Rachel Renée Russell, DORK DIARIES 15: Tales from a Not-So-Posh Paris Adventure
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[1:03]Rachel Renee Russell is the author of the Dork Diary series.
[1:07]We're going to be talking about her latest book, Dork Diary's number 15, Tales from
[1:11]a Not-So-Posh Paris adventure.
[1:14]Rachel is the number one year child's best-selling author of the Dork Diary series, and
[1:19]Blockbuster series chronicling the life and misadventures of middle school students,
[1:23]Nicky Maxwell, and her best friend's Chloe and Zoe.
[1:26]With humor and wit, Rachel's books encouraged tweens to embrace their individuality and
[1:30]always let their inner dork shine through.
[1:32]Nicky Russell is the illustrator for both book series.
[1:36]This mother daughter team has released 19 consecutive New York Times best sellers.
[1:41]Nicky Russell graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in elementary
[1:45]education.
[1:46]Welcome.
[1:47]I'm so excited today.
[1:48]I get to talk to Rachel and Nicky about Dork Diaries.
[1:52]This is so exciting.
[1:53]Wow.
[1:54]So we're excited to be here.
[1:56]Wow.
[1:57]I have to say right before this, I was dropping my kids at school and I had the Dork Diaries
[2:02]out because I was showing my son who loves the books and all that.
[2:06]One of his friends walked over and she was like, you know, my mom is interviewing
[2:10]the authors.
[2:11]She's like, what?
[2:12]I was like, what should I ask?
[2:14]Anyway, she was like, find out why McKenzie has to be so mean.
[2:18]How did McKenzie get so mean?
[2:19]So I have to just ask you that before I forget.
[2:22]Okay.
[2:23]Okay.
[2:24]So that's my first question.
[2:25]Then we'll go into the whole series.
[2:26]Okay.
[2:27]The reason McKenzie is so mean, actually, she's probably meaner to Nicky than she is
[2:32]most people is because when Nicky Maxwell moved into the school, Nicky was considered,
[2:38]Mackenzie was considered the best artist in the school.
[2:41]Everybody raved about how talented she was and all of that.
[2:44]But once Nicky Maxwell arrived, as far as Nicky, even more talented artist than Mackenzie
[2:50]is.
[2:51]So that's our major bone to pick with Nicky Maxwell is that all the school is, you know, calling
[2:57]her the best artist in the school, which kind of stole a crown from her.
[3:00]The second reason why she doesn't like Nicky Maxwell is that Nicky and Brandon are good
[3:05]friends and McKenzie's had a crush on Brandon or like since kindergarten.
[3:11]So those are the two reasons as she's a mean girl, any way, and a little self-centered,
[3:15]like some of the mean girls that we've probably encountered school.
[3:19]So that's the answer to the question.
[3:20]Okay.
[3:21]Although in the catacombs, it looks like maybe they were going to be friends for a minute.
[3:25]Whenever we get some troubles, we'll be friends, Nicky Maxwell, if that will help her
[3:32]life.
[3:33]Yeah, also in book 11, the same thing happens there too.
[3:36]Interesting.
[3:37]So, okay, book 15, they all go to Paris.
[3:41]It's so exciting.
[3:42]I was like, you know, edge of my seed waiting, well, are they going to get asked to be
[3:47]part of this?
[3:48]Is he going to call?
[3:49]Is the, you know, the guy going to call the back?
[3:51]And then next thing you know, we have these amazing illustrations.
[3:54]Like, honestly, it's like breath taking, and some, in fact, Zoey was, Zoey was
[4:00]saying this morning, some of the style of the illustrations of Paris seems to be a slightly
[4:04]different than the illustrations for the girls.
[4:08]So I wanted to find out about your style and how you decided to do that.
[4:12]But, you know, Nicky.
[4:13]Yeah, Nicky.
[4:14]Go ahead.
[4:15]Well, I feel like since Nicky was headed to Paris, that would be the perfect opportunity
[4:20]for her to learn at the illustration.
