June 20, 2024 • 27 mins
Today on The Bright Side, Reese’s Book Club author Ally Condie talks about the crushing experience that led to her first adult novel, "The Unwedding". Ally Condie, author of the hit young adult "Matched" series, had a wedding anniversary trip planned with the man she had been married to for nearly 20 years. After their divorce, she soon learned that he was still going to go on the trip… with another woman. Undaunted, Ally decided to go her own getaway. When she arrived and discovered that a wedding was taking place at her hotel, Ally's imagination took over and her first mystery-thriller was born. You can find "The Unwedding" on Apple Books or wherever you get your books.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey fam, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side, we're
talking murder mystery. Best selling author and the June pick
for Reese's Book Club, Ali Condy is here to discuss
her new novel that's creating lots and lots of buzz.
It's Thursday, June twentieth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine, Simone.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Today, We're joined by best selling author Ali Condy, and
she's known for her wildly popular young adult book series
and recently she released a new murder mystery. The Internet
is a Blaze. It's called The Unwedding and it is
a June Reese's Book Club pick. Everything about this book
and the story behind it is giving Lemonade by Beyonce.
(00:48):
Let me explain. Author Ali had a twentieth wedding anniversary
trip planned, and obviously this is supposed to be romantic
and relaxing and a celebration of her commitment to her
and his commitment to heart. But in a twist of
terrible fate, she and her husband get divorced and she
finds out that he's still going to go on the trip,
(01:08):
but he's going with another woman. So Ali decides she's
going to go on a trip too, and she arrives
at this hotel and immediately finds out that there's a
wedding going on. Can you imagine how gutting that would be?
So brutal? Oh my gosh, this is such a wild backstory.
I can't believe it. But here's the bright side. Okay,
Allie's sitting at the bar by herself, people watching, and
(01:31):
her imagination is taking over, and she thinks, what if
there was a murder here and I was the only
person that could solve it. You know what's funny is
that's not the kind of murder I'd be thinking about
on a trip like that. But I'm glad that she
has an imagination because that moment inspired her to write
and publish what has become her first murder mystery, and
now she's the June pick for Reese's Book Clubs. So
(01:53):
talk about turning your mess into your message.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I mean, I'm so excited to hear all of this
in her own words, because stories like this where someone
took life's bitter lemons and turned it into sweet, sweet lemonade,
they're always so epic, right, Danielle Hm. I mean it's
such a universal experience, right, Like, if you've been on
this earth long enough, it's going to happen to you. Danielle.
Can you think of a time when you turn something
(02:16):
tragic into magic? Anything come to mind?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yes? And mine also has to do with a man.
My ex boyfriend years ago broke up with me on
a beach in Cabo, and then subsequently we spent the
next ten days together with both of our families there,
which was brutal, and I had to move out and
I was so broke and I didn't know how I
was going to move into an apartment, And that whole
(02:42):
experience set me on like an amplification of my career.
I started sending out cold emails and started doing digital
media work and moved into and decorated my own apartment.
And previously I had found a pro con list that
he made about me, and one of the cons was
that he felt like I couldn't just like get stuff done.
(03:05):
And that year I got the most done ever. I
did a triathlon, I made the most money I had made,
and I was.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Really sticking it to him getting dumped on a beach
in Cabo with all of your family watching. That sounds
like the beginning of a great novel. To me, I've
always wanted to write a novel about it. But let's
talk to somebody who's actually done it. We are here
with the June.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
RBC pick Ali Condy. She's talking love, marriage and mystery. Ali,
Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Ali. I was really struck by the real life inspiration
behind this book. I mean, did you have anyone specific
in mind when you were writing this murder mystery? That
is such a great and perfectly loaded question. Yeah, I
mean clearly I did. Like as you mentioned, you know,
we'd been divorced.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
It was clear I wasn't going to be going on
the twentieth anniversary trip with him, and yet still somehow
it hurt. Everything I was reading was saying, get yourself
out there, be comfortable, being on your own, all of that,
and I thought, absolutely so I took myself on a
trip and it was just harder than I expected. I
did miss him. I particularly missed my children. That's the
(04:16):
hardest part of divorces. You're no longer with them all
the time, and as a parent and a mother, that
feels very foreign.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
It feels completely wrong.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
I still haven't gotten over that part, but I realized, oh,
I shoot, everyone else is here with someone else. And
I was used to being alone on book tour. I
thought I could handle it just fine. But I also
didn't have the purpose of book tour. So it was
just me eating food, kind of looking at my phone,
looking around, and yeah, that inspiration for the main character.
That's pretty much the opening scene of the book is
(04:47):
how I was feeling. And then, of course I didn't
solve any murders. None of that happened, but I did
start looking around and paying attention and feeling sorry for myself,
kind of like, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
They're so happy, look at that couple.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And then it deteriorated pretty quickly into well, I don't
think they're going to make it. You know, you start
you start being pretty honest with your assessments of everyone
around you, and you often when you're traveling, you do
have kind of that whole microcosm of human life, like
there are people who are super happy, there are people
who look miserable, different family groupings, different couples, different ages
of couples, all of that, and so as the weekend progressed,
(05:22):
it got more and more fun, the people watching, and
pretty quickly I had the thought, oh, man, if there
were a murder here, I'd be the only one who
could solve it because I'm the only one who's been
noticing everybody else, because I don't have anyone else to
pay attention to.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, what did you discover about yourself in the writing process,
because to me, it felt like there was a little
bit of therapy here, even though it is a novel.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, I mean absolutely there was.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
And you know, I have kids, and I'm really conscious
of how how I talk about the book, so you know,
their dad is a great dad. I'm not trying to
in any way take him down or shame him or
make him look like any thing bad at all.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
But the pain was real. And you know, this book is.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Coming out now, but I've been remarried for almost a year,
and so the book always comes out a little bit
past the experience if you are writing anything that you're
kind of going through the time. But in that sense, yeah,
I mean it feels like I definitely wouldn't have had
the idea to write this particular murder mystery without that experience.
