Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding, EMMA OF 83RD STREET
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[1:03]Audrey Ballata and Emily Harding are co-authors of the novel Emma on 83rd Street.
[1:09]Audrey is a two-time Emmy nominated TV producer who has spent over 20 years writing, developing
[1:14]an executive producing nonfiction television shows for a number of networks and streaming
[1:18]platforms.
[1:19]Audrey lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.
[1:22]Emily Harding is a writer and TV producer whose work has appeared on numerous networks
[1:27]and websites.
[1:28]We're not hunched over her computer working on her bad posture.
[1:31]She can be found losing another game of monopoly to her husband and two kids.
[1:35]Welcome, Audrey and Emily.
[1:37]Thank you so much for coming on Momstone of Time to read books to talk about Emma of 83rd
[1:41]Street.
[1:42]Thank you for having us.
[1:44]Can I just say the first time I read this?
[1:46]I did not, or when I read this, not the first time, but I did not realize this was based
[1:50]on Emma.
[1:51]And then I, I guess I might get some more on, but anyway, and then I read the back and
[1:58]and it's like, oh, okay, yes, that makes a lot of sense.
[2:03]Whether or not you can jump to that, you know, piece of it, it is still a great book.
[2:07]Let me put it that way.
[2:08]Yes, you don't have to read the original.
[2:10]Doesn't matter.
[2:11]You cannot read it or not.
[2:12]It doesn't matter.
[2:13]Yeah.
[2:14]So maybe we should back up and you can tell people what Emma of 83rd Street is about.
[2:20]Yeah.
[2:21]Well, I mean, Emma, 83rd Street is Jane Austen's Emma set in modern day Manhattan.
[2:27]She's an upper east side girl who has the world figured out if only everyone would listen
[2:30]to her and her best friend, George Knightley, lives behind her and they've grown up together.
[2:35]And it's really, we stayed very close to the original story of Emma.
[2:39]We just translated the different events and plot points to what would actually happen
[2:44]if those characters lived in New York City right now, which was so much fun.
[2:48]It is incredible how much is actually quite relevant today and was easy to kind of just
[2:55]put in with very little change, which I guess is why it's such a popular story still.
[3:01]We can still relate to it.
[3:03]You, I don't know if you know Jenny Lee who wrote Anna Kay and Anna Kay forever or some of
[3:09]this.
[3:10]Yes.
[3:11]Yeah.
[3:12]I feel like you two, that would be a really fun event, you know, retelling an extra,
[3:16]and it kind of means Emma in modern day and what other is so true.
[3:20]All those problems.
[3:21]Yeah.
[3:23]You can, Emma's too, like a screening of both those movies in it, like I have a day
[3:29]where you read the picture double feature.
[3:31]Yeah.
[3:32]I don't know.
[3:33]I love it.
[3:34]Watch party.
[3:35]I don't know that you need ideas.
[3:36]I love it.
[3:37]And I found out the other day there's like a whole thing of people are annoyed by all the
[3:41]people saying you should do this.
[3:42]You should do that.
[3:43]And I'm like, I literally tell people on my podcast every day, you should do this.
[3:47]You should try.
[3:48]I'm like, oh no, am I actually like, annoying everybody that I guess I should stop?
[3:53]I need people telling me what to do.
[3:54]I need that all the time.
[3:56]I feel like people are always asking us advice.
[3:58]No.
[3:59]Or I ask God if this is like, tell me what I should do.
[4:01]I have no idea.
[4:02]And you give great advice too.
[4:04]I need it.
[4:05]I need it.
[4:06]That's a much before people look at you to be as a friend so they're like, what should
[4:09]I do?
[4:10]Oh, there you go.
[4:11]Okay.
[4:12]Good.
[4:13]I'm using this as an official sanction that I can, you know, you're allowed to.
[4:17]Yes.
[4:18]So official approval.
[4:19]Oh my gosh.
[4:21]So I heard the two of you decided to do this book together over a one soaked night in 2020.
[4:26]I didn't hear it.
[4:27]I just read that.
[4:28]Give me the real back story.
[4:30]I want to hear the whole thing.
[4:32]That sort of is the real backstory.
[4:33]We were, what was the beginning of the pandemic?
[4:36]And we both were at home trying to homeschool our children.
[4:41]And we missed each other.
[4:42]We missed being at work and what everybody was going through.
