Tia Williams, A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE
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[0:32]Tia Williams is back on Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Vex.
[0:37]For her novel, a love song with Ricky Wilde, Tia has a 15-year career as a beauty editor
[0:42]for magazines, including Elle, Glamour, Lucky, Teen People, and Essence.
[0:46]In 2004, she pioneered the beauty blog industry with her award-winning site, Shake Your Beauty.
[0:52]She won the best-selling debut novel, The Accidental Diva,
[0:55]and penned her two young adult novels It Chicks and 16 Candles.
[0:59]Her award-winning novel, The Perfect Find, is a Netflix movie, starring Gabrielle Union.
[1:03]Her novel is a New York Times bestseller, and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick,
[1:08]Seven Days in June, published by Grand Central.
[1:10]Tia currently lives with her daughter and her husband in Brooklyn, New York.
[1:14]Welcome to you, thanks so much.
[1:15]We're coming on to discuss a love song for Ricky Wilde.
[1:18]Congrats.
[1:19]Thank you.
[1:20]Thank you for having me.
[1:21]It's so fun to talk to you again.
[1:23]You too.
[1:24]Okay, a love song for Ricky Wilde.
[1:26]I read it right when I first got this scally, like forever ago.
[1:29]And now I'm like, wait, what was that?
[1:32]No, I'm kidding.
[1:33]But it's so great.
[1:34]Before the holidays, I think.
[1:36]Yeah, it was really exciting.
[1:38]I'm so excited and so good.
[1:39]I love the way you write.
[1:40]Anyway, tell everybody what it's about.
[1:42]Please.
[1:43]So it is a modern day fairy tale about a free spirited florist who moves from Atlanta
[1:50]to Harlem to open a flower shop and realize her dream.
[1:55]And when she's there, she meets a very mysterious musician and they fall passionately
[2:01]in love and lust and all of it.
[2:04]And they doubt that their lives are inextricably linked and very interesting
[2:09]enchanted ways and there is Buddha.
[2:11]There's leap year magic because it actually takes place this February, which is a leap month.
[2:17]And so there's a touch of magical realism.
[2:19]Lemon.
[2:20]And where did this come from for you?
[2:22]Well, it's funny.
[2:23]I've never had a book idea come to me like this, but I haven't saw me and I was up one night.
[2:28]And these like disparate ideas and themes like dropped out of the sky.
[2:32]So it was like haunted piano, voodoo curse, Harlem Renaissance, mysterious musician,
[2:40]and a florist, and an enchanted brownstone go.
[2:45]I like to figure out how to, you know, make a story out of these elements.
[2:50]And I did, which, and I was really nervous to present this to my agent and my editor because
[2:56]it's a little bit different than what I usually write.
[2:58]I mean, it's definitely a me book.
[3:01]It has all the, you know, sparkly dialogue and steam and big high stakes love,
[3:07]but I'd never written, you know, anything with a touch of magical realism before.
[3:11]So it was a little nervous.
[3:13]Well, it seems like it didn't stop you in the slightest.
[3:16]So that's good.
[3:17]Yeah, I mean, I went forward.
[3:20]Would you work in a flower shop or own a flower shop or given the choice?
[3:23]Like, do you like to arrange flowers, decorate, find any of it?
[3:28]It's funny.
[3:29]I did not grow up in a flower house.
[3:31]Like, I don't know, like the names of flowers, like the genre and breeds of flowers.
[3:37]But in my other life, I was a beauty writer for a million years,
[3:41]for fashion magazines, but also for brands.
[3:44]And I was an executive editorial director at Estee Lauder companies.
[3:49]And so I was writing a lot of ads for perfumes.
[3:53]I was naming fragrances of his writing ad copy for it.
[3:57]And to do that, you obviously have to learn about ingredients.
[4:01]And so many of the ingredients and perfumes are florals.
[4:05]And so I had to learn, you know, the story behind a lot of the notes
[4:11]and these fragrances, how the flowers were, you know, cultivated, where they grow,
[4:16]what time of year, all that.
[4:17]And I was writing about a fragrance that had night blooming jasmine.
[4:22]And I thought that was the most romantic thing.
[4:24]Like the idea that it's kind of asleep during the day.
[4:27]It's like dormant during the day.
[4:28]And as soon as it gets dark out, it blooms.
[4:31]Oh, I was so into that.
[4:33]And so that's honestly where, you know, there's a night blooming jasmine sort of sub-theme
[4:40]happening in the book.
[4:41]And that's also where I got the idea of re-keeping a florist, because I got so interested
[4:46]in flowers as I was writing perfume copy.
[4:49]I worked at Unilever back in the day, launching the veer-wang fragrance.
[4:55]You know, I know.
[4:56]And we had to go to perfume like nose training and IFF and all of that and smell all the
[5:02]steaks.
