Ilyon Woo, Emily Franklin, Sara DiVello & Christy Scott Cashman At Lisa's Book Club

Lisa sat down with this amazing pannel on four incredible authors to chat about their respectives books. It was Lisa's first pannel book club and turned out better than imagined! Lisa gave us the opportunity to hear from multiple authors, hear about there latest projects and what inspires their novels!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, Welcome to Lisa's book Club, a podcast where I
interview best selling authors from the New England area, pulling
back the curtain on what it's really like being a
best selling author. They're guilty pleasures, latest projects, and so
much more. Welcome into Lisa's book Club podcast. And a
few months ago I had the opportunity to sit down
with four amazing female writers, all from New England. Illon Wu,

(00:29):
she authored Master Slave, Husband Wife, which actually run the
Pulitzer Prize two weeks after she came to the book club.
Emily Franklin, who wrote Maynus of Boston, Sarah Devello who
wrote Broadway Butterfly, and Christy Scott Cashman. It was her
first novel about horses, and we had a panel and

(00:49):
it was amazing, And this is the podcast from that
book club. So I think a common theme and I
think that's why this works because we've never done four
authors all at once. A lot of you know, is
that there are some strong female characters in each one
of the books, very strong for different reasons and had

(01:11):
to make it through tough times. So that's sort of
the common thread that I found with all four books.
I want to start with ilion wu Master's Slave Husband
Wife was voted one of New York Times ten Best
Books of twenty twenty three, Top ten books of twenty

(01:32):
twenty three by People Magazine, Best Book of the Year
by The New Yorker, etc. So a lot of accolades
to your hard work and what you put into this book.
So I first want to ask you. This book is
about a couple that lived in Macon, Georgia, and they

(01:54):
were slaves, and I would love for you to tell
our book club members a little bit about who the
Crafts were.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Okay, thank you, Thank you so much for having me here.
It's wonderful to be with this amazing panel. If you
told me, I mean kiss went away to FM this.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
This is fantastic. So glad to be here. By Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
But this extraordinary couple who I write about my book,
I mean they are like we're talking about radio, we're
talking to media. These are like larger than life personalities
and their journey starts and making. So in eighteen forty eight,
this actual husband and wife disguised themselves as master.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
And slave, but not in the way you might imagine.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
So it's the wife, Ellen Craft, who has inherited a
very light complexion from her biological father, who is also
her first enslaver.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Just try to wrap your head around that.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
So she uses this white complexion to pretend to be
a rich, white, disabled male enslaver while William pretends to
be her slave.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
This is a.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
True story, true story.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
There is no underground railroad here, there's nobody to save them.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
But they are going out in the open on you know.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Buses and trains and steamboats like, out in the broadest
light of day to escape bondage and they end up here.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
So to talk about that decision that they made to
do this, was that in all of your research, because
I know that you spent many years researching them, but
also the people around them and what was going on
around them. So was this something that other people did
or was this unique to them?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Well, there are definitely a lot of other people who
went on these journeys of self life try to free themselves.
But in terms of this kind of disguis disguise, you know,
there is this one similar case where there was a
man who pretended to be the master. But I haven't
come across anything like this before. I mean, this was
like unique, yeah, unique, unprecedented, which is why they made

(04:03):
such a big media splash, like when they first succeeded.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Right, So, how did they plot their journey? How did
they know what to do?

Speaker 2 (04:14):
That was like one of the biggest questions I had
coming into this, you know, like how do they know
where to the go? Where do they get the idea?
Like what is it like to actually pull this off?
And I actually had like old nineteenth century maps, and
I had guide books, and I had all kinds of things,
and I was plotting this out.

Speaker 3 (04:32):
It was so complicated.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
It's incredible that they were able to do this, And
I eventually did figure out a number of reasons why.
But it does come down to their incredible genius.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Right they were, But also their incredible love for each other. Yeah,
which I think is a common theme also in the
Linus of Boston between Isabella and her husband too. Jack,
So talk a little bit about their relationship.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean, you know, when I was first writing
this book, my, I had a beloved mentor who was
dying and he never got to read this book, but
he told me he had this really dear this incredible
relationship with his own wife, and he said, don't forget
like the power of love and the mutuality of marriage,

(05:22):
what he is, what he called it, and how with
love you can you can do things that you could
never imagine or would never have done on their own.
And that was a really driving force for them. Love
for each other, love that they inherited from their from
their like a lend from her mother and William from
his parents, love that.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
They wanted to pass on.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
They didn't want to have their children go through the
trauma that they went through as children in bondage, and
that pushed them through.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Can we go back to all of the research that
you did. How long did you work on this book?
I'm always fascinated by this.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, I mean it took a lot of years.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I think it was about like six years writing and
reading at the same time. A lot of digging, But
I mean it was really exciting, Like I came across
things I would never have imagined.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
It's a rich history lesson. I have to tell you.
I actually, and this is a true story. My son
is here, is sitting here. I was reading him passages
from the book, and just what they went through is
just mind boggling. It really is. So you have to

(06:37):
read this book just as just a great rich history lesson,
but also all of your research just filled in this
and just lifted the story to such a page turner.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Thank you. I mean yeah, I mean that's what I wanted.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
I wanted something that, you know, that tastes like a novel,
right because that's what I like to read, but has
like the nutritive value of like a heavy hitting history.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
Do you get the history worked in?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
So I wanted readers to feel like, it's what is
it like to be on the ground, What is it
like to you know what kind of underwrated people a
wear back?

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Then you know what kind of clothes? Like? What is that?

Speaker 1 (07:15):
That was actually one of the passages. I didn't realize
that women they had the big skirts with the petticoats underneath,
they didn't wear traditional underwear at all. They wore a
garment that basically had a hole in it.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
If they even got if they even wore a garment
at all, right, so that it was just very easy for.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Them, right. No, I never knew that, I know, and
I was reading. My son was like, okay, Mom, But
I found some of these details were just so fascinating
to me. I really this book was really really well done,
and I just like you said, it took six years.

(07:58):
Do you think that this will be into a movie
or I hope.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
It will one day? And I mean I definitely thought.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
I mean that's I wanted to deliver like a cinematic
experience and I didn't want this to be like a boring, old.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Dry history book. Right, so you get the history.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
But you're like, I wanted you to feel like on
the edge of your seat as I.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Was when I was resister, learning about what's going on.

