Josie Balka, I HOPE YOU REMEMBER: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

Summary

Episode Summary: Totally Booked with Zibby – Featuring Josie Balka's I HOPE YOU REMEMBER: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living

Release Date: June 7, 2025

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Introduction

In this heartfelt episode of Totally Booked with Zibby, host Zibby Owens welcomes Josie Balka, a celebrated broadcaster, voiceover artist, and poet. The conversation delves deep into Josie's New York Times bestselling poetry collection, I HOPE YOU REMEMBER: Poems on Loving, Longing, and Living. Listeners are invited to explore the emotional landscapes Josie navigates through her evocative verses.

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Guest Background

Josie Balka brings a rich background to the conversation, holding a diploma in radio, television, and film from Niagara College. Her extensive work with major North American media companies as an on-air personality has honed her ability to connect with audiences. Born and raised in Toronto, Josie currently resides in Calgary, Canada. Her journey into poetry intertwines with her personal and professional experiences, adding depth to her writing.

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Overview of I HOPE YOU REMEMBER

Zibby introduces Josie’s poetry book, highlighting its immediate success by landing on the New York Times bestseller list within its first week of release. Josie describes her collection as an "all over the map of being alive," encapsulating themes such as love, friendship, lost love, toxic relationships, and body image issues. She breaks down the book into three chapters: Loving, Longing, and Living, each reflecting a spectrum of human emotions.

Josie Balka [05:09]: "It's an all over the map of being alive kind of poetry book."

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Themes and Emotional Insights

The discussion delves into the profound emotional resonance of Josie's work. Josie shares how her poetry served as a lifeline during the LA fires, stating:

Josie Balka [04:34]: "It was all I could read. That was the only thing I read."

Zibby expresses admiration for the emotional depth Josie brings, citing her ability to transform perceived negatives into positive reflections. For instance, Josie reflects on aging pets:

Josie Balka [06:15]: "The things that annoy you are the things you're gonna miss the most."

This perspective underscores a recurring motif in Josie’s work: appreciating the present and finding beauty in imperfection.

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Creative Process and Studio Setup

Josie opens up about her creative process, emphasizing spontaneity and authenticity. She explains how her poems often emerge organically from daily experiences and emotions, sometimes inspired by simple prompts captured on her phone.

Josie Balka [28:25]: "I'll usually write it and then come down and record it right away."

Zibby is fascinated by Josie’s dedicated setup for her creative endeavors. Josie describes her soundproof closet studio, complete with soundproofing panels purchased from Amazon and equipment rented from Long McQuade. This space facilitates her voiceover work and poetry recordings, demonstrating her commitment to her craft.

Josie Balka [24:35]: "It's my basement, an actual house now, which has given me the space to set up."

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Personal Reflections and Perspectives

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to Josie's contemplations on life and mortality. She shares a poignant poem read by Zibby, which Josie reveals was inspired by thoughts of mortality and the lasting impact one leaves behind.

Josie Balka [13:56]: "It's the root cause of countless moments of insurmountable grief for the people who love you the most."

Josie explains that these reflections stem from personal experiences and conversations with friends who have faced loss. This introspection allows her to channel raw emotions into her poetry, making her work universally relatable.

Josie Balka [16:11]: "I think about death a lot. I think about all the things that I already regret not doing and not saying."

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Future Projects and Plans

When asked about future endeavors, Josie hints at the possibility of a second poetry collection, aiming to delve deeper into specific themes that resonate with her personal growth and experiences. While not confirming concrete plans, she expresses enthusiasm for continuing her literary journey.

Josie Balka [27:32]: "If I were to do a second book, it would be a little more zoned into a topic that is important to me."

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Conclusion

The episode concludes with mutual expressions of admiration and gratitude. Zibby commends Josie for her impactful writing and the vulnerability she brings to her art. Josie reciprocates the appreciation, acknowledging how Zibby's work helped her through challenging times.

Josie Balka [31:20]: "It means so much coming from you. You're an icon in the book world."

