Audrey Ingram, THE SUMMER WE RAN: A Novel
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[0:44]Audrey Ingram is the author of The Summer We Ran, a novel.
[0:49]This is a book that we are publishing at Zibi Publishing, meaning we acquired the book
[0:55]and we are bringing it out into the world, which means you must run out and go buy this
[1:00]book.
[1:01]The summer we ran is worth running out for.
[1:03]Okay, anyway, Audrey Ingram is the author of The River Run South and The Group Trip.
[1:08]She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Georgetown University Law Center and practice
[1:12]law in Washington, D.C. for 15 years.
[1:15]When not writing, she can be found digging in her garden or hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains.
[1:19]An Alabama native, Audrey currently lives in Virginia with her husband and three children.
[1:24]We are so honored to be publishing The Summer We Ran.
[1:29]Welcome, Audrey.
[1:30]Thank you so much for coming on Totally Booked with Zibi to talk about The Summer We Ran,
[1:35]which is also a Zibi Publishing title.
[1:37]There you go.
[1:38]Congrats.
[1:39]Thank you so much for having me.
[1:40]I remember when this manuscript came in and we all read it and were obsessed.
[1:44]It was so good.
[1:45]And then we got the book and we were so excited.
[1:48]And now fast forward, here it is.
[1:49]We have a galley in my hands and soon the finished coffee is so, so exciting.
[1:54]It's been a joy start to finish.
[1:56]Yeah.
[1:57]Okay.
[1:58]So what The Summer We Ran is about?
[2:00]So it is about first love's turned political rivals and it follows Tess and Grant who
[2:06]meet his teenagers and despite their very different backgrounds fall deeply in love.
[2:12]But there's summer romance ends in heartbreak and tragedy and unfortunate secrets they keep
[2:17]from one another.
[2:18]And then they don't see each other again until 25 years later when they are both running
[2:23]for governor of Virginia.
[2:25]Such a good plot.
[2:26]Like it's just such a great pitch.
[2:27]How did you come up with this idea?
[2:28]I think I had the idea for the premise an unlikely love story between two opposing political
[2:34]candidates.
[2:36]But I wanted to tell a story that really wove together both of their perspectives, which
[2:42]was a challenge for me to write a story both from the female protagonist and the male protagonist.
[2:47]And it was a winding path to get there, but I'm just so happy with how the story turned
[2:52]out.
[2:53]It's so good.
[2:54]The coming of age piece of it, that when you're so vulnerable and that love and open
[3:01]hearted and then broken hearted feeling, you capture so well, particularly because you
[3:07]frame it and sort of elicit a fair to begin with so to speak.
[3:11]Talk about why this was an unlikely alliance to begin with.
[3:15]I think there's this kind of universal feeling of that first love that a lot of people
[3:20]can relate to, the kind of hope and uncomfortable feeling of yourself coming into who you
[3:27]are as you're falling in love with someone.
[3:30]And I really wanted to tap into those those feelings that we all can relate to between
[3:35]two people who are very, very different.
[3:38]And throughout the story, I was really trying to to find themes where there are where
[3:44]universally we can relate to these things and we can connect with these characters.
[3:49]And then it's just it's it's fun.
[3:51]I grew up watching those shows like the West Wing and scandal and now I love the diplomat
[3:57]and that world of political intrigue and scandal, it has this this kind of you can't look
[4:04]away feeling to it.
[4:05]And I thought juxtaposing this young and innocent love with them, these like high stakes
[4:10]of an election and all of the tension that that brought was a really fun way of telling
[4:16]a powerful love story.
[4:18]So true.
[4:19]So when Tess gets to this southern Virginia summer, right, she is the daughter of the
[4:29]cook who is hired at this beautiful home and grand is the next door neighbor.
[4:35]How do they meet?
[4:36]Tell me about that.
[4:38]Talk about like how you created that tension within the family allegiance to her mom versus
[4:43]to her love because then we have that whole thing at the beginning.
[4:46]Mm hmm.
[4:47]Yeah.
[4:48]So I live in Virginia and I knew when I was starting to think about this story and the premise
[4:53]of political rivals, I wanted to set it here because in a lot of ways, this is a love
[4:58]note to the state of Virginia that I is my home now.
[5:01]And I just think it's one of the most beautiful places.
[5:04]And so I wanted to transport the reader to that area.
