Zibby Books Author Alert!! Swan Huntley, I WANT YOU MORE: A Novel
[0:02]Hi, I'm Zippy Owens, and I am the host of this podcast, Mom's Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[0:08]I am also a newly minted USA Today best-selling author of the novel, Blake.
[0:14]I've created a whole community of book lovers around this podcast, a publishing company,
[0:19]reading retreats, a bookstore, and more. Learn more at ZippyMedia.com or follow me on social
[0:25]at Zippy Owens or join the community at Zippy Readers.
[0:31]Swann Huntley is the author of, I Want You More, a novel. This is one of our Zippy books,
[0:36]published books. I am obsessed with this novel. You've all have to go out right now and buy it.
[0:41]It is so good. It's like single white female meets the war of the roses. Let's be in addition.
[0:48]Oh my gosh, it's so good. Anyway, you have to check it out. I want you more, a novel.
[0:54]Swann and I met, by the way. Well, maybe I said this in the episode, I can't remember.
[0:58]But Swann and I met when we did a book event for our last books. I was doing book ends,
[1:02]and she was doing getting clean with Stevie Green. And we did an event in Culver City, California,
[1:07]at which two people showed up, plus Kyle, and then another person came, and it was actually
[1:12]the videographer. So the upside was that Swann and I really got to know each other,
[1:17]and we ended up acquiring her book. So you never know what's going to happen.
[1:21]Anyway, here's her bio. Swann Huntley is the author of the novels, getting clean with Stevie
[1:26]Green, The Goddesses, and we could be beautiful. She is also the writer and illustrator
[1:30]of the journal style Minitomes, The Bad Mood Book, which I inappropriately gave as a party
[1:35]favor for my son's eighth birthday, but that's just how I roll. And you're grounded.
[1:41]Swann earned an MFA at Columbia University and has received fellowships from McDowell and Yatto,
[1:46]where she was the 2019 recipient of the Lissage Fluely Love residency. Sorry I didn't
[1:52]pronounce that correctly. She lives in Los Angeles, California, and you must follow her on her
[1:56]socials because she is hilarious. Welcome Swann. Thank you so much for coming on Monster
[2:01]How Time to Read Books. To discuss, I want you more, a novel. Congratulations. Thank you. So cool.
[2:07]It's always such a treat when I've read multiple iterations of a book. And then finally,
[2:12]I get to talk about the end product. Yeah, you've seen a whole journey. It's amazing. Well,
[2:18]as you know, I'm so obsessed with this book that we're publishing it. So there you go.
[2:21]Tell listeners what I want you more is about, please. I want you more is about a ghostwriter
[2:27]who goes to the home of a celebrity chef in East Hampton to write her book. They fall for each
[2:33]other things turned dangerous. Love it. Excellent. Enough this. Okay. Why this plot? You have a
[2:41]ghostwriter. You have a fun show. You have an East Hampton setting. All these factors. How did
[2:48]you pick these parts of it? Yeah, that's such a good question. I think often when people ask me
[2:53]about ideas, they are expecting an answer about, you know, a muse or kind of like a suddenly getting
[3:01]hit with lightning idea moment of like, Oh, I have to write about this. And I would say that my
[3:06]process is like zero percent mystical. I just sit there and think, Okay, I'm going to write like
[3:12]300 pages about this thing. What are the elements that I can put into it that I know something about
[3:20]and that are going to interest me? So East Hampton, I had spent like a couple weeks at my
[3:25]friend's place in East Hampton and thought this will be a fun place to set a book. Also, it turns
[3:31]out when you set a book somewhere, you get to go to the place. Oh, that's not always true,
[3:37]because I interviewed Catherine Lynn about the South of France. And I was like, well, you must have
[3:41]gone. And I think she did it go. And I was like, well, you have to go. So oh, yeah, it was COVID or
[3:46]something. Anyway, well, generally it works. Generally it works. And then yeah, and I've also worked
[3:53]as a ghostwriter. The idea for the setup of this book came from, I was writing the memoirs of somebody
[4:00]who said, you will come to my house during this process. And it was a high dynamic. So I said,
[4:07]no, I will not come to your house. But I thought that would be a really good setup. Like,
[4:12]what if I had gone to this person's house and then been stuck with her in the house? Like,
[4:16]a lot could have happened. And I've always loved the movie War of the Roses, like, where they're
[4:22]stuck in this house together and single white females. So I think those had an influence on me too.
