Hazel Beck Truly Madly Magically and Peppermint Tea

We're back! After a long hiatus Day Drinking With Authors is back with more fantastic interviews with your favorite authors. I'm in a seriously witchy mood right now, so buckle up for all the magical realism, Halloween, powerful female forward novels - because I'm reading a bunch of them. 

First up is the writing duo of Hazel Beck sipping some peppermint tea and discussing the third book in their Witchlore series. TRULY MADLY MAGICALLY. A fantastic slow burn angsty romance with lots and lots of fabulous witchy world building. 

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Transcript

(00:28):

Welcome to Day Drinking With Authors, the podcast series where I pick a book and the author picks a drink. I'm your host, Molly Fader, and if you are new to the podcast, welcome And if you are a friend of the podcast, welcome back. I know that it's been a while. I found that after the podcast or after the pandemic, I couldn't be a mom to teenagers, write books and do a podcast. It was all just a little too busy. But now one of my teenagers at university and I find myself with all this time, so I'm back to the podcast and thank you so much for joining me. And it's pretty exciting because I am fully embracing my season of The Witch. All I want to do is read witch fiction, historical romance, fantasy. I want it all. And we are launching the relaunch of the podcast with a fantastic witch romance called Truly Madly, magically by Hazel Beck.

(01:25):

Now before I read the back cover copy, because my mom likes that, this is book three of the Witchlore Series witch lore series, and they do build on each other. But I have found that each of the books is a very satisfying read on its own. I do encourage you to go back to the first one, but if you want to just pick up this one because it's in your stores where you shop for books, grab it. It is for readers who want the small town vibes and romance of the Gilmore Girls with the dangerous high stakes of Agatha All Along. If you're obsessed with Agatha all Along like I am, which we all are because it's the season of the witch. So here we are truly, madly, magically a witch cursed to tell the truth and the man who won't let her lie to herself anymore cursed by her own mother to always tell the truth.

(02:14):

And one of the only half witches around Ella and Good has never considered herself an equal part of the Riverwood covet. But when the Joy wood, the evil rulers of the witching world target her directly, she begins to wonder why they want her gone. She'll need to work with her newly formed to survive, which includes dealing with her first love, past wreckage, and a whole new complication she didn't see coming with their fates in the balance. Elwin will have to learn to trust Xander again or be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, assuming they all survive the Joy Woods's latest bid for absolute power over the witching world. See, you get all the stakes, high stakes of Agatha, along with the cosy vibes of the Gilmore Girls. Welcome Hazel Beck. Hazel Beck is actually a writing duo, Megan Crane and Nicole Helm. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Megan Crane (03:03):

We're so happy to be here. Thank you.

Molly Fader (03:06):

That was Megan Crane speaking.

Megan Crane (03:08):

Hi to people. Sorry, you told me to do that and I didn't do it. It's starting off strong.

Molly Fader (03:19):

Megan and Nicole are about to launch into a big book tour all throughout the Midwest, which leads me kind of to my first question. What made you decide to set this book? Oh, shoot. We're supposed to talk about the drink first. Scratch that. The drink. I'm not even going to cut that. I'm not even going to cut it because that is pure. We're live. We're happening. It's all good. Tell us about the drink you've picked for the podcast.

Megan Crane (03:49):

Ask Nicole. Tell us about the trick, the drink that we picked.

Speaker 4 (03:53):

Well, we picked a peppermint tea as sort of a nod to the witchy theme of the books. And it would be great if I could remember what peppermint was supposed to do.

Molly Fader (04:07):

You said that it increased psychic abilities. Yeah,

Megan Crane (04:10):

It has many powers. Yes. And if you've overeat it, it settles your stomach. Just throwing that out there.

Molly Fader (04:18):

Nice. Does it do anything for hot flashes?

Megan Crane (04:21):

Yes, it does, because it deals with your digestion. So you're concerned about that instead of what temperature you are. Also, if you're drinking hot tea, you're hot anyway, so you wouldn't notice if it was a flash.