Speaker 2 (08:19):
So when you have somebody also like I don't like
Daniel Webster, right, he's in front of our state House.
He looks like really grim. But did you know that
he carries around in his pocket this little tiny miniature
that has been.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Called the first boob selfie.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
It was a little tiny painting painted by a mistress,
and it's like it's like this big and he carries
us around. This man had a drinking I mean, I
have I think this is why actually it was a
People Top ten book of the year, honestly.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Because I wanted to get inside the people.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
I didn't want it just to be like, you know,
this guy with this giant brow who's like giving speeches.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
He was a flesh and bird blood person.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
And that's what I wanted to animate in the telling
of the story.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
And you did.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
I also, I was watching another talk that you did,
and you mentioned that the one of the hardest parts
for you was editing down the book. Oh yeah, right,
and I think as right, all of you could probably
agree that that's like a really crucial process in writing.
So take us through that.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
Oh I don't know.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
I mean, how do you like all those murdered darlings.
I mean, for example, the relationship the Daniel Webbs. I mean,
I went down a giant boob rabbit hole with that
painter and everything. It's all gone, but you can find
evidence for in the footnote, you know. I mean, there's
so many different people.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
That's the thing.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Like if you open the book, the first thing that
will greet you is all these different people, and you
don't know who they are now, but by the end
of the book you will know who they are. They
stood up with the Crafts, and I mean, this is
the crazy thing. It's like this all happened here. It happened,
so the Crafts end up here and then there's like
this craziness that happens in Boston Daniel Webster, the man

(09:57):
with the first boob selfie his pocket. He is the
one who's actually in charge of making sure that the
Crafts are captured and sent back to the South. And
there's a wild chase that is like that unfolds like
within blocks of where we're sitting right now.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
The Craft's great great grandchildren. Yeah, did you speak with them?

Speaker 3 (10:19):
I did?

Speaker 1 (10:20):
That?

Speaker 5 (10:20):
Was that that?

Speaker 2 (10:22):
I mean, like I got a text from miss Peggy
trotter Dam and priestly great great granddaughter of the Craft.
Today it's still like I have to pinch myself, you know.
It's like the Craft's family are living out the legacy
of their ancestors. That you can follow them on Instagram
William and Aloncraft. Uh so you know you they like
something and it says a William and Alancraft likes your post.

(10:43):
It's like, so they are organizing, They're going to have
a website. They are like they are activists. They are
storytellers and poets and teachers and all kinds of things.
And you'll you can contact them directly.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Will you do an event with them?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
I have?

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, I will be doing an event with them in
the fall. Actually, there's this crazy hotel, the Planter's Hotel
that plays a pivotal role in the story. I'm going
to be speaking on that very site with the Craft
Descendants for the Charleston Literary Festival this fall.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
Wow, I want to go.

Speaker 3 (11:22):
Come ill.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
That's wonderful. Thank you, Ilian. So Emily again strong woman
Linus of Boston. But I first would like to introduce
Emily Franklin. She's the author of over twenty novels and
a book, a poetry collection Tell Me How You Got Here,
which we're going to be using later in a fun

(11:45):
game that I'm going to play with you guys. She
also is featured. She actually told me this this week.
There's a really cool Instagram page called Taylor Swift as Books,
and Emily's book, her book, her book of Poetry, collection
of Poetry is featured. And what they do is is

(12:08):
that they take an outfit that Taylor Swift wears and
then they pair it right with a book cover.

Speaker 6 (12:15):
Right, they match the colors and the theme, and so
you say you got swifted, which.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Feels really good.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
And it's so cool. It's so good.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
So, the Lioness of Boston, this was a big undertaking
for you. Why did you decide to make it historical fiction.
Can you kind of walk us through your journey.

Speaker 7 (12:37):
On that mean instead of a biography biography?

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (12:40):
So the short answer is I have the skill set.

Speaker 8 (12:44):
I love research.

Speaker 6 (12:45):
I was a very sort of academic, nerdy kid, and
I deeply researched this novel. But the other part of
me really loves to make stuff up, and that is
very frowned upon in the biography world. Turns out people
I really want to know exactly what happened, and I
like to make up scenes, and I like to make

(13:05):
up dialogue. And the truth is, even though we know
certain elements are true. For example, Isabella Stuart Gardner was
really good friends with the artist John Singer Sargent and
Henry James. Those transcripts from those friendships don't exist, so
to write about them, you know, with she burned a
lot of her personal correspondence, so I was going to
have to make up stuff anyway. But the main thing

(13:27):
is I write novels, and I really wanted to tell
the story of this incredible woman's.

Speaker 7 (13:32):
Life through the lens of a novel.

Speaker 6 (13:34):
I mean, she was really the original Boston celebrity before
celebrity culture existed.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
You know completely, and you love the museum. I read
that too.

Speaker 7 (13:44):
I love the museum.

Speaker 6 (13:45):
I don't know how many people have been to the museum,
so some but not at all. But yes, that courtyard,
that interior courtyard is captivating the fact that she not
only has this, you know, master works of art Boughticelli
and Renoir degabs, She's got you know, writing desks and
lamps and vases and approximately fourteen thousand chairs. I think

(14:07):
she kind of had a chair hoarding problem. Notice that
the next time you go. But you know, some of
those chairs are these priceless Duncan Fife chairs and some
are these simple metal garden chairs that she just collected
because she liked them. And I think what struck me
is that this was a person who really felt that
anything could be art and that was really exciting to me.

Speaker 7 (14:27):
And then I think so many people know.

Speaker 6 (14:29):
More about the art heist that took place there in
nineteen ninety, this infamous artist, and I was there ten
days before the archist as a senior in high school.
I went on a field trip there and people often
ask if I know where the stolen artwork is.

Speaker 7 (14:46):
I do not. If I knew I would be chasing
the ten million dollar reward.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
But I was there, and I wrote about those paintings
that were stolen, and so I think I was so
captivated by the empty frames that are hanging there, and
and you know, she just had this vision and she
wanted to make art accessible to the public, which she did.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
But going back to when she first came to Boston,
I found it interesting that she did not have a
very easy time here. They did not accept.

Speaker 7 (15:17):
Her, No, they did not. She was rejected. Boston society
did not like Isabella.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
So can you elaborate on why that was?

