November 19, 2025 • 33 mins
A daughter inherits her mother’s deadly secrets in a chilling novel of psychological suspense by Elle Marr, the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Alone Time. Museum curator Pearl Davis always had a strained relationship with her mother, Sally. Growing up, she rarely felt her mother’s love. So many things about her mother’s behavior never added up. But when Sally dies unexpectedly, she leaves Pearl a letter from the grave…confessing to murder. Suddenly, Pearl has even more questions than she has answers. She suspects the letter is just a sign of her mother’s diminished state of mind―until she finds human remains in Sally’s garden. With the help of a friend, Pearl begins searching for the truth of her mother’s actions―and as she does, more cryptic notes emerge. But these letters aren’t just clues behind a confession. They’re a warning. Sally was terrified of something. When more remains are discovered, it’s clear whatever secrets Sally died with are now Pearl’s to bear. And as darkness closes in, Pearl fears that her mother’s past could be the death of her. Elle Marr is the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of Your Dark Secrets, The Alone Time, The Family Bones, Strangers We Know, Lies We Bury, and The Missing Sister. Originally from Sacramento, Elle graduated from UC San Diego before moving to France, where she earned a master’s degree from Sorbonne University in Paris. She now lives and writes in Oregon with her family. For more information, visit www.ellemarr.com. Goto Amazon or any library or bookstore. Book out now! James Lott Jr is the host of the show!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
So if you're watching, that's the book The Lie She Wears.
But if you're not watching the books called The Lies
She Wears, I have the author with me. Number one,
we have a Sacramento connection. I'm from Sacramento. Get out
we have we'll talk about that. We got to talk
about that, Okay, okay, I was just a Sacramento. That's
(00:25):
last weekend for my kids's graduate from you see, San
Diego just a great school, you see systems, really great system.
Before she went to France, she said, I'm going to France.
The masters's of you from the Sarbone. And what's so
funny for me is three of my best friends in
San Francisco who are from Sacramento, which to the Sarbone.
Also what I don't know what's going on? Right, we'll
(00:48):
talk about that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You need a club, we need a Facebook group.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
You guys do, and we'll get we'll get into that.
But now she's an Oregon. We love Oregon, we do.
It's just it's just her fifth book, right, your fifth seventh, hey,
seventh book. But here's the deal, kids, this book is good.
It's a page turner and that is what this is
what I wrote. It's a study and family. It's mother daughter,
(01:14):
it's siblings, it's suspense, it's drama, it's part detective story,
it's different time periods, it's father daughter, it's a it's
a lot. And I mean that in the greatest way possible.
And there's so many good twisted here that I did
not expect, not give it away. You read the book.
(01:36):
We're gonna talk some stuff. She of course has been
number one on the Amazon charts for stuff. But right
now currently Homegirl is on these I'm wan sure I
get these correct uh charts right now? So you guys,
So you guys, are these certain charts. She's under maur thrillers,
psychological thrillers and suspense thrillers. That's great, seriously like thrillers.
(02:00):
We like thrillers. If you're on a plane, on a train,
we were an automobile and you're not driving. Get the book.
How we welcome el Mar or is Ellie Maar, I said,
right correctly.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
El Elmar, you did it. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Congratulations on the book. Book. It's it's uh, it's it's
a birthing process of sorts. How do you feel the
book is done? And and right now I think is
I think today is out today. I think is the
recording is is today.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It's today, the day we're recording. It is the pub
day for the lie. She wears.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Congratulations. How's it feel?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Thank you? It feels fantastic. Oh it was. It was
you use the word birthing. It was an experience to
get this book out, not only out of my head,
but then also you know, in book form, and you
know this this whole fancy book form. Oh it just
it takes a whole team, whole team of professionals, much
(02:57):
like birthing a child, which I also did last year.
Did I tell you that? Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, so two years in agow you gave birth to something.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's good.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
We've been busy. But it was a whole experience getting
this thing out, and I'm so happy with how it
turned out. It is. It is an excellent book. Baby,
I'm very, very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You should be. It's really I read it. It's really good.
Like before we get into the book. Okay, first couple
of things. So Sacramento, I literally was just there. I
have my kids and grandkids lived, they stayed there. So
I left to come back to LA for Richard and
the Fame, and so they're still there. My one daughters park,
(03:42):
which is across from Land Park. Yeah, and my daughter's
out the Elderado Hills now, which she was in Carmichael
And yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I know El Dorada Hills too, you know. Wow, that's
so fun. And so did you live there? Did you
grow up there or did you did your family move there?
And then now you visit so great question.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So my father got a job with a senator obviously,
so folks at home Sacramentos are staking him. So back
when he divorced my mom actually eighty, this is a
long time, and so we used to come up and
visit all the time. Then we did, then we did.
Then we did buy kind of up and down living.
So I didn't go to school Saguel, but I spent
(04:20):
and grew up a lot in Sacmuere. The summers.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
No, it's gonna say, don't go to there in the summers.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Oh, I know, Oh my god. My one friend says,
I won't see you till September. He's like, stop today,
see you in September.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I know that I love Sacramento of summers though, like
July hot, August nights. Oh, I mean, like, no, they're two,
they're too intense. They're lovely. I think May in June,
but July and August are really intense. So great. You
must have really loved your dad.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's crazy. It was crazy girl and then but you know,
but it's Sacramento for me because it was so different
in Los Angeles. I spent time at both, Yes, but
then I graduated high school and then went to Counseate Chico,
and then I lived in Sacraere. After that, I landed
back in Sacramento. I worked. I worked at Center Health Hospital.
(05:10):
Uh yeah, downtown Sacramento. I did that, so I was there.
So that's when I had my kid, had two daughters. Uh.
Life there, and then then I left for San Francisco
years later when they became adults, and then I came
back to Los Angeles. But then they stayed there, each
got married, stayed there and had kids. So now my
kids are there.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, you're never escaping, Sack, They're gonna it's gonna keep
you there forever.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And Jim Boys, Tacos is still open. I'll be so happy.
I will continue to go.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well, you're a simple man. You just seed. Jim Boys.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I need I do miss. The one thing about the
summers I did enjoy though, is I'm a boater. I'm
a sailor boater. So going to Delta River, American River
or sacramhere we stood up there.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, yeah, that's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And Sacramento folks. The one thing I love the Victorian
homes there in downtown town and all the trees. There's
a lot of tree do anything beautiful shelter shade.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
But I mean, Sack used to be the city of trees,
So it's great that you love that about them.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yes, I did. So. That's that's our Sacramento connection. So
where so you grew up and were you Ray when
you were born and raised or partially raised or how
was it for you? There?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We are interconnected. I was born in La there you go,
and then I grew up in Sack and then went
back and forth to La and my grandparents house a
fair amount, like every summer. I grew up in Sack
and then lived and moved out and went to San
Diego for school.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
That is kind of fun. We both went to the
opposite Yeah, like you then you end up coming down south,
end up going north right exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I overshot it. I went a little too far north,
hitting Oregon according to our plan. I do love Oregon.
