes. And I've heard family members not speaking
[15:51]to each other after that.
[15:52]Did you choose to give the book to certain family members
[15:56]to get there?
[15:57]I did.
[15:58]Yes, I did.
[15:59]I gave it to almost everybody who was in the book
[16:02]who had a major role in the book.
[16:03]Yes.
[16:04]Like I didn't give it to like random ex-boyfriend.
[16:06]Yeah.
[16:07]Although I thought about it, but nor did I,
[16:10]I thought about it too.
[16:11]And actually, yeah, I was counseled not to
[16:14]because it has a large section of the boy frames that are
[16:18]and I'd seen out slightly inappropriate
[16:20]because I was a young woman very attracted to older men
[16:23]and I guess vice versa.
[16:26]But so I protected some people by changing names
[16:31]and did give it to those closest to me like Gabby and my dad.
[16:36]But I think once those who are listening read the book,
[16:41]you'll probably get a good idea of why I maybe
[16:43]didn't give to my mother ahead of time.
[16:46]Yeah.
[16:46]I think most mother, I will go on a limb and say,
[16:50]I feel like most mother, daughter memoirs,
[16:53]the mother has not necessarily read the book
[16:55]or reads it at a very late stage or not at all.
[16:59]Or not at all.
[17:00]Or finds it totally incomprehensible
[17:02]that this could be the memory.
[17:04]And blah, blah, blah.
[17:06]But I love mother, daughter memoirs and so I have,
[17:09]feel like I've interviewed a lot of people
[17:12]women in your existence.
[17:13]Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
[17:15]That's a fun, in fact, yeah, Ariel Levy, did you read?
[17:19]Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[17:22]So, you know, that was-
[17:23]It's intense, yeah, I love that.
[17:25]It's intense.
[17:26]I love that too.
[17:27]Yeah, very intense.
[17:28]And I always call it like for mine, even intense light,
[17:33]because it's not like, there's nothing that bad.
[17:36]You know what I'm saying?
[17:37]Like, you know, people have gone through much more
[17:40]intense stuff that they write about,
[17:42]which I'm so like in all about, you know,
[17:44]really like, you know, they're like, you know,
[17:46]it's just like a histrionic mom, you know,
[17:48]who like rants a lot.
[17:49]So it's like at the end of the day,
[17:51]like she's not being accused of anything,
[17:53]which is what makes me feel, you know, better.
[17:54]It's like if she disagrees with the story,
[17:56]it's like she disagrees with who she yelled at when, you know?
[18:00]But I think your life is just,
[18:03]you had so much glamour and like it's just crazy.
[18:07]The culture that have Cindy Sherman is a stepmom.
[18:10]I mean, that's crazy.
[18:11]What I mean, how is that?
[18:12]I mean, it's so funny that you say glam or zippy,
[18:15]because when I was upstairs in my bathroom,
[18:17]quickly putting on some face makeup,
[18:19]which I've never used in my life.
[18:20]Like, and then also in the basement,
[18:23]it's like stinks of kitty litter
[18:25]and realize I was almost late because I was brawless
[18:27]and like trying to think a lot of reasons
[18:29]I'm leaving for it goes to be good tonight
[18:31]to teach a literature, you know?
[18:33]Luckily to teach a literature, you know what I mean?
[18:35]I was like, ah, so I'm glamorous, you know?
[18:38]And yeah, I mean, it's funny, you know,
[18:40]I think a lot of people think this, you know,
[18:43]it didn't feel glamorous, you know what I'm saying?
[18:45]And we weren't, you know,
[18:47]I think we were a boho glamour for sure, you know?
[18:51]When my dad, that was Cindy, she was barely known at the time,
[18:54]you know, she had just put out her untitled film stills.
[18:58]And she lived in a loft apartment in the fish market,
[19:02]which was not like the fish market,
[19:04]and that was pulled in street fish market, like the, you know?
[19:06]And with the bathroom in the hall, you know,
[19:08]like a shared bathroom in the hall
[19:09]on the shower in the kitchen.
[19:11]So that was, yes, glamorous in the sense, you know,
[19:14]of like this idea of old New York.
[19:16]And I do find my glamorous, you know?
[19:17]And I kind of, even my own nostalgia and miss that.
[19:20]But yes, the reality of the situation was
[19:23]the Chelsea of, you know, Edie Sedgwick,
[19:26]or what we see, it wasn't really like that,
[19:27]but I did love it.
