Lex.Btw.TheLines...

From Urban Drama To Erotic Thrillers With Anna J

• T-Lay Enterprises Podcast Studios • Season 1 • Episode 16

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We meet author Anna J, trace her path from urban drama to erotic thriller, and dig into how she builds unforgettable characters like Monica and Dylan. We unpack why representation matters, how warnings protect readers, and what’s coming next in her expanding thriller universe.

• creating the book she wanted to read when no one else was writing it
• designing Monica as a disruptive, cautionary force
• flipping zodiac traits to subvert character expectations
• crafting The Hunt as an erotic thriller with a Black lead
• balancing realism, terror and informed consent with trigger warnings
• using dialect and a glossary for authentic island voices
• co‑writing methods and pushing boundaries in Erotic Snapshots
• side projects including Big Back coloring books and Black‑centric journals
• previewing Copycat, a Morgan prelude and the name to remember, Zanaya
• rebuilding confidence after an eight‑year break and returning gloves off

Follow Anna on Facebook: author Anna J; Instagram: author Anna J; TikTok: scribeatphilly. “Type in Anna J. I’m on the Google, I’m on air.”


outro

SPEAKER_01:

It's innocent. Look how pictures like what your face part, baby. Oh here. What what are we about to get into?

SPEAKER_04:

Ma'am, you what I what did I do? What did tell me what I did? Run it.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh child, Lord Jesus. Did you read your book?

SPEAKER_04:

I read it. I I I read it. I read it.

SPEAKER_03:

Um what had happened was that's that's yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That's how that's how we start telling them stories.

SPEAKER_01:

What had happened was and the fact that we haven't even mentioned a book, but we already it's the fact that a book wasn't even mentioned, but ma'am.

SPEAKER_04:

You know what? I mean, I I like to thank my mama for giving me birth. Um, I don't know if Christ. I mean, like, I don't know what y'all want me to say.

SPEAKER_03:

Like, listen, listen, and I thank them too, because let me tell you, you have no idea.

SPEAKER_01:

Let me say Lord, we thank you for her mind. That the the thoughts, the creativity that you created and that you placed in her the gifts. We thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01:

We ain't even introduced ourselves as we are.

SPEAKER_03:

We done got right into okay, okay, okay. But rewind, I'm sorry. Professionalism. Welcome to BDST with Toya. I am your host Toya. Joining me today is Lex Between the Lines and the amazing energy.

SPEAKER_05:

Y'all came on here.

SPEAKER_04:

Y'all came on here starting up and I just got here. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I wouldn't have said that had you and I came on like this later, like this little post like Anna.

SPEAKER_03:

Um what the what the listen, listen. I'm gonna start from the top. Anna, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the types of books that you write?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, yeah, so my name is Anna J. Hey y'all, Philly Girl, born and raised. Um, I write a little bit of everything. I don't have a particular genre that I write in. I just kind of let the pen tell me what's gonna happen today. So you're gonna get a little bit of everything. You're gonna get uh a little messy drama, you're gonna get some urban fiction, you're gonna get a neurotic thriller. You know, you're gonna get whatever you know was what's going on in my head at the moment. I don't I don't write in a box. You and y'all not putting me in there. So yeah. I'm busting out. Let me free. Baby, free me.

SPEAKER_03:

So baby, and I appreciate you not being in the box. I started with you. I was young, young. I was not supposed to be reading no no daggone, um, my woman his wife.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, you have you have no clue how many times I've heard that over the years. I don't think I had any business writing my woman his wife when I wrote it. So how old were you when you wrote it? Um I started writing it when I was 22. And I actually turned it in for publication at 24. I am 48 now. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01:

How the heck do you know about that kind of drama at 22?

SPEAKER_03:

Baby.

SPEAKER_04:

You know what had happened was because that's one of my questions.

SPEAKER_03:

Where did the idea come from?

SPEAKER_04:

So here's the thing. I've always been an avid reader. I've always been an avid reader, and what I noticed early on was that the books that I wanted to read weren't written. And if I wanted the drama, if I wanted the the mouth the mouth drop, if I wanted the oh my god, did she just say that? I had to write it. Cause wasn't nobody else doing it. Not that there weren't great books in it back in the day, because we, you know, we had our Omar Tyree, we had Sister Georgia, we had Treasure Blue, you know, we had Kawan. So it's not like it wasn't there, but it wasn't written the way I wrote it. So I kind of had to step up to the plate, if you will, and make it happen.

SPEAKER_03:

That's true.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I guess that's how it started. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That book was extremely messy, and I loved every second of it. Um, anytime someone tells me that they read any form of urban fiction or something is messy, I immediately recommend that book, which was how Lex got off that book. I was like, have you heard of Anna J? She was like, mm-mm. I said, oh no, no, no, no. You need to read her book.

SPEAKER_01:

No, let me tell you, she said, I had a book that I think you and your wife could read together. So I was like, okay, and then it said my woman is wife. So I was like, okay, this sounds like um a lady about to get taken. I mean, um, you know, from her husband and she's gonna switch to the so I'm thinking, okay, me and my wife. So I started reading it before I my wife don't really read anyway. So I probably would have been reading it to her, just telling her about it. Page one. I said, wait, what? Wait, what character is this? Wait, what? I was so confused and I read it again. I said, oh. Wait, what how am I supposed to read? My wife already be thinking, well, she don't think I'm innocent or nothing like that. But the extent of the stuff that I be reading, she just be like, you be reading them nasty books, but she don't know the extent of the nasty.

SPEAKER_04:

I imagine me and my wife years later, and she was like, Oh, wait, you the one that wrote that? I was like, Oh. So what had happened was um I like to think that um I do a fairly great job at bringing people in from the first page. I know for me as a reader, you'll you don't have too many pages before I put that thing down.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_04:

So I like to think um that if I catch you immediately, you ain't you ain't going nowhere until I let you go. You stuck with me. So yeah. You ain't turn me loose. I ain't fitting to either. Tell why can't you?

SPEAKER_01:

What did these characters come from? Like, how did you create these characters? Did are are they based on people you like know, or these characters just kind of form themselves in your head?

