[SPEAKER_12]: and welcome to our show.
[SPEAKER_12]: The shit no one tells you about writing.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm best selling author Bianca Marie, and I'm joined by C.C.
[SPEAKER_12]: Lira of Wendy Sherman Associates and Carly Waters of PS Literary.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hi everyone, today's guest is a USA today bestselling author, who has won five Agatha Awards, five Anthony Awards, the Daphne, the McEverty, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award.
[SPEAKER_12]: As an on-air investigative reporter for Boston's WHDHTV, she's won 37 Emmy Awards and many more journalism honors.
[SPEAKER_12]: A past president of National Systems in Crime, a founder of Mystery Riders of America University,
[SPEAKER_12]: She lives in Boston.
[SPEAKER_12]: That's my pleasure to welcome back Hank Philippi Ryan.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hank, welcome back.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm such a fan Bianca.
[SPEAKER_12]: This is wonderful.
[SPEAKER_12]: It is amazing to get to speak to because I am a mutual fan.
[SPEAKER_12]: I just want to say, in terms of excellent literary citizenship, I am always talking about this on the podcast about giving back to our community.
[SPEAKER_12]: And honestly, there's nobody who does it more than Hank.
[SPEAKER_12]: and thank you are so busy and you're just all fine time to get back constantly to the literary community.
[SPEAKER_13]: We're all in this together, right?
[SPEAKER_13]: And you do exactly the same thing.
[SPEAKER_13]: Not only do I absolutely love my colleagues in the literary community, but I'm fascinated by them.
[SPEAKER_13]: I'm absolutely curious about what they do and how they do it.
[SPEAKER_13]: What better way to help spread the word about a good book?
[SPEAKER_13]: I mean, someone says, do you want to read a good book and then interview and author about it?
[SPEAKER_13]: I'm like, yes, I do.
[SPEAKER_13]: That's what I would love to do in any lifetime.
[SPEAKER_13]: So I'm very grateful for the opportunity.
[SPEAKER_12]: but I really do just want to point out that it's a lot of work that is not paid.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hank is constantly paying it forward and we really, really appreciate her.
[SPEAKER_12]: So for those of you watching on our YouTube channel I'm holding up all this could be yours which is Hank's latest book that we're going to be discussing today.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm quickly reading the flat copies so that you've got some context and then I've got a huge list of questions so we are diving straight in.
[SPEAKER_12]: all this could be yours.
[SPEAKER_12]: In a different city every night, Tessa received standing evations from fans while her husband and two children share her on from their brand new dream house, but there's a chilling problem with Tessa's triumph and book tour.
[SPEAKER_12]: She soon realizes she's been stalked by someone who's obsessed not only with sabotaging her career, but also with destroying her perfect family.
[SPEAKER_12]: Tessa feels the fallout from an impossible decision she once made, what felt like a genuine deal with the devil appears to be coming due.
[SPEAKER_12]: If Tessa con entangle who's threatening to expose her darker secrets, she'll lose her career, her family, and possibly her life.
[SPEAKER_12]: Don't, don't, don't, talk about high stakes, hack.
[SPEAKER_12]: right.
[SPEAKER_12]: So quickly I'd love to know the inspiration for this as an author, was there something that came to unbooked to tell us about it?
[SPEAKER_13]: Well, you know, someone said to me that a good idea is like putting a mentor into a coke.
[SPEAKER_13]: Have you ever done that?
[SPEAKER_13]: You put the mentor into a coconut kaboom, it explodes.
[SPEAKER_13]: So the mentor was pretty good and the coke is pretty good, but together it's a completely different proposition.
[SPEAKER_13]: And that's exactly what happened with all this could be yours.
[SPEAKER_13]: It started with a mistake, a bookstore owner.
[SPEAKER_13]: I was going to do a book event for one of my other books, the house guest and the bookstore owner made a graphic that said, see Hank Philippi Ryan and the hotel guest.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I thought, come on, the book is right there.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's the house guest.
[SPEAKER_13]: And then I thought, well, but the hotel guest, that's not a bad idea.
[SPEAKER_13]: That's not a bad title.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I sort of tucked that away, but I couldn't do it because I had my book, the house guest.
[SPEAKER_13]: So then fast forward, I was in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Poisoned Penn Book Store, the famous haven for mystery readers and others.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I signed a book to someone that said something like, so wonderful to see you in Scott's Tale and the date and my name.
[SPEAKER_13]: And then I thought, well, there's an alibi for someone.
[SPEAKER_13]: You know, right?
[SPEAKER_13]: It proves that I was there and they were there and we were in Scott's Tale together at that certain time at my signing on that day.
[SPEAKER_13]: Then I started thinking about all the other things that we all signed in books.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you for a wonderful evening.
[SPEAKER_13]: What could that really mean?
[SPEAKER_13]: or it was so lovely to see you, or thank you so much for everything you've done.
[SPEAKER_13]: I'm so grateful.
[SPEAKER_13]: And you can weaponize that.
[SPEAKER_13]: And any way you wanted, and I started thinking about, because only authors think this way, only crime fiction authors think this way.
[SPEAKER_13]: How could I take everything on book tour, like signing a book, a lovely, wonderful thing that we all desire beyond anything, and weaponize that into being a terrifying thriller.
[SPEAKER_13]: So I thought about schedules.
[SPEAKER_13]: Every single place we are as authors is on our website.
[SPEAKER_13]: We want you to come.
[SPEAKER_13]: We want to be public.
[SPEAKER_13]: We want you to know where we are at 7pm on Tuesday.
[SPEAKER_13]: on the other hand.
[SPEAKER_13]: That means everybody knows where we are at 7 p.m.
[SPEAKER_13]: on Tuesday and everybody also knows where we aren't and that started becoming really chilling to me.
[SPEAKER_13]: So I took the hotel guest, the mental, and I took this vulnerability of authors, the cook, and put them together to create this sort of cross-country cat and mouse chase, this sort of book tour from hell
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, you got the kaboom, Hank, you put the mentoring and the kaboom did was amazing.
[SPEAKER_12]: There was so much of my own experience for my first book tour because nowadays they don't really do Book tours as well as they used to many years ago.
[SPEAKER_12]: But, you know, they're being in...
[SPEAKER_12]: hotels and not knowing what city you actually in and not knowing what city you're going to tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_12]: And these stream of strangers faces, the whole thing, it was, it was incredible.
[SPEAKER_12]: So anybody, never mind the story in terms of, you know, what we're going to unpack.
[SPEAKER_12]: Anyone who wants to know a book tour is like read this book.
[SPEAKER_12]: It gives you so much because, and that's obviously based on Hank's experience.
[SPEAKER_13]: So for me, because I tell my author friends, don't read this book until you get home.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's too creepy to read on the road because it's so personal and so meta that it's sort of disturbing to think about how every single thing we do on the road can absolutely be dangerous.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, yeah, I mean, it freaked me out.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm not going to lie.
[SPEAKER_12]: I mean, we go.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm kind of glad I didn't have to go on to across the US for this particular book that I brought out.
[SPEAKER_12]: So yeah, so let's talk about the book within a book.
[SPEAKER_12]: So your book is called All this could be yours.
[SPEAKER_12]: There is a book within a book.
[SPEAKER_12]: The main character writes a book called All this could be yours.
[SPEAKER_12]: Can we speak about your process there?
[SPEAKER_12]: Did you have to first figure out what book she wrote and what that was about so that you could talk about it on the road or was that something that evolved as you were writing?
[SPEAKER_13]: That's a really interesting question because that was such a pivotal moment of the book because when I started writing my book, all this could be yours.
[SPEAKER_13]: I started thinking about how Tesla's book, all this could be yours,
[SPEAKER_13]: And I have to tell you, and I'm not sure if it's laziness, procrastination, or just sort of how writers work.
[SPEAKER_13]: But I just thought, you know, I'm just going to write this and see how this book evolves to be.
[SPEAKER_13]: I knew I didn't want to write a thesis whole book in the book, or even much of a thesis book in the book, because I wanted the readers,
[SPEAKER_13]: to figure out for themselves what her book must be about.
