August 13, 2025 • 26 mins
In our latest episode, hosts, Simone, Tanya and Deb chat with Morgan Dick, author of Favourite Daughter. We talk about addiction, therapy and our favourite character moments.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Join us and unwined with a good book. Welcome to
relaxing reads. Hi, it's Devin Halifax. Hyats Simone in Vancouver.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, it's Tanya and Edmonton.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Our latest read is a darkly funny debut novel, Favorite
Daughter by Morgan Dick. Micky and Arlow are half sisters
who've never met. Mickey's father abandoned her and her mom
years ago and has resented him ever since. Arlow adored
her father. When their father dies, Mickey is shocked that
she inherited everything, with the stipulation that she go to
(00:32):
therapy to receive the large sum of money.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
The catch.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Arlow is the therapist, and Arlow is desperate to understand
why her father cut her out of his will. They
soon get under each other's skin after they learn that
they are sisters, and they find themselves in a crash
course that will break or save them both.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It was such a great read and we are so
lucky to be joined by the author Morgan Dick. Hi, Hi,
how are you great?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I'm really well? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Hello? More?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello, Hi, I'm dead and I'm some owned.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
To meet you. Thank you so much for having me today.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Excited to ask you some of our burning questions. I
think i'll have deb I'll lead us off.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
This is quite the story for your debut novel, and
it's messy, there's a lot of dynamics and surprises, but
it's so relatable for many people. This is this story
is raw and real, and I think we all appreciate
what you've thrown out there, and you share with your
readers that you've drawn heavily from your own personal experiences
(01:34):
and professional background.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
So was it.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Difficult for you to do this or did you just
think this is necessary?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I would say both.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I think.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
It might have been that case of something that's worth
doing being hard to do, you know, like you can
usually tell when something's difficult, it's like, oh, this is important.
I was really lucky and that I had a lot
lot of brank conversations while writing and revising the book
with my brother who's in recovery from addiction, and he
(02:07):
was super gracious, like he really.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Because I was worried at first.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
I had put in some little bits and pieces, nothing
that's really directly based on his experience and our experience
as a family, but definitely stuff that echoed from that.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And I was worried a little bit that he would
be I.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Don't know, offended or embarrassed or something, but he was
so gracious and he said, no, this is something we
need to talk more about, be open about, and honest about.
So just give people the burnished truth. And so that's
what I tried to do. Quite therapeutic for me as well,
because I reflected lots on my experience growing up with
my brother, what was hard about that, and what's hard
(02:47):
when you love someone who is sick, who has addiction.
But I also did incorporate a little bit of my
own experiences. I mean, I've had lots of history with
depression and anxiety since I was pretty much a team
and I definitely know what it's like to feel stuck
inside your own head or to feel trapped by.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Your own mind.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
And I really appreciate the struggle of trying to get better,
you know.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And that's what I wanted to.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Leave people with when they read this book, was the
courage to look at themselves and to look at their
lives and to know that you can make changes like
you can grow. You can you know, drag your butt
to therapy and dot talk to the person make the
changes that you have been thinking about for so long
and that your life can take a different shape. So yeah,
(03:34):
I definitely wanted to leave people with that feeling of
hope as well.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, such an important conversation we were talking about that.
You know, growing up, you know, if someone was dealing
with addiction, like the most common one would have been alcoholism.
You know, people just would ignore it and not really
bring attention to it. You wouldn't really talk about it.
But it's so important and it's so great that we're
able to have conversations around mental health and addiction because
(04:00):
it's just it needs to be talked about. So kudos
to you for putting that into a novel. I think
it's you know, the more people can read about and
understand it and find that relatability, hopefully you can help people.
So yeah, we all really enjoyed the book.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Well good, thank you.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Yeah, I think it's definitely an important conversation to have.
And also, you know, the therapy setting is kind of juicy, right,
Like that was another that was part of my thinking
as well. I mean, I'm not a psychologist, but I
do work as an occupational therapist, which is kind of
an adjacent profession. And I've known lots of psychologists, and
I know how difficult that work can be and how
(04:37):
careful they have to be to not bring in their
own baggage.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Right, they're people too.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
We kind of forget that, like they have their own
stuff that they're working on. And so I was curious
if what would happen if you had a therapist who
was really bad at that, who was really struggling to
understand her own mind and her own history, and how
that might bleed into.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
The work that she did with her client. So it's yeah,
important thing to talk about.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
And also, you know, a really great juicy setting and
good for creating lots of narrative tension.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
I wondered, Like one of your characters, Arlow, she said that,
she said that addictions are a learned thing. Is that
how you feel like Is that do you feel like
that with most with maybe certain kinds of addictions or
is it something that somebody's born with and they just,
(05:31):
for whatever reason, you know, are the way they are.
Or is it different between issues with depression versus alcoholism.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Yeah, it's an interesting question, And I mean I can
only kind of speak from my own experience, but something
I was curious about with writing this book was also
the idea of nature versus nurture. You know, we have
these two women who have they kind of come from
the same DNA pool, right, but they've grown up in
really vastly different circumstances, and so how what would be
similar what would be different about the things that they
(06:01):
struggle with. My understanding of all kinds of mental illness,
whether it's substance use or depression or anxiety or whatever
is I think you can have sort of a genetic
predisposition for things, and then the nature, the nature, the
lived experiences can create these sort it can sort of
compound on that. So maybe, you know, we have these
(06:24):
two women with a family history of addictions, so they
have that genetic predisposition potentially, but Mickey, having grown up
in more adverse circumstances, having had a harder life, is
maybe she's the sister where that's actually going to show up,
maybe because of all these extra difficult things that have
happened to her.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
It's interesting how you explore the.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Daughter father thing, because you know that is such that
is quite the relationship between dads, fathers and daughters, you know,
because we you know, we grow up kind of judging
every man in our life against our dad, you know,
by that relationships so or I feel like I did,
And I find it interesting. You know, We've got Mickey,
(07:10):
who you know, he left when she was seven and
she didn't want to be anything like him. And then
you have Arlow, who just you know, adored her father.