[5:02]Yeah.
[5:03]And sniffing the coffee beans in between.
[5:05]And then you have to get those so you can smell the sense accurately.
[5:09]Yeah, it's fascinating.
[5:10]Yeah, totally fascinating.
[5:11]Well, there's still something so uplifting.
[5:14]You can't think about flowers without getting uplifted.
[5:17]And I love how you then use that as a setting for all the rest of it.
[5:20]And as you were talking about all the different elements, I was like,
[5:23]this would be such a great writing school thing to just like chop out a bunch of things like that.
[5:29]Haunted brownstone or like scary fireplace or whatever.
[5:33]And people just pick out a few and then go.
[5:34]that's how they write their novels.
[5:36]Yeah, that's actually a great idea.
[5:38]Right.
[5:38]You should start that.
[5:39]You should do like creative writing exercise.
[5:41]Yeah.
[5:42]Good creative writing exercise.
[5:43]So following seven days in June, how did you approach?
[5:47]You had all these ideas and then what happened?
[5:49]You woke up after not sleeping or you didn't wake up.
[5:52]And like, how did you approach writing this?
[5:54]How much time do you spend outlining books like this versus just going for it?
[5:58]Like, how do you do it?
[6:00]Well, I'm not a just go for it.
[6:03]Writer, like, you know, the pants services plotters are people who have outlines and they figure
[6:11]out the plot and they have it all laid out before they write.
[6:14]The pants are someone who flies by the seat of their pants and just writes.
[6:17]And I'm definitely a plotter.
[6:19]So before I write a book, I have to sit with it for a while because I have to research.
[6:24]I have to know what happens.
[6:26]I need an outline to tell myself what the story is so that I know how to bring it to life.
[6:32]So yeah, I had to do a lot of research.
[6:35]Harlem Renaissance, I've always been obsessed with it.
[6:37]So I didn't have to do a lot there in terms of the historical aspect, but I don't know
[6:43]Harlem very well.
[6:44]And it's hard for people who don't live in New York to understand that a Brooklyn girl wouldn't
[6:50]know Harlem.
[6:51]It's all New York, right?
[6:52]What's the big Brooklyn people in Harlem people just, it's far.
[6:56]It's far, it's, I dated a guy in Harlem in my early 20s and it felt like a long
[7:02]distance relationship.
[7:04]It's far and it's different.
[7:05]It's a different vibe.
[7:06]But so I was taking the train and just walking around Harlem like a tourist,
[7:13]like I was new to New York because I don't know those streets.
[7:16]I don't.
[7:17]And so while I was walking around, it's kind of researching the vibe.
[7:21]This is an interesting thing about Harlem where you're just walking down,
[7:25]you know, a random street and then you'll see a blink and you miss it, little plaque,
[7:29]that'll say on a building, that'll say something like, oh, Billie Holiday was discovered here,
[7:34]singing at 14 in 1929, you know, and those are all over the place.
[7:40]And it's like almost like being in Pompeii, it's like a city built over a city,
[7:44]like there's so much history, you know, and I got so interested in that aspect of this,
[7:52]you know, of this place where you have the modern reality of it, but, you know,
[7:59]the magical past lives with it.
[8:01]Sometimes I think about that too, having lived in New York basically my whole life.
[8:04]How many times I've walked past the same things, which versions of me at different times,
[8:10]do they, are they even still there?
[8:12]You know, just like in the, you know, I don't know, time becomes such this crazy concept when you
[8:18]think too much about place versus souls and all the rest.
[8:21]I sound crazy, but oh, that, I mean, that's part of what inspired this book.
[8:27]Like, you know, I'm a huge Stephen King fan.
[8:31]And in the book, The Shining, it's very much about like, you know, the people in the hotel
[8:37]aren't haunted.
[8:38]The hotel is haunted because memories have heartbeats and they're real.
[8:42]And, you know, the lives that were there always be there, like pieces of them.
[8:47]So I think that that's like an interesting, gothic sort of idea.
[8:53]Yes, little did.
[8:54]You know, it was so gothic underneath this, but, right, very tame mixture.
[9:01]Anyway, there's a whole other sort of plot line of when you're essentially a black sheep of
[9:07]the family.
[9:07]Like when you go against to it, everybody else thinks, or when people aren't believing in you,
[9:11]or how do you really stake your claim on a creative passion if you don't have the support or
[9:17]how do you know when to give it up or to go for it and all of that?
[9:20]So talk to me about that.
[9:22]So Ricky Wild is the youngest of four girls in a very, very aristocratic family.
[9:29]She's like the youngest by 15 years or something.
[9:31]And she has these three older sisters and they are very fancy, very bougie, socialized,
[9:37]Ivy League, married the right guys, you know, all went into the family business
[9:41]just for your arms.
[9:43]And they just played by the rules into everything, right?
