February 3, 2025 • 17 mins
Rebecca Connolly is back! The prolific and award-winning author joins the show to discuss her new genre-bending book and her future. Don't tune out early! You just might miss an appearance by the famous Aunt Edith!
Buy Rebecca's book:
https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Br%C3%BBl%C3%A9e-Bake-Off-Mystery/dp/B0DJDQ76NH
Learn more about Rebecca:
https://www.rebeccaconnolly.com/
Learn more about Jason:
http://www.jasonfwright.com
About the book:
The Great British Baking Show meets a cozy mystery with a contemporary romance and a Regency-era twist.
When Claire Walker is selected to be a contestant on the immensely popular cooking show, Britian’s Battle of the Bakers, she is thrilled. She can’t wait to spend eight enchanting weeks baking at the picturesque estate of Blackfirth Park. She can almost smell the fresh pastries wafting through the air as she and her fellow contestants use historical equipment to bring pre-1900s recipes to life. If she can win the fifty thousand pounds, she’ll be able to ditch her teaching job and launch her baking career.
The Viscount of Colburn, Jonathan Ainsley, is the custodian of Blackfirth Park and an eligible bachelor. With his family’s income dwindling, he reluctantly agrees to host the entire production team, but he refuses to participate since he’s had enough of single women who see him as nothing more than a potential conquest. But when a contestant is found dead soon after filming begins, Jonathan is forced to get involved. To make matters worse, the baker’s death is eerily similar to the legendary death of the tenth Viscountess of Colburn two hundred and fifty years earlier, which sends rumors racing through the estate.
Even as suspicion falls on some of the bakers, a decidedly different kind of heat begins to simmer between Claire and Jonathan. If they are to have any hope of a future romance, they must first solve the mystery before the show gets canceled or someone else falls prey to the Blackfirth Park ghost.
This podcast is brought to you by InkVeins, your source for book publicity, promo, press releases and more. Text 540-212-4095 for more information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, my friends, welcome to the Book Drop, mike.
We are back.
What a nice little hiatus thatwe had.
You may have noticed on socialmedia that I had a little bit of
a Christmas tour.
I was on the road for five outof seven weeks, or something
like that, toward the end of theyear and, you know, as if I
(00:24):
didn't have anything else to do.
My sweet wife and I wrote acookbook and that will be coming
out a year from now.
So the last few months havebeen a little wacky, so we
paused on the podcast for alittle bit, but we're so excited
to be back.
You're going to love our firstguest today.
By the way, as a reminder, thisshow is brought to you by Ink
Veins.
It is your source for publicity, promo and press releases.
(00:46):
I hope you've caught our otherepisodes from last year.
You should.
We covered some great titles,some terrific authors and books
and of course, those episodesare still live.
The links to those books arestill live.
Go check them out.
By the way, if you likepodcasts, I think you should
check out the Scar Dakotaaudiobook and I have found that
(01:07):
people who like podcasts, likeyou listening right now on your
walk or in your car or in yourcubicle.
You also like audiobooks, so goto Audible and do a little hunt
for Scar Dakota and I promiseyou you will absolutely adore
Kirby Haybourne's performanceAlso, of course, as always, the
book is available every placeelse that books are sold.
(01:29):
All right, our first post-hiatusguest.
Is that a thing?
Post-hiatus guest, that's a lotto say fast.
She's a dear friend of mine.
She's actually one of myfavorite humans.
I have a lot of humans that Ireally love, but she is one of
my favorite humans.
Her name is Becky.
Can I call you Becky?
Becky Connolly, can I call youBecky?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, we're friends, you can.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
We're friends Because otherwise it's Rebecca right.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Becky is back and her brand new book.
This week, right February 4th,it's out everywhere.
It's called the Crime BruleeBake Off.
Welcome back to the show, myfriend.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
How have you been?
Tell us how you've been.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I don't have Kirby Hayborn doing my books, which is
unfortunate for me, but I'mgetting over it.
Kirby, if you're listening,please call me so.
But no, I've been great Writing, lots and fun doing it, which
is the whole point.
I mean the money's nice,especially when it's coming, but
(02:33):
nobody gets into writing tobecome a multimillionaire.