[4:23]And those are the illustrations you're seeing in the book that are different from Nicky's
[4:28]style.
[4:29]She decides to take on something different to take her skills to the next level, which
[4:34]is good for any artist to do.
[4:37]It's always good to refine your skills and your style.
[4:40]Awesome.
[4:41]And how did you two pick Paris?
[4:42]It's kind of a long story, but I will explain it.
[4:47]Nicky and I were planning to go to Paris.
[4:50]And there's my fact, Nicky wanted to go to Paris very, very badly.
[4:53]So I was like, OK, fine, we've been working really hard.
[4:56]We will go to Paris.
[4:57]So we started planning it.
[5:00]And we also had a book to, we're supposed to be working on a book the same, around the
[5:04]same time that we were going to be going.
[5:06]So I'm like, we can take advantage of the situation if we can set book 15 in Paris.
[5:12]So since we're going to be in Paris for a couple of weeks, and we're supposed to be working
[5:16]on the book or submitting notes and some of the initial plot lines for book 15, if we have
[5:23]Nicky and her friends go to Paris, that will be perfect.
[5:26]So that was our plan.
[5:28]However, as life would have it, we were planning to go to Paris in May of 2020.
[5:34]And of course in May of 2020, COVID was ravaging the world and all international travel
[5:41]have been canceled and whatever.
[5:43]So our trip to Paris got canceled, but we were able to take Nicky Maxwell and her friends
[5:48]to Paris anyway.
[5:49]So it turned out well, that's all good for us, but definitely great for Nicky Maxwell
[5:54]and her friends.
[5:55]Oh, it's nice when we can write where we want to be, right?
[5:58]Exactly.
[5:59]You know, like, I, you know, today I feel like I'd rather be laying on the beach.
[6:02]I'm just going to never pretend that I am in Miami.
[6:05]Yeah.
[6:06]So yeah, so that if it wasn't, but the problem was that if we were in Paris, it was going
[6:16]to be a lot easier to write about Paris because I've never been to Paris before.
[6:19]And I know very little bit about it.
[6:21]Nicky speaks French, you know, from that she learned at high school and college.
[6:26]So after we figured out that we weren't going to be going to Paris, it, the book became
[6:31]10 times harder to write because we were going to have to write 300 pages about a group
[6:36]of people in a city having day-to-day adventures in a city we've never been to it.
[6:42]No, nothing about.
[6:43]So a Google images became our friend, so that's how we managed to pull it off.
[6:49]And a lot of people think, oh, honestly, you were there and we're like, no, we did not
[6:53]go.
[6:54]So have you gone?
[6:55]Did you go, like, have you been yet?
[6:56]Like, did you go?
[6:57]We have not yet because by the time we finished the book, we actually took us several
[7:01]years to finish the other publication.
[7:03]It took us several years to figure out, well, yeah, we are planning.
[7:06]We were planning to go next year, but the Olympics is going to be scheduled there.
[7:11]So people are like, we're going to go.
[7:12]We have to get there before the Olympics.
[7:14]Otherwise, once the Olympics there is going to be like 10 times 100 times 10 people
[7:18]either who knows and it's going to be not about Paris is going to be about the Olympics.
[7:23]And we wanted to go to visit the city and see the culture versus, you know, the Olympics
[7:29]would be wonderful.
[7:30]But again, we're more interested in Paris.
[7:31]So we may not go, unless we can get there before the Olympics start.
[7:36]It would be fun if you organized a mother daughter group trip to Paris where you take
[7:41]everyone to all the sites and everything that you know, that would be very cool.
[7:45]Like, do our diaries abroad?
[7:47]A tour.
[7:48]Yes.
[7:49]A tour.
[7:50]Yeah.
[7:51]Thinking in Paris.
[7:52]A posh Paris adventure or a tour could be called the same name as our book.
[7:55]Totally.
[7:56]You can have different ages of kids too.
[7:57]Like, I would go back.
[7:59]That's a very good idea.
[8:01]Maybe you could do it in time for Mother's Day.
