In this episode of Where I Left Off - A Bookish Podcast, I sit down with author Allie Samberts to talk about her newest book The Write Choice. We cover all things Leade Park, some sneak peeks on the novel she's writing, Common Grounds, and even dive into the writing and publishing process.
Keep up with Allie:
Books discussed in this episode:
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
In this episode of Where I Left Off - A Bookish Podcast, I sit down with author Allie Samberts to talk about her newest book The Write Choice. We cover all things Leade Park, some sneak peeks on the novel she's writing, Common Grounds, and even dive into the writing and publishing process.
Keep up with Allie:
Books discussed in this episode:
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
Welcome back. I'm Kristen Bahls and you're listening to Where I Left Off - A Bookish Podcast, and today I'm joined by the author of the Leade Park series, Allie Samberts, and we're talking about her latest release, The Write Choice. Thank you so much for being here, Allie. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so I'm dying to know what are you currently reading right now?
Allie Samberts:I am. I'm reading the Bromance Book Club series by Lyssa Kay Adams. I read the first one when I was getting ready to write The Write Choice, because it's a marriage and crisis romance. The first one in the series is and so I just kind of, you know, just wanted to see what else was out there and I loved it so much. And so now I have downloaded all of the audiobooks of the series, because the audiobooks are amazing and they're so funny. It's so funny.
Kristen Bahls:I know I've read the first book in the series and I really liked it. It was so relatable and it's just adorable thinking of all the main characters having a book club with romance books.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, I love it and I love that they're men reading romance. I think that more men should read romance and I love that they're like using them as like manuals for their, for their relationships. I just think it's so funny, it's so cool, what I mean. What a creative idea.
Kristen Bahls:Which you know they really could use them as manuals. I wish that they would. I know that your latest book is about coffee. How has that been going? I know that you were kind of trying to cut down a little bit and did that happen. Or I mean, you're researching coffee and so I'm sure it's a lot of temptation.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, so I'm not in that cut coffee out of my life. That is never going to happen. I tried to do that maybe once in college when I was like on a health kick, and never again. So my next book is about a coffee shop owner and so I am doing a little bit of research into like different kinds of coffee and different ways of making coffee and like some steamy scenes where they're making coffee together and trying it together. And so, yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing a little bit of research into that.
Kristen Bahls:So it takes place like all the way in a coffee shop for the most part. That's the main setting in there, right for the most part.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, I mean, the female main character is a journalist and so there's a little bit of like her office and her friends from from the office and her sister and her best friend are kind of, you know, featured. So but yeah, a lot of it takes place in in a coffee shop. I was just really feeling those vibes when I started writing it. You know, like those cozy, like you know picture that cafe that you would go to. You know that's kind of off the beaten path to like sit and write or edit, or you know listen to a, listen to a podcast, or you know and hang out and enjoy your coffee, so kind of kind of that setting.
Kristen Bahls:Yeah, almost like one of those little like YouTube ambience room kind of things.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, yeah, I've been listening to a little bit of that while I'm writing it too.
Kristen Bahls:So yeah, and I love how your male main character in Common Grounds is going to have, like an immigrant background and so that way we get to learn a little bit more about that. What kind of steered your decision to write it that way?
Allie Samberts:My editor actually. So I was talking with her a little bit about it. My editor and I are very good friends also, so we were just sort of chatting about it and she was like what if he came from this you know immigrant background? And I was like, oh, you know, that's like I had already kind of laid the groundwork for something like that and I was like, well, that's not not there, I can definitely add that in.
Allie Samberts:And so, yeah, I mean, the male main character is very much American, he's second generation, and so a lot of that history has been lost to him a little bit. But he's very nostalgic for it because his father and his grandfather have passed away and his grandfather was the one that opened the coffee shop and so he feels a strong connection with them regardless. And so it's sort of, you know, evokes some themes of like family and history and like how connected we are, not connected. You know, my female main character is not connected with her family at all, and so there's there's a little bit of a like tug of war there for both of them.
Allie Samberts:It's really interesting, you know, some of the research, and that was sort of where the coffee research started coming into, because he is of Croatian descent and so they have a very robust coffee culture there. One of my very good friends from middle school is Croatian and so she was sort of telling me all about it and it's really cool, it's cool stuff. So I'm excited to be able to incorporate that into a book. I think it'll be fun for people to read, but also just kind of interesting and something a little bit different than what I think you see.
