April 29, 2026 • 49 mins
Poignant letters and recipes from a beloved maternal grandmother, now passed, prompt a granddaughter to reconnect with her estranged sister and embark on a revealing journey that forces her to reconcile sweet childhood memories with her soured adulthood, changing the course of her life. Author Monica Comas discusses her debut novel, "Recipe for Joy" and her writing process.
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Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous. You I am Melanie.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I'm your host and fearless leader of making sure that
you live life on your terms. Thank you for joining
me today on YouTube W four WN Radio, which you
can hear all my shows anytime on demand after this
live production on more than sixty five podcast channels, and
I beg you to follow me please at Melanie Fabulous
(01:07):
to check out my step stack by the same name.
I like to share my experiences with you and my
impressions to help you live and inspire life at every
age of stage, particularly when you're living it longer now
and you're making thinking about your next chapter I a
queen of next Chapters, of endless Chapters, and we're going
(01:28):
to be talking speaking of chapters with an author today
who has published her debut book. I just think that's
so exciting debut book. I remember when my first book
came out, Getting Things up my Chest. I was like
over the moon. I've had to check something off my
bucket list and it felt so great. But it's also
so hard.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
To promote a book. So when a book comes across
my desk and I read it, it resonates. I always
like to have the author on. When I did a
show on my Love of Books, I mentioned a recipe
for Joy, which is a book where going to be
talking about with the author and I've invited her back.
Her name is Monica Comas. She lives in New York.
(02:08):
We were talking briefly about New York and do I
miss it?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yes, I do. I miss the energy of New York,
but I love living in New Orleans and it's giving
me more.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Time to write.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
So Monica is going to share her story about why
she decided to write the book, which really is about
relationships first and how recipes bond the family together. That
resonated with me. A lot, because I'll share a little
bit about it when I discussed with Monica how recipes
(02:40):
bonded my grandmother, my mother and I and even now
after they're gone. So let's welcome Monica Comas to Fearless
Fabulous You.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Hi, Milanie, thanks for having me. Well, hello, and I
see the book in the fact. That's great. We'll put
it up in a little quarter or two. Congratulates A
lot of authors don't know to do that. Congratulations on
writing your first novel. Give us a little background about
who is Monica, Where are you from, what were your
early interests, and why you ended up studying to take
(03:11):
a hand at writing.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Sure, I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio, so I'm a Midwest
lady living in New York. I started out in journalism.
I was a journalist for a decade, and then I
did financial editing and ghost writing. I did that for
(03:33):
a little bit, but my true love was always fiction.
I had been writing fiction since I was in high school,
and I really wanted to get back to that. So
I was actually working at the City Group and I
would get up really up early in the morning and
work on my fiction and then go and write financial
stuff and then come home and work on some more fiction,
and eventually got to the point that I started freelancing
(03:54):
a little bit, and I pulled back from the freelancing,
and gradually the fiction writing took over all of a
rn and I was very lucky to kind of get
back to where I always wanted to go. And so
here we are after It's a long journey that I'm
skipping over, but eventually I'm here with a book now,
(04:14):
and I'm I'm curious because I talked to a lot
of writers and they always get up really early in
the morning.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I get them morning to work out. I find to
write fiction book. I actually when I.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Sleep, my mind is.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Leaving stories, and yeah, I have to keep a notebook
by my bets.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
My question, I was going to ask, if you do
that good?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Yeah, of course I've been doing that for years. I'm
a big journaler. But I have like three threads going
right now, and I think the biggest issue is make
giving the time. So I'm impressed that you did it
early in the morning and in the evening, because I
think the biggest challenge for a lot of writers is, well,
there's two coming up with the concepts and staying with
it developing the characters and the plot.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Line and the others find of the tie.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Did you ever go to a writing camp or have
a writing mentor or anything like that?
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Sure, I did, and I agree with you, like the
time is a big consideration, I think, especially these days
when everybody is juggling so much. You're juggling your job,
you're juggling your family. You may be caretaking as well,
older parents. There's a lot going on in the world today.
I don't have an MFA, but what I did was
(05:27):
I went to a lot of writing workshops. I did
a lot of conferences. I did, I had writing partners,
and you just start to learn the craft. You know
a lot of In a lot of senses, you're teaching
it to yourself, but you're learning. You're learning from mentors,
you're learning from people who you're taking workshops with, and
(05:48):
you're reading.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You're reading good authors.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
And it's amazing what you can learn from just reading
quality writing. And eventually it all soaks in and you know,
you start to have your own style with it, but
at least you have some bones to it.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So two questions, are there any workshops you would recommend?
And are there authors that you really like to lead
and follow? Or who are the authors? Oh, that's an
author list, that's a long list. Let me start with
the workshops first.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I did the Community of Writers workshop out in Tahoe
that I really liked. And another one that I really
liked is actually through Sarah Lawrence and that is a
university here in New York, but they have this writing
(06:40):
institute and I think it might go by they just
change the name. But the authors that are running this
are amazing. And I took a full novel manuscript workshop
and this is really rare. The author who ran it,
her name is Marsha Bradley. She's the author of The
Home for Wayward Girls, which is an amazing novel.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And it's just it's small and intimate. It's six authors.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
You each read, everybody reads the other's manuscript, and then
you workshop them. So it's very one on one. It's
very intense, it's very collaborative and supportive. I really like
what they're doing at Sarah Lawrence, So I would recommend
anyone to check them out.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
That's a really good tip because I am on a
lot of writers scripts and I get sent you know,
lots of amazing retreats. I think I would be too
distracted on a retreat if I'm in toughly.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
I know, you know, I need to.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Go to like Yado. You know, when I moved to
the Hudson Valley, so we bought I bought a house
of the HUDs of Valley. It's a big vision.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I was going to be a hibernate and be an author,
and I did. I wrote two books and hybridnates author.
But I developed such major fomo uh not.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Being New York with all my friends and some isolated
and that's cool, It's okay cool.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
And during the pandemic. I live in New Orleans, which
is a foster's writing. I mean, everything is just like
creative here. So I'm I'm thinking about uh, when I
saw I travel a lot because I travel a lot
for my wine world work.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Because I have like two.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
We don't have a lot of travel in July and August,
and I'm thinking about settling in and just that's what
I'm going to do.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But I am looking.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I just wanted to have a writing mentor or coach
to help. I think I have.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
A name for you, honestly, because good this woman, I
just yeah, who she does the full manuscript workshop. She
also takes private clients. And I'll have you know I
took this workshop before I got my book published, so.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, I think that's great. You know this podcast. Doing
two podcasts is very distracting, but it's great because then
I meet people like you and and it gets me reading.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I'm a big supporter of the public library. Everybody get
a library card. I mean that was one of the
first things we did when we got to New Orleans.
I always have like read books that I'm reading at
all times. I read yours as we with Joy, which
you sent me. I've got one from the library called
They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson. She was caregiving
her mother, which I did. And I'm hoping to get
(09:14):
how she's Canadian and I have another liver here. I'm
looking at service Ready that was sent to me by
Molly I Ronnie, who's the restaurant tour in Ashville. So
I've read all the time, and fortunately I was that
little girl at age five with her notes in a book.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Were you that little girl at h five with your
notes in a book? Yeah? And I love that you
mentioned the libraries. I think they're so important.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I did my launch event at a library because I
grew up in libraries. That's what we did with my mom,
my sister, and I. We would go to the library
and it was the best time. You know, you're sitting
in those tiny little chairs in the kids section and
you walk out with a stack of books, and then
you go home and those memories like that, that initial
entree into words and story, you carry.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That with you. And I think that that's how we
all got into books. Starts with a library.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Yeah, And I wanted every parent out there take their
child to get a library card early and take them
through the library.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I grew up in libraries as well.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
My mother would leave me at the library while she
taught a class because she was teaching at the university.
And my biggest problem is I check out too many books.
I still have the problem check out too many books.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Like no, I can't read them all.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
But libraries are more than just books. You can go
read magazines for free, save your money on subscription. There
are puzzles at my library, there are craft Every library
offers different things, you know, it's like find the notary public.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
There's a sewing class at my local library. So it
is an amazing place to gather and learn and also
find quiet.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
I've urged my husband to go sit in the library
and read magazine, you know, to get so it's great and.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It's also a place for community.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
You know, anyone who's going to a library, you're going
there because you care about something. You care about books,
you care about the knitting class they're folding or bettering yourself.
You're taking a class on the computer doing it. So
I feel like it's there's just good people who go
to a library and you know, jump in the jump
in the pond with them.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I say absolutely. Now here's another question. Do you have
in your home or apartment you're a reading room or
a writing room that you're that's dedicated.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Not in maybe a stupid question, my dream Hudson Valley
and a and a little dusk.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
No.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
It's funny because one time we had a house someplace
else and it was so small, but there was a
closet and I was like, I can fit a desk
in the closet and I'll write in the closet, and
I literally wrote in the closet.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
We don't have that anymore.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
So now we have this apartment in the city and
The one good thing about having been a journalist is
you can write anywhere, any place, anytime. It doesn't matter
what's going on. And so I'm like, I was trained
to write in an apartment with no special space. It's
just it's a molible face. Wherever there's the least amount
(12:07):
of noise, that's where I go.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I prop my computer up.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Sometimes I just put it on the humidifier and I
sit on the ground. There is nothing precious about my process.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We're lucky in New Orleans because we do have a house.
