Marissa chats with Tanaz Bhathena about her YA fantasy duology - HUNTED BY THE SKY and RISING LIKE A STORM - as well as developing complex magic systems that continuously surprise and delight the reader; including an element of prophecy in your novel to foreshadow elements of the plot while simultaneously setting up an unexpected twist; how making a genre shift can be frightening, but there are benefits in challenging yourself to write in the genre that scares you the most; and the great tip to occasionally try writing a scene from your villain's POV (regardless of whether or not it makes it into the final draft).
Books discussed in this episode can be purchased from your local independent bookstore or buy them online from the Happy Writer bookshop.org store (that benefits indie bookstores) at https://bookshop.org/shop/marissameyer
Find out more and follow The Happy Writer on social media: https://www.marissameyer.com/podcast/
Marissa chats with Tanaz Bhathena about her YA fantasy duology - HUNTED BY THE SKY and RISING LIKE A STORM - as well as developing complex magic systems that continuously surprise and delight the reader; including an element of prophecy in your novel to foreshadow elements of the plot while simultaneously setting up an unexpected twist; how making a genre shift can be frightening, but there are benefits in challenging yourself to write in the genre that scares you the most; and the great tip to occasionally try writing a scene from your villain's POV (regardless of whether or not it makes it into the final draft).
Books discussed in this episode can be purchased from your local independent bookstore or buy them online from the Happy Writer bookshop.org store (that benefits indie bookstores) at https://bookshop.org/shop/marissameyer
Find out more and follow The Happy Writer on social media: https://www.marissameyer.com/podcast/
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Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the happy writer. This is a podcast that aims to bring readers, more books to enjoy and to help authors find more joy in their writing. I'm your host, Marissa Meyer. Thanks for joining me. One thing that's making me happy, sort of it's actually kind of just stressing me out at the moment, but it's going to be making me happy very soon. Is it by the time you guys are hearing this episode, my book gilded is going to be turned in to my editor. I only have maybe like, I think six chapters still to revise. So I'm hoping I can wrap it up and send it off tomorrow or this weekend. And I was so happy that it's almost done or at least to this stage it's never actually done. Uh, but yeah, so, so close, so very close. And I'm just like really, really giddy to have a, at least a week in which I don't have to think about this book next week. Yay. I'm so excited. Um, and if you, if I sound a little delirious, cause I'm completely in revision mode right now, it's getting to my brain, but for now I am also so happy to be talking to today's guest. She's the award-winning author of a number of short stories and the why a novels, the beauty of the moment and a girl like that. Her most recent novel hunted by the sky was named a best book of the year and it CQL rising. Like a storm is coming out this June and it's available for pre-order. Please welcome the NAS Bettina. Hi Marissa. It's so lovely to be here for, to have you, how did I do on your name? We practice before and I did my best. You did great, actually. It's perfectly fine. Thank you. I'm so glad. So happy to have you on the show. I know you contacted us months and months ago, uh, to be a guest on the podcast and we were booked so far in advance. Um, but now I'm super excited that we finally get to have you
Speaker 3:Same here. Uh, I'm actually a listener of the podcast. So I was really excited when uh, you guys wrote back and said, Oh yeah, we'd love to have you on.
Speaker 2:Good. Why don't we start with you telling listeners about your current series hunted by the sky and it's upcoming sequel rising like a storm.
Speaker 3:Sure. So hunted by the sky and rising like a storm is a duology, which is set in a world inspired by medieval India and tells you the story of a girl named Goel, who was prophesied to be the downfall of a tyrant King. Uh, when Gold's parents are murdered by the King soldiers, she barely manages to escape and she's rescued by a group of rebel women called the sisterhood of the golden Lotus who trained her in warrior magic. By the time she's 16, all gold wants is revenge. And she infiltrates the King's palace with the help of a reluctant stable boy named Carlos who has some dark secrets of his own, what golden girl was doing, realizes that the palace has its own secrets and that there is more to their burgeoning relationship than just romance, uh, the bond between them and the magic. They realize maybe the only way to end their kingdoms tyrannical rule and in rising like a storm, uh, we come across a new tyrant who's deadlier than any ruler they've ever known.
