Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Music commentary
Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Listen Linda Book Club Live Special Guest: Natasha D. Frazier
What happens when your gift for numbers meets your passion for storytelling? Natasha D Frazier knows exactly how that feels. Despite holding a master's degree in accounting and working as a CPA, she couldn't ignore the persistent call to write that kept tugging at her heart.
"How long are you going to wait before you take possession of the land the Lord, your God, has already given you?" This powerful question from Joshua 18:3 became the catalyst for Natasha's writing journey. After years of procrastination, she finally embraced her creative calling, publishing her first devotional before venturing into Christian romance fiction.
Her novel "Love Between the Pages" follows Lisa, who inherits her family bookstore only to face a crippling tax debt that threatens everything. Meanwhile, her lifelong best friend Jaden harbors two secrets: his feelings for Lisa and his hidden identity as a romance novelist. Their journey from friendship to romance unfolds with authenticity, respect, and the challenges of maintaining boundaries while exploring new feelings.
What makes Natasha's perspective so unique is her ability to blend real-world financial expertise with heartfelt storytelling. Drawing from her accounting background, she creates characters and situations that feel genuinely grounded. Her approach to intimate scenes maintains respect and appropriate boundaries, demonstrating that Christian fiction can address real-life situations authentically without compromising faith values.
For aspiring writers, Natasha offers practical wisdom: "Set a timer for 30 minutes. Even if you get one line on the page, that's something." She reminds us that we don't have to choose between our practical skills and creative passions—we can embrace both as part of our unique purpose.
Connect with Natasha at NatashaFrazier.com or on social media to discover her books, including her upcoming Four Kings series. Whether you're seeking clean romance with depth or inspiration to finally pursue your own creative calling, Natasha's work offers both entertainment and encouragement to take possession of the gifts God has already given you.
Hey, y'all, it's your girl. Listen Linda. Welcome to the book club live, where faith meets fiction, devotion meets discussion and stories meet the soul. Every week, I bring you the reads that inspire, challenge and change lives. From devotionals to drama, testimonies to triumphs, this club has it all. And the best part, it's not just about the books, it's about us. We laugh, we cry, we pray and we grow together. This isn't just a book club, it's a family. So grab your journal, grab your coffee and let's dive in, because here at Listen Linda Book Club Live, every story has a purpose and every purpose deserves a voice.
Speaker 2:Well, hello, beautiful people. Welcome to Listen Linda Book Club Live. I'm your host, dr Jacqueline Cox, and I am so glad you're tuning in today with us. We are streaming live on Facebook, youtube and LinkedIn, so go ahead, drop your name, where you're from, where you're watching from, and let's make this interactive, okay? So today is special. We have with us the talented Natasha D Frazier, author of Love Between the Pages and also one of Listen Linda's July edition of 25 Awesome Authors. And if you love romance, faith and stories, honey, you are in the right place. But before we dive in and speak more with Natasha, let's pray. Father God, thank you for this moment, thank you for this platform and for every listener tuning in, thank you for the gift of Natasha's creativity and for the stories that uplift our souls. We ask you to bless this conversation, lord God. May it inspire, encourage and glorify you in Jesus' mighty name. Amen, amen, amen, all right, all right, natasha. Welcome to Listen Little Book Club Live. We are so glad that you are here, honey.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2:Oh, no problem, no problem, no problem. And now, natasha, for those who are just meeting, you, share a little bit about your journey, like how did you first get into writing and what led you into Christian romance, specifically.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, so there's always a loaded question, all right. So fell in love with writing about the age of 15. I started reading the Arabesque romance novels, the BT romance novels. So if you are familiar with those, you know those are fairly spicy and definitely something that a 15 year old probably shouldn't be reading. I have a 15 year old now and absolutely not. But you know my mom would buy the books but she wouldn't read them, so she didn't know what was in it, right, and she let me read it and I fell in love with romance and the written word and so it was from that point on. You know, I would read the books, share them with my cousins. We kind of had like a little, I guess, book club thing going on. We'd read, you know, talk about the books, share books and all of that. And so, you know, as time went on, you know I started writing and writing devotions and I'm trying to speed this story up, all right.
Speaker 3:So get to college and my major at the time, business administration. In the first week of school, you know we're walking around the campus just checking everything out and the girl who was down the hall from me was walking with her. She was an English major and went into the College of Liberal Arts and they had this huge sign that talked about the things you could do with a degree in English right, one of them was writing and you could also get a minor in business administration. For a millisecond I thought about it. I was like you know, came here because I want to make some money, right, so fast forward, didn't do that, ended up changing my major to accounting. So right now I have my master's in accounting, cpa, all of that and graduate finished grad school in around 2009.
