← Living The Next Chapter: Candid Conversations with Authors and Writers for Readers Searching for a New Read
Living The Next Chapter: Candid Conversations with Authors and Writers for Readers Searching for a New Read
E711 - Reyna Marder Gentin - Jessica Harmon Has Stepped Away, A Mother Daughter Story and a Book Tour
00:39:11
Loading summary
Transcript118 lines
- [00:00]
A
Yeah, I love. I love to connect with readers. I love when they ask me questions that I can't answer or they ask me questions, you know, did you mean for it to be this or that? And it's something that has not occurred to me at all, but when they say it, it's like, wow, that's pretty cool. Like, readers definitely, I think, see things in books that sometimes the author had no idea they were putting out there, and that's fantastic. That's always incredibly exciting. So, yeah, I love. I love to hear there. There's a link. Link or something in there with my website, with my email address, I'm sure. So.
- [00:35]
B
Welcome back to Living the Next Chapter. It's the author podcast that we all know and love, because why we get to meet great authors. And when we meet an author that has multiple books for you, that's even better because you fall in love with an author and you stick with them, and you want to get all of their books. So Rain is here with us to celebrate the launch of her most recent book.
- [00:55]
A
There's.
- [00:56]
B
There's way more. Way more. And you can go check out her website in the show notes and see exactly what she's up to and links to all of her events and her socials. Everything is there for you. And a lot of great reviews. A lot of great reviews about what Reyna's been up to. So, Reyna, welcome to Living Next Chapter. Glad to have you on the podcast.
- [01:16]
A
Thank you so much. So happy to be here.
- [01:17]
B
Excellent. Rena, tell everybody where you are in this big world of ours.
- [01:21]
A
Oh, I am in Westchester county in New York, which is about half an hour north of Manhattan.
- [01:27]
B
Okay. Oh, very nice. Beautiful. Any snow where you are?
- [01:30]
A
Snow? I don't know if you can see it out here, but we got about 4 inches yesterday, so this is the first snow of the season. So it's beautiful.
- [01:37]
B
Nice. A nice place to live.
- [01:39]
A
It's a lovely place to live. Quiet.
- [01:41]
B
Yeah.
- [01:41]
A
You know, near the accident, but not quite.
- [01:44]
B
Yeah, right. Just enough further, just far enough away that you can. You don't have to hear constant honking horns and all that fun stuff. Right? Yeah.
- [01:53]
A
Good.
- [01:53]
B
Awesome. You've been there for a long time.
- [01:55]
A
We've been here for 28 years.
- [01:57]
B
Okay.
- [01:58]
A
Wow.
- [01:58]
B
Nice. Wow. Amazing. Okay, so your author journey. I love talking about this, Raina. Like, how did all of this start? You have multiple books now in the world for us to read, but I'm always curious on how an author finds. Finds their path to go down this path to become a Writer and an author. What was it for you that kind of got you started?
- [02:20]
A
Yes, it's a pretty wild story, at least as far as I'm concerned. I was a criminal appellate attorney for many, many years representing people convicted of felonies and trying to get them a do over or something less than what they got. And I loved it. I mean, I was a very happy lawyer. I know that there are a lot of lawyers out there who just want to be writers. And that, that really wasn't my story. I mean, I was, I was happy doing what I was doing until, you know, about. I would say, 23 years in, I kind of hit a wall and I just found I couldn't do it anymore. And a lot of that work is about telling stories. It's about telling the story of the person that you're representing and trying to make them, you know, more human. And it's, it's good work. And I was, I was in, you know, I was engaged in it. But after a while I found I couldn't really tell that story anymore because I just didn't. I didn't know enough about the people I would. I found myself kind of grasping at trying to understand what would cause someone to do something that would seem, you know, pretty evil to other people. And it seemed pretty evil to me. But you know, there's always a backstory. There's always something that went on in that person's history that got them to that point. And when doing appeals, you just can't know any of it. It's just not relevant. The only thing that's relevant is what came out in the court at trial. So I kind of got to a point where I just couldn't do it anymore. And I quit my job. And a friend of mine was taking a writing class at a local university and she told me to come with her. And I thought, that's crazy. I know how to write. I've been writing for years and years, you know, but this was memoir writing, which was very different from anything I had ever done. And I took this class with her and it really changed my life. I mean, I talk her about her anytime I, you know, anybody asked me this question because she really did something amazing without even knowing she was doing something amazing by telling me to come with her and check it out. And I went to this class and I started writing and I was writing these kind of short pieces about people in my life. And at the end of a year of doing that, I wondered whether I could turn those short pieces into characters so that it wouldn't actually be me writing about my life, but it would be writing about people that had inspired me and, you know, maybe I could turn them into something else. And I turned that into my first novel. And I kind of just been going since then.
