Sevan Minaskanian | Storytelling, Cultural Identity, Resilience | The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast #38 - The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I wrote this book for people who don't like to read,
because I never liked.
I fell asleep when I read.
I'm more of a visual person.
I would love it if my bookturns into a movie.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
I love how you said romance is free.
That's so powerful and it's someaningful.
Little note on the card, thewhisper in the ear.
Those things used to exist.
Now it's so superficial.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
You know how they say don't judge a book by its cover
.
Like they're looking at me.
Who is she In?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
their head.
You have to be young, thin andbeautiful to know about romance.
When you're writing a book andyou are an author, your goal is
to make it.
You know you want to make it.
That makes me think, like howmuch of stories are changed,
like authentic stories that arewritten, but the person that
just desperately wants to makeit will probably make up or
falsify.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
She said, Savan, you're going to punch her face
in and I'm not going to see itand say that she ran into the
wall.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Hello everyone, thank you for joining me today.
On today's episode, we talkedabout publishing.
We're talking about a self-madeauthor, sevan Minaskanyan.
Sevan wrote a beautiful bookcalled Wintertime and it's a
story of love.
She's actually a romance writerand it's a saga.
So she has her second bookcoming out, a third and possibly
a fourth, and I'm so honoredthat she was on the show today.

(01:38):
In today's episode we dived intothe story and how the story was
born and how the writingprocess was for her, but also
the journey as a self-madeauthor and how difficult they
can be sometimes.
So she talked about herpersonal journey, how her story
was born and the process of thebook.
Now, something that reallycaught my attention and why I

(02:01):
wanted Sevan on the show is howthis book portrays traditional
values and morals.
This is such a refreshing bookfor any family or teenager to
read because it really showstraditional ways of living, good
, proper way of living, and I'mso grateful that this book is

(02:22):
proper and really teachesteenagers about saving
themselves, about true love,about family, about Christianity
and how she said, romance isfree.
Now, in today's world,everything is so superficial,
including romance, but shespecifically wanted to make sure

(02:44):
that when teenagers read thisbook, they really have a deeper
understanding what true love is,and it's not supposed to be
superficial.
So I really wanted to presenther to all of you and her saga
to all of you.
I think that many of us shouldbe so appreciative of authors
like this and how it's difficultto be a self-made author, but

(03:05):
not only to keep our traditionsalive as human beings.
So I'm very grateful fortoday's conversation and such
good laughs as well, becauseshe's such a comedian and such
an honor and joy to have around.
Enjoy this episode with SevanMinaskanyan.
I'll link everything and allthe details of where you can get

(03:25):
the book and where you can findher.
Her books are sold at severalBarnes and Nobles in the country
, in more than 12 countries andalso in more than, I think,
around 50 libraries andbookstores worldwide.
So such an honor to have heraround and definitely you guys
will connect with her.
Enjoy this episode.

(03:46):
Make sure to subscribe and tuneinto the channel.
Thank you so much forconstantly supporting me and
enjoy the episode.
Sevan, thank you so much forjoining me today.
I'd like to say that it is suchan honor to have an individual
like yourself on my show.
I love the work you do.
I think it's phenomenal, Ithink it's meaningful and it
definitely deserves all thepraise in the world, and I'm

(04:10):
very happy that you chose thisshow and I'm very grateful to
have you today.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me and
giving me a chance.
A first time author usuallypeople aren't this nice, so
thank you very much.
Oh, my goodness, of course.
What would you like to know?

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Let's start with the book I want to know.
What I want to know is how wasthis novel born?
How did you have the idea toeven write such phenomenal
series like Wintertime, thisspecific?

Speaker 1 (04:49):
story all started with a trip to Vail for me and
my husband's wedding anniversary, uh-huh.
So it all started on a bridgein Vail and something very weird
happened to me on that bridgeand I was first I was shocked,

(05:15):
then I was very emotional, andthen I was hesitant to tell
others because my husband wasthe only one that was there
witnessing what happened.
So if you'd like to know, I'dlike to tell you about that.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yes, I was just going to say what happened on that
bridge.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
We were walking around.
Vail has a modern side and anold town side with cobblestones,
which is my favorite because itreminds me of Europe, even
though I've never been to Europejust in the movies.
And we were walking, I told myhusband I hear water noise and
he said, oh, it's probably somefountain in front of the
restaurant.
I said no, no, this is a verystrong water noise.

(05:52):
It has to be at least a creekor a river.
So we walked, got closer to thenoise and we crossed the street
and, sure enough, on the bridgeI looked down, there was a huge
river with beautiful foresttrees on the right and beautiful
mansions on the left, and themansions weren't gated so I
could go near it and see whatthey looked like, because they

(06:13):
were very interesting looking.
But on that bridge I lookeddown and I just stood there and
my husband's waiting for me.
He's like okay, we had enough.
I said no, I don't want toleave.
And he's like I know you likenature, but we got to go because
we weren't supposed to staythere.
We're supposed to continue togo to Colorado Springs.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
So you guys were driving there.
Basically this was on yourdrive, drive yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
Because, just like the character in my book, I
don't fly.
I'm afraid of flying.
I had to give something of meto the character.
So he waited about 15, 20minutes and another half an hour
.
He's like okay, this is notnormal.
So then I burst into tears andhe's like what's wrong with you?

(06:57):
I said my father's here, myfather died.
So it was like five yearsbefore that he died.
How old were you when yourfather died?
46.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
My goodness.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah, I don't know if my husband was trying to
comfort me, but I could see thescared look in his eyes Like
he's like, what are you tellingme?
I said I'm sorry, I'm notleaving.
So I stood there, waited,waited.
I said I feel him around thecorner.
I made my poor husband walk onthe cul-de-sac with me and the

(07:31):
cul-de-sac ended and he's like,you know he's not here.
I mean, I know he's not there,but I felt his presence.
So, long story short, threehours later he finally convinced
me to get in the car so we cancontinue, because once it gets
dark we don't know the road.
We don't want to get stucksomewhere.

(07:52):
So the only way I could getinto the car, I said to him is
if you promise me on the wayback home you stop on this
bridge again, I want to.
I felt close to my father thereand he's like OK, on this
bridge again, I want to.
I felt close to my father thereand he's like okay, he, I don't
know if he said okay to get mein the car at that moment, but
he did.
On the way back he did stop andlet me get on that bridge.

(08:20):
So we had our anniversary atColorado Springs at Broadmoor
Hotel.
We had fun, you know, it wasreally nice.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
I love my kids, but it was really nice to be alone
with my husband.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
So I got back and I was sitting one day and my
husband goes.
You know, I brought you alaptop.
Now I'll be honest with you,I'm not good with technology.
And I said, oh, I used everyexcuse, oh, I don't want to use
it.
And he goes.
I see you writing.

(08:50):
I said, yeah, I'm writing on ajournal.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
What were?

Speaker 1 (08:54):
you writing.
First I wrote what Iexperienced there on the bridge
and then I thought, oh my gosh,it's so embarrassing.
People are going to think I'mcrazy if I tell them this.
So I didn't put that in thebook.
Then I started writing a storyand then I got so emotional I
closed it and put it away.
So I told myself until myfather comes in my dream and

(09:17):
tells me go ahead and write, I'mnot going to write.
So I didn't write.
I wrote two pages and I stopped.
A whole year went by, nothing.
I went to his grave, nothing.
I was like okay, I'm forcing ittoo much, so I let it go Soon
as I let it go.
I kid you not.
Three days later, when I justput everything away and gave up,

(09:39):
he came to me in my dream.
He said why aren't you writing?
If I tell you the feeling that Ifelt I didn't want to wake up,
because I knew, if I woke up, Ieven knew in my dream that it
was a dream, he goes why aren'tyou writing?
I said you're here because Iwanted you to come.

(10:02):
You're not here because Iforced you to come In my head.
I wanted you to come.
You're not here because Iforced you to come In my head.
I wanted you to come.
You're not really here.
Prove it to me.
He goes.
Okay, why were you crying onthat bridge?
I lost it.
How does he know?
I was on the bridge crying.
He goes.
You were looking for me, I feltit, so I'm telling you write
your story, and my dad does havea very good ability to tell

(10:27):
stories.
Unfortunately, he never gotpublished, but he wrote
beautiful stories on a trip toHayastan, all the places.
He's a very good writer.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Really.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah, but he's also a machinist, and he used to also
play the round football ourfootball as a young kid.
He played everywhere, so hewasn't just a writer, but I got
that ability from him.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Did you grow up watching him write?

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Yes, but I never.
You know.
You think your father's thereforever.
I never said what you knowbecause his words were in
Armenian.
He only wrote in Armenian.
His words were very big, soevery other word.
I had to ask him what it meantand as a young kid, you know you
lose interest.
So I was like Dad, why do youwrite like a philosopher?
I can't understand what you'resaying.

(11:20):
So my mom would translate someof the stuff, were they good.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Very good.
Do you have some of those?