[4:46]And so I think we were late night texting and at this point like Emily had sent me things
[4:52]that amazing things that she had written books and screenplays and I sent her some things
[4:56]that I had written.
[4:58]And then I, I can't remember exactly how it went down, but it took about four minutes
[5:02]to all come together.
[5:04]But I do remember Emily saying, we should also be together and I'm like, oh, well, how do
[5:08]you do that?
[5:09]And it's like, you know, we've worked together for so long in our television careers that
[5:14]we sort of can read each other's minds almost.
[5:17]And it was really kind of like, why don't we can do it the same way we kind of develop
[5:21]and write and produce a television show and let's do a breakdown and let's sort of split
[5:25]up the chapters.
[5:26]And it just sort of came together and then we thought, what should we do?
[5:30]Let's do something that we both love and mean something to us and it can be almost a
[5:36]guideline for the stories that we want to tell, but make it modern and set it in Manhattan
[5:42]a place that we have lived forever and kind of go from there.
[5:46]And that's how it started.
[5:47]And then we just started doing it.
[5:48]It was kind of with no intention of anything other than writing it for each other.
[5:53]It wasn't like, let's write a book.
[5:55]It was like, let's write some fun chapters and see what happens and then it kind of just
[5:59]came together and we're like, is, is this good or is this hard?
[6:03]And we gave it to a couple of people to read, gave it to my mom to read and people were
[6:09]like, this is really good.
[6:10]And we're like, okay, and then we kind of went from there.
[6:14]Wow.
[6:15]Yeah.
[6:16]Sorry keeps going.
[6:17]It's like, you know, that was two years ago.
[6:19]Yeah, but we had no idea it was going to go as get to this point.
[6:24]So I think actually there was a point when we got an agent for it.
[6:28]And we were like, oh my gosh, it's happening.
[6:29]And I think we actually were saying like, what it's sippy had us on her show.
[6:33]Like when that's the key thing, we did not, we were, oh no, we were like, we were thinking
[6:38]like, this is high in the sky stuff and we were like, you can't don't even say that.
[6:42]Don't even say that because it's not going to happen.
[6:44]So I think it's everything keeps surpassing our expectations and it's, so it's wonderful.
[6:50]But at the end of the day, it's still just this.
[6:52]I look at it and it's just this kind of gift we gave each other to get through a really
[6:55]rough time.
[6:56]And we just helped each other through these little chapters and it was, it was fantastic.
[7:00]It was really a lot of ways.
[7:02]I feel like I didn't exactly have that with a friend during COVID.
[7:07]I mean, I was so, I mean, not that I don't have friends.
[7:09]I have, I love my friends, but I didn't have like a one person who I was helping me
[7:14]like get through aside from my husband kind of thing.
[7:16]Right.
[7:17]Well, it was nice if I had created a book.
[7:19]I feel like it was me.
[7:20]My office, you know, I was like on podcasts all the time like, but behind me, it was just
[7:25]like family.
[7:26]Yeah, I don't know.
[7:27]All I'm trying to say is that's so nice.
[7:29]You have that.
[7:30]Thank you.
[7:31]Thank you.
[7:32]Thank you.
[7:33]Yeah.
[7:34]It was needed.
[7:35]Yeah.
[7:36]Yeah.
[7:37]Yeah.
[7:38]Yeah.
[7:39]I feel bad.
[7:40]I really love my friends.
[7:41]And I have very close.
[7:42]Anyway.
[7:43]Okay.
[7:44]How did it work in theory?
[7:45]Like, what program did you use?
[7:46]How did you do something together?
[7:47]Because I'm fascinated by how people collaborate on something so creative that comes out of
[7:51]your mind and your subconscious and all this stuff.
[7:53]And yet you do it together.
[7:54]So how did you make that work?
[7:56]Cool.
[7:57]Docks.
[7:58]Yeah, it was Google Docs.
[7:59]You know, Audrey make a chapter, send it to me, which was lovely.
[8:02]We get the, you know, in our inbox being like, you know, Audrey is shared with you.
[8:06]Yeah.
[8:07]So we read each other's chapters.
[8:08]But then as we kept going with our visions, you get an update with Google Docs in your inbox
[8:13]and someone's made a change or made a note, so you run to your computer and you look and
[8:16]you can see.
[8:17]So it was almost like text conversations we were having within the documents about what we
[8:21]were doing.