Speaker 3:I'd been out of school a couple of years at this time and the idea of writing was on my heart again. And it's so funny because, going into 2009, our pastor had done this whole sermon series on dreams, praying over our dreams. We were to write them down, bring them to the service and he would pray over them. So you could see at that time we had cameras in the service. I'm like waving my journal proudly because I'm going to write a book. I didn't do anything. Three years passed, almost I had my first kid and now it's January. Hold on, let me back up.
Speaker 3:So a few months before that, the idea of writing was weighing like really heavily on my heart, and so I started praying about it, and one of the scriptures I read was Joshua 18 and three, and it says how long are you going to wait before you take possession of the land the Lord, your God, has already given you? And so, for me, that reminded me of my own procrastination. Of course, it refers to the tribes of Israel who had not yet taken possession of the land that God had given them, because he's already given it to you. You just have to go and get it. And so, for me, it just reminded me of my own procrastination. Like God has implanted everything in me that I need, I just need to move. So I thought you know what you know. Okay, I hear you, I'm going to do it. I came up with all these excuses about why I couldn't start Fast forward about three months.
Speaker 3:Now it's the beginning of January 2012. My youngest daughter was almost two. My oldest daughter was almost two, so we're sitting on the floor. You know I'm playing with her. I had been watching TD Jakes on TV. He had gone off and this other person had come on.
Speaker 3:To this day I don't know her name, but she started talking about this book she was supposed to write how she had the title, the title of the chapters, but she had never shared it with anyone and she had gone to this like prayer conference or something and like in the middle of that, the speaker called her forward and spoke the title of the book into her ear that she'd come up with and the chapters. And yet when she spoke about it, you know, that day on TV, she still had never written the book. But then she went on to talk about how, you know, when God gives us, something is not for us is to get a message through us to other people, and I decided at that moment I did not want to be that person who didn't allow God to use me. However, he wanted to do that, and that is when I started writing my first book, which is the Life your Spirit Craves. It's a 30-day devotional and journal that encourages readers to seek what it is that God is leading them to do in that moment in their lives.
Speaker 3:And so you're probably thinking, okay, how do we get from that to romance novels? So remember, I told you fell in love with romance when I was 15. So I did struggle with it for a while on how I could bring my faith and what I loved about writing together. I started reading books by Michelle Stimson and Pat Simmons. You know what I can do this, and that is when I started writing Christian Fiction. I love both of them.
Speaker 2:Pat is actually sitting on the show. That's my girlfriend, but I like Michelle too. Wow, I love that like it's amazing how God uses both our passions and our pain to kind of shape stories that reach people.
Speaker 2:That is so awesome. Um, now let's talk about love between the pages. Let's get to it, girl, because you know I've been sitting on these questions for a little minute. So so lisa kind of inherits her family bookstore with this uh disclaimer if you ain't read it, you're gonna know a lot of stuff because I'm gonna ask the questions. Okay, okay, so lisa, y'all, she inherits like the family bookstore, but she's hit with, like this big tax debt that could snatch that dream away from her. What motivated you to give such a heavy burden and how did you balance her dreams and her struggles with that?
Speaker 3:with that, okay. So Lisa's story is kind of born out of Batch of Love. Right here she is Ginger's best friend and so, you know, throughout the book we kind of talk about her, you know, working in her mom's bookstore, kind of like on a contractor, part-time, just kind of helping out. But I needed there to be, you know, some kind of obstacle, because a lot of times when we get to the brink of realizing our dreams or what it is we've been working towards is always something. And so for her, that was her something.
Speaker 3:We couldn't just allow her to take over the bookstore and, you know, let everything be peaches and cream. And so for her and for the reader to see, she needed to be able to work through that situation, because she wanted to prove to herself that, hey, I can do this, I can run this store on my own without you know running to mama to have her, you know, fix the situation for me. Because there are instances in the book where you know where, easily, like her mom could have done something to fix it. Jaden offered several times to fix it for her right, but she needed to be. She's an independent person and for her own, for herself, she needed to be able to work through that okay.
