BEST MOMENTS OF SEASON ONE | Booked & Busy w/ Olivia Ponton

Season one of Booked & Busy is a wrap, but we honestly could not let it go by without a best moments compilation 🎀📖

From my best friend Emma Brooks talking about the wretched Korea Town apartment that started it all, to Rebecca Serle revealing the psychic prophecy that literally inspired In Five Years...this season was one for the books ;))

We talked about changing dreams, crying in ubers, writing on kitchen floors covered in index cards, friendship soulmates, manifestation, what the 20s are actually for, and why a crush is just a lack of information (life changing revelation, by the way).

If you're new here, this is your sign to go back and watch every episode, and if you've been here from the start...thank you!!! genuinely. this podcast started because i kept DMing authors with questions and someone told me to just start a show and now here we are 🥹🪽

big things coming soon 💝

xoxo,
Olivia

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Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Hi angels, hi angels, hi angels. It is Olivia Ponton and welcome back to another episode of Book Tim Busy. Booked Tim Busy. Booked and Busy. Because sometimes when I read like the he hates everyone but her, I'm like, that's just never gonna happen in my life.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Well, and then like, do you would you really want him coming to Thanksgiving dinner with your whole family if he's gonna be horrible to your mom and and your uncle and your little brother and like and you just it's okay, guys. He really loves me. We're having to be like, wait, I promise he's a good guy. I promise. I promise it is he's really great to me behind closed doors. Behind closed doors.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

I see your content, like I know what content I share. It is me, and so you are allowing people into your heart, your soul, but how do you kind of gauge that of you know, sharing all of yourself versus just pieces of yourself? I was literally just on a panel at Harvard.

SPEAKER_05 0:55

Oh wow, you have to do it.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

I saw that you congratulate you.

SPEAKER_05 0:58

I saw that was a question that a lot of people were asking me. Truly, I feel like it's finding a balance and having the boundaries of like, okay, I'm gonna share this part of my life, but these three or four things in my life, these are for me. These are what I'm gonna keep, you know, and I'm never gonna share with anyone else besides like the people in my immediate life.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

I think people would probably be surprised to know that I don't listen to audiobooks. See, there we go. Because um Most of them are probably in your voice. So there's that. I don't listen to myself, so it's what could possibly be left. No, it's um no. I mean, I do it for professional reasons. Um and I also have so much narrative in my head at any given time, and I can't possibly have yet another voice in my head.

SPEAKER_05 1:38

Do you listen to music then?

SPEAKER_03 1:39

I do, and even sometimes I can't listen to music with lyrics. Like if it's been a big word day.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Wait, I get that. I'm like, I'd like some instrumental, please. It was 2021 when we were living together. That that's wretched apartment. Yes. That was yeah, a scary, scary place. We were living together, and you came home with a humongous book. It was Crave by Tracy Wolf. And I don't know, you just really got into it, like in a very obsessive fashion. I read it when I had COVID in New York City, so I didn't, I was locked in my apartment for two weeks. I couldn't tell you what in my brain was like, let's pick up this 500-page book and like let me just try reading it. I did, like off-rip, like had did not read anything else prior to that. You loved it so much and it made me want to love something that much.

SPEAKER_06 2:31

I have never been a big surfer, but I grew up in Hawaii. Like I went to the kind of high school where in the morning everybody had their surfboards in the back of their pickup trucks and we're like toweling off from the beach. Like, that's just like what you did at 5 a.m. before school. I did a little, I did a little bit, but like I never really took to it. Why? I don't know. It's so crazy to me. I think it was honestly like a born New Yorker, just like trapped in the body of somebody who was like living, like it's cosplaying somebody who lived in Hawaii. But I feel like Hawaii and Malibu have a lot in common in terms of like when you live in a place where the water is so like omnipresent, I think it really establishes a lot about what the culture is. And I think people are like really drawn back to the water. Like, I think people who are who grew up surfing in particular, like want to return to the place where they can be in conversation with the water in that way.

SPEAKER_05 3:18

What inspired this book? And did you just wake up on a random Tuesday and decide to like write the most gut-wrenching piece of literature that I've read?

SPEAKER_01 3:26

You know, it was one of those things that the story actually came all together in a college class. And uh, she posed a really interesting question, which was if you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be and make a quote? And I was like, okay, that's not gonna dig up childhood trauma at all. And so the idea started coming from this idea of like, you know, when you think about all the things that you wish you would have done or you wish you would have said, I really wanted to tell my younger self, you know, speak now, act now, love now, because tomorrow isn't forever. And so that was kind of the quote that started the short story. And then my professor said, Your characters have more to say.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

And they told me, like, this book really got me through a hard time in my life. And at that moment, I was like, okay, that's it. Like, I'm only gonna think about this one person, not, you know, a bunch of people who are waiting for the book. There's just this one person who I had a very human connection with, and it unlocked something.