[SPEAKER_13]: By a supreme amount of clues, clearly it's about female empowerment, clearly it's about a confident woman, clearly it's about a woman who gets her life back, clearly it's about a woman who's had something terrible happened to her, and inspirationally succeeds.
[SPEAKER_13]: And that's parallel to Tessa, my main character's life.
[SPEAKER_13]: So it's clearly a woman's book.
[SPEAKER_13]: Tessa goes to bookstores and libraries, and she's just applauded and sheared by the people who attend her events, and she's clearly inspired them, and they want to be just like Annabelle in the book.
[SPEAKER_13]: And as a result, they want to be just like Tessa in real life.
[SPEAKER_13]: And so it's sort of conflates my main character, Tessa Calloway's life, with her main character, Annabelle Browns,
[SPEAKER_13]: life.
[SPEAKER_13]: So the book in a book is sort of a vehicle for the story and sort of a way to make the whole thing super meta because I'll be on book tour talking about a book called All This Could Be Yours, which is about a author on book tour talking about a book called All This Could Be Yours.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I absolutely love that, but I also love that you didn't first sit down and go, okay, this is exactly what this book is about because, you know, as she speaks and certain people ask her questions about the book at highlights, why that book resonated with certain people and we're getting an understanding of why she wrote this particular book.
[SPEAKER_12]: There's a lot of curiosity seeds and you have to keep turning the pages to figure it out, but I like that that evolved.
[SPEAKER_12]: something that you do so well and we discuss that with your last book as well is the ticking clock.
[SPEAKER_12]: You always have this ticking clock which is so propulsive.
[SPEAKER_12]: I mean, the story happens over how many days.
[SPEAKER_12]: I think it happens only that's a tough question, Bianca.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm not going to worry about all week.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, it's around about a week and then obviously we have flashbacks to the past but in terms of the actual linear timeline, it's about a week.
[SPEAKER_12]: and the stakes keep getting up and things keep happening so the tension keeps ramping and we spoke about this in the previous interview about the narrative thrust and how that needs to be moving forward relentlessly in a story like this, a psychological thriller.
[SPEAKER_12]: So can you speak to us a bit about how you approach that when writing?
[SPEAKER_13]: It's fascinating and I was really lucky about the structure of this book because on Book Tour, Book Tour has a structure of its own, a relentless ticking clock structure of its own.
[SPEAKER_13]: Tessa is in a different city every day, in a different airport every day, in a different hotel every day, in a different bookstore or library every day, in fact, except for the flashbacks.
[SPEAKER_13]: the present time of the book takes place only in airports, airplane hotels, bookstores, and libraries.
[SPEAKER_13]: And Tessa, in her job, in her real life, must be at a certain place at a certain time.
[SPEAKER_13]: And if she misses her schedule, if she misses a plane or if a plane is late or if she's held up somewhere, her entire schedule falls apart.
[SPEAKER_13]: So every moment of every day, she's on this stressful tightrope of making her schedule work.
[SPEAKER_13]: And so from a writing point of view, that makes it really fun and to write, because she has to get up at the crack of dawn to go to the airport to make the plane, the plane has to be on time, the plane has to arrive on time.
[SPEAKER_13]: She has to get her suitcase, she has to get the hotel, she has to get to the bookstore, she has to get to the library.
[SPEAKER_13]: I'm stressing myself out by saying this to you.
[SPEAKER_13]: But it has hard to, and you know the feeling so thoroughly.
[SPEAKER_13]: But it has the built-in pressure, not to mention that she's the sole bread winner for her family.
[SPEAKER_13]: So if she doesn't sell books, if she doesn't succeed, her family situation completely falls apart.
[SPEAKER_13]: Because her husband, although he's lovely and wonderful and her children are darling, her husband can't really hold a job.
[SPEAKER_13]: And so this is all on Tessa's shoulders.
[SPEAKER_13]: Meanwhile, the publisher and her publicist and her editor in New York are calling her saying, how's it going?
[SPEAKER_13]: How's it going?
[SPEAKER_13]: Are you selling books?
[SPEAKER_13]: Is everything working right?
[SPEAKER_13]: You know, do it, do it, do it, do it.
[SPEAKER_13]: Or else your career is over.
[SPEAKER_13]: So on the one hand, Tessa is this glamorous, successful best selling.
[SPEAKER_13]: What we always hope we'd always be as parational author.
[SPEAKER_13]: She's the best that it could ever be.
[SPEAKER_13]: On the other hand, as she realizes in the book,
[SPEAKER_13]: who's going on someone else's schedule and she cannot fail.
[SPEAKER_13]: She cannot make a mistake, she cannot be one minute late and the stress level of that or everything will fall apart or family her career, her life will fall apart.
[SPEAKER_13]: So that has a built-in ticking clock.
[SPEAKER_12]: and all really high stakes because it's a family, it's a career, it's living other people down.
[SPEAKER_12]: So you know, whenever we say in stories that we need really high stakes, this is a perfect example of that.
[SPEAKER_12]: Something that you said now also made me think because it's quite interesting to see the balance of agency and infantilization that kind of happens on author book tours because you have to wake up and you have to meet the people.
[SPEAKER_12]: But in fact, you're working on a schedule,
[SPEAKER_12]: that is being put together by your publicist and the bookstores.
[SPEAKER_12]: And when you come in, you kind of get shepherded down to sign books.
[SPEAKER_12]: And you've got to keep repeating the same sort of spill over and over.
[SPEAKER_12]: Unless you come up with something different for that particular city.
[SPEAKER_12]: So there is the agency, but there's also you're just going along the schedule.
[SPEAKER_12]: And you can't deviate from that schedule or else it's going to cause huge issues.
[SPEAKER_13]: I mean, personally, and vis-à-vis Tesla, my fictional character.
[SPEAKER_13]: Personally, it's incredibly stressful to be unbooked to it.
[SPEAKER_13]: I embrace it.
[SPEAKER_13]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_13]: It is as wonderful as anything could possibly be.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I think about it like being an actor in a Broadway show almost.
[SPEAKER_13]: You know, you come on stage every night, and you do the performance, and you know that you have to be absolutely 100% at every performance, because there are people in the audience who have never seen you before.
[SPEAKER_13]: So even though it's something that you've done essentially over and over, that's essentially the same, although yes, it is absolutely different in every city, my responsibility in test is responsibility just like a Broadway actors responsibility is to absolutely give it your all every time and that's how I think about it and that's how test that things about it too.
[SPEAKER_13]: And even additionally, with readers who you and I adore and rely on, those people are the people who have read our books and connect with our books.
[SPEAKER_13]: So Tessa and you and I feel a real a genuine affection and a genuine responsibility to those people to give it all we've got.
[SPEAKER_13]: On the other hand,
[SPEAKER_13]: You know, you and I both know authors who go on book tour with bodyguards who have bodyguards who come with them to their events because sometimes fans and that's why it comes from the word fanatic, sometimes does it, sometimes fans decide that because they love your book, they love you and because they love you, you must love them and they must be your friend and you owe them something.
[SPEAKER_13]: And if you owe them something and you disappoint them, then they're going to turn on you.
[SPEAKER_13]: And so this is another balance that Tessa has to deal with.
[SPEAKER_13]: She and all of us have to deal with.
[SPEAKER_13]: She genuinely loves her readers.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I had tried to make that very, very clear book.
[SPEAKER_13]: That Tessa is in love with this whole thing.
[SPEAKER_13]: She just didn't realize the stresses that it would bring.
[SPEAKER_13]: And she didn't realize how terrifying it would be.
[SPEAKER_13]: Does anybody have any questions?
[SPEAKER_13]: Then there's that little silence where she wonders, oh my goodness, is this going to be the time that someone asks me the question, I don't want to hear.
[SPEAKER_13]: And you know that feeling that when they say here's the Q&A and you think, oh please, please, please let this be not terrifying.
[SPEAKER_13]: And for Tessa, it turns out to be terrifying, and it gets more terrifying as the cities go by.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, I mean you do such a great exploration of the parasocial relationships between authors and their readers etc and the expectations that people have of authors and because authors now interact with them on social media people think that they have a friendship and like you said they are those expectations there.
[SPEAKER_13]: is interesting because we genuinely, they're, I mean, there are friendships, certainly develop online and, you know, on social media.
