Paige Regan, Author-Episode #397

Paige N. Regan is a dark fantasy author known for her great ability to infuse humor into the macabre. With a focus on Young Adult and Adult novels, her captivating stories transport readers into worlds teeming with magic, myth, and murder. Her most recently published works include: Sin and Bones and Blood and Stone, which are the first two books of the Sin and Bones trilogy. Paige’s upcoming Gothic Fantasy novel, We Are Buried in the Garden, is set to be released in September 2026.

I’ve read Sin and Bones and can tell you it’s an exciting dark fantasy story about a teenage girl dealing with all the difficulties involved in growing up while facing supernatural forces and influences that create unusual challenges for her to overcome.

For the record, Paige and I met while she was a student at Point Park University, and I was one of her screenwriting professors.  Paige has the distinction of being the very first of my former students to appear as a guest on StoryBeat.  And I couldn’t be more proud or pleased. Truthfully, for me, this is a milestone moment.

Episode Transcript

Steve Cu (00:00):
On today's Story Beat.

(00:02):
Just support your fellow artists and your fellowwriters and be supportive of your team. You know,
thank your editor, show your appreciation likethey are working so hard. And it may not be the
same position as you have, it may not be the samething as writing, but having others who understand
your love for writing or books or anything, it's.

(00:24):
It's so, so important. Writers are so inherentlylonely. Um, so it's, it's great to make friends
that can relate to you in those flights.
This is Story Beat with Steve Cuden. A podcast forthe creative mind. Story Beat explores how masters
of creativity develop and produce brilliant worksthat people everywhere love and admire. So join us

(00:52):
as we discover how talented creators find successin the worlds of imagination and entertainment.
Here now is your host, Steve Cuden.
Thanks for joining us on Story Beat. We're comingto you from the Steel City, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. My guest today, Paige N. Regan, is adark fantasy author known for her great ability to

(01:17):
infuse humor into the macabre with a focus onyoung adult and adult novels. Her captivating
stories transport readers into worlds teeming withmagic, myth, and murder. Her most recently
published works include Sin and Bones and Bloodand Stone, which are the first two books of the
Sin and Bones trilogy. Page's upcoming gothicfantasy novel, We Are Buried in the Garden, is set

(01:41):
to be released in September 2026. I've read sinand Bones and can tell you it's an exciting,
otherworldly tale about a teenage girl dealingwith all the difficulties involved in growing up
while facing supernatural forces and influencesand that create unusual challenges for her to
overcome. For the record, Paige and I met whileshe was a student at Point Park University and I

(02:05):
was one of her screenwriting professors. Paige hasthe distinction of being the very first of my
former students to appear as a guest on StoryBeat, and I couldn't be more proud or pleased.
Truthfully, for me, this is a milestone moment. Sofor all those reasons and many more, I'm thrilled
to welcome to Story Beat today someone I actuallytaught, the exceptionally gifted writer, Paige Ann

(02:28):
Regan. Paige, great to see you again, and welcometo the show.
Thank you, Steve. It's so exciting to see you. Soexcited to be here.
Indeed. Indeed it is. It's exciting. So it's verycool that you're my first student to appear on the
show. I'm just curious. I'm assuming since you'renow a published author, that I didn't totally ruin

(02:49):
you as a writer.
No, you actually helped a lot. Um, you gave me thestructure I needed to actually finish my project,
which is awesome.
I focused on that, trying to get students tounderstand that being a perfect author is not the
goal, at least not in the beginning of a writingcareer. The goal should be getting it finished.

(03:12):
Yes. Oh, my gosh. That's been so important. Um,I'm not sure I would have finished most of my
projects if not for a lot of your classes, sothank you.
Well, that's cool. Um, well, you're welcome. I'mglad it sunk in a little bit, that's for sure. In
fact, when I read your work, it sunk in a lot. Sohow old were you? Let's go back a little bit. When

(03:32):
you started to think about, for the first time,words and writing and books. How old were you?
Oh, my gosh. So I was probably three. Honestly, mygrandmas taught me how to read and write from a
very young age. They were very story focused. Um,we used to do, like, a lot of improv together when
I was growing up, so they kind of instilled thelove of stories. And then as I got older and just

(03:57):
kept writing them, I finally realized, oh, I cando this for a career. This is kind of what I want
to do.
Well, that's. That's it. And it's not the easiestroad in the world, but if you get there, you
really, really can get there. So I want to go backa half a step. You did improv with your grandmas?
Yeah, we did a lot of, like, random improv, a lotof, like, imaginative play. Like, it was. It was

(04:18):
very silly. I used to actually, um, write littleplays, like, moments before I'd perform them for
them in, like, the nursing homes and everything.

Steve (04:29):
This was in nursing home?
One of them, yes. One of my grandmas. Yeah, it wasin a nursing home.
Were other people watching you? Were youperforming for them?
Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes the neighbors wouldcome down, and they would just be happening to
walk by. I'd be in the lobby doing this.
Wow. Well, so you were performing as a little kidthen already?
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. No. Stories were everything forme growing up.

(04:52):
And were you a big reader when you were a kid?
Yes, I loved reading. There were a couple ofperiods where I dropped off of reading for a
while, but I have been reading for a very longtime.
Who influenced you when you were a kid? Who didyou read? Who did you like to read?
Definitely, uh, Lemony Snicket was, like, my firstbig chapter books. The Series of Unfortunate
Events. Those were the big ones. I loved the MagicTreehouse and Then as I got older, I got into, you

(05:18):
know, like, Twilight, Hunger Games, things likethat.
Well, that's the influence on your work, that'sfor sure.
Yeah, for sure. It's gonna say. During middleschool, I had, like, a weird classics period where
I read everything Mark Twain wrote. I read Alicein Wonderland. I read, like, anything that was in
the, um, public domain. I searched it up and readit.
Wow. And you were doing this way before college?

(05:41):
Yes.
Oh, yeah. This was in middle school. I wentthrough a weird classics phase.
And so you came to Point park as a screenwritingmajor. When did you start to get into movies and
tv? And the thought of working in that
world, that was probably closer to middle school,high school. I've always loved movies. Movies have

(06:02):
been, like, a big thing for me growing up. Um, Iremember I had a Barbie camcorder one Christmas,
and I would film a Barbie camcorder. It was superpink, super flashy. I used to wear, like, all my
glitter costumes and do whatever for it. Um, soI've always had, like, a huge soft spot for film

(06:24):
and tv, and that kind of expanded.
Did you notice as you were watching movies thatthe books you had read as a kid were influencing
stories that you were watching on film and tv?
No, not when I was younger. Did not click.
But I assume it clicks for you now.