[5:08]So when Tess grows up in an area of Southwest Virginia, a very modest upbringing and she
[5:14]is thrust into this world of opulence, these, you know, really grand estates as you're driving
[5:20]through the countryside in this area of Virginia, it's one of these things where you see
[5:23]like stone entrance and like maybe a little peek of view of this grand estate.
[5:29]And I wanted Tess to feel like that fish out of water coming into this area that she
[5:36]felt so uncomfortable.
[5:38]And yet she was falling for this boy next door who is very immersed in this world.
[5:44]And how does that make her feel?
[5:46]How can she kind of navigate this new world and who are her guides in this world?
[5:52]And so she starts, you know, she is her mother who has very nervous ideas about them being
[5:57]in here because it is a big deal to have this job and it is this potential for a new life
[6:02]for them.
[6:03]And then you also have Grant Smother who is really kind of taking Tess in under her wing.
[6:08]They have this shared love from gardening and how that relationship develops.
[6:12]I love that gardening storyline, which of course with the cover we were like, we need
[6:17]there to be flowers, all about the gardening.
[6:20]It's a beautiful, you must know about gardening.
[6:23]Tell me, do you are you into gardening?
[6:25]Like, because I loved that relationship and how it, it bloomed, let's just say.
[6:30]Well, we, my husband and I lived in Washington, DC and wanted a change of pace.
[6:35]And so we moved to this area of Virginia that's about an hour outside the city.
[6:39]And it's a very rural area.
[6:41]And we bought a house that was on some acreage and it ended up the original owners had
[6:46]owned a nursery at one point in time and had used their kind of home and their gardens
[6:52]as their testing ground.
[6:53]And so we have these beautiful trees and just like almost an acre of peony beds and
[6:57]boxwoods and we were just in awe of it and had absolutely no idea what to do with it.
[7:04]And so I started learning.
[7:05]I started reading gardening books for my library, talking to people, going to the local
[7:11]gardening stores and I'll never forget the first year we moved in.
[7:15]I planted a bunch of mint because I love mint and it took over the entire bed.
[7:20]And so I've made every novice gardening mistake that everybody makes, but it is this
[7:24]trial and error and it's something where you can really see the fruits of your labor.
[7:30]And I find it so rewarding and it is something that really kind of transcends class.
[7:35]There's this theme of class and how you navigate different situations throughout the book.
[7:39]And in my experience, you go to a gardening shop and there are people who are growing
[7:44]their food and there are people who are, you know, live these beautiful estates and they
[7:50]do it as a hobby and it really is something that is a connector.
[7:54]And everyone loves chatting at our gardening shop about whether you're going to plant
[7:57]before, after Mother's Day, when the first frost is going to come, it's a way to kind
[8:02]of connect people.
[8:03]And I think that was something I really wanted to, to explore in the story, those connections.
[8:10]As we're talking, it's a little before the lunch and the daffodilis have now piqued their
[8:15]heads out all over here in Central Park and New York.
[8:19]And I always look and I'm like, oh my gosh, like, they just lie dormant.
[8:24]All year.
[8:25]And then they have their moment and then they go away and it's something so reassuring
[8:29]that like these beautiful things come back time and time again, no matter how much hard
[8:33]stuff comes in between the blooms.
[8:35]Yeah.
[8:36]It's very reassuring.
[8:37]Keep thoughts for the morning.
[8:38]There you go.
[8:39]So it's not all roses at the estate and in this relationship.
[8:46]And there are some tough, very disturbing things that happen.
[8:50]We won't go into it because they become, you know, plot elements.
[8:53]But it's not always easy.
[8:56]Things are not always as beautiful as they seem.
[8:58]A big house does not mean things are perfect.
[9:01]Talk a little bit about that and sort of what we think about other people and what might
[9:05]be going on behind the scenes and how it feels, adding this like sort of heaviness to
[9:10]something that could seem pretty idyllic.
[9:13]Yeah.
[9:14]I think that's so true.
[9:15]And I think in my personal experience, I have lived some very heavy moments in my life.
[9:20]I think I've yet to meet someone who hasn't also lived some heavy moments in our lives.
[9:26]And a lot of times we try to just focus on the positive.
[9:28]And I think that that's a great mindset to have.
[9:31]We have to focus on the positive.
[9:32]But it doesn't negate the, the tragedy sometimes that we have had and how that has shaped
[9:39]who we become, how we view the world and how we interact with others.