Speaker 1 (11:27):
oh yes, I kept all of it.
My mom, after I wrote the firstbook, put it in a box and gave
me the whole thing, everythinghe wrote.
He wrote pages after pagesafter pages.
It's too bad that I neverpopped like.
He never got published.
But one day, one day, the hisexperience to hayastan and what
he felt seeing everythingArmenia, I should say for the

(11:48):
people there.
It would be very nice if I couldpublish that for him, because
it's amazing, amazing.
I definitely need a very goodArmenian speaker for him to even
or her to understand.
Yes to translate it, translateeverything.
Were you close with your dad?
Very, I was the one that gotaway with everything.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
How many siblings do you?

Speaker 1 (12:09):
have?
I have an older sister and anolder brother.
You're the youngest, I'm theyoungest, so I got away with
everything, even if my dad wasangry at me.
I would make him crack him upand he would just forgive, and
you know, what do you miss mostabout him?
The way he would show me howlife is.

(12:30):
His advice, because I jumpright away into believing
everybody and or getting angry.
He would teach me no, look atit calmly, more logically, not
emotionally.
A lot of the stuff that he saidto me as a young kid I was like

(12:51):
yeah, it's not like thatanymore, Boy, am I wrong?
It's like that even worse.
Yeah, Like something simple, aswhen you go to somebody's house
, don't open the refrigerator.
If you need something, you askfor it.
You know kids nowadays yeah, mymom says that too.
That's something just simplethat came to mind.

(13:11):
Or he would don't get too closetoo fast with someone, because
then the opposite can happen.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Give your boundaries.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Give it time.
Don't forget you're Armenian.
First, Don't forget how tospeak, write, Because I didn't
go to Armenian school.
I came here I was very young.
My mom gave me lessons, Eventhough she's not a teacher.
I would have to do homeworkafter school, which drove me

(13:42):
nuts back then.
But I'm very happy because nowmy kids went to Armenian school
and I was the one helping themwith the homework.
So I miss the pranks that weused to do on him because he was
so nice.
I miss his laughs.

(14:03):
I don't know.
I miss so many things that Ithought would be there forever.
So whoever's listening to this24-7, if you can be with your
parents, be with your parents,because you never know.
I mean, we weren't ready whenhe passed away.
We thought he had a back pain.
He went to the hospital.
Two weeks later he had cancer.

(14:24):
We didn't know.
He died.
Oh, my goodness it was veryquick, very fast, so I had no
time to process it and saygoodbye to him.
So I was very angry.
That's why I didn't believewhen he came in my dream, I
thought I was forcing myself tosee him in my dream.
But when he said he saw mecrying on the bridge, I knew he

(14:50):
really was there.
And I said this a couple oftimes on my book signings for my
book, but never in details tohow why I started writing the
story.
I mean, I write what I know.
My dad didn't write aboutromance, but I'm not going to
write about something I don'tknow.
I'm not going to Google it andthen copy paste and put a book
together or have AI write it.

(15:11):
Nowadays that's what they do,true?
So I wrote what I know, and Iknow a lot about romance.

Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah exactly.
Break the ice a little bit.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
And that's what I wrote.
I started and then the minutehe said that it took me only
three months to write the book,and then after that, believe it
or not, once you write the book,that's not the hard part If you
know how to tell stories thatis.
The hard part is after that.
Getting it to where it is nowis the hardest thing I ever went

(15:46):
through.
But I think God did it that way, because now I know every step
of how it's done, whether I youknow, because this is
self-published.
But once I do, the second bookhopefully, god willing, will be
to the big five, as they call it, published by a real publisher.
Not that these aren't realpublishers, but that's what they

(16:07):
call them.

Speaker 2 (16:07):
Yes, of course.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I would know the step Like if somebody's trying to,
you know, twist the truth alittle bit, I would catch them.
So maybe this was meant to beso I can learn and I know what
is my right, what I can ask forand what's expected of me and
what to be expected of them.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, and it's a whole different journey writing
a book and having it beenpublished.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
Completely.
I had no clue Until now.
People think that you just geton the.
It's not like that.
Writer's block is the worstthing.
Not coming up with stories iseven, you know, really bad.
And if you don't have a goodmemory, do not write a book
because you'll forget what thecharacter said, because it's not
just two main characters, it's,you know, four or five other

(16:54):
characters that help the plot.
So if you forget what they said, later on you say something and
then you say the line to thewrong character, something and
then you say the line to thewrong character.
So if you don't have a goodmemory of writing a good story
like that, do not, or you haveto make a lot of notes.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
You know I read a lot .
I am, I'm, a big, big fan ofreading, and it doesn't nothing
specific.
I read everything.
But one thing that I've learned, being 40 years old and living
for 40 years, and education aswell storytelling is so
important, it's like essentialin a human's life.

(17:32):
And why do you, as an author?
Why do you think thatstorytelling is important for
children and adults?
Why is it such an essentialpiece of a person's life?

Speaker 1 (17:45):
I'll be honest with you.
I shouldn't be saying this asan author, because I am a new
author.
I never studied, I never tookliterature.
This wasn't my major.
I'm a dental technician, eventhough I didn't do any of that
either.
Typical, you know you get yourdiploma, you get married and you
forget about it.
Anyway, I wrote this book forpeople who don't like to read,

(18:09):
because I fell asleep when Iread.
I'm more of a visual person.
I would love it if my bookturns into a movie.
I actually wrote it because Iwant it to be a movie, but I
also wrote this if I can justhelp one child to read and start
liking reading and now that Iwrote I see how important it is

(18:32):
for young kids to read.
I would be very happy if Icould just get one person to
understand.
Very happy if I could just getone person to understand and my
point of view.
When I started writing, Iunderstood how to read another

(18:53):
book.
It was the weirdest thingbecause I knew how things were
being set.
I stopped falling asleep when Iread another book.
So in this book, the way Iwrote it, because I'm already
older and I know how to do it,I'm not going to start from my

(19:14):
position.
So I started from back to zero.
How can I make the children,kids, teens, read a book?
So what I did is first, I didnot use big words, because if
you get the reader to stop andlook and ask Siri what the word
means, you lost them.
So I wrote it very simple andvery fluffy, especially the
first book, just to get themintrigued and want to read

(19:40):
instead of getting on the TV orgetting on the computer or
playing video games or whatever.
So I know that there's enoughbooks for Americans and other
ethnicity.
They've written many, manybooks.
When I wanted to write this book, I realized that Armen have I

(20:04):
mean, we had a lot of romanticauthors.
I'm not saying I'm the firstone, but we didn't have any for
now.
And, as an Armenian romanceauthor, even Barnes and Noble
said you were the first one.
We've never.
Usually it's about, you know,genocide or kids books, which is
fine.
But I wanted to write about loveand I wanted to write about how

(20:28):
to save yourself, if you can,for marriage.
But I did not want to write bytelling them how to do it,
because you tell any teenager,they're not going to listen.
But if you tell through a lovestory and they see how romance
can happen.
And romance, even though thesekids they're very elaborate,

(20:50):
they go to a lot of lavishvacations, but the romance part
is free.
So I wanted to teach the youngmen, especially Armenian young
men, you don't have to spend alot of money to have romance in
your life, because romance isn'tbuying a Louis Vuitton bag.
Yeah, absolutely.
And that's temporary happiness.

(21:13):
I wanted them to be happyforever.
So there was that one sectionof why I wanted to write.
I wanted the kids to read.
I even did the pages bigger,white, with the big font.
You did.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Easy, easy, easy and legible.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Yes, and I.
Even though my book is calledYA.
It's a fiction, YA romance butso many older people, you know
they're reading it, they feelconnected, they can relate.
Nobody's born this age.
Everybody was a teenager once,that's right.

(21:55):
And because it's such anold-fashioned kind of love that
I got older people reading it.
I mean, my biggest fan is 63years old.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
That's lovely.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
She does all these beautiful things and sends me
stuff and you'd think she was a13-year-old teenager.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
What's interesting to me is that you have this agenda
behind your story and that's toteach younger generation values
and morals and the importanceof these values and morals.
Where do you think that'sstemming from?