[4:28]Those were the things I was saying. It was like, did you know that? Yeah, I heard that. And then
[4:33]looked like a Martha Stewart-like compound. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So good. Oh my gosh. Me too. That is totally
[4:42]I remember so well going to see War of the Roses in the theater with my parents who were fighting non-stop.
[4:48]And just being like, okay, like, what was the point of this? I get this on the deck.
[4:53]Oh my God. That's really funny. I remember seeing Mrs. Goutfire with my dad after my parents got
[5:00]divorced now. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Okay. So you are totally strategic in writings. This is not your
[5:08]first book. Is this how you started out? Like, how did you become a novelist? How did you, where did
[5:13]you even come from? Go all the way back. All the way back. I'm a Sagittarius. Okay. December 21st,
[5:21]nice new to do. And I grew up in San Diego in a part of San Diego called La Hoya. And I always
[5:29]wanted to be a writer. Like, I was obsessed with recording things from the time I was very young.
[5:34]I can remember taking this train journey. I don't know if I could tell you this, but I took this
[5:39]journey on a train through California, I guess, at some point when I was young. And I recorded it by
[5:44]very lightly holding a pencil over a series of like white pieces of just computer paper. So by the
[5:51]end of the journey, I had like always like jiggly lines across these pages of white paper. And I
[5:56]like kept those. I was like recording stuff and keeping it and trying to get my little friends to
[6:03]write books with me from the time I was six or seven. So I always say like I think confused about
[6:08]many things in my life. Like it took me a while to figure out I was gay and it took me a while to
[6:12]figure out I was an alcoholic. But I always know it was going to be a writer. And I think that's
[6:17]partly because it's just a job that little kids know about. You know, I think little kids know
[6:21]about like five jobs. It's like lawyer, doctor, and then whatever your parents do. So basically,
[6:26]we should teach little kids about becoming gay alcoholics. We should add both of those to the list.
[6:35]Do you want to be an astronaut, sweetie? Or would you prefer to be an alcoholic?
[6:40]Oh, that's really funny. Yeah, love it. Yeah. And then my trajectory was really traditional.
[6:47]I went to get an undergrad degree in creative writing. I went to something called Eckerd College.
[6:53]I didn't start there, but I kind of ended up there in Dennis Lane was one of my professors there.
[6:58]And he was, he like made a big impact on me. That was the first time that I was like,
[7:03]ooh, like a real writer. He's so cool. And he is like, you know, cool Boston guy.
[7:09]And then I got an MFA in creative writing. And then I wrote a couple books that stayed on my
[7:14]computer. And like I wrote a book as my thesis for grad school. And that stayed on my computer
[7:21]along with the next book. There's like a longer story here. But yeah, what were those about? What
[7:26]is it? What's the number? Yeah. Okay. There's that quote about how writing a novel is like
[7:34]you're driving through the fog with your headlights on him. You can only see like 3D feed in front of you.
[7:40]I forget. And you get you still get there. And you still get there. So a lot of people
[7:45]love to use this quote. I loved to use this quote as like a reason to not outline. I was like,
[7:51]oh, I don't really need to know the destination. I'm just like wondering if you're the fog. And
[7:56]it seems kind of romantic. And, you know, my grad school really was not a conversation about like
[8:02]lot. Like if you said plot, you were a loser. It was like, we were talking about like craft,
[8:06]you know, and like white space, which both of those things are awesome. But I didn't get a sense
[8:13]that I needed to outline anything. So I wrote this first novel as my thesis, the people who read it,
[8:20]like this is really good. You should send it out. So I sent it to like a list of people in New York
[8:25]who I found on query tracker dot com or whatever. And like back then it seems like such a big world
[8:32]to me. It was like, oh my god, there are thousands of agents. And I'll just seem so obscure,
[8:36]which is how every world seems before you get into it. Then you get into it. You're like,
[8:39]oh, they're like five people here. But yeah, I sent it out. And everybody said the same thing,
[8:46]which was, these are really good characters, but nothing happens in this book. And I was like,
[8:51]what? Like to me, so much happens. And that's like, I ultimately don't really care about plot.
[8:57]Like that's not even what I remember about books. I always remember the quiet moment in which
[9:02]a character is eating a cracker alone. Like I could write like a whole series of books about like
[9:07]a woman in a room alone. But, you know, a plot's good to have people turning pages. It turns out,
[9:13]so I mean, there was there was room. I mean, that was a great book. There was room.
