Mona Awad, ALL'S WELL: A Novel
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[0:38]Mona Awad is the author of All's Well, a Novel.
[0:41]Mona is the author of also, of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, a finalist for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize,
[0:48]and winner of the Amazon Canada First Novel Award.
[0:51]And she also wrote Bunny, named a best book of 2019 by Time, Vogue, and the New York Public Library,
[0:57]a finalist for the New England Book Award, and is currently in development as an AMC series written by Megan Moston-Brown.
[1:04]She has published work in the New York Times Magazine, Time, Vice, Electric Literature, McSweenies, and elsewhere.
[1:11]Welcome, Mona. Thank you so much for coming on Moms Don't Have Time to Read books to discuss all's well.
[1:17]Thank you so much for having me, so be it some honor.
[1:19]Uh-oh. You have such a great cover, by the way.
[1:22]Were you so happy with this? Tell me the story.
[1:24]Yeah, I was so happy with it. I was really freaked out by it, and I thought that that was good, but it's like, it's still playful.
[1:30]You know, I love all the colors, but I think they wanted to do something where, you know, the image embodied both theater,
[1:37]which the book is on, and then the, you know, the story of this woman's pain.
[1:41]So the pills are what make up the mask. It's so cool.
[1:44]Yeah, I almost didn't notice at first when I first got it, and I was like, oh my gosh, those were pills.
[1:49]Anyway, yeah, it's very, it's very cool.
[1:51]Well, I guess on that note, I should have started with this, but could you tell listeners what your book is about, and also what inspired you to write this?
[1:59]I know it's your third novel, why this one, why this topic, and why now.
[2:03]Anyway, that should take us for a while.
[2:05]Well, so I think, I think basically I'll start with just talking a little bit about the book.
[2:11]So it's about a theater professor at a New England college.
[2:14]Her name is Miranda Fitch, and she is suffering from chronic pain that no one believes she has.
[2:21]And then she has just held bent on staging the student production of Shakespeare's All's Well, that ends well.
[2:29]But the students are mutinous, and they want McBeth, and so Miranda makes a bargain with dark forces.
[2:38]She wants to ensure that her show goes on.
[2:41]And then she ends up living this kind of McBeth off stage.
[2:45]And how I came to write it, it's sort of a dark supernatural comedy about Shakespeare pain and revenge.
[2:54]And I was going through chronic pain of my own when when I started having this idea that I wanted to write about pain.
[3:03]And I heard I hurt my hip really, really badly and had to have surgery.
[3:07]And then I had a really rough recovery.
[3:09]My hurt my back in the process of recovery, ended up getting all these neurological symptoms down my legs.
[3:15]It was the worst.
[3:16]And it made just everyday tasks so hard suddenly, like just driving in your car, going grocery shopping, sitting down.
[3:24]All of those things felt suddenly like insurmountable tasks.
[3:28]And another surgery wasn't an option.
[3:31]So I was just kind of in this weird rehab limbo, you know, going from physical therapist to physical therapist, consultations with surgeons, consultations with physiatrists.
[3:42]And I was feeling pretty helpless and pretty powerless.
[3:45]And at the same time, I was a graduate student and I was teaching and I was reading Shakespeare.
[3:51]And I just fell in love with the plays because they have these reversals of fortune that feel very, very exciting.
[3:59]And they were very exciting to me in my situation.
[4:02]And I fell in love with all as well that ends well.
[4:05]It was just something about the play that really ignited my imagination.
[4:09]The heroine was both villainous, but she was also heroic.
[4:14]And she's so powerless at the start of the play, but it's a fairy tale.
[4:18]And she ends up taking this agency and turning the world of the play upside down.
[4:23]And she's able to kind of fulfill her heart's desire through this kind of nebulous, mysterious magic.
[4:29]And I just thought that was really fascinating and wanted to explore that story through the story of a woman who is, you know, she's desperate to stage it because she wants all's well that ends well.
[4:41]she wants a happy ending for herself.
[4:44]But she has to live this other kind of narrative in her actual life.
[4:48]Wow.
[4:49]So did you have in your life when you went through your pain like a mark?
[4:53]Like somebody who actually was like a partner like Miranda has a physical therapist type person.
[4:59]I think he's a physical therapist who actually believes her and is like we're going to do this and we're a team.
[5:04]And she's so relieved after so many, you know, misdiagnoses and attempts and whatever.
