John Searles, HER LAST AFFAIR: A Novel
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zivi Owens, the creator and host of the award-winning podcast that you're listening to right now.
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[0:58]John Searles is the author of her last affair, a novel.
[1:02]John is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of three previous novels,
[1:06]help for the haunted, strange but true, which was made into a film by the producers of La La Land,
[1:11]starring Brian Cox, Clyde Danner, Amy Ryan, and Greg Keneer, and also boys still missing.
[1:17]His books are published in over a dozen languages and have been voted best of the year,
[1:21]or top picks by Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Salon, and the American Library Association.
[1:27]John was the long-time book editor of Cosmopolitan and appeared regularly from more than a decade
[1:32]on NBC's today, CBS this morning, and other popular morning shows to discuss books of the season.
[1:38]That sounds familiar.
[1:39]Welcome, John. Thank you so much for coming. On mom's, don't have time to read books to discuss
[1:43]her last affair.
[1:44]Thank you. I'm happy to be here Zivi. It's nice to see you.
[1:47]I have to say I used to, we were just talking about the Hamptons, but back in the day,
[1:51]I used to go when I was a little girl and I would drive by the drive-in that used to be on the way
[1:56]to the Hamptons. Did you even know about that?
[1:58]The Rocky Point Drive-in is what I'd be the idea for the setting, but that's on the way to Port
[2:03]Jeff, is that the one you used to pass?
[2:05]No, it was on the way. It was on the left.
[2:09]You had drive-by. I feel like it was near Southampton, and I always was like, that would be so great,
[2:15]but it had just been sitting there for so long. Anyway, that is the extent of my relationship
[2:19]with the drive-in until I got to your book.
[2:22]Usually people have some connection. I only went a handful of times as a kid, but when I would
[2:28]I grew up in Connecticut and when I drove home to see my mom, I crossed the island to go to
[2:33]the Port Jeff Ferry, and I would see this old drive-in movie theater off the road, and I would always
[2:38]just stare at it and wonder what it was like in the day. Then I started Googling, and I found
[2:45]hundreds of images of all these abandoned drive-in movie theaters all across America,
[2:49]forgotten by time, and I thought they were kind of beautiful in this eerie, evocative way,
[2:54]the tattered screens, the BMP speaker poles, and I thought, well, Stephen King hasn't used to
[2:59]as a setting yet. I'd better hurry and use it.
[3:03]So, it was born.
[3:05]I was imagining like a slip screen. You over here and Stephen King over here, and you're both
[3:10]like frantically. You're like, how am I going to do it first?
[3:13]I think it's great setting for an eerie kind of creepy story, and I hope people feel the same.
[3:22]I hope that's...
[3:22]Well, in your bag, the owner of the just... So, a widow is living on the property, and her late
[3:29]husband's family owned this movie theater, and they left her with these twin cottages, which
[3:35]are really awesome on the cover, by the way, because that's exactly how I had them in my head,
[3:38]and she's renting out one of the cottages, and has this very amusing sort of interview process,
[3:44]especially given that I didn't even realize till the end of the chapter, that she was partially,
[3:48]that she was vision compromised, or I'm not sure the correct word.
[3:52]We'll probably remember. We'll say that.
[3:53]Okay, vision impaired.
[3:55]Vision impaired. Yeah, that sounds better. Vision impaired, I think I've heard that's definitely
[3:59]an expression. And we start finding out more and more about the person, the man,
[4:04]who she rents the cottage to, and her sort of innocent questions lead to him digging back into
[4:10]his past. I don't know why I'm summarizing this for you. Why don't you summarize what your book
[4:14]is about? Why don't you tell them even what your book is about?
[4:16]Good job so far. I'm glad, please. Thank you. You know what's funny is I'm not much of a...
[4:21]When I give book talks, I love to get up and gab and tell stories, but I'm not much of a reader,
[4:26]and so when we did our launch event at Symphony Space, the actress Amy Ryan, who was in
[4:31]only murders in the building recently, and in the office, and Gombe be gone, and she started
[4:37]in a film adaptation of an earlier book of mine called Strange Her True, and we became friends.