We get more here and we have one room that
is dedicated to no TV. Music and it's my reading
room and writing, and I can write up there.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I also am in my studio and office, which I
do writy, but we go out there to get away
from each other and the quiet and TV.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And it's a sacred space. You're living my books and drinking.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Yeah, but that's so nice that you've carved that out
for yourself because you recognize that you need that because life.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Can be very loud. Life can pull you in all
the directions, and you need that place.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Where you can be quiet and you can be centered
and you can can act with art, creativity, words like
I find that's so special.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
We had that in the huts of Belly, and then
suddenly work took over everything, and I felt like I
was living in a liquor store.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
So mean, even the sauna became a wine cellar. I'm like,
there's a sacred space anymore.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I mean, I think everybody needs to carve out a
sacred space, even if it's a.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Closet or a bathroom or something. Turn it into your
sacred space and leave the electronics out and the noise
and make it your place and try to. I also,
I try to.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
I have a practice where I write, like my three
page I had Julia Cameron on the show many years
morning Pages Writers Amazing, and she says, write three pages
a day I write in my journal, and that I
try to read at least one chapter of my library
book a day.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
How how do you carve out the time? Well, it's
interesting post publication, I've I'm I'm.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Actually asking the question of myself because it used to
be get up right, you know, walk the dog, feed
the dog, start to do things around the house, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So my morning was really my worktime.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
And now that I'm still promoting recipe for joy and
trying to get the word out. Still I'm doing that,
but I'm also working on something new, so I'm still
trying to write first thing in the morning, and I
do start with morning pages. I love that you mentioned
the morning pages that actually it's so I don't know
(14:32):
what magic happens with them, but it really just you
get to dump everything and then you can write, She's genius,
and then I'll write. And there's a lot of social
media that comes with being an author, and I didn't
realize I think how much time that takes off, and
(14:54):
so I like to save that for the afternoon. But
the morning is when, like I write best.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
So yeah, the heart I say, the hardest thing about
writing a book is promoting it. It is. It's so
it's just no time consuming, the social media part of
it in particular.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Yeah, but it's also so I don't think a lot
of writers are hardwired to be promoters too. So for
all of us who are like, what are we doing?
We have to we have to talk about the book now.
But I just wrote the book.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So it's fortunately I was hard wored having coming from
a public relations Backneah, you knew the media tour, I
did the.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Best r drop on the first book. Anything's off my
just the second one. I'm like, Oh, I spent all
my money on the first book. I didn't hire any body,
did it myself.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Second book, I started a shot by the same name,
so Fearless Fabulous hues the name of my second book.
So I created a show and became my platform for
what the book stands for. So it's right, So let's
talk about recipe for doing Now. I'm going to start
this with I alluded to it. So actually, neither my
(16:01):
grandmother I'm maternal grandmother kind of cook, but she had
a lady cook for her. In the South, you have
someone and the.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Lady of the house supervisors. And my mother hated to cook, however,
she loved to bake. That said, recipes were very important
for both of them because they love to read recipes.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
And like to eat, and they liked to try to
dabble in the kitchen, two important things.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
When I decided to get married later in life, my
mother gave me one day all the recipes I grew
up eating that my grandmother would cook. And Bertie Bertie
was her name, Bertie Cook and mother and I have
them in a binder. I think she gave it to
me before I got married. I don't care about getting married.
She just gave it to me. She wanted me to
(16:47):
have it.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And I have those recipes and they're really special because
they were the ones I do remember. My mother and
I cook me together, mainly baking. And then when I
was cleaning out my mother's massively cluttered house, I found
two binders filled with recipes, handwritten recipes in my grandmother's handwriting,
(17:11):
and her Magong Girls and Canasta Girls. And these are
straight out of the sixties and seventies, which is when
they lived, and they use all sorts of fun things
of can seven Marjorie, and then they clipped recipes from
like Family Circle McCall's magazine. So I have those binders.
And when we were caring for my mother in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
(17:36):
where I had to go live kind of like Belda
going to see what we were talking about, I started cooking.
I found the binder. I started cooking the recipes and
adapting them for now you know, and that is going
end up being kind of the basis of one of
the books.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But it was that, you know, I urge everybody out there,
even if you don't cook.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
The great thing about family recipes, as we're going to
talk about the Recipe Joy, is they live on long
after the person you love is gone. Yes, and not
a lot of things to do. Photos, faith, photos, Yes, recipes,
though you can pass along and keep eating. And when
you did, I did a on my step seck. I
(18:18):
did something about v She Swap because my dad and
I loved V she squad together and he had recovery
finicky about Swah and I had a riff on be
Suah here in New Orleans that had nothing to do
with potatoes or weeks, but it was so good it took.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Me back to be She Swap and wanted to make
it and digging out that be she swa recipe that
mother made dad.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
So that brings me to the book you have written,
which is called Recipe for Joy, which is an interesting
title given the process of the book. So why don't
you hand this everybody to give us the plotline of
the book and how you decided to give it the
name Recipe for Joy? Sure? Sure. First of all, I
have to say that story is just thank you for
(19:02):
sharing that. What a gift.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
I'm so excited for you and the binders of recipes,
and please promise that you will follow that through and
make it the story that you want, because I mean
I will be first in line to buy that. I
love it and what a gift, so recipe for joy.
I always say that it's about about the cherished family
(19:26):
recipes a series of mysterious letters sent by a secret
of hand and two sisters who need directions back to
one another. And the story is it's funny, echoes a
lot of just what you said. It's about a character
named Belle and she it just doesn't have it together
(19:49):
in her life, and she high tails it home to
her grandmother, the house that she grew up in. Her
grandmother raised her, her and her sister, and and she
kind of comes with her tail between her legs and
asks if she can stay, and her grandmother's like, of course,
And in the course of the time, her grandmother helps,
you know, give herhood confidence and build her back up
(20:11):
a bit, and she starts stepping into her life a
little bit, and the grandmother passes away.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Now her and her.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Sister are estranged, and they've been estranged for years, and
each of them received in the mail months later a
cookbook and with the directions from a letter from their
grandmother saying I want you to read this together, and
a series of letters come. They're supposed to make recipes
(20:38):
and they go through a journey together, but it is
it is not a smooth recipe. Let's just say, there's
a lot of bumps and what they have to do
is square their shoulders to one another to why they
are estranged, to misunderstandings, to misperceptions, and in a way,
(20:58):
these recipes remind them of who they used to be
and show them the path to who.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
They can be again. Well, that's a good about the book. Yeah,
And because Belle and her sister both live in New York,
but they're completely different, and.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
The sister has an armor around her. It's pretty intense.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, she does.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
She's she's you know, she is successful, she's married, she
has kids, she is very wealthy.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
She is all the.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Things that Bell is not. And so there's a friction
there because of that. But the friction, you know, started
a little bit earlier too. And it's interesting the title.
You mentioned that because because the book is a journey,
and it's actually a journey through brief and I'll share
with you is this original title was actually called Brief Cookie,
(21:54):
but the the imprint I think wisely said let's let's
think about a different title for this, and I think
they were right because at the core of this is
getting back to a joyous place. And so that's how
we ended up changing the title to Recipue for Door.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Well, Bill needed to finalize joy I mean she she
leaves New York with a lot of guilt because New
York is very and we were talking about this before
the show. New York is very intense. Yes, you moved
to New York.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
To be successful, to discover yourself, to make it. I
mean that damn song. It puts a lot of pressure
on you to.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Make it and you know, God I did. But it's
but there's a lot of bumps live like in New York.
It's not you know, unless you.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Marry someone who has lots of money and not to
think about it anymore, which you know, the sister seemed
to have done.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
She was very successful and married will. But that comes
with its own pressures, as we see in the book.
So the pressure cooker that is New York got to
both of the sisters in different ways. Yeah. Yeah, but
in you're seeing what is an underlying theme in the book,
you know, the grandmother, and let's just talk about how
(23:10):
a grandmother's love is an unconditional love. I was not
sure how the mother doed. I it was suer. What
happened to the mother? No, it was cancer, cancer, Okay,
I knew it was something. Okay, there's another books at
the fact, I just read other books to the fact
it's way for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, there was
(23:30):
another book I just read, you know, but there seems
to be a lot of missing a lot of the
authors interview, there's missing mothers theme lightly.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
So the love of the grandmother is incredible and I
identify with that because my mother was unique and one
of the first career mothers. Every day and was too
busy to go from school take me to school.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I was I was the original la Key child at
the time, but my grandmother became my mother. You know.
I was staying with her all the time when my
parents traveled. She would go to all the school places.
She would like school.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
So I developed a very close relationship with her. And
that's where I got to sit and watch her with
her friends playing canass in Majah and.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Eat the food that I've talked about the Finder.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
The grief that I felt when my grandmother dropped dead
of cardiac arrest.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Was as deep as the grief that Bell feels when
her mother. When her grandmother passed shatters you.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
It shows you're shattered, and there's layers. And I felt
a different kind of agree with my mother when she died.
