Where I Left Off

Abby Offsides with Author Anna McCallie

• Kristen Bahls • Season 3 • Episode 13

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 32:34

Send us Fan Mail

Thanks to Penguin Random House - Dell Romance, and author Anna McCallie for taking the time to talk about her debut novel, Abby Offsides.

Support Anna:

Books Mentioned in the Episode:


For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list. 

For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above. 

For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.

Welcome + Current Reads + WIP

SPEAKER_01

Welcome back. I'm Kristen Balls, and you're listening to Where I Left Off, a Bookish Podcast. And today I'm joined by author Anna McCulley and her upcoming release, Abby Offsides. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Hey. So authors always give the best book recommendations, in my opinion. No pressure. So I always have to ask, what are you currently reading and or watching?

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Um, God. I am one of those people who always has like multiple books on the go. Like I have one on my Kindle that I take on the train, one that I read in bed. Um, so let's see, on the Kindle right now, I'm doing an event with Katie Holt in a couple weeks here in London. So I'm reading her latest one, which is called The Last Page. Actually, I'm just about to start reading it. I shouldn't say I'm reading it because then you'll ask me how it is. I'm like, I don't know. I haven't started, but I'm very excited to start it. Uh and then my physical book, I just finished Into the Blue. I mean, like every a lot of people, everyone has read this by Emma Brody, and it was uh extraordinary. It just sort of floored me in the way that she described this like cosmic connection between these two people. Uh, so I really, really loved that one.

SPEAKER_01

Is romance your favorite genre to read?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I think I would have to say yes, although I can't read it when I'm writing. Uh, like when I'm really in the middle of a draft, I can't be in somebody else's romance. So I do read a lot of like kind of upmarket book clubby books. I sometimes will just switch it up and read nonfiction for a really long time, just get everything else out of my head. So I've been reading a biography of uh Da Vinci for about two years now, but it's like oh wow, it's like four inches thick. So I'm just slowly working my way through that one. Are you in a book club? I am. I'm in technically three book clubs, although I'm a sp I'm a sporadic attendee at one of those, and one of them has maybe fallen apart.

SPEAKER_01

But I have a That's the only way to do multiple book clubs.

SPEAKER_00

I know. It's like, oh, I've read that book. Okay, I'll come this month. Yeah. I am in one though that I love and I've been in for about two years, and that is like a I'm a committed attendee for that one, which is nice because it takes the pressure of choosing a book off of me. Sometimes I want, yeah, it's like choosing a restaurant. I don't care where we go, I just want somebody else to choose it for me. So that's been fun. And they just want to have a good time, and there you go. Exactly. So I joined a couple years ago. There's an app, I think it's global, not just the UK. It's called Meetup, and it has like lots of different clubs, and yeah. So I joined it because I really wanted to find a book club, and I joined a couple of them. And this one is perfect. It's called 30 to 45 Ladies of London, which is the age range, not the number of women who are allowed in the club. And it's like everyone has their priorities in order, which is like wine first, book second, and everyone every month, most people have read most of the book. So it's great. It's just like the perfect kind of balance of we have fun, we really like each other, we drink wine, we talk about the book. Great. That sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_01

I'm always telling people to get into book clubs if they can. So that's that's great. It just makes it more fun to be able to talk about it with other people.

SPEAKER_00

It makes it so much more fun. I'll go in with kind of an unformed opinion of a book. Like I think I liked it, but maybe there were some things I didn't like, and just that conversation and helps you draw out what you did like, what you didn't, different perspectives, bringing like new clarity to things that you read. So I yeah, 10 out of 10, highly recommend book club.

SPEAKER_01

I agree. Yeah. And especially if it's outside of the genre that you normally read. I'm using a litfic book club, and that is always wild hearing the discussions.

SPEAKER_00

Totally, totally. And we have this group of women at London, it's like a super global city, right? People come here from all over. So this book club is an incredible mix of British people. There's Americans, there's Nigerians, there's Indians, there's Singaporeans. So we get this great mix of literature because people nominate books. And so I've read a book set in Sri Lanka last year, which I wouldn't have picked up otherwise, but it was fascinating. It was great.

