November 11, 2025 • 15 mins
What if escaping into a perfect virtual world meant losing touch with your real life? Dive into our conversation with Gracie Lawrence, author of Love in Reality, as we unravel the thrills and cautionary tales behind her virtual romance novel. From the allure of digital escapism to the hidden costs of convenience, this episode will challenge how you see technology, love, and the future.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
The talk gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Email me through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if
you'd like to get involved with what we have going,
(00:30):
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the
love and support that you all continue to give. We're
available across all major distributors, and as long as you
keep following, We're going to continue to put out the content.
Now sit back and strap in, because on the line
with us today we have the impressive Gracie Lawrence. Now
(00:53):
we're gonna be discussing Gracie's incredible novel Love in Reality,
a virtual reality Rome, It's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble,
it's a lot of other places, man, and I'm telling
you this is one that you're gonna absolutely want to
add to your shelf. People. Let me ask a question
that is both wildly entertaining yet incredibly poignant to where
(01:19):
we currently are in society. And you know this is
not taken out of a science fiction film. Okay, this
is an actual potential for our future. And we're gonna
go into a lot of the nuance. But let me ask,
if you couldn't tell the difference, would you choose a
perfect virtual reality over your imperfect sexual life. You know,
(01:42):
it's interesting when you think about that question because I
think on the surface, we may have one answer, but
that as we delve deeper we start to really analyze
the nuances, you may be surprised with what you come
up with. Because listen, we already outsource our boredom to screens,
our loneliness to apps, and our romance to swipes and
(02:06):
Gracie Lawrence has written an essential thriller for this moment,
and trust me when I tell you, man, Listen, We're
gonna follow a main protagonist here, a woman who gets
the ultimate escape opportunity. Right, she finds this gift to
this virtual reality world, only to find that the exit
(02:26):
door has vanished. Now, yeah, in the journey that the
main protagonist embarks upon, it's a thriller, but I'm going
deeper than just the entertainment value here because I believe
that this is a conversation about the cost of our
convenience and whether or not we're potentially building our own
(02:47):
traps one click at a time. Sit back, strap in.
I'm looking forward to this one. Man, this one's gotten
and thinking it's gotten. My team and I just having
fantastic COMversations, and I know what's going to do the
same for you. Let's get it going. Gracie first and foremost,
welcome to the network, and thank you very much for
being a guest.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
How you doing, Hey, thanks for having.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Me absolutely Gracie, listen, I'm looking forward to this discussion.
I think it has a wonderfully embedded concept in our
society today and something that really does seem like a
very plausible next step for us. So we're looking forward
to it. Welcome to the show, First and foremost, Gracie,
start off by telling us a little bit more about
(03:32):
your background.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and
part of a pretty big family, my parents and four siblings.
So we really love this state. It's got beautiful surroundings, mountains, evergreens,
all that you could ask for.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Really, Yeah, yeah, all right, Well, let's jump right into
the book. I have a lot of questions that I
want to get into. But before we jump there, tell
us a little bit more about your novel, Love in Reality.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well, Love in Reality was kind of interesting sort of
adventure story I came up with just based on like
what was current these days. I mean, there was a
lot of talk about AI programs and you know, virtual
reality games, and I just thought, well, it would be
(04:24):
a really fun idea to kind of create a sort
of a romance in the virtual reality game Arena.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Okay, So sticking with inspiration here, so we understand why
the concept was something that was appealing from a writing perspective.
