EP278: Aftertaste and Auras with Author Daria Lavelle

Summary

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Know Your Aura with Mystic Michaela

Episode 278: Aftertaste and Auras with Author Daria Lavelle

Release Date: May 8, 2025
Guest: Daria Lavelle, author of Aftertaste

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Mystic Michaela welcomes author Daria Lavelle to discuss her debut novel, Aftertaste—a unique ghost story, love story, and exploration of food as a conduit for spiritual connection. Through a deep and engaging interview, they dive into the psychic sense of "clairgustance" (the psychic ability to taste spirit messages), grief, spiritual creativity, and the intersection of the culinary and afterlife realms.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing Daria Lavelle and Aftertaste

• Mystic Michaela opens by highlighting Aftertaste's premise: What if you could have one last meal with someone you lost? (00:07)
• Scotty and Michaela discuss welcoming Daria and joke about bringing her kitchen utensils since food is integral to the novel. (00:42)

2. Clairgustance: Tasting the Beyond

• Michaela defines "clairgustance" as the psychic ability to taste something spiritually significant, often attached to messages from the deceased (01:06).
• Michaela shares anecdotes of experiencing other people's or animals' favorite foods during readings, underlining how taste can be a psychic sense:
  • Example: Tasting cheese sticks during a dog reading, confirming the dog’s favorite treat (02:03).
  • Example: Tasting unfamiliar soup and it matching a client’s grandmother’s recipe (02:19).

"It's a psychic ability to taste the beyond... Maybe you're tasting a recipe from Grandma that you remember..." – Mystic Michaela (01:08)

• Discussion on how many people may inadvertently experience clairgustance through food nostalgia or recreating beloved recipes (03:19).

3. Daria Lavelle's Aura Reading

• Daria shares her previous knowledge of auras—her friend once told her she had a "fern green” aura (09:16).
• Michaela reads Daria’s aura live on air: Green (organization, focus) and Indigo (empathy, emotional psychic ability) (09:55).

"I see a lot—two colors. I do see green, and I see a big indigo backdrop... I actually see a lot of Indigos as writers." – Mystic Michaela (09:55)

4. The Gift and Grief in Aftertaste

• Daria describes her main character Constantine, who after his father’s death, begins to taste dishes connected to the dead—a metaphor for grief and connection (11:32).
• She discusses inspiration from learning about the psychic “Clairs”—specifically clairgustance, and how food and memory intertwine as tangible, emotional bonds (13:09).

"It's this sort of like, pristine medallion cements a moment of memory in your mind, and that's kind of what it does for Constantine." – Daria Lavelle (14:13)

• Themes: Avoidance and eventual acceptance of psychic gifts, the struggle for closure, and healing through spiritual connection and memory (15:16).

5. Personal Spiritual Experiences

• Daria shares her own experiences with psychic intuition, including prophetic dreams and spiritually significant coincidences linked to family (19:10).
  • Story of predicting her grandfather’s illness in a dream (19:10).
  • Emotional account of conceiving twins on the anniversary of her grandmother's passing (21:09).
• Describes writing as a semi-sensory, even synesthetic, process—sometimes feeling words as textures (22:16).

6. Tarot and Nordic Runes

• Daria’s spiritual exploration includes using Nordic runes for personal guidance—a practice she’s followed since adolescence (22:52).

"It's not giving an answer so much as reframing your own question... Whenever I'm really stuck, I'll go find my little rune pouch and pull, and I'll either do, like, the single pull or the past, present, future." – Daria Lavelle (23:00)

7. Writing Process and Character Creation

• Daria embeds parts of herself in her characters, using different facets for each—immigrant background, need to be a hero, love of connection (25:10).
• Characters feel “real” to her, and even after writing, she finds herself thinking about how they’d react to situations (26:43).

8. Conceptualizing the Afterlife

• The book’s afterlife is inspired by multiple cultural portrayals—Greek myth, Beetlejuice, spiritual traditions that merge or separate food and spirit (27:28).
• Daria explores hunger as a metaphor: not just for food, but for affection, closure, and longing—both in the living and spiritual realms (29:30).

"There are so many ways in life that we hunger, and I think there's so many kind of different ways to be hungry... I think that doesn't end in the spirit realm." – Daria Lavelle (29:30)

9. Food as Spiritual and Emotional Connector

• Food in Aftertaste is more than sustenance: it's memory, forgiveness, closure, and an avenue to the soul (32:10).
• Examples of dishes tied to characters’ emotional breakthroughs—such as a burnt dish symbolizing a relationship’s failure, or a layered cocktail evoking nuanced memories (34:00).

"Every nuance of flavor became kind of a proxy for an emotion or a piece of the memory in my mind." – Daria Lavelle (34:00)

10. Culinary Inspiration and New York as a Character

• Every restaurant in Aftertaste (except one) is based on a real NYC spot; local flavor is integral (35:51).
• Daria is a self-proclaimed "foodie," drawing from New York’s diverse culinary scene and her family’s Ukrainian cooking (37:59).

11. Embracing Spiritual Gifts and Finding Support

• Constantine’s journey of hiding, denying, then embracing his psychic gift mirrors real-world experiences of spiritual suppression and eventual finding of community (39:30).
• Importance of validation—being heard and believed, especially for children or those with creative or psychic inclinations (40:05).

12. Balancing Parenthood, Life, and Creativity

• Daria shares strategies for writing while raising young kids: carving out time wherever possible, using notes apps, and never waiting for ideal circumstances (41:39).

