Show Notes:
Today is part two of two where we are talking to Sam Razberry about her poetry. After today you will have heard about writing love letters to her family and friends, starting with journaling her poems, struggles of self publishing print on demand companies, the emotions involved in writing, the similarities between plotting fiction and poetry, and her advice that you should do it.
Get From Soil to Sun and Back Again
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Sam feels her feelings like its her job….because it is. Crying often as a means to process and release, she strives to uncover all her deepest wounds, and salve them with aloe. You can find Sam at her local coffee shop (literally naned “Poets”) sipping an iced vanilla chai, and eating something delicious on a croissant while she scribbles poems into one of her many half-filled notebooks, living her best, main character life.
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Transcript:
Speaker A: Welcome to Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: We believe fairy tales are both stories we enjoyed as children and something that we can achieve ourselves.
Speaker A: Each week we will talk to authors about their favorite fairy tales when they were kids and their adventure to holding their very own fairy tale in their hands.
Speaker A: At the end of each episode, we will finish off with a fairy tale or short story read as close to the original author’s version as possible.
Speaker A: I am your host, Freya Victoria.
Speaker A: I’m an audiobook narrator that loves reading fairy tales novels and bringing stories to life through narration.
Speaker A: I’m also fascinated by talking to authors and learning about their why and how for creating their stories.
Speaker A: We’ve included all of the links for today’s author and our show in the show notes.
Speaker B: Be sure to check out our website.
Speaker A: And sign up for our newsletter for the latest on the podcast.
Speaker A: Today is part two of two, where we are talking to Sam Raspberry about her poetry.
Speaker A: After today, you will have heard about writing love letters to her family and friends, starting with journaling her poems, struggles of self publishing, print on demand companies, the emotions involved in writing a similarities between plotting fiction and poetry, and her advice that you should do it from soil to sun and back again.
Speaker A: The seed, when sprouting, sees only darkness.
Speaker A: It grows blindly through the soil, the promise of light guiding its very existence.
Speaker A: Our author is a fan of two things in life, condiments and a really great, though painstakingly thought out at times, long winded, metaphor.
Speaker A: Armed with restaurant ranch dressing, could I get extra sauce?
Speaker A: And a smooth writing clicky pen, she continued her journey to the core of her being disguised in, you guessed it, metaphors for plant growth.
Speaker A: We all have our growing season, sure, but what about the time spent nestled away from the world, pursuing our most evolved selves?
Speaker A: What of the growing pains?
Speaker A: The root rot?
Speaker A: The two small pots?
Speaker A: Ria along through all her life cycles so far from a sapling back to a seed to bloom, to wither, to revive herself and grow from soil to sun and back again.
Speaker B: So you just uploaded your first book, and then what did you do to, like, did you promote it at all or what did you do once it was out there?
Speaker C: I hopped on my incredibly unused Facebook page and just kind of came up like, what’s that groundhog’s name that tells us whether or not it’s going to stay cold?
Speaker B: Anyway?
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker C: Anyway, I just popped up and I was like, here’s a book.
Speaker C: And just posted about it.
Speaker C: And I think people were like, oh my God, I haven’t seen you in ages, you’re alive and you have a book.
Speaker C: I remember texting my mom after the first report came for the first month of sales and stuff, and I was like, mom, I made my first book and she was like, you’re internationally famous.
Speaker C: So that’s all I did because it was mostly just about just the act of believing in myself enough, yeah, to put it out there and then to have people see it and see me, because in that book, I delve into how difficult it can be being a human and how deep and dark you can sometimes get in your feels and whether or not you want to stick around.
Speaker C: So it gets pretty heavy.
Speaker C: And it was really unnerving to share that with everyone because you’re also used to people being like, well, what do you have to be depressed for?
Speaker C: What are you?
Speaker C: And so it was kind of nerve wracking, but it was also really invigorating whenever people came back and were like, oh, my gosh, I feel that that resonated so much.
Speaker C: A big one is one that’s on impostor syndrome and fear and called it’s a syndrome.
Speaker C: And so many people have messaged me and been like, oh, that one on impostor syndrome caught me.
Speaker C: I’m like, yeah, dude, I know, because we’ve all been there and you can feel like an imposter for any number of reasons.
Speaker C: So it all started to feel.
Speaker C: That helped, too, whenever people gave me the feedback, like, I can’t wait to read more of your writing.
Speaker C: And I’m like, oh.
Speaker B: There has to be more.
Speaker C: Are you not satisfied?
Speaker B: I’m at that now.
Speaker B: In fact, right before we hopped on here, one of my readers was like, there’s going to be more, right?
Speaker C: Oh, God.
Speaker B: My book is in the arc reader stage.
Speaker B: So people who get.
Speaker B: I did e arc, so, like, ebook versions of the book and pretty much universally from everyone that I’ve heard from, it was, I couldn’t put it down.
Speaker B: And all these things that you’re like.
Speaker A: I didn’t know that that’s what I.
Speaker B: Needed to hear, but that’s just what I needed to hear to keep going.