- [04:46]
B
Well, I would think that in, in legal proceedings, words really matter. Like, the right words really matter, for sure. You really got to be succinct. You got to, you got to use the right terminology. You got to, you have to understand the power of your words as well. Because if I go to the Hollywood version of lawyers, which is probably not that accurate, it seems like whoever can, can bring the story along in a way that makes people either question or supports their belief is the way that resonates with them. And you can get a, you can get the result you're looking for, empathize
- [05:26]
A
with the person, make them seem like they are deserving of your attention and, yeah, redemption. It, it's hard, it's hard work. And it, you know, and as I say, I really loved it, but after a while, I just, you know, I had a couple cases towards the end of my career there where I just, I couldn't come up in my own head with why a person had done what they did. I just couldn't get my head around it. And I said, you know what? It's enough.
- [05:53]
B
So those powerful, the use of your words in a powerful way, we're talking about. There's got to be something that kind of translates from that ability that you had into your own writing. What did you bring with you from your career and experience into your own personal writing?
- [06:09]
A
Yeah, I think I brought a lot. I mean, I think that, I think the biggest thing I brought with me was that when you're practicing law, especially the kind of law I was practicing, you have to try to see everything from all different angles. Like, you can't just look at something and accept it and say, this is the way it is, because you're just not going to get anywhere that way. So I think looking at stories from different perspectives and trying to understand how you could see things a different way or make things out a different way, you know, has really helped me in my writing. Like, I, I, I get to a pivotal scene, and at first I think I know exactly how it has to go. And then I think, what if, what if it went some other way? What, you know, and I think that's the famous what if question that everyone tells you to ask. But, but I had a lot of experience, you know, doing that, and I think. I think it really helped.
- [06:55]
B
Do you have to separate your own personal opinion from what's going on in the courtroom? You can't be like, well, it's my opinion that this happened, or this is the way I see it. You can't really use that frame of reference. Right.
- [07:07]
A
No, you're. I mean, your opinion really doesn't matter much at all. But. But your ability to present it in a way that will, as I say, garner some kind of empathy from the. From the judges is. That's really important. Like, you can't. You can't present it dry, straight up facts, because that's going nowhere. Like, you have to say something that is a hook, you know, and the same way, when you're telling a good story, you can't. You can't just leave it out there and hope that people see it's a good story. You got to bring them in.
- [07:36]
B
I'm sure you stood in front of different judges, and some people, Some judges would be maybe easier to work with, some maybe not. So you got to be able to read the room as well, I guess, in your role.
- [07:48]
A
Sure.
- [07:49]
B
Does that help you as a writer as well, being able to understand and kind of look out and go, okay, I need to go. I need to go this direction in this context, because this, this judge is a little bit. They prefer their. They prefer their case run done this way, and then this judge over here, next case, they're totally different. So I'm gonna have to change my. My. The way I approach this in this time. So you're reading the room, right?
- [08:10]
A
A little bit. And I think, you know, people say you need to know your reader. Right. Who's your ideal person that you're really aiming this story towards? And I think when you first start out, at least for me, like, I was very intent on making everything wrap up very nicely because in my head, like, the ideal reader wants to see this story end in a good, happy way. And now I've kind of shifted towards they want to see the story end in a satisfying way. They want to understand what happens. But it doesn't have to be that everything wraps up all night nice and neat, and everything is happy and everybody goes off. And, you know, I think that's like a maturation you go through as a writer where unless, you know, I'm sure there are certain genres, obviously it has to end. Happy ending. Okay, I get that. But if you're not writing Rom com or something, you know, if you're writing something a little different, there's room you know, and your ideal reader is an interested, engaged reader. They're not necessarily looking for one particular thing.