SPEAKER_01

That's so cool. And I'm sure everyone's opinions are really interesting seeing what they come into a book with and how they interpret everything. So that is really cool. Totally. Yeah, 100%. So, what can you tell us about your current work in progress? Kind of what stage are you at right now?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I was extremely lucky to get a two-book deal. And Abbey Off Sides, which is about to come out, is the first one, and the second one. We're having a big discussion over the title right now. So, title TBC, but it's another story of an American woman who moves to the UK because write what you know. But in this instance, she's coming over to do her PhD in economics at a London university. And I have immediately stopped writing what I know because I took economics once and it was a very hard class for me. Program is sponsored by one of London's sort of preeminent hedge fund investment banks, and they do it as like a feeder program so they can recruit new PhDs to come join the bank. And so she quickly meets the guy who runs the program on behalf of the bank. Obviously, there's a conflict of interest there. He's funding her whole life. He's in charge of this program. She doesn't want to be seen as just sleeping her way to the top, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Sparks fly. You know how it goes from there.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, I work in fintech, so now I'm really interested to read this one especially. Oh my god, yes. Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

This sounds so cool. It sounds so good. Okay, I'm I'm ready for this. Um, I was gonna also ask, so as a traditionally published author, again, I know it depends on your publisher and who you're working with, but how much say are you getting in the title? Is it kind of like they're giving you ideas and then you're approving it, or ultimately you just give your feedback and then technically is their decision, or how how included are you in that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's that's a really interesting question. The the short answer is I don't actually know. So Abbey Off Sides is not the was not my title for the book. I had originally called it Me and You and the Beautiful Game. And my agent, when we were about to take it on sub, was like, I think we should retitle it. I I think something a little more punchy. And she came up with a list of things, and I came up with a list of things, and we we picked Abby Off Sides, and she was like, we can always change it later on. And then everything just like snowballed really quickly, and then all of a sudden there was a press release and it was out and it was Abby Offsides. I was like, Oh, okay, that's the name of the book. And I love it, it's it has really grown on me. For the second one, so far, I had a title for it that I like. That title is not off the table, but we were brainstorming a bunch of different things that would kind of encapsulate the romance aspect of it more. If you're scanning it on a shelf, you want it to be like immediately apparent that this is a a romance. And we're at the stage now where we have a list of titles. We've kind of narrowed it down to a short list of ones that we both agree on. We being my editor, my US editor, my UK editor, me, my agent, and like maybe a couple of others in the in the loop. But I'm not sure who gets the ultimate. This is like an ongoing as as we speak. I'm I'm not sure. I think they would never publish something that I was unhappy with, right? If there was a title that I was really just like, I do not want it to be called this. I feel confident they would respect that. Yeah. They know the business, they know the market way better than I do. So it's been really interesting to see how we can approach it from different lenses. And I feel excited about a lot of things on the short list. So it's gonna be great, whatever it's called. Right now it's called Macaulay, untitled Mc Macaulay number two. Rolls right off the tongue.

unknown

Of course.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think it's kind of I don't know. I think it's kind of funny that Abby Offsides ended up being the title. And again, listeners, this is not a spoiler at all, but you know, Abby is used to American football versus soccer. So there's this whole like offside versus offsides thing. So I thought it was really, really smart that that ended up being the title, and that's kind of woven throughout the book in a really funny way.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, and I'm so glad you picked up on that. No one on my team watches soccer at all, which is like I get it, and most Americans don't, but I do, and I am also super pedantic. So I was like, okay, just to be clear though, it's not called offsides in the UK. It's offside, and I don't want British people thinking that I don't know the rule, and they're like, Oh, I don't think anyone's gonna notice. I was like, Yes, they will.

SPEAKER_01

And soccer fans are soccer fans, yes.

SPEAKER_00

Soccer fans are soccer fans, and more importantly, I will notice. So I was like, I think she addresses it in the in like chapter two. I mean, it's up front where I make it clear that offsides is what she has called it from American football, but offside is yeah, so it's like it is addressed early and often.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna be honest, I wouldn't have even known that had I not watched Ted Lasso. Right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and but more people are are becoming aware. So it's it's very important to me.

SPEAKER_01

Well, especially with Lachlan's character, obviously he's going to be pedantic about that because it is his dream, his sport. Like it completely makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

It's his sport. He loves he loves roasting her because she's American. They also because that is a very common experience for Americans who move to the UK. So, like, yeah, of course, if he if she calls it off sides, he's gonna pick up on that. Um, and he does, and it's great.

SPEAKER_01

And hypothetically, okay, if you could write a book with anyone and they could be your co-author, who would you pick?