[5:09]And not that it was necessarily working, but just to have that validated.
[5:13]Did you feel like there was someone out there who finally you were like, Oh, thank God, this person gets me?
[5:17]Oh, yeah.
[5:18]Yeah, I had a few of those moments, you know, with physical therapists.
[5:22]I feel like it's just one of those things where it's so hard to cure chronic pain.
[5:28]It's so hard to cure people who are suffering from injury, especially when they're complicated injuries.
[5:33]And that's face that most of us are not textbook, right?
[5:36]So it's like it's really, really hard to actually follow just this kind of physical therapist path of recovery and actually get better.
[5:45]Most people I don't think follow that course exactly, right?
[5:49]So it was always hard.
[5:51]I had people who were really well meaning, but they were ultimately kind of at a loss.
[5:56]Because it sometimes I think it's just a matter of time, you know, for these kinds of injuries.
[6:02]But it was still, it was so scary because I just, I didn't know what to do for so long.
[6:07]And I feel like there's so many people who are in that position.
[6:10]I met so many people like that just in the waiting rooms if these physical therapy offices, all of us just, you know, kind of going through the motions and hoping for the best.
[6:21]But, you know, it doesn't, it usually just doesn't work out the way that they hope it will.
[6:26]You know, well, I'm really sorry that that's been part of your life.
[6:29]I mean, that's really tough, especially I feel like there's something with the word chronic.
[6:35]Like it just sounds so bleak.
[6:37]You know, like it's never going to lift.
[6:39]Like this is it's like a death sentence.
[6:42]It sounds terrible.
[6:44]Yeah.
[6:45]I mean, in some ways it kind of is within the interesting thing is I think a lot of it is just the fear of the unknown and the fear that I'm going to have this thing forever.
[6:55]And it's never going to change.
[6:57]And the one thing that really helped me apart from the Shakespeare plays, which I have to say really helped me.
[7:02]It helped me to get lost in another world.
[7:04]It helped me to get lost in theater.
[7:06]It got me excited about life.
[7:08]And that was really good for me.
[7:10]But I think too, just meditating, paying attention, moment to moment, you realize that it's not true the things always stay the same.
[7:18]Things are always changing.
[7:20]And that was a real comfort because I realized, no, what I'm feeling right now, it's not going to be this way forever.
[7:27]It will shift, you know, and that's good.
[7:30]Yes.
[7:31]Thank God.
[7:32]You know, one thing I found really interesting is how the pain affected all of Miranda's relationships and how, you know, you started the very beginning.
[7:39]By, you know, showing the contrast of the man and the ad.
[7:42]Right.
[7:43]Right.
[7:44]The loving husband of the woman in the YouTube ad who's just like waiting patiently and smiling.
[7:49]And you're like, that person's not being like, I'm at a loss here.
[7:53]You know, like I'm coming up.
[7:54]And even the friend who used to be these to be close.
[7:57]And then suddenly she's like, maybe have you considered this isn't really, you know, that kind of thing.
[8:02]And like, just how people keep failing her honestly.
[8:05]And like, everybody is disappointing her in some way.
[8:08]What about that?
[8:09]I mean, that sounded, I mean, that also like compounds the isolation factor.
[8:14]Yeah.
[8:15]I think that was part of what made me want to explore pain in the story is just to explore that loneliness, you know, of what it feels like.
[8:23]And to some degree, you know, I think we all have it.
[8:25]It's not just physical pain, but it can be emotional pain or mental pain, right?
[8:29]There's something very isolating about it because I think when you share it,
[8:34]when you start to share it with other people, yes, they'll take it on.
[8:38]Yes, they'll listen to you if you have good friends and family around you.
[8:42]But what can be scary and what I was interested in exploring with the story is kind of like, there's a shelf life to do it.
[8:49]Like, there's something finite about it.
[8:51]There's a limit basically to how much other people can bear your particular pain.
[8:56]And with that limit, when you come up against it, you are, it is a very isolating experience.
[9:03]And it can be very scary.
[9:05]So I was very interested in exploring that.
[9:07]And hopefully people who read it who are going through that can connect to that and find some solace in that.
[9:13]Have you read Eleanor Henderson's new memoir about her husband's chronic pain and how people think it's part psychiatric and part physical?
[9:21]And they don't really know you have to read it.
[9:23]You guys should do an event or something together because she is the caregiver in this situation.
[9:27]And you're like more of the primary person.