[8:22]And I think, and we've said this before, because we were in TV and it's really cutthroat.
[8:27]And there is no ego.
[8:29]You can't have an ego because it is destroyed and shredded quickly.
[8:33]We were able to like say, hey, I don't think that's working.
[8:36]This we might need to lose this.
[8:38]And it was never personal.
[8:39]It was always just like very professional.
[8:41]We almost got into TV mode of like, all right, this needs to be cut.
[8:43]This needs to, we need something here and so that was very helpful in the whole process
[8:47]as well.
[8:48]That was all done via Google Docs and we also learned on Google Docs that there's a limit
[8:52]to the amount of notes that you can put because that's really had like a 400 page book.
[8:58]And sometimes you would just start writing bit like, hey, did you pick up your kid from school?
[9:03]Oh, did you hit the Google Docs?
[9:04]Oh, yeah, we did texting.
[9:06]Yes, we did start writing things and then we'd be like, ha, ha, doesn't this remind you
[9:11]of this time when we were in the city and I thought it was unlimited.
[9:15]So you just like, right, it was, we were literally writing these text conversations back
[9:19]and forth that was, we didn't think this was going anywhere.
[9:21]Like we really were just kind of doing this for ourselves.
[9:24]Yeah.
[9:25]And you got that alert and you're like, you've reached your comment limit and I'm like,
[9:27]you can have a comment limit?
[9:28]Oh, my God.
[9:29]And then it was like, we have a comment limit.
[9:32]What do we do now?
[9:33]And do we have to like move the whole document to a new one, start having like two or
[9:37]three times.
[9:38]Yeah.
[9:39]Oh, my gosh.
[9:40]That is so funny.
[9:41]Yeah.
[9:42]It was really funny.
[9:43]Did you know you can also run out of iCloud storage space and that there's a limit at
[9:45]which they will not let you buy more because I got there.
[9:48]They won't let you buy.
[9:49]Yeah.
[9:50]Oh, no.
[9:51]You used to create a new persona.
[9:52]You can't even buy it.
[9:53]They won't even take my money.
[9:54]Oh, my goodness.
[9:55]That's a kid now.
[9:56]Oh, my goodness.
[9:57]You only get like two terabytes or something.
[9:59]And I have like.
[10:00]I have like, like millions of pictures and all that that I have there in the cloud.
[10:06]And yeah, I know.
[10:08]Oh, no, that's like a new thing to worry about because I am getting close.
[10:10]Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have to, but actually then this is so off topic.
[10:14]Anyway, then my kids showed that you can delete all the screenshots.
[10:18]Like I take screenshots all the time, but I don't really need them more than like two seconds or
[10:22]whatever. So there's the thing that you can just delete all your screenshots.
[10:25]So then I deleted like 50,000 photos in like a minute and then I had more storage.
[10:29]Anyway, delete your screenshots. That's a, that's my future.
[10:32]Oh my gosh. I didn't. I could get that other delete half the stuff on my computer.
[10:35]My husband's always like, you, this thing, how is it even functioning?
[10:38]You have everything open. You have a couple of your emails and text things like delete.
[10:43]Like I can't. I know, me too. I was like 500, 500 tabs open.
[10:48]I'm like, yeah, 500, 500, 500, my son's like, he's like, you have to close those.
[10:52]Like totally. It's still working.
[10:54]But there's no thing that says close all tabs. It's so annoying.
[10:58]Why don't I need a tab? I need a tab. You never know. You can
[11:01]need to come back to it. You never know. What if I need to, to, you know,
[11:05]get that Zara cart going with my clothes? That's right. That's right.
[11:08]I know the article I've been to read like, yes, still open. I'm going to get back there.
[11:12]I am. I'll get back there at some point. Anyway, wait until me about both of your TV careers
[11:19]and all of your careers in writing in general and like creativity and just like take me back.
[11:25]Where'd you both go up and like just like how did we get here? Give me the back story.