SPEAKER_03 4:16

But I also was dealing with the grief of losing what you thought your life was going to be about. I had been an actor my entire life. I really thought that's what I was going to do, and I was coming up against, but is this what I want to do? And it's that moment that happens when you realize your dreams change.

SPEAKER_05 4:31

I'm quite literally going through that right now. Okay. So it's really crazy that you're saying that because dealing with grief in the plans that you have for yourself is such a different I mean, you're losing a part of yourself. I was like, is that really what I want, or is that just something that I've thought I wanted for the past like 10-ish years, specifically the past like two or three months. I've been like trying to shift that and figure out what I want. And that's honestly why I started busy.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

But good good for you because we tell people never give up on your dreams. But make sure you're checking in with your dreams. There's that saying, you know, that like a crush is just a lack of information. I and by the way, I'm like, yes. And sometimes that's what a dream is. Like everyone can start out saying, I want to be an actor, but then you get into it, and once you have more information and you see what it requires of you and what your life is like, like maybe you don't want to do it anymore. And it's not a problem, it's not a failure to quote unquote give up on that dream. How many hours are you writing a day?

SPEAKER_05 5:27

Um, I would say probably three to four. Okay, see like that manageable. Yes. I was kind of envisioning that people sit sat down and wrote for like 12 hours a day.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

I think some do. Oh. Yeah. And then they write 10,000 words and their book is done in 10 days. I hate them. I'm just kidding. I love you. I'm so impressed by you. I'm secretly really dumb.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

I was so jealous. I was in Columbia with my family for Christmas. Yes. Yeah. And there was, guys, six people in a one-bedroom apartment. Me, my dad, my sister, Abe was a lot. But I didn't really have anything to do. So I read this gut-wrenching book, and it was so cute. It was the love story. And then the ending happened, and I woke everyone up from how loudly I was crying at night. And they were like, What? My mom literally thought like something really traumatic happened to me, and I was like, My book.

SPEAKER_05 6:15

And she's like, Bro, are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_04 6:17

It's like, wait, I want to cry.

SPEAKER_05 6:19

Having that sense of friendship with Danny, like almost kind of made me emotionally sad because I've always craved that friendship that you've had with someone where it's like, no matter where in the world, Danny will always be there for you. And honestly, I think I was just jealous.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Like that at the core of it.

SPEAKER_06 6:35

I think that that's well said. I mean, I think that the friendship love story is very aspirational. And I think that when I wrote it, I was single and my friends were really like my family. And I think in a way that they really can be before people have families. I think part of the like unglamorous reality of that kind of friendship is that inevitably some sacrifices have to be made for like the differing lives that you start to lead, right? Like your lives grow in different directions and some people get married or some people don't, or and it becomes more and more challenging to prioritize each other, which is why I say it's so aspirational because I feel like it it becomes very rare to have friendships like that that are like really so core. I'm I'm very lucky that I do, but I think that they've also changed as we've like started families of our own. The idea of it sounds like really lovely. The practical reality is just not always that way. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something that I even myself find like I long for.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

So I went into my bedroom and I started ripping open boxes to find old journals. So I was like, I need to remember who I was, what was I thinking as a kid. I had an entry about a boy that I was absolutely obsessed with. There is like pages where I had obviously cried because there's dried tears.

SPEAKER_05 7:48

Yeah, I have a lot of journals at home, and every time I go home and I read them, I wish I didn't do that because I started getting really emo, and I just cry, and then my mom has to come in and be like, What's wrong? And I'm like, Oh, I'm reading this like gut-wrenching entry from when I was 12 years old in love with this boy who didn't even know I existed.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Exactly. Like, right, right. In that book, I I learned a lesson. Actually, I didn't learn it this time, I learned it the next time. When my editor says, This name is awfully similar to this other character's name, can you change one? I thought if I said, Okay, change it, I thought they would change it. They thought I would change it. So in this book, there's a scene where a character introduces another character and in the next sentence, another character says, Nice to meet you, different name. And I cannot tell you how many, how many thousands of emails I've gotten over that. Of just people being confused, or what do you mean? Yeah, because I mean it was back to back. And then I did it again. No. In the next book, Things We Hide from the Light, did it again because it was the same thing. They're like, we don't like that this name is so close to this other character's name. Same exact thing happened. I said, go ahead, change it. And then changed it in one place, not the rest. So um, after that, every time they say this name is too close, I say too bad.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Also, something maybe hopefully shocking is that I wear sweatpants every single day. I never do my hair. Like, I don't wear makeup every day. But when my QA, like, oh, how is your hair? I'm like, my hair never looks like this. But it's actually on a Tuesday. Like, you will not care about my hair routine. You'll be like, how do I get my hair not to look like that? You mostly see the glamorous part about this job, and I'm sure like you you feel the same. You don't see the behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_05 9:24

