Cozy But Not Deadly—Changing Up Genres

Join mystery author Ellie Alexander and The Tech Guy as they dive deep into Ellie's exciting venture into romance writing! In this episode, Ellie reveals her upcoming holiday rom-com duet, one of them featuring beloved characters from her Meg Reed mystery series.

After writing dozens of mysteries, Ellie discovered that switching from plotting murders to plotting meet-cutes presented unexpected challenges. She shares behind-the-scenes stories about unlearning the mystery formula, creating emotional growth arcs instead of red herrings, and bringing back fan-favorite character Meg Reed for a cozy Christmas romance set in beautiful Bend, Oregon.

Plus, hear about their romantic (and slightly disastrous) honeymoon bike adventure down a Hawaiian volcano, discussions of Portland's true beauty beyond media portrayals, and the possibility of turning fictional scavenger hunts into real-life events. Whether you're a cozy mystery fan or romance reader, this episode offers insights into genre-switching, character development, and the art of feel-good storytelling.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Well, hello, hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of Reality Rights Live. I am Author Ellie Alexander, and I'm here with The Tech Guy.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Uh just barely recovered from Blast Science game.

SPEAKER_03 0:20

Oh my goodness. At least you don't know.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Any Penn State fans out there?

unknown 0:25

Woo! Go Docks.

SPEAKER_03 0:30

We are both University of Oregon alums. We met at Oregon. Um in fact, fun fact, we camped out for Rose Bowl tickets, our senior year of college, um, for two nights. We were first in line for Rose Bowl tickets because it was the first time the ducks had been to the Rose Bowl. We camped out in the snow in Eugene. Like I would not do that now, but I'm glad I did back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Yeah, that was what a game. Wow. It was it was really cool.

unknown 1:02

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Yeah, but Joseph, the the Steelers won today, right? So if I remember right, I think I think that was a good thing for you. I know it was a good thing for me, but anyway.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

That balances it out. No, I was gonna say my mom was born in Pennsylvania. Um, and go ducks, Cassandra. Um, my mom was born in Pennsylvania, so she was always a Penn State fan. So I was thinking last night, like she would have been very torn last night. I don't know who she would have rooted for because of course she was ducks vicariously through all of us, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Um, yes, Joseph, that was uh yeah, it was like I I believe if I remember right, and I know I do because I was there and watched it with dismay, but can uh Kajana Carter busted an 80-yard touchdown run right up the middle on the first play of the game. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Well, we were just happy to be there. Let's be real. Like we just couldn't believe that the duck were in the Rose Bowl. So it was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Totally, but yeah, but uh, but if we're gonna talk the Rose Bowl that Penn State won, I mean, we should really talk about the Big Ten championship last year then, right? Because yeah. Oh, I kid, I kid. Uh yeah, yeah, he does say you're welcome. I don't know. All the people who aren't football fans are like, what in the hell is going on right now? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Well, what I will say is last night I think our neighbors probably thought that there was a murder at our house last night because we were screaming so loud. And it's warm still here in California. So we had all the doors and windows opened. So yeah, it was it was a bit of a celebration, you might say. Hey cat. Cheer and welcome. Oh, duck. Cat's a duck too. We have we have a duck contingent here, so bring it on. Um, so one thing that I will say, and then we're gonna get into today's episode where we're gonna talk a lot about romance. But um, the Chet Guy and I were just in Portland and then we were back in Oregon for some book events last week. Uh, we are in full Ashland Mysty Mystery Fest prep. We're at the two-week countdown, I can't believe it. But I would like to say that Portland is not a hillscape. It was gorgeous, it looked beautiful. Um, all my Portland friends are doing just fine. They were out brunching, he had coffee outside, the city looked beautiful, it was sun-kissed with fall. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Barely made it out of there alive. Yeah.

unknown 3:33

Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

We're dodging tanks left and right. It was, yeah, it was it was it was incredible. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Yeah. So um that's been so I mean, I think it's important, and it does um map back to what we're gonna talk about today because Portland was where I started writing cozy. That's where the original Meg Read series took place. Um, Portland is just a fantastic city, and so I'm excited that through my books, hopefully, you get to see that lens. Um, sure, there's a little fiction in terms of, you know, a few bodies, but um, the real Portland is such an inspiration for this series. And Meg's gonna be back in Portland in the upcoming rom-con that we're gonna talk about. Whoa, whoa, I know. Are you ready for this?