Kristen Bahls:I love that. And is it going to come out in like 2025?, Do you think? Or is it going to take a little bit? No, it'll be this summer. Oh wow, oh man. Yeah, that is crazy.
Allie Samberts:I hope so. I haven't finished writing it yet, but yeah, I mean, once the draft is written, it moves pretty fast. So I'm hoping for a summer release for this one.
Kristen Bahls:Once you've read the Leade Park series then you'll have Common Grounds coming up and everyone will be able to tune into that. And if you want some more sneak peeks, make sure you check out Allie's newsletter. She loves to kind of give you some insight into a writing process and I've been really enjoying reading about your research and just everything. Like I love your newsletter. It's so fun to read.
Allie Samberts:Oh, thank you. It's fun to write. I was a blogger for a long time before I started writing fiction, so I kind of use that as a jumping off point for the newsletter. I figure it's kind of more fun than just, you know, random updates here and there. So it's fun. I like doing it.
Kristen Bahls:Yeah, and I love this trend of all the authors kind of coming out with their own newsletters, because I feel like it's basically you know, you can get kind of an insight into them and learn more about their personalities, instead of you know what they want you to know from the character's point of view, yeah, I think that's a huge thing, at least with my newsletter.
Allie Samberts:I like to be able to connect with readers on a personal level too. You know like I like talking about pretty much anything books, coffee, and so, yeah, I really do. I like that part of it that it's like another connection point where, yeah, I'm a writer and I hope people really like my books and read them, but I want to like talk to people too.
Kristen Bahls:Well, your newest book came out recently. It's The Write Choice. So this is number three in the Leade Park series. We had The Write Place, and then The Write Time and then now The Write Choice. So can you kind of tell us a little bit about The Write Choice?
Allie Samberts:Sure. So The Write Choice is about Katie and Brandon and they are married already at the start of the book, which was a little hard to write a slow burn romance where they were kind of apart for a little bit of this. But it's a marriage and crisis romance and they kind of had a whirlwind relationship when they started, when they met and she got pregnant on accident and they ended up getting married and things were really great for a long time. But the book starts when their son is seven years old, so about eight years into their relationship. If you factor in the whole pregnancy too and just things have started getting a little difficult for them.
Allie Samberts:She's an artist and she's kind of lost the time to do the art, because when you have kids and you pull out art supplies, it's just arts and crafts time for the kids. It's not really you doing anything for yourself and by the time the kids go to bed you are tired. So she's kind of lost that a little bit. She's trying to figure that out and find that again. And Brandon is kind of a workaholic. He's at the office a lot, he's an architect and she is feeling a little lonely and wants him home more often. So they're sort of struggling through some of that, and that's kind of where it takes off from.
Kristen Bahls:So whenever you were trying to decide that you're gonna tell Katie and Brandon's story, why did you kind of go with a little bit of a departure from A teaching romances and then B having them start already married? Like what kind of influence that decision?
Allie Samberts:I guess I just wanted to try it and see if I could do it. Like I said, it's a little, it was a little, it was a really hard thing to do to start with them already married and also know that I didn't want them to split up at all, I didn't want them to. You know she talks about leaving him a little bit, but she doesn't mean it. You know I think she's just trying to scare him a little and it works. But you know, and not in like a mean way. She's just like listen, I want to stay in New York and he wants to move them to the Midwest. And so she's like you have two months or I'm coming back. But she realizes pretty quickly that she's not, she's all talk.
Allie Samberts:But yeah, I just I have been married for 13 years and I just think that there is an underrepresentation of married romance out there that after they happily, ever after that there's still work to do. You know that you can still fall in love with your spouse and you and your spouse sort of become different people as you grow older and hopefully you grow together and hopefully you can kind of figure that out. But sometimes you can't and there comes a point, I think in every marriage, at least one, maybe more than one point in every marriage where you have to take a hard look at your relationship and say, like, do I want to keep doing this? And it's a choice, hence the title. But it's a. It is a choice that you have to keep making and I have experienced that and I just wanted to. I wanted to write about that.
Allie Samberts:But yeah, it was a departure from teaching. My first two books were about teachers and I just, I don't know. I am a teacher and I like writing about teachers. I thought that was really fun, but I was kind of kind of over it. You know, it was time for something new. I wanted to try something new to expand my, my horizons a little bit.
Kristen Bahls:Well, I've heard a lot of feedback from really all your readers and I agree that they appreciate feeling just seen, getting to read a romance where they're already married and you get to learn a little bit after. Basically you know they're happily ever after. What kind of feedback have you gotten so far?