- [09:08]
B
Yeah. And I think that's kind of life in general too. Not everything we experience comes to, comes to a conclusion. Everything wraps up with a nice little bow and we move on. Some things happen to us. We have no idea what happened. They seem unrelated to life and what's going on in the moment, but we experience things and go, what was that about? And we never really figure out why. And I think if a writer always finishes every single situation to a completion that doesn't even feel real sometimes for us that live our normal everyday life. Right.
- [09:41]
A
I mean, it, there's a point in knowing who is likely to be reading. Right. Like I, I wrote a middle grade book and I was not going to end that on a bad note. Right. I mean, these are, they're 8, 9, 10 year olds reading, hopefully, you know. Yeah, but, you know, but if you're dealing with adults, there's an adult reality that I think people appreciate that it's not, as you say, it doesn't wrap up always exactly how you thought or how you'd like. Even so.
- [10:07]
B
So beyond going to that course with your friend and being exposed to writing in this way, what other things have helped you? What have you learned along the way? That maybe a new author that's listening could really benefit from your, your insight based on what you, what's worked for you?
- [10:23]
A
Yeah, I think a lot of it is learning patience and persistence because everything takes much longer than you think it's going to take. And you know, the persistence aspect, like everybody makes it sound when you say, at least when you take these classes, at least when I took them, everybody makes it sound like everybody's going to walk out with a published book and it's just not true. Like, not everyone's going to make it through the process. Not everyone's going to have the wherewithal themselves to finish the book. And then even if you do, not everybody gets published, it's just not the way it works. And I think you have to have a realistic sense, but also a sense of saying, you know what? I'm going to stick at this until it happens for me, if that's really important, you know, and it can happen in such a huge variety of ways that there's, there's no point in giving up when you know there's plenty of ways to get it done. You just have to be persistent and understand what your options are and weigh your options, you know, reasonably based on what you can afford or what you can. The time you can afford, the money you can afford. I mean, there's, obviously there's tons of issues, but, you know, I just think sticking at it and not getting terribly discouraged is really the most important thing.
- [11:29]
B
Talk about the promotional side of, of your book. Your book launches, like, your book just came out in November and we're recording in December. The whole idea of get about getting out there and talking about your book. Some of the authors I talk to on this show, this is the part they don't really enjoy as much. They love writing. They love being in their room with a tea and a coffee and, and just plowing through this amazing book they're writing. But to get out there now and talk about it, it's like that's a totally different part of them that they weren't used to or they haven't developed yet. What's working for you? Getting out there and sharing your, your
- [12:03]
A
stories, It's a, it's a very different skill set. I think I had some of it from, you know, my prior jobs. I can get up in front of people, I can talk. And I think, you know, the, the harder part for me is the selling. Like, it's not the talking about your book. You're happy to talk about your book. You've just worked on this for years, right? And, you know, especially, you know, good interviewer or you're in. What I love the most maybe are book groups because the people have actually read the book and they have questions about my story or about something that happens in the book. I mean, that's, that's so exciting as an author, when you hear people talking about the characters as if they're real people. Why did she do this? Like, why did she do that? Because I made her do that. But that's not, you know, from their perspective, that's not where they're coming from, and it's fantastic. But then, you know, more like getting on the social media, the Instagram, and basically saying, you know, buy my book, buy my book. Like, it's, it's a.
- [12:56]
B
It.
- [12:56]
A
That's a really horrible feeling. Unless, you know, if that's your thing, if you're good at sales, that, that's great. But if that's not your thing and it's not mine, that, that's really hard.
- [13:05]
B
All right, so I'm on the website, I'm checking out. I love your website, by the way. Thank you. All your books are listed there for us. Other writings as well. But can we start? Let's Go back to the beginning then because the, the, the readers that are here love to find an author with multiple books like you have so they can fall in love and buy them all. That's what I love to see is somebody buy all your books. So can we kind of go back and just like a light touch on the earlier books and we're going to focus on your more recent one, but can you kind of take us back and what can we find on your website for your books?
