Ep 122 “This is MAJOR!” The Poison Daughter Discussion with Indie to Trad Author Sheila Masterson!

The Poison Daughter by Sheila Masterson has taken the Romantasy and Dark Fantasy world by storm and as of August 18th will be rereleased and traditionally published by Zando Publishing in hardcover and dual narrated audiobook! We’re here to celebrate with none other than Sheila herself, the beautiful, smart, and incredibly talented woman behind one of our favorite books of the year, multiple monthly picks for Besties and the Book Club, and USA bestselling author of The Poison Daughter! 

You’ve seen the iconic purple cover everywhere. You’ve heard about the chronic illness representation, the sister bond that pulls on every reader’s heartstrings, the forced marriage between enemy kingdoms, and a badass female assassin who unalives dangerous men with her poison kiss… until one day a certain man proves he’s immune. 😉If you haven’t heard about it, now you have absolutely no excuses. Read it right now! 

We were introduced to Sheila and her amazing books by our friend and Besties & the Book Club member Katie over @katieandthebooks who relentlessly nominated The Poison Daughter until it got picked, and we are SO eternally grateful to have been introduced to a new book bestie AND an auto-buy author.

Just to reiterate, today’s episode will be completely spoiler free, but if Sheila is willing to share any spoilers about upcoming works, we’ll give you a quick warning ahead of time! This episode is here for us to get to know Sheila better and to find out what you’ll be getting into when you pick up her dark romantasy The Poison Daughter, as well as her backlog of previous releases! 

When Sheila's not busy stabbing beloved side characters and dreaming up new ways to make her readers cry, you can find her browsing the shelves at local indie bookstores, drinking fancy cocktails with friends, or curled up reading books and tarot. She lives outside Philadelphia with a small army of underwatered houseplants that survive out of spite. Go get your preorders in, and spread the word… your new favorite read has entered the chat!

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Check out these narrator interviews? ⬇️

Anthony Palmini gives us the lowdown on what it’s like to voice act Rhysand, Kingfisher, AND Slade Ravinger! 

https://youtu.be/zcCyrlZ5Jcc?si=2k7ULbRPgZl_5pUJ

Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

Penn Cole talks with us about 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! Watch it here! https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4

Check the official Follow Up Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of the Split or Swallow Universe all about Between Two Kings! https://youtu.be/OW1cxXTVcTc?si=oOxVIzbIheET_bNE

Nikki St. Crowe, the queen of spicy fairy tale retellings chats with us about diving into the land of Oz with West of Wicked! https://youtu.be/wwFYSDKcbtE?si=X6iNmUVAE6Xhmv7B

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Transcript

And all of a sudden, I had like eight different agents in my inbox and I was like, "What is going on?" We have to talk about audio book. Oh my gosh. Yes. Is The Poison Daughter actually over? I'm just like so excited for everyone to like know about it finally.

Hey everyone, I'm Ashley. And I'm Liz and welcome to the Besties in the Books podcast. Best author interview edition. I am so excited. We have such a very special spoiler-free interview today with none other than the Sheila Masterson, which we know you guys. We know you guys love Sheila Masterson because we have read not just one but two of her books for Besties of the Book Club. You guys know. So today we are here to talk about one of our favorite romanty books of all time getting re-released, traditionally published. Um, The Poison Daughter. Yes. So exciting. Yes. I was putting them out earlier or last night and I was like, "Okay, I got to have my, you know, trad published edition. I have to have my indie hard coverver, my indie paperback." And so I have them all behind me here. Yes. How many copies are too many? The limit does not exist. The limit does not exist. Just in case you guys did not know or haven't already pre-ordered your copy or don't already have a copy or maybe you want another copy because listen, yeah, we said, you know, yeah, you never have too many. They're slightly different. Yeah, the colors are so pretty. Um, it is being re-released by Xando Books um on 818. So, it's coming up here soon in about a week. um not just on um you know everywhere you can find your books and also your ebooks but on Audible and we'll talk a little bit with Sheila about the amazing audio book that is going to be dropping too. It's like literally so exciting. So, you know, first off, we want to give credit where credit is due. We were introduced to Sheila and her amazing books by our friend and Bessie's in the book club member Katie over at Katie in the Books. Um, so go give her a follow as well. Um, who relentlessly nominated The Poison Daughter until it got picked and we are so grateful. We've read and covered, like I said, not only The Poison Daughter, but also book one in Sheila's Lost God series for book club. Um, so we'll talk to her a little bit about her other books, too, just so you guys can, you know, kind of get a sense of um, what you're getting into if you decide to explore her backlog, which trust us, you will want to do. Um, and just to reiterate, today's episode will be completely spoiler-free, but if Sheila is willing to share any spoilers about any upcoming releases, things that are in the works, we'll give you a quick warning ahead of time. This episode is here to get to know Sheila better, to find out what you'll be getting into when you pick up her dark romanty, The Poison Daughter. And like I said before, we'll also briefly talk about her other books so that you know what to expect. But first of all, we just wanted to say thank you so much for being here. Seriously, thank you so much for taking time out of your day and your book to come and hear this talk. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like to spare your podcast, including YouTube. We are Besties in the Books podcast everywhere, Instagram and Tik Tok. And of course, make sure to follow the wonderful author Sheila over at Sheila Reads and Writes on Instagram. And grab a pre-order, grab a reorder, grab the audiobook pre-order. Like, get those placed cuz it's so exciting. Breaking out. Um, so you know, before we bring Sheila on, let's just give her a real brief introduction. So Sheila is the USA Today best-selling author. So exciting, of The Poison Daughter, which is actually her seventh novel. So you guys have plenty to dive into after this one. Um, her other works include the Gothic Fairy Tale Song of the Darkwood and the angsty epic romanty quartet, The Lost God series, as well as its spin-off, A Legacy of Stars. When Sheila is not busy stabbing beloved side characters and dreaming up new ways to make her readers cry, you can find her browsing the shelves at local indie bookstores, drinking fancy cocktails with friends, or curled up reading books and tarot. She lives outside Philadelphia with a small army of underwatered house plants that survive purely out of spite. Welcome, the incredibly talented Sheila Masterson. Ah, I'm so excited to be here. I feel like I've been talking to you guys for so long and it's exciting to like actually get to talk to you face to face. Yeah, we couldn't agree more. Yeah, we're so excited to have you here today. So, we're going to just like throw it right on you right out the gate here. Thank you so much for joining us. We always do a fave and fail over on our episodes every week. So, this time we want to do a fave and fail, the Poison Daughter edition. So, what do you feel like maybe was the best and worst part about maybe the writing process or anything in developing this beautiful book? Yeah. So, I think I think the best part was the best part was it being done. No, I'm I it really does feel like that. It took me um 3 years off and on, like not three years straight uh working on this book. So, it was probably the book that has taken me the longest and felt the most um like mentally challenging in terms of like the story and the twists and all of that. Um so, I think that's really been the best part. And also seeing um so many readers relate to the um chronic pain rep in the book. I think like that's been really really rewarding because I feel like what I always loved about reading growing up was that it gave me words for things that I didn't necessarily have on my own. And um I think having people say this captured this experience really well in like a thing that's very complicated to explain or talk about. Um that's probably been one of my favorite things about it. Um and in terms of fails um I think just the editing process for this one. I was like, "Dear God, please let it not be a complete mess." Because if it's such an intricate story that if there were any huge developmental things that I needed to change, there would have been a there were a lot of moving parts. Um, so it was mostly just the continuity, making sure that the timeline made sense, which is always one of the hardest things for me with any book. I've gotten better at it over time and at keeping track of it on the first draft as opposed to just being making it future Sheila's problem, which is what I've done in the past. Um, so I think I think that and then also I really tried to not get to get my mom to not read it. Um, she is, for the record, she's read all of my other books which are also spicy, but this one sort of takes the cake. So I was like, you know, I don't think you'll like it. It's pretty violent. It's pretty dark, which genuinely I didn't think that she would like it, but I couldn't just straight up say, "Don't read it." Because then I I told my sisters, I was like, "What do you think?" And they were like, "No, if you tell her not to read it, she'll just read it harder." And I was like, "Yeah, like she she's an Aries, so like she's not she's not going to like just be like, "Sure." Um, so so yeah, I I really tried there to like make it unappealing, but she she read it twice. My as my sister very nicely pointed out to me, I was like, "Wow, thanks." Terrible. Oh. So, that was also a little bit of a fail. Yeah. Just cuz you have to like know like what Oh, what came out of your brain. But I think Okay. Twice. She don't think too bad. Listen, I'm I don't know. I'm just like, really? Why?

Because she wants to support you. That's why. That's beautiful. I know. We'll find more out kind of like towards the end of the interview, too, about like what your in real life people think about um yeah, just you know, you writing spice. But yeah, we'll get more into that.

So, you know, obviously we're here to celebrate The Poison Daughter becoming traditionally published. So, first of all, I'm so excited. Yeah. So exciting. It's beautiful. I know. So, so we just need to know so like how has this specific transition going from indie to triad been for you so far? And specifically, can you pinpoint the moment when you realized that The Poison Daughter was like really taking off? Yeah. Um I think Okay, let's see. Let's start with when I knew it was taking off. I think that um you know in December it started to to get really big. it it had a good launch and then November was a little bit better and then December like it kind of kept like doubling every month basically. Oh, and um and I was like, okay, like this is cool. And typically how it goes with the launch is like your launch month will be pretty good and then usually the month after launch is a little bit better. Um and then it tends to kind of start to fall off a little bit. Um that's how it's gotten for me for the last six books before this. And so I kind of had that in my head. I was like, "Okay, like this month is good." So then when December went up, I was like, "Oh, like maybe maybe this is different." Um, but I still was sort of like, "Oh, it might just be a blip, you know, it might just be going viral like right now." Um, and so I kind of kept being like, "Oh, well, probably next month it'll like even out a little." And it didn't. It just like kind of kept getting bigger and bigger. Um, so I think it was kind of around it was around January when um when everybody in publishing got back into the office and all of a sudden I had like eight different agents in my inbox and I was like, "What is going on?" So, um, and then I was like, "Okay, this is crazy." And I had already had a lot of foreign rights interest even back in like October. Um, so I' I'd had some interest along the way, but it was the first time that I had a lot of foreign rights people reaching out to the point where I was like starting to like sweat it a little bit. Like I had a spreadsheet to keep track of everything because I was like, "Oh my god, there's a lot happening." Um, so I had all of that and and that was kind of when I knew. Um, and as far as the transition, it's definitely um it's definitely a steep learning curve. I think I am very used when you are indie you're the decision maker and everything. So you have to do everything but you're also it's also more efficient to make decisions because once you decide something that's just like how it's going to be. I think the hard part about being an indie author going t is that then everything is decided by committee. Um, so sometimes you have to like advocate for decisions that you've made or like making the right decisions for the book. Um, like there's all different things like what format it's going to be, how specked out it's going to be, um, when the release is going to be, all of that stuff. So, um, and we kind of had a plan and then and then Sarah J. Moss announced that she was putting out two books and it was like, oh, okay. So then the plan had to change. Um, and we but but the great thing is that my publisher has been very they're very much able to adapt because part of the reason that I went with Xando is because they they're not one of the big five, but they are very established. They are very they still have great resources. They still have a good network. Um, and they're a little bit more agile and less less of the this is how we've always done things that I think people get a lot more often with the big five. Um, so I think that part was um, you know, there's a there's always a little bit of a learning curve there, but because the book has done really well, they've been very receptive and um, we've collaborated on a lot of things. So, in general, like it's been a pretty I think one of the smoother indie tried transitions just from talking to to friends and seeing how some of the other ones have gone and they've been um really like working hard to get it out to as many retailers as possible and um making sure that it gets like as much support for the relaunch, especially on a short timeline cuz we really turn this around quickly. Um, for sure because it'll be about six months from the time that we close the auction until the book comes out. So, pretty fast. Pretty much as fast as you can go in traditional publishing. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that insight was so cool. Yeah. Yeah. I know. As soon as you started like, you know, uh, kind of alluding to something going on, me and Ashley were like, cuz we had been wanting to have you on ever since we read The Poison Daughter and the Lost God for book club. Um, and it just like as soon as we saw that there was like sprinklings of like something in the air, we were like, "Okay, we have to set something up right now because something big is going to happen soon." Yeah. Yeah. I'm so excited. Yeah. So, it's it's been really good. And, um, obviously, I mean, I think the thing so far that I've been most impressed by is how much better their printers are. Like, oh my god, it's so beautiful. Like, the purple on that like is so much better than than the print on demand. and just I've been totally blown away. Um they've done some very cool um stuff for influencer campaigns and stuff like that as well. So yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So cool. It's been such like a pleasure being able to see that shift for you. So we're so we were shouting out Katie in the books who had nominated you so many times and we were able book club voted for it. Katie, it was one of those Katie is the best. And it was one of those books that's like you're reading it, you're obsessed, and then all of a sudden you see it everywhere. It's like, whoa, awesome. We were recommending it and so many like top five reads and everything. And so to see it like grow legs or whatever the saying is and like really sprint for the finish line was so exciting. So exciting. So congratulations. It's also Thank you. I think it's also been my like non-bookish friends, like my real life people being like, "Oh my gosh, like my my friend's book club is reading your book or my mom's book club is reading your book." And I'm like, "This is crazy." Yeah. That's so That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I can't even I can't even imagine how that feels because it's like I I even think it's weird when like I have a client come in and say something like, "Oh, we're reading blah blah blah." You know, like they'll say they're reading a book like, you know, The Poison Daughter. I had this happen a couple times, you know, with Lindsay Straby's books and um it's like it's weird for me to be like, "Oh yeah, like uh we just interviewed her on our podcast." Like that even feels weird. Yeah. So to be like, "Oh yeah, like you're reading like just to be able to be like you're reading actually a book I wrote for your book club." That would be wild. Yeah. Yeah. It's really crazy. I know. And I I was we were laughing about it because um like I've been talking to my publisher about doing like instore signings and stuff because I'm going to be going on tour and um you know I always want to try to stop places when I can but I'm like it is going to be weird to go in and be like that's me like and I I don't want to be like do you know who I am? But like cuz it does like feel like that but also I'm like do I need to like show ID or something? you know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so exciting. So cool. Okay, so switching back gears to The Poison Daughter for those of for those out there who haven't read it yet. What are you doing? But I get it. You know, we got a mountain of TBR books. Uh let's talk about The Poison Daughter for a second. What should people expect if they're thinking about reading The Poison Daughter? Like how would you summarize the plot and tropes and themes without giving away any spoilers? Yeah. Yeah. So, I usually pitch it by saying that The Poison Daughter is a standalone enemies to lovers romanty uh with a vigilante FMC who uses her poison kiss to lure unsuspecting men to their demise until one night she kisses a man and he doesn't die and he turns out to be her new betrothed and the rest is chaos. Um, yeah. So, sucked in right from the start. Sucked out. You're sucking me in again. I'm like, "Oh, okay." Like, you're selling me and I'm like, "Oh, I need to go reread this immediately." Yeah, you can definitely expect like like a true enemies to lovers. She sort of um he's an obstacle for her. She sort of nonspecifically hates him and like what he represents because she is enjoying widowhood. Um, and uh, he specifically hates her and grows to hate her more for like she gives him good reason, you know. Um, so I think they uh, it's definitely a true enemies to lovers. Um, it's older characters. So Harlo is 30, Henry's 33. Um, and um, I think like there there is like a maturity and also an immaturity to their relationship. I mean, they're, you know, at each other a lot. So, if you like banter, if you like um a more harsh, like she's not, she's definitely not a warm and fuzzy FMC, that's for sure. Um, she's a little a little edgier. And, um, it's also really like at its core like a sister story, too. She the she really has a close relationship with her sister. Um, and they come from a pretty terrible family, so they're bonded in the way that you can only be if you've survived the same family. Um, so I really I really loved writing that part, too. So I think like sisters, anyone who's looking for slightly older characters, anyone who likes enemies to lovers. Um, and then of course like who doesn't love a woman in in a male-dominated field, you know? We really do need more female representation in serial killing. and Brit Weaver for her part is doing like an excellent job like fully. Um, but I this is my contribution I guess. Love it. Love it. Love it. I absolutely loved Harlo's character like through and through everything about her and even your representation so quote unquote like invisible disabilities like what is somewhat to be a migraine you know suffer and somebody who I myself suffer with them. So to have that represented in a book so well and described so accurately just was very cathartic. So thank you for that. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And that part was really important to me, too. I think um I think that it's I I know how it's felt when I've read books with chronic pain rep where I felt seen. Um, and I think that, you know, everybody deserves to see themselves reflected in media, but it also in fantasy I think is particularly powerful because we're seeing magic at work. We're seeing what people can do in this like magical world, so to speak, but it's really lovely to see a character who, you know, she's doing all this other stuff and also this is going on. It's not defining her. It is impactful in her life, but it's not like the core of who she is. it's just one part, one aspect of her life. Um, and I think that's really how how everyone who has a chronic illness or or chronic pain really wants to be able to to live is not to have it ignored or explained away or fixed, but to just be able to like have it exist and be acknowledged and and just kind of live with it. Yeah, for sure. Well, and I think a big piece of that too that I think resonated with um you know, I know us for sure, but I would assume a lot of people was how Henry supports her and acknowledges it like Yeah. And I feel like that was huge. Yeah. And I think that a lot of times, especially for men, men are want to like have a problem to solve. Um and so I think it is really sort of revolutionary for her that he doesn't treat her any differently. Um he's still kind of giving her a hard time. He's still taunting her a little bit, but she's almost like relieved that he's not suddenly being nice because like she would not be able to take it. So I think that was really important to me that he acknowledges it but doesn't like make her something to fix. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. 100%. So, building off of that, why don't you tell us a little bit about how, you know, what new to you readers can expect if they decide after reading The Poison Daughter that they want to start exploring some of your other books. You know, tell us maybe about the Lost God series, how it's similar or maybe different from the Poison Daughter. Yeah. Yeah. I think like all of my work is very character driven. So, I think if you go to the Lost God world, you'll sort of find an FMC who's on the other end of the spectrum in terms of Cece is very sweet. Um, or at least she starts out very sweet. Um, and uh, a little bit naive. She's much younger. Um, and you know, we meet her at the very beginning of that journey. I think when we meet Harlo, she's sort of like midpoint through a journey, you know, so she has had a little bit more life experience. But um I always think of the Lost God series as sort of this um it's sort of this exploration of we have a little bit of how like memory connects people over time. There's memory magic in the story. Um it starts with a quest um a memory witch and her guardian set out on a quest to unleash this ancient magic from a series of caves that form like a grimoire in the language of memory. And um along the way they run into some meddling gods and some enemy hunters and a very charming man who pops up to assist them. Um and and um so we have a little bit of a love triangle, which I know is a polarizing trope. Um but I really wanted to show kind of a I I really wanted to show relationships like the feeling of first love where you feel like you kind of can't help yourself. um and kind of some of the some of the growth that comes around that where you're you're learning how to be out on your own and away from your family and establishing yourself and um and really learning how to ask for the things that you want, which I think is something that a lot of women struggle with. And I really wanted to show that in a character because we know from the very beginning that Cece really wants to have choices, but she really strugg

I don't know what to do with this. Like I said, I wanted this and now I'm like, "Somebody else decide," which is a very human thing. Like it it we all do this. And um so I really wanted to kind of capture some of that. And it's both the the journey of, you know, can the heroes save the world and then also what happens after they save the world? How did they learn to like actually live again, not just survive? Um, so it's kind of both things. Um, so there's that series. Again, kind of the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of of female leads, but um but they're both fierce in their own rights. Um, and then, uh, on the other side we have Song of the Darkwood, which is a standalone Gothic romanty, and that is a little bit like a Dark Red Riding Hood meets Hades and Praphanany. I call it a coming of rage story because that is definitely Rowan is also very young, but she she really gets in touch with her anger in that book. And um it's a very good book if you are someone who has been through some religious trauma, deconstruction, all of that. Um it's definitely for for anyone who's been through that. Um it is a young woman who has a spirit enchanting voice who is tasked with varying souls of the departed across the darkwood to the god of death and keeping him happy. Um, so, uh, so yeah. So, there I think that if you if you really like the gothicy elements of the Poison Daughter and like the worldbuing piece, probably go the song route. And also, if you are like, I need a standalone, go the song route. That will be a series of interconnected standalones. So, like there will be like an overstory payoff, but you can read them in any order. Love that. Um, and then The Lost God is a four book series, but it is complete. It's on audio and both everything in my back list is on audio. So, yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Song in the Darkwood. Um Katie is nominating that one like pretty much every month now, too. So, I'm like, "All right, we'll probably end up reading that one soon, but that's been on my radar also." And I'm like, "Ooh." I know people are always looking for really good standalone romanty books cuz they are hard to find. Um, and so that makes those, you know, The Poison Daughter and Song of the Darkwood pretty unique. So that's cool. Yeah. And that one is a little more succinct. That's more like a normal length book. So I tell people all the time, I'm like this by comparison to everything else is a lot shorter. It's more like 350 pages or something. So yeah. Well, I mean I could only speak for us, but I know that when we finished The Poison Daughter, even though it is a little lengthy, we were like hoping for more and more. So hey, everybody says that. Everybody says that. And I I think like the ultimate test for me was when I was meeting with editors at the publishers because I tend to really not like books that are even close even a 100 thousand words shorter than the boys and daughter is still sometimes too much for them. And I was like am I going to hear that I need to cut something but all of them were like I had no idea it was that long. The pacing was great. I was like thank God. I literally cuz we did e-reader for this when it was first out, you know, tradition uh under uh indie indie published. And so when we got this, thank you so much for sending these to us. I was like, it was this big the whole time. I had no idea. I know. I know. I know. It's crazy seeing it. And the the UK one, the paper is thicker, so it's actually bigger. It's so crazy. I love it. That's such a testament to your writing though that like you can have such a large book page number-wise too and that like you don't even know that it's that long because it was just so effortless and it just pulled you in right away. The highest compliment. Yeah. And for people to be like, "Oh, I want more." Cuz I was like everybody was like, "I want a standalone." And then they were like, "Right, more." I know that's so hard. That's exactly my thoughts when finishing it. It's like I super appreciate the standalones cuz we have like a million open series, you know, that we'll never get to. But I love them so much and I want more. So it's so I know it's so hard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I totally get it. Yeah. So hard. So have you always considered yourself a writer? Yeah, I think so. I, you know, I was writing even when I was little. I would like walk around with like a notebook and write short stories and stuff. They're terrible. We do still have them, thank God. Um, so cute. They're not great. Um, and then even in college, I took a lot of like writing electives because I decided it wasn't enough to have to write a ton of research papers for my actual major. I was like, "Low, we have to write more." Um, so I I think I always really enjoyed writing, but like a lot of people when I graduated, it's like I forgot how to do things for fun. Yeah. And I think millennial culture is kind of that you make everything every hobby that you have has to become a job. Yeah. Totally. um which is so annoying. Uh it's such a terrible cookie. Um so I think I kind of forgot how to have fun and then during the pandemic I just I started writing a bunch just so that I didn't lose my mind. Um because I was reading a lot and it just was kind of a way to process. And when I first started writing The Lost God, I didn't even know if I could write a book. I'd never written anything that long. Um and I just was like, well, I'll just write until I run out of story and that'll happen eventually. Like I'll I'll figure it out. Um, but I it took it took four books. Took four books till I ran out of story and I was like, "Okay, I guess I can write a book." Yeah. I mean, it needed a lot of editing. I didn't know what I was doing for the record. It took a It took a while to edit it into something coherent, but it was Yeah, it was fun. That's awesome. And then, how about a reader? Have you always been considering yourself a reader? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because I I always thought I didn't like reading, but I just didn't like the books that they gave us in school. Yeah. I think that's a lot of And then as soon as I found Yeah. Yeah. And as soon as I found stuff that I liked, which was mostly horror when I was younger, um once I found that, I was like, "Oh." And then I just read like all of Goosebumps and all of Fear Street. And I also read these um oh god, what was the name of that series? I think it was by I want to say it was by Francine Pascal and it was called Fearless and it was about this girl who was born without the gene for fear and I there were like I don't even know how many books in that series but I read all of those. There were a ton of them. That's awesome. Yeah. It's like I say that all the time to people. It's like you know I was talking to my husband about that too recently. It's like I feel like for most people who are like oh I just don't like reading. I'm like, I think you probably just haven't like read something yet that's like unlocked that thing in your brain. You know what I mean? That's like, oh, I do like reading. I just haven't found the thing that I really like yet. Exactly. And I didn't even know that romance, it's not that I didn't know that it was a genre. I think I didn't really understand what it was for a long time. Um, and I was like, "Oh, well, if I had known this was a thing, I would have read even more when I like I would have been like so into this." cuz I think the thing that I was always interested in was like the romantic storyline um and also just like strong female characters which unfortunately I think you mostly find in romance because that's a genre where there are a lot of women writing. So um so I think that's what I was always looking for was like these strong female characters and I wasn't finding it so much other places. Yeah. Yep. Mhm. I think that's like a realization a lot of us have come to like especially being, you know, so active in this community now that it's like exploded to such a level is like realizing that everything that we were taught about romance books and the romance genre growing up uh was predominantly not it was propagandicized like I mean how many of us love that episode of friends where like Joey finds you know Rachel's bodice ripper and so like that was our touch point of what romance books are and it's something to be made fun of and laughed about and it is funny like you know the vicer and the thing and it has it but it has its place also and it we don't need to like make fun of it for real and also I think a lot of us I know me like I just didn't even consider myself a romance reader cuz that's what I grew up thinking it was like the Fabios and that that has a place too you know and that is beautiful and it's a beautiful thing and I love what it's done but then there's also So this other side of romance too that we were never even offered like unless you sought it out. It's because of just what media has done to it. Anytime there's a mention of romance. Yeah. Mhm. I know. And it's like every other month there's some article coming out about fairy go or dragon porn and you're just like give me a break. [ __ ] sake. Like they don't say that about game. Like they don't say that about literally anything else that's written by a man. Yeah. And I'm like, people are so bothered by this. Like, this is crazy. It's crazy to me how bothered they are by like women just reading for fun. God forbid. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Well, because it goes so deep and it's like we don't need to get into that discussion today, but it's like it's just so layered. It's so layered because it's like, you know, I think it just women having fun is very triggering for a lot of people. women enjoying themselves is very triggering for a lot of people. And so I think that's kind of where it stems from. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, why don't you shout out some of your favorite authors and books then? Like just, you know, maybe some books that got you into reading, some that you're loving now, like anything that you want to shout out. Yeah. I mean, I I very unironically say that I'm very influenced by RL Stein because that was really truly I read so many RL Stein books when I was young. Um, so definitely our I love it. So cute. Um, hey, I've got some goosebumps sitting right here, so I get it. Oh my gosh. Yeah, seriously. Um, but I think like over the last couple of years, I love Isabelle Kanyas. Um, her Vampires of El Norte is so so good. Um, I love Tia Williams. Seven Days in June is one of my favorite, it's probably my favorite romance of all time. I just think that she can do no wrong. And that's also a book with chronic pain rep. Um, and it was the first book that I read where I was just like, "Oh my god." Like, if I ever see her, that's that's an author where both of them honestly, if I meet either of them, I would probably not be able to be cool. Like like I really don't fan girl most of the time. And I've I've now just because of what I do and because I've gone to events and everything, I've met a lot of authors who I like respect and and just like look up to. Um, and I'm usually really good at being like very calm, but there are certain people where I feel like if I met them, I would just be like, um, yeah. So, uh, I love Rashni Chakshi. Uh, uh, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride is like one of my favorite books. It's it's a strange it's an unusual book. Like I wouldn't necessarily re recommend it for everyone. Um, because it's like a little bit like you don't know if you're in a fairy tale. Is this a fairy tale? Is this a fever dream? Like what's going on? But it's sort of a commentary. on marriage. Um, and it's really good. Um, and I just I love her writing. Everything that she writes, she's just a really beautiful writer. Um, and then my favorite fantasy series of all time is um, an an ember in the ashes by Sabatir. It's so good. It's like one of the best. Um, it's technically I think YA, but I think it's from that time period where they were trying to make new adult happen and it didn't really happen. So, thematically it's definitely more mature and the characters are older. Um, and it's one of the She does just like a spectacular job with her characters. Her world building is amazing, but her characters are so good. And there are characters that you meet early on and you're like, I will hate this character the entire time and then later you'll be like, oh my god, is he okay? And I was like, how dare you make me care for this character? Like, I'm so offended right now. Um, so I just I think that she is just masterful and she's mean. I mean, she's she's mean. Respect. Respect where it's due for sure. Yeah. But those are some of my favorites. Um, I love Jessica Joyce. Um, Emily Henry, uh, Kennedy Ryan. I mean, I love the Skyland series so much. It's like, if you are looking for a series with older characters, that series is so good. The women are so smart and so competent. The relationships are so mature and the problems that they're having as couples are very like grounded and relatable, I think, for like so many people, but those are characters that are in their like late 30s, early 40s. So, I just that series is amazing. Yeah. Okay. The list gets longer. I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Oh, it's a good problem to have. It's a good one. What do you think it is about this book in particular, The Poison Daughter, that has really resonated so strongly with readers? Um, you know, I think that a lot of it is has to do with like what's going on in the outside world. I think a lot of um women especially have felt very frustrated by a lot of what's going on in the outside world. Not that men haven't, but like I think it's a little bit different. And a friend was asking me why I think feminine rage is so popular now. And I think it's a lot of it is because even in opposition to all of these injustices that are going on in the outside world, women still have to show up in a specific way. And that is like infuriating. And it's even more true every deviation you are away from straight, white, able-bodied, all of that. So, I'm like I think that for a lot of people, it's getting to see it's getting to see a woman who gets to actually be angry and gets to take revenge because that's part of the fantasy, right? is that we can't and I don't even know that it's necessarily that most of us want to take revenge, but I think it's this idea of fairness or that there's some way for things to balance out that feel satisfying. So, I think there's Well, I think I think it's like a level of accountability that like we don't really get to experience most of the time in our real lives. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And so I think that's what it is for me where it's like oh okay Harlo actually gets to hold a lot of these people accountable for the wrongs that they have done instead of having to as you say you know and how a lot of us have to like operate with this like latent like uh yeah like this latent rage all the time understanding that like the powers that be and the individual acts that you know um are hostile towards us on a daily bas basis are actually not going to have any consequences. Exactly. And that just makes us more rageful. Exactly. Exactly. So I think I think that aspect of it, it was really the right time. I also think a lot of people just because there's such an onslaught of things happening in the outside world. We're really looking for a standalone just like you said because all of us are in the middle of like 20 different series and trying to keep all these moving parts straight. Um, so I think some of it was that and then um and I think just older characters having having a slightly older more mature relationship between them and and there is a lot of respect there. I think even even in their hatred, like they still have a level of a worthy adversary, you know, like a a healthy respect for the danger that the other character poses, which is in itself like a a a signal of respect. And um I do think that there's something about their relationship being a little more mature like that. Like she doesn't need him. Um, and he doesn't really need her either, but they kind of choose. It's it's like who do you choose in this in this life and who do you want to spend your time with? Um, so I think I think that's a lot of it. Um, and yeah, it's just it's a good time. It's fun to watch the two of them spar with each other a little bit verbally. Yeah, totally. I mean, we love the banter over here, so it's like keep it coming. Yeah. Yeah. I was I was pulling stuff um I mean obviously my book is to my taste but I was pulling stuff for um audio clips like for the for the audio team and I was like laughing like reading parts of it I was like oh my god she's so insane like her amazing so you know just building off of that then you know what are some of the central themes that you included in the poison daughter that were extra meaningful to you. Yeah, I think um I think there's definitely this theme of someone someone loving the flawed version of you. I think there's this a thing that I I work through a lot in all of my books is kind of this common monstrosity. It's like what do we accept as normal? Um, and how do we who who gets to point to who the villain is? And why do they get to point and and be the hero as opposed to the villain? And so I really love writing these characters who are like nobody is all good or all bad. Um, even the villains in the story are not all bad. Like usually they have some motivation that it makes sense why they think that way. Um, and so I think with with this story in particular, I was really trying to look at like who can love the most monstrous, ugly parts of you and how can that teach you about loving yourself better? Um, and I think that's a big piece. There is also a piece, um, there's a lot of themes around women taking care of other women. I mean, I I think that is a thing that I've seen a lot in my life. It's how the world is, unfortunately. Um, but it's also I think one of the things that I really wanted to write about because it's it's a thing that I love. Like I I have so many great female friendships in my life and as I've gotten older, I've only realized like how much more important those relationships are. And so while there is a central romance in this book, there's also um some strong female relationships and even like you know the central relationship between the sisters. There's a lot of joy there and a lot of um

a lot of like reflecting and seeing each other quite clearly. Um so I think I think I wanted to explore some of that as well. And then also um what it looks like for people in power to do anything to stay in power which can't imagine where I would get inspiration from that but yeah. Yeah. Totally. Do you feel like there's anything about Harlo's character that you personally relate to? Oh my gosh. I I think I relate a lot to Harlo. I I'm definitely not I'm definitely much nicer than that. But I think um I I definitely relate to her difficulty trusting people and um this desire to sort of cover up the like to really like hide her pain from pretty much everyone. Um, I think anyone who has chronic pain or chronic illness has that experience of trying to mask for other people because it's not even that you don't necessarily want them to know. It's that sometimes it's just complicated to explain or you know that they're going to say something like, "Oh, well, have you tried this or have you tried that?" You don't want to have to go through a whole thing about how you've like already tried all the things and that doesn't work. Um, and so there you end up doing a lot of work to keep other people from knowing that this is going on. Um, and so I definitely relate to that piece. Um, I, you know, a lot of people have said like, "Are you more like Harlo or more like Adia?" And I'm like, "I'm definitely more like Adia. I'm the oldest." And so I definitely am the one where it would be like like I'm very protective of my sisters. They will always attest if they like start telling me about something that like went wrong. They'll be like, "Stop. Stop. It's fine." And I'm like, "I'll be the judge of that." Yeah. I'll be the judge of if it's fine or not. Yeah. Um I I remember. So um so I think I have that aspect for sure. But um and then also I I have complex PTSD. So, a lot of the things that Harlo experiences around her trauma and a lot of the um you know, a lot of people look at that and they say like, "Why is she so impulsive? Like, why would she do that thing?" And I'm like, "Well, that's just she can't help herself." Like, it's just a reaction and she can't control the fact that, you know, when people joke around and they're like, "Oh, I can't tell the difference between doing my taxes and being chased by a puma." I'm like, "No, she really can't tell." Like, she genuinely can't tell the difference. And I think that piece of it as well. Um I definitely relate to that too. So um and also being part of a big family. Yeah. Just in general. So yeah. No, I love that. I think that's one of my favorite questions that we ask because it's so interesting how some of you guys like relate so heavily to your main characters and then like other authors will ask that and they'll be like, "No, they're nothing like me." And I'm like, "Wow, that's crazy." Yeah. I I always say that I need to have some some like entry point into writing a character. So, I have to have something in common with them. It doesn't like none of my characters are all me. And even like in the Lost God series, people are like, "Oh, are you like the most like CeCe?" I'm like, "H kind of." I mean, Rainer has all of my anxiety for sure. Like all of the responsible oldest child energy is right there. Yeah. Um so I think like they all have their own bits and pieces. And even Henry, like I I think I I always have to find some relatability to whatever character I'm writing, even if they're not that much like me. It's it's and the more removed they are from being like me, the harder they are for me to write, but it's I still have to have something in there that that makes sense to me. So yeah. So like with Henry, what qualities did you give him specifically to create such a dreamy book boyfriend? Like we need to know because holy first of all, we do have to say this for the record. Ashley does not give book boyfriend tickets out like easily at all. There's like three what? Like three guys like Yeah, I'm very stingy with my book boyfriend tickets and made the cut. So, what magic did you put in there? I think it's that like I keep I keep joking about how I like really want to write like an alpha guy and I just can't do it. Like I will get I'll get like right up to the line and then I'm like no, he's still got like a heart of gold. And I think that that is like what it always comes down to. I can't write someone who is like truly truly toxic. Um I mean he he is in some respects for sure. Um he's definitely jealous. Uh, and I think like in his defense, Harlo loves to push buttons. So he if he didn't want her to do it, he shouldn't make it so much fun. Um, so I think I think that's part of it. Um, but I also think it's that he's he is very emotionally intelligent. Like he understands her very well. He also can anticipate a lot of her needs, which she finds super annoying. Um, but I think most of us would find really helpful and like nice. Um, totally. But I think the fact that he can kind of read if she's in pain like because she lies a couple times like she lies about how injured she is. Yeah. At one point and he's like I know that you're in like I can feel that you're injured. Um and she's like it's fine. And he's like it's not funny like you're very injured. Um, and so I think it's that he he's not really ruffled and she keeps trying to push like she keeps trying to push him and he's just sort of, you know, he'll snap back at her a little bit, but he is pretty calm. And when she has when she has these big moments where she's clearly like super disregulated and like all over the place, he's very grounded and he doesn't get he doesn't go up with her. he kind of stays pretty stable. And I think that in itself is really appealing to a lot of women because I don't think that's our experience a lot because again a lot of men want to fix everything they want and he I think he does want to fix things for her. Um but he also he does what what she wants like he he's picking up on her energy and he's kind of staying where she wants. He's not trying to like storm out and fix a bunch of stuff and she puts him in his place if he does something. So, and he takes I mean he takes feedback. So, yeah. He also takes instruction well. So, there's that. I feel like that's just such a like perfect balance that you created. And I think that you really like hit the nail on the head when you're saying like, you know, yeah, I feel like a lot of men want to fix things, but don't necessarily have the emotional intelligence or even like the self-awareness to like think about the fact that like we don't necessarily want everything to be fixed. We don't need to be fixed. What we need is for someone to be like this steady, calm, like presence in our life that's very grounding and can help us achieve like what we want to achieve. I think in a lot of time a lot of times that's hard for us to find. Yeah. Yeah. And he like he doesn't take over and try to to do everything for her. He tries to set her up to be in the place to do what she wants to do. Um which you know I could have gone either way there because he does have a temper. So you know I'm sure that there are situations that he would have liked to have taken care of himself. Um, but he he lets her do her thing. He let he lets her murder in peace. Yeah. Yeah. Let's talk about fan casting because that's always fun. Do you have anybody in mind of who you would fancast as Harlo and Henry if you ever had this book turned into a movie or a show? I think that um what has really been on my mind is how good the adaptation of Heated Rivalry was. And I think that a huge part of that is the fact that they were unknown actors. And so I think whoever whoever plays them would have to be unknown. I think I just think it would be so hard to cast somebody um who's out there right now just because everybody is associated with something else. And I feel like I I just feel like part of the reason that Heated Rivalry was so successful is that those characters were those actors were be able to like very much embody those characters. Um and they didn't have a lot of other baggage coming in. Um I I feel like Carla would be a really fun part to play. Personally, I she's so crazy um in the most fun way. Um, and I did I did acting for like a really long time and I'm like I just feel like she would be so fun to play because she is mean. Like mean characters are just always fun. Um, so I always have such a hard time like answering fan cast questions, but the book has been optioned by Hulu um for a series. So very excited um really really excited to be working with them. It's been in the works for a while. It just like it takes a while to kind of get everything together. So, um, but I'm really excited. I love the team when I met with them. I feel like they have like a really good vision for the book and I I'm just like so excited for everyone to like know about it finally. Um, even though I haven't had to wait that long. So, yeah. I'm really excited. Yeah. I got chills for you. Oh my. I know. Same. I'm like I feel like I'm going to cry. I'm like, "Oh my god, that's so exciting." I feel like we are going to have like this wave of like all the TV and movies that we've been waiting for our whole lives. Like they're going to start rolling in here. Really hope so. I hope so. The demand is there. Like we're screaming from the mountain tops almost in every episode. Like we need these beautiful stories represented on screen and they just want to recycle the recycling Odyssey again. like they're recycling these same things over and over and over and it's like sometimes it's great, sometimes it's like but it's not and like what what are we doing like when you have all these incredible stories that can be brought to life. So that's so exciting. Yeah, it's wild how many things are getting picked up now and I'm really hoping that that it is like a wave of things getting made. I think things like Heated Rivalry and Withering Heights and all of that have really helped because the industry is still kind of they're stubborn male dominated and like has a specific view of romance like we've talked about. Um but I'm really excited because I also think like like young women need mean female role models. Okay. And and I've always said that. Um, but I I do think that it would be really really good on screen, especially as a series because there's so many subplots and different things going on. So, um, I'm just I'm really looking forward to it. So, yeah. Awesome. Yay. We touched on this a little bit at the beginning with your mom reading The Poison Daughter, but, you know, do a lot of your in real life people know that you write romanty with spice, and if so, what do they think about it? Yeah. um pretty much everyone in my life knows. Um so including like former bosses and stuff like every everybody has known and it's really lovely like so many people in my life have been so so supportive and think that it's so cool. Um my family is very Irish Catholic so it's a little bit of a mixed bag. Um but um there's nobody like at heart attack risk. So I think that we're I think that we're okay right now. Um and and yeah, I feel I feel very lucky that my family is so supportive and my friends are so supportive. My friends are literally like they're like a street team. My f one of my best friends was in Florida. She was at Disney World and um with her kids and there were two women in line in front of her with their kids and they were talking about how they read romantic and she was like oh and she was like let me tell you about my friend's book and like they're out there all the time doing this stuff and they'll like text me like I just told two girls at the bookstore about your book and I'm like oh my god I love it and not all of my friends are readers in real life but they're they have all been like really supportive and especially since the books come out on audio because a lot of my friends are moms so they they don't always have like the time to like sit and read a book, but like they can listen while they're driving to pick their kids up or whatever. Um, so I like that part has been really great. So I'm I'm very lucky that that everyone in my life has been really supportive. So that's awesome. That's awesome. Yay. Yeah. Shout out to those like invisible, sorry, invisible street teams. Like those of you who are putting in the footwork and like Yeah. sharing these books that you love, sharing the podcast that you love because it helps all of us so much. And it also is so fun cuz I myself have seen like somebody in line at Disneyland, you know, e-reading. I'm like, "Oh, I see I see some romantic sisters. What are you reading over there?" Yeah. What are you reading? And it's just like such a fun way to connect and like find, you know, readers in the wild and just relate and share more beautiful books with people. I tell people all the time like I'm a reader first. So I always want to know what people are reading and that's why I always say like if you if you're going to an event that I'm at like you can come up and talk to me first cuz I'm extroverted and like it won't be weird. I'm just going to talk to you about what you're reading because I want to talk about what I'm reading. So I think I think like at the end of the day what I always tell readers is like we're just we're re readers first. So, we want to talk about like whatever book is is everyone's reading right now or what like the last five star read you had or what we just read that like blew our minds. Like that's the stuff that I love. So, yeah. I totally It's such a hard balance of like, okay, I want to ask them what I'm reading, what they're reading, but I also don't want to interrupt them, but I also know they're going to love it like they're going to want to talk about it. It's all how you approach. I found cuz I've had people ask me like at the gym, what are you reading? And I'm like, whoa, bad energy, bad energy. But then it's different when it's like a what are you reading? I love it. It's so fun. Well, especially like I just got back from um being on a fun summer vacation in San Diego and we were pretty it was very like chill and most of the time me and my husband would just be like sitting by the pool reading. Well, I would be reading. He'd be like playing games on his phone or whatever. But I just noticed like in observation that like you know this is like obviously rough estimate. I probably should have written it down because it would have been really super interesting. But like let's say we were down there for like two hours and there was like, you know, 10 people at the pool and like half of them were women. Like literally like every woman almost all the time would be reading something. It's so beautiful. Um yeah, it's great. Like I mean it's it got me thinking because I was like you know this is amazing because all of us are reading but then it got me thinking too that I'm like the men should be the ones reading too. Yeah. Maybe even more so than us um in a lot of ways. And I'm like dang. It's like it was like well maybe you guys should be reading something also. But then on the flip side of that, like there was a woman who was like all the way across the pool from me at one point and I'm like I'm pretty sure that she's reading Yester Year, which I just finished and you know, like want to talk to everyone about and so I like put my phone up discreetly and like zoomed in from like far away like see if that's what she was reading and I was like oh it totally is. Yeah. Yeah, I've totally done that. I'm like I love cuz she was reading like the physical book, you know, but it was kind of far. So, yeah, it was just so funny because I'm like, okay, should I go up and be like, have you gotten to this crazy part yet? Like, it's always like that balance of like, should I bother this like lady trying to relax by the pool or what? Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it's always like when you're on when you're on a plane, it's like I'm always looking out with the person next to I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm looking at what you're reading. I am I I should let you have your privacy and your peace, but I won't. And I was laughing because when I was doing like the final last piece of the readthrough of The Poison Daughter, I was on a flight back from Villains and Vixens last year and I was sitting next to a priest and I was like, "Hey, it's like please do not look at my screen right now. Hey, what you see on my screen is none of my business." Like that's, you know, that's your

Yeah. Yeah. I can't be held responsible for this. Um, okay. We have to talk about audio book. Oh my gosh. Yes. I'm so excited. Spill it. Let's talk about this dual narration. Who did you book to do the audio? I I have Laura Horowitz and Anthony. And I am so excited and I'm supposed to get the files like today. So, I'm like I've been like watching my email like a hawk cuz I am dying to listen to this. Um, and I'm really excited. I know everybody is going to be like very pumped. It is duet, so that's like always the question I get asked. Um, but I just feel like they're going to do such a good job. I'm so I listen to everything on audio. That's like almost exclusively how I read at this point. Um, and I just feel like I'm I'm always when I'm listening to audio, I'm always like, "Oh, who would this person be a good narrator for?" Like I I'm always taking notes as I'm going. And I have loved Laura for years, but most of my other characters were a little younger and she like she is a more mature voice type. And so I was like, she's not quite right for this character, not quite right for this character. But then with Harlo, I was like, I just feel like she'd do such a good job with Harlo. Um, so I'm really really excited. Um, I know I know she's just going to do a phenomenal job. Um, and Anthony obviously is so good at what he does and I just feel like he will understand Henry as a character like and understand that dynamic really well. So, I can't wait. I seriously can't wait to hear it. I think it's going to be amazing. So, obviously I'm super biased, but I'm I'm so intentional with how I cast audio. Like, I I'm so picky and I I'm very specific and I I've always been like that with all of my books. So, yeah. I mean, when I looked it up on Audible, um, when I was writing up this interview, I like screenshot it and sent it to Ashley and I was like, "The cast, like the cast is so good. Like, when I reread it, it'll be on audio for sure." For sure. Yeah. I just think it's going to be so good. So, I'm I'm really really looking forward to it. I know. Like, this is a book that so many people have been like, "The audio, I need the audio." And I'm like, "I love this. I'm working on it." Uh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's going to be worth the wait because the way that Laura will bring these characters to life and Anthony will bring them to life is just going to be incredible. We had Anthony on the podcast earlier this year and he the way he can like transform his voice into these different characters like I didn't even know was so possible. Like wow. It's it's amazing. and narrators. That's why like all of this stuff with like AI narration, I'm like AI could never like could never absolutely not. And I think about things from from all all of the narrators who have worked on all of my books are just so phenomenal. And I'm like, you cannot convince me ever that AI narration is going to be as good as this. Like it just they totally get it. They're so locked in. They understand the genre really well. They bring so much energy into it and it's I I was thinking about it specifically with the Lost God series because I was like poor Caitlyn Caitlyn Kelly who does the uh CeCe's parts in in the Lost God series. I was like she must be exhausted after this and like it is like a very emotional character and I was like that must be hard like it must be hard to do that character through the whole thing. Um, so I think I just think I have so much respect for what they do and the way that they can just drop in and switch voices and like even even like do other characters and like have a like keep straight in their brains what each character sounds like is so impressive to me. Yeah, it's crazy. Oh, we're so grateful for them. Good job. Me, too. I'm I'm pumped. Do you have any other books coming down the pipeline? and like what do you have in the works? Can you give us any little nuggets of information like we need to know? Yeah, so I have been working on Ballad of the Heartless, which is the second standalone in the Song of the Darkwood series. Um, it has been a little slower going than I would like, so I'm probably going to have to push the release back um a little bit just because there's so many moving parts with with the TR transition. all it's all great stuff, but um you know there's the book is coming out in um 20 languages in 21 territories. Like it's just it's it's a lot of moving parts. So trying to stay up on all of them um has been more timeconuming than I was expecting. I think that I have a tendency to be optimistic about how my time is going to flow, but also I have ADHD, so I have some element of time blindness in there. Um, so I always think I can fit more into a day than I can. Um, a similar company. Yes. Story of my life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, truly. So, um, however, I am I am part of the way into drafting um, I'm really enjoying it. The characters are really different um, than than Rowan and Connor from the first book. And um it the way that this series is set up is it's sort of like when you read a small town romance where the best friend in the first book is the main character in the next book. So Rowan's best friend is the male character in this book. Um and it's a little bit like a dark Snow White meets the myth of Cassandra. And if you're not familiar with the myth of Cassandra, Cassandra was the daughter of um King Priam of Troy. So Helen's sister. And uh she was an oracle and um the god Apollo wanted to sleep with her and she's very beautiful like her sister. Um and when she turned him down he cursed her so that she would have perfect foresight but no one would ever believe her and um you know as men do. Yeah, I was going to say and and she warned them about the Trojan horse and all these other things but like no one believed her. Um, and so, uh, there's definitely an element of like sort of like witch trialsy vibe in there. Um, and it starts with the FMC cutting out her heart so that it won't be broken again with this magical spell. So, sold sold to both of us here. Yeah. Oh, so exciting. So, and again, that'll be a standalone. Um there is kind of an over story. So you will see some characters from the first book kind of in the background of this one. Um but it's a different set of main characters and you could just go in and read Ballad and you would understand everything. So um I'm trying to have it like that so that there's like a payoff if you read from start to finish, but you can just kind of drop into any of the books. So um and I'm really excited about that. So that's going to be three books total. Um, and I'm hoping that the second that the second and third will both come out next year. Um, and then who knows what else. We'll see. We'll be keeping our eyes out. So exciting. Yeah. So, we have to put this in here because like I personally DM'd you because I was so like distraught over this um like before we knew that this interview was happening. Um, but I'm sure other people have the same question. Is The Poison Daughter actually over? Yes. Yes. I I definitely intended for it to be a standalone. I always say like never say never. I I've had like little inklings of ideas, but I would definitely have to feel like whatever I was writing was as strong as The Poison Daughter. And um right now I don't have anything that I feel I could like hold up next to it. So, if I was going to write something, it would probably be with different main characters. Um, and it would have to feel like it was as tense and in twisty and interesting. Um, so we'll see. I I think like I I don't have anything solid right now, but I also have a lot of stories bouncing around my head. And what I've said for a long time is that for me it always feels like there's only so much storage space and once I get to like 80% of a draft something new will come in cuz I'm like oh I've emptied that space out and now there's storage space again. Um it's it's very weird how it happens but it happens every single time. So, um, so I think part of it is that I have I have this whole like the whole rest of the Song of the Darkwood series and then I also have, um, a tarot series that I've been working on for a while that's partially written. It's like a book and a half written um, of four books. So, I have all of those stories in my head also. Um, and and then there would be this. So, whatever whatever this could possibly become. Um, but for right now, yeah, definitely a standalone. Um, I'm not above writing some like maybe short bonus chapters. And there is the US edition has a bonus chapter in Henry's point of view that's exclusive to the the print and the audio. The US audio will have it too, I think. Um, nice. That's be funny. I just like realized I just remembered that and I was like, "Oh my god." Um, and then the UK version also has a bonus chapter from Henry's point of view. And, um, the US version is the meet cute scene. So, it's it's Henry's version of their me cute. Um, so the night they met. Um, which was very fun to write. Yeah. And then the UK version has Henry's point of view of the wedding ritual. Um, okay. which is definitely broke my record for using word um in a chapter and I sent it to my UK editor who's just this very like sweet proper British lady and I was like I'm so sorry. Um, so, uh, that was also very fun. But I was like, "Good God." It's literally like an out-of- body experience, right? Writing Henry. That's why you were like, "How much do you relate?" I'm like, "I do relate in some ways, but like whenever something like this happens, I'm like it's like I'm not even there. I'm just I'm just the scribe, you know?" Yeah. I love it. Well, speaking of that fun stuff, but I think the readers will really like it. For sure. For sure. That's super exciting. You said you have a little bit of a tour going on right now. So, what should we know? Do you have any like where can people find you? Do you have any events coming up? Like why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah. Yeah. So, I I have a US tour coming up um starting on August 17th and I'm stopping in I think six different cities. Um so, we tried to spread things out. So, I'm going a little bit all over the place. Um I know that I know that there's so many people who are like, "Come here, come And I'm like, I I would literally just keep touring forever. Um, unfortunately, I can't. Uh, so I I had to narrow it down, but I'm really looking forward to seeing people. Um, I have that linked in my um on my website um and in my Instagram bio. Um, but I'm really really looking forward to it. And I I have great conversation partners. I'm I'm I'm actually touring during my birthday. My birthday is August 20th. Um, and I'm going to be in conversation with JR Ward on my birthday, which I was like, awesome. Crazy. Crazy. One of the OGs. Yeah. So, I'm very excited about that. Um, and then, um, let's see. I don't know any bit about any international tours yet, but we will see. So, keep an eye out if you're an international listener. Um, and then, uh, there may be opportunities for virtual events. We're kind of trying to figure some of that stuff out as well. But probably the best way to find out where I'm going and what I'm doing is to join my newsletter, which is you can find um the sign up on my website, she chilamasters.com. Um and I the place I'm most active is there. I I send that newsletter twice a month. And then I also am on Instagram all the time as well. So awesome. Perfect. So exciting. And that Instagram is Sheila Reads and Writes. Yes, Sheila. You guys make sure to follow her there. Yeah. Mhm. Should we wrap this up with like a like a popular like pop culture at the moment smasher pass? Yeah. Yeah. Let's do it. Let's do it. All right. Let's do it. Okay. So, first of all, we need to know, are you team green or are you team black? I'm team black. Yeah, definitely. Okay. I was like, wait, there's a long pause there, so I'm getting a little bit afraid. Oh, I just kind of feel like everybody's so stupid. Like, like just come on. Okay, so then building off of that because we need to know and I I mean I personally need to know. So, Damon Targaryen, smash or pass? Smash. Okay. So, what about Orman High Tower? No. Pass. Pass. Come on. I He's like He can't do like smells of any kind. Like, get out of here. I don't need that in my life. He's He's a tough one for me. He's a tough one for me. He is the enemy. I am also team black. So, you know, we'll have it be stated for the record. You guys know I'm like Damon is the man for sure. Orman is also just like a hard name to like get it up for to be honest. Like, you know what I mean? It's not like a hot name. It's not a hot name. It's not. It's not. But that you do have to say though that like the bathtub scene was pretty iconic. Like it was fair. That's fair. That's fair. Yeah, we'll get we'll give him that. But yeah, after uh the episode that we watched yesterday, he definitely went down a few pes in uh my book. Fair. So fair. Same. Yeah. Okay. So, for someone who hasn't watched House of the Dragon, this no context is absolutely hilarious. I know nothing. And this is hilarious to me. So, those of you out there who also haven't watched it, I'm right there with you. And I do I want to watch it, but I just time time, man. But the the He can't smell. What? Like, what is that about? Yeah. Oh my gosh. You need to catch up. I've been wanting Ashley to like get on board with like the you know, Game of Thrones universe for so long. Yeah. It's killing me. It's a whole thing. It's a whole thing for me.

Well, there you have it, guys. There it is. That's all she wrote. Thank you guys so much for joining us today in this fun chat with Sheila. Sheila, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to come and talk with us about this. Oh my gosh. Of course. Thank you guys so much. And thank you for being on board from like the very beginning. You were I think the first I think you were the first book club to to do the book like way way way back like right after the book released which I'm like I can't even believe that that was only what like 9 months ago at this point which like I feel like I timeraveled the last few months have been so crazy. Yeah. So um but I just I appreciate you guys so much and I I know you did the Poison Daughter and the Lost God. So I'm just I'm really grateful. You guys are the best. Thank you. Well, thank you for writing such incredible books and being such a gem in the community. You're amazing. Yeah. Um and I hope I hope I get to come back at some point. Definitely. Definitely. Can't wait to have you back. Well, you guys, thank you so much for joining us today. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like favorite podcasts, including YouTube. And then follow Sheila over on Instagram at Sheila Reads and Writes. And then check out her website. Join that newsletter. That way you get all the hot goss. so you can get those tour dates cuz those are coming out this next week at the time of airing this. So go see her if you're able to. And you guys, we will see you next Tuesday. Next Tuesday. Bye bye.