October 31, 2024 • 39 mins
Thanks to author Aliah Wright for joining me to talk about her fiction debut thriller, Now You Owe Me. We talk about the book, all things Corinthia, Ben, Amanda, and Fiona, and the writing process. We cover everything from publishing to tips on building suspense throughout the book.
Keep up with Aliah:
- Purchase Now You Owe Me
- Follow her on Instagram
- Follow her on TikTok
- Aliah's website
Trigger Warnings for Now You Owe Me:
- Sexual assault
- Physical abuse
- Verbal abuse
- Neglect
- Graphic depictions of death
- Death of animals
- Incestual ideations (it's discussed, but not acted upon)
Inspiration for the sentence finishing game from @booksbyjoanna.
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Bahls (00:08):
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Bahls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast and in thisepisode we are talking about a
thriller and, like all thrillers, it contains sensitive topics,
so please see the show notes fortrigger warnings.
But today I'm joined by authorAliah Wright and her debut novel
, which we were talking abouttoday.
Now you Owe Me.
(00:29):
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Aliah Wright (00:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
It's my pleasure.
Kristen Bahls (00:33):
Oh, yay, I cannot wait to talk about your book.
But before we get into it, Iwould love to know what are you
currently reading right now?
Aliah Wright (00:41):
So I'm one of those people who can read
multiple books at the same time,so I just pick up a book
whenever I'm in a different roomor outside on my deck which is
usually and so what usuallyhappens is I become engrossed
with one, and then, when thathappens, I ignore the others
until I finish the one that I'mworking on.
So right now, I'm reallyintrigued with Apprentice to the
(01:06):
Villain.
Kristen Bahls (01:07):
Oh, yep, the second one.
Aliah Wright (01:09):
And so, and I was supposed to go to a book reading
where she was signing copies inCoatesville, PA shout out to
Looker Books but I missed it,and so the book owner of the
store, Dana Looker, held a copyof it for me and she had it
signed.
So I was really excited to geta signed copy of her book.
But I'm also reading like, soif I'm out on my deck I'm
(01:32):
reading.
Ep2 was on.
He wrote a book.
It's called A Professional Lola.
It's a funny book of shortstories that look at Filipino
American culture, and so thestory is about a bunch of
different.
It's a bunch of different shortstories, but the first story is
about this family who hires aprofessional grandmother or Lola
for a little boy's birthdayparty, and the people in this
(01:54):
story, the woman who's thegrandmother she's an actress
that plays their deadgrandmother and it's something
that's common in Filipinoculture and I didn't know that
until I started reading thisbook.
But it's something that'scommon in Filipino culture and I
didn't know that until Istarted reading this book, but
it's Me either.
It's really funny and I'mnearly done with Danzi Sena's
Color Television and I alsofinished reading her husband
(02:16):
Percival Everett's novel Jamesover the weekend, and that was
really nice.
I finished it on audio book,and so that's where I am with my
reading.
Kristen Bahls (02:24):
Nice.
It sounds like you read a lotof different genres.
Aliah Wright (02:26):
I do.
I have a lot of.
My interests are varied and thefunny thing is I've written
this thriller which some peopleare calling a horror novel, but
my favorite genre is romance.
Kristen Bahls (02:41):
I love romance as well.
Aliah Wright (02:42):
I love romance, and so one day maybe, I'll write
a romance novel.
I have one like brewing insideme that I wanted to get out, but
this story took me by surprise.
So, and it was.
I had a blast writing it.
Kristen Bahls (02:52):
It was.
It was a blast to read too.
Yeah, I could see how somepeople could possibly classify
it as horror, but it's just areally intense, intense thriller
.
Aliah Wright (03:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Kristen Bahls (03:03):
And what can you tell us about your current work
in progress?
Aliah Wright (03:11):
We were talking about this a little bit, but
what can readers kind of expectnext?
So readers can certainly expectbook two, and then Now you Own
Me Universe and a book three.
You know, depending on howthings go, I may write a prequel
.
I'm also outlining what I hopewill be an epic based on a
battle in the Old Testament ofthe Bible.
So the other thing is, I justwrapped up our certificate in
digital marketing strategy fromHarvard Business School Online.
(03:34):
So that was intense.
Yeah, I'm sure, and I did thatright before my launch.
But right now I'm more focusedon appearances, like doing
podcasts and doing book signings.
So I've been crisscrossing thecountry all year doing book
signings at bookstores and bookfestivals.
Kristen Bahls (03:52):
How cool is that getting to meet readers in
person.
Aliah Wright (03:55):
It's really, it's really cool.
The very first person I met wasat the American Booksellers
Association Conference.
The very first person I met whoread the book, and she was.
She sat right next to me andshe was like I was so excited to
read your book and I was on theplane and when I got to the
first twist I screamed out holyand she cursed and she said
(04:16):
everybody turned and stared ather and I was like why?
And I said did you see thetwist coming?
And she was like no, not at all.
And I was like yes, so, andit's nice to meet people who've
read the book and then onereviewer, library Journal, in
fact, compared it to KarenSlaughter, Gillian Flynn and
Tana French and that was just soexciting to me.
(04:39):
I'm a big Gillian Flynn fan, soto have people compare it to
that was just amazing.
So I was at another booksellers conference a couple of
months ago and that was inVirginia and there were just all
these people booksellerscrowding around me saying how
much they you know there waslike a lot of excitement and
buzz about the book at theconference.
That I didn't even know aboutand it was.
(05:01):
It was nice to talk to peoplewho were excited about reading
the book and going over thedifferent things that they
discovered and what they learnedabout not just the process, but
what they learned from thestory too.
Kristen Bahls (05:12):
Oh, that was so cool that you got the experience
and got the chance to do that.
And what states are you doing?
Book signings coming up.
Aliah Wright (05:20):
So right now I have one in Virginia at the Fall
for the Book Festival.
It's this huge book festival inNorthern Virginia.
It's one of my favoritesbecause I still live down there.
And then I have anotherspeaking engagement that I need
to confirm in Jersey nextweekend.
And then I'm going back toVirginia for a book signing at
(05:44):
Busboys and Poets in Shirlingtonand I wrote some of Now you Own
Me in one of theirestablishments.
It's like a cafe slashrestaurant.
They do book signings, they dospoken word poetry.
It's a really cool venue.
Oh, that's cool, yeah, so I'mgoing back there.
It's one of my favorite spaces.
And I just got back fromCalifornia over the weekend
(06:07):
where I was a gold table hostfor my publisher's 30th
anniversary benefit.
That was nice, and I did asigning while I was there at
Octavia's Bookshelf in Pasadena.
So that was nice.
So, and the bookstores havebeen very welcoming, which is
nice.
Kristen Bahls (06:22):
Oh, that's good.
Yeah, every bookstore eventI've been to it's always really
a really fun atmosphere and it'snice to get to meet, you know
other readers and talk to theauthor and it's just a really
cool experience, yeah, and I, so.
Aliah Wright (06:33):
My launch was at Politics and Prose in Washington
DC, and it's like all thesepeople have read at this place I
mean the Obamas, the Clintons,Salman Rushdie, JK Rowling, and
so there were quite a few otherauthors there that I did not
know was going to be there, andthat was sort of really
thrilling just to meet otherauthors who know what it's like
to go through this process andjust, you know, to chat with
(06:56):
them and talk to them and learnfrom their experience, because
I'm a debut author, so this isreally nice.
Kristen Bahls (07:05):
I know it's awesome getting to talk to other
authors and see them too, andit's nice when they all go to
each other's events.
There are a couple, also inNashville, that they'll all go
to everyone else's event.
So you know you go there forone author and you might find a
couple more that you know thatyou can chat with too.
I was going to say thank you somuch for writing a second book.
(07:26):
You know, with severalthrillers, they'll leave you on
a cliffhanger and that's just it.
And so I thought with this oneI was like no, I'm never going
to know what happens.
Oh no, but now we get.
We actually get to learn.
Aliah Wright (07:39):
It becomes more of like a cat and mouse thriller
because there's a lot of stuffthat gets resolved, even more of
like a cat and mouse thrillerbecause there's a lot of stuff
that gets resolved even withinthe first chapter of the sequel.
So I'm like eager for people tosee it.
And I had a.
I had a lot of fun writing thesecond book and then just now
that I'm putting the finishingtouches on it, I'm really
excited, but it'll be a whilebefore it's done because I have
(07:59):
to go back and just massageeverything, make sure everything
makes sense, but it's, I don't.
People who like Now you Own Mewill love the sequel?
Kristen Bahls (08:06):
Good to know, because, yeah, I've read a
couple thrillers lately thathave just left me hanging and
there's nothing, it's justthat's it.
Aliah Wright (08:13):
And it doesn't wrap you up, yeah, and you're
like no, I just want to know,and I think that that speaks to
people's desire and want forcliffhangers.
Um, desire and want forcliffhangers, I mean for me, I
love a good cliffhanger and Itried to do that.
I think that's one of thereasons why people are telling
me that now you owe me.
So fast-paced is becausethere's like many cliffhangers
within the book as you'rereading and you can't put it
(08:34):
down.
You're like what happens next,and so I wanted to make sure
that I continued to pique thecuriosity of the reader as I was
writing it and then, towardstowards the end, you know,
people were like I really wantedto see more.
I'm like don't worry, I got you.
Kristen Bahls (08:49):
Good to know.
Good to know, yeah, cause therethere are a lot of parts where
you're like, okay, this isimportant.
