Sophie Cousens, THIS TIME NEXT YEAR
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[1:42]Sophie Kazans is the author of this time next year, which was the December pick for the GMA book club from Good Morning America.
[1:50]So I'm glad I could sneak it in at the end of December.
[1:52]I hope this is a great episode to listen to on New Year's Eve because it all takes place over New Year's Eve and on New Year's Day, so it's perfect.
[2:00]Sophie worked as a TV producer in London for more than 12 years and now lives on the island of Jersey in the UK, balancing her writing career with working for an arts charity and taking care of her two small children.
[2:11]Although actually she told me in the interview that she had left her day job, so she is now working full time and this time next year is her debut novel.
[2:19]This is an Instagram live on the GMA book club Instagram account in mid December, so you can also go watch it there or on YouTube.
[2:28]Hi.
[2:29]Hi.
[2:30]Did you have you?
[2:31]Good, how are you?
[2:32]I'm good though.
[2:33]I've got a bit of a phobia of Instagram live because the last couple I've done, like the connection's gone halfway through and like anyway.
[2:39]So fingers crossed, the internet goes with us tonight.
[2:43]Well, so far so good. I was sure this would be canceled. There's a snowstorm here in the Northeast, but I know.
[2:49]Well, we'll just hold our breath and see.
[2:51]Anyway, at least you came on and spared me from just like talking to myself, which I hate.
[2:55]It's always my least favorite part of like here I am.
[2:59]Well, it's a delight to meet you and thank you for doing this conversation with me.
[3:04]Oh, not at all. No, thanks for having me on. Yeah. No, it's been really exciting. The whole good morning American thing has been incredible. So yeah, well, let's start with that.
[3:13]So tell me about finding out that you became the GMA book club pick for December and your reaction where you were giving the whole thing.
[3:20]So I actually got to phone, I got a text from my editor in the UK saying, Oh my God.
[3:25]Have you seen your email and I hadn't seen my email, but she didn't say what it was.
[3:30]So then I was like quickly looked at my email and yeah, saw that I'd been selected, but five people are going to America.
[3:36]And it was just like as just such a game changer moment, you know, when you're writing your first novel, you just kind of hope like, Oh, well, if even my parents and like five other poor read it, then that will be great.
[3:48]And it's just, you know, it's just opened the book up to such a wide readership and I've just been blown away by the support from people. So it's been dream come true completely.
[3:58]And does it hold any less weight not being American yourself or is it just as exciting? What do you think? Oh, I think more exciting more exciting. I actually I lived in America when I was a teenager actually I used to live my parents lived in Virginia for three years.
[4:11]So I kind of felt like I absorbed a bit of like American culture and got into on the morning TV and like, yeah, and this might my potatoes gives them bacon bits. Those are my.
[4:22]The next few years.
[4:24]All right, well, next time I see them at the grocery, I'll put aside a pack.
[4:29]So I'm just craving again, you can just text me or something.
[4:34]So tell me about writing this book. It's your first book. Tell me about the whole process. How you came up with the idea for the story. And what inspired you to write a novel to begin with.
[4:44]Well, I've always wanted to be a writer and that's always been kind of ticking away at the back of my head. Like, you know, since I was a child, I was always like telling stories and writing.
[4:53]ideas down. And then kind of, you know, I've been a particularly producer for 12 years. And I think sort of in that time, I had the odd lull where I thought like, no, I really should write something now, but those kind of jobs that are so kind of all consuming.
[5:07]They just don't really leave much space for anything else. And so I kind of had tried a few things and I actually wrote a YA sci-fi novel as well in my 20s, but that didn't get picked up for some reason.
[5:20]who knows why. And then yeah, and then I kind of had had children and then I kind of thought, you know, what is never going to be spare time. You know, like there's always something that there's always like work or you know, you know, of course, having children like there is no spare time.
[5:36]And I just thought if I want to do this, you just have to make the time. So I had a job at the time and I had two children under four, but I just was like, I just, I'm going to really commit to finishing a book and you know, giving it a go properly.
[5:50]And you know, I love kind of rom-coms and humors. So I thought, right, this is, this is the area I should be focusing on.
[5:56]And yeah, and then the idea for the story, I just always loved the idea of kind of first impressions not being what they seem.