[9:44]And I think more than anything, this book is about the ways in which stories are bridges.
[9:51]It may be very, very different from someone.
[9:54]We may disagree with them fundamentally.
[9:57]But hearing their story creates a.
[10:00]bridge to us understanding who they are.
[10:02]And oftentimes it is those really hard,
[10:05]difficult moments in life that give us an understanding
[10:08]into who someone is, why they feel some way,
[10:12]what their outlook is, and hearing those stories,
[10:15]I think creates an empathy and an understanding
[10:18]and a connection in life that is so critical.
[10:21]And in my opinion, needed at this time.
[10:24]You're so, you're so right.
[10:26]We should do a prompt, like,
[10:27]tell me about your heaviest moments.
[10:29]Right, because that will tell you so much about a person.
[10:32]Doesn't mean sad.
[10:33]I mean, have you such an interesting choice
[10:34]of words of yours, you know?
[10:36]I don't know.
[10:36]I think that will bring it an instant closeness
[10:39]because we all, as you said, have these moments.
[10:42]It does.
[10:43]And as a reader, you bond with a character
[10:45]who has been through something heavy
[10:46]because you hopefully want to see them come out of that.
[10:49]And I think that's so true in life as well.
[10:51]We crave stories of resilience and hope.
[10:55]And I think that comes from a heaviness.
[10:57]So true.
[10:58]Then you fast forward to, you have another story,
[11:03]another timeline storyline with the election and all of that.
[11:06]How much research did you have to do?
[11:09]How much did you know before?
[11:11]I mean, maybe proximity to DC, you know, like everything.
[11:13]Anyway, what did you, were there surprising things
[11:16]you found along the way?
[11:17]And just tell me a little bit about that.
[11:20]Yeah, I was, my entire life been a political junkie.
[11:24]I thought it was fascinating.
[11:26]I worked on a gubernatorial campaign.
[11:28]And so I was fascinated by it and then also fascinated
[11:32]by all the drama behind the scenes of the campaign.
[11:34]So I did have that background coming into it.
[11:37]And I, for a long time, thought maybe I'll get into politics.
[11:40]And it wasn't until I moved to DC and lived in DC
[11:43]that I, like a lot of the country,
[11:45]became totally disillusioned with the reality of politics.
[11:49]But that kind of background of an election and candidates.
[11:54]I still find fascinating.
[11:56]And I still have hope for a different political dynamic
[12:01]at some point in the future.
[12:03]It's not too late.
[12:04]You could still meet.
[12:04]Yeah.
[12:06]The summer we ran could be about you this summer.
[12:08]You never know.
[12:09]Plot twist, Audrey Ingram, for a district, whatever, whatever.
[12:14]I think I like novelist a little bit better.
[12:15]Although I have lived a thousand lives.
[12:18]I've had many titles.
[12:20]This is my favorite by far.
[12:22]So you started as a lawyer.
[12:23]Tell us about your whole career.
[12:25]Sure.
[12:25]So I was an attorney in Washington, DC for many, many years.
[12:30]And then when the pandemic hit, like a lot of families
[12:32]was really struggling, juggling childcare.
[12:35]I had three young kids at the time.
[12:37]My law firm was really wonderful and gave me
[12:39]a leave of absence.
[12:41]And I was one of these super commuters.
[12:43]I still, even though we lived out here in Virginia,
[12:44]I was commuting in DC.
[12:46]So I was used to waking up very early in the morning.
[12:49]And I love staying at home with my kids.
[12:53]I loved being a stay-at-home mom.
[12:55]But I found I needed a little something more,
[12:58]something that was just of my own.
[13:00]And so I couldn't turn my brain off
[13:02]from waking up those early morning hours.
[13:04]And that's when I started writing my first novel.
[13:07]And I finished it and got an agent and got it published.
[13:11]And it was really just a dream.
[13:13]And it never went back.
[13:14]And it never went back to practicing all.
[13:17]Tell us about that novel that, I mean, that you say it's offhand.
[13:20]And then I got an agent and got a book.
[13:21]That is hard.
[13:22]Like, that is not the journey.
[13:24]Like, I just decided to stay home in my spare time,
[13:26]wrote a novel.
[13:27]Like, normally it's like, this is my 50th submission.
[13:31]And so anyway, tell me more about that
[13:33]and how you can't, like what that plot was
[13:35]and how we got to hear.