I love Oregon. I meant for ten years. It's a
wonderful place. I love Oregon. I love Portland, Oregon. This book,
The Lie She Wears a set in Portland, though I
think readers will will get in a gust of how
much it is a secret love letter to Orgon.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, you also mentioned Bay Area to so I Oregon
foo Donuts. I'm in Powell's books. I'm in just like
I at Oregon. Part and portantly reminds me parts of Sacramento.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It reminds you, like, yes, yes, yeah. I'm always saying
that Sacramento is like a more buttoned up version because
of the capital. And then Portland is like, you know, crunchy,
It's like sacks. Crunchiest parts are Oregon in Oregon, Portland amplified,
the flannel, the swing dance nights, you know, like it's
(07:47):
great and and and every single book that I write
not true. Most of the books that I write have
an organ connection orches Northwest One is set in Washington,
I remember, uh and California. Almost each of my books,
of my seven books, have a connection to either California
or Oregon or both. So the roots are strong in
my writing.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I love it now in your book. I was gonna
be careful on doing this, but because out today, so
everybody running get it, watch us first running get it.
So when I say a few things, we're like, oh, okay,
you might catch up, but I don't want get much
a way because it's really good. So I was just
to ask the the writer, the author, how would you
(08:30):
describe the book?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Oh? Yes, oh yes, Well The Lice She Wears is
my covert love letter to Portland and also Bay Area
and uh. It follows museum curator Pearl as she receives
a letter from her recently deceased mother confessing to murder.
Pearl thinks she has discovered her mother's darkest secret. What
(08:53):
could be worse than that? But then more letter surface
and new victims appear, and she realized is that she's
caught in a deadly game of pat and mouse, and
that someone is following in her mother's footsteps and they're
getting closer. Uh it is. It has one of the
best twists that I have written. In my opinion, I
am so excited for readers to discover it and I
(09:14):
really hope that that readers love it as much as
I do.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It's a good I didn't see it coming seriously, because
sometimes I'm sure you have to. We watch a show
or read a book and you kind of maybe halfway
I go, I have ideas this person, that person, this one.
I did not. I was not. I was like, oh okay.
(09:37):
I was like, oh, I almost want to say, just now,
what is that? But I was like, okay, got it
all right? And folks, I want to say this out loud.
It makes sense. Once again, Thank you careful my words.
Once it comes out, it makes sense. Some of those
things you're like, oh really, I mean, oh, that person
you know, there's the thing is well, here's the thing.
(10:04):
You pack a lot of history in here. You know
I can mention it. Well, I guess I can't mention this.
There is a thing about sisters in here, and her
sister shows up. I guess I can say. I'll say that.
I'll say, well, I won't say the name or where.
But his sister does show up, and there's a whole
thing there, and there's some really emotional moments about them
(10:28):
and their mother or the memory of their mother or
I don't give away to one part about this, But
I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed that character coming in
and how she came in. They because we were so
his mother dies. There is a will reading, folks, So
(10:50):
that's kind of what happens. And actually I can read
this passage. It's the patches I'm gonna read, and I
think it's kind of related to this. Yes, today today
it's not giving me anything away, but just I just
I liked this passage. I realized what I did. Okay,
(11:12):
Pearl was indoctrinated at a very young excuse me take
to you. Pearl was indoctrinated at a young age to
always respect Sally's wishes and her rules, whereas I don't
feel the same obligation. She is my biological mother, and
what am I as her oldest child, if not entitled
(11:32):
to a little late stage rebellion. First things first, check
the attic, past the folding ladder steps, and inside the
stuffy level of the house. I find a dozen plastic
trash bags. In the third that I open, a small
pink fabric bab bag is shipped zipped shut. White thread
(11:57):
stitches presents a capital at her v suggestive of the
name Sally told me she wanted to give me. At first, Victoria,
I am zip the bag, then breathe a sigh of relief.
I found it, the handmade yellow baby sweater that Sally
said she knit for me. It's soft at perfectly preserved
(12:22):
up here in as protective layers. I doubt Pearl would
have ever gotten around she going through all this stuff.
She was vehement. She has vehement that nothing be touched
after Sally's death. But I'm glad to get closure on
this item now. This is a tangible link to Sally
as my mother. That I mean, Folks, when you read,
(12:45):
when you read the book and you run across that
passage and you're like, oh, I see what James talking about.
There's so much in there for the sister. You'll find
out what happened, reason why she wasn't around the stuff.
If I and I just thought that, I felt like
I was in the attic with her. I felt like
I came across the bags with her. I can see
(13:08):
pulling out. You know, it's not gonna half pulling it out,
it's going like and like looking at it, and it's
not just a baby yellow sweater, it's her past. It's
what could have been yo, the v Victoria, because it's
a lot of things. I just so when you create
(13:30):
the book, she obviously at Pearl first. I'm assuming Pearl
is the lead. Right, she's the lead.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
He has the second chapter in the book. Yes, I
always start with my main characters when i'm ready.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right, So then but then Sally, who's the mom. She's
kind of a lead too, right.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
He's absolutely a lead, just like in Julius Caesar. If
anyone's familiar with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, you never see Julius Caesar.
He's dead, that's true.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Oh, you're right, yes, right, he is the main character.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
He is the whole He is the eponymous Julia Caesar.
So Sally is very similar in that she is a
main character. She drives much of the conflict.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Right, That's why I thought, okay, so, okay, so you
have those two, but let me have the sister comes in.
She's so she's clearly a secondary character at first, so
I feel like she becomes a main character later.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Uh. You know, I try to write each of my
characters as if they could fill up a whole book,
as if they have that complexity in those layers and
then somehow imbue those paragraphs with that information, so the
reader grasps that complexity, that this could be a whole
person that they might meet in real life, or it
might be a reflection of, like some aspect of them.
I try to do that, and yet my editor is like,
(14:45):
we only have eighty thousand words out. We are only
going to go to max three forty pages on this right,
so I have to cut it. I have to cut
it significantly down. So in my mind, they are all, yeah,
main characters. They all believe that they were the main character.
So you'll have to tell me you like that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Well, no, it does the thing because I really did.