Molly Fader (04:31):

That's perfect. That's what we want to do is camouflage that. It's magical. So I was going to call you out on the fact, do you guys drink peppermint tea while you're writing or are you like the rest of us just mainlining Coffee? Coffee, Molly?

Speaker 4 (04:43):

I do not, yeah, I don't drink tea. No,

Megan Crane (04:47):

I do. I know we're all liars, but witches drink tea writers, not liars. And our character, our main character in fact has a tea shop called Tea and No Sympathy, which is sort of emblematic of who she is as a person and definitely serves magical tea, which may or may not include peppermint to her customers.

Molly Fader (05:11):

So one of the things that I love about this new season of the Witch that I'm on and reading the witch novels is imagining the authors creating this world and how fun it is. And then with the two of you, I can't imagine how much fun it is with a friend. It's really fun. How did this start?

Speaker 4 (05:33):

Well, Megan actually came to visit me. I live in Missouri, and we were just doing a writer's retreat and going to different small towns around the Midwest of where I live. And we happened to wind up in the town of St. Charles, Missouri on Halloween, like a grey drizzly cold, perfectly atmospheric Halloween. And we were walking around, they have a historic main street with brick roads and little shops, and it was very spooky and creepy. And we started the age old writers. What if there were witches? What if there were monsters in the alleys? What if And when we came back to my house that night, it was like we both had all these ideas and we didn't want the other one to write it without

Molly Fader (06:24):

The others. This is not an idea that is up for bidding. This. You guys are both incredibly prolific authors on your own. When did this become more than just a fun what if question?

Megan Crane (06:43):

Well, it quickly became not fun because we were like, we know what we're going to do. We're going to not write together. We're going to pitch four books, and then we will each write two of them and the voice of the character will be the different voice and it'll be so great. And our agents were like, absolutely not. No, you can't do that. You have to have a unified voice. And so then we spent a year figuring out how to do that and how to tell the story in such a way that we could use that voice and somehow, because again, this vision that we had for this story was always the same. That's actually been, which is very unusual for me. I think. I've never had anything like that before. I just knew what the story had to be. Nicole knew too. So we've always had this unifying vision of the story, and then it was like, how do we figure out how to tell it? Actually, that was really, was very frustrating, but very useful to have that year because by the time we sold the book, we knew all the characters so well and we'd figured out how to write on top of each other, which is what most writers are like. You do what? But yeah,

Molly Fader (07:38):

On top

Megan Crane (07:38):

You do what now?

Molly Fader (07:42):

Is it one document and you guys are, what are you doing?

Speaker 4 (07:46):

So typically we start with, well, we start with a phone call where we talk about what we're not plotters, but the overarching plot, especially since it's a four book series, we pitched it as a four book series. It was always going to be a four book series. So there was always like, okay, this has to happen in book one. This has to happen in a book two. But before each book we sit down, we talk about the characters, we talk about what we need to happen, and then when we sit down to write, it's like someone starts with a really bare bones chapter one, send it off to the other person, they fill it in and we go back and forth like that. We're happy chapter by chapter until it's done and until we're happy with it. And we don't use truck changes or anything like that because we discovered that's really annoying to see

Megan Crane (08:32):

Because you just look for the change. And then you're like, well, why did she change that? That's right. And you're like, it doesn't matter. That just slows everything down. It doesn't matter. So at one point I was like, and

Speaker 4 (08:42):

Yeah, if you're not watching, you don't notice you. A very few things you never noticed.

Molly Fader (08:46):

Yeah, it takes a while. I would imagine to, I'm supposing here to put aside your ego and say, oh, this is actually just being made better. It's not like we are a better team together for these stories. Was it hard to put aside your ego or were you guys have no ego? It's a we Actually

Megan Crane (09:08):

No, because, no, no, no. We have giant egos, but about the work. Oh, good. Giant egos about the work. So it was like, okay, nothing Nicole's going to do is never, it's going to be in service of who she sees the characters as being. So it's like if I don't agree with it, which by the way has never occurred, we really just had a vision of these characters in this place from the start. But it's not as, there might be little things where we're like, oh, I kind of think she would do this or that, but it's always coming from character. So it's hard to get your personal ego involved in that because it's the same choices that I would make probably. I mean, we really think about story in the same way, which helps too.