[13:37]Yeah. So I wrote the first book,
[13:39]I guess, starting in 2021.
[13:41]And when that book, when I was querying it
[13:43]and trying to find an agent,
[13:45]was when I wrote the summer we ran
[13:47]because I needed something else to kind of put my brain
[13:51]to focus on because it is agony waiting.
[13:53]So it was not just a, I wrote my first book
[13:56]and got an agent and got a publisher the way I said before.
[13:58]It was a lot of waiting, sending out emails
[14:02]crossing your fingers and hoping.
[14:04]And so I was always kind of working
[14:06]on a different project bouncing back and forth,
[14:08]which was great for my sanity.
[14:10]But it did take a while.
[14:11]So I guess it took like six to nine months to get an agent.
[14:14]And then the publishing deal can quickly
[14:17]after getting the agent.
[14:18]That was, I felt like, very, very lucky
[14:21]for that to have happened so quickly.
[14:23]But it was scary to leave behind a very stable career,
[14:28]especially when you have three kids.
[14:30]And I'm very grateful that I have,
[14:32]husband who has supported me through that.
[14:35]But it was not without risk.
[14:36]And I'm very happy I did it.
[14:38]Wow. Do you miss the structure?
[14:40]I mean, corporate attorney life is very much one fit.
[14:45]I mean, it's very different than the life of novelist.
[14:48]Although I will say so many authors on this show
[14:52]have at one point been lawyers.
[14:54]I feel like if there's one career
[14:55]that leads more to writing,
[14:57]that is the most common path
[15:00]from a non-traditional writing background.
[15:03]Yeah, it's so fascinating.
[15:04]Lawyer and journalist, I hear those a lot.
[15:07]I feel like in a lot of ways I've had to rewire my brain
[15:10]because when you're an attorney
[15:12]and I worked at a big law firm,
[15:14]you efficiency is king.
[15:17]You're literally accounting for your time
[15:19]in six minute increments.
[15:21]And as I'm sure you know,
[15:23]the process of writing a novel,
[15:25]at least for me, is so inefficient.
[15:28]There are days when I won't have written any words,
[15:30]but I will have figured out a plot point,
[15:33]but I won't see that kind of word count on the page jump up.
[15:37]And I had to really be kind to myself and say,
[15:40]this is efficiency in a creative concept
[15:44]and writing a book.
[15:45]You are moving it forward,
[15:47]but it was a huge change for me.
[15:49]And the timing of publishing a book takes a long time.
[15:53]There are a lot of moving pieces.
[15:54]And I was used to things moving so much quicker.
[15:57]And so it was a big adjustment for me.
[16:00]It was such an necessary adjustment.
[16:02]I think I would have burned out at the pace I was going.
[16:05]It wasn't the law wasn't kind to who my kind of,
[16:09]I feel like my core is, I like a slower pace.
[16:11]I mean, I'm enjoying this.
[16:13]I'm embracing it now.
[16:14]So it has been very good for me,
[16:16]but it took a while to get there.
[16:17]And we don't have to talk about this
[16:19]so we can change to the subject.
[16:21]But I know you've gone through a big health hurdle
[16:24]recently yourself.
[16:25]How have you and what happened?
[16:27]And how do you feel now even like doing publicity
[16:30]or we can skip it?
[16:32]No, we don't have to skip it.
[16:33]It has been a doozy over here.
[16:35]I this fall had a tear and the artery
[16:40]giving the blood flow into my brain.
[16:42]And I developed a blood clot in my brain.
[16:45]And talk about a mind shift because it was
[16:48]an inoperable blood clot.
[16:50]And so the treatment was really to take,
[16:54]to be, I was hospitalized for a long time.
[16:56]And then I was sent home and basically told,
[16:59]you know, don't lift anything heavier than a fork.
[17:01]Take your blood thinners every day
[17:03]and just wait, wait three months.
[17:05]And hopefully the clot and the tear and everything will heal.
[17:09]But the way you heal is by doing nothing,
[17:13]which for someone like me was really hard.
[17:17]You know, I think at first I was like,
[17:19]oh, I can watch Netflix and lay in my bed for a little while.
[17:22]That certainly wasn't it.
[17:24]I was in a lot of pain.
[17:25]You have these like really debilitating headaches
[17:28]and a lot of physical manifestations of this.
[17:30]But it was not feeling like a useful member of your family.
[17:34]Like I couldn't lift the laundry basket.
