Adrienne Thurman on Finding Yourself at Every Phase of Life and Don’t Tell Me How It Ends

Reconnecting with your creative identity after a massive life shift is challenging, especially when that shift is motherhood. Today, I am talking with debut author Adrienne Thurman about her new contemporary rom-com, Don't Tell Me How It Ends. We have an incredibly honest conversation regarding the isolation of the first year of parenting, processing postpartum depression, and how navigating those heavy phases of life can actually spark the desire to write gloriously unlikable women who get the happy endings they deserve. 

Adrienne Thurman writes romance and commercial fiction where gloriously unlikable women get the happily ever afters—or revenge plots—of their dreams. As a BIPOC creator, she writes stories with a diverse cast of characters that makes her readers feel seen. Don't Tell Me How It Ends is her debut novel. 

In this episode, we're discussing:

• Reclaiming Identity Through Fiction: Adrienne shares how the isolation of the pandemic and the challenges of early motherhood led her back to writing as a way to fill her own cup separate from parenting.
• A Vulnerable Look at Postpartum Depression: A raw discussion on the physical and emotional toll of the first year of motherhood, processing postpartum depression, and how that heavy phase inspired her to create complex, authentic characters.
• Sibling Case Studies: An analysis of the sibling dynamics in her debut—how two sisters raised in the exact same household can develop completely opposite coping mechanisms and perspectives on love.
• Grounded Humor Over Ridiculous Scenarios: Why the best rom-coms build humor directly from a character's sharp personality and a true crime obsession rather than forcing them into absurd situations.
• Heavy Realities in Romance: Adrienne discusses balancing a hopeful romance narrative with real-world gravity, including the representation of a parent living with early onset dementia.

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BOOKS/AUTHORS MENTIONED:

Don’t Tell Me How It Ends (Amazon)

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

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Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

This podcast was produced by Galati Media.
Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Transcript

Intro: Meeting Adrienne Thurman and Her Winding Author Journey

Alesia Galati 0:00

Listener discretion is advised. This podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Hello, Adrian. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. If you could start by telling everyone who you are and a bit about your author journey.

Adrienne Thurman 0:16

Yes. Okay. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to chat today. My name is Adrien Thurman. I am a debut romance author. My journey to the adult space or to writing in general, but then to the adult space is a bit windy as my journey everywhere always is. It started in the pandemic. I feel like we were all like looking for something to do, a creative pursuit, but I was also at that time a new mom to a one-year-old. And so I was trying to not just fill my time, but also fill my cup up a little bit and try to find something that was fulfilling in a way that was separate from my motherhood journey. And so I had always loved writing and I had always loved stories, but I had kind of like moved away from those things throughout school and then my young adulthood. But as like I started reading more books to my daughter, I started to let my mind play again in ways that it hadn't for a good while. And I just started telling her stories and making up stories and songs for her, and then just letting myself continue down that line of thought and just play a little bit. So I started writing picture books because at the time that's what we were reading so much of. And it felt very manageable to spite those off during nap times or when she was asleep or something. And so I really just did it just as a fun play, creative exercise for myself initially. But then I thought that they were pretty good, you know? And so I wanted to follow that to see what I could make of it, if anything. And so at the time there was, and I think that there still is, it was like a picture book showcase. And so you bring in an unagented draft of something. And it's like they put up the first like hundred or two hundred words of it. And then they have agents and editors come through, read them, and they can make requests for the full manuscript. And so I was part of that and then had requests there. And while I was waiting for feedback from those agents editors who had requested it, I decided to write a novel. Like I just, it was like kept happening in baby steps. Where I was like, wait, that was kind of cool. I could do more. That was kind of cool, I could do more. And at that point, the stakes were none. You know, it was like if I fail at this, I'm the only one who ever has to know about it. So I just tried it on and it was great and I loved it. And the story just poured out of me. My first novel was a young adult novel. And so then I hit up a couple of the agents who I was waiting to hear back from about the picture book, and I said, Hey, I actually have also now completed this uh young adult manuscript. And if you'd be interested, here's the pitch. And I just, you know, happy to send it along. So a few of them were, and then one of them ultimately wrote to ask if I wanted to work with her on all of my stuff from picture books through young adults. So that was like my first foray into writing professionally and like really seeking out traditional publication.