[19:28]I loved growing up in the Chelsea,
[19:30]and it was actually really kid-friendly.
[19:32]I mean, you know, people are okay with like cops
[19:34]and transient rifka, but, you know,
[19:37]you didn't need a key, like everybody knew me.
[19:39]I was gradually born in the lobby.
[19:41]So it was like, I could come at any time at night
[19:43]after going to like Nell's or the Palladium
[19:45]when I was like 15 and Jerry, the deskman,
[19:48]who was there and my mother was born,
[19:49]would be like, hey Alex, you know?
[19:51]So in a strange way, it was very safe, you know?
[19:54]A safer than how I feel my teenage daughters
[19:56]now in college grew up in Philadelphia, much safer.
[19:58]You know, you don't drive a car.
[20:00]So if you're drunk, you just walk home or take the subway, and you know, I basically have
[20:06]this door man building, but yeah, so you know, when you're living in it, it doesn't
[20:11]feel like glamorous, but in retrospect, I wish I could go back now and be like, ah, live
[20:16]in the glamorous life, you know, because I don't feel that it was going to be an laundry
[20:22]in the titty litter.
[20:24]How have you dealt with some raising a teenager and all that?
[20:28]I have two teenagers at the moment.
[20:30]Any advice is very loud.
[20:31]You have more gray hair, I do, you know, I have like literally no advice.
[20:35]I think it's a like fucking shit show that's so you have to like negotiate every single
[20:41]day in a different way.
[20:42]Like I friends were like, is this normal and they send a picture of their kids, let's say
[20:46]whole collection of vape situations, you know, and I'm like, yeah, that is totally
[20:50]normal.
[20:51]I have seen that for sure.
[20:52]I don't know what you should do about it.
[20:54]Like I really, I'm like, I have no idea even though I already dealt with it.
[20:57]But like, you know, I always say, I mean, not, you know, because you don't, but what
[21:02]I do always say, if people is, if your child feels that sense of love in their core,
[21:08]you know, they feel loved, like truly love, like somatically loved, even if it changed like
[21:14]before the age of 10 years old, if they got that, you know, you could be like that shit
[21:19]crazy.
[21:20]And they're kind of okay, you know, but I think it's those children who have not experienced
[21:27]that where things can go awry and I'm not saying that when things go awry like, I don't
[21:34]want to say, you're saying something dark here, but let's say your kid ends up in rehab
[21:39]or worse.
[21:40]I'm not saying that that doesn't mean they were loved, like, you know, weren't loved
[21:42]like that.
[21:43]Things can go badly, even their love.
[21:45]But I just think of, despite that, yes, things can take a dark turn.
[21:50]I think there is, if they have that core sense, there can be negotiations, there can
[21:55]be understanding.
[21:56]You know, a sense of trust on some level, even though they're going to lie out their
[21:59]teeth most of the time, you know, I don't know, I hope that's true.
[22:03]I just said that for the first time now, it's reported I could be complete bullshit.
[22:06]Okay, I'm going to go with it.
[22:08]I think it's I mean, I think it makes sense.
[22:11]I'm I am that tracks with my own experience as a teenager for sure.
[22:16]Yeah, same with mine actually, you know, because I did feel that, but I, you know, I also
[22:22]say, like, whatever they're telling you, I get possible, they're totally being truthful,
[22:28]but I'm always like, they could be like, oh, yeah, you know, that was my friend's thing
[22:32]or I've just done it once and me while they're running a whorehouse in Calcutta, you
[22:36]know, like, like doing eight balls, like, but you believe that they're like the sweetest
[22:41]little angels in the world, you know.
[22:42]Yeah.
[22:43]Oh my gosh.
[22:44]Okay.
[22:45]What are you going to do to celebrate if you are already like, retrofitting as cool as just
[22:52]for the deal is, what is your, what is your love that you know, like it is?
[22:56]It's going to your luncheon, Zibi.
[22:58]Yeah.
[22:59]No, really, I honestly believed that when I sold the book Viking would be like, and now
[23:04]we need it, the Odeon, an open champagne over steak free.
[23:08]And it's like, no, here's a Google doc, like, you'll never meet anyone in person, like,
[23:12]you know, I mean, so like, like, I was like, really, I'm not, I don't get, like, invited
[23:15]to the office, at least I was imagining like 1970s publishing world, you know, Gideon.