We get into writing because welove stories and being able to
play in those worlds is just aball.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, it's interesting.
People ask me that kind ofquestion like well, why did you
get into this?
Like do you just love writingthat much?
And I'm like, absolutely not.
No, I love telling stories andwriting is one of several
vehicles to tell stories.
There's, I think, a differencebetween someone who genuinely
loves storytelling and someonewho loves writing, and I fall in
(03:04):
the first camp there, for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Absolutely, yes, absolutely.
We all have these stories inour heads and our imaginations
that we love, but at least twothirds of us would rather have
Ford shoved into our ears andhave the story in our head
downloaded into our Worddocuments, because we do not
want to do the writing of thestory we want to tell.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Becky, tell us where you live, a little bit more
about yourself and then aboutthe new book.
And I want to know, before youtell us about the new book, how
many things you're working on atone time, because I feel like
you have a new book out aboutevery four days.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, I'm not that good, but I do have friends that
seem to be that good.
So I live in Indiana, and ifwe're getting real specific, I
live in Zionsville, indiana, andfor the lovely people who drive
from Indianapolis to Chicago, Iwill tell you that Zionsville
is one of the last exits of theIndianapolis suburbs before you
get into the open road headingnorthwest towards Chicago, and
(04:14):
you should go see Chicagobecause that's my second home.
So I live in Indiana and I havebeen in Indiana for several
years on and off.
I was raised here from the ageof 12.
So it's home and I love it, andI love being a Midwest girl.
Fantastic Writing is a turnedcareer, not a career choice that
(04:35):
I made when I was young, whichseems to surprise people, but
writing has always been justsomething I did.
Storytelling right, like wetalked about.
I was always telling storiesand making up stories, and
that's just the way my brainworked, and so writing was kind
(04:57):
of the coping mechanism that Ihad through college and through
grad school and through jobs andthings like that.
My degrees are in sportsmedicine.
I have no degrees in writingcreative fiction, anything like
that.
I did take a class on creativewriting in college, though, and
that was worth it, and I wastold there that in order to be a
(05:18):
great writer, you have to be agreat reader, and I thought,
great, if that's the onlyrequirement, then I'm in.
It's not actually the onlyrequirement, but it, you know,
it helped because I'm a totalbookworm.
So that's me, I that I get towrite full time.
Now I have left my career insports medicine for now.
(05:39):
Thanks for all the memories itwas great, and all the free
clothes from my athletic teamsthat I still wear, but so fun.
It's challenging in differentways, but I love doing it.
Okay, so at this moment, primeBrulee something I'm working on
because it's not technically outyet we're in the pre-promo at
this point, so I guess we cancall that one.
(06:00):
I just turned in another bookfor revision, so that's two.
I have another book that theARC is getting ready to go out,
that and I am actively writing.
Wait, I have another bookthat's all edited and ready to
go in March.
That's four.
And I have two books that I'mactively writing at this moment,
which makes us six, and I'munder contract for at least one
(06:23):
more, but I haven't started thatone yet.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And my brain hurts.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, mine does too, but you know, I always wonder
what my headaches are from, andhalf the time it's just my ideas
.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Now, so some of these are traditionally published
through one of your publishers.
I think Creme Brulee is ShadowMountain Publishing, I believe
right.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It is correct.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And then some of these are on your own, through
your own imprint, that you'vekind of been publishing for a
long time, right.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, so I've got my historical romance.
Publisher is a small presscalled Phase Publishing out of
Seattle, so I have one projectwith them that is ready to go,
but we are waiting until thecrime, brulee fervor, has died
down so both books can havetheir equal time in the
spotlight.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Awesome, fervor, that's a good way to put it.
Well, there's such a cutelittle story behind this book
going from your noggin toreader's hand this week.
Tell us a little bit about thebook and that little story.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Okay, so a few years ago I was doing an anthology
with a couple of friends and itwas set in the the I don't know
the Georgian era or something,and we got on the subject of
kitchens and cooking and so wehad this joke about the great
Georgian bake off.
It was hilarious for us and Itold one of my friends about it,
(07:47):
say crafted of a baking showtaking place on a historic
estate.
So a contemporary baking show,I should say, taking place on a
historic estate, with theclassic historical figure of the
brooding Viscount who falls inlove with one of the competitors
.