[6:03]And I think that especially in this story, you know, Quinn, you look at him from the outside and he's got like everything, you know, he's very good looking, he's had an amazing job, he's very successful.
[6:15]And I just really like the idea of exploring that like that just isn't usually the case with most people, like nothing is as perfect as the veneer of the exterior might kind of convey.
[6:26]And you know, that was the seed of the idea and then the kind of structure of kind of basing it around New Year's Eve and kind of dip as a really good way of kind of dipping into these characters past to see kind of what were the building blocks that made them the people that they are in the present.
[6:42]So that's kind of how it was started. But yeah.
[6:45]Okay, we're going back for to what you just said about being so busy as a mom and all that stuff.
[6:50]When it literally when did you do it during the day with the two kids and all the rest?
[6:55]Did you wake up early? Did you do it on a computer like in the car? Like where and when did you do it?
[7:00]I just want a visual.
[7:02]So I basically was working like in the day and then I come back and do bedtime, put the children to bed.
[7:09]And then I pretty much write between like eight and ten at night.
[7:13]And I had a very I had a deadline because I had a book deal kind of when I was halfway through.
[7:18]And so I knew I had to write five thousand words a week in order to get it finished.
[7:23]And so I worked that out as like five sessions a week and I had to do a thousand words in each session.
[7:29]Yeah, so like between eight and like ten or like I basically had to write a thousand words before I could go to sleep kind of thing.
[7:35]But like strangely, I've almost found that easier than what I've got now where it's like.
[7:41]I've kind of quit the day job now and I've got the day like took to write, which is an enormous privilege.
[7:48]I feel incredibly lucky.
[7:50]There was actually something quite focusing about that very small window of time after a day with work and children where it just had to get done or it wasn't going to get finished, you know, I'm sure you know.
[8:02]I do know and I have heard that for many other authors that when you squeeze it in it's like give a busy person something to do right you just like throw it on the heat, put it in the pile and then boom boom boom it's done.
[8:13]And you're like oh spend all day then you get two things done.
[8:17]Yeah, completely.
[8:18]And also I think that there's not that enough time for coordination because when you know like you have to hit a certain amount of words before you can go to bed you're much more focused on like just getting it done where it's now.
[8:30]There's a lot of distraction of kind of just like oh let me look what happens in some of my book is.
[8:35]Let's like we just article someone being nice about my book it's just like actually it's kind of better to be a writer maybe in a cave and just know.
[8:43]I think maybe you should keep doing the thousand word a day five days a week thing because breaking it down into tiny not tiny 1000 words is not tiny but into achievable goals and spread it out over time.
[8:56]But even to me I'm like oh I can do 1000 words fair times a week like that can't be too and obviously you have a book.
[9:02]Yeah, completely and you do and that is actually one of when people ask me like they want to be writers or like what advice I would give I do think that like a weekly word kind of a is a really good way to go because.
[9:14]You just know if you hit Friday and you haven't done enough words you know you have to cancel your plans and not go out and you have to write.
[9:21]In the world of copay it's like no one really has any plans anyway but like you know in the old days you would have to cancel your plans to go out you know to do it to write.
[9:31]Excellent so this is an even better time to focus on writing since you're not really missing anything anyway exactly exactly.
[9:39]How did you come up with the idea of getting stuck in the bathroom at a party overnight has you ever you must have gotten locked into a bathroom at some point and of course this is one of the first things in the book.
[9:50]I think I have momentarily being stuck you know when you try to handle and it doesn't click and you're like oh hang on a minute and you have that sudden panic in your chest.
[10:00]like I'm going to be stuck in here.
[10:01]And I think it was based on that,
[10:03]but it was also just this idea of like,
[10:06]it many has so much bad luck.
[10:08]It was just kind of thinking like,
[10:10]anything that could go wrong,
[10:11]a party was going to go wrong.
[10:13]So like, you know, tripping over someone,
[10:14]getting vomited on,
[10:16]and then it's almost like fate really has a sense
[10:18]of humor with many.
[10:19]So as soon as she's in the bathroom thinking right,
[10:21]she has a little petal with herself
[10:23]and she's like, right, I've got this,
[10:25]stopping paranoid, there's no jinx.
[10:27]And then, you know, of course,
[10:29]it's kind of like,
[10:30]she almost like looks at the heavens and thinks, okay,
[10:33]you're playing with me now
[10:35]because it's just another thing
[10:36]and catalog of problems.