SPEAKER_00

Uh, such a good question. My first answer, I think, is like too cliched because I would say Jane Austen, because she's my favorite. Classic. Right, classic. Why like why wouldn't you? I also think just think it would be so funny, especially if she was coming with her Regency era sensibilities, and I'm here in 2026, like, oh, and then and then they banged, and she's like, excuse me, what? They did what you mean he he removed her glove? Yeah, Jane. That's that's what I mean. I think from a more modern perspective, I idolize Tina Faye. I think she's like so smart and so funny. This is like not a hot take at all. Every everyone agrees. I think it would be just we'd have a blast in a writer's room together, kind of putting thinking up hijinks and absurdist situations to put our characters through. I love that. Have you read her book? Yes, I loved it. I also listened to it on audiobook because she narrates it.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, and she narrates it. That's the best form. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_00

That is my preferred way to read audiobooks, is if their memoir is narrated by the person who wrote it. I think because then it's just like, oh, you are telling me this story.

SPEAKER_01

And it just makes sense because I would have read it in her voice anyway. So hear it in her voice is great. That's a great pick. That would be so funny.

SPEAKER_00

I oh yeah. I I that I mean that's the dream. Whatever you would create would be gold. Thank you. Yeah, let's let's manifest it. We're putting it out into the universe. So Tina, just give me a call.

SPEAKER_01

But yes, Amy Polar. Oh, I love her podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, her podcast is amazing, and her memoir is really good too. I read it shortly after Tina's, and it's like it's funny to see the differences in their personalities because Tina is such a like goody two shoes, and Amy Polar is talking about like, you know, doing drugs and having these like crazy 90s, and Tina's like, I'm, you know, I'm a well-behaved adult virgin. So I I really loved the contrast because they're both so funny and they're so funny together. I know. I love it.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so talking a

Abby Offsides by Anna McCallie

SPEAKER_01

little bit more about Abby Offsides. So what were the challenges of balancing? I mean, we kind of already started talking about this a little bit with Offside and Offsides, but balancing accurate soccer slash football uh details with the pacing of a romance novel.

SPEAKER_00

I am the kind of writer who, I mean, this goes back to me being totally pedantic. I always want details to be exact. So in my current work in progress, at one point the main character has to fly from London to Chicago. And for the story reasons, I needed her to be on like a 6 p.m. flight. And I looked, and there aren't any 6 p.m. flights. The latest leaves at like three or four. And I almost scrapped the whole scene because I was like, well, this is just not possible. It's like, okay, hold on. It is actually possible. It's not like I'm saying she leaves at one in the morning. Like, you can do this. Um, when I was talking about the soccer aspects of the book, I was like, I need people to know what's the difference between a striker and a forward? What's the difference between a midfield, like the different kind of midfielders and fullbacks and defenders? And there's a scene early in the book when Abby is getting this very high-level overview of the game from her friend, Amina. And that scene was originally like three or four paragraphs longer because she was really getting into the weeds. And uh one of my friends, who is one of the earliest readers and who herself is a massive soccer fan, was like, listen, I appreciate this, but I think the average reader is gonna glaze over because they need to know that, like, there's a goalie, there's some people up front who score, there's some people in the middle who orchestrate, and there's guys at the back who defend. That's all you need to know. So it was helpful to have that kind of outside perspective of, yeah, we don't need to get into like ESPN level analysis of the tactics here. You can just say it's it's like foosball. But if you did, it would be accurate. So Yeah, exactly. If you did, I will tell you all about it. I know exactly what type of midfielder Lachlan is. Um, so I know the tactics of the team. So I'm waiting for, I'm waiting for, I don't know, Travis. I'll go on Travis Kelsey's podcast and do a big uh analysis of the of the tactics of Mersey FC.

SPEAKER_01

So have you been a soccer fan all your life, or was this kind of new for the book you decided to really dive into research?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, not all my life. I think like a lot of Americans, I played soccer as a kid, but in a very loosey-goosey way. Like I all I remember is just sort of doing cartwheels and playing duck duck goose at practice and like having a jersey. But I don't know if I ever played a game uh when I was like five or six. And then it just sort of disappeared from my life for a really long time until I was in college and I had a massive crush on this guy in my dorm, and he was a big Liverpool fan, and I don't remember why, but I was like, oh yeah, so the way to make him fall in love with me is to like make him think that I love soccer. Uh so I watched a lot of games with him, and the bad news is he did not fall in love with me, but the good news is I did fall in love with that team. Really a better outcome in the end. A way better outcome. And it's you know, we're still friends. I went to his wedding, like I love him dearly. He gave me this wonderful gift. So yeah, it's been let's say half my life that I've been a pretty serious soccer fan. So that made research really fun because I just got to watch Instagram and YouTube videos of my favorite players, like hanging out.