Motherhood and Identity: Reconnecting with Creativity After Kids

Alesia Galati 3:07

Wow. Yeah, that post-motherhood. I feel like so many of us, it's so hard to explain to people who are not moms, but it's like a stripping of everything you are or were because you had this little human who is dependent on you for literally everything, and you lose yourself. Like it's so easy to lose yourself in the first year and the first few years of motherhood. I know I suffered with really bad postpartum depression after my first. And this is like before Chrissy Tegan was talking about it. Like nobody was talking about it, and I was just like, I don't know what to do, and I don't know what to do.

Adrienne Thurman 3:50

Or even what this is, what this feeling is.

Alesia Galati 3:52

Yeah, I just need to lay on the floor and hold myself so I'm not hurting myself. It was so bad. And of course, there's like thoughts of what's wrong with me, and I should be happy that I'm a new mom. And then, like, once I hit that after the year, and I think it's that the year of breastfeeding, right? Too, it's just like after that year, I was like, that was rough. I'm

A Vulnerable Discussion on Postpartum Depression and Growth

Alesia Galati 4:16

good.

Adrienne Thurman 4:16

Yeah. Oh, you're good now? Good for you. It only took a year, it took me a little longer.

unknown 4:20

No.

Adrienne Thurman 4:21

Like, oh, you're done? I'm still on mine. I'm still figuring mine out.

unknown 4:25

Yeah.

Adrienne Thurman 4:25

Seven years later.

Alesia Galati 4:26

Oh, I feel that. My kids are gonna be nine and twelve next month, which is so like crazy banana pants to me. But yeah, motherhood, I feel like it just does so much. But to be able to find something in that time, I think is so incredibly precious, something to carry you through, to help you through that. And so it makes sense that you would start with those children's stories and the picture books, and then being like, all right, let's move on to something else.

Adrienne Thurman 4:55

What else? I think it's funny because it's like it's a stripping down and you lose yourself, but you lose a different version of yourself. You lose a past version of yourself. And so it's what comes next is like who knows? And I think that was what I was realizing is it's like there were so many things that I had been passionate about when I was younger, and I just got busy and momentum of life, just pushed those things to the side. And I think it was like as I was discovering motherhood, myself and motherhood, my daughter, the world through her eyes and stuff. It's like it really was also as much as it was like unsettling and wild and something that I was in no way prepared for. It also was like such a specific opportunity to like really like check in with myself and tap in and to see this is what you've been doing so far, and this is who you've become. But it doesn't have to be a final resting place because we are in the midst of this complete rewiring and like, where do you want to plug things in? So I feel like it was like an opportunity just to let myself completely slough off whatever else had been kind of like holding me up and then redefine it. So it's all the things. It's as hard as it is magical, as it is an opportunity, as it is something you're contending with forever. So, but there's so much there. It's such a ripe time. It's for me. That's why a lot of my stories are coming of age stories, is because I feel like I've always just been coming of age again and again. So it's I love it, you know.

Alesia Galati 6:22

Yeah, next up, menopause. Uh let's do it.

unknown 6:27

Exactly.

Alesia Galati 6:28

Yeah. Uh a few of my clients are menopause podcasters, and I hear all the medical advice and all the things, all the things that their generation is going through now to get us the support that we need for our generation to go up of like, I want to thank you for the work that you are doing.

Adrienne Thurman 6:44

Right. It's like talk about conversations we weren't having and needed to be, like all of those things. Yeah. So important.

Alesia Galati 6:51

Okay. So tell me a bit about okay, you got that agent, you had these the children's stories, the YA story. Is the YA story what is now? Don't tell me how it ends, or is that a different one?

