Redesigning Life with Sabrina Soto

Menopause, Mindset & Million-Copy Success: How T L Swan Rewrote Her Own Story

• Sabrina Soto and TL Swan • Episode 111

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In this powerful episode, bestselling author T L Swan shares her incredible journey from financial ruin to literary success. After losing everything in a failed business venture, T L discovered a box of stories she'd written as a teenager and made a life-changing decision: she would write a book using a free 30-day trial of Microsoft Word because she couldn't afford to buy the program.

That single decision led to a career that's produced 25 novels, millions of copies sold worldwide, and bestseller status in multiple countries. But T L's story goes beyond the numbers. She opens up about the mindset shifts that transformed her life, including how reading "The Secret" became a turning point during her darkest days.

We also dive into a topic that affects countless women but rarely gets discussed openly: how perimenopause and menopause can derail careers and creativity. TL shares her two-year struggle with what doctors called "burnout" but was actually hormonal changes, and how finding the right treatment brought her back to full creative power.

Whether you're facing your own challenges, curious about the publishing world, or navigating midlife changes, T L's story of resilience, reinvention, and taking control will leave you inspired. Plus, find out about her latest release,  the Miles High Club Deluxe Edition, and why she made the bold move to buy back her rights from Amazon.

This is a conversation about second chances, trusting your instincts, and never giving up on your dreams.


Connect with T L Swan:
https://tlswanauthor.com/

T L on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/tlswanauthor/

T L on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/tlswanauthor

Link to pre-order the Miles High Club Series Deluxe Editions:
https://tlswanauthor.com/coming-soon/


Connect with Sabrina:

https://www.instagram.com/Sabrina_Soto/

www.SabrinaSoto.com

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Redesigning Life. I'm your host, sabrina Soto, and this is the space where we have honest conversations about personal growth, mindset shifts and creating a life that feels truly aligned. In each episode, I'll talk to experts in their fields who share their insights to help you step into your higher self. Let's redesign your life from the inside out. Welcome to another episode of Redesigning Life. This week is different. I have an amazing author, but we're not going to just talk about books. We're going to talk about a lot of other things, especially menopause and perimenopause, which I know a lot of you are dealing with now. We have TL Swan with us today. Tl, thank you so much for joining us. I'm so excited for this conversation. I know you're in Australia, so I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm so excited for this conversation. I know you're in Australia, so I appreciate your time.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2:

Oh my.

Speaker 1:

God. Okay. So you've sold millions of books worldwide. You have every bestseller list. You've built this incredible career. You have an incredible story of resilience. For listeners who may not be aware of your books, can you kind of tell us a little bit about your early days, how you even first started writing, got into even doing?

Speaker 2:

these novels. So this definitely was not my first jam. So I did a bit of everything, ended up being a psychologist, made a bad business decision when I was around 40 with my husband and we lost everything, and it was just the worst period of my life. You know, I suddenly found myself checking the bank account before I bought a coffee, and you know it's easy to do. You find out. You know that just because you work hard doesn't mean that you go well. So I was on this poor me journey. You know everything's happening to me. Poor me, poor me. And I read a book called the Secret by Rhonda Byrne. If you haven't read it, read it Changed my life, changed my life, changed my life. And it's all about you know. You're looking for the signs and you can change your life, and you know. So I was like, okay, I'm going to get a sign.

Speaker 2:

Two weeks later I'm cleaning out my garage because I was all in the whole get rid of all the junk from my life. I'm, you know, throwing everything out that doesn't serve me and I found a box from when I moved out of home when I was 18. And I've never seen this box. I've lived in 30 houses. Don't ask me where these boxes be and it was full of diaries, of stories that I'd written when I was 16, 17, 18. And I was, like I remember, before I met my husband, before I was, you know, doing everything for everybody else. I wanted to be an author. So I went inside and I couldn't afford the Word program. It was $270. I couldn't afford that. I downloaded a free 30-day trial of Microsoft Word and I wrote the words chapter one, and I said right, I've got 30 days to write a book. And that's what I did.