SPEAKER_01

I was gonna say, I really like to read romance sports romance books of sports that I don't know as much about, and then I actually kind of pick up things. Um, so thank you. Thank you for teaching me a little more soccer.

SPEAKER_00

You're so welcome. This is like this is such a fun side quest. I feel like I'm a one-woman ambassador for soccer in the US.

SPEAKER_01

So me and Ted Lasso, me and Jason speaking this. Oh my gosh, I cannot wait for the next season to come out. Don't even give me stream.

SPEAKER_00

Me too. I know, I know. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_01

I'm gonna join Apple TV again just just for the center. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So what drew you to writing Abby and Lachlan together, even though, of course, they face a lot of huge obstacles over the course of the book.

SPEAKER_00

I really like talking about the fact that Lachlan is married because I don't want it to be treated as a spoiler. It's on the back cover of the of the book. It comes up like very early on. And I I know a lot of romance readers especially are really uncomfortable with that, which I totally respect. But I did, as I was writing it, three of my friends were going through divorces, and I I just felt like something that was part of his story and that I wanted to explore and to realize that like divorce, in at least in my experience, doesn't happen because of these big salacious reasons most of the time. It's just you grow apart, your priorities change. It turns out that you have really different opinions on things that you agreed on 20 years ago, and you know, you you realize you're you're better apart. That is obviously a huge obstacle because you want to make sure that there's no cheating. I wanted to make sure that it was very clear that Lachlan, it's not like he was super happy with his wife, and then he met Abby and then everything changed. Like, no, they were estranged already. Then he met Abby, then he and Abby became very, very good friends, and meanwhile, he was still trying to figure out what was what to do with his life, whether his marriage could be saved, whether they were better off going their separate ways. And so I feel like a lot of times in romance books the love interest kind of just exists to meet the needs of the main character. And that's great. Sometimes, like, that's all you want. But for me, I I wanted Lachlan to have his own arc and his own journey because Abby's on a really similar one, and the and the breakup of her engagement, and I think that's a lot of the reason why they're drawn together, is they're both people that are hurting and confused and scared, and it's terrifying to be alone after being with someone for so long. And people tell you to make the leap, and other people tell you don't give up what you've got, and there's a thousand voices in your head, and and that fear and that uncertainty. I really wanted to capture that for both of them. So I know this is making it sound like a really serious book, but I promise mostly it's like banter and jokes. Um it is.

SPEAKER_01

The banter is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. But yeah, yeah, I think I realize that's kind of an unconventional setup for a rom-com for a romance novel. It was important to me to cover it because of things that were happening in my life. And I hope people give it a shot and I hope that I land the plane correctly so that everybody feels okay and happy at the end.

SPEAKER_01

And the way that I kind of think about it is more like it's a fun romance with grit. So like you have the gritty scenes for like I I need grit. I need something to kind of hold on to, but then I also, like you said, it's not it's not a downer book, it's there's a lot of levity in there, so I get a lot of the banter too. So it kind of melts them really well together.

SPEAKER_00

So I love that. Thank you. Yeah, it's it's a romance with grit. That's exactly what it is. Because that's life, right? Like there's there's always something, and very few of us get to go through it super easy breezy, no problems ever. So it's I don't know. I like I like that realism.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And Abby and Lachlan can kind of anchor each other in storm.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and like, you know what? People make mistakes and people make the wrong decisions. And if we give them space and support, they can realize that and make better decisions moving forward. And I think that's that was important for me to show as well. And I feel like they set out as a friendship.

SPEAKER_01

It's not like they set out to be romantic partners, they just kinda ran into each other and it just a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00

And that was so important for me as well. It was like, if I don't get the friendship right, if I don't, if you can't believe them as friends, why would you believe them as lovers, especially since they start out under this like cloud of uncertainty? So I think there is a world in which they are just friends, right? And then it, you know, something happens and it turns and they it becomes something more. But I I love their friendship so much. I truly believe that they were people who were meant to find each other in some way. And they are fictional people that I made up, but I believe this very deeply in my heart.

SPEAKER_01

So as they're building their friendship, um, what was your favorite inside joke that Abby and Lachlan have?

SPEAKER_00

I love all the nicknames he gives her. I think nicknames are so fun, and I just think it's like such a pure way of expressing how you feel about somebody, like that you care enough about them to give them a nickname. Nicknames are a s are a really big British thing, especially in like lad culture on football teams. Like, no football player is ever called by their name. My favorite player is a guy named Andy Robertson, and everyone calls him Robbo. Like, I'm sure there are people on the team who don't even know his first name is Andy. So I wanted there to be this like, oh yeah, they give her a nickname. The whole team gives her a nickname really early on. They call her Maca because her last name is McIntyre. Uh, but then I wanted Lachlan to kind of do some iterations and and come up with an with some nicknames that are just his alone. That's my favorite.