Because for a while you're following her journey too. There's
there's twin journeys going on here, and there's some there's
some stuff that happens to Pearl, and for a while
you're following the sister. You know, you got so like
I'm like, it's almost like a baton was passed. That's
what I wanted. That's not that's what it felt like,
(15:26):
Almost like a baton was passed. Now it's her part
of the journey, but it's all going back to the
mother Sally.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yes, yes, one hundred percent. It always comes back to
the mother. That's what I was. That was in real
life too. I'm not yet one hundred percent. I completely
uh hold to that. And that's something that I was
I always reflecting on why I was writing this book.
It all comes back to the mother, whether or not
someone believes it. Mothers influenced so much, even in their
(15:58):
absenteeism or their presence in someone's life, and this book
demonstrates that for each of the characters concerned.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
It does. And it's and oh, I can't say that.
I want to say just.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It's just it's I really admire the Fortian dance the
you're doing because I cannot do that. I will slip
every day.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
By you for living all like I always got because
I do read the books and so I'm so exciting.
If I like them, I really want to talk about it,
like I can tell you off camera, but.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I admire the skill right now.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But the thing is for people, just let you just
know that it's a it's a very interesting and even
the dad's the daddy's he's a secondary character. I feel
more he's snare, but but I am curious about him
too because in the second half of the book. It
kind of ramps up and up there that where he's involved,
(16:50):
and and it goes back to the wife, it goes
back to Sally. It all goes back well, well and
also another person too, but it goes back to Sally. Yeah,
his part of it is too.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah. Let me tell you when I say that, I
create each of my characters as if they are whole
people and they have their own books, they could be
their own leads. I literally did that for the dad.
I wrote about eight other chapters, a totally different, like
prequel story for him, and then realized that they weren't working,
and I sut them they were just sitting on my computer.
(17:24):
A short novella for INNY readers who are interested in
learning more about him, and it was an excellent exercise
in determining what were his motivations. How did he get
to this point? How did he you know, how did
he and Sally come together? Sally being this woman who
left her daughter a postupous confession of murder, you know,
how did her husband meet this woman in fall in
(17:44):
love with this woman? So there's a lot every time
I craft a character that goes into it, and him
in particular, I have so much that went into him.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
But there was love there. That's what we find out. Yes,
in the beginning, there really was that that was there.
I don't give way something he was he was escaping something.
He had his own like right, he had his own life. Also,
I can say that he had his own life for
her too before salad. I say, folks, when you read it,
(18:17):
the more twist and turns come out, You're like, it's
so good, but more and more bodies starts showing up.
It's very entirely you say in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Well, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
It is so he had a life before her also,
but then he did come to meet this woman, he
did love her, have children with her, but something, you know,
things happened. Yeah, that's gonna say that. I guess I could
say that, and things happened. Uh so I think. So,
it's so each character you wrote, You're right, I could
see them each being well, actually I can see them
(18:53):
being the leader of this book. I really can. I mean, so,
I guess I am feeling the way I'm feeling on purpose.
And I kept saying there are several leads to this,
which is.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yea, yeah, yeah, And it's hard to keep that balance
where it's not overwhelming the reader. But I think me
and my editor really struck that it was it is
pearl story, and it is Sally's story at its heart.
It's it's a mother daughter's story and their pre existing tension,
the reasons why they never fully connected, which Sally was
(19:24):
withholding for much of her life and which she begins
to unburden herself with in death. Uh, it's.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
For me.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It was about it was about learning who you know,
discovering the past in order to understand the present, and
then to be able to move forward unburdened in the future.
And I think a lot of people, a lot of
characters have a hard time doing that, and I really
wanted to explore that journey with this specific setting and Pearl,
especially because she's a museum curator who's constantly surrounded by stories,
(19:56):
which most of which she'll never know as a curator,
will never know as museum visitors. All of that was
really fascinating for me to discuss, uh, and to explore
my writing.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Also. Yeah, also there is kind of that sense of
the mother thing that happens to Pearl a little bit.
You know, our parents do something. There's supposedly something notorious.
I guess murder is one of those things. And will
(20:28):
I pay for it? Now? What she what she did?
Will I pay for it? Or will I pay for
it in some way? Will it affect me in some way?
That's how I felt.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yes, in general, well, I think that's that. That's it
comes back to our original point of this, right, like mother,
it all comes back to the mother, and in varying degrees,
doesn't have to be. Something that a mother does doesn't
have to affect her the next generation, the generation after that,
(20:58):
But sometimes it does. And I would argue that it
always does, maybe in more muted degrees, but that you
can always feel it because mothers are just like speaking
Afreid again, so pivotal and influential in like basic primal ways.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
I agree. I agree with that, I know because it's
I'm a father obviously, and you were a mother a father,
and I'm ver and.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Fathers have their roles as well. Absolutely, but I just want.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
To say, I mean completely, well, I was good to
the mothers more. I'm sorry, because you guys get birth,
you carry them in most cases you can, it's in
all cases, most cases you carry them. It's it's it's
a whole different communication, nonverbal communication system. I feel with
mothers and children, not just your children. For us fathers,
we have to kind of learn it a little bit.
(21:47):
We have to have to learn the bond. And I'm
very close to my daughters. I was there when they
were born. I was I was in the room. I
mean that whole thing. But I still give it to
the mothers who carry them there something just they lived
awesome to come to the world. So I feel like
that affects you also through life when they're on the
(22:08):
other side.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, there's this strange like biological component to it. And
I only I say this because I have three kids
now and I just went like deep dive into like
what does this mean exactly? Like I literally have like
these kids DNA in my body forever the rest of
like forever, which is wild. And this story really explores
(22:31):
the mother daughter of relationship and how that can become
fractured and then reverberate throughout someone's life. But it is
important to note that fathers have their role, and it's
actually Pearl's dad, Liam, who is her source of stability,
who is her source of comfort, who allows her and
enables her to become a professional, professional person and an
emotionally balanced person. She's insecure, she still has her issues,
(22:52):
but her the fact that she is as like resilient
and composed that she is is all banks to her father.
So like good parents mothers, fathers, like good parents, are
so pivotal to their kids' lives. On percent, this story
just happened to explore mothers and daughters and mothers who
(23:14):
have issues.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
And I don't problem saying that's because I've talked about
it and worked it out. I had a loop mother,
so I know, so when I became a parent, I
was very much like I'm gonna be the tall make
sure I was a helicopter parent. I was involved in everything,
in all their business. I mean, I'll find out a
few years to go to therapy if I did something wrong.
But somebody said, but you know what I mean, like
(23:37):
I did the I had. I had a mother who
I know loved me on some level obviously, but it
was it was more of a Also, I was gen x,
you know, we were like latch key kids the whole thing. Yeah,
recognized this it because I'm bringing this up because it's
also a sister story, and I have siblings of different ages,
(23:57):
and it's and we all have our different views of
the parents. And I got that in this book. Also,
these two sisters have to either come together or not.