[9:19]Two people. Two people. But it's okay. Yeah, sorry. I'll forgive the plagiarism. It's fine.
[9:25]It's totally fine. Okay. So then finally, I put that book aside. And by the way, I was like manifesting
[9:31]so hard. Like I drew the cover of that book. I had a whole like notebook devoted to that book,
[9:37]like collage of them, like the characters room drawn. And I painted the cover of that book.
[9:42]I was like, this is happening. So finally, I was like fine. I guess it's not happening.
[9:46]I'll write a different book. So wrote a different book. And I sent it around again.
[9:52]And everybody said these characters are so cool, but nothing happens in this book,
[9:56]except for one agent who said, yeah, that's true. But if you do these
[10:00]It's like 7,000 changes, all considered revenue.
[10:03]So after that meeting, I remember walking down
[10:07]Fifth Avenue in a pair of pink fry boots
[10:10]that I would never own today, like I made it,
[10:15]like Mary Taylor Moore throwing a hat up
[10:17]in the air moment.
[10:18]I was like, yes, this is my city.
[10:23]And so I spent time making these like 7,000 changes
[10:26]that the sky recommended.
[10:28]And then I went back to him and I was like,
[10:29]hey, it's me, I made all these changes.
[10:32]Here's the book again.
[10:32]And it was like, he didn't even know who I was.
[10:34]He was like, yeah, no, I'm not, no.
[10:38]I don't even know if you'll credit.
[10:39]Yeah.
[10:40]And I was like, whoa, bummer.
[10:43]And then in the meantime, I've had like all the worst jobs ever.
[10:47]So I was just like, I can't have these crappy jobs
[10:50]for the rest of my life.
[10:51]Like I have to move the plot of my life forward.
[10:55]And I ended up going to a workshop at my old college
[10:59]record college and took this class with Ann Hood.
[11:02]And she popped out something that she called
[11:04]the novel template.
[11:05]And she was like, if you want to write a novel,
[11:08]you have to be able to fill out this template.
[11:10]And I was like, template, like,
[11:13]you know, like white face craft, you know,
[11:16]like this is so beneath me.
[11:18]And now I use that template every time.
[11:20]And it's such like the ask for some really basic questions.
[11:22]Like when did your book start an end?
[11:24]You know, that's something that a lot of people
[11:25]don't think about.
[11:26]What is like the full time period we're dealing with?
[11:28]And it's just asking to plot out the book, you know?
[11:31]So then I did that.
[11:32]And then I wrote a book, yeah, with the plot,
[11:34]I think I even titled my document like things have to happen.
[11:39]You know, I was like things have to happen in this book.
[11:42]And then I wrote it really quickly.
[11:44]And then everything happened really quickly.
[11:45]Like I got the agent and the deal and it was like, yes.
[11:49]Oh my gosh.
[11:50]Did you even send it to the same guy?
[11:52]No, no, I'll fill it off of this forever.
[11:56]Yeah, I don't know where he is now.
[11:57]He should like tie all your books together with like, you know,
[12:01]twine and leave them like on a stack on his doorstep
[12:07]with the note you made.
[12:08]Big mistake.
[12:08]Huge.
[12:09]Huge.
[12:13]Oh my gosh.
[12:14]Well, why did you like at all these inflection points?
[12:17]Did you ever say like, OK, well, maybe I shouldn't write
[12:19]novels.
[12:20]Never.
[12:21]No.
[12:21]I like, this is I think one of my, it's like my greatest
[12:24]weakness and my greatest strength is I
[12:27]when I decide something, it's like on.
[12:29]I'm like, blinders aren't we're going there.
[12:31]Like actually the first time that I appeared at a bookstore
[12:34]to do like a book event, I had to imagine that so many times
[12:37]that I felt as if it had already happened.
[12:40]Like I, then that's what I mean about like manifesting.
[12:43]I was like, this is the only thing that's going to happen.
[12:46]I don't have a B plan.
[12:47]So they plan how to take place.
[12:50]I love that.
[12:51]I try things like that too, but they don't work.
[12:54]I'm like, I'm just going to imagine that this book is
[12:56]in people magazine, but it's not.
[13:00]But I can see it in my head.
[13:01]I can make that font happen, but it actually only happened in
[13:05]my head.
[13:05]But it's nice to dream in some version of it might have a
[13:08]later, like I don't think it's always like a one to one.