"You kind of just like, anytime you have a free moment, you're kind of thinking about it in your head and you're creating... Write them down, incorporate them as you can." – Daria Lavelle (43:26)

13. Legacy, Intention, and Hopes for Readers

• Daria hopes readers will savor the emotional ride and be inspired to cherish connection—with food as a metaphor, but meaningfully in whatever way resonates (45:06).
• Michaela shares her own emotional response: the novel encouraged her to nurture her own connections with lost loved ones (46:13).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "I think that's part of what makes a character feel more real to me. When I can hone into something that I do and that happens in my life, it's kind of just like a grounding point..." – Daria Lavelle (25:10)
• “Every restaurant in Aftertaste is based on a real restaurant, with the exception of Dukh... There's a Michelin starred restaurant in the book where Kostya learns to cook that is based on Eleven Madison Park...” – Daria Lavelle (35:51)
• "For me, a big part of what I was trying to do with this book was think about what it means to lose somebody and how different people grieve in different ways, and how do you...bring them with you in your life?" – Daria Lavelle (15:16)
• "I hope you leave this book and think about, you know, what are the ways I'm connecting with the people that I love? How am I going to use that connection to honor them when we're no longer together..." – Daria Lavelle (45:06)
• "This book reminded me that it's important for me to connect with people I've lost too, because a lot of times it's just too much. And I'm sad, and I'm sad. And I get that from. I'm like, oh, I get that. Like, with Constantine and his dad..." – Mystic Michaela (46:13)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:07 – Introducing Daria Lavelle and Aftertaste
• 01:08 – Explaining clairgustance and its role in the novel
• 09:55 – Mystic Michaela reads Daria’s aura (Indigo and Green)
• 11:32 – Daria describes Constantine’s ability and grief’s influence
• 19:10 – Daria shares personal psychic/spiritual experiences
• 22:52 – Daria’s spiritual tools: Nordic runes
• 25:10 – How Daria embeds herself in her characters
• 27:28 – Portraying the afterlife and culture’s role
• 32:10 – Food as emotion: linking psychic and culinary senses
• 35:51 – Real New York eateries as inspiration; Daria as a foodie
• 39:30 – Denial and acceptance of spiritual gifts
• 41:39 – How Daria writes while parenting three young children
• 45:06 – Daria’s hopes for her readers
• 46:13 – Michaela’s moving reflection on her own grief

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Episode Tone & Closing Thoughts

The conversation is insightful, tender, playful, and full of warmth—balancing mystical musings with practical advice for creatives and spiritual seekers. Daria’s depth, humor, and vulnerability shine, while Michaela’s empathy and curiosity make for a sparkling, heartfelt interview.

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Connect with Daria Lavelle & Aftertaste

• Release Date: May 20, 2025 — Aftertaste available wherever books are sold; hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.
• Social: @darialavelleauthor (Instagram)
• Website: darialavelle.com (for tour dates and more info)

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Recommended For: Fans of spiritual fiction, food writing, those exploring grief and closure, NYC lovers, and anyone seeking a fresh take on the afterlife through the lens of taste and connection.

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Transcript

[Daria Lavelle]

Foreign.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Spiritual family. Welcome to Know youw Aura with mystic Mikayla. Today we have a special guest. Her name is Daria Lavelle, and she wrote her debut novel, Aftertaste. And what's interesting about Aftertaste is it's a ghost story and a love story, and it's really about, what if you could have one last meal with someone you loved, someone you lost? And we're gonna talk to her and talk about a lot of the interesting spiritual themes that run through the book. But first. Hey, Scotty.

[Scotty]

Hey, guys. All right, so Daria is in the weight room.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yes.

[Scotty]

We got a lot of stuff for her.

[Mystic Mikayla]

We got some pens. Write.

[Scotty]

Her own pencil.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Pencils. Because she's a writer.

[Scotty]

Write paper. And then I figured, sure. And then some cookware. I got her some cookware, too, because.

[Mystic Mikayla]

There'S a lot of cooking in this book. Yeah.

[Scotty]

A lot of measuring cups. Putting a spatula. There's a spatula in there for her. We'll see what she cooks up.

[Daria Lavelle]

All right.

[Scotty]

So the term that's been thrown around this week in our house is clargustinence.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yes. Claire Augustine.

[Scotty]

What is that?

[Mystic Mikayla]

Is a major theme in the book Aftertaste, because it's a psychic ability to taste the beyond. So you have the physical ability to taste. Okay, but what if you taste something that you did not eat, and it's random and it comes with a bit of a spiritual message? That's Claire Gustin's.

[Scotty]

Okay, so, like, all of a sudden, I'm, like, walking down the street, and then I taste like an egg in my mouth.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Right. But usually with Claire Gustin's, it has something psychic attached to it. Like, it's a connection to somebody who's passed. Like, maybe you're tasting a recipe from Grandma that you remember or. The way I experience Claire Gustance, honestly, is when I do animal readings, okay, When I. When I do animal readings, I'll taste things the animals are tasting. They'll give me that.

[Scotty]

So you've eaten a lot of cat food and dog food.

[Mystic Mikayla]

It's more like if there's a message attached to it.

[Scotty]

Do you know what the Purina Chow tastes like?

[Daria Lavelle]

Is that what you're telling me?

[Mystic Mikayla]

No. Like, I told this story before, but once I was reading someone's dog and, you know, phone reading, and I started. I'm like, oh, there's something chewy in my mouth. Like, it's gummy, and it tastes like a stick of cheese. And she's like, that's so weird. She's like, I feed my Dog cheese sticks. And I was tasting it because the dog was just like, I like those cheese sticks, you know? Or I will say it happened once in a recent mediumship reading with somebody. I was reading a young woman, and I started getting a taste from her grandma. But it was. And it was a. I don't know where. I think she was from Eastern Europe, the grandma. And I was tasting, like, something. I don't know, like a soup. I couldn't even tell you what it was, but I was explaining to her, I'm like, what it tasted like. And I'm like, telling you right now, I've never had this in my life, but here it is. And she's like, oh, that's my grandma's soup. And it was some, like, Eastern European, like, soup recipe. There's probably cabbage in it or something. And I'm like, oh. I'm like, so it's. It's. That's what it is. But in this book, it becomes a conduit.