[4:41]We met on the Sandi Game Friends. So I asked her if she would join me in the launch event,
[4:46]and I said, I just hate reading, and she said, I'll read for you. And I said, really, you
[4:51]well, she said, what's in my wheelhouse? And I was happy. And the same thing, I don't think
[4:55]of very good at summarizing my books. Okay, well, that's great. So that was where it starts,
[5:01]things unfold from there. I will say it's it. The book is really three
[5:06]set seemingly separate storylines, all having to do with love. So three kind of very eccentric,
[5:13]very quirky, colorful, troubled characters in a kind of film noir, sensibility, since it's set
[5:19]to drive in primarily. And then halfway through the book that the three storylines collide,
[5:24]and that's when it really ratchets up into less of a character study and more of a thriller,
[5:29]my books hate categorizes thrillers, but I don't really think of them as thrillers,
[5:33]whatever that means. They're kind of a genre, mix of genres. And I think that someone
[5:38]was interviewing me this gentleman from New State. And he said, it reminded me of the tone of
[5:41]Fargo, the movie where it's weird characters and very sinister and dark, but then kind of darkly
[5:47]funny in moments and kind of poignant. And it was the ultimate compliment because I love that movie
[5:51]Fargo. So I really appreciated that. I like that. That's good. I should just read other,
[5:56]I should just read critics' descriptions and throw them back in. I haven't tried that. Maybe I
[6:01]should do a podcast just based on that. He wasn't a critic. He was just interviewing me like you
[6:06]and I were talking about that. I felt so complimented. Like, thank you. That is really nice. I mean,
[6:11]there is certainly humor, especially like the scene where the so the renter has this rekindling,
[6:19]and I'd stop me if I'm giving too much away or whatever. With the past love, and they
[6:24]they have a revealing moment. I'll just like leave it at that where they have to, you know,
[6:29]show each other in this very revealing manner. I don't know. I could just say it, but whatever.
[6:34]I do host like a sex talk show. I can't yet. I still cannot even like talk about, you know,
[6:39]showing each other naked bits and pieces. But anyway, but then the woman is sort of like,
[6:45]how am I even supposed to be doing this? And anyway, it was, it was very funny.
[6:49]Well, I feel like I joked with my editor and like, that's part of the book that goes into
[6:53]almost kind of tomporotic character. Those sorts of suburban, these awkward sex scenes and things,
[6:59]you know, for for 23 years, I was the books editor and the deputy editor and the editor of
[7:04]Art of Cosmopolitan magazine. And so I have to come for writing about sex. Because that was my
[7:10]life for 23 years. But, you know, this woman, they were talking about Lynal. She's kind of an
[7:15]empty-nester, a bored housewife, living in Florida. And she, her marriage is just kind of
[7:22]Dallas could be. She's not into her husband. And then she's fired from her job. She's kind of
[7:27]canceled for the seemingly innocuous photo from her youth that services on the internet. So she has
[7:32]no joy in her life. And then one morning, she gets a Facebook message of all things
[7:37]people do. And it says, I've never stopped thinking about you. It's from her very first love.
[7:41]And she, they begin, she reluctantly begins this kind of online affair with them. And, you know,
[7:51]the way people have affairs online, I know for my cosmo days, is very different from maybe
[7:55]when I was younger and dating or, you know, they send each other very explicit pictures. They do
[8:01]that. So it was kind of funny to show this woman who's, you know, been a mom for years,
[8:06]better daughters now gone. And, you know, she's really grappling with this new reality of how people
[8:11]kind of connect online. And so partly about that in the beginning. My mom, when she
[8:17]sucks, people magazine did an excerpt of that scene of all the scenes. And my mother wrote me like
[8:22]saying something like, Johnny, I was so proud of you. But is the whole book like that? Is it 50
[8:26]shades of gray? Oh my gosh. Is it a mom? It's just that one part. It's not like a sex book or anything
[8:32]like that. Oh, I did not see the people excerpt. I just, that, I just thought it was a funny
[8:39]up. But now I should go. I can read that. That's funny. Well, what is, what's your relationship
[8:42]like with your mom? My mom and I are really close. And I grew up, my dad was a cross country truck driver.
