Ep 70 “National Treasure + Uncharted FOR ADULTS??” Among the Cursed Gods by T J Lundin | AUTHOR INTERVIEW Artwork

Besties and the Books Podcast

We’re Ashley and Liz, two real-life besties who’ve loved books since we first learned to read, so naturally, we started a podcast! We would say the rest is history but in actuality, it's just the beginning. So come join us in the next chapter of our lives as we introduce ourselves, and laugh our way through the world of books with a focus on Fantasy, Romantasy, and Dark Romance. Of course we have love for all book genres, but those are our absolute favorites!

Don't be shy, subscribe! New Podcasts every Tuesday!

YouTube | TikTok | Instagram | Podcast Platforms
@BestiesandtheBooksPodcast

Liz
Instagram | TikTok
@TheRealLifeVeganWife

Ashley
Instagram | TikTok
@AshleyEllix

Email bestiesandthebooks@gmail.com

All Episodes

Besties and the Books Podcast

Ep 70 “National Treasure + Uncharted FOR ADULTS??” Among the Cursed Gods by T J Lundin | AUTHOR INTERVIEW

July 15, 2025 • Besties and the Books • Episode 70

Send us a text

Today we’re bringing you a spoiler free (with possibly a teaser or two we’ll warn you about 😉) author interview episode with none other than indie published romantasy, contemporary romance author T.J. Lundin! We’re looking forward to celebrating the upcoming launch of her National Treasure inspired book Among the Cursed Gods, out on September 15th, and available to preorder now on Kindle Unlimited!

Check out T J on Instagram @tjlundinbooks | https://www.instagram.com/tjlundinbooks?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=MXI4Z3Nyajg1ZWQ5bQ==

Preorder Among the Cursed Gods | * https://amzn.to/4kBjF5C

Check out all T J Lundin's Books | https://tjlundinbooks.company.site/products

Think treasure hunting for cursed artifacts like in The Mummy, action and a badass FMC like in Tomb Raider…and tension like Mr. & Mrs. Smith and you have a recipe for a book we couldn’t put down and we know you guys will eat right up!

T.J. is a self published author of The paranormal romantasy series The Fates of Eporanios - Beyond the Fallen Realm and Seeking the Fallen Realm. It has angels and demons, magic portals to other realms, an epic rivalry, and a human who gets sucked into the middle of it all… including a love triangle. These are perfect books for you if Supernatural is your jam. T.J. then went on to try her hand at extra spicy contemporary romance with the book we’ll be primarily discussing today: Among the Cursed Gods, a very steamy, tension filled race between rivals to find an ancient Peruvian artifact that can bring people back from the dead. Guys, we are screaming at you to preorder this book!

Stick around to chit chat with us if you’d like to know more about what it’s like to self publish, how writing and reading spice is healing, what you’ll be getting into when you pick up any of T.J.’s books and get to know the author behind the story.

Don't be shy, subscribe! New Podcasts every Tuesday!! (And sometimes Friday!…)

Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

Penn Cole talks Strong Female Characters, Feminist Themes, and her debut bestselling Spark of the Everflame Series! https://youtu.be/7ukNImyoObw?si=7C3Y9kOUMN4hfcKb

We interviewed Callie Hart all about her NYT Bestseller Quicksilver! https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4

____

Shop bookish apparel worn in this episode!

Ashley is Wearing: Lord of the Rings "Even Darkness Must Pass" T-shirt from @etsy | * https://go.magik.ly/ml/2cqg0/

Liz is Wearing: “Bookish” Rose Gold Necklace by @twiheartmerch | https://twiheartbookish.com

Any link with an * is an affiliate link through the service Magic Links and is eligible for a co