[9:46]And she's like the Denise Huxable of the clan.
[9:49]Like she just cannot get herself to care about funeral homes.
[9:54]And more feel, nor does she feel like she has to, you know.
[10:00]She's a kind of person who doesn't want to just exist, you know, she wants to taste life and joy
[10:08]life pursue her passions and she's just always the only thing she likes about being her home
[10:12]since the flowers. And I think for her, it was like a matter of life and death. If she stayed there,
[10:18]you know, working the family business, you know, wearing the suit, doing everything that was
[10:23]expected of her, she would experience a soul death and to her life is assured and she wanted to
[10:28]really, you know, experience it to the fullest. And so she took a big chance and took off.
[10:34]And, you know, much to the chagrin of her family who was, they were basically like, well,
[10:40]you're disowned. But, you know, for people like Ricky, you know, like I said, it's almost like a
[10:46]death if you're stuck in a boxer whole life and you can't, you know, fully realize who you are.
[10:52]And I've always been interested in people and characters that do that because I'm more like
[10:57]her sisters. I'm very careful. I'm very, you know, make the to-do list, check everything off,
[11:04]you know, I have a hard time trying things that I don't already know I'll be great at,
[11:09]which is very limiting. And yeah, I myself am inspired by Ricky just going, you know, up to Harlem
[11:17]to start a brand new life, not knowing anyone, never having owned a shop or been an entrepreneur.
[11:23]Yeah, it's a, it's an exciting personality to have, you know, to be like that.
[11:30]It's an amazing, you can just write and be whatever you feel like.
[11:34]Like, for all the flaws in my personality by creating this person over here.
[11:39]It's not great. That was so easy. Look at that.
[11:42]Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's what I did when I was growing up when, you know, when I had a bad day at
[11:47]school, I would come home and rewrite it, rewrite the day in my favor.
[11:52]And so that's something I've always done. Like, well,
[11:54]the world doesn't look the way you want it to, or if you're not, you don't look the way
[11:58]you want yourself to. And so you can make anything real when you write fiction.
[12:03]Is there anything about your life now that you would be rewriting if you could?
[12:09]I would like to be the kind of person that works out.
[12:14]Always working out in six to schedule. And, you know, it's devoted to moving their body
[12:21]in some way every day. Instead, I'm extremely sedentary and no one's getting younger over here.
[12:27]And I have got to figure out how to incorporate a workout regimen that makes sense.
[12:33]Well, if you're getting it out, let me know.
[12:35]The other day I just thought about the concept of exercising and how I used to do it every day
[12:40]during like a certain period of my life a long time ago.
[12:42]And I was like, it's not even like on the menu for anymore. Now it's like, should I even
[12:46]shower or not? That's how we do.
[12:50]So pathetic. Well, tell me more about your next project with you,
[12:54]hand it in. I guess that's the next one coming out. What is that about?
[12:57]Let's get it in two days ago. Like, I cannot at five in the morning. I just hope
[13:01]oh my gosh. So my next project is a YA novel. Ooh, starring Audrey Mercymore, who is the daughter
[13:10]protagonist of Seven Days in June, my last novel. So in Seven Days in June, she was a precocious
[13:15]12 year old. And now she's a precocious 16 year old in this book. And it's a romcom. It's her at
[13:23]the summer after Virginia year in high school. And she realizes that she is pretty uptight. She's
[13:32]the class president and you know, the debate club president and this and that and you know,
[13:39]straight A is in very, very ambitious and type A and she's like, well, do I know how they have fun?
[13:45]And so she hires the sky because it's like this adventurous kid. She knows it goes to a different
[13:50]school. She hires him to teach her how to have fun. Wow. Well, that was to have been very
[13:55]fun to write. It was definitely, yeah, it's a good time. And I love Audrey. So it was fun to,
[14:02]you know, have time with her again. So do you feel sad when you're done and it's handed in?
[14:07]I mean, I'm sure there'll be work to be done on as there is with like everything and going through
[14:12]all different rounds or whatever. But that you've gotten the characters are fully formed and just
[14:17]release them out into the world. Do you feel a little sad? Yeah, oh, my baby is like,
[14:22]you want to stay in the world. But I have to say that I, I do think that I'm not done with
[14:27]Audrey yet. Like I feel like follow a novel or, you know, something. She's just such a funny,
[14:33]interesting little character. You know, she has a size. She wants to be a famous celebrity therapist
[14:39]when she grows up. And so since school school, she has a side hustle where she charges her friends
[14:45]to give them advice. And so her perspective on things is really funny because she's not an adult
[14:53]and she's not a therapist. But she thinks she knows everything about everything. Yeah.
[14:58]She's like, Lucy and Charlie Brown, right? Doesn't she, you know, she sets up on the corner.