[17:36]I couldn't unload the dishwasher.
[17:37]I couldn't pick up my seven-year-old son.
[17:40]There was a lot that was really difficult.
[17:43]And the idea that to heal you have to rest
[17:47]was hard for me to grasp.
[17:48]And because I'm always used to achieving something
[17:51]you need to be doing.
[17:53]But I did, I healed.
[17:55]I am everyday getting a little bit better.
[17:57]I'm feeling really good.
[17:59]I still struggle some days.
[18:01]And I have to tell myself that that's okay, I can rest.
[18:05]At my productivity is not where it used to be.
[18:07]But that's also okay, too.
[18:08]I'm here.
[18:09]And I think that's the most important thing is that I'm here.
[18:11]And I think when you face something like that
[18:13]where you're told time and time again by so many doctors
[18:16]that most people do not survive these,
[18:19]you are so lucky to have had it discovered
[18:21]and to be able to treat it.
[18:23]You are really confronted with what you want your life to be,
[18:27]how lucky you feel the people that surround you.
[18:31]So there was a lot of, as challenging and terrible that was,
[18:35]there was a lot that was really eye opening
[18:37]and an incredible learning experience for me.
[18:40]Audrey, I am so sorry.
[18:42]That is so hard.
[18:43]It's like you were on bed rest.
[18:45]Was no fun baby at the end, you know?
[18:47]Yes, there was no baby at the end.
[18:50]Oh my gosh.
[18:51]And all the fear.
[18:53]I mean, how do you feel?
[18:54]How do you hold that lack of predictability too?
[18:58]That like, because the downside is so huge.
[19:01]How did you cope with that?
[19:03]Yeah, I think that the fear and the anxiety is something
[19:06]I'm still really grappling with
[19:08]and learning how to trust your body
[19:10]because for so long, you know, I was told I really,
[19:14]this was all happening over the holidays.
[19:16]We couldn't travel because I couldn't ever be more
[19:18]than about 10 or 15 minutes away from a hospital
[19:20]because the stroke to death, risk is so high
[19:23]and you have to get in so quickly.
[19:24]And so you're constantly monitoring yourself
[19:28]and it's very hard to turn that off that fear.
[19:31]And I think when your mother is well,
[19:34]your mind very quickly starts spiraling
[19:36]to all the what-if scenarios.
[19:38]And so I'm really having to start trusting myself again,
[19:42]figuring out what my physical limitations are,
[19:46]easing into things.
[19:47]I would love to go full speed back into the life I had before
[19:51]but I know that's not possible.
[19:53]And really just being kind of kind and gentle to myself.
[19:56]And I'm very lucky.
[19:57]I have people around me who are surrounding me with kindness.
[20:00]and gentility.
[20:01]And so I'm very fortunate in that way.
[20:04]But it has been the eight year you hit the nail in the head,
[20:07]the constant worrying and anxiety was very difficult.
[20:11]Oh my gosh, I am so sorry.
[20:14]I mean, from one day to the next, right?
[20:17]It's like, I mean, I guess that's how life works, right?
[20:19]It's not like anybody gets a warning.
[20:21]It is, it is.
[20:22]But I will say this, I was in kind of the tail end
[20:26]of editing a story when all of this was happening.
[20:29]And it was so wonderful to be working with a publisher
[20:32]that was cared about me as a person
[20:34]and not just the book product.
[20:36]And it was just a joy to kind of be navigating the story
[20:41]and jumping in and out of these characters' lives.
[20:45]They feel so, I don't think there's any characters
[20:47]that I've ever written for that I don't feel as connected
[20:50]to as these.
[20:51]And so their journey of love and healing
[20:55]was alongside my own, which was,
[20:57]I think I will always hold this story
[20:59]and a very special place in my heart because of that.
[21:02]That's beautiful.
[21:03]What do you think these characters
[21:05]are designed to teach us?
[21:07]I think they're designed to teach us
[21:09]that we need to, we need to hear each other's stories.
[21:12]We really need to listen to one another
[21:15]and especially the people we disagree with.
[21:17]We need to hear them and hear their journeys.
[21:21]And I just stories really are bridges.
[21:24]I think it's, as a mother, it's why I want my kids
[21:27]to read stories about different people.
[21:29]It's the way you develop empathy and a love story.
[21:32]I think it's the best way to share that.
[21:35]The political climate is so divisive.
[21:38]Just when I think can't get anymore, it does.