[8:03]You could do May, May of 2024.
[8:05]All right, I'll stop.
[8:06]Yeah.
[8:07]Before it is, I think the Olympics will be the summer.
[8:08]So we're going to get there.
[8:09]We have to get there.
[8:10]June.
[8:11]June.
[8:12]Yeah.
[8:13]Yeah.
[8:14]May, June.
[8:15]I think, I mean, I'm just putting it out there.
[8:16]You can plan that when we hang up.
[8:17]Yeah.
[8:18]That's right.
[8:19]Taking things back just a minute away from this book and just to the series in general.
[8:23]Obviously, you could not have known that massive explosion in the series would become.
[8:27]I mean, I'm sure you had a hunch that it was good.
[8:30]But the fact that this has become this, I mean, it's like a franchise.
[8:34]It's a whole brand.
[8:35]Oh, yes.
[8:36]And I, when I initially wrote it, I hoped that to sell one book and I hoped that it would
[8:44]sell, well, I wasn't even anticipating like a million copies.
[8:48]I thought if I did, because I think they said if the average book for children sells
[8:52]about what 10,000 to 50,000 copies year, maybe not necessarily New York Times best selling,
[8:58]but that's really good.
[8:59]So that was my goal was one book and maybe 50,000 copies or 100,000 copies.
[9:04]If I'm really, really lucky, however, when I once, my literary agent submitted the
[9:09]manuscript and it was went to auction, that was my first, like shock that, oh my gosh,
[9:15]in an auction, a book auction is pretty much like a typical auction.
[9:20]A row of publishers from different companies are bidding on it and it goes to the book
[9:24]to the highest bidder.
[9:25]And that's very, very unusual.
[9:27]It happens maybe several times a year where of all the thousands or tens of thousands
[9:32]of books that are sold every year, only maybe a few of them actually go to auction
[9:35]where published charts are literally fighting over it.
[9:37]So that was my first thing like, oh my gosh, this might be successful.
[9:41]Simon and Schuster won the auction.
[9:43]So the book was sold to Simon and Schuster.
[9:46]And the first thing they did was ask for either two or three additional copies or auditions.
[9:52]So by the time I signed my contract with Simon and Schuster, it was already a series.
[9:56]So again, I'm like, oh, so those were kind of the...
[10:00]And then of course, once they requested several books,
[10:03]I had to get Nicki to basically make
[10:07]being a children's illustrator or career
[10:08]because for several years,
[10:10]we're going to have to get these two or three books done
[10:12]that they had purchased.
[10:13]And of course, after the first three books,
[10:16]the rest is history and we end up with all the stuff
[10:18]behind us.
[10:19]Oh my gosh.
[10:20]And Nicki was a teacher at the time.
[10:21]Yeah, I was going to ask what you were doing
[10:23]to talk about that.
[10:24]So I was, I was making an elementary education
[10:28]with a minor in finance.
[10:29]So I always had art with me.
[10:31]But to begin with, I was a first grade teacher
[10:34]and I was also, I also taught third grade for a little bit.
[10:37]So when mom came and asked for help,
[10:39]that was when I was teaching first grade.
[10:42]And I figured, well, it would be,
[10:43]two of my favorite things.
[10:45]It would be art and it would be kids.
[10:47]So it's a win-win.
[10:50]So I did resign from teaching
[10:52]and I went into illustrating full time.
[10:55]And that's the way it's been ever since.
[10:57]And next year, we'll be our 15th anniversary.
[11:00]So we've been working together for 15 years.
[11:03]And it doesn't, it feels like maybe seven or eight.
[11:05]Not 15.
[11:07]Oh my gosh.
[11:08]Well, I would argue you're still teaching
[11:09]and what you're doing.
[11:10]Yes.
[11:11]Well, I think that's a very good way to put it in.
[11:13]Absolutely.
[11:14]Just not in a classroom.
[11:15]There are many ways to teach.
[11:17]Yeah.
[11:18]You don't fight.