Speaker 1:

That's what I did For anyone who's not watching this. I'm like tearing up because this is such a it's sort of my story too, but like the fact that I'm like speechless for a second because there are so many people listening to this right now that are in that spot and feeling lost and feel like I don't know what to do. But the fact T that you did it because of a trial, that you did because you couldn't afford the word.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't even afford the $270. And I was like okay, 30 days, and at this point I was still working in the business seven days a week. That was losing us thousands of dollars every week. My husband had to take a job seven days a week. That was losing us thousands of dollars every week. My husband had to take a job two hours away, so he would get up at four o'clock, drive two hours, work his 12 hour day, drive two hours home. I had three little kids that I used to take to work with me and I was getting. You know. I would run around and do everything and at nine o'clock at night I would sit down and I would write till 2 am Because this was what was going to get me out of. You know I was going to save us and thank God, but it did, it's like Okay.

Speaker 1:

So for those of you listening who are familiar with T's work, you know who I'm talking to right now. But just understand that the success that came after this is phenomenal. So what was that next step? So you wrote, but then how did you get to where you are now?

Speaker 2:

Well, it's been. You know, the readers have just been so incredible. I'm very honest with my journey and I'm not perfect and I definitely don't write literature for the generations. I write fun in the moment, great stories about normal girls like us who do great things and find great men and have these wonderful, flamboyant lives. And they all start from nothing. And they all start from nothing and I think that's what my readers have resonated with is I don't write about people you don't know. I write about people we know, you know. So I uploaded my book. Didn't sell many, but, you know, I had a drive. Then I had the taste, uploaded my second book. You self-published, you self-published, I self-published, I literally-published. I just, I literally just ran it through an editor program, uploaded to Amazon myself, right, and then two or three books and then I wrote a book and it went. It was called Dr Stanton the book and it hit the market. It made the top 100, top 50 on Amazon.

Speaker 1:

What do you think? What do you attribute that to? I mean, obviously it was an amazing book, but you know, I feel like I just got the cover right.

Speaker 2:

If you look up Dr Stanton, I got the cover right, I got the blurb right and I got the story right as in. You know, it's a doctor, it's a couple that you know hook up in Las Vegas, never see each other again, you know, six years later she turns up and she's his intern. She's late, you know, and it's just this funny banter, like it's a great story but it just hit the market. Anyway, after that, I got an email this is funny from Montlake, which is Amazon's publishing app, and they'd never signed anybody from Australia before Like they don't sign many people asking me to write for them, and I thought it was my husband.

Speaker 2:

What, like playing a joke on you. Yeah, so I've written F off. I know it's you, blah, blah, blah, giving him, like giving him, because it came from a personal email, right. So I was just like you're not funny, don't annoy me. Oh, my, I'm cringing for you. It was Amazon. Anyway, they've been so amazing. So, yeah, they took me on. I've written six books for them and these books that I've just got now this is. You know, we're 25 books down the road. I've hit number one in every country and I'm sold millions and millions of books, have the most incredible readers, like they're all become friends because it's like a big girl gang. We hang out. But these books now that I'm releasing the Miles High, I actually bought the rights for these back from Amazon.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Taylor Swift.

Speaker 2:

So I did this a year ago. So when she released it she'd done it I was like, yes, go. She's got the same idea as me. So I brought these back from Amazon and I'm re-releasing them with my own publishing company. Now I own a publishing company with the most incredible staff you've ever ever met and, yeah, let's go. So I'm kind of nervous about this, this release, but at the same time I'm just so proud of the full circle that it's been so.

Speaker 1:

the Mile High Club Deluxe Edition is coming out September 16th. If you're listening to this while you're driving or if you're on a walk, don't worry, I'll have it all in the notes because it's going to be amazing. But in this Mile High Club series, if someone's never read your books before, which book would you say to start with?