Molly Fader (09:43):

Yeah, really.

Speaker 4 (09:44):

And I think we started from that place that we've been friends for a decade. We've read everything, each other's written for a decade. And again, we're prolific. So that's a tonne of words. And so there was this sense of when we started, we knew each other and knew each other's writing process and knew each other's thoughts on character and how to address a story. And I wouldn't go into that with every friend writer that I have. I would go into that with a stranger. It was like we had a base level of knowing I think this is going to work because we really understand each other and we come from a similar spot. So I think that also allowed there not to be that ego getting in the way because it wasn't like, I don't really know this person and they're changing my, it's like we really, really understood each other. And so the change was not like, I think they're doing this for this. It was like, I understand it's coming from character. And that came from years of knowing each other and understanding each other's writing.

Molly Fader (10:36):

So when it came to the world building, this is rich, it's intricate, it does build. Things are revealed, battles are fought. And every book, and in a way you're building to this third romance, we're very invested this in Wyn and Xander in the world building. Did you paint yourself into any corners? Were you like this person, for example, Elwin who can't tell a lie, did that ever get like, God damnit, why did we, do

Megan Crane (11:10):

You have to always do an edit? That one? Yeah. Where you're like, oh, she can't say that. That's a lie. Particularly when she's being mean to Xander. You have to have her think it, not say it. She can't say things that aren't true, so she can't. So that was hard because we wrote a little bit that was like, oh, right. We have to be really careful with how she phrases things.

Speaker 4 (11:33):

But I wouldn't say, I can't think of anything specifically. But yeah, and it's just about also, it's a magical world, so you can be like, it's just a spell.

Megan Crane (11:39):

They changed it.

Molly Fader (11:44):

That is a very good get out of jail.

Megan Crane (11:47):

Very

Molly Fader (11:47):

Helpful.

Megan Crane (11:49):

Reality is not required.

Molly Fader (11:51):

So sorry, real quick to go back to sort of the logistics of how you do this. You both very prolific have a lot of books scheduled and you're in the deadlines for a lot of books. How did this fit in and how long does it take you to put these together?

Megan Crane (12:13):

Well, we don't like to tell people how long it actually takes us to write books. Weird

Molly Fader (12:17):

About it. I mean, I would imagine that there's so much conversing and talking about the world building and the book that maybe when you get to the point of writing, it's pretty quick.

Speaker 4 (12:27):

Yeah, it's certainly not laborious. And I think the hardest part is our schedules and making sure that we had a block of time and it didn't always work out great. But I mean that's the great part of a partnership is if somebody's got way too much on their plate, the other person can pick up the slack for a little bit and then vice versa. And you're never falling apart because someone else can jump in and take that. And I think we have different schedules, so we're never both very rarely, both completely slammed at the same time where we can't jump in and do something. But yeah, I don't know. I, I think we usually block out about two months to,

Megan Crane (13:04):

And then Nicole always starts at least a month or half a month earlier than that every time. Hi. I was like, boy, I thought we were starting on this day. Okay. Wow. There's five chapters.

Molly Fader (13:17):

Better early than late, I think. Right? He was two weeks late.

Megan Crane (13:23):

Yeah, we're never late because we're so prolific. I know that I always have a sense that if I miss something, it's a domino effect, then I might as well just jump off a cliff. No catching it. I think we both had a rough summer and that involves a little more panic than I'm used to feeling in my riding life. But you wade through it one way or another.

Molly Fader (13:43):

Yeah. I can't feel like as I've gotten older, I'm just giving, when I think of how fast I could write a book, how fast I used to write a book versus this lackadaisical timeline I give myself now, it's almost, if you give yourself an inch, you'll take a mile or myself.