Speaker B: Who doesn’t want.
Speaker B: There’s the other side of that where it was like, dear God, I felt like I was just dragging to finish this stupid book.
Speaker B: You want to be the book that yesterday, two of my readers were talking about their husbands were like, hey, it’s like, way past bedtime.
Speaker B: When are you going to be done with that?
Speaker B: Arguably.
Speaker B: And I know the first six chapters are very like, it’s at Christmas time.
Speaker B: So it’s very nostalgic.
Speaker B: And she’s like sifting through Christmas ornaments at her parents house and helping her mom decorate.
Speaker B: It’s also my first book that I’ve ever put out there, so it’s a little bit slow one.
Speaker B: It’s setting up the story and the backstory of the characters, right?
Speaker B: Exposition and all, without being info dumpy because it’s like half takes place in our world.
Speaker B: I didn’t need to info dump the first several chapters that take place in our world.
Speaker B: You know how our world operates, right?
Speaker B: So you get a little bit of like the Christmas nostalgia and setting up the Christmas stuff and how she loves going to her parents house and helping them decorate for Christmas.
Speaker B: And then you go over into the fantasy world and it’s not like a super fantasy world where it’s like.
Speaker B: And there’s purple mountains and yellow trees and it’s not like that.
Speaker B: It’s just like there’s a prison world and it could look like our world, but there’s like this weird castle underneath a mountain picture like Lord of the Rings.
Speaker B: So I don’t go into crazy detail.
Speaker B: There is no giant info dumping.
Speaker B: At one point it’s like, well, how do we make this happen?
Speaker B: It’s like, well, it’s got to be a magic potion because there’s no other way that we could make this happen without it being a magic potion.
Speaker C: I love how the creative brain works.
Speaker C: Logically.
Speaker C: It was magic.
Speaker B: He can’t have just magically healed from his wound to suddenly be there unless there’s a magic potion.
Speaker B: But why would he not have just used the magic?
Speaker B: And this is me talking with one of my beta readers.
Speaker B: I’m like, well, why wouldn’t he have just used the magic potion when he got hurt?
Speaker B: And it’s like, well, there has to have been some, like, there’s some reason why you wouldn’t have done it.
Speaker B: So then it’s like, okay, so what would be a good.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: Because that’s how my brain works.
Speaker B: It’s very logical.
Speaker B: So everything within my world, it had to be there for a reason to make it make sense without it being like, that’s as simple as, well, there’s a price for magic.
Speaker B: That is the explanation.
Speaker B: There’s no big long well 5000 years ago when this world was created, she says, why didn’t you just take the magic potion earlier?
Speaker B: And he replies, because there’s a price for using magic.
Speaker B: That is the end of the info dump on the magic until later when the price comes due.
Speaker C: Got you.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I’m like, I know the first few chapters of the book are a little bit slower because you are setting up the whole basis of the series, and then it picks up and there’s war and battles and beheadings and all kinds of stuff.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: I don’t remember what any of the point of me saying any of that was, but ADHD struck again.
Speaker B: Oh, readers liking your stories.
Speaker B: That’s what it was.
Speaker B: Readers liking the stories.
Speaker B: So I am just glad for mine.
Speaker B: I couldn’t put it down.
Speaker B: I had to keep reading it.
Speaker B: I’ve had one that was like, I don’t usually read fantasy books, but I couldn’t stop.
Speaker B: One was like, I don’t ever read books that aren’t like spice all throughout.
Speaker B: And mine is like super slow burn, like, last three chapters, spice situation.
Speaker B: And so I’m like, if you can hook readers like that, regardless of any negative reviews that may come later on, it’s like, if I can hook readers that don’t usually read this type of book, yeah, I did my job.
Speaker B: Exactly.
Speaker C: I understand that so much.
Speaker C: Last night, one of my friends through streaming messaged me and had bought my first book because we were talking about my second book coming out and he went ahead and bought the first one and texted me last or messaged me last night and was like ten poems in, oh, my God.
Speaker C: I have never gotten goosebumps from reading the way I am getting goosebumps from your work.
Speaker C: This is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker C: And I was like, I’m going to.
Speaker B: Go cry in the corner now.
Speaker B: Thank you very much.
Speaker C: And it’s like, I can read over my work.
Speaker C: I know that I’ve done it.
Speaker C: I’m a very emotional person.
Speaker C: Anyway, crying is my pressure release valve, so it just happens.
Speaker C: But whenever I can read through it and then get to the very last line and read the last line and then I start to cry, I know that I’ve done it.
Speaker C: I know, I’m like, okay, we’re there, we’re there.
Speaker C: And I just let it cook a little bit longer and then release it to the public.
Speaker C: So that’s what happened with the first one, and then whenever it happened again with the second one and it took longer with the second one for me to hit that point whenever I felt like, oh, yeah, you’re good.
Speaker C: Because I had the first one and the feelings that came with the first one that my brain was constantly comparing to.
Speaker C: So I was like waiting and waiting and waiting, and whenever it finally happened, I was like, okay, I still got it.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: It wasn’t a fluke.