[8:48]And my parents sent me in the summer's trucking with my dad to quote make a man out of me.
[8:54]And I say to be, they didn't get the results they wanted to say, how'd that go?
[8:59]They want to, but my mom, we're really close. And my dad may he rest in PC actually passed away
[9:04]in a motorcycle accident a couple of summer. Oh gosh. I'm so sorry. Thank you. And he was quite the
[9:10]ladies man. You know, he was a good looking young guy. And he loved women and they loved him.
[9:14]And so my mother, I spent a lot of time in my youth driving around and probably not the
[9:19]best thing to do with your job, sending me into bars to get him and find him. And so it kind of
[9:25]was an odd existence. But, but my mom and I really bonded like that. We're really, we're close friends.
[9:30]And I see her just home last weekend in Connecticut visiting her. So she's very proud. I don't think
[9:35]she thought like when I wanted to be a writer, like no one in my family who family had even gone to
[9:39]college. And I was like, I'm going to become a writer. They're like, yeah, good luck. And then I moved
[9:44]to the city. My dad was bringing in a shipment. He shipped at that time Broadway show tours around
[9:50]the country. He's bringing in a show. I put my stuff in the back of his truck and came to New York
[9:56]and waited tables for 12 years and went put myself through.
[10:00]school at NYU and started writing books and working magazines and never look back. I don't know.
[10:06]That's amazing. Which restaurants did you work at? Well, I worked at a restaurant in
[10:11]Kinet. I kept my restaurant job up in Kinetica, so I could go home and see my mom and my sister
[10:17]on weekends because sadly I feel like this is all sounding like a very sad story, but
[10:21]parts of life I guess everyone's life I said, but we have a younger sister and she passed away
[10:26]after her high school prom and so I wanted to go home and see my younger, my baby sister
[10:32]and my mom, so I would go home and work at a restaurant fairfield Kinetica, see my mom, see my sister
[10:38]and then come back and be in New York from Sunday to Friday at NYU and going to school and
[10:44]trying to get my writer here and I also had this thing where I was like, I wanted that to be my
[10:48]last restaurant job and I did 12 years, but I said, I don't want to start at a new restaurant like
[10:53]this is going to be it, so and it was, thankfully. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry about your
[10:59]sister. I mean. Well, thank you. Thank you. I know. It was, you know, there's a friend of mine,
[11:05]the writer Anne Hood, she was my mentor at NYU and she lost her brother and I remember
[11:10]saying, oh, well, it was at that point when I met her, her brother had died 12 years before. I had
[11:16]just lost my sister and I said, oh, so you get used to it. She said, you know, I said, you get
[11:20]over it, right? And she said, you never get over it. You just get used to it. And that's really
[11:24]how I feel. It's kind of something you carry with you. And I don't know if you've ever saw the play
[11:29]rabbit hole with David Lindsay and bear that play. And there's a great quote where he says,
[11:33]grief becomes something that you could eventually crawl out from under, but you kind of carry it
[11:38]with you like a brick in your pocket eventually. And sometimes you forget about it, but then
[11:43]everyone's why you reach in and there it is and it kind of just gets you. And part of her last
[11:47]affair is very much about grief to disguise the main character. When we meet her, it's that we
[11:53]learned that she and her husband ran this drive in movie theater for nearly 50 years. And then a few
[11:59]nights before they're golden anniversary, he dies in a freak accident in the wood on the drive.
[12:04]And that's really one of the central mysteries of the book is his death. And some of the things
[12:08]she finds out about his life following his death. So it's really about people reconnecting, but the
[12:13]past and all of them grappling with an issue around love to them actually make a date with their
[12:19]very first love and sometimes they go well and sometimes they don't. So tell me about the
[12:27]beginning of your career and how you did both magazines and books and like how each informed the
[12:33]other. Well, I went to graduate school at NYU. I got out and I heard about a job reading what they
[12:39]called the slush pilot red scene. And red book magazine, they paid me 50 cents a story to read them.