Allie Samberts:Pretty much that. I mean my readers for The Write Choice were amazing. They I had so many messages, so many more messages than I've ever had, and I it was mostly women who felt seen by Katie. They really were like, oh, I'm a mom and I stay at home with my kids and I you know, you wrote it so well and you really understood exactly what they were, you know what she was going through and and they just they said that she was realistic.
Allie Samberts:They said that she was frustrating, which I think is true. She is a frustrating character because she's kind of grumpy, she's a little, she complains a little bit. But I think they related to that too. You know, and I think that's the important part is that she wasn't so grumpy as to be like off putting, but it is. It is frustrating to watch two people who are clearly in love with each other not be able to connect sometimes. But it's also, it's also real life and so, yeah, that's what I've been hearing a lot of, that it's relatable and it's real life like that. They just feel like Katie represented something in them. I agree.
Kristen Bahls:And I will say that even as someone who doesn't have kids, who isn't married, I did not have any trouble falling in love with Katie and Brandon. Going into it, I was a little bit nervous. I was like, okay, I really really like Daniel Mack and Jenny and Ben. Am I gonna like Katie and Brandon as much? But no, I liked them as much, if not more, and I felt like I could still relate to a lot of things as well. And there's one scene in particular that really sticks out to me, where Christine flips over her cereal bowl and then Brandon's walking by and he's standing right by her and he doesn't even like grab a paper towel, he just walks over to his coffee and Katie's like, um hello, are you kind of clean that up? I just love that. It's so realistic.
Allie Samberts:He just doesn't even see it, because she just jumps in and does it, you know, and she's like hey, if you want to participate in this family life, you're welcome to do this stuff too, you know, and I think, yeah, that is I don't. I don't know that a lot of guys are like that, but I think it is kind of realistic where, when somebody is the primary caregiver and they are so used to that role, I guess.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly and and you just sort of fall into into your roles and you kind of fit into your little box and your relationship and but that was part of why they were having trouble. Right, the boxes weren't the right boxes anymore. They needed to take a look at that. So but I think it's funny that you say you were nervous about it, because I did get that feedback too, where people are like, well, I'm not married and I don't have kids, like, well, I still like it. And I was like I mean, it's a romance. If you like romance, I hope you like it.
Allie Samberts:But it's so funny because people say that they are worried about not being able to relate to Katie because she's a mom and they're not a mom. But like, I never hear anybody say like, oh, she's a you know, an engineer and I'm not an engineer, so I can't relate to it, you know. So to me it's like being a mom is it's a gratifying job, but it's a job and it's kind of. You know, I never, I don't ever hear people say, oh, I can't relate to Mac because she's a teacher. You know, it's the same thing. Yeah, and I just so. Yeah, I just think that that's interesting. When people are like, oh, I don't know if I can relate because I don't have kids like, well, you can relate to other things about her, I'm sure you know, like losing your passion for something or your life kind of changing and your roles kind of changing.
Kristen Bahls:I agree, that's a good point, yeah, and I mean it's just, it's nice to be able to see their relationship. Like you said, it is really a slow burn which man I mean. But that is hard to do. And then I like how you included a lot of the Leade Park characters. So you're still going to see a lot of Daniel. You're still going to see a lot of Mac. There's Jenny and Ben thrown in there too, and of course Ben's nephews, as they all play together. So it's not like really with any of your books, it's not like when they end they're just done. You always bring back the characters, which I really appreciate, because then they get to interact a little bit more.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, I, I really struggled with that with my second book because I wanted to be with Mac and Daniel from the first book more.
Allie Samberts:So I was like it's not your book, like you need to back off, but but yeah, I like, I like being able to incorporate that, I like the idea that they're all friends. I think also, you know, I wasn't sure if I was going to end the series after The Write Choice, but I decided to really wrap everything up with this one because I like I would love to revisit them, these characters, more, because they're they do have more to say, I think. But this idea that they've kind of found their, their family together and that they've kind of chosen each other, like like Katie and Brandon have chosen each other, but the six of them have kind of chosen each other too and they've expanded their group a little bit, and I just it was giving me warm fuzzies and I felt like that was, that was probably where, where it ends. But you will see Mac and Daniel again. Oh good, they make a little cameo in the new book.
Allie Samberts:So just a little bit. You know they walk into the coffee shop. It's kind of fun.
Kristen Bahls:I'm excited. I think Mac and Daniel are definitely probably my favorites, but I do really like them all equally. There's just something about them.