[Scotty]

So is this something that only you. Because this has never happened to me, by the way. But is this only something that happens to you when you're doing, like, readings or tuning in like you would. It wouldn't be just like you're watching TV and all of a sudden, like, you taste popcorn.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Well, a lot of us have experienced it, but you probably brush it off. Okay, okay. So you might all of a sudden get nostalgic or. How do I put it? It's kind of. You remember something and it can pop in you like, oh, grandma's lasagna. It's always like, somebody who dyeds lasagna or somebody who's, you know, something, and then you can taste it. Or if you're a cook, you're using it more than you think you are. All right, I had this pie, and at this restaurant. Let me try to remember the taste and taste my way back into making it, that you're using your Claire Augustine's abilities when you kind of do that, because you're working it and you're getting the essential, the essence of it and bringing it back to you.

[Scotty]

Okay, well, okay, here's one example for me. Now, I've never tasted it, so we're throwing that out. But I do. And the kids. And you both say. Or all three of you say that I do get weird when you make chocolate chip cookies.

[Mystic Mikayla]

You do?

[Daria Lavelle]

Yeah.

[Scotty]

And you guys all have, like, jokes about me.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yeah.

[Scotty]

That I'm very possessive over these cookies.

[Mystic Mikayla]

You're always like, my cookies. Right. Like, I burned the cookies. The Other day, you're like, you burned my cookies.

[Scotty]

And.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Okay.

[Scotty]

And I also get, like, overly excited.

[Mystic Mikayla]

You get really excited about cookies when.

[Scotty]

You make these chocolate chip cookies. And they're great, by the way. They're fantastic. They're amazing. I love them. And now that I think about it, the only thing I'm thinking maybe, you know, you asked, you know, did you ever have like a food memory?

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yeah.

[Scotty]

And before, before we started recording, I said yes. My, my grandma, my grandma June always used to make chocolate chip cookies. And every time we come over, you know, I'd always eat. That was my favorite thing.

[Mystic Mikayla]

That's very sweet that she would always.

[Scotty]

Make them every single time that we go to her house. Is that maybe along the lines of this? Cause I. I really do miss those. I guess I really do. Like, I think about it, I really maybe miss those cookies. Then when you make the cookies, I get like a little weird.

[Mystic Mikayla]

It feels connected to her.

[Scotty]

Yeah.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Oh, that's really sweet. I didn't know that about you either.

[Scotty]

I didn't know that until about 10 minutes ago.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Well, in this book that Daria wrote, Aftertaste, that would be the dish that would bring grandma back to you.

[Scotty]

It would be her baking the cookie.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yeah. That would bring her. Her back to you. So, yeah, that is an example of that, you know, and then like kind of tasting it or if when you remember something and then you can start kind of even tasting it, like the memory of it a little bit, like in the back of your throat. That's a Claire Gustin's experience. So I think a of us have this way more than we realize it. But the more you notice it, the more you can connect to it and kind of strengthen it, like I always say, with all these gifts.

[Scotty]

Well, I'm not there yet, but I'm on my. Ten minutes ago, I started the Journey by Claire. All right, we'll take a quick break. We come back, you're going to talk to Daria.

[Mystic Mikayla]

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[Daria Lavelle]

Yep.

[Mystic Mikayla]

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[Daria Lavelle]

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. It's so exciting to be here.

[Mystic Mikayla]

I was just telling you before we started. I've read your book twice because I'm an avid reader and when I say it's so different. And I really wanted to talk to you because you incorporate so many of the themes that we talk about over on this podcast, Know youw Aura.

[Daria Lavelle]

I'm thrilled that you read it. I'm thrilled you enjoyed it.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Are you familiar with Auras?

[Daria Lavelle]

So I'll say ish. I'll say I'm A very generally spiritual person. I've never had my aura read, but I did have a friend in college who, whether this is accurate or not, felt like she could see auras and sense them. And she once told me, at least in college, many years ago, that I had a fern. Like, a fern green aura at the time, which is interesting. I don't know what that means. I have no idea. I'm so excited to learn. Learn more.

[Mystic Mikayla]

I love that I just got chills, because if it's okay, I'd love to read your aura, because our listeners are so into that, and they're gonna understand you better. They're gonna like, oh, we get her now. Like, I love it. Okay.

[Daria Lavelle]

I would love to learn more about myself. So.

[Mystic Mikayla]

All right. So looking at you, I see a lot. Two colors. I do see green, and I see a big indigo backdrop. So indigo, to me is, like, emotionally psychic. So an ability to feel other people's feelings is your own, and. And a need to kind of put words to those feelings so that other people can connect to them in the different ways. I actually see a lot of Indigos as writers. I also see Indigos as usually working one on one with people, with therapy or whatnot. Like, life. Life change, progression, things. But. And then the green is probably your ability to organize yourself, and.

[Daria Lavelle]

I laugh at that one.

[Mystic Mikayla]

I. I usually joke about Greens. They're very good at the focused organization. Like, if you care about it, you got it, but if it's right. And so I love the. Also that I don't see a lot of green aura women, because usually, yeah, usually society will tell you, don't focus or, you know, stay smaller or stay quiet or don't share as much. So it's interesting that, you know, you're here and you're writing and you're out, and you're so part of it.

[Daria Lavelle]

The Indigo definitely checks out. I feel like my whole life, I've definitely been an empath and somebody who's looked at other people's emotions and been able to put myself in their shoes. Maybe it always felt really natural to me, but maybe in a way that isn't natural to other people. The green is funny to me. I laugh because I have three kids, and I feel like everything is chaos. Maybe I'm more organized than I think.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Okay, so my question. Okay, so in your book Aftertaste, the main character has a really special ability. Could you. I mean, could you explain it to us? Like, what is this ability?