[10:39]I feel like her jinx became like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
[10:43]Right, it's like each year we'll come around
[10:45]and then she just, she'd be so worried.
[10:47]I mean, she ends up sleeping the whole day.
[10:49]And again, I mean, this is a theme
[10:53]that I feel like I only scratched the surface of
[10:56]in this book in a way of this idea
[10:58]of like luck and like almost it being self-fulfilling.
[11:02]And it kind of feeds into like the superstition thing
[11:04]as well.
[11:05]Like, you know, all of us, you know,
[11:06]whether you're whatever beliefs you have,
[11:08]everyone spills salt and they're like over their shoulder
[11:11]or, you know, there's various kind of superstitions of belief
[11:15]that has just crept into all of our culture
[11:17]and you kind of think like, I always, you know,
[11:19]not from words, like if you say, oh, you know,
[11:21]nothing bad happens so far, I always not from words.
[11:24]And like, where does that come from?
[11:25]And like, you know, for many, it's almost like,
[11:28]it is a self-fulfilling prophecy
[11:29]because for so long, my mother has said,
[11:32]you were born unlucky, you know,
[11:34]nothing's ever gonna go right few on this day.
[11:36]And if you have that mentality, like maybe it doesn't
[11:39]or maybe the jinx is real and she's, you know,
[11:42]everyone's giving her hand time.
[11:44]Or maybe it's having a mother who is telling you
[11:48]that like you deserve this bad luck or that the fact,
[11:51]I mean, really the time you're born
[11:53]is so there's so many factors, right?
[11:56]And whether or not you win the like,
[11:59]I'm the whatever first baby of the year,
[12:01]award doesn't usually have a traumatic effect
[12:04]because you don't know if you've won or not.
[12:06]Maybe it's just the proximity of losing.
[12:08]So I don't know.
[12:09]I think it's like the family lore, right?
[12:11]The family perpetuating that myth.
[12:14]Yeah, completely.
[12:15]I also think that what was interesting to explore with many
[12:17]is this idea of like, you know, she has no self-esteem.
[12:21]And I think the book slightly unpacked why
[12:23]she has no self-esteem.
[12:25]And a part of that is definitely a relationship
[12:27]with her mother.
[12:28]It's the relationship with her mother,
[12:29]but it's also her name which, you know,
[12:30]led her to be teased.
[12:32]And I think that if you're teased at a very
[12:35]impressionable time in your life,
[12:37]it can really affect your self-esteem.
[12:40]And it's one of those names that kind of on the surface.
[12:43]It seems like, oh, you know,
[12:44]you imagine everyone meeting her and saying,
[12:47]oh, Millie Cooper, like the car.
[12:49]And then you just actually think,
[12:51]imagine having that all the time with everyone you meet.
[12:54]And especially how cruel teenagers can be.
[12:57]And it just was interesting to me to kind of imagine
[13:00]all these little external factors
[13:02]that made her have no self-esteem.
[13:05]And then actually almost like Layla is the external,
[13:08]you know, the friend that comes in that actually helps
[13:11]that turn that around for her.
[13:13]And, you know, the importance of friendship
[13:14]is another big theme in the story.
[13:17]I have to tell you, I almost named my second daughter,
[13:20]Minnie, in fact, that was the name that I had picked.
[13:24]And she was born.
[13:25]And I told my closest friends and family,
[13:28]like, welcome Minnie, didn't I?
[13:30]And my family staged an intervention.
[13:33]And they were like, you cannot name her Minnie.
[13:35]I was devastated.
[13:36]I'm like, I haven't even gotten to the room yet.
[13:39]I'm still on the gurney of whatever you want to call it,
[13:42]with my newborn girl who I was like,
[13:44]all, you know, fawning over.
[13:46]They're like, she's going to get teased.
[13:48]You're going to, what if she's really big?
[13:50]I love the name Minnie, actually my, I love it too.
[13:54]And my agent's daughter is called Minnie.
[13:56]So then when I was kind of like having a joke about Minnie,
[13:58]I was like, no, no, it's really lovely name.
[14:01]It's just the combination of Minnie Cooper.
[14:03]Or as you say, like, if you're called, like, you know,
[14:06]yeah, Minnie and you end up being really tall.