Speaker 2:So that's, that's a real life issue. That, uh, I I want. Um, I'm sitting up at time I wonder why she didn't take a help right. But I'm the same way like I run my whole magazine myself, I run my whole publishing company. I do everything the editing, the editing, the formatting, the every creative directing, the videos. When I say I do everything, I do everything. So I do understand that that's a real life issue. Did you feel, did you ever feel like overwhelmed, writing that part Like we're giving her all? Did you place yourself and were you Lisa? Writing is really one of what I wanted to know. Did you even feel like girl, let me take a breath, all the stuff she doing? Like did you? Did you feel that?
Speaker 3:because I felt like I was her, because I do a lot myself too, so I kind of understood that concept and how overwhelmed she was you know, I think there are parts of her and Jaden in me, because, you know, along the lines of Lisa myself, I probably would have done the same thing. Wait, just let me see if I can do it first, because there's a sense of satisfaction, right, and being able to say you know what I did it, and if I did this, I can handle the next thing, right. It kind of gives us something to look back on and say you know what I did it, and if I did this, I can handle the next thing, right. It kind of gives us something to look back on and say you know what? God helped me through that and he'll help me through this too. Because what happens if no one is there to help, right? And then what do you do? Because you've been relying on other people for so long Now. You don't know how to do anything on your own, and so it's just really important for her to learn that.
Speaker 3:And I guess that's something in me as well. Like I like to try to work through situations to get as far as I can. It's like you know what. There are times when you have to realize yourself that, while it's good to be able to do things on your own. A lot of times we don't have to Right. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and you know, with Jaden, like I said, I have the degree and the CPA license accounting, accounting and so I've worked in public accounting. So all the things about working late hours, having those mandatory 55, 60 hour work weeks, that is real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was just getting to that because I was going to touch on that. So, jaden, for you guys who don't know and haven't read the book, this is another disclaimer. Jaden is a CPA, right, but he also secretly writes romance as just in love and before. That's why I said let me, let me get on in there, because my question was what made you want to explore that dual identity and did you draw that from your own life? And you were just about to get into the question a little deeper.
Speaker 3:To that answer, um, yes, yes, yes and so you know, there's a point in the story where lisa, you know, kind of references this hey, you said that you were going, I was going to own the store, you're going to write books to fill it up. So in her mind she's thinking that is something that he's kind of allowed to. You know, fall can go Like. If this is something that will actually be successful for him and I guess in a sense I did draw on my own, let's see for him. He nobody knew it was him. Like I use my own name so everybody knows it's me. It's too much work, you know, to do all this. It's already. We just talked about doing everything ourself, right? So it's too much to go and do all this. And now I gotta change my name too.
Speaker 3:y'all gonna know I wrote this story yeah I worked hard, but you know, I I think it's. It's also important. Important to know, because it's something that I struggled with in the beginning, is that you don't have to just be or do one thing. Yeah Right. If you know God has placed you know different things on your heart, why not? If he's giving you the provision and a capacity to do it, go for it. You know we allow all these, these things to hold us back A lot of times. I believe it's like time. It's like, oh, I don't have time. Well, how much time are you spending on Netflix? You know a lot of us spend. You know we stream and you spend three or four hours a day streaming. You can take 30 minutes, yes.
Speaker 2:Scrolling, scrolling on social media. I tell people all the time you don't want to call me, you don't want to email me, message me on Facebook because that's where I work at. I tell people all the time you don't want to call me, you don't want to email me, message me on Facebook because I live in the metaverse. That's where I work at, that is my job. So I live in the metaverse, like, find me there, where you be at, in Facebook.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to get better with balancing.
Speaker 2:I'm getting away from scrolling, screaming and just if you and I tell uh, the people in my boot camp that all the time like, oh, I don't have all that time, it's like, okay, it's 21 days to write this book, so get off facebook, get off the video game right. Get off of youtube, get off of netflix and give your own self right. Give your own self for for at least 30 minutes to an hour, just into you. Say that you want, which is this book or whatever gift that god gave you. Just pour that time into that.
Speaker 3:And it's just that little bit of time. If you do it consistently, it amounts to so much. And I say that all the time, but I think a lot of times we get overwhelmed by the thought of, like, how much time you have to invest in something in order to, you know, see a return or get a finished product. But if you just spend a little bit, you know you'll get there.