I wouldn't have had the idea to kind of go
(06:25):
for it. I don't think, because I don't know if
you guys have experienced this. I hope you haven't, but
I think we all have where you lose something really,
really profound and then it almost feels like you have
nothing left to lose. Yes, and so in the past,
where I might I might have been precious about it, like, oh,
it'll be so embarrassing if I write this book and
it doesn't do well, or oh, I should stay in
(06:47):
my lane and write young adult or children's books, which
I love and still plan to write.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Instead, I thought, well, the worst has.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Already happened, you know, I don't It's fine if I
fail at writing a book.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Harder things than this exist in the world.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Your main character, Ellery has had more than one rough
patch in her life. Why did you want to center
your main character in tragedy like that?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I think she's also centered in a lot of joy.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
But yeah, this is her tragedy era, right, and so,
but it's not her first tragedy era. And unfortunately, and fortunately,
I guess for character growth and for personal growth, we
don't have a quota, right, Like, we don't have a
quota of bad stuff that happens to us. I think
when I was growing up, I felt like, Oh, everyone
probably has one or two really bad things happen, and
(07:34):
that is just not the case at all. I learned
that pretty early on when I was a high school teacher,
Like some kids would come to me and I felt like, Oh,
my word, you're twelve and you've already met what I
feel like should be your quota for life. And then
some that's just not the way life works. And so
I was kind of showing like, she's been through some
hard stuff, but also it might keep coming, and so
(07:55):
how do you deal with that? How do you keep
moving forward even when some hard things have already happened
to you? And the same thing is true wonderfully of joy.
There's also no quota in that. Yeah, And so even
when you're.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Down and out and the darkest thing you can think.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Of has happened, you will be there's that great phrase,
surprised by joy, and you will be. There will be
things that happen that keep happening that are great too.
So I wanted to show that a little bit as well.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
ALI Something that my friend group has been discussing over
the last few years as some people have gotten married,
is keeping their maiden names versus taking their married name.
And I found this particularly interesting because you posted about
the emotional struggle with wanting to put your maiden name
(08:44):
on the book after your divorce, but you were told
no because your identity as an author had already been established.
How did you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That was tricky. I love that you noticed that post.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So when I got married, I mean, I've been dating
the same guy since I was eighteen, and I entered.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That marriage at the ripe old age of twenty one. Wholeheartedly.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
There's no way I thought that I would not have
this name for the rest of my life. And then
I had a baby at twenty four, so it pretty
quickly also became connected to my children.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I made that connection. Honestly.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I made that decision in a sort of pure of
heart way. But yeah, the ramifications were tough because I
asked if we could change it back to my maiden name,
which is Ali Braithwaite, which is a little unwieldy, but
I also liked it. I was that person for a
long time, and I did completely understand the publisher's decision.
We all at the end of the day, we all
(09:38):
want to sell books. We all want to make sure
that the book is successful, and I'm not trying to
sabotage that, but it became a.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Second choosing of that name.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
While I can go by Ali Braithwaite in my private life,
my public life has to be Ali Condy. And so
I kind of made my peace with that thanks to
as many things in my life, friends coming through and
saying so some wonderful things I hadn't thought of myself.
But another author who's been very successful said, you know
that name. I don't think of your husband when I
(10:08):
think of that name. When I think of your name,
I think of you. I don't think of any association
with anyone else. And I realized, oh, there's this whole
professional sphere. They don't know him at all. This is
all me, and that then I suddenly felt like a
really exciting space to step into, like, oh, yeah, I
built this sort of you know, and spouses are supportive,
they're great, But I built this independent of him, and
(10:29):
that wasn't a space he ever really chose to come
into with me, and so that felt freeing.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And then I also realized the.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Connection with my kids, I want that connection and I
think naming is about connection. Sometimes people choose new names
because they don't feel connected to.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
The name their parents gave them, and that's great.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
And at this point I realized, oh, the connection's not
about an ex spouse anymore. It's about my readership and
my children. So that felt good.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
There is a legacy that you're building for your kids.
And I have never met your ex husband, so all
I know is Ali Kandy.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well there I go. Yeah, so that feels great.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You know, there's this sentiment from the book that I love.
The main character Ellery says, everybody has a shadow. So
there's a light and there's a shadow. What does the
shadow mean?
Speaker 4 (11:19):
The shadow is just to me, it's the part that
everyone would just prefer to keep hidden. And that doesn't
even necessarily mean that the shadow is a bad thing,
but it's the part of you that you feel like
it's best to keep this to myself or I don't
totally want other people to see this until I trust them.
And sometimes it is a dark thing too. You know,
I've met people who have some dark secrets, and right
(11:43):
I've met people who don't, but they're very private about
certain parts of their life.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And so that's kind of what I was thinking of.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Everybody does have a shadow, and for the purposes of
a murder mystery. Is that shadow a dark thing? Or
is that shadow just the part they want to keep hidden?
And what does that mean as she's trying to figure
out who might be a.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Ca I love it. I think we should have more
shadows in the world. I want to see more people's shadows.
I agree, Yeah, like I can think of so many
famous people. I'm like, I want to see what your
shadow looks like.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
We need to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Stay with us. We're back, So Ali. One of our
special treats that we like to give our Brightside bessies
is a reading from the author herself. So we've selected
(12:38):
a passage that we would love for you to read
to us. Can you go ahead and give us some context?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah, I'd love to do that. And I love this
passage that you suggested that I read. It's not one
I've been able to read a lot because I can't
get through it without crying. So we'll see how this goes.