- [13:34]
A
Sure. So, so the first book was called Unreasonable Doubts and it's the book that I was talking about when I went to the memoir class. I kind of put together a lot of different people, you know, little portraits from that class and turned it into the novel. And it's based on my work as a public defender and the protagonist is a young 30 year old public defender. She's kind of lost her mojo. She's trying to figure out if she can keep doing her job. And you know, she's much in the state that I was in except I was in it after many, many years and she's in it after, you know, a couple years at it. But, but she, yeah, she falls, she starts to fall for one of her clients which, this, that is, that is the truly fictional aspect of the book. The rest is based kind of more in reality. But, but yeah, it was fun and it was, it was a book that I, you know, was able to write because it followed the case. I used a case that I had represented somebody on that's the client she falls for. And it was, you know, I knew what happened in the case and I, in reality and I knew the states that this woman writing the brief would have to go through of finding an issue and interviewing the client and going to visit him in prison. And you know, so I was able to follow it through and that gave me a certain structure that was very helpful for a debut novel that I, you know, I understood what was happening.
- [15:01]
B
So that's nice, that's a nice behind the scenes for readers because you, it comes from first hand knowledge for you as a writer. You're not imagining what it's like to go to the jail and you know, prison and interview someone. You've done this, right? It's a little bit different perspective.
- [15:16]
A
Right. The second book was my middle grade book which is about a girl going into eighth grade and she's got undiagnosed dyslexia and she's got an awful lot on her plate. She's being raised by a single mom who is A nurse and who works all the time. And she's got an older brother who kind of has her back, but he's a senior and he's got his own life. And she gets assigned to an English class with a new teacher in the school who doesn't have all sorts of preconceived notions of her abilities and her issues. And he kind of focuses in on what a great kid she is and how much she has to offer, and he kind of discovers her learning issues. So. So that was great. I learned a lot about dyslexia. I actually wrote it during a class that I took about writing for kids. And like, each week I turned in a new chapter and by the end of the two semesters I had a pretty good draft. So that was. I. I really love that book. It. It didn't get as much play as I would like because it came out during COVID and the schools were closed and the libraries were closed and I. I couldn't really get out much with it. So it's being actually reissued in February. So I'm hopeful that maybe it gets another. Another life.
- [16:33]
B
Excellent.
- [16:35]
A
And the last one before this one is called Both Are True, and it's the story of a family court judge. I also had practiced in family court for a number of years. So it's about a woman who's. She's a new family court judge. She's learning how to navigate the system and she kind of has a falling out or falling away with her boyfriend. And it's. It's more. More of a. A romance. It's got a lot of law in it, but it's got more of an interpersonal story.
- [17:05]
B
So some really interesting storylines for your books. They. They all seem so uniquely different from each other. I like that.
- [17:13]
A
Yeah, I hope so. I hope so.
- [17:14]
B
Yeah. Excellent. Okay. And then to your newest one. Who is Jessica Harmon? Can you please tell us about this book? Come on.
- [17:23]
A
Jessica harmon is a 30 year old woman. When we meet her at the beginning of the book, she's kind of a mess. She wants to be a writer and has dabbled in it during college, but after she left college, she's since then been working as an editor in kind of a glorified vanity press and not really using her skills at all. And she's also having relationship problems. She can't seem to commit to anyone. And she blames her whole failure to launch on her mother, which I think is something a lot of people can relate to, even if it's not fair. But her mother in this Book is a piece of work. She's a very well known academic and writer herself. And she has never encouraged, her name is Cynthia. She's never encouraged Jessica, her daughter, to pursue her love of writing. And at the beginning of the book, she wins, Cynthia wins Jesse a lifetime achievement award. And she asks Jessica to come on the book tour with her and some kind of last ditch attempt to reconcile their relationship. And we see what happens on the tour and afterwards.
- [18:35]
B
All right, where did the idea for this book come from?
- [18:38]
A
You know, there were a lot of little glimmers for this book. One was, you know, I've always been interested in parent child relationships. They just seem fascinating to me. And we all know how much of an influence our parents have on us or can have on us for good or bad. And I think, I think the mother daughter relationship is sometimes particularly fraught. I had a very wonderful relationship with my mother and I share a wonderful relationship with my daughter. But you know, I could see that exploring that, you know, could be fascinating. So that was part of it. And another glimmer was I had always been told, and it was true, that my father had smiled, spent his freshman year of college out in Texas at UT Austin. And he had gone out there and several months in he had developed diphtheria. And they, this was 19, whatever, 40 something early and they had shut down the whole university sent him home and he finished up at the City University of New York. And one day I went up to my attic and I have a lot of stuff up there that is my parents, stuff from their home when, after they passed away. And I found this whole box of letters from my dad written to his parents from this year that he was in Texas. And I just started to think like what, what if there were all different things I didn't know about that year? Like I knew the very basics and. But what if it had been some life changing event that happened? And I, I don't actually think there was, but that's kind of what the got the wheels turning. And in this book, the mom, Cynthia, it turns out she has had this experience of being somewhere else for the first year for college and her daughter doesn't know about it. And in fact there was a very life changing event that happened to her while she was in this other part of her life that her daughter was unaware of. So it sort of all came together in kind of a weird way, but a good way.