Speaker 2:I am living proof. I am living proof. I tell people that all the time. People always tell me, natasha, like you do so much, you, you got so many different talents. But my thing is, is that anything that I ask God for he gives it to me? That anything that I ask God for he gives it to me. But he also gives me things that I didn't even know that I needed or that I didn't know that I was good at? And I'm one of those people and I get this from my good girlfriend, my Elena Maria. She says she's not taking any potential to the grave and I follow that up with when I get up there with my ticket, my barcode, when I get up there with my ticket, my barcode to scan at the gate right.
Speaker 2:And he asked me what did I do with the oil that he gave me? I'm gonna say I used every drop. I was in the kitchen cooking baby. I got yeah, I don't got no oil left all my oil.
Speaker 2:So I loved, I love the fact that you knew what you wanted right and even though it took you some time to get there, you still were able to master at accounting right. So you got your academics over here. But then you also got your creative side and look how much God has blessed that. Because you were obedient, you was delayed, a little bit like the prodigal son. Okay, because once you, it don't matter when you do it, it matters that you did it. And you did it with so much checklist, because this book, y'all. I finished the book and my son name is jayden and now he done took the book. Okay, so it's gonna. Natalia is going to have to send Jaden one because he can't just keep my books, so we're going to get to question three, the friends to lovers trope. It's kind of tricky. How did you make sure Lisa and Jaden's transition felt natural and satisfying for the readers?
Speaker 3:Okay, it's funny because I struggled with that, because I write in series, right, I want to make sure that I give enough in the current book if someone hasn't read, like a previous story, right. So we tease and we talk about it quite often in batch of love, but if someone hasn't read it, I want to make sure that. You know, I develop it enough so that it seems natural, but I struggle with it being too slow because I don't want. I know there was one comment I had, maybe not in this manuscript, but another one one, and my editor was like we're like halfway through the book and they haven't done anything yet. I got to keep that in my mind, ok, like how far are we and how much further can we go until?
Speaker 3:Because you want to build what you want, because, of course, the reader is going to know, and for them, they've been friends since they, you know, were little. Yeah, they, their moms, were best friends, they grew up together and so all they've really ever known was they've always been in each other's lives. So how do you even make that transition, which I think is what kind of held them, held them back for so long, is that? You know what happens if we do this and we just jack everything up, like how can we even be friends after this? And so I think it was something that really needed to be handled delicately, because if things didn't work out, they still needed to be friends on the other side of it, but of course we wanted them to end up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, it was huge and I agree, like chemistry plus pacing it, um, um, that's kind of like what I liked about it, because you know, um, I don't just stick in one lane either. I write multiple genres and it's always hard for me like start starting the characters off as friends or people that they knew, like grew up with, and then moving into, um, building you know that and and being in that space because me and my husband was the same way when we first met. We were friends, we were like best friends, like platonic friends, like I knew his people, knew my people, like we were friends and how did y'all make the transition?
Speaker 2:we'll be married 10 years in december and it's so crazy because, um, we've been knowing each other for 18 years, 18 years and so we were friends for 6 years, just straight friends, and he end up being single and I end up being single and we were like making this joke, like, well, we might as well go and get married because we were like such good friends, like he knew all my secrets, I knew all his secrets, I knew how a dog he was, he knew how a cunt I was. You know, we, we, we was something, girl. And so, uh, yes, I said the word because that's what I was, honey, okay, I see the truth on this show. I was hot and I cracked it, but he knew every single thing about me. I knew how much of a player he was, but it had got to a point where it was just like, okay, like what are we doing? Like don't nobody. Because it's like the drama that came along with everything that he was doing was getting to him and he just wanted to settle down, but he didn't have the right person. I wanted to settle down. I didn't have the right person, but we knew we loved each other. Right, I wanted to settle down. I didn't have the right person, but we knew we loved each other Right and we knew that we trusted each other more than we trusted anybody else in our circle or anybody else that we knew. So it's like let's just see what happens and and one thing I can say is that man loves him to me. And one thing he say Jackie, do not play about me, she would go boo-coo-coo-coo over me. So it end up working out, thank the lord. We've been together 10 years. We barely are.