Speaker 2:

So it's a series of four brothers. They own the biggest media company in the world. It's based in New York and it's about. You know, they come from money. They are these rich, playboy, gorgeous men and they fall in love with ordinary women and it's just the push and pull and they're funny and they're sexy. I write the story that I want to read. I want escapism and I want to feel good when I read. I don't want to read about hardships and terrible things because, let's face it, the world is pretty horrible right now. So I want escapism. So that's what you get. That's what you get with my books.

Speaker 1:

Okay, wait, I want to go back and I'm going to. But which one do I read first? The Stopover, the Stopover, the Stopover okay. The Stopover. Who wants to read it with me? Dm me, please. So let me go back T to the story of the Secret. How did you even get introduced to the Secret, oh my?

Speaker 2:

God. So this in itself is a freaky. So I've got a writing group and I think we've got about 1,400, 1,500 girls. So my very first video was on the Secret and I tell them the story about even the way. I found it was weird.

Speaker 2:

I was up folding washing one night at 11 o'clock because and this is just at this time we had foreclosures on our house. Like I was expecting, we were, you know, two months behind on our bank, like because we either lost our house or the business, and if I lost the house we still had a chance to keep everything, but if I lost the business, then I couldn't pay for the house. You know what I mean. So it was I'm just like week by week trying to get through and I used to clean my house from top to bottom every night because I thought, if tomorrow's the day that the sheriff comes and locks me out of the house, I want it to be clean, right, just anyway. That makes me cry, but anyway. So I was folding washing and an Oprah special came on. It was about the secret. It was at 11 o'clock at night. You know the Oprah special on the secret yeah, yeah, yeah, 11 o'clock at night, right.

Speaker 2:

So I sat on the lounge and I was watching it and I was like this, this is this. It was like she was just talking to me. And the next day I went to look for this secret book right, couldn't afford it, but I was like, damn it, I'm buying this book. I just knew that I had to have it. And I went to the nearest. You know, I went from bookstore to bookstore, to store to bookstore. No one had it. I ended up 45 minutes from my house to get this stupid book. I wasted three hours and I've got home and I said to my husband I found the book that's going to save us. And he was like God, oh yeah Like, oh, my God.

Speaker 2:

Here we. Oh my god, here we go. At this point we were just kind of humoring each other. Whatever it took to get us through that day, because it was such a tough time, um, we would just go with it. Do you know what I mean? Like if he wanted to watch football all night and do nothing on the that, that that was okay, because we were tiptoeing through life.

Speaker 1:

at that point we were in survival mode.

Speaker 2:

We were in survival mode, so we just humid each other. But here we are, 10 years later. He's retired, he drives his dream car, he plays golf three days a week. We are just so. We made it together, thank God.

Speaker 1:

This was over 10 years ago, because when I watched the Secret it was 2006,.

Speaker 2:

Before it was on Oprah yeah, so it was 2014 when I read it. Okay, yeah, this is when it happened to me.

Speaker 1:

My story was the same, like I was just.

Speaker 2:

Really.

Speaker 1:

I was in a weird, not happy spot in my life. I watched the Secret and the next morning I went on Craigslist and found my job for HGTV. It's such a crazy story and I know there are a lot of authors and people who say, like the Secret's BS and all that, and I just think that they're misinterpreting what the laws are. But I agree with you Like it's changed my life so much. So obviously your life's changed immensely, yeah, and just in the success that you have created for yourself, for your family. If you could go back and talk to the version of you that thought that you were going to lose your house, you're losing your business, you're starting a new career. Like what would you say to her now? You know what?

Speaker 2:

I at the time, and I think anyone can relate to this things just seem so dark that you just don't, you can't see it turning around. You just can't see the light at the end of the tunnel. And the only way I attribute my success is I've always just believed. If I find my thoughts turning dark, no, it's like I have to do a conscious decision to not think the worst. I have to think the best and I have to bring myself in right and I even, you know, even to this day, if I find myself and you know everybody has a bad day or things get on top or you're stressed out, or you feel like you're failing, or whatever, I will have to have that conscious moment like, stop it, cut this out.