[13:10]OK, all right, this is the long game playing the long game.
[13:16]Well, that's interesting.
[13:16]You were saying that you drew that whole time on the white paper
[13:19]on the train because another piece of your brain, obviously,
[13:22]is so artistic and how you do all these illustrations.
[13:25]And I told you that I gave the bad mood book out as a party
[13:28]favor to my son's eighth birthday, which was a huge mistake.
[13:33]But I thought it was hilarious that we started trying to
[13:35]cover up all the curse words.
[13:36]And then we just gave up and we were like, here, just take it.
[13:40]Because I loved it so much.
[13:41]And I still think it's a great parenting book, even though
[13:43]that wasn't the point of it.
[13:45]But it's how to get your kid out of a bad mood.
[13:46]It's like the greatest device.
[13:48]So talk about the intersection of your not caricatures.
[13:52]But you call them illustrations.
[13:53]Thank you.
[13:54]The whole how both parts of your brain work and all that.
[13:57]Yeah, I guess to connect this back to the thing
[14:00]about having blenders on.
[14:02]I think the problem with having blenders on is sometimes
[14:04]you don't see how other, you don't see the other organic threads
[14:07]in your life that are presenting themselves to you.
[14:09]But I think the illustration career is an example of how
[14:13]I was paying attention to an organic thread.
[14:15]And I followed it.
[14:17]And then good things happen.
[14:18]And I feel like whenever people do that,
[14:19]it ends up being a good story.
[14:21]So I went to a residency.
[14:24]And I was supposed to be writing a novel,
[14:26]but I just didn't feel like writing this novel.
[14:28]So I just started drawing these little cartoons
[14:31]and putting them on Instagram.
[14:33]One of the first cartoons ever with a moment that really
[14:36]happened at Lululemon East 66, where I worked,
[14:40]a girl who worked there.
[14:41]Oh, I was in doofy, which is the person who stands by the dorm.
[14:45]The acronym stands for director of first impressions.
[14:48]So you just say, hey, how's it going?
[14:50]Hey, I'm all pretending to have
[14:52]like fold the same scuba heady over and over.
[14:55]And this girl was like, what do you do?
[14:57]And I said, I'm a writer.
[14:58]And she said, I love horses.
[15:01]So that was my first, first part to one of the best moments
[15:05]of my life.
[15:06]But then like started taking pictures of them
[15:09]and putting them on Instagram.
[15:10]And then people liked them.
[15:11]And it was like a dopamine rush.
[15:12]And I was like, oh my god, this is so unlike writing a novel
[15:15]where you're just alone in a vacuum for so long.
[15:18]Like, this is fun and random, I don't know.
[15:21]And then I just kind of blossomed from there.
[15:23]It ended like a couple years later.
[15:25]I was a hike with a friend who happens to be an agent.
[15:28]And she was like, you should do some of those cartoons.
[15:31]Like, you should make a gift book proposal.
[15:33]And here are the things that you should put in this proposal.
[15:36]And I'm like, OK, that sounds really easy.
[15:37]So I did that.
[15:38]And then it happened.
[15:40]The book, Anna, should take the opportunity
[15:43]to plug the next book, which comes out, which I don't think
[15:46]had any curse words in it.
[15:48]The colors of the cover are based on the Beverly Hills hotel
[15:52]colors, so payment and free.
[15:55]And it's called Your Grounded.
[15:58]And it's about like how to get grounded
[16:00]in a world full of things to pay attention to.
[16:04]That's so cool.
[16:05]I love that.
[16:06]If someone recommended it at one point,
[16:07]they were like, you're a logo, should be pink and green.
[16:09]And I'm like, that is the Beverly Hills hotel
[16:11]when you're talking about it.
[16:12]I can't use those colors.
[16:13]Like, that's our iconic, that combination has been done.
[16:17]Anyway, that sounds really good.
[16:19]And your next book, with Divi books, too.
[16:21]Your memoir, I'm going to talk about that.
[16:23]Oh, god.
[16:24]Yeah.
[16:25]OK, remember that one?
[16:27]Yeah, hello.
[16:28]I'm over.
[16:29]OK, I'm so excited about this memoir.
[16:31]I can tell, I'm over.
[16:33]But it's like all the pieces are coming together
[16:36]in this memoir, because I plan to put some drawings in it
[16:38]as you know.
