Fall Cozy Energy—A Sneak Peek at Upcoming Books

It's June, darlings, but we are diving headfirst into fall because that's just how publishing works, and also because fall is my favorite season and I refuse to apologize for it.

In this episode, The Tech Guy and I talk about why fall has become such a dominant season in books (genre mashups! cozy everything! readers simply demanding it!), and then I get to do my favorite thing: tell you about what's coming.

First up is A Fall to Remember, releasing September 1st, a sweet, low-spice cozy rom-com set during Half Moon Bay's real (and genuinely massive) pumpkin festival. I'll tell you the whole story behind it, including the viral "accidental influencer" video that helped inspire the premise, and the heroine, Miranda, who never asked to become internet-famous but did anyway. This one will also be my very first book with sprayed edges!

Then there's The Pumpkin Vice Café, book 23 of the Bakeshop Mystery series, releasing September 29th in trade paperback for the first time. Lance is hosting a big event, the event planner doesn't make it to the end of the chapter, and Jules is once again pulled into solving a murder alongside all your favorite Torte regulars. I'm also kicking off a bake-along starting in July, working through a recipe from every single book in the series, leading up to the release.

And I saved one surprise for the end: a third fall book is coming in the Novel Detectives world. A Murder at Midnight releases October 13th and follows Annie and Fletcher as a group of ghost hunters takes over the bookstore for an overnight investigation with, of course, a body to solve along the way.

All three books are available for pre-order now!

Links:

• A Fall to Remember — https://amzn.to/4fTeX4E
• The Pumpkin Vice Café — https://amzn.to/448kldK
• A Murder at Midnight — https://amzn.to/4uNmPsj

🎉 Join me on Patreon for bonus content.

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Transcript

Welcome To Reality Writes

Ellie Alexander 0:05

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Reality Rights. I am author Ellie Alexander, and this is the podcast where we give you a behind-the-scenes look at all things writer-ish, bookish, and whatever else is on our mind. And I am here with the tech guy.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Hello, hello. Uh, we are back for another episode.

Ellie Alexander 0:26

It is technically uh summer almost, but we're gonna do a look ahead into fall. We're gonna talk about fall book trends. We're gonna talk about some books that I have coming up, we're gonna talk about some of the inspiration behind the fall reads that are coming out. And yeah, we're we're just gonna really embrace fall, even though it's June.

Tech Guy 0:46

So not quite Christmas in July, but we'll take fall in June first as a lead up to that, right? Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 0:53

Yeah.

Tech Guy 0:53

Love it.

Why Fall Starts In August

Ellie Alexander 0:54

Well, and the way that fall works with traditional publishing and the publishing industry in general is fall really kicks off in mid-August. Uh, so if you are looking for those cozy, you know, flannels and a pumpkin spice candle, that's all gonna start hitting the shelves in mid-August because then the holiday season really kicks in by mid-October. So there's this really interesting window from August until early October where it is all about fall coziness.

Tech Guy 1:25

Interesting. Yeah. And I have noticed in going into bookstores over the past couple of months, um, well, the the last year really, I've noticed that there are there seem to be a lot more fall-themed books as of the past few years. Why is that?

Ellie Alexander 1:43

Yeah, well, I mean, I think we can thank the darlings, the readings, readers out there. This is one way that readers really do shape and influence the industry and what's happening in the broader world of publishing, because I think readers have been craving those comfort reads, and fall is such obviously, it's already my favorite season. If you didn't know that already, darlings, sorry for the spoiler, but I am a fall girly at heart. But there's something so comforting about curling up with a reed and a hot cup of cocoa, and maybe, you know, there's a the start of a fire and you've got the scent of crisp leaves in the air. So it already invokes all of the cozy season. And then what's really happened over the last few years, as as more and more readers are seeking out those books, then publishing kind of catches up. And both indie publishers and traditional publishers are like, oh, wait, we need to meet this moment and get in on this trend. I don't know if you can actually call it a trend. I suspect that we're gonna see a big push for fall for the foreseeable future, honestly.

