From Indie Author to Romantasy Icon: A Conversation with Carissa Broadbent

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In this special bonus episode of What the Smut Are You Talking About, Cortney sits down with bestselling romantasy author Carissa Broadbent alongside returning guest Larissa for a deep dive into writing, publishing, and the magic behind some of today’s most beloved fantasy romance books.

Known for hit series like Crowns of Nyaxia and The War of Lost Hearts, Carissa shares the real story behind her indie author journey—from posting early stories online to building a loyal readership and becoming one of the biggest voices in romantasy today.

We talk about everything from writing craft and worldbuilding to the pressure of publishing, the reality of being an indie author, and why finishing your first book matters more than making it perfect.

Carissa also gives incredible advice for aspiring authors, opens up about her creative process, and shares the hilarious reality of writing research (yes… including Googling how many severed hands fit in a crate).

If you love romantasy, fantasy romance books, indie author journeys, or behind-the-scenes writing advice, this episode is packed with insight, inspiration, and plenty of laughs.

This podcast description may include affilaite links that will earn the creator a small commission.

You can find Carissa's books here.

Carissa on Instagram

Larissa on Instagram

Transcript

00:00
What's up, Book Nerd? Welcome to a special bonus episode of What This Month Are You Talking About podcast. My name is Courtney and today I want to welcome back Larissa. Welcome back! Thank you, Courtney. I appreciate being here and I'm very excited for our other special guest today. Well, last time you were on, you know, we deep dove into six scorched roses. I think it was what, last year? Yeah, yeah. 2025, I'm pretty sure. We are  having the pleasure of talking to

00:29
I'm so excited. I am stoked and I told my husband recently I'm like  I have to get all of my fangirling out  right now so that when I actually have to talk to her I can  be a normal human. You know we've been trying to get this interview scheduled and every time I get sick and I shit you not.

00:50
I'm sick again and know earlier you said you weren't feeling well and I'm like, oh well, we're pushing through, we're doing this.  Yeah, there's no way I'm going to miss it. I don't care if I have to take  all of the medication. I am sitting down with Courtney. I'm talking to one of my favorite authors. There is no way that I am missing this. It's not happening. Yes. We are definitely faking it until we make it today because it's happening, finally.  Yes.  And she is, you know, she's brilliant.

01:18
And from everything that I've heard about her, she's a lovely person, so I'm sure she will give us grace.  We're just going to sound very manly today.  That's fine. Well, Larissa, what have you been up to since we chatted last? Oh my gosh, so much.  I officially got my developmental editing LLC up and off the ground. I have clients every month. And of course, I am still working on my own projects. My second book.

01:46
A Realm of Trials and Fury is actually coming out this March, so I am ridiculously excited.  And literally before I hopped on this call with you, I got my  rough copy  of the cover art,  and I'm drooling because it is beautiful. And I'm just so excited. And you have an audio deal coming, right? Like you have an audio, am I imagining Oh, you are right. You are right. Yes. My first book, A Realm of Lies and Power, is being narrated by the

02:16
Wonderful Tiffany. Oh my gosh, I always  butcher her last name. So Tiffany, if you hear this, I'm so sorry,  but um Van Landingham, I believe, something like that. I don't know. It's so hard when you read something and you don't ever actually hear it. um So apologies Tiffany, if you listen to this and I've butchered your name,  but she does such  a good job.

02:40
I know a lot of people really love dual narration right now and I'll be transparent as an indie author, that is just insanely expensive. But  Tiffany's voice for my  main character, morally gray assassin Renwick is so good. I texted her not too long ago and I was like, can you not get me hot and bothered when I know it's you  doing the narration?  Which, I mean.

03:06
She also thought was super funny, but I was like, I'm like, you sound like the perfect combination of Geralt of Rivia  and  oh my gosh, Josh from Lights Out, his audio book. She does like a combo of what I imagine they sound like. And it's so good. So good.

03:28
certain narrators that do opposite sex voices

03:40
duet just because some

03:44
They just get like overstimulated because there's so much going on. But I mean, I still enjoy it. I will listen.