0:00

Yeah, there's some explicit spice to this. She's like, "Oh, that's what makes the book fun." I don't know. Very nostalgic vibe. Spicy treasure hunting adventure romance following lovers turned rivals like up. Yes.[Music] Hey everyone, I'm Ashley. And I'm Liz. And this is the Besties in the Books podcast. Hey, what's up guys? We have We have a very special spoiler-free with the potential of a teaser or two that will warn you about author interview episode today. We're so excited. We're chatting with indie publisher fantasy contemporary romance author TJ London to celebrate the upcoming big launch on September 15th of her national treasure inspired book, Among the Cursed Gods. I'm so excited to talk to her and talk to you guys about this book. It's so fun. So different. Oh my gosh. Such a fun time, guys. Like, think the Mummy. Think Tomb Raider. Like, you guys will eat it up. It's unlike anything that I've read before. I mean, I don't know about you, but it's definitely different than any other romance that I've read before. Um, so yeah, we're just really excited to get into it. Just to reiterate again, you know, if you guys just want to stick around to, you know, get some exclusive behind thes scenes kind of nuggets of info, find out more about TJ London as a person, her behind-the-scenes writing process, what to expect with her this book, so this released book, but then also she has a couple other romanty books we'll briefly talk about. Um, then stick around because it will be spoiler-free and you can kind of get all that insider info that we love. Um, but before we get into the interview, we just wanted to say thank you guys so much for being here. Yeah, thank you guys so much for being here and taking time out of your day and your book to join us on this special interview. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to listen to your favorite podcasts, including YouTube. We have full video footage over there so you can come hang out with us. Make sure to also follow TJ London on Instagram over at TJLondon Books, which will have everything linked down in the caption, too. And we're at Besties in the Books podcast everywhere. So, come hang out with us, guys. So, before we officially bring TJ on, you know, we're going to give her the brief introduction, we're gonna, you know, sing her praises, give her the accolades, all the things. Um, so TJ is a self-published author of the paranormal romantic series, The Fates of Apora Neos, Beyond the Fallen Realm, and Seeking the Fallen Realm. So, in those books, we've got angels and demons, magic portals to other realms, an epic rivalry, and a human who gets like sucked into the middle of all of it, including a love triangle, if that's your thing. Um, so these are perfect books for you if supernatural is your jam. Like, I'll just say that cuz I know a lot of the book girlies are into that. Um, so TJ then went on to try her hand at extra spicy contemporary romance with the book we'll be primarily discussing today. So, Among the Cursed Gods, a very steamy, tension-filled race between rivals to find an ancient Peruvian artifact that can bring people back from the dead. We're screaming at you to pre-order this book because it's just so good, guys. Um, so just a little bit about TJ herself. She's a piano teacher by day and a paranormal monster slayer by night with a degree in biblical studies. She said that she doesn't use her degree, but instead writes spicy smut as a coping skill and a way to survive her days living in purity culture, which we can relate to for sure. Tons and tons. She enjoys all things fantasy, dark romance, and fantasizes about masked men. Also relatable for sure. Her love for fantasy started with Lord of the Rings and to this day it inspired her inner desire to whisk herself away to live her life as a hobbit. Dreams, goals. Exactly. Personally, TJ was one of my first real friends on Bookstagram and I had the privilege of beta reading for her in the past and so we're just really excited to bring her on. So, welcome TJ London. Welcome. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with you guys. We're so excited to have you. Truly ah just to talk about this book. Yeah. Yeah. It is. I think it's you nailed it and I feel it's so different from my fantasy series. Like I don't know if you could tell the difference. Totally. For sure. Um, and that's I think that's what makes it kind of hard to market in a lot of ways because you don't really hear any treasure hunting novels that I I've never heard of any. I tried to like research it and read some. And there's a couple other authors who are writing them, but I don't see it in my space of like, you know, the romantic girlies and the dark romance girls and stuff like that. So, yeah, I was like, well, I'm doing it. Dude, you did it. If you guys, you know, hello. I feel like we're all around the same generation here. If you watched The Mummy and Brendan Frasier and was like,"Let me go on like a little side quest in my brain of where this could go in an adult setting." Fanfic. Yeah, there we go. Like, so, but you know, such a good blend and all new takes from TJ and it's such a fun time. We're screaming it from the mountains. Everybody read this book. Yeah. I just have to say like before we get into like any more details because we're just talking about this like the inspiration everything. So Grady the MMC gives me like um I totally am bling on his name but like the main character from the new Twister like you guys know who I'm talking about. Yes, that is who I pictured in my head and like his personality from that movie like was Grady to me and I was like this is so nice actually. Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it. Yeah, I have a friend who's obsessed with that character in Twisters and she was one of my beta readers and it makes sense now why she liked him so much because she never made that like connection but she's just like oh Grady is mine and I I can't believe I have to share him with everybody else and she released the book and I was like but yet I didn't think about that. I like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's like instead of Twisters like sub in archaeology, you know. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I love it. Okay, so we're going to put you on the spot here. You know, we like to do a little fave and fails every week. So, we're going to ask you here if you have any faves or fails you want to talk about for writing Among the Cursed gods. What was the best part, worst part, anything like that? that is that I could go on for the the fails aspect for quite some time, but that's just the the nature of of self-publishing. But with my favorite part of it would be that I wanted to create something so different and unique and as somebody who's like I'm writing every single day. Um, now that I am writing, I wanted something though to be like a passion project. And this literally came from my mind sitting at my desk. Um, just thinking how would I like what book would I want to read right now and how would it start? And I had this picture in my mind of like, okay, it first started off as two assassins trying to kill each other. Oh. And you know like how fighting is their foreplay? So that kind of like was the vibes I was going for. But then it kind of just evolved from there into my love of the Uncharted video game series, which has also been turned into a movie with Tom Holland and Mark Wahberg a couple years ago. That's right. I remember you saying that and I couldn't remember what it was, but Tom Holland. Okay, now it's piecing together. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. They took that um from a video game series. That's gosh, that video game series is like 14 years old now. And they had a very successful they made four different video games after these characters that are so lovable and and they go after artifacts that are mainly cursed. And so that was the that was my inspiration. So my favorite part of of writing the book was just how how much fun it was for me. And it and it didn't feel like work, you know? So that was just really fun to um tap into that. And probably the fail would have to be I would say trying to gauge the expectations from readers because of of talking about the romance aspect. The ending is not your typical romance ending. And I know and I don't want to make romance readers upset, but like it wasn't a lot of my beta readers actually really enjoyed the ending that I gave it. And so that Okay, good. And we could definitely go into more about that when when we are talking more about like Vic herself, but it it was one of those things that I was really nervous trying to gauge. I had like nine 10 different beta readers for this book. um compared to my other books, I only had like two or three. And so it was hard to gauge all the different opinions coming at me and take that and take it, you know, that that critical feedback. But trying I'm a people pleaser. I'm trying to not, you know, be a people pleaser, but there's different ways. It was just very stressful in trying to please everybody's view and everybody's view was valid. And I think that was probably my hardest part of wanting to make sure that I can execute the story in a way that was going to be really fun. And everybody has I mean reading is so subjective like you can look at you guys know you have the reviews for certain books one person gives it a one star for one tiny detail maybe where the other person loves that tiny thing that so I think that's like it it just kind of goes into the imposttor syndrome that so many of us authors have like I've you know that kind