Speaker 1 (22:33):
My parents.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
Why save yourself, or save yourself for marriage.
That's very powerful to portraythat in a story I wanted to
teach them when they read thisbook.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Yes, I'm not saying the whole thing is about.
I'm not quoting the Bible oranything you got to make it
believable.
It's not like the whole time.
They're just being good,they're still doing some stuff,
but not you know.
And I wanted to teach thembecause nowadays I feel like the

(23:06):
process of these teenagers I'mnot saying all some teenagers
from meeting someone and goingto bed is one to two dates and
sometimes not even three dates.
It shouldn't be like that If.
And then they turn around andthey say, well, if I don't do it

(23:28):
, the guy or the other way, thegirl's going to go to somebody
else, you know, to another guy.
But if we all stick togetherand follow that rule, where's
the guy going to go to orwhere's the girl going to go to?
We all have to do it.
It can't just be, you know,jennifer, you know, is saying
she's going to save herself, butthen Stephanie goes and sleeps

(23:48):
with your man.
Then the lesson isn't learned.
So I wanted to teach every teen, everybody, armenian, american,
it doesn't matter.
Try to save yourself, to looksomething forward to.
Everything is accelerated themakeup, giving the phone too

(24:11):
early to the kid, going to arated R movie, going to parties.
By the time they're 25, they'rebored, there's nothing left for
excitement.
So enjoy each age, because youcan't go back.
I mean, look at me, I had toget up at 7 in the morning to
look like this If I was 18, 17,I would get up 20 minutes before

(24:38):
I got here because I knew Ididn't have to color all my
lines.
Yeah, you know.
So if I knew, like back then,how easy it was.
But now I know.
Now I know what I'm saying islearn from experience.
When someone tells you, yes,some of the stuff you want to do
on your own, but I'm tellingyou, don't do the stuff that you

(24:59):
don't need, so that when you dowear this heavy makeup it's for
a special occasion.
But you know some of theseinfluencers and TikTokers.
I understand they have to do it, but I see sometimes these
teenagers, they're so beautifulthey don't look better with
makeup.
I tell them enjoy every age,enjoy your morals, enjoy your

(25:22):
family, respect.
They hate their brother.
The brother hates the sister,the mother.
It's like where did this allcome from?
The brother hates the sister,the mother.
It's like where did this allcome from?
How come?
Like my parents.
My dad, you know, taught me,when someone older than you
comes into a room, you stand up.
You know Stuff like that it'smissing.

(25:43):
It's missing.
Not that my story is about that, but I want to get their
attention through the romanticway, because that's the only way
they're going to pay attentionto it.
I mean, maybe I'm differentbecause my mom and my dad would
like like I'll give you a sample.

(26:04):
My mom would say, every Saturdaymorning I would get up and
every other kid's watchingScooby-Dooby-Doo or whatever,
you're watching a black andwhite movie, old-fashioned
romance.
And she would ask my dad, isthis normal?
She's seven and she's watching.
And she knew nothing was inthose movies, because it's like
Turner Classic, whatever.

(26:25):
And those black and whitemovies, you know they yeah,
they're innocent, they'reinnocent, there was nothing in
the movie.
So that's what I would watch.
I would like wish until now.
I wish I was born back then,where I'm a teenager, in the 40s
and 50s, because that's the eraI, like you know, I love.

(26:45):
Just holding hands was a bigdeal.
It was so romantic.
A guy would take off the hatwhen you come in, when a woman
would come in, or whatever.
You know, I know that thosewere movies too.
It wasn't that, but it's still.
They still had it.
It wasn't just completely madeup.
No, there's you know you have tosay get up, say hi to your

(27:08):
uncle.
You know, when somebody comeshome, get out of your room, like
we naturally did that.

Speaker 2 (27:13):
So if a parent well, parents are going to be watching
this, what do you think theirchildren are going to take away
from reading Wintertime- Numberone.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
They're going to say, if she can do it, I can do it
Because, again, I'm not ateenager, I waited until now.
I can do it Because, again, I'mnot a teenager, I waited until
now.
I'm 50 something, I don't care,I'm 55.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
For a minute I was like you want some water?

Speaker 1 (27:47):
No.
So, even though I wrote thisbook at 47, and I'll tell you I
was done at 47.
I started at 46, and I'll tellyou why later.
Why it took this long For agirl, a young lady, to go for
her dream, for a young guy notto feel embarrassed, you know,
oh, I'm a man, I shouldn't.
You know they want to read it,but you know they might be

(28:08):
embarrassed.
But whatever they want to writeabout, it doesn't have to be
romance, any genre.
They want to write historicalfiction, you know, thriller,
whatever they want, or even anonfiction if they want to do
self-help.
I wanted to show them, at anyage, don't be embarrassed, don't
say, oh, what if such and suchpeople, whatever you know they

(28:31):
make fun of me?
What if they laugh at me?
What if I write it wrong?
Well, you tell the story.
It's the editor's job.
That's why I tell peoplewhatever mistake is in there,
it's not my fault, it's myeditor and all the good parts
are taken out.
It's my editor's job.
So I want to to tell them writeyour love.
And I and some kids are alsoafraid to tell their parents

(28:56):
because their parents want themto be doctors, lawyers, this,
that, whatever you can.
If you want to do that, do that.
This is until this takes offand then you, slowly, you know
you could find your path.
So I want to teach them that'sone of the things and save
yourself if you can.
And the most of all, I want toteach the young teens romance is

(29:20):
free.
You don't need to bring 500 redroses for someone on
valentine's day.
You can even cut one red rosefrom your yard or the neighbor's
yard or whatever.
And if you're romantic whenyou're giving it, whisper
something in her ear or viceversa.
If you want to give himwhatever he likes I know that

(29:40):
he's not going to want a rose,whatever, something simple
chocolate he likes.
Let's say he just likes darkchocolate.
You take him chocolate and justthat connection.
You don't have to spend moneyon a girl and girls don't have
to spend a lot of money on a guy.
Yes, there's a specialoccasions.
If it's a birthday orgraduation, of course you do.
I'm talking about everydayromance.

(30:01):
Leave a note on her windshieldwiper on her car, like, leave a
note.
It doesn't even have to be acard from Hallmark.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
But the things that you're in, sorry to cut you off,
but the things that you'reexplaining to, those things
existed in one time.
These I love how you saidromance is free.
Yes, that's so powerful andit's so meaningful and that
you're right.
The little note on the car, thewhisper in the ear, those
things used to exist.

(30:29):
Yes, now it's so superficial.
It is, it is, and so you'resaying that the book teaches and
guides or talks about that thestory is about non-superficial
love.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
Yes, again, these characters, they're very, very,
very, very, very, extremelybeyond rich.
That's another subject that Iwant to talk to you about.
But William, the main character, shows Victoria love for free.
His love and romance is free,even though he has.

(31:01):
He has it, he spends it, butshe has it too.
That's not what they're lookingfor.
Something much deeper,something much deeper.
I'll bring you a small sample.
You're a mother, I'm a mother,don't you feel like you do
laundry constantly?

Speaker 2 (31:16):
Every other day.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah, I do it every day and I tell my husband I know
, when we go to sleep anotherfamily is living here, Because
when I wake up in the morning, Ijust did it last night.
How is it?
Anyway, another story.
But when he sees, you know, megoing off, he'll leave.
Like one time he drew a littlepiece of paper like this says I

(31:38):
love you this much, and he threwit down the laundry chute for
me.
So when I took the like, I waslike, oh see, I was upset that I
was doing laundry and I put asmile on my face that, oh, and I
still kept it.
I've had it for 10 years.
I put it away.
How's your marriage?
Oh, very well, Very well, itsounds like that.
Yeah, yeah, we definitely thepot found the lid.

(31:59):
He's, I'm a go go, go, go go.
And very hyper, calmer down,you know, don't get excited,
Don't get angry.
You know, the freeway is notall yours.
People are going to drive slow.
He says that, yeah, because I'mlike when I'm driving, I was

(32:22):
like pull to the right.
If you're going slow, pull tothe right.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
The freeways and yours, yeah, the freeways, yes,
and you know we love not waitingin line too.
That's another thingways inyours, the freeways, yes, and
you know we love not waiting inline too.
That's another thing.
Oh yeah, have you noticed?

Speaker 2 (32:35):
though everything is in such a rush today.
Even reading is a rush, yeah,rush, rush, rush.
Hurry up 15 minutes.
Yes, when is it time?
When's that one minute left?

Speaker 1 (32:44):
I make sure they don't find what are those called
the notes, the cheat notes?
Yeah, for a book, because theyhave them.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Can you tell us about those notes in the books?
I never even read the notes.
Why is it there?

Speaker 1 (32:55):
For the lazy, it's like here's what we talked about
.
Yeah, you don't have to read it.

Speaker 2 (33:01):
Here's what it is Like.
I never go to that.
I find it extremelydisrespectful.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
You will.
You never know the details,even in movies.
They take this book.
Let's just say it turns into amovie.
When it turns into a movie,when it turns into a movie In a
one and a half hour, you're notgoing to know what, victoria,
yes, you're going to see more ofthe looks and you know their
movements and stuff because youknow.
Obviously the book doesn't showthat, but the book will make
you imagine what's happening, soevery person can imagine it

(33:30):
different.
I can imagine what's happening,so every person can imagine it
different.
I can imagine what I'm writingdifferent.
And then you could read thesame story and you'll imagine
William the way you would likeWilliam to look, the way you
think he's being romantic whenhe gives the flower.
Is he like this?
Is he one hand?
out whatever you can imagine allthese things, yeah, heavy
visuals, yeah, because thevisual's not in front of you.