03:52
need a break  and so I'm really excited to

03:57
Thank you. This is my first like recording of the year, like back at it.  Um, I'm bringing in like a permanent cohost. I'm so excited. Her name is Mary. We just announced that she's going to be, you know, my cohost. I'm really excited to get her up and going.  Um, and I'm so looking forward to see what, what this year is going to bring to the podcast.

04:20
I'm just, I'm so excited. Lots of new things coming and happening. Yeah, I mean, and what a great start. So you are, of course, you know, you're getting your new co-host, Mary. I've been watching your posts. It's been lovely to see your podcast grow.  And what a banging start with us having Carissa on with us today. I know.

04:41
Y'all's names are so close. was like, I know I'm

04:47
I'm going to call someone  Clarissa. Do it. Do it.

04:56
That is okay.  I would, I think I told you when we talked about her novella, ah well, I know she has more novellas now, but Six Scorched Roses, I told you like she is, when it comes to craft and how she tells stories, she is like my absolute idol. I strive to write like her. ah Like she can tell us who a character is in one sentence. And we're like, oh, I know exactly how this person is going to fit into the story. And what a skill to have.

05:27
she's she's working on her  re-releasing the War of Lost Hearts  and which I haven't got through the whole series yet but  I'm still on book  one which is Daughter of No Worlds  but it's like  I just get like so absorbed into it and I know like because I don't do much like physical reading ah

05:51
but in this i just like get so like absorbed into it and my husband's like cortney cortney cortney  and i'm like i am so sorry i'm reading like me alone  yeah absolutely i mean  she has this way of building her worlds so  fluidly  and like so in my experience some of the risk with reading fantasy and romantasy like she writes is sometimes

06:18
and don't think authors do it on purpose, but they will have this immense world building that they feel the need to put on the first page, pretty much, like they give you all of the information at once. And I feel like Carissa is so good at interspersing it through her entire project so that, for one, you don't get overwhelmed and like, okay, this is too much for me, I have to close the book. And second, it's an entirely immersive experience the entire time. When I read...

06:47
put myself in the mind of the character. And like you said, her world building is so  amazing.

06:56
just like easily see it like it's like I'm there  and it is so crazy. Yeah, yeah. It's  it's the way that she puts her sentences together. It's the way she uses dialogue effectively to also tell you something about the world. And it's so fun because she  uses both the world and the characters to say things about each other.  So in her dialogue, she will then tell us something about the world in a way that is so natural.

07:24
then she will use the world to show us  a struggle of the character  or maybe a strength that they have. And she will continue to do that for the entire book.  I am so excited to get her input  and um just hear some of her little tips and tricks. right. Well,  as we mentioned earlier, we have the amazing Carissa Broadbent joining us today. Welcome, Carissa. Thanks so much for having me.

07:50
Yes, we are so excited. Before we get started, will you tell us a little bit about yourself? Oh boy, you know, I feel like I should be prepared for this question because it's like  the basic one, right? So my name is Carissa Broadbent  and I write what I describe as books with magic and kissing.  I am most known for the Crowns of Niaxia series and the War of Lost Hearts series  and that's kind of like the most interesting thing about me, to be honest.

08:17
What made you decide to write your first book? So I wrote a lot when I was young, middle school age, which I'm not sure how old you ladies are. I am 33, which meant that I grew up in the golden age of the internet. Now, it's like there are five websites that own everything and they're all evil in some way. Back then, was like, remember when there were websites? Are you guys old enough to remember when there were websites? Yeah.