- [20:33]
B
I think it's interesting when our kids find out that we as parents are human beings. Like we had a Life. We had a. You know, we were. We were different people before we were parents. And they're like, you were cool. And it's like, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, I guess I was cool. But, you know, when your kids realize.
- [20:53]
A
Yeah.
- [20:53]
B
Yeah, right.
- [20:54]
A
Amazing.
- [20:55]
B
Yeah. It gives them a point of reference, I think, that they don't really consider.
- [20:59]
A
Yeah.
- [20:59]
B
You know, they just see us as an authority in the house or whatever, Your mom, your dad, whatever. But they're like, wait a minute.
- [21:06]
A
You.
- [21:07]
B
You struggled. Like, you.
- [21:09]
A
You.
- [21:09]
B
You had. You had hard days, too. Like, it just doesn't seem to compute.
- [21:13]
A
Right.
- [21:13]
B
When you first come across that part of our lives. Yeah. Interesting. Who would you say is your ideal reader for. For your new book?
- [21:21]
A
Oh, for Jessica Harmon.
- [21:23]
B
Yeah.
- [21:23]
A
I think. I think it's so far mostly been women as opposed to men, although I don't. I don't really know why. And the men that have read it have enjoyed it, but I think it's. It's being, you know, labeled as women's fiction, which is fine. I figure there's so many women out there, that's fine. And I don't know, I guess, really anybody between the ages of the daughter and the mother, I think, you know, would all be fine. I don't. I don't think I'm gonna get, like, very, very young women reading it. Probably not, but certainly anyone 30 and over, I think, would be happy to read it. And, you know, it's. It's. It's a smart book. I think it's not, you know, I think it's for people that are interested in reading. I mean, I know it's not a light. It's not a light book. I mean, there's. There's emotions involved. There's. You know, you got to follow the story a little bit, but I think. I think most people should handle it.
- [22:13]
B
So a little bit of a departure for you from. From a legal perspective as a point of reference for your stories, too, right?
- [22:19]
A
There's no law at all. And.
- [22:21]
B
Wow.
- [22:22]
A
And that was honestly a really good feeling. Like, I, you know, I left practice of law in 2014, and it took me a number of years to kind of feel like maybe I could try to write something that wasn't based on the law. And, you know, had somebody asked me the other day, like, you're supposed to write what you know, and I was like, you know, what you also know, relationships, you know, love, parents and children, like, you know, all sorts of things that you can also write about. And. And it's also got a lot of writing in it. So that I do know that now. I mean, that's their profession. Both of them are writers, so. But yeah, I, I, I enjoyed, I enjoyed leaving the law behind for this one.
- [23:00]
B
What kind of feedback have you had from your daughter on the book? What does she think about the idea?
- [23:05]
A
I think that she enjoyed it. She told me it was good. It's not really the kind of thing that she normally reads. She doesn't read much fiction. She reads a lot of history and biography and politics and. But I think she could see that it had merit. My son literally got through, like, you know, 30 pages, and he was like, it's nice, but it's not for me. And I was like, okay, that's fine.
- [23:27]
B
That's good. Well, yeah, it's kind of nice to. Again, they, they see you as mom, and then they're like, wait, you're also an author? Okay. Yeah. So. And I gotta, I gotta put picture my mom as an author now, because people are reading her books and people are enjoying, and you're doing talks or doing all these things. It's like, wow, mom is cool. She's. She's doing all these things. Right? So I think that's another point of reference for them to kind of go, okay, yeah, my mom is pretty well rounded. She's, it's, it's amazing to see you do creative things. I think that's a good inspiration for both your kids.
- [23:58]
A
Yeah, I hope so. I hope so.
- [24:00]
B
Yeah. Excellent. So for the book, then, kind of take us through a little bit more of the story arc. What else do we need to know about Jessica that we haven't talked about as a character? What some of the key points about her as a character that we need to be aware of?