Allie Samberts:I like Mac and Daniel. I mean, obviously I like them all because I wrote them. But yeah, I love Mac and Daniel. They're so funny together, they're so random and Mac is so sweet and Daniel's so broody, and I love a good broody man.
Kristen Bahls:Well, I was also going to say that in The Write Choice. I like how Katie even with Mac and Jenny, it took her a second to kind of warm up with them and she talked about feeling like she was kind of on the outside looking in, and so it's not just the relationship between her and Brandon, but it's kind of trying to find your friend group and, like you said, they found each other and they're this found family and it wasn't necessarily like they all completely clicked right away.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, and that was, I think, a big thing about Katie that I wanted to drive home was that she needed people outside of her life that were not Brandon, right, and I think that that's a huge thing. In marriage we often say and we hear it all the time Like, oh, I married my best friend and that's great. I think that that's wonderful, my husband is one of my best friends, right, but I have other friends and I have to have that because it can't be all him all the time and I think, because I think that's kind of a dangerous thing to get into when you don't have anybody else besides your partner, it can, I think it can just get hard, because then what happens if you don't have them? And God forbid, something happens. But if you do grow apart, or if something does happen, like where do you go, what do you do you should have a community of people around you. And that was a big thing I wanted to express about Katie was that she really needed that.
Allie Samberts:And yeah, she's a little prickly, she's a little off point. I mean, she's born and raised New Yorker, she didn't grow up with a ton of money and Brandon did, and so she's kind of always a little cynical, and so when Mac and Jenny are just really warm and welcoming Midwesterners and teachers, teachers are just like, oh, come on, let's hang out, I just love everybody. And they just are like that, and she's like are you though? And they're like, no, we really are. So they have to kind of prove that to her too, and that's OK, she just took a little bit to warm up, but it makes it sweeter, I think, in the end, when they all are really good friends and they're all you know, brandon and Katie are kind of back in their groove and it makes it more satisfying.
Kristen Bahls:I agree, and then just being able to have all those personalities come together so that way it's not like you know, everyone's the same. You kind of have the ebbs and flows from everyone and they're a little date night jar and all these different dates in there. I mean, if Katie wasn't there to spice it up, then they would just be doing cooking classes forever, right.
Allie Samberts:Well, because they do all that stuff to mess with each other. And so when they encourage Katie to mess with Brandon, she's like, at first she's kind of like I don't know, it seems like kind of a lot. And then Brandon stays late at work a couple more times and she's like you know what? Yes, let's go in for it, let's add something in there. Yeah, I'm going for it exactly.
Kristen Bahls:So talking a little bit about some of your previous novels, if you haven't read any of your books before and you're just kind of going into The Write Place, would you recommend with reading them in sequential publishing order, or do you think that everyone should kind of skip around a little bit?
Allie Samberts:So I get asked this a lot and I don't know. There's only three of them, so it's hard to say what the entry point is. I think if you really want a satisfying ending to the right choice, it's important, I think, to read them in order, because you start with Mac and Daniel and that's a pretty standard love story where they meet and they're kind of forced together and they fall in love and whatever. And then you kind of get a little bit more about them in the right time with Jenny and Ben, because you get to see a lot of it because it's dual timeline and you get to see a lot of the past leading up to even Mac and Daniel being together, and so you kind of learn a little bit more even about them through that. And then you meet Katie and Brandon. Oh, you meet them a little bit.
Allie Samberts:There's a bonus chapter in The Write Place. They're in there just slightly a little bit, but they're way more a part of the ending of the right time. So I think, yeah, they do build on each other. It's OK to read them out of order. I had a lot of readers that just jumped in with the right choice because they love Marriage and Crisis and they just wanted to read that one and I haven't heard anybody say that they felt like they were missing out on any of the characters. But I do think that it builds that found family and that it's sort of the choices that they're making. They do kind of build from novel to novel, so I would suggest reading them in order, because I hope that you read all of them eventually, but I think you could read any of them at any time.