Processing Current Events: Writing Through the Weight of 2020

Adrienne Thurman 7:03

No, that's different. So the first one that I wrote was it was in 2020 when I wrote it, and it was like during the time of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter kind of like really like taking over the zeitgeist. And for me, I was like very, I just felt like you're a mom. And so your world that you have to continue to create remains the same. You're still responsible for bringing magic and curiosity and hope and enthusiasm to this space and to this tiny person who you're shaping. But on the flip side, you're watching these images that are completely gutting you, and you are losing hope and you are asking yourself questions about the state of the world and humanity and all of these things that you're contending with. And not for the first time, but in a way where it's like right in your face and there's no escaping it. And so for me, it was like that first book, it really looked at some issues of race and police brutality, and it was like very heavy. It was still a romance, but it was really me kind of processing through a lot of things that I maybe didn't have space to process through in my own real life. So it was like doing it through fiction. And so it was heavy and really emotionally taxing to write. And I love that book still, but that book has since been shelved. It maybe was just loosening things up and taught me how to write a novel. But then this story was the book I wrote next. Once I felt a little bit more comfortable in calling myself an author and then a novelist, I really wanted to write something that was a bit of a departure from that. I wanted to write something that was like an exhale for me and a little bit more fun and a little bit lighter. And I just I love romance. So where the first was a romance, I knew this would be too, but I wanted it to be a completely different tone. And so for me, I always go just to the rom-coms that I love to read and watch growing up and all of a fun antics, but also the layers of them. And so that's how Don't Tell Me How It Ends came to be. I was just looking for something really different for myself

Don't Tell Me How It Ends: Character Messiness and Grounded Rom-Coms

Adrienne Thurman 9:05

as a writer.

Alesia Galati 9:06

Yes. And I, oh my goodness, I love this book so much. I'm gonna hold it up for everyone to see now. This is the uh trade paperback original. This has the art in the background. Absolutely love this. The first, the first page, her vibrator dies.

Adrienne Thurman 9:23

Yes, she's going through it right off the bent.

Alesia Galati 9:25

Poor woman struggling. I know. Right off the bat. And it just continues on throughout the book. Struggling is the that is our word bubble. Yes. And it I love this book so much. Okay, so tell me what kind of inspired it. For anyone who has not read it, what can they expect?

Adrienne Thurman 9:46

First of all, what can they expect? It's about a young girl, Kaya Harper, who comes home from college after graduation and she's sort of anti-romance and anti-love, but gets roped into her older sister's new matchmaking venture as the first client. So she had come home thinking she was gonna figure out the next steps into adulthood and ends up on a journey that she hadn't seen coming, and then meeting a man who she hadn't seen coming. For the story, I always start with characters. And so for me, I didn't necessarily think like what should they be doing or what will they be, whatever. I was just really started with who are they? Who is she? What's she up against? She came into my mind feeling very fully formed in all the ways she's like broken and messy and figuring it out and falling down and learning to get back up. And then her older sister, Zola, also. So those two were really three-dimensional and real for me from the beginning. And then I think what I borrowed from other stories that I love was like tone and like the way you infuse levity in the voice rather than having it be like really situationally comedic or physically comedic. So for me, those are the rom-coms and the stories, like the love stories that I allow that are funny because of who the people are, more than just like them being in this like completely preposterous, ridiculous situation, you know?

Alesia Galati 11:08

Yeah. Oh, I feel that so much. There's a scene in what you were saying brought to mind. There's this scene where she goes on one of the dates that her sister has planned and she loves true crime. We'll watch all the true crime. I'm sure she's listening to all the true crime podcasts, is like, yep, I'm good on the love. Y'all got that. I don't need that. Let me watch the murder in mayhem. And she goes to one of the dates. No one is in the parking lot. It's at a restaurant, no one's in the parking lot. The guy comes out, knocks on her window, like, hey, are you here for the date? And she's like, I don't know. Am I the date or the murder? Right? Like, what are we doing here? And the way that you describe, where she's like, Okay, so like I feel like this is the direction that I thought you were going in trying to murder me. And he was like, absolutely horrified. Yes. I cannot believe you would think that. And I can I can see that now, how that might make me feel. And oh my god.

Adrienne Thurman 12:07

It all comes into focus differently, and you see it through her eyes, and you're like, no, not that.

Alesia Galati 12:13

So epic. Absolutely love that. But one of the things that I love is this dynamic that you have with her, where this story is such a friends to lovers that she did not see coming because her whole thing is we swipe right and then we move on. And that is it. And I think that so much of it is because of what she's seen her mother go through, what she's seen her sister go through. And so when you were coming up with the mom and the sister and how they love the rom coms, they love love, they're into love and they're always gonna go back for love. And her, as you were navigating that, what was the thought process in having the older sister be opposite of what she was?