[12:46]They got something like 35,000 stories submissions a year and they published 11 short stories at
[12:52]the time. So I would go zippy and I would fill these bags of short stories. And I was at the
[13:00]beginning, I would read every single line and I would feel about rejecting people so I'd attach
[13:03]the rejections a little bit. But no, it's like keep going. You know, because I just like didn't want
[13:10]to hurt people's feelings. But it really taught me a lot about writing and the submission process
[13:16]and editing and getting reader's attention. And then from there, I heard about a job upstairs at
[13:21]Cosmopolitan and I went on the interview. And I remember my friend and who do I mention? She said,
[13:26]I said, I guess I need a resume. She said, your writer writers don't need resumes. So I went
[13:31]zippy. I had no money. So I bought a jacket at the Salvation Army for $12. I went on the interview
[13:38]and they said, where's your resume? I said, well, I'm a writer, writers don't have resumes.
[13:42]I think she thought I was either really arrogant or really dumb and she hired me because she
[13:46]felt sorry for me. But it turned out, it really changed my life that job Cosmopolitan. At first,
[13:54]I didn't know I would stay. I ended up staying for many years and working in the books department
[13:58]and in the beginning opening packages and talking to agents and sub-sitter rights people.
[14:05]And then I worked my way up and worked with Kate White who I know you know. I was there before
[14:11]her and then she came and we together really ran that magazine for many, many, many, many years.
[14:16]And it was so much fun. And at the time she ran it as the number one magazine single copy
[14:22]sales on the world. It was such a huge success. And we just had a blast running that magazine.
[14:26]And we had this thing. It was an excerpt of a romantic thriller every month. It was like a
[14:32]sexy and I called it the blank of a month club. So I used to have to come up with names for them.
[14:41]And one was about this couple who had a twist in the bedroom in the bathroom and then in the
[14:46]staircase. So I called it bed bath and beyond her wildest dreams. So we just had a lot of fun doing
[14:54]those cover lines and all of that. And then, you know, I kept writing books along the way.
[14:58]And I wrote a first book, Boy So Missing, Strange For True, which is now a film on HBO Max.
[15:04]And now I have her last affair. I've had, you know, a bunch of books. But yeah,
[15:07]have you always been a reader zippy?
[15:09]I have. I have always been a reader. I'd love to read. You must love to read too. I mean,
[15:14]I do, you know, I think when I was little, growing up being gay, I didn't even know I was gay,
[15:19]but the other boys knew. And I was not at my, like, and I weighed about two pounds. And I was
[15:24]really, really picked on and bullied. And my, the place where I would go and hide was the library.
[15:29]I lived right by it. And so after school, I'd often get dropped off there in the bathroom and walked
[15:33]there from home. And that was really how I discovered my love of reading and the books and
[15:39]and of why I have such respect and love for libraries and librarians still, you know, that
[15:46]and on those trucking trips with my dad, I will say he used to buy me books,
[15:50]mass market paperbacks and the truck stops because it's kind of boring. And he would buy me Stephen
[15:55]King and John Irving, which I think still kind of influences my writing because I have the kind of,
[15:59]like, creepy Stephen King vibe and a quirky character vibe of John Irving. So I'd read those books.
[16:05]And at night, I used to tell my mom had a Sydney Sheldon collection, do you remember?
[16:09]My mom also had a city Sheldon collection. Yes.
[16:12]I would take those books and read them, but it was like, not really good
[16:16]meant for a 12 year old. I was in the target audience. And at night, these women would bang on
[16:20]the doors of the truck and my dad would be sleeping in the bunk and I'd have a flashlight reading.