(33:50):
It's not a movie yet.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Would you consider this as a fantasy book?

Speaker 1 (33:54):
No, I mean, it's my fantasy, but it's.
There are guys and girls thatstill exist like that.
It's just I think we have toleave Los Angeles to find them.
Nothing against LA people.

(34:15):
I live here Because I've beento those other states.
I didn't fly there.
We took a road trip and I sawhow the South still lives.
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
Yes, where particularly in the South.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
I went to Natchez Mississippi.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
True Southerners, yes .

Speaker 1 (34:36):
I went to-.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Don't you open that door, ma'am.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yes, you all come back and see us Now.
You're here, don't?

Speaker 2 (34:42):
you open that?

Speaker 1 (34:42):
door.
Ma'am Jackson Mississippi.
I went to Georgia.
Wow, yeah, I mean the way thepeople lived.
It feels like time froze.
Would you ever live?

Speaker 2 (34:55):
in any of those states.
Yes, but then I have to takeall the Armenians with me
Because they belong to us.
Yeah, we belong to them.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Or else, believe me I would.
It's so much.
Slow People enjoy it's like the50.
Slow People enjoy it's like the50s People at night.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
I mean, they don't even lock the front door.
Savon, when I'm hearing youtalk and I'm, you know that's
part of my world, right?
I observe people and the wordsthat they say.
When I hear you talk, youmention a lot of maybe, values,
maybe the way people lived fromthe 1940s and 50s.

(35:35):
You even watched movies at sucha young age from the 1940s and
50s.
Why do you think you're drawnto that era?

Speaker 1 (35:43):
According to my husband, I was already born in
that era and died and came back.
You know, I believe in thingslike that.
He jokes around.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
But I believe in that because it could be.
Yeah, Does that era attract you?

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Very much in every way, their vocabulary, the way
even back then they never saidhow are you?
They said, how do you do?
I think it's so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
It is beautiful the way they dressed.
Nobody went out.
Let's talk about the way theydress, oh let's talk about the
ladies and the the, not theleggings.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yes yes, you know, I mean appropriate dresses.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
I mean, like you know what I love, though I feel like
our, our mothers still dresslike that.
My grandmother, oh yes, oh yes,heels.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
Even to the market.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Yeah to the market.
You know those like grandmaheels the black ones yes yes.
Hair done, red lipstick onpoint, nice chiffon top with a
scarf yes, a cardigan Pin Pinand a beautiful black pencil
skirt.
Yes, yes, where did those timesgo?

Speaker 1 (36:52):
black pencil skirt.
Yes, yes, where did those timesgo, when you order everything
super big?
What is that?
Mcdonald's French fries?
Yeah, super meal.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
I think what it's called no the.

Speaker 1 (37:02):
French fries is called, something I forgot.
Yeah yeah, Some of it is whenyou gain weight.
You don't want to dress likethat because everything looks
funny on you.
I know that that's a really badthing to say oh, but that makes
sense Because heels hurt,because you're heavy.
Yeah, your feet start hurting.
Yeah, some of it is that.
Yeah, some of it is Mentality,mentality, you know, because,

(37:26):
okay, you know, you see, but youshouldn't do it because other
people are doing it.
I used to wear heels a lot morewhen I was thinner, but now my
feet hurt.
But I'm getting there, I'mlosing it slowly.
I want to lose it healthy,because I did the stupid yo-yo
thing up and down.
I don't want to do it that wayanymore.
People don't put value in itanymore, so they don't dress

(37:49):
like that.
They said oh, they must havebeen so uncomfortable.
Yes, some of the stuff youthink they were uncomfortable
Meaning walking everywhere, allthese women with heels because
you see old movies, even old,just people taking a film of Los
Angeles or New York.
I've seen those.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, it's so cute.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
The people are walking around.
It looks like you know they'regoing to church.
It's dread and they're justwalking around.
So I'm attracted to the waythey dress and I love 50s diners
.
Do you still go to the 50s?
Oh, yes, I go to Beeps in SimiValley.
I love it, I love it, I love it.

(38:30):
And my favorite singer ofcourse everyone who knows me
knows this I'm a huge fan ofElvis Presley.
No way.
Oh huge fan, so I went toTupelo where he was born,
mississippi.
Then I went to Graceland.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (38:43):
Graceland.
Yeah, yeah, I think that'sanother thing that really when I
saw him I was like who is he?
Because I saw a poster in mycousin's house.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
I was like how old were you?

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Five, I was drawn to him and I was like with my mouth
open for like 10 minutes.
He was a beautiful man ohgorgeous, the young Elvis with
the sideburns.
He was beautiful.
He really was a beautiful humanbeing very like very rare
features.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yes, on a human being definitely very beautiful, and
so was Priscilla.
Oh, priscilla's beautiful yeah,beautiful, beautiful it's
unfortunate that his life took atoll like that.
Yes, uh, I've watched a lot ofthe documentaries on Elvis
Presley, but, man, yeah, thosetimes Like the movie Grease.
Do you remember Grease?

Speaker 1 (39:33):
Oh, that's one of my favorite, I could say every one.
I love Grease and you know, Ibelieve the producer or the
director pushed John Travolta tolook like Elvis.
Yeah, because they were goingbetween James Dean and they
pushed.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
And John Travolta was a perfect, perfect candidate,
you know who was supposed toplay that and turn it down.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
Fonzie from Happy Days.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
No way Can you see Fonzie doing that.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
No.
And the girl was supposed to bethe girl from Partridge Family.
No, yeah.
And then John Travoltaconvinced Olivia and John to do
it.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
Yeah, and she passed recently.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
Yes, she did she did, and Elvis Presley's daughter
passed too.
Yeah, lisa Marie passed, yeah,but yeah, I went to, you know,
sun Records where he sang hisfirst record for his mom Uh-huh,
like it was a dollar somethingfor her birthday, and they
didn't like him.
A year later they called himand they asked him to play.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
This is how it goes, though.
I yeah, it took a while for him, uh, to get his deal.
I think it's like that, andwhen great things are out there,
it takes a while, like look atharry potter, what did jk
rowling jk rowling's, yeah, sorowling's?
Excuse me, how many times didshe get rejected?

Speaker 1 (40:44):
oh, man, I, if I'm not mistaking.
I could be be wrong, don'tquote me.
I believe she said 27.
There's other authors that gotrejected 50, 60 times, but JK
Rowling's.
I think it's a very nice storyfor the teenagers because they
like that kind of stuff.
She's like the richest authorin the world now she is, she's a

(41:06):
billionaire right.
Yeah, she's the richest author.
You have to have three thingsfor your book to work.
First of all, your story has tobe good.
You have to be at the rightplace at the right time when
they're looking for something.
And the other third one is justpure luck.
I don't care what anybody says,because there's a lot of books
out there that are very nicestories and they never made it.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Talk to me a little bit about that, because I'm sure
that many people first of all,there's a lot of authors.
I get messages all the time.
Can you help us?
I'm like, I am nowhere near so.
I'll always try to guide themas best as I can.
But from your perspective, whyis it so competitive?
Don't give us the comment.

(41:50):
I know that there's a lot ofstories out there.
I get it, but what are theylooking for particularly?
Is it you got to know someone?
Is it that you know I?

Speaker 1 (41:58):
I I'll give you a sample.
The this, the steps that theymake you go through, is kind of
like when the poor can't affordnice dress and then they make it
rich.
Uh, all the designers send themclothes but I can afford it.

(42:22):
Now let's say somebody says whydidn't you give it to me when I
couldn't afford something nice?
Why didn't you give it to methen?
So the book industry is thesame thing.
Once you write your book, youwrite this thing called query
letter to a literary agent.
It's called a literary agent.

(42:44):
It's only for books, and Idon't want to say anything bad
about literary agents.
I'm not saying all of them, butmost of them will pick you up.
Once you're already, the planeis already flying up.
But when you've done all thework, all the work, they just
want the piece of the pie afterthat.

(43:04):
Like, I am asking you, becausegoing straight to a publisher is
like going to court without alawyer.
You need a literary agent,because before the 80s you just
wrote a book and you wentstraight to the publisher.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
So if you want to be publicly published, yes, but if
you want to be self-published,no.
The bigger piece is beingpublished.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
The best way to do it , if you can, is write the book,
write the query letter.
Try to get an agent, Becausethat agent shouldn't charge you
anything.
They just charge percentage.
We'll fight for you.
Get you the best deal to apublisher.
Once it goes to the publisher,they take care of everything.
Yes, you're still going to work.
I'm not saying you're not goingto do social media or whatever.
Try to sell your book, but theydo.