Speaker 2:Hmm. Um, that brings us right into book two, which I am so excited for. I have to start by saying, I love these titles hunted by the sky and rising like a storm. They're the sort of titles that just give you chills. Like they have their own power to them. I love that.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad to hear that because that's, this is the first time my editors actually accepted a title that I provided.
Speaker 2:So I'm very happy to hear that, uh, usually
Speaker 3:First two books, so whatever titles I had, my editors would be like, no, we need something else. And they used to come up with a different title. So for this one, I suggested it and I thought, okay, they're going to change it again. And they said, okay, this is accepted.
Speaker 2:I thought that was great. I love that. I think readers get really surprised when they hear that publishers so frequently change our titles. Um, and I know a lot of aspiring writers, like when they're getting ready to submit to agents, they agonize over having just the perfect title and I'm constantly telling them like, don't worry about it. They're probably going to change it. Anyway.
Speaker 3:I know that's something that I also I'm like, I'm not too, um, I don't think too much about titles initially when I'm drafting because it's too early, if a stage. And honestly, for me, a title is something that just basically tells me or gives me a sort of vibe or a feel of, of the team of the book. And then that's what helps me start writing. And then I go back and start refining it. Or I look for certain phrases that may be used as a title as well. So it takes some time.
Speaker 2:Yeah. When, at what point in the process did you come up with these two titles?
Speaker 3:Pretty much after I finished right. Of revising the first book. So when I finished revising, hunted by the sky, I, uh, was sending it to my editors and, um, they also wanted a synopsis for the second book. I said, okay, you know what, I need to figure out titles and I need to figure out a name for this duology. So I came up with a hunted by the sky and, you know, I wanted a sort of sky team again. So I was like, okay, rising like a storm, because I knew there would be a war in the second book, regardless of what had happened to these characters. And then I figured out since the series is based in the kingdom of umber, the duology would be called the rap of umber.
Speaker 2:I didn't know the series title, the rather umber. That's awesome. I love it. I love it. I love it. So you mentioned your first two books and I did want to ask you because your, your first two novels were both contemporary. Um, what was the catalyst for now switching over into a fantasy realm?
Speaker 3:Well, that's a really interesting question. So I have loved fantasy for as long as I could remember. I remember as a child, uh, I'd be completely absorbed by stories about werewolves witches vampires. And my first ever story at age eight was about three girls who visited a witch on a mountain. And my first ever short story when I was 11, was about a werewolf at a girls boarding school. But, you know, sometime after that, what ended up happening was that I sort of began to pink. I didn't have the imagination for longer fantasy books. And, um, I S I kind of, sort of lost a little bit of, um, my, I don't know, I just, my mojo, I guess that's the word for it. I just lost it. And, uh, I started writing more realistic or contemporary fiction. And I did that for a very, very long time. At one point I did try writing fantasy again, but someone told me that you don't have the imagination to write fantasy. And I did the mistake of believing them. And for the longest time I continued writing contemporary. Uh, but, uh, many years later when I finished writing my first book, a girl like that, I thought to myself, you know, I'm really bored. I want to do something different. So, um, I thought to change genres, I still didn't have the courage to try out fantasy. So I thought I'd try something more cold. Uncode realistic. And I wrote a science fiction, dystopian novel, which was truly terrible. I, I literally, um, uh, you know, the plot and the setting were horrible, but I really loved the characters in that book. So a friend of mine who read it, she just said, why don't you just put magic in there? And I said, okay, you know, what, why not? What have I got to lose at this point? And I decided to change new technology to magic. I also decided to change the setting from a completely new world to one inspired by India, or more specifically medieval India, which was a historical period that I was obsessed with as a teenager and even as a child growing up. So I was born in India and I grew up for the first years of my life in Saudi Arabia. And I used to go to an Indian school there. And I also watched a lot of Indian television shows, um, especially anything to do with history or mythology was a huge favorite of mine. I used to watch, uh, shows about the Mughal emperor Akbar and his adviser Bebo. I used to watch epics like the ramen and the Mahara. And so these were things I sort of started drawing on when I started writing or rewriting this dystopia into a fantasy. And as I began rewriting, everything began just falling into place. It was as if a door had unlocked and a whole world was waiting for me behind it, all they sort of needed to do was write in the genre that scared me the most.