But losing someone that close to you, who has shaped
your life and given you the love that you need
to both through your self worth and your own identity,
(25:06):
is shattering. And Bell really goes through incredible layers of grief.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
What brings her back, What brings her back? That's interesting.
So I think there's a few things. I think she
has a lot of love around her, and I think
she's very fortunate in this regard. She has the grandmother's friends,
she has her own friends, and she has people that
(25:35):
are trying to bring her back to the land of
the living, essentially, because when you are so shattered by grief,
you really aren't a part of the world. The world
is rushing by you, especially when you've been caregiving, because
you're already in the land of the When you're caregiving,
you are in the land of the guy.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah, before that person is gone. Yeah, very true. And
it's everywhere. It goes through everywhere, even before the person's gone.
And it's very disorient Yes, yes, it's the perfect word
for it. It's disorienting.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
It feels surreal that the rest of the world is
moving along when your world had the bottom of your
world has fallen out.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
So I think there's the people around her, and what
I wanted to do with that is the grandmother.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I was very close to my grandmother as well, but
the grandmother in this book is actually an amalgam of
my grandmother and my mother because it's the grief of
my mother that is I poured.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Into this book. So I think what I found is
that there were women around me.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
Who had walked that road before and understood to like
link arms with me and gently walk me forward, because
if you have never school completely before, you really don't
understand it. Because it's not something we're kind of in
touch with. In the sculpture, we don't do that, you know.
I think in other cultures they might be a little
(27:11):
more attuned to it. So I wanted to show that
she had a lot of love around her that was
helping her walk. But the recipes as well, helped bring
her back because what they do is they spark the
memories of the foods and the aromas and the moments
that she had from all walks of her childhood and
(27:32):
her adolescence in her life with the grandmother and her sister,
and there was a way to show that, like your
sister's still here because you know so it was.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
They all played a part. And I think bringing bell back, well,
you know, the recipes are bonding. You know, you were
abandoned in a way, you lost a mother. She Bellus
is a mother, a grandmother. The sisters is strange. And
what's interesting is the grandmother and her sister. You're right,
(28:03):
great aunts were also estranged. So it was interesting parallel
that the grandmother and her sister and Belle and her sister,
they both were strength, right, And I wanted to show
how easy it is for.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
A chasm to form in a relationship and how that
can just keep perpetuating itself through the generations unless you
actually confront.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
It and do something about it. A lot of families
go through that exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
I mean, my family was notorious for not speaking to
each other forever, and I mean crazy.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I have a great aunt. One of the sons ever
spoke to her. We still don't know what.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
I think I know, but we'll never know. But she's dead,
and you know it happens. It's a thing that definitely happens. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And you know you the voices from the grave are
not there.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I I when I was when I was cleaning out
my mother's house, the voices from the grave were coming
on around me. Because I was discovering things about my family.
In every look and cranny of a house of clutter,
I would find something. I mean, the recipe book was one.
(29:18):
One was interesting.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I found the immigration papers for my paternal great grandfather,
who I didn't think existed. I was told my.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Paternal grandfather was an orphan. I didn't know his parents.
And in a lock box in the garage, under a
pile of degree of tools, we found immigration people. Wow,
I'm like treasure, they will how did he become orphan?
And I took them to a cousin because I had
(29:50):
to give a lot of us away.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I had to divest of many things, and I thought
what family member would most want this? And I gave
it to cousin on my paternal side, and he told
me the story that yes, they probably came over and
they were too poor to take care of their children
and gave them up to orphanages. This is just common
with immigrants did kind of like what they do now
(30:12):
with their pets, and they didn't really know. They blocked
it out because they were so young, they thought they
didn't have parents. I just couldn't believe them. Wow, yeah
you have. I think from this house clean out you
did you have multiple Oh, I discovered so many weird things. Wow,
(30:34):
it's yeah, very strange.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Things publicated, you know, and there's layers and things that
you don't realize it's going on until decades later.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
It's a fascinating, fascinating thing. Yeah, it really is. And
you know, when you finished the book, how did that
make you feel to finish it and say I've done?
When did you know? When did you know the story
was done? Because that's another thing with fiction. When is
it time to wrap that up? And what made you
(31:06):
say the story is? Yeah, you know, it's It's it's
a hard thing to.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Declare it because I think the writer in you always
wants to do something a little bit different. But you
do go to a point where it's time to take
it to an agent. Where it's time for an agent
to take it out to market, you you just have
to declare it before you wrote the book, or did
you write the book and then shop better around to
(31:35):
an agent. I wrote the book, I had to get
a new agent because my old agent such a lovely person,
but she decided to focus on nonfiction.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
So I knew that I was going to have to
get a new agent with this book. And so.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
When I was done, I started querying, just like everyone does,
and that's how I got my current agent, who is wonderful,
and then he took it out to market. And I
think when you feel emotionally satisfied that you have a
full arc of a story that you poured all the
(32:12):
emotion that you.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Can into the pages and into the characters, and you've.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Looked at it so much as you literally can't look
at it anymore, you know it's done, but it's never
done then, because then when you go through the publishing process,
you will have a developmental edit, you will have a
copy edit, you will have proof readings, so it's and
which is good, which is wonderful because your story just
gets that much better, It gets refined and I was
(32:39):
lucky enough to work with just phenomenal professionals.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
So, yeah, who is the Blake Union Publishing? Yeah? So
what was the process? I mean, getting the publisher? Getting
the right publisher is important.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yes, I think it is important someone to say, I'm
trying to figure out how to disengage from my publture
right now. What was the length of time from when
you wrote your first draft to going through the different
renditions revision? How long did I say, from the time
(33:17):
I wrote the first draft when you had the manuscript
ready to shop around?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Oh, to get an Yeah, I think I queried for
a few months.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
You know, the query process is long and it takes
a long time. Excuse me, but what I loved about
my current agent is that.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I queried him. He said, send me the manuscript, and
a week later he wanted to call. And I think
that's what you want.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
You want an advocate who immediately loves your work, who
knows how to place it, who believes in it. And
I went with him other agents at the full manuscript
and we're considering it. And I just knew I was
that if someone believes so clearly and so quickly in
(34:11):
something that I've written, that's Stagian for me, so I
would say that whole So that whole process took a
few months, and then.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
It was really really fast.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
The book sold in two months, which wow, is really
fast that. I don't think things are moving that fast anymore.
It's publishing is a very slow moving animal.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Yeah, very moving. I mean that's amazing, you know, and
pretty good. That is like really amazing. So if you're
writing a book, just know that that's super amazing. And
it can take a lot longer, but you know it's again, yeah,
it can take a lot longer, but it doesn't mean
it's not going to happen, and you know it's no, no,
(34:55):
don't give up.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I mean it took me a while because when I
was shopping around getting things off my chest. Survivor's Guide
to Saying Fearless and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer,
nobody saw me as breast cancer girl. They saw me
as I took a lot of eating because they wanted
to write a cookbook because I was food girl.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Right, But I don't even cook. I know how to promote.
I go to restaurants, I know how to eat. I
can't talk about food, but I don't actually don't even cook.
I kept shooes in my oven. I didn't keep anything
in my husband. I still cook. I don't cook. They
would make me pay you to night. I'm nervous because
I'm doing it because somebody sent me to pay your
pen to try off. But I had to explained that
I had. I said, but I had breast cancer and
(35:32):
I'm going to write the definitive book to help women
navigate a journey they didn't plan to take. And I'm
a passionate traveler. It took a while to you know,
I said, I held on my guns, you know, until
I got a publisher.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
It was that the best publisher. No, was a publisher
who believed in me. But what was a challenge, and
even more so now, is they want to know your numbers.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
What's your TikTok numbers? What's your Instagram? Know? I want
to like screen because suddenly you have to become a
social media personality, even write a book, which I can't
stand because I personally I do the social media out
of necessity. But does it bring me joy?
Speaker 5 (36:08):
No, I understand that, and I think I think generationally.
I mean, I have nieces and nephews, and that's just
second nature to them. That's they grew up with it.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
This is what they do.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
I'm fifty five, Like, this isn't This isn't something I
grew up with. You know, this is a new beast
that I have to learn to But you got Yeah,
but you have to do.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
It as part of it. Like that's how the publishing
world has changed, and you have to change with it.
That's exact composed.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Yeah, and you know, I'm like you. I dedicate I
try not to go down the rabbit hole. So because
you can, you can't think they call it death scrolling.
I try to allocate my posts and you know, I'm
not as strategic as oh, bap them out for the weed.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I don't do that, but I could, but I don't.
I could, And you should forget someone to help you.
So do you have are you.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Doing other work? Such just being a full time not
just being a full time writer. Is being full time
writer your full time job?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Now?
Speaker 5 (37:12):
It is?
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Now? What are you that you can do that? Well,
I'm lucky. I'm just I'm lucky. Yeah, you are, you are.
But that's a good thing because freelance writing sucks right now.
The pay rate sucks and I've kind of pulled back
on freelance writing because you know, I was looking at
what's taking me away from the book I want to write,
(37:35):
and it was a lot of little So you know,
a message, My message, my message to writers who want
to write a book.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Which is different from writing freelance articles and whatnot, is
make that the book your job, your priority, and set
aside that time and the day and don't let anything
distract you.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
And that is hard, but if you want to get
it done, you've got to do it now. How would
you add to that?