Megan Crane (14:07):

Same. Well, I always say that people are like, oh, you're so profi. I'm the laziest person I know. I never want to write, I don't want to do anything. I never want to get off my couch. So yes, I dunno how I have to make myself be productive because if I lie down, I'm not getting up

Molly Fader (14:20):

For

Megan Crane (14:20):

Weeks.

Molly Fader (14:21):

If I give myself a week to like, okay, I just finished a book, I need to fill the well more, I need to fill the well more another week. So one of the things that I love, love, love about this book, and I love in your romances, both of your romances, and I would think as romance authors, you might be in the same predicament I am, which I can't read as much romance as I used to because you of see what's happening. And it never gives me the feeling that I want when I read a romance that stomach twisting, oh no moment that I started to read romances for. And when I read your romances, I get that feeling. I love that. I get that feeling in these Hazel Beck books too.

Megan Crane (15:08):

I love that. That you do. That's amazing.

Molly Fader (15:12):

And you kill the enemies to lovers with Ella and Xander here. Can you talk to us about what, and I would say that each of you in your romances have done very effective enemies to lovers, and there's a lot of enemies to lovers out there that don't work. Can you give us what you think are the best rules for successful enemies to lovers in a romance?

Speaker 4 (15:34):

That's

Speaker 5 (15:34):

Interesting.

Speaker 4 (15:37):

I think one of the things that it can't just be like, I think it's, I never want to say, I always feel like there's some writer that can come in and write it in a way that actually works. But I think it's hard to fall for an enemies to lovers where it's just a misunderstanding why they're enemies. And all it takes is a little conversation to fix it up and oh, we're not enemies anymore. And the thing about Ella and Xander is they were lovers to enemies to lovers. So there is a legitimate if teenage childish breakup moment where it wasn't just that they misunderstood each other, which they did, but there was more to it than that. And then you have to come together as grownups and figure that out. And I think good enemies to lovers has a really meaty problem to work through and grow from for both characters to be really successful as a romance, because otherwise it just falls a little flat if you don't have something that they both have to grow from and come to grips with.

Megan Crane (16:37):

I think so too. And I think that the enemies to lovers that I read that don't work is usually because the hero is just angry. And I think that we want to dig into what that anger is. Usually it's fear and hurt. And if you hate someone that much, that you animate your entire life by your hatred for this person, and this is someone and you interact with, I mean, that has to be coming from something deeply personal and it's got to be something that hurts. And I think that the ones that I've read that sort of wrap it up because it was a misunderstanding and it really didn't come from a place of hurt, but just sort of pride or something. I don't think that works as well ever because want it? You want it to hurt.

Molly Fader (17:16):

Yeah. Well, I feel like what works very well in this book and in your romances separately is the moment of vulnerability that has to happen before the lovers part can happen, or the successful lovers part can happen, is how vulnerable they have to be. There has to be a huge vulnerability. And Xander, it's Xander in this case, his story, his vulnerable reasons why were so heartbreaking, they were so heartbreaking, and that it has to do with his mom and that she loved his mom as well. It was a beautiful payoff in that for that. That's nice

Megan Crane (17:58):

To hear.

(17:59):

It really worked. We really wanted this story because you see them fighting and being mean to each other for two books that aren't theirs. So when we got into ELO's Head and we were in their story, I think it was really important to us that we show them fixing something, not just continuing to break it. So that's why it starts the way it does. That's why it's like immediately they have to deal with all these things they haven't dealt with for 10 years. And I think that most of the enemies to deliver stories are the first two books where it's the sniping and the funny things and the Punking. And we did all that and it was fun. But when we got to this book, if we don't show the reader on the page that they find their way back to each other, they're not going to believe it. They're just like, okay, well, they'll just have another fight and break up. So we had to make, noise is very clear that they have sorted out these things that tore them apart and that were really good reasons that they behaved the way they did for the past 10 years. And we got to show that when normally that's the end of a book rather than the whole book.