[16:24]And I'd say you want from company up there big black. And I would say, dad, there's some ladies
[16:29]at the door and even say, just ignore them. And I would say, no, thank you. I'm 12 and I'm reading
[16:35]Sydney Sheldon. Okay. So all those things contributed to me, but wanting to be a reader
[16:42]and a writer as well. And I, but I didn't know how because no one of my life is a writer. And then
[16:47]it wasn't until my sister passed away, as I said, that I thought, well, life, this cliche,
[16:52]it sounds like a sure. I saw how fragile it was. And I thought, this is what I always wanted to do.
[16:57]And so I just moved to New York and did my best to make it happen. And it's been,
[17:02]it's been so much fun. Although there's been a few other things during the writing of this
[17:06]book, my apartment burned down, my husband and I start my apartment burned down, which is sort of
[17:11]a hilarious story in and of itself. But I mean, that doesn't sound funny. That sounds terrible.
[17:16]You know, we lived down the West Village near the V packing District in the sky down.
[17:21]I'm on the co-op board and that would have a sky spot on apartment two doors down.
[17:26]And he and his girlfriend would argue all the time. And I would hear them and they'd say,
[17:30]Alexa, call 911, no, no.
[17:33]Oh, 911, I'm like, you can't call 911 yourself. You have Alexa do it.
[17:38]So she apparently put a key here. Is she in and caught him in bed with someone else?
[17:44]Is what I hear. I don't know this true. But what I know it happened is he was out the next night
[17:48]and she came back, got into his apartment, took all slashed his artwork, slashed his furniture,
[17:54]attacked his flat screen TV. I don't know why. Then took all their duplexes we live in.
[17:59]He took all his clothes out into the terrace, which connects to our terrace. There's a fence
[18:04]between and she lit them on fire and he had three propane space heaters out there.
[18:10]And it blew the roof off the place. And Sivi, we were out of town. I'm like, I had a friend's
[18:14]beach house. And normally I'm such a worry where I don't know why the one time I was in
[18:18]someone texted the supplier in the building. I was like, I was having so much fun. I was like,
[18:21]that's probably a little kitchen fire. It'll be fine. Well, the next day people were sending us
[18:26]messages, like links to ABC News. We pulled out the bomb squad was here. There was police tape.
[18:33]And I, they wouldn't let us up at first. And I'm so persistent. I was like,
[18:37]convinced them to let us upstairs. And there was one little part of our apartment that was fine,
[18:41]like where the couch and my desk was actually where I'm sitting right now. And I said to Thomas,
[18:46]my husband, I said, it'll be okay. Well, just hang plastic sheets. We'll fold out the sofa.
[18:51]We'll sleep here till they rebuild it. And the head of the New York City of Fire Department's
[18:54]its son, you don't have a roof over your head. There is toxic. You cannot live here. I just,
[19:00]I'm always like, I can do it. It'll be okay. And so it took many, many, many, many, many months
[19:05]before moving home. So it was tricky time. But during it, I really channeled a lot of my grief
[19:10]into or escaped my grief. I should say into writing her last affair, which as I said, is really
[19:15]about a book about love, about the power of the past to impact our lives for both good and bad.
[19:22]And I did something fun because it really sits, like I said, part of the puzzle piece is three
[19:27]seemingly separate storylines. How do they connect and halfway through you learn how they do?
[19:32]But I thought I need something that gives it kind of an over like a connected tissue.
[19:36]So I had the idea to start each chapter with a film quote of a movie that once played at the
[19:41]drive-in. So whether it's- I loved that, by the way. That was awesome.
[19:44]Thank you. And so whether it's Casablanca or Mildred Pierce or like more sinister fare,
[19:49]like the shining or psycho, or some kind of forgotten 80 movies, like
[19:54]Manicant or Cannibal Run, they act as clues to what's about to happen in each
[20:00]So it's a fun way to engage the reader and also kind of my way of saying trust me
[20:05]This is all part of one thing as you go, which I'll be with and you know
[20:08]You should do you should do like a Facebook watch series where you watch all those movies with people like one a week or something
[20:15]You've really fun. That's good. I do see I need to be more
[20:20]On that social media thing like you, but I would have your have somebody on your on your publishing team
[20:27]Well, you know, and I'm doing I don't know when this air sort of but in June first
[20:31]I'm doing the today show when I'm talking about her last affair and also announcing my summer book picks
[20:37]So I'm really excited. Oh exciting. Yeah, there's so many good books right now. It's hard to choose. You know what?
