[00:00:00] Jane: Welcome to Historical Happy Hour, the podcast that explores new and exciting historical fiction novels. I’m your host, Jane Healey, and in today’s episode, we welcome bestselling author Emily Bleecker to discuss her latest novel, When We Chase the Light, which releases a week from today. So she’s like full on in launch mode.
Welcome, Emily. Hi, I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for doing this. I’m going to do a quick bio about you and then I have a ton of questions like we said, we discussed. Emily Bleeker is the bestselling author of seven novels combined. Her books have reached more than two million readers, which is amazing.
Oh, it is being recorded. I’m sorry. I just It’s okay. Got a little flash. Amazing. She’s a two-time Whitney Award finalist, as well as being on the Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. When she’s not writing or momming, Emily performs on the house team of a local improv group in suburban Chicago, where she lives with her husband, kids, and kitten muse Hazel.
Again, welcome, Emily. So nice to meet you. Thank you. I’m excited to be here. Yeah. We are, we share the same publisher. We were just comparing notes about our publishing experiences at Lake Union. Talk to me, because this is a companion, not a sequel, but a companion novel to a book that came out recently called When We Were Enemies.
And talk about this story and how the premise of this novel kind of came out of, evolved out of that one.
[00:01:26] Emily: Yeah, so When We Were Enemies is a dual timeline between Vivian Santini, who ends up becoming Vivian Snow, who is the subject of this novel, and she, that’s in 1943, and then it’s modern day for her granddaughter.
When We Were Enemies goes back and forth between those two timelines, but Vivian’s timeline right before she becomes famous. I liked with that novel, playing with the idea that we knew, as readers, she becomes famous, but she didn’t know yet. So we had this information about her that she didn’t know.
And, the more that I wrote about Vivian, and then also her close friend, who Trombello, the the Italian priest, the more I just wanted to know their story. story and felt like there was so much of her life that we just skimmed right over because all we got was the beginning and then a little bit of a retelling of her end, so I just, it stuck with me, I started writing it, and I didn’t know if it was something that could My goal was to make it a standalone novel, and I think that it works that way, that it could be a standalone novel, but I always say that it could also optionally hold hands with When We Were Enemies, if you want it to, I
[00:02:46] Jane: love that, and I think it totally does. I, when I was reading the background of how you came up with this idea, I loved that this story is inspired about, by your grandmother during World War Two, and you learned about it on a road trip. Will you tell everyone that story?
Because that was really funny.
[00:03:02] Emily: Yes. I was driving actually with my dad to my grandmother had passed away like a year before, but we were, We had gone down to have a get together, like a celebration of life. And as we were driving through, this was in Mississippi. He just pointed to a random exit and he goes so that is where your grandmother worked at a POW camp during world war II and fell in love with an Italian priest who she kept in touch with for the rest of her life.
And then he. And I was like whoa. I was not a writer yet. I wasn’t even a mom yet. Like I was like, very early twenties. And I was like, I need to know every single detail about what you just said. Cause I didn’t even know that there were POW camps in the US during World War II. Had no idea.
She was Married. So it’s like, what do you mean she fell in love with an Italian priest? And he went on to explain that it was like this platonic relationship that they had, but it was a platonic love that carried on for a long time. And there are postcards in this book, and that’s based off of the postcards that this Italian priest in real life.
would send to my grandmother with his hand drawn or painted images on there for her. I don’t have any of them anymore, and it’s not based on the actual content of those letters, but just that was the idea that sparked this for me.
[00:04:18] Jane: So the postcards that the real priest sent actually had hand painted drawings on them too.
He was an
[00:04:22] Emily: artist. Yeah.
[00:04:23] Jane: Oh, that’s so cool. That’s amazing. So this book, as you said, it starts, it spans the life and career of a Hollywood star who became known as Vivian Snow starting in World War II when she was this unknown performer with the USO trying to get her big break. Talk about your research for the story.
I know you mentioned watching a lot of classical. Classic movies as a part of it. But this book covers a lot of years.
[00:04:48] Emily: After I was like, I want to write this, then I’m like, that is six decades. I want to do research, additional research for six decades. I have a couple, actually, I don’t have my USO book here.