[SPEAKER_13]: There are people that we authentically love, that we don't really know, that we just meet on social media.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's just this dangerous line that sometimes gets crossed, and we never know when that's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_13]: And for Tessa, it's happened.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_12]: And also during the Q&A's, people can ask the most inappropriate questions that have got nothing to do with your book.
[SPEAKER_12]: And you should respond to them honestly.
[SPEAKER_12]: And the scary part that Hank really leverages here is that one event doesn't happen in a vacuum because people post about it on social media.
[SPEAKER_12]: People will go test it was really KG about this question in Portland or Seattle.
[SPEAKER_12]: And then the next people who go to see her pick up on that and run with it as well.
[SPEAKER_12]: So something you do really well as you talk to your character about constantly upping the tension and stakes.
[SPEAKER_12]: Can we speak a bit about that?
[SPEAKER_13]: People always talk about, put your character up the tree, get your character up a tree, and then throw rocks at them.
[SPEAKER_13]: And Donald Moss talks about asking, what would be the worst thing that could happen to your character at this moment?
[SPEAKER_13]: Then how could you make that worse?
[SPEAKER_13]: Then how can you make that worse?
[SPEAKER_13]: And I absolutely rely on that.
[SPEAKER_13]: I mean, I've been a television reporter for 40 years.
[SPEAKER_13]: And if I went up to somebody's house and said, hello, Mrs Smith, I'm Hank Philippi Ryan from Channel 7.
[SPEAKER_13]: Did you murder that guy?
[SPEAKER_13]: And they say, yes, I did.
[SPEAKER_13]: Then that wouldn't be much of a story, right?
[SPEAKER_13]: So the reason we write a story is that something happened, something high-stakes, something important, something
[SPEAKER_13]: absolutely life-changing happens.
[SPEAKER_13]: And those kinds of problems don't get solved instantly.
[SPEAKER_13]: So my goal is to have you love my main character Tessa, root for Tessa, and be absolutely terrified with her as everything she always wanted seems to be going down the drain.
[SPEAKER_13]: And it makes sense if you have a stalker, if you have someone who's out to ruin your life and ruin your career.
[SPEAKER_13]: But they would be doing this step by step by step because part of the quote quote fun for a bad guy is to let the victim know that they are on to them and watch them twist slowly slowly in the wind and see if they can escape.
[SPEAKER_13]: And if there's a DNA to my books, it is that there's a strong woman who gets the rug pulled out from under her.
[SPEAKER_13]: And she has to figure out how to get her life back.
[SPEAKER_13]: So for Tessa and for Emma Bell in the book in a book, that's exactly what the progression is.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, and in terms of getting the reader on board with her, I mean, you begin with a scene that is her walking into an elevator.
[SPEAKER_12]: Tell her readers the scene you began with and I'll talk about how that immediately gets us on her side.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_13]: I mean, that prologue, which I don't call a prologue, it's just an opening, was the last thing I wrote interestingly.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I thought, I need to let people know where Tessa is coming from with this.
[SPEAKER_13]: So Tessa is a corporate trainer, which she calls a soul crushing job even though sometimes it's rewarding and one day at her corporate office, it's just the last straw she's in a meeting and she tells everyone what she thinks is a great idea the men on the board absolutely ignore her and 10 minutes later.
[SPEAKER_13]: a guy comes up with the same idea and he's lauded and applauded as a genius and she just can't take it anymore And then she's assigned to help him with his brilliant project and she just says no I'm just not doing this anymore.
[SPEAKER_13]: I have one life.
[SPEAKER_13]: I have one life to live.
[SPEAKER_13]: I have one chance I have one possibility of following my dreams and I'm not gonna sit here in this office and be invisible She says I could rob a bank
[SPEAKER_13]: and get away with it because I am so invisible.
[SPEAKER_13]: So Tessa is tired of being invisible and walks off the job live on Instagram and people are with her saying go for it, go for it, we're so ready, we're so ready and she's empowered and look what happens to her though when she becomes too visible.
[SPEAKER_13]: so that's part of the story as well.
[SPEAKER_13]: But I do agree with you.
[SPEAKER_13]: I mean, I think it's so relatable to think how many of us have thought, you know, I'm invisible.
[SPEAKER_13]: Why does nobody listen to me?
[SPEAKER_13]: You know, am I I'm here?
[SPEAKER_13]: You all.
[SPEAKER_13]: So this is Tessa's desire to take her life back and we see that in real time at the beginning of the story.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, and most women can relate to that.
[SPEAKER_12]: So you give us something relatable and we immediately relate to her.
[SPEAKER_12]: We are immediately cheering her on, which makes the rest so much easier.
[SPEAKER_12]: I'm glad that you came back and added that at the end because I really think we needed to see that shift in her.
[SPEAKER_12]: You know, we needed to see her make that decision and see her vulnerability as she steps off that cliff pretty much.
[SPEAKER_13]: And we also know from that little opening that she's a loving mom with adorable children and she loves her husband and that she just wants to take her life back a little bit.
[SPEAKER_13]: I think that feeling is really empowering and relatable, as you say, for all of us.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, yeah, very much so.
[SPEAKER_12]: So the challenge with writing this kind of book hank is that it can feel so much like grandhog day, right?
[SPEAKER_12]: Because in all the waking up needing to catch an Uber or be met by their driver, going to the airport, waiting for their flight, being on the flight, getting to their hotel, going to the book event, over and over and over again, can feel very much like grandhog day.
[SPEAKER_12]: So can we talk about how you were able to differentiate each day by the increasing threats?
[SPEAKER_12]: by the different people who arrive, the inappropriate questions that get asked, and the different kind of booksellers, etc, that she interacts with along the way.
[SPEAKER_13]: So that is such a great question, because happily, I never thought about that as a pitfall that it would seem a little bit like groundhog day, because this sort of structure in my mind was this escalating structure, that
[SPEAKER_13]: Tessa is the target and that she's a target on the move.
[SPEAKER_13]: So she always thinks, well, if I go to the next place, I'll be safe and everything might be fine.
[SPEAKER_13]: And then she begins to realize that the threat is following her, which means that the threat is real.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's not her paranoia.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's not her imagination.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's not her
[SPEAKER_13]: exhaustion and starvation from being on book four, but something is something is really happening that she cannot ignore.
[SPEAKER_13]: And what we learn eventually, soon, is that test of fears that it's her fault, that what's happening to her, that so
[SPEAKER_13]: threatening and so sinister was her own fault as a result of a sort of Faustian bargain what really felt like a deal with the devil that she made some years ago and she wonders if the devil is coming back to claim his due.
[SPEAKER_13]: So it's even more difficult for her to deal with because if she says something to people about this then they'll say why do you think this is happening to you and she'll have to reveal the secret that will ruin her life.
[SPEAKER_13]: So she's pressured from all angles of it.
[SPEAKER_13]: So there's a different hotel, it's a different, I mean, yes, it's true that on book tour, it all runs together and it all seems the same and you really have to wake up in the morning and look at your schedule to find out where you are.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I use that Bianca to show the disequilibrium of a person who's out on the road who has, I mean, the idea that you don't even know where you are, that you don't even know what day it is, is really discomforting.
[SPEAKER_13]: And I use that to make the story be even scarier.
[SPEAKER_13]: I hope.
[SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, very much so, because it shows how untethered she is, how disconnected from reality, she's away from her family, she's away from her husband, even her conversations with her editor and her publicist etc.
[SPEAKER_12]: You know, happens over the phone and there's kind of a conversation early on where she gets told what's in her publishing contract and what would come back to
[SPEAKER_13]: her agent who's tough, says to her, are you okay?
[SPEAKER_13]: Is everything okay?
[SPEAKER_13]: And Dessa says yes yes yes everything is okay I just don't want to talk about my personal life and she's sort of getting ready to go and book tour and her agent says You don't you don't have to talk about anything you don't want to talk about in public, you know You stay private as much as you want to stay private and the agent pauses that and says unless there's really something bad
[SPEAKER_13]: And if there's really something bad, you better tell me that right now because you have a clause in your contract, that's a sort of moral to-per-tube contract.
