July 13, 2025 • 32 mins
Join Les and Rhi for a bookish podcast where #wereaditsoyoudonthaveto. This isn’t your average book deep dive nor typical book club. We talk about everything from the ridiculous to the relatable, the dramatic to the delightfully unhinged corners of the book world. Whether it’s behind-the-scenes of our book clubs, meet-and-greets with bookish humans, or the absurd moments that make us laugh out loud—this is your invitation to a podcast where anything bookish goes. We’re just two girls who love to read, and we can’t wait to share this journey with you.
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No matter who you are we guarantee you will find a show (or multiple) for yourself on the Dufferin Ave Media Network! If you can't find one, start your own! We can help you with that! We're a community of passionate hosts, audio engineers, avid listeners, and day dreamers on a mission to shape the future of on-demand content together.
Follow us on social media:
X (twitter): https://twitter.com/DufferinAveNet Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dufferinavemedia/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Dufferin-Ave-Media-Network/61557492890012/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@duffavemedia
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I love books like that where you as the
reader get to feel smart and like you know things
that the characters don't, and then you see them coming
toward each other and it's just the sort of slow
motion car crash. Ye a book I felt like that
with was This was years ago, But Kylie reads.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Such a fun age. I liked that. I actually used
it a little bit for.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Inspiration for Favorite Daughter, because it's a dual point of
view story with these two women, and you know, like
as the reader, As the reader, you know what they're
thinking about each other and how wrong they are in
their misconceptions about each other, and then you just sort
of see them spin off of each other and you
know that it's going to blow up.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hey, I'm less and I'm Read.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
This is not that kind of book club.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
A bookish podcast where we read it so you don't
have to. Hey, guys, welcome back to not that kind
of book club. I am Less and I'm Read.
Speaker 6 (01:06):
It's a bookish podcast where we read it so you
don't have to. And special guests on the podcast today.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Heck yeah, Well, first of all, I'm back. This is back,
but we do have a special guest today. We have
Morgan Dick. She is currently in Calgary, Alberta, and she
is an author that we got to read her debut
book for our book of It's not even book of
(01:33):
the month, it's like book pick of the book pick
for two weeks. Yeah, it's just our current book pick.
But yeah, we got to dive into her debut book
and we absolutely loved it. So Morgan's here today. We're
going to chat all things siblings. We're going to talk
all things favorite daughter, and we're going to go from there.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Welcome Morgan.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Thank you both so much for having me excited. I
listened to your first episode and there were so many times.
It's funny because I was listening to it at the
gym on the StairMaster, so I was simultaneously dying, But
also there were like ten things that you were talking
about where I caught myself wanting to talk back and
then had to like remind myself that you weren't there,
(02:19):
that this was a podcast that I was listening to,
and that I couldn't actually have a conversation with you,
just because it was such an interesting, Yeah, an interesting conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I think the two of you together talking about books
is magical. So I'm happy to be here and to
take part.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Oh that's so sweet. Thank you so much. And I
guess you know what. We obviously have you on for today,
but you're going to have to write another book and
come back on because having you here is just magic too.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I would love to.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Yes, Okay, write that down, write it down, schedule it in.
So you know what, Let's just start off super simple, Morgan.
What have you just finished reading? What are you reading
right now? And what's next on your to b red list?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, So one book that I just finished reading is
a book that actually comes out in twenty twenty six
in January. It's called Dandy Lyon Is Dead. I was
reading it because I was asked to write a blurb
for it, which was very exciting, cool author Milestone, first
time I was.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Asked to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's a really fun book because it's about it's sort
of a literary romance about this woman who her twin
it's not her.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Her sister passes away.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
She's grieving this loss, and then she has her sister's phone,
and on her phone are all of the dating apps
that she was using. And so the sister who's alive
is looking at the dating apps and then starts like
communicating with someone from the app, and then they meet
and she pretends to be the dead sister because she's
like graving and unhinged, and so that is chaotic and fun.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That was a great read. A book I just I'm
in the middle.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Of now is She's a Lamb by Meredith Hambrock, which
is super fun, also quite unhinged.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I tend to like.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Unruly women and women doing questionable things in the books
that I read and in the ones that I write,
and this is definitely no exception.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
It's about this. She's an actress who is.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Trying to get a role as Maria in the Sound
of Music in a Vancouver production. It's a It's Candlet,
It's a Canadian indie novel, and she just does increasingly
desperate things to try and get this role. So that's
really funny and dark and kind of like Mona Awad.
I don't know if either of you like Mona A.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Wad. She's one of my favorites.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Okay, I might have to look into her.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
It's gonna say I've never heard Nort but really likes.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Mona wrote Bunny. If that's probably her biggest book if
you knew it was like a big book talk book.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
But yeah, I'm getting into the TikTok right now.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I'm still semi afraid of it, so no worries.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
But to be honest, I think I avoid it now
because I hate reading a book that everybody's talking about.
So when a brand new book, so for instance, when
Iron Flame came out or on ax Storm, I would
avoid TikTok and then I still haven't read them because
I was like, I don't want my algorithm to give
me all the spoilers.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
True, Yeah, I think that's fair, and it's tricky because
our algorithms get trained to provide us more of the same. Right,
So just because you liked Iron Flame doesn't mean you
want only iron Flame content.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Or books like iron Flame.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I think it's an.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Issue because it's you can get hard to discover new things.
With the way that these algorithms work, we just sort
of get fed more of the same. But anyways, Yeah,
so that book is She's a Lamb, which is fantastic
so far. And then did you ask, what's one book
that's on my TVR?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Yeah, okay, I have to think about this.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I have a very long, very stacked TVR right now.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
But don't want. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
One book I do want to read this summer is
Margo's Got Money Troubles Okay Thorp, which is I think
like a year or two old. It's not a new release,
but it got lots of buzz and attention and I
still find a lot of people bringing it up in conversation.