I mean, did you always consider yourself a writer? Were
you writing growing up? Like? Where does that that love
for that creative expression derived from?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Uh? Well, I started reading some interesting adventure books when
I was around i'd say middle school age. Earlier than
that I was. I wasn't much in reading, but I
got into like the Indian in the Cupboard Book theory,
you know, and I just I kept reading them. They
(05:15):
were just so fascinating to me. Just having a little
mannequin just turned reel all of a sudden. So I
think part of my current inspiration probably bossoms from there,
because I always loved the idea of taking something ordinary
and kind of making a cool adventure out of it,
you know. And when I came up with the idea
(05:37):
for this book, I was just playing a video game,
like you know, with NPCs all around in this kind
of I want to say, like rustic environment, and it
was kind of early access at the time, so you
would like expect like glitches and things like that, and
(05:59):
at one point, the NPC around me was like, you know,
popping up all over the place and there was like
no cause for it, and I was like, okay, it's
a glitch. It's kind of scary, but okay. But from there,
that's kind of how I got the idea for this book,
because I was like, well, what if there was like
(06:20):
someone in the game who couldn't escape it and the
only way they could communicate with the player per se
was to cause the game to kind of glitch in
and out. And that's kind of how the whole story
of all of it, guess, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
All right, So Gracie, I want to ask listen. I know,
in the pre screening call you had mentioned that this
book was really for pure entertainment, right, And again I
can see that it has entertainment in space. Okay, there
is a lot there, but it doesn't take much to
delve further in I guess read in between the lines,
(07:00):
whether that was an intent or not, it's there because again,
we understand the world that we are in, how much
AI is already taking over, and where a lot of
experts are claiming it's going to go just within the
next five years. Right, So I want to ask while
you were creating it, because again, whether it was a
(07:20):
final intent of yours, I believe it must have come
up right, like the algorithm being so overwhelming, I guess
is a word that I want to use, although I
don't think it fits necessarily uh as correctly, but to
hear it from you, like, is the AI in your story?
(07:43):
You know? Is it a benevolent matchmaker? Is it a
metaphor for a predatory digital ecosystem that we are currently
standing or currently witnessing and moving towards. Talk to us
a little bit more about that, Like, again, is it
purely entertaining and that's where you're hoping it stays or
is there a potential metaphor that can be pulled.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, yeah, I mean I think really it's both, honestly,
because what I started out was I kind of wanted
to give a great adventure for one and a really
sweet romance. But I also kind of wanted to have
this feeling that, well, we can enjoy electronics and things
like that, but I think we should you know, have
(08:26):
like a light hand on it, so to speak, like
not like overwhelm ourselves. Was it? Because I mean, we
could just get consumed basically and then forget those around
us and the relationships that we formed in life, and
it's better to just kind of, you know, have a distance,
so to speak. And so the AI in the book
(08:50):
turned out to be one that was initially supposed to
be helpful but then decided to just sort of do
its own thing and kind of perfect what it saw
instead of having humanity in mind.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You know, I think it's that's a chilling realization at
least for me, right, Like I was so I was
born not to age myself here. I'm not going to
go into specifics here, people, You know, I was born
during a time where technology wasn't around in this sense, right, Like,
I mean, we were still using house phones, we had
cordless phones, and that was like even way later on
(09:28):
before it was like you had to stand in the
middle of the living room and talk to a significant
other so everybody could hear right like that. That's kind
of the world where I was presented with right this
Atari kind of video game series was very advanced for me.
But now we're in like such a different It's such
a different world, and I'm very excited about it. We
(09:50):
infuse it into our business every single day with the
films that we create, in the marketing projects that we develop.
But there is something that is chilling about it reminds
me of I guess one of the closer things that
we currently see happening now is like self driving cars.
It's so interesting to me and listen, you know, to
each their own, right. I'm a live and let live
(10:11):
type of person, but I have people in my inner
circle that have these electronic vehicles that have these self
driving capabilities, and they aren't just so willing to They're like, yeah,
I just put it on and I sit back and
I let it go. And I'm like, I get that,
but are we there yet? You're putting a whole lot
(10:31):
of faith in this particular contraption, and it's a similar
thing right where it's like once you give over that control,
you don't know if it's actually going to work one
hundred percent of the time. So for me, like I'm
still on the fence where I'm like, man, let me,
let me kind of keep it at bay and not
(10:53):
invest so much into it. But I understand that that's
only going to become more and more prevalent with each
passing day. So I love the concept that your book presents.
I'm curious to know as we switch gears here to
your writing process, crazy, what was what was the highlight
for you or maybe something that surprised you throughout this
(11:14):
writing process that you weren't expecting.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well as at first, I kind of like just tried
to kind of rough out the plot, you know, like beginning,
middle end kind of, but I've never like done something
to this extent before, so I mean there was a
lot of you know, going back and kind of adjusting
here and fixing there, And I mean I probably wrote
(11:40):
the beginning like several times over because I was just like,
I mean, like, you know, you want to step up
to put your you know, best foot forward kind of thing.
So I mean, but I'm glad of how it turned
out in the end. I mean, the main thing is
just to you know, kind of fix here and fix
there until you get just the right flow to it,
(12:02):
I suppose. But yeah, I had to kind of teach
myself that, hey, you can, you know, adjust. It's not
like you know chkin Stone.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yet, you know, absolutely, Grazie. As we close out, man,
there is a lot here, and I don't want to
dive down that rabbit hole too much. As you've already
mentioned a number of times, it's written for pure entertainment people.