Speaker 5 (38:02):
I think, I think I've been thinking about this a
lot lately, and it's being protective of your time.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
And I remember I was at a workshop with some women.
It was one woman she was so prolific, and she said,
I read a half hour a day. That's all the time.
I have half hour a day. That's all I do.
By the end of the year, I have a book.
And it really put things into perspective.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
It was like, you don't need a ton of time,
but you do need to dedicate a time and be
loyal to.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
That and not be pulled in every direction.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
And it's hard, I think when you're doing it at
home if you have a lovely place that you can
go and like be away from the dishwasher and the
dog and the this and the that and all the
things that are always you know, weighing down on things
you have to get done just to live all the better.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Everybody. I think.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
You can find a minute or a little bit of
time if it's in the morning, if it's in the
evening when everybody goes to bed, and you just have.
Speaker 6 (39:12):
A half hour, but it's your half hour, but you
do have to you do really have to care take
that half hour. And what I have started doing.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
I used to talk to people when they would call
in the morning. Oh they have time now, so I'll
talk to them. But that was my writing time.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
And so now what I've started to do it if
I don't take calls in the learning, just do my writing.
I can call everybody back later.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
And it's these little things that will open some space
up hopefully for people.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
I mean. Also, if you have some financial security, if
you're so imma to make ends with the baby, you know,
it's like it could be hard to carrying a job
if you have a full time job.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
When you're working at a job, because you've got to
supplement your writings. You're not making the money at writing.
So for those following this, the ideal goal is to
become a full time writer.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
But if you still need to pay bills and the
writing is not doing it, you've got to be realistic.
You've got to come up with a way to bring
in income and balance it with your writing time. I
had to do that. It's not easy. It's not easy.
I agree, and I I don't write, and I don't
mean to make it seem like it is.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
You have to pay your bills, like yeah, I was
a financial journalist, Like, there's no getting around it, but
bills and your income has.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
To be first. It has to be first.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
But hopefully you get to a place where we find
so a little bit of time and then the shift
can happen. It's a little less freelancing, and it's a
little more right hearing a different kind of writing. It
don't happen overnight, it doesn't. It's it's like it's like
it's a discipline, much like.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Working out, and so decide that time every day to
get that stretch or that cardio or that thing you
need to do to take care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Writing is the same way. Most creatives that I know
car about that time and they don't make it a
lot of time. Like I have a cousin. He's a
famous artist, Hunt sloanem and he paints funny every day.
He makes a lot of He's a prolific and bunnies.
(41:23):
I think bunny of.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Julia Cameron talks about the three pages I tried to
read a chapter of a book I tried to journal.
I set aside certain times. My goal now is to
set aside the creative writing time every day. I also
have a subsack because I'm building that, and that is
another form of creativele. What I've done is on my subsack.
(41:47):
The paid end of it is where I'm weaving out
the novel show.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
So I'm using the subseac paid. I didn't even care
what people play. I just do it that way. So
it's my little section writing chapters and doing it that way.
Because as I said, I have like three books in
my head. They're very different. They're really terrific book and
waving them out, but you got to start with one,
(42:14):
and that's you know key, So what is next for you? Now?
Obviously you've got the book and and one. If we
have a phone, do we have a photo of it
we can put up on the screen in the little
bitty corner? Did you get that? Once? My engineer there
he is. So what's next?
Speaker 4 (42:31):
The book came out in April twenty sixth, so March
point and so what's next? Are you gonna write another book?
Are you going to sit for a while just focus
on this or.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
No, there's no sitting because we all know we're not sitting.
My next book, it's it's a it's a little it's
a lighter story.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
It's a story about a funny, vivacious family and they
are all at a.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Tipping point in each of their lives.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Is there adult children and they're all going home for
one week, as they always do, to their mother's house
in the Hampton's.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
For her annual art show. But this year there's some
stormy weather brewing.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
There's the confluence of the art show, a memorial for
their father who passed away almost two decades ago, and
everybody's lives are teetering on the brink and a secret
is revealed that pushes everybody over.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
And what I love about the story is it gets
to the heart of.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
What it means to be a family, and it's how
you get through and do you get through the way
that you think you would. But this is a this
is a light, funny summer story, but there's real emotional
meat on.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Its bones too, So I'm excited about it. It sounds
like a great book. Yeah, those families, you know.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
I think it's always good to start with what you know,
whether it's family, or you know, a work situation, or
you know. Always felt my life was a little like
sex in the City for a long time, and a
lot of what I'm writing right now is about the
nineties in my life, in the nineties of New York,
because I have these rich memories of these incredible characters
(44:17):
and many you're not alone and only I have them,
look from my relationships. So I've been writing a lot
about that right now to weave it into Are You
on the List, which is going to be a book
about a public relations executive who you know, it's the
queen of the list and the top of the heat
of the culinary world, and then things fall like a soufle.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
That's a great title. I love it. Well, it's so
true because what happens real she gets delisted when her
she loses a lot of clients for a lot of reasons,
she falls off the list and and even today, what
makes my hair stand on in my itch with is we?
(45:00):
The ick is the question are you on the list?
Are you on the list? I go to and now
I'm a JournalIt you know, I'm a media person. So
there's nothing that makes me really get the ick factor
and send me into snorting when I go to like gallachwise,
I went to Gallen the famous restaurant, and we had
rsvped and the little clipbord girl of the black dress,
(45:21):
age twenty goes and you sit there with that painful
wait while they peruse, and you know you're why. So
I'm like, it's why. I'm at the end of the page,
young right, And they go, I don't see you on
the list? Are you sure? I don't see you on
the list?
Speaker 4 (45:38):
And your hair stands on? Edd be on the list,
and it happens. It happens, But I was the other
person who was the list person like I don't think
of it. So that's where it's going to go. And
it's funny and there's a lot of characters, but it's
one of them, the other one is, you know, but
the going home to take care of my mother and
(45:59):
just every crazy things. But are you the list of
best of it? Because it's like going to have many
people in it that people know about and they'll be like.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Oh, but it's I love it. Isn't that hysterical? So yeah,
it's are you on the list? And it's that term
still exists and I'm still on uh you know, I'm
on pr.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
Groups, you know, lurking to see if there's any work
and writing work and it's still like I need someone
with top to your magazine lists. And like the list
thing never goes away ever, including when you write a book.
You still do have a mailing list? Are you going
to create a funnel? If you're a coach, that's like
the list thing, listicles never go away.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
No, we're you're on them? Am I on the list? Oh?
My god? What makes you qualify?
Speaker 4 (46:50):
And it's like God, and every summer, every summer, I
would I would set my staff down and go, okay,
we're gonna now that the James Spirit's Awards are over
and everything else was quiet, and we're going to redo
the lists.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Everybody who's gonna help me? And I would be dragging
all those damn magazines up to the Hudson Valley and
the people for you. I'm like everything going through the
mass tads, and not one person on my staff would
help me. Damn it. The list, Oh my gosh, you
(47:24):
weren't charged blows. That's hilarious. I know, I mean, but
you know it's like, that's how far are you into
this book? I have to ask because it sounds so
good all about Okay, this is your pants, it's act.
I even laughed at it myself.
Speaker 6 (47:41):
I mean, but this is keeping all of those good
like a nostalgia that whole era, like that was an era.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
And I have a couple of chefs following me with
a famous chef. They're like googol Google, Yeah, I remember
him because they keep dying. And every time one dies,
I'm like, okay, David Lula dies, let me talk about him. Now,
you know Tom Blaney died, and I go down the
story of me and David Bouley, and there's a great
story in all of them.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
But anyway, I want to congratulate you, Monica. I lovely
get this wrapped up. We've been talking to Monica comas.
The book is recipe for joy. It's a delightful read, poignant,
delightful and joyous at the end, and it makes me
want to realize that everybody should be gathering your family
recipes and treasuring them because one day the family members
(48:29):
will be gone, but you'll always have those recipes.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Yeah, they'll They'll keep you tethered to your past and
to you. Love me, thank you, and good luck, and
let's stay in touch, all right. I would love to
This was a pleasure. Thank you so much, absolutely, and
so everybody listening.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Okay, get out there and write, Get out there and
support your local library and read, support authors.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
If you don't want to write, but just use your
mind and get off the phone. You have a choice
and how to live your life. I always say, choose
if you live on your terms and not by a
term set by others who want to see you in
their light, and you shine your own light, and always
choose being fearless of bad aun
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Hello and welcome to Fearless Fabulous. You I am Melanie.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
I'm your host and fearless leader of making sure that
you live life on your terms. Thank you for joining
me today on YouTube W four WN Radio, which you
can hear all my shows anytime on demand after this
live production on more than sixty five podcast channels, and
I beg you to follow me please at Melanie Fabulous
(01:07):
to check out my step stack by the same name.