And it's the one about the She's a young mom
I think she's like eighteen or nineteen and has a baby,
(06:16):
and she ends up living with her dad, I think,
from whom she was estranged previously, and the dad used
to be a pro wrestler, and they sort of work
together to create her OnlyFans account.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Where that she uses, yeah, that she uses to.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Like have an income for herself and provide for her
and her baby, and the dad is sort of chiming
in with his like nineties wrestling, you know, performance expertise.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
I guess right, it sounds and this is called the
Margo's Got Money Trouble.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yes, Okay.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
Our producer right now is laughing so hard at the
whole synopsis of this.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
He's into it, okay, So sorry not to interject.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I have.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
A book up top behind me. It's called The Nanny
by Lanna Ferguson, and I sh I'd swear, I shit
you not the main character, like without spoiling it, she
also has an OnlyFans and like she's really like into
this one guy who like really subscribes to her OnlyFans
and then he disappears one day. She disappears because she's like,
(07:17):
well he left, but anyways, she ends up becoming the
nanny for his kid, but she doesn't know it's him
because they both had pseudonyms, so like they don't know
it's each other until like little pieces start coming together
and you're the whole time you know this, and I'm
just like, oh boy.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So I love books like that where you as the
reader get to feel smart and like you know things
that the characters don't, and then you see them coming
toward each other and it's just the sort of slow
motion car crash.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
A book I felt like that with was this was
years ago, but Kylie reads such a fun age.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I liked that.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I actually used it a little bit for inspiration for
Favorite Daughter, because it's a dual point of view story
with these two women, and you know, like at the
reader as the reader. You know what they're thinking about
each other and how wrong they are and their misconceptions
about each other, and then you just sort of see
them spin off of each other and you know that
it's going to blow up.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So that to me is very satisfying.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Whenever we get that kind of insider angle, I guess
into the characters and get to feel smart as readers.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
And I feel like sometimes I'm not gonna lie. I
get second. Had embarrassment when I read books like this,
because when you know every oh my god, like sometimes
have no idea how big.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, well I had that during Favorite Daughter. Yep, yeah, yeah,
I know these things.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Yeah, and you're just like waiting for the train wreck
to happen. But before we delve too much into the
book this episode.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Hey, I got to tell you what I'm reading.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Oh yeah, we're going to do ours.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We did skip uses less important than you, Morgan.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
As you know in the book.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
The book that we just read was Favorite Daughter.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
So I'll kind of just talk quickly about like the
book I'm reading. Yeah, so, Rihanna, you'd be so proud
of me.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I am.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
I'm reading a nonfiction book.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
It's it's like a personal development book too.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
This is huge, huge, So it was actually written by
two humans on Instagram. So if you ever heard of
at ADHD love anyways, So as somebody with ADHD, I'm
always kind of looking at things about ADHD. But anyways, Okay,
this one is called Dirty Laundry, so it's this one,
(09:37):
but it's essentially why adults with ADHD are so ashamed
and what can we do to help? And it basically
like breaks down each kind of big symptom of ADHD,
and like it's just a fun way to kind of
read it. So me and my partner are actually kind
of reading it simultaneously. But it's like, symptom too is
(09:58):
time blindness. So this chapter two us showing up lately littering.
Sorry I'll be It's like, sorry, I'm late. I sat
on my bed staring at the window for twenty five
minutes for no reason, Like I It's awesome. So that's
what I'm reading right now. And then the next one
on my list is actually a new release. It's Caught
(10:20):
Up by Nevessa Allen, which from Dirty Laundry to that
book polar opposites. That one is a very dark romance
and this is a nonfiction about Adhd. So here we
are your turn.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
My turn.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Just finished reading another Calgary author, actually, Josie Balcas, I
hope you remember, which was so good. It's a book
of poetry. She's fantastic. She is, i think, in New
York Times bestseller right now, which for an like her
first published is amazing. So just finished up that one
as well as Favorite Daughter. Currently I am reading Atmosphere
(10:57):
by Taylor Jenkins read which which is a nice kind
of summary book, and then up next probably going to
go with The Leapier Gene, which is an older title,
but I'm really excited to read that one.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Should be kind of interesting, a.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Little bit sci fi, a little bit fiction.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I read that earlier in the spring and enjoy it
a lot. Okay, yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. It's
a sister. It's it's a story about sisters. Yep as well.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So if that's your jam, then I think you'll like
it because it's what I liked about it is the
premise being that this person ages at I think a
quarter of the normal rate, right, so every four years
she gets one physical physical year older.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, it is sort of like that.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, but she has a baby sister who ages at
the normal rate. So it starts off where the little
sister is younger, but then over time, the little sister
gets older in maturity both in her body and her
mind and has to become like a bit of a
caregiver for the main character, who even though she's like no. Fifty,
she's only sixteen in terms of her physical and her
(12:06):
mental maturity. So anyway, it's very interesting sibling story. I
think if you like that, you'll probably enjoy the leap
your gene.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
That sounds really cool. I'm pretty excited to read this one.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
It's wild. Now I'm gonna have to add it. Yeah,
you'll have to text me the name of this one
and I'll at I will you know sidebar what I
really just thought of too. We should almost have like
a conversation around how many books are on your TV
are because the not right all will put a pin
in it. But just like thinking back to this now,
I'm like, oh my god, the number of books on
(12:37):
my pintert, not my pinterress, my good Reads is probably whack. Okay,
let's dive into.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
So first, first meet Morgan dick tell Us, who is more.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Who am I.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Yeah, I know we're going deep right off my badness.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I am.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I am a writer. I live in Calgary. I'm a writer.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I also work as an occupational therapist with kids, which
is super fun. And in my writing life. Yes, this
is my debut novel that just came out. I love
to spend time in nature and in the mountains. I
love spending time with my family, and we are a big,
kind of chaotic family, which I think ends up in
(13:22):
the things that I write in different ways. It's one
of the reasons I've always been drawn to reading family
stories and complicated family dynamics, and so that for sure
makes its way into my writing. It's interesting the stuff
that ends up in there. I think it's sort of
its own form of therapy, because things that you've only
I guess half processed, or maybe not processed at all,
(13:44):
end up in the things that you write, even though
you maybe weren't expecting it. And I definitely felt like
that with this book. There's a lot of different parts
of my personal world that sort of emerged while I
was writing it, so it was therapeutic that way. But yeah,
I mean that's me. I. Yeah, I love being outside.
I love drinking coffee. I don't we all learning the
(14:07):
cook slowly learning to not be afraid of the gym.
I mentioned the staremaster earlier, Yeah, which I'm like getting
less afraid of.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I also have a long.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
History myself with different forms of mental illness. It's one
of the reasons why I got into working as an
OT and got into the field.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
But I also have ADHD, so hello ADHD club A.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
As well as pm d D pre menstrual dysport disorder
had long history with anxiety and depression as well. So
just from being on that journey myself and working through
a lot of things and you know, going to therapy
myself and trying to make some of the changes in
my own life that I've you know, thought about making
(14:51):
but have resisted for so long. Maybe like going through
all of these different things definitely did inform the book
as well. Just that that idea of needing to change
yourself and being too afraid to knowing that you need
to make a change in your life and just not
knowing how to start or not even maybe having awareness
(15:13):
of that, and this idea that people can get better,
that was something I always wanted to write about and
it came through with this book for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Oh it definitely did. Sidebar, did you take your meds
this morning?
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Morgan? I did, thank you, thank you for You're welcome.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
We did.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
They're changing my meds on me right now, so they
literally what I picked up my meds.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
They had to be a blister pack, and I was like,
sitting there, I was like, wow, I feel like it's
seventy year old right now. Let me just carry my
blister pack with me everywhere to take my meds.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
But I could see the advantage of that though, because
I don't know about you, but there are times when
I am like, did I take my meds this morning?