- [24:19]
A
Yeah. You know, she's, I would say she's probably equally confused and kind of bitter. She's grown up in this situation where her mother has paid a lot of attention to other people in her life and less to Jessica. And, man, Jessica really hates that. And she's really, in her own way, tried to move, move away from her emotionally and just say, am I going to be involved in this? But then when this book tour thing comes up and she kind of has this nagging feeling that, you know, maybe there is something there that I need to work on. Like, maybe, you know, she said, she says something like, you know, maybe, you know, moving forward. I can't move forward this way. You know, I have to move forward by dealing with this aspect of my life. So, yeah, and she's, you Know, she's definitely looking for love. She's. In the beginning of the book, she kind of has a relationship with somebody who appears to be kind of the perfect guy. And he's, and he's a perfectly nice guy, but he's not. Doesn't push her. He kind of lets her be the victim that she kind of perceives herself as. He, you know, he asked, well, I don't want to give away too much, but he would like to make it a more permanent relationship. And she feels that she can't. And he says, you know, you're blaming all your inabilities on your past. And instead of, you know. But he says it, but he doesn't really push her. And in the end, she needs to find somebody who kind of pushes her and, you know, pushes her to be better than she can be and pushes her to be, you know, be bigger than she has been to this point. So, yeah, she's. She's looking for love. She's looking for reconciliation on some level with her mother, and she's looking to understand her past. I mean, her mother has told. Told her a number of stories about her father, who her father is, and she's. She's not convinced. And she, she needs to find out the truth about that. So there's, there's a lot of secrets involved and a lot of, A lot of pain involved. But in the end, I think, as I say, not. Not a strictly happy ending, but everybody kind of gets to where they need to get, I think.
- [26:27]
B
Okay, so let's put you in this scenario. I like to hear this, Reina. You're going to go out and do a book tour for your book. You are in a 22 seater car. You can only bring one person with you. Do you bring Cynthia to be in your car, or do you bring Jessica, who would come with you on your book tour?
- [26:44]
A
Geez, Louise. Well, I definitely would not bring. I would not bring Cynthia. Cynthia, okay. I would torment me the entire time. And Jessica would be tough to be stuck in a car with at the beginning of the book, but by the end, she'd be all right. So I, I would have to assume by the end of the tour she'd be a pretty good companion.
- [27:03]
B
So, so what would, what would be a common bond between you and Jessica then on the road, going from book tour to book tour to book tour, what kind of things would you talk about? What, what about her as her character would be the person to be sitting next to you in that car? Wow.
- [27:18]
A
You ask good and hard questions. I think I think her love for writing and her really deep desire to express herself and to, you know, get out there and not, not be stuck in a job that is not the right place for her in this role that is really, I mean, she's basically at the vanity press. You know, she's, she's basically adding commas and, you know, it's just, it's just not, is not right. So I think we would probably talk a lot about her aspirations. I'm sure I would get stuck giving some love advice, which is, okay, I don't mind. I'm very happily married for many, many years and I think, I think I might be able to help her out on that a little bit. You know, I think her relationship with her mom, I mean, it's a work in process and it's, I think, I think everybody's is. And in the book, her, her mother has. Cynthia has a medical crisis and Jessica kind of steps up and that's a big thing for her to try to do because she does not have that kind of relationship with her. And, and I think, you know, I think we would talk about that and what that means and why, why she's doing what she's doing and yeah, I think we'd have a lot to talk about.
- [28:36]
B
The other thing I think the two of you would have in common is her being stuck at that vanity press and you feeling like you're in the wrong. You were at the end of your spot legally, and it was a time for a change for you as well. So that whole season of change could be a commonality for the two of you as well.
- [28:54]
A
Yes. Yeah. And she, she does, she gets, she gets to make some changes. So. Good feeling.
- [29:00]
B
Interesting. So in a roundabout way, there's a little bit of the law thing in the background. Not spoken, but there's, there's elements of that maybe. So I like it. You can't escape it.
- [29:12]
A
No. Right.