And so we played with that andmade a whole not a full synopsis
(08:10):
, but we kind of laid it out andit was hilarious and great and
I sent that to my editor atShadow Mountain as kind of a
haha, isn't this funny, slash,cute?
And then months later she sendsit back to me and says I love
this.
Can you throw a dead body in?
Excuse me?
I mean, it's not often that,you know, the wheels of my brain
(08:32):
actually come to a screechinghalt with the smell of the tar
and the rubber just filling yournostrils.
But that was it and I was likeyou just said.
Yeah, we want to turn this intoa cozy mystery.
I just had this image of a deadbody dropping in front of Paul
Hollywood's face and crushinglike gorgeous patisserie, and
that's the image that this bookput in my head and the rest of
(08:57):
the time that I wrote this book.
It was you dropped a dead bodyinto my cute baking rom-com, but
you know what it worked andit's hilarious and fun and I
don't have any regrets aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I love it and I think um was it library journal that
referred to this as a roommystery.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, we've, we've coined a new phrase and I had
nothing to do with it A rowmystery.
And um, make shirts, and I wantkey chains and bumper stickers.
I want a hashtag and I willlean into this hard.
Um, it's a a baking row mystery, so get it going y'all so in
(09:39):
this recipe, is it?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
is it equal parts, romance, mystery, comedy, is it?
Is it really more kind of themystery, the crime side with
side with a dash of romance?
How do you explain?
This is so fresh.
By the way, that's what I thinkwill make the book ultimately
successful for you and for thepublisher and for people picking
(10:02):
it up this week, is thatthere's nothing quite like it
out there.
But if someone's wondering well, I don't know if I like all
these three together, I likethem individually, but will I
like these baked into one?
You see what I did there.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I see what you did there.
That was nice.
That was nice.
I think I give them prettyequal screen time, page time as
the story unfolds, so too doesthe romance, and the baking is
throughout decently equal time.
Some people like the romanceaspects more than the mystery
aspects.
Other people have said thatthey couldn't put the book down
(10:39):
until they knew who done it,which is the whole point of a
mystery, right so?
And then there's the bakersthat are just excited that I go
into detail about baking andthat recipes are included.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Oh, wait, wait what.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Recipes are included.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Oh my, I did.
I genuinely did not know that.
I've not physically seen thebook yet.
My copy will arrive, I guess,on February 4th when it drops.
I had no idea recipes wereincluded.
How fun is that.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And they just decided at the end hey, let's include
some recipes.
So I had to go back through themanuscript and find some of the
foods that are mentioned andthen go through my now endless
supply of baking references andfind recipes to include in the
book.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I love that I love that so much.
Well, if you buy only one bookin 2025 that includes recipes,
it ought to be the ChristmasJars cookbook, if you buy two,
then maybe also buy the CryingBrûlée Bake Off.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
If you don't want to wait until Christmas, get this
one now and save your penniesfor Jason's.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And if you've not seen any of the fun social media
little battles that Becky and Ihave had, maybe I will include
a couple of links in the shownotes.
Before we talk about what'scoming next, tell me just a
little bit about theridiculously absurd, hilarious
reels that you posted during theholidays that we can link to in
(12:11):
the show notes that you postedduring the holidays that we can
link to you, jerk.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Okay, so I did a multi-author project with some
friends of mine in November.
It's called the RegencyChristmas Brides and the idea
behind it was that there's thisincredibly eccentric, wealthy,
(12:38):
generous great aunt who tells aniece and some nephews that she
is dying and that she is goingto leave them all something
extraordinary that willbasically make their life if
they get engaged by TwelfthNight.
And with each of them engagedby Twelfth Night, and with each
of them he gives them the caveatthat it could be a love match.
(12:58):
We're not just going out andmarrying people willy-nilly, it
has to be a love match.
And so we're all writing ourbooks and it's great.
And because I am a great bigdork who appreciates a good pun
and word replacement for puns,as evidenced by the crime
roulette fake off.
Thank you Coming up with carolswith word replacement.
(13:21):
Because we were trying to comeup with taglines for the book
and I went a little off therails.