[Daria Lavelle]

Yeah, so the main character is called Constantine. He loses his dad At a young age, and relatively shortly thereafter, he begins to taste the flavors of the food of the dead. So he's able to kind of just without summoning it, without really knowing why these flavors appear in his mouth. And he just knows they're coming from someone who's died. It's always a food. It's always something really intricately made in its completion. And he can taste every ingredient, every nuance. He understands all of the component parts really intimately. Even foods he's never tasted, flavors he's never had. And so these flavors appear in his mouth, and they disappear moments later. And the very first time it happens, it is a dish that he knows is related to his dad. He knows that it's his father's favorite dish, even though he's never tasted it himself. So that kind of starts his. His understanding of this connection and what it means, and that propels him throughout the whole course of the novel. And I came up with this idea, honestly, in a random writing session. It was very independent, just sort of came to me like it occurred, much like an aftertaste occurs to Constantine. It was the scene of this chef plating a dish in an apartment. And he finishes, and the spirit comes through to taste the dish. And I didn't know what it meant. I just knew that it was really exciting to me, and it was really special. And I wanted to unpack it and explore it. And then over many years, I was coming up with different pieces of what this story could be. Is it bigger? Is it smaller? Is it just him in this apartment? Is it something beyond that? And I was randomly researching, going down a rabbit hole, and I found an article about the psychic Claires. So everyone has heard of clairvoyance, right? The ability to see something from the spiritual realm. But apparently, and this was new to me, each of the five senses has a sort of psychic manifestation. So you can hear from the beyond, you can feel from the beyond, and you can also taste from the beyond. And that's called clairegistence. And once I kind of read this tiny article, something just, like, clicked off in my head. I was like, that's what he has. But he has it in this way where it's specifically tied to food and it's specifically tied to dishes. And I started to unpack that in my mind and think through, you know, of course, it's a meal. Meals are this connective, incredible thing between people. It's this. It's this sort of, like, pristine Medline cements a moment of memory in your mind, and that's kind of what it does for Constantine.

[Mystic Mikayla]

That's beautiful. I just finished reading it again last night. So as you were talking, I got emotional again, because the book really takes you on this ride with Constantine's journey of the Claire Augustine's and how he avoids it. And then there's a part where he does it, and then it goes on without too many spoilers. But I thought it was interesting how there's this need to accept it, but first he's avoiding it, but then there's also a need for a balance with it. And that part, to me, I feel like, is so. It resonated really strongly because to me, like, in your book, too, it's a lot about closure and accepting things, but not holding on without holding on too tightly and what letting go is and all that. All these themes in your book, obviously you meant to explore them, but were they inspired by something personal to you?

[Daria Lavelle]

I think so. A couple of things. I think, for me, a big part of what I was trying to do with this book was think about what it means to lose somebody and how different people grieve in different ways, and how do you kind of honor that person and bring them with you in your life? I've always been taught to believe death is not the end. That's just ingrained in me as a person. And I've had my own experiences with people that I've lost, where I feel their presence or I have, like, a connective moment with them after they've passed away. And I wanted to capture what it feels like to go from this space where the loss is so profound that you can't see the beauty in still connecting with someone when they're gone. And then Constantine is a character also. Maura, she's another character in the book. They're affected by grief in this way where, like, they're just. They're blocked, they're stopped. They can't. They can't move on with their lives. They can't kind of see the forest through the grief, if you will. And so part of what happens to them in these journeys is this acceptance of, you know, these people are physically gone, but they don't have to be gone forever. And holding on to the idea of just their physicality isn't serving you. It's not serving them. And how do you kind of come to terms and bring them with you in a different way?

[Mystic Mikayla]

It's such a unique way to explore that, because I feel like that's such a common human experience. And especially just being a psychic myself, you know, just helping people with closure and moving forward. It's a lot of it is like you have to let them have their existence now and what, where they're at. And you end by, by doing what's good for you. You honor them and you do it in their name with joy. You know, instead of wanting what the way it used to be, which, which is hard. But I feel like just reading your, your book, it was such a unique and creative way to explore that with people who otherwise might have a hard time understanding that or where it hits in them. And that's where your indigo comes in. Because I feel like you were able to in a really nice way, like sneak attack little parts of myself. I'm like, oh, she made a connection and I didn't even know she did that. Like all of a sudden I'm reading something and it's a really, like I said, it's a really unique, interesting story the way you've written it. And it's not a story anybody's ever read before, that's for sure. But the way you do it, it's like, oh my gosh. That immediately connects to a personal experience in my life, you know, so.

[Daria Lavelle]

Aw, that makes me really happy.

[Mystic Mikayla]

No, really, I'm like, think about the.

[Daria Lavelle]

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[Mystic Mikayla]

Club meats and it's time for a.

[Daria Lavelle]

Quick pre workout snack. Gogo Squeeze Active Fruit blend to the rescue.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Made with select B vitamins to help release energy.

[Daria Lavelle]

It's an easy squeezable pouch made to move with me. The taste so good and made with real fruit. Even better. Whether I'm hitting the trail or meeting my friends on the court, this is.

[Mystic Mikayla]

My go to on the go snack. Quick, easy, ready when I am. When it's go time, I go with Gogo Squeeze Active.

[Daria Lavelle]

Snag yours on your next door run.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Search for Gogo Squeeze on Amazon. Okay, so the my next question is how many experiences with the Claire's do you have? Because you like man, you know something to write all this, all this down.