[20:42]That's like I do. I said to you my book get it in the running first. That's like to the summer
[20:48]City when it comes out July 1st. Are you excited? How are you? I'm excited? I'm excited. I'm yeah, it's nice
[20:55]The people who have read it. I'm getting like very warm reactions, you know
[20:59]Just like what I was hoping so you know
[21:01]I'm not attempting to be like the most literary writer
[21:04]I just like sort of tell it like it is and but I've been working and reworking this for like ever and then I
[21:10]Started it for like the 50th time from scratch like six in did it all in like six months. So
[21:16]Thank you
[21:18]What's a call it's called book ends a memoir of love loss and literature and it's the through line is how books have shaped
[21:25]My life and how at every like I've had a lot of loss in my life as not not my siblings
[21:30]But just people I've loved who I've lost and you know the books that have helped me through those times and sort of the traumas and
[21:36]also some of the good times and
[21:38]So sort of tracks loss and grief and divorce and remarriage and motherhood and depression and anxiety and all the good things and then it ends up
[21:48]Starting my podcast and here we are so it sounds incredible. I can't wait to read it. So I'll send you a copy
[21:55]Well now that we're best friend. Yeah, exactly. Well, that is exciting
[22:03]I'm not sure when this will air but whatever even if it's after people can go back and watch so
[22:07]So there you go. What is your next book on the horizon that you're gonna write?
[22:12]You know this one took me a bit because I was at cosmopolitan
[22:16]Department of Purdue there's stuff going on but I'm going a bit faster this time
[22:20]But while I'm writing them out, I don't know if you feel this way. It's hard for me to talk about it on my soundbite
[22:25]So I just know it's kind of dark and twisty and
[22:29]My home having a lot of fun doing it. So my plan is to have been on book tour doing lots of events
[22:34]My hope is July and August really just to hunker down stay home kind of quiet everything
[22:39]Do you find this like I'm more productive like as much I'm I love to be social
[22:44]I love seeing people talking to people but the more I do that the harder it is to get back into the writing
[22:48]So I kind of have to discipline myself to
[22:51]Kind of sometimes shut out the world and work. Did you find that when you're writing the book?
[22:55]Yes, I'm so used to writing personal essays and this was writing about myself
[22:58]So I just felt like I could do this
[23:00]Anywhere type of thing, but I'm working on a novel now and I need like
[23:06]I need like hour buffers on each side. I need like quiet
[23:12]I need like a totally different. Yeah, I have to like
[23:17]Know what but yeah, it's not the same
[23:20]No, it's a different process than each book I find is different because there were some books
[23:24]I always joke when Thomas and I first met we were
[23:28]Much younger we met at our 20s and I would just get up at like three in the morning
[23:32]Right to five go back to bed and I would then have a book done
[23:35]You say I went you write these books now. It's the opposite. I'm like come quick. I wrote a sentence
[23:42]It's an and as a verb
[23:45]I sent it so
[23:48]But you know speaking of personal essays in Thomas and I we've been together 25 years and you had wanted to get married for a long time
[23:54]And I never really liked weddings at all and I kind of was dubious about getting married
[24:01]I just or apprehensive about it, but then after the pandemic
[24:05]We decided to and we just had a little tiny little I was like let's just go to town hall and get married
[24:11]But we went to town hall in the Hamptons and they were like men jocking for space for hunting and pushing license
[24:18]Two in personal even for me
[24:20]So the woman behind the counter saw the look of four around my face and like slid a piece of paper
[24:25]Like it said called the town justice to come to your house and marry you and
[24:29]Thomas's parents came and just a few friends and we just got married in the backyard
[24:33]And it was so sweet and now I love weddings and with a photo fomber now
[24:37]I had no ideas if they're beautiful
[24:40]It's like I think I had a just being gay and not being able
[24:44]Going to weddings for so long and knowing you couldn't get married yourself
[24:48]I kind of had a wall up about it and I know then when they became