08:47
I'm 37. And 30. So yes. Okay, so you guys are like in the same gender or vicinity. Okay, so back in like, I don't know, I was like middle school age, this would be like, you know, 2006, 2007 type realm was like, there were like, everyone was like making their own little like GeoCities websites and shit. And like, I loved this. And I wrote so much like on

09:13
you know, forums, like there used to be forums.  I feel like such an old person when I talk to like young, you know, like Gen Z, like people in their twenties who don't remember like life before Facebook existed. And I'm like, you guys, you don't understand, like there used to be forums. And they're like, oh, like Reddit? And I'm like, no, no, you don't understand.  Like we had our own little like nerdy websites that we like,  that was just ours, you know?  So I used to write so much like on these. I was a member of like, uh

09:41
like a video game design forum and I used to like post chapter by chapter like books, you know, on there. And I was like 12, like 13 or 12 years old. And actually I wrote an early version of Daughter of No World. It's like what eventually became Daughter of No World, it's like many years later on that forum when I was like 12. Obviously very different, like it was just.

10:05
certain concepts that stuck with me. But so I was really into writing at that time. And then I stopped, you know, when school got more intense and stuff like that. And then after I graduated from college, I was working in like the corporate world. And I had this moment that I think a lot of people have when they're like 23, 24, where they're like, oh, this is it forever, you know? And like, you're like, oh shit, I gotta write a book. Like I gotta do something else.

10:32
And that's when I wrote my first very bad book, like my first real novel.  And I started self publishing and wrote a few books and eventually got to a point where I wrote Daughter of No Worlds. And then things kind of started to take off from there. so amazing. And I love how like you bring up like the old days of the internet because I was  trying to explain to one of my nieces.

10:56
that like we had to wait for this little disk, like AOL disk to come in the mail for us to like that like gave you hours  to  be online.  And she's like, what?  It was so different, you know, and like I feel I actually missed, I missed the AOL disk by just like a couple of years, you know, but I do remember like when I first like our first family computer, like remember like

11:23
At least in my household, like this was very common among my friends. Like people had like the family computer and it was like in like the kitchen or like in like the living room or something. Yep. Like before laptops were a thing. You had one? Yeah. Yeah. Ours was in the living room. Yeah. Right. I remember going to like my friend's houses and we'd be like on the family computer, like going, watching like Strong Bad. Like, do you remember Strong Bad? I do not know what that is. don't think. No, tell us about this.

11:53
Oh my god, you this is like so stupid. You guys might have missed it. Like, Larissa, you might be like two years too young and Courtney, you're probably like two years too old.  Like I probably caught it like exactly. It's like, remember when like flash animated  stuff was like really popular in like the mid aughts? So it was like animated like it was cartoons.

12:18
And it was like this character called Strongbad and it had like this whole cast of like, and they were like comedy, like short videos. And he used to do like answering emails, you know, so like people would write in, I actually don't know if like they actually took emails that people sent. People would write in and then like this cartoon character would like answer the emails. And we thought it was just like the funniest shit in the world. Like we  loved it. So we'd be like out there listening to like this, you know, these like funny. uh

12:47
I should listen to them again and be like, is this actually funny or was I just 12? You know? that should be a series. You know, you guys could do like a spin-off there. Like, was this funny or were we just 12 and stupid?

13:02
Maybe I'm still 12 and stupid because there are definitely things that I should not think are funny. And I'm like, I don't know if it's just because. So I also have a two and a half year old and I'll be watching like, so his favorite cartoon right now is Bluey. He's obsessed. Oh yes. Yep. I'm like, I don't know if I should actually be enjoying this as much as I do,  but they crack me up and it's so relatable.  So maybe I am just two years old  inside. I love Bluey. I think everyone can enjoy it.

13:32
I mean there are times when like  one time my son who is also two and a half years old was like He's not like the biggest Bluey fan, but he knows that I like it that it's like my favorite of the like toddler cartoons Oh, so one time he was like, you know when he got his like Saturday morning TV time. He was like Mommy  we can watch Bluey for you So cute oh

13:59
Adorable. Yes, we're huge Bluey fans over here, but mine are like growing out of that stage and now it's like all Paw Patrol and then my daughter is obsessed with the movie The Secret Life of Pets, but she, the main like dog in that movie is called Max. So she's like, I'll watch Max. Mom, Max, Max. I'm like, if I have to listen to this movie one more time, I'm going to lose my mind. Oh yeah.