You got to read the book to find out. But
that's the whole point.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, yeah, the book is I think through and through.
One of the themes is choice. How are you choosing
to show up to the people that you care for?
How are you choosing to move forward despite trauma that's existing,
that will never go away, but that you can you know,
are you going to heal from it in one degree
or another or are you going to sit in it
for a very long time? Pearl sits in it. She
is avoidant. She is unable to really resolve it on
(24:28):
her own until she, you know, receives this gift of
this mystery, which she no one wants.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
But yes, but.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
These questions as she's like following the mystery.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Right, and it's all thing. It's like sometimes things are
thrust upon us in our family, sometimes not luckily if
you mean not the serious like that, you know what
I mean, Like there's something absolutely so that and and
you're right, it was like why me, why go? You know,
And it's you gotta deal with it.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah, And I think, I mean all good books begin
with that, like what I mean, the opportunity to go
after something, to go after something complex and call to action,
and and the characters really dragging the feed being like
I don't think I want to go to the Trojan War,
I don't think I want to go to murdor I
don't want to look at this letter, those posterumous confession
of murder, And that, to me is a really interesting
(25:22):
point in every book. And I wrote the liss you
were is really delving into that of like why would
anyone want to explore this? Why wouldn't you just ignore it?
Or like take this immediately to the police and you
have to read it to find out why?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, do kids that made me ask that question? Well,
then my mother passes away and I get this, I
mean I get this letter, like what what would are
you guys at home, listen a question, ask yourselves when
you read this book, what would you do? Because it's
like you do you turn a blind eye and go, okay,
whatever girl having ceil and throw it away? Or do
(25:58):
you turn into the police or do you actually go
on this? Do you go back to your house, you
go do the whole thing she did. Do you do
that because she had to go back, she had to
do to follow up on this, and so yeah, and
she went through a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, absolutely, And I try to create realistic stakes, realistic expectations.
She she's like, she has to balance a career that's
got possible implosion on the horizon, as well as her
ailing father who's now in an assistant facility assisted living
home because he has multiple sclerosis. So she's got a
lot of things that she's responsible for that are part
(26:35):
of her decision making process. So she's not just she's
very she's very grounded. She's extremely grounded. That's like her thing.
She's not emotional, which is part of the problem. And
she really goes through all of the possibilities to deal
with this situation and also while managing her own personal
loss because her mother just died. It's the first like
(26:57):
half is like exploration on all.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
That was there, say, and that's also a middle of
all this stuff, a death occurred. And so I'll tell
you a quick little story. My one of my grandmothers
who I was very close to, you die and it
was taken she was kidnapped, no, it's the story is crazy.
(27:21):
She was kidnapped, we couldn't find her body. Long story short,
turns out her best friend of thirty years stole her
and was trying to take her money. And and right
now she's curly in jail. But she literally took the
body to another She had her sister, her whole family's
(27:44):
in California, is in New York, and to get her
another then but then it was like she tried to
get something. They're like, wait a minute, that there's people
on beneficiaries, on things like. So then we saw and
then we had to I had to go to New York.
It was a whole crazy thing. So I'm so sorry,
thank you. We couldn't mourn my grandmother because for months out. Yeah,
(28:06):
and so when I read so that's what I felt
towards the end of the book, which is satisfied and
I love I love you. I'm great with the ending
and everything. I I'm thinking, But in the middle of
all of this, both sisters lost a mother, homeboy lost
a wife, you know, or whenever he lost that love
or whatever. That's so now you gotta get to that.
(28:30):
That's how I felt. I didn't I didn't more of
my grothers that until like maybe a year later than
in Fine when everything was set up. I helt that
with this too. In the middle of all this whole book,
there's a death of a mother m HM and sister
have to like really deal with what that means to them,
especially Pearl. Well, I's not gonna say especially theach had
(28:52):
different type. They had different situations with the mother by
for Pearl because she was there and was you know,
and all this stuff and panged by this new news
and all, and it's just it's I was like, girl,
you got you get some therapy ahead of you.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And you know what, I think everybody, everybody benefit's a therapy.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I go therapy. That's totally agreed. But you know, it
was just like, wow, there's a death in the middle
of all of this stuff. There's a death. How do
you even get to that? And then you kind of
bring thewn this book also.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Right, And people frequently will ask me, like, you seem
so normal, how do you come up with these things?
I know the nicest back back in the compliment, which
I think a lot of thriller authors will get, but
you know that question is always like these seems so nice.
All of my books go to these places. They go
to these dark places which are inspired by headlines which
(29:45):
you're which are under the umbrella of truth is stranger
than fiction. And I also like to think that each
of my books carries this this string of hope throughout
the book. Maybe at the end, maybe less so at
the end, but it's my books are always I like
to think hope, and I hope that readers get that
and get that vibe from me. It's definitely a deliberate
choice on my end because I think, no matter how
(30:06):
bad things can get, there is a way through. And
with enough time or enough like initiative, you know, we
can all find that agency too to seek resolution.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
And I will find I can say this book, there's resolution,
and it does. It does feel it does. There's hope again,
Wait a little bit, well, your delights. Thank you for
the book.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Good Thank you, James, Thank you so much for having
me for chatting.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
It's my pleasure, my toy, my pleasure. And so folks,
I'm gonna I'm gonna as this was being released, it
was gonna be released tomorrow, so it's the next day,
so the book is out. Like I actually say this
sometimes I got to say this. It's out, so run,
wait with the run. Just pick your phone, pring up
your tablet. Hey, you know, in order and by the
(31:01):
book this kindle audible, well actual physical copies go to Amazon.
Do it?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Do it? Do it?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Do you even leave your house? Just get it? Then
get and then put a candle on. Get again, sit
out on the couch, wrap yourself up and read this
nice suspense thriller.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Right, al I right, that's exactly the right combination. I
love sitting on the couch and for the fire, little
little glass and just enjoying a book. So I hope
that we just do that. It is definitely out. Get
it any bookstores, get it from your library as well.
I'm a big support of libraries or good to Amazon, So.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Folks, I always end the show where I was taking
my guests coming out, of course, but I always end
my show by saying that we support all writers, authors, uh,
Indian otherwise big names in the We support all and
we support the arts. Here on the show in between
the page with James Lott Jnr. We don't believe in
banning books that at all, but the people should have
access to whatever they would like to read. I'm just
(32:05):
a big proponent of that. I just across the board,
no matter what it is I do. But the arts
and support writing, support future authors and young authors and
new authors of all ages because books are not going anywhere.