[11:29]Okay. So I grew up in New Jersey and, you know, I guess came to New York Lapis on the same
[11:35]as being a New Yorker. But anyway, so I grew up in New Jersey. I know. And, you know,
[11:40]just kind of my mom's a writer. And so I kind of grew up with books and, you know,
[11:45]and high school kind of went to a girl school and just sort of fell in love with
[11:48]all these, you know, strong, complicated, uh, women heroes and different books that we were
[11:55]reading. And then out of college, I moved to the city and moved back to Manhattan. And I got
[12:01]a job at the Food Network. And I was working at the Food Network for, I worked there for a very
[12:06]long time. I was on camera. I was and then realized I wasn't very good at that. So then I moved
[12:12]behind the camera. And I was sort of, you know, started producing and writing and just kind of
[12:19]becoming part of the Food Network and television world and then moved on to work at different
[12:25]production companies. And so worked on like baby shows like a baby story and wedding shows and
[12:31]all types of kind of lifestyle. And then kind of worked at this production company. And that's
[12:37]where I met Emily. And, you know, and then we started working on a million different shows together.
[12:42]And we had we started developing shows, which was different than producing shows. So we had to
[12:48]come up with the ideas. We had a brainstorm. We had to travel all over the country together.
[12:53]Even when we first met, like the first assignment we had was we went to a jail in Pittsburgh.
[12:59]And we did a store. It was a pilot. I think it was for like lifetime or something. And we had to,
[13:05]it was about the female wardens there. And they were amazing. These amazing characters. But we
[13:11]were, you know, it just meant girls from New York like in a jail just met sharing a hotel room.
[13:17]You know, I'm like, what are they doing going to jail for the Food Network?
[13:20]Oh, no. Yeah. There would be better places. Yeah. Because we pitched to all different types of
[13:25]production. Yeah. All different never. So, but anyway, oh my gosh. So we became friends fast. And
[13:31]we realized we were kind of in the same stage of life when we met, where we had, you know,
[13:35]dated a million people that were the wrong guys. And then we had recently, I just married my husband.
[13:41]She had married her husband. And we, I think you might have been pregnant with your daughter.
[13:46]I started my birthday. I started the job. And like four months later, I found out I was pregnant.
[13:50]It was just like really bad. Right. And I was trying to get pregnant. And I was like,
[13:54]happily she's pregnant. And then I got pregnant like a year later. So it all kind of worked out.
[14:02]And we just became like instant friends. We had so much in common. That was thinking about it because
[14:06]we had spent so much time growing up in New York that I was thinking about this today. I'm
[14:10]really like, I was probably, we were probably out at the same bars at the same time. But
[14:15]oh, I know that, you know, like, we were probably like downtown at some bars together at
[14:20]Arlene's grocery or at the bed or at museums together, but not knowing each other yet. Because
[14:24]we were there at the same time. But we just always kept missing each other. Yeah. Everything
[14:29]parallels so much. I mean, I have seen me. I'm from New York. I know. That's right.
[14:36]You even hear those stories. Yeah. I'm older than you. I'm sure. But I don't think so. So
[14:41]yeah, I don't think so. I think we're all the same age. Yeah. Yes. I look much older than you.
[14:46]I'm not going to make it. But I feel like I'm definitely older. Makeup. I know. I think about that
[14:51]all the time. All the people who were like packed into like automatic slims the same night, you know,
[14:56]and all that. Yes. Yes. Who else was there that like fast forward. We're all like on Zooms or,
[15:03]you know, where we have professional leather. Yeah. Absolutely. I see people. I see why people
[15:09]write those books about like their younger selves running into their current selves. You know,
[15:13]they're like, that's like whole like sub genre. Oh, yes. Like, yes. Not time travel, but I
[15:18]don't even want you outside. It's not even sci-fi. But anyway, I get it because I'm so interested in
[15:23]like running into like just if I could peer in and see who else. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. I would see
[15:30]Emily. I know it. And maybe we would see you too. Maybe. Maybe that I mean, it's totally possible.
[15:35]I think that was it was just very writing the book. I think let us go back into this memories a bit.
[15:40]and I think for me, you know, I moved around a lot growing up. So I was Minnesota, Florida, Alabama,
[15:45]everywhere. But I was born in New York after college in Boston. I came back and it was,
[15:51]I wanted to get into documentaries. That was, you know, I was going to change the world. Do
[15:54]documentaries. And so I worked at A&E and History Channel for a long time, which was fantastic.
[16:00]But during the courses that is when reality TV really got into its own and it's different beast.
[16:06]So I was trying to find my place there and went to MTV for a while. And then I quit MTV.
[16:13]And it's like, I need to work at a production company where they're doing cool things,
[16:17]doing fun things. That's when I ended up at this production company with Audrey.