SPEAKER_01

I think he did say at one point, like, this is just for us, because I wanted to give you a nickname. And I'm like, oh my gosh. I know. It's like, oh my god, Lachlan, that's so sweet. So if Abby Offsides were adapted into a movie, what scene would just have to make it in the trailer?

SPEAKER_00

I think, okay, so I think there were two because uh this book to me is it's a romance, but also it's so much about the found family and sort of Abby's journey in the UK and the people that she surrounds herself with as she's rebuilding her life. So I think from A romance angle, there would have to be scenes of Abby and Lachlan go to the lake district together, which is a big, beautiful national park a few hours north of Liverpool. And that is a little bit of a turning point in their relationship. And, you know, I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say more. But there's some very like, you could first of all just get the beautiful scenery of the lakes and the mountains up in the lake district. And then this kind of, oh, uh-oh, what's what's happening here? This is my friend. And then from the found family elements, I think one of my favorite scenes in the book is when they're all at practice and Abby is there filming things because she does social media for the team, and all the players are trying to basically do this thing called top bins, which is like get the ball into the upper back corner of the goal, which is really hard. And they're all kind of they have a bet going on to see who can do it. And then they make Abby do it. And she's like, she is not an athlete, and she's also not like a pick me girl who, oh my god, she has this natural and like gift for football, and we no, no one ever knew. Like, no, she fails completely. I loved that. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I loved it so much. I was like, because that's what would happen to me, because I would have this thing in my head of like, but what if I do it? Like, what if I nail it? And then I would probably end up falling down. So I love that scene because I think that's when she first really like feels that she's one of the gang, because they all kind of pile on and they roast her in a very British way, but like in a very supportive and funny way. So I think somehow getting that scene in the trailer would be good. This trailer is 10 minutes long at this point. Why not?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Why not? Um, who is your favorite side character and why? There are so many good ones to choose.

SPEAKER_00

I think I have to say Bashe, who is a another player, another Scottish player on the team. So he and Lachlan not only play for their club together, but they play for their country together. So they're very, very good friends. And he's just pure joy, this sort of manic energy, treats Abby like she's his sister, just a really, really fun silliness, but also like a deeply passionate person who cares immensely about the team and about the people on it. I think he's my favorite. I really enjoyed writing him.

SPEAKER_01

It's a really fun character. Uh, whenever you were plotting out the book, did you plot out the entire team, their positions, and where they were from, or did that kind of come as you were writing?

SPEAKER_00

I have a list of the team. It was basically it was a little bit of a mix. I knew that I would need certain positions covered. Like you have to know who the goalie is because there's only one of him. And I didn't, you know, of course there are backup goalies, but again, we don't need to get into that. Um, I knew where Lachlan was gonna play. So I made a list, and then as I came to a bit in the story where I needed somebody, I would kind of say, okay, I haven't mentioned a center back yet. Let's make this character a defender. Because I also didn't want there to be, wait, why are there only midfielders on this team? So it was more, again, for that veracity bit of like making sure that they had a well-rounded team. So I think I had in the end, I don't think I had a full 11, but there are probably six or seven named players, maybe eight named players, and they all have a country of origin. That was fun because it's it's just like football is such a global sport. And so I I really wanted to encapsulate that as well and make sure it wasn't just a bunch of English dudes on a team, but they're they're from all over the place.

SPEAKER_01

That's smart. Yeah. And listeners always want to hear a little bit more about traditionally published authors' journeys and how you kind of got where you are. So if you can tell me a little bit more about how you became an author.