Paige (06:40):
Yes, yes, much more now.
There's a lot of crossover between what happenedin the world of fantasy and science fiction and
all that sort of type of, um, genre work thatpeople did well before. There were movies that
eventually influenced the movies and TV that theninfluenced you to write the kind of, uh, work that
you do.
Absolutely. Uh, actually, this past fall, I wentthrough this fun little game, I guess, where I

(07:08):
read a bunch of classic books again, and then I'dwatch the movies afterwards and kind of see where
the influences came in and where they fell off.
Um, I still am very upset about all the Draculaadaptations. Mina Harker, My Beloved, she can't
catch a break.
Did you train as a writer anywhere aside fromPoint Park? Did you take classes anywhere?

(07:29):
No, just a couple of creative writing classes inhigh school.
So the training that we gave you there then, hasstuck with you. It's held you in good stead.
Yes, absolutely. I still have all of the books,like the textbooks I had from college still
sitting on my writing shelf to reference back towhen I need to.
Well, that's good. And it's interesting, isn't it,that you do occasionally need to refer to things

(07:54):
because there's so many moving pieces and parts toa story, especially a long form story like what
you write, uh, that you can't always keep it allin your head at once, can you?
Oh, no, absolutely not. The amount of documents Ihave that are organized for different, just even
different possibilities of endings, um, isstaggering. Yeah, there's a lot of organization

(08:17):
involved and I do have to reference back,especially when I get stuck on a scene or I'm
struggling with a character. Um, currently themanuscript I'm working on right now, I had trouble
for about a month and a half just trying to figureout the main character and the pacing I wanted to
have for it. So I referred back to a couple of my,uh, writing reference books and that kind of

(08:40):
kicked me back in gear.
What did you do in that case to figure out howthat character worked?
Uh, so I sat down and I just went with the basicslike I wrote. Okay, what's her motivation? What
is, like, who is she? What's her interests? I justwent all the way back with her story and I found
out there were gaps that I just hadn't filledearlier on. And I was like, all right, well, we

(09:01):
gotta fix this.
That's what I'm talking about. There are thingsthat you. There's so much to think about that you
sometimes overlook. Uh, a corner or an angle orsome way to think about a character. That's what
you're talking about, I assume. Yeah.

Paige Reg (09:15):
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And so once you then figured it out, you havethose epiphany moments where you go, aha, now I
know what I'm doing. Right?

Paige Regan (09:24):
Yeah.
Was there some point in this whole process, fromwhatever age onward that you finally thought to
yourself, you know what? I am a pretty good writerand I really think I can be published.
I'm still getting there. M. I'm working onmultiple manuscripts right now and outlines for
another couple of series, but I'm not sure I'llever get past the imposter syndrome entirely.

(09:49):
Well, I want to encourage you to take a number andget in line because that going to be true for the
rest of your life. That's how it works for mostwriters that I know is that we act like we know
what we're doing, but in fact we're alwaysthinking they're going to catch me, that they,
they are going to figure out I don't know what I'mdoing. Oh, yeah, that's still true for me. And
I've been at this for a long time, so don't worryabout it, don't sweat it. Just do the Best work

(10:14):
you can and keep going. That would be myencouragement to you that. Do you now think of
yourself primarily as a novelist?
Yes, I see myself definitely as more of an author,um, than I have a screenwriter. I still write
scripts once in a while, usually for, um, videogame clients. But I do see myself more as an
author at this point.

(10:34):
Do you think about your books as something thatcan be translated and turned into screenplays?
Oh, yeah, yeah. I use a lot of the tricks Ilearned in college to like, get the outline and
everything done. And I'm like, okay, well, I thinkit could be put into a movie.
100%. Well, we're going to talk much more aboutyour books in a moment, or at least Sin and Bones.
Uh, but. But there's no doubt in my mind fromreading what you've written that they're cinematic

(10:59):
in nature. They already lend themselves to beingtranslated and adapted. So don't think they're
not. They really are. They're right in that pocketwhere it could be turned into a series or into a
feature.

Paige Rega (11:10):
Oh, well, thank you.
You're quite welcome. All right, so you focus,obviously, and we'll talk about this again in a
moment on magic, myth and murder. That's a lot ofwhat you do in your books and. And then you
somehow manage and I'm not sure how you do it tomake the macabre kind of lighthearted and

(11:30):
entertaining. While it can be kind of heavy attimes. How did you become interested in blending
humor or light aspects of it into what is atypically dark and troubling topic or topics?
I have always found humor to be a great way tocope with very traumatic and dark topics to begin
with. A lot of my own experience, but I think thatit.

(11:55):
So what were your influences to get you to belight hearted about darkness?
I have this kind of mindset that you just kind ofneed to laugh at things once in a while. Like life
is going to throw shit at you all the time. Andyeah, a little bit of gallows humor. Some of it's
just like, you know, it is what it is. Things aregoing to keep happening so

(12:16):
well, things are gonna keep happening and, youknow, life has a way of rearranging things for you
whether you want it or not. When things come andthey're not right, it's great to continue to have
a sense of humor about it, even when it's reallyawful. I think that's what's great about what I
read in this book is that you're not treating itso heavily that it's unpalatable to get through.

(12:40):
And it shows that these characters, or yourprotagonist in particular, that she is, um, able
to survive what for many people would be, youknow, truly devastating time. Let's talk about Sin
and Bones. Tell the listeners, you know, pitch itto us. What's the story of Sin and Bones? What's
it about?
So Sin and Bones is about a teenage girl who wentthrough a very traumatic incident. And so she

(13:05):
decides to make a kind of shady bargain with theFae to hunt down the men who hurt her.

Steve C (13:09):
Well, what are the Fae?
So the Fae are like fairies. They are these highmythical beings. They're pretty inspired by Celtic
Fae mythology, but I kind of put my own littletwist on it. Um, I did a lot of research into
different mythologies of the Fae. The Unseelie,the kind of dark, miserable ones. I've noticed a

(13:30):
lot of Fae stories, which there's no problem withthis, but a lot of them are just kind of like
pretty elves doing their thing. And I was like,okay, I want to make it a little grimmer, a little
darker, closer to the origin. What?
Is there a particular book about the phase thatyou read that you can refer people to?
Um, I didn't read a particular book. I actuallywent online and found. Found a bunch of

(13:51):
Britannica, I believe they had a bunch of articlesand like, different journals about it. So I'd go
through and read through those, and that was apretty good resource.
So where did the idea come from for this story?
How were you inspired to get here?
Funny enough, this actually used to be ascreenplay I wrote in your class.