I love Christmas, I'm a greatbig dork and my procrastination
techniques involve wasting a lotof time.
So I wasted a lot of timecoming up with these Christmas
carols with word replacement andthey became too funny and too
ridiculous.
And so suddenly I was filmingmyself in a Christmas bonnet,
(13:45):
wearing a wig, having spectacleson the edge of my nose, singing
Christmas carols as great aunteither.
Um, my acting career was comingshortly, yeah, um.
So I sent it to one of ourauthors who was really good at
doing reels, and she threw um,you know, reactions from our
(14:10):
characters in there.
And then, since that one did sowell, we decided that I needed
to do a Christmas Carol for eachof the books.
So I did, I personalized withmore of the crazy Christmas
carols.
And then we decided that auntEdith had had enough, and so she
did her 12 days of Christmaswhere she's just exhausted and
gone.
And then, finally, we decidedwe were going to do a live
(14:31):
around the time of 12th night tokind of celebrate the whole
thing.
And with the new year, we couldnot possibly advertise our live
coming without Aunt Edithsinging Auld Lang Syne for New
Year's Eve.
And so it may come into, youknow, aunt Edith may get her own
podcast at this point.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Next time you're on the show, you're going to bring
Aunt Edith with you.
Cody, my wife and I, we weredying when these were discovered
uncovered unearthed.
We had so much fun diving intothe rabbit hole of Anne Edith,
so thank you for that.
Again, ladies and gentlemen, wewill put links to Anne Edith in
(15:12):
the show notes.
And before we move on, you dohave to give the other authors
in this fun little project ashout out.
Who are they?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So that is so.
It's myself as the first book.
And then there's Laura Beersystockton and annika walker love
it, love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
All right, so you've already told us a little bit
about what's next, uh, but Ialways ask my guests as a final
question what's the very nextthing we'll be able to pick up
from you after we read Crime,relay, bake Off, and we're like
I need more Becky Connelly orRebecca Connelly in my life.
What will that be and wherewill they find it?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
The very next project from me comes out March 4th and
it is book four in the Agentsof the Convent Regency Spy
Series called A Pearl BeforeSpies, and that was really fun
to do.
It'll be really exciting andentertaining.
So that is the very nextproject from me.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Awesome.
Well, we will make sure that wetalk about that project down
the road and thank you forcoming on the show.
Thank you for being my firstlet's see what I call you my
first post-hiatus podcast guest.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I want a t-shirt.
Post-hiatus podcast guest.
Can you say that real fast?
I want a t-shirt.
Can you say that?
Post hiatus podcast guest.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
That's pretty good.
Look at you.
I wish I could be just afraction of as productive and
prolific as Becky Connolly.
I'm exhausted at the amount ofgood things that you're doing in
the world.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
My pleasure.
And you know what?
Not all of them bring in themoney, but they sure bring in
the laughs.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And that's why we do this right, we tell stories for
laughs.
Hey, do me a big favor.
As we say goodbye, could youjust bring Aunt Edith out to
just sign off on the show today?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
no-transcript.
Hello, my friends, welcome to the Book Drop, mike.
We are back.
What a nice little hiatus thatwe had.
You may have noticed on socialmedia that I had a little bit of
a Christmas tour.
I was on the road for five outof seven weeks, or something
like that, toward the end of theyear and, you know, as if I
(00:24):
didn't have anything else to do.
My sweet wife and I wrote acookbook and that will be coming
out a year from now.
So the last few months havebeen a little wacky, so we
paused on the podcast for alittle bit, but we're so excited
to be back.
You're going to love our firstguest today.
By the way, as a reminder, thisshow is brought to you by Ink
Veins.
It is your source for publicity, promo and press releases.
(00:46):
I hope you've caught our otherepisodes from last year.
You should.
We covered some great titles,some terrific authors and books
and of course, those episodesare still live.
The links to those books arestill live.
Go check them out.
By the way, if you likepodcasts, I think you should
check out the Scar Dakotaaudiobook and I have found that
(01:07):
people who like podcasts, likeyou listening right now on your
walk or in your car or in yourcubicle.
You also like audiobooks, so goto Audible and do a little hunt
for Scar Dakota and I promiseyou you will absolutely adore
Kirby Haybourne's performanceAlso, of course, as always, the
book is available every placeelse that books are sold.