He had lots of stuff going on, but she had
a totally different experience. But yet Arlow, you know, nobody,
no man was ever good enough for her because she
needed her daddy's approval. And I thought it was interesting
how you kind of weave the story with these these
(07:32):
two main characters and the relationships with their families, like
two broken families, and how they kind of navigated from
childhood into adulthood and what they're trying to do now,
which we find at the end of the book just
they're trying to fix themselves, but it's taken a long time.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
No, I think that's interesting you hit on that, And
I think the truth is sort of somewhere in the middle, right,
Like Barlow sees one version of their dad, Mickey sees another,
And I think part of their or any over the
course of the book is realizing that he was bits
and pieces of both.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Maybe I think.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
At one point Arlow or maybe it's Mickey calls him
like ninety five percent evil or ninety.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Seven percent evil and think, well, maybe that's not true.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Maybe he's like eighty five percent evil or eighty percent evil.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Right, Like, where does the truth actually lie?
Speaker 5 (08:20):
And how does coming to terms with that help them
move on and move forward?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
As you said, And everybody has a different version, whether
it's the daughters or you know, those who were in
the dad's life. And we learned a little bit more
at the funeral, So it's a favorite daughter is described
as darkly funny, and there were definitely a lot of
laughs along the way. And I guess is that how
you were able to balance the heavier themes because in
(08:47):
life there is a lot of heaviness, whether there's addiction
or not. And there were a lot of moments where
you could kind of, oh, okay, there's a there's a
light moment for them.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Yeah, I think this it's just part of me and
who I am as a writer where and a reader
for that matter, because when I'm reading books where things
are only sad and there's only you know, trauma, and
despair without any sort of levity or any kind of humor.
It feels actually a little bit untrue to me. I
think that real life is usually both of these things
(09:19):
at once.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
And I think about, you know, some.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Of the most difficult moments of my own life have
also been quite funny in certain ways. It just seems
to be Maybe it's as humans, that's just something we
do to cope. I'm not sure, but yeah, I think
in order to be to tell an honest story, I
knew it would have to be both of those things.
It would have to be both, you know, to teary
(09:45):
and challenging emotionally, but also but also fun.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And what a great cast of characters, you know, with
Mickey and Arlow and then you got Chris, and then
you got Tom who's now at the end with Daria,
and it's just and then the really I had to
google the cat and these cats can sell for like
one hundred thousand dollars, and I was like, what is this?
Was there a specific the cat? Was there a specific
(10:13):
scene when she took the cat?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I'm like, oh, dear God, she's not cat that was
And you.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Can laugh at this, You're like me as I was
because I laughed as I was writing it.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I was like, oh, I was going to take the cat.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
This is so ridiculous, Like this is her low, right,
this is her bottom.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
But I've had.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Lots of people be like, oh, this is terrible, this
is animal abuse.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
This you can't.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Everyone's entitled to their opinion. But I'm glad that you,
like me, thought it was.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
It was funny and no harm comes to the cat. Yes, right,
I think all of this.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Yeah, Well, in the end, I like I learned how
pawn shops work. Because I've never pawned anything. I didn't
realize you take something bad and you get a certain
amount of time where you can go back.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Was there was there a specific character, though, out of
the cast of characters that you really enjoyed writing about
or writing for.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Definitely Tom for sure, the skeazy lawyer, the slutty lawyer.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I really do enjoy him, and I like that.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I think with all the characters, something I tried to
do was make sure that who they are on the
surface is not necessarily actually who we learn that they are.
You know, like that looks can be a bit deceiving,
And for him that was super fun because I you know,
on the outside, he's this very generic, stereotypical, wealthy, middle aged,
(11:34):
sort of gross white man, right, and then we learn
that actually he has layers, right, Like he's trying to
improve himself just like everybody else's, you know, in his
desk he keeps like his you know, essential oils for
his diffuser to help him be calm and to manage
his anger, and you know, the alarm goes off on
his phone to prompt him to meditate. Right, Like that's
(11:57):
fun to me. I just love those. I love stories
and characters where things aren't what they seem and where
first impressions are wrong. And with him, that I think
is definitely the case where if you meet him in
real life, you'd think one thing, but then once you
sit down and get to know him, as Mickey does, right,
she learns that he's not quite what she thought he was,
and her friendship with him ends up being quite important
(12:20):
for her journey in her life.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, we talked about that, like when he stepped in
as her pretended to be her dad when she was
in the hospital, Like that was kind of like a
nice moment, like you meet this person as someone who's
you know, bringing attention to this estate and this money
you're going to inherit, and then they end up like
he's at her birthday party and they're hanging out.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
I'm like, yeah, unlikely friendships are a fun thing. I
love unlikely friendships and stories. I think they're the best.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
And I think too, it's like, you know, what you've
written about your characters is that, Yeah, when you first
meet somebody, they come across as one thing, and then
as you get to know somebody, that's either a good
thing or a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But people are multi layered.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Like it's just you know, we show a certain face
to most people, right depending how close you are to somebody.
But then once you get beneath the layers, there's a
bunch of stuff, some really great stuff, you know, underneath.