I can tell that this is goingto come back later, but I'm
going to put it to the side ofmy brain for a second while I
focus on what's happening withthis thing and then, and then it
all does come back, of course,at the end.
So, if you can tell me a littlebit more about your journey to
becoming an author you have areally interesting background,
(09:11):
you think so?
Yeah, I do.
Aliah Wright (09:14):
So I've always wanted to write a book, even
while I worked at newspapers andwire services, covering cops,
courts, politics andentertainment.
Now you Own Me is my firstnovel, but I've written a
textbook on social mediastrategy and engagement and that
was a bestseller for thepublisher.
That's been my journey so far.
You know, with this process andwhen you're a journalist, it's
(09:37):
a completely different animal interms of like how you approach.
Kristen Bahls (09:42):
AP style and just that formulaic yeah.
Aliah Wright (09:45):
It's yeah Writing.
Um yeah, it's art.
Are you a journalist by anychance?
Kristen Bahls (09:50):
Uh, broadcast is my undergrad, so Okay.
Aliah Wright (09:54):
So you, you understand the process because
it's like you know and I have.
I've told people before thatwriting a book is different from
writing a newspaper article,it's different from writing for
television, it's different fromwriting for radio, and I've done
all of this.
I used to work for theAssociated Press and we had to
take all of our stories and thenjust boil them down for
broadcast.
And um it's very hard but youget used to it.
(10:16):
Because our deadlines were sotight, I had to literally learn
how to write a novel, and forthat I went to writer's
workshops, and so you know, andI got a writing coach to just
learn the basics of how to dothat.
Because writing a book is hard,it's not easy, and you know,
trying to make sure thateverything slots into place is
(10:37):
hard too, and I've spoken toauthors who've told me that with
their whether it's a debutnovel or something that they've
just published some of them havespent 10 years writing a book.
I'm fortunate that it didn'ttake me that long.
Kristen Bahls (10:49):
True, I'm sure that all of that would help in
the classes and everything,cause, yeah, it's just a totally
different mindset shift.
Aliah Wright (10:57):
Right, and then just seeing how other people do
it too, it's, it's very, it canbe very inspiring.
Kristen Bahls (11:03):
I agree, author groups are the best way to grow
and talk to others, for sure.
Yeah, so what inspired thepremise of Now you Owe Me, and
how did this idea kind of evolveas you wrote it?
And even as you're writing thesecond book.
How is it still?
Aliah Wright (11:18):
evolving.
Now you Owe Me grew out of myfrustration of seeing so many
missing young women lose theirlives at the hands of kidnappers
, and so I sat down to write thestory several years ago, before
the pandemic, and it wasinitially a short story that
centered on Fiona and how sheescapes.
When I decided to expand thebook into a novel, the twins and
(11:41):
Amanda were born and Iformulated like how that would
work out.
So that's how I came up withthe premise, and I'm coming up
with different premises fordifferent stories that are
related to this universe.
Kristen Bahls (11:57):
Okay, so we get to stay in the universe for even
longer.
Okay, good to know.
Yeah, okay, and what were someof the central themes that you
were really kind of mostinterested in exploring through
this thriller?
Aliah Wright (12:10):
So, when it comes to the central themes, I wanted
to look at how someone becomes aserial killer Like.
What does that evolution looklike?
That's why we join the twinswhen they're seven and witness
their story through their 20s.
People may think that thesocial commentary that's in the
book is the point, but it's not.
It's just there because of whoI am as a person and the things
(12:31):
I see going around me, and Ifelt that that should be pointed
out from my character'sperspectives, such as the plight
of missing women, particularlymissing white women's syndrome,
and how that differs from whenwomen of color go missing.
Also, how the police treatthese cases differently.
It touches on that, but that'snot the main thrust of the book,
(12:54):
so I wanted to explore thosethemes when I was writing it.
Kristen Bahls (12:59):
And did you pull from a lot of your experience
and some of the stories that youhad written as a journalist?
Some, yes.
So Because that's up close andpersonal, I mean really up close
, yeah.
Aliah Wright (13:13):
It is.
It is because I used to be apolice reporter and a court
reporter and I've covered somereally pretty big cases.
I used to work for theAssociated Press in Pennsylvania
and I covered politics and Ialso cover crime and I covered
politics and I also coveredcrime and I covered courts and I
covered crime at various stagesin my career as a journalist.
So for me, I also I can vividlyremember walking into a
(13:35):
courtroom in Philadelphia duringa mob trial and being scared
yeah, because I worked my waythrough college at both the
Philadelphia Daily News and theInquirer and I can vividly
remember some of the mobreporters and they had mob
reporters on staff getting deaththreats, and so for me to walk
into the courtroom and haveevery head turned to look at me
(13:59):
because I'm the new personwalking in the courtroom and I'm
sitting next to the associatedpress reporter who was covering
the trial and I had to take overfor her all my first day on the
job.
That was so intimidating it wasand it was scary because you're
sitting in this room with thesevery well-known gangsters.
And so I drew a lot from thoseexperiences and then the book
(14:24):
has a lot of.
I did a lot of research now andI tell people that research can
be the basis for what you write,but of course you're writing
fiction, so you can expand onwhat you know and what you learn
to create that story.
But it's not like it's thegospel, I'm not like creating.
There's a basis in fact, butit's not factual, so because
(14:45):
it's fiction.
So you know, for me theresearch helped a lot when I was
trying to determine, like,what's wrong with these kids and
so you know what are the thingsthat impact their environment
to make them become the way theyare, and then their thought
processes and their mentalhealth.
So it's like all these thingscombined to make a craft, a
(15:08):
portrait of these characters.
Does that make?
Kristen Bahls (15:10):
sense, yes, and especially with the twins it
almost kind of felt like theyhad no choice because they were
pushed into this a little bit bytheir background.
At a certain point it seemedlike they were just kind of like
heading on this trajectory, andit's just the way that I've had
(15:31):
people talk about the natureversus nurture debate.
Aliah Wright (15:33):
You know, and that's something I never even
thought about that when I waswriting it.
It was just, you know, okay,this is how I'm going to frame
how, why they behave the waythat they do, and then I'm going
to take a little bit of licensewith fiction and then just run
with it, and so that's how Icame up with the, with that
aspect.
Kristen Bahls (15:53):
And is it going to play even more in the second
book as well?
Aliah Wright (15:57):
Oh yeah.
So we will see more ofCorinthian then, Okay, and I
think that you know the readerswill be.
You know it's, it's one ofthose things and we'll talk
about that too, becausesometimes you have, you know, a
love-hate relationship with yourcharacters, and I certainly had
that too.
Kristen Bahls (16:14):
I'm sure, and you're inside their brain for an
extended period of time.
So that's why.
Aliah Wright (16:21):
Right.
Kristen Bahls (16:21):
So were there any twists or turns in the story
that surprised you as you werewriting?
Because there are severaltwists.
Aliah Wright (16:27):
Yes, so they came like while I was writing the
last section of the novel.
So I pretty much knew what thefirst twist was gonna gonna be.
And then there are some prettybig reveals, but I don't want to
spoil them for your, for thereaders, so I'm not, I'm not
gonna go like expand on this.
Kristen Bahls (16:48):
But, yeah, the first main one was the one that
I did not guess at all.
Aliah Wright (16:53):
It's sort of like it came.
I know it came out of nowhere,but for me it was like just such
a thrilling thing to do.
But to go back through, youknow, the whole book to make
sure that you don't, you know,figure that out, cause I've had
people tell me I was like howdoes she do that?
I had to go back and reread andfigure out and I'm like that's
(17:21):
what I wanted you to do, youknow, know.
But then the other couple oftwists that are in there,
towards the end, um, sort of Iwas thinking like, well, how do
I do this and what do I?
Who, who is it?
Like?
Oh yeah, that's right.
And that's when I introducedanother main character and
people like, oh, okay, so, but Idon't want to get into that,
not too much in the weeds anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah, no no, no
spoilers.
Kristen Bahls (17:38):
Yeah, definitely, definitely not.
But yeah, whenever that firstplot just happened, I was like,
wait, a minute, wait.
And so I I also had to thinkback like, wait, how did this
happen if this and this and thishappened?
And I was like, okay, I'm gonnawait and see how it turns out.
And then obviously it wasexplained and I was like, okay,
that's how I didn't catch it.
So, yeah, it was definitelyembedded in there the whole time
(18:00):
.
And, okay, so did you come upwith?
You said that you kind of hadthe first plot twist in mind.
Did you think of that like fromthe beginning, whenever you
were doing the short stories, orwas it like, how did you kind
of go about it?
Aliah Wright (18:14):
So once I started plotting the novel out, I
thought about the first twistwas always going to happen.
I always knew that.
I always knew that and I had tokeep that in mind as I was
formulating these characters.
And then, as the story unfoldedas I was writing, the others
sort of came as I was writing.
(18:36):
They were a lot of fun toconstruct, no lie.
Kristen Bahls (18:41):
Oh yeah, I'm sure they were.
They were really fun to read.
So I wanted to play a littleshort game and, basically, if
you will finish my sentence withsomething, it could be
something that was in the bookor maybe something that you've
discovered about the characters.
Um, it could be something thatwas in the book or maybe
something that you've discoveredabout the characters since.
Aliah Wright (19:00):
Okay, so my first one is Carinthia would never.
Carinthia would never letanything hurt Ben and, by
extension, because anything thathurts Ben she's going to
actually have to suffer theconsequences, because they're
together as brother and sister.
So she doesn't want anything tohurt him or herself, but she
would never let anything hurtBen.