So I'm really taking the bull by the horns and
diving down this rabbit hole. I think the message is there.
(12:30):
She's already stated what she is, you know. I guess
the cautionary tale, the telltale sign here to be on
the lookout for. But as we close out, Gracie, anything
else that you'd like to let our listening audience know
either about your book, about what is upcoming, anything at all.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, I just want them to enjoy the sweet virtuality romance,
and I hope to do more of these adventures in
the future. So beyond the look out.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You know, listen, I first and foremost let me just
say it again. Okay, it's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble.
Remember the book is entitled Love in Reality, a Virtual
Reality Romance by Gracie Lawrence. Head on over there and
pick up your copies today. Remember a fantastic book to
get lost in on a rainy day. Right, you need
some entertainment to help you pass the time. This book's
(13:21):
got it in spades. But I do think that it
is a wonderful cautionary tale to just be mindful of. Like,
we can't fight the evolution of technology in the future
that we are moving towards. It's impossible, Like it's just
not going to happen that way. That's the world we're in,
that's where we're going. Okay, well, two things can be true, Right,
(13:45):
we could move towards that world and also understand, like
it's the old adage everything in moderation. We have become
so addicted to our devices that it's always an arm's
length away, and we've all already seen just with social
media apps, the downside to it, Right, A lot of
the cons that have developed through that AI has now
(14:09):
been infused in a lot of different ways, and there's
so much nuance to it, and again, as someone that
utilizes it all of the time in my life in
my business, it is something that I believe is a
remarkable assistant. But we also got to remember we're humans, right,
and we don't want to get too infused. So before
(14:30):
you step up and be next in line to get
some type of chip added into your body that could
manipulate you for god knows what, let's take a let's
take a second and think about it, right, Let's take
a moment to have a conversation and truly examine the
pros and the cons and really, you know, not be
(14:51):
so drawn to the lure of the screen, of the
technology or whatever else may be there. This is a
fantastic journey to embark upon man and something wildly entertaining.
Huge thanks to Gracie for creating the book and more
importantly for being here with us to discuss it for
people of distinction.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Thank you so much for having me
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated talk show People of Distinction.
The talk gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Email me through Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if
you'd like to get involved with what we have going,
(00:30):
and as always, please continue to like and follow our broadcasts.
People of Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the
love and support that you all continue to give. We're
available across all major distributors, and as long as you
keep following, We're going to continue to put out the content.
Now sit back and strap in, because on the line
with us today we have the impressive Gracie Lawrence. Now
(00:53):
we're gonna be discussing Gracie's incredible novel Love in Reality,
a virtual reality Rome, It's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble,
it's a lot of other places, man, and I'm telling
you this is one that you're gonna absolutely want to
add to your shelf. People. Let me ask a question
that is both wildly entertaining yet incredibly poignant to where
(01:19):
we currently are in society. And you know this is
not taken out of a science fiction film. Okay, this
is an actual potential for our future. And we're gonna
go into a lot of the nuance. But let me ask,
if you couldn't tell the difference, would you choose a
perfect virtual reality over your imperfect sexual life. You know,
(01:42):
it's interesting when you think about that question because I
think on the surface, we may have one answer, but
that as we delve deeper we start to really analyze
the nuances, you may be surprised with what you come
up with. Because listen, we already outsource our boredom to screens,
our loneliness to apps, and our romance to swipes and
(02:06):
Gracie Lawrence has written an essential thriller for this moment,
and trust me when I tell you, man, Listen, We're
gonna follow a main protagonist here, a woman who gets
the ultimate escape opportunity. Right, she finds this gift to
this virtual reality world, only to find that the exit
(02:26):
door has vanished. Now, yeah, in the journey that the
main protagonist embarks upon, it's a thriller, but I'm going
deeper than just the entertainment value here because I believe
that this is a conversation about the cost of our
convenience and whether or not we're potentially building our own
(02:47):
traps one click at a time. Sit back, strap in.
I'm looking forward to this one. Man, this one's gotten
and thinking it's gotten. My team and I just having
fantastic COMversations, and I know what's going to do the
same for you. Let's get it going. Gracie first and foremost,
welcome to the network, and thank you very much for
being a guest.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
How you doing, Hey, thanks for having.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Me absolutely Gracie, listen, I'm looking forward to this discussion.