[14:08]Someone's just asking on the chat,
[14:09]if it's available on Audia, but Audible,
[14:11]it is available on Audible, but it's not me reading it
[14:14]to the luckily, because I'm probably like,
[14:15]oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, but it's kind of
[14:17]of an auditor, he was brilliant.
[14:18]So yeah, it is, it is available on Audible.
[14:22]And I feel like Minnie is always getting herself
[14:24]into these situations almost in like a Bridget Jones type
[14:27]of way, she reminded me a lot of her at various points
[14:31]particularly in the moment.
[14:32]I don't want to like spoil it because it's so genius.
[14:35]She's traveling in the airport in India
[14:37]and the gift from her friend gets discovered.
[14:40]Layla's gift.
[14:41]And she has like kind of friends with security guards
[14:44]and explain this like very personal.
[14:47]And I expect an item, I mean, you could like,
[14:50]I was cringing, reading it, you know,
[14:53]and then like answering the phone and thinking it was Greg,
[14:56]but really it was Quinn and she was like about the dental stuff.
[15:00]Anyway, that's, that's my favorite bit.
[15:03]And I think, you know what's funny, I think it's a real,
[15:06]maybe I'm wrong here, but I think it's quite a British sense
[15:09]of humor thing to kind of enjoy the cringe of a situation.
[15:12]And I think that's definitely what I loved about Bridget Jones.
[15:15]And when I read those books for the first time
[15:17]as a teenager, I was just like, this is so my sense of humor.
[15:20]This is so funny.
[15:21]And I think that that, you know, yeah,
[15:23]because maybe the British have a bit of a reputation
[15:26]of being a bit kind of more uptight
[15:28]and a bit more kind of, you know, everything's fine.
[15:31]So that then when stuff is really embarrassing or cringy,
[15:33]it's kind of even more like, or just, you know, so embarrassing.
[15:38]And yeah, I really enjoyed just trying to put her
[15:40]in situations that just, you know,
[15:42]you just want the world to swallow up
[15:44]because it's so embarrassing.
[15:45]Yes.
[15:47]But what do you think about like fate intervening?
[15:50]I know fate is sort of different from luck
[15:52]and this is sort of maybe too broad a question,
[15:54]but just how people's lives can intersect
[15:57]in all these different ways
[15:58]and how this probably happens all the time, right?
[16:01]Well, I actually, I think I read an article that said,
[16:04]I can't quote it because I can't remember statistics,
[16:07]but it was something about the likelihood
[16:09]of you having met the man or woman that you end up with
[16:12]like a number of times in your past.
[16:15]And you probably wouldn't have known it.
[16:17]And like, I've actually got friends here in Jersey
[16:19]who they were looking through all the photo albums
[16:22]and they found a beach holiday.
[16:23]And in the background was his wife.
[16:26]No, as a child.
[16:28]Yeah.
[16:29]And it was just, they happened to be in the same holiday
[16:32]at the same time.
[16:33]And I just think statistically like it's just,
[16:36]it is quite lucky.
[16:37]And so what I quite liked about this story
[16:39]was exploring some of those near misses.
[16:43]But, you know, is it just a coincidence
[16:44]or is it kind of fate that's kind of drawing people together?
[16:48]And one thing people have asked me about the book
[16:51]is they sort of said,
[16:51]oh, I would have loved for them to realize at the end
[16:55]and to kind of piece together all of the jigsaw puzzles.
[16:57]And I kind of very consciously didn't do that
[16:59]because I think life is not, you know,
[17:01]there's so many things none of us will ever know about
[17:04]when you might not have crossed paths with your partner.
[17:06]And I think with Midian Quinn, they would work it out
[17:09]because they'd get talking about in zero
[17:11]and they'd sort of say, oh, I was there that year.
[17:13]Or, you know, there's enough little clues.
[17:15]They both like Star Wars, that's gonna come out.
[17:17]But I didn't wanna do it completely overtly
[17:19]because I like that touch of kind of, you know,
[17:22]the universe will know, but we won't kind of thing.
[17:25]I know, I always wish I could rewind, right?
[17:27]I could just rewind and get like a wide angle view
[17:29]of all these situations.
[17:31]And what would you see, what would you have been?
[17:33]Yeah, that meant to be.