of was the hardest part of trying to have that mental fortitude do to get past and be like, "Okay, but this is my book and this is how I see it." And so I'm just, you know, going to take the feedback and change it in certain ways and, you know, that's that's how I'm going to I have to be like at peace and happy with it. So yeah, that has to be hard balancing expectations, feedback, and wanting to stay true to what you want as the author for where the story to go and everything. Yeah, definitely stressful. What should people expect if they're thinking about reading your new book? Like, how would you summarize the plot and some of your favorite tropes without giving any spoilers away? I would say, here's my one-s sentence elevator pitch that The Curse Gods is a spicy treasure hunting adventure romance following lovers turned rivals who race through Peru in search of the same cursed artifact. um short and sweet. If we want to go a little bit further to talk more about that, I would say it's it's kind of a book of self-discovery for the main character, too. Um and I I really wanted to show somebody who was older compared to my other books, their younger characters. um somebody who has that experience and just be able to get back their their adventurous spirit. So, you're gonna find just a lot of puzzles and clues like a National Treasure. I love those new. Me, too. Yeah. Um you're going to find it's just a I wanted a fun summer vibes book. Yeah. And like I know some like some of it can be cheesy probably within some of the banter, but it was I mean that's what you kind of get from watching The Mummy, right? You get those TR and Indiana Jones is filled with those tropes uh that that pulpy sort of adventure spirit. So, I wanted to have that, but I also really wanted to inject spice into it because I, like you mentioned, I am a byproduct of purity culture at the highest of heights within that. And, um, writing this book was actually really healing for me, uh, overcoming sexual trauma when I was younger and the purity culture. And it was just like, this was actually my first book to actually write Spice, too. So, I will say I was super super nervous about how that would go over, but I feel like I I I feel really comfortable with it and I wanted to inject that into the adventure vibes. Um, some tropes which always gets people is the one barn trope. Yeah, I know. As soon as that happened, I'm like, I know where this is going. I love it. I love it. I need to get I need to get artwork of that scene because everybody's like whenever I said that they're like, "How does that work?" And I always say, "Well, I can't have them riding an alpaca because I researched that and you're not supposed to ride them." So, here's a little fun fact for you. So, I was like, I couldn't have a one alpaca. So, I'm just going to throw I'm just going to throw them in a barn filled with alpacas who were watching. So, we have that. We have um really fun uh tension dance fil scenes that I wanted to have like a museum gala. Uh we have like the cursed artifact uh the puzzles and the clues, a twist on the Incan mythology and I'm trying to think if there's anything else I forgot. But it's just a lot of fun summer vibes that I wanted to be able to portray. Yeah. I feel like I the balance that you created between kind of that like really fun like quippy banter and like it's like you said like it wasn't cheesy but it was like those almost like when you're watching a movie or a TV show and they what is it called when they like talk to the camera like I can't remember what it's called you guys know what it's called breaking the fourth wall like breaking the wall. Yeah, that's almost like how it felt at times where it's like you knew like that it's like it was supposed to be a little bit quippy and fun, you know what I mean? So, I feel like the balance was great and like the spice was written perfectly and I just Yeah, it was like a fully enjoyable time and I did like that the ending was different than I expected it to be. Like Oh, awesome. Yeah, I I wanted to be able to make fun of it by pointing out, oh, am I going to be in the Uncharted game? like I dropped that in there. Or how Vic says to the first guy um who offers her the job like Frank, I don't look as good as Indie does in khaki and like I love that. You know, like stuff like that where you're you're purposely calling it out to that way, you know, people don't get upset. Yeah. No, I love that's exactly what I mean. Like those moments where you're like just making it known that that's all intentional. So very appreciated. So for people who maybe haven't or who have read your um romanticy books, how would you say that those are different than this? Like just so that people can kind of get an idea cuz I feel like they're very different. So I just wanted to briefly touch on that. Um I think the the Angel Fantasy series I'm in the process of finishing up. The tone of it is much darker and it's much more serious. I I tried to write shorter books and this this book Among the Cursed Gods was my attempt to writing a shorter book and it still ended up being 100,000 words. So like I was trying to get it shorter so it's you know a fast easy read. Um whereas like my fantasy books there's just a lot more themes of of feeling like you're not good enough and being able to overcome it. And that was just a lot of the stuff I had, you know, been going through my whole life. Being told that I'm weak, being told I'm too sensitive to do certain things. Um, so it was kind of like my I think everybody all authors are able to portray little bits and pieces of themselves and their characters, right? And so within the fantasy book, I was really wanting to focus on an epic quest because I just love that. I still have artifacts in there. So apparently that's going to be my thing. I don't know. We'll see. And um the fantasy series, it has just a lot there's a lot more of a bigger world and where you have that inner power and strength to overcome. Whereas Among the Cursed Gods is uh I tried to insert more like you mentioned the comedic sort of tone in it to be a little bit more light-hearted even though I did kind of get a little bit darker with Grady cuz he does suffer from some PTSD which we will actually go even further more into a second book. There's kind of a spoiler I guess. Um, but it's a it's very like you it's just very different. The tone is different. It's more it's just more fun vibes I feel like, but it's it's more adult, right? That's I think probably the biggest thing you probably could tell the difference is that I am kind of moving more towards that direction. And I know a lot of other authors when they first start out, they don't really write a lot of spice in their first like couple of books. And I've talked to other authors before um about how, you know, you just kind of get to a point in your writing where you're like, "Oh, yeah. I can do this." Yeah. That's awesome. And so that's how I felt too within that. Awesome. Definitely. I have to say, going back to the romance in this book, the tension to me. Okay. Well, first of all, Chef's Kiss, but it very much gave me Mr. Mrs. Smith vibes. Yes. Oh, yeah. So, I just wanted to make sure I mentioned that. So, if you guys Everybody loved that movie, right? And that tension and the kind of back and forth count mouse and the late the, you know, females just as powerful. It gave that kind of vibes and I loved it. Ate it up. Yes. And I I have to ask um team Grady or team Marcus because my beta readers, they started off as Grady and then when I introduced Marcus, they were like, "Oh gosh, why' you have to do that?" Yeah. And a lot of them switched over to Marcus. And then I was like, "Oh, I was that made me really nervous because it was like, well, you don't know what's coming up." Like, I'm excited. Team Why choose? Why choose? There you go. I'm team Grady through and through. So, okay. Awesome. I like a question in my mind. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Okay. So, we talked about a little bit about that kind of epiphany moment about starting this book. So, was there anything else in particular that helped inspire this idea for, you know, Project Peru? I would say it just came from the love of like the video game series. Um, I was just I was actually just practicing writing dialogue. This this actually came from I wanted to get better within my skills because writing is all about crafting your skills, right? like you can there's so much that you could always like I feel that you can always keep improving. So it did start as just a way to practice my dialogue. Um and then I was like oh [ __ ] like this is actually becoming a book now. Um, and and like if you have watched like I've had some people some early feedback of guys who have played the Uncharted games like after reading my book they told me I have to go back and play the games and that's like the highest praise for me to hear that not only because of the aspect that it's so similar like vibes for them but also getting guy readers. I also want to say that been a first for me. I'm I've only been writing for two years. So, hearing like some actual guys like DM me about that was like, yay. Like I, you know, and it's such a female empowering book and still having the readers like guy readership for that was really interesting to hear. But I would say, yeah, it was just the love of those games and you know those certain movies. You guys have to watch the Uncharted movie now after reading it. I have to re I have to rewatch it. Yeah. I think that my husband and I watched it like when it came out. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, it's been a while. Been a while. Yeah. Um and I would just say it that was the main thing that inspired me and I was just kind of dreaming of like well what if the girl was the main character instead of the guy who is Nathan Drake is his name. And I loved also the idea of taking different history and being able to twist it. Um, so like the Incans, there's not a lot I tried to do as much research as I could, but there's not a lot of of things that they know about that civilization compared to the Mayan and Aztec civilization. So, I felt like it was safer to to kind of like build my own secret society of a history that happened. And that's and I wanted to make sure that people like that's why I put it in the beginning like this isn't true. like just know I this is a a figment of my imagination and like I I wanted to make sure people understood that and not you know get upset that I was trying to rewrite history in some way. Um but yeah, I was I would just say that was the main inspiration was I did you know think of Mr. and Mrs. Smith as well. some of I try to use some of those scenes for like reals to show them like when they're dancing together and you know that that banter back and forth and that tension. So, I definitely was thinking of them because there's not a lot of lovers turned rivals uh genre. Yeah. Um, you see so many enemies to lovers and you see lovers to enemies, but I kind of wanted to show more of that rivalry between them and then but not not too much because then I know people they would get upset like how am I supposed to fall in love with somebody who's like treating you know it's a hard balance to be honest. Yeah. But that was my main inspiration. Yeah. It was like Uncharted, Tomb Raider and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I love that. So then I was just curious too. So like did you have other like ideas aside from treasure hunting or archaeology romance or was it just bec that organically? Like it kind of sounds like it did. Yeah. I I would say part of it like going back to childhood even. So my my siblings are all much older than me. So, I was basically like an only child and I had to entertain myself a lot growing up playing. I I kind of still remember like taking and making treasure maps though. I don't know if anybody else ever did this as a kid. Yeah. And like you know where the treasure is going to be, but like well I'm going to still make a map of it. you know, have an ex and and like I remember making like a packed lunch and putting that in my backpack with me, you know, because of course I'm going to need food on this wild adventure throughout my like backyard and front yard. And um I feel like that was part of it. I I I it's just like healing my inner child maybe. Yeah. Within having that. Yeah. I related to that so much. I mean, there was literally a time, you know, we all had the time when we wanted to be marine biologists, right? Like when like Big Willie came. What was his day? What? Free Willy. Big Willie. Free Willy movie. After dark like when it came out. Um, I don't remember what I watched as a kid that inspired it exactly like where it came from, but I remember there was definitely like probably like a 2-year span of time where I was convinced I wanted to be an archaeologist. Maybe Jurassic Park. I don't know. Like I want to dig dinosaur bones. I don't know. But yeah, so when I was reading this, I felt the same way where I was like, "Oh my god, it's like that totally like adventurous like I don't know, very nostalgic vibe." Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I have to also ask, did you guys have an Anastasia and Titanic era and when you were younger? Like you loved anything Anastasia and loved anything Titanic? Cuz that was also me. Titanic. Titanic for sure. Definitely better. Yeah. Yeah. We used to like back in I think it was like fourth grade was or third or fourth grade for me is when the movie came out. Me and my friends would act out the entire movie. Yeah. Yeah. Like Yes. So I love that. Yeah. We had, you know, the two VHS set or whatever. And my Yes. Well, we're all picture. My parents wouldn't let us watch the quote unquote spicy scene, so they would fast forward. Yep. They're like, "You have to leave the room." And I was like, "Come on." Like, and I go back to watch, which honestly. Then we just fill in the blanks, which is worse. No way. Oh gosh, that's funny. So then my follow-up question to that would be, so have you been to Peru? I'm curious. No. Okay. I've never left. I I've never left the country. I feel like I want to go now. This is like a advertisement for you like amazing. The food is so good. Peruvian food. Oh my goodness. Delicious. I had somebody I had somebody ask me, it sounds like you've been to Peru and cuz the way I was able to describe certain things, I was like, no. I I did talk to one reader friend who has been to Peru and she's the one who told me like alpacas are everywhere in Peru. So like she showed me pictures of like just a bunch of like alpacas looking down on them like on Machu Picchu like you know they're just everywhere. So a they're so cute. They are so cute. and she would tell me a different like different things of like the altitude sickness is a real thing and that I could attest to just moving from sea level to here in Colorado. Like I was super sick the first couple weeks of of that move. Um so I wanted to make sure I incorporated that. Um but yeah, there's I just did a lot of research of looking up places that like different ruins and whatnot. looking at, okay, well, maybe this is where this clue could lead them and it would still be like factual within the history and the region of within Peru. So, I would love to go. Yeah, I think you have to, you know, just convinced me to like add it to my list of places I want to go for sure. Although, now it might be like a little bit disappointing if the places that, you know, you talked about aren't there. I mean, there's no Grady that's going to be around here, right? But imagine taking your book to the top of, you know, meet Picu and taking a picture with it there. Oh my gosh, that would be really cool. That would be and then accidentally stumbling upon a map and then accidentally finding a secret treasure. Oh my gosh. Just imagine. I know. Oh my gosh. So, how long did it take you to write this book? And how was the publishing experience, the indie publishing experience? Yes. So, I I started back it was just a little over a year ago. I was realizing because it was still like snow on the ground, but that could we had snow on the ground till May here. So, um and I remember writing it the first draft. It took like two months I want to say. And the big part of indie publishing that a lot of people don't realize I feel like is lining up with readers because you have alpha readers and you have beta readers. Um even like you could do alpha readers, you could do a developmental editor. I didn't do that for this for this book, but it's just so many like avenues and steps of and it just takes a long time. Like here we are a year later, right? And I'm still like obviously the book has been done for a little bit, but it just takes a lot of steps to get there. So, um, couple months to write it and then, you know, I'm handing it off to people, revising what they tell me, and then handing it off to another group of people. I set up the betas to be like in two different waves too and hearing all the feedback going through the different like there's nine different documents you know from these beta readers and I'm reading every single comment I'm like okay this person mentioned this part but these three people didn't mention anything wrong with that part so like you have to decipher and decide okay is this something I have to actually fix or is it just you know them projecting some way of like why they didn't make it. Um, so that's a process and then, you know, waiting to hand it off to copy editing and I have a fantastic copy editor and we when we work it's like collaborative, too. So, the actual writing part and then like marketing, oh my gosh, let's Yeah, marketing is just forever. Like it's going to be etched on my my tombstone one day. She died because of marketing all the time. Like it's just it's just it's it's never ending. and they um you're working against like the algorithms and that has my gosh that has changed so significantly since I first talked about this book actually like so the the actual writing part does not take nearly as long I feel like as all the other steps afterwards and then you just hope that it's ready and you get tired you get sick and tired of reading and then you're like that's when you know it's ready to be seen and pushed out. Yeah. So, growing up, do you feel like you've always been a writer? Absolutely not. No. I think and being able to say that I was really self-conscious because a lot of authors and author friends I know like they have been writing since they were kids. And it wasn't like that experience was totally different for me. It was a Well, first of all, I wasn't allowed to read most secular books growing up. I could only read Christian books. I mean, this is why I love talking to you guys about this because you guys get it. Um, same with like Harry Potter. My parents thought that was evil. So, all my other friends are like, yeah, they're reading all of these popular books and I just had no clue what it was about and whatnot. So when you become an adult then I I was reading a little bit but I wasn't um it wasn't like in the forefront right I uh I have indometriosis and so having that chronic condition I actually really