14:27
Oh my god, so cute. Well, if I was to look at your search history right now, what would be the weirdest thing that I would find? Oh my god.  Oh, that's a great question. uh Um, okay, so I'm not, I haven't Googled anything too weird lately because I'm kind of in like, you know, we go through like phases, you know, in which you're, you're drafting a book, you're editing a book.

14:55
You know, like most of my really weird searches come when I'm drafting a book and I'm not really in the heart of drafting right now.  But I would say the weirdest thing I ever,  the weirdest thing I ever Googled, and this is going to be kind of an oomph moment for anyone who knows what this is referencing. One time I was doing a lot of math to try to figure out how many severed hands would fit in like a three foot by three foot crate.  And.

15:24
I was like, it was like the fourth of July weekend or something. So I remember I went to like my friend's house next to the pool. This was before I had kids. So I got to do things like that.  And  I was talking to them about like,  guys, how many hands do you think, you know, especially if you factor in some are like children hands, like some are small, like there's this variation in size of hands. And then I had to like, make the crate smaller because it turned out it was like a lot of hands, you know, like  that's too many hands. uh

15:52
I would say that was probably like my wildest search history period probably. am just like picturing the morbid nature of this Google search and then the  visual that would probably be in your head when you realize how many hands it would need to be.  Yeah,  it was a lot of hands. turned out you can fit a lot of hands in a crate. So I had to like scale it down because otherwise it was too many.  But yeah, that was uh a morbid.

16:20
That was a morbid one. Well, I am curious in regards to  like your indie author career before, because this, so Daughter of No World in particular, right? These were indie books  first. Am I correct? Yeah, all of my books were indie books first. mean, not all. uh all of the Niaxia books. So like starting with The Songbird and The Heart of Stone,  that one  was always published in partnership with my publisher, but like all of my books before that.

16:50
were indie first. That is phenomenal. So I'm an indie author  and stories like yours always give me so much hope. So  I am curious what you would say to an indie author like me or anyone else who sometimes feels like this industry is just impossible to succeed in. What advice would you give us? Oh my gosh. Okay. So stop me if I get too  into the weeds here because I could talk about this topic forever. It is a road question, so I get it.

17:18
Yeah, yeah, I feel very passionate about it. So the first thing I'd say to like, to an indie author like you, someone who is indie, is that you should not, first of all, it's a, it's such a cliche, but it's a marathon, not a sprint. And I think a lot of indie authors, a lot of authors in general don't realize how much of a benefit that is to the indie author career, that you have the opportunity to do that. And what I mean by that is, okay, in traditional publishing.

17:46
Right? You are reliant upon another entity for so much of your career.  And a lot of your career is about making sure that not only are the readers happy with your book, but these entities, meaning your publisher,  are also happy with your book. And a debut in traditional publishing, like your very first book, is a very big deal because publishers will continue to look at the performance of that book  and  judge,  you know,

18:16
how much money they're going to give you for the second book if they're going to publish the second book at all.  This is a real problem um among traditionally published authors where if your debut is a slow burn or doesn't take off from week one, that really hinders the rest of your career.  And in the indie world, it's purely the opposite. Meaning when I was coming up in indie publishing, I think this attitude has changed a little bit.

18:45
for the better, I think, because it was very extreme in the opposite direction when I was coming up. There was this attitude of like the path to financial stability being a lot of books that are released very frequently, right? So in the indie world, like, I'm talking like 2017, 2018, it was like, people would tell you, don't even bother marketing until you have three books out in a series, you know, like it was the opposite extreme. But I kind of think

19:14
that like, personally, the indie route has been a lot better for my mental health. Like I always look at my traditionally published friends and I think like, man, if I debuted traditional, I would be a wreck. Like it's just so much stress on so many things you cannot control. Whereas when you're indie, there are obviously lots of stressful things, right? But like my career grew very slowly. I had three books that I self-published before Daughter of No Worlds came out that sold very little.