They're here. People are reading and record rates whether it
is audible or whatever. They're they're reading. And the arts
(32:28):
have been improven and improven to help improve math skills,
science skills, english skills, social skills. Books take you to
all kinds of places gonna be helpful. So the arts
just very important, and it's very important to this show
and to me, and that's why I always had my
shows with that, because we do not in this day
and age. No we do not know no no no no,
(32:51):
but yes yes, yes, yes yes and patents on Facebook.
I have some books to you on Amazon, which check
them out of James U Junior, but I want you
to buy hers, nor about me. Go get her book
The Lies She Wears, which I say it again and again,
and we will see you next week. We're here on Thursdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays. We'll see you next week. Bye,
So if you're watching, that's the book The Lie She Wears.
But if you're not watching the books called The Lies
She Wears, I have the author with me. Number one,
we have a Sacramento connection. I'm from Sacramento. Get out
we have we'll talk about that. We got to talk
about that, Okay, okay, I was just a Sacramento. That's
(00:25):
last weekend for my kids's graduate from you see, San
Diego just a great school, you see systems, really great system.
Before she went to France, she said, I'm going to France.
The masters's of you from the Sarbone. And what's so
funny for me is three of my best friends in
San Francisco who are from Sacramento, which to the Sarbone.
Also what I don't know what's going on? Right, we'll
(00:48):
talk about that.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You need a club, we need a Facebook group.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
You guys do, and we'll get we'll get into that.
But now she's an Oregon. We love Oregon, we do.
It's just it's just her fifth book, right, your fifth seventh, hey,
seventh book. But here's the deal, kids, this book is good.
It's a page turner and that is what this is
what I wrote. It's a study and family. It's mother daughter,
(01:14):
it's siblings, it's suspense, it's drama, it's part detective story,
it's different time periods, it's father daughter, it's a it's
a lot. And I mean that in the greatest way possible.
And there's so many good twisted here that I did
not expect, not give it away. You read the book.
(01:36):
We're gonna talk some stuff. She of course has been
number one on the Amazon charts for stuff. But right
now currently Homegirl is on these I'm wan sure I
get these correct uh charts right now? So you guys,
So you guys, are these certain charts. She's under maur thrillers,
psychological thrillers and suspense thrillers. That's great, seriously like thrillers.
(02:00):
We like thrillers. If you're on a plane, on a train,
we were an automobile and you're not driving. Get the book.
How we welcome el Mar or is Ellie Maar, I said,
right correctly.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
El Elmar, you did it. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Congratulations on the book. Book. It's it's uh, it's it's
a birthing process of sorts. How do you feel the
book is done? And and right now I think is
I think today is out today. I think is the
recording is is today.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
It's today, the day we're recording. It is the pub
day for the lie. She wears.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Congratulations. How's it feel?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Thank you? It feels fantastic. Oh it was. It was
you use the word birthing. It was an experience to
get this book out, not only out of my head,
but then also you know, in book form, and you
know this this whole fancy book form. Oh it just
it takes a whole team, whole team of professionals, much
(02:57):
like birthing a child, which I also did last year.
Did I tell you that? Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Okay, so two years in agow you gave birth to something.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
It's good.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
We've been busy. But it was a whole experience getting
this thing out, and I'm so happy with how it
turned out. It is. It is an excellent book. Baby,
I'm very, very proud of it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
You should be. It's really I read it. It's really good.
Like before we get into the book. Okay, first couple
of things. So Sacramento, I literally was just there. I
have my kids and grandkids lived, they stayed there. So
I left to come back to LA for Richard and
the Fame, and so they're still there. My one daughters park,
(03:42):
which is across from Land Park. Yeah, and my daughter's
out the Elderado Hills now, which she was in Carmichael
And yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I know El Dorada Hills too, you know. Wow, that's
so fun. And so did you live there? Did you
grow up there or did you did your family move there?
And then now you visit so great question.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So my father got a job with a senator obviously,
so folks at home Sacramentos are staking him. So back
when he divorced my mom actually eighty, this is a
long time, and so we used to come up and
visit all the time. Then we did, then we did.
Then we did buy kind of up and down living.
So I didn't go to school Saguel, but I spent
(04:20):
and grew up a lot in Sacmuere. The summers.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
No, it's gonna say, don't go to there in the summers.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Oh, I know, Oh my god. My one friend says,
I won't see you till September. He's like, stop today,
see you in September.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I know that I love Sacramento of summers though, like
July hot, August nights. Oh, I mean, like, no, they're two,
they're too intense. They're lovely. I think May in June,
but July and August are really intense. So great. You
must have really loved your dad.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
It's crazy. It was crazy girl and then but you know,
but it's Sacramento for me because it was so different
in Los Angeles. I spent time at both, Yes, but
then I graduated high school and then went to Counseate Chico,
and then I lived in Sacraere. After that, I landed
back in Sacramento. I worked. I worked at Center Health Hospital.
(05:10):
Uh yeah, downtown Sacramento. I did that, so I was there.
So that's when I had my kid, had two daughters. Uh.
Life there, and then then I left for San Francisco
years later when they became adults, and then I came
back to Los Angeles. But then they stayed there, each
got married, stayed there and had kids. So now my
kids are there.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, you're never escaping, Sack, They're gonna it's gonna keep
you there forever.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
And Jim Boys, Tacos is still open. I'll be so happy.
I will continue to go.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well, you're a simple man. You just seed. Jim Boys.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I need I do miss. The one thing about the
summers I did enjoy though, is I'm a boater. I'm
a sailor boater. So going to Delta River, American River
or sacramhere we stood up there.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I mean, yeah, that's beautiful.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
And Sacramento folks. The one thing I love the Victorian
homes there in downtown town and all the trees. There's
a lot of tree do anything beautiful shelter shade.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
But I mean, Sack used to be the city of trees,
So it's great that you love that about them.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yes, I did. So. That's that's our Sacramento connection. So
where so you grew up and were you Ray when
you were born and raised or partially raised or how
was it for you? There?
Speaker 2 (06:26):
We are interconnected. I was born in La there you go,
and then I grew up in Sack and then went
back and forth to La and my grandparents house a
fair amount, like every summer. I grew up in Sack
and then lived and moved out and went to San
Diego for school.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
That is kind of fun. We both went to the
opposite Yeah, like you then you end up coming down south,
end up going north right exactly.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I overshot it. I went a little too far north,
hitting Oregon according to our plan. I do love Oregon.