[24:52]Legal I think other gay people rushed to do it and I still was like no
[24:56]No, so it was kind of bitter about it
[24:59]But now it all that's gone
[25:00]And I wrote an essay in the New York Times about a club confessions of a
[25:03]Reformed wedding here in the style section like a month or so ago
[25:07]And um, I got so many nice letters and one letter
[25:11]I got was so meaningful to me and a Quinlan, you know and a Quinlan. Yes. Yes. Yes. Don't know her one day
[25:16]I just got this email of the blue shoes that your essay is near perfect
[25:21]And I just loved it so much. I was funny and poignant and beautiful
[25:25]And I I nearly dropped the phone. I was walking down the street or something or and I just to get a note like that
[25:31]You don't see when you know when you even now. I'm sure no
[25:35]Every so often like we email now and we've done a couple of podcasts and whatever and every so often
[25:40]She'll be like I read your Instagram post like here's my weight loss advice or whatever
[25:44]Like here's what you should do about your back and I'll be like
[25:46]Okay, like hold on. I just have to write back and a good length. You know
[25:51]I just have such I've reviewed her and it was like
[25:54]I imagine I know how you feel. Yes
[25:57]Okay, who are your other writer here? I was like, who do you really love? I love Danny Shapiro
[26:03]I've gotten to know her over the years. That's been the craziest part of this whole thing
[26:07]It's like people who for so long
[26:08]I'm like this is one of my favorite authors and the next thing you know
[26:11]We're like saying hi at a party like going to dinner. It's just the craziest. It's yeah, it's the craziest
[26:18]Yeah, it's awesome. You really sparked my and I know we have to wrap up now
[26:22]But you sparked my I don't know you sparked an idea when you were talking about
[26:26]Sydney children books because you know, I used to read all these due to the crayons books of my mom's and like
[26:30]I don't know what it was about that time period where everybody was reading their mom's books like nobody
[26:35]Not my kids wouldn't dare read any of my books now. Did I be like they're my I don't know if it was that the books were
[26:40]That interesting or was there a lack of material from people our age who had like passed by the stuff of the people
[26:46]I don't know what it was, but anyway would be funny to do like
[26:50]What my mom read like around up or you know what our mom's read or I don't know
[26:55]I think there's something there. That's really funny
[26:58]My mother was the other side of midnight if tomorrow comes
[27:03]All those all those kind of books you know, right?
[27:05]brands and I
[27:07]Well, they were just kind of fun and juicy and accessible. I guess there were a lot of them about revenge against men
[27:15]That's true. Yeah, so you know, and then I went to a party once a year's ago
[27:20]And I met Sydney Sheldon in person before my gosh
[27:23]With his secretary who maybe he was married. I don't know. I can't remember and he told me he used to dictate the books to someone
[27:29]I think this woman and she would
[27:33]It was just another era of New York area. Wow. Well, I am sorry about the fire
[27:42]Congratulations on the wedding. It's been a very eventful time for you
[27:47]I hope that you get the space and time you need to to write and everything and
[27:52]Maybe you can bring back the the drive-in and the Hamptons this summer. Yeah, let's that would be kind of fun
[27:58]Which I'll just look on the left when I go out and see look on the left. Yeah
[28:03]It was by like the lobster in you know like over there, you know, okay, well, you'll you'll I'll find out
[28:08]I'll come my mom and find out
[28:10]Zippy, thank you for having me on. I appreciate your congratulations about the new book
[28:14]And I look forward to seeing you this summer. Thank you. You too. Okay, bye bye
[28:18]Thanks for listening to this episode of mom's don't have time
[28:21]To read books. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at zippy Owens and at mom's don't have time to read books
[28:27]Also sign up for my newsletter at zippyowans.com and sign up for my virtual book club and meet lots of authors on zoom every other week
[28:34]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan fact texture sound for the sound editing and
[28:38]Thank you to morning moon productions for providing this fantastic intro and out trim music