Molly Fader (18:53):

So another question that I want to ask you, and this is sort of leading because I just want to tell you another thing that I loved about the book. I want you to read all my books. This is amazing, but I have to make it a question that you'll answer. The podcast would be weird if it was just me telling you the things I love about the books. Okay. My favourite podcast. My question is this, what do you think makes a very successful witch novel? Not just a romance, but what does the genre require? And there's a lot of witch novels out there this time of year, and I feel like every year kind of one sort of floats to the top. And I feel like your series has floated to the top. We'll get into that movie rumour, but what do you think it is about your series that has made it such a successful witch fiction?

Megan Crane (19:48):

I think there's different kinds of witch books. I think that they all kind of have fun covers and witchery, but I think there's wallpaper witchery where the magic just infuses the setting and it's just sort of there. And then it's a rom-com or whatever. And I am not saying that in a diminishing way. I think there's something to do before that. You go in and the magic doesn't matter. But in other kinds of stories, and I think we tried to do this, the Magic Matters a lot, and the first book, the story is someone discovering that she's a witch in the first place and discovering the whole world that she didn't know she was living in. It's an amnesia story if you want to get into sort of romance plots. But playing with it in that way and then using a character like Emerson who was like, I already thought I was awesome.

(20:31):

Now I'm amazing was so much fun. But the magic really has to matter. And then she has to learn all sorts of things because of the magic. And in the second book, the heroine had to deny her magic and turn her back on it, go away from it, and then come back to it. And it's like, what does that mean? I think these are metaphors for life. How do you come in and out of your power? How do you even accept that you have power? How do you use your power? How do you use it? Well, do you have power in your misusing it? I mean, I think it's all these, they're just life questions about humans, but you talk about them through witches and we get to do it in all these really interesting ways and have amazing battles with magic, which is fun too. I mean, it's like really, it's like everything you could possibly want in a witch book, in my opinion.

Molly Fader (21:18):

I agree. Nicole, do you have something to add before I tell you why? No,

Speaker 4 (21:23):

I think Megan really hit it on the head there because I think women in particular growing up, we are fascinated by stories of which, I mean, you read them in school like the Witch of Black Pond and doing The Crucible and those types of things. And I think we were the ones who would've been burned, right? It's ingrained in our psyche, so to speak. So I think there is a lot of room to use that in different ways, but I think we were able to try to use it in a lot of different ways, not just one little piece that it's really integral to the whole metaphor of the story.

Molly Fader (22:01):

Yeah, I agree with all of that. And I do feel like the really good ones touch on something about what it means to be a woman in a way that's really provocative and profound, right? It is really, really exciting. I hadn't thought about that. That was not on my list of the reasons why I love this book, but I'm going to add it. I feel like, and now after that really profound answer, I'm going to sound like an asshole, but I feel like one of the things that makes it effective is one, everybody wants a witch to be a little bit of an asshole if they're too nice, it's not interesting. And I loved how elo and throughout the series, there's a lot of witches, but not everybody is rosy and kind and just doing it for the coven, there's some real selfish cold moments in a way that make it real and interesting and provocative. And I loved that about this. I also loved the coven aspect. It's another part of why I'm loving Agatha all along so much. It's like this dark feminine avengers assemble kind of energy where everybody fills a role and they're stronger together than they are apart. And I feel like you nailed that in these books. Was that a hard thing to create over three to four books? Actually,

Speaker 4 (23:31):

I think that stems from our, I think that stems from our writing romance series for so long. We've written about families. To me, it's so hard for me to write a book that stands alone where the characters don't

Speaker 5 (23:46):

Connect.

Speaker 4 (23:47):

I love to connect a community. That's just part of always has been my writing process. So I think to me, it wasn't even, I never thought of it that way because that's just what I do, is try to create people that work together for a greater good some way

Molly Fader (24:04):

Trying to create a spinoff series, trying to create another contract. I get it. I see you sequel

Megan Crane (24:11):

Bait. But we sold all four of these ahead of time,

Molly Fader (24:14):

So we knew they were smart cookies.

Speaker 4 (24:16):

But I think too, I completely lost my thought, so nevermind.