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Uh I don't know. This was um, I mean, you'll you'll get into it, but uh, let's just say being in the house while you were writing these was interesting.

SPEAKER_03 4:34

Right. Yeah, yeah. Well, okay, so for any darlings who uh might not be familiar, I've talked about this a little bit, but it is kind of semi-breaking news in that I have not one, but two holiday rom coms coming out in October. And um, I just was doing the math because I was trying to think of how many mysteries, Sherry. I know all the rom com vibes. Um, I was trying to think of how many mysteries I've written up to this point, which I have 41 published mysteries at this stage of my career, but I've actually already written five more because of the way the publishing schedule works out. So having written 46 mysteries, the formula of mystery writing is in my head. And I know that some darlings and some writers that sort of is like nails on a chalkboard if you say formula. But let's face it, at the end of the day, there is a formula. You get to make it your own, but the formula for a mystery is that a sleuth or a detective or whomever stumbles upon a body, finds the body, proceeds to go around said village or town, whether it's Portland or Ashland or Leavenworth or a fictional Redwood Grove, interview suspects, put together all the clues, and then at the end solve the crime and all is right with the world. That's the formula. You can do whatever you want with it, within that. But that is the classic formula of a mystery. Do we all agree on this? Yes. Yes, right? It sounds like why are you quiet now, technically?

SPEAKER_01 6:15

Oh no, I mean it I I I agree that there's a formula. I mean, we say that just by I mean, there's a formula to pretty much every genre, I would say. Um, and that just happens to be, but that that one after 41 plus five, 46 books, that's uh yeah, I can see where that would be ingrained. It would be like learning to unride a bicycle, um, or unlearning to ride a bicycle, I guess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:43

Unlearning how to ride a bicycle, yeah, or riding a bicycle backwards. Okay, so the basic plot of a romance is couple meets, sparks fly, there's some kind of lovely romantic com connection, something pulls them apart, and then they get back together at the end. There's like one, two free beats. Whereas with a mystery, you are plotting out suspects in terms of their secrets, their lies. Um, you need to know these tight timelines of when the murder occurred and where all of the suspects are, what they were doing at the time of the murder. Like, there is so much that goes into plotting. And when I sat down to write my first holiday rom com, I'm like, well, wait a minute. I just they meet, that's it. So like, okay, there's a meet cute. Now what? Oh, okay. They have some kind of tension, great. No, I mean, I'm making it sound much simpler than it is. Um, because to your point, once I started writing them, uh, these two duet duets that are coming out, I found that it's it's really hard to unlearn how to ride a bicycle, to unlearn how to want to heavily, heavily plot and put a body there and like, oh, we gotta put them in danger. No, no, you don't stop.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

Right, right. And I should have come up with a different analogy because truth be known, you are a terrible bicycle rider. So that really doesn't work.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

Terrible. It doesn't work. Yeah, I I've never really learned about being good. I I did think it was funny, but you were ficted out of it.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Well, I know, yeah. That was yeah, I don't I just it was the first thing that came to mind. Maybe I'm already thinking about tomorrow morning's commute. I'm not sure, but um, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Well since we're talking rum plums, we should tell the story of because it's romantic of our honeymoon. We went to Hawaii and we decided it would be fun. I think I decided it would be fun to bike the volcano.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

You booked it at you booked it.