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (15:24):
I mean, so the novel starts in eighteen sixty one.
She's newly married to Jack Gardner, who was one of
the Boston Brahmins, this old sort of old guard Boston family.
So much of the novel is set exactly here, and
you can wander through Beacon Hill or the Boston Garden
and sort of trace everything that I talk about. But
when Isabella moved here, she was twenty years old and

(15:45):
thought she would make great friends and start this next
chapter of her life, only to find out that she
was very opinionated and outspoken, which was very frowned upon
for a woman. And she had opinions about things that
were really considered to be the purview of men and so,
and she also gravitated.

Speaker 7 (16:02):
She did not in her museum.

Speaker 6 (16:04):
When you're there, one of the things that might strike
strike you is that the interior courtyard erases the boundaries
between outside and inside, and she really erased boundaries between
people also, So she wanted to encourage friendships between people
of different classes, different races, different genders, and that was
really frowned upon. And so everything that was sort of

(16:24):
at her core caused her to be rejected by society.
But interestingly, those same qualities were the same qualities that
ended up saving her when she experiences personal tragedy and
sort of has to rebuild her life.

Speaker 1 (16:38):
Can I go into her relationship with Jack, as I
mentioned in the beginning, and there bond because what I
loved about I loved that you wrote that he really
supported what she was doing, and he even, you know,
broke down a wall so that she could have more

(16:58):
space to collect her things. And then when she decided
that she wanted to build a museum, he was like, Yeah,
let's build this thing in the middle of a swamp. Sure,
let's do it.

Speaker 7 (17:09):
Right, everybody thinks your nuts, but I support you sure.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
Right, right, But I love that because that's true love.
It is accepting the crazy, right it is, it is,
and all that comes with it. Right.

Speaker 6 (17:23):
I often think that theirs was this very long marriage
or very devoted to each other, but they were very
different people. So I think what drew her to him
was his sort of stability, his calm nature, his reliability.
And I think what drew him to her was her fire,
her intellectual curiosity, her outspoken nature. I don't think he'd
ever met anybody like her, and I think those qualities

(17:45):
are the same things that you know, twenty thirty forty
years into a marriage can drive you absolutely crazy, and
so I think, like all marriages, theirs was built half
on love and half on tolerance, and so I think
that they you know, but it is wonderful to show
somebody supporting somebody's dream and understanding their vision.

Speaker 7 (18:06):
And she really did have a vision for making the museum.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
When you were on your research journey, how many years,
four years? Did anything surprise you?

Speaker 7 (18:20):
You know what surprised me most?

Speaker 6 (18:22):
And I don't know if this resonates for you, but
there's so much happening in Boston at that time, and
so what I kept coming up against was wait, and
then she's having lunch with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and then
you know, it's the invention of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Speaker 7 (18:37):
And then oh, and then I t.

Speaker 6 (18:38):
Moves across the river. There's so much happening. The Swan
boats open, you know, the first African American female doctor
is here studying, and there's Joy Street, and there's the
African American Meetinghouse.

Speaker 7 (18:50):
There's just so much happening at that time.

Speaker 6 (18:54):
That what continuously surprised me in my research was just
how many big names kept coming up and coming up,
and it was so exciting.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Right, So it's a must read again for Boston history, right.

Speaker 7 (19:06):
Right, And it is.

Speaker 6 (19:07):
And I think one of the things that you said
that I really related to was this idea.

Speaker 7 (19:11):
You know, The Lioness of Boston is told in.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
The first person, so you get to see the inside
of Isabella's head and her thoughts. And I did that
because I think the danger in looking back is that
it feels very far away. But these were real people,
as you were saying. They they lusted and they loved,
and they felt very sad. You know, they had great laughs,
and they had great sex, and they listened to music,

(19:34):
and they had all of these real feelings and it's
exciting to bring that into the present day now.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
I think so too. But I really love though that
that you shared that she had a hard time, like she.

Speaker 7 (19:48):
She really struggled.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
She really struggled, and it made me feel you, I
don't know it just right, just as a woman and
walking into it a new you know, you go to
a new school, or you get to a new job
or a new neighborhood and people aren't nice to you
and it makes you feel bad, right.

Speaker 6 (20:03):
And she then had this personal tragedy which I won't
talk about just to spoilers, but you know, and then
she suffered a huge depression from that and could have
really just retired. You know, she was privileged enough that
she could have just taken to her bed and sort
of spent the rest of her life being very.

Speaker 7 (20:19):
Sad, justifiably so.

Speaker 6 (20:21):
But instead really tapped into her intellectual curiosity and you know,
befriended so many artists and courted a new life for
herself and really rebuilt her life.

Speaker 7 (20:32):
She was very unusual and exciting.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Right, and now we can all enjoy it. Yeah, it's
a remarkable again, remarkable woman really, all right, Sarah, Hello, Hello,
So Broadway Butterfly is another true story, right about Dot King,
And this is an unsolved murder. Over a hundred years ago,

(21:00):
nineteen twenty three three, Dot King was found murdered in
her bed. Do you want to pick up what happened
to for that?

Speaker 8 (21:10):
Dot King was a scandalous flapper who was found murdered
in her bed wearing a lace neglige that barely reached
her knees. And that was the first of many shocking,
scandalous things that titillated and fascinated the entire country and
then the entire world as the investigation unravels levels of

(21:31):
power and corruption and connection that goes from the underbelly
of Broadway and the gangsters all the way up to
the White House. And it's written in the style of
a novel, but it's actually entirely true, and it is
also chock full of strong female characters. So Dot herself
was a scandalous, a woman who wrote her own rules

(21:54):
and lived her own life. And then when she has
found murdered, the lead reporter who covered the case is
also a woman, a sassy Jewish girl from Memphis, Tennessee.
And this is at a time when less than twenty
percent of American women worked outside the home, and those
that did worked primarily in domestic service or in shops,

(22:15):
or in factories or as telephone operators, and very very
few worked in newspapers. And those that did about one person,
you know, one percent of newspaper the newspaper Union were
women cover the ladies pages, so that's cooking, astrology, fashion
and life advice for the lovelorn. And Julia Hartman covered

(22:36):
none of these things. She covered the crime beat. And
Julia Hartman was a pioneering female journalist who opened doors
and blaze trails for every single female journalist today. And
she is a woman who should be taught in every
history of journalism class and every journalism you know, curriculum.
But she's a name who nobody knows, and so it
was really exciting to discover her.