I like to share my experiences with you and my
impressions to help you live and inspire life at every
age of stage, particularly when you're living it longer now
and you're making thinking about your next chapter I a
queen of next Chapters, of endless Chapters, and we're going
(01:28):
to be talking speaking of chapters with an author today
who has published her debut book. I just think that's
so exciting debut book. I remember when my first book
came out, Getting Things up my Chest. I was like
over the moon. I've had to check something off my
bucket list and it felt so great. But it's also
so hard.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
To promote a book. So when a book comes across
my desk and I read it, it resonates. I always
like to have the author on. When I did a
show on my Love of Books, I mentioned a recipe
for Joy, which is a book where going to be
talking about with the author and I've invited her back.
Her name is Monica Comas. She lives in New York.
(02:08):
We were talking briefly about New York and do I
miss it?
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Yes, I do. I miss the energy of New York,
but I love living in New Orleans and it's giving
me more.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Time to write.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
So Monica is going to share her story about why
she decided to write the book, which really is about
relationships first and how recipes bond the family together. That
resonated with me. A lot, because I'll share a little
bit about it when I discussed with Monica how recipes
(02:40):
bonded my grandmother, my mother and I and even now
after they're gone. So let's welcome Monica Comas to Fearless
Fabulous You.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Hi, Milanie, thanks for having me. Well, hello, and I
see the book in the fact. That's great. We'll put
it up in a little quarter or two. Congratulates A
lot of authors don't know to do that. Congratulations on
writing your first novel. Give us a little background about
who is Monica, Where are you from, what were your
early interests, and why you ended up studying to take
(03:11):
a hand at writing.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Sure, I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio, so I'm a Midwest
lady living in New York. I started out in journalism.
I was a journalist for a decade, and then I
did financial editing and ghost writing. I did that for
(03:33):
a little bit, but my true love was always fiction.
I had been writing fiction since I was in high school,
and I really wanted to get back to that. So
I was actually working at the City Group and I
would get up really up early in the morning and
work on my fiction and then go and write financial
stuff and then come home and work on some more fiction,
and eventually got to the point that I started freelancing
(03:54):
a little bit, and I pulled back from the freelancing,
and gradually the fiction writing took over all of a
rn and I was very lucky to kind of get
back to where I always wanted to go. And so
here we are after It's a long journey that I'm
skipping over, but eventually I'm here with a book now,
(04:14):
and I'm I'm curious because I talked to a lot
of writers and they always get up really early in
the morning.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
I get them morning to work out. I find to
write fiction book. I actually when I.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Sleep, my mind is.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Leaving stories, and yeah, I have to keep a notebook
by my bets.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
My question, I was going to ask, if you do
that good?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Yeah, of course I've been doing that for years. I'm
a big journaler. But I have like three threads going
right now, and I think the biggest issue is make
giving the time. So I'm impressed that you did it
early in the morning and in the evening, because I
think the biggest challenge for a lot of writers is, well,
there's two coming up with the concepts and staying with
it developing the characters and the plot.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Line and the others find of the tie.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Did you ever go to a writing camp or have
a writing mentor or anything like that?
Speaker 5 (05:05):
Sure, I did, and I agree with you, like the
time is a big consideration, I think, especially these days
when everybody is juggling so much. You're juggling your job,
you're juggling your family. You may be caretaking as well,
older parents. There's a lot going on in the world today.
I don't have an MFA, but what I did was
(05:27):
I went to a lot of writing workshops. I did
a lot of conferences. I did, I had writing partners,
and you just start to learn the craft. You know
a lot of In a lot of senses, you're teaching
it to yourself, but you're learning. You're learning from mentors,
you're learning from people who you're taking workshops with, and
(05:48):
you're reading.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
You're reading good authors.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
And it's amazing what you can learn from just reading
quality writing. And eventually it all soaks in and you know,
you start to have your own style with it, but
at least you have some bones to it.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So two questions, are there any workshops you would recommend?
And are there authors that you really like to lead
and follow? Or who are the authors? Oh, that's an
author list, that's a long list. Let me start with
the workshops first.
Speaker 5 (06:19):
I did the Community of Writers workshop out in Tahoe
that I really liked. And another one that I really
liked is actually through Sarah Lawrence and that is a
university here in New York, but they have this writing
(06:40):
institute and I think it might go by they just
change the name. But the authors that are running this
are amazing. And I took a full novel manuscript workshop
and this is really rare. The author who ran it,
her name is Marsha Bradley. She's the author of The
Home for Wayward Girls, which is an amazing novel.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
And it's just it's small and intimate. It's six authors.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
You each read, everybody reads the other's manuscript, and then
you workshop them. So it's very one on one. It's
very intense, it's very collaborative and supportive. I really like
what they're doing at Sarah Lawrence, So I would recommend
anyone to check them out.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
That's a really good tip because I am on a
lot of writers scripts and I get sent you know,
lots of amazing retreats. I think I would be too
distracted on a retreat if I'm in toughly.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
I know, you know, I need to.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Go to like Yado. You know, when I moved to
the Hudson Valley, so we bought I bought a house
of the HUDs of Valley. It's a big vision.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I was going to be a hibernate and be an author,
and I did. I wrote two books and hybridnates author.
But I developed such major fomo uh not.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Being New York with all my friends and some isolated
and that's cool, It's okay cool.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
And during the pandemic. I live in New Orleans, which
is a foster's writing. I mean, everything is just like
creative here. So I'm I'm thinking about uh, when I
saw I travel a lot because I travel a lot
for my wine world work.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Because I have like two.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
We don't have a lot of travel in July and August,
and I'm thinking about settling in and just that's what
I'm going to do.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
But I am looking.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
I just wanted to have a writing mentor or coach
to help. I think I have.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
A name for you, honestly, because good this woman, I
just yeah, who she does the full manuscript workshop. She
also takes private clients. And I'll have you know I
took this workshop before I got my book published, so.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, I think that's great. You know this podcast. Doing
two podcasts is very distracting, but it's great because then
I meet people like you and and it gets me reading.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
I'm a big supporter of the public library. Everybody get
a library card. I mean that was one of the
first things we did when we got to New Orleans.
I always have like read books that I'm reading at
all times. I read yours as we with Joy, which
you sent me. I've got one from the library called
They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson. She was caregiving
her mother, which I did. And I'm hoping to get
(09:14):
how she's Canadian and I have another liver here. I'm
looking at service Ready that was sent to me by
Molly I Ronnie, who's the restaurant tour in Ashville. So
I've read all the time, and fortunately I was that
little girl at age five with her notes in a book.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Were you that little girl at h five with your
notes in a book? Yeah? And I love that you
mentioned the libraries. I think they're so important.
Speaker 5 (09:34):
I did my launch event at a library because I
grew up in libraries. That's what we did with my mom,
my sister, and I. We would go to the library
and it was the best time. You know, you're sitting
in those tiny little chairs in the kids section and
you walk out with a stack of books, and then
you go home and those memories like that, that initial
entree into words and story, you carry.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
That with you. And I think that that's how we
all got into books. Starts with a library.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
Yeah, And I wanted every parent out there take their
child to get a library card early and take them
through the library.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I grew up in libraries as well.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
My mother would leave me at the library while she
taught a class because she was teaching at the university.
And my biggest problem is I check out too many books.
I still have the problem check out too many books.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Like no, I can't read them all.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
But libraries are more than just books. You can go
read magazines for free, save your money on subscription. There
are puzzles at my library, there are craft Every library
offers different things, you know, it's like find the notary public.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
There's a sewing class at my local library. So it
is an amazing place to gather and learn and also
find quiet.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
I've urged my husband to go sit in the library
and read magazine, you know, to get so it's great and.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
It's also a place for community.
Speaker 5 (10:55):
You know, anyone who's going to a library, you're going
there because you care about something. You care about books,
you care about the knitting class they're folding or bettering yourself.
You're taking a class on the computer doing it. So
I feel like it's there's just good people who go
to a library and you know, jump in the jump
in the pond with them.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
I say absolutely. Now here's another question. Do you have
in your home or apartment you're a reading room or
a writing room that you're that's dedicated.
Speaker 5 (11:25):
Not in maybe a stupid question, my dream Hudson Valley
and a and a little dusk.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
No.
Speaker 5 (11:32):
It's funny because one time we had a house someplace
else and it was so small, but there was a
closet and I was like, I can fit a desk
in the closet and I'll write in the closet, and
I literally wrote in the closet.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
We don't have that anymore.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
So now we have this apartment in the city and
The one good thing about having been a journalist is
you can write anywhere, any place, anytime. It doesn't matter
what's going on. And so I'm like, I was trained
to write in an apartment with no special space. It's
just it's a molible face. Wherever there's the least amount
(12:07):
of noise, that's where I go.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
I prop my computer up.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Sometimes I just put it on the humidifier and I
sit on the ground. There is nothing precious about my process.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
We're lucky in New Orleans because we do have a house.
We get more here and we have one room that
is dedicated to no TV. Music and it's my reading
room and writing, and I can write up there.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I also am in my studio and office, which I
do writy, but we go out there to get away
from each other and the quiet and TV.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
And it's a sacred space. You're living my books and drinking.
Speaker 5 (12:46):
Yeah, but that's so nice that you've carved that out
for yourself because you recognize that you need that because life.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
Can be very loud. Life can pull you in all
the directions, and you need that place.
Speaker 5 (12:57):
Where you can be quiet and you can be centered
and you can can act with art, creativity, words like
I find that's so special.