And we find out about Tom, you know, we find
out about Mickey, we find it about Arlow.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know, Chris I'm still wondering about. And I'm wondering
like kind of warmed up, you know.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
I read him in the beginning of the books as
one kind of character, and then at the end he
was like this this other character.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I'm like, how did I miss that?
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I kind of thought he was kind of a I
don't know, I have a douchey guy.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I didn't really like him.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
I didn't like him, but then you know, yeah, and
then he kind of turned into this other person and
I'm like, I really hope they.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Do get together.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Yeah, anyway, just lots of layers here, lots of layers,
just like real life stuff, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Yeah, for sure, I see Chris is like a sort
of a douchey like hoppey bro kind.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I was getting a jock you know, yeah, the job
out of Gatorade and you know, like.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
He's a gym bro or something, right, But then the
same as same as Tom, Like he's I don't know,
just trying to grow up a bit, I think, and
take himself seriously and envision himself as someone's partner, someone's dad,
and so that hopefully gives him a bit of depth.
But yeah, I always end up writing some sort of
(14:25):
you know, jock hockey bro. There's it's such good comedic fodder.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
You know, we all know, you know Morgan when I
first when we first got introduced to him, and he said,
I'm the uncle.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know what I thought.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
I thought, I'm like, sure, you're the uncle. Like everybody,
every guy in someone's life, you know, says he's the uncle,
but he's not, and he's like he seriously was Yeah,
I think that's where I got. I think that's where
I got.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
The thing was like, sure, hey, what you're looking after? Ian?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Like Ian Ian with the glass in his eye, with
the broken decanta, poor Yann, but he still loved his
teacher Morgan. You know, I felt like we finally get
to the point at the end of the story where
the sisters, you know, come to an agreement split the money,
(15:14):
and then after the last couple of pages, I was
left with what happens next? What is happening with their relationship?
Is this setting up for a sequel? Or can you
tell us a little bit about what happens? Do they
become friends? Do they take their money and separate?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Well, no sequel is in the works. I don't think
I would write a sequel for this story. But my
editor did ask me an interesting question not too long ago,
which was, if you were to write a sort of
five years later at the log or bonus chapter, what
would happen like what would it be about? And I
do think that they would Mickey and Arlow would definitely
be in each other's lives.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I see them, yeah, being being friends.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
I think where they would maybe meet up for a
coffee once a month or something. And the idea I
had in my head for a sort of extra epilogue was,
you know, I think if Tom were to be getting married,
maybe it's Daria, and maybe it's someone else, but maybe
he's getting married at a tropical destination somewhere. And then
Mickey is invited and she brings Arlo as a plus one,
(16:16):
and then Tom is horrified because he's like still not
over the whole thing, and they just.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Sort of create a bit of havoc and chaos.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
I do think they would be chaotic sisters, but I
think that's what I envisioned for them, is moving towards
a bit more of a traditional sister relationship where they
can confide in each other and yeah, just be part
of each other's lives going forward.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Do you have any idea of you know, if because
we love this book and these characters and can see
them on the big screen, do you have any ideas
of who the characters would be played by?
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Oh, yes, this is a fun question. The dream casting. Yeah,
I think I really like Anya Taylor Joy. The actress
I could see her again, yeah, yes, from The Queen's Gambit. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
And then for Mickey, we need someone who's maybe a
bit who's a bit older, right, maybe ten years older.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I thought Rachel McAdams potentially ours. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Another actress I really like is Lily James, who she's British.
She was in she was in that Cinderella adaptation a
really long time ago, she was in Downton Abbey.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I think she's sort of the right age and would
maybe be.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Could be like a sort of grittier Mickey to the
more you know, polished Arlow.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Mm hmmm. I really like Deborah too, Deborah and her
hair salon just like you know, I love that scene
where Arlo was like really just trying to be like
tell me stuff, tell me stuff, and she's just going
about her thing. It's like that was good for her.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
I fully in my head picture Meryl Streep's character for
Mamma Mia even was like she's gonna wear danim overall.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
So I just made it. I just fully went was.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Like, oh nice. And the other one I did that
for this is so this is just me showing how
I'm a lazy writer.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
But with Chris.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
I had imagined in my head Chris Pine, you know,
like really yeah, Chris, and then I just called him
Chris again out of lazy.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And what about Tom who Like we were trying to figure.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Out because you mentioned Tom Hanks in the book that
it was kind of that similarity and that's what we're
thinking about. Like there was moments with Tom where you're like,
he's an attractive fifty year old man, and then there
were sometimes where she's like, you're such a creep, You're
a creep, And I was like, I can't picture who
this is. Who is a hot guy that is like
kind of creepy.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Ooh, okay, I might have to think about this.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Oh I don't I'm thinking of him bigger than Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Oh yeah, bigger than like more yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Rod, yeah yeah, unless I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Tom Hanks is very friendly, looking, very like warm and
has you know, it's like dad energy, whereas I think
Tom would be a bit less of that.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Like, yeah, I'd have to think on it. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
It can almost be like a Tom cruise because he
could kind of go either way too, actually right, because
he's like he can be like hot at times and
sometimes the stuff he does, You're like, Okay, you're a
little bit weird. Yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Yeah he is Tom crazy, nailed it, nail.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
And so Tom Cruise is sixty I know right to me,
that's in my world.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
It doesn't even make sense.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
And like he's still jumping.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Out, he's doing crazy stuff the latest.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
It's just like, wow, he just he wants to keep
doing films until he's one hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
I know.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I'm like, wow, you go, you go as the same guy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, same, just playing himself. Morgan. So what's next for you?
You know, this was your debut novel, So what what
what kind of do you have lined up for us next?