Speaker 1 (22:56):
I want to mention that Sarah is a thriller writer,
right and you have a thriller Maven podcast which you
can all listen to. And she's also the co chair
of the Nantucket Book Festival, which we'll talk about a
little bit later, which is coming up in June.

Speaker 8 (23:16):
Thanks guy.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
So why did you decide on this unsolved murder? Why
did you start writing your book about this story? What
drew you into this?

Speaker 8 (23:25):
Yeah, you know, I think I believe. I'm also a
yoga teacher, so I got a little woo woo in me,
and I believe that. You know that stories find their tellers,
and tellers find their stories, and there's a chemistry between
the two. If you open your mind and you open
your heart to being a teller of a story, the
right story will come and you choose it and it
chooses you. But I was not thinking about that at all,

(23:49):
or working on this story. I was working on another book.
I was thirty thousand words into another story. And I
went home to Philadelphia for Thanksgiving, and the day after Thanksgiving,
you're you know, sitting around having our leftovers, and my
uncles started reminiscing that back in the sixties, after high
school let out, they used to sneak over to the
old Castle and they'd sneak cigarettes and drink beers. And

(24:11):
at first I was like, Uncle, ed, you're so bad,
you know, not very unexpected of him. But then I
started thinking wait, what castle? And he said, yeah, you know,
a mile away, just down the road, there used to
be this this castle and it was the third, you know,
largest private home, was bigger than the White House, and
it was you know, torn down in the nineteen eighties,

(24:33):
but there are still ruins of it. Well, as soon
as I heard there were ruins, I had to go
see these ruins, and so we went carpool over there.
And there in the middle of a suburban you know home,
you know, neighborhood, between the subarus and the tulip beds
are the remnants of a castle. So there's fifty foot
tall pillars in some you know, in the middle of

(24:53):
a field, there's a staircase going nowhere. There's headless statues
of Diana and Zeus, and then there's you know, somebody's
little red bigon because people still live in amongst these ruins,
and it is so cognitively dissonant, because you feel like
you're standing in Rome or you know, Greece, but you're
in suburban Philly. So it's so bizarre. And I went

(25:15):
down the research rabbit hole and learned everything about this family.
You know, the father was a founding partner with JP
Morgan v JP himself and you know, the wealthiest person
in Pennsylvania. And you know, this home had one hundred
and forty seven rooms, twenty for twenty four fireplaces, twenty
eight bathrooms, a staff of seventy gardeners just to maintain

(25:37):
the exquisite three hundred acre you know land. But they,
you know, I was like, well that's interesting, but I'm
not in the castle writing business.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
So I left it.

Speaker 8 (25:46):
And then I couldn't stop thinking about them. And three
months later I went back and I found, you know,
a nineteen fifty three book that said something. It was
titled something like Scandalous Philadelphia, the one hundred most shocking
things to ever rock the Quaker City, and like, let's
be honest, it doesn't take that much to rock a Quaker,
you know, but they scare easy. But I found, you know,

(26:09):
in the amongst the one hundred things, there was one
line on one paragraph that said, oh, you know, this
family found themselves connected to the murder of a scandalous
slapper and in Manhattan. And all the hairs on the
back of my neck stood up and that was my story.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Wow?

Speaker 1 (26:23):
And how many years did you work on it?

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Ten?

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Wow? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (26:27):
A decade of my life.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Wow, and I think you mentioned we were on the
phone this week. That didn't you start with like six
hundred pages? And then yeah he did, Lisa, good editor.

Speaker 8 (26:39):
Yes, I started. At one point she was, you know,
one hundred and eighty five thousand words, she was two books.
And it's you know, I got because my mission became
and I wrote it on a post it and put
it over my computer. You know, I must separate that
which is integral from that which is merely interesting. But
when you're that far down every things interesting, you know,

(27:01):
it's like, well, of course I have to, you know,
write about this tasty detail.

Speaker 1 (27:06):
You'd never I mean, the murder's never been solved, but
do you have a theory?

Speaker 8 (27:11):
I do, and I sneak it in the end where
Julia the reporter is mentally pontificating on what is probable
based on the evidence which I have presented. So I
make it pretty clear what I think happened, but I
leave the door open for other interpretations.

Speaker 1 (27:33):
Do you think they'll lovever solve it?

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Lisa?

Speaker 8 (27:36):
I know where she's buried, and I'm the kind of
girl who will grab a shovel in a flask light
and go dig her up totally if I didn't have
a lawyer husband holding me back. Yeah, captain, no fun.
But we know DNA doesn't disintegrate. Hey, we know there's
DNA under her fingernails. So could we dig her up?

(27:58):
I mean, could we exhume her? Yes, But I think
the NYPD have you know, more pressing matters.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Which is why. So do you think it was just
because of who was involved that they just this just
got absolutely shoved under the carpet because of whom she's
never coming out.

Speaker 8 (28:14):
And the bribes, the the you know, the seventeen million
dollar bribe in seventeen million dollars in today's dollars five
hundred thousand dollars. Then it took to make it go
quietly away. And I think that's, you know, actually another
way in which she was harmed because she was denied justice.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
Right, it's fascinating book. Do you think it will be
made into.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
A movie or a mini serious?

Speaker 8 (28:38):
Oh my gosh, I would? I mean, from your lips,
statius work, let's manifest that? Oh how does it work?

Speaker 1 (28:44):
Yeah? So yeah?

Speaker 8 (28:46):
So the way that it works is your literary agent,
who is the person is like an agent, whether a
real stage, and a literary agent, a film agent. They
represent your work or your home or whatever, and they
sell it and they keep fifteen percent of the profit
it or up to twenty five percent for fore and
in film. And so they you know, first sell it

(29:06):
to a publisher and then they can take it out
to to to film, you know, to film agents that
they work with, or directly to producers and to stars
and they get them to sign on to say would
you want to produce this? Would you want to star
in this?

Speaker 1 (29:21):
But you said that because of the strike, that things
are sort of backlocked.