Listeners are left with a profound appreciation for Josie Balka's I HOPE YOU REMEMBER, her therapeutic approach to poetry, and the seamless blend of personal narrative with universal themes that define her work.

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Notable Quotes

• Josie Balka [05:09]: "It's an all over the map of being alive kind of poetry book."
• Josie Balka [06:15]: "The things that annoy you are the things you're gonna miss the most."
• Josie Balka [13:56]: "It's the root cause of countless moments of insurmountable grief for the people who love you the most."
• Josie Balka [28:25]: "I'll usually write it and then come down and record it right away."
• Josie Balka [31:20]: "It means so much coming from you. You're an icon in the book world."

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Totally Booked with Zibby provides a captivating glimpse into Josie Balka's poetic mind and the emotional depth of her work. Her ability to articulate complex feelings with simplicity and sincerity offers listeners both solace and inspiration. Whether you are a poetry enthusiast or someone seeking connection through words, Josie Balka’s insights are both enriching and uplifting.

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For more information, visit zibbymedia.com and follow Zibby Owens on Instagram @zibbyowens.

Transcript

[Zibby Owens]

Hi listeners of Totally Booked with Zibby. This June we have one episode coming out every single day and to celebrate that I've started the June Listening Club. You can sign up on zibbedia.com or you can just keep listening and every day there'll be a little quiz on Instagram. We're giving prizes away every single day this month you're gonna get amazing stuff. You would all be invited to a party and a zoom at the end of the month to celebrate with a special certificate. So sign up on Zibbe Media today. Make sure following Totally Booked with Zibby on Instagram and get ready to listen. Make it a challenge. June is crazy. Find some airtime for yourself. Put it on in the background. Get ready to listen, learn, laugh and enjoy life.

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[Zibby Owens]

Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching.

[Josie Balka]

Over.

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[Zibby Owens]

Hi, this is Zibbee Owens and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have Time to Read Books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think.

[Josie Balka]

Is worth your time ever.

[Zibby Owens]

As a bookstore owner, publisher, author and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to stay in the know, get insider insights and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information go to zibbymedia.com and follow me on Instagram ibbeowensk. Josie Balka is the author of I Hope youe Poems on Loving, Longing and Living. And by the way, this book hit the New York Times bestseller list in.

[Josie Balka]

Its first week out.

[Zibby Owens]

And I am just so excited for Josie. This is so amazing. Josie Balka is a broadcaster, voiceover artist and poet. She holds a diploma in radio, television and film from Niagara College and has worked for some of the largest media.

[Josie Balka]

Companies in North America.

[Zibby Owens]

As an on air personality, she can often be caught recording viral poetry in her soundproof closet. She was born and raised in Toronto and lives in Calgary, Canada.

[Josie Balka]

Welcome, Josie. Thanks so much for coming on Totally Booked. I'm so excited to be talking to you about. I hope you remember. Congratulations.

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. And thank you so much for having me.

Oh, it's my pleasure. I loved watching you with your hardcovers in the very room where I'm interviewing you now, holding them up and thanking all your fans. And it's just so exciting. It's contagious. There it is.

[Zibby Owens]

Yeah.

[Josie Balka]

I'm so excited.

Oh my gosh. I have to tell you personally that I read the arc of this during the LA fires, right? It came out like the arcs came out last December or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it got me through the whole thing. It was all I could read.

Oh my gosh.

That was the only thing I read.

Thank you so much. That's so sweet.

So now it will forever sort of be linked to the thing that helped me through the most.

Wow. That's what I. That's. I haven't, like, speechless about that. Thank you so much for saying that. I can't believe what you guys went through over there. We were just watching on the news from here. I was in LA recently for the first time, went to a bookstore. It's beautiful. But like, I just can't believe that that happened.

I can't either. I was here when it happened. But anyway, whatever, but thank you. Okay, Josie, tell everybody what your book is about so we can. And then we're going to dive into how you got this incredibly amazing voice of yours.