I think I enjoy that also with books, is with the authors. Yes, they'll share different storylines and dialogue and characters, but at the core of it, there's still them as a human. So they bring in aspects. There's a voice. Yeah. And maybe it's a comfort thing. Maybe it's like because I'm scared to risk it. Yeah. Risk it. Because a book is like it's a commitment. It's like 12 hours of your life.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

That's a lot for me. Tell me about it. Whenever I was younger, I really was a big Hunger Games girl. So, like that era of time where like Maze Runner, like Divergent. I was literally gonna ask you. I was like, if you had to pick a movie between Divergent Hunger Games and Maze Runner, which would be your favorite movie? Hunger Games. Really? Catching fire specifically. I was a Hunger Games girl. Like I had the side braid and everything. I was a gale. I was just attracted to Liam Hemsworth whenever I was a kid.

SPEAKER_06 10:15

In Five Years was inspired almost entirely from this medium reading who gave me a psychic prophecy about my love life. Wait, yeah. That's kind of crazy. I was, I think, 24, and she told me who my future husband would be and like what his name was and like how I would meet him and when.

SPEAKER_05 10:33

Was it true?

SPEAKER_06 10:34

Um, yeah, and it was all true, and I ended up meeting him, and then like the timing was just like it was honestly off by a day. It was the craziest thing ever. I ended up thank god it didn't work out because I ended up meeting my husband. Oh, you didn't and oh you know, no, who was like my genuine, like true soulmate. But how crazy, like this prophecy, and then I ends up meeting him, but like it's not, it's him, but it's like it's not him. This idea that even if we can see what's coming, we can't see what it will mean. And that became the entry point of in five years. That you can see, you could maybe see what's coming. Like we have ideas about our lives and like how they're gonna turn out and what we want, and we can build and we can plan, but we can't ever actually know what the things that we want will look like or feel like in our actual life once we're there.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

It's Tampa, I'm like 70% done with the book at this point, and it's the night before I have a big shoot. I'm really excited about this. Again, guys, had no idea this was going to be a gut-wrenching story. I think I had like 30, 40 pages left, and that was when I started connecting the dots. Oh, I posted on my story. I was bawling, like I have not cried over a book like that in ages. But by the end, I was so the best way of saying is emo. I was just like, what is going on? So why? Yeah, why? That's my question. It's like why?

SPEAKER_02 11:47

So I was just in LA and I met with Universal, I met with like the producers of Twilight and all those movies. I have read a script, like part of a script, and it's the thing that I really care about beyond obviously the normal stuff is Isla's dresses. And they're like, Well, you know, like wicked, like we had a great cause, too. And I'm like, oh my god. I think that's right. It is really interesting because there are a few names that like I think my readers would freak out if it was them. Readers will tag me in their casting choices and I send that to the producer. No way. Because they care, yeah. They should. Like nowadays, really, the readers are who are getting people into theater. So I'm so excited. And Summer in the City is also being made into a movie by New Line or Warner Brothers. So weirdly, that has progressed very quickly. Like really, but yes, I think that I'm gonna have a lot to say in the new year.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

No, I don't want to scare you off with too much woo-woo hippie manifestation stuff. Oh, I'm a manifester. Oh, thank god. Okay, all right. So you know with manifestation, like one of the biggest, most important things is to be able to actually feel like you have the thing that you want. Like, oh, you have to speak it into existence.

SPEAKER_05 12:50

Yes. The things that I manifest right now, I'm like, I am going to that, like, there's in no world that that doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Right. So I think I approach writing a little bit like that. I'm like, what is the feeling that I want to deliver here? And I get into that feeling and then I write the scene. I've never heard that's that's I write this and I feel this, and then you read it and you feel the same thing. Like that's that's mind-blowing. Campus life or countryside? Countryside. Really?