(43:45):
The cover, even the titlesmight change.
You won't have control of that,but they do everything.
They know all the stores whereto send them, all around the
world, even if you want totranslate it to another language
.
You're just a storyteller.
You just write man, you justwrote the book and you send it
to them.
They do.
They have their best editors ifthey, if they like you or
they'll give you the internshipeditor did you apply for a

(44:07):
literary agent?
Yes.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Tell us about that story.
Yes, oh, I would love that,that's my favorite, yeah, I know
.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
Again, I don't want to upset literary agents,
publishers.
I'm not saying all yeah, butyour experience, yeah, this is
my experience.
Yeah, you know I could beanother person could say, no,
you're wrong my experience,wrong my experience, or whatever
.
After I wrote the book, I sentmy query letter.
Most of them started comingback.

(44:35):
This is a great story, but notfor me.
This is a great story not forme.
This is a great story not forme.
Okay, maybe my queries, becausequery letters in three
paragraphs you have to sell yourwhole book.
It's one of the hardest thing Ihad to write.
How do you?
And that's including one of theparagraphs about the author.
So basically just the middle,Like a thesis.
Yeah, yeah, how am I going?

(44:57):
to get you to you know, and thenif they want it, then they send
the first chapter.
If they like it, then you sendthe rest of the manuscript.
That's how it's, and then theytake it and they go to the
publisher.
But because my experience itwasn't like that.
I started getting frustrated.
I was like what is going on?

Speaker 2 (45:15):
What was your experience?
Were they rejecting the book?

Speaker 1 (45:20):
At that time it was during COVID.
First they were behind becausenow all these people that they
already signed up, they're two,three years behind.
Because all the people thatthey signed up, the whole place
closed and you know whathappened.
Yeah, that was one of thereasons.
The other reason was you knowthey wanted me to write about

(45:42):
something I don't know.
You know, can you write more?
Can the story turn into morethe LGBT community?
But I don't know enough aboutthat to write.
How can I write about somethingI don't know about?
They weren't saying we'll takeyour book, but they're saying
they were looking more for thatat that time, so the literary
agents wanted to change thestory around to fit more of the

(46:05):
woke culture.
Yeah, like between two boys andtwo girls, oh my, but mine is a…
.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
But you said you don't know much about that.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
No, no, first of all, I'm Christian, my value, you
know I'm not judging anybody.
I have many people that I knowthat I'm not judging, but this
is my.
It's your story, my story.
Yeah, I don't know about Adamand Steve.
Adam and Steve, I can't writeabout them.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
But I know about William and Victoria.
I know how straight love.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Yeah, works.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Can you imagine me writing and then the LGBT
community reads and go this girl.
Yeah is not.
It's likea.
I found out this one man.
It's not authentic.
Yeah, it's not authentic.
He wrote about how to raisekids and he doesn't have
children.
I forgot which.
Author.
I was like, how do you I mean,how do you write a book about

(46:55):
raising kids if you don't havekids?
It's kind of like me doing that.
I think that's disrespectful tothe LGBT community for me to
write something what they wentthrough, what they're going
through, blah, blah, blah.
Whatever it is.
Yeah, I understand.
And then they come out and saythis is ridiculous.
I understand.
And then they come out and saythis is ridiculous, this is all
copy-paste.
She just Googled, researchedand put the book together.
So there's so many books outthere for them that it's perfect

(47:18):
.
When you read it, you canunderstand it, because that
person experienced it and wrotetheir experience.
Or if I write about thrillers,I don't know.
First of all, I won't watch anymovies like that because I'm
chicken.
I won't.
Can you imagine me writingabout that?
Like it's the same thing?
So they were pushing that alittle bit and then they were

(47:42):
it's so interesting to cut youoff.
Thriller and the LGBTQ communityis what's selling out there
right now, and not fantasy likedragons and dungeons.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Well, that book, what is it called the Thorns?

Speaker 1 (47:57):
and Roses, it's happening.
I've read all five of them, orfour of them.
Yes, I didn't read it, but Iknow about it.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
It's very interesting , but it's a fantasy, yeah,
which is fine.
Which is fine.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
That's why it's so many genres.
If you like that book doesn'tmean you can't read romance.
You finish that book.
You read my book.
You finish my book.
You read the lgbt.
You finish that.
You read about religion,whatever you want to read about,
but don't make that personwrite about something they have
absolutely no idea about itwon't come out good.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
But then that also makes you think about what the I
mean.
Look, when you're writing an, abook, and you are an author,
your goal is to make it.
You know you want to make it.
Yes, of course.
So then that makes me thinklike, how much of stories are
changed like authentic stories?

(48:50):
That are written, but theperson that just desperately
wants to make it will probablymake up or falsify More than you
know.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
They change the plot lines anything that they have to
.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
So that was your case .
They wanted you to switch itaround.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Yes, so because even they were being pressured, so I
don't blame them either theywere what do you think?

Speaker 2 (49:15):
pressuring the literary agents the hierarchy.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Because because, yeah , because they want, you know,
they want to show that they'reequal, but which they are?
You know, from what I seethere's plenty.
They have their own section,which is fine, but I don't want
to say the agents or thepublishers.
Everybody was being pressured.
So I said you know what, afterCorona or COVID sorry COVID and

(49:46):
all that, what I went throughand all the waiting I had to do
because New York was backed up,I mean, they were getting sent
all these letters and the wholeplace was closed, so they were
behind.
So I said I'm going toself-publish.
I waited this long.
I'm just going to go ahead andself-publish, which in one way

(50:07):
is good, but it has its good andbad.
I had the control of the cover,I had control of the title
published, which in one way isgood, but it has its good and
bad.
I had the control of the cover,I had control of the title.
You didn't change the story.
I didn't change the story, butI had to do all the selling.
It took one year for BarnesNoble to say yes to me, to have

(50:28):
a book signing there, especiallythe one in Glendale.
You would think I'm Armenian,they would want me, but that's
another question that you shouldask me about.
What happened with theArmenians Coming up?
But yeah, I got into finally atBurbank Actually, the first

(50:51):
book signing was Burbank Barnes,noble, and it snowed that day.
What are the odds that mybook's called Wintertime and it
snowed.
I didn't think anybody was goingto show up.
I said that's it, it's going tobe me, my mom, my husband and
my kids.
140 people showed up.
Remember the freeway it wasfour or five was all flooded and
there was a car turned, therewas a guy on top on tv, whatever

(51:14):
.
So it was that day.
I had my book signing that day.
What are the odds?
But whatever, it was good luck,I think I'm so happy for you.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
So, now that your book isn't oh, barnes and nobles
, all barnes and Nobles, all ofthem.
Yes, this is amazing, andonline too.
We can get it online as well,barnes and Noble online and
Barnes and Noble.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
On.
Most Barnes and Noble have iton the shelf.
Some of them you have to go andorder it.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
I'm so happy for you, and on Amazon too, yes.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
And a bunch of small mom and pop stores and also this
thing called Ingrams Mark.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Yes.
Okay, they have it too I becamea member of them, and not only
there.
Your book is also soldworldwide.
Tell us what countries haveyour books.
That's a big deal.
Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
China, netherlands, italy, england, france, austria,
New Zealand, australia,everywhere.
I'm trying to remember.
What other country Did you?

Speaker 2 (52:16):
say Switzerland to me Austria.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
Austria.
I'm working on Switzerlandright now and I know it's not
another country but Hawaii, ofcourse Hawaii.
And I'm working on Alaska rightnow.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
That's beautiful, yeah, and I'm working on Alaska
right now.
That's beautiful, yeah.
And so here in California it isin I think you said last time
over 50 bookstores.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
It's in all the colleges, universities Like I'm
in CSUN, yes, and I'm trying toget to all the universities
through the department thatbecause CSUN store is not run by
CSUN, they hire a company sothat company.
As soon as I sell more, theywere going to put it over 1,100
universities for me.
My goodness All around theUnited States all the

(53:00):
universities.

Speaker 2 (53:01):
How's the book doing?

Speaker 1 (53:01):
right now For self-published person it's doing
good, but for do I want it tobe?
You know doing good, but for doI want it to be?
You know, to go to the big fivepublishers compared to, you
know, twilight, which is my oneof my favorite books, you know,
yeah, I mean look at the cover,but um, yeah, I'm not going to

(53:22):
compare myself to stephaniemyers, I mean you don't have to,
you're too different.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah, I'm not a comparison.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
Yeah, no, I'm saying like she's, yeah, she's, you
know she got published.
Yeah, yeah, but for aself-published, yes, I'm doing
good.
They always say you sell moreof your first book after you
have your second book yeah andwhich is coming out in couple of
months, god willing and thatone's called winter love and,
like I said, it's a trilogy.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Yes, it's a trilogy, so we're a trilogy, and we're so
excited for that.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
That one is more rocky road because you don't
want to write the same fluffystuff.
This is their meeting how.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
William and.

Speaker 1 (53:58):
Victoria met, so it's more you know.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
Exciting.
It's a rush for sure.
Yeah, I want to ask you aquestion Do you feel, do you
feel, supported?