Speaker 8 (29:26):
Yeah, so things are really backlogged right now. So I
have a couple of friends who have books in development,
and all of those things came to a screeching halt
while you know, there was the six month writers strike
and then you know, the actors didn't solidarity with them,
and so all of those projects they have pushed back.
So like one friend was supposed to have her script
finalized in December, now it's going to be June. The
people in June got pushed to December twenty twenty four,

(29:48):
and so they have to work through that backlog before
they start looking at new things. And right now, The
trend is they want to make you know, quick, quick
and quick, cheek quick and cheap films because they there's
been a lack of things. It's been held up, so
now they're just trying to get content made and then
once they catch up, I think things might And you.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
Said that period pieces are harder because there's more involved,
because they've got to build this the costume costume cars.

Speaker 8 (30:16):
You why, Yeah, And we see that in a bus
and all the time, right, like it'll be like filming
and then they tow the cars and they bring in
the old cars, but then it's the costumes and then nothing.
You've got to taken the modern signs down.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
But Bridgerton was a huge hit and Gilded Age, right, yeah,
there's a lot, so there is, you know, there is
a taste for it. So hopefully you guys will benefit
from that soon sooner rather later. All right. So our
fourth author is Christy Cashman. She wrote The Truth about Horses.

(30:46):
She yeah, she's an actress, model, producer, writer, philanthropist. And
when I was speaking to Christy this week, she's also
written two children's books. This is your first novel, This
is your first book. So out of all of those things.

(31:07):
All of your titles, what do you find the most rewarding.

Speaker 5 (31:14):
I can say unequivocally writing the novel.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Yeah, I can see.

Speaker 5 (31:20):
I was just talking actually just talking to Sarah about
I think it's so special when you have this little
idea in your head that you decide to take seriously
and sit down and write for how many years? Six, seven, eight, nine, ten?

(31:41):
For me, it was probably closer to twelve when I
really think about it.

Speaker 9 (31:45):
But and then it actually turns into.

Speaker 5 (31:48):
Something and you give it to somebody and they like it,
and it's shocking that something resonates in your story. And
so so from there it's like these little kind of
little baby steps towards getting it published. And once it's

(32:09):
published and then people a lot of people are reading it. Well,
one of the things that I think everybody has to
do as a novelist, especially a first time novelist, is
go out and get blurbs from other authors or celebrities
or your poolman and.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
And it's a pretty diverse crowd.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
And and that's really hard because that's you know, you're
asking somebody to sit down and read an entire book,
you know, And my protagonist is a fourteen year old girl,
and she is she suffers a She lives in South Dakota.
She has a couple of horrible tragedies where she basically there.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
Her mother's favorite horse is.

Speaker 5 (32:58):
Injured in a race and is told by her that
he'll never race again. It's in the first page, so
I'm not spoiling anything. But then she suffers a really
serious tragedy and it makes her feel very isolated. And
on top of that, she and her father suffer very

(33:18):
differently from their loss, and they are kind of emotionally
abandoned by each other. And that is the story really,
as much as it's got horses in the background and
there's you know those, really the story of.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
It is the story of.

Speaker 5 (33:38):
Her love for horses and how they have helped heal her.
It's very much about her and her father navigating their
way back to each.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
Other, right because he abandoned her emotionally, whereas her mother
passed away. And it's sort of the difference between the
loss that loss and you really, I think present it
wonderfully in the box. Thank you really beautifully.

Speaker 5 (34:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Describe your process, your writing process. I mean it's took
you nine years.

Speaker 5 (34:10):
Yeah, uh yeah, I think the first thing was taking
that idea, which I wasn't even sure exactly what it was.
I liked this vision of there's a little magical realism
element in my novel as well.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
And uh, it kind.

Speaker 5 (34:28):
Of started with this vision of these wild horses for
me that that.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
I thought could.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
In some ways represent maybe another another realm, another almost
like the spirit world or something for the character. And
there were times when during certain reads and workshops and
that kind of thing, people were.

Speaker 1 (34:54):
Like, well, I do you have these spirit horses in here?

Speaker 4 (34:56):
What's this about?

Speaker 5 (34:57):
And I, in as much as sometimes I was criticized
for it, I'm so glad I hung on to it
because it is. It's this thread that's woven through.

Speaker 4 (35:08):
Now.

Speaker 5 (35:09):
What I did learn from that criticism was that I
needed to incorporate it correctly.

Speaker 1 (35:15):
You know.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
I couldn't just throw them in there and have them
be for no reason, you know.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
And even though I knew as the author what the
reason was, I still had to I still had to
be able to lead the reader along so that they
weren't like, ho, hold on, what the hell is this?

Speaker 4 (35:35):
And and.

Speaker 5 (35:39):
When people read early drafts and they come back with
that kind of thing, I had to learn to take
that criticism and just make it better.

Speaker 9 (35:48):
And if I felt really strongly about.

Speaker 5 (35:51):
Hanging on to something because mine's the novel, it's not,
you know, it's not it's not historical, it's not it's.

Speaker 9 (35:59):
All you know, made up, entirely made up.

Speaker 5 (36:02):
And I will say that, you know, I definitely write
out of myself. I'm not writing about myself, but I'm
writing about emotions that I've felt and experienced in that
kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (36:11):
I did lose my mother.

Speaker 5 (36:12):
I'm a horse person, but did not grow up the
way my character did at all. And so it's you know,
it's fiction, but you know it is. It's such an
interesting journey because getting feedback can be daunting and it

(36:34):
can be really scary because sometimes it feels like you're
you know, you just have to go back to page
one and start all over again.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
And sometimes you do have to do that in reality.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
You know.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
I mean, sometimes I think that I wrote, you know,
fifty to one hundred pages that just got scrapped in
the beginning, and I think that's really common. I think
the first hundred pages is a lot of exposition that's
not that's usually not needed, and and you find out
that it, you know, it can work its way back
into the story in other ways in a sentence, as

(37:12):
opposed to ten pages.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
Exactly. I read in People magazine that that I'm.

Speaker 5 (37:24):
One hundred and thirty eighth most influential person in Boston.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Yes, she was just voted Boston Magazine number one thirty
eight out of one hundred and fifty. Congratulations, I love that.
I love this for you. So that's you like that
saying no, I actually I read that Jane Seymour, doctor, Quinn,

(37:52):
Medicine woman, and Bond Girl, she has optioned your book
for a project. Would you like to tell us about that?
I know as much as you can. I know that.
You know, there's a lot of stuff in the works
that you can't talk to.