Tech Guy 2:48

Oh, you think so? You think they're just gonna continue? This will be a thing. Like, people want their fall. Give them their fall.

Ellie Alexander 2:56

I know. I mean, weigh in, darlings. Tell us in the comments. I'd I'd be curious to hear your thoughts. But I don't, I don't see that trend disappearing anytime in the next five to ten years, certainly. And what you're seeing with fall in particular is a lot of genre mashups. So, for example, cozy rom-coms, cozy fantasy, cozy mystery, obviously, is a big one. Anything that kind of embraces all of those lovely vibes that I'm talking about. And you can really see it in the cover design too, because when you look at the fall section, you're gonna get all of the autumnal colors. You are gonna see a lot of flannels, you're probably gonna see some kind of like not rusted, but like historic truck with pumpkins spilling out the back, maybe a pumpkin patch, a lovely autumn field, anything like that. So you instantly know from the cover, like, oh, okay, I know what I'm going in here for.

Tech Guy 3:54

I just want to know if this many fall books is going to mean that coffee shops are gonna start rolling back the date that uh or pushing up, I should say, the date that they're rolling out their pumpkin spice lattes and pumpkin themed drinks.

Ellie Alexander 4:08

I mean, yeah, and the pumpkin themed drinks come out in August. And so there's a reason that the book market is matching what's happening in like the food industry too. And we've talked about it before, especially living in California for the last few years, because it's so surreal and strange to go in a coffee shop when it is 85 and pure sun out, and they're like, oh, pumpkin spice is in. Are you ready? Uh, I guess so.

Tech Guy 4:33

Well, you know, and I think uh it's interesting that the books have the theme of fall has caught on so well in books because I know pumpkin spice in particular is a pretty it's a a uh it evokes an emotional response in people. You either love it or you hate it. There's really no in-between.

Ellie Alexander 4:52

There is no in-between whatsoever. No.

A Fall To Remember Setup

Ellie Alexander 4:55

So today we're gonna talk about two upcoming fall new books that I have releasing in the next few months. And I want to give you the backstory and a little teaser about both of them, and then um we can talk about anything else fallish.

Tech Guy 5:08

Sounds great.

Ellie Alexander 5:09

The first book coming out is titled A Fall to Remember, and it releases on September 1st. This is another cozy rom com. Now, I say rom-com because my spice level is super light, as in there's no spice. You know what I'm talking about with spice, right?

Tech Guy 5:28

Not pumpkin spice.

Ellie Alexander 5:31

Not pumpkin spice. Well, I don't know, maybe pumpkin spice. Or any darlings. I know we have a lot of mystery readers in our mix here. So if you're not familiar with the romance genre, there are spice levels. I think most darlings are probably, you know, well aware of this, but you could have zero spice all the way to super hot and spicy, which is gonna tell you what sort of um intimate scenery you're gonna get, shall we say, in the book. And in mine, there's going to be none. Maybe like a sweet romantic kiss, and then everything else happens behind closed doors.

Tech Guy 6:08

So that's a lot like what you do with your cozy mysteries then. The elevated stuff takes place off page.

Ellie Alexander 6:17

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Now, for you with uh your fantasy that you read, is there are there spice readings? I never really pay attention.

Tech Guy 6:26

I mean, there are. I don't the the the particular stuff that I read isn't very spicy. Uh it tends to be more sci-fi and and you know, fantasy mixed in. But there are definitely there's fantasy. Well, I mean, you've probably seen the covers, right? Um uh so the fantasy genre in particular, things can get a little racy.

Ellie Alexander 6:48

Racey reads. We're here for it. Uh yeah. So for my for a fault to remember, it is just like a sweet rom-com. What I'm drawn to as a writer are the emotional arcs, the idea of weaving in multiple stories. So everything that I've written so far in branching into this sort of cozy rom-com space, I feel like is an easy crossover for any of you, darlings, who may have read my mysteries and enjoyed them or my standalone Lost Coast Literary. It's all in the same sort of vein and style. I can't separate out who I am as a writer. It would be really hard for me to write something that didn't have a touch of coziness. Everything ends up having a touch of food. This book in particular has all kinds of fall food embedded in it. And then it's a love story that involves two different couples and their stories weave together, which is so fun to do and so different for my brain because my brain has been super trained on get to a body, not that kind of body, get to a dead body, solve the crime, and close the case.