SPEAKER_03 8:43

I'm pretty sure I booked it.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah. Yeah. Um, so you know, you gotta be up there early. So you got you gotta you gotta get up at like 3:30, 4 o'clock, something like that. It was it was super early. We got up, we met the tour, which was like a van with you know, like 12 bikes on the back. They drive us all the way up to the top of the volcano, all the way up, and and it's just this beautiful, like wide sweeping turns and everything. There's no like it's you're not riding on the edge like you're gonna fall over the cliff and fall 500 feet to your death. It's like if you were to go off the road, you would just roll gently down the hill. Like it's not it's not very steep.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

I beg to dip there.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

It's just a long ways up. Oh yeah. So the idea is you get up there really early and you see the sunrise, and then you bike down, and like about halfway down, there's a small little village, and you stop and you have lunch, and then you get down to the bottom, and the van then picks you up at the parking lot at the bottom at the viewpoint, and they take you back to your hotel. So it's timed. You have, but you've got like I don't know, five hours, something like that. So four or five hours. Like it's timed. And and if you like if you're if you wanted to, you could bomb down the hit the mountain, you could you could make that ride in probably 20 minutes. Um, you know, if you just wanted to fly down the the street. But the idea is, you know, you stop along the way, take pictures, whatever. Um, we didn't even make it to lunch.

unknown 10:24

No.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Like we she, this would have been this is a hallmark romcom right here because we started out and we had barely left the parking lot, and I I was like, like, and all of a sudden she just stops, and I start. I'm I'm like, what happened? And then she's like, oh no, no, no, no, no. And I kid you not, we probably went two, maybe three miles an hour the entire way down the mountain. Like, just it was the slowest, most excruciating thing I've and uh we're we're newly married. Like, I like it was the it was it was amazing. That's true, that's true. It was true.

SPEAKER_02 11:14

It wasn't like I was gonna run them 20 likely, yeah. Oh, we were young.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

Yes, uh, it was it was amazing. Um, that is just a disaster, yeah. But that would make a great scene for a rom-com. Um, that's the kind of thing. But I don't know, did you channel that while you were writing um these two?

SPEAKER_03 11:39

A little bit, a little bit. Um, yeah, and maybe for a future book, I think for sure. Um before we like loop back, uh I'm seeing a lot of like Cherry is saying, I think formula or tropes, she used to think they were a bad thing, but she realizes this is just story structure. It's true because every style of genre has its own structure. Like if you think about a thriller, it's the opposite. It's like we know from the get-go who the killer is, and then the whole book is trying to track them down. It's the exact opposite of a mystery.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Wait a minute. Did you realize for a while? Oh, wait, go ahead. Oh, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:11

No, I was just gonna say, Tish says I didn't realize how complex writing a cozy sounds. It really is. I mean, you have to keep all of that in your head and find a way to embed run herrings and make sure your sleuth is in danger. I mean, there's there's a lot to track. Not necessarily true for a rom-com in terms of plotting. Um, but there's a lot more that you have to track for a rom com. So we'll get back to that. What do you want to derail us with tech?

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Oh, back to back to the Portland uh thing and being a war-torn city and everything. Kat made a comment, which I know is true, having been out to drinks with Kat, um, yes, this is the most dangerous thing in Portland, is her old-fashioned.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

Um, so yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah. Watch out. Dope messed with Kat and her whiskey. Totally. Uh-huh. Um, okay, so um, yes, and Cherry says in the in a mystery, all of the suspects have something to hide. They also all have to have a viable reason to wanting to kill the victim. I mean, the plot just goes on and on and on. Um, so we will go back to the beginning in terms of why I even decided to venture into this space. I do love a good rom-com. I'm a big, I like anything that's in like the Emily Henry vein, Christina Lauren. Like, I really enjoy reading rom coms, especially at the holiday season. Um, you TechGuy, over the years, have bought me a stack of so many cute, cozy Christmas books. Um, it's just, it feels like, oh, you want to read about love. Lily, Dash and Lily. Like, uh, there's so many, just sweet, fun holiday rom coms.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yeah. Yeah, I know, definitely. Um, I I mean, I'm gonna be honest, I've never read one. I've seen several rom-com movies with you. I do, and I do love them. Like Dash and Lily. That was uh actually, uh like I like love that movie, but um, but uh yes, um totally different vibe. So yeah, um, I saw uh Lily said, you know, red herrings are not easy to squeeze in. And that gets me thinking, like, since I haven't I don't really have any experience reading rom coms. Like mysteries have things like red herrings. Um suspects, like I think it was Cherry said, like in a mystery, all the suspects have something to hide. What but you don't have any of that in a rom com. So what what do you what do you do? Like what do you do to keep the what do you do to hold the reader's interest, right? You know, because you've got you've you've spent um many years, like I won't say how many, many years, like um writing things like that and using those vehicles to like keep people turning that page and keep people like guessing, like, oh wait, but you know, and throw in suspicion one way when you want them to look the other way, you know, that that sort of thing. Like, how does that work in a rom-com and and what did you do to figure that out?