I like doing several layers. I like reading books that, I like reading original source material books. Another thing that I really have found that I enjoy is going on Facebook and joining groups of people that have actually had experiences or lived in certain towns or that is fantastic.
People most of the time want to share. There was one time. With, actually, this book when I wanted to go to Edinburg, Indiana. And I posted on the page that I had been on for a while. Hey, I’m coming I’m writing this book about your town. Would anybody like to meet with me, talk with me? And I got deleted.
From the page. No, I was like, Oh, I’m still going to this town. What is waiting for me? Is it going to be pitchforks or what? So it wasn’t. And in fact, the man who ran the page, he ended up reaching out to me after I messaged him and he was very sweet and we ended up becoming friends. And I sent him a copy of the book when it came out and everything, but we didn’t get to meet with.
any of the people from that page, but I did get to go down and tour the town, tour the camp, tour the POW camp, see the chapel and that’s really important for me too. I like to try and see as many things firsthand. So USO, it was mostly deep dive research. With a little bit of a Facebook connections.
[00:06:23] Jane: Very cool. That actually segues nicely into my next question, because we had Joy Jordan Lake was on a couple weeks ago talking about German POWs who were in Georgia during the war. And there were also Italian POWs on the islands off the coast of Massachusetts on the Boston Harbor Islands. And it’s one of these lesser known facts about it.
The war that there were all of these POWs in the United States, including at Camp Atterbury in Indiana. So talk about that research. What did you learn? Was there anything that surprised you? This is where Father Trambello is imprisoned until, Italy switches sides. But but talk about that.
[00:07:03] Emily: Yeah, it, there were 14, 000 imprisoned Italian prisoners at Camp Atterbury, but then it switched after the site switched, and then it became they ended up having 51, 000 German prisoners there after the Italians left. But it is this number that you don’t fully Like grass, that’s just one camp, so what happened was after the sides switched in the fall of 1943, it’s actually, October. It’s I think tomorrow marks like 82 years since Italy declared war on Germany. So like officially that was the official act. We are on your side. So that is when the POWs were given a choice and they were told you can either stay loyal.
to, the fascist regime, or you can join the this U. S. Army Corps service corps called the Italian Service Unit and then be a part of the U. S. Army. And so 90 percent of the troops across the U. S. that were Italian, once Italian POWs then became part of this Italian service unit, and they were sent all over the U.
S. The other 10 percent were sent to this camp in Texas, mostly. There are a couple of other small ones, but there’s a big camp in Texas where the hardcore German leaders were held when they were in prison, and then these dedicated, fascists would go to. So everybody else actually then became a part of the U.
S. Army, a part of the Italian service unit.
[00:08:37] Jane: So interesting. Yeah. And I love, World War II, obviously there’s a lot of historical fiction out there, but this, the whole POWs in the U. S. thing, aspect of the war was, has not been covered. I feel like a lot of people don’t know, still don’t know about it that, so it’s so interesting to read about that.
[00:08:53] Emily: The thing that I found most interesting about the POW camps was how they were run, because at the end of World War II in the 1929 Geneva Convention, they came, they like readdressed all of these issues saying, hey, We tried this already. We tried to come up with these conventions. They obviously weren’t good enough because we still had just major atrocities during this war, and one of the things that they reassessed were prisoners of war.
And as a result of that, and then the Red Cross is in charge of that, right? Like they are the ones that are supposed to be in charge of that. And the America decided, the U. S. decided, we are going to stick to this very stringently in hopes that it will be done in kind to our troops. So in some ways, the POWs in the U.
S. from Germany and Italy were getting better treatment than the U. S. They would have in their own army. And in fact, a lot of Camp Atterbury, they called it like a retirement home. That’s what the Italian men called it, because they’re like, oh they’re so soft on us, and that actually caused a lot of controversy.
In these towns and in these areas because they’re like, Hey, our guys are out fighting and these guys are getting our best food and they’re getting taken care of and they’re getting schooling. And so it was very, that was very interesting to me,
[00:10:12] Jane: very interested. I remember reading about the Boston camps that were on the islands and.