SPEAKER_04:

So when I first started writing my woman and his wife, I knew that Monica was a mess, right? Monica was a whole mess. Um, I didn't want it to be the typical um guy meets girl, brings girl home, they have a threesome. You know, Monica had her own motive. She was the one to look out for. You didn't know that initially. You know what I mean? She was the one to look out for. So it was kind of like it you brought this lady home and you had no clue that at the extent that she would go to ruin your home. This woman was wow. Did y'all meet Monica?

SPEAKER_03:

Like this baby, Monica was something else.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. But you know, killing part. Like, where does she come from?

SPEAKER_01:

My wife's name is Monica.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh man. Listen, Monica is just one of those characters that just won't let you rest. And when when you hear authors say that the characters talk to you, that's a real thing. I actually wrote Monica again in a book called The Serial Wife. Um, and she's still with the shenanigans. You know what I mean? She was just, I wanted her to be so diabolical that any man that read that book that thought that they was gonna bring this woman home, you thought three times about it. Not twice, thrice. Like, I don't think I want to do that. Because they always want the threesome until they don't.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04:

So, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't think anybody should be having a threesome with somebody who was stealing drawers and painting murals on the wall because of what?

SPEAKER_01:

She literally a cautionary tale. She is literally a cautionary tale. Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

That's all I write. That's all I write is cautionary tales. I want you, I want you to take something from everything that I write, regardless of what this the situation is. You gotta take something from it. And Monica was the reminder to cherish your vows or not, and see what happens.

SPEAKER_03:

I can't, you know what? And so that book, I'm trying to remember. That book was based in Philly as well.

SPEAKER_04:

Yep, so my it was based in Philadelphia, and then um the aftermath was more, you learned more about Monica because after I wrote my woman, his wife, people was like, yo, where the hell did this girl come from? Like, where happened to her? Like, who hurt you, sis, you know? So I I had to give you the backstory because people like that don't just show up one day. That that's been in the beginning. So um I wrote the aftermath and I kind of gave you like her childhood, you know, kind of how she had to learn to fend for herself, pretty much. And for Monica, it was never a love thing. It was a um, I want that, let me go get it. And and I I would say loosely, very loosely, very loosely, y'all, she has because I'm a Virgo myself. So what I typically do with my characters, I I I assign them a zodiac, I create a character profile, I assign them a zodiac, and I typically have them act the opposite of what people think the zodiac should act like. So Monica is my Virgo, 827, and she's kind of like if I if I had that kind of crazy spirit, that's who I would be. If I had it in me, but I don't. So yeah, I made her act the total opposite. So she was kind of like the man, what a man will typically do we think. Yes, yeah, surprise. Yeah. So yeah, I wrote the point.

SPEAKER_03:

We baby, we're gonna get to the hunt in a minute because I have a question about somebody being Aries. We'll get to that in a minute. Because I feel like I feel like one of her characters is an earrings like me.

SPEAKER_00:

But what a nice Sagittarius character.

SPEAKER_04:

Ain't no, it ain't no, no, um, and the craziest part is um when I when I created James, I made him a Leo, of course, the king of the jungle. He wasn't that kingly. He let this woman come in there and tear his house up. So I gave everybody the opposite traits of what they should be. And then you got my I think you got um Jasmine, who was his wife, who's our Aries, our bossy one. You know what I mean? She was the only one that was um that was true to her sign. And I I had a good time with them. Um, I just I was just thinking, like, you know, what else could this woman do? Like, how could she take this to the top? And then once she topped that, how can she top it again? That was my whole mindset when I was writing that series. If I can make that bad, how can this be worse?

SPEAKER_01:

Because how did you keep up with those storylines? I said Monica had so much going on. It was like not only that, because you know, when you read stories like this, you may see it centered around like just that one couple, but Monica had stuff going on with the governor, the mayor, then the police officer that pulled up, and then it cross-connected with like it was just so many different things, and then did she see the police officer again with another situation? But something happened with his low.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_04:

How did you she was she was one of those untouchable people? She was just kind of like, like, who you gonna check? Me? Impossible. Wait, check who, your mama.

SPEAKER_03:

What kind of research goes into that? Like, I don't know. Well, at least back then, what kind of research went into that?

SPEAKER_04:

I don't know that any research did. To be honest with you, we were just young and wild. When I was in my 20s, I was outside, baby. Okay, so I you know, this the escape, this little escapades and sexcapades and whatever other kind of page we had went into the went into the book. We were we was living. We was living.

SPEAKER_02:

So baby, I am here for at all. At all. Now I just summer down a little bit.

SPEAKER_04:

I summer down a little bit since then. But um I had I had a great time with Monica, and also because I knew that I've never read a character like her. I've never, not even to this day have I read a character like her. So it was one of those things where I knew that I wanted her to be somebody that would be unforgetta. Oh, she definitely is 24 years later. And it's like, mm, yeah, you still wow, huh? Yeah, I'm still wild. And every so often she, you know, she peeks her little head out like, Anna, what you working on? So, you know, we'll see. Um I want to say 2013. Between 11 and 13, um, I got the opportunity to do a short story. And Monica was like, Oh, I'm coming back outside. And I said, Are you now? What had happened? What we finna do? The serial wife came about, and she she was trying to be regular, and she she don't have a regular bone in her, unfortunately. So she's one of those kind of characters where you once you provoke her, she she's you you woke a sleeping beast pretty much. I was minding my business, and then here you come pulling on my coattails. Now I'm up. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01:

Did you really have to provoke her though? Did you really have to provoke her?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, not not early on, not early on, but by the time we got to the serial wife, she was older. She was older, she had lived a little bit, you know. I mean really looking for looking for love, you know? And then you know, people started acting up. So she was like, Oh, y'all forgot who I was, huh? Let me show you right fast. Hold on, be right back. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That was the serial book. Yes, the serial book.

SPEAKER_04:

The serial wife, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I need I got another book. I need to, yeah. You wrote a book.

SPEAKER_04:

Y'all thought she acted up, but she she really acted up in this in that one. But yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Wait, Nami on the podcast going to find the book and add it to my cart because I'm getting ready to order it right now.

SPEAKER_01:

It was the serial wife.