[16:39]And I feel like the other part of my story that I didn't mention
[16:43]is I applied to both nonfiction and fiction programs.
[16:46]And so for Columbia, I actually got it to both of them,
[16:49]that the fiction people gave me some money.
[16:51]So I would have chosen nonfiction
[16:53]if that had not happened.
[16:55]So I just kind of like veered into fiction.
[16:56]But I've always felt like really interested in nonfiction.
[17:00]And I probably read more nonfiction than fiction.
[17:02]So it just feels like, oh, this is meant to happen.
[17:05]And the book is about, it's interwoven narratives.
[17:08]So one of them is about my 500-mile pilgrimage
[17:11]through Spain, which is called the Camino de Santiago.
[17:15]It's a very well-known pilgrimage, if you're into that.
[17:18]And the other is my journey through addiction.
[17:22]And I'm hoping to deal with that in a way that's new.
[17:30]I think we all like add something new to the conversation.
[17:32]And I think what I'm specifically trying to add
[17:35]is kind of an illustration of how when you get sober,
[17:38]your addiction doesn't just go away.
[17:39]I think a lot of stories about sobriety function in that way
[17:43]where it's like, sorry, I was drunk, what a bummer.
[17:45]And then I got sober.
[17:46]And it was all great, bye.
[17:49]And I'm kind of like, you know, now I've been sober
[17:52]for like 13 years.
[17:53]And I wrote an essay about my obsession with yogurt
[17:56]a couple years ago.
[17:57]So it's sort of, it stemmed from that essay, actually,
[18:00]which was called All the Things I Love to Death,
[18:02]which is about how I have to love something
[18:03]to death in order to get it out of my life.
[18:05]I just killed off pop lotus seeds.
[18:11]Wow, just crossing them off the list
[18:14]for the rest of us to try next.
[18:17]I'm like, you need to, at the back,
[18:19]we're going to have to put some sort of like a list,
[18:22]like ingredients list if they want it for people to try it out.
[18:25]Totally, that would be great.
[18:29]Oh my gosh.
[18:30]Okay, so you also have recently gone viral
[18:34]on TikTok.
[18:35]Oh my gosh, it's out there, I saw you last time,
[18:37]which I know is not even related to the flat of your book,
[18:41]but talk about that.
[18:43]Oh, well, and you have my role, right?
[18:45]Well, that's because it had nothing to do really with me.
[18:47]It was just like a video of people on the beach,
[18:49]but it's fine, it's fine.
[18:50]Oh, I'll make it to them.
[18:52]It's connected to me, so I'm going to take care of it.
[18:54]But yeah, I went viral, I'm going to attribute
[18:58]all of this to Hannah, my new, I'm calling her my boss,
[19:01]because now she just told me what to do in social media.
[19:04]And she told me to instead of just post my drawings
[19:07]to buy like a camera that covers over my hand drawing stuff.
[19:13]So to video myself drawing, and then she adds cool music to it.
[19:18]And so she did that to this drawing
[19:22]that's about childhood and therapy.
[19:25]It's basically saying age zero to 18 is childhood.
[19:29]18 to death is years in therapy, talking about childhood.
[19:33]That's like the whole thing.
[19:36]I don't even know how you go viral.
[19:37]I mean, I guess it's just like one person sends
[19:39]into the next person sends into the next person.
[19:41]And last, Hannah texted me and she said,
[19:44]she sent me a screenshot and she's like,
[19:45]Sam felt commented on it.
[19:48]So it's like, wow.
[19:49]And I was like, who is that?
[19:51]Oh, I think he's on my Spotify.
[19:52]So he's like big music person.
[19:55]Wow.
[19:56]Yeah, I was feeling foolish that I didn't know
[19:58]that was so glad you had to ask.
[20:00]I sort of did.
[20:02]You sort of knew.
[20:04]Well, back to I want you more.
[20:05]So you sat down intentionally.
[20:08]You combined a lot of elements.
[20:09]You used your plot template and you just what?
[20:12]Press go and then there you had a book.
[20:14]How long did it take to write?
[20:15]I don't like answering this question.
[20:17]I'm going to like mysteriously not answer this question.
[20:19]Okay.
[20:20]But I work pretty quickly.
[20:22]I don't know.
[20:23]I write a draft pretty quickly and I think that's
[20:25]because writing a novel is like there's so many things
[20:28]to keep track of.
[20:30]Why do you not want to answer the question?