And I actually can't remember, and then I try and
feel it. I usually can feel it kick in where
I start to feel settled and calm, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
that's the vibance.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Sometimes I can't, and then I'm like did I take it?
Did I not take it? And then one time I
took an exactly, and then that's terrible.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
It's like, honestly, like I actually really enjoy having it,
even though I like shit on it a little bit.
But because they're tight trating like so specific, I was
like there's no way, no way I could do this myself.
Like I would like there's like half tablets and like this,
and I was like, yeah, just just just give me
the blister back. It's totally fine. But Okay, back on track,
(16:35):
what led you into writing? Like what kind of made
you start writing? Was it more of that like anxiety,
kind of like journaling and like getting those feelings out
or was there kind of a inspiration in there.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I was always a kid who wrote stuff, so like
in high school, I wrote for a youth magazine and
you know, I wrote for the student newspaper and all
of those things. But I tend to be more into nonfiction.
And I thought about going into journalism as a career
for a little bit and then decided against that for
a few different reasons. But it was always, yeah, more
(17:10):
nonfiction that I was drawn to writing. And it really
wasn't until my sort of mid twenties that I thought
about writing fiction seriously. And I think I was just
very intimidated by it. Previously I loved reading novels, but
it seemed impossible, like I couldn't wrap my head around
actually creating that, like how you could start from nothing
(17:31):
and then end.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Up with this.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
This with a book a book shaped thing just seemed
like insurmountable to me. So it was sort of a
thing that I kept in my mind as like a oh,
one day, I'll.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Give that a try.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
One day I'd like to try that, And then I
was yeah. I had just turned twenty five. I went
to New Orleans to celebrate my birthday. It was Mardi
Gras actually, which was super fun. I was there with
my friend and I just I remember having this moment.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Where they gave me this cake. They brought me this
piece of cake with a spark.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
We're in it in a bar, and there were all
these random people, you know, apostle people from Germany, et cetera,
around me, like pretending to be my friend whatever, Happy birthday,
Happy birthday, and I just had this this moment of like,
whoa time is a thing that applies to me also,
not just other people, and like I should maybe actually
start this now because I'm still like, I'm very young,
(18:22):
and so I could actually put some time into this
and try and get good at it and not wait.
And it was there around the same time that my
sister had just my older sister had just had her
first baby, and that also made me think, like, whoa time,
it's occurring for real, so I should get cracking.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I was gonna I was gonna say, now that you
mentioned New Orleans, some people might get this reference. Some
people might not. As I look at Rihanna, I don't
know with your cake, did it have the baby in it? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So I've heard of this, but no, no, it didn't
have the baby.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
The tradition for Marty Girl, they make a big cake
and they put like a little plastic baby somewhere in it.
And if you get the piece with the baby, it's.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Like good luck, good luck.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Basically, I'm going to have to now go google it
to make sure that it is actually good luck. I
just know that it's like a big deal if.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
You get the peace with the baby. Yeah. But interesting,
very very interesting.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
What then, I mean, you've kind of touched on it
a little bit on what led you to write this book?
But do you want to dive into that a little
bit more so? Obviously like your own family dynamics led
into it, like a little bit of your own mental
health led into it. But really what inspired this incredible book?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Well, thank you for the kind words for starters. Yeah,
there definitely were a few sources of inspiration. My dad
is an adoptee, and when he was about fifty, something
changed with the way they keep the adoption records in Alberta,
where for the first time he got access to his
like original records that had his mom's name in them.
(20:03):
And so that was the first time when he could
actually go out and try to find his biological parents. Yeah,
and he ended up establishing this really beautiful relationship with
his biological dad and with that whole side of the family,
with these half siblings who he'd never met before, and
we all got together one year, I think it was
I think it was Thanksgiving, and we went to a
(20:24):
bunch of them lived in the same city even as us,
which was also a bit of that blew my mind.
And yeah, we went and did Thanksgiving dinner at my
dad's bio sister's house and met all of these people
at the same time, and I just remember being blown
away by how similar they were to my dad, not
just in the way they looked, but also little things
(20:46):
like how they talked and even some of the same
interests that they share, Like this whole family comes from
Manitoba farming, so they have like whole photo albums of
just cows in them from like, oh, you know, see
she was a prize.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
That prize haffer or whatever.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Right, I don't even exactly, but my dad has always
been such a huge animal person, and so things like
that that they just really clicked right away.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And so I was observing this and starting to wonder
even back then, what other things to have siblings might
share despite having been raised a part in how they
might be similar in terms of their not just even
their hobbies or their interests, also maybe their vices and
some of the things that they struggle with too. And
then I started to think about what would be the
most possible, the most awkward, possible way for to have
(21:34):
siblings to meet without knowing that they're they're actually related. Yes, Yeah,
that led me to this idea of a therapist and
her client meeting in the therapy room without any knowledge
that they're actually half sisters, and kind of.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Spiraled outward from there.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
The one of the main characters, Mickey, I ended up
giving her an addiction that came from some of the
experiences I've had with my brother Kyle, who's are recovering
alcoholic and just the whole impact that that had on
our family when I was younger up until now. So
that was another source of inspiration for the book. And
(22:15):
I was lucky in that he was very open while
I was writing and revising it and was happy to
have conversations with me about his own experiences and how
I could reflect some of that truthfully or honestly in
the book.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So very lucky.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And you know, yeah, so lots of different piece bits
and pieces of my personal life and pieces of my
family have for sure come up in the book, although
none of it is true and none of.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
It is specifically based on anyone.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Which I'm always very careful to point out. It's nothing's real.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
It's fair, fair.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So it was amazing to have Morgan on here.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Yes and join us for our next podcast next week,
we actually dive more into the book. But we're so
grateful to have had an author today, So that's exciting, incredible.
But here we're going to kind of continue a little
bit because we talked about Favorite Daughter, which is about
the two siblings. So last week on your show, if
(23:12):
you did tune in, uh Rihan and Gary talked about
their like most memorable sibling stories.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
They were pretty unhinged.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
They were pretty good, I mean, but I listened to
it last week and I was so sad that I
got to miss this because I wasn't here last week.
So I thought that it would be fun to share
another story, and you know, I'll share one of mine.
Maybe we can think of a short one, because I
kind of have two that I want to share.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
But like, tell us, tell us about your unhinged.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
Oh my gosh. Okay, So my poor sister. Let me
preface this with I do really love her. She's one
of my best friends, but we do have six years
between us, so I would honestly say, like she's probably.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Six or seven, so.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
I would have been thirteen when this happened. Man, I'm
such a asked now that I'm thinking about it. Anyways,
so me and my sister were upstairs. She had bunk beds,
which used to be my bunk beds. I loved them.