Okay. My book is just kind of about. It's very emotional. I think I'm a very emotional person. So we decided to break it into three chapters. I always get the order wrong. Longing. Loving, longing. Yeah. And just because it was kind of all my emotions are always all over the place, which is the way that it was. And originally I was like, we should have this Scattered. And then it was like, okay. Not everybody's brain is like, okay to go from this topic to this topic to this. So it's basically just like love, friendship, lost love, situationships, toxic relationships, like body image issues, body image, positivity, like everything kind of tied into one. It's like an all over the map of being alive kind of poetry book.

Yeah, that's a good way to say it. It's so emotional, in fact, that I can just watch one of your videos on TikTok and cry. Like, today I cried about the dog video as I sat next to my dog. Like, the. Like how all the dents and the floorboards are what you're going to miss the most. And I'm going to. I can't even talk about it.

Oh, my God. So dogs. Dogs are like such an emotional point. Our dog's getting older. Like, how old is your dog?

10?

Yeah, almost 11. And we look at him and we're like, you're getting old. Their hair gets gray. And suddenly all these things like the scratched up hardwood and the little like. I don't know, I just start thinking about all them in, like, more of a nice way instead of a thing that you want to change. And I think that's kind of a theme of kind of the way that I like to write things. When it comes to your pets or anything, like your body, your relationships, is to kind of twist it. Like, start with the thing that is probably negative to you, but, like, turn it into something that could be positive.

And then at the end, you always tie it up like some sort of life message. You know, you're like, the things that annoy you are the things you're gonna miss the most. And I was like. Because it applies to so many things, you know, it applies to my kids growing up. And, like, everybody has their things, right? And it just touches that nerve. You just. You just like, go in there and touch the nerve of everything.

Oh, well, thanks. I. Yeah, I like to look at things through this lens. I heard somebody say this once, and I feel like a lot of what I write, now that I'm saying this out loud, I've never thought of this before, but, like, is from the perspective of you and 50 years, like, looking back, being like, my God, put me back in the moment, you know, like, I loved that body and that dog and that house and those kids at that age. And, you know, just like everything that you have right now will be something that you look back and you want back in some form or some capacity. And I Think me being so scared to, like, get older and grow up and, like, move on with my life is part of the reason why I'm writing all this kind of stuff. But. Yeah.

Can you tell me more about. So when I read the book, I honestly. And not to embarrass myself, but I hadn't been following you. I didn't know of you. I just was like, oh, this looks like a good collection of poetry. And I didn't even realize that you were young. Like, I didn't know anything, so. Because your voice and your thoughts are so wise. Like, they're so full of soul and so wise that. Not that young people can't be wise. And it's not like you're 12 or anything. Like, how did you get this way? Where did you come from? What is your story?

I feel like. I mean, I'm not that young. I'm in my early 30s. I'm 31. But like, I. I don't know. I think it's kind of happened over the last little while. And it's kind of weird. I feel like I just fell into this place where I started to understand myself and understand the world a little bit better. I don't know if my frontal lobe, like, finished developing or something, and then I was able to see straight. But I remember I used to have this therapist, and she's very spiritual. It's called an open heart therapy. And she would always talk about having an open heart, and I could not rub my head around with that meant I was just like, I don't get it. And she was like, just open up your heart and you'll see that. Like, you'll see everything in a different light and you'll be able to attract things. And I was like, I don't understand what you're talking about. Like, that makes no sense. And then there was literally one day where I was like, oh, an open heart. I feel it. Like it's there. And I don't know if it just, like, took time because I wasn't even really focusing on learning what it was. But I think at that point it kind of opened me up to see things from a different perspective a little bit.

How would you been seeing things before? Have you always been a poet? Do you consider yourself a poet? Because you are.

No, I consider myself. I'm a radio host. That's my main job. So I consider myself that mostly. And then I guess this kind of. Yeah, it's hard to put a title to it. It's hard to believe it. I have a bit of imposter syndrome. But I guess before, I was pretty closed off and. And very negative. Like, everything was happening to me instead of for me. And, like, there was just no looking ahead and only looking back. And I guess that I do that a lot. Like, I do a lot of past revisiting, but I do a lot of revisiting of the past still, but kind of in a way that I see that it was for a reason, you know?