[17:35]I know, I know, I know it's like,
[17:36]I love the movie sliding doors, you know, sliding doors.
[17:39]It's one of my all-time favorite movies.
[17:40]I mean, I just love that that expression has become like,
[17:43]you know, oh, it's a sliding doors moment.
[17:45]I mean, how amazing to come up with a story
[17:47]that then it becomes like, you know, an expression.
[17:50]And I just love that, I do love that like stories
[17:55]that kind of explore like the alternate universe
[17:58]of how something might have played out differently, you know,
[18:01]and how.
[18:02]But then, but then actually what's interesting
[18:03]about this time next year is that they missed each other
[18:07]all those times.
[18:08]And if it was, if that was their one chance
[18:10]to kind of meet their soulmate and they missed it,
[18:13]but maybe the universe works in this way
[18:16]that it'll just find another opportunity
[18:18]and another opportunity.
[18:19]And that's actually quite a nice thought
[18:20]that it's not all totally down to being
[18:23]on the right beach at the right time,
[18:25]looking in the right direction kind of thing.
[18:27]Yeah, you have to sometimes be clobbered over the head
[18:29]by feet to take time and time and time again.
[18:32]And then finally, you see the person.
[18:34]But tell me also about the role of baking
[18:39]and the pie business, which is hilarious
[18:41]and putting recipes in the book
[18:43]and even in like your book club guide and everything.
[18:46]Tell me about that in your own personal relationship
[18:48]to cooking and baking.
[18:50]Well, I love baking.
[18:52]I'm more of a kind of cake baker.
[18:54]I'm not very good at cooking, actually, but I love,
[18:56]I do love baking cakes and I always like make
[18:58]a very elaborate like designs for my kids' birthdays
[19:01]and stuff.
[19:02]Every birthday I'll say, right, you can choose
[19:04]whatever you wanna have and I'll try and make it.
[19:06]So my daughter said she wanted an armadillo cake this year,
[19:10]which was challenging, but I tried.
[19:14]But yes, I do love baking, but I think in this story,
[19:16]it came up because I wanted Mini to have a job
[19:20]that she was very much helping others.
[19:23]And I think that's the thing about Mini
[19:24]is when you first meet her, she's a bit bristly
[19:27]and a bit prickly and she's definitely got a chip
[19:29]on her shoulder.
[19:30]And you might not completely love her when you first meet her.
[19:34]And I think what I wanted to have this contrast
[19:35]was that she was a bit spiky,
[19:38]but you could see she was really kind
[19:40]and the way that she interacts with her friends,
[19:43]but also she set up a business to basically
[19:46]bring food to people who conquered themselves
[19:49]or who can't leave the house.
[19:50]And that really came out of a genuine affection
[19:55]for the community.
[19:57]And so for me, baking for others
[19:59]was a really good...
[20:00]ways and kind of illustrate her kind-heartedness and her love of community and it's also a really
[20:07]kind of communal job like I love that idea of you know when she's with the friends and
[20:11]and her colleagues and kitchen it's just a very sociable job you know sitting around a kitchen
[20:16]but needing dough it kind of just gave a lot of opportunities for interaction that maybe other
[20:21]jobs would it be harder to find I suppose. And the disappointment with the burnt ties and all that
[20:27]and having a restarting or the meaning the themes of starting over and exactly and also it's
[20:34]the kind of it's the kind of job we can all sort of sympathise you know you all kind of sympathise
[20:38]with like it seems quite simple like Baker Pie take it to someone get paid and actually was quite
[20:43]fun to just explore all the kind of like problems they have on the way and like you know things that
[20:50]can go wrong and you know when they're in India as well and they're talking her and Layla we're
[20:54]talking about this ideal company they'd love to run where they employ people who need a second
[20:59]chance who maybe have had some issues in their life and then you kind of flash to them working in
[21:04]the fire shop and actually realising some of these people are like making lights out of them
[21:09]so it's like at what point does your kind of public spiritedness like have to compromise for
[21:15]commercial interest so yeah. I loved their relationship I mean it was such a great example of a
[21:22]female friendship you know work partnerships or like work wife you know trope if you will and how
[21:27]you know they even get annoyed at each other sometimes and it's just such a great I feel like
[21:32]there aren't so many like best friend examples and fiction all the time and this is like a particularly
[21:38]vivid one and I know you've talked in the past about your own close girlfriends so tell me
[21:42]about how your own friendships made it you know this one so rich and life like I mean what's interesting
[21:49]about like I love romcoms but equally there's so many good ones that have been written that you
[21:55]can find yourself falling into the kind of the trope of like the kooky best friend and then the kind