But anyway, she was on the top bunk and I
don't know if we were fighting or what we were doing,
but I yanked her so hard that she ended up
actually like flying off the top bunk and smacking herself
(24:20):
on the ground. And I remember just sitting there. I'm like,
oh my god, Katya, kat Ta Kati, like, you can't
tell Mom and Dad I pulled you off, just say
you fell out of bed. And so my sister, being
my little sister, said I fell out of bed. And
she's downstairs crying because she's like Mom, like my shoulder hurts,
I can't move my arm and my dad, you're fine,
(24:40):
You're fine, And then she wouldn't stop crying and screaming
and he got mad, so he was like sent her
to bed without dinner. Like that sounds like literal abuse,
but like it was after dinner. She didn't eat because
she was sore, and my Dad's like, Kate, fine, if
you're gonna be like this, just go to bed.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Anyways, me being the thirteen year olds who actually kind
of felt bad that she pulled her sister off the
bunk bed, yes, I was like, you know what, I'm
gonna bring her a snack. I'll sneak something upstairs for
her so that so that she's not hungry. And I
go in, I'm like, hey, Katya, like how are you feeling,
And she's crying and she's like, my shoulder hurts, and
I'm like oh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I brought you a snack which is super sweet.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
And Caty's like, oh, like, thank you, And I handed
her the snack and she looked at me and she's like,
are you actually kidding me?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
What was the snack?
Speaker 5 (25:30):
I brought her a box of raisins, like those little
those little tidy red boxes of phrasinsh.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
Snack you can bring, not even chocolate covered raisins, but
just like super plain ones that are probably hard for
being in the little red boxes with the face on
it that you get it Halloween from like the super
sucky house.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Yeah, the old lady down the block. But anyways, anyway,
so that's that's that. And then the next day, like
my mom was like, like, she's really bruised, and they
took her to the hospital and my sister actually had
a broken collarbone. So not only did I break my
sister's collarbone, I brought her a box of raisins.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
So yeah, that's a little whoopsies.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
We love our siblings, don't we, Yeah, we love them deeply.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Do you have another one?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Kind of. So this is.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
This is a little bit what's the word I want
to use off color some off color commentary. So my
dog just got neutered last week, so he we my
mom was joking that we're gonna have my dog sitting
there with no balls. And then my brother he's fine
now so we can joke about it. But he had
testicular cancer, so he has one ball, and then put
(26:52):
my boyfriend next to him with two balls. So my
mom just made that joke. Yesterday at my nephew birthday.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Party zero one two.
Speaker 6 (27:08):
My brother's fine, he's totally okay now, like it's been
like a month. He's in remission. I think we can say.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
But I love that though. That's his birthday.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Yeah, how old your nephew? He's four? He was outside playing.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Oh geez, okay, that's good.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Have our reader stories too.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
I gotta tell you about another one I do, okay please,
So it's about my sister still clearly of course we're
older now, like I'm in like second year university. It's
like twenty sixteen, twenty No, it was after it's probably
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. And my cousin and I were like,
you know, we're gonna have a few drinks and just chill,
and we had a really great buzz going, and my
(27:54):
sister's like, well, like I want I want to drink
with you guys too. And we're let me preface, we've
been drinking since we were like two years old. We've
had sippy cups with wine and lots of sprite, so
like we've been drinking wine forever. But like wine does
nothing to me. It just gives me a headache sometimes
if I drink too much red. But anyways, so my
(28:16):
sister's like, I want to be drinking with you too,
like I want to be involved. So what did Alasia do? Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Boy? I set out four shot glasses?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Okay, we had four different kinds of Crown Royal, Like
we had Crown Royal regular, crab oil, vanilla, Crown Royal
Apple vanilla, and peach.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
So there was five shots.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
I filled each glass up and I was like, kay, Katya,
you gotta shoot them all. I made my sixteen year
old sister take five shots back to back.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Just give her a little bit of alcohol poisoning. No,
it gets so much worse.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
So then we're upstairs and like we had had our
great and Katya' is like, oh man, I'm not feeling
too good. But like she did it she's drunk, like
she is out of her mind. And she comes into
my bathroom and again, let me preface, I don't live
at home, so I have my suitcase and my clothes
and like everything in there. My sister comes in. She's like, yeah,
(29:14):
I don't feel great and started projectile vomiting all over
my bedroom. So like my suitcase, my clothes, my bed,
my carpet, everywhere, And so my cousin and I just
looked at each other.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We're like, and we are sober. Yeah, oh my gosh.
Nothing sobers you up faster than projectile.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
And my sister to this day cannot drink Crown Royal
and she has never touched it.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Again, I don't blame her. Oh my gosh, my bad.
Speaker 6 (29:45):
My siblings are the best, And I mean that's what
our contest was about, too, is like your best most
unhitched siblings stories. So we had dow copies of Morgan's
book to give away. The first one we are giving
away to at Reading and Needing aka Leah. She messaged
me and said she was kind of funny. She didn't
preface her message at all. She just goes right into it.
(30:07):
My brother once slammed my head in the car door
and then cried because he thought he knocked my brains out.
And then she sends another message for the giveaway, not
just because I'm telling you a story about my brother.
And it apparently happened at lunchtime and she had to
go to school with a headache because God forbid she
take a sick day.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And she was fine, she was just.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Hurt, but her brains came out her ears.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Apparently her brains came out her ears.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
What color was it when it comes out your ears?
Is it still gray brain matter? Sorry, that's not funny.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Congratulations Leah, we loved you.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
That was great. And then I was gonna say our
next one is like our winner. It's pretty pretty great.
So our last copy of the book is going.
Speaker 6 (30:49):
To jen Aka Carbs after dork she messaged me, and
she has two three quarter sisters, so not half sisters,
three order sister. She says they share a bio dad,
so they're half siblings, but their moms are biological sisters.
So three quarter siblings, one quarter cousins, which makes her
(31:11):
dad her uncle through marriage.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Can you follow that?
Speaker 5 (31:15):
And I mean they're they're one four so one quarter cousins. Oh,
that's weird because then your aunt would actually be your
sister's biological mom. That's messy.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, well your your uncle's your dad's your uncle.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
I can't do that.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
No, so so wild, so jen you.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I mean, this has been
a sweet episode. I'm going to shout out right now. Katya,
I love you. I'm so sorry I was a bully
at least. I love you now.
Speaker 6 (31:51):
And I guess since we're doing this, Taddy, I love you.
You're the best story. You hurt me so much growing up.
And Michael, I'm so sorry that you only have one
ball now, but I'm glad that you're cancer free.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Single ball, Michael, one ball, Mic, one ball, Mic, your
poor brother. I'm so sorry, but like six or five,
he can beat.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Me up now.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
So let's add this here.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
I mean, guys, we love you so much.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
It means a world to us that you're you're listening
to our podcast and we.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Love having you here. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
It's not that kind of book club with lessonry.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
Yeah, a bookish podcast where we read it so you
don't have to
So I love books like that where you as the
reader get to feel smart and like you know things
that the characters don't, and then you see them coming
toward each other and it's just the sort of slow
motion car crash. Ye a book I felt like that
with was This was years ago, But Kylie reads.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Such a fun age. I liked that. I actually used
it a little bit for.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Inspiration for Favorite Daughter, because it's a dual point of
view story with these two women, and you know, like
as the reader, As the reader, you know what they're
thinking about each other and how wrong they are in
their misconceptions about each other, and then you just sort
of see them spin off of each other and you
know that it's going to blow up.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hey, I'm less and I'm Read.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
This is not that kind of book club.