SPEAKER_03 15:14

I know. Well, I feel like I owe all the romance writers out there an apology because I thought, oh, this is gonna be a cakewalk. Like, I don't have to do all this button. No, it was so much harder because of all of those things. Maybe if I maybe if I had started out and this was my first book in general, it would be different. But it was that whole thing of having to take myself completely out of mystery headspace, not cozy headspace, because both of these books have all of the same cozy vibes that you find in my mysteries. These are also uh, I hate using the word sweet, but they are they're not spicy as far as the romance goes, right? Like they're in romance that that's probably the other like big factor because you can have something that is like mine where it's it's really a story about like meeting, falling in love, maybe um friends to enemies. You can take all these tropes, right? Finding new love. Um, and you mash those all together in like a beautiful story, hopefully. Um, but then you know, you can go uh much higher on the spice chart too. So things can get really fun and racy depending on where you're at. So my style is still definitely in the cozy being, because that's just what I want to write. Um, so there's that factor. Um, and then there's the emotional arc. Okay, so instead of bodies and suspects and clues and red herrings and these little mini cliffhangers, what are these bigger emotional growth arcs that you're taking these characters on? And how over the course of 300 give or take pages, can you set this up, set them up on a journey to find love, to rekindle love, to fall out of love, you know, whatever, whatever the theme's gonna be. Um, and so for me, with the first book I wrote in this vein, which is actually the second one that's gonna come out, um, I started with three storylines and then found a way to weave them all together. I missed that comment. What did you throw up?

SPEAKER_01 17:22

It was uh, you know, because the comments are always a little delayed, but you were talking about the spice factor and how you know what what you write is not that spicy and everything. And Joseph just said you're not gonna see any Harlequin books from you.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