But it is one of the few passages in the
book that is taken directly from real life. So in
this passage. She has a son named Ethan, and they
have been on a family vacation prior to the divorce
(13:06):
to Universal Studios and had a really wonderful time and
he ended up getting one of the Harry Potter wands
and that's been kind of his favorite thing since they've
returned from this trip. And then it's now post divorced,
and they go on a little drive. She and her son, Ethan,
they live in Colorado, and there's a lot of beautiful places,
and he has her taken to one of those beautiful
(13:28):
places and something else happens, and so that's the setup
for this scene. So again Ethan is the child and
the main character is the mom. After they'd returned from
the trip, Ethan asked her repeatedly to take him to
a lake up in the mountains that they sometimes visited.
It was a beautiful spot, blue water, perfect green pines,
(13:48):
a sandier beach than you usually found in Colorado, a
long wooden dock stretching out into the water from which
you could launch kayaks or paddleboards. The day she'd finally
gotten around to taking Ethan had been mum. After their
trip to California later in the year, when the air
and water were cool bordering on cold. There hadn't been
many people at the lake. Ethan had climbed out of
(14:10):
the car with a sense of purpose. Wait for me, buddy,
she said, trying to make sure she had her keys
and phone, But he was off, stalking intently out onto
the dock, since he had a pension for jumping into
bodies of water. Fully clothed, she hurried after him, worried
he'd gotten it into his mind to go for a swim.
But Ethan stopped at the end of the dock and
turned to look at her. It was then that she
(14:32):
saw he was holding his wand she hadn't noticed that
he'd brought it in the car. His blue eyes and
the blue tshirt he was wearing in the blue water
behind him all brightened and deepened one another, and she thought,
this is impossibly beautiful. He is impossibly beautiful, mom, Ethan said,
urgency in his tone. Mom.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
To her surprise, he handed her the precious wand mom,
turn me into a fish, Oh, Ethan, she said, her
heart breaking. I can't.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm so sorry. No, Mom, he said, you can. It
built and built the urgency in his voice. Then the
distress the break in her heart until she thought they
would both shatter inWORD or outwards. She didn't know, but
neither of them could bear this much pain, this much want,
this much failure. Mom Eth had kept saying, tears in
his eyes, Mom, please please.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Turn me into a fish. When he finally realized that
she couldn't. Oh, how she hoped he didn't think it
was that she wouldn't. They got back into the car
and drove home. They wound down the forest roads in silence,
both of their faces tears stained. She hadn't seen the
wand since he had never asked to go to the
lake again, she had thought that day that it was
(15:44):
the worst she could possibly fail. Somewhe she'd been so
absolutely wrong.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Thank you for that. Ali. Before you read, you said
that you usually cry when you read that passage. What
special meaning does it hold for you?
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Well?
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I tried not to read it too much because it
was a real experience that happened, and I'm not it's
hard to revisit. Frankly, my son is neuro divergent and
we had that experience post divorce, and like I mentioned earlier,
it's one of the few real experiences I put in
the book, and that was just such a feeling that
(16:22):
day of he desperately wanted this thing, and he truly
thought I could grant it to him. He thought he
had all the elements there, he'd brought the wand we'd
gotten to the place, and then he was asking me
to transform him into something else, take him away from this,
and there was I could not do it, you know,
there was no way for me to do that. And
(16:43):
as a parent, I mean, that's one of the hardest things,
is when you disappoint your child or when they desperately
deeply want something and you cannot give it to them,
even though you would love to be able to do that.
And so that's tricky for me to revisit because that
was a hard and that he really wanted that for me,
and I didn't give it to him, and it became
(17:04):
a little bit of a you know, a stand in
for all of the things he wanted, like an intact
family and different things that I also really wanted that
I also was unable to give him. And so that
that feeling is still kind of with me. Frankly, there's
still some things that I wish I could provide that
I can, and as a parent.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
That's really tough.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It's so hard. What do you say to your kids
in those moments, because it is really hard whenever your
kids want something that you can't deliver.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, I kind of have to I have to acknowledge
that it's a valid want. You're not wrong to want this.
This makes sense that you want this to kind of
teach them to be able to do that for themselves. Like,
it's okay to want things. And often the things that
you want are really good, and you still can't have
them because someone else is making a different choice or
(17:57):
the circumstances don't allow it. And then sometimes you can
acknowledge I want that too, but you don't want to
put yourself in there too much. You know, it's about
their want, not about yours. And then I say, I
can't fix it, but I can sit here with you
in the wanting. We can be here together, and then
what's something else that we can control that we can
(18:19):
maybe do. Sometimes that's the next step, and sometimes the
next step is not that. Sometimes the next step is
just Okay, we're still sad. Nothing's going to fix this,
and we'll just.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Be here in the sadness for a few minutes and
not try to move past it till already.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Ali, have you ever thought about being a parenting coach? No?
I was like, that was amazing. I learned so much
just in that fifteen second SoundBite.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Oh gosh, that's so kind of you, Simone.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
I'm muddling my way through like everyone else, but I
do really care about.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
It, so I hope that counts for something.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, totally. I think the sitting with is the hardest
thing for adults and children to do, but it's the
best thing that you can do.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oftentimes we need to take a quick break. But when
we come back, Alie answers your burning questions about the
unwetding and her writing process, and we're back.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
All right, Allie, are we ready to get to some
listener questions?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yes, yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Okay, First up, we have a question about the setting
of the book from Karen.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Hi, Allie, this is Karen from New Jersey.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
I'm a big thriller fan, so I picked the book
copy right away and I'm loving it. It is so
so good I can hardly put it down. I love
that the book was set in Big sur It feels
like you have a big personal connection to this location.