[15:02]Yeah. The doctor is in time. Oh, my gosh, I love it. And do you have, do you make time to
[15:09]read when you're in the midst of all the writing or not really? Fortunately, no, I can't because
[15:14]I start sounding like whoever I'm reading. When I'm when I'm in the writing mode, I'm very,
[15:20]I'm a sponge. I think all writers are like when they're writing because you have to absorb what's
[15:25]happening around you because that's, that's what inspires you, you know, people's conversations,
[15:31]stories, people tell you like you have to stay really open when you're writing. And yeah,
[15:36]so when I read someone else's work, I start like accidentally plagiarizing.
[15:42]But like phone plagiarizing, like, you know, you take someone's sound.
[15:49]So I can't, I can't, yeah, I can't read any fiction while I'm writing. But so I have a
[15:56]little bit of a break now. So I'm excited to read now. So you don't work out and you don't read
[16:02]while you're writing. So what do you do to like get away from the computer and relax or get
[16:08]out of that headspace? I watch Real Housewives of every city. Amazing.
[16:15]It just, I zone out and I watch these like yapping inheritance and it just, it feels so good.
[16:23]Sometimes I have them on while I'm writing. It's just like what
[16:27]do you have a favorite character from any of the housewives favorite housewife? I think
[16:33]I love, well, I love Sonia Morgan from New York. I think she is just was made for this.
[16:41]And I hate love all of the Beverly Hills housewives.
[16:45]And I love Potomac. I love Karen Huger. Oh my god. And Dr. Wendy. Yeah, I could go on and on.
[16:55]You like this might be another career move for you. You know, you can have a little cameo in one of
[16:59]of these shows. Call up Andy Cohen. Like, let's see. Get you on there. Yeah. Yeah.
[17:06]The benefit for the novelist. Yeah. Yeah. So that's while I'm writing. That's how I chill.
[17:13]But I'm definitely, I'm going to read a lot while I have the sprig while you're touring for this
[17:21]book and massively studying it yet. Because you won't be busy. Well, you know, you have time to
[17:27]well, and you know, I'm going to try to read before I go to sleep every night. So.
[17:34]And which tour stops are you or which conversation partners from the tour are you excited about
[17:39]when people don't know about and all of them? Well, I'm really excited to the first stop is in
[17:43]Brooklyn next week on February 6th. Oh, I don't know what today this year, the podcast. I don't
[17:48]either. But hopefully very soon. I'll be speaking with Tessa Bailey who is fantastic. And I was
[17:55]for conversation partner when she was coming around for her tour, which book was it secretly yours,
[18:01]I think. And I love her. She's so much fun. I'll be speaking with Taylor Jenkins Reed who's amazing.
[18:07]Kennedy Ryan, who's a friend of mine. Yeah, a lot of a lot of great events planned. And I'm
[18:15]excited to go to somebody's cities because I've never there's some I've never been to. I've
[18:19]never been to Tucson. I've never been to Cincinnati. You know, there's another one I've never
[18:25]been to. Oh, I've never been to Savannah. So a list of I I've heard Savannah is a great eating city.
[18:32]So I have a list of places to go. So I'm excited. Good restaurant. I'm going to go to Tucson and
[18:38]Cincinnati too. So maybe I'll see you. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Cincinnati just for the day
[18:45]for winter Institute as a publisher, you know, making the rounds. Yeah, I'm too sad. I'm really
[18:52]excited about it. I feel like I was there. Maybe as a kid or something, but I haven't been. So I
[18:56]could use some nice weather. I'm sure. Yeah. So I have to build rooms here. Anyway, so what advice do
[19:02]you have for aspiring authors? I would say to not try to follow trends. And if your romance
[19:07]author don't get so caught up in tropes, just write, you know, the book that tickles you write,
[19:15]the book that doesn't exist yet, you know, write the book that lives inside you. But when you
[19:19]start doing a bunch of market research and you and you're too plugged into what the market is
[19:25]demanding right now, first of all, but the time your book comes out, everyone will be on
[19:28]something else anyway. The best thing to do is just go with what you're really interested in at
[19:36]the time and try not to think about who's going to be reading it and why they're going to be
[19:41]reading it. I'd never think about those things. That's not your job as a storyteller. I think
[19:48]yeah, so that's my advice. Amazing. Excellent. Okay. Well, thank you for a love song for
[19:55]Ricky Wilde. Thank you for having me. So fun. No problems. My pleasure.
[20:00]Good luck.
[20:01]I'll see you on your tour.
[20:02]Good.
[20:03]Yeah.
[20:04]Ew.
[20:05]Okay.
[20:06]Bye, dear.
[20:07]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[20:10]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram, at Zebioans, and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read
[20:14]Books.
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[20:22]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound for the Sound Editing.
[20:26]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions for providing this fantastic intro.
[20:29]Go to nowtrium music.