Molly Fader (24:20):

I know. I'm sorry. I interrupted you.

Megan Crane (24:22):

Well, I was going to say that I also think that I personally often find representations of female friendships in media to be extremely shallow

Speaker 1 (24:30):

And

Megan Crane (24:30):

Not representative at all of how friendships are and how they change and how they grow and how they're not one thing or another. They can be everything. They can be so intense and then they can have to take a step back and there's life changes and all the different things that relationships are. And I think we tried to really show those. We have sisters, we have best friends. We have people who've known each other for a long time. We have people who should be listening to other people and don't. That's just how it is. How many times I give my friend the same advice and she's not going to take it. And then one day she's like, I really should have listened to you. And then do you say, yeah, I told you so, or you're like, it's fine. Now you're here.

Molly Fader (25:07):

Right? There is a trend I think in the whole three, particularly like the sisters, there's a lot of forgiveness that has to happen for this group to come together to fight evil. Which brings me to the third thing I really loved about it, which is the high stakes. This is life or death, real and true life or death. And you've got a battle royale in every book. It's good fun or those parts hard to write or fun to write, challenging.

Megan Crane (25:40):

Who's better if you find in retrospect. But see, Nicole is the plotter. She writes a lot of mysteries. So she's really good at keeping her eyes on the prize. I can waft off into Whittering on about the setting and a hand touch to hand for 20 pages. She's sort of like, okay, let's get this going. That's right. We've got a magical battle

Molly Fader (25:57):

To fight,

Megan Crane (26:00):

And we know that certain things have to happen. We know, again, we knew the order of books and we kind of had an idea of what that arc would look like over time. So we always have a vague idea of where we're going. I like the battles. I think they're fun.

Molly Fader (26:14):

They're very fun. They're very fun to read, and they build great. This is a fun series to read, and you still have one more to go. Where are you in that process? And welcome. I mean, this isn't a spoiler. Welcome Dragons.

Megan Crane (26:30):

Every character that you're going to meet that matters is in the first book. I'm just going to throw that out there, Molly.

Molly Fader (26:35):

Nice.

Megan Crane (26:36):

But yeah, the Dragons, who doesn't love a dragon?

Molly Fader (26:42):

I'm tell you that previous to this, except for one,

Megan Crane (26:46):

Thea Harrison, dragon bound of it. Literally the best dragon book I've ever read. To be honest.

Molly Fader (26:54):

I'm thinking of Glinda. It was like a pen name for another romance author.

Megan Crane (26:59):

It's

Molly Fader (26:59):

Going to come to me in four hours. 3:00 AM Yeah. McInnis. Glenda McInnis.

Megan Crane (27:07):

Glenda McInnis. Oh,

Molly Fader (27:08):

Is this coming to anybody

Speaker 5 (27:11):

McInnis?

Molly Fader (27:11):

Yeah. It was one of those big juicy mass market paperbacks. Anyway, I love those. So I love those. So I totally derailed this. Where are you? So where are you in the fourth book? Is it done? Is it off to the

Speaker 4 (27:27):

It is done. It's done. We just have a copy that's left, I believe

Megan Crane (27:33):

We haven't seen a cover yet. We're very

Speaker 4 (27:34):

Excited.

Megan Crane (27:36):

Can we talk about these covers? I mean, they're just amazing. So they hit it out of the park with that first one and then kept going with it ever since. And it's just been one after. They're just so beautiful. I can't,

Molly Fader (27:49):

So this cover, I mean, we've all gotten the thing where it's like you get the email and you're like, open.

Megan Crane (27:56):

Yeah, right.

Molly Fader (27:57):

Was

Megan Crane (27:58):

This the first one? You don't really know what they think the book is until you see the package. So we were like, is this going to be like, what kind of book are they? And then we opened it and it was pretty much that cover, that first cover. I think we made very few changes on that. I

Speaker 4 (28:11):

Think there were originally people on it.