[9:30]I mean, hers is memoir.
[9:32]I mean, whatever.
[9:33]I think you'd be interesting.
[9:34]You'll be very interesting discussion.
[9:35]Let me just sing out.
[9:36]I feel like I've been reading a lot about pain.
[9:39]And I think I like that because the way, especially like how you do it here, it's like you get the reader to really feel it.
[9:48]Right?
[9:49]You wake up the reader and you can do that in many ways.
[9:53]But I think by putting someone in a place of physical pain through your words is like you can't not.
[10:00]respond to that you cannot feel it and that's part of like the magic of great writing is like
[10:05]like for how you put us in the shoes of someone who's really suffering and make us
[10:11]suffer for a little bit and you know yes we can close the book and walk away but
[10:16]at lingers you know it doesn't just stay inside the pages. Yeah yeah I think I think that that
[10:23]was really important to me to kind of create that experience that the reader really understands
[10:28]what that might be like you know what it might be like to kind of move through your life in
[10:33]chronic pain and to do that yeah it's so weird because and I'm sure you've had this experience
[10:38]you know I'm sure everyone has but you know when you're in pain whether it's physical pain
[10:43]emotional pain mental pain and you're trying to communicate that pain to someone else
[10:47]language just really feels like it comes up short you know it's so so I used a lot of
[10:53]sentence fragments I used a lot of kind of absurd metaphors like you do like Miranda says her
[10:59]pain is red and it's throbbing and it's like there's a chair on her foot you know and somebody else
[11:06]hears that and yeah it sounds like crazy right but it's the closest she can come to to communicating
[11:12]it to somebody else and that communication is so important because it's the only way that you're
[11:18]going to be able to make your experience of your pain understood to someone else so that they can
[11:23]help you right or at least so that you cannot be alone in it and there's just something so there's
[11:29]something so dark about the fact that language comes up short because it's all we have but then
[11:34]there's also something funny about it too and I tried to lean into that a little bit that they're
[11:38]it's funny that she's saying bread it's throbbing and you know there's a chair with a like a
[11:44]fat man sitting on it on my foot no you have a you have like this funny sense of humor
[11:49]and I feel like I would be very nervous to be a student of yours ever again I feel like you
[11:53]you know you're like the person like sitting backstage you know like as well as Miranda
[11:59]maybe this isn't you but definitely finding the humor I loved when I you know I think it was
[12:04]Trevor one of the actors is you know you're like you'll have to do that as an actor and then
[12:09]Miranda's like huh like she wants to laugh out loud that like this static student is actually an actor
[12:14]I don't know it's just funny I felt like I was like in the teachers lounge finally oh yeah
[12:19]totally and I love those kinds of teachers lounge like stories like stories from the other side of
[12:25]the desk you know because it's it's weird like I was a student for a long time and I felt like I had
[12:32]one understanding of what it's like to be a teacher and I think I felt like teachers were pretty
[12:37]powerful you know in some ways like that certainly thought that they had authority in the room
[12:42]but it's so strange when you are actually a teacher how you start to realize like how
[12:49]it's a very vulnerable position to be in there's only one of you and there's a group of them you
[12:55]know and they're young and I think students like young students have more power than they know
[13:01]young people have more power than they know and that's interesting it's interesting to observe that
[13:05]as a teacher having been a student you know so I was I was interested in kind of exploring that
[13:11]power dynamic the teacher is powerless but she has the appearance of having power but she does not
[13:19]and maybe she rebels against that sense of powerlessness by thinking these dark thoughts about her
[13:25]students right I hate this seems like so ridiculous but back in the day like when I was in my 20s
[13:31]I was a Weight Watchers leader so I like would go around all these meetings and I used to be like
[13:37]a member right when I was like pre-wetting you know whatever I had nothing else I was anyway
[13:42]and there you like idolized the leaders right and then finally I was the leader and I was like
[13:46]standing there with all these people looking up at me and I was like um okay I don't know I do
[13:52]and then I was so upset to realize that some of the other leaders would do what you're saying
[13:59]and they would be like oh my gosh can you bet you know that person she comes every week she's
[14:03]never lost a pound and I'm like you can't talk about the people like this like you know it was hard
[14:07]frigate I know yeah it feels like such a betrayal yes and it's funny too because I mean you know
[14:14]they have their own life students have their own life and they're they're talking about you
[14:19]probably like the whole story about you so yeah it's really it is a really strange position to
[14:24]occupy being in the front of a room talking to a group of people who are just supposed to listen
[14:28]to you you're supposed to be the person that facilitates and knows things and maybe you don't
[14:33]know maybe you don't know as much as as you think you do once you stand up there right it's like
