Extreme Fandom―An Interview with Bethanie Finger of Prince Kai Fan Pod: A Marissa Meyer Book Club Podcast

In today's special edition episode of A Book and A Dream, Megan O'Russell is joined by Bethanie Finger of the Prince Kai Fan Pod. Tune in as they discuss Marissa Meyer, The Lunar Chronicles, and how the YA Fantasy genre retains such high readership amongst not-so-young adults.

Find Bethanie and the Prince Kai Fan Pod at:
https://princekaifanpod.wixsite.com/website
https://www.patreon.com/princekaifanpod
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/princekaifanpod/
Instagram: @princekaifanpod
Twitter: @PrinceKaiFanPod

Transcript

Megan: 0:02

Honestly had avoided reading the books because I didn't like cover of the first one.

Bethanie: 0:08

[Gasps] The cover is what got my attention.

Megan: 0:09

Welcome to A Book and A Dream with Megan O'Russell: An Author's Adventure in Writing, Reading, and Being an Epic Fan Girl. Hello and welcome to this special guest episode of a book and a dream. Today we have Bethanie Finger from the Prince Kai Fan Pod, and I am super excited to have Bethanie here with us because not only is she a fellow podcaster but she has taken fan girling to a whole new level and I am super excited to get to talk to Bethanie today. So Bethanie, you started the Prince Kai Fan Pod, which is specifically based around the lunar Chronicles series. Now, I actually had not read any of those books until I started chatting with you on Instagram and I picked up cinder so that I would know more about why you love the lunar Chronicle so much and why you love Marissa Meyer so much. And it's a great series. I've only read the first book so far, but it really is lovely. So I'm first of all very grateful to being led for that because I honestly had avoided reading the books because I didn't like the cover of the first one. The cover is what got my attention. I was like, ah, I don't know. Like another girl who wears high heels for a whole story, like I don't know, I'm more a boots person, but I'm so glad that I dove into the series. So what led you to cinder and what created this huge love for the lunar Chronicles?

Bethanie: 1:55

So I've always been a young adult reader, mostly even now, I'm 30 now and I haven't grown out of it yet. So, but I love fairy tale adaptations. I got really hooked on them a few years ago after reading Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. And so I was walking around, I believe it was target and I saw that cover with the red high heel and the name Cinder. And I immediately had the thought, okay, this is definitely some kind of Cinderella adaptation. I just grabbed it, I buzzed through it in like a few hours, got done reading around three in the morning and went straight to Walmart to buy the sequel. And then every year it was just anticipation. Yeah, waiting for the next one to come out.

Megan: 2:38

That's amazing. I love how quickly you went into it and that it was available at Walmart because it's so hard sometimes when you want the next one and you just can't get it. I I, it's weird but I hate when I get like a paperback and then I really want the next one and then it's like, Oh do I get the ebook for the instant gratification or am I going to wait for it? So have you always been one to like dive super deep and have huge fandoms because that's starting a podcast is not easy. Like learning how to record and to build a fan base and then you have like social media based around the Prince fan pot as well. Don't worry, I will be sharing all of the links in that everything. But have you always been one to devote that much love to a series?

Bethanie: 3:34

Not at all. I, I love Harry Potter. That was the first book series I ever read without parental help. And I read it when the first book came out. I read it, I was seven years old and read it right away. And that was probably the first and only series that I got drastically attached to. But even that one, I didn't dive into the fandom as much as now. I mean, I never went to release parties. I never went to midnight showings of the movies or anything like that. And podcasting was something I got into a few years ago when I worked in data entry because sitting on a desk for eight hours is boring. And so I had some friends recommend some podcasts and, good golly, there's so many podcasts about Harry Potter. But I, I've listened to several Harry Potter podcasts. I even found one recently on the Twilight book series and one on the TV show friends. One that I like on the TV show, how I met your mother and for probably over a year I was looking for one about the lunar Chronicles because I just kept thinking, somebody has got to have done something about these books and no one had. And I just kept looking like once or twice a month, I would be like, is there anything yet? No. Okay. And I was talking about it with my husband one day and he was like, why don't you just do your own podcast? I was like, I could do that. I could do that. I talk a lot already. That could be something I do. And so then it was just a matter of, you know, all the pieces coming together because it does take a lot of work and there's so much trial and error, uh, but it's definitely been much bigger success than I would've originally thought going into it. I was like, well, I know my family will listen, but