I love Oregon. I meant for ten years. It's a
wonderful place. I love Oregon. I love Portland, Oregon. This book,
The Lie She Wears a set in Portland, though I
think readers will will get in a gust of how
much it is a secret love letter to Orgon.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Well, you also mentioned Bay Area to so I Oregon
foo Donuts. I'm in Powell's books. I'm in just like
I at Oregon. Part and portantly reminds me parts of Sacramento.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
It reminds you, like, yes, yes, yeah. I'm always saying
that Sacramento is like a more buttoned up version because
of the capital. And then Portland is like, you know, crunchy,
It's like sacks. Crunchiest parts are Oregon in Oregon, Portland amplified,
the flannel, the swing dance nights, you know, like it's
(07:47):
great and and and every single book that I write
not true. Most of the books that I write have
an organ connection orches Northwest One is set in Washington,
I remember, uh and California. Almost each of my books,
of my seven books, have a connection to either California
or Oregon or both. So the roots are strong in
my writing.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
I love it now in your book. I was gonna
be careful on doing this, but because out today, so
everybody running get it, watch us first running get it.
So when I say a few things, we're like, oh, okay,
you might catch up, but I don't want get much
a way because it's really good. So I was just
to ask the the writer, the author, how would you
(08:30):
describe the book?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Oh? Yes, oh yes, Well The Lice She Wears is
my covert love letter to Portland and also Bay Area
and uh. It follows museum curator Pearl as she receives
a letter from her recently deceased mother confessing to murder.
Pearl thinks she has discovered her mother's darkest secret. What
(08:53):
could be worse than that? But then more letter surface
and new victims appear, and she realized is that she's
caught in a deadly game of pat and mouse, and
that someone is following in her mother's footsteps and they're
getting closer. Uh it is. It has one of the
best twists that I have written. In my opinion, I
am so excited for readers to discover it and I
(09:14):
really hope that that readers love it as much as
I do.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
It's a good I didn't see it coming seriously, because
sometimes I'm sure you have to. We watch a show
or read a book and you kind of maybe halfway
I go, I have ideas this person, that person, this one.
I did not. I was not. I was like, oh okay.
(09:37):
I was like, oh, I almost want to say, just now,
what is that? But I was like, okay, got it
all right? And folks, I want to say this out loud.
It makes sense. Once again, Thank you careful my words.
Once it comes out, it makes sense. Some of those
things you're like, oh really, I mean, oh, that person
you know, there's the thing is well, here's the thing.
(10:04):
You pack a lot of history in here. You know
I can mention it. Well, I guess I can't mention this.
There is a thing about sisters in here, and her
sister shows up. I guess I can say. I'll say that.
I'll say, well, I won't say the name or where.
But his sister does show up, and there's a whole
thing there, and there's some really emotional moments about them
(10:28):
and their mother or the memory of their mother or
I don't give away to one part about this, But
I really enjoyed. I really enjoyed that character coming in
and how she came in. They because we were so
his mother dies. There is a will reading, folks, So
(10:50):
that's kind of what happens. And actually I can read
this passage. It's the patches I'm gonna read, and I
think it's kind of related to this. Yes, today today
it's not giving me anything away, but just I just
I liked this passage. I realized what I did. Okay,
(11:12):
Pearl was indoctrinated at a very young excuse me take
to you. Pearl was indoctrinated at a young age to
always respect Sally's wishes and her rules, whereas I don't
feel the same obligation. She is my biological mother, and
what am I as her oldest child, if not entitled
(11:32):
to a little late stage rebellion. First things first, check
the attic, past the folding ladder steps, and inside the
stuffy level of the house. I find a dozen plastic
trash bags. In the third that I open, a small
pink fabric bab bag is shipped zipped shut. White thread
(11:57):
stitches presents a capital at her v suggestive of the
name Sally told me she wanted to give me. At first, Victoria,
I am zip the bag, then breathe a sigh of relief.
I found it, the handmade yellow baby sweater that Sally
said she knit for me. It's soft at perfectly preserved
(12:22):
up here in as protective layers. I doubt Pearl would
have ever gotten around she going through all this stuff.
She was vehement. She has vehement that nothing be touched
after Sally's death. But I'm glad to get closure on
this item now. This is a tangible link to Sally
as my mother. That I mean, Folks, when you read,
(12:45):
when you read the book and you run across that
passage and you're like, oh, I see what James talking about.
There's so much in there for the sister. You'll find
out what happened, reason why she wasn't around the stuff.
If I and I just thought that, I felt like
I was in the attic with her. I felt like
I came across the bags with her. I can see
(13:08):
pulling out. You know, it's not gonna half pulling it out,
it's going like and like looking at it, and it's
not just a baby yellow sweater, it's her past. It's
what could have been yo, the v Victoria, because it's
a lot of things. I just so when you create
(13:30):
the book, she obviously at Pearl first. I'm assuming Pearl
is the lead. Right, she's the lead.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
He has the second chapter in the book. Yes, I
always start with my main characters when i'm ready.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Right, So then but then Sally, who's the mom. She's
kind of a lead too, right.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
He's absolutely a lead, just like in Julius Caesar. If
anyone's familiar with Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, you never see Julius Caesar.
He's dead, that's true.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Oh, you're right, yes, right, he is the main character.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
He is the whole He is the eponymous Julia Caesar.
So Sally is very similar in that she is a
main character. She drives much of the conflict.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Right, That's why I thought, okay, so, okay, so you
have those two, but let me have the sister comes in.
She's so she's clearly a secondary character at first, so
I feel like she becomes a main character later.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Uh. You know, I try to write each of my
characters as if they could fill up a whole book,
as if they have that complexity in those layers and
then somehow imbue those paragraphs with that information, so the
reader grasps that complexity, that this could be a whole
person that they might meet in real life, or it
might be a reflection of, like some aspect of them.
I try to do that, and yet my editor is like,
(14:45):
we only have eighty thousand words out. We are only
going to go to max three forty pages on this right,
so I have to cut it. I have to cut
it significantly down. So in my mind, they are all, yeah,
main characters. They all believe that they were the main character.
So you'll have to tell me you like that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Well, no, it does the thing because I really did.
Because for a while you're following her journey too. There's
there's twin journeys going on here, and there's some there's
some stuff that happens to Pearl, and for a while
you're following the sister. You know, you got so like
I'm like, it's almost like a baton was passed. That's
what I wanted. That's not that's what it felt like,
(15:26):
Almost like a baton was passed. Now it's her part
of the journey, but it's all going back to the
mother Sally.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Yes, yes, one hundred percent. It always comes back to
the mother. That's what I was. That was in real
life too. I'm not yet one hundred percent. I completely
uh hold to that. And that's something that I was
I always reflecting on why I was writing this book.
It all comes back to the mother, whether or not
someone believes it. Mothers influenced so much, even in their
(15:58):
absenteeism or their presence in someone's life, and this book
demonstrates that for each of the characters concerned.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
It does. And it's and oh, I can't say that.