SPEAKER_03:

Listen, got it. So with books like that, with uh My Woman, his wife, um, you also wrote a book called Um When Good Wives Go Bad.

SPEAKER_04:

Exposed When Good Wives Go Bad.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, yes. With books like that, how did we get to the hunt? I know you said you wasn't gonna stay in no box, but where did the hunt? Okay, yes.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, my guy Dylan. I love me some him. I I really do.

SPEAKER_03:

Is Dylan an Aries?

SPEAKER_04:

Do you want Dylan to be an Aries?

unknown:

No.

SPEAKER_04:

I no, I actually I actually made um I actually made Dylan a Gemini, um, actually. Um, The Hunt. So I started reading Thriller maybe like three years ago, two, three years ago. Um, my first introduction to Thriller was Never Lie by Freedom McFadden. Mouth was open. I said, wait a minute. This this is what people writing. And then I was thinking to myself, like, well, where are the where are the black girls that's writing this? Like, where I know we out here, do we gotta be out here doing it, you know? And I I end up uh reading Octavia Grant. And I said, Oh, here we go. This this here we are, you know what I mean? And I said to myself, I said, um, every thriller, not every thriller, but most of the thrillers I've read, especially by like my Freedom McFadens, my Kirsten Mogglins, Geneva Roses, they all kind of sound the same. And I couldn't really identify with those people, to be honest with you. I wanted a character that people could identify with. I wanted somebody that sounded like me. I wanted somebody that looked like me. I wanted somebody from where I was from. And I wanted somebody that had a secret that he really, really couldn't tell anybody. And it'd be a secret that was hereditary. So he didn't, you know, his apple was still on the tree. He didn't just become crazy one day. His apple was still on the tree. And Dylan Hunt was born. Um, I love him. He's he's next to Monica, like they they kind of share the number one spot. He's he's one of my favorite people in the world, and I was hoping that people will be open to receiving him because he's not your typical SK.

SPEAKER_03:

True.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

True. Okay, so I I have a question real fast before Lex jumps in. I just real quick, because she I could tell by a look on her face, she got a question. Was was uh was Dylan telling his story from inside the ground under the dirt because the way the book ended, I'm just like where was he okay?

unknown:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm trying to be so tame. No, don't be tame, don't be tame at all.

SPEAKER_04:

Um, Dylan was telling his story the way it needed to be told. That's my answer, and I'm sticking to it.

unknown:

Anna.

SPEAKER_03:

So possibly in the dirt, but maybe not in the dirt. Because he because the way it ended.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. So um the way it so when I first started writing it, it wasn't my intention to write um any other. I was gonna write a thriller, a thriller, a singular. But then by the time I got done, I was like, uh and then people was like, well, wait a minute. But what about this and what about that? And and we had and now we have a copycat. Who was that? Is it his sister, is it his mom, is it his dad? Is it somebody at the restaurant? Then I started writing something else because is you need to know who these other people are and where they came from. So now we have a series. Uh I'm still not gonna say whether he was writing it from the grave. Just know he told his story. Well, by the way.

SPEAKER_03:

Very well.

SPEAKER_04:

Um it it would it would be who you remember the details because yeah, there's more coming.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my god, is it gonna be like a crossover where we gotta go back and look at the details of this book and oh it's gonna overlap?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, so when I typically when I write a sequel, I write a continuation. We're not fitting a recap. This is not, we're not on Netflix. We're not recapping the first, we're not recapping the first season. We're gonna keep this story going. We're gonna keep moving that way. So I'm not gonna say it's an overlap, but um, the characters do follow us through the next books. So you'll get to um you'll get to learn more about Officer Morgan, for example. She she was the one that they board, and if you remember, when they was really trying to catch it, and they said, Well, we need somebody else. So they called her. So you'll learn more of her story um and how it all ties in together. You'll learn that um some of the people that you met along the way are not who you thought they were. So um from the officer squad or from the off from the officer squad from that restaurant, you'll you'll quickly learn, like, oh, I thought, no.

SPEAKER_03:

Because I had questions about the lady that they brought in, honey, because to her and her husband were. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04:

I was like sometimes you you take one for the team, they said, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, and it threw me off.

SPEAKER_04:

I said, Y'all just okay, y'all, we just gonna how many but how many, but how many crooked cops do we know? You know, not that she was you know crooked in a bad way, but you you know, sometimes you gotta go above and beyond and get and do what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it was thankfully they had that understanding, and they had incentives to go with the um yeah, yeah, yes, legs to go with you. When the when when the friend came in and she she slid off, I said, This lady really, I ain't never read no stuff. Like, I can literally say in each book that I have read of yours, it's always like, I ain't never read no shit like this. Like what? But I did want to ask, I remember you said there was a um in the opening that there was a part where I don't know if you had a nightmare and your wife had to kind of walk you through it, or what what which part? I was like, I wonder because there was just so many, there were just so many parts and stuff. First of all, a lot of parts, it read like a movie, so I was laying up, it was like I could vividly see like what was going like it really reads y'all.

SPEAKER_04:

That's always my hope when I'm writing a book that you can see how I see it. Because it's playing like a movie for me too.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So so like when I and I'm just gonna tell you, like, I'm not an outliner, I don't have an outline, I don't know these people. I'm getting to learn them as I'm writing. So I didn't know who Dylan was initially, he just kept showing up one day. So I'm like, oh, you want to tell me your story? Let's go. Who are you? You know what I mean? So as I was writing him and I started writing these other people, I knew that it was gonna take a special kind of person to bring him down. And I knew that um he was multi-layered. A lot of the stuff that you happened, which where you got the three the three epilogues at the end with his mom and his and his dad talking and all of that, because I felt like you needed to know his background, where he came from. And he he wasn't innocent. Like I said, the apple was still on the tree. The um the scene that got me the most. Now keep in mind, like I'm not a thriller writer. Any well, I am I am now, but I wasn't writer. And I didn't know how far I could take it. I didn't know what was the limit. Because I'm if I can push it all the way to the ceiling, I'm gonna break the ceiling just a little bit so I can get through. Because you're holding me up. Please let me through here. The part that got me the most um was the part when officer uh no, the detective. Detective um what is her name? I'm sorry. But was having Heather Butler. Yes. So she was having the nightmare when she was tied to the bed in the red and the badge was pinned to her skin, and the bodies were sitting on the wall with no heads, and the heads were hanging and it and the eyes were still moving, and it was blood dripping. Baby. And I wrote that scene, and I want to say I'm a night writer, I'm definitely like 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. kind of writer. And I'm like, oh, let me go to sleep because I gotta get up for work in the morning. And baby, the way I closed my eyes and Dylan was over me with that knife. No, I literally jumped out because the scene was playing back in the head, only it wasn't Heather Butler laying in the bed, it was me with the badge in my chest. And yeah, and I jumped up. I mean, I jumped up, and I'm hitting the bed, like, wait, wake up, wake up for a second. Like, wake up for a second. She was hurt, she said, girl, I know you damn well you ain't waking me up for something that you wrote. I said, but I think it's somebody in the house. Like, if I think it's somebody, like, where is my phone? Because I think it's a now girl. I'm out, I'm up here pulling out firearms. I said, I think somebody came in. She said, Ain't nobody came in here. Stop writing that creepy-ish, is what she said. You're about to sleep. So, yeah. A lot of scenes got me like that though, because I'm not um this this is my first time writing something like that. So I had to really like step outside of the norm of what I typically write to bring it to life. And I wanted it to be an experience like no, like I promise you, I read a lot. I think I read like almost 300 books last year. What I wrote in the hunt has never been written anywhere. Never. And I like to be able to bring that kind of thing to the table. When you pick up an Anna Jay book, it's an experience like you've never had before.

SPEAKER_05:

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01:

I I want to say, I want to say I'm a you know, I'm out here, you know, create it's almost like you're creating new genres within the thriller, like or new tears. Does this sound like you get what I'm trying to say?

SPEAKER_04:

Like, no, I knew because I wanted to know what the rules were. When I started writing thrill, I'm like, okay, so what are the rules? Like, what because you know, there's a formula to writing thriller, there's a formula to writing romance, there's a formula to writing urban fiction that you're supposed to follow. I only want to know the rules so I can break every last one of them. Like, tell me how I'm supposed to be doing this, so that way I can ignore everything you just said and do what I want to do. Tell me what I'm supposed to have in a book. That's that's my goal every time. So you you can tell me what the rules are, and I'm like, girl bye. I ain't fitting to follow that. Like, we wanna make this my own thing.

SPEAKER_03:

Every time. Every time. And I love that about you as an author because yes, you're absolutely right. Anytime I've read your books, I don't, I can't find that type of book.

SPEAKER_04:

Anyway, most of the things I create is because there's a void. That's just about anything I create is because there's a void. When I started, uh, I I love the color. I'm a coloring book fanatic. I have stacks of them. And I was saying to myself, like, dang, I can't find no fat girl coloring book. Not one that made sense. So I had to make it. I couldn't find the thriller that gave what I needed it to give. There wasn't a black male character that was out here acting crazy the way Dylan was. I had to create it when I wrote my woman his wife. There wasn't a girl that was disrupting marriages like her. So I like to think that a lot of the things that I make is because I can't find what I need. So I gotta make it so that I can have it.

SPEAKER_02:

I love that.

SPEAKER_01:

The hunt was like uh my wife watches like First 48 and Snap and the FBI, she watches shows and stuff like that. And I'll I we of course we're in the same bed, so I'll be reading while she's watching it and stuff. So imagine having that plan while I'm reading. I was up all god dang all night. I was like kind of like you, but it was just like I was kind of scared to go to sleep. But during the time that I read that book, I I was up for a couple of days because and living off a Red Bull, yeah, and it it catches you right from the start because it's like you thinking, like, oh this cute day on a date.

SPEAKER_04:

She's going home with a stranger, okay. And then it was literally she completely ignored the tart, like a culture.

SPEAKER_01:

It was like it was like a it was like an episode of Criminal Minds, a culture, because it was like this shit can happen in real life, and I think that's what got me the most. That it was like this could have really had like you can go out and meet a guy and think ain't and you can go home with them on the because I ain't gonna lie, I went home with my wife on the first night and was drunk and didn't even know who she was the next day, and I'm just reading this book like damn, I could have been in the ground if she was a dealing on it.

SPEAKER_04:

Like if she was a dealing, but he was such a gentleman, like he finished her off. You know, he made sure it was it was complete. At least he made it complete. He was a gentleman, finished the job, he finished he finished what he came there to do, okay?

SPEAKER_01:

She went happy. At least he went happy and she could she went there done, finished. Yeah, finished. That was another thing. The fact that he he really saw himself as doing the world a favor or doing like he was a gift because he I mean, because you're alone anyway. Ain't nobody looking for you. What was he diagnosed? What was the diagnosis?

SPEAKER_04:

Was there was I don't even think I ever gave him one. I'm trying to, I don't think I ever gave him an actual factual diagnosis. Because I feel like people like that, what what would you what would you put him in? What diagnosis could you give a person like that? He was paranoid, that's for sure. You know, he had anxiety, but he was also like um I don't want to say he was schizophrenic, but he had this, he had that he needed perfection. Everything with him had to be like an OCD kind of thing. Like, I would have put you on this table, but people gotta eat here, so I ain't gonna do it. However, I'll take you to the basement, chop you up in little pieces, put you in the freezer paper, stick you out in the trash with the old stuff. Like he just had a it was. A method to his madness for the most part. Dylan wants his own thing. They would they would study him for years to figure out who he was.