[20:32]Is it because you wrote it in like two weeks
[20:34]then you're embarrassed?
[20:35]I guess that you know what?
[20:37]I think it's like really wrong that I'm not saying it
[20:40]because I think I'm adding like other people's baggage to me.
[20:44]I think it's like people have this idea
[20:46]that in order for things to be good,
[20:47]they need to be really arduous and take 10,000 years.
[20:51]And this is like connected to all these other like beliefs
[20:54]about writing that I don't think are true.
[20:57]You know, like I think there's this image of like
[20:59]the pained person pecking away at a typewriter
[21:02]and it's raining and they're going to be scotch and stuff.
[21:04]Like so, okay.
[21:06]It's taken me bizarrely.
[21:08]It's taking me the same amount of time
[21:10]to write the first draft of all of my books.
[21:13]And that amount of time is seven weeks.
[21:15]But I will say I don't have children.
[21:18]Like I think this question is also problematic
[21:20]because we have to take into account
[21:22]that people have very different lives.
[21:23]So yeah, the only thing I'm accountable to
[21:26]are my house plants and if they die, I don't care.
[21:28]You're going to have legions of plant lovers
[21:31]really upset right now.
[21:32]Actually, my friend came out with me yesterday.
[21:34]And he was like, this plant is disease.
[21:36]Like the plant is not very well.
[21:39]Like, oh, so he told me to download an app and did you?
[21:43]I did, but yeah.
[21:45]You should not be in any way ashamed
[21:48]of writing your novels in seven weeks.
[21:50]I mean, first of all, most people in seven weeks
[21:53]couldn't come up with anything good.
[21:54]And your writing novel is like a published and are good.
[21:57]So that's great.
[21:59]Also, it's not about my life versus your life
[22:02]versus random person who you feel is judging you
[22:04]over in the corner who's not.
[22:06]And it's just like, oh, okay.
[22:08]That's an interesting data point moving on.
[22:09]And you're like, I feel terrible about this.
[22:12]I mean, I think everybody has different periods of time
[22:15]where they can work and you do it in big spurts
[22:17]and other people like to drag it out
[22:19]or they like to do an hour a day or,
[22:21]but how great to just get it all done, right?
[22:24]I don't know.
[22:24]There's no right or wrong.
[22:26]There's like, it's a creative process.
[22:28]Right.
[22:28]Thank you, Zibi.
[22:29]I feel like we're really working through
[22:30]my issues in this.
[22:31]No problem.
[22:32]No problem.
[22:33]You want to lay down.
[22:33]I could just, you know, I could pull up my armchair
[22:36]a little closer to the screen.
[22:37]And you know, just keep going here.
[22:39]Yeah, I know you're right.
[22:41]It's very, I do like to do things like that.
[22:44]Like just bite them off, you know, huge chunk.
[22:47]Yeah.
[22:48]But I'll never ask you that question again.
[22:49]Well, now we, I'll just say I'll see you in maybe seven weeks
[22:53]good luck with this next draft.
[22:56]I don't know why I think that number.
[22:57]So weird.
[22:58]Well, are you thinking of doing any more novels?
[23:01]Are you thinking of doing more art?
[23:03]Are you just like seeing where the threads take you now?
[23:06]Right now I'm concentrated on finishing the memoir.
[23:09]So I have a draft, but I want to like perfect this draft
[23:13]and writing the memoir is a little different
[23:15]than writing the novels because rather than creating,
[23:19]it's, you know, like a shaving away of stuff.
[23:22]But I think this is a book I wanted to write for a long time.
[23:25]And I have a pretty good sense of what I wanted to be.
[23:27]So that's cool.
[23:28]One piece of this, I'm not sure if I told you this,
[23:31]but I was talking before about how I love to record things
[23:34]and always have it.
[23:35]So I have many, many journals from the time I was very young.
[23:38]My first journal entry ever says,
[23:40]today at school we played dodgeball,
[23:43]I accidentally sat on the ball and somebody said swan laid
[23:47]an egg, that was basically my whole childhood.
[23:51]Hey, flamingo.
[23:53]Yeah, I actually, okay, this is actually a good illustration.
[23:56]So in my memory, it was another child who said that,
[23:59]but then according to my journal,
[24:01]it was actually like the teacher's aid or something.
[24:05]I was like, oh, ouch.
[24:07]So the point of this is to say that when I have like
[24:11]a stronger draft of the memoir,
[24:12]I plan to go back through my journals
[24:14]to see if there anything I want to add from there.