Speaker 5 (38:08):
There are a lot, Yeah, there are a lot of
things in the works. I'm actually going out to see her.
We have meetings as of as of next Monday, and
she has a few different producers from some great production
companies lined up. But she read it it's kind of
a funny story. The way she tells it is because

(38:30):
I was in that process of having to get blurbs
from famous people.

Speaker 9 (38:35):
And the Poolman, and so I'm like Jane.

Speaker 4 (38:39):
I had just kind of met her.

Speaker 5 (38:41):
We weren't you know, we hadn't really gotten to know
each other well.

Speaker 9 (38:44):
And I was like, Jane, would you read my book
for me?

Speaker 5 (38:48):
And she's like, oh, yes, of course, And so I
give her the manuscript that's bound, like it's this thing,
it's this big and it's funks down like you know,
on the desk, and I'm like, thank you so much, and.

Speaker 4 (39:03):
It could be used as a door stop, you know,
and she.

Speaker 5 (39:09):
And I saw her eyes kind of bulge out and
she's like, oh, oh so lodge no.

Speaker 4 (39:14):
And you know, it's so much it's so much bigger
when it's in that, in that bound form.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
So anyway, I know, I keep getting pushed by my
publisher that I need the blurbs, and I'm like trying
to get her to read it, trying to get her
to read it. The strike happened, thank god, so she
had to stop working. She had to stop working on
Harry Wilde, which is the series that that.

Speaker 9 (39:40):
She was working on when I met her in Ireland.

Speaker 5 (39:43):
And so she said, she said, well, I finally I
can finally read your book. And I'm said, oh, I'm
so happy, thank you. I only have a week left
before I've got to turn all these blurbs in. And
I hope she's I'm like, I hope she's a fast reader,
but it's got to be a fast reader. She does
all these series, she reads strips all the time, So

(40:03):
I'm I'm like.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
I think she's going to get it in on time.

Speaker 5 (40:07):
Well she doesn't, and then she's like she she tells
me she's going to read it on her flight back
to la and then she lands and she says, you know,
could you send me the audible version? And so I
was actually then working on the audible version, but it
was only in like, you know, three chapters at a

(40:30):
time because they were also editing, and so I had
to send her like eighteen emails with the you know
the and guess what, she didn't even listen to it.
So she finally told me that she couldn't even put
the manuscript that I'd given to her in her bag.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Because it was so heavy.

Speaker 3 (40:52):
She was like, she's just.

Speaker 9 (40:53):
Afraid she's gonna pull a muscle or something.

Speaker 4 (40:56):
So and she didn't listen to it.

Speaker 9 (40:58):
But she finally read it when I sent her.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
Another draft in California and another you know, a smaller,
thank god, you know, draft, And I think it was
one of the you know, advanced reader copies or something,
because I didn't have to at that point have all of.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
The blurbs in.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
And she said she read it on the on the
on the flight back to New York at one point,
and she started crying.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
And she read it the whole flight. I mean she
read it in one flight.

Speaker 5 (41:30):
And so and she was in, she was in, and
then she said, what are you doing with it?

Speaker 4 (41:36):
Are you going to adapt it? Are you you know?

Speaker 5 (41:38):
And and and then she basically just made an offer.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
So yeah, it was really exciting.

Speaker 9 (41:45):
It was so cool, and I was just like, well.

Speaker 4 (41:48):
What took you so long?

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Right, well, I want to you brought up the audible
and we were talking before the event started about how
important it is to get the right person to read
your book. Can you any of you sort of speak
to that? Ilean, I know that you had an interesting
experience that you have two people and how important that was.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Yeah, I mean, the story of the Crafts is a
love story with a man and a woman master slave,
husband wife.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
How do you choose one or the other? Right?

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Right?

Speaker 2 (42:18):
So you know, you get an email with the names
of these people, and you're like, Wow, one of these
people is going to be the voice, and it's kind
of a thrilling feeling. And for me, I knew, like
when I heard the two voices. When I heard Janina
Edwards's voices, I was like, I want her to read
Ellen Kraft. But then there's like Frederick Douglas and Daniel
Webster and all these other men with these deep, resonant voices,

(42:42):
and I felt like that I want to have a
lower register. So I asked, could you know, could I
have both? And they said yes, and so now you.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Have Usually doesn't happen, right, Yeah, Emily, were you happy
with your I was really happy.

Speaker 6 (42:56):
I felt really excited that I got to listen to
the audition tapes.

Speaker 7 (43:00):
So they sent.

Speaker 6 (43:02):
Various narrators reading up one chapter, and it was great
to hear both what they sounded like, what their tone was,
how deep they're registers, but also the different voices that
they would put on. Because in the lineus of Boston,
she's traveling all around Europe, she's meeting so many different people,
so many different artists, and she could do lots of

(43:22):
different voices. Nancy Peterson, Yeah, so I chose her.

Speaker 8 (43:30):
They said, turn it off when you're not talking, so
I was saving my battery. I loved the woman who
narrated my She's an amazing actress named Jordan Cobb in
New York, and as soon as I heard her, I
just I was like, that is the voice. And my
book is actually told through four points of view, Julia,
the reporter, Detective Coughlin who investigated it, Ella Bradford, who's

(43:53):
the best friend of Dout King and a wealthy society woman.
And Ella is black. So I really wanted a black
woman to read it because I wanted I wanted her
to have the voice, and I also didn't want a
white woman doing a black woman's voice.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Yep, makes sense.

Speaker 5 (44:12):
Well, the woman who did mine had a beautiful voice
but a horrible personality.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
It was me, that's great, No, it makes sense.

Speaker 4 (44:23):
Yeah, And it was really tricky. It wasn't easy because.

Speaker 5 (44:27):
The sound in the sounds studio picks up every single noise,
like just a little like if you have a little
bit of a you know, crackle or phlegm in your
voice throat, it picks up everything. So I was like,
you can't eat a burrito before going in there. It

(44:49):
picks up absolutely everything, and it was a really hard
well it took like five days and I could only
you know, I could only. I'm not a professional voiceover person.
But it was a big learning curve and I thought
I was going to be great at it.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
And I had to read.