SPEAKER_03:

And then to find out, toward I like how in the book we found out like the mama and daddy wasn't as perfect. Because I was just like Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Like what happened to his grandparents? Where they had never had things like this. Yeah. Yeah. They wonder why people keep coming to the to the restaurant. But the craziest part about it is I wanted when I because that wasn't a that wasn't initial either when I when I first wrote the book. Like I was done writing it. And Dylan's mom and dad was like, oh, so we ain't got nothing. Well, you just gonna leave us out. And I said, Oh, hey, hold on. I want to talk too. Let's go. And I felt I felt mostly for his mom because imagine um imagine praying for a thing, right? Imagine praying for a thing and you get it before the time you're supposed to have it. Because the way the way life is set up, you know, was already written. We just showing up to the party. God already laid that out. We just showing up to the party, we're late. Okay, we're late to the party. And imagine getting a thing that you were not equipped to handle yet. I want this now. And God, like I don't think you should have it now. I know, but I want it now. Alright, go ahead. See how that worked out for you. And your son is a serial killer. And then you try it again, and you got a fire starter. Because that man has said you wasn't ready for this just yet. This is about I wanted people to understand that when you pray for things, it don't always show up the way you're supposed that you think it's gonna show up. And you have to be equipped to handle the thing that you asked for. So when you try to move the book before the eight ball, yeah. You got fire starters or serial killers that you birthed. You were the mom of the serial killer, babe. You're welcome. God damn, you know, you just and yeah, and even his dad couldn't get no rest, his dad could not get rest because all this time his mom thinking, like, oh, he just liked to watch the news. No, baby, I'm looking for my kid.

SPEAKER_03:

He turned on the news, talking about get stuff. Let's go. We gotta go. We gotta move.

SPEAKER_01:

I thought it was a setup at first, yeah. When when when the dad, I said, girl, don't go by the jail by yourself, and then you ain't tell nobody where you was gone. Because at first in my mind, because I'm like, there is no way you don't know your kid. There is no way that oh you know, or you have like the you you know you have that intuition and stuff. So when it was like, okay, this tip came through, and then it turned out to be, I was like, girl, they're gonna kill your ass, you go over there because the family has got to be in all it because they're gonna do you flip that switch, and I was just like, imagine having to tell somebody to kill your child though. Imagine, because you can't do it, not capturing him and putting him in.

SPEAKER_04:

Imagine having to give the okay. Like if you if you run across Dylan, by the way, officer ma'am, if you run across him so we can clean up out of here. When you catch him, make sure he's a done button. Imagine to be the parent. No, take him out because Jill ain't gonna be Jill ain't gonna do it. You gotta take him out, you gotta kill him. Imagine having to be the parent to have to say it. Imagine that. I couldn't even imagine me holding a baby in my belly for almost 10 months and then having to tell somebody when you see my child, hair shot. You know, that part.

SPEAKER_01:

I was not expecting, I was not expecting that. I just because you know how sometimes it's those parents out there that take up for the kids and they hold up hold them in their wrong. And I just knew that it was gonna be like one of those type of situations, like I'm gonna stick to my son to the end, so let me cut this off right here. Because the way they found him, that the way you did that, that that intricate small little detail, and to think that had he been smart enough, or maybe he he was thinking that I'm just above everybody, and nobody ain't gonna, you should have switched out that, and you would have never, he would have been not that bad. Like you like what that small, that's small English. Ain't that crazy? That was crazy how you did that.

SPEAKER_04:

And I I don't know. Again, it was just me, it was just me writing the book, you know what I mean? Because again, I don't know when I'm writing, I have no clue what's gonna happen down the street until I get down the street. I gotta get down the street first so I can see what's going on down there. Like, I really don't know. So um, I was saying to myself when they was at the restaurant, I said, you know what? Heather Butler is not in his age range. We need somebody else. Because she's too old. She's she's she's seasoned. You know what I mean? She was seasoned. So I was like, who else can we bring in here? And and of course, you know, we got our girl Morgan. This is her specialty. This is her, you know, she wants to save the teens. This is her, this is her thing. So it was like, okay, we're gonna grab her right face because she looks good. She's gonna be what Dylan wants because Dylan has a type. You gotta be a stallion, you gotta be dark chocolate, you gotta have that good natural hair.

SPEAKER_03:

Baby, I love that dark chocolate part, honey.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, yeah, you gotta have it. And that was that was another thing that I decided when I was a writer because a lot of the books that I used to read, all the characters were light. Every last one of them. Light skin, pretty eyes, hair down to the floor.

SPEAKER_05:

Everybody.

SPEAKER_04:

I said, baby, we ain't gonna forget that that black don't crack. Well, that's what we ain't gonna do. So I made it, I make it my business when I'm writing characters to make sure that they are brown, that we are represented.

SPEAKER_01:

So I know that's right.

SPEAKER_04:

He had them tight. He had it tight. And I and I in my head, I can hear that woman's heels clicking when they was walking down that alleyway. You understand what I mean? And then she got to the crib and she ain't waste no time. She was already on the floor. She ain't waste no time. And it's the it's the things in lust that we ignore. Because I know if I walk into somebody's home and there's a chair set up with a tarp on it, I don't know. I don't know what I will be thinking. I don't know if I'm sticking around for that. But she probably just thought they was gonna be playing with some chocolate or something, not knowing what was gonna happen, was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm gonna tell you right now, I got to do an about face because there ain't nothing that I need to do with a tarp. If you can't get that chocolate licked off where you need to get it licked off without it hitting your carpet, I got to go. I mean, I don't know. You might be able to lay that tarp down. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

But uh put a blanket down or something to catch it, not much torque.

SPEAKER_04:

I mean, we might want to slip it, but I don't know. It might make for an interesting evening. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

But have certain situations and baby oil and put it down on the top. I can't handle it.

SPEAKER_04:

Leave the shoe, leave the shoes on. You know what I mean? Don't take them shoes off, leave them shoes on. So you just, you know, you just never know. But I I am glad that um he was well received because I like I said, I know when I wrote it, I I hadn't read anything like it. So I said, okay, I'm about to get a world something different. Um, even the cover, the cover of the book at the last minute, I decided to add that it was an erotic thriller because when I started letting my other author friends read it, they said, girl, I thought this was a damn romance. I said, Oh, why? And she said, Because of the cover. I said, Oh, but when I looked at the cover, I saw the characters in the book. I saw Dylan. I'm not gonna tell you who I think the girl is. I'm gonna let people speculate there for themselves. But that's what I saw when I saw it. And I said, Oh, I need to let people know that this is a thriller. Because imagine not knowing, imagine skipping that prelude, imagine skipping that first, imagine skipping the warning, Lex.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I wanted to page one of the meat of the book to get it started. And you know what? I go into books blind, and I did, I don't know, I ain't gonna lie, I went into this book blind, and just off of like the hunt, and I did see like a um a description that said it was like a serial killer and the cop looking for him. So, of course, I go into books blind. So in my mind, I'm thinking, so the cop gonna fall in love with the serial killer? Like, how this about to play out? Like, is he gonna do something to redeem himself? Or he killing for a reason? And then as I read the warnings and stuff, I was like, well then, how the hell is she gonna fall? What's going on? Like, how she gonna fall in love if he that crazy? And the warnings, and then it was another warning. But after all of these warnings, like, hey, if you turn this page, this is and so as I started, and then as I started reading it down, yes, and I was like, who gonna fall in love with this motherfucker?