Megan: 5:21

I, I think it's so fascinating because there's something like I, I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I was 11 when the first book came out and I did do like all the midnight release parties. I was living in Manhattan when one of the books came out and that you couldn't get a copy anywhere. So I like took the train back up to my home in upstate New York so I could get the book and like read the last book in probably like less than 24 hours. So I appreciate like the all immersive fandom. I got to see Cursed Child on Broadway, which was amazing. But even with something as large as Harry Potter that has created, you know, theme parks and merch and movies and spin off movies of the movies, it still seems like focusing on that one topic for a whole podcast would be so hard. So how do you work to create like the sustainability of the podcast to keep it going, to keep it interesting. What are your plans for it as you move forward?

Bethanie: 6:24

Well, originally I had, um, a couple of co-hosts, but as we just talked about, podcasting can be a lot of work and trying to juggle the schedules of three different people. One of my cohost has two beautiful twin boys who are two years old and yes, and her and her husband have a very adventurous lifestyle. They have an RV and they go from campground to campground, so they're busy. Uh, the other cohost is in the military, so of course she's very busy. So it became this thing where now what I do is every episode I have a guest. So that kind of keeps everything really fresh because there's so many different perspectives. When I'm reading the chapter, I take notes and I keep track of everything. But we definitely go on tangents. And because there's so much, you know, socioeconomic differences in this series with there being, you know, multiple species that have segregation issues and clear prejudism against each other, there is a lot to talk about and there is a lot to relate to our own society because we do deal with those things as well, especially in the current climate. There's a lot of sexism going on and in this series there's a great deal of women trying to overcome those boundaries. And I think that that makes it easy to talk about it. It provides a lot of content where we not only get to discuss the plot and what we think these characters are going through and what their motivations might be, but we also get to relate it to our own world and the lives that we live in, our own experiences. And in that way, I get to share multiple perspectives of this book with very different people every episode.

Megan: 8:05

Now is that one of the things that made you love the Luna---the lunar Chronicle so much was that there was so much to sort of unpack and pick apart in all of it because there are those for the people who have not read any of the lunar Chronicles. It's uh dystopian sci-fi-esque and it really does have a lot to do with the, has the have nots, illness, racism, all those things. So is that what drew you in that there are those details that you can relate to or was it more the characters?

Bethanie: 8:39

What drew me in initially was just the fact that it was a fairy tale adaptation. Cause as I said, I'm very fond of those. But what kept my attention was how unique of a fairy tale adaptation it was. And the more I got to know the characters and the, the more I was invested in the outcome of what that story was going to be and the development of these characters and their connections with one another. And the more you read it, the more closely you read it, you realize how many things defy despite the fact that this is a dystopic novel that takes place hundreds of years in the future in a very different society with very different forms of human beings. You know, there's human beings that live on the moon that have genetic modifications from living on the moon. There's human beings that have been to have their lives saved by different cyborg genetic mutation like enhancements. So the more you read about those differences between those types of people, I think the easier it is to relate it to your own society. And it's all told from the perspective of different people, which I think also helps keep it interesting. We get to see the perspective of sender, the protagonist, but we also get to see the perspective of Chi, which is sort of the male protagonist slash love interest of senders. And I think those different viewpoints help keep it interesting because you're going back and forth trying to figure out, well we know as the reader how each of these people feel and what their experiences are, but they don't get to communicate that with each other. And so a lot of the story unfolding from the first book, even to the last book is those characters going through their own experiences and how they overlap to tell a bigger story.

Megan: 10:22

Yeah, I think I don't, have you ever read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo?