The north end of Boston is little Italy and these women would bring them food and it was very controversial because they were prisoners of war. They were still not on the American side. Yeah, I find that a really interesting aspect of the story. One thing I wanted to read this quote from your pub sheet.
This book is based on many true stories from the USO, Hollywood, Broadway, and more. If there is a story in this book that seems unlikely, I bet you it is based on part of a true story that I discovered in my research. I love that, like truth is stranger than fiction. Is there any that you can share without giving away spoilers?
[00:10:50] Emily: There’s so many, especially once you get to Hollywood. Like the crazy stuff that happened in Hollywood just blows my mind. Women were not treated well. They were treated as property basically, and the, Their bodies were treated that way too, and they were often drugged, there were forced abortions, there were lots of terrible things that they went through in order to have this fame.
And that’s one of the things I really enjoyed exploring in this book, is like, what is the price? That’s why it’s chasing the light, not reaching the light, because is this worth it, this chasing for the light? And Elise, her granddaughter, who’s in When We Were Enemies, she is at the other side of it, and she is the only one who has rejected this passed down fame.
That is something that I found very interesting. I don’t know, literally almost every big plot twist in the story. is based on something that I learned about in real life.
[00:11:48] Jane: Fascinating. When I was reading, when I was reading the story and thinking about Vivian, in my mind, I had was thinking of Elizabeth Taylor just because of she had many relationships over the years and was hugely famous.
How did you develop Vivian as a character and were there any real actresses that inspired you?
[00:12:09] Emily: Yes Marilyn Monroe, I like to think of Vivian as Marilyn Monroe that didn’t die, and was a mother and had something anchoring her, where she had a lot of these demons that were following her around, she had some interests Yeah, I think that they’re definitely not the best at adjusting run ins with men and maybe not the best decisions always when it came to relationships, but it wasn’t just her.
There was a lot of actresses like Betty Davis, like there was nothing like it wasn’t her specifically but a lot of what she went through With her contract with being blacklisted by the studio system, like a lot of that was very inspirational to me what a strong woman she was like, she changed, she sued her studio, and it was the whole reason that system fell apart was because she was brave enough.
to sue that system. But at the same time, she then got blacklisted for 10 years after that. So like seeing these inspirational actresses and peeling back this veneer, it was very interesting to do. And It’s something that I think because we like the glitz and glamour of this Hollywood era, we oftentimes skip over that part of it because we want to think, oh, that it was just as beautiful and perfect and great as it seems on the silver screen when it was just as wild and crazy as it is now, if not more
[00:13:41] Jane: yeah, if not more because women had even less rights back there, right? Yeah, totally agree. So this, these two books, When We Were Enemies and When We Chased the Light, are, these are these your first two forays into historical fiction? Have you written historical fiction before? I wrote,
[00:13:57] Emily: What’s Left Unsaid had a historical element, like it were, like, articles that were written by a great aunt from, actually it wasn’t, it’s my great aunt that wrote the letters, but the characters.
was just discovering them. So there was an element to it, but this was my first, this was my first one that was entirely historical with no modern timeline.
[00:14:21] Jane: And what did you what do you like about historical versus contemporary? And do you have a preference? What was challenging about this?
What did you enjoy about it? So I have a
[00:14:31] Emily: minor in history, and I’ve always been like, really interested in history. It’s it’s something that I will delve into. just out of curiosity. So that’s always been fun. I love going places and trying to learn about who the people are, what their background is, imagining it as real people.
So that’s always just been something that I’ve been into doing.
But so this was really fun in that way. It is definitely more complicated in certain ways than contemporary fiction because you have to try and get it right. And you have to try and. Do all of the research and I can get lost in research because I love research.
I can get lost in it. And there’s some point where I have to be like, okay, we’re going to stop, put that to the side. We have enough. I love that. I refer to myself as we all the time. I have enough. It’s all the voices in my head. I have enough to start writing. We’ll get the details of it. When we go back, when I go back through during editing, and revising and all of that.