(01:29):
All right, our first post-hiatusguest.
Is that a thing?
Post-hiatus guest, that's a lotto say fast.
She's a dear friend of mine.
She's actually one of myfavorite humans.
I have a lot of humans that Ireally love, but she is one of
my favorite humans.
Her name is Becky.
Can I call you Becky?
Becky Connolly, can I call youBecky?
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, we're friends, you can.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
We're friends Because otherwise it's Rebecca right.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Becky is back and her brand new book.
This week, right February 4th,it's out everywhere.
It's called the Crime BruleeBake Off.
Welcome back to the show, myfriend.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
How have you been?
Tell us how you've been.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I don't have Kirby Hayborn doing my books, which is
unfortunate for me, but I'mgetting over it.
Kirby, if you're listening,please call me so.
But no, I've been great Writing, lots and fun doing it, which
is the whole point.
I mean the money's nice,especially when it's coming, but
(02:33):
nobody gets into writing tobecome a multimillionaire.
We get into writing because welove stories and being able to
play in those worlds is just aball.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, it's interesting.
People ask me that kind ofquestion like well, why did you
get into this?
Like do you just love writingthat much?
And I'm like, absolutely not.
No, I love telling stories andwriting is one of several
vehicles to tell stories.
There's, I think, a differencebetween someone who genuinely
loves storytelling and someonewho loves writing, and I fall in
(03:04):
the first camp there, for sure.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Absolutely, yes, absolutely.
We all have these stories inour heads and our imaginations
that we love, but at least twothirds of us would rather have
Ford shoved into our ears andhave the story in our head
downloaded into our Worddocuments, because we do not
want to do the writing of thestory we want to tell.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Becky, tell us where you live, a little bit more
about yourself and then aboutthe new book.
And I want to know, before youtell us about the new book, how
many things you're working on atone time, because I feel like
you have a new book out aboutevery four days.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, I'm not that good, but I do have friends that
seem to be that good.
So I live in Indiana, and ifwe're getting real specific, I
live in Zionsville, indiana, andfor the lovely people who drive
from Indianapolis to Chicago, Iwill tell you that Zionsville
is one of the last exits of theIndianapolis suburbs before you
get into the open road headingnorthwest towards Chicago, and
(04:14):
you should go see Chicagobecause that's my second home.
So I live in Indiana and I havebeen in Indiana for several
years on and off.
I was raised here from the ageof 12.
So it's home and I love it, andI love being a Midwest girl.
Fantastic Writing is a turnedcareer, not a career choice that
(04:35):
I made when I was young, whichseems to surprise people, but
writing has always been justsomething I did.
Storytelling right, like wetalked about.
I was always telling storiesand making up stories, and
that's just the way my brainworked, and so writing was kind
(04:57):
of the coping mechanism that Ihad through college and through
grad school and through jobs andthings like that.
My degrees are in sportsmedicine.
I have no degrees in writingcreative fiction, anything like
that.
I did take a class on creativewriting in college, though, and
that was worth it, and I wastold there that in order to be a
(05:18):
great writer, you have to be agreat reader, and I thought,
great, if that's the onlyrequirement, then I'm in.
It's not actually the onlyrequirement, but it, you know,
it helped because I'm a totalbookworm.
So that's me, I that I get towrite full time.
Now I have left my career insports medicine for now.
(05:39):
Thanks for all the memories itwas great, and all the free
clothes from my athletic teamsthat I still wear, but so fun.
It's challenging in differentways, but I love doing it.
Okay, so at this moment, primeBrulee something I'm working on
because it's not technically outyet we're in the pre-promo at
this point, so I guess we cancall that one.
(06:00):
I just turned in another bookfor revision, so that's two.
I have another book that theARC is getting ready to go out,
that and I am actively writing.
Wait, I have another bookthat's all edited and ready to
go in March.
That's four.
And I have two books that I'mactively writing at this moment,
which makes us six, and I'munder contract for at least one
(06:23):
more, but I haven't started thatone yet.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
And my brain hurts.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, mine does too, but you know, I always wonder
what my headaches are from, andhalf the time it's just my ideas
.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Now, so some of these are traditionally published
through one of your publishers.