Bethanie: 10:26

I have not

Megan: 10:28

it, it's a, I would call it a, um, fantasy heist novel. I'm sure people would argue with me about that definition. But one of my favorite things about it and what really got me hooked on the rest of her books was the fact that there are six unreliable narrators because each of the members of the heist team sort of gets their own point of view at different points in the story. And there's only ever one of them that really knows what's going on and he's totally willing to let everyone else die. So it's so amazing and I think that it is a very good point that the way that we dive into stories are sometimes the information that we're not giving by the characters and the information that we are allowed to see that other characters in the book are given to you. So you can have the those moments of like, why is this happening? If you would just have a conversation, he would just stop and talk to each other. And when I was reading cinder I, there was never really a moment like with six of crows where I was like, well I don't trust you and you're going to let everybody die because cinder is really cool and would totally not do that. But there were a lot of those moments where you're like, can we stop the elevator? Can we please just stop the elevator and have an honest conversation right now? And you know what this is. No, we're just okay. It's fine. It's fine. Like, okay, everyone can die. It's fine. Nope, I'm not giving any spoilers here. Not everyone dies. I mean maybe they do in the end. I've only gotten through book one, but there was so much of that where I was like just, Oh, I just want you to talk to each other. But that is because I am an author and that is always one of the hardest things of like D when do you want to satisfy people and when do you want to like push them off that cliff where like there's a big possibility of them rage to writing the book. And I really appreciated that about cinder was like I, I never wanted to stop reading but I was real close to rage throwing. And that is such an awesome balance that she has found. Now obviously you are pretty deep in the fandom. You have podcast guys coming on. So you know a lot of people who love the lunar Chronicles. Has the Marissa Meyer and lunar Chronicles fandom been welcoming to you? Is it a nice community to dive into? Cause I know like Harry Potter man, some Potter heads, they get vicious. You don't know exactly who won which world's cup. Like it gets bad. So would it be a good fandom for people to join into?

Bethanie: 13:11

Yeah, we this fandom and I say we, cause I like to consider myself a part of it now.

Megan: 13:19

Oh, I think you definitely are. You're in like the Royal court.

Bethanie: 13:24

It's extremely welcoming. I was genuinely surprised at how much support we got even before we actually started the podcast. I did a great deal of research for probably two or three months and a lot of the articles that I read suggested get your feet wet, you know, started Instagram where you start telling people, Hey, I have a podcast coming out and this is what it's going to be about. And that's what I did. And before we even posted our first episode, the Instagram account had almost a hundred followers because people were just so excited and so ready to go. And we have so much support the podcast, and I do because we get listeners who send in emails with questions or you know, we do this thing called an Easter egg because a lot of the books have a great deal of foreshadowing that doesn't come to fruition until like three or four books later. One of them doesn't even come into fruition until the graphic novels, which is like several books later. Oh wow. I do this thing called Easter eggs. The podcast is spoiler free, but I keep track of all those little clues and if I miss one, I get so many Instagrammers that'll just be like, Hey, did you think of this as an Easter egg? And I'm like, no, that's great. And it's never anything negative. It's never anything harsh. There's a lot of support. I started doing fan art Friday, so every Friday I share fan art from artists that I've met on Instagram or Facebook. Who or who just send me emails and reach out to me and that's helped grow the community. We actually have several different Instagram followers who will mention us on Marissa Meyer's page every time she does a podcast, like three or four of our listeners will leave a comment that's like, this is great. You should go on this other podcast called Prince Kai fan pod and this cool marketing thing. One of the most surreal moments that I had recently with this fandom is I went to the North Texas teen book festival because Marissa Meyer is going to be there and I wanted the chance to meet her. I made her a tee shirt that had, you know, Prince Kai fan pod on it and a cup that had Prince Kai fan pod on it and a little card that had like all the information for Prince Kai fan pod. And she was very gracious. She was very kind. Um, I met like 20 people who not only heard about the podcast but loved it and I got to take a picture with a lot of them. One girl even asked for my autograph, which has never happened in my whole life. And I think that's when I really felt like, Oh, I have like actual, I have actual friends. Like this is an actual internet friendship that I've created through this podcast because these people, they just saw my shirt and they were like, where did you get a Prince Kai fan pod shirt from? And I'm like, Oh, I'm Bethanie. And they're like, Oh my God, are you really? And there was one young lady who overheard me talking to someone else and just kind of whipped her head around and was so excited because she recognized my voice. That's so cool. It was very surreal. The fandom has been incredibly welcoming. I've never had a negative experience. I'm very lucky that I haven't made any mistakes. I think it helps that I don't mention anything that happens in the future. So I don't make mistakes because, you know, I just read the chapter and then we talk about it like the next day. So I don't make mistakes because it's so fresh in my mind. And I think with Harry Potter, when you try to reference something from four and a half books ago or three and a half books later, it can be hard to get all those details sort of memorized. And I think maybe the Harry Potter fandom has gotten too big and that's why, you know, the bigger you get, the more room there is for negative energy. So at least so far the podcast and I have gotten a lot of very much appreciated support.