I want to say just.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
It's just it's I really admire the Fortian dance the
you're doing because I cannot do that. I will slip
every day.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
By you for living all like I always got because
I do read the books and so I'm so exciting.
If I like them, I really want to talk about it,
like I can tell you off camera, but.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
I admire the skill right now.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
But the thing is for people, just let you just
know that it's a it's a very interesting and even
the dad's the daddy's he's a secondary character. I feel
more he's snare, but but I am curious about him
too because in the second half of the book. It
kind of ramps up and up there that where he's involved,
(16:50):
and and it goes back to the wife, it goes
back to Sally. It all goes back well, well and
also another person too, but it goes back to Sally. Yeah,
his part of it is too.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah. Let me tell you when I say that, I
create each of my characters as if they are whole
people and they have their own books, they could be
their own leads. I literally did that for the dad.
I wrote about eight other chapters, a totally different, like
prequel story for him, and then realized that they weren't working,
and I sut them they were just sitting on my computer.
(17:24):
A short novella for INNY readers who are interested in
learning more about him, and it was an excellent exercise
in determining what were his motivations. How did he get
to this point? How did he you know, how did
he and Sally come together? Sally being this woman who
left her daughter a postupous confession of murder, you know,
how did her husband meet this woman in fall in
(17:44):
love with this woman? So there's a lot every time
I craft a character that goes into it, and him
in particular, I have so much that went into him.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
But there was love there. That's what we find out. Yes,
in the beginning, there really was that that was there.
I don't give way something he was he was escaping something.
He had his own like right, he had his own life. Also,
I can say that he had his own life for
her too before salad. I say, folks, when you read it,
(18:17):
the more twist and turns come out, You're like, it's
so good, but more and more bodies starts showing up.
It's very entirely you say in Spanish.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Well, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
It is so he had a life before her also,
but then he did come to meet this woman, he
did love her, have children with her, but something, you know,
things happened. Yeah, that's gonna say that. I guess I could
say that, and things happened. Uh so I think. So,
it's so each character you wrote, You're right, I could
see them each being well, actually I can see them
(18:53):
being the leader of this book. I really can. I mean, so,
I guess I am feeling the way I'm feeling on purpose.
And I kept saying there are several leads to this,
which is.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Yea, yeah, yeah, And it's hard to keep that balance
where it's not overwhelming the reader. But I think me
and my editor really struck that it was it is
pearl story, and it is Sally's story at its heart.
It's it's a mother daughter's story and their pre existing tension,
the reasons why they never fully connected, which Sally was
(19:24):
withholding for much of her life and which she begins
to unburden herself with in death. Uh, it's.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
For me.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It was about it was about learning who you know,
discovering the past in order to understand the present, and
then to be able to move forward unburdened in the future.
And I think a lot of people, a lot of
characters have a hard time doing that, and I really
wanted to explore that journey with this specific setting and Pearl,
especially because she's a museum curator who's constantly surrounded by stories,
(19:56):
which most of which she'll never know as a curator,
will never know as museum visitors. All of that was
really fascinating for me to discuss, uh, and to explore
my writing.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Also. Yeah, also there is kind of that sense of
the mother thing that happens to Pearl a little bit.
You know, our parents do something. There's supposedly something notorious.
I guess murder is one of those things. And will
(20:28):
I pay for it? Now? What she what she did?
Will I pay for it? Or will I pay for
it in some way? Will it affect me in some way?
That's how I felt.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yes, in general, well, I think that's that. That's it
comes back to our original point of this, right, like mother,
it all comes back to the mother, and in varying degrees,
doesn't have to be. Something that a mother does doesn't
have to affect her the next generation, the generation after that,
(20:58):
But sometimes it does. And I would argue that it
always does, maybe in more muted degrees, but that you
can always feel it because mothers are just like speaking
Afreid again, so pivotal and influential in like basic primal ways.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
I agree. I agree with that, I know because it's
I'm a father obviously, and you were a mother a father,
and I'm ver and.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Fathers have their roles as well. Absolutely, but I just want.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
To say, I mean completely, well, I was good to
the mothers more. I'm sorry, because you guys get birth,
you carry them in most cases you can, it's in
all cases, most cases you carry them. It's it's it's
a whole different communication, nonverbal communication system. I feel with
mothers and children, not just your children. For us fathers,
we have to kind of learn it a little bit.
(21:47):
We have to have to learn the bond. And I'm
very close to my daughters. I was there when they
were born. I was I was in the room. I
mean that whole thing. But I still give it to
the mothers who carry them there something just they lived
awesome to come to the world. So I feel like
that affects you also through life when they're on the
(22:08):
other side.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Yeah, there's this strange like biological component to it. And
I only I say this because I have three kids
now and I just went like deep dive into like
what does this mean exactly? Like I literally have like
these kids DNA in my body forever the rest of
like forever, which is wild. And this story really explores
(22:31):
the mother daughter of relationship and how that can become
fractured and then reverberate throughout someone's life. But it is
important to note that fathers have their role, and it's
actually Pearl's dad, Liam, who is her source of stability,
who is her source of comfort, who allows her and
enables her to become a professional, professional person and an
emotionally balanced person. She's insecure, she still has her issues,
(22:52):
but her the fact that she is as like resilient
and composed that she is is all banks to her father.
So like good parents mothers, fathers, like good parents, are
so pivotal to their kids' lives. On percent, this story
just happened to explore mothers and daughters and mothers who
(23:14):
have issues.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
And I don't problem saying that's because I've talked about
it and worked it out. I had a loop mother,
so I know, so when I became a parent, I
was very much like I'm gonna be the tall make
sure I was a helicopter parent. I was involved in everything,
in all their business. I mean, I'll find out a
few years to go to therapy if I did something wrong.
But somebody said, but you know what I mean, like
(23:37):
I did the I had. I had a mother who
I know loved me on some level obviously, but it
was it was more of a Also, I was gen x,
you know, we were like latch key kids the whole thing. Yeah,
recognized this it because I'm bringing this up because it's
also a sister story, and I have siblings of different ages,
(23:57):
and it's and we all have our different views of
the parents. And I got that in this book. Also,
these two sisters have to either come together or not.
You got to read the book to find out. But
that's the whole point.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah, yeah, the book is I think through and through.
One of the themes is choice. How are you choosing
to show up to the people that you care for?