[16:20]And it was, you know, we always say the best thing in that experience where the
[16:23]friends we made, we met this, everyone working at that company, you know, all the people in our
[16:28]group were amazing or there were still as a cause. I don't know if we can say, okay, don't
[16:35]I'm not going to have heard of it. It doesn't matter. No, you wouldn't have heard of it.
[16:37]I wouldn't have heard of production company. But the friendships we made, like there's like
[16:42]five women and one guy, the six. We go on trips together. Like we became so tired.
[16:50]When you go through, I always say when it's a pet, sometimes when you have a great production
[16:55]company or a great experience on a television show, sometimes you don't really stay in touch with
[16:59]people went well and you move on. But when you go through this like tough times, you know,
[17:03]there were ups and downs. Some of it was great. But when it's like hard, you kind of really bond.
[17:08]And so all of us became really close and we're still close and we still hang out and they're
[17:12]all amazing people with amazing careers. So yeah, that was the best part of it. It really was.
[17:18]It was amazing. So yeah. And I think, yeah, then Audrey and I became friends and I moved to Texas
[17:23]a couple of years before the pandemic because my husband's job brought us down here. And he
[17:28]it was just, you know, she and we would all still zoom and I would still come up to New York all
[17:31]the time and we were still trying to do TV. But I'd always loved writing. I'd gone to school for writing.
[17:36]I loved writing. So I was still always trying to make that work. And the pandemic shut down
[17:40]television. Like even if we'd loved and wanted to keep doing it, there was nothing to be done. You
[17:45]couldn't do anything. And I think that we just needed to be productive and needed kind of an outlet
[17:50]in this time where, you know, I'm trying to remember how to do long division for my daughter.
[17:56]I don't know. I don't know. So it was just a great chance to be creative really.
[18:00]They've totally destroyed long division. I don't understand the new way. I still do not understand
[18:04]the new way is so much better. I don't know. Yeah. I don't. She was explaining it to me the
[18:09]other day. And I was just nodding and hoping that she would, you know, she would buy it because I
[18:13]have no idea. I'm just really I'm really they understand it because I sure. Yeah. I'm like, well,
[18:18]you seem to have it. So I'm going to just let you do your thing. My son seems to get it.
[18:22]How old are all your kids? My daughter is 11 about to be 12 and my son's nine. And my I have two
[18:29]boys and they are eight. Well, he's turning eight. And the older one is 10, 2011. So we got I got a
[18:37]first grader and a fifth grader. So yeah, I have it. And your kids are around that age. Yeah.
[18:43]You have an eight year old and second grade boy and nine year old, almost 10. Well, not almost.
[18:49]She's like two thirds. Anyway, she's in third grade going on like 30. And then I have twins who
[18:58]are almost 16, but they're a ninth grade. Boy girl. Oh, oh, ninth grade. So high school. I know. I'm in
[19:04]a different phase there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's totally different. How nice for the little
[19:08]ones to see that for the older ones. Sometimes it's nice. Okay. So the book. So you wrote the book
[19:17]together and then had it ended up getting sold and getting coming out. And like, what was that
[19:21]journey? Like, was it fun? Like, compared to TV? Was it, I mean, it must have been so slow.
[19:26]Well, it was actually TV is so slow. I mean, it is. Okay. During the process, I had a show of submission
[19:35]when we started this book. And by the time we sold really up until the last January, that show was
[19:40]still in like development. Like, okay. Once the show is in production, it goes, but in development,
[19:46]it just takes forever. So this was this timeline two and a half years really was on par
[19:50]number of our experience. Yeah. But I think it all, I mean, we had a friend who used to be
[19:55]in publishing Audrey and we sent it for her. This is a beta reader really.
[20:00]Yeah. And she was the one. Yeah. It's a good friend of mine, Molly Lyons, and that I
[20:05]grew up with by Jersey Connections. And so we sent it as a beta reader. And she was like,
[20:11]you really should send it out to agents. And you know, here, this is how you should do it and
[20:16]sort of explain to us how that world worked, which Emily knew more. I didn't really know as well.
[20:22]of, and we just started doing that. And we got an agent kind of quickly. And she's amazing.
[20:30]And she was just Joelle. And she loved you. I really, she was like, this is what we're going to do.