I think Creme Brulee is ShadowMountain Publishing, I believe
right.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
It is correct.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
And then some of these are on your own, through
your own imprint, that you'vekind of been publishing for a
long time, right.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, so I've got my historical romance.
Publisher is a small presscalled Phase Publishing out of
Seattle, so I have one projectwith them that is ready to go,
but we are waiting until thecrime, brulee fervor, has died
down so both books can havetheir equal time in the
spotlight.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Awesome, fervor, that's a good way to put it.
Well, there's such a cutelittle story behind this book
going from your noggin toreader's hand this week.
Tell us a little bit about thebook and that little story.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Okay, so a few years ago I was doing an anthology
with a couple of friends and itwas set in the the I don't know
the Georgian era or something,and we got on the subject of
kitchens and cooking and so wehad this joke about the great
Georgian bake off.
It was hilarious for us and Itold one of my friends about it,
(07:47):
say crafted of a baking showtaking place on a historic
estate.
So a contemporary baking show,I should say, taking place on a
historic estate, with theclassic historical figure of the
brooding Viscount who falls inlove with one of the competitors
.
And so we played with that andmade a whole not a full synopsis
(08:10):
, but we kind of laid it out andit was hilarious and great and
I sent that to my editor atShadow Mountain as kind of a
haha, isn't this funny, slash,cute?
And then months later she sendsit back to me and says I love
this.
Can you throw a dead body in?
Excuse me?
I mean, it's not often that,you know, the wheels of my brain
(08:32):
actually come to a screechinghalt with the smell of the tar
and the rubber just filling yournostrils.
But that was it and I was likeyou just said.
Yeah, we want to turn this intoa cozy mystery.
I just had this image of a deadbody dropping in front of Paul
Hollywood's face and crushinglike gorgeous patisserie, and
that's the image that this bookput in my head and the rest of
(08:57):
the time that I wrote this book.
It was you dropped a dead bodyinto my cute baking rom-com, but
you know what it worked andit's hilarious and fun and I
don't have any regrets aboutthat.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I love it and I think um was it library journal that
referred to this as a roommystery.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Yeah, we've, we've coined a new phrase and I had
nothing to do with it A rowmystery.
And um, make shirts, and I wantkey chains and bumper stickers.
I want a hashtag and I willlean into this hard.
Um, it's a a baking row mystery, so get it going y'all so in
(09:39):
this recipe, is it?
Speaker 1 (09:41):
is it equal parts, romance, mystery, comedy, is it?
Is it really more kind of themystery, the crime side with
side with a dash of romance?
How do you explain?
This is so fresh.
By the way, that's what I thinkwill make the book ultimately
successful for you and for thepublisher and for people picking
(10:02):
it up this week, is thatthere's nothing quite like it
out there.
But if someone's wondering well, I don't know if I like all
these three together, I likethem individually, but will I
like these baked into one?
You see what I did there.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I see what you did there.
That was nice.
That was nice.
I think I give them prettyequal screen time, page time as
the story unfolds, so too doesthe romance, and the baking is
throughout decently equal time.
Some people like the romanceaspects more than the mystery
aspects.
Other people have said thatthey couldn't put the book down
(10:39):
until they knew who done it,which is the whole point of a
mystery, right so?
And then there's the bakersthat are just excited that I go
into detail about baking andthat recipes are included.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
Oh, wait, wait what.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Recipes are included.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Oh my, I did.
I genuinely did not know that.
I've not physically seen thebook yet.
My copy will arrive, I guess,on February 4th when it drops.
I had no idea recipes wereincluded.
How fun is that.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And they just decided at the end hey, let's include
some recipes.
So I had to go back through themanuscript and find some of the
foods that are mentioned andthen go through my now endless
supply of baking references andfind recipes to include in the
book.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I love that I love that so much.
Well, if you buy only one bookin 2025 that includes recipes,
it ought to be the ChristmasJars cookbook, if you buy two,
then maybe also buy the CryingBrûlée Bake Off.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
If you don't want to wait until Christmas, get this
one now and save your penniesfor Jason's.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And if you've not seen any of the fun social media
little battles that Becky and Ihave had, maybe I will include
a couple of links in the shownotes.