(14:13):
And you know what? Now that I think back, becausethis is a decade ago. Right. So now that I think
back, I remember you were doing something that hadthe Fae in it.
Yeah, it was during the, um. It was during theMeToo movement. I started it. A lot of stories I
had read covering Eve's trauma, dealt a lot withthe depressive aspects, but not so much the kind

(14:34):
of anger that I was looking for. And so I put thattogether. And I've always been interested in the
Fae. I always thought they were really neat andfun. Um, so I decided to put it together.
You've given them depth. That what I think is nottypically there when you think of the Fae. You've
given them, you know, kind of a three dimensionthat wasn't there before.

(14:55):
Yeah, no, the Fae were very much, um. They're liketricksters. And they had. Some of them had like a
little bit more personality, but a lot of themwere just Kind of, oh, this will scare your child.
Uh, and I kind of modeled them more. It gave thema bit more emotion.
Well, for sure. And they're kind of like the darkversion of Tinker.

Paige (15:16):
Oh yeah. Oh, absolutely.
Would you categorize this book as ya know, whatcategory is this in?
I do upper ya. So like 16 and up.

Steve Cuden (15:26):
16 and up?
Yeah. I don't try to recommend it to anyoneyounger than that just because of the sensitive
topics, even if I don't write out those topics.
And are you thinking about that audience as you'rewriting?

Paige Regan (15:38):
Yes.
You're purposefully writing it to target thatparticular group.
I definitely keep it in mind in the first draft.
It's just all for me. Uh, but after that, when Igo through the revisions and rewrites, I do think
about, okay, who would be impacted by this? Who doI want to write for? And that is the group like 16
and older that I end up focusing on.

(15:59):
Certainly adults can read this easily. It's not,it's not a childlike book, it's an adult book, but
it's definitely appealing to a, uh, generationfrom about, like you say, middle teens and on up.

Paige Reg (16:12):
Uh, yeah, absolutely.
I'm interested in the very beginning of the book.
You print content warnings. Now I've, um, I don'tread a lot of books targeted for this group, so I
don't typically see content warnings. So when Isaw it I went, this is very interesting. So I want
to go through it a little bit. You put in therethat there are mentions of sexual assault and

(16:33):
rape, which is true. There's physical, verbal andemotional abuse. There's mentions of suicide
attempts not seen on the page, suicidal ideation,self harm, also not seen on the page, violence and
death, religious abuse and family member withdementia. Why did you feel it necessary to put

(16:53):
that warning at the top of the book?
I felt it was important because even though it isaimed m for a older audience, I guess like older
teenagers, I still think it's important to givethose kids like a heads up. Um, I don't want it to
surprise anyone. And if they are going throughsomething similar and are not in a place where

(17:16):
they are okay with reading that content, I don'twant to put them through that. So I thought it was
appropriate for
my younger audience because the younger audiences.
Correct me if you think I'm wrong. Youngeraudiences aren't quite mature enough to be
prepared to, to handle it and know how to handleit. Is that why not always?
Um, I'd say yeah, they're, they're not asexperienced with healing from these things yet.

(17:42):
Some of them might still be going through it atthe time.

Steve Cuden (17:45):
Right.
I mean, I don't want to surprise any of myaudience with something that's going to trigger
them or upset them. Um, but especially forteenagers, I think it's important to be able to be
like, hey, here's this has the stuff in it. Youknow, heads up. I don't want to bring up anything
too rough for you or influence them in a poor way.

(18:09):
So, you know, in a way, probably I'm going toguess that for some readers that would entice them
in.
Yes, some of them, yes. I have had them pick upthe book at, uh, vendor fairs and things like that
and go, oh, actually, yeah, absolutely. I wantthis.
Have you received any feedback from anyone whosaid thank you for putting that there? Because

(18:29):
then I don't want to read it.
Yes, I did have a couple like that and I wastotally fine with it. It makes perfect sense. You
know, this is not for everyone. I write happystories to an extent, but a lot of my content is
dark or depressing or traumatic in some way. Soit's not for everyone.
You're right. It's definitely one of the things Iknow you definitely, um, uh, I know you learned it

(18:56):
at school, but you also have been very good atusing it. And that is the infusion of conflict
into the stories. And conflict frequently istriggering for people just because that causes
anxiety, that there's that kind of, uh, conflict,uh, that's happening and people sometimes don't
want to handle it. But that's the purpose of thestory is to have people get to a catharsis after

(19:19):
they've gone through a conflict filled episode.
And that's what, that's what this is. Um, yourdedication says, to the girls that crave justice
in a world not built for them. Explain what youmean.
So I wrote that because this book is a littlepersonal to me. So I did start writing this during
the MeToo movement. Um, that's what really broughtit out for me. And I realized a lot of my own

(19:44):
situation. And I think it's really important tofeel seen and to, as an author, to have other
people feel seen as well. So I really wanted towrite this for them, for the young girls that have
struggled with things like this, struggled withsituations like Eve or Haley or Sage, and just

(20:06):
don't know what to do or don't know how to handletheir emotions. And some of them might end up very
depressed, some of them might end up furious. Um,and so I really wrote this series as kind of like
a. A love letter to them over the course of how toheal from that or that you can heal from that,
that's very good.

(20:26):
That's what. There's a lot of that going on inhere. And clearly, from the very start of the
book, Eve has already gone through a traumaticevent. And so a lot of the book is overcoming what
the emotions that she's dealt with in that. Oftrying to get past that trauma or live with the
trauma in a, you know, in an easier way. Um, sothe book has clearly has mature themes in it.

(20:50):
You've got survival and revenge. That's part ofthis. The trauma we're talking about. It's the
recovery from the trauma, and then it's selfidentity, who am I? And others in the other
characters in the book are dealing with their ownidentities. When you write about such heavy topics
and you have to spend a lot of time and energythinking about such heavy topics, how does that

(21:13):
affect you personally as you're dealing with it asa writer?
It's kind of my bread and butter. Um, I thrive onwriting the angsty, miserable, sad moments. Um, I
know. It's so weird.
Does it make you feel good that you're doing it?
Do you feel cathartic? A little bit cathartic.