[14:38]it's kind of like theater well our ability mixed with power like yeah which will win yeah exactly
[14:46]well so you've pursued all these degrees you have a PhD and an MFA don't you have like a PhD
[14:52]and an MFA and something else in English or something you have a master's in English for like
[14:57]yeah for somebody who dropped out of high school three times not bad what why did you
[15:01]why did you drop out of high school three times I don't know you know I just couldn't
[15:06]for whatever reason I couldn't be in the classroom when I was a teenager it was just uncomfortable
[15:13]I felt really out of place and just like I didn't I didn't really feel like I belonged and
[15:18]I just couldn't I couldn't do it so I would always leave and I ended up having to go to an alternative
[15:24]school this was in Canada so alternative schools were free at the time thank god for them
[15:29]because I went to one and I was able to finish my my senior year and then I went to undergrad and
[15:34]then I got more serious about reading but I needed that patience like I needed I needed more support
[15:41]I think than like the school system at the time really provided how did you know how did your
[15:46]family deal with that it was really hard because I was a reader I was really interested in books
[15:53]I would skip school to go to the library you know I would skip school to smoke cigarettes in my
[15:57]bedroom and read you know so they were they really struggled with it but my mother was really
[16:03]patient with me and so thank goodness you know I was I was able to kind of find another situation
[16:10]where I was I could finish and then in undergrad I got really into reading and and then I wanted
[16:17]yeah I wanted to keep studying I kind of started to feel at home in it but it took a while you
[16:22]know so I'm very like sympathetic I think that might might have something to do with like my fiction
[16:26]I'm really interested in outsiders and I'm really interested in that feeling of unbelonging
[16:31]that a lot of people have I think we all feel it at certain times in our lives we just feel
[16:35]like we don't belong I'm interested in stories that explore that feeling that perspective
[16:41]well that's great because I'm sure that will be such a comfort to everybody who has ever felt that
[16:46]way you know one way or another wow so that's when you discovered reading as much but when did
[16:53]you start writing like when was your first attempt at a novel like was that when were you smoking
[16:59]cigarettes and also writing in a journal or what was yeah I was I was I was writing like my
[17:07]now my sad girl home yes and I was writing a lot of skits I loved theater even as a teenager
[17:12]even going in and out of high school I loved theater so much and I would write I would write
[17:17]for the theater club that would put on plays they would ask me to write and I would I would write
[17:21]skits for them so that that always excited me like just dialogue excited me so in my teens I
[17:27]think I got into it but it didn't get really seriously into story writing I think until until later
[17:34]on I think until I I discovered fairy tales and then I started understanding like the power of
[17:40]those plots and the power of those conflicts and tensions that fairy tales explore that's when I
[17:46]really wanted to start writing novels because the magic and the possibility and them really
[17:51]excited me wow that's amazing so how did you what was the story of selling your first book then
[17:57]like how did that come to me and by the way have you ever thought about just actually acting
[18:01]yourself I feel like you would like you seem like you would be an actress yeah I was so into it
[18:07]you know I love I love giving readings and I love that was the one thing about high school that
[18:12]I loved like I loved theater but I think I think I got really shy you know and then I wanted to
[18:18]be more behind the scenes but it's like it's a true joy of mine and so that that's why I think
[18:24]all's well with such a such a pleasure to write is because it kind of it explores it's it's really
[18:29]as a love letter to theater you should put it on as a play the book yeah I know I know I know
[18:35]you feel like meta and cool we so fun I would love to do that honestly but yeah my first my first
[18:42]book you know I was working full-time as a bookseller and I was I was writing on the side like
[18:47]writing at night writing in the morning I had this idea it was so funny I remember writing in a
[18:52]notebook like I had the idea 13 ways of looking at a fact girl I knew the title and I wrote to myself
[18:58]this was in like September of 2009 I wrote you will finish this by December it took me six years
[19:07]to finish it so yeah I was so delusional I thought it would take me three months I did not I applied
[19:16]for an MFA because I wanted it for a funded MFA because I felt like I would really dedicate the
[19:22]time to a time that I didn't have because I was working full-time although honestly if I hadn't
[19:26]I always asked myself if you hadn't gotten into the MFA would you have finished I would have
[19:30]I just think it would have taken me maybe a little longer but I did get in and I wrote for those
[19:35]two years and then when it was over I had the book and I sent it out to agents and got an agent
[19:41]and then we sold it that fall yeah so good and then tell me about your middle novel now I have to
[19:49]go back and read these ones yeah so funny funny funny was crazy because funny was
[19:56]real leap from 13 ways 13 ways
[20:00]This is very realist.