How are you choosing to move forward despite trauma that's existing,
that will never go away, but that you can you know,
are you going to heal from it in one degree
or another or are you going to sit in it
for a very long time? Pearl sits in it. She
is avoidant. She is unable to really resolve it on
(24:28):
her own until she, you know, receives this gift of
this mystery, which she no one wants.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
But yes, but.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
These questions as she's like following the mystery.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Right, and it's all thing. It's like sometimes things are
thrust upon us in our family, sometimes not luckily if
you mean not the serious like that, you know what
I mean, Like there's something absolutely so that and and
you're right, it was like why me, why go? You know,
And it's you gotta deal with it.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Yeah, And I think, I mean all good books begin
with that, like what I mean, the opportunity to go
after something, to go after something complex and call to action,
and and the characters really dragging the feed being like
I don't think I want to go to the Trojan War,
I don't think I want to go to murdor I
don't want to look at this letter, those posterumous confession
of murder, And that, to me is a really interesting
(25:22):
point in every book. And I wrote the liss you
were is really delving into that of like why would
anyone want to explore this? Why wouldn't you just ignore it?
Or like take this immediately to the police and you
have to read it to find out why?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Yeah, do kids that made me ask that question? Well,
then my mother passes away and I get this, I
mean I get this letter, like what what would are
you guys at home, listen a question, ask yourselves when
you read this book, what would you do? Because it's
like you do you turn a blind eye and go, okay,
whatever girl having ceil and throw it away? Or do
(25:58):
you turn into the police or do you actually go
on this? Do you go back to your house, you
go do the whole thing she did. Do you do
that because she had to go back, she had to
do to follow up on this, and so yeah, and
she went through a lot.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, absolutely, And I try to create realistic stakes, realistic expectations.
She she's like, she has to balance a career that's
got possible implosion on the horizon, as well as her
ailing father who's now in an assistant facility assisted living
home because he has multiple sclerosis. So she's got a
lot of things that she's responsible for that are part
(26:35):
of her decision making process. So she's not just she's
very she's very grounded. She's extremely grounded. That's like her thing.
She's not emotional, which is part of the problem. And
she really goes through all of the possibilities to deal
with this situation and also while managing her own personal
loss because her mother just died. It's the first like
(26:57):
half is like exploration on all.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
That was there, say, and that's also a middle of
all this stuff, a death occurred. And so I'll tell
you a quick little story. My one of my grandmothers
who I was very close to, you die and it
was taken she was kidnapped, no, it's the story is crazy.
(27:21):
She was kidnapped, we couldn't find her body. Long story short,
turns out her best friend of thirty years stole her
and was trying to take her money. And and right
now she's curly in jail. But she literally took the
body to another She had her sister, her whole family's
(27:44):
in California, is in New York, and to get her
another then but then it was like she tried to
get something. They're like, wait a minute, that there's people
on beneficiaries, on things like. So then we saw and
then we had to I had to go to New York.
It was a whole crazy thing. So I'm so sorry,
thank you. We couldn't mourn my grandmother because for months out. Yeah,
(28:06):
and so when I read so that's what I felt
towards the end of the book, which is satisfied and
I love I love you. I'm great with the ending
and everything. I I'm thinking, But in the middle of
all of this, both sisters lost a mother, homeboy lost
a wife, you know, or whenever he lost that love
or whatever. That's so now you gotta get to that.
(28:30):
That's how I felt. I didn't I didn't more of
my grothers that until like maybe a year later than
in Fine when everything was set up. I helt that
with this too. In the middle of all this whole book,
there's a death of a mother m HM and sister
have to like really deal with what that means to them,
especially Pearl. Well, I's not gonna say especially theach had
(28:52):
different type. They had different situations with the mother by
for Pearl because she was there and was you know,
and all this stuff and panged by this new news
and all, and it's just it's I was like, girl,
you got you get some therapy ahead of you.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And you know what, I think everybody, everybody benefit's a therapy.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
I go therapy. That's totally agreed. But you know, it
was just like, wow, there's a death in the middle
of all of this stuff. There's a death. How do
you even get to that? And then you kind of
bring thewn this book also.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Right, And people frequently will ask me, like, you seem
so normal, how do you come up with these things?
I know the nicest back back in the compliment, which
I think a lot of thriller authors will get, but
you know that question is always like these seems so nice.
All of my books go to these places. They go
to these dark places which are inspired by headlines which
(29:45):
you're which are under the umbrella of truth is stranger
than fiction. And I also like to think that each
of my books carries this this string of hope throughout
the book. Maybe at the end, maybe less so at
the end, but it's my books are always I like
to think hope, and I hope that readers get that
and get that vibe from me. It's definitely a deliberate
choice on my end because I think, no matter how
(30:06):
bad things can get, there is a way through. And
with enough time or enough like initiative, you know, we
can all find that agency too to seek resolution.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
And I will find I can say this book, there's resolution,
and it does. It does feel it does. There's hope again,
Wait a little bit, well, your delights. Thank you for
the book.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
Good Thank you, James, Thank you so much for having
me for chatting.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
It's my pleasure, my toy, my pleasure. And so folks,
I'm gonna I'm gonna as this was being released, it
was gonna be released tomorrow, so it's the next day,
so the book is out. Like I actually say this
sometimes I got to say this. It's out, so run,
wait with the run. Just pick your phone, pring up
your tablet. Hey, you know, in order and by the
(31:01):
book this kindle audible, well actual physical copies go to Amazon.
Do it?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Do it? Do it?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Do you even leave your house? Just get it? Then
get and then put a candle on. Get again, sit
out on the couch, wrap yourself up and read this
nice suspense thriller.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Right, al I right, that's exactly the right combination. I
love sitting on the couch and for the fire, little
little glass and just enjoying a book. So I hope
that we just do that. It is definitely out. Get
it any bookstores, get it from your library as well.
I'm a big support of libraries or good to Amazon, So.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Folks, I always end the show where I was taking
my guests coming out, of course, but I always end
my show by saying that we support all writers, authors, uh,
Indian otherwise big names in the We support all and
we support the arts. Here on the show in between
the page with James Lott Jnr. We don't believe in
banning books that at all, but the people should have
access to whatever they would like to read. I'm just
(32:05):
a big proponent of that. I just across the board,
no matter what it is I do. But the arts
and support writing, support future authors and young authors and
new authors of all ages because books are not going anywhere.
They're here. People are reading and record rates whether it
is audible or whatever. They're they're reading. And the arts
(32:28):
have been improven and improven to help improve math skills,
science skills, english skills, social skills. Books take you to
all kinds of places gonna be helpful. So the arts
just very important, and it's very important to this show
and to me, and that's why I always had my
shows with that, because we do not in this day
and age. No we do not know no no no no,
(32:51):
but yes yes, yes, yes yes and patents on Facebook.
I have some books to you on Amazon, which check
them out of James U Junior, but I want you
to buy hers, nor about me. Go get her book
The Lies She Wears, which I say it again and again,
and we will see you next week. We're here on Thursdays,
Wednesdays and Thursdays. We'll see you next week. Bye,
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