[21:40]Like it's just so heightened right now
[21:43]and I'm sure by the time the split comes out even more so.
[21:45]And how do you respond to that
[21:47]when people are like, I don't care about stories.
[21:49]Like I will never change my mind.
[21:51]It's like there are people who are firmly
[21:53]on like, I wouldn't oppose in camps.
[21:56]I'll believe themselves to be right
[21:59]that there is a right answer versus not.
[22:02]And you know, both these candidates, you know,
[22:05]granted and test putting stakes in the ground
[22:07]and what they believe is right
[22:09]and yet finding the common ground between them.
[22:11]Talk about that.
[22:12]Yeah, and I will say, I feel all of those things.
[22:15]I have my own political beliefs
[22:17]and I hold them fiercely.
[22:19]And sometimes I think I don't wanna hear that.
[22:21]But I will say more than anything,
[22:23]this book is not about politics.
[22:25]It is not about one side of one political issue.
[22:29]It's about the people behind that.
[22:31]And I think sometimes we lose sight of that.
[22:34]We see an identifying term of Democrat or a Republican
[22:38]and that tells us everything we need to know.
[22:41]When really that isn't the case,
[22:43]we are ignoring the people behind that.
[22:45]And I think this book is really about two individuals
[22:51]and their love story.
[22:53]And I think it will hopefully people will see
[22:56]that there's a lot more than just a label
[22:58]that we give someone.
[23:00]I hope that's enough.
[23:01]It's a small thing, but no, it's not a small thing.
[23:06]It's a big thing.
[23:07]It's a wonderful like, you know, stories, of course,
[23:11]I love how you said stories are bridges.
[23:12]You know, I'm always talking about stories connecting people
[23:15]but it is true.
[23:16]It is a bridge, you know, from heart to heart really,
[23:19]right, we're climbing across and trying to get in there
[23:21]and find the common humanity in it also.
[23:25]Yeah, beautiful.
[23:26]Would there ever be a continuation?
[23:28]Have you ever thought like, where are they now to everything?
[23:31]I think about them often.
[23:33]I've never, I've never written a book thinking
[23:36]that it was going to be sort of a series.
[23:39]I always want to write the story
[23:41]that is kind of the most critical time
[23:43]in these characters' lives.
[23:44]And that's what I set out to do with this story.
[23:47]But of all the characters I've ever written,
[23:49]they're the ones that I think about the most
[23:52]and maybe they do have more in their future.
[23:56]Well, any advice to aspiring authors?
[23:58]I, yeah, I will say what's work for me
[24:01]is that books are the best teachers.
[24:03]I like to read.
[24:05]I think whatever genre you want to write in,
[24:07]you should be reading,
[24:08]but you should also be reading much broader than that
[24:10]because you can learn so much from the books you love.
[24:13]But then also the books you aren't enjoying.
[24:15]Why aren't you enjoying them?
[24:16]Is there a pacing problem
[24:18]or are you not connecting with the characters?
[24:19]I think you can learn so much through reading books.
[24:23]And then from a recovering perfectionist,
[24:26]I will say the best writing advice I've ever gotten was
[24:30]you can't edit a blank page.
[24:32]I've just got to write.
[24:34]And sometimes that can be very hard
[24:35]because you're trying to write a perfect sentence,
[24:38]a perfect story, but you really just need to get it out.
[24:41]And then you can always go back and edit it.
[24:42]And so just be okay with it being messy and imperfect.
[24:47]That's exactly the way it should be
[24:48]when you're first writing it.
[24:49]I love that.
[24:50]Well, Audrey, I'm so excited for the book to come out.
[24:53]I'm so excited for you and all your hard work
[24:57]to come to fruition,
[24:58]despite everything you're going through all along.
[25:01]Some of you ran is so great.
[25:03]It's as beautiful as the cover.
[25:05]And we're just so excited to be cheering you on
[25:08]as you go through this.
[25:10]Well, thank you so much.
[25:11]It's really just been such a joy.
[25:12]And I'm so excited for readers to get this story
[25:15]in our hands.
[25:16]Me too.
[25:17]Thank you.
[25:18]Thank you.
[25:19]Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibi,
[25:22]formerly momstone after time to read books.
[25:24]If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review,
[25:28]follow me on Instagram at Zibi Owens,
[25:30]and spread the word.
[25:32]Thanks so much.
[25:33]Oh, and buy the books.