How do you choose the settings for your stories and
how much research goes into that detail.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Oh, thank you, Karen. I'm so glad you're liking the book.
And you're right, Big Sir is a special place for me.
It's a place that I first discovered with friends, and
so it's been a place I could return to without
sort of any residual memories or sadness other than having
been there with friends, which feels really great. And I
chose that setting because this is a locked room mystery
(20:17):
or a locked resort mystery.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
There's been a mud.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Slide and the characters can't get out, and so the
main character is kind of called upon to solve this
murder mystery, and the absence of any real authority figures
and biggsur has that happened all the time where there's
mud slides, people do get helicoptered out of their luxury resorts,
and so it didn't feel like stretching things too much
to have that happen choosing that setting. I also love
(20:40):
settings where the natural world sort of bumps up against
man's desire for a high thread count, right like where
we've got this edge of the world's setting, but also
people trying to have luxury.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
At the end of the world.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I think it's just a very interesting place that we're in,
us human beings, where where we're trying to.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Push that limit a little bit.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
And one of the other reasons is it's so beautiful
and it's so dangerous, and that felt like a great
place to have a murder.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Okay, I really like this. Next question, we're getting into
a little more detail on Ali's pivots.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
Hey, Ali, I'm Alicia from North Carolina and I consider
myself a super reader. I average about one hundred and
seventy five to two hundred books per year. I'm a professor,
so I use the young adult books to help me
stay connected and engage with the students that I teach.
Of course, I loved your Match series and I was
(21:37):
very excited when I saw that you now have written
a adult a fiction and mystery book. And I fell
in love with the unwedding. You did such a great.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Job with Ellery.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
I was able to connect with her as a woman
in a middle age and things don't go as you plan.
So this leads to my question, was it struggle for
you to switch to the adult fiction and which genre
is harder for you to write. I'll look forward to
your response.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Thank you, Alicia, that's a very fun question, and thank
you for the kind words about matched. It wasn't a struggle,
and it totally was. So it wasn't a struggle in that,
as I alluded to earlier, I come to the book
from the character standpoint, so that didn't feel different. It
felt like, oh, here I am again with a character
that I want to get to know better and that
I want to explore a plot with. So that felt
(22:32):
very similar and not scary. But then it did feel different.
It felt different because I was talking about different things.
You know, kids go through hard stuff and they have
the full realm of human experience pretty early, love and
jealousy and hard things happening and all the big feelings.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
But when we've lived longer.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
We've had maybe more of a variety of those, and
so I could talk about divorce and disappointment and long
marriages and.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Just a different sort of toolbox.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
But then that felt a little scary to try to
do right by all of that. And then, of course
I was totally intimidated to write a murder mystery because
I'm such a big fan of the genre. I've been
reading them since I was a child, and I thought.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Oh, this is hard to do.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Well, I really want to take this seriously and make
sure that we care about the characters and their motivations
and so the mystery makes sense. And so that was
something I took very much to heart and was new
for me.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, all right, We've got one final question from Josie.
She wants an inside scoop on your writing approach. Hi, Allie,
I'm Josie.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
I started reading your matched books and he got me
to learn about the YA genre, and now I'm trying
to become a writer. And I noticed that with your writing,
I become immersed into the world and I just feel
like I'm a part of the world. How do you
write those type of scenes? Like what is your technique?
How do you get it to become that detailed and
(23:59):
that easy need to read?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Joseie, that's a great question, and I'm so excited that
you're going to be a writer. I can't wait to
read what you've written. I think with writing descriptions sometimes
it comes to me pretty immediately. And maybe you've had
this experience too, where you sit down and it just
it flows. It feels lush, and it feels easy to describe,
and it feels like it's just flowing. And those are magical,
(24:25):
magical writing moments, and I definitely have those, and sometimes
those are pretty pretty automatic, and then other times it
is just like pulling teeth. And so what I've learned
to do is I scaffold for later. And what I'll
do is I'll think I'm trying to write this scene.
I can picture it in my mind, but it's not
coming out on paper, and I'll just put the bare
structure of it there. She's in a forest. There's a smell,
(24:50):
this is happening. The trees are here. Just all the
little details that I can, even if they're not coming
to life, like there's juniper berries on the ground, the
sky is pink, it is seventy five degrees.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And so I'll just try to put.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
In every little bit of framework that I can, and
then sometime later, often it happens after I've gone on
a hike or a run, or I've been outside for
even five minutes, I'll go back and flesh out that framework.
I'll feel like, ooh, I have a little peeing of inspiration.
I can go back and write that setting now, So
that would be my most concrete advice, But it sounds
(25:23):
like you're doing pretty great already. You're already thinking about
the right things.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I'm always so impressed by the questions that we get
from our bright Side.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Oh my gosh, yeah, those were great.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Also, can we talk about the super reader, Alicia? One
hundred and seventy five to two hundred books a year. Incredible,
so impressive. That is amazing, incredible, Alie, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Oh, thank you both for having me. It's been such
a delight.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
I've been listening to the podcast, and like so many
of your listeners, I already felt like you were my friends.
You guys are wonderful and I love the community.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
That's an honor for us to hear that. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
You were a bestie before, but you're an official bestie now, Ali,
thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Thanks so much to our bright Side besties Karen, Josie
and Alicia for sending in their questions. Ali Condy is
the author of The Unweedding, which is Reese's Book Club's
June selection. So go pick up a copy. It's available
now wherever you get your books.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
We're talking with the summerya pick from Reese's book Club. Next.
Author Alexin Ferrell Falmuth will be with us later this month,
so send your questions to Hello at the brightside dot com.