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Oh, thank you for asking me.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Yeah, I do because it's important for me and the
people watching.
I think that this is such a bigdeal for me.
It is, and we don't have manyyoung women romance writers,
especially in the ArmenianAmerican Armenian community
specifically.
So you are a big deal for meand I honor you romance writers,

(54:31):
especially in the ArmenianAmerican Armenian community
specifically.
So you are a big deal for meand I honor you.
I do because it's not easywriting a book and
self-publishing.
There's a lot of heart thatgoes into it.
So this is a very genuinequestion Do you feel supported
as a self first time publishedauthor?

Speaker 1 (54:45):
I'm going to say something else before I answer
you.
Sure, because I'm afraid we'regoing to forget.
The first book was very hard towrite.
Second book was harder, and letme tell you why.
Because I had to remembereverything in the first book.
That way I can say everythingon the second book yeah,
everything.
So whoever is listening when Isaid go after your dream, make

(55:09):
sure you know that writing partgets easier, but remembering
everything you said on the firstbook, and then you have to
finish the lines on second book.
So be prepared for that.
So now I'll answer yourquestion, because earlier I
wanted to say it.
I'm sure People who I expectedto support me didn't support me.

(55:32):
People who I didn't expect tosupport me supported me, and I'm
not saying everyone.
I had some support on my familyand cousins.
I had very, very small supporton my friends and I hate to say
it.
Earlier you asked me where's mybook at?

(55:54):
Even Turkey has my book, butArmenia rejected it.
You're kidding me?
No, they want me now, but I'mtoo hurt, so I need time to get
over the thing that people sayyou have.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
Why do they reject you, Sevan?
I'll start with Armenia andI'll continue to get over.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
You know the thing that people say why do they
reject you, sevan, I'll startwith Armenia and I'll continue
to Los Angeles, to what happenedto me at Americana Barnes,
noble, they're all about support.
Am I allowed to tell the bookname of who didn't in Armenia?
I mean, I don't want to getthem in trouble, but Don't say
their name.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
Okay, because we don't want to get them in
trouble, but Don't say theirname, okay, because we don't
want them to come out.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Okay, fine, I won't say the names, but when the bell
rings, I'm saying it.
Okay.
I DM'd this person throughInstagram.
It was their store and they hadthree of them One.

(56:55):
I've never been to Armenia, soI guess it's a big deal to have
three different locations.
One of them, they said it's intheir mall, which is wow, okay,
perfect.
I said I thought, if anyone,I'm going to get yes, right away
from them.
They DM'd me and I sent thecover and I told them if anyone,
I'm going to get yes, rightaway from them.
They DMed me back and I sentthe cover and I told them about
myself and blah blah, blah,whatever I needed to say.

(57:17):
I know I like to say a lot ofblah blah blah, but it is blah
blah blah.
Actually To sell it, you haveto do a lot of blah blah blah.
She wrote back to me you have toemail this person.
Fine, because some of thesepeople that's how it's done you
email them your information andthey are the ones.
So I emailed it.

(57:38):
No answer I wait one week, twoweeks, three weeks, one month,
two months.
I emailed again.
Maybe it got lost.
They emailed back finally,about six months later oh, this
is the person who does it.
I'm like, okay.
So I emailed that person andthis poor man, armenian man,

(57:59):
leaves me a voice message inArmenian.
I am a publisher, no printer.
In Armenia, I print Armenianbooks.
Why are they giving yourinformation to me?
I don't do this stuff, I'm justa printer in Armenia.
I print Armenian books.
Why are they giving yourinformation to me?
I don't do this stuff, I'm justa printer.
So they just wanted to get ridof me, whatever, oh man.
So I wrote to them one moretime.

(58:20):
Listen, this man printsArmenian books in Armenian
letters.
This is in English.
And why are you sending me to aprinter?
I already the book's done.
Oh, I swear to you.
It was like you know that 50First Dates the movie.
She said the same thing oh,you're an author, okay, you have

(58:42):
to email.
And she gave me the same emailas the first time when she gave
it to me.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
So she started from scratch, repeating again.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
I said listen, I already did all this.
I just want to have my books inyour store.
To be honest with you, by thetime I was so angry, like I said
, I took a lot of the books andI told Mike which I'm going to
send them out.
Just take it to the villagesand give it for free.

(59:10):
It wasn't for Armenia, itwasn't for the money.
I just wanted the Armenian kidsto see that.
You know you can write in anylanguage Armenian, english,
whatever.
You know.
It was for that.
It wasn't for the money, foreverything else.
Yeah, I'm not going to lie.
But you know you can write inany language Armenian, english,
whatever.
You know.
It was for that.
It wasn't for the money, foreverything else.
Yeah, I'm not going to lie.
Do you want to be rich andfamous?
Yes, I do.
Did you write it?
Or you wrote it to tell yourstory?

(59:30):
I wrote it to tell my story andI want to be rich and famous.
Of course you do.
Of course, nothing is wrongwith saying that.
I'm not saying I'm going to befull of myself.
I'm going to change, which Iwon't.
I know I won't.
If I changed, I would havechanged a long time ago, but a
lot of people are saying youshouldn't say you're writing it
to be rich and famous.
That's not the only reason.
It's part of it.
But be honest with yourself.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Tell them that's part of it.
Every author has a goal.
Yeah, so Armenia doesn't haveit, which they do now.

Speaker 1 (01:00:01):
but you're thinking about that no, they don't have
it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
They don't have it, but Turkey has it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
I don't know how Turkey has it, because they
don't have Amazon.
They don't have, but I guessthey found me.
They even asked me to ship itto them.
I mean, you should have seen itwas a little bit hard for me to
write an address.
But what if they're Armenianliving in Turkey?

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Well, there's a lot of Armenians living in Turkey,
so I just I sent it.
Whatever I'm not going to, it'sa love story.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
It has nothing to do with politics.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Yeah, you know, I still feel the way I feel yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
But this is a love story so beautiful here.
A lot of these people around menever knew they were going to
interested in writing a book.
All of a sudden they wrotebooks and they tried to do the
stuff ahead of me to.
I don't want to go into it.

(01:00:54):
So a lot of those people areout of my life because I
couldn't believe they did thatto me.
But that's, I don't want to getinto it because this person's
going to know what I'm talkingabout.
Fast forward to Americana ayear of because you know they
get the phone call.
They look at my ISBNself-published.

(01:01:15):
I'm nobody.
That's how they look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Americana, the Barnes and Nobles, every bookstore.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
Really Every bookstore.
Really Every bookstore.
If you're self-published,they're not into you.
One year of going back andforth, and back and forth,
finally I got in.
So I'm thinking it's Americana.
Downstairs, there are my people, full of young, beautiful kids

(01:01:44):
walking around.
There's posters.
They finally put it on theirInstagram.
There are signs.
They were even like on thesecond floor walking around
looking.
Not one Armenian person came upon my book sign.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
I had a lot of people , but just from my followers
from Instagram.
People from other states flewin, but my Armenian people
downstairs okay, maybe youdidn't know about it, I
understand Some of them.
I'm not saying all of them, butthey were doing this.
Let's say this is the book.

(01:02:22):
You know how they say don'tjudge a book by its cover.
Like they're looking at me, whois she to write In their head?
You have to be young, thin andbeautiful to know about romance.
They have no clue.
The most romantic writers arenot what they don't look, what
you think, the way they lookOkay, but unfortunately people

(01:02:42):
say no, people don't judge Truereaders.
They don't judge the ones thatread three, four books a week.
I'm not talking about them, I'mtalking about the teenagers.
Yeah, so that was yourexperience.
That was my experience.
It was so embarrassing becausethey had a separate register

(01:03:03):
just for winter time, becausethey thought the armenians, it's
gonna be out the door.
They even had ready braceletsmade where you put a bracelet on
and you get a book and you goupstairs how?

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
did you feel.

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
How did you feel?
It was the first time I wantedto dig a hole and stick my head
in it because of what themanager said to me.
She didn't say anything bad,but she couldn't believe it.
She couldn't believe it.
She goes.
Not one of your people came up.
We did major social media Eventhat day.
There's signs out there.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
Outside the bookstore .
Yeah, For $16.99,.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
You come up, you meet me, you get the book, I sign it
.
You saw all the goodies I gaveaway the drawstrings, bag, the
pen, the bookmark, coffee.
I mean.
I'll give you a sample.
There's one person.
She paid $16.99, I signed thebook.
She took a picture with me.
She took pictures with otherpeople that were cute, that were

(01:04:02):
there for me, but they thoughtthey were part.
But whatever, I gave thedrawstring back, I gave a
bookmark, I gave a pen.
She's still doing this for 1699.
I go would you like a gift cardfor $5 to Starbucks?
Yeah, I'm like, get the heckout of here, man.
I was just joking.
I was just joking.
There was like how much more doyou want?
And it's costing me money, evenas self-published People think

(01:04:28):
Amazon takes about $5 almost toprint it and takes 40% after
that.
So imagine I have $10 and theytake 40%.
So that's how much the cost?
I mean I don't make Becausepeople read it and they read it
wrong.
After what it cost them, theytake another 40%.
It's not just 40%.