(21:33):
It's an uplift of sorts. Yeah.
Yeah, it feels good. Especially because I know,even though I write dark stories, I like there to
be some kind of hope within them, and I knowthat's going to be there or that is there
somewhere in the story. So I feel really good whenI write those darker, um, traumatic moments that's
clear and evident in the work itself, that youwant people to come away from it with a sense that

(21:58):
you can get through this and that there is hope atthe end of the road. It's not Chinatown, you know,
you're not. Or the Godfather. It's not that atall. It's something much more uplifting. You say
you've always been interested in the topics of. Ofmythology and, uh, mayhem and murder. This is
something that's always been fascinating to you.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Mythology, I've always beensuper interested in. And, uh, during, I think,

(22:25):
high school or college, in between there, Itransitioned to pagan. So mythology is, like,
right up my alley.
What do you mean you transitioned to pagan? Whatdoes that mean?

Paige Re (22:33):
So I grew up Catholic.
Okay. And that's in the book, too?
Yes, yes. Catholicism. The trauma of Catholicism.
And I did grow up Catholic, but around middleschool, Um, I kind of phased out of that, and I
didn't really have much to believe in or reallysearch for. And so I just kind of researched a

(22:56):
bunch of different mythologies, differentreligions, and paganism really stuck with me. So I
like to include bits of that in my work as well.
I think that's clearly evident in the. In thisother world, the fey world, uh, that the paganism.
It's not paganism per se, but it has that essenceand feel of it.
Yeah, it's totally. It's related. Even if it'sjust, like, atmospherically.

(23:21):
Yeah, definitely. Tonal. Tonally, it's quiteevident. Um, what appeals to you about these
darker topics, what is it that draws you to it?
I mean, I've always been kind of a morbid kid. Um,I grew one of my favorite movies when I was a
toddler with Scream. So I've always had a littlebit of a morbid sense of humor. Um, I really feel

(23:43):
like there is usually some kind of hope at the endof a lot of horror that there is some light at the
end of the tunnel. And so I like when things getreally dark because then you can pull out of that.
There is still somewhere to go after that.
Well, that is the essence of what takes. I thinkit's what makes horror so popular. It is that most

(24:06):
horror movies have this. A, uh, cathartic momentat the end that's very deeply built. So you've got
the fear and the fear and the terror and the fear.
And then suddenly there's a ray of light at theend and you can walk away with your protagonist
intact. Hopefully doesn't work in, uh, everystory, but most. Most of the. Certainly the

(24:26):
Hollywood ones wind up with your protagonistintact. Why? So that they can have another sequel.
I mean, that's what that's all about. And that's amoney issue. But the truth is that that catharsis,
uh, I contend, is the storytelling drug. It's whatbrings people back over and over again to want to
reread books and rewatch movies, is that they'vehad a catharsis at the end of the movie. That's

(24:51):
what you're talking about, correct?

Paige Regan (24:52):
Yes.
All right, so how did you come up with the conceptof this world that we wind up in?
I really love the idea of, like, politicalintrigue, um, in different kinds of mythology and
different kinds of fantasy stories. And so I kindof wanted to mess around with the different court
systems and the different types of Fae. Um, I hada lot of fun writing the different types of Fae.

(25:20):
So I really wanted to just kind of delve into whatI would have thought the Fae were as a child. What
would have scared me as a kid, but also fascinatedme. And that's. That's kind of where I came up
with a lot of this. Because I used to go, like,traipsing through the forest a lot as a kid. My
friend, he had, like, a little forest and a creekin his backyard. And we would make up stuff like

(25:46):
this all the time with, like, creepy Fae andmysteries and all the kind of horror you can
imagine. We would just have a blast with it. Andso I kind of went back on that.
Did anything weird ever happen while you were outthere?
Not really. Not that I can think of. Um, it mighthave been weird to our childhood minds, like
coming across a. Like a broken doll or something.

(26:11):
Um, but it was really more of the what couldhappen that really drove us.
Yeah, that's the imagination running wild,especially as a kid. But it happens for adults,
too. I mean, if you now as an adult, if you woundup in a forest and you ran into something like you
describe in the book, it might give you pausemaybe a little bit.

Paige Re (26:32):
Maybe question it all.
Uh, right. So let's talk about Eve Carter. This isyour protagonist. She is a high school senior. Did
you pick that age that year because that was theaudience you were appealing to? Or why did you
pick that age?
I didn't really pick it at first. It kind of justhappened. I kept messing around. Originally she
was in college, and then at some point I had herout of college, and then at some point she was in

(26:57):
middle school. It went all over the place. But Ithink I finally settled on her senior year because
it is a huge transition, uh, transitionatoryperiod. Um, like she's graduating. She is still
trying to transition from her trauma. Like, try tofind a way past that. She doesn't know what her

(27:18):
future is, but everyone else is jumping into theirfutures around her. And I felt that was a really
good place to put her. And it does work with theage group, which is awesome. But it wasn't my
initial thought. I was trying to think of whatworked best for her as a character.
So this is good for the audience, the listeners,to understand that you can develop a character

(27:41):
down one whole road and realize at some point, no,this is not right, and then go back and fix and
fix and fix. And that's what you went through withthis. You had her as one age or another, but then
you ultimately settled on 17.
Oh, yeah, I rewrote this thing probably 15 times,um, in different formats. It started as a

(28:02):
screenplay for the first five times and thentransitioned to prose. And she went through a lot
of changes before she became the character she isnow.
So talk about that transition from screenplay toprose. Was that a, ah, challenge for you, or was
it. Did you find it relieving to do it, or how didit come about and how did you feel about it?

(28:24):
So it was kind of a challenge at first because I'dgotten so used to cutting any kind of fluff from
my writing, and now I was like, oh, I don't needfluff necessarily, but I need to bulk up my book.
I need to have some kind of descriptor and morethings happening than what I normally would in a

(28:45):
screenplay. So that was definitely a littledifficult to get used to. I think I managed to
finally get used to that. But that. That wasdefinitely a hard transition, jumping from
screenplay to prose. But before that, when I wasgoing just into screenplays, like, it was a hard
transition going from prose to screenplays. Soit's kind of back and forth.

