Fearlessly Facing Fifty And Beyond
The Fearlessly Facing Fifty and beyond podcast encourages women to be fearless and fabulous at any age. Let's be honest, midlife and beyond comes with change. And let's face it, we are a masterclass in reinvention. So let's fearlessly face all the “F” words” together, like fashion, fitness, finances, family, friendships, faith, failures, our futures just to name a few. Let's get fired up about aging and CANNONBALL with confidence into our "next one thing".
Hosted by Amy Schmidt, a sought-after national media expert and thought leader on a variety of topics, an award-winning podcast host, stream show host, TEDx speaker, and author (Cannonball! Fearlessly Facing Midlife and Beyond) who has appeared in hundreds of publications, podcasts, live news, tv lifestyle segments, and radio, she is ready to arm you with all the tools to move the needle on your journey.
As a former journalist, turned what she calls, a ‘trailing spouse’ staying home to raise her children, she believes her voice and action-oriented advice allows people to move the needle on their journey and make positive changes in their relationships. Through countless reinventions, at the age of 49, she knew there was more to do, and she launched her brand and podcast, Fearlessly Facing Fifty.
Get ready to CANNONBALL with confidence and begin pushing play on your next adventure. Let's GOOOOOOO!
Fearlessly Facing Fifty And Beyond
EP 217: Hot Flashes and New Flames: Author Jane Costello's Take on Midlife and beyond
Dive into the refreshing world of midlife fiction with bestselling UK novelist Jane Costello as she reveals the creative journey behind her latest romantic comedy, "It's Getting Hot in Here." With candor and humor, Jane shares how she's boldly reimagining the rom-com genre with a 47-year-old protagonist navigating perimenopause, teenage children, and unexpected romantic stirrings.
After selling over a million copies of her debut novel and publishing 15 books across two decades, Jane offers a fascinating glimpse into her evolution as a writer. Her story begins not with childhood dreams of authorship, but during maternity leave with her first child, when she carved out precious writing time during nap sessions. For anyone who's ever doubted their creative potential, Jane's journey from uncertainty to international success proves that persistence transforms possibility into reality.
Whether you're an aspiring writer seeking practical advice or a reader hungry for stories that reflect the richness of midlife experiences, this conversation delivers wisdom and warmth in equal measure. Jane demystifies the writing process with refreshing honesty, sometimes describing it as "like knitting with spaghetti," while celebrating how her latest book flowed with unexpected joy. Her advice to writers—begin with a compelling idea, create a rough plot outline, and treat writing as a marathon rather than a sprint—cuts through creative intimidation with practical clarity. And her message to her younger self? "Relax more and worry less. Things are going to work out okay." Don't miss this inspiring conversation about finding new creative chapters in midlife and beyond.
Connect with Jane and purchase her book here:
Ready to FEARLESSLY FACE all the F WORDS – be inspired and encouraged?
Get a copy of Amy’s Best selling book: CANNONBALL! FEARLESSLY Facing Midlife and Beyond here
Fearlessly Facing Fifty and Beyond has over 200 episodes with inspiration and stories to age fearlessly and connect confidently to others thriving at midlife and beyond.
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Hey Fearless Friends, it's Amy Schmidt and I am so excited to be back on the air with a podcast for you, as we fearlessly face 50 and beyond, and we also face all of those F-words you know them like friendship and finances and fitness and focus. All of these things that we face and we are going to take them on with confidence. Today's guest is Jane Costello. She's a bestselling novelist in the UK. Her first book, bridesmaids, published in 2008, sold more than a million copies. In 2018, she published you Me Everything under Catherine Isaac. It was translated into 25 languages and actually movie rights were sold to Lionsgate and Temple Hill. She was born in Liverpool, england, and currently lives there with her husband, mark, and three sons, and today we are digging into her newest novel. It's Getting Hot in here. It's going to be a good one. Stay tuned, hey, fearless friends.
Speaker 1:Well, as you heard in the intro, I'm excited about this interview today. I mean one. I love authors, I love them and I always like to hear a little bit about the story behind the book, behind the brand. So, jane Costello, welcome to the show, and I have here, for those that are watching, you can see a cover of this. It's getting hot in here and it is just I love it, I love it and if you are listening with your earbuds, in I will have links for where you can order this book. So today we're chatting with the author and welcome, oh, thank you for having me. Yeah, I mean, we kind of did this last minute. We were like, all right, we're going to do this because Jane's about to go on her tour and she's going all over the US, so how fun is that.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so excited. You know I've been writing for 20 years, I've written 15 novels and you know they've I mean they've been in lots of other countries in the world and you know they're translated into lots of languages and things. But this is the first time I've toured in North America, so I am super excited.