Speaker 4 (13:04):
We had that in the huts of Belly, and then
suddenly work took over everything, and I felt like I
was living in a liquor store.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
So mean, even the sauna became a wine cellar. I'm like,
there's a sacred space anymore.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
I mean, I think everybody needs to carve out a
sacred space, even if it's a.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Closet or a bathroom or something. Turn it into your
sacred space and leave the electronics out and the noise
and make it your place and try to. I also,
I try to.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
I have a practice where I write, like my three
page I had Julia Cameron on the show many years
morning Pages Writers Amazing, and she says, write three pages
a day I write in my journal, and that I
try to read at least one chapter of my library
book a day.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
How how do you carve out the time? Well, it's
interesting post publication, I've I'm I'm.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Actually asking the question of myself because it used to
be get up right, you know, walk the dog, feed
the dog, start to do things around the house, you know.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So my morning was really my worktime.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
And now that I'm still promoting recipe for joy and
trying to get the word out. Still I'm doing that,
but I'm also working on something new, so I'm still
trying to write first thing in the morning, and I
do start with morning pages. I love that you mentioned
the morning pages that actually it's so I don't know
(14:32):
what magic happens with them, but it really just you
get to dump everything and then you can write, She's genius,
and then I'll write. And there's a lot of social
media that comes with being an author, and I didn't
realize I think how much time that takes off, and
(14:54):
so I like to save that for the afternoon. But
the morning is when, like I write best.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
So yeah, the heart I say, the hardest thing about
writing a book is promoting it. It is. It's so
it's just no time consuming, the social media part of
it in particular.
Speaker 5 (15:12):
Yeah, but it's also so I don't think a lot
of writers are hardwired to be promoters too. So for
all of us who are like, what are we doing?
We have to we have to talk about the book now.
But I just wrote the book.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So it's fortunately I was hard wored having coming from
a public relations Backneah, you knew the media tour, I
did the.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
Best r drop on the first book. Anything's off my
just the second one. I'm like, Oh, I spent all
my money on the first book. I didn't hire any body,
did it myself.
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Second book, I started a shot by the same name,
so Fearless Fabulous hues the name of my second book.
So I created a show and became my platform for
what the book stands for. So it's right, So let's
talk about recipe for doing Now. I'm going to start
this with I alluded to it. So actually, neither my
(16:01):
grandmother I'm maternal grandmother kind of cook, but she had
a lady cook for her. In the South, you have
someone and the.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Lady of the house supervisors. And my mother hated to cook, however,
she loved to bake. That said, recipes were very important
for both of them because they love to read recipes.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
And like to eat, and they liked to try to
dabble in the kitchen, two important things.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
When I decided to get married later in life, my
mother gave me one day all the recipes I grew
up eating that my grandmother would cook. And Bertie Bertie
was her name, Bertie Cook and mother and I have
them in a binder. I think she gave it to
me before I got married. I don't care about getting married.
She just gave it to me. She wanted me to
(16:47):
have it.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
And I have those recipes and they're really special because
they were the ones I do remember. My mother and
I cook me together, mainly baking. And then when I
was cleaning out my mother's massively cluttered house, I found
two binders filled with recipes, handwritten recipes in my grandmother's handwriting,
(17:11):
and her Magong Girls and Canasta Girls. And these are
straight out of the sixties and seventies, which is when
they lived, and they use all sorts of fun things
of can seven Marjorie, and then they clipped recipes from
like Family Circle McCall's magazine. So I have those binders.
And when we were caring for my mother in Chattanooga, Tennessee,
(17:36):
where I had to go live kind of like Belda
going to see what we were talking about, I started cooking.
I found the binder. I started cooking the recipes and
adapting them for now you know, and that is going
end up being kind of the basis of one of
the books.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But it was that, you know, I urge everybody out there,
even if you don't cook.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
The great thing about family recipes, as we're going to
talk about the Recipe Joy, is they live on long
after the person you love is gone. Yes, and not
a lot of things to do. Photos, faith, photos, Yes, recipes,
though you can pass along and keep eating. And when
you did, I did a on my step seck. I
(18:18):
did something about v She Swap because my dad and
I loved V she squad together and he had recovery
finicky about Swah and I had a riff on be
Suah here in New Orleans that had nothing to do
with potatoes or weeks, but it was so good it took.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Me back to be She Swap and wanted to make
it and digging out that be she swa recipe that
mother made dad.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
So that brings me to the book you have written,
which is called Recipe for Joy, which is an interesting
title given the process of the book. So why don't
you hand this everybody to give us the plotline of
the book and how you decided to give it the
name Recipe for Joy? Sure? Sure. First of all, I
have to say that story is just thank you for
(19:02):
sharing that. What a gift.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
I'm so excited for you and the binders of recipes,
and please promise that you will follow that through and
make it the story that you want, because I mean
I will be first in line to buy that. I
love it and what a gift, so recipe for joy.
I always say that it's about about the cherished family
(19:26):
recipes a series of mysterious letters sent by a secret
of hand and two sisters who need directions back to
one another. And the story is it's funny, echoes a
lot of just what you said. It's about a character
named Belle and she it just doesn't have it together
(19:49):
in her life, and she high tails it home to
her grandmother, the house that she grew up in. Her
grandmother raised her, her and her sister, and and she
kind of comes with her tail between her legs and
asks if she can stay, and her grandmother's like, of course,
And in the course of the time, her grandmother helps,
you know, give herhood confidence and build her back up
(20:11):
a bit, and she starts stepping into her life a
little bit, and the grandmother passes away.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
Now her and her.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Sister are estranged, and they've been estranged for years, and
each of them received in the mail months later a
cookbook and with the directions from a letter from their
grandmother saying I want you to read this together, and
a series of letters come. They're supposed to make recipes
(20:38):
and they go through a journey together, but it is
it is not a smooth recipe. Let's just say, there's
a lot of bumps and what they have to do
is square their shoulders to one another to why they
are estranged, to misunderstandings, to misperceptions, and in a way,
(20:58):
these recipes remind them of who they used to be
and show them the path to who.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
They can be again. Well, that's a good about the book. Yeah,
And because Belle and her sister both live in New York,
but they're completely different, and.
Speaker 4 (21:17):
The sister has an armor around her. It's pretty intense.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Yeah, she does.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
She's she's you know, she is successful, she's married, she
has kids, she is very wealthy.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
She is all the.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Things that Bell is not. And so there's a friction
there because of that. But the friction, you know, started
a little bit earlier too. And it's interesting the title.
You mentioned that because because the book is a journey,
and it's actually a journey through brief and I'll share
with you is this original title was actually called Brief Cookie,
(21:54):
but the the imprint I think wisely said let's let's
think about a different title for this, and I think
they were right because at the core of this is
getting back to a joyous place. And so that's how
we ended up changing the title to Recipue for Door.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Well, Bill needed to finalize joy I mean she she
leaves New York with a lot of guilt because New
York is very and we were talking about this before
the show. New York is very intense. Yes, you moved
to New York.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
To be successful, to discover yourself, to make it. I
mean that damn song. It puts a lot of pressure
on you to.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Make it and you know, God I did. But it's
but there's a lot of bumps live like in New York.
It's not you know, unless you.
Speaker 4 (22:44):
Marry someone who has lots of money and not to
think about it anymore, which you know, the sister seemed
to have done.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
She was very successful and married will. But that comes
with its own pressures, as we see in the book.
So the pressure cooker that is New York got to
both of the sisters in different ways. Yeah. Yeah, but
in you're seeing what is an underlying theme in the book,
you know, the grandmother, and let's just talk about how
(23:10):
a grandmother's love is an unconditional love. I was not
sure how the mother doed. I it was suer. What
happened to the mother? No, it was cancer, cancer, Okay,
I knew it was something. Okay, there's another books at
the fact, I just read other books to the fact
it's way for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, there was
(23:30):
another book I just read, you know, but there seems
to be a lot of missing a lot of the
authors interview, there's missing mothers theme lightly.
Speaker 4 (23:40):
So the love of the grandmother is incredible and I
identify with that because my mother was unique and one
of the first career mothers. Every day and was too
busy to go from school take me to school.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
I was I was the original la Key child at
the time, but my grandmother became my mother. You know.
I was staying with her all the time when my
parents traveled. She would go to all the school places.
She would like school.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
So I developed a very close relationship with her. And
that's where I got to sit and watch her with
her friends playing canass in Majah and.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Eat the food that I've talked about the Finder.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
The grief that I felt when my grandmother dropped dead
of cardiac arrest.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Was as deep as the grief that Bell feels when
her mother. When her grandmother passed shatters you.
Speaker 4 (24:44):
It shows you're shattered, and there's layers. And I felt
a different kind of agree with my mother when she died.
But losing someone that close to you, who has shaped
your life and given you the love that you need
to both through your self worth and your own identity,
(25:06):
is shattering. And Bell really goes through incredible layers of grief.
Speaker 5 (25:14):
What brings her back, What brings her back? That's interesting.