Megan: 17:16

That's, I love that it's been such a welcoming and open community. That's fantastic. And it's gotta be pretty cool for Marissa Meyer too, to know not only does she have fans who are devoted enough to start a podcast, but that there's enough of an audience to sustain it. Like that is a very cool thing for an author to like have that base built up that much for like these wonderful little side things to come into play. Now do you have plans to expand the podcast after you get through the lunar Chronicles eventually or, I mean it's gonna. It's a long series. It's going to take you a while. Like that's looking way in the future.

Bethanie: 18:02

So right now tonight I'm, no tomorrow night I'm recording chapter 25 of Scarlet, which is the second book. So there's still three more books plus two graphic novels in this series. And then Marissa Meyer is going to be the focus of the rest of the podcast. So we're going to do her book heartless, which is a queen of hearts origin adaptation. And then we're going to do her Renegade series, which is a superhero series. She's in the middle right now of writing a new book series, but she hasn't given us a lot of clues as to what it's about. She has a new book coming out this November called instant karma, which we're going to cover. So basically I'll just be doing this projection and I'm not even going to start the third book until like July. So I mean it'll probably be another, and this isn't an exaggeration, it'll probably be another two years before we even finish the lunar Chronicles. So plenty of time to do all the other books.

Megan: 19:02

That's, that's amazing. And it's nice that I had to an author who keeps producing new work. See you have other things to jump into because you, you are, your goal is to be, outside of the podcast world, a school librarian. Is that correct?

Bethanie: 19:18

Yes. I actually, I will graduate in one month and start my master's program like three weeks later.

Megan: 19:28

Congratulations. That's amazing. Now do, because you are so interested in[inaudible]. Do you want to become a junior high, a high school librarian or where, where are you looking to fall in that?

Bethanie: 19:43

I would absolutely love to be a high school librarian because when I was in high school I got the opportunity to work in my high school library as a sort of student assistant. So I really enjoy getting to do that and I'd love to be there. Again, I did teach preschool for three years, so I would be completely comfortable getting to have those introductory moments with a younger audience. You know, kids that are ages like three to 10 before they hit middle school. That's when you really want to get in there and influence their love of reading and get them hooked on it. So that would be fine. I'm currently doing a practicum at a middle school and I didn't think I would enjoy that age cause it's very hormonal.

Megan: 20:28

It's a lot. That's, that's a big age. There's a lot happening.

Bethanie: 20:32

I've gotten really close with some of these kids that are there and I really enjoy getting to work with them. So I think any age level I would be comfortable with.

Megan: 20:42

Now I know in our handy little interview him that we went through before you, you love Yia because of the the moments and opportunities that it allows the readers and the characters to have. And that's one of my favorite things about writing by AA because you have these characters who have the autonomy of an adult but are still going through a lot of firsts in their lives. So is there a specific joy that comes with working with those middle school aged kids where they're experiencing those moments at the same time?

Bethanie: 21:25

I think the most that I've been able to do is just finding ways that I've connected with them in like really small situations. There is an issue right now, which I'm sure everyone is aware of, where girls are punished for school dress codes that would distract male students. And one of the biggest ones is leggings. I stand firmly on the side that no one's education should be sacrificed, boy or girl. So I don't think that girls should be, you know, sent home on suspension because their clothing might attract another person. And I don't think that that other person should get exemplified either. So talking to these girls about, you know, why can't I just wear leggings? I have a hoodie on. You can't see anything underneath it. I mean, I don't understand the big deal and why do they have to follow these dress codes? And I got to reveal a little secret to them that dress codes never go away. And they were astonished to find that out because they were like, Oh, I can't wait until after high school when I never have a dress code. It's like, I hate to be the person to tell you this, but you will have a dress code everywhere you work. I worked waitressing, I had a dress code being a law, uh, being uh, a secretary to a lawyer. I had a dress code working at all of garden. I had a dress code. Even being a student teacher there, I had a dress code and it's just men are going to have to follow those same dress codes. My husband has had dress codes in the past. He's in the military, so he's a really strict dress code. Now. So that was a really big moment for me getting to share that information with them because I think it's an opportunity for them to realize it's not there that we have to follow these dress codes just because of somebody else's interpretation of what clothing we're wearing or what it might mean. But it is something that we need to get used to. And maybe someday society will grow out of that. But y'all never, you're not going to see that anytime soon. And so you just need to make those adjustments. And you know, if the rule is you can't wear leggings, I say go get jeggings cause they're pretty similar but they have pockets. So at least there's pockets