So sadly, no, no, no Harlequin. Although I have two um great friends in uh Southern Oregon who write a prolific romance and have written for Harlequin for years, so props to them. Um yeah, so the heat factor for mine is if they're warm and cozy, they're just holiday reads. But I during the pandemic, there was this call out to write something along the lines of love actually, with three intertwining stories. Um, but to modernize it. And we have both seen love actually many times, and I love it in theory, but there are some parts where you're like doesn't quite hold up so well 20 years later. Um just a few. Um your boss, like all those things. Um, but like in general, I love that yeah, super gross, right? Yeah, yeah, big issues. Um, so I started with that concept, and again, this was in 2020. So this was this was like December of 2020 that I started writing it. So we had been, you know, deep into lockdowns for what would that have been, like nine months at that point in time. And um, I thought, like, what could we do that would be outside and holiday fun that would be safe and like, you know, we could do social distancing and all the things. So I was toying with this idea of a scavenger hunt. And then I went down this rabbit hole online and found that there were like all these little cute, cozy towns around the US that host holiday scavenger hunts. And I was like, oh my gosh, that would be so fun. We did not end up putting together a scavenger hunt. Although over the years, we've done that for Sky Guy for birthdays, and um, we've always had fun putting a scavenger hunt together, not having to be the ones to do it, but to be on the other side. Um, so I started with that in mind, and I just wrote a whole first draft that is three different love stories um told from the perspective of three women at varying stages of their lives, um, and in varying um with varying needs to find love or to want love. So one is an English teacher whose husband died um a few years ago, and she's just sort of like holds herself in. Another is a young woman who is trying to start her own yes cheese um charcuterie board company. Um, and she's not interested in love at all because she is solely focused on business. And then um, another is a woman in her 40s whose kids have just gone off to college, and um, she's trying to figure out if she and her husband are still in love. Um, so those three key stories are the main points, and then their lives all intersect in Bend, in Cozy Sweet Bend, around a holiday scavenger hunt that takes place. So I wrote this first draft. I didn't know what I was gonna do with it. It sat in my closet for years. And then about a year and a half ago, when I was having a conversation with my uh publisher who brought the Meg Reed series back, they said, Well, could you bring, would you do another Meg? And if you did, would it be a mystery, or maybe it could be a holiday rom-com? And I was like, Well, I kind of already have this holiday rom-com that I started, but it's just sitting there taking up space and collecting dust. And they're like, Okay, well, what if we did those as a duet? And so then from there, I found myself not only having to write and rewrite this story, Clued into Love, that I wrote during the pandemic, but also writing a second rom-com featuring Meg and that entire cast of crew from my OG mysteries. So it was a lot. It was a lot to be trying a new genre and writing two books in that genre and uh figuring it all out as I go.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Well, especially since the second one involved characters that you've already written but in a different genre, right? So that's a that's an interesting um thing that uh you should talk about a little bit. For the um darlings out there and and writers um who might be listening, is you took this cast of characters that were previously in five cozy mysteries, and now they're in a rom-com. And so you you know them really well. But again, going back to the whole red herring and the suspects and the suspicion, like you none none of that was there. So all of a sudden, those characters, even though they're the same, they're different, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:27

Yes, so different. Oh my gosh. One particular scene comes to mind because okay, so for Clude into Love is gonna take place in Bend with this winter Wonderland Scavenger Hunt and these three intersecting stories. Meg's come back, a cozy kind of Christmas, is following that same, sorry, Cherry, formula, and that um it's gonna be three intersecting storylines from the perspective of three different women. So Meg being one of them, her best friend Jill, and her current boss Joanna. Um, so we're gonna get their three perspectives, and all of their plot points are gonna intertwine because they're all in bend for Matt's 30th birthday. So there's this big reunion that's taking place for that original cast. I remember I was writing a scene with Jill, and she's out walking through the lodge, and like the starlight is there, and she's hearing the sound of sleigh bells and horses and feet crunching through the snow. And I quickly start just because it's muscle memory, and then like the hair on the back of her neck and like her heart is racing, and the footsteps are getting closer. And I I literally wrote like three paragraphs, and I was like, Stop! Oh my gosh, supposed to be having this meetup with this cute guy.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Like, yeah, so it's a new scary rom-com by LA Alexander.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

Rom-com.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Oh, I love that you love Meg. It's been so fun, Cassandra, to bring her back and to like get to revisit her years later because I first wrote her when when was that? 2012. So um, it's been a while since uh I spent a lot of time in Meg's head and it's been super fun. I personally really love the idea of these emotional growth arcs with characters and that lens of writing really strong women. So I'm excited about that part. And then of course, there's the sweet little romance that happens in all of them. And um the whole goal is these are meant to make you feel good, like my mysteries. They're supposed to be just pure escapes, but at the end of the book, all is bright with the world again. Uh, there's like a little tiny touch of food in all of them as well, because I can't escape that. And I was chatting with my editor about it, and she's like, nah, just like let's bring on the holiday food too. Why not? It's fine.

unknown 24:54

Right.