Sibling Case Studies: Navigating Opposite Dynamics and Upbringings

Adrienne Thurman 13:01

Yeah. I think of them moving through the same childhood and the same, or you know, the same household and the same experiences. And I think of it as really true to life. How you can grow up in the same house as your siblings and have the same kind of experiences, the same traumas, the same parents and come out of it really differently, whether it's different coping mechanisms or just different birth orders. So there were different expectations on you, and so you reacted differently. I think that there's something really fascinating about the ways that we're similar and the ways that were different. And I think that for them, for the sisters, it was really like they were opposites in like outwardly. They were opposites in how they moved through the world and how they interacted with the world, but they were really coming from a very common ground and common place. And so I think that it's just interesting to see what's possible. Like you can have this experience, it can all still be true. Your dad still left, your mom's still this, you're all of these things, but you can choose to react to it differently, or you can try to choose to react to it differently, or just to see that there's another alternative. You can become hardened by something or stronger because of it. And those are not necessarily the same thing. And so I think just having that, first of all, it's just fun to see the interplay of the sisters being like at odds so often and just the way that their brain works. But I also find it to be really true of life when people go through something similar. It doesn't mean that they're going to come out of it the same way. And so for me, that's just an interesting thing to explore because it just feels very familiar and very true for me.

Alesia Galati 14:42

What is your sibling dynamic like? I'm so curious. I have two older sisters. Okay. So that tracks in seeing them reflected versus your approach, I'm sure. I'm the oldest of five, and my um I have one younger sister, the rest are boys, and my youngest brother is 10 years younger than me. And so it's so interesting seeing how he approached life versus how I approached life, and even the fact that my mom was an addict for the majority of my life, but not the majority of his life. And so seeing that dynamic of him having a sober and clean, I use clean, I hate that word, but you know what I mean. Um, not an addicted mom for his childhood, and then me having a very different experience and how we approach life now is just amazing.

Adrienne Thurman 15:32

It's so interesting. It is. I think siblings are just like such a case study for just humanity. It really is. It's like you're looking at this very contained space, and it's like you've kept certain variables the same and you've changed others, and then what happens? And it's like we're all bringing our own stuff to it, like who we are, how we're wired, how we're how our brains work. But in a lot of ways, like outwardly, it's like the conditions can be really similar or very different. But it's so it's really interesting, I think, to compare, like to be able to like have a little bit of distance from your nuclear family from that home, from that household, and then be like, oh my God, like how'd that mess you up? Because it messed me up like this. I think it's fun, I think it's interesting, and I think it's relatable because you know, for all of us who do have siblings, whether there's like a big difference and a big difference in like the upbringing or not, it's just lean on each other as hard as you'll battle.

Alesia Galati 16:28

Right.

Adrienne Thurman 16:29

So it's it's I love it. I love playing with that and checking into that, yeah.

Alesia Galati 16:32

Oh, it's so interesting. Okay, so Kaya's older sister also is pregnant, quite pregnant, in this book. And how did that affect her, do you think, in seeing her older sister going through this very alone, but also I feel like it kind of made her need to grow up a little faster too. Was that kind of purposeful as you were navigating the storytelling?

Adrienne Thurman 16:57

From Zola's perspective or for Kaya? For Kaya. For me, I think the reason it was interesting to make her pregnant is because it's just like another time in life where you really are coming of age again. And it's like you really are rebuilding and rediscovering and redetermining who you are and who you're going to be and what you think, and pushing back on things that were part of your childhood or your youth, and then deciding what's an ideal version of what I could do next. So I think that her sister being in that space, but also being in a circumstance that felt very tenuous and that she was doing it alone, she had been left. And I think that it just again really pushed on all of Kaya's fears and the question she was already asking and needing to ask in terms of just like, is there a right way? Is there a happy ending? Is there hope? Is there a point to any of it? I keep seeing it end poorly. I don't know that it helped Kaya mature, but I think that it just challenged what she believed. And then seeing how her sister reacted in those moments and seeing that her sister could take it on and do it with grace, even as she was acknowledging that she was in a bad spot, it's just another example for her to look to to say, yeah, like things can fall apart and things can not be okay, but you can be okay anyway. So I think it was like really pushing on all those soft spots for her.