They're both protective of eachother.
And Ben or Benji, always, healways does what his sister
(19:24):
tells him to do, and he's beendoing that since he was a little
kid.
He always deferred to her.
She's older than him by aminute, but even when they were
little she played up the bigsister thing.
So he always does what shetells him to do.
Kristen Bahls (19:39):
Amanda should.
Aliah Wright (19:40):
Amanda should definitely look more before she
leaps and think long and hardabout her consequences.
Kristen Bahls (19:49):
Agreed, and then Fiona can't.
Aliah Wright (19:51):
Fiona can't forgive herself for what happens
to Amanda at the end of thebook and readers will see more
of the consequences of that inbook two, which I'm still
working on.
But yeah, she has a lot of andyou've read the book so you know
what happens.
But she harbors a lot of guiltin terms of what happens to
(20:11):
Amanda.
That becomes more palpable forher and you can see the anguish
that she experiences later on inthe book, even though it's
funny, because Fiona doesn'thave a whole lot of like.
She's not really like a lot ofstuff happens to her, but she's
sort of like a almost like aperipheral character.
Yeah, for me, to me, she, to meshe reminds me of norm's wife
(20:34):
and cheers.
That is true when they'realways talking about his wife
off the screen and he's like oh,you know, she's, she's kind of
like that, but not quite okay,good to know, because I I was
also going to ask about that,because, yeah, she, I was
wondering how she felt abouteverything you know, based on
(20:54):
some of her reactions and Ican't imagine being put in a
situation like that and not youwould not come out of that
unscathed, no matter what, withall the trauma.
She survives it, you know, butit not without like scars.
Kristen Bahls (21:09):
And who who's the most challenging character to
write.
I don't know that.
I have a guess there wereseveral that I'm sure were hard.
Aliah Wright (21:16):
Um, carinthia.
Carinthia was the mostchallenging character right, and
I think that's because I had alove-hate relationship with her
and getting her tenor just rightwas challenging.
I spent a long timecontemplating her demise, more
than once actually, and so she'salso a central figure within
this book.
(21:36):
So, at more more than one point, I can say for a fact that I
actually, you know, thoughtabout, you know like just
getting rid of her, but I waslike no, I can't really do that
because there are different waysthat I could have done it.
But I was like, you know, benneeds her, so does the story
yeah, she's his puppeteer forsure.
Kristen Bahls (21:57):
Good to know, and then okay.
So if the book was adapted forfilm, who would you choose to
play?
Uh, corinthia, ben amanda andfiona I.
Aliah Wright (22:11):
I actually have a whole list of people who I'd
love to see in any of theseroles, but, to be honest, I
would be thrilled to have thisbook.
Leap to film or televisionNetflix, are you listening?
Yes, please, I wouldn't wantthat to come to fruition and
have people ask me if I'mdisappointed in the casting
(22:32):
based on the conversation we'rehaving today.
Kristen Bahls (22:35):
To be honest, there's a whole crop of
newcomers who would be great inthese roles.
Aliah Wright (22:40):
Some of them may still be in high school even,
but I'd be willing to leave thatup to the casting directors, or
the casting director or thestudio or whatever, because Ben
and Carinthia are twins and theylook so much alike that one
actor could play actor oractress could play them, like
you know Saoirse Ronan, orEuphoria star, hunter Schafer,
(23:03):
um or um, in terms of likeAmanda, maybe, um, asia Naomi
King, who was in um how to GetAway with Murder, um, she has
this steel gaze and um, thistough girl persona that I adore.
And then, like I think aboutChloe greats Maritz in the role
of Fiona, and she has this sortof quiet, grace and
(23:26):
vulnerability but also aninternal fortitude and grit that
I feel that that characterembodies.
And, you know, in terms of menlike Alex Pettyfor or Alexander
Ludwig.
I mean, these are just somenames that come to my mind, but,
you know, at the end of the day, you know having the book made
into a movie.
And being adapted as beingadapted, and I just you know,
(23:49):
saw that I think Frida McFaddenjust had her book adapted into a
movie.
Yeah, the Housemaid, I think,is McFadden, just had her book
adapted into a movie.
Kristen Bahls (23:56):
Yeah, the Housemaid, I think, is the one
that's going to be.
Yeah, yeah, and I have both ofher books on my TBR.
Aliah Wright (24:00):
I just bought a couple of the books in the
series and so I'm waiting todive into those because you know
she has some really good peoplewho are going to be in that
book, I mean in that movie, thatmovie adaptation of the book,
so it's exciting.
Kristen Bahls (24:18):
Yeah, taking the characters that are in your head
and getting to put them onscreen.
And yeah, with Freedive.
I've read One by One and NeverLie, but I haven't read the
Housemaid yet.
Aliah Wright (24:27):
The Housemaid is just great because it's like you
know they pick the wrong.
Talk about people picking thewrong people to mess with Common
theme.
Kristen Bahls (24:41):
Yeah.
But yeah, I've noticed thatthere are a lot of adaptations
for more thrillers lately.
It seemed like a while.
For a while it was kind ofromance heavy or YA heavy, but
now it seems like there areseveral thrillers that are
actually kind of catching,catching their adaptations and
making their way.
Aliah Wright (24:55):
I agree.
I couldn't agree more with thatbecause I think, well, part of
it is that there's so many more.
Remember, like, back in the day, we had like ABC, cbs, nbc, yep
, and then we got Fox, and then,of course, we had PBS, and then
we had the regular film studiosParamount, 20th Century Fox, we
had all these, you know Fox.
So we had all these studios.
(25:16):
And now there's all thesestreaming services, like NBC has
Peacock and you have, you know,hbo Max, and now you have like
YouTube TV, and I could name, Icould rattle off a dozen, and
all of them need good stories.
So people are, and people arefinding that.
You know, thrillers are one ofthose things that people really
(25:38):
come back to and I, I lovehorror movies.
That's where my my thing iswhen it comes to horror movies.
I'm a huge horror movie fan.
We could do a whole podcast onhow many horror movies I've seen
.
But what are some of yourfavorites?
Some of my.
One of my favorite horror moviesis the People Under the Stairs,
which Ving Rhames was in manyyears ago, and it was the one of
(25:59):
the first films I'd ever sawwith an african-american
protagonist and he gets caughtin this house because they're
trying to.
Well, he's I mean, I don't evenknow if you want to call him
yeah, you could call him aprotagonist because he gets
caught in this house of horrorswhere these people are who are
living in the walls.
He's come, he goes in there torob that you should watch.
It goes in there to rob thehouse with this little boy of
(26:22):
his I think it's hisgirlfriend's little little
brother and then they get caughtin the house.
But the cool thing about thisstory is it's based on a true
story, which makes it evenscarier.
Yeah and yeah, and so the otherthing my one of my favorite
horror films is the Conjuringand in that whole universe I
love that movie.
Um, and for me, I like filmsthat are not.
(26:45):
I don't like the slasher filmsare okay, but for me I want to
read a book that's aboutsomething that's plausibly scary
.
Like, if you yeah, because youknow walking down the street at
night and having someone followyou is scary and it can.
You know it's heart poundingbecause it's something that
could happen and so it makes youeven, it pulls you into the
(27:07):
story more.
You know, rather than just youknow, a whole bunch of people
like being tortured to death ina room based on some, some, some
reason For me.
I want to be like, I want towrite something and I think
people want to see somethingthat could happen and how you
survive that, yeah, or how youget, you know, revenge for it.
Kristen Bahls (27:26):
True well, now I have a book to add to your tbr.
Um, it's a thriller horror andI was reading it for our book
club for October and it is.
It is pretty much what you'redescribing.
It's called uh, we used to livehere, by Marcus Kroehler, and,
oh my gosh, it's literally thiscouple.
They move into a house and thenthis family knocks on their
door and they're like hey, weused to live here, can we come
(27:48):
see inside your house?
They say, okay, sure, and thenall chaos ensues.
So it could totally happen.
Wow, right, and it seems like asomewhat common occurrence, but
yeah, it is wild.
Aliah Wright (28:04):
You have to be careful.
I mean, my mom used to alwayssay don't open the door for
anybody, yeah, especially not arandom family.
Yeah, that sounds like a reallygood book.
I might have to put that on myTBR.
I think I will put it on my TBR.
Kristen Bahls (28:17):
Yeah, it was good .
It does end in a cliffhanger,though, so you'll love it,
because it's a cliffhanger forsure.
Aliah Wright (28:24):
I was listening to the audio and it just stopped
and I went no wait, that's theend.
Kristen Bahls (28:28):
That's where you're leaving it.
So yeah, it is.
Aliah Wright (28:30):
Oh, wow.
Kristen Bahls (28:31):
It is.
It's a cliffhanger, and so whatis the process that you use?
You're talking about it alittle bit earlier, but kind of
what's the process for buildingthe tension and the pacing of
the novel to ensure that readersare really staying hooked from
the beginning and the end?
And yours was split up intothree parts, so did that also?
Aliah Wright (28:50):
kind of contribute .
Well, part of it is startingwith a strong opening or a
premise that hooks the readerswith a conflict that reels them
in from the beginning, soestablishing a predicament for
the characters, for the twinsit's the sense that the
authorities are closing in onthem, yet they still want to
continue their activitiesdespite the risk and Amanda's
(29:14):
conflict is wanting to rescueher friend Then introducing
friction among the charactersand situations by varying
degrees, which makes thenarrative engaging, I think, and
energetic.