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Simone Boye.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro Ba.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Y see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hey fam, Hello Sunshine. Today on the bright Side, we're
talking murder mystery. Best selling author and the June pick
for Reese's Book Club, Ali Condy is here to discuss
her new novel that's creating lots and lots of buzz.
It's Thursday, June twentieth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And I'm Simone Boyce and this is the bright Side
from Hello Sunshine, Simone.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Today, We're joined by best selling author Ali Condy, and
she's known for her wildly popular young adult book series
and recently she released a new murder mystery. The Internet
is a Blaze. It's called The Unwedding and it is
a June Reese's Book Club pick. Everything about this book
and the story behind it is giving Lemonade by Beyonce.
(00:48):
Let me explain. Author Ali had a twentieth wedding anniversary
trip planned, and obviously this is supposed to be romantic
and relaxing and a celebration of her commitment to her
and his commitment to heart. But in a twist of
terrible fate, she and her husband get divorced and she
finds out that he's still going to go on the trip,
(01:08):
but he's going with another woman. So Ali decides she's
going to go on a trip too, and she arrives
at this hotel and immediately finds out that there's a
wedding going on. Can you imagine how gutting that would be?
So brutal? Oh my gosh, this is such a wild backstory.
I can't believe it. But here's the bright side. Okay,
Allie's sitting at the bar by herself, people watching, and
(01:31):
her imagination is taking over, and she thinks, what if
there was a murder here and I was the only
person that could solve it. You know what's funny is
that's not the kind of murder I'd be thinking about
on a trip like that. But I'm glad that she
has an imagination because that moment inspired her to write
and publish what has become her first murder mystery, and
now she's the June pick for Reese's Book Clubs. So
(01:53):
talk about turning your mess into your message.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I mean, I'm so excited to hear all of this
in her own words, because stories like this where someone
took life's bitter lemons and turned it into sweet, sweet lemonade,
they're always so epic, right, Danielle Hm. I mean it's
such a universal experience, right, Like, if you've been on
this earth long enough, it's going to happen to you. Danielle.
Can you think of a time when you turn something
(02:16):
tragic into magic? Anything come to mind?
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Yes? And mine also has to do with a man.
My ex boyfriend years ago broke up with me on
a beach in Cabo, and then subsequently we spent the
next ten days together with both of our families there,
which was brutal, and I had to move out and
I was so broke and I didn't know how I
was going to move into an apartment, And that whole
(02:42):
experience set me on like an amplification of my career.
I started sending out cold emails and started doing digital
media work and moved into and decorated my own apartment.
And previously I had found a pro con list that
he made about me, and one of the cons was
that he felt like I couldn't just like get stuff done.
(03:05):
And that year I got the most done ever. I
did a triathlon, I made the most money I had made,
and I was.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Really sticking it to him getting dumped on a beach
in Cabo with all of your family watching. That sounds
like the beginning of a great novel. To me, I've
always wanted to write a novel about it. But let's
talk to somebody who's actually done it. We are here
with the June.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
RBC pick Ali Condy. She's talking love, marriage and mystery. Ali,
Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Thank you, Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Ali. I was really struck by the real life inspiration
behind this book. I mean, did you have anyone specific
in mind when you were writing this murder mystery? That
is such a great and perfectly loaded question. Yeah, I
mean clearly I did. Like as you mentioned, you know,
we'd been divorced.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
It was clear I wasn't going to be going on
the twentieth anniversary trip with him, and yet still somehow
it hurt. Everything I was reading was saying, get yourself
out there, be comfortable, being on your own, all of that,
and I thought, absolutely so I took myself on a
trip and it was just harder than I expected. I
did miss him. I particularly missed my children. That's the
(04:16):
hardest part of divorces. You're no longer with them all
the time, and as a parent and a mother, that
feels very foreign.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
It feels completely wrong.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
I still haven't gotten over that part, but I realized, oh,
I shoot, everyone else is here with someone else. And
I was used to being alone on book tour. I
thought I could handle it just fine. But I also
didn't have the purpose of book tour. So it was
just me eating food, kind of looking at my phone,
looking around, and yeah, that inspiration for the main character.
That's pretty much the opening scene of the book is
(04:47):
how I was feeling. And then, of course I didn't
solve any murders. None of that happened, but I did
start looking around and paying attention and feeling sorry for myself,
kind of like, oh.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
They're so happy, look at that couple.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And then it deteriorated pretty quickly into well, I don't
think they're going to make it. You know, you start
you start being pretty honest with your assessments of everyone
around you, and you often when you're traveling, you do
have kind of that whole microcosm of human life, like
there are people who are super happy, there are people
who look miserable, different family groupings, different couples, different ages
of couples, all of that, and so as the weekend progressed,
(05:22):
it got more and more fun, the people watching, and
pretty quickly I had the thought, oh, man, if there
were a murder here, I'd be the only one who
could solve it because I'm the only one who's been
noticing everybody else, because I don't have anyone else to
pay attention to.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Well, what did you discover about yourself in the writing process,
because to me, it felt like there was a little
bit of therapy here, even though it is a novel.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Yeah, I mean absolutely there was.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
And you know, I have kids, and I'm really conscious
of how how I talk about the book, so you know,
their dad is a great dad. I'm not trying to
in any way take him down or shame him or
make him look like any thing bad at all.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
But the pain was real. And you know, this book is.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
Coming out now, but I've been remarried for almost a year,
and so the book always comes out a little bit
past the experience if you are writing anything that you're
kind of going through the time. But in that sense, yeah,
I mean it feels like I definitely wouldn't have had
the idea to write this particular murder mystery without that experience.