(01:04:50):
So people were like they'rethere for the freebies, some of
them.
But I got major support from,obviously, my husband, my kids,
my mom, my brother, my cousins,very few friends, a lot of my
supporters on Instagram and alot of new people that they were

(01:05:11):
very happy that they justhappened to be there that day.
So I was very embarrassed Icould understand that Very
embarrassed as an Armenian thatthey didn't come up and then a
month later I had it at theGrove.
That one was a good turnoutAgain, not a lot of Armenians
from downstairs, but I alreadywent through that one so I knew

(01:05:35):
it wasn't going to.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
And that's tough on a new author too.
You want the recognition.
You want people, your people,people to be proud of you, and
those things feel good for aperson, I don't care what you
want to say.
Praise feels wonderful,especially when you're doing
something so big for yourcommunity, and so I'm.
I can imagine how hurtful it is.
It was I.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
I'll be honest with you.
All the way home I cried myhusband's like yeah, that
doesn't sit you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
All the way home, I cried my husband's like yeah,
that doesn't sit well with theperson yeah, I was like what
just happened?

Speaker 1 (01:06:08):
I got this girl to put a regular.
I mean she offered it.
She thought, you know, allthese Armenians are gonna be in
line and they're gonna, you knowyeah, she was preparing things
for you in your audience.

Speaker 2 (01:06:18):
Yeah thinking, oh yeah, it for you and your
audience.
Yeah thinking, oh yeah, it'slike having a concert and no
one's showing up.
Yeah, Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:06:22):
I mean, a lot of people showed up again, but not
my people.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
Yeah, Not the support that I wanted, oh man, but I
got support from so manydifferent ethnicities so many
people, so I'm very thankful forall those people who know who
they Well after this release, Ihope that people definitely will
be more supportive and I thinkthat we definitely should be.

(01:06:47):
And yeah, that breaks my heartbecause I think that in anything
you do in life, particularlywriting a book or singing a song
but since you're here, we'retalking about a book.
It does have its rejections andit does come with a lot of
rejections.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
Oh yes, I was ready for that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
Exactly See, I don't think.
Do you feel like your peoplecould be ready for?
I don't think personally, forme, I don't think that I'm ever
ready for rejection.
It's just such a horriblefeeling that you're never ready
for it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
I don't want people to think, oh, just because I'm
Armenian, they're never readyfor it.
I don't want people to think,oh, just because I'm Armenian, I
have to buy your book.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
No, that's not what I'm saying.
That's not what we're talkingabout.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
I don't want people to say well, who do you think
you are?
You know, you just wrote a book.
Everybody has one story.
That's another thing they saidEverybody has.
Okay, now second book is comingout Hopefully they'll see that
no, is called Winter Dream.
So the third one, as soon asthis is up and going, I will
write Winter Dream.
But I don't expect you tosupport it.

(01:07:45):
But if I see IAN anywhere, evenif it's a piece of crap, they
put it in a box, but it has IAN,I'll buy it just to support
them.
I mean today, alex and Ani,what I brought you another
Armenian when I bought it fromanother Armenian.
I support everybody but it'svery natural for you to support

(01:08:12):
and if people say that'sprejudice, it's not prejudice
those people who aren't sayingit.
They're not being honest withthemselves.
If you see two kids comingwalking towards you, one of them
is your kid, the other one isnot.
They both fall.
Of course you're going to gorun help both of them, but of
course you're going to grab yourkid first.
It's a natural thing.
But people, right away they'reracist.

Speaker 2 (01:08:35):
No, I just think that you, I think that you just want
the moral love and support fromyour community, savon, and I
think it's very understandableand I think that you definitely
should get what you deservebecause it's beautiful, and I
hope that you do.
I really do, savon.
What should we expect in thesecond book and when is the

(01:08:55):
second story coming out?
Winter?

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
Land Love, winter Love, yes, winter Love.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Winter Dream is the third one, so there's how many
series?

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
Love.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
Winter Love.
Yes, winter Love.
Winter Dream is the third one.
Third one, yes.
So there's how many series?
Three, three.
Three it could be four becauseWinter Love.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
I thought it was going to be much further, but I
story doesn't finish and I haveto write a fourth book for this
saga.
What should I name the fourthbook?
I got a bunch of cute answers.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
That's lovely.

Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
And saying what I should call it.
So I have the fourth.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
What's one thing you want to call the fourth one?
Winter Forever is one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
Because, remember, it's not only she likes the cold
, it's the guy's last name he'sBritish William Winter and she's
American Victoria Evans.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
How did you come up with the characters?
By the way, I didn't even askyou, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Okay, victoria is my grandma's name.
Yes, I remember, you told methat Evans is my name, se name
seven.
I just took the s and added tothe end uh, william.
Three reasons, of course.
William saurian, yes, andwilliam shakespeare.
And my favorite are princewilliam, yeah, from england,

(01:10:15):
which his mom?
He's 0.00 whatever.
On six they say Armenian LadyDiana.
But yeah, because of that andthe rest of them, a couple of
them who bullied me in highschool, I used their first real
name but not theirs.
No way, yeah, because I gotbullied severely, sevan.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
Sevan Sevan, you used the names of your bullies in
the story.
The first one, first names.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
What's the first name ?
Jennifer?
Jennifer, because I went to anAmerican public school.
You used Jennifer.
Of course I did.
She bullied the heck out of mefor years.

Speaker 2 (01:10:54):
For years Come on.
This book is going to make it,and Jennifer is going to want a
big chunk from Jennifer.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Jennifer, I expect you to find me on Instagram at 7
time and apologize to me formaking fun of my Armenian food,
because it wasn't hamburger, itwas rolled kebab.
I love you.
You're so funny.
Yes, and I didn't have ranch.
I had hummus to dip my stuff in.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
You know what I just remembered in my big, big Greek
fag wedding, when she has moosemoussaka and the girl's like
moose caca.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
Exactly, Exactly.
I lived that movie, but when Ilived it there was no Armenian.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
You look like Tula too, though yeah, I do.

Speaker 1 (01:11:35):
I do.
A lot of people say that Ilived that movie because you
know we came here I was sevenyears old.
No, I turned eight when I camehere, so in 1980, who, yeah who
was Armenian and in the valley.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
Forget it, forget it.
Did your dad also tell you whenyou were 10, you're get married
.
You look old.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
No, no, no, no, I wasn't.
You said you lived the movie.
No, no, no, no, I wasn't.
You said you lived the movie.
No, I mean like the bullyingpart.
But they bullied, she gotbullied much.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
Yeah, I'm talking about.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:16):
So I came up with some of the names like that and
the other names you know IWhatever movie I watched and I
liked her name, so I put thatkind of characteristic to that
person.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
That's so fun.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Instead of coming up with some weird name Like I love
the name Leonard Uh-huh,because the guy who played Romeo
in Romeo and Juliet in 1968version which is my favorite,
which is in the book His name isLeonard.

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
That is so fun, so I named one of the, but he's not
in this book.
So nothing in this book is fake.
Everything is just from real,your imagination as well.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
But also people who are in your lives.
You just twisted it up a littlebit.
You give it a like Jennifer,yes, no, no, it's Jennifer,
jennifer, is that how she saidit?
Yeah, were you really bullied,sebon?
I'm sorry, were you reallybullied?

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
in school To the kind where you won't believe me if I
tell you no way.
Yeah, yeah, like severely, likephysically, what do you mean?
Like hitting?

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
putting.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
Oh, like physically, like hitting, putting oh yeah,
pushing me into the toilet andlocking me up.
Oh yeah, putting gum in my hair.
Oh, making fun of A to Z.
And usually people becomesometimes depressed and suicidal
.
I took the other route.
I became stronger and strongerand stronger.
And you know the one person.

(01:13:39):
Her name is Mrs Strong.
That's my teacher, mrs Strong,her, my teacher, mrs Strong.
Her name was.
I'm looking for her.
I hope she's alive.
Her name is Mrs Strong fromCleveland High School and, as a
matter of fact, one of thecharacters I named.
I said I couldn't use her realname.
I named it Mrs Stewart and Isaid I thought I said in the

(01:13:59):
book I think of her as MrsStrong.
No, In the book, because I loveher so much because she saw how
severely bullied I got at PE.
I hope I don't get her introuble because this is like 35
years later, but You're notgoing to get her in trouble.
She said, savan, you're going topunch her face in and I'm not
going to see it and say that sheran into the wall.
And one time in my life Ipunched her, I guess the night

(01:14:25):
before Jennifer, she got braces,I did not know.
So she started bleeding andthen I felt bad Hold on a second
.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
Mrs Strong said you're going to go punch her in
the face and I'm going topretend I didn't see it.
And then she goes.