[24:17]You know, because I think the process of writing this
[24:19]is also about the process of writing this
[24:21]and of memory and like what stories are we telling
[24:24]and how helpful is that to us or not?
[24:27]And it's just so humbling to see how, you know,
[24:31]I like reshape stories over time,
[24:34]most painful, like really.
[24:36]When you talked about the crazy jobs
[24:38]that you had that were terrible, aside from Lou Lemon
[24:40]and I probably walked past you
[24:42]and just please drive in to buy my, you know,
[24:46]I have to find out when you were working there.
[24:48]But anyway, what other terrible jobs did you have?
[24:51]Okay, my first job ever, I was 15
[24:53]and I was an algae sweeper.
[24:54]My dad was a marine biologist.
[24:56]He moved to Kona.
[24:57]He felt this algae farm and it was algae moving around
[25:00]in these like ponds.
[25:02]And the algae scum will get stuck on the side.
[25:05]So I would go with my broom and like walk around
[25:08]these algae ponds to get the product off the side.
[25:12]That was my first job ever, like off the books.
[25:14]My first, the technical job when I was 16,
[25:17]I worked at Whole Foods as a bagger.
[25:21]I think I only got that job
[25:23]because he was like, a lot of Jennifer's
[25:24]and Sarah's applied to this,
[25:26]but your name is Swan and you live on Moon Something Street,
[25:28]which is why I call Google.
[25:30]I don't know how it's like thick.
[25:33]So yeah, it was a bagger.
[25:35]I have like 70 details studies job,
[25:37]but I don't know that we have that much time.
[25:39]So I'll go through it more quickly.
[25:41]I also worked at Pickup Sticks,
[25:44]which is an Americanized, like Chinese food chain,
[25:48]but I don't know if it's just a West Coast thing or what,
[25:51]but yeah, we worked there.
[25:53]I worked as a telemarketer in high school.
[25:56]A lot of people with facial tattoos at that job.
[26:01]I worked in an Italian restaurant.
[26:03]I worked at some Indian restaurants in Boston.
[26:07]I worked at pizzeria Uno for one day.
[26:10]Buschon Beverly Hills, Lulemon Samo.
[26:14]Otherwise known as Santa Monica.
[26:16]Well, if you're a whole period of babysitting old men
[26:19]when I lived in Boston.
[26:20]Yeah, I don't know if I ever told you about that.
[26:22]It kind of started with a dare.
[26:23]My friend was like, I bet you would have a weird job
[26:25]like this and I was like, I would.
[26:27]So yeah, Craigslist job taking care
[26:29]of a guy named Bernie led to some other guys.
[26:33]They're actually four of them, two Bernie's and two bobs.
[26:36]That's a good name for an essay.
[26:38]Right, two Bernie's and two bobs, that is good.
[26:41]When I was 19, I moved to France for a year.
[26:43]I was an au pair.
[26:45]I worked at Colwell Banker Residential Brokridge
[26:48]right after college in like the basement.
[26:51]That was a hard time.
[26:55]And I know there are some others,
[26:56]but this is the first thing to come to mind.
[26:58]Wow.
[26:59]I mean, I don't know why you even have to go to your journals.
[27:01]I mean, you have enough stuff right in that last two minutes
[27:05]to write another memoir.
[27:07]Oh my gosh, hilarious.
[27:08]Okay, do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
[27:11]Yeah, I would say your muse is dead.
[27:14]Like, don't assume that there's a muse
[27:16]and that there's like a special moment
[27:17]when everything comes to you.
[27:19]You know, I think if you just sit down,
[27:21]things can unexpectedly happen.
[27:23]And I do think it's mostly about discipline and not talent.
[27:26]Like, I think that talent is cool,
[27:29]but really the most important thing is finishing something.
[27:32]So I would say really try to finish one thing.
[27:35]Oh man, amazing.
[27:36]Well, congratulations on, I want you more.
[27:38]So excited to be bringing it out into the world
[27:41]and the memoir and everything else.
[27:43]And I'm just, I'm a huge fan.
[27:45]So thanks.
[27:46]Thank you so much, Sydney.
[27:47]I'm a huge fan of you.
[27:48]Oh, thank you.
[27:49]You didn't have to say it.
[27:50]Hi.
[27:51]Hi.
[27:52]Hi.
[27:55]Thanks for listening to momstone have time to read books.
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