SPEAKER_03 24:55

It's all good.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Totally. Well, and there's no like the bend as a setting for the holidays is just amazing. Um for anyone who doesn't know, Bend, Oregon is in central Oregon, and it's it's the high desert. So it's it's like the elevation is is up there and it gets a lot of snow, a lot of snow. Um, and so Ben Bend is an outdoor town. Like outdoor sports are like that. Is what Ben is all about running, mountain biking, like uh whitewater rafting, surfing, um, kayaking, everything you can think of. And then winter comes, and all of those people put all that stuff in the closet and get out their skis and their snowshoes and their sleds and everything. And it's just it's amazing. Um, and I saw, where's it? Oh, yeah. And yes, Cherry, this is true. Bend, Oregon has the world's last blockbuster video. Um, it's still there. It's still there. We drove, we just drove past it. Yeah, we just drove past it again this last week when we were there. So yeah. Um, it's it's amazing. But Bend, not Blockbuster, just to be clear. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Yeah, right. Um yeah, so not only uh did I get to revisit this cast of characters, but also to see how they would have grown and evolved in almost a decade. And so when we first meet Meg in my mysteries, she's this an outdoor adventure reporter that is in way over her head on every assignment. So now we get to see what she's been up to for the last seven years. And the reason that she's in bend is, of course, to celebrate Matt's birthday, but she's also there on assignment for a snow cross race. Um, and I had to think of like, what could she be doing that would be super dangerous and out of her comfort zone and some kind of winter sport that her like editorial push is that she has to try to find a way to make it cozy. Because it's real easy to make like skiing or snowshoeing um cozy. But you're like, how are you gonna take snow cross and make it cozy? So uh that was a fun challenge too.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Yeah, totally. Um so back to the the um Clued Into Love, the the other, the non, the non-Meg one, um, the rom com that's coming out. Talk a little bit about the scavenger hunt because you said that you know you originally thought, hey, we're gonna put on this scavenger hunt and it's you know it's gonna be great. We never made that happen. But something came up while you were doing your book talk in Sun River, Oregon, which for those who don't know is a little resort town south of uh Bend, not like maybe 12 or 14 miles south of Bend. Um, and it's beautiful. It's it's in the middle of the woods, and there's all these cabins, and they have like a little downtown area that's got a bunch of shops and restaurants and bin brewing, which is one of the best uh central Oregon breweries. Um but you had a great conversation that might lead to something pretty fun.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

I did. Well, and what's so fun about Sun River is the the little like um area with the shops and restaurants is called the villages. So, I mean, that's pretty much a dream. And also, um, I love biking in Sun River because it's all flat. You don't have to bike down the hall day now. So Sun River bike trail, my speed for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

There are a couple small hills, but they're very short. And yeah, yeah, yeah, that is true. It's mostly flat, but yeah, it has hundreds of miles of bike trails um that are paved. Um, so you can just yes like ride around and look at the sites and yeah, see the wildlife.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

Cross-country ski.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

Right.

SPEAKER_03 28:52

See the wildlife, absolutely. Uh yeah. So I was chatting about the fact that um it would that I was actually talking about Ashland Mystery Fest and how that came to be. And then um I met someone from Sun River that was like, well, you know, we could actually put on this scavenger hunt here for the holiday season. Um, so I don't know, that could be the next thing uh that comes to life. I love the concept of being able to take anything that I'm writing about and turn it into something in real life that we can all do together in person. Mainly just because I love living in these fictional worlds and getting to see any of that in real life is just pure magic for me.

unknown 29:38

Totally.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

Yeah, she yeah, Sandra, back you up. Uh, we got a couple of questions about the um uh let's see. Um so you talked a little bit about that you know, couldn't get away from food, but Cherry asks, will there be recipes?

SPEAKER_03 29:54

Yes. Okay, so no recipes in the actual books, but I will be sharing some recipes over the course of the next few weeks and into the holidays. So especially include into love, Marissa, who you're gonna get to know, who is um the owner of Yes Cheese. Um, and she's the first character that we meet. She is catering a huge holiday party at the graph mansion. Um, so she has taken all of her food styling and just food skills and put them on display to make these just gorgeous, elaborate displays for this holiday party. So that's really the first scene in the book. And so one of my goals is to recreate that and to um share some recipes that she would have used. Um, and then for Meg, there's just lots of food references. Um, we're gonna meet, we're gonna see Gam and Mom and all of the original cast when Meg flies back to Portland and then she drives out to Ben. So Gam is making cookies. So anyone who's been familiar with that series, you're gonna get little touches of food, but no recipes in the actual books.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