Megan: 23:42

And everybody loves a good pocket. Actually my, because you know, quarantine chic, my husband spit in gym shirts and he finally put on the pair that he hates because it has nose pockets. And just this morning over breakfast, he was like, how do women exist like this? We're not even leaving the house. He's in the kitchen and he's worried about podcasts. I'm like, vengeance now, you know. Now why? I think, cause I, I have never worked in a public school, but I am a actor is like my day job, which is weird cause you know, really sensible day job. Um, but I've also taught a lot of students and one of my favorite things about being with students that age that relates so much to Hawaii is getting to see them getting to see things click in their head, like the dress code where you get to see them figure it out. And I love putting those moments into books and it always comes out in a much more heightened way because you know, unless there's going to be a revolution about leggings, which there absolutely should be, it would be hard to like make that into a really big plot point. So what are some of your favorite like click moments, growing up, moments that you've found in the lunar Chronicles and other series where you, you see a character go from, why is it that I can't do this to, Oh this is the way that it has to work, but I'm going to change how the leggings work, how the worlds work, those, those moments of development that are so cool and why gay. Are there any in the lunar Chronicles or any in any of your other favorite books that you can share with us?

Bethanie: 25:26

There's several in the lunar Chronicles, because the majority of the characters are between the ages of 16 and 22 and I don't know about you, but I'm 30 and I'm still on that self discovery journey. So, so there's, there's a lot of really great opportunistic moments where like you mentioned the elevator and I think back to my first interaction with a, you know, potential significant other. And I was 15 and I'd had a crush on this boy for at least a year and I couldn't get two coherent sentences out every time he was around. And I think back to moments like that when I'm watching these two characters who can barely talk around each other if it gets brought up that there might be interest, but otherwise they're comfortable talking to each other and they come to these moments of like, it's now or never, I have to do this. And another thing that's great about center, the protagonists of the first book and kind of the main protagonist of the whole series is that she's finding out a lot of different things about herself and her past throughout the whole series. So she's constantly having these moments of like, Oh, that's okay. That's why that happened me in my childhood. Okay, that makes sense. And some of the other characters have moments like that too, especially Scarlet and the protagonist of the third book crest because there's just little gaps from their childhoods that don't quite make sense. And getting those reveals and getting to experience with them like that moment of, Oh, okay, that kind of explains everything I've ever had questions about my whole life. It's the same in Harry Potter when you know it's, you start this book with this poor kid and everybody's mean to him and he gets bullied and they cut his hair and he sleeps under the staircase with spiders and they're mean to them at the zoo. And then it's like, Oh, the reason he was able to jump on top of the roof, the reason he was able to free a snake from a glass case, the reason he was able to grow his hair back three inches overnight is because he's a wizard. What an extraordinary moment for this character that we met two chapters ago to suddenly realize that every peculiar and strange thing that ever happened to him as a child wasn't just because he was weird or an anomaly. It was because he had these magical powers brewing inside of him. And now he gets to start this whole journey where he discovers little things about himself and it becomes more than just, okay, wizard boy, wizard school's cool stuff. It becomes this, you know, sort of coming of age story that just so happens to take place in a magical world. And that's kind of what this series is. Obviously there's much bigger obstacles going on and much bigger plot points, but it's these main characters coming of age coming into their own, realizing their hopes, their dreams, what they want their future to look like, how their future might change from their original, you know, dream and idealistic idea of what their future was going to be like. How they grow as characters, how they see themselves, how they see the world. You go through these journeys with them where they really start to understand the world around them. And that's, I, like I said, I'm still doing that at 30 but I remember being 15 and 16 and there's so many bombshells that happened where near that age, you know, when you start working, or I got my first apartment at 16 there was all kinds of questions that came with that that I never thought I'd have to ask. And high school for some reason prepares you for geometry, but not real world. So.