[SPEAKER_13]: And if you do anything that puts you or your book or the agency or the publisher in a bad light, you're doomed, you're toast, you're done, your career, we're not only the over but you'll have to give back your advance.
[SPEAKER_13]: So you better tell me now if there was anything in your past and she says, no,
[SPEAKER_13]: That's why.
[SPEAKER_13]: And the question is, will that come back to haunt her?
[SPEAKER_13]: And the other thing that you brought up that I think is so interesting is that yes, she's dealing with her husband and her two adorable children back in their new home, which her husband bought with the advance.
[SPEAKER_13]: Again, now the mortgage is too big.
[SPEAKER_13]: And she only deals with them on FaceTime and on Zoom.
[SPEAKER_13]: So she realizes that she's only seeing the video, the pictures that her husband is allowing her to see on FaceTime and on Zoom.
[SPEAKER_13]: What's outside of the camera range she begins to wonder that her husband is controlling what she sees of her own family and she wonders why is he doing that and what's going on back home and she cannot go home to find out.
[SPEAKER_12]: right?
[SPEAKER_12]: Because she's so aware of letting everybody down.
[SPEAKER_12]: So even if she wants to go home, she can't because there's instances where something happens and a bookstore thinks she's canceled her event and this is a really big deal.
[SPEAKER_12]: Like a bookstore can lose a ton of money if they have to refund people for tickets or Tetris.
[SPEAKER_12]: So she's got a lot of pressure on her.
[SPEAKER_13]: I mean, it's interesting because this started out to be a fast-paced propulsive thriller, and I hope it's still making that.
[SPEAKER_13]: But it turned out to be, interestingly, sort of a love letter to bookstores and librarians and to readers and to writers, because when I had to focus so clearly on what matters to a bookstore, what matters to a library, and what they really do, and how difficult it is to run a bookstore, how one bad event,
[SPEAKER_13]: can ruin your bottom line for a week and so Tesla also realizes and we all realize that the success of our events leads to the success or failure.
[SPEAKER_13]: of the bookstores bottom line and that I just wanted to make sure in the book that bookstore owners know how much we as authors are aware of that and how readers should be aware of that.
[SPEAKER_13]: So that when people say, oh, I don't need to go to the event at the bookstore, we say, yeah, you know, you do, you do.
[SPEAKER_13]: If you want those bookstores to say in business, you need to go,
[SPEAKER_13]: to these bookstore events and by book.
[SPEAKER_13]: So that was my subtle message.
[SPEAKER_13]: That was my subtle message throughout the book.
[SPEAKER_12]: It was amazing and I just like I recognize so many of these bookstore owners.
[SPEAKER_12]: I know you've fictionalized all of them, but I was like, oh, what if this is so and so here it's just
[SPEAKER_12]: such a wonderful insight into publishing, into the world of publishing, who all the author has to be accountable to, who they have to work with, and who champions the author, and they for help make them successful.
[SPEAKER_12]: So really just for anyone who just wants to understand publishing, you know, read this for that, but I mean read it as well because of his such a page donor.
[SPEAKER_12]: such an excellent thriller.
[SPEAKER_12]: Something that I also wanted to discuss Hank is that in the modern day, I found it as an author.
[SPEAKER_12]: It's really difficult to write misunderstandings or disconnects because you know, however many years ago that was easier.
[SPEAKER_12]: Nowadays we've all got cell phones and we've got various ways to
[SPEAKER_12]: speak to each other and they social media etc but a lot of this book relied on those disconnects people not being able to talk things through in the moment which then led to something else and I loved how you just kept coming up with more and more interesting ways for these disconnects I mean some instance it's the children's bedtime or the couple is about to really get into it and then the children walk in so that
[SPEAKER_12]: Tessa doesn't want to argue with her husband while the children are there so can we speak about that in terms of losing reception and an elevator or losing reception because there isn't Wi-Fi, it's sector.
[SPEAKER_13]: You know, the way I try to write a novel is by asking what would really happen.
[SPEAKER_13]: What might really happen in this situation?
[SPEAKER_13]: What would really someone do or someone think?
[SPEAKER_13]: And that's why, here's a little secret of the book, that's why Tesla lives in Massachusetts, but I center to the West Coast on book tour.
[SPEAKER_13]: That makes her three hours time difference with New York and with her husband.
[SPEAKER_13]: So that instantly sets up this difficulty in communications because when you're on a different time zone from someone else, you know, the rhythm of your life is different.
[SPEAKER_13]: You're always interrupting something or somebody's always awake when somebody else is asleep and the timing is all off.
[SPEAKER_13]: So obviously, in writing a thriller, communications can't be easy.
[SPEAKER_13]: But I've told myself that I can have one dead cell phone battery in my entire life in my book.
[SPEAKER_13]: So I have used that no dead cell phone batteries, but the things that can really happen.
[SPEAKER_13]: You can't use the difference in using a cell phone on an airplane.
[SPEAKER_13]: The idea that office hours are over.
[SPEAKER_13]: The idea that as I said that there are different time zones.
[SPEAKER_13]: The idea that when you're on tour or when you're in real life, when you're on tour,
[SPEAKER_13]: you're starving, you're exhausted, you're under pressure.
[SPEAKER_13]: You know, I can't talk to my husband at five minutes until the time that I'm supposed to leave for my event because I have to be at the event.
[SPEAKER_13]: So every single moment of every single day, there is a structure on how much time and author has.
[SPEAKER_13]: How much time tests it has.
[SPEAKER_13]: So she's always saying, we need to talk about this, but we need to talk about it later because I have to be at the bookstore, I have to be at the library, I have to be at the airport.
[SPEAKER_13]: and that kind of pressure is real isn't it?
[SPEAKER_13]: It's not contrived difficulties.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's what would really happen in real life.
[SPEAKER_13]: You get on the airplane and they close the door and you cannot use your phone, that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_13]: So I have I enjoy that.
[SPEAKER_13]: I love that, you know, the obstacles, one of the things that I think makes a book work.
[SPEAKER_13]: is how a main character or any character responds to an obstacle that's put in their way.
[SPEAKER_13]: When there's an obstacle, the character has to make a decision about what to do about that obstacle.
[SPEAKER_13]: And we can learn psychologically, we can reveal a lot about a character by that decision-making process, right?
[SPEAKER_13]: Do they do the wonderful, lovely, selfless thing, or do they do the vinyl illegal horrible?
[SPEAKER_13]: selfish thing and then after a decision comes action.
[SPEAKER_13]: So every time there's an obstacle, necessarily there has to be action as a result and then the book moves forward.
[SPEAKER_12]: It wasn't incredible because it was all plausible and I was all like, oh my god, I've been there.
[SPEAKER_12]: That's happened to me.
[SPEAKER_12]: So it was just, yeah, it was, it was really amazing.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I was laughing because she's constantly eating salted things.
[SPEAKER_12]: She's having pretzels and stuff.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I remember on one book to her, my blood pressure went through the roof.
[SPEAKER_12]: And I couldn't understand why and it was all the salted almonds salted pretzels all of that.
[SPEAKER_12]: Hank, we're at the end of our time, which I don't know how that's happened.
[SPEAKER_12]: It's flown by, but for our listeners as well, we're often saying they need to be tension between what the character is saying and what they're actually thinking and what they're feeling.
[SPEAKER_12]: And what we have yet is a huge people, please, are someone who wants everyone to feel
[SPEAKER_12]: appreciated who wants everybody to feel comfortable, but she's not comfortable, so she's saying all the right things, but what she's feeling and thinking completely contradicts all of that.
[SPEAKER_12]: So this is a masterclass in that to be writing what a character says, but what they're actually thinking and feeling.
[SPEAKER_12]: It's something I still wanted to chat to you about Hank, but we run out of time so everybody get the book so that you can learn the masterclass of how to do that.
[SPEAKER_12]: Thank you so much for joining us, Hank.
[SPEAKER_13]: Oh my pleasure.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's always so much fun to talk with you.
[SPEAKER_13]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi everyone.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you so much for joining in with us for this bonus episode.
[SPEAKER_09]: I am Emily Summer from East City Bookshop in Washington, DC and I'm coming to you solo today without Bianca.