Speaker B: So I start writing this book, and I send the first, like, I think, two chapters to a couple of authors I had narrated for and then my best friend, and I’m like, I just need you guys to tell me, is this good or is this, like, I should just stick to narrating and not try to write?
Speaker B: And unanimously, it was, oh, my God, this is good.
Speaker B: Please continue this story.
Speaker B: So even with the first few chapters being slower, and I say slower, like.
Speaker A: Stuff still happens, it’s just not as.
Speaker C: Fast paced you’re building.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: So they were unanimously like, absolutely.
Speaker B: Keep writing.
Speaker B: Absolutely.
Speaker C: Even just with a little taste.
Speaker C: Yeah, that’s a good feeling.
Speaker B: That’s a good feeling.
Speaker B: And then my best friend was my alpha reader, so she read that, and then I would keep sending her chapters, and I’m like, my prompt for her was just like, just tell me if it flows like a normal story, does it come up to a climax and drop back down like a story?
Speaker B: And even with poems, I’m sure you want that same.
Speaker C: I was going to say that whenever I didn’t realize how similar the process is, but I did the same thing with the poems, especially with this book.
Speaker C: I wanted there to be.
Speaker C: I’ll finish a sentence.
Speaker C: Don’t you worry about it.
Speaker C: The first book, I was kind of throwing everything in there that felt like these are all the plights and all the highs and the lows of being a person, being a spiritual being, that’s having a person like a human experience from soil to sun.
Speaker C: I wanted there to be a story.
Speaker C: I wanted it to read like a story, almost.
Speaker C: And you could see that you’re focusing on the same subject, the seedling that goes throughout, and you see this seedling go through growing up in a forest, and then there has to be a moment where you leave that forest.
Speaker C: So what happens to leave that forest?
Speaker C: Well, I know because I’m basing it off of my life.
Speaker C: So that was pretty easy.
Speaker C: But then it was like, how to weave these other parts of my life into it without it being like, and then I did this, and then I did this, and then I did this.
Speaker B: You want it to be next and then after that.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker C: And so I wanted it to flow like, okay, here’s some conflict that I had to deal with, but here’s how I sort of got through that.
Speaker C: And then here’s some more conflict that I dealt with.
Speaker C: And then here’s how I got through that, because I learned from the first thing.
Speaker C: And then it ends with this reclamation of my space and the space that I’ve put down roots and the nature around me.
Speaker C: So it was like, okay, how do I get from here, this happy little seedling in a little forest, to this field of wildflowers that only exists because the seedling had to go through an immense amount of trials to get here?
Speaker C: Like, how do I connect a to b?
Speaker C: So your process really resonated, because I was like, oh, yeah, that’s how I.
Speaker C: Because there would be holes.
Speaker C: I was like, okay, well, I’ve got, like I said, I started with, like, ten or 15 poems, and I wanted to get up to about 30.
Speaker C: And so I was like, okay, well, here are the high points that I have.
Speaker C: What poems can I write around?
Speaker C: What subjects?
Speaker C: And so then I had to ask myself, like, okay, well, what does a plant go through?
Speaker C: Like, okay, well, you can have root rot.
Speaker B: You could.
Speaker B: Bugs, bugs.
Speaker C: You could get overtaken by ivy.
Speaker B: That looks really pretty.
Speaker C: But then it suffocates you and you die.
Speaker B: Lack of water.
Speaker C: Lack of water.
Speaker C: You can get over watered.
Speaker C: Yes, exactly.
Speaker C: So it was, okay, well, how can I relate?
Speaker C: And then my brain is constantly.
Speaker C: The tism is always making connections, and I love just going and sitting.
Speaker B: I am great at analogies.
Speaker C: Yes, analogies and metaphors.
Speaker C: That’s my jam.
Speaker B: Now, I have had the occasional.
Speaker B: I don’t even remember what the religious analogy was, but someone said it’s like they were, like, talking about something, and I was like, oh, it was a completely inappropriate.
Speaker B: And I don’t even remember what it was, but I was like, oh, it’s kind of like, da da da da.
Speaker B: And first, both people that were at the table with me were like, no, it’s not.
Speaker B: Wait a second.
Speaker C: Wait a minute.
Speaker B: You’re right.
Speaker B: I’m like, I’m sorry.
Speaker C: Sometimes it’s a longer reach, but it’s not actually a reach.
Speaker C: It’s just your brain being like, well, here’s a thing that it’s alike.
Speaker B: Here’s what the synapses that connect together.
Speaker C: In our brain, they came all the way from one lobe to another.
Speaker C: Yeah, I do the same thing.
Speaker C: And I’ll be sitting out on my front porch and just, like, looking at the nature around me.
Speaker C: We have a beautiful view, and I’ll see little bees bobbing around and purposely pollinating.
Speaker C: And I’m like, oh, that’s kind of like my friends, how they pollinate me and then how I do this, and it’s a constant influx of information and then going, okay, well, where could I put that in this timeline?
Speaker B: Well, in mine, I added an extra complication, the first book, and I had to continue it going forward.