I like using short chapters toescalate that friction and
increase the tension, and thenwriting like little mini
(29:35):
cliffhangers between thechapters while varying the pace
to keep readers on the edge oftheir seats.
It just works like that.
And this book has a ton offoreshadowing in it too, and I
like that.
I could sort of hide some ofthat in there that doesn't
become apparent until the firsttwist is revealed.
And there's other stuff I didtoo, but again, I don't want to
give away too much of the novel.
Kristen Bahls (29:56):
Yeah, no, I agree , I agree, and I'm sure with the
thriller of, of course, italmost kind of lends this way.
But it sounds like you'redefinitely a plotter over a
pantser, right?
Oh yes.
Aliah Wright (30:08):
I am, and so I got into um, I was at the book
signing and we were at a booksigning in Pasadena at Octavia's
Bookshelf.
I think that's where I got intothe whole plotter versus
pantser discussion.
I can't remember, but I amdefinitely a plotter, so I
believe in using outlines.
So for me and I talk about thison my TikTok, which is at Aliah
(30:29):
Writes, if you're interestedlisteners, where I give tips on
writing and I show people likebehind the scenes when I'm doing
various events but for me, I'ma big outliner, I've always been
, and I did that with my firstbook, which was a textbook.
But with this novel I decidedto plot the whole thing out.
(30:49):
So what I do is chapter oneeven if I write just two or
three sentences, I know what'sgonna happen in the first
chapter, second, third, fourth,fifth, so forth and so on, and
you don't have to do that forthe whole book.
But for me, I outlined, I think, like maybe the first 20 or so
chapters and then I, when I gotto a point where I was like oh
my gosh, where do I go next, Iwould turn to my outline.
(31:10):
So I don't get writer's blockand that helps me because I know
exactly where I'm going to gonext in the story.
And of course, that outlinelooks nothing like the end of
the book and it's not supposedto.
It's just it's like a roadmapor a guide.
You know, I was talking toanother friend of mine who is he
has a book coming out inNovember and he was like I'm the
opposite.
I have to, I'm going to rollwith it as I go, I'm going to
(31:34):
keep writing and then just seewhere it takes me.
And he's like you know, butI've seen some of his notes.
He's like you know, but I'veseen some of his notes.
So I'm like you're kind ofdoing it a little bit, but I'm
like not to the extent.
And then some people, itdepends.
I mean, there's no right orwrong way to approach how you're
going to write or tell yourstory.
The only thing I think thatreally matters is dedication and
(31:56):
persistence, and those are thethings that actually will help
you in your journey.
If you're listening and youwant to write a novel,
definitely devote time to it.
Definitely set the time asideto write.
Hemingway used to get up everymorning and write.
A friend of mine, dc Frost, whowrote A Punishing Breed.
She talks about how she got upat 5 am to write and I'm like
(32:28):
girl, I'm just drooling in mypillow at 5am.
I'm not getting up that earlyto write.
I'm sorry For me.
I write like on.
I pick a day.
I usually um a Sunday, afteryou know, after church, after
everyone's fed, after you knowit's not light outside.
I write better at night.
So I will go and I'll either gointo my office or my kitchen or
sometimes I go to Starbucks oryou know a nice cafe and I'll
sit and I'll write and the noisedoesn't bother me, because I
worked in newsrooms for so manyyears where people were talking
(32:48):
and the TV's on and when you getto the point where you're
focused, you're just focused,and then I could put headphones
on to play classical music, if Iwant, or jazz, and then just
sit there and just be in grossand write for like five or six
hours straight, yeah, andsometimes I'd be there so long
that you know the people inStarbucks would kick me out.
They're like we're about toclose and you've had all this
(33:09):
free coffee but you need toleave.
So for me it's like you have topick and decide Pick a day or
pick some time of the week.
I have friends who they'll lockthemselves in hotels for like
weeks and just write.
You know they just want to justbe focused on that one thing,
turn everything off and justfocus on it.
(33:30):
I still have the internet.
I still, you know, will get anoccasional ping from someone,
but my social media is, like youknow, turned off and I'm just
focusing and that's my time.
So when you devote that time,it's almost like a job, but it
becomes something you enjoy.
It's like a habit or a hobby.
When you turn it into a habit,it's easier to actually finish
(33:50):
what you start, and that'swhether you have an outline or
not.
Kristen Bahls (33:53):
That is very true .
So, as a traditionallypublished author, what's kind of
the normal deadline that youhave to write a book?
Do you get a year, or is itless than that?
Aliah Wright (34:03):
Um, I don't, I don't know.
I mean, it just depends.
Um, there are still peoplewaiting, I think, for George RR
Martin's new Game of Thronesbook.
When you get to the, when youget to the point where you're
just cause.
But, like I said, writing ishard and plotting out the book
is hard, and trying to figureout where the characters are
going to go next and whether ornot you know the things that you
, that you're writing, makessense, and sometimes your story
(34:25):
is not going the way you thinkit's going to go because the
characters are doing differentthings.
So it it's just a matter oflike.
Just, I'm not like on any kindof a deadline.
I don't think a lot of writersare and you know, yeah, cause
it's like when you're firstpublishing your book, of course
you know yeah, because it's likewhen you're first publishing
your book, of course you knowyou finish it and you're like
(34:46):
excited and you're sending itout, you know.
Or, like me, I had an agent, somy agent sent it out and we
were just waiting to hear backfrom people and it didn't take
that long for me to get a bookdeal.
But it was like you know, and Ididn't get a lot of rejections
down, but just weird anddifferent, because it was the
pandemic.
After Red Hen picked the book up, a lot of things slowed down.
(35:09):
So a lot of, a lot of booksthat were supposed to come out
like during that time didn'tbecause of the pandemic, because
we were all at home, so thepeople who go and produce know
books weren't out there.
So I had to wait.
My book was like in a queue,you know, which was fine.
You know it worked out the wayit's supposed to work out.
(35:30):
But in terms of, like,subsequent novels, I mean, uh,
it it just depends I mean what.
It depends on what you'rewriting, um, what your story is,
which roads you're going down.
My characters are going to belike crisscrossing, you know,
the globe in book two and inbook three.
So it's you know, and these areall places that I've been or
(35:50):
places I plan to revisit or goto, and these are things that I
was thinking of when I waswriting and I was like you know
what, I think I might have to goX, y, z place again, or I'm
definitely going to go to thisplace, now that you know I'm,
I'm thinking about this forwhat's going to happen in the
future.
Kristen Bahls (36:10):
So it just I mean I guess the answer is it
depends on a lot of factors,true, and I was going to say I'm
sure all the contracts are sodifferent too, so it's probably
also what you're contracted toas well.
Aliah Wright (36:20):
In addition, to all of those other external
factors.
Yeah, yeah, a whole lot, some,some beyond my control and some
within my control.
Kristen Bahls (36:26):
Well, I'm glad it was able um able to be
published and it's out and aboutand out in the world and it was
amazing.
And now you're officially adebut fiction author.
Aliah Wright (36:38):
Yeah, and I'm, and I'm excited, I am so excited
about this.
It's just one of those thingswhere it's like a dream come
true.
I don't know anybody who writesfor a living or who's a
journalist or who's a scribe.
They've got a book in themsomewhere.
It's just a matter of trying tohave that come to fruition and
(36:59):
being diligent and havingperseverance and just being
positive too.
That helps a lot.
That helps a whole lot.
Kristen Bahls (37:07):
I'm sure it's easy to have self-doubt with
just how isolating it can bewithout other offers.
Aliah Wright (37:12):
Right, when you're writing, we're all in a vacuum.
We're not like JK Rowlingsitting in a coffee shop with a
pen and a notepad writing, butit's a solitary process and
you're in your head and you'rethinking oh my gosh, this you
know, ben and Corinthia arepeople that I created and now
everybody knows them and feelslike they're a part of you.
(37:34):
Know this, this phenomenon ofjust being a person who's read
this book and and I I'm likeopen to talking about this at at
book clubs too I can't wait todo some book clubs.
I haven't done any yet, but ifanybody's out there they want me
to be in a book club, pleaselet me know.
But yeah, it's just one ofthose things where you know you,
you spend this time and you'recreating these, these fictional
(37:55):
people, and for some people,people say, oh, my characters
are so real and I'm like, maybe,maybe, yeah, I connected, I
think, mostly with the Amandacharacter.
She does a lot of things thatwhen people read it, they're
like it's sort of like you watcha person who hears something in
the basement and they, you know, they turn the light, switch on
(38:17):
and the light doesn't come onand they grab a bat and then the
whole audience is like don't godown there.
And they go down there anyway.
That's Amanda.
She's going to go down thebasement.
Aliah's not going in anybasements.
I'm not going with a gun, I'mnot going with a flashlight, I'm
not going with a bat, I'm goingoutside and I'm going to call
the cops that would be what Iwould do too, but thankfully for
(38:40):
the story, Amanda does notabide by that.
Right.
Kristen Bahls (38:45):
And is there anything else that you would
like to let the listeners knowabout?
Now you Own Me.
Aliah Wright (38:50):
I probably will think of a zillion and one
things once this podcast is over, but for right now I just want
you to go out, get the book.
It's available wherever booksare sold.
If you can go to your localbookstore, do that.
Take your kids, you know.
Walk around, call the bookstoreand order it ahead of time just
to make sure that they have itin stock.
But definitely it's availablein any place that you would
(39:11):
normally buy your books.
I hope you enjoy it and, if youdo, please write me an Amazon
review or hit me up on TikTok @Aliah Writes, or Instagram or
Facebook, and let me know whatyou think.