[SPEAKER_09]: So we'll see if I can manage to record this on my own.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you as always for listening and thank you to those friends who sent in their comp requests after our brief summer hiatus.
[SPEAKER_09]: we will dive in with your requests and hopefully I can suggest some great titles for you.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm looking for help with more recent comps from my psychological thriller that's Megan Miranda's all the missing girls meets Ruth Ware's Align Game and in a Dark Dark Woods.
[SPEAKER_03]: This coming-in-a-vage story is for adult audiences but features flashbacks from the teenage years after best friend vanishes without a crazed feeling and band ends every other relationship she has including the love of her life and leads her home pound and a desperate attempt to save herself.
[SPEAKER_03]: seven years later, the death of their mother forces her back, and now she's given herself 14 days to get in and out, so she can bury her mother's self or child at home and move on.
[SPEAKER_03]: But her returns, bears an overzealous detective to re-examine the cold case, drawing herself and her friends under the microscope.
[SPEAKER_03]: With threatening notes and rhyming on her doorsteps, she continues to mislead the investigation in the death of the attempt to keep her secrets hidden.
[SPEAKER_03]: With the clock ticking, her perfect composure starts deteriorating as she tries to keep her high school sweetheart and her new fiancé apart.
[SPEAKER_03]: But after new evidence comes to light
[SPEAKER_03]: With their own future on the line, she must upside between the life she's built in the city or face all the mistakes she made or used without ending up in jail or worse.
[SPEAKER_09]: So for this first one, I really like the Megan Miranda and Ruth Warecomps.
[SPEAKER_09]: I particularly like the Megan Miranda mention.
[SPEAKER_09]: That feels very right to me, given her prolificness, how many books she has.
[SPEAKER_09]: I feel like she has a lot that draw on flashbacks from previous events, people who have returned home.
[SPEAKER_09]: That feels right.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think to these comps, don't always have to be very specific titles, but for readers of,
[SPEAKER_09]: And for readers of Megan Miranda, I will also add Stacey Willingham.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think Stacey Willingham's books feel a lot like Megan Miranda in a really great way and that their mysteries with lay women, protagonists, they're not detectives and like Megan Miranda, they have that same sort of sense of great place and great character.
[SPEAKER_09]: If I remember correctly, Stacey's first couple of novels have some flashbacks or at least
[SPEAKER_09]: situation that calls back and harkens to something that has happened in the past and our characters are coming to terms with it.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I think that those are very good for sort of the overarching feel of the book.
[SPEAKER_09]: For a more direct comp title, one of my favorites in recent years that I think I have mentioned in previous segments, knife river by gesting champagne or champagne.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's
[SPEAKER_09]: A woman has left home after her mother's disappearance.
[SPEAKER_09]: She is doing everything she can to escape.
[SPEAKER_09]: She has left her sister behind.
[SPEAKER_09]: She's left her small town behind.
[SPEAKER_09]: And she's essentially on the run trying to outrun her past.
[SPEAKER_09]: When her mother's body is discovered, she has to return home and deal with all of the things that she's been running away from for years and years.
[SPEAKER_09]: It is outstanding one of my favorite mysteries of the last couple of years from dial, I highly recommend it, and I think it would fit in this case, and it is a great read, even if it is not exactly the right conc title, so everybody should put that one on their list.
[SPEAKER_14]: Benny and the regrets is a dual timeline dual point of view second chance romance with the tone and structure of same time next summer.
[SPEAKER_14]: in the themes of Dizzy Jones in the Six, while the first comp works the second is too big, and instead of 70s, minus set in the 90s, it's the summer Wilder turns 20, and she's never been in love.
[SPEAKER_14]: On the first day as a Michigan camp counselor, her new best friends decide to help her live up to her name by sneaking out skinny dipping, and maybe even losing her virginity before her birthday.
[SPEAKER_14]: Headlife guard Russell takes all the boxes, but when one of the Rockstar Benny shows up
[SPEAKER_14]: He and Wilder sing a duet that sparks undeniable chemistry.
[SPEAKER_14]: Flash forward 30 years after several sold out tours, Benny has a heart attack, the forces of to reevaluate his life.
[SPEAKER_14]: When camp friends, schema reunion in San Francisco, can Benny and Wilder forgive each other for the biggest mistake of their lives.
[SPEAKER_14]: Thank you so much for your suggestions.
[SPEAKER_09]: So for this one, I agree with you that Daisy Jones is probably too big.
[SPEAKER_09]: But I love a normal person's celebrity romance.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I'm thinking about things that might have that angle to it.
[SPEAKER_09]: Same time next summer, I think is a perfect suggestion.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I think you're definitely on the right track there.
[SPEAKER_09]: And the first thing I thought of to go along with same time next summer is the last second chance by Lucy's score.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think that particular title is probably too old, but Lucy's score has so many books that it's entirely possible that there is a more recent Lucy score that hits some of those same notes and is a better, a more recent second chance romance that might also work.
[SPEAKER_09]: I also immediately thought about Alyssa Sessman.
[SPEAKER_09]: She also writes wonderful second chance romances and she does a great job with a celebrity angle.
[SPEAKER_09]: So the first book of hers I thought I was her, I think it was her second book, once more with feeling.
[SPEAKER_09]: So that's the second chance romance.
[SPEAKER_09]: That has a celebrity angle, but her newest one, which just came out earlier this year, totally and completely fine, might also work really nicely.
[SPEAKER_09]: So that's a woman who lives in somewhere rural, maybe Montana, and becomes involved with a Hollywood actor.
[SPEAKER_09]: Neither of them are summer camp, but they might have that sort of different worlds aspect and for sure the second chance romance angle.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I would look at both Lucy score and Melissa Sessman, see which of their books might fit the best and for sure go with the same time next summer mention as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi, Bianca and Emily.
[SPEAKER_02]: Missed you and hope your summer was fab.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm looking for comps for my dual POV, historical literary fiction set in the men and night colonies of Russia during the revolution.
[SPEAKER_02]: The terror at conforming is difficult and local peasants distrust the German speaking colonists.
[SPEAKER_02]: When her husband is killed, Ignathem must revive brutal revolt, looting, savage attacks by the red and white armies and finally famine.
[SPEAKER_02]: all while living with her abusive brother.
[SPEAKER_02]: Her niece, Marie, is 16, which she escapes Russia in 1924 with her surviving family and a terrible secret.
[SPEAKER_02]: Her story unfolds backwards in time to a day that she and Ignitha are each forced into a terrible choice to secure the other's future.
[SPEAKER_02]: The setting and specifically men and night culture fits Sandra Birdzall's the Ruslender, that's far too old.
[SPEAKER_02]: As is John Boins, the House of Special Purpose, also set in the revolution with a timeline that moves forward and backward to a climatic event.
[SPEAKER_02]: I get it's a niche topic, but I'm hoping for help.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi, thank you for listening.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you for calling in.
[SPEAKER_09]: My first thought is City of Feeves by David Benioff.
[SPEAKER_09]: That has the Russian action, looting, all kinds of suspense aspects to it.
[SPEAKER_09]: like the Shannon Bird-Soul and the old John Boyne, I think that City of Thieves is too old and it's also, I think, way too big.
[SPEAKER_09]: David Biddingoff is perhaps more better known now for being the producer of Game of Thrones.
[SPEAKER_09]: So he's quite a big name.
[SPEAKER_09]: So City of Thieves maybe isn't gonna work, but that was the first thing I thought of.
[SPEAKER_09]: For literary fiction that is set in Russia, I immediately thought of disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips,
[SPEAKER_09]: but that one is contemporary.
[SPEAKER_09]: So really neither of those that I've just mentioned are that helpful, but as you know, if you listen on this segment monthly, half of it is just my stream of consciousness about good books.
[SPEAKER_09]: So thank you for humoring me there.
[SPEAKER_09]: Another one that is a possibility because it is Russian historical fiction is I was anesthesia by Ariel Lawhan.
[SPEAKER_09]: I have not read that one, but look at it and see if it would work.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's, of course, about someone trying to prove
[SPEAKER_09]: and Estasia, the famous story.
[SPEAKER_09]: But half of it is set during the time of the Bolsheviks, that one might work.
[SPEAKER_09]: What I feel more confident about is giving you a suggestion for the Minnennite angle.