So that is probably the biggest drawback for me is that I want to keep, I want to get it all right before I write it. When I needed to let go a little bit and say, I’m going to go back and make sure add these details, put in a placeholder, go back, find the placeholder, put in the specific detail here of what type of car might she drive?
Instead of stopping my writing and going and doing that. So that’s probably my biggest challenge with it.
[00:16:02] Jane: I think that’s a really common challenge among historical fiction writers, like when do you have enough to like actually start writing the book because I think that if you’re like me to like I could still be researching my last book now and there would be no words on the page.
So yeah, I think that’s what deadlines are helpful, at least for me you have to like, put a line in the sand at some point and be like, Okay, I actually have to start writing this or it’s never going to get written. So yeah
[00:16:27] Emily: It’s two waves, two waves of research. I have to do like my establishment wave where I’m like, it can’t be something that would not make sense in that time period at all, or else why write it, so I have to make sure that works. And then after that, going in and doing all the other details. But that is hard. It’s hard to make yourself do that.
[00:16:44] Jane: It is hard. And I feel like, I love like, The little details because I find when I read books, I love the little details so I can go down research rabbit holes on like fashion and food and music that like when I’m writing can take me, all of a sudden two hours go by.
I’m like, that’s great, Jane. You got one sentence down. Sweet. Yeah. I want to talk to you about I have writing questions next that I ask every author and this is a reminder, put your questions for Emily in the chat or in the Q& A and I will field them after these. So these two books, When We Chase the Light and When We Were Enemies are structured very differently.
When We Were Enemies was a dual timeline. This one you use the fa father to, I wanna don’t wanna pronounce his name wrong, father Trae’s postcards at the beginning of each chapter to set the scene for like the era of Vivian’s life. And obviously you structure is an important like choice that you make.
Why did you choose the to do one in dual timeline and one in the way that you did with the postcards as an exposition setting the stage?
[00:17:49] Emily: Yeah. And I tried to also anchor the story at both ends and what actually is the future, but present day with the auction house. And I think the thing I liked about that is it, that’s the, our gaze, that is everybody else looking at somebody through nostalgia or through, a different lens.
And so that takes it. Back out to where we’re starting and then we’re zooming in to what really happened in those times, and those, the end of the book I don’t think it’ll give anything away. I don’t think, but it is. No, it might. But I think what ends up happening is that we get to have a look at the intimate life that she has that literally nobody else will, even the people who hold those cards.
[00:18:43] Jane: And
[00:18:43] Emily: I think that’s Even though we made it up she feels real to me. It’s a gift to be able to have those intimate snapshots of her actual life. Because I, obviously, I’m not famous, I don’t know any famous people, but I do think people are people. And that’s one thing that I love exploring in books, is the humanity of all people.
And I like looking into that. What looks like it could have been just an easy life and saying, Hey, who is this person underneath this? So I think that’s why I chose that is it’s a zooming in and out. It is like a, all right, this is what we see from the outside. This is what’s really going on.
And then you get to have the full picture of it in present day, if you include the beginning and the end. And then when we were enemies is a back and forth. And I think I talked about that where I liked this idea of there’s parallels to with the, the love interests with, the, it being set in Edinburgh, Indiana, though they have parallel questions that they have about life and the grandmother and the granddaughter.
And so I liked that because then it was a back and forth of that. Those parallels, but in different time periods with women who had different options, Vivian didn’t have the same options in life that Elise did. And I thought that was very interesting to
[00:20:08] Jane: very interesting. So when you’re figuring out this structure What is your what’s your writing process like?
Do you outline and figure out the structure first and then dive in? Or are you more I always ask, are you a plotter or are you pantser? Do you plot out the book or you write by the seat of your pants or a little bit of both?
[00:20:23] Emily: I used to be a pantser, but, in order to write a book and sign it with the publisher.
Usually you have to have pages and a synopsis that you turn in and that has helped me a lot.
[00:20:35] Jane: So
[00:20:35] Emily: it turns out I needed to be more of a plotter because, but it, that being said, I still leave it open to my characters to make what changes they need to, but now, I have found if I have two different timelines, I like writing them as two completely different stories and then figuring out where they meet together and where, and then in the editing process, making them connect more rather than going back and forth and writing them.