[20:38]This is how we're going to do things. And she started pitching around and actually the process of
[20:43]pitching around our manuscript was very similar to pitching a television show. So we were like,
[20:49]we get this part. We know how to, you know, package this and make it look nice. And we know what
[20:54]words were supposed to say and how to make this document look right. So that's what we had to make
[20:59]these decks, you know, and sizzle reels for television. But we had the manuscript, I guess, which was
[21:05]the equivalent. And so we just started pitching that around. And it kind of, you know, went from there.
[21:11]And then we got to where we are to gallery. Yeah. Gallery. Molly. Yeah. Molly Gregory,
[21:16]galleries or editor. And she also was such a godsend. You hear horror stories sometimes. Like not
[21:22]necessarily editors, but that it's tough. The whole process. And you have to have champion your book.
[21:26]And not just Molly, but everyone at gal. It's just this team that is so supportive. And they
[21:31]have some ideas because they love the book the same way we do. But they've, it's just been a lovely
[21:36]experience. We've been so lucky. We really did better. Amazing. Yeah. It's a minute we don't. I mean,
[21:40]yeah. Was this always your title? Yes. Okay. What else? Amazing. Amazing.
[21:46]That's all we had. Yeah. That was the one, that came up at one tax conversation. We're like,
[21:51]we should call it M of Edie Third Street. How did you pick 83rd random? Okay. I think it was just
[21:58]because the museum plays such a huge part in it. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I am. Yeah. True. So there
[22:03]was like, well, it's either 82nd, 83rd or 84th. And so 83rd just sounded the best with her name.
[22:08]Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, close to Lyle on East of the eight stream. And it left. Yes. Yeah.
[22:16]And how did you decide whose name went first? Is it alphabetical? Yes. Yeah. alphabetical. Just
[22:21]alphabetical. No, no. Yeah. No, but no. Don't even think we realized it and drag ads. No.
[22:28]No. No. It's somebody asking. I think they asked us. We did it. We're like, I alphabetical. I don't
[22:33]mean. Yeah. We're like, whatever you think. Yeah. We were like, no, it's like, Emily was saying
[22:38]before. Like, there's no ego. We're just like, what we can't believe we got this far. But
[22:42]our names on it. We're going to put our picture on it. Great. Great. We don't care.
[22:50]Whatever some creative things you're doing like for marketing or events or like when the book is
[22:55]coming out that you're excited about or that maybe you weren't expecting to be doing or any of that
[22:59]your luncheon. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this I think they when we first started having that
[23:12]our publicist, Lucy, she was like, you know, we're going to try to get you on some podcast and do,
[23:16]you know, PR that way and just get you out. So we were expecting that. I think we're just getting
[23:21]a lot of people reaching out now who've read advanced copies, who really would like to talk to
[23:25]you or doing their own, um, their own reviews and pitching for us, which is hugely,
[23:32]surreal. Yeah. You know, you have people reading something that you wrote and that they love it
[23:36]and they want to help you put it out there. Yeah. But I think, yeah, we're going to some bookstores
[23:41]and doing podcasts and kind of trying to travel around. It helps that we live in two different
[23:46]locations so we can divide and conquer a bit. Yeah. But the more we can do things together,
[23:50]I mean, just an excuse to have to hang out more fun. That's good too.
[23:53]And are you going to do anything on any third street? Do you want me to like go up there with the
[23:57]book? Maybe I'll go up there with the books and take a picture. I love it. I love it. You should.
[24:01]I love a few blocks away, you know. Yes. Oh, my God. I should. That would be amazing.
[24:05]Take some chats. We'd love that. Whatever you'd like to do, should I wait for the final or should I
[24:10]take the galley? I can wait for the final. You tell me. No, just I'll throw it in my back.
[24:15]Yes, do that one. You're walking. I'll be happy. Oh, my God. It's amazing.
[24:23]Yeah. No, I have safety. They're shooting all the time.
[24:27]So what, what are you working on now?
[24:31]And are you working on another book? Or no, that was a sign. We kind of, you know, we are
[24:35]we're brainstorming. We're brainstorming. I think we love the being and we love this Jane Austro
[24:40]world. I think we let our imaginations run wild with it. And, you know, if you read the book,
[24:44]I think you could see that a bit that we kind of were like, not closing ourselves off to
[24:48]Emma. We were just thinking like her world is amazing. And it does all translate to modern day
[24:53]relationships and friendships really well. So I think we're playing around in that area. We'd
[24:57]love to stay in Jane Austro's world a little bit longer if she'll have us. But right now,
[25:02]nothing's in the stone. We're just enjoying it. We're trying to also hang on to what made Emma
[25:07]special was that we were just doing it for each other. So I think it's we're enjoying the brainstorming
[25:13]and the fun bits because revisions are not fun. It's a lot of work. So the brainstorming and the
[25:19]working it out and doing all the fun bits, we're holding on to that as much as we can right now.