Speaker B: But when I last Christmas, I was like, oh, as one does listening to Christmas songs because it’s Christmas time and you can’t go anywhere without Christmas music playing.
Speaker B: So I was like, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a book where all the chapters were based on Christmas songs?
Speaker B: And so I’m like, how would one do that?
Speaker B: And then, like, a month later, I’m like, I love fairy tale retellings, and I love beauty and the beast is my favorite.
Speaker B: Let’s do that.
Speaker B: And then my brain was like, let’s combine those two ideas.
Speaker B: So then it was several weeks of me listening to Pentatonix’s entire Christmas catalog because it’s massive.
Speaker B: And I did that.
Speaker B: And as I listened to each song, I knew I wanted to tell something that was fantasy based because that’s my favorite.
Speaker B: And so as I listened to each song, I thought, what kind of fantasy world element could this song be about?
Speaker B: Like, what could we use to tell this story?
Speaker B: And so there’s songs, like, when she’s helping decorate her parents house, deck the halls is one of the songs used for that.
Speaker B: Then as you get into battle scenes, there’s, like, little drummer boy is used for that as they’re about to go into battle.
Speaker B: Then there’s a song called white winter hymnal that’s all about, like, they have scarves tied around their necks that their heads don’t fall off into the snow.
Speaker B: And I’m like, great.
Speaker B: There’s going to be a really violent decapitation scene there.
Speaker B: I did.
Speaker B: And I went through their entire Christmas teams.
Speaker B: So I go through their entire catalog, and I have all the names of the songs typed out right in the spreadsheet because that was the easiest way to move the information around.
Speaker B: And I type out, like, oh, this is the plot point that that song chapter could be about.
Speaker B: And then if there was, like, duplicates, like, there’s several songs about decorating your house for Christmas.
Speaker B: So favorite, delete the other one.
Speaker B: You don’t need 20 chapters about decorating the house.
Speaker B: And then that’s how I worked my entire.
Speaker B: And then I got them into an order of, here’s how a storyline should flow.
Speaker B: And then I started.
Speaker B: So my outline for my book is like, these little, like, oh, deck the halls decorating the house.
Speaker B: There’s a song called Evergreen where my outline point was, like, introduce female main character.
Speaker B: That is the entirety of love.
Speaker B: That drummer boy starting the battle scene.
Speaker B: Headless people.
Speaker B: One battle is hitting a climax all these things.
Speaker B: And I have a playlist on YouTube with all of these songs in order so that if you wanted to listen along.
Speaker B: So what I would do is I would start each new chapter, I would listen to that song, and then I would get started, listen to the song, read what the plot point was supposed to be, and then go, so similar of the trying to fit things into the thing because you’re going, okay, so we probably shouldn’t start the battle with heads falling in the snow.
Speaker C: We should build to that.
Speaker B: We need to build there anyways.
Speaker B: It’s interesting, no matter what you’re writing, whether you’re doing like a memoir or poems or a fiction novel or business even, for that matter, no matter what kind of book you’re writing, you want it to follow like a, we’re going to kind of build, build, build, and then we’re going to get all those nice.
Speaker B: Here’s how you apply that to real life things of the story or whatever.
Speaker B: I feel like that applies to pretty much anyone who’s decent at writing.
Speaker C: There you go.
Speaker B: We’re not going to say that every book follows some kind of a logical line, but it is what it is.
Speaker B: So you have.
Speaker B: When does book two come out?
Speaker C: November 20.
Speaker B: Okay, so that’ll be before this airs.
Speaker B: So this will be airing like early February, I think.
Speaker C: Cool.
Speaker C: Well, that’ll be whenever I’m rereleasing being human with a couple more poems, some revisions and illustrations, and a new cover.
Speaker B: Fun.
Speaker C: That will be coming out when this airs.
Speaker B: So your first book, you kind of started 20 years prior with your zanga days.
Speaker B: So 20 years to write the first one, how long did it take you to write the second one?
Speaker C: So because I had filled up that whole journal in 2020 and then filled up another journal and then filled up half of another journal, I had already kind of had a whole bunch of them.
Speaker C: And so I’d say I haphazardly started in 2020 accidentally.
Speaker C: And then for about a month, I sat behind my computer and stared at the blank screen, which is the blank page is so intimidating.
Speaker C: And I did kind of a similar thing, like, okay, well, this poem and this poem should follow each other.
Speaker C: I have probably a five poem break between this one and the next one I already have written.
Speaker C: So I need five poems in between here that talk about this and then this one talks about this, and this one talks about this.
Speaker C: Then I would just go through and I would read through everything that I had and then go in and fill in the spaces where I felt like enough creativity coming up that it wasn’t forced, but that I could also apply some.
Speaker C: Like, I had to apply a little bit of effort, but it was mostly just like, which ones feel like they’re going to flow out of me right now because I’ve read through this and I’m feeling inspired in this section.
Speaker C: And so that took about a month, flushing out the other half of the book and just kind of putting those pieces in, and then another month and a half or two of going through and editing and being.