And thank you so much forhaving me on your podcast.
I'm really excited to be hereand I'm glad to talk about the
book.
Kristen Bahls (39:31):
Yes, thank you so much for coming on, and that's
it for today.
Thank you for listening to,Where I Left Off - A Bookish
Podcast, and you can purchaseAliah's novels through the links
in the show notes.
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Bahls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast and in thisepisode we are talking about a
thriller and, like all thrillers, it contains sensitive topics,
so please see the show notes fortrigger warnings.
But today I'm joined by authorAliah Wright and her debut novel
, which we were talking abouttoday.
Now you Owe Me.
(00:29):
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Aliah Wright (00:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
It's my pleasure.
Kristen Bahls (00:33):
Oh, yay, I cannot wait to talk about your book.
But before we get into it, Iwould love to know what are you
currently reading right now?
Aliah Wright (00:41):
So I'm one of those people who can read
multiple books at the same time,so I just pick up a book
whenever I'm in a different roomor outside on my deck which is
usually and so what usuallyhappens is I become engrossed
with one, and then, when thathappens, I ignore the others
until I finish the one that I'mworking on.
So right now, I'm reallyintrigued with Apprentice to the
(01:06):
Villain.
Kristen Bahls (01:07):
Oh, yep, the second one.
Aliah Wright (01:09):
And so, and I was supposed to go to a book reading
where she was signing copies inCoatesville, PA shout out to
Looker Books but I missed it,and so the book owner of the
store, Dana Looker, held a copyof it for me and she had it
signed.
So I was really excited to geta signed copy of her book.
But I'm also reading like, soif I'm out on my deck I'm
(01:32):
reading.
Ep2 was on.
He wrote a book.
It's called A Professional Lola.
It's a funny book of shortstories that look at Filipino
American culture, and so thestory is about a bunch of
different.
It's a bunch of different shortstories, but the first story is
about this family who hires aprofessional grandmother or Lola
for a little boy's birthdayparty, and the people in this
(01:54):
story, the woman who's thegrandmother she's an actress
that plays their deadgrandmother and it's something
that's common in Filipinoculture and I didn't know that
until I started reading thisbook.
But it's something that'scommon in Filipino culture and I
didn't know that until Istarted reading this book, but
it's Me either.
It's really funny and I'mnearly done with Danzi Sena's
Color Television and I alsofinished reading her husband
(02:16):
Percival Everett's novel Jamesover the weekend, and that was
really nice.
I finished it on audio book,and so that's where I am with my
reading.
Kristen Bahls (02:24):
Nice.
It sounds like you read a lotof different genres.
Aliah Wright (02:26):
I do.
I have a lot of.
My interests are varied and thefunny thing is I've written
this thriller which some peopleare calling a horror novel, but
my favorite genre is romance.
Kristen Bahls (02:41):
I love romance as well.
Aliah Wright (02:42):
I love romance, and so one day maybe, I'll write
a romance novel.
I have one like brewing insideme that I wanted to get out, but
this story took me by surprise.
So, and it was.
I had a blast writing it.
Kristen Bahls (02:52):
It was.
It was a blast to read too.
Yeah, I could see how somepeople could possibly classify
it as horror, but it's just areally intense, intense thriller
.
Aliah Wright (03:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Kristen Bahls (03:03):
And what can you tell us about your current work
in progress?
Aliah Wright (03:11):
We were talking about this a little bit, but
what can readers kind of expectnext?
So readers can certainly expectbook two, and then Now you Own
Me Universe and a book three.
You know, depending on howthings go, I may write a prequel
.
I'm also outlining what I hopewill be an epic based on a
battle in the Old Testament ofthe Bible.
So the other thing is, I justwrapped up our certificate in
digital marketing strategy fromHarvard Business School Online.
(03:34):
So that was intense.
Yeah, I'm sure, and I did thatright before my launch.
But right now I'm more focusedon appearances, like doing
podcasts and doing book signings.
So I've been crisscrossing thecountry all year doing book
signings at bookstores and bookfestivals.
Kristen Bahls (03:52):
How cool is that getting to meet readers in
person.
Aliah Wright (03:55):
It's really, it's really cool.
The very first person I met wasat the American Booksellers
Association Conference.
The very first person I met whoread the book, and she was.
She sat right next to me andshe was like I was so excited to
read your book and I was on theplane and when I got to the
first twist I screamed out holyand she cursed and she said
(04:16):
everybody turned and stared ather and I was like why?
And I said did you see thetwist coming?
And she was like no, not at all.
And I was like yes, so, andit's nice to meet people who've
read the book and then onereviewer, library Journal, in
fact, compared it to KarenSlaughter, Gillian Flynn and
Tana French and that was just soexciting to me.
(04:39):
I'm a big Gillian Flynn fan, soto have people compare it to
that was just amazing.
So I was at another booksellers conference a couple of
months ago and that was inVirginia and there were just all
these people booksellerscrowding around me saying how
much they you know there waslike a lot of excitement and
buzz about the book at theconference.
That I didn't even know aboutand it was.
(05:01):
It was nice to talk to peoplewho were excited about reading
the book and going over thedifferent things that they
discovered and what they learnedabout not just the process, but
what they learned from thestory too.
Kristen Bahls (05:12):
Oh, that was so cool that you got the experience
and got the chance to do that.
And what states are you doing?
Book signings coming up.
Aliah Wright (05:20):
So right now I have one in Virginia at the Fall
for the Book Festival.
It's this huge book festival inNorthern Virginia.
It's one of my favoritesbecause I still live down there.
And then I have anotherspeaking engagement that I need
to confirm in Jersey nextweekend.
And then I'm going back toVirginia for a book signing at
(05:44):
Busboys and Poets in Shirlingtonand I wrote some of Now you Own
Me in one of theirestablishments.
It's like a cafe slashrestaurant.
They do book signings, they dospoken word poetry.
It's a really cool venue.
Oh, that's cool, yeah, so I'mgoing back there.
It's one of my favorite spaces.
And I just got back fromCalifornia over the weekend
(06:07):
where I was a gold table hostfor my publisher's 30th
anniversary benefit.
That was nice, and I did asigning while I was there at
Octavia's Bookshelf in Pasadena.
So that was nice.
So, and the bookstores havebeen very welcoming, which is
nice.
Kristen Bahls (06:22):
Oh, that's good.
Yeah, every bookstore eventI've been to it's always really
a really fun atmosphere and it'snice to get to meet, you know
other readers and talk to theauthor and it's just a really
cool experience, yeah, and I, so.
Aliah Wright (06:33):
My launch was at Politics and Prose in Washington
DC, and it's like all thesepeople have read at this place I
mean the Obamas, the Clintons,Salman Rushdie, JK Rowling, and
so there were quite a few otherauthors there that I did not
know was going to be there, andthat was sort of really
thrilling just to meet otherauthors who know what it's like
to go through this process andjust, you know, to chat with
(06:56):
them and talk to them and learnfrom their experience, because
I'm a debut author, so this isreally nice.
Kristen Bahls (07:05):
I know it's awesome getting to talk to other
authors and see them too, andit's nice when they all go to
each other's events.
There are a couple, also inNashville, that they'll all go
to everyone else's event.
So you know you go there forone author and you might find a
couple more that you know thatyou can chat with too.
I was going to say thank you somuch for writing a second book.
(07:26):
You know, with severalthrillers, they'll leave you on
a cliffhanger and that's just it.
And so I thought with this oneI was like no, I'm never going
to know what happens.
Oh no, but now we get.
We actually get to learn.
Aliah Wright (07:39):
It becomes more of like a cat and mouse thriller
because there's a lot of stuffthat gets resolved, even more of
like a cat and mouse thrillerbecause there's a lot of stuff
that gets resolved even withinthe first chapter of the sequel.
So I'm like eager for people tosee it.
And I had a.
I had a lot of fun writing thesecond book and then just now
that I'm putting the finishingtouches on it, I'm really
excited, but it'll be a whilebefore it's done because I have
(07:59):
to go back and just massageeverything, make sure everything
makes sense, but it's, I don't.
People who like Now you Own Mewill love the sequel?
Kristen Bahls (08:06):
Good to know, because, yeah, I've read a
couple thrillers lately thathave just left me hanging and
there's nothing, it's justthat's it.
Aliah Wright (08:13):
And it doesn't wrap you up, yeah, and you're
like no, I just want to know,and I think that that speaks to
people's desire and want forcliffhangers.
Um, desire and want forcliffhangers, I mean for me, I
love a good cliffhanger and Itried to do that.
I think that's one of thereasons why people are telling
me that now you owe me.
So fast-paced is becausethere's like many cliffhangers
within the book as you'rereading and you can't put it
(08:34):
down.
You're like what happens next,and so I wanted to make sure
that I continued to pique thecuriosity of the reader as I was
writing it and then, towardstowards the end, you know,
people were like I really wantedto see more.
I'm like don't worry, I got you.
Kristen Bahls (08:49):
Good to know.
Good to know, yeah, cause therethere are a lot of parts where
you're like, okay, this isimportant.
I can tell that this is goingto come back later, but I'm
going to put it to the side ofmy brain for a second while I
focus on what's happening withthis thing and then, and then it
all does come back, of course,at the end.
So, if you can tell me a littlebit more about your journey to
becoming an author you have areally interesting background,
(09:11):
you think so?
Yeah, I do.
Aliah Wright (09:14):
So I've always wanted to write a book, even
while I worked at newspapers andwire services, covering cops,
courts, politics andentertainment.