So that’s a process for that kind of a story. And I think with when we chased the light, it was just each, I started with the postcards. And then one little bullet point at the beginning of each chapter, and then that would help me start off my chapter knowing what was coming next. But it’s the light actually came I was one of my easiest books to write because I already knew Vivian and I knew her story.
[00:21:33] Jane: Yeah, so you had that background research information that you already you know that you normally would take a while to get before you got to the proposal stage. Yeah, that’s very cool. Regarding like the historical fact versus fiction. Are there any like How do you strike a balance there?
Do you have, did you have any strict rules when you were writing these about what rules you adhere to overall in terms of fact first fiction,
[00:21:58] Emily: yeah, I don’t know. I try and keep it as factual as possible, but at the same time I definitely, Like even talk, I even dropped names of like famous people that would have I people who performed in the USO who I knew did certain things and then just was like, and Vivian was there too, so Vivian’s not real.
But I think a lot of her experience. were real and I like that. That feels more comfortable to me, but I don’t know what the balance is. I question this all the time. I would love to hear your thoughts on it too, because I, in movies you go and they just say, or do ridiculous things that nobody in the whole wide world, but I was just talking with my husband about the TV show house.
Do you, did you ever watch that? And how.
[00:22:42] Jane: Years ago. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:22:44] Emily: And how like interns would break into people’s houses and like search for things that would give them clues. I’m like, that doesn’t happen anywhere. And if I put that in a book, I, that would so get cut. So fast. Like it’s, really ridiculous. And so I do think books are held to a higher standard than like television or movies when it comes to fiction.
And I’m okay with that now that I’m getting a little more used to it, but I still mess up. And whenever I do, whenever there’s I’m sure you do. Everybody does gets a little helpful person who’s Hey, here’s this little detail that you didn’t get right. I’m like, Thank you. I can’t change it now.
But, that is human error, exactly.
[00:23:28] Jane: It doesn’t matter how many editors it goes through. Sometimes things get missed, and it’s like, What are you going to do? Because yes, that has certainly happened to me a couple times. And it kills you. But what are you going to do?
[00:23:40] Emily: And usually I’m just like thank you.
[00:23:42] Jane: Yeah. Thanks for the heads up. Yeah. I know we have some aspiring authors in the audience and you have been at this a while, highly successful career. What’s the best advice you can give them about writing and about getting published? Which I know are Two very different things in this industry.
[00:24:01] Emily: The first thing I always say, including my second oldest actually just started college and is going into literature, which shocked me. And so I was like, Oh, okay. You sure? This looks fun. But the first thing was I always say is just right. Like just finish something, so the first book that I wrote was wreckage.
That was my first attempt at writing a novel. So I got pretty, but it took me three years and I had little tiny babies. I had four children. I was nursing a baby through most of it. And I would write one handed. Like it, and my goal at that time was just to finish a manuscript and it took a long time to do it and it was not a good manuscript when I first finished it because I didn’t go to school to, I was a teacher, so like I didn’t know a lot about writing.
I knew a lot about imagination, but I didn’t know and I knew a lot about stories because I loved stories. So I always say just write. So finish something. To completion, and then you can go back and figure out those other bits of it. And then for publishing, it’s just take it one step at a time. Micro goals is how I live my whole life.
You just make one goal for the very next step. And then when you reach that very next step, you celebrate the heck out of it. And you make a goal for your next step.
[00:25:21] Jane: That’s excellent advice. Yes, that’s really good. I wanted to ask we were just talking about social media. I know. And I mentioned at the beginning, you’re in an improv group, and that fascinates me, and I’m so impressed by that, and does your work fuel your does the improv stuff fuel your writing creativity?
Does the, like, how, where’s the overlap there? Those are very writing and improv is very different,
[00:25:45] Emily: I thought it was, too. But it’s not, actually. I’ve realized that improv is writing live on stage. So you’re cre but it’s co creating. So you’re on stage with a partner and you’re co creating a story together.