[11:19]Do you guys fight doing this together?
[11:21]No, we have discussions.
[11:24]More so than he did arguments or whatever.
[11:27]And so she tends to correct me on,
[11:34]I would say kind of like pop culture things
[11:36]or like what's in or, you know, whatever.
[11:39]Because I mean, I was in high school in the 70s.
[11:42]So my idea of what's cool or whatever is not what,
[11:45]you know, is it cool?
[11:46]So like if I was to have Nikki say something in mind
[11:49]and Nikki would be like, Nikki Maxwell would not say that mom,
[11:52]she was not in high school in 74.
[11:54]And I'm like, oh, okay.
[11:55]Well, what would Nikki Maxwell say?
[11:56]So Nikki's the expert on like the pop culture stuff
[12:00]is she's keeping her finger on that being a lot younger
[12:02]than I am.
[12:03]So that's probably the major thing.
[12:06]And then what else is the good to,
[12:08]does the week decision be on if at all?
[12:10]Or you have to, we have discussions about
[12:12]can you think it will be else?
[12:14]Well, since I'm your daughter,
[12:16]there's always how when I come to work
[12:18]with like a slight cold.
[12:19]Oh, yeah.
[12:20]This is so hard to think.
[12:22]Go to bed.
[12:23]Yes.
[12:24]I'm like most employees where you have to drive yourself in
[12:27]with a 190 degree temperature and will be cough and brushes
[12:32]or whatever else.
[12:33]If she comes in and she has a sniffle, whatever,
[12:35]I'm like, Nikki, oh my gosh.
[12:36]No, she's like, mom, if I'm like,
[12:39]oh, I'm your boss.
[12:40]Go home.
[12:42]Get her little comforter.
[12:43]She has a wonderful studio.
[12:45]And it has a power to that and all that.
[12:48]And I'm like, no, no, I'll quit working just later
[12:50]and I'll get your little door diaries blanket
[12:52]and put it over you and just relax up.
[12:54]But that's kind of a good problem
[12:55]to have when your boss is saying, take care of yourself
[12:58]and take the day off or here's some chicken soup
[13:01]or whatever and stuff.
[13:02]So I'm curious about the original inspiration.
[13:05]I know that at the end of every book you end with,
[13:07]I am such a dork, right?
[13:09]But you two are not.
[13:11]Why would you say this?
[13:13]You want to talk about being a dork again?
[13:17]Going up, it always wasn't smooth sailing
[13:20]and admittedly I clean up nicely
[13:22]if you were to view it from the outside.
[13:24]But being a dork is also an energy.
[13:27]It's where you choose to dance from the beat
[13:30]of your own drummer.
[13:31]You choose to do things that might make you stick out.
[13:33]Maybe not in a very good way if you happen
[13:36]to cross someone like McKinsey Hollister.
[13:39]I had a McKinsey Hollister in almost every grade growing up.
[13:43]I had them in elementary school, in middle school
[13:45]and even high school.
[13:46]Whenever I tried to dress differently
[13:49]or act differently, she would make fun of me
[13:51]and give me a very hard time.
[13:53]So in the end I had to learn to embrace who I was
[13:57]and be positive about it even though she or others
[14:01]like her would always put me down.
[14:03]And that's where I consider being a dork being an inward thing
[14:08]and how you choose to manifest yourself
[14:10]on the outside is completely up to you.
[14:11]I happen to be a girly girl.
[14:14]And if I could, I would like to show people
[14:17]that even though you like to dress really grand,
[14:19]it's still be a kind-hearted person
[14:22]who does their own thing and is a dork on the other side.
[14:25]She had a very, very hard time in school
[14:29]and was bullied and her dad is very tall.
[14:32]He's six foot, I think maybe four or something.
[14:35]And so she was always the tallest kid all the way
[14:37]starting in kindergarten and she got teased for that a lot.
[14:41]So in fact, they didn't quite catch up
[14:42]to her probably until high school
[14:44]when some of the varsity basketball players finally
[14:47]were as tall as she loves.