Speaker 5 (00:48):
A bookish podcast where we read it so you don't
have to. Hey, guys, welcome back to not that kind
of book club. I am Less and I'm Read.
Speaker 6 (01:06):
It's a bookish podcast where we read it so you
don't have to. And special guests on the podcast today.
Speaker 5 (01:12):
Heck yeah, Well, first of all, I'm back. This is back,
but we do have a special guest today. We have
Morgan Dick. She is currently in Calgary, Alberta, and she
is an author that we got to read her debut
book for our book of It's not even book of
(01:33):
the month, it's like book pick of the book pick
for two weeks. Yeah, it's just our current book pick.
But yeah, we got to dive into her debut book
and we absolutely loved it. So Morgan's here today. We're
going to chat all things siblings. We're going to talk
all things favorite daughter, and we're going to go from there.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Welcome Morgan.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Thank you both so much for having me excited. I
listened to your first episode and there were so many times.
It's funny because I was listening to it at the
gym on the StairMaster, so I was simultaneously dying, But
also there were like ten things that you were talking
about where I caught myself wanting to talk back and
then had to like remind myself that you weren't there,
(02:19):
that this was a podcast that I was listening to,
and that I couldn't actually have a conversation with you,
just because it was such an interesting, Yeah, an interesting conversation.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I think the two of you together talking about books
is magical. So I'm happy to be here and to
take part.
Speaker 6 (02:34):
Oh that's so sweet. Thank you so much. And I
guess you know what. We obviously have you on for today,
but you're going to have to write another book and
come back on because having you here is just magic too.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I would love to.
Speaker 6 (02:47):
Yes, Okay, write that down, write it down, schedule it in.
So you know what, Let's just start off super simple, Morgan.
What have you just finished reading? What are you reading
right now? And what's next on your to b red list?
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, So one book that I just finished reading is
a book that actually comes out in twenty twenty six
in January. It's called Dandy Lyon Is Dead. I was
reading it because I was asked to write a blurb
for it, which was very exciting, cool author Milestone, first
time I was.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Asked to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
That's a really fun book because it's about it's sort
of a literary romance about this woman who her twin
it's not her.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Her sister passes away.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
She's grieving this loss, and then she has her sister's phone,
and on her phone are all of the dating apps
that she was using. And so the sister who's alive
is looking at the dating apps and then starts like
communicating with someone from the app, and then they meet
and she pretends to be the dead sister because she's
like graving and unhinged, and so that is chaotic and fun.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That was a great read. A book I just I'm
in the middle.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Of now is She's a Lamb by Meredith Hambrock, which
is super fun, also quite unhinged.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I tend to like.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Unruly women and women doing questionable things in the books
that I read and in the ones that I write,
and this is definitely no exception.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
It's about this. She's an actress who is.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Trying to get a role as Maria in the Sound
of Music in a Vancouver production. It's a It's Candlet,
It's a Canadian indie novel, and she just does increasingly
desperate things to try and get this role. So that's
really funny and dark and kind of like Mona Awad.
I don't know if either of you like Mona A.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Wad. She's one of my favorites.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Okay, I might have to look into her.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
It's gonna say I've never heard Nort but really likes.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Mona wrote Bunny. If that's probably her biggest book if
you knew it was like a big book talk book.
Speaker 4 (04:45):
But yeah, I'm getting into the TikTok right now.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I'm still semi afraid of it, so no worries.
Speaker 5 (04:51):
But to be honest, I think I avoid it now
because I hate reading a book that everybody's talking about.
So when a brand new book, so for instance, when
Iron Flame came out or on ax Storm, I would
avoid TikTok and then I still haven't read them because
I was like, I don't want my algorithm to give
me all the spoilers.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
Ah.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
True, Yeah, I think that's fair, and it's tricky because
our algorithms get trained to provide us more of the same. Right,
So just because you liked Iron Flame doesn't mean you
want only iron Flame content.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Or books like iron Flame.
Speaker 5 (05:26):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I think it's an.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Issue because it's you can get hard to discover new things.
With the way that these algorithms work, we just sort
of get fed more of the same. But anyways, Yeah,
so that book is She's a Lamb, which is fantastic
so far. And then did you ask, what's one book
that's on my TVR?
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Yeah, okay, I have to think about this.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
I have a very long, very stacked TVR right now.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
But don't want. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
One book I do want to read this summer is
Margo's Got Money Troubles Okay Thorp, which is I think
like a year or two old. It's not a new release,
but it got lots of buzz and attention and I
still find a lot of people bringing it up in conversation.
And it's the one about the She's a young mom
I think she's like eighteen or nineteen and has a baby,
(06:16):
and she ends up living with her dad, I think,
from whom she was estranged previously, and the dad used
to be a pro wrestler, and they sort of work
together to create her OnlyFans account.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Where that she uses, yeah, that she uses to.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Like have an income for herself and provide for her
and her baby, and the dad is sort of chiming
in with his like nineties wrestling, you know, performance expertise.
Speaker 6 (06:41):
I guess right, it sounds and this is called the
Margo's Got Money Trouble.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yes, Okay.
Speaker 6 (06:46):
Our producer right now is laughing so hard at the
whole synopsis of this.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
He's into it, okay, So sorry not to interject.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
I have.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
A book up top behind me. It's called The Nanny
by Lanna Ferguson, and I sh I'd swear, I shit
you not the main character, like without spoiling it, she
also has an OnlyFans and like she's really like into
this one guy who like really subscribes to her OnlyFans
and then he disappears one day. She disappears because she's like,
(07:17):
well he left, but anyways, she ends up becoming the
nanny for his kid, but she doesn't know it's him
because they both had pseudonyms, so like they don't know
it's each other until like little pieces start coming together
and you're the whole time you know this, and I'm
just like, oh boy.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
So I love books like that where you as the
reader get to feel smart and like you know things
that the characters don't, and then you see them coming
toward each other and it's just the sort of slow
motion car crash.
Speaker 5 (07:49):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
A book I felt like that with was this was
years ago, but Kylie reads such a fun age.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I liked that.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I actually used it a little bit for inspiration for
Favorite Daughter, because it's a dual point of view story
with these two women, and you know, like at the
reader as the reader. You know what they're thinking about
each other and how wrong they are and their misconceptions
about each other, and then you just sort of see
them spin off of each other and you know that
it's going to blow up.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
So that to me is very satisfying.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Whenever we get that kind of insider angle, I guess
into the characters and get to feel smart as readers.