Before we talk about what'scoming next, tell me just a
little bit about theridiculously absurd, hilarious
reels that you posted during theholidays that we can link to in
(12:11):
the show notes that you postedduring the holidays that we can
link to you, jerk.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Okay, so I did a multi-author project with some
friends of mine in November.
It's called the RegencyChristmas Brides and the idea
behind it was that there's thisincredibly eccentric, wealthy,
(12:38):
generous great aunt who tells aniece and some nephews that she
is dying and that she is goingto leave them all something
extraordinary that willbasically make their life if
they get engaged by TwelfthNight.
And with each of them engagedby Twelfth Night, and with each
of them he gives them the caveatthat it could be a love match.
(12:58):
We're not just going out andmarrying people willy-nilly, it
has to be a love match.
And so we're all writing ourbooks and it's great.
And because I am a great bigdork who appreciates a good pun
and word replacement for puns,as evidenced by the crime
roulette fake off.
Thank you Coming up with carolswith word replacement.
(13:21):
Because we were trying to comeup with taglines for the book
and I went a little off therails.
I love Christmas, I'm a greatbig dork and my procrastination
techniques involve wasting a lotof time.
So I wasted a lot of timecoming up with these Christmas
carols with word replacement andthey became too funny and too
ridiculous.
And so suddenly I was filmingmyself in a Christmas bonnet,
(13:45):
wearing a wig, having spectacleson the edge of my nose, singing
Christmas carols as great aunteither.
Um, my acting career was comingshortly, yeah, um.
So I sent it to one of ourauthors who was really good at
doing reels, and she threw um,you know, reactions from our
(14:10):
characters in there.
And then, since that one did sowell, we decided that I needed
to do a Christmas Carol for eachof the books.
So I did, I personalized withmore of the crazy Christmas
carols.
And then we decided that auntEdith had had enough, and so she
did her 12 days of Christmaswhere she's just exhausted and
gone.
And then, finally, we decidedwe were going to do a live
(14:31):
around the time of 12th night tokind of celebrate the whole
thing.
And with the new year, we couldnot possibly advertise our live
coming without Aunt Edithsinging Auld Lang Syne for New
Year's Eve.
And so it may come into, youknow, aunt Edith may get her own
podcast at this point.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Next time you're on the show, you're going to bring
Aunt Edith with you.
Cody, my wife and I, we weredying when these were discovered
uncovered unearthed.
We had so much fun diving intothe rabbit hole of Anne Edith,
so thank you for that.
Again, ladies and gentlemen, wewill put links to Anne Edith in
(15:12):
the show notes.
And before we move on, you dohave to give the other authors
in this fun little project ashout out.
Who are they?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
So that is so.
It's myself as the first book.
And then there's Laura Beersystockton and annika walker love
it, love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
All right, so you've already told us a little bit
about what's next, uh, but Ialways ask my guests as a final
question what's the very nextthing we'll be able to pick up
from you after we read Crime,relay, bake Off, and we're like
I need more Becky Connelly orRebecca Connelly in my life.
What will that be and wherewill they find it?
Speaker 2 (15:51):
The very next project from me comes out March 4th and
it is book four in the Agentsof the Convent Regency Spy
Series called A Pearl BeforeSpies, and that was really fun
to do.
It'll be really exciting andentertaining.
So that is the very nextproject from me.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Awesome.
Well, we will make sure that wetalk about that project down
the road and thank you forcoming on the show.
Thank you for being my firstlet's see what I call you my
first post-hiatus podcast guest.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I want a t-shirt.
Post-hiatus podcast guest.
Can you say that real fast?
I want a t-shirt.
Can you say that?
Post hiatus podcast guest.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
That's pretty good.
Look at you.
I wish I could be just afraction of as productive and
prolific as Becky Connolly.
I'm exhausted at the amount ofgood things that you're doing in
the world.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
My pleasure.
And you know what?
Not all of them bring in themoney, but they sure bring in
the laughs.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
And that's why we do this right, we tell stories for
laughs.
Hey, do me a big favor.
As we say goodbye, could youjust bring Aunt Edith out to
just sign off on the show today?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
no-transcript.
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