[Daria Lavelle]

I feel like my whole life I've experienced these. These moments of connectivity with something from beyond. And I feel like a lot of it manifests in this sort of weird synesthetic way. So I've definitely had dreams where I've. I've had premonitory dreams. I've dreamt something and it's happened, it's come to life. One example, which is a very sad example, but I. I was turning, I don't Even know, maybe 20 years old, and I was home from college, and we were gonna have a family dinner. And I had this awful dream that my grandfather got ill during this dinner. And the next day we're all together and everything's fine. And I. So my family is very superstitious in this way where we. We do this thing where if you have a bad dream, you have to tell it so it doesn't happen. Well, shame on me. I didn't tell it because it freaked me out too much. And sure enough, there we are at this birthday dinner, and my grandfather starts to feel not well. And so it was this, like, very odd, like, what is going on? Was I just intuiting something? Did I somehow, like, manifest this? God forbid. But, yeah, it was this, like, it was this weird, like, something's happening in the ether. And then on a more. Much more positive note, another experience I had was my grandmother. So she. She passed away, and we were very close, and she wanted grandchildren so much, and we were in the process of trying to give them to her, but it was tricky. And I was in that period where it was like that two week wait where you don't know if you are or you aren't expecting. And I was sick as a dog. I had gotten some sort of virus. And I'm like, laying in bed, I'm like, there's no way that anything has happened. And then I had gone in for a blood test to confirm my doctor's office, which. And I get a phone call, and sure enough, I was pregnant, which was so exciting and so beautiful. And then I look at my calendar, and it was a year to the day that my grandmother passed away.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Oh, my gosh.

[Daria Lavelle]

And it goes deeper. So my grandmother is a Gemini. Was a Gemini, and so is my grandfather. And she would always used to say that we're Gemini, we're twins. And I knew as soon as I got that phone call that it was on the day that she. That she passed, the anniversary of her passing. I was like, I'm pregnant with twins. And my husband was like, you're out of your mind. There's no way. And a few weeks later, we went into the doctor's office, and I was pregnant with twins. And I knew it was, like, a gift from her. So throughout my life, I've had all of these moments where there's, like, this kind of spiritual connection, and then in terms of, like, being able to experience different senses. I think it happens when I write, actually. I'll. I'll have this experience where I'm searching for a word or a phrase and I can't quite get it, and just. I start to, like, intuitively rub my fingers together. Like I'm searching for a texture. Yeah. And then when I finally come on that word, it's like. I feel it. It's, like, either velvety or it's rough. And, like, there's obviously nothing in my hand, but I have this weird synesthetic sensation.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yes. No, that's a. That's a thing. Like, because you might be more tactile in your. Your psychic abilities. Like, do you have. Do you ever. Now, there is a tarot element in the book a little bit. Do you work with, like, cards or tarot stuff? Do you know how to do that?

[Daria Lavelle]

So I love it as a theory. I will say I'm a very, very much a novice. Yeah. What I do do, which is kind of, I think. I think it's a cousin to tarot. I think it's really fair to say that I love Nordic runes. It's something that I got into when I was a kid. I read a random article in a magazine.

[Mystic Mikayla]

So green. All my listeners are like, there's the green. That's so green. But keep going.

[Daria Lavelle]

But, yes, I read this random article, and I kid you not, I was a teenager, and they had a. You know, like, you have the Physical magazine, and so you. They had these printouts of these little, like. Like, fake runes made of paper. And I cut them out, I put them in a pouch, and I put them under my pillow, and I infused them with my energy. And then finally, I got so into them, I made my own. Like, I actually took stones and I drew the symbols on them. But I really loved it because I think, much like tarot, it's got that same. It's not giving an answer so much as, like, reframing your own question. And I find that really helpful and really instructive. And whenever I'm really stuck, I'll go find my little rune pouch and pull, and I'll either do, like, the single pull or the past, present, future. So I. I don't know as much about Tarot. I think it's more complex because there's so many more nuances. There's more cards. But I love the idea of framing something in terms of questions and also, like, calling on something spiritual to help guide you.

[Mystic Mikayla]

That's. Yeah. That's so cool. I mean, I. That's the first time I've ever heard of, like, anyone doing what you just said, and I hear all sorts of stuff. How old were you about? Do you remember?

[Daria Lavelle]

Oh, God. So I know this was a teen magazine. It's been lost to the sands of time, but I must have been 11 or 12. And it just. It was so natural. I was like, but of course this is what you do. How have I not known about this my whole life?

[Mystic Mikayla]

That's really cool. Yeah, I. Cause I saw that in the book. I was like, you know, because I read it, and then I. That's the thing. Like, when I read books, sometimes I'll get a feel for the author. So that's why it's so cool to actually talk to you. Cause usually I'm just, like, talking to people in my brain, just thinking about it, like a weirdo. But. But I'm like. I wonder if. Because you. You, to me, feel extremely understanding of lots of different human emotions and, like, understanding how things work and understanding different perspectives. And every character I was reading felt so distinct, but also like, you or, like, personal or something. And my next question was, when you write, do you put pieces of yourself in your characters? Would you say?

[Daria Lavelle]

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of the different characters have different backgrounds, different histories, different points of view, but I try to put at least a little bit of my own personality into them in different ways. And it's sort of like, do I amplify, I don't know, loving to go out and having fun and connecting with people, and that becomes Frankie. Do I amplify growing up as an immigrant and that becomes Constantine's background? Do I amplify this sort of like wanting to be the hero and doing it all myself and not asking for help, and that becomes Maura Mora. So I think that's part of what makes a character feel more real to me. When I can hone into something that I do and that happens in my life, it's kind of just like a grounding point, and then a lot of it is fictional. I try not to write about myself too much. I know a lot of writers do. They'll write about themselves. They'll write about people they know in a thinly veiled way. To me, that's not the fun. Like, I love making all of it up.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yeah. But, you know, I think you just bring them to life. Or, like, energetically.

[Daria Lavelle]

Yeah.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Because I can see that in you. It's kind of like you put a little. It's kind of like a Build a bear when you stick the heart in.

[Daria Lavelle]

Yes.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Cause you got kids, so you know.

[Daria Lavelle]

What I'm talking about.

[Mystic Mikayla]

It's like you put the little heart in. You're like. You're real. You're real now.

[Daria Lavelle]

You're alive.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yeah, you're alive. There you are. And that's what all the characters feel, really awake. And, like, when the book ends, you're like, oh, I want to hang out with these people more. They're really cool, and they're interesting, and they feel so real to me. But I feel like that's part of your gift, you know?

[Daria Lavelle]

Thank you. I mean, I still. I walk around and there's moments where I'm like, oh, Costi would have loved that. Or, like, Frankie would really be into this one thing.