[20:01]It's about body image.
[20:02]It's about women and body image.
[20:04]And it was short stories that tell the story
[20:07]of this one woman kind of moving through a body image struggle.
[20:10]And how her body image kind of affects
[20:13]all these different aspects of her life.
[20:15]But bunny was all about my love of fairy tale and horror
[20:19]and mean girl movies in the 80s and the 90s.
[20:24]Like Heather laughed and pretty in pink and all that.
[20:27]So it's kind of a tribute to that.
[20:29]And it's a tribute to outsiders.
[20:30]It's about an outsider who gets sucked into this
[20:33]clique of girls who call each other bunny.
[20:36]And that one, I wrote really, really fast,
[20:39]but it was really scary because it was such a leap.
[20:42]And I wrote that as a PhD student.
[20:44]That was my, because I was a creative writing student.
[20:47]So that was my thesis was funny.
[20:49]Wow.
[20:50]So is this your, this is your only non-school deadline
[20:54]focused manuscript?
[20:55]It is my own one.
[20:57]It is my only one.
[20:58]And you know, it's weird because it's true.
[21:01]I had a deadline that the institution gave me, you know,
[21:05]to finish.
[21:06]And that was helpful.
[21:08]But to be quite honest, the thing that really
[21:10]worked to get bunny done, I highly recommend
[21:12]this for anyone struggling with deadlines,
[21:14]with accountability, with just kind of being motivated
[21:17]to keep going with your project.
[21:19]My friend and I would, we drew up this contract.
[21:22]It's based on this contract that Amy Bender has
[21:24]that she published an omegasine a while ago.
[21:26]That's a writer's contract.
[21:28]And you get somebody else to be your mentor.
[21:30]You set deadlines for yourself in the contract.
[21:34]And then you're accountable to your mentor each day.
[21:37]So my friend and I did this over the course of the summer
[21:39]and I would just, I said I'm going to write 1,500 words a day.
[21:44]And when I'm done those 1,500 words,
[21:46]I'm going to text you that I did it.
[21:48]And I have to do it every day.
[21:50]And so I would do that.
[21:51]And then she did the same.
[21:52]She would text me and I would, you know,
[21:54]so we were kind of accountable to each other.
[21:56]And we got drafts done of our novels that summer that we did that.
[21:59]And it was so helpful to have a friend to be accountable to.
[22:04]More so than than the college, I would say.
[22:08]Did she sell her book?
[22:10]She did, yeah.
[22:11]She did sell her, which is, yeah, so cool.
[22:13]We both sold them, I think, around the same time too.
[22:16]Oh, what's up, yeah, like cousins, this book.
[22:20]Yeah, it's good to have those people in your life.
[22:25]Like just, they don't even need to be writers.
[22:27]But just creative people, I think, who understand,
[22:30]like how important it is to have those deadlines and to be accountable,
[22:34]just to get a project done because you can really talk yourself out of it.
[22:38]You know what I mean?
[22:39]Like you can have bad days where you're just like,
[22:41]I don't know if I'm good enough.
[22:42]I don't want to do this.
[22:43]I have so many other things to do.
[22:44]Or to shut a really make time for this thing.
[22:47]Yes, you should, because it's what you really want to do, right?
[22:51]It sounds so simple, and yet so powerful.
[22:54]It's so far in but it's not yet.
[22:56]So it's like, I know we want to do it, but do I really want to do it today?
[22:58]Or is this the afternoon?
[23:00]I don't know.
[23:01]I think I'll wait till tomorrow.
[23:03]So what do you work in now?
[23:04]So now I'm working on, I kind of see bunny alls well,
[23:08]and this new one as a trilogy.
[23:11]They all have the fantastic in them in some way.
[23:14]This one is called Rouge, and it's about a woman who gets sucked
[23:19]into this really sinister beauty cult in California.