(29:06):
So that's very interesting because as I'm, uh, nottelling you anything you don't know, but the
emphasis on. When you're teaching screenwriting ison less is more. Tight, tight, tight. Only give
enough description to get you from one moment tothe next, but you don't need to fill in all the
blanks. That's something that the actors and thedirector and the production designers and so on

(29:28):
do. You don't need to describe everything. Youneed enough for them to get what they're doing.
But as the author of a novel, you have to fill inmost of those blanks and still leave enough room
for the reader to have an imagination about it.
Right, exactly. And it's still very much. You wantto keep things tight, tight, tight. Um, you just
have a little bit more freedom and you get alittle bit more control over it. Like, what you're

(29:53):
writing has to have some kind of meaning or tellsome kind of story in its own.
Do you. You enjoy that process, though?
Oh, my God, yes. I love it. The first draft isalways kind of rough for me. That's probably my
worst one. But when I get to revising, like, oh,I'm all for it.
Well, that's that. You know, we talked about pukedrafts in school that you just. Are you a, uh. Do

(30:17):
you like to do that? Write fast and get it out andthen revise?
Yeah. So my. My process right now is I will writemy first draft and uh, just try to get it out, you
know, beat myself up over it for a couple ofweeks, and then push out the last, like, 40,000
words in two weeks. And then I'll send it to myeditor for developmental edits, and once she

(30:37):
brings it back, like, I love seeing the red penny.
That is my favorite thing in the world.

St (30:42):
Oh, that's interesting. Why?
Because, uh, she notices so many things that Iwould have never picked up on. Some of them I have
picked up on, and I'm really glad to have thatconfirmed. Like, oh, yeah, this doesn't work, or
this is wrong. But it is so helpful to haveanother set of eyes on my story and to see how
much better it can be and to push it to that nextlevel.

(31:05):
So you love a good editor, then?
Oh, my God. Yeah. Editors can make or break anystory,
and that means that you, um, are giving up acertain amount of your ego by doing that.
Yeah. It's very difficult, I think, for youngerwriters to give up that creative freedom and to
kill their darlings.
I honestly think, other than certain writers whoget so good at it that they don't need editing

(31:31):
anymore. I think every. Every writer needs anediting.
Oh, yeah. Oh, no, absolutely. Like, I will praisemy editor Mattie, till the end of my days.
Well, and that's really good to know. I think thatthat's the right attitude. Is that part of it, is
that you probably, like, I do, you get a littlebit lost in the forest for the trees.

Paige Regan (31:53):
Oh, 100%.
No pun intended, with your book. Um, so let's goback to Eve for a moment. She's got more than a
few troubles. I assume that you either have knownpeople with those troubles, and I'm not asking for
any. I'm not trying to pry into your personallife, but you either know people who have had
troubles like that, or you've read about peoplewith troubles like that or you've experienced them

(32:14):
yourself. Usually it's one of those three. Um,when we meet her, she believes she's going to
hell. That's right at the top. She thinks she'sgoing to hell. Correct.
Yes.
And then she's, uh, been moved across her desires,her wishes. She's being moved across the state of
Vermont to another place. Um, she's dealing with amentally failing grandmother. This is all sort of

(32:36):
in the beginning of the book. And she's. She's gotan abusive father. All these things are happening
to her. Wham, bam, thank you, ma'. Am. Before weeven get into the essence of the story, would this
story work at all? If Eve's life wasn't sodifficult and filled with conflict.
No, I don't think it would. She does not have thekind of support. Support system to easily heal

(33:00):
from her trauma. Having this constant bombardmentof conflict in the form of having to figure out
her own support system, having to find her owngroup of people that are willing to help her and
get her out of that, um, versus having thatestablished already, I think she'd be a completely
different character.

(33:21):
So I want to compliment you on something you doextraordinarily well that I think most young
writers don't do so well. You very slowly buildthe story. We don't get jumped into the middle of
where it's going too fast. It takes a while for itto build, but you do it in a way where it's not

(33:42):
the least bit duller or uninteresting. And to me,you bring in these two girls, Haley and Sage. And
for a very long time in the book, we don't knowthat this is going into an otherworldly scenario.
Even though there are clues, but we're not there.
You do that slow. And I think that that's reallygreat. That's great storytelling. Uh, was it your

(34:07):
intention all along to build that slowly till weget into the heart of where it is going to go?
I thought that with Eve's story, she deals with somuch. I didn't want to immediately jump into the
fantasy aspects and just throw everything at myreaders at once. I think that the slowness is also

(34:29):
part of her depression. It's the very slowmovement through her life where there's a ton of
things happening, but she's not always verypresent for them. Um, until we get to the Fae
world and she starts making her big decisions.
But it takes. It unfolds very deliberately for along time. There's work we like. I say we get

(34:50):
clues with Liam about this is something going on,but we don't know what it is. It's not. It's not
in your face. It's just something odd's going on.
And, you know, I think, as you probably alsolearned in school, that all stories are stories of
suspense. And that's what you're building here isa suspenseful story. And so we don't know where
it's going. Did you know as you were. As you werewriting this, did you know exactly how it was

(35:14):
going? Did you build out an outline before youstarted to write?
Oh, my gosh, yeah. Yeah. The. I will say I spendthe most time of My writing process on outlines, I
will sit there and write it. I'll maybe get like10 or 20,000 words of the first draft done, and I
will see where it stands with the outline, if theoutline still works. If not, I sit back and I redo

(35:37):
it. I adjust it how I need to. Um, but I reallylike having a tight outline before I begin my work
because, I mean, I will probably toss some thingsaway here and there and move things around as I
need to, but the outline is so important to me.
Tell the listeners about how many pages 20,000words works out to be.
Oh, gosh, that's. I usually, on my calculator, doit. Um, that's what, like a hundred something

(36:03):
pages?
It's going to be somewhere between 60 and 100pages, probably.
Yeah. I was going to say somewhere in the higher.
Yeah.
And how often when you get to the end of havingdeveloped that outline, do you look back and go,
no, I've got to go back to the beginning and fix.
Yep, every time. Almost every time. Sometimes it'ssmaller things, which I'm lucky for. I know My

(36:26):
second book, uh, the sequel to Sin and Bones, Ionly had to revise it two times, which was
awesome. And only the outline.

Steve (36:34):
The outline or the book?
The outline, yeah. Oh, the book. Now, the book isits own beast there. But the outline I only had to
revise two times before I was happy with it. Butthe first book, Sin and Bones, uh, that was a
monster. And my current outline that I'm workingon for my book in September, I am still currently

(36:54):
messing with the outline as I write the story.
As you're writing, once you start to write,whether it's the script or the text of your novel
or whatever it is, you're gonna continue to makecorrections along the way.
Oh, absolutely. Your characters unfold before youreyes and make their own decisions. And then you're
like, well, I can't have them do XYZ becausethat's not who their charact character is anymore.