[Mystic Mikayla]

You're like, yeah, they do feel real. That really comes across when you're reading it. And I think they need to, in order to kind of, I don't know, get the emotional reaction that comes, you know, as you're reading the book. But anyway, I think that that's part of your gift as an author. So there's a really interesting way that you write about the afterlife, the way that you conceptualize. I won't spoil it. I don't know. The way that you conceptualize the afterlife and even how it merges with the living world. What inspired that representation? Because that was unique.

[Daria Lavelle]

Oh, that's fun. That's a good question. So I've always been obsessed with takes on the afterlife and what it's like. I think it makes death feel a lot less scary to me, personally. Like, it makes it something I can wrap my head around and, like, envision a version of it. So I've always loved, you know, the Hadestown take on it, or Greek mythology, that take on it, or even, like, Beetlejuice. And it's this weird office. So the weirder the take, the more I'm like, I'm here for it. So when I started to first come up with this concept and I had that scene of this chef and the ghost and the food, I knew that food had to play a really important role in the afterlife if it was compelling enough and enough of a tether to bring somebody back and bring their spirit back. So I immediately started to kind of build around that. And I loved the idea of incorporating something that's so physical and so also ephemeral into the spiritual plane, where things are not physical and kind of eternal. So I love that kind of juxtaposition. I'm not gonna ruin what the afterlife looks like. But I will say. I will say that I started to explore. As I was researching kind of different backgrounds and different foods for the book. I found so many different cultures and different takes on how food and spirits are combined or in some cases, separated. Like, there are some cultures where food is used as this sort of pathway to bring the ancestors that we've lost back to us. And in other cultures, it's a way to kind of ward off an angry or hungry spirit. And so that whole concept of hunger and balance and satisfaction, all of that kind of went into play in my version of the afterlife because I also, you know, there has to be the balance of the positive and the negative. And so if there's satisfaction and food and feeding, there also has to be hunger and so triggering that hunger. And, like, what does an existential hunger look like? What does that feel like for a spirit? I think that there's so many ways in life that we hunger, and I think there's so many kind of different ways to be hungry. There's a physical hunger, obviously, for food, but there's also, like, hunger for affection, hunger for connection, hunger for success. Like, all of the different things that we seek as people. And I think that doesn't end in the spirit realm. And so I think the way that it manifests in the spirits that experience hunger that we see is a reflection of, like, how bad it feels to hunger in the real world.

[Mystic Mikayla]

That is really fascinating because it touches upon something that I think people get a little nervous about. Like, wait, you don't sprout wings and sit on a cloud and, like, you're super happy. It's just interesting because, like, when I do my readings and I'll connect with people on the other side, they still. I tell. You know, I say they only give what they get me. I only get what they give me. I always say that. But it's interesting because they still have thoughts. And I should have. I should have. Would have cut us a little bit. Like, there's still people, you know, who've just, like, crossed over. And I. And I think people can misinterpret that sometimes as, oh, my God, are they unhappy? Or are they. So I like that. Your idea of considering them and considering that's why people just Got to read it because it's a really cool context in which to think about that and think about what's going on there. But it was interesting.

[Daria Lavelle]

And also, just like in the living world, you can find closure and you can find comfort, even if you are hungry. You can find that same kind of closure in the other realm. I think it's just a matter of how do you achieve that. So in the book, there's. There's a specific way in which the spiritual kind of element, the ghosts and the living, have to come together to find that closure.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yes. I never think, like, reading. When I was reading. Oh, my gosh. And then what? And then what? And then what? Like that. Like the anticipation of what happens is the way it unfolds. It's a real roller coaster. Okay, so this novel isn't just like an amazing description of psychic census and the after afterlife and whatnot, but also of the physical senses that food engages and. And I guess the emotions and desires and longing and, like, what you said, satisfaction and whatnot. It's how. I don't know. I maybe already answered this, but I just thought, like, it was how. How did you balance writing between psychic. The psychic senses, the food senses, how they interplay, you know, was that like an easy. Like, okay, food. Food is a way to bring this in, or how did you link the two? What was that feeling?

[Daria Lavelle]

Yeah, I think once I started to understand that the food is so incredibly tied to the person that it's related to, and I started to ask myself, why? And, like, why would my aftertaste be something different than yours? And why would. You know, even if it was my connection with somebody else, my aftertaste that would bring me back to. To them might be different than theirs to bring them back to me. So I started to play with what is food? And how do we define food? And how do we make those food memories and what goes into them? And that was sort of how I came to the spiritual connection. Because I think every single flavor, every single dish that appears in the book, that's a kind of tether between the living and the dead. A lot of them have. It's not necessarily that it's like the most delicious thing they've ever eaten. A lot of them have meaning that's far deeper, that you have to, like, really understand the person and the people and what that moment was that built that dish, to unpack it. So, for instance, there's one dish that is fully burnt that I'm thinking of in the book that is like, inedible it's not great, but that's what the spirit needs to remind the person, the living person that they're trying to connect with of a particular way their relationship failed, and of a particular. It's almost like an olive branch, like, bring me back so we can. We can fix this. So I think that's the kind of thing that I was thinking of as I started to build each dish, and every. Every nuance of flavor became kind of a proxy for an emotion or a piece of the memory in my mind. So another example is the very first dish that Constantine makes that actually brings a spirit back in the book is a cocktail. And when the person who. When the living person drinks this cocktail, every layer of the flavor of the cocktail reminds him of a different part of his wife's experience. She passed away from an illness. And so there's a floral in the cocktail, and that reminds him of the flowers at her hospital room. There's kind of like a salt sprinkle on the cocktail, and that reminds him of the saline drip. There's sort of this effervescence, and that reminds him of sitting in the park with her in the sunshine. So there are all of these different kind of triggers that you get, I think, from foods and flavors. Much like when you smell something, it brings something back to you. So I tried to incorporate all of that as kind of the tactile, psychic sense.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Since reading your book, I've been paying way more attention to just, like, the foods shared in moments with. With family and friends and. And how it creates an emotional connection, a tether, you know, between the physical and what. What binds us, what connects us together. And when reading your book, when, you know, you get really into food description, so you get really hungry reading your book too, by the way. I'm sure you've already heard that a.