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I'm working on a few things at the moment, not
quite ready to talk in detail about it. But the
project I'm working on is set in Invermire, NBC, which
is a setting that I know pretty well.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yeah, I love it there.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
We spent a lot of time there when I was
growing up, and it is another sort of family story
but with a bit of a mystery twist in there.
So very fun to work on and it's it's actually
been a pleasure to work on it over the course
of the winter in the spring because it's like I
sit down at my computer and then it's a'm at
the lake, you know, you know, it's summer, and so yeah,
(20:52):
that's what I am continuing to putter away on and
hopefully hopefully that will come out to you at some point.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Fingers crossed. Publishing is always a rule of the dice,
so you never know.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Yeah, but it's for me, the fun part is the writing,
so I'm always just trying to enjoy that and the
rest will happen as it happens.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
Morgan, you mentioned like that, and yeah, in the back
of your book, your acknowledgments, and so I always like
to know like where you know, because it's not just
one person that does these things. It's like a group
of people that help you, right, And I noticed the
name Vern Teessen, and it's like I was in gosh,
probably twenty years ago. I was in bamf and my
boyfriend at the time was working on a play at
(21:31):
the at the bamp Center, right, and Vern was there.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
As helping them out.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
And I do remember, you know, I went to the
to the hot springs and for some reason I didn't
bring my bathing suit, so I had to like wear
one of their nineteen twenties you have to rent and
I'm like, I have never felt more ugly in my life.
And here I am in a pool with some pretty
amazing creative people and I'm like, oh my lord.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So there's my burn teasing story about Anyway.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
He's brilliant, right, He's brilliant and he and I'm sure
that he, you know, helped you with with a lot
in terms of writing your novels.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Now are you going to be helped? Is he going
to be helping you again with this new novel?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
So with that, I was selected.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
I was very lucky to be selected for the writers
what's it called the it's the mentorship program from the
Writer's Guild of Alberta.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So that year for that iteration of.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
The program, Verne was one of the mentors and then
they matched me with him as one of the participants,
like the apprentices. So that was part of like I
think there's a grant that's attached that program, and it
was very much like you know, starting an end date.
But yeah, Vernon, I are still in touch and so
I would love to, yeah, maybe share some stuff with
him in the future.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
But he's, as you know, always got.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
A lot on the go, so.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah, very busy.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, man, I don't know how he does that.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah, it's been such a pleasure to meet different creative people,
like to meet different writers booksellers too. Like I feel
like I've just grown my community so much through this experience,
and I think that's like that's a big victory for me.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
That feels like a special wind.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Speaker 6 (23:15):
Like is this something that you wanted to do when
you know you were a child, because obviously you went
into you know, you have a profession, right, but is
this something that's always been sort of I.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Just can't imagine writing a novel.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
It seems a bit daunting, But I like, you know,
where does this come from?
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Just well, it is daunting, I think, which is why
I didn't do it for so long. So many people
think about it for so long before they actually sit
down and try to put pen to paper. But yeah,
I was always writing things as a kid, and I
in you know, junior high in high school, you know,
I was on the student newspaper and wrote for some
(23:51):
youth magazines and so I always felt like a writer,
I think. But a few years ago, when I turned
twenty five. This was seven years ago.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Now.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
I was on a trip down in New Orleans with
my friend Super Fun from Mardi Gras, and I just
had this realization of like, wow, time like it happens
to me as well as other people, and so if
I want to like do things, then.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I might as well start.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
And yeah, I remember my sister was pregnant at the
time with her first kid, and that felt like a
huge shock to me again of like wow, this is
real life, and you'll get old one day, like you'll
die one day, so you might as well try. And
so at that point I started making it more of
a practice where every day I would sit down and
do pages before I went to work, or at the time,
(24:39):
I was in my graduate degree, so before I went
to my classes at school and just sort of you know,
for an hour a day trying to get out maybe
five hundred words and seeing where that led. And now,
I mean I wrote a lot of bad manuscripts before
we got to this one, so there was a lot
of learning along the way. But if you make the
time for it, and you yeah, if you sit down
and you can that sort of regular practice, like.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
You will end up with the book.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
I always tell people that you write fifty words a day,
eventually you end up with the book. Right, two thousand
words a day, you end up with a book like
either way, just about yeah, just about getting your bum
in the chair and trying to start.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
That's amazing. Yeah, we all loved it. Yeah, thank you
so much. Thank you so much for your time today, Morgan.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Thank you so much for having me. This has been
super fun. So again, Yes, and I love that you
appreciated the cat.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
We love the cat.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
The cat can have a you know, that will be
part of the next day.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Yes, we need a for the cat, right. Thank you
all again so much for choosing my book. It's such
an honor and a privilege, and getting talk with you
has been really fun.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
I've loved it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Likewise, thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Thank you, bye, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
She was lovely. Yeah, thank you so much for listening
to another episode of the Relaxing Reads podcast. Until next time. Bye.
Thank you for kicking back and relaxing with us. We
hope you'll join us again on Relaxing Reads.
Join us and unwined with a good book. Welcome to
relaxing reads. Hi, it's Devin Halifax. Hyats Simone in Vancouver.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hey, it's Tanya and Edmonton.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Our latest read is a darkly funny debut novel, Favorite
Daughter by Morgan Dick. Micky and Arlow are half sisters
who've never met. Mickey's father abandoned her and her mom
years ago and has resented him ever since. Arlow adored
her father. When their father dies, Mickey is shocked that
she inherited everything, with the stipulation that she go to
(00:32):
therapy to receive the large sum of money.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
The catch.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Arlow is the therapist, and Arlow is desperate to understand
why her father cut her out of his will. They
soon get under each other's skin after they learn that
they are sisters, and they find themselves in a crash
course that will break or save them both.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
It was such a great read and we are so
lucky to be joined by the author Morgan Dick. Hi, Hi,
how are you great?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I'm really well? How are you?