Speaker 1:I love that, I love that, so let's talk about 20 years to get here.
Speaker 1:I was going to say 20 years. I mean you're 35. I mean, starting at 15 was really I know, I know, I think I think it's amazing, so. So writing for me is very therapeutic. It's very like I, when I'm having a really bad day, I think my three grown kids and my husband would say, mom, just go write something, like just go journal, go write something and then come back into the room because you're going to be in a lot better mood. Is it like that for you?
Speaker 2:No, it isn't. I'll be honest with you, it really isn't. I think the difference is actually, that's not true. It can be, it absolutely can be, but there's a difference.
Speaker 2:When you start sort of writing for a living, you have deadlines, you know you have other commit, you're juggling a few things and, and I think the more books you write, the higher you set the bar definitely.
Speaker 2:So you're always pushing yourself and, and I think, if I, the most enjoyable book to write is when is your first one, because no expectations, you know, doesn't matter if it doesn't work, whereas with the ones that come afterwards, you know you, you want it to be better than the last one. You know you want to be constantly improving and you know some books I've had it always. To be honest, I've had some books that have just flown and it's been the most lovely, wonderful experience writing it. I've had other books that have been incredibly like knitting with spaghetti. You know you're trying to, you've got plot points that just you know are really difficult to work through and the fact is you want to make your book as good as possible. It doesn't matter how difficult it is for you, you just want the reader to be reading it and thinking this is lovely, I'm having a great time, you know. So yeah, I've had it both ways.
Speaker 1:Totally had it both ways. I love that you're so transparent about that Before we talk about the book. I love that and the transparency about you know, some days there's writer's block, it's a real thing. It's a real thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you know, I never tend to get actual writers, but I'm always. I'm never short of ideas. If anything, I have too many ideas.
Speaker 1:What are you doing? Jotting them down?
Speaker 2:on sticky notes or something. Oh, thank God for notes on my iPhone. It's like you don't even want to see it. I love it.
Speaker 2:The problem is it's exactly it's brilliant but before then it was always I'd carry a notebook around with me. Um, you know the old-fashioned way, but yeah, you come up with, I come up with so many ideas in the middle of the night or whatever, and, um, so no, it's never, it's never writer's block, it's. It's. It's just trying to make the ideas that you've got make sense, and make sense in a way that fits in with what you've written before and that is going to really kind of push the right buttons with when a when a reader is turning the pages, turning the pages. That's what I'm going for every time. You know, I want, I want readers to absolutely adore spending time with, with my characters, and you know, so you've got to. You know you've got to. It doesn't just happen, it doesn't just happen, you've got to put a lot of thought into it and uh, there's nothing better than a good book when you just get lost in it.
Speaker 1:And there is something about that when you just get lost in it, you're lost in the characters, you just something resonates in such a way and just, yeah, I love that, I love that. So if we were to ask you know friends of Jane's at 10 and 12 years old, back in like middle school days, did they think you'd be a writer?
Speaker 2:That's interesting. You know, I never myself ever thought I would go on to be a writer, for the simple reason, I mean, I loved writing stories. I wrote stories about little animals and you know all kinds of cute things that kids do. But I never, ever, it never, occurred to me I could be a writer. Nobody in my family had been to university.
Speaker 2:I didn't come from a family that, you know, had people published, or you know. I just thought to me, it felt, even when I was sort of in my twenties, as fanciful an idea as saying, oh well, I want to be a rock star, or you know it. Just, it was the kind of thing, being an author just wasn't really. You know, it was the kind of thing, being an author just wasn't really something that happened to people like me. And I think I sort of made the assumption that, even though I loved books, I loved reading, I was always a big bookworm. I kind of made the assumption that you were just born a writer and it was something that happened to you rather than something you could work on or learn and become really good at, simply through the, you know, through sheer hard graft and the, you know, channeling your imagination.