Speaker 9 (45:12):
I had to do a lot of rereading of your
own book.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Yeah, yeah, Oh that's so interesting. I want to ask
all of you because I always, again I am in
awe of your talent. And I know that everyone has
families children, Our children actually go to school together. What's
your process? Like, do you set us do you write

(45:37):
at night? Do you write early in the morning? Is like,
do you have a process, and can you each of
you talk about that, because I really I'm so interested
in how you get through writing a book. I mean
it's hard.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Yeah, I mean I started off when my children were small.
I was really writing at the margins of the day,
so very very early in the morning is really when
I had to sit down to do it. I wasn't
able to start doing the research until my youngest child
was in kindergarten, and that's when I would And you know,
there were times like there weren't so many times but
she remembers like holding onto my leg, you know, like

(46:17):
saying don't go and then her my husband had to
detach her. And the last thing I saw before I
hit the archives was this crying face.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
So you know, there was like a no.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
But that's a memory trade off. But so did you
give yourself I have to do a thousand words a
day because I know that some authors do that. It
was that something that you.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
I had to write every day.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
And I have a writing partner who's like a really
great accountability partner. She's got a great book about Rachel
Kauser is coming out with a book on Alexander the
Greats like last year's. And we were, I mean, while
she was slogging through Afghanistan, I was slogging through the South,
and we kept each other accountable to pages, and sometimes
it was about cutting pages as much as it was
writing pages. Like you know, some people keep like diet

(46:59):
sheets with a many how many calories? I was kind
of words because I was writing so much, and I
was like, I can't go over this amount for this section.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
But yeah, I wrote everyday.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Emily. How about you?

Speaker 6 (47:11):
Yeah, I mean, obviously I have four kids, and when
I had you know, four kids under eight with no childcare.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
That was a lot harder.

Speaker 6 (47:19):
And my but I'm lucky because my husband is home
on Wednesdays.

Speaker 7 (47:23):
So he used to joke that my autobiography would be called.

Speaker 6 (47:26):
Like I did it on Wednesdays, and I would try
on the other days to do whatever I could. I
would edit, I would write just in short like increments
of nap time or you know, preschool or things like that.
Or I would like I wrote one novel, I felt
like hunched.

Speaker 7 (47:41):
Over nursing the entire time. I was all buckled over.

Speaker 6 (47:45):
But now the kids are older, but I still basically
keep the same hours.

Speaker 7 (47:49):
So I basically sleep like a toddler.

Speaker 6 (47:52):
I go to bed really early, and I wake up
really early, and so I still wake up at five
in the morning and I so.

Speaker 7 (47:59):
This is a really late night for me.

Speaker 6 (48:01):
And then I write for two hours, and then I
go for a run, and then I come back and
write more.

Speaker 7 (48:05):
Now, but yeah, I just so that's where I trained my.

Speaker 6 (48:10):
Brain to work in increments, because you can't always rely
on having an expansive day. I try now to build
in those expansive days because I do think it's a
different kind of writing it's a different quality to it,
and not necessarily better, just different and more immersive. Certainly
research is easier to do in shorter chunks, but I can.

Speaker 7 (48:31):
I've just trained my brain to be able to.

Speaker 6 (48:33):
I can work anywhere with any kind of distraction, any noise,
any writing implement I've written novels, especially on the back
of like CBS receipts.

Speaker 7 (48:41):
They're the best because they're so long. I could just
like write and write and write.

Speaker 6 (48:46):
And I was like waiting for kids to come out
of school, and I'd be like, oh, great idea.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
And I would I just shove it in your person.

Speaker 7 (48:52):
Yeah, And then you're like, I don't know what I
was thinking with that one.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 8 (48:57):
So I'm the opposite. I'm a night owl. I always
have And actually it was so interesting that I did
my twenty three and me and it came back and said, oh,
you're a night You're a night person, and it's true
and I have been since I was a kid. And
so the moon comes out and I come alive. So
I get the work done that I have to get done,
like the administrative stuff. I also work as the director
of social media for an international thriller Writers Association. So

(49:19):
I do that kind of work during the day and
then at night I is when I you know this,
we live in the city. The city is calm and quiet,
and under the magic of stars and moonlight, I the
words flow, and that's when I write. And my best
friend is also a writer. So we are accountability badis
and we say when we're starting. We don't always work

(49:39):
at the same time, but we have some overlapping hours.
And then same as Illon, when it was time to
cut when she was one hundred and eighty five thousand wars,
I would write down how many words I'd have to cut,
and then I'd check them off.

Speaker 1 (49:51):
Yes, what about you, Christy?

Speaker 5 (49:54):
Well, when I first started, I it was like I
wasn't sure I could do it.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
I wasn't sure or if I was, you know, if
I had the tools.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
So I signed up for a lot of classes, a
lot of writing classes, kind of like a gym membership.
Because now I know why, Because now that I'm back
to writing and I wake up in the morning, I'm like, oh,
I'll make the coffee, but I should probably walk the
dogs and maybe clean my sock drawer.

Speaker 4 (50:23):
And I come up.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
With all these things. You know reasons why not to.
I'm a procrastinator, and I'm so, I'm I'm really, I mean,
I've trained myself somewhat, but I still I have all
these bad habits and so I'm I'm just always trying
to outthink myself and make myself do it.

Speaker 4 (50:45):
But the class has helped.

Speaker 9 (50:46):
They really helped me get to a rough draft.

Speaker 5 (50:48):
And then I found that I was a little bit
different with each phase of the book. Like in the.

Speaker 9 (50:54):
Beginning, mornings definitely.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
Then in the when I was going into another draft,
it was when I was still writing and creating. Definitely,
mornings when I was working.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
And editing and that kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
Evenings were fine.

Speaker 5 (51:08):
It was kind of anytime on the train, on a plane,
on the back of a horse, anything.

Speaker 4 (51:14):
I could almost you know.

Speaker 5 (51:16):
And then revisions was just like that to me was
like I did work with an editor as well, so
that was and I had a great experience, thank goodness.
And in my revision's phase was a lot of just
back and forth with her and it was interesting and
actually really fun.

Speaker 4 (51:37):
I enjoyed it.