Speaker 2:We go through things like any other couple would go through things right, but we we know how to communicate. We know how to take each other's feelings into consideration. We know that if one of us get too mad, that's me, because I'm always I'm, I'm, I'm a tea kettle, right, um, so I'm the one that that blows things. But now I know how I. I just walk away or not say things that I know I don't mean, and until I get back into that good head space, I kind of get him distance or he'll give me distance. But never leave, never go nowhere right and never not sleep in the same bed, never go to bed mad, figure it out before you fall asleep. That's the best advice I can give anybody in a relationship, even though this is not a merit and you talked to Dr Velma about that but they just go to bed, not mad. Find a resolution before you can fall asleep, or agree to disagree, because nothing is worth being mad at your partner for too long, like nothing is worth that, because if y'all not a team, it'll never work. Um, so that's kind of like how we. We ended up doing that and we we blended families. I had a son before him. Uh, before being in a relationship with him, he had three kids before being in a relationship with me, but I knew all his kids, he knew my son, of course, and everybody got along. So everything, everything pretty much worked out. Um, it wasn't peaches and cream in the beginning, but 10 years later, here we are and it's good. It's good, thank the Lord, we're going to get back to you.
Speaker 2:So, readers, the readers have noted that the hotel room scene, right, lisa and Jane share a bed. Yeah, but you presented it with respect and no pressure. That's why I was comfortable with letting my son, because he's 14, but he's really like 19 in the mind, but he's still 14 in his actions and different things like that. So, because it was really like respect and no pressure, what was your purpose in writing that scene, the way that you did? Was it because, as, as as teenagers like me and you like, I know I read, zayn, you know I read like she's like one, still one of my favorite writers. That's like one of my mentors. I love her, she loves me. I've reached out. So we are, we are good, me are good, me and me and Christina are good now. But I read like the Sister Soul, jacobus, Winter, ever Midnight, all of that. What did you have that into consideration? Like, maybe it's kids that may run across this book and I just want to make sure that I'm, I'm, I'm going to take it.
Speaker 3:You know I did not, but sometimes my 15-year-old reads my books as well. But you know, I wanted to present the friendship part of their relationship, because I think, if I'm not mistaken, there was a point where Jaden stated that you know they've been in rooms together before. They are friends first, before the romantic aspect. And just because their relationship shifted like that is not necessarily that it shifted sexually, right. And so I wanted to paint that picture and make it clear they were up discussing their future together. They're excited they have taken on this new level. It's more than about that. They're going to be partners forever, and so that is the picture that I wanted to paint in readers' minds, because there are a couple of reviews that was like, oh, I don't like how they shared. You know, especially the Christian fiction reader, there are readers who only read Christian fiction, and so they're like, oh, that was just too much for story.
Speaker 2:That's real life, though. Right, that's real life. You're telling a real life story. Look y'all people who talking about you. Look, get out of here. Okay, come on, come on down off the horse, because saint was a sinner who fell down and got back up, donald clark, and said that's, I'm not with ollie. People act like they've been doing it right since coming out the womb. Please give her some slack. She could have went so much. If you haven't read mountains, or if you haven't read Shatown Down, don't come for me. If you read my stuff, that's all I'm going to say. Okay, because you're going to get it. We tell real life over here. And she could have went further, because I was reading like, oh, okay, that's all they did. I was like good job, natasha, because I could have took it.
Speaker 3:It could have went left real fast.
Speaker 2:I could have went so much. Look you lucky Linda didn't write it, honey, but that's such an intentional way to kind of model boundaries while still telling a good story. I really like that part about it. So you gonna have some season.
Speaker 2:Saints, honey, that's all yeah I thought it was great, natasha. I thought the way they did it it was. It reminded me of um, what's that movie where the man was sleeping on the couch and she was sleeping in the room and I can't remember the name of the movie but he spent the night. He slept on the couch and she slept in the room, but he was hugging the pillow and she was hugging the pillow. I can't think of the name. It's a good movie though, but they was pillow. I can't think of the name. It's a good movie though, but they was friends, so they don't kind of want to bring that into. You know, that's what it painted, that exact picture, and I'm going to inbox you later when I think about the name of the movie. But when it comes to your writing process, you are a planner, or do you sit down and write? How do you map out character arcs and revision?
Speaker 2:okay, so my book club, my, my boot camp people. I hope y'all watching and take notes because she's going to get y'all some gems, okay oh.
Speaker 3:So I do not plot, but and I'll get back to this at the end of what I'm going to say so I am going to plot my next story. But let's go back. I do not plot. I have a general idea of what I want the story to be. So what I do is I do map out my characters. So I, you know, put the pictures on my little whiteboard, where it's here now. I'm out my characters, so I, you know, put the, you know put the pictures on my little whiteboard, where it's here now, move my desk, and you know, I look at them to try to see, okay, what would this person say, you know, based on their character and all of that. So I use that. I, you know, dress them up, name, title, do their interview with them, and I have them before me. Do their interview with them and I have them before me.