SPEAKER_00

I was trying to think of something funny to say because the real answer is I don't know. A lot of things, yeah, like came together and yeah. I think I threw a a penny in a well when I was a child, and then like decades later, this all happened. I don't have a traditional writer's background. I don't have an English degree, I don't have an MFA. I had never published anything before this. And I think a a lot of that is I always kind of knew in the back of my mind that I liked writing and maybe that I was kind of good at it. You know, I was scribbling little stories and stuff as a kid, but at some point it felt like I had missed the window where you stand up and say, I want to be an author. And so I just did all these other things that were also really interesting to me. And then when I was in my mid-20s, I was working at a nonprofit and a girl that I worked with, who's a few years older than me, she had written a book and I watched her edit it and get an agent and go on submission and publish it. And her name is Kate McGovern, and she writes amazing YA and middle grade books. So shout out to Kate. And it was this thing that kind of demystified the whole process to me because she wasn't this from this like anointed writer's class. She was my friend that I worked with, and I saw what went into her publishing the book. And that was the first time that I thought, like, oh, maybe, you know, maybe I can do this, or at least I can try, and at least there's a pathway to it. And Abby Off Sides is the third book I've finished, but the fifth book that I've started. So there was a lot of trial and error along the way. The first book I ever finished was this young adult dystopia that I finished in 2017. So, like years after the Hunger Games and Divergent bandwagon had left the station. But I still thought, like, yeah, this is it. I'm gonna be a billionaire. Um, spoiler alert, I did not sell that book. And then I started something else, and then I wrote something, another thing during lockdown that I loved, and I really put in the legwork to query that. And it was a Pride and Prejudice retelling, speaking of my love of Jane Austen. And I got feedback from a couple of agents that were like, listen, this is a crowded market. I don't think I can sell this book, but I I really like your writing, so please send me whatever you do next. And that felt like the best kind of encouragement. Because if you're gonna get rejected, it's nice to have it be a no but. And so that was enough to kind of let me keep powering on. And then with Abby, wrote it in 2022, 23, and finished it sort of early in 2024. And I knew in the back of my mind, like, I know how long the lead times are in traditional publishing. I know I have to get an agent and we have to go on sub and everything is gonna take time. But if I can do this right, this could be released in summer 2026 when the World Cup is happening. And I made sure to tell everyone along the journey that because it felt like this is such a zeitgeisty moment. Let's not waste it and let's like try to put some urgency behind this for myself as well. Uh, I had a lot of come to Jesus meetings with myself, like finish this book because this window is gonna close and you're gonna be so mad at yourself. Um, yeah, I don't know. Like I can I can talk about the journey beyond that, but basically the long, long story short is I found an agent and we went on sub and everything happened very, very quickly. Um I got incredibly lucky with timing and just how everything shook out. And now Abby is gonna be on your shelves. And in time for the World Cup. And in time for the World Cup. Like we did it, we did it, Joe. Um, so it's like as I was preparing to sign with my agent, Ina Garden, the barefoot Contessa. I mean, that my dream, I love her so much. She published a memoir called Be Ready When the Luck Happens. And that was kind of my mantra for the whole thing, because yeah, there is a lot of luck involved in publishing. And it would be like totally naive to think that there wasn't. At the same time, you do have to have something, you know, you have to be ready. You have to have written your manuscript and edited it and sent it to friends and gotten feedback. And if I hadn't done all of that, then all of these great opportunities that cropped up, I wouldn't have been able to take advantage of. So it's very much like, yeah, that was my, I just kept repeating it. Be ready when the luck happens, be ready when the luck happens. Also finish this book so it can come out for the World Cup. That's less catchy as a mantra, but I was repeating it a lot.

SPEAKER_01

And just pointing out a trend that I've noticed. Um, I don't, yeah, I don't think I've had any traditionally published authors on that have said that their first book that they wrote was the one that you picked up. It's always like your third or your fifth, and you just use those to step into the stepping stone of getting there. So it is a really long process most of the time.

SPEAKER_00

Totally. And I'm sure it does happen. Yeah. But even if it is your first book, like there's no way it's the first time you ever sat down and thought about something. You know, we all wrote fan fiction, we all wrote like short stories as kids. I have to assume, because it's it is a slog writing a book, and I understand why it can be so disheartening, but it's also so much fun. So keep doing it. Like, genuinely, that's my super hot take is just keep going.

SPEAKER_01

I could just imagine someone like sitting at their computer being like, I don't want to, and then they're like, no, just keep going. Just keep going. This person said so. Is there anything else that you would like readers to know?

SPEAKER_00

I hope you enjoy the journey. I hope you fall in love with this team as much as I did. People always ask me if I'm gonna do another sports romance, and my answer is just like, I can't imagine loving another fictional team as much as I love these lovable idiots. So they mean the world to me, and I'm so excited for everyone to be able to experience the highs and the lows of Mersey FC.

SPEAKER_01

Me too. That's it for today. Thanks for listening to Where I Left Off, a bookish podcast. You can visit Anna's site, add her book on Goodreads, follow her on social media, and purchase her novels anywhere books are sold. Abby Off Sides is available June 23rd, 2026.