Can I just read, like, this one excerpt from your From Loving at least? I mean, it could really be any page because they're all equally beautiful. But what did being loved by me feel like? What was it like for you during the time that I thought you hung the moon? What was it like to sit across from someone who thought you could do no wrong even while you did the wrong things? Did you feel privileged while I felt pathetic? Did you feel important while I felt insufficient? Did you feel loved while I felt lost? I don't ask because I hope it was awful, but I ask because I hope it was worth it. I hope for you the storm felt cozy. I hope my umbrella went to good use while I stood in the rain. I hope I made you feel good about yourself. And I hope you feel warm when I cross your mind, because it makes you think of a time when somebody loved every single thing about you. Because I did everything except the fact that you didn't love me back.

Oh, that. It's very interesting to have. I've never had somebody read me something I've written. I've only ever read it on paper or read it out loud. So that was crazy experience. So thank you for that. You just did, like, a whole. Open up a whole new world for me. But, yeah, I. I forgot about that one, to be honest. And. Wow. I like it.

Right?

[Zibby Owens]

It's good.

[Josie Balka]

Thanks.

Toss the imposter syndrome aside.

Honestly, I was like, well, you have such a nice reading voice. That. Yeah, that's. That was a crazy experience. Thanks.

Oh, my gosh. I didn't mean to totally freak you out, but. No, it was great. I love it. When you wrote this, for example, how close was this to when you felt this way? Like, was it you were just thinking back on this time, or was it something you wrote in the moment that you, like, pulled out of a drawer and you kept writing? How. How close are we to this feel?

Like, often I'll hear something or see something or drive past something or think of something that reminds me of a feeling that I' felt. I wrote all of the poems in this Book in the last couple of years while I've been in a relationship. I got engaged in November and we're getting married in October, so.

Oh, so exciting. Congratulations.

Thanks. And, like, obviously these aren't about him, because that would be a huge problem, but, like, there are some ones that are, like, about being in love, and those are about him and, like, the feelings that I felt when I've been in love, but it's mostly just feelings that I remember. And I honestly think that not feeling that way anymore is the reason that I'm able to, like, sit down and put it into words, because it's not happening. And there's just something that happens with these big emotions that you feel where they get so simple to you after they're over, and you can actually look back and be like, whoa, that was me doing everything and you doing nothing the whole time. And I see that now because in the moment, I really thought you were going to wake up one morning and start treating me the same way that I treat you. So it just obviously such a classic say, like, hindsight 20 20, but I can look back and be like, oh, that's exactly what was happening. And I know how I felt. And now I can see clearly how you felt because you were showing me. And it just kind of makes it easier to write about.

Can I read one more?

Yeah, of course. Yeah. No.

You wrote, one day, the people who love you will receive the news of your passing. Their phone will ring and they will find that the most important person to them is not here anymore. This is not something that might happen. It is something that will happen. You will be a voicemail that people listen to again and again just to hear your voice. You will be a picture in a frame that stops people in their tracks, breathless in the hallway. You will be the root cause of countless moments of insurmountable grief for the people who love you the most. And it is not later that you become, oh, my God, I'm going to cry. And it is not later that you become someone who would leave a hollow pit in the center of someone's world with your absence.

[Zibby Owens]

No time is needed to make you.

[Josie Balka]

Into someone who has changed people's lives to a point where they question whether or not they could go on without you. It does not have to be 50 years down the line for the lack of you to be inconceivable because you are so important right now as you are. I know. It's a twisted way to look at it, a destructive point of view for the sake of Pointing out something positive. But the space you take up, no matter how big or small, is far too grand to ever be filled. It won't be. You belong here. There is nobody better for it than you.

Oh, well, thank you for reacting to it that way. That's so sweet.

I'm telling you, every poem of yours, I start crying. It's like, so. It's so bad. It's. Anyway, it's so good. But, you know.