Tech Guy 7:59

Yeah. So again, for the listeners out there, nobody. Nobody, no crime. Uh nobody, no crime. This is because that was a problem that uh uh like I think there was with Lost Coast Literary, especially, right? You um had written so many cozy mysteries up until that point that I think some people went into that thinking that it would be a cozy mystery, and it wasn't. And this is a rom com. So rom-com. Uh yeah. Fall com fall-themed rom com.

Ellie Alexander 8:32

Fall-themed

Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival Research

Ellie Alexander 8:33

rom com. So this book takes place at ha at Half Moon Bay, which is a real place, and it takes place during the annual pumpkin festival, which is actually also a real festival. And when you think pumpkin festival, you know, my initial idea behind that was like, oh, you go through a sweet little pumpkin patch and you're trying to find like the biggest pumpkin in the patch. Oh no, this pumpkin wayoff involves bringing in semis and like cranes to lift the pumpkins. And people come from all over California. And I find it so fascinating because some of the people who compete in the pumpkin way off are professional farmers, obviously. But then some of them, like it's just sort of their hobby. They're babying these giant pumpkins that end up coming in at thousands of pounds in their like backyard. I don't know who has a backyard big enough for that, actually, but it's wild.

Tech Guy 9:28

Um, these are pumpkins that you would have to carve with a chainsaw. Um there's a this is not, you're not pulling out a steak knife or those little orange pumpkin carving pattern kits that you always see showing up in the stores around Halloween time. They would not work on these pumpkins. These pumpkins are the size of cars in many cases.

Ellie Alexander 9:50

As is always the case when I'm working on a new book, we go do research trips. So we were in Half Moon Bay, and there was this lovely uh in in the book, I call it a green grocer because I like that concept of sort of the idea of like a boutique y grocery store. So not your average, like big box grocery store, but we're thinking something that has like a sweet little deli counter and a coffee area, and they're selling beautiful blooms from the local market, and then they're importing pastas and wines, and it's very boutique and specialty. And that really does exist in Half Moon Bay. And the town of Half Moon Bay is so sweet and charming and walkable, and then you're right on the coastline too. So it's such a stunning location for something that's fallen, maybe not expected, because you don't necessarily think of the California coastline as being the hub for like a big pumpkin festival. At least I didn't when we first moved here.

Tech Guy 10:45

No, that was a surprise for sure. And the grocery store that you're referring to there in Half Moon Bay is amazing too. It just uh has aisles and aisles. Because you think of fall, you think, you know, preserves and and canned jarred, you know, goods and and foods and stuff, and they have it all. And it it's just you can't help but not think of fall when you go in that grocery store because it there's just so many things to choose from. And uh I wanted to take a lot more home than we did.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

You could even say it's easy to fall in love with it.

Tech Guy 11:21

Oh boy. You some people, some people could say that that's uh yikes. I don't think anybody's coming here for the for the puns. Maybe, maybe, you never know.

Accidental Influencer Story Inspiration

Ellie Alexander 11:37

I mean, they know me as a right, as a pun, a punster. Okay, so the way that this book came to be was that a few years ago, I had seen this video that went viral on Instagram that a woman shared of her and her mom taking a trip to Portugal. And she shared the videos and the photos that her mom took on the trip. And it was chef's kiss, no notes. So instead of the lovely like rivers and lakes and stunning hillsides of Portugal, we see her mom's like toenail and the back of her head, or like a stranger's butt. Like it's just so classic.