I wouldn't have had the idea to kind of go
(06:25):
for it. I don't think, because I don't know if
you guys have experienced this. I hope you haven't, but
I think we all have where you lose something really,
really profound and then it almost feels like you have
nothing left to lose. Yes, and so in the past,
where I might I might have been precious about it, like, oh,
it'll be so embarrassing if I write this book and
it doesn't do well, or oh, I should stay in
(06:47):
my lane and write young adult or children's books, which
I love and still plan to write.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Instead, I thought, well, the worst has.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
Already happened, you know, I don't It's fine if I
fail at writing a book.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Harder things than this exist in the world.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Your main character, Ellery has had more than one rough
patch in her life. Why did you want to center
your main character in tragedy like that?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I think she's also centered in a lot of joy.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
But yeah, this is her tragedy era, right, and so,
but it's not her first tragedy era. And unfortunately, and fortunately,
I guess for character growth and for personal growth, we
don't have a quota, right, Like, we don't have a
quota of bad stuff that happens to us. I think
when I was growing up, I felt like, Oh, everyone
probably has one or two really bad things happen, and
(07:34):
that is just not the case at all. I learned
that pretty early on when I was a high school teacher,
Like some kids would come to me and I felt like, Oh,
my word, you're twelve and you've already met what I
feel like should be your quota for life. And then
some that's just not the way life works. And so
I was kind of showing like, she's been through some
hard stuff, but also it might keep coming, and so
(07:55):
how do you deal with that? How do you keep
moving forward even when some hard things have already happened
to you? And the same thing is true wonderfully of joy.
There's also no quota in that. Yeah, And so even
when you're.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Down and out and the darkest thing you can think.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Of has happened, you will be there's that great phrase,
surprised by joy, and you will be. There will be
things that happen that keep happening that are great too.
So I wanted to show that a little bit as well.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
ALI Something that my friend group has been discussing over
the last few years as some people have gotten married,
is keeping their maiden names versus taking their married name.
And I found this particularly interesting because you posted about
the emotional struggle with wanting to put your maiden name
(08:44):
on the book after your divorce, but you were told
no because your identity as an author had already been established.
How did you deal with that?
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That was tricky. I love that you noticed that post.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So when I got married, I mean, I've been dating
the same guy since I was eighteen, and I entered.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
That marriage at the ripe old age of twenty one. Wholeheartedly.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
There's no way I thought that I would not have
this name for the rest of my life. And then
I had a baby at twenty four, so it pretty
quickly also became connected to my children.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
I made that connection. Honestly.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
I made that decision in a sort of pure of
heart way. But yeah, the ramifications were tough because I
asked if we could change it back to my maiden name,
which is Ali Braithwaite, which is a little unwieldy, but
I also liked it. I was that person for a
long time, and I did completely understand the publisher's decision.
We all at the end of the day, we all
(09:38):
want to sell books. We all want to make sure
that the book is successful, and I'm not trying to
sabotage that, but it became a.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Second choosing of that name.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
While I can go by Ali Braithwaite in my private life,
my public life has to be Ali Condy. And so
I kind of made my peace with that thanks to
as many things in my life, friends coming through and
saying so some wonderful things I hadn't thought of myself.
But another author who's been very successful said, you know
that name. I don't think of your husband when I
(10:08):
think of that name. When I think of your name,
I think of you. I don't think of any association
with anyone else. And I realized, oh, there's this whole
professional sphere. They don't know him at all. This is
all me, and that then I suddenly felt like a
really exciting space to step into, like, oh, yeah, I
built this sort of you know, and spouses are supportive,
they're great, But I built this independent of him, and
(10:29):
that wasn't a space he ever really chose to come
into with me, and so that felt freeing.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And then I also realized the.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Connection with my kids, I want that connection and I
think naming is about connection. Sometimes people choose new names
because they don't feel connected to.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
The name their parents gave them, and that's great.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
And at this point I realized, oh, the connection's not
about an ex spouse anymore. It's about my readership and
my children. So that felt good.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
There is a legacy that you're building for your kids.
And I have never met your ex husband, so all
I know is Ali Kandy.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well there I go. Yeah, so that feels great.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You know, there's this sentiment from the book that I love.
The main character Ellery says, everybody has a shadow. So
there's a light and there's a shadow. What does the
shadow mean?
Speaker 4 (11:19):
The shadow is just to me, it's the part that
everyone would just prefer to keep hidden. And that doesn't
even necessarily mean that the shadow is a bad thing,
but it's the part of you that you feel like
it's best to keep this to myself or I don't
totally want other people to see this until I trust them.
And sometimes it is a dark thing too. You know,
I've met people who have some dark secrets, and right
(11:43):
I've met people who don't, but they're very private about
certain parts of their life.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
And so that's kind of what I was thinking of.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Everybody does have a shadow, and for the purposes of
a murder mystery. Is that shadow a dark thing? Or
is that shadow just the part they want to keep hidden?
And what does that mean as she's trying to figure
out who might be a.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Ca I love it. I think we should have more
shadows in the world. I want to see more people's shadows.
I agree, Yeah, like I can think of so many
famous people. I'm like, I want to see what your
shadow looks like.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
We need to take a quick break, but we'll be
right back.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
Stay with us. We're back, So Ali. One of our
special treats that we like to give our Brightside bessies
is a reading from the author herself. So we've selected
(12:38):
a passage that we would love for you to read
to us. Can you go ahead and give us some context?
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah, I'd love to do that. And I love this
passage that you suggested that I read. It's not one
I've been able to read a lot because I can't
get through it without crying. So we'll see how this goes.