Megan: 29:11

Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's very true. I, I think that's such a cool thing about why and how it does transcend just young adult readers. Cause I know you occasionally get the hater who is like, okay you're, you're 30 or 40 or 50, like why are you still reading these way books? And honestly, as I go by what the Facebook algorithms tell me, most of my readers are like 35 to 70 year old women and I write why. So it's one of those like what do you say to people who don't understand why you are, so going back to these, why AA books when you are chronologically at a different point in your life.

Bethanie: 30:00

I think young adult is the easiest age group to connect to and relate to because we all had similar experiences at one point or another. I'm not saying that, you know, the Prince asked me out in an elevator, but obviously I had, I had strange interactions that were kind of awkward and embarrassing with my first boyfriend or whatever. And I remember reading the something borrowed series by Emily Giffin when I was, um, 18, 19, somewhere around there. And I loved it. It's still one of my favorite series, but I couldn't really relate to some of the characters and what they were going through because they were mid to late thirties and going through these big huge life changes that you know at at 18 was like Whoa, way scary in the future. And I can't even read something borrowed anymore because it's about an affair. And when I was, you know, 18 I wasn't married so I didn't really care. But now I'm married and I can't read a book about a marital affair. It's too difficult for me. But you know, at 18 you can easily relate to somebody else who's 18 and even at 30 you can easily relate to somebody else who's 18 and you can even have this moment of, man, I wish I knew that when I was 18 or Hey girl, I've been there when I was your age. I didn't understand that stuff either. And I think that that makes it the easiest age group to connect to because you know, imagine trying to read Bridget Jones's diary at 14 everybody's been telling you your whole life, smoking and drinking is bad. And that's all this girl does. So that alone is enough to make you be like, well, what's so cool about living in great Britain and being 30 and drinking and smoking all the time, reading it as a 30 year old adult, it's much more enjoyable. It's much more entertaining. It's much funnier and more clever and more amusing. But when you're a kid trying to read it, you just can't connect to that character the same way.

Megan: 31:54

Yeah, it's, it's so true. I, I I my favorite thing about YA is discovering the first, but it is also that universal relatability where it's so true that no matter really where you are in life, we all had those awkward firsts. We all had that weird crush. We all had the weird first kiss. We all had those. I don't know who I really am. I don't know how to understand my family. I don't know how to choose my future. We all have those things. And then the beauty of way, and especially why I fantasy like cinder is how heightened it gets to be. And that's, that's such a cool thing. Now I don't want to keep on here too much longer. So they thank you very much for sharing your love of the lunar Chronicles and Marissa Meyer. Before I let you go, is there anywhere you would like to direct our listeners to find you and I will make sure that I get all of these links down below the V uh in the show notes.

Bethanie: 32:58

You can find the podcast everywhere at Prince Kai fan pod, ww.patrion.com/ princekaifanpod. Honestly, if you Google Prince Kai fan pod, uh, the Facebook comes up, the website I created comes up Patrion Instagram things we had been tagged in. So you can find us at Instagram, at PA, uh, Prince Kai fan pod. You can find Facebook, Prince Kai fan pod, wixsite.com/princekaifanpod is the website that I created for us. It's really easy to find now that we're so established,

Megan: 33:34

I love that you cornered the market. So I'll get all of those links and the information for that in the show notes. And it is time for the final four. So if you could only recommend one book, which would you choose

Bethanie: 33:48

Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Megan: 33:51

And why do you love it so much?

Bethanie: 33:53

It's the perfect standalone novel and it's, it's got romance, it's got fantasy, it's got adventure, it's got horror and mystery. It's intense and thrilling and it's a complete story from beginning to end, but still leaves you with all these questions at the end of the story, you can tell that it's the end of our story, but it's not the end of the story of these characters. There's no The End, there's no happily ever after. This is the end of our journey with these people, but it's not the end of what they're going to go through in their lives. And I think that that makes it a perfect reread because then you get to see all these little clues that lead up to that moment of where those characters might be going after the book finishes.

Megan: 34:35

Very cool. I will actually have to check that out. That sounds amazing. All right, and what song can you count on to pump you up and lift your spirits?

Bethanie: 34:44

Anything by Taylor Swift. But definitely right now the man is my favorite. By her, it's just very female empowered. And wouldn't it be nice if we could live life with a couple more privileges?