I think it has a wonderfully embedded concept in our
society today and something that really does seem like a
very plausible next step for us. So we're looking forward
to it. Welcome to the show, First and foremost, Gracie,
start off by telling us a little bit more about
(03:32):
your background.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Well, I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and
part of a pretty big family, my parents and four siblings.
So we really love this state. It's got beautiful surroundings, mountains, evergreens,
all that you could ask for.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Really, Yeah, yeah, all right, Well, let's jump right into
the book. I have a lot of questions that I
want to get into. But before we jump there, tell
us a little bit more about your novel, Love in Reality.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well, Love in Reality was kind of interesting sort of
adventure story I came up with just based on like
what was current these days. I mean, there was a
lot of talk about AI programs and you know, virtual
reality games, and I just thought, well, it would be
(04:24):
a really fun idea to kind of create a sort
of a romance in the virtual reality game Arena.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Okay, So sticking with inspiration here, so we understand why
the concept was something that was appealing from a writing perspective.
I mean, did you always consider yourself a writer? Were
you writing growing up? Like? Where does that that love
for that creative expression derived from?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Uh? Well, I started reading some interesting adventure books when
I was around i'd say middle school age. Earlier than
that I was. I wasn't much in reading, but I
got into like the Indian in the Cupboard Book theory,
you know, and I just I kept reading them. They
(05:15):
were just so fascinating to me. Just having a little
mannequin just turned reel all of a sudden. So I
think part of my current inspiration probably bossoms from there,
because I always loved the idea of taking something ordinary
and kind of making a cool adventure out of it,
you know. And when I came up with the idea
(05:37):
for this book, I was just playing a video game,
like you know, with NPCs all around in this kind
of I want to say, like rustic environment, and it
was kind of early access at the time, so you
would like expect like glitches and things like that, and
(05:59):
at one point, the NPC around me was like, you know,
popping up all over the place and there was like
no cause for it, and I was like, okay, it's
a glitch. It's kind of scary, but okay. But from there,
that's kind of how I got the idea for this book,
because I was like, well, what if there was like
(06:20):
someone in the game who couldn't escape it and the
only way they could communicate with the player per se
was to cause the game to kind of glitch in
and out. And that's kind of how the whole story
of all of it, guess, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
All right, So Gracie, I want to ask listen. I know,
in the pre screening call you had mentioned that this
book was really for pure entertainment, right, And again I
can see that it has entertainment in space. Okay, there
is a lot there, but it doesn't take much to
delve further in I guess read in between the lines,
(07:00):
whether that was an intent or not, it's there because again,
we understand the world that we are in, how much
AI is already taking over, and where a lot of
experts are claiming it's going to go just within the
next five years. Right, So I want to ask while
you were creating it, because again, whether it was a
(07:20):
final intent of yours, I believe it must have come
up right, like the algorithm being so overwhelming, I guess
is a word that I want to use, although I
don't think it fits necessarily uh as correctly, but to
hear it from you, like, is the AI in your story?
(07:43):
You know? Is it a benevolent matchmaker? Is it a
metaphor for a predatory digital ecosystem that we are currently
standing or currently witnessing and moving towards. Talk to us
a little bit more about that, Like, again, is it
purely entertaining and that's where you're hoping it stays or
is there a potential metaphor that can be pulled.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, yeah, I mean I think really it's both, honestly,
because what I started out was I kind of wanted
to give a great adventure for one and a really
sweet romance. But I also kind of wanted to have
this feeling that, well, we can enjoy electronics and things
like that, but I think we should you know, have
(08:26):
like a light hand on it, so to speak, like
not like overwhelm ourselves. Was it? Because I mean, we
could just get consumed basically and then forget those around
us and the relationships that we formed in life, and
it's better to just kind of, you know, have a distance,
so to speak. And so the AI in the book
(08:50):
turned out to be one that was initially supposed to
be helpful but then decided to just sort of do
its own thing and kind of perfect what it saw
instead of having humanity in mind.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
You know, I think it's that's a chilling realization at
least for me, right, Like I was so I was
born not to age myself here. I'm not going to
go into specifics here, people, You know, I was born
during a time where technology wasn't around in this sense, right, Like,
I mean, we were still using house phones, we had
cordless phones, and that was like even way later on
(09:28):
before it was like you had to stand in the
middle of the living room and talk to a significant
other so everybody could hear right like that. That's kind
of the world where I was presented with right this
Atari kind of video game series was very advanced for me.