[22:00]of you know the inaccessible man and like for me it's like I wanted to write something like
[22:06]warm and engaging but that also had a little bit of edge of something a bit different and also
[22:10]kind of slightly playing with and undercutting those kind of expectations so even though Layla
[22:14]is kind of the kooky best friends I wanted her to have so much more heart and kind of
[22:19]importance in this story than just being a sounding board to meaning for her romantic life
[22:25]and I think that's what was important for me as well is that I think the kind of slightly more
[22:31]old fashions fairy tales of kind of Cinderella being rescued by her prince charming feel very
[22:37]outdated now to modern readers and modern viewers and I think that you know love and relationship
[22:44]should be something that is kind of the cherry on the cake of your life but you've got to have
[22:48]the fact I'm look at me I'm doing cake analogies this is how embedded and baby
[22:54]but yeah they're kind of the sponge needs to be your own like self belief and self worth which is
[23:00]like and again like about community and friendship and family and then romantic relationships
[23:06]like in my view should be the icing on the cake that make your life that extra special but
[23:11]they can't be the thing that you're wanting to kind of fix you or make you happy that's got to
[23:16]come from something a little bit deeper down and so you know for me her friend she was Layla she's
[23:21]known her since she was 15 it's kind of you know it's really important to her and and it's also
[23:26]really affected her kind of her life and her journey and her career and her self image and yeah
[23:32]I wanted Layla to be more than just kind of a kooky best friend who just talked about her dating
[23:37]basically and how have your friendship been impacted by this well both the success of your book
[23:43]and also having kids because I feel like no matter how committed I am to my friends there's just
[23:48]not enough time I have to see them essentially but no I mean what's been interesting actually so I
[23:54]used to live in London round about where this book is set and then six years ago moved to Jersey
[23:59]which is a channel islands like between England and France and that was quite a challenge because
[24:05]most of my best friends were my school friends and they all lived in London or in the UK and
[24:10]so I kind of moved away and then had children and so felt very kind of removed from them you know
[24:16]physically because it's not that easy to just like jump on a plane or jump on a boat and go and
[24:20]visit visit your friends when you've got a six-month-old in tow so I think kind of I just got quite
[24:26]good at having friendships that I you know people that I call regularly and would you know do
[24:31]Skype and what's that too so almost like pre this year where everyone's had to have their
[24:37]friendships like that I think you know some of my best friends I very much kind of have that
[24:41]going on already and also I think your oldest friends you know you cannot see each other for years
[24:47]and like nothing like I've actually got a really good friend who would Jen because in Canada
[24:51]I went to university in Canada for a year and she was my best friend when we were
[24:56]all together and I haven't spoken to her probably in six years and she texted me and said oh my
[25:02]god I heard your book was in New York Times bestseller like I have to talk to you and so I had
[25:06]a Skype call with her like last night and we just chat it for about three hours and it was as if
[25:12]like it was yesterday and just caught up isn't that just what's amazing about life and friendship
[25:16]you can just kick it up and if you kind of will you love someone and know them and like know
[25:22]that you like them then the time and distance can give calm hopefully yes I totally agree I have
[25:28]friends like that too and I'm like thank god dude that we can just you know at the ones where you
[25:32]don't have that ease of relationship I think that that's how it's easy to sort of separate the
[25:37]wheat from the chat for whatever that expression is right when you have kids or you have a book or
[25:41]something big is coming on and you don't have time and then to be able to reconnect easily is
[25:46]no compromise of a really strong friendship yeah completely and to be honest like you know it
[25:52]also sips out when you live away from like where most of your friends live the ones who kind of
[25:57]don't regularly call or what's up you are messaging or kind of they are much harder to keep
[26:02]up these friendships and it's unfortunate and again when you've got little children it's just like
[26:06]your time so yeah like sadly life just gets kind of whittled down doesn't it and I've made
[26:12]loads of new friends in Jersey as well and kind of you know mum friends and life kind of evolves
[26:17]someone's just saying on the the questions is this a fictional story or based on true events
[26:21]very much a fictional story does female friendship play a role in your next book that you're working