[Daria Lavelle]

Bun with a snack.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yeah, you need to eat when you're reading this book. But. And. And you were even like, oh, I would never try that, but maybe I would now, because you have a really great way of describing food and how excited people get about food and how into it they get and. And. And how. How it can just excite you and get you in. In the mood for different situations or adventurous or whatnot. But the setting is very unique. So, again, he's a chef, and so you can imagine it's. It's a whole journey with that, too. Were you inspired by any certain. I don't know, restaurants or any certain journeys of food? Culinary journeys that would have been fun.

[Daria Lavelle]

So many. Basically, every Restaurant in Aftertaste is based on a real restaurant, with the exception of Dukh, which is the restaurant that he opens at the end that's named after him. That one is fully from my imagination, but based in a real place. There's a. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that there's a subway component. It's all that takes place in New York City. So there's like a component to the restaurant that has to do with the subway. And that station really does exist in Manhattan. There really is that antique station. It's a defunct one that you can visit. But yeah, in terms of the restaurant scene, every single place that we go is some place that I have loved in my 20s, my 30s, living in the city, visiting the city, or a thinly veiled representation of it. So there is a Michelin starred restaurant in the book where Kostya learns to cook that is based on eleven Madison park, which is a beautiful, very fancy, Michelin starred restaurant, kind of in the Flatiron Gramercy area. There is a speakeasy kind of bar situation, which is where Kostya works at the beginning of the book, that's based on Apotek, which is a really fun speakeasy. The original is down in Chinatown and it's awesome. It's like you're walking down this little alleywayed street and you feel like you're on a Hollywood set and it doesn't feel real. And you would never guess that there is this incredible cocktail bar at the end of it. So it's based on Apotek and this other speaking called Rain's Law Room. There are, you know, the high, high and low cuisines of their halal trucks in this book. There's street meat, there's, you know, bagel carts, there's everything. There's everything. Because I feel like that's, that's what's so fun about eating in New York City, that it you can have this crazy high end meal or you can have this like hole in the wall diner, drive in dive experience. And they're both really good in totally different ways. So I worked in a lot of the places that I loved.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Would you describe yourself as a bit of a foodie?

[Daria Lavelle]

100% more than a bit. I mean, I grew up cooking. I grew up eating everything. My parents are really incredible cooks and they would cook lots of Ukrainian food, but also as I got older especially they would branch out, they would make all sorts of different cuisines. They would just buy a cookbook and be like, okay, we can do this now. So that was really fun. So that's how I grew up. And I think trying to incorporate as many different flavors as I could because New York is such a cosmopolitan city and there are so many different flavor profiles and cultures and cuisines that I wanted to make sure that readers felt really seen in this book in different ways. So I tried to put in so many foods that they could refer to and kind of connect with.

[Mystic Mikayla]

I was overwhelmed for Constantine because he would get these aftertastes and I'd be like, oh, my gosh. I'd have no idea what to do with that because there are so many different cross cultural meals and foods and spices. And, you know, he has to go shopping sometimes. Like, how does he even. Like, just the. But I think that goes to show just the. I mean, metaphorically, that's what I picked up from it. Just when you get a taste of something and you're like, I need more of that, you know, the lengths you'll go to dive into it headfirst, especially when you want to help with closure. But I just thought it's so interesting how he doesn't. He denies it, denies it, denies it, and then he's like full in.

[Daria Lavelle]

So just the balance, I think. Cause he had that one bad experience. Not to give any spoilers, but he had a very bad experience in his childhood trying to share these aftertastes with somebody. And I think that happens a lot when we're trying to have any sort of spiritual connection.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Right?

[Daria Lavelle]

Like the minute someone says, no, you're weird. This isn't normal. You're like, oh, I guess I can't talk about this or people aren't gonna accept me. So I think he has that experience with it. And it takes him until he's in his 30s to find people who support him and who believe him and who encourage it.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yeah, yeah, you're right. That happens so often. So I, like, a lot of our listeners, get it. You know, they're like, oh, yeah, you know, we support. Or you know, you don't even have to say say, oh, go do it. But you can say, I. I hear you. I believe you. I'm listening. Well, you have kids.

[Daria Lavelle]

You got it.

[Mystic Mikayla]

But it's. It's kind of like, okay, whatever. And you're of course an artistic person, so you're probably like, right about it. You know, like, go for it. That's a good question. Are your kids into, like, do they write? Are they into all this? As a mom, are you like, all.

[Daria Lavelle]

Right, so they're really little. I have. The twins are now six and a half. So they're. They're just starting to get into all of, like, the artistic and kind of the creative. But it's really fun because I feel like I can see. I can see the gears turning and I can see the connections that they're making. And it's so interesting and so cool. And I think, you know, as we get older, we lose that ability to just say yes to any possible pathway. And so it's really special to watch them because they're still in that phase where like, yes, anything is possible, of course, like, the bunny can put on wings and become a fairy and that. So it's really lovely to see. And then my youngest is 18 months, so he is not really exploring anything yet.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Oh, you're busy and you wrote a book. How now this is just pure curiosity. It has nothing to do with anything. But, like, how did you find the time? Like, did you set aside time? Like, how do you give people who need to know how to do this in their own life? Like, how do you. How do you do both? What's your process?