Tech Guy 12:23

It was uh definitely you could see what her mom had intended to take a picture of, usually in the background. But for whatever reason, every time she went to take a picture, she moved the camera. And by the time the shutter, you know, on her phone, I'm assuming she was using her phone, but it regardless, by the time the shutter closed and the picture was actually taken, she was pointing the camera somewhere else. And so things were, you know, very blurred. Um, a couple of times she was taking a picture of her face instead of what she was looking at uh out in front of her. It was, yeah, it was it was pretty amazing.

Ellie Alexander 13:05

It was pretty amazing, but it was also so sweet and charming. And the comments, I mean, the video went super viral. It got millions and millions of views. And the reason it got millions and millions of views is was because it really struck a chord with people, it resonated, and everyone was like, She's my mom now. How do we adopt her? Like she was just clearly like in the moment. So I loved that concept. And I had actually been having a brainstorming session with my editor, and I was like, you know, it'd be really fun to have this concept of like an accidental influencer, because you know, we are deep in influencer culture these days. And I don't think we see a lot of influencers necessarily who maybe are a little bit more mature or retired and off enjoying Portugal from a different lens. So I loved that concept. But initially I was thinking maybe it would be a mystery series and that this accidental influencer would stumble upon a body, that kind of body, while she was, you know, taking a bad selfie or trying to record the coastline. That conversation turned into my editor saying, I love this concept, like run with it however you want. But we were really hoping that you might consider writing another rom-com for us, because I have done two cozy rom coms. And those were both holiday related, as in like Christmas winter-y. And so my editor was like, we would love something fall. And so I ended that conversation, and I wasn't necessarily thinking of this idea fitting into that concept. But as I was exploring fall ideas and thinking about Half Moon Bay as a setting and the pumpkin fest, and I'm like, well, wait a minute, this is perfect. And so those two combined um and turned into a fall to remember.

Tech Guy 14:54

Yeah. And the thing I like about this protagonist in particular is that it is that she's very authentic, right? It's not she's an unwilling, unwitting uh influencer. This is not what she set out to do. This is not necessarily what she wants to do, but um, she is very popular and and and has grown a following through just being who she is and and being very authentic, which is pretty different from a lot of influence social media influencers out there, right?

Ellie Alexander 15:27

Right. And I think that's why the the original video really hit so well because I think people are like, oh my gosh, yes, I want to see more of this. And I see like your connection with your mom and the sweetness of it. So I borrowed from all of those themes while working on this book. And so the concept is that Miranda Brown is her name. She uh goes on this trip to Catalina Island and she comes home and she shares her videos and her pictures with her son Pete and her niece Elise. And they just have so much fun with it that they put it online and of course the video goes viral. And so this travel company comes calling, think like Expedia, right? Some big travel company comes calling and they're like, we want you to be an influencer. So they send a team to Half Moon Bay to have Miranda give everyone her lens and her take on the fall pumpkin festival. And that's sort of the premise for where the love story goes from there.

Tech Guy 16:26

Yeah, this is it's such a great setup. And I think the authenticity is what makes it work so well because it is a situation that you could actually imagine happening in real life.

Ellie Alexander 16:36

Not only that, then while I was working on this book and researching, um uh you found a few other sort of accidental influencers in this same category, like somebody who's eating an ice cream cone and walks through a proposal video. Like there's so much, there's just like such fodder out on uh the internet to be able to borrow from. So um, it wasn't that hard to find inspiration, at least for the story arcs.

Tech Guy 17:02

Yeah, there's always, you know, somebody's in a situation and things happen. It reminds me of uh we used to go to Alaska all the time. We had friends who lived up there, and and uh I remember one time I was with a friend of mine and we were standing maybe a hundred yards apart, and I was standing in a stream and fishing, and I'm a novice fisherman. Like I was just doing what he was doing, just mirroring his motions and everything. But we were we were catching fish and everything, and all of a sudden I heard this talking and and I could hear camera shutters going off and stuff. And I looked over my shoulder, and there was a pedestrian bridge going across the creek behind me, and there was an entire tour group of people taking pictures of me as though I were a native Alaskan fishing, you know, and I'm like, no, no, no, I know I'm not okay. Oh wow. So it was it's just situations like that that um, you know, happen, and you think, oh, you know, this is kind of a one-off thing, but it they happen all the time, and I think it'll lend itself to the

Sprayed Edges And Preorder Details

Tech Guy 18:08

realism, I guess, in the in this story.