- [29:15]
B
You can't run from the law. I love it. Excellent. I'm really excited for this book. My podcast we talked about, Reyna, is called Living the Next Chapter. And I always like to ask my authors, even while they're out on a book tour publishing, promoting their new book is kind of what's next for you. I, I just love hearing authors talk about their journey and what they're seeing down the road for themselves as a writer as well, what do you, what do you got kind of planned for us as readers?
- [29:42]
A
Yeah, I'm really enjoying my next project. I'm not, I'm not sure how it's exactly going to come to fruition yet. But I'm writing a novel in short stories, which I've always wanted to try to do. I love to write short stories. I love how focused you can be and how you know how much you can get out of a short, a shorter piece without getting bogged down with the entire writing of a novel. So the main character's name is Kiki. She's a 21 year old. She's left her parents home in Rhode island and she's gone to Queens, New York and she's working in a 24 hour diner and she's working the night shift. And all the stories feature Kiki in some way, but she's not always the narrator of each of the stories, which was really fun. I mean the stories have allowed me to do different points of view, different time periods and they're all about the people that come to the diner, the other people that work in the diner, some stuff that goes on in the neighborhood, people that live in the neighborhood. And it's been great fun. I don't, as I say, a collection of short stories is hard. It's a hard sell. So I'm not sure where it will go yet or what I will do with it but. But it's been a lot of fun to write.
- [31:00]
B
Do you have a point of reference for a diner like that? Have you ever been to a place like that?
- [31:05]
A
I do. I grew up in a diner on Long Island. All my high school friends, we used to spend a tremendous amount of time in this one particular 24 hour diner at, at all hours of. Mostly the night. Yeah. I've told a bunch of my high school friends that I'm working on this and they're all very excited. But you know, we spent, we were there after prom night and we were there. All my friends went after our wedding. They sent pictures, they all went to the diner and you know, all different times of our lives we ended up at that diner. So yeah, so that's definitely the, the focal point.
- [31:40]
B
Sounds like a great place for a book signing. I was thinking that's all done.
- [31:44]
A
Yeah. Unfortunately that diner itself is now some like nondescript coffee chain. So sad. That's what happens. And that's actually. It happens in the book too. It's like sell out to this, like not a, not a Starbucks, but it's like some place like that.
- [32:01]
B
I don't know. Yeah, there you go. I'm sure there's another one you can go. I'm sure I can find one that'd be a really fun place to have that. That'd be great. Go and celebrate. I like that because you get to really do a lot of people watching in that environment. Yes. And you get to meet some interesting characters, especially at night. Oh, my gosh.
- [32:18]
A
Yes.
- [32:19]
B
In the city that never sleeps, Right?
- [32:21]
A
Yeah. Just at the neighborhood, you know, different people come, different people coming in.
- [32:28]
B
Wow. It's exciting. I love. I love hearing new projects, too. Do you have a rough idea on timeline or are you still pretty early?
- [32:38]
A
I'm close to finishing what I hope is a good draft. I don't know. I don't know what happens after that, so we'll see.
- [32:45]
B
But we can watch your website for more information on that in your process and we can maybe get little tastes of that in the future, so that'd be cool, too.
- [32:54]
A
Yeah.
- [32:54]
B
Awesome. I love it. So for. For the readers then, Raina, if we could end off here, I'd love to. To just kind of get your. Basically your love letter to a reader. Like, people are listening. They love what you do. They're finding you for the first time, and now they're going to fall in love with what you do. Do you have any, like, a love letter to readers about your books in general, your journey as an author, and just a connection point for those readers that really love what you do. What would you like to say to them?
- [33:21]
A
Yeah, I just hope you take the characters seriously and let them get under your skin, because that's. I love to write characters and I. Obviously all the books have plots. They do, but they're really character driven novels and they're waiting for you to discover the people inside and to let them get under your skin and think about them afterwards. That's really all I would. I hope people do.
- [33:46]
B
I love a character that stays with you after you're done reading. Right. It's like you have a new companion. Yeah. Right. It's like you put the book on the shelf, but that character just stays with you now, like that person in the seat beside you in the little small car right out there, you know, doing your book tour. Just somebody that sticks with you. I love a character that does that.
- [34:05]
A
Yeah. Even when they're being infuriating and some of them are.
- [34:08]
B
Yeah. Yeah. It's Cynthia with you.
- [34:11]
A
Yeah.
- [34:11]
B
This is two of you together. That would be an interesting car. Right?
- [34:13]
A
Yeah.