Speaker C: Trying to be gently critical of myself because I wanted to be critical enough that it was like, okay, let’s see.
Speaker C: Where things could be better, where things could flow better, where things could hit better, but also not look at it and go, everything is crap.
Speaker C: Everything is crap.
Speaker C: This is all awful.
Speaker C: These words all suck.
Speaker C: I hate them all.
Speaker B: I feel like there is a time and a place for that sometimes, right?
Speaker C: Sometimes you got to be cutthroat.
Speaker C: Sometimes you got to cut it out.
Speaker C: I cut out entire stanzas because I.
Speaker B: Was like, this isn’t working at all.
Speaker B: Got to go.
Speaker C: This no longer fits my narrative.
Speaker C: Goodbye.
Speaker B: For the most part, I tried to not.
Speaker B: And I’ve seen a bunch of authors talk about this on TikTok where they’re like, don’t ever delete.
Speaker B: If you’re going to take a scene out, don’t delete, delete it.
Speaker B: Take it and move it to another document because you might be able to use it in a future book.
Speaker B: Well, I’m like, if I delete, delete something, it’s like, that sentence was stupid.
Speaker B: And so I delete the sentence so that I can make it better.
Speaker B: But I rarely actually delete giant chunks from my writing.
Speaker B: I’m usually adding to it, like, oh, this whole scene is mostly just dialogue.
Speaker B: Let’s just add a bunch of internal dialogue in between.
Speaker B: Like, oh, this would be a good place for her to be thinking about her life choices.
Speaker C: One would be really questioning themselves right now.
Speaker B: What would I be thinking in my head if he had just said that to me?
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker C: I will send my book out in its just grammatically edited stage and let my friends read it.
Speaker C: But I’m really working on the rejection sensitivity.
Speaker C: And so it’s difficult still for my friends to say, like, I love this, but I feel like it would flow better if you changed this word to this.
Speaker C: And my immediate.
Speaker C: In my brain, the little obstinate goblin in my head is like, no, and you’re not my friend anymore.
Speaker B: Now I did.
Speaker B: There was a magically transporting phone that is probably the biggest change that I’ve made.
Speaker B: What happened was, she gets home, back to her house from her parents, and originally, she just dropped her purse on the couch and went to bed when she got home.
Speaker B: And then we added in later, where there’s these text conversations between her and her sister in laws and her best friend.
Speaker B: They’re all like, friends or whatever.
Speaker B: And so to add in one of those text conversations, I had to have her when she got home, she texted them from her phone and set it on the nightstand.
Speaker B: Well, then the next time she’s there, it was back on the couch with the purse that I forgot to relocate when we added the text conversation.
Speaker B: So when I was narrating it, I’m like, that phone magically transported from nightstand to purse on couch.
Speaker B: I’m like, we need to fix that.
Speaker B: So whoever gets the first round of signed books that I have in stock and waiting currently from Ingram will have the magically transporting phone, limited edition.
Speaker B: Anyone in the future will have.
Speaker B: The phone is in one place.
Speaker B: It is what it is.
Speaker C: Little Easter egg.
Speaker B: There’s an author that is on TikTok, and when she was formatting her first book, she accidentally.
Speaker B: In the top of, you know, typically the top of the page, it’ll say, like, the name of the book, right?
Speaker B: And so hers, for some reason, her formatting software, it was something something copy copy, and that accidentally ended up being the version.
Speaker B: And she had readers getting their paperback books, and they’re like, copy copy.
Speaker B: So then she released with the next one she did for, like, five days.
Speaker B: She let it have copy copy.
Speaker B: So it was like, you get these special versions.
Speaker B: I’m like, that’s exactly what I was trying to do.
Speaker B: That is totally what I was trying to do.
Speaker B: What happened was, there’s a fantasy chapter in between those two.
Speaker B: So it wasn’t like, end of one chapter on nightstand, beginning of the next.
Speaker B: Suddenly it was like, end of one chapter on the nightstand.
Speaker B: Now she’s woken up in the fantasy world for a whole chapter, and now it’s on the couch.
Speaker C: Got you.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: So what really should have happened is I should have written all the contemporary chapters at one time, and then all the fantasy chapters at one time and then put them all together.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker C: So your continuity was already there, but.
Speaker B: That would have made for a really weird writing thing where you’re constantly like, what’s happened?
Speaker B: How is she injured?
Speaker B: Where’s that chapter going to go?
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker C: Exactly.
Speaker C: Yeah, that would be difficult.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I’m debating writing it that way for the final book, but I’m like, maybe not maybe not.
Speaker B: Maybe we’ll write it in order and then paste chapters into separate documents to keep track of it so that you get more of an even flow of the story.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: And at one point I realized there’s like, these journal entries throughout and because I went back in and added these journal entries after some of them were out of order, so it was like, wait, that can’t have happened before that happened.
Speaker C: She’s psychic.
Speaker C: That’s the other magic thing.
Speaker B: I don’t know.