Speaker 3:And once I get about 10,000 words on the page, usually that's when I stop and say, okay, now I kind of know where this story is going. Then I kind of do a what I like to call things that need to happen to get to the desired end. And you know, I kind of plot the chapters that way. But it's just one line. You know, chapter four, this needs to happen. Chapter five, this needs to happen, just real skinny Only so that I can get to the desired end. But I'm going to try different next time. I say you know what I'm going to attempt to plot. Different next time I say you know what I'm going to attempt to plot. I myself, I feel like I'm double working by sitting down, you know, I'm plotting things out and then going back to write. But we'll see, and if it doesn't work, I'm just going to throw it away and write, because I like the freedom that comes with it.
Speaker 3:But, apparently you can still feel freedom. While one of my you know, talking to my word weavers group, there was one guy who was just basically talking up this whole plotting thing. So I said, you know what, I might try it just for my next story, but I don't know.
Speaker 2:That was good. I plot I did with anyway, with Chi-Town Diamond and then Chi-Town Diamond and being Shotown Diamond, zora story. But I'm a poet by nature, right, I started writing with poetry and so what I do is is I will, I will figure out like catchy titles for my chapters, right, and after that I will write a poem. So every chapter comes with a poem first that leads into the next chapter and it kind of gives you a description of what that chapter is going to be about, based on the poem. And that's how I was able to get through with my writing was poetry. I did that with my memoir too. I did that with my memoir too. I do that with all my writing.
Speaker 2:If you read any of my writings you'll see he always got a poem somewhere. But that, yeah, that's kind of that kind of helps me, like with my imagination. And he is absolutely right, you can still take it and do what you want to do with it. But you can still plot it out, you know, and sometimes you might have to tweak it, because sometimes we write stuff and then something to come to mind and then take that character either in a different direction or somewhere further that's that.
Speaker 3:That's that double work you see this.
Speaker 2:So it's like a double edged sword. If you work out, if you stick to the script, but if you want to take that character further or something may come up, you're like no, I want to change it here and there. I don't think it's going to work if you haven't already written the next chapter, right. So if you haven't already written the next chapter, then all you got to do is really just kind of curveball it or find a way to make it work within that chapter. So I'm interested to see how it's going to come out. I got my eye on you, natasha.
Speaker 3:I will post about it, because you know it's different. So once I get, I'm working on something else now. But once I get to, I'm back to my four kings again. So once I get them squared away, then there's this other cute story I'm working on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got my eye on that one. I want to see how it come out, but I think you're going to dunk it. You're going to dunk it, ok, natasha. Now it is time for the lightning round. So this is quick answers. Please, no overthinking. You ready?
Speaker 3:All right, I feel like I'm about to be on a game show.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's the idea of it, right? So coffee or tea.
Speaker 3:Coffee.
Speaker 2:Favorite Bible verse.
Speaker 3:Joshua, 18 and three.
Speaker 2:Okay, you got to say what the verse is.
Speaker 3:Oh, how long are you going to wait before you take possession of the land your God has already given you?
Speaker 2:Great A book, not your own. You can read again and again.
Speaker 3:None, I don't reread books.
Speaker 2:Never. That was a great answer. Go-to writing snack.
Speaker 3:Ooh the chocolates, the promises, dark chocolate.
Speaker 2:Night Owl or Early Bird.
Speaker 3:Early.
Speaker 2:One word you want readers to feel after finishing Love Between the Pages.
Speaker 3:Cozy.
Speaker 2:Write and playlist by Always love songs.
Speaker 3:R&B loves me.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. Okay, now this is a double question. What decade?
Speaker 3:90s, 90s and early 2000s.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:That's all I really know. I'm still stuck there. That's where I am.
Speaker 2:I know the new stuff. Yes, I love it.
Speaker 3:First thing you do when you finish a draft Close my laptop Like, yes, I'm done, that's it, breathe Exhale.
Speaker 2:I remember the last time I did that I slammed my laptop. I was so done and cracked the screen and I had to get a whole new laptop. Thank you, Sandra Washington. She got me a brand new HP Elite book for my birthday because I was like working on my phone for over a year after I did that. So Myra said hers is 60s and 70s and she does not reread either. So once she done with the book, she was done. Myra Cook, yes, yes. So what advice would you give someone who wants to write christian romance today?