And and just so like all the darlings listening out there know you're not holding back on people. This is a publisher decision, not an author decision about the recipes. Oh, right, yeah, yeah. So yeah. Exactly. It's it's not it's not that you don't want to include them, it's just that this isn't something that you generally do with rom coms. So you they'll just be on your social media and website instead.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

Exactly. Yeah, I can't think of any rom com where I've seen recipes in the back. I don't know. Maybe I should have, maybe we should have done it and like started at Friends, but it's too late because the books, um, uh the covers are coming out this week. I can only share them with you. Uh no. And uh they'll be up for pre-order, and they're both coming out in mid-October. So they're gonna be here so soon, which I cannot wait.

SPEAKER_01 31:47

Okay. Um for the holidays. We got another question from Cherry, actually, also, which is good. I don't know the answer to this, honestly. So it'd be good to hear. Do are is there an order? Do they need to be read in order? Is there an order or there are they like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Keep going. How many can you ask that? Come on.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

I don't know because I I got confused because at first I was like, oh yeah, no, you need to read. No, wait, do you? I don't know. So I I don't I honestly don't know. Normally I know the answers to all these questions because uh you know I've I've been doing this with you for so long, but um, I don't know the answer to this one.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

Yeah, this is so different for me too, because you know, oh, I mean, obviously, my talking point with uh cozy mystery, especially a series, is I always recommend that you start in order, right? Because there's so much backstory, blah, blah, blah. But every mystery can stand alone. As far as rom-coms go, not really. Um, they're a duet in that one you meet one character in a cozy kind of Christmas. So a cozy kind of Christmas is coming out first, clued into love is coming out second. So you meet Marissa briefly in a cozy kind of Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

And just just just to pause, a cozy kind of Christmas is the one that has the characters from the Meg Reed mysteries in it. Right. Okay. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 33:09

Okay, and the reason we did that was um kind of a pun on the fact that like Meg was a cozy mystery, so totally cozy kind of birthday.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

I see what you did there. I see what you did there.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

We can't get away from those puns. So in a cozy kind of Christmas, you briefly meet Marissa, and then in Clued into Love, Marissa is one of the main characters. Uh good. Um but that's as far as it goes, and that's what it normally happens in rom-coms as a genre, that you'll meet some secondary character, and then they become the star of the show for the next book. Because the whole point of romance is that the characters meet, like I said, they meet, they have this spark connection, something pulls them apart, they get back together at the end. That's the arc, right? So it doesn't really work to have those characters, the two lead characters, show up in every single book because that would get pretty old if you're like, okay, we're 12 books in. How many times have they broken up and gotten back together? So um for rom-coms, it's more that you're building these worlds and then some little character, or I'm trying to think of like an example that um might a lot of people might be familiar with. And I'm thinking like Bridgerton comes to mind because it's so popular, where um it's the Bridgerton family. So each book is a different sibling's love story, that kind of thing. So that was a long way to say. No, technically, you can read them in whatever order you want.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. That's good to know. Now it see, now I know. Now I'll be able to answer that question too. Um, Cassandra asked, are you hearing airplanes in the background? Yes, unfortunately. Um to the north, just north of us, is um a Lockheed Martin, uh, an Air Force Base and NASA. So there are a lot of planes and UFOs that go over our house occasionally. So sometimes. And because it's California and it's hot, we have the windows open right now, and it sounds like the Air Force decided to fly a few planes over. So uh for those of you listening to this later and not live, you won't hear those because of my post-production magic.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

So you will take it all out, and this episode aired later this week. Totally. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

They'll be like, what's he talking about airplanes for? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

Well, yeah. We get some space act sometimes. Yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

It's the it's the fun of of live streaming, you know, you never know what's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

You never know. What is exciting though is that today it's gray and overcast, and on our walk this morning, it was sprinkling. It was actual water coming down from the sky.