couldn't read for the longest time because that took too much brain power and I needed to just like disassociate and watch TV instead. Um, yeah, I will say my love of watching movies. I I try to incorporate that into writing because I want something that's fast-paced and I like Mhm. that's part of part of my problem is that it's hard to write a book to make it feel like a movie, right? Because you're able to do and have different cutscenes in a movie where you can't showcase that as well in a book. But um like my love of movies and whatnot, I I did start to like think I had the angel fantasy series uh as a dream that came to me seven years ago and back then I tried to write part of it but I never finished and well I finished now but I got so I'm a type three inagram through and through. I if I'm not good at something right away, I will stop doing it. And I was like, I'm not good at this. And I can't see myself finishing. So, I just stopped and I gave up on it. A couple, you know, time went on and I it was just two years ago. Yeah. Two years ago, I started to read again. And I will say it wasn't Acatar that got me hooked. What was it? What was it? M it was the Shatter Me series that that the dystopian series because they were fastpaced. They had a really interesting character dynamic between it was my first taste of enemies to lovers too and I wasn't on like I was just starting to get on social media so I knew nothing about the series and that just overtook me and I was like this is amazing. I need to read more of this. And then it just became, okay, well, if I'm starting to read more again, I kind of have I I think I could try to write it. And so that's I just I could say that I kind of finished my book one out of spite in some aspects. Yeah. Yeah, cuz like I just I heard this statistic that only 3% of people who want to write their first book who who start their first book actually finish writing it. So that statistic kind of blew me away and I was like, h I'm going to finish. Like I I just knew right then and there I needed to get the story out and it was just blaring, you know, in my head for so long. And so that's when I started writing was two years ago and I've uh been able to write now well four books now because the next one in the angel fantasy series has been drafted. Oh exciting. Follow it follows the villain that you guys love. Yay. Um his or basically his origin story which he's a he's a giant that's awesome. Yeah. He's a giant softy I discovered. Um, so that's been fine. But yeah, I just kind of it feels it feels not real in some aspects cuz I was talking to my husband about it. It was like I when do I like if it becomes too much for me, when should I stop? You know, because so many authors, they don't make any profit until like book eight, book nine. And it's it's all about making that backlog, that backlist. And so we were talking about it and we decided, you know, hey, this is like a hobby for you now and just do it because you enjoy it. And so that's basically how I've been ever since is like I'm still having so much fun making. It's kind of like taking, you know, Barbie dolls when you were a kid, you know, and giving them a story. It's the same thing, but like in a grow up grown-up version. I love that. It's just it becomes addicting to be able to be like,"What if I did this and this story and then and it leads them to do this and then and it's just become an addiction." Yeah, that's so cool. This is one of the reasons why we love interviewing authors because you guys all have kind of different journeys and different takes and what led you to whatever book that we're discussing. And I think it's so important for aspiring authors or people who think, "I can't write. I've never been a writer. It's like uh you know if you want to do it, it's there for you. It just you know timing and when what inspires you. So that's awesome to be able to hear that from you. And then as well as how many of you authors have had dreams about these books and we were interviewing Cali Hart for Quicksilver and that literally was like a backburner dream. She was a different style writer before and then finally she's like okay I'll write this fantasy book. never did fantasy before, you know, and look at how much that blew up. So, it's like you got you give yourselves a chance out there, you know, who are wanting to do it. It's picking at the back of your brain. Just go for it, you know, and that's very inspiring of you, Stephanie. Stephanie Myers was the same way. Twilight was a dream for her and it's like, yeah, crazy. So crazy. My dreams are like, I don't know, hippo stinky, eating Kool-Aid. I can't write a book on that. Yeah, same. Yeah. So, we talked about some of your other works published and some teasers for the next ones. Do you have any other ideas floating around in that headsp space of yours that you're thinking about doing? Yes. Um, lots. I have to decide how much I'm going to share. Um Oh, yeah. Don't feel Don't feel pressured to Yeah. There's Well, as you know, I kind of left it open-ended for a second treasure adventure. Um, I already have an idea for that. I haven't tried drafting it yet, though, because, you know, I'm trying to balance out the different series and, you know, which one to go with. Um, I will say I have a a really interesting I don't think I've ever So, it's a genderbent Ghostbusters. Cool. Set in the 1880s. Okay. Oh. And so it's like paranormal stuff. So, but think of it in 1880s. like meets meets Bridgetgerton. That's pretty cool. So that's my uh Okay, don't say anything else. I don't want to be stupid. It sounds amazing, but we will be here waiting. Yeah, we're sold. Yeah, that's pre-order hit. No pressure though. I I know, right? Um that's been something. And then I also have another idea of doing a My Fair Lady retelling because I feel like there's not a lot of that retelling. Totally. But I have a I have a different twist on it that I'm not going to say because then that's just going to be like,"Oh, well then that's going to be real interesting, you know." But I I started drafting like there's just different ideas that I will It's nice to be able to bounce back and forth between stuff if you get stuck, you know, in one book. So, I start just kind of thinking of another character and what their problem is and their main motivations and and then I just start kind of like trying to figure out, you know, what does he do? And and so I've started um I got like 10,000 words in that other like my fair lady retelling. So, it's cool. It's different things here and there. Uh I'm not done writing yet, so yeah. Good. I love it. Yeah. Exactly. So, you already mentioned some of your favorite books, but who are some other of your favorite authors or books? If you want to shout anyone out or just tell us any famous authors that you like? Sure. Um, I would say lately I have I've been I've always loved Cararissa Broadbent. Um, love her writing. Rachel Gillig, love her. I mean, it still blows my mind that One Dark Window is her debut author or debut book. Not like that's so unfair. Yeah. I mean, um I love her. I love Karina Holly. I love I've been into um the uh Salacious Players Club books by Sarah Kate, which has been super healing within the, you know, the shame surrounding about about your sexuality and stuff like that. I love I've been really enjoying those books. and uh you know oldies like um Cassandra Cla from the Mortal Instruments series and I haven't I haven't read her entire catalog yet and there's most of these I haven't read everything but um those are definitely some of my my favorite authors to read. All good ones. Yeah, it's crazy to me like I couldn't even believe that Spark of the Everflame was Pen Cole's first book. I was like are you serious? Like that can't be right. And like we asked her and I was like okay I guess so. Right. Yeah. Crazy. Fun fact, I actually used to do writing sprints with pen when she Yeah. back in I don't know which book she would have been writing, but it's been it was I think I was writing my book, too. So, yeah. Like a year and a half ago, we were in the same like writer Discord. Uh, so it was like I know her and I've even told the people when I bought her book at Barnes & Noble, I love her. That sounds cool. A a she's a sweetheart. She's I was just going to say that. Yep. Such a sweetheart. Okay, so going back to our book here. Would you have fallen for Grady if you were in Victoria's position? Yes, definitely. Yeah. And I think that has to a part of it is like I married the greenest flag cinnamon roll. Well, he's not a cinnamon roll. He's definitely a golden retriever. like a and it's so and that's what makes writing so fun is how you can decide how you're going to craft certain characters and I knew I wanted to have more of a dominant character and that's um that's Grady like he's charming but I also kind of wanted him to be a little bit showing that dominance and I knew that could rub people the wrong way. Um, but I really liked he was still kind of a hard character to to write to be honest. I started writing this book actually in single POV. It was just going to be Vic. Um, but then I I felt like I was missing something and even though he wasn't like really speaking loudly to me to be written, I just decided let's just try writing a few chapters and he doesn't have as much as as Vic does, right? But I felt like that's okay. Like you can you can break the rules, you know. Totally. No, it's a great Yeah. And so it was also I really love hearing the guy's perspective in spice scenes and that's why I put him as that's his first scene or his first POV was the spice um when they meet. So