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Thank you?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Hello? More?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Hello, Hi, I'm dead and I'm some owned.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
To meet you. Thank you so much for having me today.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Excited to ask you some of our burning questions. I
think i'll have deb I'll lead us off.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
This is quite the story for your debut novel, and
it's messy, there's a lot of dynamics and surprises, but
it's so relatable for many people. This is this story
is raw and real, and I think we all appreciate
what you've thrown out there, and you share with your
readers that you've drawn heavily from your own personal experiences
(01:34):
and professional background.
Speaker 5 (01:36):
So was it.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Difficult for you to do this or did you just
think this is necessary?
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I would say both.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
I think.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
It might have been that case of something that's worth
doing being hard to do, you know, like you can
usually tell when something's difficult, it's like, oh, this is important.
I was really lucky and that I had a lot
lot of brank conversations while writing and revising the book
with my brother who's in recovery from addiction, and he
(02:07):
was super gracious, like he really.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Because I was worried at first.
Speaker 5 (02:11):
I had put in some little bits and pieces, nothing
that's really directly based on his experience and our experience
as a family, but definitely stuff that echoed from that.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
And I was worried a little bit that he would
be I.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Don't know, offended or embarrassed or something, but he was
so gracious and he said, no, this is something we
need to talk more about, be open about, and honest about.
So just give people the burnished truth. And so that's
what I tried to do. Quite therapeutic for me as well,
because I reflected lots on my experience growing up with
my brother, what was hard about that, and what's hard
(02:47):
when you love someone who is sick, who has addiction.
But I also did incorporate a little bit of my
own experiences. I mean, I've had lots of history with
depression and anxiety since I was pretty much a team
and I definitely know what it's like to feel stuck
inside your own head or to feel trapped by.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
Your own mind.
Speaker 5 (03:08):
And I really appreciate the struggle of trying to get better,
you know.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
And that's what I wanted to.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Leave people with when they read this book, was the
courage to look at themselves and to look at their
lives and to know that you can make changes like
you can grow. You can you know, drag your butt
to therapy and dot talk to the person make the
changes that you have been thinking about for so long
and that your life can take a different shape. So yeah,
(03:34):
I definitely wanted to leave people with that feeling of
hope as well.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Yeah, such an important conversation we were talking about that.
You know, growing up, you know, if someone was dealing
with addiction, like the most common one would have been alcoholism.
You know, people just would ignore it and not really
bring attention to it. You wouldn't really talk about it.
But it's so important and it's so great that we're
able to have conversations around mental health and addiction because
(04:00):
it's just it needs to be talked about. So kudos
to you for putting that into a novel. I think
it's you know, the more people can read about and
understand it and find that relatability, hopefully you can help people.
So yeah, we all really enjoyed the book.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Well good, thank you.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Yeah, I think it's definitely an important conversation to have.
And also, you know, the therapy setting is kind of juicy, right,
Like that was another that was part of my thinking
as well. I mean, I'm not a psychologist, but I
do work as an occupational therapist, which is kind of
an adjacent profession. And I've known lots of psychologists, and
I know how difficult that work can be and how
(04:37):
careful they have to be to not bring in their
own baggage.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Right, they're people too.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
We kind of forget that, like they have their own
stuff that they're working on. And so I was curious
if what would happen if you had a therapist who
was really bad at that, who was really struggling to
understand her own mind and her own history, and how
that might bleed into.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
The work that she did with her client. So it's yeah,
important thing to talk about.
Speaker 5 (05:01):
And also, you know, a really great juicy setting and
good for creating lots of narrative tension.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 6 (05:11):
I wondered, Like one of your characters, Arlow, she said that,
she said that addictions are a learned thing. Is that
how you feel like Is that do you feel like
that with most with maybe certain kinds of addictions or
is it something that somebody's born with and they just,
(05:31):
for whatever reason, you know, are the way they are.
Or is it different between issues with depression versus alcoholism.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
Yeah, it's an interesting question, And I mean I can
only kind of speak from my own experience, but something
I was curious about with writing this book was also
the idea of nature versus nurture. You know, we have
these two women who have they kind of come from
the same DNA pool, right, but they've grown up in
really vastly different circumstances, and so how what would be
similar what would be different about the things that they
(06:01):
struggle with. My understanding of all kinds of mental illness,
whether it's substance use or depression or anxiety or whatever
is I think you can have sort of a genetic
predisposition for things, and then the nature, the nature, the
lived experiences can create these sort it can sort of
compound on that. So maybe, you know, we have these
(06:24):
two women with a family history of addictions, so they
have that genetic predisposition potentially, but Mickey, having grown up
in more adverse circumstances, having had a harder life, is
maybe she's the sister where that's actually going to show up,
maybe because of all these extra difficult things that have
happened to her.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
It's interesting how you explore the.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
Daughter father thing, because you know that is such that
is quite the relationship between dads, fathers and daughters, you know,
because we you know, we grow up kind of judging
every man in our life against our dad, you know,
by that relationships so or I feel like I did,
And I find it interesting. You know, We've got Mickey,
(07:10):
who you know, he left when she was seven and
she didn't want to be anything like him. And then
you have Arlow, who just you know, adored her father.