SPEAKER_04:

Baby, listen, and the craziest, and that was the thing, like when I was writing, when I was putting it all together, I said, Okay, I'm gonna put I'm gonna put the warning on the back. I'm gonna put the warning on the back. So when people read, you know, the prologue, you know, the uh the back of the book, they can see like, okay, listen, this if this ain't your cup of tea, you might not even want to buy this one, like you might want to skip this one. But then I know people don't always read the back of their books. I say, well, let me just go ahead and put it on the inside a couple dozen times. Like, hey, sis, skipped all of it, and now I'm getting cursed out in the in the reviews. Well, I can't believe that hey, well, you should have read the you should have read the warning. You the triggers was there for a reason.

SPEAKER_03:

I agree.

SPEAKER_04:

And when you handle triggers, I went back.

SPEAKER_01:

I I went back to read the warning again after I read it all. And that's when I seen when you said, because I was like, didn't I see that warning about her wife in the nightmare before?

SPEAKER_04:

Because what that book gave me the creeds, like it was just because I think a part of it was like, I can't believe I wrote that. Like, you y'all should have seen me in church on Sundays just praying, like, Lord, please, just whatever this finna be. You know what I mean? Because I know I said I prayed about it and I said I wanted to write thriller, and I told you I wanted a twist, I wanted you to give me something different. You showed up, Jesus Hassan Christ. I know y'all ain't know just how Jesus had a middle name is Hassan. I know y'all didn't know that, but yeah, uh he showed up and he showed out and he told me, like, all right, Anna, you're gonna write these books, but I I just didn't know it was gonna be that. And I'm gonna I'm very proud of it. I feel like um for my first time writing something in this genre, I did my due diligence. It was a great contribution to the thriller world.

SPEAKER_03:

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. What's what's it look like? Lex is a thriller lover, so please.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm just trying to see, I just want more of whatever this genre, like whatever this classification is.

SPEAKER_04:

I and I'm definitely not your typical thriller. It's not that. I'm not writing it. I'm not writing what you're getting from everybody else, just so you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And I love it, it's I'm and I'm just kind of getting into thriller. That's what I told Toy on another when she interviewed me. Like, if you would have asked me like a couple months ago, like what was my favorite genre, it would be like dark romance, and then I have rom coms in between and stuff, and then a little paranormal, but thrillers have taken over, and then it's like when I got to yours, and I was like, it's different from the thrillers that I've been reading.

SPEAKER_04:

It's different from the thrillers that you typically read, and that was my goal. Like, I read, I read a lot of thrillers, a couple hundred probably, and I said I kept saying to myself, You're not writing that, yours is not that, you're bringing something different. So I'm fitting to take thriller and spin it on his head. Where you're not gonna ever, whatever you think the typical thing is for any genre, I don't care what I'm writing, Mary had a little lamb. Mary ain't gonna hit them lambs gonna be on the block hustling, they're gonna come cool. Like, it's not gonna be the same. You understand what I mean? It's not gonna be. Mary ain't living on no farm.

SPEAKER_01:

If you had to categorize like your genre or the subgenre of thriller, what would you call it?

SPEAKER_04:

Gosh, I don't know. I label um the hunt as an erotic thriller because that's what it was. It was it had some eroticism, but there was some, you know, thriller suspense aspects. I don't know that I can I can't put me. It ain't no box that can hold me, babe. I'm sorry, like I don't know where to put myself. I'm just gonna show up where I show up at, and you get there to get it. That's how it's gonna go.

SPEAKER_03:

I loved it. Right. Yeah, and appreciate it more than you know. Yeah, but okay, so let me ask you this question because you have a certain style and way of writing. So when you are writing books with other authors, like you did motives um with was it Secure Secure Rashad, yeah. Um, and then I believe there's a couple of other books that you have, like I believe erotic snapshots is with other authors. What is that process like in with writing with other authors?

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, so when I did motives, um it was like that's like an urban fiction. I in my head is urban. And I knew that um Shakur Rashan is an amazing writer, but but he writes uh like BDSM type books. But I know that he can write anything also. Like he's another author that has the potential to write anything that he put his mind to. So when I was writing it, I was like, oh, do I feel like writing a whole book? That was really my do I want to write this whole thing? And I was like, you know what? I don't let me call him and say, hey, don't you want to do this? Now now he's so amazing that I don't care what I call that man with. He like, you know what? I said, I need you to do X, Y, Z. Well, what's the word count? Is this many words? All right, bye. And then next thing I know, I got an email. You understand what I mean? That's just the relationship that I had with him, which I absolutely love. So this was just me sharing the creativity. And I knew that when I, if I wrote it to a certain point, he was gonna take that thing and haul, he was down the street, he was gonna run with it, you know. That was the motivation with that. With erotic snapshots, um, which is a series of short stories, I wanted people that was not afraid to cross the line. I don't want anybody that's like, oh, we gotta write in this bubble. Nope. Pull off, pull out all the stops. I don't care where it's at. Where are we doing it at? So we went from Mal Hau Club to the Burger King Bathroom to showing you how to use topsicles and cucumbers at the supermarket. Let's go there. Yeah, I wrote a story in there. I wrote, I wrote two stories in the route of snapshots. So the first one was called The Headhunter, and that young lady basically had um a company whereas when you if you told her what you liked, she was dealing with uh professional women. If you told her what she liked, she went and headhunted and found it for you. So if you have a particular flavor that you like, you want to be put against the wall a certain way, whatever, she was like, All right, I got somebody that can do that. And then I also wrote a story called Supermarket Suite. And there was a gentleman that actually worked at the market. And what he would do, which was now that I'm thinking about it, is a little is a little creepy, but depending on what you had in your what you had in your cart, he was like, Oh, you like hunting that Cheerios, huh? Meet me in aisle six. I'm gonna show you how to really use them.