Speaker 1:And it was only it was only when I was on maternity leave that I actually cracked it really, which was 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:Isn't that amazing? And, yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And before then, you know, honestly, I tried multiple times to write books and I'd sort of, you know, I'd managed to do a chapter and then, thank God, where's it going now? I was thoroughly unimpressed with what I'd created and thought, well, this is not as good as anything I'm reading, you know. So I'd given up on multiple occasions, but then just kept trying and kept trying on multiple occasions, but then just kept trying and kept trying and and yeah, it finally happened when, when I was on maternity leave with my first baby and that kind of.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't even know how I did it now, because I mean, you know, it's not that easy when you've got a newborn in the house, is it? But actually I just spent like an hour or two when he was going down for his naps. You know, I just that was my little time and that you know, you talk about you enjoying writing. That was how it felt with my first novel. It was like my time. And yeah, eventually that became. That book was published, to my utter astonishment and, to be honest, that was only ever the idea even of having a book published felt ridiculous. When it happened, it was all my dreams come true and it went on to become a big bestseller in the UK and various other countries in the world. All of that massively surpassed my expectations and continues to do so.
Speaker 1:I think that's amazing. That gave me goosebumps. Just that story. You committed to it and we're all works in progress. I talk about the fact that you know we have to embrace lifetime learning.
Speaker 1:We have to embrace being a novice again and just dedicate that little bit of time when your son was napping, put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, whatever it is that works for you. And it happened, and I think that's amazing. I love your transparency. I just I think it's fabulous. Let's talk about this book. It's getting hot in here. I mean the cover alone, and I just think it's awesome. So take me to that moment. I want to go back to that minute, that moment in time when you said this is what I'm going to write and this is how the title came to be, how, the whole story, how everything. I want to hear it, okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, so the first nine books that I wrote were all romantic comedy and I wrote them under my name, jane Costello.
Speaker 2:And then I sort of got to my late, sorry early 40s and all of those early rom-coms had been, you know, women in their 20s finding Mr Right for the first time in various amusing and entertaining ways. But as I got older I thought, gosh, you know, this age gap was widening between me and my you know my heroines and I sort of thought, you know, I'm not entirely sure this works anymore. So I made the decision to move away from romantic comedy and started writing sort of emotional love stories under the name Catherine Isaac and I wrote five of those. You Me, everything is probably the best known of those and I wrote those for a while. But I got to my late 40s and I've been to lots of book events, particularly in the UK, and people would be coming up to me and say, when are you going to write another rom-com? We love the humor, we love the people just like to sometimes read something that they are, you know, that's really going to uplift them, I suppose.
Speaker 2:And I got that all the time and I kind of and I dismissed the idea. You know I didn't want to go backwards and then I sort of found myself kicking around and thinking you know, I would really love to read a funny, smart, entertaining rom-com that featured a woman, not who was, you know, 20, 30 years younger than me, but actually my age, which, you know, late 40s who's going through all the things that I was going through at the time perimenopause, raising teenagers. Lisa, who is the main character in it's Getting Hot In here. She's twice divorced, so I hadn't been divorced twice, but I have been once, you know, so I know what it's like to be a single mom. She's got this massive juggle on her hands of you know she's working, she's got all this stuff going on with the kids, she's trying to do her bit for the PTA, all of that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, relatable Check, check, check yeah.
Speaker 2:A to-do list that is five miles long and that I just thought you know I need to. I'm the one to write this book. You know I've written all these rom-coms but now I've hit this age and you know I want to write a rom-com. That is for me and I think, of all the books I've ever written, this was. You know we talked about some of them being really difficult.
Speaker 2:This was just an absolute joy to write, from beginning to end. It was so interesting, just so much material in being, you know, in your late forties, it was so much fun and yeah, and the result is it's getting hot in here, which is about, like I say, 47 year old, mom of two, she's twice divorced, she's got this messy past, she's juggling all these and basically she has. When we meet her at the start of the book, she's she's supporting her best friend through breast cancer treatment and into her best friend's job at work. This guy called Zach Russo has swept in and basically caused some long forgotten stirrings that she she assumed were she was well past and was more than happy to see the back off. Um, but it just opens up this whole new chapter in her life and uh, yeah it was enormous fun to write yeah, that's so.
Speaker 1:I could see it being a.
Speaker 2:Oh well, that would be nice, Wouldn't that be?
Speaker 1:fabulous Yep, yep, and I bet everybody that picks up a copy will have a link to where to order it.