Speaker 5 (08:25):
And I feel like sometimes I'm not gonna lie. I
get second. Had embarrassment when I read books like this,
because when you know every oh my god, like sometimes
have no idea how big.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, well I had that during Favorite Daughter. Yep, yeah, yeah,
I know these things.
Speaker 6 (08:41):
Yeah, and you're just like waiting for the train wreck
to happen. But before we delve too much into the
book this episode.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
Hey, I got to tell you what I'm reading.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Oh yeah, we're going to do ours.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We did skip uses less important than you, Morgan.
Speaker 5 (08:57):
As you know in the book.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
The book that we just read was Favorite Daughter.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
So I'll kind of just talk quickly about like the
book I'm reading. Yeah, so, Rihanna, you'd be so proud
of me.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I am.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
I'm reading a nonfiction book.
Speaker 6 (09:13):
It's it's like a personal development book too.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
This is huge, huge, So it was actually written by
two humans on Instagram. So if you ever heard of
at ADHD love anyways, So as somebody with ADHD, I'm
always kind of looking at things about ADHD. But anyways, Okay,
this one is called Dirty Laundry, so it's this one,
(09:37):
but it's essentially why adults with ADHD are so ashamed
and what can we do to help? And it basically
like breaks down each kind of big symptom of ADHD,
and like it's just a fun way to kind of
read it. So me and my partner are actually kind
of reading it simultaneously. But it's like, symptom too is
(09:58):
time blindness. So this chapter two us showing up lately littering.
Sorry I'll be It's like, sorry, I'm late. I sat
on my bed staring at the window for twenty five
minutes for no reason, Like I It's awesome. So that's
what I'm reading right now. And then the next one
on my list is actually a new release. It's Caught
(10:20):
Up by Nevessa Allen, which from Dirty Laundry to that
book polar opposites. That one is a very dark romance
and this is a nonfiction about Adhd. So here we
are your turn.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
My turn.
Speaker 6 (10:34):
Just finished reading another Calgary author, actually, Josie Balcas, I
hope you remember, which was so good. It's a book
of poetry. She's fantastic. She is, i think, in New
York Times bestseller right now, which for an like her
first published is amazing. So just finished up that one
as well as Favorite Daughter. Currently I am reading Atmosphere
(10:57):
by Taylor Jenkins read which which is a nice kind
of summary book, and then up next probably going to
go with The Leapier Gene, which is an older title,
but I'm really excited to read that one.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
Should be kind of interesting, a.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Little bit sci fi, a little bit fiction.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I read that earlier in the spring and enjoy it
a lot. Okay, yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. It's
a sister. It's it's a story about sisters. Yep as well.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So if that's your jam, then I think you'll like
it because it's what I liked about it is the
premise being that this person ages at I think a
quarter of the normal rate, right, so every four years
she gets one physical physical year older.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
Yeah, it is sort of like that.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
Yeah, but she has a baby sister who ages at
the normal rate. So it starts off where the little
sister is younger, but then over time, the little sister
gets older in maturity both in her body and her
mind and has to become like a bit of a
caregiver for the main character, who even though she's like no. Fifty,
she's only sixteen in terms of her physical and her
(12:06):
mental maturity. So anyway, it's very interesting sibling story. I
think if you like that, you'll probably enjoy the leap
your gene.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
That sounds really cool. I'm pretty excited to read this one.
Speaker 5 (12:17):
It's wild. Now I'm gonna have to add it. Yeah,
you'll have to text me the name of this one
and I'll at I will you know sidebar what I
really just thought of too. We should almost have like
a conversation around how many books are on your TV
are because the not right all will put a pin
in it. But just like thinking back to this now,
I'm like, oh my god, the number of books on
(12:37):
my pintert, not my pinterress, my good Reads is probably whack. Okay,
let's dive into.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
So first, first meet Morgan dick tell Us, who is more.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Who am I.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
Yeah, I know we're going deep right off my badness.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I am.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I am a writer. I live in Calgary. I'm a writer.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I also work as an occupational therapist with kids, which
is super fun. And in my writing life. Yes, this
is my debut novel that just came out. I love
to spend time in nature and in the mountains. I
love spending time with my family, and we are a big,
kind of chaotic family, which I think ends up in
(13:22):
the things that I write in different ways. It's one
of the reasons I've always been drawn to reading family
stories and complicated family dynamics, and so that for sure
makes its way into my writing. It's interesting the stuff
that ends up in there. I think it's sort of
its own form of therapy, because things that you've only
I guess half processed, or maybe not processed at all,
(13:44):
end up in the things that you write, even though
you maybe weren't expecting it. And I definitely felt like
that with this book. There's a lot of different parts
of my personal world that sort of emerged while I
was writing it, so it was therapeutic that way. But yeah,
I mean that's me. I. Yeah, I love being outside.
I love drinking coffee. I don't we all learning the
(14:07):
cook slowly learning to not be afraid of the gym.
I mentioned the staremaster earlier, Yeah, which I'm like getting
less afraid of.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I also have a long.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
History myself with different forms of mental illness. It's one
of the reasons why I got into working as an
OT and got into the field.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
But I also have ADHD, so hello ADHD club A.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
As well as pm d D pre menstrual dysport disorder
had long history with anxiety and depression as well. So
just from being on that journey myself and working through
a lot of things and you know, going to therapy
myself and trying to make some of the changes in
my own life that I've you know, thought about making
(14:51):
but have resisted for so long. Maybe like going through
all of these different things definitely did inform the book
as well. Just that that idea of needing to change
yourself and being too afraid to knowing that you need
to make a change in your life and just not
knowing how to start or not even maybe having awareness
(15:13):
of that, and this idea that people can get better,
that was something I always wanted to write about and
it came through with this book for sure.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Oh it definitely did. Sidebar, did you take your meds
this morning?
Speaker 4 (15:24):
Morgan? I did, thank you, thank you for You're welcome.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
We did.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
They're changing my meds on me right now, so they
literally what I picked up my meds.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
They had to be a blister pack, and I was like,
sitting there, I was like, wow, I feel like it's
seventy year old right now. Let me just carry my
blister pack with me everywhere to take my meds.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
But I could see the advantage of that though, because
I don't know about you, but there are times when
I am like, did I take my meds this morning?
And I actually can't remember, and then I try and
feel it. I usually can feel it kick in where
I start to feel settled and calm, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
that's the vibance.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Sometimes I can't, and then I'm like did I take it?
Did I not take it? And then one time I
took an exactly, and then that's terrible.
Speaker 5 (16:12):
It's like, honestly, like I actually really enjoy having it,
even though I like shit on it a little bit.
But because they're tight trating like so specific, I was
like there's no way, no way I could do this myself.