SPEAKER_01:

So what the hell is you about to do with the cherry?

SPEAKER_04:

You'd be surprised. You'd be surprised, you'd be surprised when he when he got them bought them popsicles and they went to the back. So, you know, it depends. But then we had um authors like Laura. And then we had Aretha Temple or Popsicles, we had Aretha Temple, and she gave us a whole adventure in a Burger King bathroom. Like, you know, so I wanted people that would that was not afraid to write outside of the box, and they they they bought it, they came with it. So that was that's how erect it's not erotic snapshots happen. And we sip, yes. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm still on the Cheerios.

SPEAKER_04:

Well, I mean they might end up in some weird places. You gotta be creative to get them out. That's all I'm gonna say. That's all I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm just thinking about when I eat them and they drop in my shirt.

SPEAKER_04:

And you got them right. And that and that was a fun project because I was my whole thing was for people to I will hope, you know, that I will motivate them to take it to the next level. So whatever you thought was the most extreme thing, that's not it. Whatever you think is extreme, go 10 notches up, and then when you get there, go 10 more. Now we at extreme.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that for y'all that y'all have this group of people where you can push each other's boundaries, like you can go higher. Like you can go higher than it.

SPEAKER_04:

It's needed, and we and we and we can talk to each other and and talk crazy to each other because I feel like by the time it gets to the public, we done already ran them in the hole so bad that by the time y'all say something, they already like girl and Jade done said that 15. You understand what I mean? Like, you gotta be able to bounce off people. So I'm gonna tell you like your character sounds flat, she don't look right, we don't even know what she looks like. How old is this lady? You know what I mean? Like, what's going on with her? The story's not adding up. And she was then, and then what happened? No, girl, it's a whole gap missing right here. We do all of that so that by the time y'all get it, we done already filled in all of the holes, and you could just sit back and enjoy it. So it's important to have those kind of people. Um, yeah, uh the hunt, the hunt went through a whole think tank before it was published because I needed people to tell me, as readers, what's missing from this? And I'm gonna tell you, um, there's a young lady that's in my think tank, her name is Chevy, and she said to me, she said, Anna, I really enjoyed the book. I loved it. She said, but there's one thing. I said, Well, what's that? She said, Well, you said that um Dylan and his parents are from the islands. Why they sound American? I said, Oh, you, you, okay, all right. You know what I mean? And I had to go back in. I actually had somebody else go back in, like, because she speaks um petois. I don't speak petois. And I that's how the glossary got there, because I need these people to sound like they're from the islands.

SPEAKER_01:

That was what I wanted to ask you, uh, but but you just answered it. Like, did you speak? Because I was like, where did she get this from? Like, who okay? But they answered that question.

SPEAKER_04:

One of one of my best is when I tell you that the love, I I don't know what I would ever do if Diane wasn't here. Diane Remper. She's an amazing um editor, she's an amazing friend, she's an amazing reader, and she speaks fluent patois. A lot of people may not know it because y'all don't hear her talk on the internet, but she she got it, she got the accent, she got it all. And and we were in the think tank. And now and when Chevy said it, I said, Oh, Diane, I need you to come back with me. Let's walk through this book again and let's change this to that to that to that. And I wanted people to know what this man was saying. That's how the gossip got there. It's not a typo, this is how they talk, and it just bought the it just brought it all together.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't speak it. I have family from New York and family from Jamaica because my dad is Jamaican, so when I was reading some of it, I'm like, oh. A little bit, a little bit, so but y'all was like, oh, I I've never seen this in any book ever, for there to be a glossary for it, and that's what you're talking about, and you've done all this with books, and then you have a big back coloring book.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, so so um, yeah. So what happened was uh I I wanted uh I wanted a big back coloring book. I wanted a true Big Back activities coloring book. So I'm on Amazon, I'm on the Etsy, and I'm like, how come nobody has a Big Back coloring book? I didn't I didn't say I wanted a coloring book with pictures of pizza, I said I wanted a real fat girl, fat guy coloring book. Couldn't find it. I said, Oh, let me pull out the pad, start drawing some things up. And we got volume one and volume two. So yeah. Because I that's how it works. I prom I don't know how I was selected to do this, but anything that I've ever made is because I couldn't find it. I'm an avid journaler. I have to, because there's too many things in my head, I gotta write it down. But I would notice when I would go into like TJ Maxx and Walgreens and places like that that sold notebooks. We weren't on there, or we were, it did it still didn't look black enough. It still wasn't black enough.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

So I had to come home and make it. That's that's how it all starts. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you see yourself writing any paranormal?

SPEAKER_04:

Um, gosh, and I'm I'm I'm gonna say I don't know because I I never thought that I would write thriller, and here I am. You know, I never thought that I would write romance, but I'm working on something now for a project next year. Um, so I I don't know. I I've just started reading um paranormal. Uh what's what is the young lady's name? Is it Natavia?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_04:

Yes, yes and Brick just wake up and be a fairy. Jesus.

SPEAKER_01:

Have you read any of her other like Deep or Brick?

SPEAKER_04:

No, so that was my first book that I read about her. And what actually the craziest part about it is um she posted a book on her Instagram last year called Cruella Hoodville or something like that. It was like a twist on the Cruella Deville story. And I from the cover, I said, Here's my money. Thank you. And I got the book and I stuck it on the shelf, right? It was a trophy. A lot of the books are trophies. And then I was on Instagram again because I kept saying, I'm gonna go back and read that. I put it on my TBR and everything, but we know how that goes.

SPEAKER_05:

Never read it.