[Daria Lavelle]

So for a long time, I would, I would write whenever I could. And it was like. So when I was. Before I had children, I would have these, like, set aside times and I would go and write. I would leave work, I would go to a cafe, I would sit until, you know, 10pm and then I would go home. I found that, you know, you can't wait for the ideal sort of situation anymore. You can't wait for, like the perfect weather and the right time. And you're like, getting inspired. You have to just be like, button, chair, I'm gonna do this now. I have 20 minutes while the baby's napping maybe. So let me just do it. And so I knew that this was what I wanted to do. I've been. I wanted to be a writer. I've been a writer since I was 15. But I wanted to publish. And I just knew that I had to find the time, make the time. So even if that meant like, okay, everyone's asleep now. It's 10pm and I can sit and work for three hours before I fall asleep. My laptop, like, that's what I'll do. So I was carving out a lot of time. Basically, whenever I could, I threw away being precious about, like, if I had my phone on me and I was waiting in line to pick up my kids from school, I would write like a sentence or two at a time just on my phone and My notes app. And then I would go back and I would incorporate it into the laptop later. So you kind of just like, anytime you have a free moment, you're kind of thinking about it in your head and you're creating. Because you have a lot of those moments during the day. Like, you're at the grocery store, you're waiting for something, you're folding laundry, whatever, you can still create. Whatever kind of art you're making, you can still create and connect in your mind. And then when you have, like, those breakthrough moments, write them down, incorporate them as you can. I think that's how. How all of this managed to happen.

[Mystic Mikayla]

No, that's really inspiring. You know, it's. It's just like seizing your moment where you can and maximizing your time and reworking things. Yeah, I think that that just gave me chills because there's a lot of moms that listen. So you get it. Like, you're in the mom zone, and you're just totally, like, use your time. And you made that. You made the choice. That's. That's really good advice.

[Daria Lavelle]

I feel like it's for you if, like, if you feel like something is your calling and it's like, manifest it. One sentence, one word a time, every day, do a little something. Just thinking about it, like, it's that whole idea. I mean, it's kind of like the. The Jim Carrey analogy. Have you ever heard this? So Jim Carrey, when he was first. First. First starting out, it's like a famous story. He wrote himself a check for a million dollars, and he carried it in his wallet all the time. And it was a constant, like this little totem, this reminder of, one day I'm gonna make it. And sure enough, like, within, I think, a year of writing himself that check and seeing it and touching it, I think he. He booked, like, the Mask Ori Sventura or something like that. Like the big breakout role for him. Yeah. So I feel like. I feel like that's part of it. Just like calling yourself whatever kind of artist you wanna be or whatever you're trying to go to, too. Like, you're not an imposter. You're doing it a little at a time.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Thank you, Daria.

[Daria Lavelle]

That's just.

[Mystic Mikayla]

It means, I think. I just feel. I feel like that's a lot of power. It's powerful things to know. Okay, what would you want? I mean, I think, like, when we make something and we put it out there, we have a goal, like an objective. Like, I would love this to happen. When somebody Reads my book. What do you have a specific goal or objective or what do you want? What would you hope somebody gets after reading Aftertaste?

[Daria Lavelle]

Oh, what a good question. So I think I want two levels of experience. I want someone to put down the book and feel like, whoa, that was fun. That was wild. I didn't expect where that took me. That was a ride that I didn't see coming. It had all the twists and turns. I felt all the things. I laughed, I cried, I emoted all of that. I want people to feel like they've been taken on a journey and be excited about that journey. But I think longer out, I want it to be a book that sticks with people and that changes the way that they think about connecting with the people that they love over whether it's a meal or something else. In this case, food is very much the analogy. And so for me, that's what I come back to. That's where I have the most connection with people in my life. But I think whether. Whether or not food is the thing for you. I hope you leave this book and think about, you know, what are the ways I'm connecting with the people that I love? How am I going to use that connection to honor them when we're no longer together, you know, in this. In this physical, spiritual plane. It's really nice.

[Mystic Mikayla]

I'll tell you. For me, as much as I do, connecting with other people and helping them connect with their loved ones on the other side, this book reminded me that I'm gonna get emotional. This book reminded me that it's important for me to connect with people I've lost to, because a lot of times it's just too much. And I'm sad, and I'm sad. And I get that from. I'm like, oh, I get that. Like, with Constantine and his dad. So that's what it did for me. So I'm just so honored that you came to know your aura, to share all this with us. And I know all the readers who get the book are gonna be like, oh, my gosh, that was a wild ride. And. And they're really going to enjoy it. Where can we find you? Tell us. Emir's pub date. Give us everything.

[Daria Lavelle]

Pub date is fast approaching. Pub date is May 20, which is so terrifying to be birthing this book baby into the world, but really fun. So May 20, you can. You can find the book anywhere books are sold. There is an amazing audiobook version, if you're into audiobook. It'll be obviously hardcover. Ebook is as well. And you can find me on basically any social at Daria lavelle, author, especially. Instagram is, like, where I do most of my posting and hanging out. So check me out there. And I'll be doing a little book tour, so if you head over to my site, darialavelle.com, you can see the events page. If I'm coming to a city near you, I would love to meet you. So come say hi.

[Mystic Mikayla]

Yes. And I would love a cookbook of this someday, by the way.

[Daria Lavelle]

Oh, one day.

[Mystic Mikayla]

So that'd be cool.

[Daria Lavelle]

We did an event early on in New York City where we had a chef make some of the dishes from the book, which I had never like I was cooking in my mind. So I am a cook. I love to cook, but I didn't cook the dishes that I invented for the story, but then this chef did. And it was the wildest thing seeing somebody's interpretation of these things I invented for characters I made up for their, like, most personal connections.

[Mystic Mikayla]

That's so surreal. That must have been wild. Yeah, like, wild. And like me, because I've read it twice and be like, oh, my gosh, look like there's a lot of Easter eggs in here. Yeah, there are a lot of Easter eggs. It's really cool. Okay. Thank you so much for joining us, Daria. I really appreciate you and mystic Michaela spiritual family. This podcast is for you and about you, and we're so glad you spent some time with us today.

[Daria Lavelle]

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[Mystic Mikayla]

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[Daria Lavelle]

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[Mystic Mikayla]

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[Mystic Mikayla]

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