But it is one of the few passages in the
book that is taken directly from real life. So in
this passage. She has a son named Ethan, and they
have been on a family vacation prior to the divorce
(13:06):
to Universal Studios and had a really wonderful time and
he ended up getting one of the Harry Potter wands
and that's been kind of his favorite thing since they've
returned from this trip. And then it's now post divorced,
and they go on a little drive. She and her son, Ethan,
they live in Colorado, and there's a lot of beautiful places,
and he has her taken to one of those beautiful
(13:28):
places and something else happens, and so that's the setup
for this scene. So again Ethan is the child and
the main character is the mom. After they'd returned from
the trip, Ethan asked her repeatedly to take him to
a lake up in the mountains that they sometimes visited.
It was a beautiful spot, blue water, perfect green pines,
(13:48):
a sandier beach than you usually found in Colorado, a
long wooden dock stretching out into the water from which
you could launch kayaks or paddleboards. The day she'd finally
gotten around to taking Ethan had been mum. After their
trip to California later in the year, when the air
and water were cool bordering on cold. There hadn't been
many people at the lake. Ethan had climbed out of
(14:10):
the car with a sense of purpose. Wait for me, buddy,
she said, trying to make sure she had her keys
and phone, But he was off, stalking intently out onto
the dock, since he had a pension for jumping into
bodies of water. Fully clothed, she hurried after him, worried
he'd gotten it into his mind to go for a swim.
But Ethan stopped at the end of the dock and
turned to look at her. It was then that she
(14:32):
saw he was holding his wand she hadn't noticed that
he'd brought it in the car. His blue eyes and
the blue tshirt he was wearing in the blue water
behind him all brightened and deepened one another, and she thought,
this is impossibly beautiful. He is impossibly beautiful, mom, Ethan said,
urgency in his tone. Mom.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
To her surprise, he handed her the precious wand mom,
turn me into a fish, Oh, Ethan, she said, her
heart breaking. I can't.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm so sorry. No, Mom, he said, you can. It
built and built the urgency in his voice. Then the
distress the break in her heart until she thought they
would both shatter inWORD or outwards. She didn't know, but
neither of them could bear this much pain, this much want,
this much failure. Mom Eth had kept saying, tears in
his eyes, Mom, please please.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Turn me into a fish. When he finally realized that
she couldn't. Oh, how she hoped he didn't think it
was that she wouldn't. They got back into the car
and drove home. They wound down the forest roads in silence,
both of their faces tears stained. She hadn't seen the
wand since he had never asked to go to the
lake again, she had thought that day that it was
(15:44):
the worst she could possibly fail. Somewhe she'd been so
absolutely wrong.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Thank you for that. Ali. Before you read, you said
that you usually cry when you read that passage. What
special meaning does it hold for you?
Speaker 5 (16:00):
Well?
Speaker 4 (16:01):
I tried not to read it too much because it
was a real experience that happened, and I'm not it's
hard to revisit. Frankly, my son is neuro divergent and
we had that experience post divorce, and like I mentioned earlier,
it's one of the few real experiences I put in
the book, and that was just such a feeling that
(16:22):
day of he desperately wanted this thing, and he truly
thought I could grant it to him. He thought he
had all the elements there, he'd brought the wand we'd
gotten to the place, and then he was asking me
to transform him into something else, take him away from this,
and there was I could not do it, you know,
there was no way for me to do that. And
(16:43):
as a parent, I mean, that's one of the hardest things,
is when you disappoint your child or when they desperately
deeply want something and you cannot give it to them,
even though you would love to be able to do that.
And so that's tricky for me to revisit because that
was a hard and that he really wanted that for me,
and I didn't give it to him, and it became
(17:04):
a little bit of a you know, a stand in
for all of the things he wanted, like an intact
family and different things that I also really wanted that
I also was unable to give him. And so that
that feeling is still kind of with me. Frankly, there's
still some things that I wish I could provide that
I can, and as a parent.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
That's really tough.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It's so hard. What do you say to your kids
in those moments, because it is really hard whenever your
kids want something that you can't deliver.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yeah, I kind of have to I have to acknowledge
that it's a valid want. You're not wrong to want this.
This makes sense that you want this to kind of
teach them to be able to do that for themselves. Like,
it's okay to want things. And often the things that
you want are really good, and you still can't have
them because someone else is making a different choice or
(17:57):
the circumstances don't allow it. And then sometimes you can
acknowledge I want that too, but you don't want to
put yourself in there too much. You know, it's about
their want, not about yours. And then I say, I
can't fix it, but I can sit here with you
in the wanting. We can be here together, and then
what's something else that we can control that we can
(18:19):
maybe do. Sometimes that's the next step, and sometimes the
next step is not that. Sometimes the next step is
just Okay, we're still sad. Nothing's going to fix this,
and we'll just.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Be here in the sadness for a few minutes and
not try to move past it till already.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Ali, have you ever thought about being a parenting coach? No?
I was like, that was amazing. I learned so much
just in that fifteen second SoundBite.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Oh gosh, that's so kind of you, Simone.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
I'm muddling my way through like everyone else, but I
do really care about.
Speaker 3 (18:52):
It, so I hope that counts for something.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Yeah, totally. I think the sitting with is the hardest
thing for adults and children to do, but it's the
best thing that you can do.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Oftentimes we need to take a quick break. But when
we come back, Alie answers your burning questions about the
unwetding and her writing process, and we're back.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
All right, Allie, are we ready to get to some
listener questions?
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yes, yeah, that would be great.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Okay, First up, we have a question about the setting
of the book from Karen.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Hi, Allie, this is Karen from New Jersey.
Speaker 6 (19:33):
I'm a big thriller fan, so I picked the book
copy right away and I'm loving it. It is so
so good I can hardly put it down. I love
that the book was set in Big sur It feels
like you have a big personal connection to this location.
How do you choose the settings for your stories and
how much research goes into that detail.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Oh, thank you, Karen. I'm so glad you're liking the book.
And you're right, Big Sir is a special place for me.