Kristen Bahls:Yeah, that's true, I agree. And then even with the right time, I think if you were going to start with the right time, it would be kind of confusing for you to understand the whole dynamic with Max's sister, because you get a lot more than you do in the right place, because in the right place, of course, she's already passed away and so you're kind of just seeing the aftermath. But, like you said, you're going way, way back in the right time and so you get to hear a little bit more from Max's sister and know her other than the fact that she just passed away. Like you get to know her on kind of a more personal level. So it does hit a little bit more. It kind of gives you some I don't know, I guess context for what kind of time Max was going through before she met Daniel and kind of almost how soon after it seems like Daniel kind of came along and brought her out of that.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, that's really true, I think I mean of course you can read it without knowing that context, but that's true, that's true. Yeah, I mean the minute I realized I had to write Ellie, max's sister, in the right time, I was like I bawled, I was like, oh no, I don't want her to die, but she had to because she had already passed away in the right place. But yeah, but I think also that context for Jenny too, that they were all friends and Jenny always felt like she had to be a support for Max and not really I don't know that Jenny ever dealt with her own grief about it, anything that was part of what was holding her back from being with Ben, because she just never really dealt with it, because she was so concerned about how Max was dealing with it, which is a great friend, right, but sometimes you got to take care of yourself too, which is a theme of that book.
Allie Samberts:So, yeah, I guess, yeah, I would suggest reading them in order, I think, because you're right, they build on each other a lot.
Kristen Bahls:But you really can't go wrong either way, like you said. But yeah, they definitely do, so you'll just get a better experience.
Allie Samberts:Yeah, yeah, and they're not. I mean, they're not the typical. It is a series, right, it's not the typical. Like, oh, a sidecar, I'm gonna you know as little pull, as a little side character, and like the bromance book club. They're all in there, but they're clearly side characters. These six, the six of them, are all very much intertwined from the beginning. So I think I think you're right, it does function a little bit more like a series, like a true series.
Kristen Bahls:But I love it either way and I just love how interconnected they are. I think it just makes it richer. Thank you, thanks, yeah, but I was gonna ask I'm dying to know about Max Green and Gold shoes. How did you come up with them? They're just iconic, okay thank you.
Allie Samberts:Not very many people ask me about the shoes and I love the shoes. The shoes are right here. Yeah, so I'm a teacher and the school spirit stuff is like that's real right Like that's a job hazard.
Allie Samberts:I can't even tell you how many spirit shirts I have. I don't even know. I don't even I couldn't even count them. But a lot of the teachers at my school were blue and gold. So they wear blue and gold shoes and I just I love it, I think it's great, like of course, why not, why wouldn't you? I mean like, why wouldn't you? And so I, mac is just, she's just a teacher to the core right, like that is her vocation, it is her passion, it's her calling. She loves it so much. And Jenny and Ben are teachers too and they love their school too, but they have like lives outside of school.
Allie Samberts:But I think for Mac you know her sister also worked at the school and it was a place of healing for her after her sister died, that she was able to come back to that place and kind of lose herself in the job a little bit and like work through some of that grief and that anxiety after her sister passed at the school. And so she has a very loyal, she's very loyal to the school and you know she, her boss, is very helpful to her as she's dealing with like her grief. And I think when you have people like that, and I have people like that at my school, then I'm indebted to them because they've helped me through a lot too right. So, like when you have that kind of connection to the people that you work with, whether it's at a school or a job or you know, I need any job I think you just become really loyal to those people into that place, and so she is not only a teacher, teacher, teacher right, Like that's what she does, that's her thing.
Allie Samberts:But she also just feels a lot of loyalty to lead Park High School and so she's. She's got those green and gold shoes and they're a little I mean, they're quirky, you know, they're just kind of nerdy and Daniel makes fun of her and Jenny. Jenny like at some point had tried to throw them away and she fished them out of the garbage or she got them out of the clearing clearance rack. Mac got them on the clearance rack and Jenny was like, well, they're there for a reason. But you know, when you see that, when you're a teacher and you see your school collars, you like can't pass it up.
Allie Samberts:You know, you're like oh yeah, that's my, that's my spirit, and so I don't.
Kristen Bahls:I do not have spirit shoes, oh maybe this is your sign to get some.
Allie Samberts:I know, I know I do have blue shoes. They're just like normal blue, like running shoes, and I do wear those on Fridays, on Spirit days. But yeah, maybe I should get some yellow leases or something for them.
Kristen Bahls:That'll be perfect. I'm sure you get comments on it from the kids for sure. Yeah.
Allie Samberts:Well, there are. I mean, I mean I teach high school and there's a lot of kids that are really into like art and stuff and they will take they've taken teacher shoes and like drawn the mascot and like written out the you know all that on there and like the teachers wear them because it's so cool, you know. So yeah, that's kind of. That's kind of where it comes from. There's just something about shoes. I don't know. I feel like you're like really spirited if you have the spirit shoes.