[14:48]But so she, yeah, she was teased.
[14:51]And I mean, we were talking about,
[14:53]and we usually share this at our tours
[14:56]because there's kids that are going through something similar.
[14:59]But we were in the car once and she was like,
[15:01]oh mom, I don't know, we were talking about bullying
[15:04]or physical aggression and she was like in the car
[15:07]talking about the time you backpack that kids were.
[15:09]Yes.
[15:10]It was a very hard day that I school, right?
[15:13]Yeah, yeah, I actually cried after it.
[15:16]But there was this one guy,
[15:17]I sped off with him and I arguing
[15:20]because I thought he was being rude
[15:22]and I told him to watch where he was going.
[15:24]And he just started kicking back that over and over again.
[15:27]And I thought something was around the classroom floor.
[15:29]Yeah, I was in the entire class.
[15:31]And I said, this is getting so interesting.
[15:33]I loved from I need some popcorn.
[15:36]Kind of like that money staying out of the Choles 3
[15:39]movie, but that literally happens to me.
[15:42]And it felt horrible for the world.
[15:44]When my teacher, she encouraged me
[15:47]to give you a hug and told me that I was special
[15:50]and not to let anybody put me down.
[15:52]And that stuff, I always remembered that.
[15:55]She saw the good in me and that didn't matter.
[15:58]In that situation, they were,
[15:59]well, one guy was physically kicking her backpack
[16:03]across the, around the classroom and people,
[16:06]the people laugh a little bit.
[16:07]But yeah, they were laughing and talking.
[16:09]The teacher stopped at all
[16:10]and then you ended up in the hog crime.
[16:13]Oh, so.
[16:14]Yeah, so I know it was like, she looks
[16:16]glad and happy in whatever now,
[16:19]but some of her experiences in,
[16:21]especially middle school and high school, not very good.
[16:24]But we were able to use it as inspiration
[16:28]to write about it into our diaries
[16:29]and hopefully inspire other kids.
[16:31]Wow.
[16:32]I feel like as a mom, the kids who have,
[16:36]in some way, crossed my kids,
[16:37]like this one boy who like punched my son once
[16:40]at a birthday party for no reason,
[16:41]I will never forgive him ever.
[16:44]Do you know what I mean?
[16:45]Like you just don't like it down this kid is like,
[16:47]you know, a teenager, oh, I'm like, I don't forget.
[16:50]Yeah, I know.
[16:51]And you might consider forgiving
[16:53]what you do not forget.
[16:54]Yeah, exactly, exactly.
[16:55]Yeah.
[16:56]So yeah, that was that there's any positive
[16:58]that this come out of some of her negative experiences
[17:00]growing up is that we were able to share her experience
[17:03]with the world and hopefully inspire and encourage
[17:07]other children who are going through that.
[17:09]And maybe send a message to those that are bullies
[17:13]or one of them bullies.
[17:14]Interesting.
[17:15]Yeah, we're watching you.
[17:17]No, I know you have about a book
[17:19]and a story about you.
[17:21]So true, I know.
[17:22]Everything is copied.
[17:25]So how, when you two work together,
[17:28]what is the process like in terms of the writing
[17:30]and the illustrations and the timing
[17:33]and literally do you sit next to each other
[17:35]and you know, what comes when?
[17:38]Okay, this is my office and then down the hall
[17:41]through the kitchen and then the other side of the house,
[17:43]Nikki requested that I build her a studio.
[17:46]So it was a, I bought this house maybe 10 years ago
[17:49]and the original owner collected cars.
[17:52]So there's like six car garage on the other side of the house.
[17:55]So we've turned part of it into a master bedroom
[17:57]that's upstairs and then the bottom part,
[18:00]we took three of the part of the three car garage.
[18:04]We took three of the garage stalls
[18:06]and turned it into a wonderful studio for Nikki
[18:09]and it's pink and it has a kitchenette and sofa.
[18:13]Can you give a tour of that antique town?
[18:15]Yeah, we're on the inside now and she did a tour.