Speaker 1 (01:14:40):
I saw, I saw you ran into the wall, so I love her for
that wow that's a teacher.
That's because she said enoughis enough.
I mean she sees me constantly,constantly they hit me right so,
but I didn't know.
Jennifer had braces on thenight before she got she went to
the dentist and you know, withthe rubber bands and everything,
so I punched her.
She started I'm like, oh, I'msorry she goes, I'm bleeding, oh

(01:15:04):
, my oh dear lord.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
You know what I love about this whole story is your
teacher said I saw you.
You ran into the wall I lookedat her.

Speaker 1 (01:15:12):
She goes.
You saw it.
She goes.
Yes, because I saw it.
I saw you ran into the wallwhen you came around the corner
and I'm like I love her fordoing that.
So she went and told theprincipal and the teacher still
said no, she ran into the wall.
She's blaming me so I get introuble.

Speaker 2 (01:15:29):
But this is what I'm talking about.
Look at what she did and allthese years later, which is not
that many, but still youremember her because she stood
up for what was right and shestood up for you we're talking
years of bullying.

Speaker 1 (01:15:43):
I took it a lot.
This is not like one day, twoday, one week, Years and years,
and she bullied and bullied andbullied, where even she said
Savan, you have to stand up foryourself.
I was so scared, it's not funny.
But I told no one.
My mom, my dad, had enoughproblems moving from one country
, I'm not going to go add morestress to them.
So I kept this all to myself,including my best friend.

(01:16:05):
You want to know when my bestfriend found out Of 40 years On
the book signing day, oh my God.
I saw her in the audience.
She was like she couldn'tbelieve it.
She's my best friend.
She had no idea I was gettingthat severely bullied.
That's how much.
And I used to go home, shut thedoor and just put the comforter
in my mouth.
So my mom can't hear me crybecause I didn't want to stress
her out.
It was that bad.

(01:16:26):
So Jennifer deserved that punch.
It was just one punch, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:16:31):
Sometimes you got to put them in their place.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
I don't want the kids to think violence.
If it wasn't violence, heck.
This is 1987.

Speaker 2 (01:16:38):
Things were different then hey, but you know what it
made?
One hell of a story, it suredid guess what?

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
next day, jennifer turned right to get dressed,
instead of to the left of thelocker in PE, because that's
where I was.
She didn't, she went, she madesure I never wow.

Speaker 2 (01:16:54):
And then you're such a great storyteller, though.
This is why, like this is yourpurpose being an author, yeah, I
love.
This is your purpose.
I love telling stories, yeah,but when you do you draw people
in like I love listening whenyou're telling a story, I'm so
interested.
Why don't you do a thing forthis?
Uh, audible audio, yeah whataudible?

Speaker 1 (01:17:16):
yeah, yeah, um, and you read it, my voice doesn't
sound good it does sound good.
That's what I'm saying, likeyoung who said that Because it's
a 16-year-old and they're goingto expect a 16-year-old's voice
.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
No, but what I'm saying is, when you talk, you
draw me in because you tell astory with such passion and your
body moves too when you'retalking.
Yeah, I do.
I'm actually trying to holdmyself, because I move a lot
more than this.
You know edith piaf?
I'm sorry, do you know edithpiaf?

(01:17:50):
No, so she's a french singer,edith piaf, that sang la vie en
rose.

Speaker 1 (01:17:55):
Oh, yes, okay actually in one of my posts.
I used it Right, so she's theoriginal singer right, and
there's a movie, yeah, very old,very old, from the 1930s and
40s right, I love the way shegoes, whatever, when she sings
that song.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
Yeah, the yeah, it's so funny.
So there's a movie, marineCotillard she's a French actress
that did the movie called LaVie en Rose.
It won with Russell Crowe.
They won several Academy Awards.
But anywho, in Edith Piaf, whenshe started singing she had a
very powerful voice, but hermanagers and her producers, they

(01:18:37):
said that her voice wasn'tenough, even though it's enough
to really shake an audience.
They guided her to use her bodywhen she was singing.
So when Edith Piaf is singing,she articulates her songs with
her hands and the movements ofher fingers, and that's because
it's hypnosis in a way.
It draws people in.
So you naturally have that.

(01:18:58):
I was just going to validatethat when you tell a story, you
use your body, your hair, yourhair so it's like what, what,
and then what happened?
so you're naturally drawn intoit.
That's why I say do a visualfor this, because it's
fascinating, like I love it theway you tell the story about
jennifer.
Your it's so good.

(01:19:19):
Sevan, I'm so proud of you,thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:22):
Yes, it was.
I had to go back and you know,and go through a bunch of the
good stuff, the bad stuff.
I love it, I love it.
Everything.
But yeah, I mean Jennifer withher five girls behind her, just
like the movie Mean Girls.
The in the front, yeah, and thefollowers that you know, and

(01:19:43):
some of those followers didn'twant to follow, they just wanted
to be in the popular group.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
You know, you know I'm so popular it's still
happening, yeah, nowadays yes,but I'm so happy and I'm so, so,
so proud of you and I can'twait to watch you grow with
Wintertime and the saga, and Ithink that everybody, and
including parents and teenagers,should definitely start reading
this book, and they will.

Speaker 1 (01:20:05):
I know that they will , they will.

Speaker 2 (01:20:06):
And it's going to be fascinating and I thank you so
much for joining me today.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
Thank you, can I say one more thing about the book?
Of course you can, because youknow I'm never done with my
stories.

Speaker 2 (01:20:14):
Yeah, I know how could you be.
How could you be?

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
Okay, in movies especially, you see rich people
show off.
They give them that kind ofcharacter or they're not humble.
But the people with money theones that had old money or it's
not new money they don't actlike that.
The real rich people don't actlike that.
That's very true.
That's another thing I have inmy book.

(01:20:39):
They're very humble.
Right, they're very rich, theygo on luxurious vacation, but
you'll never know.
They're very humble.
So I wanted to teach thesechildren the kids not every rich
person is what you think inyour head what you see, what you
see in movies and how peoplesay, oh, she's rich.
Those real rich people don'tact like that.

(01:21:01):
They're very, very humble.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
They help quietly and I love how you teach that.
I love how you teach the values, the morals, the humble, and I
think that that's missing intoday's books because and I'm
also very happy you went againstthe literary agents and you
went on to publish what youthought was right, because we
don't have a lot of books thatteach.
Now it's all about thedifference, the war, culture,

(01:21:26):
horrible, inappropriate.
But this is keeping our oldChristian values and if every
Armenian parent and Americanshould pick up Wintertime and
the Saga continuations, ofcourse, coming up and have their
kids read it, I am for it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
Even the page I told you thisearlier.
It ends on 301.
Why?
Because Armenians becameChristian at 301.
It was very hard for me tofinish it on that.
And then my logo is two angelwings with the butterfly, the
Armenian cross.
I quote William Sarian in there.

Speaker 2 (01:21:59):
Oh, my gosh, the second book is more.

Speaker 1 (01:22:05):
I wrote a little bit more about social media bullying
too, because social mediabullying is I love this this is
more.
I'm so excited.

Speaker 2 (01:22:15):
I can't wait to get all the copies Signed.

Speaker 1 (01:22:22):
You got it, it's, it's all for you and I thank you
very much for having me here.
I appreciate you, of course,giving a first time author a
chance.
Not a lot of people did that.
You're my first one.
I did other small podcasts, butnot you know where it was, oh
my gosh, so you're my first one.
I I did other small podcasts,but not you know where it was,
so you're my first one.
I was very um happy to hearfrom you.

(01:22:45):
I appreciate you calling me andhopefully, um people love what
I said to, people love yourquestions and if I, if we missed
anything, dm me, follow me onseven time, and that's S E V A N
T I M E.
one word Um, and that'sS-E-V-A-N-T-I-M-E.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
one word, and please buy my books, so I become really
rich and maybe help out someArmenian, young Armenian and I
love the comedy too, by the way,you're hilarious.
You said you wanted to dostand-up comedy at one point,
right.

Speaker 1 (01:23:15):
Yes, but it has to be 18 and over.
There you go.
There's too many things thatyou can't say under 18.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
That's true.
Thank you, Savanta.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
Yes, I would like to open up for Jack Jr.
You never know Jack Jr and thechef Arzada.
They're in my second book.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
I know, oh, no way.
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
Wow, you have to see how I put them there.
I love them, do they?

Speaker 2 (01:23:42):
know that, oh, yes.
I asked them for approval Goodfor you.
Well, I can't wait to read it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:47):
Thank you so much.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Thank you for having me andthank you to Kevork that's over
there, that nobody ever sees thepoor guy just sitting there.
I hope I didn't put you tosleep, no, thank you.
So thank you, kimber, thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:24:04):
Of course.

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Sevan Minaskanian | Storytelling, Cultural Identity, Resilience | The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast #38

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sevan Minaskanian | Storytelling, Cultural Identity, Resilience | The Edit Alaverdyan Podcast #38