[23:22]So when you sent, I mean, it wasn't you personally necessarily, but when I got the invite
[23:27]for authors and their editors, and I saw the address and like looked at the picture, I was
[23:32]like, oh, baby, I am in, I probably like the first person to R as V P. Well, I have to
[23:38]tell you my, my daughter's bought Mitzvah was supposed to be over Zoom.
[23:43]And it was supposed to be in this place, and I kept postponing a year at a time, you know,
[23:50]when I keep pushing back my credit, blah, blah, blah, blah.
[23:53]And finally, they've said to me, you can no longer push back your credit, but you can
[23:56]have the space for the whole day, and I'm like, then I am going to make a day of it.
[24:00]So I thought I would do this.
[24:02]I came up at this fun idea for a spring author luncheon, because I met a spring author and
[24:05]I'm like, you should meet all these other spring authors who I've been interviewing and
[24:08]who I have coming up.
[24:09]I bet you'd all really like to know each other.
[24:11]So then I was like, I'll just do like an author thing, and then I don't even know what
[24:15]occurred.
[24:16]Maybe it occurred to invite people to editors, but I was like, I bet that's interesting.
[24:19]Oh, I know what it is, because I was going to invite my author's editor, who I adore
[24:23]Bridey, and then I was like, well, I bet she would like to meet other editors.
[24:26]And so then I thought, I'll just invite the editors, but then like every hour that
[24:29]I have something for my younger daughter at five, and then my older daughter.
[24:33]I love it.
[24:34]I love it.
[24:35]I was so thankful that you're doing that.
[24:36]I was like, whoa, my luncheon.
[24:39]Yes.
[24:40]Like, I've actually been not sort of just like at all.
[24:42]I'm so looking forward to it.
[24:44]Yeah.
[24:45]And then you know, I have some fun stuff in New York City happening, you know, New York
[24:49]City.
[24:50]You heard of it on a update launch date, my friend, who's the designer, Rachel Comey.
[24:57]And she's been to hosting some stuff.
[24:59]So I'm doing a thing with her and also an old casual friend Parker Posey, who's the
[25:04]most wonderful, actually, woman in the world.
[25:07]So that's really fun.
[25:08]I'm excited to get an outfit, Rachel, and then that's something that McNally the next
[25:13]day.
[25:14]So definitely will be exciting and then I come back to Philly, but I'm taking myself to
[25:19]Los Angeles.
[25:20]Nice.
[25:21]You know, because when you're a 50-year-old, I'm published off there, you know, they don't
[25:25]really pay for your travel.
[25:27]So I'm flying myself to LA to be with Maggie Nelson at Skylight, that I'm really excited
[25:32]about that.
[25:33]And then, and then a little thing in your bar, it's not a lot, you know, it's a few things,
[25:37]but I'm thrilled with it.
[25:38]No complaints, except that I would like a first class flight to London.
[25:43]Maybe for the paper bed.
[25:45]Exactly.
[25:46]Thank you.
[25:47]Please.
[25:48]Open your in LA, go buy my bookstore and sign your books.
[25:51]Oh, I know, I looked at that and I said, I need to, all right, I'll have my people call
[25:56]you a painful.
[25:57]Okay.
[25:58]I would love this.
[25:59]Yeah, because that's why I already have the one thing at Skylight with Maggie.
[26:02]What are you going to be out there?
[26:04]Not some May 17th.
[26:05]17th.
[26:06]I don't think I'll be there, but obviously the struggle.
[26:07]Okay.
[26:08]I'll tell them, yeah, I'll do that.
[26:09]I would love that.
[26:10]I already had planned to come buy the bookstore.
[26:12]I'm so not used as I didn't even put it together that I would have a book.
[26:15]Do you know what I mean?
[26:16]I'll go look at Sydney's bookstore, not even thinking, you know, this has been so fun.
[26:25]Thank you for like, I really needed a laugh today and this was just like totally entertaining.
[26:31]I could just like listen to you all day.
[26:32]So thank you.
[26:33]It was really fun.
[26:34]Thank you so much.
[26:35]Appreciate it.
[26:36]It's really meaningful to me.
[26:37]Oh, awesome.
[26:38]Okay.
[26:39]I'll see you at our luncheon.
[26:41]Okay.
[26:42]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[26:47]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zebi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read
[26:52]Books.
[26:53]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and
[26:57]meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[26:59]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound for the Sound Editing.
[27:03]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and outro music.