[18:18]It was a little bit of a Nikki worked on the other side
[18:20]of the house in her art studio.
[18:23]It has like a U-shaped glass desk.
[18:25]It's really gorgeous.
[18:26]Her dial collection is there out for your video game.
[18:30]Her office is a lot nicer.
[18:32]I think my office is nicer.
[18:34]It's like 10 times.
[18:35]I don't have running water in a microwave.
[18:37]I have to go do the kitchen if I want to snack
[18:40]where she has all that in her office.
[18:41]She has a phenomenal, wonderful studio
[18:43]and she deserves it, which is why I do it.
[18:45]But so I usually it takes us about six months
[18:48]to write a book and that's for the writing
[18:50]and the illustrations.
[18:51]We start with chapter one, obviously.
[18:54]And I don't know if people know
[18:55]but Nikki Maxwell's diary is actually one month.
[18:59]So each of the books and back of us are one month.
[19:03]And chapter one is the first day of the month
[19:06]and chapter two is a second and it goes all the way through.
[19:08]So automatically there's usually 30 or 31,
[19:11]depending on what a month it is, chapters in the book.
[19:14]And so I start with the first day of the month
[19:18]and I'll write whatever's happening.
[19:20]And then I'll write art instructions to Nikki
[19:22]which is that say if they're at the breakfast table
[19:25]and Brianna and Nikki are fighting over the jelly
[19:27]or something like that and then they end up dumping,
[19:30]Brianna accidentally ends up dumping in her lap
[19:32]and the bus is coming out of that.
[19:33]So that will be my first chapter
[19:36]and then I'll write art instructions.
[19:38]Please illustrate this and that
[19:41]and then I give it to Nikki.
[19:42]And each chapter has maybe six to eight illustrations in it.
[19:47]So she sends the illustrations
[19:50]and sends it back to me.
[19:51]And even now 15 years into the process,
[19:54]my mind's always blown and it's so phenomenal
[19:57]to open up the file and see Brianna and...
[20:00]thinking, arguing and the mother is looking frustrated
[20:02]and then the jelly's all over and, you know,
[20:05]it's wonderful, wonderful.
[20:06]So, inevitably I take the draft, I've written,
[20:09]basically get rid of it and rewrite the whole thing
[20:12]based on these wonderful images
[20:14]that I now have in my head that they gave me.
[20:16]So, I send it back to her with a more polished draft
[20:20]and then she makes a little bit.
[20:22]By that time, probably very, very minor edits.
[20:25]Maybe we went more jelly or maybe, you know,
[20:27]mom has jelly on her too,
[20:29]in addition to the girls or whatever.
[20:31]So, we could just go back and forth like that
[20:32]and then we'll get done with the first day of the month
[20:35]and we go to the second until we have been higher,
[20:38]month and we just go back and forth.
[20:40]So, that's kind of the process.
[20:41]I give her the draft of the chapter
[20:44]with our instructions, she sends it back to me
[20:46]and then I inevitably make a polished,
[20:50]much, much more interesting, funny chapter
[20:52]based on her illustrations
[20:53]and then there's very, very minor
[20:55]and then we're done and going to it.
[20:56]That basically, that kind of incidents.
[20:59]We work off with each other.
[21:01]When you're doing your illustrations, Nikki,
[21:03]is it on a computer?
[21:04]Do you draw anything by hand?
[21:06]Like, what is your process?
[21:07]Do you have a big drafting table or is it just a couple of years?
[21:10]I do, yes.
[21:11]Yeah, so I draw by hand to begin with.
[21:14]I'll sketch something out
[21:15]because it goes a lot faster that way
[21:16]and then I scan it into the computer
[21:18]and that's how I ink it and refine it on Photoshop.
[21:22]And that also makes it easier to send off via email
[21:26]and you work on what's that big extensitrapulement.
[21:29]Oh, I do.
[21:30]I want them to handle it.
[21:31]I want them to handle it.
[21:32]And it's a version that I think is a Pixar
[21:35]and DreamWorks news.