- [34:15]
B
Okay. It's good. Talk about your website as well, Reina. Like, I love your site. Tell everybody about what your website's about, what we're going to see when we get There lots of great links here for us to check out.
- [34:26]
A
Yeah. So my website, I, I love. My brother in law actually put it together for me, which is super helpful. And he's always trying to get me to trim it down because I have a lot of, I have a lot of extra stuff on there. Like you'll see that the books are all there. That's, that's great. And the reviews of the books. But also I have a lot of short stories that have been published that are up there and I have personal essays and I, I love to give people an access to all of that because I, you know, first of all, I worked hard on them all and if somebody reads something and it's meaningful to them, that's fantastic. It's not like a super streamlined website, as you can see. So, you know, there's, there's stuff there, but, but I hope people let you know, skip around, look around, don't, you know, don't come for five minutes, come for 15. And you know, I would, I would love that.
- [35:13]
B
What would you like to hear from, from a reader if they reach out to you? Do you love to connect with readers and chat through email? What do you like to do with, with people who reach out?
- [35:22]
A
Yeah, I love, I love to connect with readers. I love when they ask me questions that I can't answer or they ask me questions, you know, did you mean for it to be this or that? And, and it's something that has not occurred to me at all. But when they say it, it's like, wow, that's pretty cool. Like readers, definitely, I think, see things in books that sometimes the author had no idea they were putting out there. And that's fantastic. That's always incredibly exciting. So, yeah, I love to hear there's a link or something in there with my website with my email address, I'm sure.
- [35:57]
B
Awesome. And then I see you get past events here as well, that you've been speaking and doing things. So online events, you'd love to be a guest and talk to readers, maybe in person, in your area as well. You'd be open to that. If an event planner is looking for someone, of course.
- [36:11]
A
Yeah, I would love that.
- [36:12]
B
Excellent. Yeah. So definitely, everyone go check out the website. All the links are there. Also links to Facebook, Instagram, all that great stuff as well, as always. And if you want a great example of what your author page could look like, go check out Raina's website. It's amazing. So, Reina, thank you so much. I would love to have you come back Another reason why I ask how you're living your next chapter is I just selfishly want more time with you. So I wanted to have you back in the future to talk about your new book as well down the road. So keep us in mind because I know the audience loves to reconnect with guests. They come back and talk about new projects. So we'd love to have you back.
- [36:46]
A
Thanks so much. I would love to come back.
- [36:48]
B
Excellent, everyone. All the information of arena, as always in the show notes, would love for you to go and check it out. When you buy, not if. When you buy all of Raina's books, leave a great review for each of them so that people can understand why you love the book so much, why you resonate with Raina as an author, the story she tells and. And how. How you feel again, like her characters are companions for you as readers. Put that stuff into your reviews because then other people are going to read that and go, oh, this is exactly the author I was looking for. And it helps Raina sell more books. We can all be a part of. Of being on the promo circuit next arena in the car on book tours as readers by just leaving great reviews. So please do that for Reina. Let everybody know, again, why you love these books so much and tell somebody about Raina's books as well. You're. You're, as you listen to us today, you're like, I know people who are going to love Raina as an author and her books. Then tell people and share her website as well. Rena, thank you so much for being on the show. Glad to have you here.
- [37:50]
A
Thanks so much.
- [37:54]
B
Hey, thank you so much again for pressing play. As you've heard, great guests on the show. And one thing you didn't hear in this conversation is what. What did you not hear? Think about it for a second. That's right. Not a single solitary commercial for a mattress or a supplement or whatever you call it. No. Why? Because we don't want to break up the conversation with commercials. So the fact that you're still here means that you are a fan of the show, I'm assuming. So if you want to help to keep the podcast going and to make me feel really happy, all I really care about is coffee. Okay. I just got to be honest. I love coffee. I'm drinking one right now. Starting to get cold. I need. I need to warm it up. Helping us with our buy me a coffee link over@livingthenextchapter.com and also in the show notes, helps kind of keep the lights on around here. Remember, I'm doing this for free. I. I'm paying for everything. So I would love to have a little coffee donation. You know, even five bucks kind of fills up my cup. And I would love to enjoy a coffee from you. So if you're interested. Again, thank you for listening, but you can use our buy me a coffee link and fill up the cup. Thanks for being here.