Speaker B: I realized that when I was pasting my, because I’m thinking about doing my journal entries as like a freebie for my newsletter.
Speaker B: So I had pasted all the journal entries into a separate thing, and then I was like, wait, these are all weird.
Speaker B: These aren’t in order.
Speaker B: So you have book two is about to come out.
Speaker B: Will be out by the time this airs.
Speaker B: Do you have any plans for a third or what are we doing now?
Speaker C: I do.
Speaker C: So the third book, tentatively.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker C: I haven’t given myself a deadline on that one.
Speaker C: I haven’t wrestled with my ADHD yet, so me and my ADHD think it should be out by summer of 2024.
Speaker C: But like I said earlier, I’m just a big bundle of love.
Speaker C: I’m a giant care bear.
Speaker C: And my books so far are kind of just about thriving in life, even with everything else, like learning to thrive and learning to be present, but then also allowing yourself the time to be reclusive or whenever you have to kind of take everything back down to the roots and chill there for a while.
Speaker C: But through all of that, still having an open enough heart to where you can still love really big and love the way that each person is built to love.
Speaker C: I’m built to love a lot.
Speaker C: And so I think the next one is going to just be kind of almost like a collection.
Speaker C: Like those love letters I mentioned.
Speaker C: Just sort of an homage to all of the ways that I keep an open heart and how much I love with this heart.
Speaker C: And even though it’s battered and bruised and all of these things, even though love has been something that has ended up being incredibly painful, it’s still something that I’m willing to partake in because I’m like, well, sign me up.
Speaker C: I love it.
Speaker C: I love it.
Speaker C: So I think it’s going to kind of all center around just my big, open heart and the way that it operates.
Speaker C: So just a collection of love letters.
Speaker B: So maybe tentatively next summer, but maybe not.
Speaker C: Yes, maybe not.
Speaker C: It could be an entirely different thing.
Speaker C: I have a whole book already laid out, called it’s all relative.
Speaker C: That’s just poems about people I’m related to, and I’m just not sure if it’ll ever see the light of day or if it’ll be under an entirely new pen name.
Speaker C: And if it is, well, I wouldn’t tell you right now.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker C: It’s not associated with me at all.
Speaker C: But yes, tentatively, love poems, summer 2024.
Speaker C: And in between now and then, I’m being an author and planning book tours and going to different cities near you to offer live book readings.
Speaker C: And I’m excited.
Speaker C: I’m excited.
Speaker C: I’m doing the things and I’m believing in myself and I’m putting myself out there.
Speaker C: All for young Sam, who’s been just scribbling away poems and misspelled love letters.
Speaker B: O’s and Oz.
Speaker C: I love a.
Speaker C: You.
Speaker B: Totally should do that just for the inside jokeness of it.
Speaker C: And this one’s to my mom.
Speaker B: I love a ula.
Speaker C: Oh, gosh.
Speaker B: Well, the last thing I like to ask is, what is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten and the worst piece of writing advice you’ve ever gotten?
Speaker B: Any order you want to answer, those is fine.
Speaker C: Oh my gosh.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker C: Oh, man.
Speaker B: Well, I know there’s a lot.
Speaker B: I know we always get a lot.
Speaker C: I think the best has just been, and maybe it’s all just through.
Speaker C: Maybe it’s the best because it’s all validation.
Speaker C: But anytime someone reads any of my work and then they ask, are you going to do more?
Speaker C: And I go, well, it’s always, you should.
Speaker C: And that’s the best writing advice I’ve got.
Speaker C: You should.
Speaker C: Like, you just should.
Speaker C: Why not just put it out there?
Speaker C: You should.
Speaker C: And the worst, you know, I just.
Speaker C: I can’t.
Speaker C: I can’t think of any.
Speaker C: Anything bad I’ve ever.
Speaker C: I’ve gotten.
Speaker C: Well, I got really terrible feedback on an essay I wrote in my senior year, dual credit English class.
Speaker C: I had written this essay, and there was a lot of my emotion poured into it.
Speaker C: And you could tell that it was a very emotional piece.
Speaker C: And one of the girls that read it that was not in touch with her emotions and was not ready to be that in touch with her emotions told me that she thought I needed to rein it back a little bit.
Speaker C: And I was like, well, that’s not good advice.
Speaker C: I won’t be taking it.
Speaker C: And she marked up a lot of my page, and I was like, no, I won’t be adhering to that.
Speaker C: But, yeah, everything else has always been like, I would like, more.
Speaker C: You should do it.
Speaker C: You should write more.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker B: In contrast, in college, I was in a creative writing class.
Speaker B: We had to take one, and the professor had taken other classes with.
Speaker B: And so I knew how she graded or whatever.
Speaker B: So we’re writing this creative writing class, and same thing.
Speaker B: You would exchange with.
Speaker B: I think we would work in, like, groups of three or four.
Speaker B: You would swap papers, and then you would swap again or whatever, and every single time.
Speaker B: I didn’t know this was going to happen, but the first time I write my paper, and it was like she was giving us story prompt ideas for this particular paper.