Now you Own Me is my firstnovel, but I've written a
textbook on social mediastrategy and engagement and that
was a bestseller for thepublisher.
That's been my journey so far.
You know, with this process andwhen you're a journalist, it's
(09:37):
a completely different animal interms of like how you approach.
Kristen Bahls (09:42):
AP style and just that formulaic yeah.
Aliah Wright (09:45):
It's yeah Writing.
Um yeah, it's art.
Are you a journalist by anychance?
Kristen Bahls (09:50):
Uh, broadcast is my undergrad, so Okay.
Aliah Wright (09:54):
So you, you understand the process because
it's like you know and I have.
I've told people before thatwriting a book is different from
writing a newspaper article,it's different from writing for
television, it's different fromwriting for radio, and I've done
all of this.
I used to work for theAssociated Press and we had to
take all of our stories and thenjust boil them down for
broadcast.
And um it's very hard but youget used to it.
(10:16):
Because our deadlines were sotight, I had to literally learn
how to write a novel, and forthat I went to writer's
workshops, and so you know, andI got a writing coach to just
learn the basics of how to dothat.
Because writing a book is hard,it's not easy, and you know,
trying to make sure thateverything slots into place is
(10:37):
hard too, and I've spoken toauthors who've told me that with
their whether it's a debutnovel or something that they've
just published some of them havespent 10 years writing a book.
I'm fortunate that it didn'ttake me that long.
Kristen Bahls (10:49):
True, I'm sure that all of that would help in
the classes and everything,cause, yeah, it's just a totally
different mindset shift.
Aliah Wright (10:57):
Right, and then just seeing how other people do
it too, it's, it's very, it canbe very inspiring.
Kristen Bahls (11:03):
I agree, author groups are the best way to grow
and talk to others, for sure.
Yeah, so what inspired thepremise of Now you Owe Me, and
how did this idea kind of evolveas you wrote it?
And even as you're writing thesecond book.
How is it still?
Aliah Wright (11:18):
evolving.
Now you Owe Me grew out of myfrustration of seeing so many
missing young women lose theirlives at the hands of kidnappers
, and so I sat down to write thestory several years ago, before
the pandemic, and it wasinitially a short story that
centered on Fiona and how sheescapes.
When I decided to expand thebook into a novel, the twins and
(11:41):
Amanda were born and Iformulated like how that would
work out.
So that's how I came up withthe premise, and I'm coming up
with different premises fordifferent stories that are
related to this universe.
Kristen Bahls (11:57):
Okay, so we get to stay in the universe for even
longer.
Okay, good to know.
Yeah, okay, and what were someof the central themes that you
were really kind of mostinterested in exploring through
this thriller?
Aliah Wright (12:10):
So, when it comes to the central themes, I wanted
to look at how someone becomes aserial killer Like.
What does that evolution looklike?
That's why we join the twinswhen they're seven and witness
their story through their 20s.
People may think that thesocial commentary that's in the
book is the point, but it's not.
It's just there because of whoI am as a person and the things
(12:31):
I see going around me, and Ifelt that that should be pointed
out from my character'sperspectives, such as the plight
of missing women, particularlymissing white women's syndrome,
and how that differs from whenwomen of color go missing.
Also, how the police treatthese cases differently.
It touches on that, but that'snot the main thrust of the book,
(12:54):
so I wanted to explore thosethemes when I was writing it.
Kristen Bahls (12:59):
And did you pull from a lot of your experience
and some of the stories that youhad written as a journalist?
Some, yes.
So Because that's up close andpersonal, I mean really up close
, yeah.
Aliah Wright (13:13):
It is.
It is because I used to be apolice reporter and a court
reporter and I've covered somereally pretty big cases.
I used to work for theAssociated Press in Pennsylvania
and I covered politics and Ialso cover crime and I covered
politics and I also coveredcrime and I covered courts and I
covered crime at various stagesin my career as a journalist.
So for me, I also I can vividlyremember walking into a
(13:35):
courtroom in Philadelphia duringa mob trial and being scared
yeah, because I worked my waythrough college at both the
Philadelphia Daily News and theInquirer and I can vividly
remember some of the mobreporters and they had mob
reporters on staff getting deaththreats, and so for me to walk
into the courtroom and haveevery head turned to look at me
(13:59):
because I'm the new personwalking in the courtroom and I'm
sitting next to the associatedpress reporter who was covering
the trial and I had to take overfor her all my first day on the
job.
That was so intimidating it wasand it was scary because you're
sitting in this room with thesevery well-known gangsters.
And so I drew a lot from thoseexperiences and then the book
(14:24):
has a lot of.
I did a lot of research now andI tell people that research can
be the basis for what you write,but of course you're writing
fiction, so you can expand onwhat you know and what you learn
to create that story.
But it's not like it's thegospel, I'm not like creating.
There's a basis in fact, butit's not factual, so because
(14:45):
it's fiction.
So you know, for me theresearch helped a lot when I was
trying to determine, like,what's wrong with these kids and
so you know what are the thingsthat impact their environment
to make them become the way theyare, and then their thought
processes and their mentalhealth.
So it's like all these thingscombined to make a craft, a
(15:08):
portrait of these characters.
Does that make?
Kristen Bahls (15:10):
sense, yes, and especially with the twins it
almost kind of felt like theyhad no choice because they were
pushed into this a little bit bytheir background.
At a certain point it seemedlike they were just kind of like
heading on this trajectory, andit's just the way that I've had
(15:31):
people talk about the natureversus nurture debate.
Aliah Wright (15:33):
You know, and that's something I never even
thought about that when I waswriting it.
It was just, you know, okay,this is how I'm going to frame
how, why they behave the waythat they do, and then I'm going
to take a little bit of licensewith fiction and then just run
with it, and so that's how Icame up with the, with that
aspect.
Kristen Bahls (15:53):
And is it going to play even more in the second
book as well?
Aliah Wright (15:57):
Oh yeah.
So we will see more ofCorinthian then, Okay, and I
think that you know the readerswill be.
You know it's, it's one ofthose things and we'll talk
about that too, becausesometimes you have, you know, a
love-hate relationship with yourcharacters, and I certainly had
that too.
Kristen Bahls (16:14):
I'm sure, and you're inside their brain for an
extended period of time.
So that's why.
Aliah Wright (16:21):
Right.
Kristen Bahls (16:21):
So were there any twists or turns in the story
that surprised you as you werewriting?
Because there are severaltwists.
Aliah Wright (16:27):
Yes, so they came like while I was writing the
last section of the novel.
So I pretty much knew what thefirst twist was gonna gonna be.
And then there are some prettybig reveals, but I don't want to
spoil them for your, for thereaders, so I'm not, I'm not
gonna go like expand on this.
Kristen Bahls (16:48):
But, yeah, the first main one was the one that
I did not guess at all.
Aliah Wright (16:53):
It's sort of like it came.
I know it came out of nowhere,but for me it was like just such
a thrilling thing to do.
But to go back through, youknow, the whole book to make
sure that you don't, you know,figure that out, cause I've had
people tell me I was like howdoes she do that?
I had to go back and reread andfigure out and I'm like that's
(17:21):
what I wanted you to do, youknow, know.
But then the other couple oftwists that are in there,
towards the end, um, sort of Iwas thinking like, well, how do
I do this and what do I?
Who, who is it?
Like?
Oh yeah, that's right.
And that's when I introducedanother main character and
people like, oh, okay, so, but Idon't want to get into that,
not too much in the weeds anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah, no no, no
spoilers.
Kristen Bahls (17:38):
Yeah, definitely, definitely not.
But yeah, whenever that firstplot just happened, I was like,
wait, a minute, wait.
And so I I also had to thinkback like, wait, how did this
happen if this and this and thishappened?
And I was like, okay, I'm gonnawait and see how it turns out.
And then obviously it wasexplained and I was like, okay,
that's how I didn't catch it.
So, yeah, it was definitelyembedded in there the whole time
(18:00):
.
And, okay, so did you come upwith?
You said that you kind of hadthe first plot twist in mind.
Did you think of that like fromthe beginning, whenever you
were doing the short stories, orwas it like, how did you kind
of go about it?
Aliah Wright (18:14):
So once I started plotting the novel out, I
thought about the first twistwas always going to happen.
I always knew that.
I always knew that and I had tokeep that in mind as I was
formulating these characters.
And then, as the story unfoldedas I was writing, the others
sort of came as I was writing.
(18:36):
They were a lot of fun toconstruct, no lie.
Kristen Bahls (18:41):
Oh yeah, I'm sure they were.
They were really fun to read.
So I wanted to play a littleshort game and, basically, if
you will finish my sentence withsomething, it could be
something that was in the bookor maybe something that you've
discovered about the characters.
Um, it could be something thatwas in the book or maybe
something that you've discoveredabout the characters since.
Aliah Wright (19:00):
Okay, so my first one is Carinthia would never.
Carinthia would never letanything hurt Ben and, by
extension, because anything thathurts Ben she's going to
actually have to suffer theconsequences, because they're
together as brother and sister.
So she doesn't want anything tohurt him or herself, but she
would never let anything hurtBen.
They're both protective of eachother.
And Ben or Benji, always, healways does what his sister
(19:24):
tells him to do, and he's beendoing that since he was a little
kid.
He always deferred to her.
She's older than him by aminute, but even when they were
little she played up the bigsister thing.
So he always does what shetells him to do.
Kristen Bahls (19:39):
Amanda should.