SPEAKER_03 13:16

Yeah. At this point in my life, like Oxford? Oh no, I'd be in Oxford. I'd be in Oxford tomorrow. That's my favorite place in the world. But no, for my own like actual life, I don't need to be on a campus anymore. At this point, I just like kids get off my lawn. That's how I feel most of the time.

SPEAKER_04 13:30

I like to listen to like a playlist that matches my book. You're one of those people. Oh my god, when I was reading Throne of Glass, like I was playing dun dun dun dun. Oh yeah. Oh my god. I'm gonna sound like a crazy person. Okay, whatever. They were on the battlefield, and like the set like the perfect song starts playing, and like a scene is playing out in a book. Oh my god, it just feels like so serendipitous. It's so awesome.

SPEAKER_06 13:55

So right now I'm trying to get through a book tour with my husband and my baby daughter, which is insane. Like it seemed like a really good idea to bring them. And now, like halfway into day one, I'm like, that's the last. And then I am working on five film adaptations of film. So, and I'm producing all of them. And then I am, I'm kicking around another idea that will be a a ways down the road. Right now, it's just all about once it again. Yeah, as it should be.

SPEAKER_05 14:21

So I was like, sometimes when I go into podcasts and they ask me what's next, I'm like, I'm just happy I'm here.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

I know. I'm like, I need it here. Yeah. I've tried to be really honest about this because I do think when people see, like, oh, you're publishing like three, four books a year. And I think if you just say, like, oh yeah, it's great, then people who are struggling feel worse. Um, and so it has been really hard. This has been the hardest year of my life. I have had multiple like burnout moments. I've had multiple times where I'm like on tour, just like sobbing on the floor, like in the shower. Like, I can't even talk. And so the fact that I'm doing it so much and every day has become a problem. And so there are moments where I'm not doing well. I get what you're saying, like crying in the back of an Uber. Very real. And right and happens way through. Yeah, and sometimes it just you're just a lot, it's all at once, and people are asking you so many things at once, and you're like, So thank you for whoever Assa I'm fine right now, and I'm lucky that I can get to pull back when I want to, but I mean, I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it. This is my dream come true, and I've wanted to do this since I was a little kid, and every single day I wake up so happy and so grateful, and also just like mystified that I get to do this. I love my job, and it's that love that allows me to be able to write.

SPEAKER_05 15:32

And I'm like, I just know once I hit my 30s, I'm going to be thriving rather than in your 20s where I'm at right now. I feel like everyone's being like, you need to figure out what you want. You need to do that.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

No, no, the 20s are for experimenting. The 20s are you need to try as many things so you know exactly what you like and what you don't like. Don't try to settle down into something, you know, don't try to like pigeonhole yourself into some career or whatever in your 20s. No, try everything.

SPEAKER_05 15:58

Couldn't have said that better.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Thanks. I'm good with words. Yeah.

unknown 16:02

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

You know, my original writing process was so detailed and so organized. I was always so proud of myself for how I would write. And then I wrote this story and blew it all up 100%. I went for the index card method and I had told my parents, oh, don't worry, I'm just gonna lay out this idea in my head. I need this timeline. If the scene doesn't connect the reader to a feeling, then it's not needed. And so as I was writing it, I literally had all these little index cards and I had laid them on my kitchen floor in a line, thinking that I'm gonna be done in a day. It's gonna be totally fine. We can eat dinner. We did not eat dinner for a week. It was a DoorDash moment.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Um tight. There is a huge new character that you have not met that has been mentioned since book one. He is extremely Can we know who? I feel like it would ruin it. So maybe not, maybe not. It is the villain of this book, is someone who you you heard about in book one. And wait, I'm gonna go. Yeah, yeah. It was a huge, huge uh part of the future of the series, like especially Crown Tide. Um, and then I've said this there is the biggest plateau so the entire series right in the middle of Crown Tide. And I think this is like torture.

SPEAKER_04 17:07

I'm like, I need to write now.

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Then the proofreaders get it and they tell me, you don't know how to use commas. I know I don't. Just I don't know how to do that. I would, if it weren't for that editorial team, it would not make sense. These books would not be legible.

SPEAKER_05 17:23

I feel like that is um me with my text messages and emails. I text and I'm like, that didn't make grammatical sense. I didn't spell it right. What is it's good to know that public osler also does that? It makes me feel a little better.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah, I make a lot of mistakes. It's like, is cell phone one word or two? I don't know. I always say my dog one word, is back seat one word or two. How do you spell restaurant? I don't know. There's a y and I one thing that you that I'm gonna do.