Like I would like there's like half tablets and like this,
and I was like, yeah, just just just give me
the blister back. It's totally fine. But Okay, back on track,
(16:35):
what led you into writing? Like what kind of made
you start writing? Was it more of that like anxiety,
kind of like journaling and like getting those feelings out
or was there kind of a inspiration in there.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
I was always a kid who wrote stuff, so like
in high school, I wrote for a youth magazine and
you know, I wrote for the student newspaper and all
of those things. But I tend to be more into nonfiction.
And I thought about going into journalism as a career
for a little bit and then decided against that for
a few different reasons. But it was always, yeah, more
(17:10):
nonfiction that I was drawn to writing. And it really
wasn't until my sort of mid twenties that I thought
about writing fiction seriously. And I think I was just
very intimidated by it. Previously I loved reading novels, but
it seemed impossible, like I couldn't wrap my head around
actually creating that, like how you could start from nothing
(17:31):
and then end.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Up with this.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
This with a book a book shaped thing just seemed
like insurmountable to me. So it was sort of a
thing that I kept in my mind as like a oh,
one day, I'll.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Give that a try.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
One day I'd like to try that, And then I
was yeah. I had just turned twenty five. I went
to New Orleans to celebrate my birthday. It was Mardi
Gras actually, which was super fun. I was there with
my friend and I just I remember having this moment.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Where they gave me this cake. They brought me this
piece of cake with a spark.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
We're in it in a bar, and there were all
these random people, you know, apostle people from Germany, et cetera,
around me, like pretending to be my friend whatever, Happy birthday,
Happy birthday, and I just had this this moment of like,
whoa time is a thing that applies to me also,
not just other people, and like I should maybe actually
start this now because I'm still like, I'm very young,
(18:22):
and so I could actually put some time into this
and try and get good at it and not wait.
And it was there around the same time that my
sister had just my older sister had just had her
first baby, and that also made me think, like, whoa time,
it's occurring for real, so I should get cracking.
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I was gonna I was gonna say, now that you
mentioned New Orleans, some people might get this reference. Some
people might not. As I look at Rihanna, I don't
know with your cake, did it have the baby in it? Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:53):
So I've heard of this, but no, no, it didn't
have the baby.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
The tradition for Marty Girl, they make a big cake
and they put like a little plastic baby somewhere in it.
And if you get the piece with the baby, it's.
Speaker 4 (19:06):
Like good luck, good luck.
Speaker 5 (19:07):
Basically, I'm going to have to now go google it
to make sure that it is actually good luck. I
just know that it's like a big deal if.
Speaker 4 (19:14):
You get the peace with the baby. Yeah. But interesting,
very very interesting.
Speaker 6 (19:21):
What then, I mean, you've kind of touched on it
a little bit on what led you to write this book?
But do you want to dive into that a little
bit more so? Obviously like your own family dynamics led
into it, like a little bit of your own mental
health led into it. But really what inspired this incredible book?
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Well, thank you for the kind words for starters. Yeah,
there definitely were a few sources of inspiration. My dad
is an adoptee, and when he was about fifty, something
changed with the way they keep the adoption records in Alberta,
where for the first time he got access to his
like original records that had his mom's name in them.
(20:03):
And so that was the first time when he could
actually go out and try to find his biological parents. Yeah,
and he ended up establishing this really beautiful relationship with
his biological dad and with that whole side of the family,
with these half siblings who he'd never met before, and
we all got together one year, I think it was
I think it was Thanksgiving, and we went to a
(20:24):
bunch of them lived in the same city even as us,
which was also a bit of that blew my mind.
And yeah, we went and did Thanksgiving dinner at my
dad's bio sister's house and met all of these people
at the same time, and I just remember being blown
away by how similar they were to my dad, not
just in the way they looked, but also little things
(20:46):
like how they talked and even some of the same
interests that they share, Like this whole family comes from
Manitoba farming, so they have like whole photo albums of
just cows in them from like, oh, you know, see
she was a prize.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
That prize haffer or whatever.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Right, I don't even exactly, but my dad has always
been such a huge animal person, and so things like
that that they just really clicked right away.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
And so I was observing this and starting to wonder
even back then, what other things to have siblings might
share despite having been raised a part in how they
might be similar in terms of their not just even
their hobbies or their interests, also maybe their vices and
some of the things that they struggle with too. And
then I started to think about what would be the
most possible, the most awkward, possible way for to have
(21:34):
siblings to meet without knowing that they're they're actually related. Yes, Yeah,
that led me to this idea of a therapist and
her client meeting in the therapy room without any knowledge
that they're actually half sisters, and kind of.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Spiraled outward from there.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
The one of the main characters, Mickey, I ended up
giving her an addiction that came from some of the
experiences I've had with my brother Kyle, who's are recovering
alcoholic and just the whole impact that that had on
our family when I was younger up until now. So
that was another source of inspiration for the book. And
(22:15):
I was lucky in that he was very open while
I was writing and revising it and was happy to
have conversations with me about his own experiences and how
I could reflect some of that truthfully or honestly in
the book.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So very lucky.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And you know, yeah, so lots of different piece bits
and pieces of my personal life and pieces of my
family have for sure come up in the book, although
none of it is true and none of.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
It is specifically based on anyone.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Which I'm always very careful to point out. It's nothing's real.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
It's fair, fair.
Speaker 4 (22:47):
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So it was amazing to have Morgan on here.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
Yes and join us for our next podcast next week,
we actually dive more into the book. But we're so
grateful to have had an author today, So that's exciting, incredible.
But here we're going to kind of continue a little
bit because we talked about Favorite Daughter, which is about
the two siblings. So last week on your show, if
(23:12):
you did tune in, uh Rihan and Gary talked about
their like most memorable sibling stories.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
They were pretty unhinged.
Speaker 5 (23:20):
They were pretty good, I mean, but I listened to
it last week and I was so sad that I
got to miss this because I wasn't here last week.
So I thought that it would be fun to share
another story, and you know, I'll share one of mine.
Maybe we can think of a short one, because I
kind of have two that I want to share.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
But like, tell us, tell us about your unhinged.
Speaker 5 (23:41):
Oh my gosh. Okay, So my poor sister. Let me
preface this with I do really love her. She's one
of my best friends, but we do have six years
between us, so I would honestly say, like she's probably.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Six or seven, so.
Speaker 5 (23:57):
I would have been thirteen when this happened. Man, I'm
such a asked now that I'm thinking about it. Anyways,
so me and my sister were upstairs. She had bunk beds,
which used to be my bunk beds. I loved them.