Aliah Wright (19:40):
Amanda should definitely look more before she
leaps and think long and hardabout her consequences.
Kristen Bahls (19:49):
Agreed, and then Fiona can't.
Aliah Wright (19:51):
Fiona can't forgive herself for what happens
to Amanda at the end of thebook and readers will see more
of the consequences of that inbook two, which I'm still
working on.
But yeah, she has a lot of andyou've read the book so you know
what happens.
But she harbors a lot of guiltin terms of what happens to
(20:11):
Amanda.
That becomes more palpable forher and you can see the anguish
that she experiences later on inthe book, even though it's
funny, because Fiona doesn'thave a whole lot of like.
She's not really like a lot ofstuff happens to her, but she's
sort of like a almost like aperipheral character.
Yeah, for me, to me, she, to meshe reminds me of norm's wife
(20:34):
and cheers.
That is true when they'realways talking about his wife
off the screen and he's like oh,you know, she's, she's kind of
like that, but not quite okay,good to know, because I I was
also going to ask about that,because, yeah, she, I was
wondering how she felt abouteverything you know, based on
(20:54):
some of her reactions and Ican't imagine being put in a
situation like that and not youwould not come out of that
unscathed, no matter what, withall the trauma.
She survives it, you know, butit not without like scars.
Kristen Bahls (21:09):
And who who's the most challenging character to
write.
I don't know that.
I have a guess there wereseveral that I'm sure were hard.
Aliah Wright (21:16):
Um, carinthia.
Carinthia was the mostchallenging character right, and
I think that's because I had alove-hate relationship with her
and getting her tenor just rightwas challenging.
I spent a long timecontemplating her demise, more
than once actually, and so she'salso a central figure within
this book.
(21:36):
So, at more more than one point, I can say for a fact that I
actually, you know, thoughtabout, you know like just
getting rid of her, but I waslike no, I can't really do that
because there are different waysthat I could have done it.
But I was like, you know, benneeds her, so does the story
yeah, she's his puppeteer forsure.
Kristen Bahls (21:57):
Good to know, and then okay.
So if the book was adapted forfilm, who would you choose to
play?
Uh, corinthia, ben amanda andfiona I.
Aliah Wright (22:11):
I actually have a whole list of people who I'd
love to see in any of theseroles, but, to be honest, I
would be thrilled to have thisbook.
Leap to film or televisionNetflix, are you listening?
Yes, please, I wouldn't wantthat to come to fruition and
have people ask me if I'mdisappointed in the casting
(22:32):
based on the conversation we'rehaving today.
Kristen Bahls (22:35):
To be honest, there's a whole crop of
newcomers who would be great inthese roles.
Aliah Wright (22:40):
Some of them may still be in high school even,
but I'd be willing to leave thatup to the casting directors, or
the casting director or thestudio or whatever, because Ben
and Carinthia are twins and theylook so much alike that one
actor could play actor oractress could play them, like
you know Saoirse Ronan, orEuphoria star, hunter Schafer,
(23:03):
um or um, in terms of likeAmanda, maybe, um, asia Naomi
King, who was in um how to GetAway with Murder, um, she has
this steel gaze and um, thistough girl persona that I adore.
And then, like I think aboutChloe greats Maritz in the role
of Fiona, and she has this sortof quiet, grace and
(23:26):
vulnerability but also aninternal fortitude and grit that
I feel that that characterembodies.
And, you know, in terms of menlike Alex Pettyfor or Alexander
Ludwig.
I mean, these are just somenames that come to my mind, but,
you know, at the end of the day, you know having the book made
into a movie.
And being adapted as beingadapted, and I just you know,
(23:49):
saw that I think Frida McFaddenjust had her book adapted into a
movie.
Yeah, the Housemaid, I think,is McFadden, just had her book
adapted into a movie.
Kristen Bahls (23:56):
Yeah, the Housemaid, I think, is the one
that's going to be.
Yeah, yeah, and I have both ofher books on my TBR.
Aliah Wright (24:00):
I just bought a couple of the books in the
series and so I'm waiting todive into those because you know
she has some really good peoplewho are going to be in that
book, I mean in that movie, thatmovie adaptation of the book,
so it's exciting.
Kristen Bahls (24:18):
Yeah, taking the characters that are in your head
and getting to put them onscreen.
And yeah, with Freedive.
I've read One by One and NeverLie, but I haven't read the
Housemaid yet.
Aliah Wright (24:27):
The Housemaid is just great because it's like you
know they pick the wrong.
Talk about people picking thewrong people to mess with Common
theme.
Kristen Bahls (24:41):
Yeah.
But yeah, I've noticed thatthere are a lot of adaptations
for more thrillers lately.
It seemed like a while.
For a while it was kind ofromance heavy or YA heavy, but
now it seems like there areseveral thrillers that are
actually kind of catching,catching their adaptations and
making their way.
Aliah Wright (24:55):
I agree.
I couldn't agree more with thatbecause I think, well, part of
it is that there's so many more.
Remember, like, back in the day, we had like ABC, cbs, nbc, yep
, and then we got Fox, and then,of course, we had PBS, and then
we had the regular film studiosParamount, 20th Century Fox, we
had all these, you know Fox.
So we had all these studios.
(25:16):
And now there's all thesestreaming services, like NBC has
Peacock and you have, you know,hbo Max, and now you have like
YouTube TV, and I could name, Icould rattle off a dozen, and
all of them need good stories.
So people are, and people arefinding that.
You know, thrillers are one ofthose things that people really
(25:38):
come back to and I, I lovehorror movies.
That's where my my thing iswhen it comes to horror movies.
I'm a huge horror movie fan.
We could do a whole podcast onhow many horror movies I've seen
.
But what are some of yourfavorites?
Some of my.
One of my favorite horror moviesis the People Under the Stairs,
which Ving Rhames was in manyyears ago, and it was the one of
(25:59):
the first films I'd ever sawwith an african-american
protagonist and he gets caughtin this house because they're
trying to.
Well, he's I mean, I don't evenknow if you want to call him
yeah, you could call him aprotagonist because he gets
caught in this house of horrorswhere these people are who are
living in the walls.
He's come, he goes in there torob that you should watch.
It goes in there to rob thehouse with this little boy of
(26:22):
his I think it's hisgirlfriend's little little
brother and then they get caughtin the house.
But the cool thing about thisstory is it's based on a true
story, which makes it evenscarier.
Yeah and yeah, and so the otherthing my one of my favorite
horror films is the Conjuringand in that whole universe I
love that movie.
Um, and for me, I like filmsthat are not.
(26:45):
I don't like the slasher filmsare okay, but for me I want to
read a book that's aboutsomething that's plausibly scary
.
Like, if you yeah, because youknow walking down the street at
night and having someone followyou is scary and it can.
You know it's heart poundingbecause it's something that
could happen and so it makes youeven, it pulls you into the
(27:07):
story more.
You know, rather than just youknow, a whole bunch of people
like being tortured to death ina room based on some, some, some
reason For me.
I want to be like, I want towrite something and I think
people want to see somethingthat could happen and how you
survive that, yeah, or how youget, you know, revenge for it.
Kristen Bahls (27:26):
True well, now I have a book to add to your tbr.
Um, it's a thriller horror andI was reading it for our book
club for October and it is.
It is pretty much what you'redescribing.
It's called uh, we used to livehere, by Marcus Kroehler, and,
oh my gosh, it's literally thiscouple.
They move into a house and thenthis family knocks on their
door and they're like hey, weused to live here, can we come
(27:48):
see inside your house?
They say, okay, sure, and thenall chaos ensues.
So it could totally happen.
Wow, right, and it seems like asomewhat common occurrence, but
yeah, it is wild.
Aliah Wright (28:04):
You have to be careful.
I mean, my mom used to alwayssay don't open the door for
anybody, yeah, especially not arandom family.
Yeah, that sounds like a reallygood book.
I might have to put that on myTBR.
I think I will put it on my TBR.
Kristen Bahls (28:17):
Yeah, it was good .
It does end in a cliffhanger,though, so you'll love it,
because it's a cliffhanger forsure.
Aliah Wright (28:24):
I was listening to the audio and it just stopped
and I went no wait, that's theend.
Kristen Bahls (28:28):
That's where you're leaving it.
So yeah, it is.
Aliah Wright (28:30):
Oh, wow.
Kristen Bahls (28:31):
It is.
It's a cliffhanger, and so whatis the process that you use?
You're talking about it alittle bit earlier, but kind of
what's the process for buildingthe tension and the pacing of
the novel to ensure that readersare really staying hooked from
the beginning and the end?
And yours was split up intothree parts, so did that also?
Aliah Wright (28:50):
kind of contribute .
Well, part of it is startingwith a strong opening or a
premise that hooks the readerswith a conflict that reels them
in from the beginning, soestablishing a predicament for
the characters, for the twinsit's the sense that the
authorities are closing in onthem, yet they still want to
continue their activitiesdespite the risk and Amanda's
(29:14):
conflict is wanting to rescueher friend Then introducing
friction among the charactersand situations by varying
degrees, which makes thenarrative engaging, I think, and
energetic.
I like using short chapters toescalate that friction and
increase the tension, and thenwriting like little mini
(29:35):
cliffhangers between thechapters while varying the pace
to keep readers on the edge oftheir seats.
It just works like that.
And this book has a ton offoreshadowing in it too, and I
like that.
I could sort of hide some ofthat in there that doesn't
become apparent until the firsttwist is revealed.
And there's other stuff I didtoo, but again, I don't want to
give away too much of the novel.