Alesia Galati 18:28

Yeah, that definitely makes sense. The book is called Don't Tell Me How It Ends. Go buy it, y'all, first of all. But come on. At this point, I'll already have exactly. Um, but it made me laugh when I saw the title because I'm the kind of person where I'm like, I would Google how the movie ends. Or really? Oh yeah. 100%. Or I'm like, so what happens at the end of this? Or who does what? My kids know I like the spoilers. I like the spoilers. Okay. I was laughing when I saw that because I'm like, oh man, that makes me just think about all the times my husband's like, just be surprised by the end. You don't need to know how it ends. And I'm like, but I do want to know how it ends. Yes. And so I feel like one, just the title called to me, but yeah, the idea of her being obsessed with the true crime, you know how it ends. Someone gets murdered every time. No and or buts about it. Sometimes they find a person that did it, sometimes they don't. But usually if it's in a true crime, you got some ideas. And so I love that you kind of have this person who's wants the predictability, which is understandable with her childhood. Totally makes sense psychologically that she'd be like, just tell me how it ends.

Speaker 1 19:56

Yeah.

Alesia Galati 19:57

And seeing her mom, seeing her sister, and see, I think seeing her mom try over and over and over again for love, being like, mom, we know how it ends. Her and her sister with the eyeballs, like, girl, girl, girl. Like just like, we know how this ends. But then being in this where she's getting these dates from her sister while also slowly falling in love with this guy that she's very much tried to friend zone, even though he's like, What are you doing?

Adrienne Thurman 20:31

Yeah.

Alesia Galati 20:32

Like, I'm just here and I'm just happy to be in your space, which I love. As you were thinking, okay, how do I want to title this? I'm so curious about the titling process for folks and how you come up with the ideas, or if it's like someone tells you what it has to be titled.

Adrienne Thurman 20:46

I don't come up with the ideas. I can do a lot of things. Titles are not one of them. This is why you have a team in place. You know, everyone brings something a little bit different to the party. And so for me, I know that there are people who are like, I knew the title before I wrote the first line. And I'm like, that's good for y'all. I don't have that. I had no clue. I we played with a lot of different things, and my agent, Melanie Figaroa, she brought this one up and she added to the list, and it just felt right and good. And then we took it out to editors thinking that we might ultimately change it. And you just never know. Like, nothing's really final to what's final in publishing. And it just worked. I think it worked in a number of ways and it felt right. But no, I don't have that like titled gene. I wish I did because it's this is probably a cooler story when you're like, oh yeah, and I got a vision and I this is why. But no, for me, it's just someone said it, I liked it, it worked, and yeah, I didn't made it through all the rounds of cuts where it could have changed. It didn't. So nice for this one. That's how it played out. Yeah. She also actually titled the next book, too. So sweet.

Alesia Galati 21:48

I love that. Yeah. I am not a titler. No, I'm sort of oh man. Both my kiddos are autistic. I'm fairly certain I am as well. I just have not. Gotten diagnosed. So my titles are like it is what it is. This is we read smut because that's what we're talking about. We read. Come on, it's so clear. But my first podcast that I did with my sister, we were talking about cults from the perspective of growing up in one. And it was called Two Sisters and a Cult. Very basic on titling. But you look at it, you know exactly what you're getting. Yeah. Two sisters talking about cults. Here we go.

Adrienne Thurman 22:26

Let me tell you, we read Smut, Two Sisters and a Cult. I'm clicking. Right. I'm listening. So it was very well done on both fronts. I like it.

Alesia Galati 22:35

So yeah, I can't imagine having to come up with a title for a story and being like, all right, this is what it's gonna be. And I knew it ahead of time. No.

Adrienne Thurman 22:42

I don't know. It's hard. Might always feel like placeholders until someone else fixes it. I'm like, that's gotta be someone else's job.

Alesia Galati 22:48

Right. Title for this book is just the title of this book. There we go. Just that's the placeholder. I love it. Okay, so Ro is our male main character. We only get Kaya's point of view in this story, which I love a single point of view, because then you can just kind of fill in the blanks of what you think other people are thinking.