And it’s the same thing that you’re doing on the page, but like I said, it’s a rough draft on stage. That’s the thing that is scarier for me about improv. Because with writing, you get to just go back, fix it, polish it, but with improv, you just have to be like please have this be somewhat interesting and likable, have me look like a fool only 30 percent of the time.
That’s what they say. I think it was Tina Fey says that improv is only actually good even with the best performers, like 70 percent of the time. And so like it is to be realistic with that, but it has helped me. I will not lie. It’s helped me with dialogue. It’s helped me. I can be, as I think a lot of writers can be, I can be an overly anxious writer where I’m like, Ooh, what am I doing?
Is this and it has helped me let that go and to just put words on a page and to just let it go. So it really has, it’s helped me with confidence in that way. It’s helped me become a better writer and writing has helped me become a better improviser because writing has helped me understand what makes a character work, what makes a scene work, what, where their relation, we say improv isn’t actually about being funny.
It’s about relationships and what is, women’s fiction, historical fiction, but relationships, so I think there’s a lot more overlap than it seems.
[00:27:20] Jane: Yeah. No, that’s so interesting. Oh, and Carolyn Bruce says I’ve seen Emily at improv. She’s a natural. So sweet. But especially with dialogue, I’m like, of course that makes sense.
Cause dialogue is tough and I’m always trying to read it out loud anyway. And yeah, I would think that it would help with that. That’s really cool. Are you ready to share what you’re working on? Now,
[00:27:41] Emily: yes. Okay, everybody lean in. It hasn’t been announced yet. So you guys get to know a little bit ahead of time, but it is official.
But I have another book coming out next year. And this one is it’s a dual timeline and the historical element is during the Vietnam War. So that and I’ll also say that a chunk of it takes place at what is now the Grand Geneva Hotel, but used to be the Playboy Resort in Lake Geneva.
[00:28:12] Jane: Fascinating. Oh, congratulations.
That sounds very cool. I can’t, and when is that slated for, or do you don’t even know yet? A year from now. Okay, excellent. Congratulations. And you said you’re just finishing up on a another deadline, right? That’s this. That’s this one. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Busy. That’s amazing. Congratulations.
And then what is the best way that readers can keep in touch with you? And and do you Zoom with book clubs?
[00:28:37] Emily: I do. I love Zooming with book clubs. It’s one of my favorite things. I love hearing everybody else’s ideas about what happens after the end. That’s one of my favorite questions to always ask.
And then, Just Facebook, Instagram. Okay, I always say if you want somewhat normal author stuff, go to Facebook, Instagram, threads. If you want the weird side of Emily, go to TikTok.
[00:29:00] Jane: Oh, cool. You’re on TikTok too. Impressive. Yeah, I was on for a month and then I’m like, okay, I’m out. It’s a lot harder than it seems.
It is. I’m still trying here and there. But okay, so we have some questions from the audience. Actually one, Joan, just that I just thought of when we were talking about Vivian. Do you have any ideas of who would play Vivian in the movie? In the movie version of when we chase the light. You know what?
[00:29:27] Emily: Everybody always asks me movie people questions and I never have anyone in mind. They’re always so unique. I do have this funny thing that happened to me though. When I was so wreckage was picked up for a pilot for ABC and they wanted me. It didn’t happen, but thank you COVID. But they wanted me to send them pictures, like images of who I imagined like what actors would look like, the different characters.
And so I was at a bouncy place with all of my kids and I’m scrolling through all of these headshots of men. And like some of them are like shirtless dudes and stuff. And then one of my kids came up and was like, Hey mom, come play with me. And I was like, Oh honey, I’m working. And this guy next to me goes, Yeah.
I don’t actually have anybody, but I always like hearing what other people’s thoughts.
[00:30:15] Jane: Oh, and to read Joan Barlow’s comment, loved when we were enemies and can’t wait to read your new book. I think that this would make, they would both make a great movie. Hayes asks, are you a happy ending writer or more of a realist in your approach to endings?
[00:30:29] Emily: I’m a realist. I like a happy unhappy ending, where it’s not necessarily tragic completely, but it’s realistic and something that we can live with, but I don’t know. I just don’t think that endings need Personally, I don’t like happy endings because I always think what happened next, what happened after that happy ending.