19:44
frankly weren't very good books. Even Daughter of No Worlds, for the first, like, I'd say year or two that those books were out, I mean, they did not sell very much. Like, that first year, there were many weeks or months when, like, I sold nothing. So through a traditional publisher, they would have looked at that and been like, wow, that's a crash and burn, you know? Like, that's not a successful book. But ultimately, I was able to quit my job because...

20:10
of this book. It built a readership very slowly. So I think that's a huge benefit to being indie. You just have so much more control over your career. I think it's a lot easier to make a living as like a mid-list author, you know, like an author that doesn't really have like name recognition, but has like a dedicated small readership. If you are patient and persistent and really like make sure to go out your way to understand the market and understand your genre and your craft, there is definitely a path to like

20:38
a low and slow growth, you know? And I feel like that's the most stable way to build a career in this business. Thank you so much for sharing that. And again, you give me so much hope, especially like watching your journey as an author. You mentioned something just now on top of like the slow growth that can be fundamental and just like persistence and understanding market.  But you mentioned craft.  And  one of the things that Courtney and I talked about when I was on talking about your books last time,

21:08
was how I aspire to write like you because your craft is  absolutely stunning.  I love the way you write.  Truly, like, Carissa, I was telling Courtney, I can read one sentence  and know exactly  what role a character is gonna play or at least what their character archetype is from one sentence  when you write it. Like, that is such a skill.  I could never. um

21:37
But I'm curious, like for one, what comes first for you in  your ideation, characters, plot, world, and then  like how do you intersperse that with clearly your knowledge in craft? What a big question. First of all, thank you for stroking my ego. That's really kind.  And that's such high praise.

22:00
My craft is very important to me. So that means a lot. That's it's a big, it's a big question. And I'm also like going through,  in case you guys wonder if this ever goes away, uh I'm going through kind of like a crisis right now because like,  I hate the beginnings of projects. Like I hate them. It's very stressful for me. I know a lot of authors who love this part because it's like, you're brainstorming and you're like coming up with ideas.

22:27
I fucking hate coming up with ideas. That is like my  least favorite part. I think it's because you can't force yourself to come up with ideas.  You can like force yourself to write a thousand words or to edit a chapter, but you can't like make yourself come up with ideas. I think usually when I'm like at the beginning of a very new project, meaning like a new series, like something really fresh. And I did do this pretty recently because I was doing the proposal for my next series, like after the Crowns of Naxia. Usually it's like, there will just be like a concept.

22:56
or like a question that is like very interesting to me. And it'll be something like really vague,  know, like Daughter of No Worlds, for example, like that was a book of my heart. You know, that was a book that I wrote because, solely because I wanted to, and it was a very unique writing experience for that reason. uh It was like, I was struggling a lot with the state of the world. Unfortunately, it got worse, which is a bummer.  But uh I was struggling a lot with the state of the world.

23:25
And I was thinking about like, kind of struggling with this question of like, is it quote unquote better,  you know, to be a part  of a flawed system, like a morally flawed system in the hopes of trying to do, you know, enact greater good basically, or is it quote unquote better to like remove yourself from that system, but it means that you can't affect anything, right? Because you're like not a part of anything.

23:50
I'm like, that was a really big question that was kind of cool. I felt like a lot of people were asking that question, you know, about politics, about, you know, the world at that time. And still now, to be honest, and I was struggling with that question. And that's kind of like where the characters of Tisana and Max came from, because they are embodying  both of those philosophies, right? And both of them are correct, you know, in different ways. And both of them are wrong in different ways.

24:17
So sometimes it'll be something philosophical like that, like, oh, I want to explore this concept that I myself am grappling with. And then sometimes it'll be like, man, vampires are cool. Like I'd love to do something like that.  And then like the big philosophical questions come after. I will say I do try to come up with the theme of a book. Like when I'm sitting down to outline it, I come up with the theme first. And sometimes it'll change. But I feel like it's always important for me to know  kind of like what I'm trying to explore thematically.