Megan Crane (28:14):

Yeah, we

Speaker 4 (28:15):

Don't shadow people and we didn't want that. But other than that, yeah. I mean it's almost,

Megan Crane (28:19):

It was the same. Yeah, it looked pretty much exactly the same. And if

Speaker 4 (28:21):

You've ever had been over colour, not Yeah. I mean, no. I

Megan Crane (28:27):

Think Holly Overton, I think is the name of the designer. She's amazing.

Molly Fader (28:33):

Fantastic. When you get a good cover, such a gift.

Megan Crane (28:36):

Oh, I know. And then it just because that first one was so great. They've all been great since, I mean, they're just amazing. And so we can't wait to see what the fourth one's going to be like.

Molly Fader (28:46):

Me too. Which leads me to the Instagram post I saw where you did an interview with Variety. Is there talk of a movie? What's happening?

Megan Crane (28:57):

We talk about it a lot. I don't know.

Molly Fader (28:59):

Let's talk about it now. I mean, it was variety. You guys got interviewed in Variety. You're so cool, so cool.

Megan Crane (29:07):

Yeah, it just happens. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes people just call. No, yeah, that was a really fun conversation and that was a really fun headline. So yeah, let's Talk.

Molly Fader (29:19):

Is something happening? No,

Speaker 4 (29:25):

It was a hilarious headline. The question was, would you like to see it be a TV series or a movie? It's like, of

Megan Crane (29:31):

Course, obviously they were like, now I'm mad playing with, well, I mean, start a riot. You have a podcast, get out there.

Molly Fader (29:40):

Somebody picked this up, somebody picked this up for a series.

Megan Crane (29:44):

I honestly think everyone's like, wouldn't it be fun if my book was a movie? And I have lots of books and many of them, I mean, they're so internal, they're romances. I'm not sure they would make good movies, but I think this series would be a fantastic TV show, fantastic movie franchise. It could be any of those things. But I think what's really interesting about that is I know that lots of writers get really excited about that and want to be involved in the process. I personally would not. I like to see what they can do, because a really good book adaptation is an art unto itself. It's certainly not one that I possess. So yeah, I mean, that would be really fun.

Molly Fader (30:20):

It would be really fun. But it's also not, I mean, you don't get into writing to want it to be a movie. The book is the point.

Megan Crane (30:31):

And again, some movies are better than the books that they're taken from. And some books are better than the movies that are made of them. And you just really never know where you're going to fall on that line. And aren't we lucky that we can have both versions Sometimes and I don't know. There's no downside. The books are what we do, and we've been living in this world for a long time. Be weird that we're done.

Molly Fader (30:53):

Yeah. So what is Hazel Beck done? Are you going to take a hiatus, go to another small town and see if inspiration strikes?

Megan Crane (31:01):

That's sort of the plan. We'll see what happens. You know what it's like are kind of waiting.

Molly Fader (31:05):

I did love.

Megan Crane (31:06):

We have some stuff out there. Yeah, we'll see.

Molly Fader (31:10):

As someone from the Midwest, I love the Midwest of it. All the humidity. I did love very humidity. Yeah, it was perfect. Well, I can't wait to see what Hazel Beck does next. I can't wait for the fourth book in the series. What do you two have next on your own? Oh,

Megan Crane (31:35):

I mean, a bunch of Harle. Present a bunch of cowboy books. I

Speaker 4 (31:39):

Got some entries. Yeah.

Megan Crane (31:41):

Got paranormal coming out next year. Paranormal. Yeah. It should be fun.

Molly Fader (31:47):

Yeah, just lot of stuff. Listen, there's nothing you

Megan Crane (31:49):

Should constantly on that hamster wheel, Molly.

Molly Fader (31:51):

Nothing you two can't do. Thank you so much for taking the time to come and speak to me. I know that you guys are really busy about to launch a tour of the Midwest to really experience the fall colours and the humidity at the same time all in one day. Thank you everybody. Thanks for listening to the Day Drinking With Authors. I'm your host, Molly Fader. Keep reading and stay safe. Thanks everybody.

Megan Crane (32:15):

Thank you. Bye.