[21:36]Oh, wow.
[21:37]I don't know if it's still those for the moment.
[21:38]Yes, it's good enough to do it.
[21:40]Oh my gosh.
[21:41]She has a humongous, bottom of that.
[21:42]Drafting table and a walk of that one.
[21:44]Again, if you see, look at her tour on TikTok,
[21:46]she shows all that.
[21:47]I'm sorry.
[21:48]I don't go on TikTok hardly ever
[21:49]but I know I need to be over there
[21:51]because I'm a little technical link.
[21:53]I mean, I have to do a link just so you can see before.
[21:55]Yes, I will go on.
[21:56]Now that I know it's there, I feel like I never
[21:59]know what to do on TikTok.
[22:00]Yeah, I go there and I'm like, oh, the same way.
[22:03]I mean, I won't even get into that, but I think
[22:05]he was like, let's do this.
[22:06]And I'm like, number one, I don't get it.
[22:08]Number two, it's not long enough to 15 seconds, 30 seconds.
[22:13]So what we did, we had book 15 coming out.
[22:17]And of course, we want to market it.
[22:19]So I'm like, I'll try anything that's going to help sell the book.
[22:22]So it's like a one minute, 50 second video is just saying,
[22:26]hi, I'm Rachel and she's thinking we're on, you know,
[22:29]we're the author of Dark Diaries
[22:30]and we have a new book coming out blah, blah, blah, blah.
[22:32]And I thought, well, we get 100 views.
[22:35]I'll be happy.
[22:36]It went viral and it currently has 5 million views.
[22:40]Oh my gosh, I know, it's really good.
[22:43]I'm like, again, there's a lot.
[22:44]Definitely be good and there's a lot.
[22:46]So the Nikki did a really, really silly video where, again,
[22:50]sometimes she's just a little sink off of,
[22:51]this is what young kids are doing.
[22:53]She's just a little sink off of something.
[22:54]And I'm like, no way, beginners love you.
[22:56]You'll be lucky if you get 100 views.
[22:59]1.7 million.
[23:01]Oh my goodness.
[23:02]Yeah, but we've got other videos that did not do millions
[23:05]and millions, but we were very shocked
[23:07]that we have a lot of fans in TikTok apparently.
[23:10]How do people find you on TikTok?
[23:11]What's your name on TikTok?
[23:13]Oh, it is Rachel, Renee Russell at Dark Diaries.
[23:18]And it has like the little blue checkers.
[23:19]There's like all kinds of dark diaries,
[23:21]dark diaries, love her, dark diaries, girl, whatever.
[23:24]Yeah, but officially it's Rachel, Renee Russell,
[23:28]and at Dark Diaries, and we'll have a little blue check mark
[23:31]on the first diaries because we're in the middle.
[23:33]Everybody can go to it, is that correct?
[23:35]Where do you see the characters going?
[23:37]What's gonna happen with Nikki?
[23:38]How long can you, like, is Nikki gonna grow up
[23:42]and have kids one day?
[23:43]Like, where are we going with you?
[23:44]Yes, and then, okay, the weird thing about TikTok
[23:47]is that there are young people there,
[23:49]but a lot of them are older, not older, as in my age,
[23:54]or your age, but older, as in 20 to 30.
[23:58]So, I was very, very shocked when I kept getting,
[24:01]like, you know, post and comments about you raised me
[24:05]or Dark Diaries raised me or I've been reading it for 14 years.
[24:09]I mean, we've been writing it for 14 years
[24:10]at this point next year will be the 15th year.
[24:12]So, on TikTok, we found all of our Dark Diaries fans
[24:16]that had started reading in 2009,
[24:19]and now they're graduating from college,
[24:21]and getting married, and some of them
[24:23]are having their first child.
[24:24]So, it was just totally, totally amazing.
[24:27]So, it was wonderful being able to hear from our adult fans now.
[24:32]So, that was the best thing about TikTok so far is,
[24:36]we know younger kids read it,
[24:38]but to hear from the older kids, it's really neat.