24:46
because the main couple of a romance will usually be positioned around that issue in like different ways, you know? So that's always very important for me. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. It is great advice and uh an excellent insight into your writing process. So thank you. I feel like every author, no matter how experienced they are, no matter how many books they've written, I have yet to meet a single author that does not crash out at least once.

25:15
every single book, being like, oh my god, I don't know how to write a book.  And I also have yet to meet an author who doesn't question their process, like basically every book, you know? Like,  I have written books  more or less the same way for like 12 books now. And yet every time I sit down to write a new one, I'm like, there must be a better way to do this, you know? Like, I'm always like, oh, maybe I should do what she does or what he does, because clearly, like, it's better than what I do. And like,

25:44
It always ends up to the same process, but we're always, think  nobody feels truly secure in their process.  have to know. ah Do you follow up with like pulp culture? Like, you,  do you like watch reality TV, that kind of thing? I don't think I've ever watched a reality TV show. um But I do watch TV. I just don't, I'm not, I'm not a reality TV person, but I do try to keep up somewhat when I can. No judgment. I ask because like,

26:13
Traders is on right now. I'm a huge Traders fan. And last season, the world got like reintroduced to like Dylan Efron and huge fan of him. And he has like spoken about your books online before. So like, have you seen any of those or do you even know who I'm talking about? Yes, I do. I, I know this because he did a, um, Dancing with the Stars.

26:42
routine based, inspired partly by my books, inspired by um Slaying the Vampire Conqueror.  Um, this most, yeah. So when I say I don't watch  reality TV, I did watch a single episode of Dancing with the Stars because he did a routine that was based, that was inspired by my book, which was like,  that was like insane to me. That was definitely like, there are some moments in my career that stand out to me as like,

27:10
I can't believe that this is my life.  I was just completely blown away by that. is how you know you make it in life,  Oh my god, it was just wild.  It  was just wild. It was so weird.  I cannot even imagine. He's um just a lovely person from, which I don't know him personally, but from what I've seen on TV.

27:38
That is so Yes, he seems lovely. He has a great taste in books, I would say, as a totally unbiased uh party. uh But yeah, it totally made my life.  I was just so excited by this. It was like the Halloween episode, I think. So it was like everyone was doing something kind of thematic, you know? And  it was amazing. And the routine was amazing. Like these people are so talented. It's just insane.

28:05
If you could go back in time and relive the experience of publishing your first book, what, if anything, would you do differently? I don't think I would do anything differently. I don't think so because I think that the mistakes that I made were kind of integral to me getting where I am today. So I'm not someone who has like regrets. Like I always feel this way in life as well. Like in general, I kind of feel like, you know, the past is the past. You know, we did what we did.

28:35
I think if I could tell myself  one thing, it would just be to  stress less. I can be kind of an anxious person and I put a lot of pressure on myself. I expect myself to be a high achiever, basically. I expect myself to be a very productive person. And I put a lot of pressure on myself with deadlines and stuff. Even when was like freaking 10 people were reading my books, it was like,  I don't know why I didn't want to let down these 10 people and delay a book for a month or so.

29:04
So I guess that would be the main thing that I think I would tell my past self.  in general, things panned out. So I'm not gonna go back in time and mess with the butterfly effect, you know?  I mean, and clearly your journey has gotten you to some amazing places.  I know. I'm not gonna complain about anything. You know, all those days that, you know, uh zero sales and like,  you know, long nights and getting up at 4 a.m. and whatever, you know? Like, I guess it panned out, so.

29:34
I'm not gonna mess with it. Wonderful. I do have a question. I guess it's kind of a two-parter, but  you mentioned a little bit um about like how every  writer  is  going to experience a time in their drafting process or while they're working on a book where  they're just feeling resistance, like, oh my gosh, I don't know how to write a book anymore. What do you do  when that happens? And then...

30:00
Are there any like writing tools or strategies that you use  that help you push through it? I just bitch and moan. I just whine and cry.  I  complain constantly  to everyone  and all of my friends hate me. My husband hates me. Everyone hates me because I'm just complaining all the time. And then my husband says, Karissa, you do this every time. And I say, no, this time is different. This time it's actually true.