He had lots of stuff going on, but she had
a totally different experience. But yet Arlow, you know, nobody,
no man was ever good enough for her because she
needed her daddy's approval. And I thought it was interesting
how you kind of weave the story with these these
(07:32):
two main characters and the relationships with their families, like
two broken families, and how they kind of navigated from
childhood into adulthood and what they're trying to do now,
which we find at the end of the book just
they're trying to fix themselves, but it's taken a long time.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
No, I think that's interesting you hit on that, And
I think the truth is sort of somewhere in the middle, right,
Like Barlow sees one version of their dad, Mickey sees another,
And I think part of their or any over the
course of the book is realizing that he was bits
and pieces of both.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Maybe I think.
Speaker 5 (08:06):
At one point Arlow or maybe it's Mickey calls him
like ninety five percent evil or ninety.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Seven percent evil and think, well, maybe that's not true.
Speaker 5 (08:14):
Maybe he's like eighty five percent evil or eighty percent evil.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Right, Like, where does the truth actually lie?
Speaker 5 (08:20):
And how does coming to terms with that help them
move on and move forward?
Speaker 3 (08:25):
As you said, And everybody has a different version, whether
it's the daughters or you know, those who were in
the dad's life. And we learned a little bit more
at the funeral, So it's a favorite daughter is described
as darkly funny, and there were definitely a lot of
laughs along the way. And I guess is that how
you were able to balance the heavier themes because in
(08:47):
life there is a lot of heaviness, whether there's addiction
or not. And there were a lot of moments where
you could kind of, oh, okay, there's a there's a
light moment for them.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
Yeah, I think this it's just part of me and
who I am as a writer where and a reader
for that matter, because when I'm reading books where things
are only sad and there's only you know, trauma, and
despair without any sort of levity or any kind of humor.
It feels actually a little bit untrue to me. I
think that real life is usually both of these things
(09:19):
at once.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
And I think about, you know, some.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
Of the most difficult moments of my own life have
also been quite funny in certain ways. It just seems
to be Maybe it's as humans, that's just something we
do to cope. I'm not sure, but yeah, I think
in order to be to tell an honest story, I
knew it would have to be both of those things.
It would have to be both, you know, to teary
(09:45):
and challenging emotionally, but also but also fun.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
And what a great cast of characters, you know, with
Mickey and Arlow and then you got Chris, and then
you got Tom who's now at the end with Daria,
and it's just and then the really I had to
google the cat and these cats can sell for like
one hundred thousand dollars, and I was like, what is this?
Was there a specific the cat? Was there a specific
(10:13):
scene when she took the cat?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I'm like, oh, dear God, she's not cat that was
And you.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
Can laugh at this, You're like me as I was
because I laughed as I was writing it.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I was like, oh, I was going to take the cat.
Speaker 5 (10:26):
This is so ridiculous, Like this is her low, right,
this is her bottom.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
But I've had.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
Lots of people be like, oh, this is terrible, this
is animal abuse.
Speaker 4 (10:35):
This you can't.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Everyone's entitled to their opinion. But I'm glad that you,
like me, thought it was.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
It was funny and no harm comes to the cat. Yes, right,
I think all of this.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Yeah, Well, in the end, I like I learned how
pawn shops work. Because I've never pawned anything. I didn't
realize you take something bad and you get a certain
amount of time where you can go back.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Was there was there a specific character, though, out of
the cast of characters that you really enjoyed writing about
or writing for.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
Definitely Tom for sure, the skeazy lawyer, the slutty lawyer.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
I really do enjoy him, and I like that.
Speaker 5 (11:12):
I think with all the characters, something I tried to
do was make sure that who they are on the
surface is not necessarily actually who we learn that they are.
You know, like that looks can be a bit deceiving,
And for him that was super fun because I you know,
on the outside, he's this very generic, stereotypical, wealthy, middle aged,
(11:34):
sort of gross white man, right, and then we learn
that actually he has layers, right, Like he's trying to
improve himself just like everybody else's, you know, in his
desk he keeps like his you know, essential oils for
his diffuser to help him be calm and to manage
his anger, and you know, the alarm goes off on
his phone to prompt him to meditate. Right, Like that's
(11:57):
fun to me. I just love those. I love stories
and characters where things aren't what they seem and where
first impressions are wrong. And with him, that I think
is definitely the case where if you meet him in
real life, you'd think one thing, but then once you
sit down and get to know him, as Mickey does, right,
she learns that he's not quite what she thought he was,
and her friendship with him ends up being quite important
(12:20):
for her journey in her life.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Yeah, we talked about that, like when he stepped in
as her pretended to be her dad when she was
in the hospital, Like that was kind of like a
nice moment, like you meet this person as someone who's
you know, bringing attention to this estate and this money
you're going to inherit, and then they end up like
he's at her birthday party and they're hanging out.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
I'm like, yeah, unlikely friendships are a fun thing. I
love unlikely friendships and stories. I think they're the best.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
And I think too, it's like, you know, what you've
written about your characters is that, Yeah, when you first
meet somebody, they come across as one thing, and then
as you get to know somebody, that's either a good
thing or a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
But people are multi layered.
Speaker 6 (13:02):
Like it's just you know, we show a certain face
to most people, right depending how close you are to somebody.
But then once you get beneath the layers, there's a
bunch of stuff, some really great stuff, you know, underneath.
And we find out about Tom, you know, we find
out about Mickey, we find it about Arlow.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know, Chris I'm still wondering about. And I'm wondering
like kind of warmed up, you know.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
I read him in the beginning of the books as
one kind of character, and then at the end he
was like this this other character.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
I'm like, how did I miss that?