Ellie Alexander 18:11

Exactly. Originally we were gonna do a duet, which is the way that a lot of romances are published. And uh, that's what we did with the cozy kind of Christmas include into love last year. But I did not have time in my writing schedule to write two rom-coms. And, you know, frankly, it's a lot harder. I had a meltdown at one point and said to my editor, I can't, I can't write these fast. I can write a first draft of a mystery pretty quickly now because it's just in my DNA. I've written so many that I know the formula, I know the system. Now, that that's not a finished book, but like it's not the same when you're working in a new genre. I needed more time and space. So there will be a follow-up to this book that will come out next fall, as in fall of 2027. But this one releases September 1st. And the other very exciting thing that uh kind of ties back to an episode that we did a few weeks ago on book trends is that this book is going to have sprayed edges, fall sprayed edges. I know it's my first sprayed edge.

Tech Guy 19:17

Yeah, no, we just did an episode on on book trends and and talked about sprayed edges. You're right. And we were both like there, they are definitely something that we do like. Uh you have an issue with them just because you can tend to get your books wet uh from spills and things.

Ellie Alexander 19:37

And baths and all those things. Yeah. Yeah.

Tech Guy 19:39

It's we've seen we've seen the artwork of what the sprayed edges will be, and the book looks beautiful. Um I'm really excited about this one. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 19:48

And if you are a lover of a collectible and a sprayed edge, darling, then you can pre-order it now, or you can find it at your local library or anywhere. Books are sold in September.

Tech Guy 19:59

That's awesome. All right, but you said there were two.

Ellie Alexander 20:02

There are two.

Tech Guy 20:02

Two fall books. Two fall

The Pumpkin Vice Cafe And Fall Baking

Tech Guy 20:04

books.

Ellie Alexander 20:04

There are two. The other exciting fall book that is releasing at the end of September is The Pumpkin Vice Cafe. This is book 23 of the Bake Shop Mysteries. And this is where the Bake Shop and Jules and Team Tort are getting a little glow up because this will be the first book released in trade paperback. The cover art is stunning. It matches the original series, but then it's just like slightly elevated. And this book is also all the five fall vibes, so much pumpkin. Everything that tort is baking is just like think cardamom and spiced apples and caramel. And I spent way too much time thinking about the food for this book than anything else. Um and the recipes are maybe my favorite to date.

Tech Guy 20:57

Yeah. And speaking of the recipes, that is something that is always fun to talk about because I don't think that readers, the darlings out there necessarily understand that how far in advance you're working on these things seasonally. So especially when a book is set somewhere seasonally, you are never writing it anywhere close to the season that the book is set in. And so that was the case here too, where you're working on uh Pumpkin Vice Cafe, and we our house smelled like fall in essentially summer, uh you know, early, early late spring, early summer here in in uh in California. And that is weird. I uh all the years you've been writing, I still have not gotten used to that. Um, just you know, I I can't wait for the next Christmas book because it'll be June and we'll be eating things with peppermint in them. And you know, it's 85 degrees out.

Ellie Alexander 21:54

How do you feel about a spiced pumpkin bread right now? One other exciting thing. That we're going to do leading up to the release is I am doing a bake-along that will start in July. So I have gone back and baked a recipe from every single book, all 22 books in the Bake Shop Mystery series leading up to the release of the Pumpkin Vice Cafe. So we're going to be sharing them on social media and um with you. So if you are a baker and you want to bake along, get ready for that.

Tech Guy 22:25

Yeah, there are some good recipes in there. And oh my, it has been a lot of food, a lot of, lot of sweet, sweet stuff.

Ellie Alexander 22:32

Um Yeah, they're all desserts. I know.

Tech Guy 22:35

I know. Yeah.