So
[00:30:55] Jane: yeah, that makes sense. Sandy Nichols asked did the guy from Indiana tell you why he blocked you on the Facebook group?
[00:31:03] Emily: He didn’t. He didn’t. I didn’t ask. I just let it go. I just was like, he was like, I’m sorry. It was a misunderstanding. And I just said, Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s fine. All right.
There were no pitchforks. I was just relieved about that.
[00:31:17] Jane: Exactly. You got a tour. You did the whole thing. That’s great. I want to talk about, I meant to ask, cause I always ask about covers. It’s a beautiful cover. Did you have a say? Is this what you envisioned from the start? Or were there many versions of the cover?
Talk a little bit. There
[00:31:32] Emily: were two versions of the cover. Both were beautiful. This one I liked in particular because if you look at it her hand is in front of the word here. She’s behind this one here. You can tell she’s moving,
[00:31:45] Jane: yep. Yep.
[00:31:46] Emily: That was really beautifully done. I really liked it.
That so glad I think that really works.
[00:31:51] Jane: And did you was when we chase the light, always the title or did you know? Okay. Do who came up with that? I’m always, cause we were just going through titles for my next one. And I
[00:32:00] Emily: ended up coming up with that one, I think, but the original one was when we dared to dream.
Cause it’s about Vivian and Trombello having dreams, like big dreams of what they wanted in their lives. But. dared to dream is, a self help book. That’s pretty, that’s been pretty popular. Oh, that’s yeah. Yeah. Rene
[00:32:21] Jane: Brown, maybe I
[00:32:22] Emily: think.
[00:32:22] Jane: Yeah. Yeah. And
[00:32:23] Emily: so they’re like, okay what’s something similar.
And so it took a little while it took going through about maybe 50 different ideas to, to really see. settle on this one, but it was, once we hit this one, I was like, yeah, I think that’s it. I think it started when we chased the starlight and then we edited down to when we chased the light.
[00:32:46] Jane: Yeah. Covers and titles are hard and the, yeah, it’s a beautiful combo. I love it. What are you reading right now? Anything interesting? Or do you not have time because you’re writing on deadline?
[00:32:56] Emily: Jackie Walters she, Dearest. It’s a horror book.
[00:33:01] Jane: Oh, I’ve heard of it.
[00:33:02] Emily: Yeah, so she wrote the screenplay for Wreckage, and we became friends.
This was before she Became published. This is her debut novel. And it was really exciting when, and she, after Wreckage didn’t happen, she was like, Send me all of your books. Let’s see if any of these others will work for a show or whatever. And obviously none of them have worked. To this point been picked up, but it did establish this friendship.
And so I’m just cheering for her and I am just about to finish up. I’m on like the last 20 minutes. I’m listening to it. I mostly listen to books nowadays.
[00:33:35] Jane: Yeah, me too. I could go back and forth. I am listening. I am actually not listening. I’m reading. Tosca Lee has a new book out called The Long March Home.
It’s another World War Two novel set in the Pacific It’s pretty cool. Asia Pacific. And it’s, it was written with Marcus Brotherton and she’s coming on in a few weeks. So I just started that one, which is very very good. And then Samantha Woodruff’s coming on with the Trade Off, which I read. I blurbed that book.
So that’s actually, that was I have to reread it though, because I like wanna refresh before she comes on in a couple weeks. Thank you so much for doing this. This is delightful. I want to remind everyone, the book comes out a week from today and pre orders are huge for authors. So consider pre ordering the book to support Emily and her launch.
And yeah, and register for the next couple of happy hours. My husband finally updated the website. They’re all online. So lovely to finally meet you. Like I said, I feel like we’ve crossed paths here and there, but haven’t actually met and maybe we will in person this year. That would be awesome.
Yes. I love it. Fingers crossed. Yeah, exactly. Thank you again. Have a great night and good luck with your launch. I will post this next Tuesday. I’ll post this podcast. So I hope it goes great. All right. Thank you. Take care. Have a great night, everyone.