[SPEAKER_09]: And that is the book Women Talking by Miriam Taves.
[SPEAKER_09]: So it is not set in Russia, but it is set in a Minnennite or Minnennite inspired community.
[SPEAKER_09]: It was made into the wonderful movie adaptation, directed by Sarah Polly, starring Francis McDormand,
[SPEAKER_09]: but the book by Miriam Taves is outstanding.
[SPEAKER_09]: And for that angle, I would for sure look at women talking.
[SPEAKER_09]: And if you haven't read Miriam Taves, you're in for a treat.
[SPEAKER_09]: Women talking is probably her biggest and most famous book.
[SPEAKER_09]: It is not necessarily my favorite, not that I didn't love it.
[SPEAKER_09]: I absolutely loved it.
[SPEAKER_09]: I love everything she touches.
[SPEAKER_09]: She's got a memoir that just came out.
[SPEAKER_09]: Anyway, for sure, take a look at women talking by Miriam Taves.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm querying a book club novel with a collog line.
[SPEAKER_01]: Her marriage in trouble after her has been learned she's lost her faith, a former evangelical fights to keep her family together.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when she learns about abuse in her Texas mega church, she must risk blowing up her family to expose the responsible pastor.
[SPEAKER_01]: her father-in-law.
[SPEAKER_01]: I started out using what happened to the Macrease for marriage and secrets and the ex-vengelocals for theme because there's so much more on this topic and nonfiction.
[SPEAKER_01]: I switched that to God's spirit of the girls after hearing about it from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've also used Sandwich for coming a middle age and right tone.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought of little fires everywhere so it's a combined family drama with social commentary, but I thought it might be too big and too old.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm wondering whether it could work to use Jen Hatmaker's memoir awake once it's out since it covers middle-aged marital problems and unraveling faith or any other ideas you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I feel like if we have not discussed this book before, I think we have, because you said God spares the girls, I was going to say it sounds familiar, and to the books that you have suggested, which I think sound wonderful,
[SPEAKER_09]: I say absolutely yes, add Jen Hatmakers awake.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes, for sure.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's great.
[SPEAKER_09]: I anticipate really good sales once it is released.
[SPEAKER_09]: And it is about
[SPEAKER_09]: both the end of her marriage and her reckoning with her fate and her change and faith.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think she's going to be doing a lot of publicity around the book.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I urge everybody to read the interviews with her and tune into all of that and then buy the memoir when it's out because it's really excellent.
[SPEAKER_09]: But I think yes, I think include that.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's a really good one.
[SPEAKER_09]: I love it.
[SPEAKER_09]: I knew a little bit about her story just from following her.
[SPEAKER_09]: online sort of casually in and out over the years that I could not put the book down.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I urge everybody to read it.
[SPEAKER_09]: Another one I'll throw out here is a book that I love that I've probably recommended in the past and it's Mercury by Amy Joe Burns that book is not about a loss of faith or reckoning with whether or not to leave the church, but I feel like she has a lot of the same sort of tonal points and the same readers as Tracy Brennan.
[SPEAKER_09]: I often mention Mary Beth Keene in the same breath as those authors.
[SPEAKER_09]: And I think that maybe that type of general family drama can work, even if the actual plot isn't the same, especially since you're already touching on the church and fate angle with both awake and the ex-fiangellicals.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I would look at Amy Joe Barnes's Mercury.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's just a really lovely family drama story.
[SPEAKER_09]: And I think it might make sense.
[SPEAKER_10]: Hi, I'm looking for a comp for my upmarket novel with the touch of magical realism.
[SPEAKER_10]: Whalespeak follows long distance swimmer Sloan Murphy into the underwater world of humpback whales.
[SPEAKER_10]: When a pot of whales wash ashore, Sloan realizes one is communicating with her non-verbaly.
[SPEAKER_10]: And from that concludes that the beaching is not an accident.
[SPEAKER_10]: She wants to find out why 41 whales would purposefully die.
[SPEAKER_10]: There's a budding romance with eyedin who researches citation languages, but Sloan's communication with one whale and what she discovers becomes her life's work.
[SPEAKER_10]: And she finds eyedin's purely scientific approach troublesome.
[SPEAKER_10]: But when he suddenly goes missing, Sloan discovers a plot.
[SPEAKER_10]: He may be involved in that could not only devastate the oceans in their intelligent mammal, but threaten the entire planet.
[SPEAKER_10]: I've used Charlotte McConaughey's migration for the writing style and the touch of
[SPEAKER_10]: also used Shelby men pelts remarkably bright creatures, which may be too big and too light.
[SPEAKER_10]: Appreciate your help.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm so glad you mentioned migrations by Charlotte McConaughey because that was absolutely the first thing that popped into mind.
[SPEAKER_09]: I would agree with you that if migrations feels right, remarkably bright creatures by Shelby van pelts probably isn't right, the tone of the two books.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's just so different.
[SPEAKER_09]: Now there's definite overlap in readership because I am one of those readers that overlaps with both.
[SPEAKER_09]: I loved each of them, but for very different reasons and in very different moods.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I think one or the other would be right, but not both.
[SPEAKER_09]: And it sounds like you're correct that Charlotte McConaughey is the better fit here.
[SPEAKER_09]: So the next one I have to suggest might be two on the nose because it is whale fall by Daniel Krause.
[SPEAKER_09]: And again, it might be too on the nose just because it's a whale because this is more of a speculative thriller, but I think it's worth considering because it's quite literary it's very well written it obviously has a touch of speculative fiction and sort of a magical realism in it because it is about a diver who is swallowed by a whale and has to get out and to my understanding it is as much about fathers and sons.
[SPEAKER_09]: and relationships as it is about the actual escape.
[SPEAKER_09]: It has been on my list, I have not read it yet, but now I'm talking about it today.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm like, I really have to get to that one because it's supposed to be so wonderful.
[SPEAKER_09]: So consider that, read that and see if migrations, meet, twelfthall, might work for your query letter.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hi there.
[SPEAKER_04]: I am seeking a few comp titles for my adult fantasy example.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's about two sisters separated as kids by a magical mirror, who reunite years later to uncover a mystery about their family's past, and to say both their worlds from a magical threat for Kianat Sea.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's kind of like a mix between the parent trap and the movie Frozen, but I know those are very outdated and young.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm hoping to find some camps about sisterhood or magical portals and perhaps
[SPEAKER_04]: something that's a little cozy too that would work for this novel.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: I appreciate it.
[SPEAKER_09]: All right, anybody mentions the parent trap.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm there.
[SPEAKER_09]: That's one of my favorite childhood touchstones.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I love a reference to the parent trap.
[SPEAKER_09]: When I'm trying to think of a cozy fantasy novel about sisters, I think first of the witches of Bone Hill by Eva Morgan.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I definitely think you should check that one out.
[SPEAKER_09]: We did an event with her.
[SPEAKER_09]: It was very well received.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I think that works for the cozy vibes.
[SPEAKER_09]: It works because it is an adult fantasy.
[SPEAKER_09]: And again, it has the sister angle that you have mentioned here.
[SPEAKER_09]: I would also look at the books by Sanju Mandana, specifically her book, The Very Secret Society of A Regular Witches.
[SPEAKER_09]: This one is not about sisters.
[SPEAKER_09]: It is instead about found family, but it is very sweet, very cozy, I don't think it's a portal fantasy, but I think it would have the same readers and the same vibes.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I would look at Eva Morgan and Sanju Mandana.
[SPEAKER_09]: So good luck.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm seeking comparables for my women's fiction, Shandor, a late 1800s family drama, struggling saddlemaker Miranda meets the Baron of Shandor, Rowan.
[SPEAKER_11]: Neither are where she is his daughter.
[SPEAKER_11]: He hires her to build the saddle, but her eakerness to serve him soon fades as she discovers his mistreatment of the poor.
[SPEAKER_11]: Defying his command,
[SPEAKER_11]: Miranda comes to the aid of a workhouse boy and later forms an alliance with her new found grandmother.
[SPEAKER_11]: Together, the women rise against Rowan, seeking to free the people of Shandor from his oppressive rule.
[SPEAKER_11]: But will Miranda and her father's fragile bonds survive the fight?