Speaker 2:That's that's so quotable. We're going to put that on the social media, right in the genre that scares you the most. Thank you. It's such a good reminder because I do, I mean, I think that's a really common thing. I know I've had moments where I was afraid to try something new, or I felt intimidated by an idea as genre a concept. And I'm hearing that kind of a lot these days, um, from, from different writers and not even just aspiring writers, I have published writer, friends who were saying, Oh, I've started this thing in quarantine that like, it kind of freaks me out and I'm kind of really excited, but also intimidated by it. And so I love hearing your story and your approach to it because I never in reading this book would have thought that you went into writing fantasy feeling like it was beyond you somehow, it felt like a really natural fit for your writing voice. Oh, thank you. That, that's
Speaker 3:A huge compliment. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Um, also I have to just like throw out this suggestion. I would totally read a book about a werewolf in a boarding school.
Speaker 3:Ooh. Maybe I have to take it out again. You know, he got a 11 year old than as, as a draft and just terrible. No, I don't think it was that terrible. It was published back in the day for a youth magazine in the UAE called young times. So it was like, yeah, it was, it was one of the times when I thought, Oh, okay. Maybe I'll be a writer. And then my dad said, no, you're going to be in a car. Well, you sure showed him that. Yeah. It just ended up happening. But now I work full-time for an export company. So I do sort of do some accounting on the side, but I also write books, uh, early in the morning. I just wake up with the crack of Dawn and just start writing.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. You said, um, before we started recording that you'd done, like gotten like six things done before breakfast this morning. And are you a morning writer just in general or do you feel like you've been forced to become a morning writer? Uh, also holding a day job?
Speaker 3:Um, I always been a morning person. I think I was forced into being a morning person because from a very young age, my school timings were like at 7:00 AM. So my school was at seven, so I was always waking up at five and now I'm so used to waking up at five that it's like a habit now. I can't even imagine waking up at six is like late for me now. So it's just kind of crazy, right. The way it's turned out to be. So, yeah, I am in general a morning person because the morning is the one-time and I can write in peace and every thing is quiet around me and there's, and my mind is really fresh. So I've just woken up and I'm like, I've not even had my tea or anything. I'm just typing away, whatever. And I just feel that it's a lot, I feel it's very, very conducive to my brain cells.
Speaker 2:I want to go back to your, your world-building, I'm fascinated with this idea that you started with a kind of Saifai dystopian and then decided to bring magic into it. And I love that because the magic system that you've created is very complex. And I mean, it's such an integral part of the story. And so we've got prophecies and we've got gods and magi and storm magic and death magic and animal magic, and all of these things, all working together. Talk to me about kind of your process for developing the magic system and, and working it into the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, the one thing that I knew going in was that I wanted to bring in a lot of, um, Indian magical tropes into this book as well. And one of the biggest tropes that I wanted to bring in was the concept of the avatar, which is basically when gods take on human forms and come on earth. Uh, I sort of changed that a little bit in this particular book. I didn't make it an exact God coming down to earth, but I sort of like played on that trope a little bit. And I really wanted that to be a part of the magic system because in Indian mythology, when you look at, um, uh, great epics, like the Rama and or the mob heart, then you watch them on television. You see these gods coming down on earth and actually trying to write injustices. So it's like, there's a scene in this book where Google, the main character sees the sky goddess who's numbers, patron goddess in a vision. And, uh, the sky got is tells her wherever injustice goes, justice must follow. So it's kind of like a take on the cycle of, uh, you know, karma in a sense, even in Hindu mythology and in, um, in general. So it, it was something that I playing with a lot in terms of the magic system. And also, uh, one of the earliest magics that came to me was whisper magic, which is the ability to telepathically communicate with animals. And that was something that was very instinctive. I always loved the idea of having a horse that you could talk to because I love horses.