30:28
I definitely can't write any decent books ever again.  And he's like, uh-huh. Uh-huh.  It's trash. It's all trash. It's all trash. I'm never going to write anything good ever again. And this time it's different. This time it's true. And he was like, uh-huh.  So mostly that's what I do.  I cry and then I just sit down  at my desk and I just keep going because deadlines are deadlines and you can't  stop, you know? So I think

30:58
One thing I always tell people is that even after writing,  you know, 12 or 13 books or however many books I've written at this point, um it never gets easier. Like writing a book does not get easier at all. But  what does get easier is that you understand which parts of resistance are just like part of the thing. Like you have a lot of data to base your understanding of your own process on. So.

31:25
It's not like I'm not gonna feel the, my God, this book sucks. This is the worst book I've ever written. Like, I'm gonna feel it. But  I have the benefit of knowing that I have felt it 13 times before and I have gotten through it. So you just have to know that the only way out is through. I have met a lot of new authors or aspiring authors who  just like, their first book will take them like two years. know, like they're just like, they really struggle to get through their first book.

31:54
And that's why my advice to like very new writers, like  authors who are writing their very first book  is just do the fucking thing. You know, like there is no substitute for just doing the thing because learning how to finish a book, learning how to get to the end is a skill all its own. And once you do it one time, you have taught yourself,  Oh, you know, a thousand words, a hundred times is a book. So just do a thousand words, a hundred times. Like,

32:22
Is it going to be a good book necessarily? Like, maybe not, you know, maybe, maybe not. But  don't get yourself, you know, trapped up in all of this advice that's kind of intended for later career authors, you know, about outlining and planning and like editing as you go. Like there's just so much, there's so much advice that it's overwhelming for like a very, very new author. But then that stuff does become important to you, you know, as you progress, as you maybe are trying to do this as a career, the nature of it.

32:50
changes, the nature of the difficulty changes.  And it definitely changes in a big way as you acquire an audience, which is a good problem to have, like you're grateful for that problem, but because you're so grateful for it, there's a lot of pressure involved in it, you know? So it evolves every book. Thank you.

33:08
Karissa, why don't you tell us if you have any book events coming up or places that you would love to maybe see some readers because Courtney does get listeners from everywhere. So  I am actually expecting a child this summer. So I'm like kind of light on the events  right now. I am hoping to be doing a tour not for I unfortunately will not be able to tour for my book that is coming out in August because I will be like two weeks postpartum.

33:35
But yeah, let's not do that. That's  not, um probably not even the virtual events at that time. I'm going to be pretty out of commission. em But I'm hoping that I'll be able to do a tour for the grand finale of the Crowns of Dioxia series, which will be coming after that. So unfortunately, I don't have too many events to plug, but you can always find me around the internet. I hang out  on social media sometimes, and then I also have an amazing, um an assistant who

34:04
has a fan club all her own. swear to God, she's going to be like more famous than me.  Um,  it also helps keep things running.  I don't know. My assistant is Naomi and Naomi has gotten very famous  in the heated rivalry fandom.  Yeah, she makes, um,  she makes like, well, she's a very good graphic designer. She makes wallpapers and stuff. So she, I swear like every event that I have, and honestly, even some of my podcasts, I have people like,

34:33
mentioning Naomi to me in one of the public questions. I always have a running tally where I send to her, like, yep, another event and one more person who I'd ask about you instead of asking about me.  What is,  does Naomi have a bookstagram account? Because if so, I need to follow her.  am  deep in my um heated rivalry.  I haven't watched it yet, which  I'm going to get disowned by my own PA  any minute now because I have not watched it.

35:03
Um, she is French in bookish, like fun on like everything, you know, she's very active on threads and stuff.  Um, but yeah, if you, if you're a heated rivalry fan and you want those,  those sweet, sweet wallpaper, she is your girl. She is totally the girl that crashed out over heated rivalry with  you. I'll also be checking that out. Yeah. So I, in my big girl job, I work in HR, um, but we were in a logistics company, so.