[SPEAKER_11]: The multiple POV story is set on a fictional island has resilient female characters and a best friend romance subplot.
[SPEAKER_11]: It's a tale where a father and a daughter who through great conflict and soul searching find a way back to each other.
[SPEAKER_11]: Thank you for your advice.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, so a fictional island is throwing me a little bit, but I think maybe that actually
[SPEAKER_09]: My favorite women's fiction slash historical fiction in recent years with a very strong female protagonist and so much more, and that's the frozen river by Ariel Lahan weirdly I just mentioned her because she also wrote I am Anastasia, but I love the frozen river.
[SPEAKER_09]: I recommend it to people all the time.
[SPEAKER_09]: Anybody who comes in and wants historical fiction or a book club fiction, I'm giving them the Frozen River especially now that we're about to turn into fall.
[SPEAKER_09]: Oh, it's gonna be like my go-to winter cold weather hands-sell.
[SPEAKER_09]: It is not specifically about a father-daughter dynamic, but it does deal with a myriad of other family dynamics.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's very much a family story.
[SPEAKER_09]: You see her marriage, you see her dynamic with her children,
[SPEAKER_09]: It's a book that really has a lot of everything, including a very strong through line of fighting against oppression and it's just excellent on every level so that feels like the strong woman sort of fighting against the system family dynamics that feels like it could work for something that might capture that island setting.
[SPEAKER_09]: Another piece of historical fiction and this is kind of a wild hair here, but maybe you look at clear by carous davies so this is literary fiction it's quite literary a much different plot but it captures the isolation of island living this is like coastal living but it captures sort of an isolated long ago way back when.
[SPEAKER_09]: feeling like nothing else I've read lately.
[SPEAKER_09]: It too is truly excellent.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I would look at both of those books.
[SPEAKER_09]: And if they're not right entirely for your comp titles, you will have read two really good books.
[SPEAKER_09]: So that's always a win.
[SPEAKER_07]: Hello, Bianca and Emily, my name is Gabriela Savareza, and I'm seeking comes for my communal wage memoir, narrated through a dual timeline and said in Serdina in Florence.
[SPEAKER_07]: When I return home from the US to bury my mother and discover that my father is only months left to live, I am forced to confront to the painful and complicated love I feel towards my family and the land of my birth.
[SPEAKER_07]: This work tends to be legal and evokes the bitter sweet attachment to a homeland, the both nurtures and wounds, gentlemen words men with rift will be a perfect match but is too old.
[SPEAKER_07]: It deals with complex family dynamics as in this shayer never simple, but Mastoli deals with an emotionally unavailable mother and older sister hatred towards her father who was never present.
[SPEAKER_07]: The story is also similar to narratives that explore the immigrant experience such as Hison, Song, Dosial.
[SPEAKER_07]: It explores topic of mental illness, suicide, eating disorders, and immigration.
[SPEAKER_07]: Thank you for all your help.
[SPEAKER_07]: You are amazing.
[SPEAKER_09]: So with men we reaped and never simple, you have mentioned two of my favorite memoirs of all time.
[SPEAKER_09]: One of my favorite genres, and I love both of those.
[SPEAKER_09]: They are just two outstanding examples of the genre.
[SPEAKER_09]: Another excellent memoir about complicated, familial love and attachment and the bitter sweet attachments we have to home and our family.
[SPEAKER_09]: crying at Hmart by Michelle Zoner.
[SPEAKER_09]: So that one might be too big.
[SPEAKER_09]: It was not as big as, let's say, educated by Tara Westover, but I think it was probably pretty close, but deservedly so, because it's wonderful about being the Korean-American daughter of a very complicated Korean mother.
[SPEAKER_09]: There are trips to her mother's home in Korea featured in the book and it's very moving, but it really captures that complicated, bitter, sweet,
[SPEAKER_09]: push and pull of the attachment of home and our parents.
[SPEAKER_09]: Another excellent immigration memoir is Beautiful Country by Chan Julie Wang.
[SPEAKER_09]: I loved this.
[SPEAKER_09]: She emigrates with her family to America from China.
[SPEAKER_09]: And she talks about her childhood, her growing up, and specifically, her complicated feelings toward her dad specifically.
[SPEAKER_09]: But those might capture the bitter sweet,
[SPEAKER_09]: complicated feelings of being a child of immigration.
[SPEAKER_09]: I would look at those, but I think you're on a great track by already mentioning men we reached and never simple.
[SPEAKER_09]: You're in good company with those because the books don't get better than that.
[SPEAKER_09]: So good luck.
[SPEAKER_05]: Hi, I'm looking for comp titles for my women's fiction novel, told in an interview style like Daisy Jones and the Six, but not that.
[SPEAKER_05]: The tone is realistic and a bit nostalgic because the characters reflect on their lives and tell the winding story of the two main characters romance.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't think it's a romance though because it's more about all the important people in our lives beyond our significant others because relationships don't happen in a vacuum.
[SPEAKER_05]: Kate is a work of hollock who learns that there's more life than professional success, while Ollie is a movie star who struggles with the impact of his fame on his relationships.
[SPEAKER_05]: there is lots of strong female friendships and family and the struggle of realizing that childhood dreams look different as an adult.
[SPEAKER_05]: It ends in the present day so it does detail COVID and there's also a message about sustainability in there too.
[SPEAKER_05]: The interview style storytelling is what really throws me off when I try to find cops.
[SPEAKER_05]: Anything you could suggest would really help.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I like this sort of oral history style.
[SPEAKER_09]: I do think that is very interesting
[SPEAKER_09]: the most prominent example of that style right now.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think obviously Daisy Jones, you're right, it's too big.
[SPEAKER_09]: But I think maybe you could say something like written as an oral history, Alaw, Max Brooks, or Taylor Jenkins reads Daisy Jones.
[SPEAKER_09]: So Max Brooks' books aren't right topically or content-wise.
[SPEAKER_09]: They're not necessarily even the same reader, but they are told in an unusual format,
[SPEAKER_09]: So both his books World War Z and devolution are written as oral histories and sort of found artifacts.
[SPEAKER_09]: They're not just a straightforward narrative.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I think if you mention Max Brooks and you mentioned Daisy Jones together in that way, that to me communicates the structure of the novel.
[SPEAKER_09]: And isn't mentioning Daisy Jones in a way that doesn't make sense as to big novel to mention another book with a fun and conventional structure is several people are typing by Calvin Kisolki I'm not sure I'm saying his last name correctly I've never heard it pronounced but it's K-A-S-U-L-K-E and again the content isn't really the same several people are typing is a workplace novel.
[SPEAKER_09]: But it is written entirely in Slack messages if anybody uses the app Slack.
[SPEAKER_09]: We do use that at E-City Book shop.
[SPEAKER_09]: And I think because of that, it could work in explaining the books set up.
[SPEAKER_09]: When it comes to the part of the book that's about the romance and also about friendships, I might need it a more about the characters and what they're actually going through and how the relationships have formed to give a really smart comp about those.
[SPEAKER_09]: If you have not already read deep cuts by Holly Brickley, it is so good, it is a marvelous novel and it is the best nostalgic novel about friendship and romantic love that I've read maybe ever.
[SPEAKER_09]: So for sure check that one out just because you said nostalgic, you said friends, you said romance.
[SPEAKER_09]: I'm mentioning deep cuts no matter what.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I loved that novel.
[SPEAKER_09]: into, I'm not sure if it's a movie or a TV series, but the leads will be played by, again, this is what was announced.
[SPEAKER_09]: Searsha Ronin and Austin Butler.
[SPEAKER_09]: So apologies if I have now spoiled everybody's reading for that book, because you'll have those people in your head.
[SPEAKER_09]: But I read it first before seeing that casting, and then when I saw the casting, I thought that is absolutely brilliant.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I can't wait for that adaptation.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hi, I'm looking for comms for an adult contemporary fantasy that takes place in the Faculty of Magic of Major University.
[SPEAKER_06]: The protagonist is a disabled PhD candidate who desperately wants to become a professor, but academic jumps for wizards or rare and the competition is ferocious.
[SPEAKER_06]: He has once a master left to defend his thesis.