Ellie Alexander 22:37

The thing you should know about the Pumpkin Vice Cafe, unlike a fall to remember, there is a body. It's a murder. Okay, we're back to murder because it's big shop. This book features uh one of my favorite characters, Lance, who is preparing for um an upcoming bash, shall we say, without giving away too many spoilers. And um his event planner meets an untimely death. So he, of course, has to coerce Jules into joining him to try to solve the case. And it's got all of your usual bake shop favorites, Andy and Marty and Bethany and the professor, and oh, Richard Lord makes a very interesting appearance. There could be some kind of crossover character. I can't say more, but I'm very excited about this one.

Tech Guy 23:26

Right. So two things. Uh fall to remember, rom-com. No, no body. No, no body, no spice.

Ellie Alexander 23:34

No body, no spice.

Tech Guy 23:36

The pumpkin vice cafe, a murder. It is this is a this is a cozy mystery. Let let the let the readers out there know, uh, does this book have a pumpkin spice recipe in it?

Ellie Alexander 23:50

It has multiple pumpkin recipes, yes. Yes.

Tech Guy 23:54

All right.

Ellie Alexander 23:55

And I'm sharing a bonus pumpkin recipe that is referenced in the book, but doesn't make the cut for the final recipes in the back as part of the bake-along.

Tech Guy 24:05

Oh, okay. Perfect.

Ellie Alexander 24:07

So much pumpkin, so little time.

Tech Guy 24:10

Well, and for the darlings out there, this is great because you'll be getting these recipes in seasonally appropriate timing. Uh so unlike unlike how we have been consuming them the past few months, um, these will be good for baking in the fall.

Ellie Alexander 24:27

That's right. You can save them, or you can bake along in the summer, either way.

Ghostly Vibes And Release Recap

Ellie Alexander 24:31

I do actually have a third fallish book that's releasing too.

Tech Guy 24:37

Wait, I'm not even sure I know about this one. What is this one?

Ellie Alexander 24:42

This is the next in the novel detectives. And it's a different kind of fall vibe because it's set at the secret bookcase in um kind of like dark and stormy weather when a group of ghost hunters takes over the store to record overnight because they're sure that the bookstore is haunted.

Tech Guy 25:04

Oh, wow. So we have we have fall rom-com, we have fall murder, and now we have fall ghosts, perhaps?

Ellie Alexander 25:12

Oh, not ghosts, really. No. I mean, I unfortunately it's Annie, so she's pretty grounded in reality. But there'll be ghostly vibes for this one. This one's coming out closer to Halloween, a murder at midnight, and um Annie and Fletcher are taking on ghost hunters and um also a body, because you know me, we gotta get back to the basics, which involves a crime scene.

Tech Guy 25:36

Nice. I love it. That's a lot of fall books.

Ellie Alexander 25:40

I know. I had to save that little bonus for the end.

Tech Guy 25:44

Yeah, I had totally forgotten about that one. That is that is amazing. So, all three of those. Okay, so let's recap for the darlings out there. Can you go through the titles with the release dates again?

Ellie Alexander 25:56

Absolutely. Okay, so we're kicking off fall with a fall to remember, Cozy Romcon on September 1st. Then Bake Shop number 23, the Pumpkin Vice Cafe, comes out on September 29th. And last but not least, to round out 26, this is the last book for the year, is a murder at midnight on October 13th. And they are all up for pre-order now.

Tech Guy 26:21

Uh, okay, you beat me to it. That was gonna be my that was gonna be my very next question. Uh so for the darlings out there, all three of those books are available for pre-order right now. I wonder if you can see the sprayed edges online for a fall to remember. Ooh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

I haven't checked.

unknown 26:36

Yeah.

Tech Guy 26:37

Might be a preview, so go check it out. All right. Well, with that, I think we're gonna wrap up this episode of reality rights, this fall ish episode of reality rights.

Ellie Alexander 26:48

Fall in June.

Tech Guy 26:50

Fall and June. Welcome to our world. Totally. All right, until next time.

Ellie Alexander 26:56

Till next time.