SPEAKER_04:

And then I was on the gram one day and they was talking about this fairy, and I was like, hmm. And then I said, you know what, I'll let Kendall read it to me. And immediately I'm on the Google trying to figure out what prayer I got to pray to wake up as a fairy with that man so that I can experience that part. Because I needed to know how I can be down with that. So I don't know if I'll if I'll write it. I don't know enough about it at the moment. But you know, we'll we'll see. We'll see. I like to stay in my lane, I like to do my little research, and you know, if I can't do it justice, then I'm not gonna do it. I but I will never, you know, play down somebody's thing. So if I can't really come with it and give you that with a twist, because it's not gonna be what you've read. You got to know that. Whatever I write ain't gonna be what you already read. If I can't give you that, then I I probably won't. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_01:

Because we know you pay, you you don't go in nobody else's lane, you just pay for a new one.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, right. Knocking out, walking, knocking down walls. Yeah. So we'll see. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, so before we wrap up, can you tell us what you have coming soon? I know we have copycat too, um, or copycat. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, so we had happen. What had happened was um the copycat is coming. But um I was writing the copycat, and it was something about it that just wasn't doing what I needed it to do. So I set it down. And in the midst of that, Officer Morgan Johnson, who you met in the hunt, she was like, all right, like, but before you say that, I need you to say this. And before we get to that part, I need you to say this part. So I'm actually working on um a prelude to the copycat that's gonna drop first. And then the copycat will drop. Um, but I actually have a whole series in mind for that that I'm gonna um hopefully write. Um, I have some collaborations coming down the pike next year. You'll see me in the places next year. I'll be at a couple of events, so I'll be outside. Um, I'm doing Chocolate City. Uh I think that's in April. Don't don't quote me on it. But I'll be at the Chocolate City lit event. I'll also be at Pages in the City in New York in July. Um, yeah, so it's some stuff coming. There's some stuff coming.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Oh, I'm so excited for you. I'm so excited you're finna be outside.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm finna come outside. Yeah, I haven't been outside in a while, so I'm finna come out there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, I'm so excited right now. My husband's gonna be so mad because he's gonna have to hand that card over. She's gonna be welcome in New York. I have family out there. Oh, yes, we're gonna take a trip.

SPEAKER_01:

I I'm trying to see is that is that around the time that I'm gonna be in New York around April, around like spring break. I hope those dates.

SPEAKER_04:

No, so the chocolate no, the pages in the city event is July 26th, and I only remember it because I was panicking for a minute because my family reunion is that same weekend. But then I looked at the date and I was like, oh, okay, I can skip that day. So I'll be there for that. Um, I wanna say Chocolate City is in April. That's in DC.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_04:

In April. I'm gonna be set for that.

SPEAKER_03:

See, I can't I if I if I could I would, but I'll be in Italy in May and my let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_04:

And I know that's right. Um, but yeah, I got something um I'm just gonna say Zanaya is a character in my next book. Girl. That's I don't know. I can't, that's it. That's all I can tell you. That when you read about Zanaya, you if you think that if you think that hunt was something, just wait on it. Yeah. All of my author friends were unfriends. They was like, I don't even want to be friends with you no more because I can't believe you just did that. Then they came back. They came back. I was like, wait, come back, come back, come back, come back. So it's it's um it's gonna grab you from the beginning again, from the very first page. You're gonna be like, What? And then you wanna be taken for a ride, but it's needed because it's gonna set up the copycat. It's it's needed. So definitely I told you about a young lady named Zanaya. Just remember that.

SPEAKER_01:

That is all I'm gonna be thinking, like, this is just gonna be sitting. Like, what the hell are we about to do, Zanaya? What are we about to get into?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, the name of the I don't even really want. I mean, it's already on Amazon, the cover and everything, but um Zanaya's story is another cautionary tale. It's one that needs to be told. I I I really want to educate the people on how crazy people are. Our predators live right in our neighborhoods, they live across the street. When you go out the door, he he sit there on the porch and watch a child play all day, every day, and then one day she's gone. And you don't know what happened to her. So I need people to be cognizant of their surroundings. Every story that I write has is something going on there. You just have to pick up the pieces. That's all. So remember, I told you about Zanaya. So when you interview me again, we're gonna speak it into existence. Uh-huh. Yes, yes. You told you mentioned Zanaya in the last one, and I'm like, Yeah, so what happened to her? Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

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

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. And I'm glad to be writing again. I didn't write for like almost eight years. So I'm glad to be back typing again.

SPEAKER_01:

So was the hunt your first um comeback? I mean, which what was your first?

SPEAKER_04:

Was my first comeback? Yeah, so I the last book I wrote was um it was the serial life, was the last one. That was back in 2013. And then 2024, the hunt came out. Then you come back swinging like this.

SPEAKER_03:

Maybe.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, because I'm a knock, I'm gonna be like gloves off. Yeah, gloves off. Yep. Play with somebody else. Yeah, I'm so I had to remind myself who I was. If I was I wasn't always, I I lost my confidence. I don't know where. I don't know what happened to it. It just fell off one day, and then I was like, hmm, maybe the literary world needs something else. It took me a minute, it took me a minute, but um, yeah, and that's what I came back with. Wow, I love it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I do, I love it. Well, Anna, thank you so, so very much. This has been amazing. I have loved every second of this, honey, and I am looking forward to coming back and talking with you because you got Thanks Cooking, honey, and I'm gonna be right there in the kitchen waiting with my plate and my Tupperware.

SPEAKER_01:

Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, yeah, y'all don't y'all don't hear this dog growling at me from the sideline, right? Um, because she keeps coming back, like why you who you talking to? This is the this is a puppy. Um, yeah, hush. Yeah, I'm excited about it. Stop and get out. So, yeah, um, yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for y'all. Um, y'all wanna love me for this. Like, all I said, Dylan is not the last of it. That we'll just say that. That's just how it's gonna go.

SPEAKER_01:

We got a whole series coming. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_04:

We do. We do. I didn't even know that, but now we know. Yes. But thank y'all. I'm I'm so happy to be here. Thank y'all for the interview. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Tell us where we can follow you on all across your socials.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, so on Facebook is author Anna J. I think it's author Anna J also on um Instagram, and scribe at Philly is on TikTok. That's how you can find me. Type in Anna J. I'm on the Google, I'm on air. Just type it in. On the Google. On the Google, yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, well, thank you so, so very much. And we will see you guys later. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04:

All right, ladies, have a great day. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you.