I remember when I wrote that one because I was thinking about a friend who has lost a parent. And I, like, they've opened up to me on several occasions about, like, when they found out. And, like, I just was thinking about them one day and how awful that must have been. And, you know, and how that's going to happen, like, to either me or my parents. Because, like, you know, you never know which way it goes, right? With life. Nothing guaranteed. And I was like. But what is guaranteed is, like, it will happen. Like, one day I get a call or you get a call that this has happened and there's literally no way for it not to happen. And I just, like, kind of open my brain up to be like, whoa. Like. And I know it's so simple, like, we're all gonna die one day, but you really do bury that in your. In your mind. Like, you worry about things from a day to day. Like, you hope that your health is good and this and that, but it's just this, like, inevitable thing. And I feel like. I don't know why, but there's one day they just start to feel really real. And I was like, well, one day my, like, future children or whatever, like, if I'm lucky and things go as they're supposed to go, and I live a long time will lose me. Like, that's crazy. And they're going to be so sad about it because I'm matter to them. And, like, it was this whole weird epiphany of feelings and then that's what it came out as.

But, yeah, no, I think about that a lot. I think about death a lot. And I do, too. I think about, like, oh, my gosh, like, not that I'm so indispensable to my children, obviously, by the. Hopefully by the time I die, they'll be able to do all the things they need to do on their own, but I won't be there to make them feel better.

I know, I know.

So helpless. And it's gonna happen and it's so terrible anyway.

No, it's like, it's such a weird. I think about death all the time too. And like all the things that I already regret not doing and not saying and all, you know, so it's just. It's just like a weird, A weird thought to have. But that was kind of my thought process when I wrote that.

Oh my gosh, no. It's all so good.

[Zibby Owens]

Today's episode is sponsored by Quint's. As the temperatures start rising, I feel that familiar urge to refresh my closet. But I'm not wasting money on pieces.

[Josie Balka]

I'll only wear once or for just one season.

[Zibby Owens]

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[Josie Balka]

I love these clothes.

[Zibby Owens]

They feel great. They're the best value. And I'm obsessed.

[Josie Balka]

I just.

[Zibby Owens]

There's nothing on the website that I don't want. I particularly love the 100% organic cotton gauze smocked maxi skirt which I throw on with a T shirt and the skirt and some sandals. And I am good to go for a day of podcasting and mom life. I got it in white, but they also have it in black. Give your summer closet an upgrade with quince. Go to quince.com civi for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q U I N C E.com civvie to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com Zivi Today's episode is sponsored by Quince. I've gotten tired of clothes that looked cute online but feel cheap when I get them out of the box at home. I want better fabrics, better quality, better.

[Josie Balka]

Fit, just better everything.

[Zibby Owens]

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[Josie Balka]

So adorable.

[Zibby Owens]

Will wear this every day all summer long.

[Josie Balka]

So treat your closet to a little.

[Zibby Owens]

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[Paige]

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[Josie Balka]

I love the Waikiki Blue indoor outdoor.

[Paige]

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[Josie Balka]

You have all these powerful thoughts and feelings and have found a way to articulate them in a way that's simple enough for really everybody to get. And by the way I work on it with, you know, I have a whole team of people, and I mentioned that I was about to interview you, and they were all like, oh, my gosh, the girl.

That girl?

Really?

[Paige]

Her?

[Josie Balka]

No way. Oh, yeah. That's crazy. Okay, cool.

That's awesome. So your stuff, I know you know you're going viral, but, like, it's one thing to say I'm viral on TikTok and another to be like, oh, no, actually, like, everyone sitting around this table has gotten your videos and loves watching them.

Wow, that's crazy.

So what. What are you going. How are you going to, like, use your power for good? Like, how are you going to leverage this. What are you going to do with this celebrity, this newfound sort of platform? Right. Because essentially, like, TikTok stars are the new celebrities, right?