Building a Grounded Hero: Adding Layers and Dementia Representation

Adrienne Thurman 23:09

Yeah. I think every story just needs something different. But for this one, it felt right to just have hers because it was like so much. It was like so much her story. She was going through it. Yeah. To figure out. Yeah.

Alesia Galati 23:22

So he is like the complete opposite of her. Very much, I would consider him, although he is artistic in that way, I still find him to be very rule following in his approach to things. This is the way it's going to go. And this is like when he first when they first meet, where he's like, you know, this is a fire lane. You're not supposed to be parked here. Only someone who likes to follow rules. Harass somebody. And I say harass because that's what it would feel like to me, very much to how it felt like to Kaya being like, I'm literally in the passenger seat. Clearly, I did not drive the car here.

Adrienne Thurman 23:57

This isn't your business. No one sent up a flare. We don't need you for this park.

Alesia Galati 24:02

Are you a police officer? No? Okay, goodbye.

Adrienne Thurman 24:05

Have the day you deserve. There you go. You're giving me, you're giving me lots of little Kaya isms as you go. I'm like, okay, now I see why you pick this book up. Yep. For sure. I got it. I got it. I see you.

Alesia Galati 24:19

Yep. Absolutely loved it. So if you want a book about Alicia, there. No, I'm just kidding.

Adrienne Thurman 24:23

You have it. It's this one.

Alesia Galati 24:24

This one. So yeah, I found him to be very opposite to her energy, which I think they balanced each other out so beautifully. Um, and then that kind of he knows what he wants. She doesn't know what she wants. He is struggling at the same time, though, with a family situation that I think is such an important aspect of romance, is that we get to see the lives that we have and the struggles that we have reflected in these stories, and not in a like the world is falling apart into pieces kind of way. Sometimes those are sometimes we need those stories, but his dad is struggling with dementia. And so he is home supporting his dad and has set his art to the side a little bit, very little bit, to help his dad run his auto shop to be there for his parents, to support them, and just the love and affection that and the kind of parents that he had and how he approaches life very differently than how Kaya does. When you were fleshing out his character, adding this idea of dementia and what his quote unquote struggle would be. Not that everybody needs a struggle, but what his struggle would be. Why was dementia or some type of disease around his parents important?

Adrienne Thurman 25:40

I think a lot of times the characters kind of lead you through stories. So I'd love to say that I had sat down beforehand and I'd really thought it all out. But in a lot of ways, I'm a discovery writer. So as I'm going, you know, and I'm pulling from things that I'm familiar with, things that have touched my life, things that I want to give a spotlight to for different reasons. And so for Roe, I think that what was important to me is that you get to know him layer at a time.

Alesia Galati 26:12

Yeah.

Adrienne Thurman 26:13

Because I think that one of the things that Kaya is hopefully learning throughout is that she cannot keep rushing to judgment. And so we see her in that car reacting like that. Who are you? And what are you doing? And then we pull a layer back. And then and I feel like every time we're meeting Ro, we're going along with Kaya into these deeper planes of who he is.

Alesia Galati 26:37

When she says you're just the mechanic or you're just the car guy.

unknown 26:41

Yes.

Alesia Galati 26:43

I was like, oh no, take it back. Take it back. Hanging out.

Adrienne Thurman 26:47

But yeah, so I think it's just the realization that you don't have someone's full story at a glance or a second look or third or at six months or at a year. You're constantly pulling back the layers of a person. And again, like similar to Zola, I think it was just the realization that you can go through these really hugely impactful, difficult challenges and still remain open and vulnerable and available and curious and interested in the world. And you can interact with the world and people without the assumption of how it's going to end, because it's really not about that. It really is about the journey. And so I think that him dealing with his father's early onset dementia and the degenerative nature of that disease, I think it's another time where being present and being in the moment and appreciating each moment simply for existing is so important. And so I think it's just furthers that point for him and for her to see it and look back and say, Oh, I thought you had it all right. I thought you were good. I thought you had it easy and I had it hard. And then to kind of just put things into perspective. And I think it's just again all weaving together this thing that we all are dealing with all the time, which is just figuring out how to hold all of these realities at once and remain open and as positive as possible and just make sure we're like going out into the world and doing good anyway. Yeah, but doing good anyway.