But now we're in like such a different It's such
a different world, and I'm very excited about it. We
(09:50):
infuse it into our business every single day with the
films that we create, in the marketing projects that we develop.
But there is something that is chilling about it reminds
me of I guess one of the closer things that
we currently see happening now is like self driving cars.
It's so interesting to me and listen, you know, to
each their own, right. I'm a live and let live
(10:11):
type of person, but I have people in my inner
circle that have these electronic vehicles that have these self
driving capabilities, and they aren't just so willing to They're like, yeah,
I just put it on and I sit back and
I let it go. And I'm like, I get that,
but are we there yet? You're putting a whole lot
(10:31):
of faith in this particular contraption, and it's a similar
thing right where it's like once you give over that control,
you don't know if it's actually going to work one
hundred percent of the time. So for me, like I'm
still on the fence where I'm like, man, let me,
let me kind of keep it at bay and not
(10:53):
invest so much into it. But I understand that that's
only going to become more and more prevalent with each
passing day. So I love the concept that your book presents.
I'm curious to know as we switch gears here to
your writing process, crazy, what was what was the highlight
for you or maybe something that surprised you throughout this
(11:14):
writing process that you weren't expecting.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Well as at first, I kind of like just tried
to kind of rough out the plot, you know, like beginning,
middle end kind of, but I've never like done something
to this extent before, so I mean there was a
lot of you know, going back and kind of adjusting
here and fixing there, And I mean I probably wrote
(11:40):
the beginning like several times over because I was just like,
I mean, like, you know, you want to step up
to put your you know, best foot forward kind of thing.
So I mean, but I'm glad of how it turned
out in the end. I mean, the main thing is
just to you know, kind of fix here and fix
there until you get just the right flow to it,
(12:02):
I suppose. But yeah, I had to kind of teach
myself that, hey, you can, you know, adjust. It's not
like you know chkin Stone.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Yet, you know, absolutely, Grazie. As we close out, man,
there is a lot here, and I don't want to
dive down that rabbit hole too much. As you've already
mentioned a number of times, it's written for pure entertainment people.
So I'm really taking the bull by the horns and
diving down this rabbit hole. I think the message is there.
(12:30):
She's already stated what she is, you know. I guess
the cautionary tale, the telltale sign here to be on
the lookout for. But as we close out, Gracie, anything
else that you'd like to let our listening audience know
either about your book, about what is upcoming, anything at all.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Yeah, I just want them to enjoy the sweet virtuality romance,
and I hope to do more of these adventures in
the future. So beyond the look out.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You know, listen, I first and foremost let me just
say it again. Okay, it's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble.
Remember the book is entitled Love in Reality, a Virtual
Reality Romance by Gracie Lawrence. Head on over there and
pick up your copies today. Remember a fantastic book to
get lost in on a rainy day. Right, you need
some entertainment to help you pass the time. This book's
(13:21):
got it in spades. But I do think that it
is a wonderful cautionary tale to just be mindful of. Like,
we can't fight the evolution of technology in the future
that we are moving towards. It's impossible, Like it's just
not going to happen that way. That's the world we're in,
that's where we're going. Okay, well, two things can be true, Right,
(13:45):
we could move towards that world and also understand, like
it's the old adage everything in moderation. We have become
so addicted to our devices that it's always an arm's
length away, and we've all already seen just with social
media apps, the downside to it, Right, A lot of
the cons that have developed through that AI has now
(14:09):
been infused in a lot of different ways, and there's
so much nuance to it, and again, as someone that
utilizes it all of the time in my life in
my business, it is something that I believe is a
remarkable assistant. But we also got to remember we're humans, right,
and we don't want to get too infused. So before
(14:30):
you step up and be next in line to get
some type of chip added into your body that could
manipulate you for god knows what, let's take a let's
take a second and think about it, right, Let's take
a moment to have a conversation and truly examine the
pros and the cons and really, you know, not be
(14:51):
so drawn to the lure of the screen, of the
technology or whatever else may be there. This is a
fantastic journey to embark upon man and something wildly entertaining.
Huge thanks to Gracie for creating the book and more
importantly for being here with us to discuss it for
people of distinction.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
Thank you so much for having me
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.