Speaker 1:I just, I love it, you know, and I think there's so many stories out there for women. You know, I always say you hold the pen to your autobiography and you know what. You can edit it often, but write your story. It doesn't have to be a bestseller. It doesn't have to be a bestseller. It doesn't have to be a book, it can just be. Write down your stories, because we are really storytellers. I think women are wonderful storytellers and I love that. This book brought you joy. You know to create and so when you wrote that last paragraph of that last chapter and finished the last page, take me to that.
Speaker 2:Don't read the end. Don't read the end, but when you do, you know. The final line was very satisfying.
Speaker 1:Put it that way.
Speaker 2:That's all I'll say for anybody who hasn't read it yet no spoilers, I love it. The final line very, very, very satisfying on lots of levels. So exciting.
Speaker 1:So, jane, for people that are listening or watching today and are aspiring authors, you know, they maybe put it off, they put it on the back burner They've been raising the kids, or if there's somebody out there that's saying I'll do it next year, you know, you know those famous words I'll do it next year when I'm 10 pounds slimmer, or when I've got more money, or when I've got more time. And that never happens, right? I mean, I've been trying to lose 10 pounds for I don't know 40 years.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we all have, I think we all have, but we do that.
Speaker 1:So if there's somebody listening today that heard your voice and is going to read your book, or have read your past books and said you know what I think I want to do this author thing, I think I want to try it, can you give me two things that they could do today, tangible takeaways for them, how they could start that, that creative process?
Speaker 2:Oh, I could give you about 20 things, but I'll try and keep it to two. First one, the first and fundamental one you need to think of your big idea, right that and that you don't have to sit down at a computer or anything, just do it. When you're doing I don't know, on the school run or whatever, or when you're I don't know walking the dog, you think of your big idea and it all stems from there. If you've hit on something that's original, that speaks to you, that you think, actually this is a subject I really want to write on, you're really halfway there. You've got to have the idea in the first place.
Speaker 2:The next thing that I did before I, you know, before I actually wrote my first one and this everyone does this differently. Other authors will tell you something completely different. Everyone does this differently. Other authors will tell you something completely different. We've all got our own way, but I plotted out you know, my rough skeleton of what was going to happen, so that when writer's block was threatening to hit, actually I thought, right, well, I'm just going to push through and I've got a. You know, I know roughly where I'm going and I just need to force myself through it and it is an exercise in sticking with it. It's like it's a marathon, not a sprint, you know. So, yeah, it's one step in front of the other and eventually, if you do that long enough, you know one word in front of the other, you'll eventually have enough.
Speaker 1:I think that's so important because it is and it's a commitment. You know you make a commitment to start something and finish it, and some days might not be the best days, but you know what, you still try and you commit to it.
Speaker 2:And it's a job.
Speaker 1:It truly is. So that's great advice. I love that and I hope that it sparks some interest, because I know there's a lot of aspiring authors out there with wonderful stories to tell and sometimes they just get stuck in fear or procrastination or perfectionism. So throw that all aside because we're all too old for that. Anyway, but I love that advice, thank you, and before we leave today, now I'll be linking how to get the book. I'll also link, you know, I don't exactly know what date this will be dropping, but I will put in there your tour, especially in the US, because you're touring all over the place and I am not far from Tampa right now, so I just think we might need to connect. I'm going to have to figure that one out.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. That would be amazing.
Speaker 1:And it should be warm in Tampa. But I mean, I this is kind of my, I'm hoping so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm Northeast, Northeast girl and Midwest girl and in Florida for my second. You know winter and wow, it's cold today. Like it's cold and I'm a girl that's very used to cold, but I'm like, wow, this is not Florida weather, so I hope by the time you get to Tampa it's nice and warm and sunny. Before we leave today, I want to ask you the question I ask on every episode and I'm always excited to hear what people will say. So, Jane, if you were sitting on the couch and you look over and there you see Jane at 30, what advice would you give her?
Speaker 2:over and there you see Jane at 30. What advice would you give her? Oh, that's so good. Yeah, relax a bit more. Try and relax a bit more and stop worrying so much. You know it was yeah, it was yeah. I would say things are going to work out okay. Yes, isn't that true?
Speaker 1:Things are going to work out okay. Yes, Isn't that true? Things are going to everything's figureable. Good advice, jane, I love it. Thank you for your time today, your flexibility and your patience behind the mic. You never know what happens with tech stuff? You know, we roll with it. We roll with it Absolutely. We got there. We got there. Thanks so much. Safe travels to you and congratulations on it's Getting Hot in here. Everybody check it out.