he was he was tough to write and try to balance um within certain facets, but I like how he I I was trying to showcase and there's only so much you can do, you know, trying to keep the book shorter. Yeah. But I was trying to showcase how he could he was dominant, right? But then for Vic, he was willing to switch for her and be able to like, I'll let you lead, you know, like and and as we go on through the book, I was really trying to showcase like how she had a hard time letting go and really coming into exploring what she likes, you know, and what as a new person and after, you know, having that loss um that she suffered from how it's like you're you become a totally different person. Like I'm a totally different person now compared to when I got married at 21, right? Mhm. And I really wanted to have a character to show that how you when you're younger, there's certain dreams that you have and whatnot and you you might fall into a relationship that feels good at the time and it feels healthy and whatnot, but I was trying to show a little bit of how that relationship being married younger and her now being more experienced, how she was just trying to discover what she who she is now. And I feel like I was, you know, having Grady show that dominance first part of the book and then being willing to like see and lean into her being able to take the reigns is what what I was trying to accomplish at least. But yeah, Brady Grady's an interesting character. I mean, that definitely came across for sure. Like I picked up on it for sure. Yeah, I really appreciated that. Well, yeah, cuz it's like you want to write someone who's fun. I think that's why he reminded me of the guy from Twisters cuz it's like you want to write someone who's fun and seems, you know, like easygoing and, you know, makes the dirty jokes and like does all that stuff but does have depth and his own personality in his own life and history. And I think that that came across really well. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good. Definitely. Was Grady inspired by anybody in real life? Oh, you know, me and Glenn. Yeah. All right. Perfect. Um, and then was there any like other specific qualities you intentionally wanted to give Grady to make him so fun and dynamic? I really wanted to show a difference between Grady and Marcus, too. That was a big thing for me because it's so easy to write the same characters and and I I don't have a Marcus POV, but he still played a role in helping Bick overcome, you know, her loss and and trying to find herself in Peru as well. So, I really wanted to show like how he had he was a little bit more sensitive. Um, and then have that be so like kind of like balancing out how Grady was a little bit more brash and a little bit more like, you know, just a little bit more dominant within. So, I would say I was more focused on showing those differences. So then as a reader, you also can have a different experience reading her relationship that she was having with with both of them. Even though it's not it's that's also why I didn't say it was a why choose, but I wanted people to like know, hey, she's going to have fun with two different guys at one point. Yeah. Um because once you say why choose you know that that there's expectations within that and I my brain for the way the story goes it wasn't able to do that you know and I I don't I don't know I guess you could try to make it into why choose but it just didn't fit within the way we're hunting for treasure right yeah I felt like it was a good balance for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. So what about Victoria? So her character, do you relate to her? And if so, you know, why how? Yes. Um I would say with Vic, she I It's It's interesting. It's like a lot of times when we read fantasy books, we expect the the female main character to be all stabby, you know, and to be and to have the, you know, where they're able to speak up for themselves and be not aggressive, but like have that confidence. Um, so I was kind of wanting to take a little bit of that and inject that into Vic, but not too much. And with her, it was all about just her trying to figure out who she was now compared to who she was when she first got married. I did take some like I I have a couple friends who did get married like super young like me and how like I said, you're just such a different person when you get married at 19, 20, 21 and then you know how your lives can change. Mhm. And so I kind of thought about them and how their lives like a lot of them ended up in divorce, you know, and and whatnot. And it was just that person for them then wasn't like it it might have worked for them at that time, but it wasn't fulfilling, right? It wasn't longlasting. So I kind of just thought about that and I always hear readers ask for more characters who are older. Mhm. So I was like, well, giving, you know, a glimpse of her being more experienced, I kind of wanted to tap into that, but also have a voice where she's she was like limited with what she wanted sexually. And I wanted to be able to show how with the right person, they are going to want you to be happy, right? They're going to want you to be fulfilled. they're they're going to want to meet you more in the middle and you know so within my own life I feel like with my husband and I we're coming up on 15 years being married in October which is crazy to think about and we have been able to grow together in our marriage cuz we are definitely not I mean we're both preachers kids and so we have definitely come a long way compared to where we were um when we got married and I just kind of dug deep within my own self of like okay what like the sexuality and being able to to claim that and not feel any shame surrounding that. So that's why I like to mention you know hey purity culture sucks. Yeah. Like I I something that like even as a 36-year-old I'm surprised that I it's taken me this long to heal from it. But the writing and reading books that have those themes in it has been so healing for it. And so I just wanted to to kind of like inject that into Vic. And uh hopefully that speaks to somebody else the same way to feel to feel. Well, I mean it definitely spoke to me just in the way that you know there are two guys that are important in this book. You know what I mean? And I feel like that within itself, you know, after coming from this, you know, unexpected trauma in her life and trying to figure out who she is, like it's completely 100% okay for her to go on this trip and have two potential, you know, interests. Um cuz even that, you know, coming from purity culture would have been heavily demonized. Um and so I I mean that came across clear as day to me. I was like, "You go, girl. Do your thing." Like, that's amazing. Yeah. Exactly. And that was that was one of the comments my copy editor said. She was like, "I wish I could have like a a sexation in Peru, like a of self-discovery, like this is amazing." Yeah. Well, guys do it all the time and are praised for it, you know, and women are demonized. So, I appreciate the representation totally%. Were there any powerful heroins that inspired you specifically to write Vic? I would say you a you're a powerful heroine. Um yeah, I would there wasn't anyone specific and I would it was hard for me to even like try to picture who I would see other than like Obviously, I kind of like lookswise I thought of Blake Lively was like who I kind of pictured her to be. Um, but who comes to mind like it's not the same like character traits I would say, but um, from the mind [ __ ] series, Lana. Oh, I loved how obviously she's kind of like more rough around the edges, I guess you could say, of of So Vic isn't quite like that, but I loved the independence of that character from that series. And it's funny, that's that was the series I had you read, Liz, for your your your 12 your 12 of 204. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The 12 friends, 12 books. I loved it. I loved it so much. Yeah, it was such a different take on on and just her character arc is so like refreshing to see and yet she still made space, you know, for the guy. I forget the guy's name, but I kind of I guess I would say I I really like seeing somebody like that who was able to stand alone and be okay being alone, but having your partner support you still and like that dynamic of that would be what I would say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, with that said, why do you think that we resonate so much with strong but real and flawed female characters in stories like yours? I mean, it's just nice to have that representation of seeing somebody speak up. Um, I actually, it was just this year I was introduced to the Beckell test. Have you guys heard of that? No. Yeah. So I You heard? Yeah. So do you want to describe? No, you can go for it. You can go for it. Um so I the Beckell test is what people would use for um for like books and movies of the having a female character. You you want to have what was it like at least two named female characters that talk to each other in a book. There's so many books and movies where a female character is always talking to a male character. Um, so that was like one of the requirements is to have that. Um, one of them was uh not to not like so that they're talking to each other, but they're also not discussing a man. A man. That's what it was. Yes. Yes. And um there's two other like requirements that they talk about within that. And I never had heard of that until recently. And so I thought about that and I was like, "Hey, I actually I passed that like like and it was one of the things of um another