But anyway, she was on the top bunk and I
don't know if we were fighting or what we were doing,
but I yanked her so hard that she ended up
actually like flying off the top bunk and smacking herself
(24:20):
on the ground. And I remember just sitting there. I'm like,
oh my god, Katya, kat Ta Kati, like, you can't
tell Mom and Dad I pulled you off, just say
you fell out of bed. And so my sister, being
my little sister, said I fell out of bed. And
she's downstairs crying because she's like Mom, like my shoulder hurts,
I can't move my arm and my dad, you're fine,
(24:40):
You're fine, And then she wouldn't stop crying and screaming
and he got mad, so he was like sent her
to bed without dinner. Like that sounds like literal abuse,
but like it was after dinner. She didn't eat because
she was sore, and my Dad's like, Kate, fine, if
you're gonna be like this, just go to bed.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (24:57):
Anyways, me being the thirteen year olds who actually kind
of felt bad that she pulled her sister off the
bunk bed, yes, I was like, you know what, I'm
gonna bring her a snack. I'll sneak something upstairs for
her so that so that she's not hungry. And I
go in, I'm like, hey, Katya, like how are you feeling,
And she's crying and she's like, my shoulder hurts, and
I'm like oh, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 (25:19):
I brought you a snack which is super sweet.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
And Caty's like, oh, like, thank you, And I handed
her the snack and she looked at me and she's like,
are you actually kidding me?
Speaker 4 (25:29):
What was the snack?
Speaker 5 (25:30):
I brought her a box of raisins, like those little
those little tidy red boxes of phrasinsh.
Speaker 6 (25:38):
Snack you can bring, not even chocolate covered raisins, but
just like super plain ones that are probably hard for
being in the little red boxes with the face on
it that you get it Halloween from like the super
sucky house.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Yeah, the old lady down the block. But anyways, anyway,
so that's that's that. And then the next day, like
my mom was like, like, she's really bruised, and they
took her to the hospital and my sister actually had
a broken collarbone. So not only did I break my
sister's collarbone, I brought her a box of raisins.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 5 (26:14):
So yeah, that's a little whoopsies.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
We love our siblings, don't we, Yeah, we love them deeply.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Do you have another one?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Kind of. So this is.
Speaker 6 (26:30):
This is a little bit what's the word I want
to use off color some off color commentary. So my
dog just got neutered last week, so he we my
mom was joking that we're gonna have my dog sitting
there with no balls. And then my brother he's fine
now so we can joke about it. But he had
testicular cancer, so he has one ball, and then put
(26:52):
my boyfriend next to him with two balls. So my
mom just made that joke. Yesterday at my nephew birthday.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Party zero one two.
Speaker 6 (27:08):
My brother's fine, he's totally okay now, like it's been
like a month. He's in remission. I think we can say.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
But I love that though. That's his birthday.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
Yeah, how old your nephew? He's four? He was outside playing.
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Oh geez, okay, that's good.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
Have our reader stories too.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
I gotta tell you about another one I do, okay please,
So it's about my sister still clearly of course we're
older now, like I'm in like second year university. It's
like twenty sixteen, twenty No, it was after it's probably
twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen. And my cousin and I were like,
you know, we're gonna have a few drinks and just chill,
and we had a really great buzz going, and my
(27:54):
sister's like, well, like I want I want to drink
with you guys too. And we're let me preface, we've
been drinking since we were like two years old. We've
had sippy cups with wine and lots of sprite, so
like we've been drinking wine forever. But like wine does
nothing to me. It just gives me a headache sometimes
if I drink too much red. But anyways, so my
(28:16):
sister's like, I want to be drinking with you too,
like I want to be involved. So what did Alasia do? Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Boy? I set out four shot glasses?
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Okay, we had four different kinds of Crown Royal, Like
we had Crown Royal regular, crab oil, vanilla, Crown Royal
Apple vanilla, and peach.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
So there was five shots.
Speaker 5 (28:36):
I filled each glass up and I was like, kay, Katya,
you gotta shoot them all. I made my sixteen year
old sister take five shots back to back.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Just give her a little bit of alcohol poisoning. No,
it gets so much worse.
Speaker 5 (28:53):
So then we're upstairs and like we had had our
great and Katya' is like, oh man, I'm not feeling
too good. But like she did it she's drunk, like
she is out of her mind. And she comes into
my bathroom and again, let me preface, I don't live
at home, so I have my suitcase and my clothes
and like everything in there. My sister comes in. She's like, yeah,
(29:14):
I don't feel great and started projectile vomiting all over
my bedroom. So like my suitcase, my clothes, my bed,
my carpet, everywhere, And so my cousin and I just
looked at each other.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We're like, and we are sober. Yeah, oh my gosh.
Nothing sobers you up faster than projectile.
Speaker 5 (29:36):
And my sister to this day cannot drink Crown Royal
and she has never touched it.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
Again, I don't blame her. Oh my gosh, my bad.
Speaker 6 (29:45):
My siblings are the best, And I mean that's what
our contest was about, too, is like your best most
unhitched siblings stories. So we had dow copies of Morgan's
book to give away. The first one we are giving
away to at Reading and Needing aka Leah. She messaged
me and said she was kind of funny. She didn't
preface her message at all. She just goes right into it.
(30:07):
My brother once slammed my head in the car door
and then cried because he thought he knocked my brains out.
And then she sends another message for the giveaway, not
just because I'm telling you a story about my brother.
And it apparently happened at lunchtime and she had to
go to school with a headache because God forbid she
take a sick day.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
And she was fine, she was just.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
Hurt, but her brains came out her ears.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
Apparently her brains came out her ears.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
What color was it when it comes out your ears?
Is it still gray brain matter? Sorry, that's not funny.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
Congratulations Leah, we loved you.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
That was great. And then I was gonna say our
next one is like our winner. It's pretty pretty great.
So our last copy of the book is going.
Speaker 6 (30:49):
To jen Aka Carbs after dork she messaged me, and
she has two three quarter sisters, so not half sisters,
three order sister. She says they share a bio dad,
so they're half siblings, but their moms are biological sisters.
So three quarter siblings, one quarter cousins, which makes her
(31:11):
dad her uncle through marriage.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Can you follow that?
Speaker 5 (31:15):
And I mean they're they're one four so one quarter cousins. Oh,
that's weird because then your aunt would actually be your
sister's biological mom. That's messy.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
Yeah, well your your uncle's your dad's your uncle.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
I can't do that.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
No, so so wild, so jen you.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
Oh my gosh. Okay, well, I mean, this has been
a sweet episode. I'm going to shout out right now. Katya,
I love you. I'm so sorry I was a bully
at least. I love you now.
Speaker 6 (31:51):
And I guess since we're doing this, Taddy, I love you.
You're the best story. You hurt me so much growing up.
And Michael, I'm so sorry that you only have one
ball now, but I'm glad that you're cancer free.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
Single ball, Michael, one ball, Mic, one ball, Mic, your
poor brother. I'm so sorry, but like six or five,
he can beat.
Speaker 4 (32:12):
Me up now.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
So let's add this here.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
I mean, guys, we love you so much.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Thank you for tuning in.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
It means a world to us that you're you're listening
to our podcast and we.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Love having you here. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
It's not that kind of book club with lessonry.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
Yeah, a bookish podcast where we read it so you
don't have to
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