Kristen Bahls (29:56):
Yeah, no, I agree , I agree, and I'm sure with the
thriller of, of course, italmost kind of lends this way.
But it sounds like you'redefinitely a plotter over a
pantser, right?
Oh yes.
Aliah Wright (30:08):
I am, and so I got into um, I was at the book
signing and we were at a booksigning in Pasadena at Octavia's
Bookshelf.
I think that's where I got intothe whole plotter versus
pantser discussion.
I can't remember, but I amdefinitely a plotter, so I
believe in using outlines.
So for me and I talk about thison my TikTok, which is at Aliah
(30:29):
Writes, if you're interestedlisteners, where I give tips on
writing and I show people likebehind the scenes when I'm doing
various events but for me, I'ma big outliner, I've always been
, and I did that with my firstbook, which was a textbook.
But with this novel I decidedto plot the whole thing out.
(30:49):
So what I do is chapter oneeven if I write just two or
three sentences, I know what'sgonna happen in the first
chapter, second, third, fourth,fifth, so forth and so on, and
you don't have to do that forthe whole book.
But for me, I outlined, I think, like maybe the first 20 or so
chapters and then I, when I gotto a point where I was like oh
my gosh, where do I go next, Iwould turn to my outline.
(31:10):
So I don't get writer's blockand that helps me because I know
exactly where I'm going to gonext in the story.
And of course, that outlinelooks nothing like the end of
the book and it's not supposedto.
It's just it's like a roadmapor a guide.
You know, I was talking toanother friend of mine who is he
has a book coming out inNovember and he was like I'm the
opposite.
I have to, I'm going to rollwith it as I go, I'm going to
(31:34):
keep writing and then just seewhere it takes me.
And he's like you know, butI've seen some of his notes.
He's like you know, but I'veseen some of his notes.
So I'm like you're kind ofdoing it a little bit, but I'm
like not to the extent.
And then some people, itdepends.
I mean, there's no right orwrong way to approach how you're
going to write or tell yourstory.
The only thing I think thatreally matters is dedication and
(31:56):
persistence, and those are thethings that actually will help
you in your journey.
If you're listening and youwant to write a novel,
definitely devote time to it.
Definitely set the time asideto write.
Hemingway used to get up everymorning and write.
A friend of mine, dc Frost, whowrote A Punishing Breed.
She talks about how she got upat 5 am to write and I'm like
(32:28):
girl, I'm just drooling in mypillow at 5am.
I'm not getting up that earlyto write.
I'm sorry For me.
I write like on.
I pick a day.
I usually um a Sunday, afteryou know, after church, after
everyone's fed, after you knowit's not light outside.
I write better at night.
So I will go and I'll either gointo my office or my kitchen or
sometimes I go to Starbucks oryou know a nice cafe and I'll
sit and I'll write and the noisedoesn't bother me, because I
worked in newsrooms for so manyyears where people were talking
(32:48):
and the TV's on and when you getto the point where you're
focused, you're just focused,and then I could put headphones
on to play classical music, if Iwant, or jazz, and then just
sit there and just be in grossand write for like five or six
hours straight, yeah, andsometimes I'd be there so long
that you know the people inStarbucks would kick me out.
They're like we're about toclose and you've had all this
(33:09):
free coffee but you need toleave.
So for me it's like you have topick and decide Pick a day or
pick some time of the week.
I have friends who they'll lockthemselves in hotels for like
weeks and just write.
You know they just want to justbe focused on that one thing,
turn everything off and justfocus on it.
(33:30):
I still have the internet.
I still, you know, will get anoccasional ping from someone,
but my social media is, like youknow, turned off and I'm just
focusing and that's my time.
So when you devote that time,it's almost like a job, but it
becomes something you enjoy.
It's like a habit or a hobby.
When you turn it into a habit,it's easier to actually finish
(33:50):
what you start, and that'swhether you have an outline or
not.
Kristen Bahls (33:53):
That is very true .
So, as a traditionallypublished author, what's kind of
the normal deadline that youhave to write a book?
Do you get a year, or is itless than that?
Aliah Wright (34:03):
Um, I don't, I don't know.
I mean, it just depends.
Um, there are still peoplewaiting, I think, for George RR
Martin's new Game of Thronesbook.
When you get to the, when youget to the point where you're
just cause.
But, like I said, writing ishard and plotting out the book
is hard, and trying to figureout where the characters are
going to go next and whether ornot you know the things that you
, that you're writing, makessense, and sometimes your story
(34:25):
is not going the way you thinkit's going to go because the
characters are doing differentthings.
So it it's just a matter oflike.
Just, I'm not like on any kindof a deadline.
I don't think a lot of writersare and you know, yeah, cause
it's like when you're firstpublishing your book, of course
you know yeah, because it's likewhen you're first publishing
your book, of course you knowyou finish it and you're like
(34:46):
excited and you're sending itout, you know.
Or, like me, I had an agent, somy agent sent it out and we
were just waiting to hear backfrom people and it didn't take
that long for me to get a bookdeal.
But it was like you know, and Ididn't get a lot of rejections
down, but just weird anddifferent, because it was the
pandemic.
After Red Hen picked the book up, a lot of things slowed down.
(35:09):
So a lot of, a lot of booksthat were supposed to come out
like during that time didn'tbecause of the pandemic, because
we were all at home, so thepeople who go and produce know
books weren't out there.
So I had to wait.
My book was like in a queue,you know, which was fine.
You know it worked out the wayit's supposed to work out.
(35:30):
But in terms of, like,subsequent novels, I mean, uh,
it it just depends I mean what.
It depends on what you'rewriting, um, what your story is,
which roads you're going down.
My characters are going to belike crisscrossing, you know,
the globe in book two and inbook three.
So it's you know, and these areall places that I've been or
(35:50):
places I plan to revisit or goto, and these are things that I
was thinking of when I waswriting and I was like you know
what, I think I might have to goX, y, z place again, or I'm
definitely going to go to thisplace, now that you know I'm,
I'm thinking about this forwhat's going to happen in the
future.
Kristen Bahls (36:10):
So it just I mean I guess the answer is it
depends on a lot of factors,true, and I was going to say I'm
sure all the contracts are sodifferent too, so it's probably
also what you're contracted toas well.
Aliah Wright (36:20):
In addition, to all of those other external
factors.
Yeah, yeah, a whole lot, some,some beyond my control and some
within my control.
Kristen Bahls (36:26):
Well, I'm glad it was able um able to be
published and it's out and aboutand out in the world and it was
amazing.
And now you're officially adebut fiction author.
Aliah Wright (36:38):
Yeah, and I'm, and I'm excited, I am so excited
about this.
It's just one of those thingswhere it's like a dream come
true.
I don't know anybody who writesfor a living or who's a
journalist or who's a scribe.
They've got a book in themsomewhere.
It's just a matter of trying tohave that come to fruition and
(36:59):
being diligent and havingperseverance and just being
positive too.
That helps a lot.
That helps a whole lot.
Kristen Bahls (37:07):
I'm sure it's easy to have self-doubt with
just how isolating it can bewithout other offers.
Aliah Wright (37:12):
Right, when you're writing, we're all in a vacuum.
We're not like JK Rowlingsitting in a coffee shop with a
pen and a notepad writing, butit's a solitary process and
you're in your head and you'rethinking oh my gosh, this you
know, ben and Corinthia arepeople that I created and now
everybody knows them and feelslike they're a part of you.
(37:34):
Know this, this phenomenon ofjust being a person who's read
this book and and I I'm likeopen to talking about this at at
book clubs too I can't wait todo some book clubs.
I haven't done any yet, but ifanybody's out there they want me
to be in a book club, pleaselet me know.
But yeah, it's just one ofthose things where you know you,
you spend this time and you'recreating these, these fictional
(37:55):
people, and for some people,people say, oh, my characters
are so real and I'm like, maybe,maybe, yeah, I connected, I
think, mostly with the Amandacharacter.
She does a lot of things thatwhen people read it, they're
like it's sort of like you watcha person who hears something in
the basement and they, you know, they turn the light, switch on
(38:17):
and the light doesn't come onand they grab a bat and then the
whole audience is like don't godown there.
And they go down there anyway.
That's Amanda.
She's going to go down thebasement.
Aliah's not going in anybasements.
I'm not going with a gun, I'mnot going with a flashlight, I'm
not going with a bat, I'm goingoutside and I'm going to call
the cops that would be what Iwould do too, but thankfully for
(38:40):
the story, Amanda does notabide by that.
Right.
Kristen Bahls (38:45):
And is there anything else that you would
like to let the listeners knowabout?
Now you Own Me.
Aliah Wright (38:50):
I probably will think of a zillion and one
things once this podcast is over, but for right now I just want
you to go out, get the book.
It's available wherever booksare sold.
If you can go to your localbookstore, do that.
Take your kids, you know.
Walk around, call the bookstoreand order it ahead of time just
to make sure that they have itin stock.
But definitely it's availablein any place that you would
(39:11):
normally buy your books.
I hope you enjoy it and, if youdo, please write me an Amazon
review or hit me up on TikTok @Aliah Writes, or Instagram or
Facebook, and let me know whatyou think.
And thank you so much forhaving me on your podcast.
I'm really excited to be hereand I'm glad to talk about the
book.
Kristen Bahls (39:31):
Yes, thank you so much for coming on, and that's
it for today.
Thank you for listening to,Where I Left Off - A Bookish
Podcast, and you can purchaseAliah's novels through the links
in the show notes.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.