So I think there's a few things. I think she
has a lot of love around her, and I think
she's very fortunate in this regard. She has the grandmother's friends,
she has her own friends, and she has people that
(25:35):
are trying to bring her back to the land of
the living, essentially, because when you are so shattered by grief,
you really aren't a part of the world. The world
is rushing by you, especially when you've been caregiving, because
you're already in the land of the When you're caregiving,
you are in the land of the guy.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Yeah, before that person is gone. Yeah, very true. And
it's everywhere. It goes through everywhere, even before the person's gone.
And it's very disorient Yes, yes, it's the perfect word
for it. It's disorienting.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
It feels surreal that the rest of the world is
moving along when your world had the bottom of your
world has fallen out.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
So I think there's the people around her, and what
I wanted to do with that is the grandmother.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I was very close to my grandmother as well, but
the grandmother in this book is actually an amalgam of
my grandmother and my mother because it's the grief of
my mother that is I poured.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Into this book. So I think what I found is
that there were women around me.
Speaker 5 (26:50):
Who had walked that road before and understood to like
link arms with me and gently walk me forward, because
if you have never school completely before, you really don't
understand it. Because it's not something we're kind of in
touch with. In the sculpture, we don't do that, you know.
I think in other cultures they might be a little
(27:11):
more attuned to it. So I wanted to show that
she had a lot of love around her that was
helping her walk. But the recipes as well, helped bring
her back because what they do is they spark the
memories of the foods and the aromas and the moments
that she had from all walks of her childhood and
(27:32):
her adolescence in her life with the grandmother and her sister,
and there was a way to show that, like your
sister's still here because you know so it was.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
They all played a part. And I think bringing bell back, well,
you know, the recipes are bonding. You know, you were
abandoned in a way, you lost a mother. She Bellus
is a mother, a grandmother. The sisters is strange. And
what's interesting is the grandmother and her sister. You're right,
(28:03):
great aunts were also estranged. So it was interesting parallel
that the grandmother and her sister and Belle and her sister,
they both were strength, right, And I wanted to show
how easy it is for.
Speaker 5 (28:18):
A chasm to form in a relationship and how that
can just keep perpetuating itself through the generations unless you
actually confront.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
It and do something about it. A lot of families
go through that exactly exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
I mean, my family was notorious for not speaking to
each other forever, and I mean crazy.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I have a great aunt. One of the sons ever
spoke to her. We still don't know what.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
I think I know, but we'll never know. But she's dead,
and you know it happens. It's a thing that definitely happens. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
And you know you the voices from the grave are
not there.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I I when I was when I was cleaning out
my mother's house, the voices from the grave were coming
on around me. Because I was discovering things about my family.
In every look and cranny of a house of clutter,
I would find something. I mean, the recipe book was one.
(29:18):
One was interesting.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
I found the immigration papers for my paternal great grandfather,
who I didn't think existed. I was told my.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
Paternal grandfather was an orphan. I didn't know his parents.
And in a lock box in the garage, under a
pile of degree of tools, we found immigration people. Wow,
I'm like treasure, they will how did he become orphan?
And I took them to a cousin because I had
(29:50):
to give a lot of us away.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I had to divest of many things, and I thought
what family member would most want this? And I gave
it to cousin on my paternal side, and he told
me the story that yes, they probably came over and
they were too poor to take care of their children
and gave them up to orphanages. This is just common
with immigrants did kind of like what they do now
(30:12):
with their pets, and they didn't really know. They blocked
it out because they were so young, they thought they
didn't have parents. I just couldn't believe them. Wow, yeah
you have. I think from this house clean out you
did you have multiple Oh, I discovered so many weird things. Wow,
(30:34):
it's yeah, very strange.
Speaker 5 (30:37):
Things publicated, you know, and there's layers and things that
you don't realize it's going on until decades later.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
It's a fascinating, fascinating thing. Yeah, it really is. And
you know, when you finished the book, how did that
make you feel to finish it and say I've done?
When did you know? When did you know the story
was done? Because that's another thing with fiction. When is
it time to wrap that up? And what made you
(31:06):
say the story is? Yeah, you know, it's It's it's
a hard thing to.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Declare it because I think the writer in you always
wants to do something a little bit different. But you
do go to a point where it's time to take
it to an agent. Where it's time for an agent
to take it out to market, you you just have
to declare it before you wrote the book, or did
you write the book and then shop better around to
(31:35):
an agent. I wrote the book, I had to get
a new agent because my old agent such a lovely person,
but she decided to focus on nonfiction.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
So I knew that I was going to have to
get a new agent with this book. And so.
Speaker 5 (31:50):
When I was done, I started querying, just like everyone does,
and that's how I got my current agent, who is wonderful,
and then he took it out to market. And I
think when you feel emotionally satisfied that you have a
full arc of a story that you poured all the
(32:12):
emotion that you.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Can into the pages and into the characters, and you've.
Speaker 5 (32:17):
Looked at it so much as you literally can't look
at it anymore, you know it's done, but it's never
done then, because then when you go through the publishing process,
you will have a developmental edit, you will have a
copy edit, you will have proof readings, so it's and
which is good, which is wonderful because your story just
gets that much better, It gets refined and I was
(32:39):
lucky enough to work with just phenomenal professionals.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
So, yeah, who is the Blake Union Publishing? Yeah? So
what was the process? I mean, getting the publisher? Getting
the right publisher is important.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yes, I think it is important someone to say, I'm
trying to figure out how to disengage from my publture
right now. What was the length of time from when
you wrote your first draft to going through the different
renditions revision? How long did I say, from the time
(33:17):
I wrote the first draft when you had the manuscript
ready to shop around?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Oh, to get an Yeah, I think I queried for
a few months.
Speaker 5 (33:29):
You know, the query process is long and it takes
a long time. Excuse me, but what I loved about
my current agent is that.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
I queried him. He said, send me the manuscript, and
a week later he wanted to call. And I think
that's what you want.
Speaker 5 (33:49):
You want an advocate who immediately loves your work, who
knows how to place it, who believes in it. And
I went with him other agents at the full manuscript
and we're considering it. And I just knew I was
that if someone believes so clearly and so quickly in
(34:11):
something that I've written, that's Stagian for me, so I
would say that whole So that whole process took a
few months, and then.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
It was really really fast.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
The book sold in two months, which wow, is really
fast that. I don't think things are moving that fast anymore.
It's publishing is a very slow moving animal.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
Yeah, very moving. I mean that's amazing, you know, and
pretty good. That is like really amazing. So if you're
writing a book, just know that that's super amazing. And
it can take a lot longer, but you know it's again, yeah,
it can take a lot longer, but it doesn't mean
it's not going to happen, and you know it's no, no,
(34:55):
don't give up.
Speaker 4 (34:56):
I mean it took me a while because when I
was shopping around getting things off my chest. Survivor's Guide
to Saying Fearless and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer,
nobody saw me as breast cancer girl. They saw me
as I took a lot of eating because they wanted
to write a cookbook because I was food girl.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
Right, But I don't even cook. I know how to promote.
I go to restaurants, I know how to eat. I
can't talk about food, but I don't actually don't even cook.
I kept shooes in my oven. I didn't keep anything
in my husband. I still cook. I don't cook. They
would make me pay you to night. I'm nervous because
I'm doing it because somebody sent me to pay your
pen to try off. But I had to explained that
I had. I said, but I had breast cancer and
(35:32):
I'm going to write the definitive book to help women
navigate a journey they didn't plan to take. And I'm
a passionate traveler. It took a while to you know,
I said, I held on my guns, you know, until
I got a publisher.
Speaker 4 (35:45):
It was that the best publisher. No, was a publisher
who believed in me. But what was a challenge, and
even more so now, is they want to know your numbers.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
What's your TikTok numbers? What's your Instagram? Know? I want
to like screen because suddenly you have to become a
social media personality, even write a book, which I can't
stand because I personally I do the social media out
of necessity. But does it bring me joy?
Speaker 5 (36:08):
No, I understand that, and I think I think generationally.
I mean, I have nieces and nephews, and that's just
second nature to them. That's they grew up with it.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
This is what they do.
Speaker 5 (36:23):
I'm fifty five, Like, this isn't This isn't something I
grew up with. You know, this is a new beast
that I have to learn to But you got Yeah,
but you have to do.
Speaker 3 (36:34):
It as part of it. Like that's how the publishing
world has changed, and you have to change with it.
That's exact composed.
Speaker 4 (36:41):
Yeah, and you know, I'm like you. I dedicate I
try not to go down the rabbit hole. So because
you can, you can't think they call it death scrolling.
I try to allocate my posts and you know, I'm
not as strategic as oh, bap them out for the weed.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
I don't do that, but I could, but I don't.
I could, And you should forget someone to help you.
So do you have are you.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
Doing other work? Such just being a full time not
just being a full time writer. Is being full time
writer your full time job?
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Now?
Speaker 5 (37:12):
It is?
Speaker 3 (37:12):
Now? What are you that you can do that? Well,
I'm lucky. I'm just I'm lucky. Yeah, you are, you are.
But that's a good thing because freelance writing sucks right now.