viral video I think it was Reese Witherspoon had mentioned in a speech of how so many movies the the girl goes to the man and says, "Oh no, what are we going to do like about a problem?" Mhm. And it's always been like that in so many different movies. And so I thought about that too and I was like, "No, we can stand up for ourselves. We could we could take the lead and take the charge of making the decisions." And I wanted I I just feel like that's overlooked in a lot of things. And being able to have a a character that doesn't need to like turn to the guy and be like, "Oh no, what are we going to do?" Like I like Exactly. Like I I after finding out about that test, you know, I looked at a certain scene. It was Marcus who asks Vic, "What do you want to do about this?" And she's kind of flustered like, "What do you mean?" Like, "Why are you asking me?" And he's like, "I'm asking you because I want you to like tell me what you want to do about it." Yeah. So, I just feel like, you know, looking back on so many other forms of entertainment where if we if the woman is too much, you know, if she's taking too much of the lead, it's it's looked down upon a lot of the times, you know, like you need to contain yourself because you're just being too much. So, it's nice to see. And I feel like I feel like the last I don't know. I'm thinking about like the Hunger Games, you know, those books. So, it has that strong female character. Like there's it's I feel like a lot of books have come a long way and introducing more female characters taking the lead, which is really awesome to to be able to portray that to the younger younger girls, you know? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I feel like movies can still come a long way. Oh my gosh. Um, but okay, so I just looked up the Beel test. I did have to say that I pulled up my Google search and I still had how bad are leeches and do they how do you get them off of you still in my Google search because I was like I've never and then I looked up like where they live and like if I will ever encounter any because I was like yeah the leech scene got got me obviously. Okay. So, the bectal test is um there has to be two or more named female characters. Yeah. Um they must talk to each other and then the conversation must be about something other than a man. So, those are the requirements. Yeah. Mhm. So, it's not asking for a lot. No, it's really not. Like that's Yeah, it Yeah, it really isn't. And I think it's really easy to have like if you're talking about um archaeology movies, you know, Indiana Jones and and The Mummy, like okay, let's The Mummy, she was really smart and a librarian and that was that was handled okay, I felt like um but a lot of times when you go and you go to Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie, what was she known for in that movie? Yeah. it was more about the physical assets that she had and it wasn't for like the brain part. Um, so being able to try to shift that focus also is what I was what I was hoping to do and I like seeing that in in media. Yeah, definitely does too. Any other themes that you put into Among the Cursed Gods that were extra meaningful to you? I will say also I I didn't spend a lot of time on this certain aspect, but going back to Grady where he kind of talks about the PTSD from the war um cuz he was a Marine. I think I think he was a Marine. Yeah. Um I wrote it so long ago. Um, I did I felt like that was interesting to kind of have that because from my own personal experience with my husband, he was in the Coast Guard for many years and he had PTSD but in a different form. It wasn't trauma from like going to war, you know, and like Iran and Iraq trauma. It was a totally different experience of like there was hazing that was involved with um women on his on his cutter, his ship, and they had investigations and stuff like that. And it was such a hard time for him to to push aside what had happened. Yeah. Um and knowing like he didn't have anything to do with it, but like he you know, just knowing that women were being hazed and it was I don't want to go into it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, like just kind of exploring more of those themes of like trauma and that's kind of why Grady was so kind of standoffish at first and thinking, you know, we can't I can't have a relationship with you because the last time I tried this, you know, it didn't end well. And that whole like I, you know, he feels like he can't be loved because of his trauma. Um, I feel like I'll be able to dive even more into that within going into like the next book with them. Um, but that was something that I I wanted to be able to just touch base on. As you can tell, like I still really wanted this book to be super fun for the majority of, right? I didn't want it to make it too heavy because that's where my fantasy brain likes to make things heavier. But I was trying to like, you know, for the sake of the whole book, still give it a lot of fun vibes and it was just a little glimpse of his character. I was trying to show like why he is who he is. So I would say that would be one of the other themes that and then just, you know, Vic being able to have the space to find herself through her journey. Well, it makes the characters more well-rounded and relatable because while we can be fun and silly and goofy, like we're all multi-dimensional people, so to see it written into characters, too, is really important, I think. Mhm. Yeah. It's it's hard to figure out that balance, too, cuz like one person is going to to really want more of that serious stuff compared to another person who's like, "Oh, let's just keep it like, you know, fun and lighthearted." So, so I mean, I know that for me, um, you know, the mental health theme that was kind of like, you know, going through the whole entire book was really meaningful to me. Um, why did you decide to write a book so heavily influenced by that theme? So like that refining yourself, rediscovering yourself after, you know, a significant lifealtering event. I think that that was really um the way that you wrote it was really realistic and I appreciated it. It Oh, good. Oh, I'm I'm glad to hear that cuz yeah, it's one of those things. Obviously, I've never experienced like losing a a loved one that you know who's super close to you. So, I was like, how how am I going to able to and not get bogged down into like a backstory, you know, like it's trying to be able to decide what gets shown versus told to and and it it was Yeah, it's hard to decide what you want to share with that. But I'm I'm glad that that you were able to still kind of see that theme. Yeah. It's like this like realizing that you're a completely different person than you were before. and recognizing that it's okay and almost like grieving for your past self but then also kind of in some ways coming back to your past self too. I think it was like the balance of that was great and you wrote that 10 out of 10. So I did pull a quote out and I wanted to ask you about it. So um a quote that her dad taught her is the art of bluffing is what keeps you in the game. So that really stood out to me. Um, it's kind of almost like a variation of like fake it until you make it kind of a thing or at least that's how I interpreted it. Um, where like how did you come up with that quote? Where did it come from? And what did you hope that we got from it? Um, that is a good question. I think when I was writing that I wanted to have to be able to so I was when I was writing about that think about when things are going to get tough for Vic, right? like at the pinnacle where the darkest of night happens in the book where she can have some sort of piece of wisdom from her dad because I showed that her relationship with her dad is so different than her relationship with her mom who's a little overbearing and is all about like oh you have to you have to be married and do this and this you need to and so I wanted to showcase the like that connection with her dad. Um, and to be perfectly honest, when I wrote that line, I honestly thought about the dad in national treasure. I love it. Like, you know how things got hard for them and and there you had like this. I think he had a line about the status quo. I don't remember that. It's been a while. Yeah. Me, too. Yeah. Yeah. And so that was kind of where my mind went was like, "Oh, I remember him saying to Nicholas Cage like we have to we have to do what the villain wants us to do because this something about like the status quo. We have to stay on top of the status quo." So that's honestly where I was going with that. It was like just a little I just need one little line to be able to help her get through something that was going to be like the ultimate test for her. So, it's not not very profound how it happened, but I love it because like, you know, you might have not had like this profound like backstory with it, but like what it meant to me was like that is one of like the best pieces of advice that you could give to someone who has gone through like a really hard time. Like the art of bluffing is what keeps you in the game. Like you might not be happy right now. You might be in Yeah, as you said, you know, the darkest part of your life, but eventually one day you'll be happy again. you just have to keep showing up every single day and doing your best. And I was like, that is really cool. I loved it. A I love that. I love hearing that. It It is kind of like a way I I do tell myself that a lot too. Like I'm able to push on and like when with a chronic illness like you know with your migraines, you there's so many times you have to just push on and keep going because life doesn't stop for you. And sometimes it is the fact that you just like, okay, well, I'm gonna act like I feel great and we're we're just gonna keep going and hopefully like there's that shift um that you'll be able to get there and and feel better or whatever. So, but I like I like hearing that how that hit you. Yeah. Do people in your real life know about your books? Um, so yes and no. Um, so it's kind of funny. My in-laws did buy they backed the Kickstarter that I had for this book. I love it. And um, and I tried to tell them I was like I was talking to my mother-in-law and I was like, there's there's some explicit spice in this. Yeah. And she's like, "Oh, that's what makes the book fun." Oh. find these little secret pockets in these communities, you know, that are like,"Oh, it's fine," you know, right? I wasn't expecting that. Yeah, it's it's very different compared to my parents. So like when I first wrote my first book which the fantasy book doesn't have any spice in it and like they in their minds they were like this did you do it correctly like theologically like they wanted to make sure that I was theologically sound about angels and demons and I they didn't tell me this that I was told this by my sister-in-law and my sister-in-law went and looked at them and she was like you do realize it's fiction, right? Yeah. Like separate them. Like they're different. Exactly. They're happy that I did it. But we don't talk about it. Yeah. Like we don't talk about Bruno. We don't talk about We don't Yeah. We don't talk about, you know, and it's kind of hard to be honest because it's such a big part of my life now. Mhm. You know, like I feel weird sometimes like when I'm I'm going to be going to a brewery later on this weekend to sell books as a signing and that's like one of the things that I felt weird telling them, letting them know. Um and she I told my mom recently and she she was like excited. So that was that kind of surprised me cuz just knowing that they Yeah, it's it's it's hard. It's different because it is nice though to have my in-laws who are more supportive within that. But I was telling my husband, I was like, I feel like when I send my in-laws the book, we're going to have to redact like all of the black marker. Like it's like that one movie, Just Married, now they're going to know. It's like even though we're in our 30s and married, it's like, yeah, but now they'll know for sure. Right. Right. And it was like for the Kickstarter that I had, I have two different versions of art prints that you could choose like the the Steamy, which they have like clothes on, or the NSFW, which I call the spicy. And so I give the backers an option and I saw his dad answered. I think he answered spicy. Yeah. And I was like, this is weird. So funny. But that's really cool. Oh, well, I hope that you know they read it and love it. And I'm sure that they will. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So, you already talked a little bit about um you know, what other books that you have coming down the pipeline. So, sequels basically in both of your um series, which is amazing. Yeah. So, can we get any little like teasers, insider info, like anything like that? If not, that's okay. For anything, are you willing to give us anything? Yeah. Um, so for like which book among the curse gods basically like any teas? Yeah, sure. Yeah. Sure. So, I'll say possible spoiler warning just in case, you know. Okay. Go ahead. Okay. So, as I'm writing and thinking of things like, you know, the epilogue shows Grady comes back and uh has this case. So, I actually in the early drafts I talk more about this case and my beta readers thought to kind of like leave that backstory out. So, basically, I'm springboarding that into book two, which is Grady needs help with one of his um squadmates, and it's going to be in the desert. It's going to be Arabian Nights. So, like I have this whole, you know, vibes of the desert and like the with the Jin. And so, I have to now get into researching about Jin, which is very fascinating. I I did a little bit of research about them. Um there's like good gins and bad gins in the in um and it ties in like the Muslim faith. So I'll definitely have to like make sure I find like sensitivity reader. Um like I want to step on any toes, you know, about that and make sure it sounds good within that realm. But yeah, I just see Grady I I tell others that have read book one that the relationship is just going to continue to grow for Grady and Vic. But it's a brand new artifact that they're going to be able to find. And you're going to still see SJ. And I kind of have an idea. Maybe if I I might have her be the star for like a book three and have her fun. Yeah. And have her meet somebody new. Um, so that's kind of where I'm going with it for right now. But also, you know, the other series is trying to pivot back and forth within that and trying to get the um the villain origin story done. Well, I'm done drafting that. So, I'm revising that now. And then I'm I guess I'm about 50,000 words drafted for my Angel series, book three already. Awesome. Nice. I'm And that's going to be the final book for that series, too. So nice. That's what's happening for now. That's so exciting. I cannot wait for book two in the series. I already want to read it so bad. Okay. All right. And spoilers. Welcome back, guys. I always like to chapter mark it so people know what's coming. All right. So, is there anything else you want to touch on with Among the Cursed Gods or any of your book series or anything at all? The floor is yours. Um, not really. I mean, I just hope that you can go into it with a lot of adventure vibes, fun. Um, know that it's spicy. I I know I've seen an early review how they were surprised by the spice, but they weren't like upset about the amount of spice in it. Um, but like I feel like it's still like a good balance between the adventure of them trying to get to the treasure. Um, I'm trying to think if there's anything else going on with it. I will be I I had a Kickstarter. If you're not familiar with Kickstarter and that platform, it's a platform for creatives to bring different projects that they hope to bring to life. And so I was able to be successfully funded to have special editions of this book. And that was really fun to be able they they were the first people to be able to read it too. And they have like exclusive stuff. And there's I I might be able to bring like back the special like foiled edition and stuff like that later on and especially for like book signings and stuff like that. Um, but for now, yeah, I just hope people have a lot of fun reading it and it makes them want to like watch the Uncharted movie afterwards or, you know, just kind of like Indiana Jones but with Vice. Love it. And the release date, just to reiterate, is September 15th, right? September 15th. Yes. Wonderful. Y. So, should we wrap this up with a smash or pass? Yes. Okay. So, I was curious. You already asked us um you know if we were team Marcus or team Grady. Did I don't think you told us if you were team Marcus or team Grady. Okay. Um so I didn't mention this before, but Marcus I viewed him the inspiration I got from him was Rio from Good Girl Show. Did you guys ever watch the Good Girl Show? No. Okay. Look him up. His name was Rio. I forget his actual name. Yeah, he's an like Manuel Man. I forget his actual name for you right now. Yeah. Good. So, the show Good Girls, his name is his character was Rio. Okay. So, I definitely was trying to portray like those vibes with him. Um, but yeah, I think I'd have to go with Wait, is he this guy? Can you see him? Okay. All right. Got it. Yeah, I mean that's pretty accurate to what I pictured too, I feel. And I've never seen the show before. So great. Yeah, I get that's a good testament to the character artist. So I was like, this draw this. Okay. Cuz originally I was just going to ask Smash or Pass Marcus, but I was curious who you would pick between the two. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I thought you were going to go for like something way wacky like Smasher P. Smasher Pass the goddess at the end. I mean, smash her past. Make it a little unhinged. There you go. Yeah. I think she was when I wrote her, I was like it was giving the vibes of in this I think it was the second mummy when the main the main girl had that second like Yeah, I was kind of like thinking of Yeah. Smash. I think that that pretty much wraps it up. Unless you have any last things you want to add, but it sounds like we've covered it. Thank you so much. I'm so glad to be able to be a part of this with you guys. I' I've really enjoyed seeing how you guys have been able to make this community over Has it been It's been a Has it been a year, right? A little just a little over a year. Little over a year. Yeah. So, I'm just like so proud of you, too, of being able to like do all of this among your everyday jobs. Yeah. And being a mom. like it's just really awesome to see how you're able to to do all of this for for the readers and having that community. So, thank you so much. Thank you. We're proud of you. This is amazing. Yeah, we're proud of you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate you taking time out of your day to come and hang out with us. You guys make sure to follow Tiffany over at TJLondon Books on Instagram. And make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to list your favorite podcast, including YouTube. We are besties in the books podcast everywhere. I think we'll see you next time. Bye bye.[Music]

People on this episode

Besties and the Books Podcast