Speaker 2:

This is not helping you. Like, bring your mind back to the positive and when you're in this positive mind space, opportunities just present themselves, but they just don't. When you're closed off and negative, it's like you have this aura of negative and it's like a force field to keep out the good things. Yes, so you need to have this open. Okay, come at me. Whatever's going to be good, let's go.

Speaker 1:

Okay. So I agree with you a hundred percent and I also think like a part of the attracting the opportunities is taking care of yourself, both mentally and physically, and when that your self-esteem rises and then you bring in the more opportunities. But I'm, I'm and that's why I think people think the secret means you just think good thoughts and everything. No, it's way more than that, so it's OT. When you decided to buy the rights back for the Miles High Club, what was that decision like? Because if somebody that's scary, this is not only a financial decision but scary.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I'll go back a further step for that. So I wanted to be in bookstores. So it's like this convoluted step that you need to do when you're an author, when you're an indie author. They do fantastic. They outsell every book in bookstores. They're amazing, right, but we all want movie deals or television series deals, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 2:

To get that, you need to be a New York seller To make a list. You want to be a list, New York Times. This is what the producers are looking for now and this is what they're picking from. You don't qualify for those lists unless you're in bookstores, Right, Right? So this is why indie books, like indie authors, are now trying to get into stores, because they realize the value of a list, Even though, let's face, it's a ridiculous list. Who cares, right? But the producers get a bigger budget for your film if you're on that stupid list, right? So that's when I started going okay, let's work backwards. I need to be in bookstores. I started talking to publishing companies and the deals that they were offering were just so ridiculously greedy and you know, they were lifetime deals. Like who signs a contract for a lifetime deal?

Speaker 2:

But you already had a track record Like you had a speed and I worked with Amazon, amazon's different. Amazon is indie, they're very forward thinking, they're fantastic, right. So I was like I don't want to sign my rights, my year's work, to greedy publishers. So we just kind of, like, you know, trod water for a little bit and I've got like a really great staff and I was like, screw this, we're opening our own publishing company and we're going to offer authors a better deal, like they deserve to be looked after. This is not okay.

Speaker 2:

So we opened our own publishing company, which was called Keeperton. It's Keeperton because it's finders keepers that's what I love, and you know the staff that run that. I don't have anything to do with that. We hired, we headhunted staff and they are just so incredible. The first three books they put out this year, our first three books, have all hit USA Today. They're just unbelievable, right? These girls are all go-getters and they're all like me and you. So, yeah, they came to me and said we're buying your rights back. Let's try and buy your rights back.

Speaker 1:

So I think a lot of people too, like okay, it might not be writing, but I want to do. I want to like go and create this new venture. You're saying you have this amazing staff. That's another part of the puzzle.

Speaker 2:

How did?

Speaker 1:

you create or how did you even attract this amazing support staff for yourself?

Speaker 2:

this amazing support staff for you, for yourself. So I and I think you'll be like this. When you've been through something quite dark and you've come out of it and you've fought, you learn to trust your gut instincts that you never did before. I toed the line before what I thought was right and wrong and now I'm not afraid. If something doesn't feel right, it's not right, it's definitely not right. So my interviewing process is how I like the person, what they say in between the questions that I ask them. It's their optimism and their belief, or it's not so much in their natural talent, it's more about them as a person. And you know, skills can be taught. You can't change who you are. So I go for optimism and beautiful people.

Speaker 2:

We have a policy. We call it a no-arsesoles policy. We don't deal with arsesoles. We don't deal with agents who are arsesoles. We don't deal with authors who are arsesoles. No, publishing nothing. We just don't deal with assholes. We don't deal with agents who are assholes. We don't deal with authors who are assholes. No, publishing nothing. We just don't. Life is too short to be stuck dealing with horrible people.