[24:41]And do the older kids want Nikki and Mackenzie
[24:45]and everybody to age?
[24:46]Zoey.
[24:47]Yeah, well, again, it's been 14 years,
[24:50]but each book is one month in her life.
[24:53]So, technically, it's 14 years for us,
[24:55]but it's only 14 months for Nikki Mackenzie.
[24:58]But she is going into high school in book 16.
[25:01]So, we've aged her a little bit,
[25:02]but that's the weird thing is that each of the diaries
[25:05]back here is one month of her life.
[25:07]So, time moves very, very, very slowly for her.
[25:10]But we are, since it's been a year,
[25:12]she is going into the next year of school.
[25:15]So, she'll be in high school next year.
[25:17]But we have had people to say much like,
[25:19]I think the main character in Princess Diaries
[25:21]that ended up, you know,
[25:22]graduate from high school and getting married
[25:24]and whatever, we're kind of thinking about it.
[25:27]So, right now, we're just getting hurt into high school.
[25:30]Wow.
[25:31]Have you ever met anyone?
[25:32]And you're like, oh my gosh,
[25:33]you're exactly what we imagine Nikki to be in real life?
[25:37]Yes, we've had Nikki Maxwell.
[25:39]I think we've met a couple of Mackenzie's
[25:41]in a good way.
[25:42]They're just very beautiful blinds that look like
[25:45]Mackenzie and, of course, we've had Brandon's too.
[25:47]Yes, that is.
[25:48]And the most wonderful and ironic experience was
[25:52]when we were in Skarsdale, New York,
[25:54]that's literally Westchester County territory.
[25:58]We met an older fan there who reminded us
[26:02]so much of Nikki Maxwell when she's grown up.
[26:05]It was wonderful.
[26:05]She had the shoulder lift brown hair.
[26:08]She was kind.
[26:10]She was friendly and outgoing.
[26:11]She had the most beautiful smile
[26:14]and what's her name, Nikki, too?
[26:17]Nicole.
[26:18]Nicole, yes.
[26:18]You're a Nikki.
[26:19]Yeah, and she said growing up all of her life,
[26:22]she, I guess we've told her that she reminded them of the character.
[26:27]So, you're right.
[26:28]And that was, that was like just what?
[26:30]Three or four weeks ago, we met her.
[26:31]So, yeah, of all of our current entire career,
[26:34]the most Nikki Maxwell that we've met,
[26:36]what is this?
[26:37]That her name is Nikki.
[26:39]Oh my gosh.
[26:40]So, yes.
[26:40]Well, Rachel and Nikki, thank you for coming on.
[26:45]Thank you for all of our last joy and entertainment
[26:50]and inspiration.
[26:51]You've given millions of readers.
[26:53]It's really amazing.
[26:55]You make, like, books.
[26:57]So relevant and this is why people read.
[27:01]This is why I think you write.
[27:02]So it's exciting.
[27:04]So I think we're, so what are our stats now?
[27:07]I think we're at like 55 million copies sold
[27:13]and we're in like 53 countries and 50 languages.
[27:18]All 50.
[27:19]See, I think 50 languages, 53 countries
[27:22]and then like around 55 million sold.
[27:25]Oh my gosh.
[27:25]We just keep it up for hours.
[27:27]We're happy.
[27:28]Thank you.
[27:29]All right. Well, it's great to meet you.
[27:31]Thank you so much.
[27:32]Thank you.
[27:32]Thank you so much.
[27:33]Thank you so much.
[27:34]Bye bye.
[27:35]Bye bye.
[27:36]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms.
[27:39]Don't have time to read books.
[27:41]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[27:43]at zibi Owens and at Moms.
[27:44]Don't have time to read books.
[27:46]Also sign up for my newsletter at zibiowens.com
[27:48]and sign up for my virtual book club
[27:50]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[27:53]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan,
[27:54]at Textures Sound for the Sound Editing.
[27:56]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[27:58]for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music.