The pay rate sucks and I've kind of pulled back
on freelance writing because you know, I was looking at
what's taking me away from the book I want to write,
(37:35):
and it was a lot of little So you know,
a message, My message, my message to writers who want
to write a book.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Which is different from writing freelance articles and whatnot, is
make that the book your job, your priority, and set
aside that time and the day and don't let anything
distract you.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
And that is hard, but if you want to get
it done, you've got to do it now. How would
you add to that?
Speaker 5 (38:02):
I think, I think I've been thinking about this a
lot lately, and it's being protective of your time.
Speaker 3 (38:08):
And I remember I was at a workshop with some women.
It was one woman she was so prolific, and she said,
I read a half hour a day. That's all the time.
I have half hour a day. That's all I do.
By the end of the year, I have a book.
And it really put things into perspective.
Speaker 5 (38:30):
It was like, you don't need a ton of time,
but you do need to dedicate a time and be
loyal to.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
That and not be pulled in every direction.
Speaker 5 (38:41):
And it's hard, I think when you're doing it at
home if you have a lovely place that you can
go and like be away from the dishwasher and the
dog and the this and the that and all the
things that are always you know, weighing down on things
you have to get done just to live all the better.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Everybody. I think.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
You can find a minute or a little bit of
time if it's in the morning, if it's in the
evening when everybody goes to bed, and you just have.
Speaker 6 (39:12):
A half hour, but it's your half hour, but you
do have to you do really have to care take
that half hour. And what I have started doing.
Speaker 5 (39:22):
I used to talk to people when they would call
in the morning. Oh they have time now, so I'll
talk to them. But that was my writing time.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
And so now what I've started to do it if
I don't take calls in the learning, just do my writing.
I can call everybody back later.
Speaker 5 (39:37):
And it's these little things that will open some space
up hopefully for people.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
I mean. Also, if you have some financial security, if
you're so imma to make ends with the baby, you know,
it's like it could be hard to carrying a job
if you have a full time job.
Speaker 4 (39:51):
When you're working at a job, because you've got to
supplement your writings. You're not making the money at writing.
So for those following this, the ideal goal is to
become a full time writer.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
But if you still need to pay bills and the
writing is not doing it, you've got to be realistic.
You've got to come up with a way to bring
in income and balance it with your writing time. I
had to do that. It's not easy. It's not easy.
I agree, and I I don't write, and I don't
mean to make it seem like it is.
Speaker 5 (40:24):
You have to pay your bills, like yeah, I was
a financial journalist, Like, there's no getting around it, but
bills and your income has.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
To be first. It has to be first.
Speaker 5 (40:34):
But hopefully you get to a place where we find
so a little bit of time and then the shift
can happen. It's a little less freelancing, and it's a
little more right hearing a different kind of writing. It
don't happen overnight, it doesn't. It's it's like it's like
it's a discipline, much like.
Speaker 4 (40:54):
Working out, and so decide that time every day to
get that stretch or that cardio or that thing you
need to do to take care of yourself.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
Writing is the same way. Most creatives that I know
car about that time and they don't make it a
lot of time. Like I have a cousin. He's a
famous artist, Hunt sloanem and he paints funny every day.
He makes a lot of He's a prolific and bunnies.
(41:23):
I think bunny of.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
Julia Cameron talks about the three pages I tried to
read a chapter of a book I tried to journal.
I set aside certain times. My goal now is to
set aside the creative writing time every day. I also
have a subsack because I'm building that, and that is
another form of creativele. What I've done is on my subsack.
(41:47):
The paid end of it is where I'm weaving out
the novel show.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
So I'm using the subseac paid. I didn't even care
what people play. I just do it that way. So
it's my little section writing chapters and doing it that way.
Because as I said, I have like three books in
my head. They're very different. They're really terrific book and
waving them out, but you got to start with one,
(42:14):
and that's you know key, So what is next for you? Now?
Obviously you've got the book and and one. If we
have a phone, do we have a photo of it
we can put up on the screen in the little
bitty corner? Did you get that? Once? My engineer there
he is. So what's next?
Speaker 4 (42:31):
The book came out in April twenty sixth, so March
point and so what's next? Are you gonna write another book?
Are you going to sit for a while just focus
on this or.
Speaker 3 (42:39):
No, there's no sitting because we all know we're not sitting.
My next book, it's it's a it's a little it's
a lighter story.
Speaker 5 (42:52):
It's a story about a funny, vivacious family and they
are all at a.
Speaker 3 (42:59):
Tipping point in each of their lives.
Speaker 5 (43:00):
Is there adult children and they're all going home for
one week, as they always do, to their mother's house
in the Hampton's.
Speaker 3 (43:07):
For her annual art show. But this year there's some
stormy weather brewing.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
There's the confluence of the art show, a memorial for
their father who passed away almost two decades ago, and
everybody's lives are teetering on the brink and a secret
is revealed that pushes everybody over.
Speaker 3 (43:30):
And what I love about the story is it gets
to the heart of.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
What it means to be a family, and it's how
you get through and do you get through the way
that you think you would. But this is a this
is a light, funny summer story, but there's real emotional
meat on.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Its bones too, So I'm excited about it. It sounds
like a great book. Yeah, those families, you know.
Speaker 4 (43:57):
I think it's always good to start with what you know,
whether it's family, or you know, a work situation, or
you know. Always felt my life was a little like
sex in the City for a long time, and a
lot of what I'm writing right now is about the
nineties in my life, in the nineties of New York,
because I have these rich memories of these incredible characters
(44:17):
and many you're not alone and only I have them,
look from my relationships. So I've been writing a lot
about that right now to weave it into Are You
on the List, which is going to be a book
about a public relations executive who you know, it's the
queen of the list and the top of the heat
of the culinary world, and then things fall like a soufle.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
That's a great title. I love it. Well, it's so
true because what happens real she gets delisted when her
she loses a lot of clients for a lot of reasons,
she falls off the list and and even today, what
makes my hair stand on in my itch with is we?
(45:00):
The ick is the question are you on the list?
Are you on the list? I go to and now
I'm a JournalIt you know, I'm a media person. So
there's nothing that makes me really get the ick factor
and send me into snorting when I go to like gallachwise,
I went to Gallen the famous restaurant, and we had
rsvped and the little clipbord girl of the black dress,
(45:21):
age twenty goes and you sit there with that painful
wait while they peruse, and you know you're why. So
I'm like, it's why. I'm at the end of the page,
young right, And they go, I don't see you on
the list? Are you sure? I don't see you on
the list?
Speaker 4 (45:38):
And your hair stands on? Edd be on the list,
and it happens. It happens, But I was the other
person who was the list person like I don't think
of it. So that's where it's going to go. And
it's funny and there's a lot of characters, but it's
one of them, the other one is, you know, but
the going home to take care of my mother and
(45:59):
just every crazy things. But are you the list of
best of it? Because it's like going to have many
people in it that people know about and they'll be like.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
Oh, but it's I love it. Isn't that hysterical? So yeah,
it's are you on the list? And it's that term
still exists and I'm still on uh you know, I'm
on pr.
Speaker 4 (46:21):
Groups, you know, lurking to see if there's any work
and writing work and it's still like I need someone
with top to your magazine lists. And like the list
thing never goes away ever, including when you write a book.
You still do have a mailing list? Are you going
to create a funnel? If you're a coach, that's like
the list thing, listicles never go away.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
No, we're you're on them? Am I on the list? Oh?
My god? What makes you qualify?
Speaker 4 (46:50):
And it's like God, and every summer, every summer, I
would I would set my staff down and go, okay,
we're gonna now that the James Spirit's Awards are over
and everything else was quiet, and we're going to redo
the lists.
Speaker 3 (47:03):
Everybody who's gonna help me? And I would be dragging
all those damn magazines up to the Hudson Valley and
the people for you. I'm like everything going through the
mass tads, and not one person on my staff would
help me. Damn it. The list, Oh my gosh, you
(47:24):
weren't charged blows. That's hilarious. I know, I mean, but
you know it's like, that's how far are you into
this book? I have to ask because it sounds so
good all about Okay, this is your pants, it's act.
I even laughed at it myself.
Speaker 6 (47:41):
I mean, but this is keeping all of those good
like a nostalgia that whole era, like that was an era.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
And I have a couple of chefs following me with
a famous chef. They're like googol Google, Yeah, I remember
him because they keep dying. And every time one dies,
I'm like, okay, David Lula dies, let me talk about him. Now,
you know Tom Blaney died, and I go down the
story of me and David Bouley, and there's a great
story in all of them.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
But anyway, I want to congratulate you, Monica. I lovely
get this wrapped up. We've been talking to Monica comas.
The book is recipe for joy. It's a delightful read, poignant,
delightful and joyous at the end, and it makes me
want to realize that everybody should be gathering your family
recipes and treasuring them because one day the family members
(48:29):
will be gone, but you'll always have those recipes.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Yeah, they'll They'll keep you tethered to your past and
to you. Love me, thank you, and good luck, and
let's stay in touch, all right. I would love to
This was a pleasure. Thank you so much, absolutely, and
so everybody listening.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Okay, get out there and write, Get out there and
support your local library and read, support authors.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
If you don't want to write, but just use your
mind and get off the phone. You have a choice
and how to live your life. I always say, choose
if you live on your terms and not by a
term set by others who want to see you in
their light, and you shine your own light, and always
choose being fearless of bad aun
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