Speaker 1:

I agree 100%. So how many books now have you published? 25. 25 books you talked about. You've been pretty open about perimenopause and menopause really derailing your career. Can you describe a moment that like during that time, because in order to write you have to be able to be in your head and to be calm, in a sense, and be like tapped in? So can you sort of like walk listeners through a moment that you realized something was?

Speaker 2:

all. Well, it's funny, you know, because I went through this stage. So I was writing four books a year because, for me, like I'm so creative as in, not creative as wow I can do everything, but the stories would just keep coming and I'm like, oh, I could do this, I could do that, everything's, this, you know, like everything I didn't have enough time to do all the things that I wanted to do and I literally woke up one day and my head was silent and there was no ideas and I didn't really care if I worked that day or I just might have a day off. Like I just felt, you know, maybe getting sick or you've had like a really bad hangover, like you've got a really bad hangover, you've had two hours sleep and your care factor for everything is zero. Like you're just like I'm just feeding the kids and getting through the day, Like it's just. And it went on for a week and then it was two weeks and then I was like something's going on with me here and I'm a really driven person. Like I like to work, I like, you know, I like things to happen. I just literally didn't care, like I just whatever. I was, like I was a different person.

Speaker 2:

I went to the doctor. The doctor told me I had burnout. You're too. You work too hard because you know it's nothing for me to work 60 or 70 hours a week. But my work isn't like work to me it's. You know, my God, I'm getting to write these stories about these gorgeous, rich men rescuing women like women rescuing them. It's like a really well-paid hobby. It's like a really super fun, well-paid hobby, like it is not work.

Speaker 2:

And the doctor was like you've burnt out, you need to have a break. So I went back to Kelly Kelly's, my right-hand man. She's been with me for nine years. She's like okay, let's schedule a month off. So we scheduled a month off. Still the same. It was just flatlining like nothing happened. This kept going on. I'd had every blood test your thyroid's a little bit out, but your bloods are all normal. What the doctors didn't tell me was my bloods were normal for a 50-year-old woman, which means you have no estrogen and they think that's normal.

Speaker 2:

It was never presented to me that my lack of drive and my lack of concentration was to do with menopause, because I wasn't having hot flushes. At the same time, I have got girlfriends. You know, one's having marriage problems and one's, you know, fighting with her children that she's never fought with. Another one's having problems with her neighbor. Another one's just about to lose her job. We're all having these with her neighbor. Another one's just about to lose her job. We're all having these collective problems that have nothing to do with hot flushes, but what it did have to do with was the level of our hormones and how we were reacting to situations. So anyway, to put a long story short, for two years me and my girlfriends battled all these different problems.

Speaker 2:

I was. I went from writing four books a year to one book a year. Um, and then I was. It was just so hard and I was like, okay, yeah, I'm washed up. I'm one of those washed up authors now that you that. You see in the movies. Yeah, you know the ones that are crying into the bottle of wine on the beach because they can't finish their book. But in hindsight, the timing was good, because that's when I worked in my publishing company. I wasn't creative, but I was still. You know, I was in Hawaii.

Speaker 2:

I saw an ad come up for a Suzanne Somers book called A New Way to Age. Read it Another game changer. It talks about bio-identical hormones and how your body reacts when you are not, when you're depleted in certain different areas of your life, as in hormones. I read that and I was like, oh my God, I am not burnt out. This is frigging menopause. It was like a.

Speaker 2:

Why haven't anyone told me this? Yeah, menopause, it was like a. Why haven't anyone told me this? Yeah, why. Why has nobody told me that menopause is not just hot flushes, it's concentration, it's drive, it's rage. It's rage. It's like care factor of zero. Like my husband would have like a raging fit and I'd be like like a raging fit and I'd be like, see ya, who cares Off. You go bye Like I did not care about anything. But I did not attribute that to menopause because no one talks about it. I know, I know. This is why I'm talking about it, because I struggled through two years where someone had just said to me you can have an organic bioidentical cream that you rub on your forearm and you will find yourself within 24 hours.