Speaker 6 (13:31):
I kind of thought he was kind of a I
don't know, I have a douchey guy.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
I didn't really like him.
Speaker 6 (13:36):
I didn't like him, but then you know, yeah, and
then he kind of turned into this other person and
I'm like, I really hope they.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Do get together.
Speaker 6 (13:43):
Yeah, anyway, just lots of layers here, lots of layers,
just like real life stuff, you know.
Speaker 5 (13:49):
Yeah, for sure, I see Chris is like a sort
of a douchey like hoppey bro kind.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
I was getting a jock you know, yeah, the job
out of Gatorade and you know, like.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
He's a gym bro or something, right, But then the
same as same as Tom, Like he's I don't know,
just trying to grow up a bit, I think, and
take himself seriously and envision himself as someone's partner, someone's dad,
and so that hopefully gives him a bit of depth.
But yeah, I always end up writing some sort of
(14:25):
you know, jock hockey bro. There's it's such good comedic fodder.
Speaker 6 (14:30):
You know, we all know, you know Morgan when I
first when we first got introduced to him, and he said,
I'm the uncle.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know what I thought.
Speaker 6 (14:38):
I thought, I'm like, sure, you're the uncle. Like everybody,
every guy in someone's life, you know, says he's the uncle,
but he's not, and he's like he seriously was Yeah,
I think that's where I got. I think that's where
I got.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
The thing was like, sure, hey, what you're looking after? Ian?
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Like Ian Ian with the glass in his eye, with
the broken decanta, poor Yann, but he still loved his
teacher Morgan. You know, I felt like we finally get
to the point at the end of the story where
the sisters, you know, come to an agreement split the money,
(15:14):
and then after the last couple of pages, I was
left with what happens next? What is happening with their relationship?
Is this setting up for a sequel? Or can you
tell us a little bit about what happens? Do they
become friends? Do they take their money and separate?
Speaker 5 (15:31):
Well, no sequel is in the works. I don't think
I would write a sequel for this story. But my
editor did ask me an interesting question not too long ago,
which was, if you were to write a sort of
five years later at the log or bonus chapter, what
would happen like what would it be about? And I
do think that they would Mickey and Arlow would definitely
be in each other's lives.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
I see them, yeah, being being friends.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
I think where they would maybe meet up for a
coffee once a month or something. And the idea I
had in my head for a sort of extra epilogue was,
you know, I think if Tom were to be getting married,
maybe it's Daria, and maybe it's someone else, but maybe
he's getting married at a tropical destination somewhere. And then
Mickey is invited and she brings Arlo as a plus one,
(16:16):
and then Tom is horrified because he's like still not
over the whole thing, and they just.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Sort of create a bit of havoc and chaos.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
I do think they would be chaotic sisters, but I
think that's what I envisioned for them, is moving towards
a bit more of a traditional sister relationship where they
can confide in each other and yeah, just be part
of each other's lives going forward.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Do you have any idea of you know, if because
we love this book and these characters and can see
them on the big screen, do you have any ideas
of who the characters would be played by?
Speaker 4 (16:55):
Oh, yes, this is a fun question. The dream casting. Yeah,
I think I really like Anya Taylor Joy. The actress
I could see her again, yeah, yes, from The Queen's Gambit. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
And then for Mickey, we need someone who's maybe a
bit who's a bit older, right, maybe ten years older.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
I thought Rachel McAdams potentially ours. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Another actress I really like is Lily James, who she's British.
She was in she was in that Cinderella adaptation a
really long time ago, she was in Downton Abbey.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
I think she's sort of the right age and would
maybe be.
Speaker 5 (17:36):
Could be like a sort of grittier Mickey to the
more you know, polished Arlow.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Mm hmmm. I really like Deborah too, Deborah and her
hair salon just like you know, I love that scene
where Arlo was like really just trying to be like
tell me stuff, tell me stuff, and she's just going
about her thing. It's like that was good for her.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
I fully in my head picture Meryl Streep's character for
Mamma Mia even was like she's gonna wear danim overall.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
So I just made it. I just fully went was.
Speaker 5 (18:08):
Like, oh nice. And the other one I did that
for this is so this is just me showing how
I'm a lazy writer.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
But with Chris.
Speaker 5 (18:18):
I had imagined in my head Chris Pine, you know,
like really yeah, Chris, and then I just called him
Chris again out of lazy.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
And what about Tom who Like we were trying to figure.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Out because you mentioned Tom Hanks in the book that
it was kind of that similarity and that's what we're
thinking about. Like there was moments with Tom where you're like,
he's an attractive fifty year old man, and then there
were sometimes where she's like, you're such a creep, You're
a creep, And I was like, I can't picture who
this is. Who is a hot guy that is like
kind of creepy.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Ooh, okay, I might have to think about this.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Oh I don't I'm thinking of him bigger than Tom Hanks.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Oh yeah, bigger than like more yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
Rod, yeah yeah, unless I don't know.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Tom Hanks is very friendly, looking, very like warm and
has you know, it's like dad energy, whereas I think
Tom would be a bit less of that.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Like, yeah, I'd have to think on it. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
It can almost be like a Tom cruise because he
could kind of go either way too, actually right, because
he's like he can be like hot at times and
sometimes the stuff he does, You're like, Okay, you're a
little bit weird. Yeah, brilliant.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
Yeah he is Tom crazy, nailed it, nail.
Speaker 6 (19:39):
And so Tom Cruise is sixty I know right to me,
that's in my world.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
It doesn't even make sense.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
And like he's still jumping.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Out, he's doing crazy stuff the latest.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
It's just like, wow, he just he wants to keep
doing films until he's one hundred.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
I know.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
I'm like, wow, you go, you go as the same guy.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, same, just playing himself. Morgan. So what's next for you?