[23:22]And it's got a lot of elements of horror,
[23:24]but it's got fairytale in it too.
[23:26]It's been really fun to work on.
[23:28]There is a book I did two years ago called Rouge.
[23:31]Not I did, I interviewed the guys.
[23:32]Is that OK?
[23:33]You can still do it.
[23:34]But that's interesting.
[23:43]Yeah, it's so compelling, like the idea of red
[23:46]but in French.
[23:47]The character is she's French Canadian, and as I am.
[23:51]OK.
[23:52]And I know you just already gave a lot of advice,
[23:54]but any other advice you have for aspiring authors.
[23:57]Yeah, absolutely.
[23:58]I think the advice that I gave myself
[24:01]when I was working on Bunny, which was my second book,
[24:04]and was a big departure.
[24:06]And I think because it was a big departure,
[24:07]it felt very scary, and I doubted myself a lot
[24:12]and wanted to give up on it a lot.
[24:14]And my negative self talk was, you know,
[24:17]nobody would want to represent this book.
[24:19]Nobody would want to publish this book.
[24:20]Nobody would want to read it.
[24:22]And so what I ended up doing just to counter that
[24:24]was I just told myself, OK, let's say that's true.
[24:28]Do you still want to write it?
[24:30]Like, are you still interested in this story?
[24:32]And the answer was yes.
[24:34]And when the answer was yes, I realized
[24:37]that I wanted to tell the story independent of the outcome.
[24:42]And that was so empowering, because it was really
[24:46]about the process.
[24:48]It was really about the journey of writing
[24:50]the story, it was about the story itself.
[24:52]And I think that that's really good for,
[24:53]it's a good question for a creative person to ask of it.
[24:58]Well, my advice to you, if you choose to accept it,
[25:01]I think you should write this as a play.
[25:03]And I think you could do so this year
[25:05]while you're up in Syracuse in the dead of winter
[25:07]when you're despairing about the weather,
[25:10]which how can you not?
[25:11]So I think that should be like your side project.
[25:13]And you can get all the students to produce it for you.
[25:17]Oh my god, I love that idea.
[25:18]I could really be very mad about that.
[25:20]Yeah.
[25:21]Right?
[25:22]Yeah, for sure.
[25:23]Yeah, and then you could like live stream it, if you wanted.
[25:25]And yeah, just like link it to your book sales page and stuff.
[25:29]Yeah, it could be great for the paperback release.
[25:31]Yeah, in the summer.
[25:32]Yeah, awesome.
[25:33]That's great.
[25:33]I love that to be.
[25:34]Yeah, go for it.
[25:36]I love it.
[25:37]All right.
[25:38]Well, I'll work on the play bills.
[25:40]And you can do the casting.
[25:43]I'm kidding.
[25:44]I do think that would be fun for you to do.
[25:46]I mean, I think that would be fun for someone
[25:48]to consume that you do.
[25:49]Not an outfit would be fun for you.
[25:51]It might be terrible.
[25:52]But I think it would be really fun.
[25:54]I think it would be an adventure.
[25:55]Yeah.
[25:55]And that I'm up for that.
[25:57]Nice.
[25:57]So, yeah.
[25:58]Yeah.
[25:59]Excellent.
[25:59]Well, thank you again for being so flexible with timing
[26:03]and congratulations on all's well.
[26:06]And I feel like I need to keep this in my, in my, like,
[26:09]you know, what do you call it?
[26:10]Where I cute the meds and, you know,
[26:12]lotions and potions, cosmetic cabinet, you know,
[26:15]absolutely.
[26:16]No, I should really make some little pouches,
[26:18]like some pill boxes and stuff.
[26:20]Oh, yeah, we did.
[26:21]You did?
[26:22]Oh, okay, good.
[26:23]Great.
[26:23]Okay, good.
[26:24]I'm out of ideas.
[26:25]All right.
[26:26]Have a great day.
[26:27]Thank you so much.
[26:28]It's a total pleasure.
[26:29]It's really good.
[26:29]Enjoy your new home.
[26:30]Thank you.
[26:31]Bye.
[26:33]Thanks for listening to this episode
[26:34]of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[26:36]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram
[26:38]at zibi Owens and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[26:41]Also sign up for my newsletter at zibiowans.com
[26:44]and sign up for my virtual book club
[26:46]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[26:48]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan,
[26:50]at Textures Sound for the Sound Editing.
[26:52]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[26:54]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.