That's a really good question. I, like, have never even come into the realm of that question before in my head. What am I going to do to use my power for good? Well, I'm hoping that just in the. I guess the niche that I've fallen into, where it's more. So I guess I just hope that people can use me to feel less alone in the same way that I'm using them to feel less alone. Like, I don't want my followers to be like, oh, she's using us. But when I post something that I've been through and there's hundreds of comments being like, oh, my gosh, I see this. I've been there. I. I feel that I'm going through that right now where I went through that before, and I'm through it. If it's something that I'm, like, currently going through, like, selfishly, I. That helps me so much. And I guess I'm hoping that when people listen to this and, like, feel along with me, like, I hope that they feel helped in the same way that I do when I find out that they relate to it.

So in one of the videos I watched, you said you had, like, pinned up these. So you're in a little. What looks like a sound box, you know, like an audiobook recording studio. Yeah. How did you make this room? Are you literally. Is it literally just like two panels you put on your wall? Like, explain this to me. Are you in your house? Like, where are you?

Yeah, so I'm in my basement. Like, I got really lucky when I moved into my fiance's house a couple of years ago. It's like an actual house. I've always lived in apartments downtown, and now we're, like, in A home in the suburbs. So we got some space and we don't have any kids yet. So it worked out that I could utilize one of our guest rooms. The problem is, is that I am a project starter. Like this room was a work in progress for a while, but it started for voiceover because I do a lot of voiceover work. So I just set this up so that I could have a place to do it. And now it's like, like this kind of like there's like shelves and stuff in here. There's a computer and then it goes all around. And then the door here, which leads into a podcast studio that I need to put together. But it's just furniture at the moment, like I need to do. But it's been sitting there for months, like I have to figure my life out. But yeah, that's. This room is just a closet. Like literally a walk in closet.

Oh my gosh, that is so neat. And where did you buy all the panels? Just online. Really? Oh my gosh.

At Amazon. I got the little ones you can get like a pack of like 10 or 20 of them for. I think it's probably a couple hundred dollars for all of them. And then this like big one on the door I got from a sound and like music store called Long McQuade where you can rent equipment. And originally, like, because you know, investing in building a studio isn't cheap. So at first when I went to Long and McQuade to get like these pads, I also rented a microphone and an interface. And I was like paying monthly and like paying all this interest on them so that I could like eventually pay them off with the work that I was hopefully eventually going to do. So that paid off, which is great. But it's been definitely a weird journey. My co host at work always jokes because he's like, you just come in here and you say you're going to do something and then you do it. You were like, I'm going to go buy some pads from Wong McQuaid and do some voiceover work in my closet. And I was like, you got it. And then I came in a couple weeks later. I was like, I think I'm start posting my poems online. And he's like, great, sounds good. And I'm like, just all these like weird things that I say and then they've been coming to life. But I think that whole open heart thing that I talked about at the beginning kind of ties into that. I don't know why. It feels like I opened myself up to it and Then it happened.

Wow, that's so cool. Do you have a carpet, too? I'm trying to make some. Something similar. That's why I'm asking.

Yeah, it's like the same carpet that's outside. And then I actually have, like, just like. Like this here on the wall. I literally have one, like, underneath the desk on the floor. Because when I got this closet installed with, like, all the shelves and stuff, it kind of got really echoey in here and I needed to dip it down. So even in these shelves where they're supposed to be books, I just have, like, these pads of soundproofing, but it's actually, like, offline. I can totally help you with this. It's like, thank you. Sorry. No, don't worry about it. I love talking about it. It's my favorite.

I'm like, what equipment do you have? Anyway, thank you.

I'll send you pictures of everything.

[Paige]

Thank you.

[Josie Balka]

Thank you. That's what you should really like. That's one of those things you could do. You could be an Amazon affiliate and then anybody could buy these things.

Oh, like how to build your studio. Wow, that's a really smart idea.

You could earn money. Yeah. You just apply. Like, you'll get in two seconds. You apply, and then I might already have that.

I could just go and make like a little.

Make a little storefront and then link it to, like, a post or something. And anybody who can make your own studio and start recording.

Wow. Okay. I'll do that literally right after we hang up the phone.

Then send me the link and I'll be your first customer.

Perfect. That's awesome.

There we go. I love it.

That's great. That's such a good idea.