Megan: 34:57

That would be amazing. I actually, I watched the music video for the man awhile ago and I love it and I love the direction and I love the casting of it. I'm not gonna say what it is cause everyone should go watch the video. So if you don't know it, go watch the video. It's amazing. All right. Why?

Bethanie: 35:15

I don't know if you know this or not, but the UK, there was a woman in the UK parliament who quoted that song during one of her speeches to try and get a bill passed to protect women from, I believe stalking. And she said quoted, you know, in the words of the brilliant Taylor Swift, why are women still running as fast as they can? Wondering if they'd get there faster if they were a man and listening to that audio[inaudible] man, there is no limit to where this music could go and who could reach it because I don't care if you like Taylor Swift or not. That's a relatable song for any woman. That's amazing. I think.

Megan: 35:58

Love that. It made it all the way to the UK Parliament. It's Taylor Swift and Hermione Granger, they got this. So what do you want the tagline of your life to be?

Bethanie: 36:08

Kindness.

Megan: 36:08

I think that's amazing and especially in this day and age we can all use that.

Bethanie: 36:15

Especially right now with this Coronavirus stuff I mentioned on my own podcast that my first attempt to go to the grocery store when it hit, I got hit by a cart and I'm tall. So that card is like right at rib cage level and it's because everybody is hyper focused on themselves. And I was in the aisle waiting my turn to get toilet paper and I'm five feet tall so I couldn't reach the last stack and all these people walked past and grabbing theirs and walking. There's two sacks left. This guy comes up who's easily six, three cause my husband's six one and he was definitely taller and he grabbed both of them and I had this moment of like, Oh great, I missed it cause I'm short. He put one in my cart for me.

Megan: 37:01

Oh that's so nice.

Bethanie: 37:03

I can't tell you how happy that made me after 30 minutes of people shoving and being rude at Walmart and you know, people were taking stuff out of each other's cards and what, I just want people to be kind. I really do. I feel like it's so underrated and he know[inaudible] it makes a difference. It really makes a difference on how other people treat you on how you treat other people. Uh, my friend Erin Glenn told me that he read an article a little while ago about red flags when you're dating someone and one of them was leaving carts in the parking lot and not putting them in the car corral. If that person can't take 20 seconds to put their card away, they're never going to treat you as good as they should. They're never going to take the time to give you the attention you deserve. And I was like, wow, that's so true. I hate people that do that.

Megan: 37:56

It is so true. And it is like such a weird little thing to look at with that bigger perspective. But it's so true. Just put it back where it goes. It's not that hard.

Bethanie: 38:05

Well before the Coronavirus outbreak, that was something I used to do. Is if I passed one I would put it back, I actually, my friend Amy, I took her kids to target with me one time and we all, there was four of us and we passed and I was like everybody go grab a cart. They were like, why? I was like, do you see them blocking spots? I didn't put it there. No, but we're going to be the good people. We're going to put it back. Spreading the joy.

Megan: 38:28

One cart, one cart at a time. So one final question. What is the most inspiring thing anyone has ever said to you?

Bethanie: 38:41

So I deal with a lot of insecurities cause I'm a human being and I'm very transparent about them. Probably too much so. And my sister Lindsay has always been one of my biggest cheerleaders and biggest supporters. And she told me that I was the hardest working and most joyful person she had ever met. And she said this to me right after she graduated high school and sort of joined the workforce and realized how incredibly hard you have to work to survive. And I just, I've always carried that with me, that I'm her older sister and I want to be a good role model for her and for our younger sister, Samantha. And so everything I do, I try to maintain that, that level of, I want to be positive, I want to be energetic and I want to be hardworking, because there are people that are looking up to me and I don't want to let them down. I want to be the person that my sister sees me as.

Megan: 39:42

That's amazing. I love that. I love that you are, your inspiration is to be a role model to other people. That's, that's fantastic. And it has been fantastic to have you on A Book and A dream today. Bethany, thank you so much for coming on and for sharing your love of why fantasy and of the lunar Chronicles and pinch Kai and Marissa Meyer. And I will make sure to direct everyone to your sites and you, you know, good luck. Stay safe. Thanks for coming on the show today.

Bethanie: 40:10

Thank you. I hope someday you can come on the podcast and talk about Scarlett.

Megan: 40:15

I'll have to read fast.