Speaker 1:

What you said, that your words struck me when you said I felt like an imposter in my own body, and it's so true I think you also like called menopause the epidemic that nobody talks about. It is, it is. But I mean, don't you think now, with social media at least? Maybe it's my feed and the algorithm, but I feel like people are talking about it right.

Speaker 2:

I feel like, yeah, I feel like Halle Berry's really changed the needle and a few of the other actresses that have come out and started talking about it, and I feel like this is, you know, this is my duty that I have to talk about it as well. This is the reason why I bring it up, because my readers know I have only released one book a year for the last three years. Like I'm on the comeback now. Then I broke my bloody back, would you believe it? But my readers know that my writing has slowed down. They, you know. I owe them to tell them the truth why.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, which, by the way, T like one book a year. Okay, let's just be real here. One book a year is actually great for most, you know, for everyone.

Speaker 2:

But you know, for us, like for me, it's just, it's not normal.

Speaker 1:

Weird, it's not normal. It's changed your writing habits. This journey has changed your writing habits, is what you're saying for sure. So I'm back, yeah, I'm back now, thank gosh. If somebody is listening to this and they feel broken, what would you?

Speaker 2:

say to them Find yourself a holistic doctor, don't go to a normal GP, go to one that has integrative medicine and ask for bioidentical hormones. So there's a difference. Hrt is made with chemicals. It is what's been given the bad rap. Bioidentical is made from yam soybean. It is an organic kind of material. But what I can say in the research that I've been doing myself and I'm not a doctor, so I don't you know.

Speaker 2:

But 25 years ago HRT was given a really bad rap and it got some really bad press about causing cancer and causing things. But what they've found now is not having estrogen in our body. Estrogen is what protects us against cancer. Estrogen is what protects our brains from dementia and Alzheimer's. Estrogen is what protects our sex drive and our body from aging, even the way you hold weight.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, when I was going through that terrible period of my life, the cortisol was so high in my body that I put on 30 kilos, about 68 pounds in American. So then I was not only battling that, I had gone from a size eight to a size 16 overnight. So not only was I depressed, I was like, okay, great, now I'm overweight as well. And because my estrogen was declining from that time I had no chance of losing that weight. You know I've lost. Now I've lost a lot of it, but I've still got some to go.

Speaker 2:

But all I can say is if a man presented to a GP with low sex drive drive because, like who cares, that's all that they worry about they would test and go oh my God, your testosterone is low. Quick, let's give it to you right. We can go in with life-altering changes in our personality. Oh, you don't have hot flushes, you're fine. Your bloods are normal For a 50-year-old woman. Our bloods are not normal for a healthy female. Our bloods are normal for a woman going through menopause. There is a difference in those two things. What the hell.

Speaker 1:

Don't get me started. I agree. I mean I've been on my own journey. I don't, you know, I don't think I've found the right combination yet, and I think that's also frustrating, because one doctor will tell you one thing, another one. But at least I feel like at least listening to this, you're not alone.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, you know it is going to take a little bit for you to find the solution for your own body, but you're not broken, you're not crazy, you're not burnt out, you're just you know it's hormonal, yeah, and if you're suddenly fighting with your husband, who you've had a great relationship with for 20 years, and suddenly he's the enemy, maybe it is something to do with our personality. If you're suddenly fighting with your neighbors or your kids or your job or whatever, if it's a change in your life, go deeper, look further. It's not just the other people. There is a reason we're changing. Like I said, the game changer for me was reading the book A New Way to Age, suzanne Somers.

Speaker 1:

It explains so much for me, everyone who's listening. We have now three books we need to read the Stopover, the Secret and the New Age.

Speaker 2:

That's a lot of books, fun, fun. The Stopover is the fun one, the other two are medicinal.

Speaker 1:

God, I've never given so much homework in one episode of a podcast before in my life. Okay, so let's talk about the Mile High Club Deluxe Edition that's coming out Again. I'm going to link to it. What made you want to revisit these stories? I know you said that you bought back the rights and this is releasing a special edition. So what can readers, what are they going to get from this new Deluxe Edition?