So this is what happens when you put two microphones together and see what happens. Oh, my gosh. So I feel like it will be so easy for you to scale writing poetry in book form because you're constantly reading them. You must write. You must have so much in store. Are you planning on doing, like, tons of collections? And what's your plan?

As of right now, the only one that's like, officially out there is this one. But I definitely have since even handing in because, you know, the process with books is long when you're doing it traditionally. So I handed in the manuscript like a year ago for this and we worked. We've been working on it for a long time. So obviously I've written a lot since then. I think if I were to do a second book, it would be a little more zoned into a topic that is important to me and that if it were to ever happen, it would come out not too long after this one. But. But I don't know.

You're being very cagey, so I won't. I won't put. I won't push. Where do you write these poems? Is this like a late at night thing or you don't just do them on the fly, right? You write them and then read them, right?

Yeah, I do them pretty on the fly. Like, I'll usually write it and then come down and record it right away. Like, usually if you see one, I probably wrote it, recorded it, and posted it all in one day. But it comes to me in, like, weird ways. I tell this story all the time. But, like, someone told me once that they heard an interview with, like, Adele where she talked about how when she gets an idea for something, it like, feels like it like, gravitates into her brain from out of nowhere. And I feel like that happens to me. But even be like a line from a song or I'm driving, like I mentioned earlier. So I'll write down the thought prompt, like in my phone, and then I'll come back to it when I get home when I'm laying in bed. Or I'll come down here and write it on this computer. Or I have a walking pad upstairs in the room that I do my makeup in. And sometimes I'll write and walk at the same time and I'll kind of go through all of the one line prompts that I wrote for myself so I could remember and just decide if anything still resonates with me a couple hours later when I get home. But it's kind of all over the place. But the whole book was written in my notes app on my iPhone, which is crazy.

That is crazy. That's so cool, though, you know, it's so cool because it can. It makes it feel like anybody can try doing this and like, it doesn't have to necessarily be at your level. Right. But if any, if everybody just starts expressing their thoughts and getting them down on paper and it feels doable, then we'll get so much more great art and people will help each other more.

I think there's a lot of power in, like, all different types of writing. And there's like, I guess this is more like prose than poetry, right? But there's a lot of power in it no matter how you do it. And if you're somebody who loves to use, like, super powerful metaphors and big words and, you know, like, different things that have Five different meanings, and you can go look them all up and take it from all different angles. And I can still appreciate writing like that. I personally, just. The way that it naturally comes to me is to write in a way that I'd say it out loud so that you're reading it and you don't have to check on any of what any of the words meant, and you, like, aren't confused about what any of it means, and you're just like. Like, this must mean exactly what it means, and this is exactly how I'm taking it. And that everybody who reads it kind of takes it the same way. And I think that with that in mind, if you're not somebody who loves to use, like, big words or metaphors or whatever, like, it doesn't mean that you can't write. Because I'm writing these things from a very simple standpoint and very simply put. And I think it's the best thing to remember is if you want to start writing and you kind of like feel it in your heart, but you don't know how to get it out, is that the only person who's ever going to read it is you. Unless you let somebody else read it. You don't have to put it anywhere, and you don't have to ever be embarrassed when you're by yourself because it's just you. So put it on paper or put it in your notes app or something and then keep it to yourself forever if you want. But I think, like, it would really benefit everybody to try if they have that in them and they want to do something like that.

Amazing, Josie. Thank you. This has been so awesome. I'm such a fan and I just love the way you write, and I'm. I don't know. Congrats.

Well, thank you so much. It means so much coming from you. You're an icon in the book world. So I really, really appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time to have me on and talk to me about it. And I thank you for reading it. Like, that means more to me than you know.

No, as I said, it helped me through a really tough time and I feel indebted. So thank you.

Well, thank you.

Okay, bye. Thank you so much.

[Zibby Owens]

Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby formerly Moms don't have Time.

[Josie Balka]

To Read, Read books.

[Zibby Owens]

If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram, ippyowens and Spread the Word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.

[Captain]

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