Speaker B: And so she gives us our story prompt of, I couldn’t even tell you what it was, but some, like, this is your subject of your story.
Speaker B: Write a short story.
Speaker B: And so I write it and I exchange it with my people, and all of them came back with nothing.
Speaker B: They were like, there’s nothing wrong with it.
Speaker B: We can’t find anything wrong with it.
Speaker B: And I’m like, well, okay, I’m the best writer in the world then.
Speaker B: And then it goes into the professor to grade, and it comes back marked up all in red and all this stuff.
Speaker B: And I’m like, oh, no.
Speaker B: And so I go into her office, and I’m like, they didn’t give me any feedback.
Speaker B: And so from then on, I would participate in the group circle things, and then I would have to go to her for her to do so.
Speaker B: I’d have to do basically it twice.
Speaker B: She had to be my critique partner because the students in the class were idiots.
Speaker C: They’re like, I have a big people pleaser background.
Speaker C: I’m just going to tell you you’re doing great.
Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B: And I’m like, and of course they’re getting papers back from me.
Speaker B: And I’m like, this sucks.
Speaker B: And this sucks, and this sucks.
Speaker B: I’m like, whatever.
Speaker B: That’s probably where my need to.
Speaker B: I knew I needed to have an editor because I had that happen when I was, oh, God, 15 years ago.
Speaker B: And so I know that just because someone really likes your story does not mean they know the grammar and all of that.
Speaker B: I’ve seen authors say, oh, just put your book out there, and as long as you’re happy with it or one person likes it, that’s okay.
Speaker B: And I’m like, I’m sorry.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker B: I’m going to need more than one person to like my book for me to continue to write, because I need that sense of validation for me to keep going.
Speaker B: At this point, at least ten people like it.
Speaker B: So I’m doing good.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker C: That’s what happened after the first book, whenever everyone was like, oh, my God, I love this.
Speaker C: Or, Sam, this is beautiful.
Speaker C: Or, holy crap, this poem and this poem and this poem.
Speaker C: And my sister in law texted me.
Speaker C: She was like, I am crying at football practice right now because we’re coming to football practice.
Speaker C: And I was like, yes.
Speaker C: Made a cry.
Speaker C: All of that validation was what led me to this space now where I’m like, okay, I am an author.
Speaker C: I am an author.
Speaker C: I’m an author, and I’m going to do it.
Speaker C: Could somebody please read this and tell me it’s pretty.
Speaker C: God.
Speaker B: See, I’m like, I consider myself, like, somewhere between author and writer because technically my book is up for preorder and is with readers, but it’s not officially published yet.
Speaker B: So I’m like, I’m between.
Speaker B: You’re hanging on that cusp until November 24 when it goes live, and then I’m an author.
Speaker B: We’re in between.
Speaker B: And I’m, in the meantime, messaging the one beta reader that helped me the most, that reread everything for me.
Speaker B: And I’m like, I’m allowed to completely make everybody hate me because I ruined their emotions, right?
Speaker B: And she’s like, yes.
Speaker B: I’m like, well, there may have been a person that died that just.
Speaker B: No one knows.
Speaker B: The emotional roller coaster I’m going to make you go through to see that person die a second time.
Speaker B: It is what it is.
Speaker C: I’m allowed to do that, right?
Speaker B: Yes.
Speaker C: As much as we complain, we love it that way.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: And at this point, she is like, I’ll read anything that you put out at this point.
Speaker B: And she’s already.
Speaker B: She’s going to be an Alpha reader for me this time, too.
Speaker B: And a beta reader because I’m like, I need you.
Speaker B: My alpha reader that I had the first time is still going to be my alpha reader, but she’s more like, yes, this reads like a book because I read a ton of books where the other one’s going to have more, like, critical feedback.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: And so I’m like, for the first part, the first alpha reading, I just need you to tell me what areas I need to fill in more than I did because I’m an underwriter.
Speaker B: If something wasn’t described enough or a character wasn’t in there enough, I don’t see that that’s a problem necessarily myself.
Speaker B: That is what my alpha reader’s job is.
Speaker B: Tell me what characters aren’t there enough, what relationships I need to make better.
Speaker B: And then it goes on to the next group who tear it apart.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: I have a couple of writer friends who I send things to to be like, does this make sense, or does this sound pretty?
Speaker C: Or does this hit at all?
Speaker C: Or am I laying some words down?
Speaker C: And one of them is my cousin, and she really helped me flesh out.
Speaker C: There’s one in from soil to sun called, you are not the gardener you perceive yourself to be.
Speaker C: And it’s a collapse back at one of my exes.
Speaker B: Who shall not be named.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker C: And she was in my life, like, a lot at the time that I was dating this person, and so she saw a lot of my journey coming back into myself so that I could leave them.
Speaker C: And I was like, is this hitting?
Speaker C: Does this make sense?
Speaker C: If you didn’t know, how does this read?
Speaker C: And she was like, I really love the cadence and everything about it, but you kind of jump from here to here real fast, and I feel like you need, like, three to five more sentences right here.
Speaker C: And I’m like, okay, I’m on it.
Speaker C: And so I’m also an underwriter because I’m like, okay, this and this and this, and this happened.
Speaker C: And then you sort of flesh it out around it and say the things so that it doesn’t feel like your neck is breaking.
Speaker B: Yeah, well, now it’s weird.
Speaker B: So I wrote the novel.
Speaker B: The first novel, which is coming out soon, will be out by the time this airs.
Speaker B: And the next book I’m writing is a novella.
Speaker B: And so the novella takes place.
Speaker B: It’s from the villain of book one’s perspective during some of the events that take place during book one.
Speaker B: And so it’s able to be a more fast paced thing because you already know some of what they did.
Speaker B: You just want to see what went into their decision making process.
Speaker B: Why did they do that?
Speaker B: So I’m not having to do the war scenes all over again.
Speaker B: You already read that in book one.
Speaker B: Why did they do that?
Speaker B: Why did they send their people to go there?
Speaker B: It’s the why of everything that happened.
Speaker B: So I’m able to jump in time and gloss over things a lot more.
Speaker B: Because you already saw the battle happen, right?
Speaker C: The exposition is built.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I’m like, I’m not going to bore you with taking chunks.
Speaker B: And the people that are in the novella aren’t even in the battle.
Speaker B: They kind of watch from the sidelines, then go hide.
Speaker B: So I’m going to have to tell it from a weird.
Speaker B: I haven’t actually gotten to the battle scene writing part, but I know that it’s going to be like, they’re going to be on the outskirts looking in, and then they’re going to leave.
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker B: So I’m like, this will move a whole lot faster.
Speaker B: Also, it is definitely not a slow burn.
Speaker B: No.
Speaker B: I’m like, chapter one.
Speaker B: There we go.
Speaker B: Just get it out the way.
Speaker B: This one’s more like Romeo and Juliet type love, whatever that is.
Speaker B: I’m not supposed to be with that person because someone’s telling me it’s not her parents.
Speaker C: That’s someone.
Speaker B: Yeah.
Speaker B: So it’s a little more of that situation as opposed to the very slow burn that book one was.
Speaker C: Okay.
Speaker B: Every book is different.
Speaker B: No matter what you’re writing, you change from what you’re using as your analogies in each book.
Speaker B: So it’s where does the story need to take you to get your story done and follow your story arc and make everybody feel all the feels.
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker C: That is the ultimate goal.
Speaker C: Are you crying yet?
Speaker B: Were you on the edge of your seat?
Speaker B: Did you have to stay up all night because you put it down?
Speaker B: These are the questions I need answered.
Speaker B: Well, I hope you have a good rest of your Saturday.
Speaker B: I’m going to go pack.
Speaker B: Actually, I need to hot glue things together so that I can pack pr boxes.
Speaker C: Happy hot gluing.
Speaker C: Don’t burn your fingers too many times.
Speaker B: I will do my best.
Speaker B: Bye.
Speaker C: Bye.
Speaker A: Sam liked stories her grandmother told her as she got older.
Speaker A: Today we’ll be reading Aesop’s fable, the town mouse and the country mouse.
Speaker A: The town mouse and the country mouse.
Speaker A: A town mouse once visited a relative who lived in the country.
Speaker A: For lunch, the country mouse served wheat stalks, roots, and acorns with a dash of cold water for drink.
Speaker A: The town mouse ate very sparingly, nibbling a little of this and a little of that, and by her manner, making it very plain that she ate the simple food only to be polite.
Speaker A: After the meal, the friends had a long talk, or rather, the town mouse talked about her life in the city while the country mouse listened.
Speaker A: They then went to bed in a cozy nest in the hedgerow and slept in quiet and comfort until morning.
Speaker A: In her sleep, the country mouse dreamed she was a town mouse with all the luxuries and delights of city life that her friend had described for her.
Speaker A: So the next day, when the town mouse asked the country mouse to go home with her to this city, she gladly said yes.
Speaker A: When they reached the mansion in which the town mouse lived, they found on the table in the dining room the leavings of a very fine banquet.
Speaker A: There were sweet meats and jellies, pastries, delicious cheeses, indeed the most tempting foods that a mouse can imagine.
Speaker A: But just as the country mouse was about to nibble a dainty bit of pastry, she heard a cat mew loudly and scratch at the door in great fear.
Speaker A: The mice scurried to a hiding place where they lay quite still for a long time, hardly daring to breathe.
Speaker A: When at last they ventured back to the feast, the door opened suddenly, and in came the servants to clear the table, followed by the house dog.
Speaker A: The country mouse stopped in the town mouse’s den only long enough to pick up her carpet bag and umbrella.
Speaker A: You may have luxuries and dainties that I have not, she said as she hurried away, but I prefer my plain food and simple life in the country with the peace and security that go with it.
Speaker A: Thank you for joining Freya’s fairy tales.
Speaker A: Be sure to come back next week for Misty’s journey to holding her own fairy tale in her hands and to hear one of her favorite fairy tales.