[26:27]on what's that about no you'll address it yet so the next book is called The Way We Met and it
[26:33]is a all set on Jersey where I live and it's basically about a girl Laura who travels to Jersey
[26:40]for work and she picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport and inside she sees the contents
[26:46]and she's convinced that this is the man of her dreams so lots of the stuff in the case just points
[26:51]to the fact that this is her soulmates so she sets off to kind of try and find him so it's very
[26:56]much about someone who kind of believed again like believes slightly in faith and destiny and has
[27:01]very strong kind of ideas about romance and me shoots and she really wants to have this like
[27:07]amazingly cute and yeah there's definitely friendship and family that I explore in the book but
[27:11]slightly different themes and slightly different different ideas it's been it's just been really fun
[27:15]to write actually I hope people are going to enjoy it when it comes out. Can you share how you
[27:20]met your spouse or I don't know if you've been married but you're I am married it wasn't very I
[27:24]this is so funny someone came over the day who read the book and she was she met my husband and she
[27:31]she must be so romantic like she basically thought he must be kind of quin but we met through
[27:39]my best friend is married to his best friends and it was kind of a setup in our early 30s
[27:45]so we had lots of yeah lots of friends the same so it's not a particularly exciting story but
[27:50]like yeah it was it's lovely to start dating someone when you know so many of the same people and
[27:56]we've been on lots of double dates with like our best friends together and you know it's nice
[28:01]being really nice yeah so do you have any advice I know you already gave some but more advice
[28:07]for aspiring authors so yeah I would say that they're kind of sticking to a word can would be good
[28:14]and then the other thing that really helped me is just sort of applying for lots of competitions
[28:19]I think I think the idea of kind of finishing a whole manuscript can be so daunting especially if you
[28:26]just got no idea whether what you're writing is any good whereas you know there's lots of
[28:29]competitions for like short stories or like first chapters or like you know extracts of writing
[28:35]and I think if you can apply for that kind of thing it just really bolsters your morale in your
[28:39]confidence like I first got published when I enter the competition called Love at First Right which
[28:45]was for first three chapters of romance and just winning something like that can just really
[28:50]boost your self esteem and make you think oh actually you know maybe there is something in this
[28:54]and it can also help you get sort of seen by agents and stuff so that would be definitely a tip
[29:00]and also get friends to read a word who you trust to be brutally honest I've got some friends who
[29:07]will read my draft to be like yeah it's great yeah excellence which is not really that helpful
[29:12]whereas I've got yeah two of my friends with and Tracy who read my drafts and they're like right
[29:17]okay this is where it's boring this is where it's slow I don't like this character this has
[29:22]and you might not take it all on board but it's just really helps to have someone who will be
[29:27]incredibly frank with you because that's what you need you know your thanks awesome and someone
[29:33]saying when will the new book be out and I think it's I think in the US it will probably be out in
[29:36]the autumn next year that's the plan so yeah hopefully people still don't remember who I am by then
[29:43]of course don't remember who you are you're gonna start it are you kidding
[29:47]it will so be thank you thanks for doing this GMA Book Club live and also that this will be a
[29:52]podcast on mom's don't have time to read books so little double header situation thank you so much
[29:59]it was so great
[30:00]to talk to you. And thank you so much. It was really fun. And this is the first Instagram
[30:04]live I've done that hasn't been like played by technical average. So yay. Thank you so much for
[30:12]talking to me. That was worth it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you. Bye.
[30:18]Thanks so much to today's sponsor. My bookshop.org and my Amazon influencer store. You can
[30:24]can check out my Amazon store at amazon.com slash shop slash moms don't have time to read books.
[30:31]And my bookshop.org store which is bookshop.org slash shop slash zibi Owens. And I hope that
[30:40]you will find every book that you're looking for. Thanks. Thanks for listening to this episode of
[30:45]moms don't have time to read books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zibi Owens and
[30:50]moms don't have time to read books. Also sign up for my newsletter at zibi Owens.com and sign up for
[30:55]my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on zoom every other week. Thanks so much to Steve
[31:00]and Ryan at texture sound for the sound editing. And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for
[31:05]providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.