It's a place that I first discovered with friends, and
so it's been a place I could return to without
sort of any residual memories or sadness other than having
been there with friends, which feels really great. And I
chose that setting because this is a locked room mystery
(20:17):
or a locked resort mystery.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
There's been a mud.
Speaker 4 (20:20):
Slide and the characters can't get out, and so the
main character is kind of called upon to solve this
murder mystery, and the absence of any real authority figures
and biggsur has that happened all the time where there's
mud slides, people do get helicoptered out of their luxury resorts,
and so it didn't feel like stretching things too much
to have that happen choosing that setting. I also love
(20:40):
settings where the natural world sort of bumps up against
man's desire for a high thread count, right like where
we've got this edge of the world's setting, but also
people trying to have luxury.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
At the end of the world.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I think it's just a very interesting place that we're in,
us human beings, where where we're trying to.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Push that limit a little bit.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
And one of the other reasons is it's so beautiful
and it's so dangerous, and that felt like a great
place to have a murder.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Okay, I really like this. Next question, we're getting into
a little more detail on Ali's pivots.
Speaker 7 (21:16):
Hey, Ali, I'm Alicia from North Carolina and I consider
myself a super reader. I average about one hundred and
seventy five to two hundred books per year. I'm a professor,
so I use the young adult books to help me
stay connected and engage with the students that I teach.
Of course, I loved your Match series and I was
(21:37):
very excited when I saw that you now have written
a adult a fiction and mystery book. And I fell
in love with the unwedding. You did such a great.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Job with Ellery.
Speaker 7 (21:49):
I was able to connect with her as a woman
in a middle age and things don't go as you plan.
So this leads to my question, was it struggle for
you to switch to the adult fiction and which genre
is harder for you to write. I'll look forward to
your response.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
Thank you, Alicia, that's a very fun question, and thank
you for the kind words about matched. It wasn't a struggle,
and it totally was. So it wasn't a struggle in that,
as I alluded to earlier, I come to the book
from the character standpoint, so that didn't feel different. It
felt like, oh, here I am again with a character
that I want to get to know better and that
I want to explore a plot with. So that felt
(22:32):
very similar and not scary. But then it did feel different.
It felt different because I was talking about different things.
You know, kids go through hard stuff and they have
the full realm of human experience pretty early, love and
jealousy and hard things happening and all the big feelings.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
But when we've lived longer.
Speaker 4 (22:50):
We've had maybe more of a variety of those, and
so I could talk about divorce and disappointment and long
marriages and.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
Just a different sort of toolbox.
Speaker 4 (22:59):
But then that felt a little scary to try to
do right by all of that. And then, of course
I was totally intimidated to write a murder mystery because
I'm such a big fan of the genre. I've been
reading them since I was a child, and I thought.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Oh, this is hard to do.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Well, I really want to take this seriously and make
sure that we care about the characters and their motivations
and so the mystery makes sense. And so that was
something I took very much to heart and was new
for me.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, all right, We've got one final question from Josie.
She wants an inside scoop on your writing approach. Hi, Allie,
I'm Josie.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
I started reading your matched books and he got me
to learn about the YA genre, and now I'm trying
to become a writer. And I noticed that with your writing,
I become immersed into the world and I just feel
like I'm a part of the world. How do you
write those type of scenes? Like what is your technique?
How do you get it to become that detailed and
(23:59):
that easy need to read?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Joseie, that's a great question, and I'm so excited that
you're going to be a writer. I can't wait to
read what you've written. I think with writing descriptions sometimes
it comes to me pretty immediately. And maybe you've had
this experience too, where you sit down and it just
it flows. It feels lush, and it feels easy to describe,
and it feels like it's just flowing. And those are magical,
(24:25):
magical writing moments, and I definitely have those, and sometimes
those are pretty pretty automatic, and then other times it
is just like pulling teeth. And so what I've learned
to do is I scaffold for later. And what I'll
do is I'll think I'm trying to write this scene.
I can picture it in my mind, but it's not
coming out on paper, and I'll just put the bare
structure of it there. She's in a forest. There's a smell,
(24:50):
this is happening. The trees are here. Just all the
little details that I can, even if they're not coming
to life, like there's juniper berries on the ground, the
sky is pink, it is seventy five degrees.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
And so I'll just try to put.
Speaker 4 (25:03):
In every little bit of framework that I can, and
then sometime later, often it happens after I've gone on
a hike or a run, or I've been outside for
even five minutes, I'll go back and flesh out that framework.
I'll feel like, ooh, I have a little peeing of inspiration.
I can go back and write that setting now, So
that would be my most concrete advice, But it sounds
(25:23):
like you're doing pretty great already. You're already thinking about
the right things.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I'm always so impressed by the questions that we get
from our bright Side.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Oh my gosh, yeah, those were great.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Also, can we talk about the super reader, Alicia? One
hundred and seventy five to two hundred books a year. Incredible,
so impressive. That is amazing, incredible, Alie, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
Oh, thank you both for having me. It's been such
a delight.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
I've been listening to the podcast, and like so many
of your listeners, I already felt like you were my friends.
You guys are wonderful and I love the community.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
That's an honor for us to hear that. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
You were a bestie before, but you're an official bestie now, Ali,
thank you for that.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
Thanks so much to our bright Side besties Karen, Josie
and Alicia for sending in their questions. Ali Condy is
the author of The Unweedding, which is Reese's Book Club's
June selection. So go pick up a copy. It's available
now wherever you get your books.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
We're talking with the summerya pick from Reese's book Club. Next.
Author Alexin Ferrell Falmuth will be with us later this month,
so send your questions to Hello at the brightside dot com.
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Simone Boye.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
You can find me at Simone Voice on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's ro Ba.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
Y see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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