[25:24]That's right. Someone just told me this yesterday that they had been talking to somebody else who
[25:29]was like famous or something or a famous writer who told this person, this is how great my memory is.
[25:35]I'm like somebody says something about someone. But anyway, the point of it was that it never
[25:40]gets more fun than writing the thing. Like that's the best part of the whole process is when
[25:46]you're actually doing the writing and the rest is like totally different. So go back to like the
[25:50]fun of the writing. Like that's what it's all about. Yes. I'll summarize that from God knows where
[25:55]and just say that to you. And it's true. The person was very smart. Yes, it's very true.
[26:01]That person was very smart. Yes. And for us, it's reading each other's work. That's fun part too.
[26:07]Like we love looking that we get to do that, that I love reading whatever Emily writes.
[26:12]Yeah, excited about it. I know it's great. That's the best part of working together.
[26:17]But now you have to find someplace that doesn't limit your comments.
[26:21]Yes, I know. I know. I know. So next we might just be battling Google.
[26:25]I know. Yeah. Crazy. It's been lovely though. I do love the idea that
[26:31]there's other people like now we have other people coming in to it.
[26:33]Like have you ever seen like Molly leaves us? I had her other editor and I was like,
[26:36]oh, we have more people coming in and I'm guessing.
[26:38]Yeah, yeah. There's other colored rocks. Tax. I know there's no more colors involved.
[26:42]Like Emily, you're thinking. She's like, you're green.
[26:47]Well, we won't leave Google Docs. We'll just keep bringing people in for us.
[26:50]That's a little bit. Yeah. This is fine. Interesting. Well, you know, I mean, maybe that
[26:54]you have to bring that into your next book. This is a little bit.
[26:57]Well, that's true. I'm not going to say shed because now it's amazing. Do you have any advice
[27:03]for aspiring authors? Oh, gosh. I think you go. I'm like, no. I always steal.
[27:10]They be well, a bridge had great advice. So I'm going to do a, you know, a Michael Scott steal it and
[27:15]give it away. But it's fine. Find that one front, right for one friend. Find out one friend you like
[27:23]that you want to make laugh and cry and just write for them because I think that our experiences
[27:29]are more universal than we realized. And I think the idea of writing a book is so overwhelming.
[27:34]And if you just make us something small, like you're writing a story for a friend and you just
[27:38]start with not even a chapter, but a page is seen. And you just go from there and see where it
[27:44]leads you is a much less cumbersome task. And it also makes it a lot more fun. So I think that was
[27:51]advice she said after the Golden Globes a few years ago. And it's really just always stuck
[27:54]with me. And it really translated to what we did. So that would be, you know,
[27:59]Katie Wallerbridge, Emily Harding. Michael Scott. Any offers reference I'll take
[28:09]same advice. Yeah, I know my say yes and also don't get hung up on getting the perfect word as
[28:18]you're writing. Like just keep going. So just leave a space and, you know, just go back to it.
[28:24]I feel like these my son and, you know, his friends are all trying to write stuff. And I'm like,
[28:28]don't worry, but just keep going. Get to the end. You can go back and fix it. So I feel like just
[28:32]go for it and don't get discouraged and keep trying and just go for it. It's just try it.
[28:40]And don't worry. You're only, it's just for you. Right. Like no one's late. Yes. That's like no
[28:46]one's watching. Yeah. T-shirts. Here we go. That's the next thing you should do.
[28:54]So many ideas. Okay. This is really fun. Thank you. I can't believe this is like a
[28:58]particular. It's like this is so fun. That went so fast. I think this is lovely. Thank you.
[29:04]Thanks so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Okay. I'll be off to
[29:08]83rd Street. And I'll. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Bye. Okay. Bye.
[29:15]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[29:18]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zebi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[29:23]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowens.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots
[29:28]of authors on Zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Texture Sound for the
[29:33]sound editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro and