Episode 24: Bad Ass-tronauts, Planetal [sic] Alignments, and an interview with HEATHER G. HARRIS!

Today's episode requires Moon joy and a strawberry daiquiri! Join Shéa and Amy as they talk to Heather G. Harris about her upcoming books. We'll also talk about Artemis II, planetary alignment, and the imminent rise of the matriarchy!

Affirmation: I am worthy of all success.

Find Heather G. Harris!

Website: https://heathergharris.com/

Aria Ashbrook website: https://www.aria-ashbrook.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.es/stores/Heather-G.-Harris/author/B097ZP5J8S

Free audio books on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@HeatherGHarrisAuthor

Follow on insta: https://www.instagram.com/heathergharrisauthor/

Tarot Deck: Murder of Crows Tarot by Corrado Roy: https://www.loscarabeo.com/products/murder-of-crows-tarot

Last chance to support Shéa's kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sheamacleod/lady-rample-steps-out-special-edition-cozy-mystery-hardback

Give the syrups episode a re-listen: https://www.cliffhangersandcocktails.com/episodes/episode/7f33b886/the-witchs-liquor-cabinet-stirring-up-spells-and-syrups-a-minisode

Strawberry Daiquiri (Energy: Purification, love, good luck, abundance, community building, matriarchal energy)

Ingredients (one large serving):

• 1 heaping cup strawberries, fresh or frozen
• 90 mL (3 oz) light rum
• 60 mL (2 oz) lime juice, freshly squeezed
• 2 TB agave nectar or simple syrup (Amy used strawberry simple syrup)

Optional Garnishes: fresh slices of lime, strawberries, or sprigs of mint

Directions:

For blended (the Shéa way)

Add all ingredients to a heavy-duty blender. If using fresh strawberries, add ice. Blend just until smooth. Use rubber spatula to fully transfer into the glass of your choice. Garnish as desired and serve while very cold.

For on the rocks (the Amy way)

Muddle strawberries in the bottom of the shaker. Add rum, lime juice, and strawberry simple syrup. Fill shaker with ice and shake until your hand is wicked cold. Fill glass of your choice with ice, and strain drink into the glass. Garnish with lime and strawberry.

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Theme song: Chernoye Vedma by Ian Post

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Thanks - the Caftan Coven

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:05

Welcome to Cliffhangers and Cutchels Podcast with Amy Sissel. Oh, that's me, and my delightful co-host, Shaya McLeod. That's who that is.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

We are USA Today wrestling authors of paranormal women's fiction, among other things. And this podcast is brought to you as always by the Cat's hand coming.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Today we're going to be talking with author Heather G. Harris about her latest book. We'll also be talking about the usual witchy things and general shenanigans.

unknown 0:35

Woo!

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Yeah. And I have an affirmation for you. Hooray! I was worried that we wouldn't have one today. Oh, oh no. I wasn't. Would I ever let you down?

SPEAKER_04 0:50

You would not.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

I would not. Nope. So I'm just a real simple one today. I am worthy of all success.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

Fuck yeah, we are. I mean.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

We're trying so hard to be less sweary. So we'll just I'll like put a bleepy thing. You'll he'll it'll be great. Those of you who are listening to this or watching this, know that I 100% didn't put a bleepy thing. Because I think, much like a PG13 movie, we are allowed one.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Or maybe two. We try.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

Somewhere between PG13 movie and HBL. That's where we're at.

SPEAKER_04 1:30

But speaking of worthy of all success, I um so we record these a little bit ahead of time.

SPEAKER_03 1:37

And as of our recording date, which is early April, Ms.

SPEAKER_04 1:43

Shea's Kickstarter that went live a week ago today is already funded at almost 300%, I think. Is that true?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

I think it's pretty close. I think it's around 250, maybe. 238%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:02

Well, I exaggerated. Um, but it will be much more, it will be that much and more by the time y'all get to listen to this.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

This releases on the 21st of April. So it literally ends up.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

It will have it's the day it ends, yeah?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Yeah, it ends actually on the 22nd, the morning of the 22nd, like 11 a.m. Pacific time.

SPEAKER_04 2:24

So you guys have like go now. Go. Go now. Now do it. This is your last chance to get in. There's like stretch schools are being unlocked. There's recipe cards, vintage style recipe cards, it's very cool.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Yes. I do love, I love a vintage recipe card. And Lady Rample, you know, it just fits.

SPEAKER_04 2:46

So what are we talking about today? Are we talking about, as I said before, planetal alignments?

SPEAKER_02 2:54

Planetary alignments. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Um, words are hard, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Words really are hard. Right now, well, right now when this comes out, we're gonna be in a rare five-planet alignment. And yeah, very cool. And now let's be clear that astronomically they're not technically lined up, like, but to our visual eye, they're lining up.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Um that's boring.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

Well, I mean, we wouldn't be able to see the alignment if they were literally all lined up. That's just they don't quite work that way. Don't ask me, it's science. Um, but yes, so between April, so this planetary alignment, April 18th to 23rd is like the peak of this alignment. And so we've got five major planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are gonna like all align in this small tight sector of the sky. That planetary alignments create a lot of energetic, like a lot of energy, concentrated energy. So we're going to be like literally smack dab in the middle.

unknown 4:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

And where witchcraft is is concerned, planetary alignments offer like a boost of energy that is really useful for ritual work. Um, particularly if you want to do any major workings. Like some of the some of the I was looking through different, you know, uh articles and things, and some people like, don't waste this on X. You know, and I'm like, But if that if because it's such a small working. And I'm like, but if what you want to do is a small working, do do whatever working you want. Just know that this is there's a lot of energy in this time. Uh it's very concentrated. So if you want to do a big working, this is a good time to do it. If all you want to do is small ones, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

I feel like at this point, probably everybody knows our motto. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 5:09

Which is you do you, you boo. We need to do that again in unison. Ready? One, two, three, you do, you do you, boo.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

You're we're saying it at different speeds.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 5:23

Oh, yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

One, two, three.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

You, you, do, you, you, boo. Boo.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

Oh, we still didn't get it. We're gonna have to. We're awesome at this.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Don't worry, I'll fix it in post. I won't show everybody that we tried that seven times and still didn't get it.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Your inner the energy is there for you to do with as you will, to work however you want. You can even completely ignore it. You do you. But um, but boo! Boo! But if you want, if you want, you know, to do a big working, this is a really good time because there's a lot of extra energy to work with.

SPEAKER_04 6:04

Um I feel like April is an exciting time for the sky, anyway, because at this point, again, beginning of April, as we're recording, um, Artemis is zipping around. And so we've seen all of the like the earth set and the um lunar eclipse, or solar eclipse, the eclipse. There's eclipsing, um, and the picture are so cool.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

There's a shower of meteors coming along. Not meteor. Yeah, meteor. There's a meteor shower, like the the I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 6:36

I don't remember what records are being set, history's being made.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Yes. Follow the sky and the newly named moon crater, Carol. We have two. Two craters. Two craters, but they named the one after his wife, who just passed away, and I think that's so lovely and romantic. I I just w I I saw this meme today about how in I don't know if you ever saw the Jody Foster movie where she like um what was it called? Where but yes, where she basically travels uh and and then she says it's so beautiful they should have sent a poet. Our astronaut badass.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

Christine Cook.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

She's amazing. And she's she is fucking fantastic. She is a badass. Oh yeah, sorry. Freaking fantastic! Anyway, she's a poet. She wrote a poem about watching Earth. It was just beautiful, and so this time they send a poet who also happens to be a badass astronaut.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

And as I saw in an interview, also a space plumber.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

A space plumber. She's the one who fixed the toilet when it broke. Of course she did, because guess who fixes the toilet at my house when it breaks?

SPEAKER_04 7:55

Oh my god, you have an astronaut. Come fix your toilet. Yes. What? Every time. This is amazing news.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

I am so jealous. Oh, yes, we're having a day. Um, yeah, so yes, April, this has been like a really awesome month. I don't know if every April is like this, but certainly this April has been at least for the sky and space. Right. We won't talk about the other things that have been not at all great.

SPEAKER_04 8:29

Um, you know what else was great though for April? Yeah. Is my second favorite Aries. Sorry, Sam, came to visit me. And I got to hang out with her on her Aries birthday.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

I know. The third of our coven. She got tattoos. And I need to get one as well, but um, you know how I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to these things.

SPEAKER_04 8:54

So well, our tattoo artist is going to send me the the tattoo thing so that we can get you temporary tattoos and we can get stickers.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yay! I love it.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

And hey, if anybody else wants one, let me know. I will get you some temporary tattoos. We'll put it on our merch site.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Woohoo, yeah. Um, yes. Woo-hoo! Okay.

SPEAKER_04 9:25

We suddenly have a merch site that um she didn't know about because I invented it right now. Tomorrow is my kid's 14th birthday. Tomorrow of recording, not of airing. So she's now Ben.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

That's your favorite Aries. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Yeah, so much is happening in this month. This is wild.

SPEAKER_04 9:42

Yes. And now the planets are aligning.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

And we're gonna Which sounds very mystical. The planets are aligning.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

And we're gonna sacrifice a not my 14-year-old. Not your 14-year-old, but something under the full moon. I I I don't I don't even know.

SPEAKER_04 10:01

Maybe my youngest cat. Just kidding, Peskin. Sarah McLaughlin, just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

No, we would never do that. We only sacrifice cocktails under a full moon.

SPEAKER_04 10:17

We're talking about this planetary alignment situation.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Way off course.

SPEAKER_04 10:23

Ah, that was my fault. I'm sorry. I got excited about Artemis, and then I'm like, that's what other good things are happening in April.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Artemis.

SPEAKER_04 10:30

And I changed to a new podcast topic, which is now we talk about whatever I want.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

Yeah. Totally. She likes the Artemis thing, but nothing else that I said.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Nothing else. Not a single thing. Sorry, Sam. So this particular alignment at this particular time, uh the the manifestation wind, it's it opens a manifestation window that specifically influences decisions, money flow, and long-term goals, which is a lot of what we've been talking about kind of in the last few pods, touching on a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 11:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Um, so this one happens, you know, we're moving into May, so just before May, which is a major transition phase. So we're we're talking like sudden clarity, unexpected opportunities, things moving fast, especially in career and money. This is like the best this is a best time to like do some of these manifestations for for these uh in these specific areas. But again, you do you boo, do whatever you need to to manifest right now. And of course, Aries signs are gonna feel the strongest impact because yo, we're in their sign right now, moving into what comes after Aries, Taurus?

SPEAKER_03 11:55

Taurus.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Yeah. So Aries.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

So the end of it it would it actually happens at the beginning then really of Taurus season. Right at the because season will start right at when this alignment starts.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah, so like Taurus season starts on April 19th.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

Uh okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

It starts on April 19th or 20th.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Or 20th. Yeah. I think it's um it probably starts the 19th for you, the 20th for me, because of the way the date lines are. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

Uh I like it. Anyway, right in there.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah, right in there. So this planetary alignment starts on the 18th and goes through the 23rd. So it starts at the very end of Aries and right into the very beginning of Taurus. So um apparently Aries science will feel this is strongest, and then Taurus will feel like as we move into that. So this is just a super powerful time. And of course, I'm Aries ascendant, so I'm not sure how that's gonna impact me, but that'll be interesting.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

Ooh, I'm Taurus Moon.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 13:13

Ooh.

unknown 13:14

Ooh.

SPEAKER_04 13:15

Uh, so well, unfortunately, I've noticed that neither of our astrological planets are involved in this alignment. So not only are we missing out on Neptune, which is mine, we're also missing out on Uranus.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

But see, I don't. Uh well, I mean, Artemis did just fly to the moon, so there we go. Um, but Saturn, so Saturn is involved, and Saturn is really strong in my star chart, like in my full chart.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

I just wanted but like you just wanted to say Uranus.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

What? That makes me sound immature. Well, I am younger than you, so I guess I have not reached your vontred level maturity.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Hey, if the booty shorts fit.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Well, are there any spells or anything that we can do to during this realignment? Or this realignment. I don't know why they're realigning. They're just aligning. They're just aligning.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

They may have aligned before, so they're realigning. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 14:30

I don't know either. I didn't look up the sure they have. This is probably not their first time.

SPEAKER_02 14:39

Um, so this is a great time like for cord cutting rituals because we're again, it's all that letting go of things that don't serve you and moving on. So um cord-cutting rituals, um, they're sort of like they're great rituals to like break free from outdated systems, patriarchy, um, fear-based behavior. Yeah, because nobody knows where we stand on that.

SPEAKER_04 15:08

Um well, I wanted to make sure that people weren't just tuning into the soundbite and being like, wow, Shea is really into supporting the patriarchy.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

No, no, no, no, we're not quite the opposite. We are breaking free. Breaking free. Uh fear-based from fear-based behavior and karmic chapters that are closing. So, like uh anything in your if you believe in past lives or anything in your ancestral line, you know, so ancestral trauma, that sort of thing. Yeah, so basically we're gonna just use this to smash the patriarchy.

SPEAKER_04 15:46

I like it. Absolutely. Well, what I think is really exciting, as we've talked about for the last few episodes, where we've really talked about um more of an astrological focus, because we talked about Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, and now we're talking about this planetal alignment. I could make new words. I'm a writer. Um, is how much we've talked about the the global shifts that are in potential for this year with the year of the um fire horse, and then just all of all of the things that are kind of aligning in addition to the planets this year that really do speak to a potential for huge change.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Absolutely. And this is a really good, I mean, this is where we start, like you want to talk about things moving and shaking. I mean, things are already in such chaos using the energy of this uh particular alignment and pushing the chaos into a you know, away from uh a negative chaos to turn it, you know. We can use that in there's a lot of energy in chaos, and sometimes you need to um harness. Yes, harness, that's a good word for it. Harness, yes. Um, so there's a couple of spells. There's a release spell and a cord cutting spell. Kind of personally, uh I think of it an uh as a release spell is letting go of something and a cord cutting spell is letting go of someone or breaking uh you know, so so like a release spell, this is where you're letting go of like the karmic uh karmic chap, like your karmic uh whatever. Um why am I having so many problems? Any, yeah. Wait, I have a list. Hold on.

SPEAKER_05 17:57

I'm just kidding.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

I don't but here's where we're letting go of uh like generational trauma, uh generational poverty, generational fear, karmic fear, karmic trauma, karmic uh poverty, all of that stuff. Uh, you know, we all kind of like participate in the patriarchy on some level.

SPEAKER_04 18:19

It's nearly impossible not to.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

It's nearly impossible not to. And it's you're either affected by it, you're contributing to it, you're even our language, like I'm trying to call Cook uh an astronaut rather than a female astronaut, and it's almost impossible, like, you know, the one astronaut that isn't like the others, uh, you know, I wait, they're all not like the others.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

We could play that game with all of them.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 18:52

So three of them are white, three of them are American, three of them are men, three of them are uh currently married and not widows. Yeah, we can like and and so yeah, looking to that language to see like how are we othering?

SPEAKER_02 19:08

And they also talked to this, I was just reading this thing about these these micro acts of feminism, is like to talk about women like expert women like an astronaut by their surnames, not their first names, because when you they talk about men, they always refer to them by their surnames because that gives them power and authority. But when they talk about women in the same field with the same power and authority, they refer to them by their first name, immediately lowering them to less than.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

Um I like to call sports like, oh, are we gonna go watch the soccer game? Or oh, you're talking about boys' soccer? No. That's just me being an asshole. We have women's soccer and boys' soccer, but it's the default is just soccer. Soccer. You know, yeah. I like basketball, but boys' basketball is not as much fun. Yeah. That's just me being annoying.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

You know, for a cause.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Yeah, hockey's great, but boys hockey ew. I mean literally boys hockey ooh. I know what they did. We all do. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 20:20

Okay. Um recently. Well, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

We have the recent okay. Um, yeah. Then we have the cord cutting spell. And um the aim of a cord cutting ceremony is to sever emotional and energetic attack attachments that you have specifically to toxic people in the spiritual realm. Um and, you know, the person doesn't necessarily have to be a toxic person, but the attachment could be toxic. And I know some people consider any kind of cords between any anyone uh like need to be cut because the cords have to do with putting your expectations on someone else or them putting expectations on you. Um I don't uh necessarily I I don't know if I buy into that uh necessarily, but I definitely know for sure there are people in life that certainly have a toxic attachment. By doing this spell um you can sever that attachment. You're not harming the person, you're not harming yourself, you're simply severing that cord that gives them ability to affect you with their toxicity. So you can do a physical cord cutting spell, um, which there's all kinds uh one of the simplest is they uh tie a string that represents that person, like a little cord, and then they have a candle like right. In the middle and allow the flame to just burn until it burns through the cord. Uh other people do it with scissors or there's all kinds of different spells. But I prefer a simple visualization. It's kind of a reiki thing. But if you sit in a quiet space and you visualize a cord connecting you to a person who's draining your energy, either because they're a negative person or simply because your interaction is negative. You know, maybe it's someone at work, maybe it's a someone in your family or a friend, however they're impacting you natively. But just imagine a uh a cord, usually going from your navel to theirs, and uh then imagine a you're taking a pair of scissors and you're cutting that bond. And you can say while you do this, if you want to say something out loud, I cut off this relationship and take back my energy. Or if you don't want to cut off the energy, just I cut off access to my energy and take it back. Because your energy should be yours and not being sucked off. God. I've watched ghosts too many times. Even as it came out of my mouth, I went, oh no. It shouldn't be your personal energy shouldn't be hoovered up by other people to feed. I don't know. There is no good way to say this.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

I would I would suggest that your energy should not be taken from you without your permission.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Okay, thank you. This was going from bad to worse.

SPEAKER_04 23:54

Or suck off, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Because there are people in life actually that are energy vampires. I mean they don't generally have things or you know have to stay out of the sun. Uh that but but they literally are energy vampires. They literally take your energy from you just by being around you.

SPEAKER_04 24:18

If you're talking about taking back your energy, um, there's also power reclamation spells that uh you can do to build courage, strengthen personal authority, and help take leadership over your own life. And being able to become the main character in your own story again, I think is so important because a lot of people, and I don't want to name names, but uh women in particular tend to do that, tend to take the back seat and put themselves after their partners, their children, their anyone they're caretaking for, uh elderly parents, and any anyone at a job, everything comes first, and then you're it you almost become not quite an NPC, but a side character in your own story, and that's not cool. You need to be, you don't need to have main character syndrome, you don't need to have that. You're not the main character in everybody's story, but you sure should be in your own. Absolutely. This is a great time to take back some of that power, reclaim that power. And there are different crystals and herbs to use, and I know we've talked about bath magic before. Shay is a big fan of bath magic. There's ritual teas, amulets, and intentional uh ritual burning rituals. Yeah, so there's a number of different things that can aid in that, and one of the one of them is pirate, known as fool's gold. Uh pyrite is a set of action, vitality, and willpower. What else we got, Shaya?

SPEAKER_02 26:00

We got Black Sunstone, which enhances personal power, helps release negative energy, and improves self-confidence. I love this. Um, additional benefits of the Black Sunstone include its ability to help boost creativity and and and promote emotional healing.

SPEAKER_04 26:18

So I have never heard of Black Sunstone. I don't have any idea what it looks like. And I don't know why. This is upsetting to me. I mean, I know why it's upsetting to me. I don't know why, period. This is upsetting to me, period. But you know I'm going to be doing a lot of research. And if anyone else doesn't know, please go look at our social media because I can guarantee you there is a picture of black sunstone on the insta.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Yes, it is a variety of feldspar. Uh so it's kind of like a dark charcoal color with little flecks. And um, but it's it's um it's a rare, it's fairly rare, and it's characterized by this sort of sparklingness caused by there's like hematite inside of inclusions in it.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

And it's do you know why it's called that?

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Uh black sunstone. I do this is hmm.

SPEAKER_04 27:11

It's okay. I will put that also in the social media. We will learn so much together, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

So much. It's uh it's also a really great stone for shadow work, but and to balance joy and and grounding. So there's this is a really, really awesome stone with a lot of good good things, and it's primarily found in India and Madagascar. So cool. Yeah. Um another black stone.

SPEAKER_04 27:38

Oh, I was gonna say onyx. I have an onyx necklace. It's my um my triple goddess or triple moon. Um, I don't have a moonstone, I have an onyx as the center full moon, and it's good for stabilization, both physical and emotional, which is why I wear it because I need so much stability, y'all. Um, and it can soothe nerves and dissipate anxiety and fear. Again, so necessary for me. I am like an anxious ball of unstable nerf. Nerf? No, nerf, nerf. Who knows what I am?

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Nobody knows.

SPEAKER_02 28:14

Nobody knows. Um, yeah, so there's and and these are just a few. There were so many that I was like, yeah, this is gonna take all day.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

So I just wanted to hit on three really, really good solid ones, and and those are I might put a little list on our Instagram, on our social media when this comes out. I'll put a little list of the uh stoves that can be used for this with little pictures so that it's more than just what we talked about here, and you can see what they look like, and then I'll do it, it'll be a fun thing. Yeah. Oh my god, what if I go on a field trip and buy all of the magic rocks and then do a video of all the magic rocks?

SPEAKER_02 28:53

Okay, I love that for you. Yes. And and and if anyone says anything, it's for science and the podcast.

SPEAKER_04 29:06

For science and the pod!

SPEAKER_02 29:08

Woo! We've also got quite a few um different like foods, ingredients that um would be great for teas or things like that. So we've got ginger, which is you know, it's a root, and it is used to add strength, speed, and vitality to personal projects or intentions. So you can make a little ginger tea with it. I love ginger tea, it's uh which is also really good for the stomach and the digestion.

SPEAKER_04 29:36

And um And if you want to have some ginger tea recipes, make sure you uh head back um a few weeks, a couple weeks, I don't know, three weeks, and check out our Witches Liquor Cabinet episode on syrups. Yeah, because in that we do make a ginger bergamot syrup.

SPEAKER_02 29:56

Yes, which is delicious, and and tea like. Um, yeah, and uh so you can like use it, make yourself a cup of tea while you do some sort of intention spell or uh whatnot or focus on manifesting these projects. It's great for that. Basil helps to establish personal boundaries and encourages confidence. So make sure to get your margarita pizza with your basil on top. And then you've got time, which boosts confidence, courage, and a positive attitude. So add a little time to your tea or your soup or whatever. So, Amy, what are we drinking today?

SPEAKER_04 30:44

I'm so glad you asked. Today, in honor of our guest Heather, we are drinking one of her favorite potions, a strawberry daiquiri.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yum!

SPEAKER_04 30:54

Ooh, look how pretty. Ooh, so pretty. The energy of the strawberry daiquiri is purification, love that comes from the strawberries, good luck, abundance, community building, matriarchal energy, which I know Shea hasn't mentioned before, but we're fans of here.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Never mention the matriarchy ever.

SPEAKER_04 31:17

So as we're talking about the ingredients, a heaping cup of strawberries frozen or fresh, three ounces of light rum, two ounces of lime juice freshly squeezed, two tablespoons of agave or simple syrup, and then you can garnish with lime, strawberries, sprigs of mint, whatever. So if you're Shea, what you do is you put all the ingredients in a heavy-duty blender and blend until smooth. Then uh use a rubber spatula to fully transfer into one or two glasses.

SPEAKER_02 31:52

I mean, really one. I mean, let's be real.

SPEAKER_04 31:55

And then garnish and serve. If you're me, you fill your glass with ice and you uh put in some lime juice and then some rum, and they're like, oh, I think I want more lime juice. And I don't know how much rum I put in, but it looks like this is gonna be about right once I add my strawberry syrup. And then you've made strawberry syrup from your frozen strawberries because your market was out of fresh and your other ones went moldy. And then you just add some stuff in, and then it's really, really delicious, although perhaps there's a lot of rum, and you're really happy because it's the first time in a long time you made a drink with your heart, and it turned out perfect. And I don't blend mine because I am a purist. And I looked up the origins of the daiquiri, and they weren't blended, y'all.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

They didn't have blenders. They were not, they did not have blenders back then. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:48

They didn't, and they were better for it.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

I don't know about that. I actually like them both ways, but um, especially with a using, you know, with the frozen strawberries and well, it was just easier to put it through my smoothie maker than it was anything else. So, a boozy smoothie. Yum.

SPEAKER_04 33:09

What I just don't like, I don't like spicy smoothie junks like that. Um I don't like a smoothie, but I don't want to be cold on my teeth.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

I roll in lots of different directions.

SPEAKER_04 33:21

How many how many tires have you had?

SPEAKER_02 33:23

Only one.

SPEAKER_04 33:24

Rolling down the stairs, rolling down the hall.

SPEAKER_02 33:27

And I even went light booze on this since it's only like currently 1 p.m. my time. Uh I We did not go light booze on this. I know yeah, I kind of figured as as much, yes. Because even when we both drink normal, your yours is probably a little bit on the heavier side of the booze.

SPEAKER_04 33:44

But I was like Um, not if I'm measuring.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

Well, yes, that's true. It's only when you measure with your heart.

SPEAKER_04 33:51

My heart wants more rum. My heart is a pirate.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

My heart is why the puppets come. So we've talked a lot before about the energies in rum, lime, sugar, and even agave, which is all like protection and cleansing and and uh attracting money and positivity. But I did a little more of a deep dive on strawberries, because we are actually moving into strawberry season here in Oregon.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

And we are here in Porto.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

Yes. I I just uh th found a few little tidbits that I thought were interesting. So strawberries are strongly tied to goddesses such as Venus, Aphrodite, Freya. Often they're used in spells for love and romance. But the thing about strawberries, uh, if you've ever grown strawberry plants, is the mother plant uh will send out shoots uh that can, you know, and little actually little baby plants that can be planted. That's how it sort of procreates. And so the mother plant is literally is giving its energy to the offspring to sustain it, if like until it gets planted, until it has the right kind of circumstances where it can flourish. So up until it can flourish, the mother plant is providing her own energy for the baby plants. Um yeah, so I thought that was really interesting because that ties into the strawberry energy. So if you need help for your creations to grow stronger, you can call on that energy in your spell work to help your creations, your projects to grow stronger and more abundant. So you can also call on this berry for perseverance and extra energy to suc to succeed in any situation. Rooted in love, fertility, and abundance, frequently associated with Venus due to their heart shape and red color. They're used in witchcraft to boost sensuality and foster emotional connections. They're also associated with joy, friendship, and the women's medicine, quote unquote, or as I like to call it, medicine of community building and creation. Total matriarchal energy, because the matriarchy is about a community. Everything is about community, everything's about creation, everything's about working together and about living in joy, so an emotional connection. So I just strawberries are even more the bomb than I thought they were.

SPEAKER_04 36:34

And I think for strawberry, strawberry magic, strawberry spells, anything that you're adding into strawberry now, as strawberries are starting to come into season where they grow in the northern hemisphere through the strawberry full moon, which is in June, and I think it's the end of June this year. It must be, it has to be the end of June. I know when the full moons are in May. So, yes, end of June for the strawberry full moon. I think this is a great time to kind of pull that strawberry energy into any kind of spells that you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Absolutely. And of course, you know, cocktails are a primo example, strawberry tea, mocktails, uh, but any kind of you know baking that you do in the kitchen, like you know, if you're making a strawberry pie, put some intent into that pie. Making strawberry shortcake, I love to make strawberry shortcake. So put some in, you know, use that strawberry, that good strawberry energy.

SPEAKER_04 37:37

Strawberries everywhere! Yay! Woo! Well, should we go talk to Heather about strawberries and damperies and other books and stuff?

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:49

This is gonna be such a fun interview.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

It is, yeah, it's amazing. I love her. I know I say that like literally about all our guests, and I swear.

SPEAKER_04 37:57

It would be really bad if you didn't say that though. Like, we do love all our guests.

SPEAKER_02 38:03

We don't have people on we don't like. No, well, and the thing is, I never met Heather until we talked to her uh in this interview, but she is just such the most amazing cool person. And I just love that all these people that we're getting for guests, usually at least one of us knows uh knows the person, um, but not necessarily both of us. And so it's super fun to meet someone new and to be like, oh my gosh, that person is super cool. And I hope our listeners feel the same way about our guests because they are super awesome people, and so you must love them as we love them.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Let's go talk to Heather before we go completely off the rails.

SPEAKER_04 38:48

I am so excited today to welcome to the pod Heather G. Harris. She is an Amazon top 100 best-selling author. Heather is a full-time fantasy writer, and she is also blessed to be a mom to three gorgeous kids and a willful great Dane. Heather went to University in Liverpool, where she took up skydiving and met her husband. When she's not running around after her children, she's plotting her next book and daydreaming about vampires, dragon shifters, and strong heroines. She loves swoon-worthy romances and promises to always deliver a happily ever after. I do. And I am. I'm so excited to have you.

SPEAKER_05 39:25

Welcome.

SPEAKER_02 39:26

Thanks for having me, ladies. It's lovely to be here. Heather, most important question I'm gonna ever ask you. What is your favorite cocktail?

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Oh, well, I love many cocktails, it must be said. Um, and pina colada is right up there on my list because coconut fresh, or it's so good. Um, but my all-time favorite is a strawberry daiquiri.

unknown 39:51

Woohoo!

SPEAKER_00 39:51

A lot exactly.

SPEAKER_02 39:56

It's almost like a little bird told us.

SPEAKER_00 39:59

Yeah, I I've only got gin and tonic, so I've actually failed on the mission.

SPEAKER_02 40:03

Oh no! Well, that is not a failure. That is never gin and tonic is never a failure in my.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

So tell us more about that. So I was a lawyer for a good chunk of years, and but basically I my my mum um was an author and she was never published, but she was always writing, right? So one of my earliest memories was like sitting on her lap and dictating a story to her while she typed it up on the computer for me. Oh, how funny! Um, it's cute, isn't it? So I always grew up in a household where I knew that writing stories was possible, you know, it's it wasn't anything weird. Like mum had her office and she went there to write her stories, and so that was always something that I grew up with. And in my teen years, I wrote loads of stories myself. Um, and then it kind of fell away once I went to university and was done to become a lawyer, and time was more precious and all that sort of stuff. Um, and then my mum had passed away, and I looked into how to self-publish some of her stories, and that taught me all about self-publishing suddenly. I kind of fell into 20 books to 50k, and I was learning all the nuts and bolts of self-publishing. And I think as a way to connect with mum anyway, I started writing anyway. Um, and my husband had always known known that I wrote stories, and so he was like, Can I can I read this? And I was like, No, and for ages I said so, and I would never let him read any of it. And then one time I finally did let him read it, and he and this was Glimmer of the Other, my debut novel, and he read it and was like, Heather, this is surprisingly good. Um, but that kind of made me think, okay, well, maybe I should like do something about it. And by then I was hip deep in learning about self-publishing, and being a lawyer, the kind of maths of getting a traditional contract and someone paying you kind of 10 to 15 percent versus going KDP and getting 70% yourself. I was like, Well, this is a no-brainer. Um, especially as I'd already, you know, it was kind of obvious that Trad picks their darlings, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

So I was like, if they don't pick you as their darling, that's just it. Um, and so I was like, self-publishing is the way forward for me, 100%. So I wrote four books in a series, a rapid release, September, October, November, December, January I gave birth to my son. I had a year's maternity leave to see what happened. And I'd said to my husband, if even if I take like a 10 grand pay cut as a lawyer to be able to be like work from home, flexible, be able to pick the kids up, if they've got a sick day, it's not a problem, all those sorts of things. I was like, I think it makes sense for us to kind of do this as a family, and he was super supportive, and then um just hit it out the park from the beginning. Um one of those annoying unicorns. I love that for you though. Thank you. I love it for me too, but I really it's hard when you see so many genuinely amazing authors around you, yeah, not just hitting the ride at the right place. Do you know what I mean? Like there's so many things that go into having a hit, and I had done all the the right things, do you know what I mean? I'd done a prequel story that I'd build my newsletter list on, that I'd done the pre-orders and the rapid release, and I'd written to market, and all those things. Um, but it still just came together in like a really moment.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

There's always an element of luck.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

That people don't like to admit to, but they're absolutely as soon as I learned that being a six-figure author was a thing, I was like, that's gonna be me. That's me, you know? And I just I didn't ever for one second, even though I was saying to my husband, Well, if I take a pay cut and blah blah blah, in my head I was like, We're not gonna need to. This is gonna be a move.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

This is not a problem.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

This is gonna be fine. But I feel like I I've my mum uh imbued me with self-confidence in truckloads, so like once I learned that that it was possible for authors to earn like six or seven figures from their writing, I was like, okay, well, that's that's my future sorted.

SPEAKER_02 44:43

Cool. No problem. Oh, I love that. Oh, yes. I love that your mom's.

SPEAKER_04 44:47

I'm happy to hear like people going into this and like being successful and having this confidence. It's so amazing. Yeah, I feel like we're all supposed to be jealous of each other, but like I love a success story for a fellow writer.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

That's another difference between like indie and trad, right? Because indie authors, we all understand that we have whale readers who read 350, 450, 500, even 1,000 a book a year, right? Uh-huh. If I can write eight, then I've got a few friends' books that they should probably read as well. Do you mean there's absolutely reading in strangers and I read my friends' books, they're really good too.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Totally, yeah. Because even I live I only read at night in the evenings um before bed, and I still read like a hundred books a year. There's no way, even if I read both of your books, all your books that you put out, I would still need more books.

SPEAKER_00 45:43

Exactly. 100%. Whereas I think trad is a different experience because each trad author are fighting for the space with the agent, they're fighting for the space with the trad house and the contract because there's only so many contracts. So theirs is is more of a kind of dog eat dog world because yeah, they are really fighting for the one or two spaces, right? Whereas with Indies, it's like, well, we all can succeed, you know, and it makes perfect sense to me that that that spirit of um kind of companionship and friendship exists in the indie world, and I I I love that so much for all of us because authoring could be so solitary, and the thing that saves me every day from feeling lonely is my author friends that I have, and you make friends like we were talking earlier briefly about interviewing people from like New Zealand and France, and like that's one of the beauties, right? Because no matter what time zone you're in, someone is uh awake and able to chat to you. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

It's been such a great experience, just knowing so many amazing authors.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

It is, and like it's so nice as well when you've got like a plot problem or something or a blur problem, and you can just check it out there and be like, someone help me. I you know, my brain's not seeing what I'm doing wrong, and you know, someone will pipe up and suggest, and you're like, Oh yeah, you know, and it's sometimes you're too close to the problem, so having other writers that you can bounce things off of is like it's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 47:15

Absolutely, it is and you do a lot of co-author situations. Um I know there's I mean, I know you have a series that you write solo, but you do have a lot of co-authors, and um that's not something I've done. I know Shay has done it as well. Tell me a little bit about how that journey works for you, because I know that's not one of my prepared questions, but now I'm curious.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

That's fine. Um, so I have about four series, I think, by myself, and then I had a kind of cosier urban fantasy series with Hannah Lynn, which is how we first started writing together before we did the Aria Ashbrook kind of mashup that came later. So we just decided that the world was a dark place and we wanted to write something cozy, so we put our heads together and we deliberately wrote something lower stakes and cosier and all those things. Um, and I've kind of learned through that process, I don't really like writing cozy, and I much prefer writing high stakes and high octane. Um, but that's an important growth curve to know that about yourself. Um, but how we work generally, and how I do with or how I did with my other co-author Jill is we would have calls, conversations, we would plot, plan the world, the characters, the tropes. Um, and then my co-author goes away and does a first draft, um, start to finish, but normally relatively bare bones, you know, like your own first draft, um, and then it gets bounced to me for the second draft. And I tend to add in um, especially Jill, Jill's strength is was the action, and like she was so good at getting your heart like in your uh in your throat because she just got that pulse pounding. Like, she was so good at just terrifying the crap out of me, even from my own books. Um, but yeah, so but she would always forget like the romance. She would always I would always be like, and where's Connor? And she'd be like, Yeah, I just I didn't even remember he was even in the scene. I'm like, you mentioned him once. So like romance and the humour was always my um additions, although sometimes she would be wickedly funny too. Um, but yeah, the the add I would in my second draft, it was always kind of adding in those um extra layers, and kind of same thing with um Hannah, really, just kind of overwriting. And for both Hannah and for Jill, I was kind of the big name author, so the the books needed to sound more like my voice, so that's why I had the last draft because you want the voice to be consistent from start to finish, right? Um, and I wanted the voice to be mine for my readership to kind of enjoy it. Um, and there, like I said, there were things that I always do in my books, like strong female main characters, healthy relationships with them the male protagonist, the fade to black romance, the the mystery, the twists and turns that they normally come through, and the um animal sidekicks is kind of part of my my formula of what of what works for me for each series that I touch. But therefore, I kind of need all of those elements. Um, and one of the toughest things is I obviously write in British English, being British, um, and my editor is British. And so for Jill and I, Jill uh was American, so she had she would be writing in like, and then Bunny put it in the trash, and I'd be like, she put it in the rubbish bin, and then she went and picked up the leash, lead Jill. She picked up a lead, so um, we always had lots of fun like doing those sorts of things. Um, obviously, Jill sadly passed away in October last year. I've got two more of our joint books to do to kind of finish off our series because we always said it was going to be a nine-book series, and we'd kind of plotted out, and we have plotted out the the last couple of books, so I'm not completely um lost without without her. Like her her guiding wisdom still is there. I've just started writing book eight in that series just the last few days. So uh it's been tough, but also is nice to kind of she I she had unfortunately because she was really sick at the end with um cancer, she hadn't managed to do the full draft um for book eight or anything at all for nine, but she'd written like maybe 20k. Um so it just took beer a long time to kind of be ready to pick that up.

SPEAKER_02 51:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Because, like obviously, I said before our processes that I normally overwrite. For ages I was messaging her husband. I was like, I can't write over her words, you know. Um and he was like, You just gotta do it though, you gotta do it so it sounds like you know, the rest of the book. So I was like, Yeah. Um, but yes, I am a member of the Portlock paranormal detective series. Yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_04 52:23

Which I have read every book in that series, uh, because it is it is such a delight, and that's very much the style of books that I like to read. And that was that's set in Alaska, and that's where Joel lived, correct? She was in Alaska.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

Um with her, and she was such a badass. She always was talking about chasing off bears, like getting followed by wolves. She was so badass, it's so funny. Um, but yeah, that series was amazing, like it it it passed surpassed um anything that I'd done, even solo. Like Glimmer of the Other is kind of my flagship series, and it's the rest of my series that I've done solo are all set in the same universe, so there's like loads of crossover and characters mixing and things like that. And and Glimmer of the Other in particular did extraordinarily well, but Port Locke blew it out of the water, like we got top 60 on Amazon with um that series, and so and that's one that just continues to just have like such a space in fans' hearts, which is lovely, but there's a wee bit of pressure now to make sure that I do it justice for the last couple books, yeah. Um, and I'm worried because Jill Jill's Jill's the action one, like sometimes even on my solo book, she would be to read for me, and she'd message me and be like, Hella, this action scene sucks. Do you want me to fix it for you? And I'd be like, Yes, please. Yeah, please can you fix it? And so she would like take my one paragraph of action and make it like three pages, and I'd be like, Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 53:57

Oh my god, I need somebody like that in my life.

SPEAKER_00 54:00

Um, yeah, yeah, it was truly a gift, and yeah, it was so obviously I would repay the favor, like I would be to read hers, and I'd be like, You need to like be kind and you need to remember you've got a love interest here.

SPEAKER_02 54:12

Like, don't forget the dude in the corner. Um, what inspired you like specifically to write paranormal? Because I I mean I was looking at all your urban fantasy going, oh, that sounds fun. That sounds fun.

SPEAKER_04 54:28

But you other you have the way.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

Well, I already downloaded one of them onto my Kindle, so I haven't had a chance to read it yet. But I'm I think it might be the cozy one, even because I do love a cozy. I do love a cozy, I love both, so um that's the it depends what mood you're in for, I think.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

Cozy is great when you just feel like you need a hug.

SPEAKER_02 54:50

Um then sometimes you just need somebody to chop the head off a vampire for real.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

Right, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes that's how you need to start. And it's funny you say that because chopping the head of a werewolf is how the Portlock series starts, pretty much. So when you said that, I was like, yeah, sometimes you just need to start with a heading up.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

I love it.

SPEAKER_04 55:12

A beheading is a great way to enter an idea.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Absolutely. So um what what sort of I mean, was it just the head chopping, the beheadings that brought you to murdering people?

SPEAKER_00 55:27

Um no, so I grew up reading fantasy, um, epic fantasy, you know, your David Lee uh Eddings, your Mercedes Lackey, um Anne McCaffrey. That was what I cut my teeth on, that was what I kind of grew up reading 100%. And so as I grew older, I I discovered urban fantasy, and I discovered it through Helen Harper, um, who's a wonderful lady. I just once I found her stuff, I binged her whole blacklist, and I was like, this woman is amazing. And what I loved about her, unlike David Eddings, um, was every series sounded utterly different. Whereas with David Eddings, you had new series, but you could have just changed the names and it was the same story, really. Oh, 100%, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I and I loved them, don't get me wrong, I reread them all, but it was it was the same thing happening. But with Helen Harper, every story is vastly different, every um protagonist has got their own quirks, you know, and it really blew my mind. And I thought to myself, that is that is what I want to do when I want to write. I want to make sure that each protagonist is completely different, and you're not just cookie-cutting the same thing over and over and over. Um, and as a consequence, though, some of my characters are a bit marmite-y, so um, you know, some people say, Oh, I I adore jinx, I love Jinx, I can't bear Lucy, and you know, and oh, some people are like, I hate Amber and I love, and I'm like, that's because people connect with different characters in different ways because they are all different. So I'm like, I will take it as a compliment that you despise Lucy or that you, you know, can't stand Amber or whatever, because that that shows that they're completely different. Um, and I'm giving you different experiences when you read those different stories. Yeah, but I think for me, when I was reading the urban fantasy, the thing about it that I love is like who wouldn't want magic to be real? Like, just just now, just give me magic right now, and I think that that's that's what urban fantasy is. It's just magic at your fingertips in the real world, so we can all really like directly understand and relate uh to it, but it has that fantastical element, it has that escapism of just imagining you know that unicorns are real and you know our dogs can talk. I mean, who doesn't want that?

SPEAKER_02 58:00

You know, who doesn't want to snap their fingers and their house is clean?

SPEAKER_00 58:04

I always say, like, when people say, What magic power would you have? I'm like putting aside the inevitable healing one, right? Because morally everyone feels obliged to say that one. So just ignore that one. That one's not we're not allowed to say that one. Um if it wasn't healing, it would be teleportation. I would just love to be like, Oh, I'm gonna be in New Zealand. Off I go.

SPEAKER_02 58:25

Yep, here I go. So, what's the most uh unusual wackadoodle research that you've done for your outbook?

SPEAKER_00 58:34

Well, I mean, I with all of my co-authors, all um obviously Jill and Hannah, whenever we would like be planning things like you know, murders, um, we always have to add on, like we're writers, like, and I would always do like if we were doing a note, I would be like, we're just authors researching different ways to kill people, but you know, like and Jill would be like, Do you think the body will have decomposed by this point? Do you think we'll put maggots? I'm like, Oh, I don't know, and I was like, you know, what do you think we'll have to deliver idiot on the body? And so we're like, we're googling, and so I feel like when you're doing um crime-based books, which all of all of mine are, you know, they've always got some element of a mystery, whether it's like kidnapping or murders or stolen objects or something, there's always there's always an element of crime going through them. Um so a couple of things that I did, but I've got two police officer friends who um whose brains I pick repeatedly. Uh, one of them is a lovely Australian uh fan of mine called Jason, and he uh was a policeman in off in Australia for like 10 years. So he has like sketched out maps of like police stations and talked me through like processing and all those sort of things. Um, and then my friend Steve, who's a local officer, um, met me for brunch. I I promised that I would just like buy him a cup of coffee or something while I picked his brains, and we like started at nine and we went all the way through till nearly two when I was like asking questions because it was it's so fascinating, you know, to learn the ins and outs of like the procedure of what people do because you only really see police procedural stuff on TV, and obviously we were well aware that it's dramatized, and it's like what's the reality of the boots on the ground? Like, give me the real skinny, and so digging into those stories was like the best and most interesting couple of hours of my life because I'm always like, and then what happened, you know? Tell me more, yeah. It's genuinely fascinating stuff. Um, and apart from that, the only other thing that I think would throw up lots of um alarm bells is as poisons, like a oh yeah, poisoning comes up quite a lot, I think, because I've had a few um female antagonists who go around killing people, so then you're googling all the different poisons and then what happens to the body and what the symptoms are and whether you can save someone for this poison in our modern urban fantasy world because in olden times getting arsenic was not hard.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:16

There was arsenic like literally lying on the ground everywhere. You have to go and find laurel leaves or something. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:27

I can tell you where to mail order cyanide in the United States, just sitting on the house.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:33

Now we're all on a watch list somewhere. Actually, I've probably been on the watch list for the house.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:37

I was just gonna say we're already on. What if my sunshine house could provide me with natural poisons?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:43

I mean wow, that's a whole thing. Like a murderous deadly house. A murderous house. Like you know they have the poison gardens. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:52

Yes, and they used to have they still have a poison garden in the UK somewhere. I think it's in Edinburgh, maybe. There's like a full poison garden.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:58

Yeah, and I think just Q. Q Gardens maybe has one, I think a small one.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:04

This is why it's fun when we just hang out. We're all like, I'm like, oh, I'll use rhubarb. You're like, I have poison gardens. It's like in house, it can just be a good one.

unknown 1:02:13

Woo!

SPEAKER_04 1:02:14

There is both the fun and the risk of spending so much time talking to authors is that you get talking, and then all of a sudden you're like, oh shoot, I just started another book in my head. Yeah, I know. And then you tell your husband, hey, by the way, I've started another book in my head, and he's like, not another book. How many series do you have going now? And I'm like, none of your business.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:41

And this is why I have like many series going on at once, because yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

I am normally a one series at a time girl. I like to get my head down and write the one character and feel like I really know them all, and then swap series and swap headsets, and then I find it hard to go back to the other series, and I have to reread the whole series to get back into the theme vibe. So I really struggle to like chop and change with working with Hannah, especially for the romanticy, they're like 200k, right? So we can't just I can't just sit down and write them all the time because I would have no income because I would not be publishing any urban fantasy books. So I've had to work this last kind of 18 months at doing that, at just writing one book in one series and picking up another one. But it's hard because I think I'm just quite obsessive. So with um the romantic books, I sat in a mystical place called uh Rohelm, and like I just want to live there full time. I'm like, stop dragging me back to the UK. Like, I don't want to I wanna like it's so hard when you're being made to adult and you're like, oh I just want to play annoying.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:57

So, okay, if your series, oh I don't even know what series. Pick a series. Any series. Well, let's say you're romantic that you've just published. Uh and let's say Amazon Prime picks it up, because they like to do fantasy things nowadays, and and let's say it picks it up for for a series. Who would you want to play your main characters?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

Oh gosh. I don't even know. I haven't even thought about it. Well, I've thought about it in the sense of um manifesting that I'm gonna have like a TV or a movie deal, obviously. Um but I haven't really drilled down into who would be. I think the thing is that the characters are all a little bit on the young side. They're like 23, 24, so it would have to be kind of quite new emerging actors. Yeah. Um, and that that would be fun too, right? Because it would be fun to be part of a process of helping launch some new careers rather than an all-star cast who's already got it made. I've got a couple of um relatives that are actors, so I would totally drag them into it. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:06

I mean, what's a little nepotism amongst the people? If you can't do nepotism, what is the point?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:12

Little cousins that could have a job for the ground.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:17

I think that's perfectly appropriate. Sure. So in addition to your romantic, that you have is one out now in that, and then the next three are coming out, or do you have two out?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:28

Uh bad is right. I've got the pre the prequel is out. Um the book one is out, book two is out in July. So uh yeah, we're not too far out. The next part lack comes out this year too, in September. Yes. Yes. So I I did have moving the um romancy around, I had to shift a couple of my HGH books around to fit fit itself. That I wasn't releasing two books literally at the same time. So I had to push. Um, I've got a paranormal kind of supernatural police procedural um, the other detective series. So I pushed that one back. So that one's moved and that one's gone forward, and it's just you know, it's all the all the jigsaw pieces of trying to get everything in. Um, but yeah, Portlock is gonna be out September. Um, that's the one that I'm kind of working on just now. So I'm kind of being kind to myself because normally I can write a book in about four to six weeks, um, but I'm giving myself plenty of time with this one because of the emotional uh side quest. So I'm gonna try and uh yeah, be kind to myself and give myself plenty of time to write it. Um because that one does hit so hard, like the series does so well, and then the emotionals of having to write it without Jill, and I don't want to let her down or let the fans down or it not be its best self. So I do feel like I'm in a like I I had a big crying jag yesterday, but after apart from that, I now feel like I'm now in the place where I can kind of I can knuckle down and do it. And I spoke to um Jill's husband, and Chad was like, you know, she's telling you to just like knuckle down and do it, and I was like, I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:21

So even he has that's so good that you have his support though, too.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:29

Yeah, he yeah, he's been lovely. And I've got a bunch of writing things, you know, signings and author conferences and things like that. So I'm going to New Zealand um at the end of this month. Amazon invited me to go to London Book Fair at the start of March, so I I took them up on that and I did a little talk, a London Book Fair, which was exciting. Nice, love it. And before that, one of my friends, um AL Tippett, um, April, she was visiting from Australia, so I went and met her at Edinburgh because obviously I couldn't not see her when she's on the same landmass as me. Yeah. Um, and then before that I'd had a signing in uh Lille and France, so I'm very much in the kind of very, very busy globe trotting, but also writing lots of books and not much space in my schedule for said globe trotting. So when I'm in my writing phase, it's just been it's been a bit um bit mad.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:25

Globetrotting, writing, globetrotting, writing.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:28

Good thing is you can write on planes and trains. So like on the way to and from London, I was getting in my writing, you know. I wasn't you're travelling and writing, so that's good. As long as you're not the driver.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:40

Yeah, that would be awkward. Yeah, and like if you dictate if you dictate, yeah, and just put an earbud in and everybody will think you're just having a conversation on the phone.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:51

But then I it just doesn't, and then it just doesn't make sense by the time that I'm done, you know. Like I'll I quite often do voice memos to myself, yeah. Like, not just driving, but like around the house, or if I if an idea comes to me at like midnight or something, and I know if I go to sleep, that will be it, I will never remember it, no matter how much you think. Because sometimes you're like, this is the best idea, it's so good. I work never forget.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:16

I'll remember.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:17

And the next morning, all you remember is that you had a really amazing idea, and that's it. That's all you can remember. So, since then, since I've had a few of those, now I just voice note myself in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:28

Yeah, because Stephen King says, if you forget an idea, it wasn't good in the first place. But I disagree with you, Mr. King.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:36

Oh no, you are wrong, Mr. King. All of them, the nighttime like gold, I call it like the midnight gold dust, the next morning when I listen back, like a solid 95%. I'm like, that's genius. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:52

Because your mind is open and kind of expanded, I think. Like your consciousness, you're half asleep, your consciousness is expanded. All this stuff is like dumping into your brain, and if you don't grab it, then it's gone. But that's when some of the most brilliant things I mean, like literally, I dreamed one of my series, one of my best-selling series. I dreamed it. I don't agree with Mr. King. Mr.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:18

King can do what he wants, he's rich and stuff, so yeah, and maybe his ideas that he forgets are bad, but like the ones I forget, I know that they were really good. Because the next morning I'm listening back and I'm like, oh, imagine if you forgot that, and I know I would have done. But maybe he hasn't got perimenopause brain, so maybe he doesn't forget as much stuff as us.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:36

Maybe not. Maybe not.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

That's probably true.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:38

That's probably true.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:41

So finally, where can people find out more about you? Where do we send?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:45

Well, I have my own website, um, www.heather gharris.com, um, or www.ariaok.com. Um, but I guess really you just want to pop along to Amazon because I'm in Kindle Unlimited, um, that's where all of my books are. The paperbacks, hardbacks, and audio are all widely available, various other retailers. Um, but if you're interested in in reading kind of ebook or uh in Kindle Unlimited, then you need to head over to Amazon. On my website again, I've got a reading order of like the best because of the series that I have that all interlink, it's not like straightforward the best reading order. You you know, there needs to be a graphic.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:30

Have you put your books in libraries?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:33

Yes, okay, yes, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:35

Yeah, so if you don't have Kindle Unlimited, ask your local library.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:40

You can now ask a library, hundred percent. You want to be able to be accessible, um, so like all of my audiobooks are available for free on YouTube because audiobooks are really, really expensive. Thank you. And I just think the people sometimes that really need the escapism are the people that can't afford like$19.99 for an audiobook, right? Yeah, all of my books are on YouTube for free. You can just anyone can just listen to them anytime. If you need escapism, have some free stuff on me at any point.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:12

I love it. I love that. And then do you do the socials? Um, do you have a good reader group on Facebook or anything?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:19

Yes, uh, yeah, I do all the socials. Um, I've got a Facebook page, um, Instagram page, TikTok, um, and I have Facebook fan groups.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:30

That was so loud.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:32

Um, and I have I have Discord now. I've started to have Discords um because everybody started um boycotting Facebook. So I wanted to give someone else, you know, another place where we could gather and just talk. I have all the socials in all of the places, depending on what your social media preference is.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:51

That's awesome. Come and find me no matter where you are. We'll be sure to put those in the show notes so that you can find other thank you so much for joining us today and talking with us. This was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:10

Uh thank you very much, lady.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:20

That was amazing.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:22

I love talking with Heather. She's just such I'm really excited about her projects coming up.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:29

Well, and her like I read a lot of her books that she has both solo authored and the ones that she did with Jill. And they're so fun, y'all. I I probably read most of her books at this point, honestly. So I was a fan and then and then we got to interview her, and it's so exciting.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:47

So fun. I love that she's like she knows Liverpool and we had that connection. That's super fun. Anyway, let us talk about the next important thing that we like to do here on the bod.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:02

Pull- is it time to draw a card?

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

Yeah! Woo-hoo! So, Amy, tell me about the deck that you have prepared for us.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:13

Well, as mentioned earlier in this episode, our third member of the Cavan came to visit me, and one of the things she did was bring um bunch of my stuff that had been shipped here, but then shipped back, which was very exciting, and then she brought it here, and so that meant I have now been reunited with all of my tarot and oracle decks and magic rocks. So I'm very excited about that. So when I was getting ready to do this recording, I was looking through all of my stacks of decks. I'm like, which one is the most important? And Chris is like, just take one from the top, and I'm like, wow, I could. Or I sweat, actually, I did. There's so many. I took one of the top ones. But I have today for you Murder of Crows. And it is, look at the side of the box. Can we see it? Oh my gosh, okay, that's no focus.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:13

Well, there's a lady in goth. I'm gonna say a lady in Victorian goth holding a crow on her hand.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:20

Yes, and then the other side of the box is just as cool. And this is a crow in armor. Well, somebody with a c a crow person in armor holding a sword. Yeah, why not? Yeah, yeah. I love it. So I am ready to draw a card. Okay. And these cards are just they're super, and I love them because I feel very much I feel very connected to Corbids of all kinds. But crows are my favorite. So I'm gonna draw just a single card for us today. Okay. We have shuffled, we are cutting, and we are drawing. And what I have is the Three of Cups. Okay, so first of all, we're gonna look at it. How come I can't focus? There we go. Focus. Ooh, okay. So it's three women kind of standing together. It looks very witchy indeed. And they're all three holding up a cup and a toast, and each cup has a crow on it. And so I'm very excited about this. So I'm gonna go ahead and give this a looky loo. In the wild places of this world, you will find those that you connect with the most. You will teach them your songs and you will learn theirs in return. They will allow you all of your needed fictions and accept the masks you have chosen to wear. They take your story as it is given and spin it forth to weave with their own. Sublime delights are exchanged without expectations other than a few moments of peace and revelry. The key words are friendship, benevolence, and harvest. And the Three of Cups very, very much is a friendship card. It is a companionship card, uh, collaboration, creativity. It is all of those things. People are coming together in that matriarchal collective that Shaya mentioned, that connection. It's bringing together that, and this is women, and typically on the tarot cards you will see women, but it can be any kind of feminine energy which is not that is not uh restricted to women. It is the it is the energy of community which is often associated with women.

unknown 1:17:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:48

And it's very exciting to have that, especially as we just talked about the matriarchal energy of community and how that with this going with the strawberries and friendship and bringing together, and that's what this is. This is a celebration, this is joy, this is companionship, this is feeding your positive energy to other people and weaving those bonds, not the ones that need to be cut, weaving those ties together in a positive way.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:18

Yes, absolutely. I love that so much. That's perfect. And this is how we change the world. Changing the world begins when communities I mean, the whole world civilization was created because of community. Because of community building. So the only way we I think we heal civilization is to get back to that community building. Um, so links and recipes and sh and all that in the show notes, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:18:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:47

As per always.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:49

Always that's where you'll be able to find Heather's books. Heather's books, the recipes for the booze, the tarot card information, and uh all the stuff about us, because that's also important.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:06

That's also very important.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:08

Please, please like, subscribe, follow, share, comment. We love a comment. If you need to reach out for any reason, DM me on Instagram. I will be there for you, unless you're a creep, and then I will not be there for you. So only non-creeps may apply.

unknown 1:19:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:32

Make sure you check out our shorts. Oh, yeah, because I've started posting our drinks as I um I'm making the drinks that we make and then posting them with instructions up on YouTube, as well as I have an Oracle deck reading that I did a couple weeks ago, and I think I'm gonna try to do a few more of those maybe a couple times a month to get those up there. So we'll have lots of fun stuff on our shorts. If you only have three minutes or less to spend with us, you need your fix, or you really need a cocktail.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:05

Well, we will see you next time on the pod, same bat time, same bat channel.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:14

You know, I don't know what I was gonna say there. I was gonna say something funny and clever, but it turns out I didn't have that in me.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:21

So anyway, yeah, let's see if Cheers Bye!

SPEAKER_02 1:20:29

Bye y'all.