Speaker 3:the first piece of advice I would give is to read other christian romance novels just to see. Look, what is happening in the industry, what other authors are writing and what readers are saying. Right, because that is your target audience, and then, to just sit down and write. That's like the biggest hurdle. Set a timer 30 minutes Even if you get one line on the page, that is something. And as time goes on, boom, don't rush yourself.
Speaker 2:Yes, don't rush yes don't rush yourself, unless you are participating in the 21 day arthur boot camp challenge by listen linda. Then yes, you rush, rush, rush okay right right, right right right come on with it, okay. What's next for you, natasha? What can we look forward to?
Speaker 3:All right. So I have been talking about the Four Kings series for over a year. That is coming next year. There's also going to be a part three for these guys. It will feature Jessie. She is Ginger's assistant in Badge of Love. But the Four Kings may come before that book one, so I'm super excited about that. I'm doing edits for it now. That is a spinoff of the Wrong Seat in my Langston Sister series. It's romantic suspense, so I am super excited about that. As I read it again, I'm like what have I been waiting for? This is so good. I cannot wait to get that out. I've been talking about that for over a year now. I'm your girl.
Speaker 2:I love your book. I love love between the pages. I'm invested now. Now I got to go back and read the ones before that. I'm invested, I'm invested, y'all Thank you.
Speaker 2:You are. I love a great read. I love a great read, I love a great. And it wasn't overwhelming either, guys. It was just enough meat and potatoes to really fulfill you in the story. Because if I get a book and it's 300 pages, I'm not gonna read it. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. I don't put myself through that stress because when I look at a book like that, first thing I think is either they, they, they over talked, right, they long, or it's too much drama and I, I don't need all that stress in my life. Just give me a good 100, 200 page book, I'm good. Anything over 200, count me out, okay, unless it's a series, right, then that's different, right, because then it's a bunch of books, like with Denise Walker, with hers Hers is 200 pages, so that you may live 200 pages able to read that one, it was great, and I end up going back and getting the redemptions, the whole series right.
Speaker 2:So it just it depends on because I could read that 200 pages in one sitting. On a good gloomy day, I could read that in one sitting, um. But thank you, natasha, so much for joining us. Before we close, please let everyone know how they connect with you, how can they connect with you and how can they grab a copy of any of your books, but especially Love Between the Pages.
Speaker 3:All right, so you can connect with me on my website, first, NatashaFrasercom. Of course, there's a contact link where you can send me an email. I am on Facebook and Instagram, TikTok Under my name, Natasha D Frazier, so real easy to find me. Autographed copies can be purchased from my website, natashafraziercom. The ebook is on Kindle Unlimited, so you can purchase the e-book from Amazon. So online you can buy paperbacks anywhere books are sold, but autographed copies and book boxes can be purchased from our website, natashafrasiercom. Great, great great.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Y'all heard it here first. Go support Natasha, grab your signed copy and get the cute little box that come with it. I love the cute little boxes. And do not forget to leave a review.
Speaker 3:Leave a review please.
Speaker 2:Reviews are like oxygen for authors. That's how we get more people to buy. They want to know the reviews. Okay, so please leave a review. And if you've read this book before, leave a review. Please be sure to like, share and follow. Listen, Linda Book Club so you don't miss our next live conversation. If we're about to get ready and close out, do you mind closing in prayer?
Speaker 4:Oh, absolutely not.
Speaker 3:Lord Jesus, thank you for your goodness and mercy. Thank you for the opportunities that you present with us. Lord and Father, we ask that you help us to be good stewards of our time, over the talents that you've given us, over our passions. Father God, we ask that, as we close out and go about our day, lord God, lead us that we may live our lives according to your word and your will in drawing other people to you In Jesus name. Amen.
Speaker 2:Amen, amen, amen. Thank you all for tuning in to Listen Linda Book Club. Until next time, keep reading, keep growing and let faith turn your pages.
Speaker 4:God bless you all. Procrastination and not knowing where to start. You've survived storms, you've walked through valleys and now it's time to turn your pain into purpose and your story into a book. This is your moment. Welcome to the 21 day author boot camp, where aspiring writers become published authors in just three weeks. You don't have to do it alone. You just have to say yes, turn your testimony into a title, turn your journal into a journey, turn your story into a book that outlives you. The 21 day author boot camp enrollment is open. Visit. Double u, double u, double u dot listen. Linda presents onecom to sign up. Spaces are limited. Financing available.