You know, this was your debut novel, So what what
what kind of do you have lined up for us next?
Speaker 5 (20:13):
I'm working on a few things at the moment, not
quite ready to talk in detail about it. But the
project I'm working on is set in Invermire, NBC, which
is a setting that I know pretty well.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Yeah, I love it there.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
We spent a lot of time there when I was
growing up, and it is another sort of family story
but with a bit of a mystery twist in there.
So very fun to work on and it's it's actually
been a pleasure to work on it over the course
of the winter in the spring because it's like I
sit down at my computer and then it's a'm at
the lake, you know, you know, it's summer, and so yeah,
(20:52):
that's what I am continuing to putter away on and
hopefully hopefully that will come out to you at some point.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Fingers crossed. Publishing is always a rule of the dice,
so you never know.
Speaker 5 (21:02):
Yeah, but it's for me, the fun part is the writing,
so I'm always just trying to enjoy that and the
rest will happen as it happens.
Speaker 6 (21:11):
Morgan, you mentioned like that, and yeah, in the back
of your book, your acknowledgments, and so I always like
to know like where you know, because it's not just
one person that does these things. It's like a group
of people that help you, right, And I noticed the
name Vern Teessen, and it's like I was in gosh,
probably twenty years ago. I was in bamf and my
boyfriend at the time was working on a play at
(21:31):
the at the bamp Center, right, and Vern was there.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
As helping them out.
Speaker 6 (21:35):
And I do remember, you know, I went to the
to the hot springs and for some reason I didn't
bring my bathing suit, so I had to like wear
one of their nineteen twenties you have to rent and
I'm like, I have never felt more ugly in my life.
And here I am in a pool with some pretty
amazing creative people and I'm like, oh my lord.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So there's my burn teasing story about Anyway.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
He's brilliant, right, He's brilliant and he and I'm sure
that he, you know, helped you with with a lot
in terms of writing your novels.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Now are you going to be helped? Is he going
to be helping you again with this new novel?
Speaker 4 (22:12):
So with that, I was selected.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
I was very lucky to be selected for the writers
what's it called the it's the mentorship program from the
Writer's Guild of Alberta.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
So that year for that iteration of.
Speaker 5 (22:26):
The program, Verne was one of the mentors and then
they matched me with him as one of the participants,
like the apprentices. So that was part of like I
think there's a grant that's attached that program, and it
was very much like you know, starting an end date.
But yeah, Vernon, I are still in touch and so
I would love to, yeah, maybe share some stuff with
him in the future.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
But he's, as you know, always got.
Speaker 5 (22:48):
A lot on the go, so.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Yeah, very busy.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
Yeah, yeah, man, I don't know how he does that.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah, it's been such a pleasure to meet different creative people,
like to meet different writers booksellers too. Like I feel
like I've just grown my community so much through this experience,
and I think that's like that's a big victory for me.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
That feels like a special wind.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
Have you always wanted to be a writer?
Speaker 6 (23:15):
Like is this something that you wanted to do when
you know you were a child, because obviously you went
into you know, you have a profession, right, but is
this something that's always been sort of I.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Just can't imagine writing a novel.
Speaker 6 (23:27):
It seems a bit daunting, But I like, you know,
where does this come from?
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Just well, it is daunting, I think, which is why
I didn't do it for so long. So many people
think about it for so long before they actually sit
down and try to put pen to paper. But yeah,
I was always writing things as a kid, and I
in you know, junior high in high school, you know,
I was on the student newspaper and wrote for some
(23:51):
youth magazines and so I always felt like a writer,
I think. But a few years ago, when I turned
twenty five. This was seven years ago.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Now.
Speaker 5 (24:03):
I was on a trip down in New Orleans with
my friend Super Fun from Mardi Gras, and I just
had this realization of like, wow, time like it happens
to me as well as other people, and so if
I want to like do things, then.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
I might as well start.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
And yeah, I remember my sister was pregnant at the
time with her first kid, and that felt like a
huge shock to me again of like wow, this is
real life, and you'll get old one day, like you'll
die one day, so you might as well try. And
so at that point I started making it more of
a practice where every day I would sit down and
do pages before I went to work, or at the time,
(24:39):
I was in my graduate degree, so before I went
to my classes at school and just sort of you know,
for an hour a day trying to get out maybe
five hundred words and seeing where that led. And now,
I mean I wrote a lot of bad manuscripts before
we got to this one, so there was a lot
of learning along the way. But if you make the
time for it, and you yeah, if you sit down
and you can that sort of regular practice, like.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
You will end up with the book.
Speaker 5 (25:02):
I always tell people that you write fifty words a day,
eventually you end up with the book. Right, two thousand
words a day, you end up with a book like
either way, just about yeah, just about getting your bum
in the chair and trying to start.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
That's amazing. Yeah, we all loved it. Yeah, thank you
so much. Thank you so much for your time today, Morgan.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
Thank you so much for having me. This has been
super fun. So again, Yes, and I love that you
appreciated the cat.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
We love the cat.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
The cat can have a you know, that will be
part of the next day.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Yes, we need a for the cat, right. Thank you
all again so much for choosing my book. It's such
an honor and a privilege, and getting talk with you
has been really fun.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
I've loved it.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Likewise, thank you. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
Thank you, bye, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
She was lovely. Yeah, thank you so much for listening
to another episode of the Relaxing Reads podcast. Until next time. Bye.
Thank you for kicking back and relaxing with us. We
hope you'll join us again on Relaxing Reads.
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