Speaker 2:No, I'm fine. It was a Wolf. I really wanted a Wolf familiar,
Speaker 3:But yeah, that, that is something that I really wanted. I, and I thought, you know, I just want this girl to be able to listen to animals. And I, so I just gave her this magic and that's when it started, um, sort of ballooning. And then the idea of a death magic came about and which is the ability to fight and battle. And then there's also life magic, which is completely different. That is the ability to heal and things like that. So the one thing that I did know going in that, whatever magic I put in it had a cost, so it would not come easy to these characters. And I also sort of wanted to make sure that my main character did not have everything come easy to her. And as you read the book, you'll notice that she has a really hard time accessing her magic initially. And for various reasons that you'll find out as you read. But one of the biggest hurdles that she has is that she's been told from childhood that she may be this girl prophesied to bring down a tyrant, but she can barely do any magic at all. And men, she does perform magic. It is completely out of her control. So it was something that I wanted to play around with. And I also wanted to show that whenever anyone performing magic in this particular world, it came, it took a physical toll on them. Because I think that even in the real world, whenever you try to work on something, there's always an opportunity, cost him. This is economics coming in from a previous lifetime. But, uh, you know, uh, it's, it's like, uh, yeah, you always have to pay a price or there's always some sort of sacrifice that's required. So I think that was something that I was really thinking off as I was developing the magic system and yeah, it was all more organic from there. So I knew going in it wouldn't be a very hard magic system with a lot of very specific rules, but a more softer magic, but I just had a lot of fun with it.
Speaker 2:It feels like the sort of magic system that you had a lot of fun with. Like it's very expansive and there's so many different elements to it. And you're constantly throwing in new surprises and new twists and it's like, Oh, we can, we've heard of these. Well, I don't want to give anything. Okay. I'm not going to go there cause I don't want to spoil anything. Um, but I felt like, like the, the magic system, it was keeping me on my toes and I felt like I was constantly new things about the world. And, and I love that because I feel like so often, you know, a book, it will have magic in it, but you feel like right away, okay, this magic is based on spells or this magic is based on, you know, the elements or whatever. And that's fine. I love all that, but I really just loved how complex this, the magic was that you were developing here. And I'm so curious to see in book two, it's like, what else, what else are we going to learn? I feel like you probably have more surprises in store for us.
Speaker 3:Well, a book too is definitely a it's. It's interesting. And like there was, there was a scene, there was a major scene in the climax that really surprised me. And it kind of, uh, ties in with one of the myths of this world that I created myself. Like a lot of people ask me if the book has, uh, is inspired by him, the mythology and the restaurant mythology. And there are some elements of existing myths in this book, but what I did really with this particular series and what I really wanted to do was also start creating my own myths and take inspiration from myths that were already existing because from what I have seen and what I've read a lot of Indian fantasy fiction is consists of retellings of a mythology. And this was something, uh, which was different, what I was doing because there was hardly there's hardly any fiction which really takes that sort of, you know, approach that, for example, game of Thrones, George Martin does where he, you know, basically takes a more historical approach. He takes an inspiration from the tutors and, uh, the war of the roses and things like that. So I kind of was thinking, what about Indian history? There's so much in Indian history that you can actually bring in and mix magic into, especially from 15th and 16th century India, especially the Mughal and the Rajput periods, which was like this huge, expansive period, um, uh, full of labyrinth and palaces and, uh, Wars, uh, many kingdoms that Rose and fell over a very short period of time, sometimes even a few months. And there were all these core politics and drama and intrigue, and there's so much going on. So I was like, I really need to bring this in here.