(37:15):
How much do you feel like the storytelling iscoming through you, like you're a conduit for it
versus you're doing it?
I'd say fairly often. Um, it's really when I getinto a zone, like at first, uh, usually at the
beginning of my writing process for the day, I'mlike, oh, yeah, it's just me throwing down words
again, trying to get this out of the way. Butonce, uh, once I get in the groove of things, I'm

(37:41):
like, oh, yeah, the words are just coming. They'reJust flowing out of here and
you're sort of just in the middle of it. You'renot really thinking all the way through. It's just
happening.
Yeah, that's the zone. And it gets so much easieronce characters are better established and
everything. Because you already know them.
Do you start to hear them talking in your head?
Oh my gosh, yeah. No, I have like fan cast voicesin my head for everyone.

(38:05):
Does it ever freak you out that you're hearingvoices in your head? No, that doesn't me either.
I've been talking to myself for years.
Well, that's what a writer is. Certainly anovelist is someone who's talking to themselves.
But it's coming out on paper or in a computer,however you're doing it. Uh, and uh, you know,
that's when that happens. That's like my favoritepart of all of it. When you get into that zone.

(38:27):
Yeah, no, it's. It's wonderful. It is the bestfeeling in the world to just be able to pump out
like 15,000 words in two days. Like that'samazing.
All right, so tell us a little bit more aboutLiam. I mentioned him a moment ago. Who um, is he
and what's he all about?
So Liam is a. He is a Fae that is kind of Eve'slove interest. But they're more of a love story.

(38:53):
He's not. The romance isn't the point of the book.
But he is her, I would say quote, love interestand also becomes her one of her best friends. He
kind of helps snap her out of a lot of her darkermoments.
There's a lot of tension between them which givesit that the feeling of a sexual relationship even

(39:13):
though there is none.
Yes. No. They have a kind of fun, snarky, banterykind of behavior. But he is definitely, at least
at the beginning of the book, he's definitely alittle self centered, a little bit of a smart ass
and kind of has to learn how to manage thatbehavior in the presence of someone who is so

(39:37):
deeply wounded that his behavior is not funny toher. It's hurtful. And he kind of has to reconcile
with that and realizing uh, like grow from that.
Because he's a little cavalier about it all.
Oh yeah. No, he does not understand anythingthat's going on.
And Eve is not really cavalier about much at all.

(39:58):
That's a conflict right there.
Yeah, she's very private and she is also a littleaggressive.
So your magical world, the fey world sort of comesoff a little bit like ah, it's a kingdom, which it
is A kind of a kingdom. And is there a parallel toany real world stuff that you looked at? And
there's a parallel to it.
I'm sure there's a lot that is parallel that Ididn't think of when I was writing it. I focused

(40:25):
much more on the characters, traumas, and givingthem all distinct things to heal from that. I
tried to research very well the kingdom thing. Imean, I read a lot of fantasy and I like to watch
history, uh, documentaries. So I'm sure some ofthat has snuck in here.

(40:45):
Are you a Game of Thrones fan?
I did love Game of Thrones, yes. I, um, I haveopinions about the last season, but I won't get
into that right now.
Well, the Game of Thrones is very different fromwhat you wrote, but there are elements of it in
terms of the hierarchy.

Paige Regan (41:02):
Yes, absolutely.
Um, how much of the story did you intend, if notall of it, to be allegorical, about the universal
issues of growing up?
Uh, so when I first wrote it, I didn't intend forthat. But once I got through my later revisions, I
started to understand my themes. My themes don'tusually come till after I'm working on the book

(41:23):
for a while. So once that came in, I was like, oh,I can kind of mess with this. So it became
intentional.
I love that you say that the themes come afteryou've been working on it, if not a full first
draft. Right?
Yeah.
And that's something that I think we talked aboutin school is that. Oh, yeah, uh, don't worry about
your themes to start, because sometimes thatforces you into weird dead end alleys. And, uh, so

(41:48):
if you just write the story and then go back andlook at, well, what themes am I talking about
here? Then you can go back and make sure thatthat's represented all the way through.
Yeah. That is why I love the revising process,like right after I get my developmental edits,
because at that point I see everything my editorhas seen. I've had some time away from the script

(42:09):
to look at it and start picking out the themes andbe like, oh, here's how I can emphasize that.
Here's how I can make it better than what it was.
What do you think you did? Eventually, Eve becomesself empowered. For a long time in the book, she's
sort of the victim, and then she becomes selfempowered. How challenging was it for you to
clearly express that shift and to get us to asense of that empowerment?

(42:35):
That was probably one of my biggest rewrites. Um,it was very difficult to figure out how to manage
that within her character. At points I knew shewas being too passive, but I needed her to be at
least a little passive at the beginning of thebook because of everything going on around her,
Getting her to that point where she is selfempowered and she is going to do something about

(42:59):
it. I rewrote. Honestly, I rewrote the ending ofthe first book like, a hundred times before I
settled on, oh, I think this is the situation toput her in.
It took you that long to understand thatparticular turn?
Yeah, sometimes it takes a long time. And this wasdefinitely one of them.
Absolutely. Uh, you're lucky if you get it rightoff the top. You're lucky.

(43:22):
Oh, yeah.
Uh, but most of the time it's just grunt work totry and figure out why isn't this working. And
then you have to go back and work and work andwork, which is what you've done. You're very
diligent about it, obviously. Did you do anythingas you were developing all these characters to
avoid stereotypes?
I didn't, like, consciously try to do that. Um, Idid go through during edits and revisions to be

(43:43):
like, okay, let's double check everything. And,you know, I had been doing my research as I was
writing the first draft, before I wrote the firstdraft, and then again during edits. Um, it wasn't
something that was immediately on my mind untilthe editing process where I was like, okay, I want
to look at this really hard and just make surethat I'm not hitting anything too stereotypical or

(44:07):
upsetting, I guess, in that regard.
Well, but again, you had to sort of createcharacters for a little bit before you said, oh,
wait a minute, I'm sure you did this where youwent, that's just like some other character I've
seen or read. And now I've got to figure out howto make that character not stereotypical.
No, it was, um. I would say Haley was probably thehardest one in regards to that, because I

(44:32):
originally had written her as kind of a happy, golucky comic relief. And as I was reading the
story, it felt very out of place. She didn't feelhuman. She felt very one note. So during a lot of
my revisions, I tried to flesh out her charactermore. And I wanted to flesh out her hobbies, her
family, um, her interests, things like that. Thatreally helped build her character into an actual

(44:57):
person.
And those are the kinds of things that ascreenwriter needs to do. But frequently that
information will not come out in the screenplay.
It will just come out in the, um, sort of in thefeeling of what's going on with the character? Not
in detail, but in a novel you can actually expressall that, right?