Speaker 5 (51:38):
I didn't think I had the I thought that was
going to be really hard, and I actually liked the
editing part.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
That's good to hear.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
All right.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
So I mentioned that we are going to play a
little game, so I want the audience to play this.
Taylor Swift just came out with the Tortured Poets to
Part on Friday, and a lot of writing is involved,
as you know, with writing songs and lyrics. So I

(52:09):
want you to guess whether what I'm gonna read to
you is a Taylor Swift lyric or is it an
excerpt from one of their projects. Oh so we don't
get to play, and sometimes it's hard to tell, Okay,
So if you think you know, raise your hand. So
the first one is and at last she knew what

(52:29):
the agony had been for. Who do you think that is?
Do you think that's Taylor or one of our authors?
What author? No, it's actually Taylor Swift from the Manuscript,
her song the Manuscript. Okay, here's another one. The porch

(52:53):
is rotting now, Joyce breaking loose everything undone, as though
he and the rest of us are already gone, but
let us be suspended right then at five o'clock, drinks
in hand. Do you think that's Taylor Swift or do
you think that's one of our authors? That sounds who

(53:15):
wants to go out and a limb? Here? I see
someone right here. What do you think, Emily? It's Emily
Franklin from one of her poems, Emily, which poem it
is called?

Speaker 7 (53:35):
I think it's a cure for grief, which there is
not a cure.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Okay, here's another one. Slipping into crease, Sorry, slipping into
crisp fresh sheets for a nap in the warmth of
the Florida afternoon was a delight she will never cease
to enjoy. Linn Bach, No, it's actually Sarah Devello. Oh

(54:05):
my god, you sound like Taylor' sweat.

Speaker 7 (54:09):
I tried to trick you.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
I tried to trick you, and it worked. Okay. Everyone
knows that my mother is a saintly woman, but she
used to say she wished that you were dead. Taylor.
You got that one, Thank you, Amy? All right, So

(54:36):
you guys got one, all right, last one. Each time
I come down into her waiting arms, I tried to
hear what she's saying. Over and over. Her lips form
the same words, but I don't hear any sound. Who
do you think it is? Taylor or one of our authors?

Speaker 4 (55:00):
Authors?

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Right? It's Christy Cashman The Truth about Horses. You guys
did well. I love this game. So I think this
concludes our Q and a Porsche. I mean sorry, are
my portion? Would anyone like to ask a question of
one of the authors? Any questions? Sure? My? What is

(55:28):
your question? Oh? Hey, whinny? I didn't know when he
was here?

Speaker 8 (55:32):
Who had their hand up?

Speaker 3 (55:33):
All right?

Speaker 1 (55:33):
Can you repeat the question.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
I'd like to know what your podcast is. Yes, so.

Speaker 8 (55:40):
We're having Mike issues today, aren't we.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (55:43):
So my podcast is Mystery and Thriller Mavens and every
Monday night because Mondays can be murder and I'm going
to get your week off to a killer start. I
interview two mystery authors the night before their books come
out to give you the insides. And I do that
on seven different destinations across Facebook and YouTube, and it's

(56:06):
very mysterious. It's just under my under my name Sarah Devello,
and I do a ton of giveaways of advanced copies,
and I have a Facebook group Mister and Thriller maven
So you should join. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:18):
Do you want to tell them about the Nantucket Book Festival?
Really fast? The date of that? If they want to go? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 8 (56:23):
So the Nantugu Book Festival is June thirteenth through sixteenth.
Miss Christy Cashman is one of our featured authors in
conversation with Jane Seymour in the Dreamland Theater.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
It's going to be amazing.

Speaker 8 (56:37):
Margaret Atwood is also one of our featured speakers, and
that's going to be amazing too. So we have ill
On was last year fantastic. We have a really exciting
lineup of you know, authors that you know and authors
that you may not have heard of, and it's it's
going to be really special. So sale on over, make

(56:57):
the trip.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
Any more questions when.

Speaker 8 (57:02):
I'm sorry, are you friends with Ellen? Am my friends
with Ellen Hildebrand? I am not friends with Ellen Hildebrand.
I met I was in the festival. I'm in the
festival this year as well. But I was in the
festival in twenty fourteen and that was the first time
I met Ellen, and she was also in the festival,
of course, and so I see her there and she's

(57:23):
very lovely and very friendly, but sadly we are not.
She's not wearing her half of the BFF bracelet you
know yet. But a girl can dream. Okay, I have
a question I'm going to ask him herbie half. You
want to know whose Instagram?

Speaker 7 (57:41):
Oh, to follow the family from.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Her Craft family.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Thank you, it's William and Ellen Kraft.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
William and Kraft is spelled c R A f T.

Speaker 7 (57:55):
Are any of you working on your next book? Yes?

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Yeap?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
What are you working on?

Speaker 5 (58:01):
Emily?

Speaker 6 (58:01):
Another historic novel, overlooked women in History, also at the
center of a group of artists and writers, but in
Europe around eighteen twenty.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
And when do you expect that to come out?

Speaker 7 (58:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (58:15):
But it is filled with a lot of love and
art and lust.

Speaker 7 (58:19):
And scandal, so it's very fun to write.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Look out for that.

Speaker 4 (58:23):
She needs to be on your podcast?

Speaker 7 (58:25):
Yes, no murder then.

Speaker 8 (58:27):
Oh well just kill someone off, Emily, right, come on,
get murderous.

Speaker 4 (58:33):
Someone needs to die.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
I know you're working.

Speaker 5 (58:36):
Yeah, I'm working on a novel called Beulah and it's
set in.

Speaker 9 (58:41):
The smoky mountains in Tennessee in the eighties.

Speaker 5 (58:44):
So I'm kind of loving the fact that there aren't
cell phones and.

Speaker 4 (58:50):
There's big hair, and.

Speaker 9 (58:54):
I'm really enjoying that world.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
I love world building in the novels, and so.

Speaker 5 (59:02):
I grew up in the South not too far from
where the story takes place, and so I'm I'm, you know,
googling a little bit as reminders and then looking at.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
Old yearbooks and stuff. It's pretty funny. I love that,
but it's a little bit of a mystery.

Speaker 5 (59:18):
So maybe we should schedule the podcast you do.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
This is good.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
I love this psychological thriller.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Great and Eleann, are you working on anything?

Speaker 3 (59:30):
Only in my head?

Speaker 1 (59:31):
Okay, we will wait and see hey. Coming up April second,
at the Revere Hotel, Boston, we've got author Jeff Benedict
of The Dynasty, The Tiger Book, lebron Book. He will
be sitting down with us. It's sold out, but you
can join us on the stream, which is always at
seven pm. Kiss oneaway dot COM's Facebook page and then

(59:52):
bonus chapter with producer Riley. We are talking about the
books we read over vacation, so don't miss any of it.