Speaker 2:Okay. I love history. And now you have made me so curious to go and learn more about this, this period in this time in Indian history, which I know nothing about. I mean, I think I know the story of the Taj Mahal and that's about it. Is there like what resource, like, is there a documentary that I can go and just like live in this world for a little while?
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness. Uh, you know what, the funny thing is that the thumbnail actually comes from the period of, uh, Indian history that I was researching for this. Yes, it does. It's from the Mughal period of history because it was the Mughal emperor Shah who had the[inaudible] built for his second and most beloved wife. Uh[inaudible]. And, um, basically the, the Mughal period that I was really inspired by was, uh,[inaudible] ancestors, uh, October, uh, emperor upper, and also a bunch of other emperor jahangiri's as well. So it's basically 15th and 16th century India. And, uh, I have actually a bunch of resources that you can extras actually, that you can look into on my website. So if you go to Tanaz patino.com and you click on the tab called extras, you will actually find, um, a list of documentaries. You will find, uh, books, um, and resources that I use. So if you want to like look into more of that, there's definitely something you can look into, uh, in terms of movies, if you're, if you want to watch, uh, inaccurate, but really beautiful Bollywood movies, um, I would recommend, um, watching Judah Akbar and also put Marbut of course, Judah Akbar's inaccurate because Judah was not October's wife. She was John Gere's wife, please note history, history, buffs. I am aware of this.
Speaker 2:I'm recommending this
Speaker 3:For someone who is not really familiar with the world in general, and who has not seen the visual beauty of this particular period. And it's, it's something that is really a feast for the eyes, especially the States off Roger Stone and goes rod then in, even in Delhi, which is the capital of India, and you have all these amazing historical palaces that are really worth Wizarding and looking into
Speaker 2:I'm really excited that you had such a complete answer to that question. Like, as I was asking it, I was like, Marissa, what are you doing? Asking her to just come up with resources for research. And you were like, yes, here are all of these things that you should go check out.
Speaker 3:Um, I did the thing is that I've been asked a lot about the research for this particular books. And the thing is I've loved researching this book. I absolutely love history as well. And especially when I was researching this period, it was like, I was excavating like a whole mine of hidden jewels. I was like discovering all these different things. And I was finding out stuff about my own ancestors who were the Parsis or the Zoroastrians when I was reading things. And I was like, Oh, okay. I'm seeing something that maybe I can use in another book for another time, but it it's, there's just a whole mine of beautiful resources about this period. And I just love this period, even when I was like a teenager. And when we had history classes, I would pretty much through most periods of history except the mogul and Raj with period. That's when I would wake up. And I was like, Oh, there's fun going on
Speaker 2:Court intrigue and palaces and Wars. Yeah,
Speaker 3:Exactly. That's, that's really my jam.
Speaker 2:So do you think that you will continue to write in this world? I know that this is a duology and that it will be wrapped up after book two, but do you have ideas for expansion?
Speaker 3:I do. I cannot talk about it too much yet. Um, but I have the, I today I submitted the draft off a book to my editors, which is in this world, but it's in a different team.
Speaker 2:You just say today, today. Oh my gosh. You really did get a lot done before breakfast. I had a lot going on today. Well, thanks for making time out for this podcast during a deadline.
Speaker 3:No, it's, it's fine. I'm I'm good. I'm actually, I'm fine.
Speaker 2:Okay. I want to go back to a hundred by the sky and I really want to talk about the prophecy because I really, really enjoy a good prophecy. I have not used one in any of my books, but I feel like the first draft of everything I write has a prophecy element because I'm just so drawn to them. I love the idea of them. Um, and as a writer, I feel like they're one of those great tools in our writing toolbox that they can, like, they can foreshadow, what's going, what's going on and what's going to happen. But if done, well, they always have a twist, right? Like there's, there's never, they're never quite what they seem when you first hear them. And, and I just love that and I love seeing how writers tackle them. So first question, like at what point did you know that a prophecy was going to be involved in this story and then how difficult was it to write the actual language for it?