SPEAKER_01 35:59

It's almost fall, y'all.

SPEAKER_03 36:01

So ready for rain.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:02

Yeah, exactly. Um, yeah, so all in all, it was a great challenge. I'm so glad that I had really collaborative publish publishing partners in this process because that was super helpful. Um, and I think I would do another one. I just don't think that I would go into it feeling quite as like, oh, this seems easy. There are there are just these three little plot points that you have to hit. I would be much more aware and humble about the fact that it is its own beast. And I think that's true for any sort of genre writing that you do. And for any darlings that, you know, are writers or thinking about writing. I also think it's great to dabble into multiple genres. Like for me, it kept things fresh. I'm at a point in my career where I do want challenges. I want to push myself. I want to feel that discomfort and sit it in and go, like, oh, I don't I don't know what to do now. Like, I have to think and I want to build new worlds. So um I think there's really something about stretching yourself and being willing to take chances and try writing something that is not necessarily on your wheelhouse. And what's really fascinating for me is that then when I came back to writing the next cozy after I had done these two rom coms, that felt like a totally different experience too. Like so much of the romance writing influenced what I was doing in the mystery vein. And there really is, there is a lot of crossover just in terms of these are all meant to be feel-good comfort reads at the end of the day, like I said, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Totally. Totally. Um, Lily asks, so tech guy, are you more likely to try a rom-com read? Yeah, definitely. I'll, I'll definitely, I mean, uh there's like I just haven't read any of it. I I'm not opposed to them. I I think the covers for them are all awesome. And in fact, it's very easy to pick out like ones for you. Um, Ellie, for Christmas when uh I'm looking for gifts because I I love the the art, uh, the art style that's used on the covers of most of them. I will definitely be reading for like no question, we'll definitely be reading a cozy kind of Christmas um because um I may or may not be the inspiration for a character in that one. Um it's a carryover from the Meg series. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

I know, and we don't know what's happened with that romance.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

I know, I don't know, I don't know, and I don't know, yeah. Um which is totally different because back when you were writing the Meg series, like I was like, I I read all of them, and and but you're writing too many books, and I'm just not a fast enough reader.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

So right. Well, and this book look was so different in terms of our way that I work with my public team on this too. So yeah, yeah, I know. Um, I'm so excited. I feel fantastic about how they turned out. I love, love all of these characters, all six women. Um, they're just so um juicy and meaty, and they all reflect, I feel like, different phases that we all go through in our own emotional growth arcs and our own love and romance arcs too. You know, that idea of finding love and opening yourself up to love and rekindling, like all of those themes. Um, I I just I had a lot of fun exploring, especially after so many bodies and growing body count in Ashland, you know?

SPEAKER_01 39:42

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Yeah. Um, so the exciting news is that the covers I will be revealing officially on social media this week on Wednesday. If you're listening to this when it airs later in the week, they will already be live. So you can go hunt them down right away.

SPEAKER_01 40:02

Totally. And when do they release? Just so those listening.

SPEAKER_03 40:07

Uh Cozy Kind of Christmas comes out October 13th. And um, Clued into Love comes out a week later.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

Oh wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

So that's that sounds great. Yeah. All right. So one one'll be one will be releasing the week of mystery fest. That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 40:25

One will be releasing the week of mystery fest, and maybe, maybe if the books, but God and goddesses are on my side, we'll have some copies to share there, but I don't know. So we'll have to see.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Whoa. Uh, just one more reason to come to Ashland Mystery Fest, right?

SPEAKER_03 40:43

That's right, that's right. Cool. Uh well, it's always so fun to hang live with you, darlings. Thanks for joining us uh on a Sunday, kind of slightly dreary afternoon here, sending you all the fall vibes and um all of the cozy feels.

SPEAKER_01 41:00

Yeah, definitely. And for those of you, the patrons out there listening, uh, who are gonna join us for the after party in a few minutes, maybe if we're nice cat will mix us all Manhattan's.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

Ooh, okay. I'm here for that. All right, on that note, until next time.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Until next time.