35:33
pretty like laid back.  But one of the girls out on the sales floor,  she,  she wasn't really a big reader. But like one of her friends got her to watch  the show.  And she came to my office a couple weeks ago. And she's like, Courtney, she's like, I know, I probably shouldn't be talking about this. But she's like, do you watch this? And I'm like, girl, yes.  And I was like, have you read the book? And like, she's like read the book like six times now. Like she when I say obsessed, she's obsessed. I'm gonna have to give her

36:02
um Naomi's  account to go look at because  she is so funny. I love her to death. But um so we talk about he derives really at least once or twice a week, if not more.  I love that. That's amazing. It's bringing people together. You know, I feel like it was like,  again, I haven't watched it. I know I'll enjoy it once I do. But I feel like every once in a while you have these like  big

36:30
kind of fandom events that just like bring people together in like a way that's kind of wholesome, you know? Like, it's just nice. It's nice for like a bunch of people to like something, you know? 2026 needed this show, okay? Yes, yes. And it's still early. It's very early. So I'm manifesting that we have something else. You know, I think technically this was the tail end of 2025. So.

36:57
So please to like the entertainment gods out there, like give us something that just like brings people together to crash out over like people falling in love or something. Like that sounds great. Bring us something else. Well, on that note, what would you say to say your readers or your fandom and your community? Because I think you have also done that. You have created a space for people to love love stories.

37:23
What did you say earlier, magic and kissing? Oh, that's very surreal to even think about. I'm just grateful. Like, thanks for being along for the ride. I'm very grateful that my readers have stuck with me, even when,  you know,  like it's very important. I never want to write the same book twice. You know, I feel very, very strongly about that. And like, especially now that I have name recognition and, know, I'm financially secure and everything, I know that I have the ability to like...

37:52
branch out and do interesting things and take things in interesting directions. And I appreciate that so many of my readers have been on board with that. I know it's a big jump from like vampire hunger games to like, we're going to the underworld, here's some blood rivers and stuff.  I know this is like a big leap. So I'm very grateful to my readers uh for sticking with me  and I am really excited. I'm doing past pages right now for

38:20
The Lion and the Deathless Dark and past pages are when they send you like a PDF file of the whole book and it's like laid out, you know, like as it looks  as a book. And that's when they do like the proofreading and like when you get to go through it like one last time and kind of change like, oops, I accidentally used the word like backward three times in this paragraph. Maybe we should take one of those out, you know, like little stuff like that. So it really gives you an opportunity to like read the whole book.  And I...

38:49
really love this book. It might be my favorite book I've ever written. ah So I hope that people really like it when it's here in August. Well, Larissa, before we go, go ahead and tell our listeners where they can find you at. Wonderful. You can find me a couple of different places.  So my author website  is  www.FictionAllyLarissa.com.

39:14
You can of course find information about my books there. I try to keep it posted about events that I have coming up, including my book tour, which will be starting on March 28th of 2026, is the official release of A Realm of Trials and Fury, the second book in my Arcane Realm Chronicles, which  I really love the way Carissa put it today.  I am all about magic and kissing. So if you like magic and kissing, you should absolutely.

39:43
come find out more about my books. And then on Instagram, which I'm probably the most active on as far as social platforms, you can find me at author Larissa writes, like writing like a pen, writes. Love that.  And can I go ahead and get a round of applause for not calling anyone Clarissa? You deserve an applause for that.

40:09
Well, um, Carissa had a jump off, but you can find her on social media, Carissa Broadbent Books. Um, and that's also her website, carissabroadbentbooks.com.  Um, and as always, you can find me hanging out over on Instagram at What the Smut Podcast.  We are doing lots of rebranding. So just,  just hang out, stay, stay with us. We,  um, are transitioning.

40:40
to where I have a full time co-host  and all the fun things will be happening. have lots of cool guests  coming up in the near future and we will be doing an air date really soon. So  just stay with us  and we will catch you guys next time.