Speaker 3:That's a great question. So, because I'm a terrible poet and I actually love poetry, but I have a very hard time with Ryan's and things like that. So even though very early on, I sort of knew there would be some sort of prophecy in this book because there had to be a reason the King was killing off all these girls with star shade birthmarks, uh, because basically there was a prophecy that girl with that sort of birthmark would be the one to bring his downfall. And so I sort of had to figure out what the bigger story was. And then I had a sort of rough draft of the prophecy. And, um, the first two lines of that prophecy was really clear to me because, uh, the initial, like working title of this book was the star in the sky. So, um, the sky will fall the star, a star will rise. So I sort of knew that. And I was kind of honestly even playing with other stuff like nursery rhymes and things like that. So we know the sky is falling. The sky is falling, right? The whole Henny penny, a little thing. I can't believe I'm linking Henny penny to this, but it's good. It's a reality. So we find inspiration everywhere,
Speaker 2:Pricing, surprising anecdote, very, very,
Speaker 3:A real, it's a real thing. So I started writing that and the concept of, uh, the next two lines came in and then, uh, it took some time. It took a couple of drafts before the prophecy was finalized. And I knew going in also that there would be a twist to this prophecy and later on how it would play out. I did not know until the very last minute when I was actually writing a scene toward the end of the book. And I just realized, Oh, wait, this should happen here. And I was totally surprised by it. And I think that twist surprised a lot of people. So the funny thing is that when I started rereading the book, I realized that I'd already planted seeds for that to be possible. So it was like subconsciously, I was already working toward that ending and playing it out with the prophecy as well. But when I was writing, I didn't realize it. And I think for a lot of us writers, when we are in the stream of actually writing the story, we don't think too much. And especially for me, I know I don't like thinking too much and too deeply because that kind of ruins momentum for me. I just like to get in the zone and just write and just, um, flow along with the story and be surprised with it, you know, cry with it, laugh with it, that kind of thing.
Speaker 2:No, I agree. I love when my subconscious surprises me and it seems like it happens at least once in every book where there is a moment where something just shows up on the page that I hadn't planned for ahead and expected. And yet once it happens, you almost get that, that magical hindsight where you're like, Oh yeah, I think my brain has been conjuring this up for some time now. And it's, I just love those moments because it feels like meant to be like, I must be on the right track here. Exactly. I also want to ask you about villains and creating villains because you have some very despicable characters. Um, there is, there's this King who is murdering young girls for like, not a great reason. Um, there's a Prince that like, every time he shows up, I want to smack then of course there's major Shayla who is horrible in many ways, and yet they don't, but they don't feel like character chairs. Like they all had really great motivations. They all felt very fleshed out. Uh, so yeah. Villains, what's your strategy for going about creating them?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I have to mention that I love villains. Um, I absolutely adore writing from the perspective of villains. And my biggest thing is that whenever I get bored of writing from the protagonist point of view, I started writing from the antagonist point of view because the villain is always the hero of their own story. And, you know, for them, it's the protagonist, who's the villain. And they're doing all these messy things who are like interfering with their motives. So for me, I kind of always know going in that if there is a Willan, they have to be three-dimensional, they have to believe that whatever's happening in the world is wrong and they are the one who's who's right. And so for each of these characters, I had to figure out, you know, how this world worked and how, what their place was in this particular world. And, um, with, uh, I know for certain characters were actually inspired by real life, uh, uh, Mughal, princes, and Kings, who were very much known for cruelty and doing cruel things. And so I kind of played off that and there were also other characters who were not Willens, uh, for example, there's another Prince, uh, AMR who is, uh, the nice sprints or whatever that's, um, that's what I'm going to call him. He was actually inspired by a real life historical character called[inaudible] interesting. And he was a Prince and he was more of like a poet Prince during the Mughal period. And he was meant to be King, but then he was jailed by his own brother and, you know, uh, and that's how the brother became the King. So it was a very interesting thing that I was playing with. So I had that idea going in that, you know, there are all these people who do these despicable things because they have so much power. And, uh, there, there's an interesting little anecdote that I came across, um, which will give you a sense of how much power these, uh, Kings had was that, um, uh, there was a time when Mughal emperor, John Gere, who had a real interest in the natural world, he saw a snake eating a rabbit in his massive gardens in his palace. And he said, uh, told us, servants said, Oh, you don't bring them both here. I want to see how it works and how the digestion system of the snake works. And so he began to force the servants to, uh, pull the rabbit out of the snake. And this is getting gruesome now. And since he couldn't see anything, he said, okay, this is useless stuff, the rabbit back into the snake. So literally the confused snake dies in the process. And, you know, we don't even know if this story is true or a myth, but it gives you a sense of the real immense powers that these Kings had and how much they could do. So this was something that was in the back of my mind while I was writing and drawing these characters out and putting them in this specific world.