Paige Rega (45:14):
Yep. That is my job.

Steve C (45:17):
And that's fun for you.
Oh my God. Yeah, I love it. I love making my ownlittle weird little worlds.
And good on you. Because that's what's gonna makeseparate you from the rest of the pack, is your
weird little worlds. I've not had the privilege,uh, of reading Blood and Stone yet. Um, but what's
that about?
At that point, Eve is trapped in the Fae worldwith Haley and Liam and Sage already live there.

(45:43):
But she is trapped and forced into a kind ofcompetition for who is going to be the heir of the
Bone Court. And while she's there, she is alsotrapped with the men who raped her. It's a very. I
don't want to say it's a messy book because thebook itself is not messy, but it's a messy
situation that she's in where at this point shehas tried to kill Liam. Um, but now she has to

(46:06):
partner with him to try to survive in this DarkFae world. She has established a wonderful
friendship with Haley and Sage. But now there is abetrayal. Um, she is now trapped with the men she
was hoping to be rid of forever and has toactually go forth and take care of that on her own

(46:27):
terms as well.
So you describe that well, that she's got a messylife and world, but the storytelling is not.
Yeah, she, she has a bunch of mess. She is goingthrough it in book two. Um, but the story itself,
I'd like to think it's pretty easy to read.

(46:47):
And is we are buried in the garden. Is that bookthree or is that another book entirely?
That's a separate book. So book three is comingout next.
Do you have a title for it yet?
I do, and I can tell you now because I haven't. Bythe time this is, uh, posted, it should be out.
Um, it's Heir and Throne.

Steve Cuden (47:04):
Heir and Throne.

Paige Regan (47:06):
Mhm.
That's H E I r, not a I r. Yeah.
H e I R and Throne.
Is that the conclusion of the story or will therebe more?
No, that'll be the final book of the trilogy. Um,unless someone commissions me like $8 billion. And
it's like, write more. And I'm like, sure, oh,every author is.
Is going to get a check for $8 billion.
I know, right? That's just a standard these days.

(47:28):
So tell us about we are buried in the garden.
What's that about then?
Yeah, so we are buried in the garden. Is my firststandalone adult novel. It is a gothic fantasy
about a young woman named Marceline who has justlost her sister. Her sister has passed away,
unfortunately, and she is marrying into a renowneddoctor's family to try to bring her sister back to

(47:53):
life. Um, however, once she arrives there, shesoon realizes that the way to bring her sister
back to life is not nearly so easy as she hadhoped and perhaps not quite as moral as she had
hoped.
So when you say bring her back to life, she. Isshe buried already? She's already in the ground.

(48:13):
So her body's buried, but her stomach spirit isstill there. So she is haunted by her younger
sister, uh, throughout the book. And you get herpoint of view and her sister's point of view
throughout the story as, ah, her sister is slowlyfacing the threat of her spirit being corrupted
for not resting for so long. And so they're onlike a whole time limit thing to get her sister

(48:38):
brought back to life before she turns into amonster.
It's the infamous ticking clock.
Yes. I love my ticking clocks.
Well, that's what makes a, uh, lot of the tensionand conflict work, is that, you know, somebody's
on a deadline of some kind. Not every story in theworld has those, but when they do, it usually ups
the ante quite quickly.
Oh, yeah.

(48:59):
And I think that's fun. Now, when she's broughtback to life or when she tries to be brought back
to life. This is not Frankenstein like, is it?
No. So it's not. It's a little bit based on theFrankenstein idea of, like, playing God bringing a
man back to life sort of situation. But it is muchmore of, uh, a she is grieving and desperate to

(49:24):
bring her sister back, and she uncovers someonethat was brought back and how
that happened and then uses that to go at it kindof.
She has to make a moral decision from that pointwhether it is still worth to bring her sister back
or not.
And that moral question, uh, will have certainreligious overtones to it at the same time, I

(49:45):
assume.
Oh, it always does.
It always does. Because, you know, uh, we're notreally built as humans to live forever. I mean,
that's just. We're just not built that way. And sowe have a lifespan of some length, whatever that
length is. And hopefully we make the best of it aswe're in it. But, uh. And that's part of the

(50:06):
morality of what you're discussing, I have toguess.

Paige Reg (50:08):
Yes, yes, absolutely.
So, all right. Do you maintain a daily writingroutine?
I do write every day. I do not always write thesame amount of words every day.

Steve Cuden (50:17):
Well, that's okay.
So some days I'll get like 100 words done. Somedays I sit there for 10 hours and I get 10,000
words done. So it really just depends. But I dotry to write something every day, even if it's not
this manuscript. Like, I'll work on an outline or,or I will write like a short story or just fumble
with something.
You feel like you're maybe a little stuck. Isthere something you do to jog you out of it?

(50:41):
I force myself. I sit there and I force myself towrite something. I might switch chapters, I might
switch POVs. Um, if it's really, really notworking, I'll go back and reread the story for
what I have and see. Okay, what naturally comesnext. And we can fix that in post.

(51:03):
There's no substitute for just sitting there andworking, which is what you do. So when you're in
that chair and you are working away, what is itthat you do for further inspiration? Or are you
just looking to get in that zone?
I mean, I'm really aiming to get in that zone, butthat's not always gonna come. So sometimes I have
to put on some background music that kind of likegets a moody atmosphere sphere. Um, or I might. I

(51:28):
have a folder of inspiration pictures I picked outduring the outlining phase that I'll pull up and
kind of flip through. But I try not to lookanything up when I'm writing or when I'm stuck
because it's just going to distract me.

Stev (51:41):
Are you easily distracted?
I am. Um, unfortunately, the Internet is a verydistracting thing, so my best option is to pull up
things I already have saved or to go for a walkor. I also read a lot, and I've been expanding a
lot of the books that I read so I can kind of pickinspiration from other genres and stories.