Alesia Galati 28:30

Doesn't matter the day you had, it's okay. We can be kind. And that's something I'm like constantly telling my kids. We don't have to be nice to people, but we are always kind. It doesn't matter if they're a jerk to you. No, you don't have to take it. And you can still be kind.

Adrienne Thurman 28:45

Yeah. Oh my gosh, that nuance is so hard to teach because it's case by case. I'm like, here we didn't hit him back because, and then here. So yeah, it's it's so hard to teach your kids and your characters some of these truths. Right. So necessary.

Alesia Galati 29:02

And yourself, my God. Still teaching myself things every day.

Speaker 1 29:07

Every day.

Alesia Galati 29:09

Okay, so you have another book that you're working on. I want to know if you can tell us what it is about, what we can expect, when we can expect

Looking Ahead: Single Motherhood and Zola's Standalone Story in 2027

Alesia Galati 29:18

it, etc.

Adrienne Thurman 29:19

Yes. So the second book, it's interconnected, but standalone. So the second book, which there's a chapter, like a teaser chapter in the back of Don't Tell Me How It Ends, and it's for Zola's story. And so we're a few years into the future with Zola. And so now she's had the baby and she's a single mom, and she's we see where she's at with her company and what's going on there. And so we'll see some of Kaya and Roe and their circumstance, like where they're at in these, like what these past few years have meant for them. But yeah, Zola's really the focus and giving her a moment to find her happily ever after getting to know her, I think, pretty well in this first book with Kaya. It's really fun. It's really, it's totally completely different because Zola's completely different. And so it's a lot more mature and it's a lot like sexier and softer. And I think it's a really fun rediscovery of self and sensuality and independence and freedom. And again, like that, like redefining and rewiring yourself after you have kids and getting to be like, all right, we're not treading water. So what are we doing next? But it's a lot of fun. And that one comes out it's slated now for April 2027.

Alesia Galati 30:28

Sweet. Oh my goodness, I cannot wait. Because I love Zola in this story. Definitely resonated with that older sister energy of dragging your siblings along and just being like, you're gonna get yourself together, whether I help you or not, and I'm definitely gonna be helping you along the way. So let's go.

Adrienne Thurman 30:46

But also realizing that you're still in progress and in process too. Yeah.

Alesia Galati 30:51

It makes me think of recently my sister deactivated her Facebook account, and that was the only way I was connecting, like talking to her. And so I sent her a letter because I didn't, she doesn't have a phone. So I sent her a letter to her address and a card. It was like respectfully, disrespectfully text me, bitch. Yeah. Here's my car. Yeah, I'm dragging you along. I don't care.

Adrienne Thurman 31:16

Yeah, I feel like you got some stories up your sleeve. Um like, and then what happens?

Alesia Galati 31:22

Yep. But yeah, so that older sister energy I definitely vibed with. So excited to hear her story. And she needs soft, she needs sensual, she needs that. So I'm yeah, I'm so happy that she's getting that story for her. So good. Okay, where can people find the book? Buy it, of course, y'all need to go buy it. I did listen to the audiobook. It is fantastic for anyone who is an audiobook lover. Check that out for sure. And then where is your favorite place for people to connect with you on social media and engage with you in that way?

Adrienne Thurman 31:56

I'm like not wildly active anywhere, but I'm on Instagram because I have to be on Instagram. If I if I'm not on it every day, I'm on it every few days, every week, or whatever. So if people are there or tagging me and things or DMing me or whatever, I'm always gonna ultimately get it and get back. And that's the most reliable one and has been for a while now. I'm on threads sometimes, and sometimes I'm not because it's just a lot. Um so Instagram for sure is definitely a good way to get at me. And then also I have my my contact stuff up on the website. You can contact through the form and stuff. So yeah, I'm definitely accessible and I love chatting with readers. And so it's so fun at this part of the process to be like actually able to be like, what do you think of the book? Um so yeah, so I'm really enjoying connecting with readers in that way. So definitely get at me on Instagram.

Alesia Galati 32:43

Awesome. And we'll have links for that in the show notes as well as where to buy your book. Go ahead and grab that. Adrienne, thank you so much for being on. This was an absolute happy blast.

Adrienne Thurman 32:53

Yeah, it was so fun. It was so nice to meet you.