Speaker 2:Well, it turned out crazy. I was clenching my fists and wanting to scream at these characters so many times my job. Yeah, no, truly. And it's, I mean, it makes a great foil of course, for our protagonists. Cause it just makes you root for them even stronger. You just want them to be victorious so bad. Uh, so on that note, I hope of course, that we get a great victory in book two, a rising, like a storm it's coming out here in a couple of months. What can you tell us about it?
Speaker 3:I can tell you that, um, there is a war taking place. Uh, you will see more of go cavas and the sisterhood. Uh, you will also see more of, uh, new tyrant who is taking bent on taking over the kingdom and wreaking havoc. And there's a lot more new magic that I'm going to be introducing in the book. Uh, there was also a pre-order campaign that I'm going to be starting on April the 12th for this particular series. And there's going to be some amazing swag. Uh, if you pre-order and it's going to be open internationally,
Speaker 2:Can you tell us what any of the swag is? I haven't seen it. Is it like on your Instagram or something?
Speaker 3:Not yet, but I will be revealing the swag on my Instagram at[inaudible]. Uh, you can follow me there and you will see everything in good time.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Awesome. So excited. Okay. We are going to wrap this up now with our happy writer bonus round. What book makes you happy?
Speaker 3:This sort of changes from time to time. So most recently it was a charming as a verb by Ben.
Speaker 2:What is one small thing that brings you a lot of joy?
Speaker 3:One small thing. My God random things like a bear, like cute animals. Like right now I'm wearing this t-shirt uh, you can't see it, but it's basically a Fox wearing reading glasses and reading a book. There's a cup of tea next to it and a hedgehog. And I just, I just don't know. I just kind of felt like this Fox is me and I felt happy and I just like, okay, I'm going to wear this t-shirt
Speaker 2:But Fox is living his best life. How do you feel the creative? Well,
Speaker 3:I take a walk. I do other things, uh, like chores around the house, or I just read other books or listen to music,
Speaker 2:Watch movies. What is your personal mantra? Keep pushing. And lastly, where can people find you? Oh, you can find me on Instagram at[inaudible]. That's my last name and my first name, no spaces. And you can also find me on my website. [inaudible] dot com. Awesome. Denies. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you for having me Marissa readers hunted by the sky is available now. And the cul rising like a storm is coming out this June, as you heard, be sure to pre-order because you'll be able to get some really great stuff. Of course, we always encourage you to support your local indie bookstore. If you can, if you don't have a local indie, you can check out our affiliate store at bookshop.org/shop/marissa Meyer. If you're enjoying these conversations, please subscribe and leave us a review. You can follow us on Instagram at Marissa Meyer author and at happy writer podcast until next time stay healthy and cozy in your bunkers. I hope I won't be saying that for very much longer and whatever life throws at you today. I do hope that now you're feeling Oh,
Speaker 1:[inaudible].