[SPEAKER_06]: which is not ready and in the meantime you might be makes sense me by teaching teleportation to unruly underground.
[SPEAKER_06]: The tone of the book is pretty light with some rom-com elements, some adventure and plenty of food thrown in.
[SPEAKER_06]: Right now I have Julie Schumacher's Jason Fitt jersey reses as a come for the campus shenanigans.
[SPEAKER_06]: John Scalesy started her villain for the rapid fire banter.
[SPEAKER_06]: and Mary Robinet coals the spare man for its effective portrayal of a disabled main character, the captured the spirit of the book well, but none of them are fantasies.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm also aware of Courtney Floyd's upcoming Higher Magic, but it may not reach them.
[SPEAKER_06]: The number of reviews necessary to be a viable come for several months.
[SPEAKER_06]: Any help?
[SPEAKER_06]: Be greatly appreciated.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_09]: I love the mix of authors you have mentioned here.
[SPEAKER_09]: John Scalsey, Jenny Offell, Courtney Floyd, that's forthcoming, I think that's exactly right.
[SPEAKER_09]: I would have mentioned it, had you not, so you're absolutely got your finger on the pulse there.
[SPEAKER_09]: The one other that I will add to your list is Assistant to the villain by Hannah Nicole Marer, M-A-E-H-R-E-R.
[SPEAKER_09]: So her books are not about academia, but they're about a workplace, very comedic,
[SPEAKER_09]: definitely fantasy and light and tone just so humorous.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think it sounds like it would hit the same spots as your adult fantasy with a mix of romance comedy adventure.
[SPEAKER_09]: I don't know how much romance it has, but in terms of just the lightness.
[SPEAKER_09]: the funny parts, the humor, and not being a university, but being a workplace, I think that could still fit.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I love what you've mentioned already, and I would take a look at assistant to the villain.
[SPEAKER_08]: Hi, my name is Olivia Maynes and I'm looking for comparison titles for my book, Marianette.
[SPEAKER_08]: The genre is adult science fiction, dystopian, it's a Pinocchio retelling that's a standalone with crossover potential.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sub-genre is horror, or thriller, it's a commercial project, tone of suspenseful, thrilling and critical, the voice is propulsive, and emotional, it's not flowery.
[SPEAKER_08]: Work counts 88K, themes are revenge, love and acceptance,
[SPEAKER_08]: real world issues and follow bodily autonomy, pacing is very fast-paced, setting as a self-isolated Columbia.
[SPEAKER_08]: The FMC is an aviation imprint with a legal background, the pitch, and the dystopian Pinocchio retelling.
[SPEAKER_08]: an immigrant woman freezing capital punishment fights a clear rename and stop a string of murders for each victim bearish her face and in the process discovers eventual puppet master who intends to make her a spinal master piece.
[SPEAKER_08]: The fun elements are unique elements include biopoting, snake oil, which is a magical substance that heals and is equal parts selling when misused.
[SPEAKER_08]: The FMC is limited when she can move her speak, her nose and seriously grows and there is romance, but it's not spicy.
[SPEAKER_09]: Hi Olivia.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you so much for sending this in.
[SPEAKER_09]: So given that description, I'm immediately thinking about all kinds of dark retellings of fairy tales and children's stories.
[SPEAKER_09]: My first go to when someone is looking for something like that is spinning silver by Naomi Novik.
[SPEAKER_09]: So that might be too old by now, but I would look at her new works, see if anything else might fit.
[SPEAKER_09]: She is quite big, but I think she's not so big is to be completely unrealistic.
[SPEAKER_09]: We are hosting her soon for her forthcoming book, The Summer War that comes out later this month, and we're so excited about it.
[SPEAKER_09]: People love Naomi Novik, and she does the fairy tale retelling and that sort of dark fantasy very, very well.
[SPEAKER_09]: I also thought about T. King Fisher.
[SPEAKER_09]: Their book Thorin Hedge is, I believe, a sleeping beauty retelling.
[SPEAKER_09]: And there are other books also might have similar vibes.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I would look at T-King Fisher.
[SPEAKER_09]: And then I would also look at Heather Walters, who writes these sort of fantasy fairy tale retellings.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think Heather Walters in particular may be some of those are a little more flowery or they might be spicier than what you're looking for, but I would start there and see if any of that fits.
[SPEAKER_09]: I also always mention Blake Crouch when anything seems like it might have,
[SPEAKER_09]: a dystopian, suspensful sci-fi aspect to it.
[SPEAKER_09]: So you mentioned bio coding, I think Blake Crouch.
[SPEAKER_09]: It is super fast-paced.
[SPEAKER_09]: It's got that dystopian angle.
[SPEAKER_09]: I love Blake Crouch, so I highly recommend checking him out to if you haven't already.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking for comps from my adult contemporary romance which has a speculative fiction slash magical realism element.
[SPEAKER_00]: The soulmates waiting for you and all you need to do is open and let it to find them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where does the letters come from?
[SPEAKER_00]: Our protagonist Nathan has been waiting for his letter for what feels like forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the soulmate department on the 11th floor of the afterlife, bride ears on probation after letting her own heartbreak interfere with her work.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has one more chance to make things right or face demotion to the horrifying minus floors.
[SPEAKER_00]: The best comp I have so far is for the love of my afterlife by Kirsty Greenwood, similar in tone and setting both time and place, intended audience and the
[SPEAKER_00]: The speculative slash magical realism elements are similar to those found in sign here by Claudio looks and the measure by Nick Ehrlich and the afterlife headquarters feels like the underworld in Netflix's chaos.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not witchy or paranormal nor is it fantasy and any comes from British authors will be especially welcome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_09]: Okay, our last one for this time.
[SPEAKER_09]: Yes to love of my afterlife by Christy Greenwood that sounds exactly right.
[SPEAKER_09]: And I would add to that Ashley Postan's books.
[SPEAKER_09]: So all of hers are really good, contemporary romance.
[SPEAKER_09]: They've all sold well for us if we are in the indication.
[SPEAKER_09]: And she keeps publishing at quite a fast clip.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I have to think that we are not alone and that she is selling very well across the board.
[SPEAKER_09]: But I mentioned her in the same breath as love of my afterlife because it's that great contemporary romance with some speculative angles and some magical realism.
[SPEAKER_09]: but it's not witchy, it's not like super paranormal.
[SPEAKER_09]: They don't fit in the fantasy section.
[SPEAKER_09]: These are contemporary romance.
[SPEAKER_09]: They just happen to have some little magical angle to them.
[SPEAKER_09]: So I think that fits very much along the same lines with what you're describing and with cursed egreenwood.
[SPEAKER_09]: And I don't have a British author that I could think of that hits that same blend of contemporary romance with just a touch of magical realism.
[SPEAKER_09]: So again, it's not magical realism.
[SPEAKER_09]: She doesn't really do speculative fiction, but there's a misconnections vibe to her, some of her books that almost feels otherworldly.
[SPEAKER_09]: Like, clearly she's writing about soulmates.
[SPEAKER_09]: She is writing about people who are destined to be together.
[SPEAKER_09]: They are faded to be together.
[SPEAKER_09]: The question is merely will they figure it out?
[SPEAKER_09]: Or the question, I guess, is when will they figure it out?
[SPEAKER_09]: Because we know, of course, that they will.
[SPEAKER_09]: So maybe the Sophie Cousins books can capture the British aspect of your work in conjunction with an Ashley Postan or a love of my afterlife mentioned.
[SPEAKER_09]: I love Sophie Cousins, and that reminds me, but she's got another one coming out this fall, so I look forward to picking that up.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you to everybody for sending in these conference quests.
[SPEAKER_09]: Thank you to Bianca for letting me record this on my own as an experiment today.
[SPEAKER_09]: And please send in more comp requests next month and send them in as early in the month as possible so that you could be featured next time.
[SPEAKER_09]: And again, thank you for listening.
[SPEAKER_09]: Always a pleasure to be here.
[SPEAKER_09]: I will see you next time.
[SPEAKER_09]: Bye bye.
[SPEAKER_12]: And that's it for today's episode.
[SPEAKER_12]: I hope you'll join us for next week's show.
[SPEAKER_12]: In the meantime, keep at it.