Speaker 2:

I just wish I had it here to show you. It is this most beautiful pinkish kind of hue artwork of New York City Central Park. It wraps around, it's got sprayed edges, it's got bonus scenes. It starts. I'll tell you a little bit about how it starts.

Speaker 2:

So a girl is at an airport, someone is losing their crap in the line, giving her crap. You know they're kicking her bag and she bag and the security guard feels sorry for her. So he upgrades her to first class. So she's sitting in first class, looking like she thinks terrible in her tights and grungy hair, and this billionaire walks in and sits next to her in his suit. Anyway, they drink wine and get talking and there's a lot of flirting. And then the plane gets a layover. It's snow, they can't land in New York, so they have a layover and they have this wonderful night right the next morning. He doesn't ask for her number. She's like, outraged. They go back to their lives. So she's an intern. Years later she gets this intern. She doesn't know who he is. He gives her a fake name. She gets an internship in New York. She's so excited. She goes on the tour, gets to the top level of the building and those big blue eyes are behind the desk. She's like oh my God, so it's you, so yeah it's fun.

Speaker 1:

I know a lot of women listen to like real, like true crime sort of podcasts and books. I used to do the same thing. Trust me, right now we do not need to listen to anybody getting murdered, anybody getting duped Like. These are the kind of stories you should listen to on your commute to either work or if you're doing housework, because I feel like it's a good way to just nourish your soul. And it kind of goes back to what we were saying in the beginning of our conversation, like staying high vibe, which sounds a little woo-woo, but staying in a positive mindset. It matters what you listen to, and so if you don't want to listen to something you know, new thought or something self-help, you know, lose yourself in a novel like this, because it just makes you feel better and it gives you like a little bit of joy in your life.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I feel like you know romance has come a long way now. You know it's not the old bodice ripping, you know cringy kind of story. You know these characters are like sarcastic and smart and well-educated and they're witty. And you know you're reading with a smirk the whole time. That's the only way I can describe it. You read with a smirk because it's like watching a really great show. I love it.

Speaker 1:

Before you go, like what's the message you hope women and really actually anyone who's listening can take away from your story? Because you have loss, you have resilience, you have complete reinvention and you've taken control of your life in such an inspirational way. Like what's one message you want to give to readers, or your readers and my listeners.

Speaker 2:

So my readers know my message, but look for your listeners. No matter how dark or how backed into a corner you think you are, you can turn it around. It is literally a mindset thing. If you just change your mindset, you can change your life and it is I'm proof in the pudding, and every day I get to do this incredible job and write about these incredible characters with the most beautiful readers and I'm living this absolute dream life. And if someone told me this 14 years ago, when I was, you know, 70 pounds heavier, crying in my lounge room at night, every night, cleaning my house like a frantic, panicked woman because I didn't want them to lock me out of my house with it being messy, I would never have believed it. I would never have believed it. So if I can do it, anyone can do it, because I'm nothing special.

Speaker 1:

Well, you are but T. Thank you so much. And how can people find you? Obviously it'll be in the notes, but how to be and I know you're huge on TikTok- oh well, yes, but I would love to take credit for TikTok.

Speaker 2:

but my beautiful girls run my TikTok page but they're fantastic. But Instagram is where you can find me. It's TL Swan. Author. I've got private Facebook groups they're called the Swan Squad VIP, and I've got a website that you can subscribe to my newsletter.

Speaker 1:

So I do Don't forget to get the Mile High Club Deluxe Edition.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you'll see it in the stores. It's this beautiful. The only way I can describe it is and please link a picture of it. So it's this beautiful pink, abstracty art version of Central Park. You will see it, and it's called the stopover. So I'm just so proud of this book. I I love the characters. Even when I was reading it, I wrote some extra bonus scenes for it so that nobody's read before. Oh good, I read the book back and I was just like, damn, this is a good book. How did I do this?

Speaker 1:

You're like I'm good, I'm good, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me.