(52:04):
Do you try to read things that are not relatedgenre wise to what you're writing entirely?
Oh, 100%, absolutely. I think that that's probablyone of the best things I can do for inspiration is
reading anything really. Like, I might not besuper interested in a specific time period in

(52:26):
history or something, but I can pull out thingsthat happen during that time that I'm like, oh,
this would work really well for this. Usually itjust kind of pops in my head and I'm like, oh,
that's a great idea. I can use this later. And Iput it in my D file.
Who's your favorite writer right now? Who do youread oh, my gosh,
right now, I mean, I love Brandon Sanderson. Heis, like, top tier. Um, I actually vended at, uh,

(52:49):
Dragon Steel Nexus, his convention last December,and I loved it. Um, but I am also a huge fan of
Matt Deniman. Um, he has written the DungeonCrawler Carl series, which I am obsessed with.
Holly Black is a huge inspiration. Um, I've beenreading her books for so long, she's written about
Fae for since I was a teenager. Yeah, I'd saythose are probably my big three right now. My top

(53:17):
three.
Do you try to read something every day?
Yes, yes, absolutely. I'm actually currently on,uh, the Gate of the Feral Gods, which is book four
of Dungeon Crawler Carl. So I'm reading that andthen I have a couple book club books to get to,
and then I'll jump back in the rest of his books.
Do you ever find, like, while you're writing whatyou write, that you need to put that aside the
other kind of stories that have even a similar

(53:39):
tone to yours sometimes, not all the time. Um,actually, uh, more often I find that I do the
opposite where if I really want to get in the zonefor a story, I will try to surround myself with
that kind of vibe. So leading up to this, when Iwas working on the outline, I read a ton of gothic

(53:59):
novels, uh, for my book in September, likeFrankenstein, Dracula, um, a couple newer authors,
um, like Don't Let the Forest in, things likethat. And that really helped cement the kind of
creepy vibe I was going for.

St (54:14):
Do you ever read H.G. wells?
Yes, I actually have a big Barnes and noblecollection of H.G. wells. Uh, I think seven
novels. I got it back in high school, and I readthe first, I think three or four novels of it. And
it's been sitting on my shelf meeting for me topick up and read the rest of them.
I think that you'd find him interesting for whatyou do. He's absolutely unrelated to the world

(54:40):
that you're in. But I think that you'd find theway that he writes, the way he tells stories to be
very, um, uh, intriguing to you. I could be wrongabout that. You'd have to tell me.
You're right. I mean, I've read. Let's see, theInvisible man is probably one of his most famous
that I love.

Steve Cu (54:56):
Um, War of the Worlds.
War of the Worlds. I haven't gotten to that oneyet. Uh, the Time Traveler.
It's a time machine, I believe.
Time machine. Thank you. It's been a while since Iread it.
Well, like I say, you know, there are a lot ofgreat ones out there, and among them would be Mary
Shelley and, uh, certainly Stoker and so on. Yeah,absolutely. So I've been having just an absolutely

(55:21):
wonderful conversation with Paige Regan for a, uh,little bit of time here, and we're going to wind
the show down. And I'm wondering, Paige, in all ofyour experiences now as a writer, can you share
with us a story that's either weird, quirky,offbeat, strange, or just plain funny?
Yeah. So actually, what really got me into writingprofessionally was I decided to do freelance

(55:46):
writing for video games. That's how I startedbefore I became an author. And my. My first couple
of clients, all they wanted were corruption gamesfor how to write, uh, like, characters becoming
corrupted. And I took that a little bit more as,oh, like murder. That's not quite what they were

(56:10):
going for, I realized very quickly.
So corrupted, as in, like, politically corrupted.
Um, they were going for sexually corrupted.

Steve (56:20):
Sexually corrupted, yes.
And I went much more of like, oh, you want, like,murder. And
what video games. Do we know any of the names?
They are a bunch of indie studios. Um, one of themwas For He's. Or games for. They have a game
called Uni. Um, I did manage to convince them tolet me write, like, a murderous route, so I'm. I'm

(56:46):
quite proud of myself for that one.
Do you enjoy writing video games?
It's so much fun. Um, I'm a huge gamer, so it's.
It's pretty natural for me to jump into that.
So that. That's in your wheelhouse.
Yeah, yeah. It's not like my main career kind ofthing. That. That's. That's definitely more of
hobby at this point. I just find it fun to do.
I've never written a video game, and I wouldn'teven know where to begin. I'd have to go learn all

(57:10):
about it. So I find that interesting. That's amuch more expansive world than writing a novel,
isn't it?
Oh, my gosh. Yeah. No, it is. Um, the amount ofwords I write for video games, I could be writing,
like, Wheel of Time, uh, for one game.
All right, so last question for you today, Paige.
Uh, you've given us a tremendous amount of advicethroughout this whole show, but I'm wondering, do

(57:35):
you have a single piece of advice or a tip thatwhen somebody says to you, how do you do this? Or
how do I get into this? That you like to give tothem other than writing?
Just constantly do it. Get through the book? Ireally like to say, um, Just support your fellow
artists and your fellow writers and be supportiveof your team. Thank your editor. Show your

(57:57):
appreciation. They are working. And it may not bethe same position as you have, it may not be the
same thing as writing, but having others whounderstand your love for writing or books or
anything, it's. It's so, so important. Writers areso inherently lonely. Um, so it's. It's great to

(58:18):
make friends that can relate to you in thoseplights.
It is important to have a support system of somekind that the people that you're. You deal with
and you're around aren't telling you, stop doingthat. It's a waste of time or something like that
that you need that support.
Absolutely. And just being. Helping support otherartists, too, even if they're in a different part

(58:40):
of their career than you. Like, support theirsuccesses. Be happy for them like it is. We're all
here for each other. We're all struggling. I thinkit's so important to just show kindness.
Well, that's just a terrific bit of advice to showkindness, not just in the writing business, but in
general. And, uh, I think that that's reallyterrific advice. Paige Regan, this has been so

(59:02):
much fun for me to finally get a chance to haveone of my former students on the show. This has
really been cool for me and for any of you thatare, I'm so glad that you, you were here today.
And, uh, for those of you interested, check outPaige's work on either Sin and Bones, Blood and
Stone, What's. What's the third one called Now?
It's going to be Heir and throne. It'll be March2027.

(59:25):
Cool. And also check out We Are Buried in theGarden. Paige Regan, thank you so much for
spending time with me today. I can't tell you howmuch I appreciate your, uh, energy and your
wisdom. And thank you very much.
Thank you so much, Steve. It's been so wonderful.
I'm so glad you invited me.
And so we've come to the end of today's StoryBeat. If you like this episode, won't you please

(59:46):
take a moment to give us a comment, rating, orreview on whatever app or platform you're
listening to? Your support helps us bring moregreat Story Beat episodes to you. Story Beat is
available on all major podcast apps and platforms,including Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify,
iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and many others. Until nexttime, I'm Steve Cuden, and may all your stories be

(01:00:13):
unforgettable.