Kristen Bahls:Oh, that's amazing. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah we, whenever I taught, we were the pirates, and literally in between classes the bell was a pirate dinghy, and so it stop it. And anyone that walked into the school. They were like what? Like what is going on? And it even had like kind of sea ambience. It was. That's amazing. Yeah, it was intense. You, you went to know what you were getting in for.
Allie Samberts:Like what does a pirate ship sound like? What is that?
Kristen Bahls:Oh gosh, it was kind of like it had like the creek of a ship going in and then, and then you would just hear this kind of like toll bell, like almost like Pirates of the Caribbean a little Caribbean, a little bit. And then, and then it had like some kind of sea ambience behind it and it would go for probably like I don't know, 20, 30 seconds and it would just go on a loop, yeah, and all the kids are used to it, so they don't bad nye. But then every time, like I said, there's a visitor, they would just be like what is this? Yeah.
Allie Samberts:Right, that's the thing I think about working in a school is like so much of it. You just don't. You're like, oh yeah, that's normal. And people like, when you see it from an outsider's perspective, you're like, mm-mm, okay, yeah, I guess that is a little weird. And I think that was the fun part about writing Daniel coming in going like what, what is this? Yeah, you know, and Mack kind of having to take a hard look at how invested she was.
Kristen Bahls:Maybe time to step back, exactly.
Kristen Bahls:And I mean it's like it's possible to step back, especially for Mack, when it becomes your whole life. It's just yeah, it's a process. So you need someone like Daniel to kind of help slowly pull you out of it because, like you said, it does become your entire identity. You know, if you're as into it as Mack is, and especially with her sister trying to use that kind of as a grief mechanism, yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah. So, whatever you started writing the right place, did you know immediately that you were going to take Jenny and pull her over to the right time? Is that like kind of why you made her single and then added that in with Ben just a little bit? Or did that take a second to realize that?
Allie Samberts:So I, before I, before I published it, I knew that I was going to do this, but as I was writing it, no, I was. This is, it has always been a dream of mine to write a book and I really just wanted to write this one. And it just popped in my head one day and I know that sounds like really cliche, but it really did and it just like flowed. And so I Jenny was always obviously a character in there, but as I was writing it, I was like I really like her, she's really funny, she's really good.
Allie Samberts:You know, ben was kind of added a little bit later, like in the editing process, because I was sort of thinking like, well, I could do a series, but I had sort of planned on releasing the right place and just sort of seeing how it went, because I didn't know, I don't know.
Allie Samberts:You know, I at the time I didn't know anything about publishing or writing or you know any of that. I didn't know if I was going to query it with an agent or self publish or or what, and I I just knew I had to write it, you know. And so, as I was editing, I was like, well, you know, I did, I did one like I could do another one, and Katie and Brandon showed up in that bonus chapter at the end. Because, because I was like, well, if I'm going to do Jenny, I want to do one of Daniel's friends, and I knew then at that point that I wanted to do a married romance. So, yeah, I did. I kind of knew by the time I published it, like by the you know, in the editing process, but as I was writing it, no, this was, it was not the plan.
Kristen Bahls:And I'm pretty sure that in the right place wasn't there like a phone call between Daniel and Brandon where you kind of get to get introduced to Katie and Brandon for like a split second too?
Allie Samberts:Yeah, we're Mac, mac's just like steering, and she's like you have friends, and he's like, uh, yeah, we don't talk about them. I love that scene Because it's so classically mag, like she's so awkward, she's like you know of all, and she says it to herself to like, of all the things you could have said, that's what you said, okay, cool. So, yeah, that was added in later because I, because I knew before I published the right place, I knew I was writing the right time and the right choice, so I did.
Kristen Bahls:I did add that in at the end and speaking of publishing, you really include like a lot of tips for, you know, budding writers on your Instagram and a little bit in your newsletter. What, what kind of, made you decide which route you were going to go on publishing, whether you were going to try an agent, traditional self, like how. How did you kind of come up with that Decision?
Allie Samberts:I'm really impatient and I, when I decided to publish, I had already kind of been poking around Instagram a little bit and I had sort of seen a lot of, you know, successful self published authors and I was like, oh, I could do that. I am kind of older coming into this. I'm 39. And that's not, it's not old, Okay, but but you know, I see a lot of my author friends are in their 20s still and I think not like I don't have any time, because I have plenty of time left, hopefully, but I just, I don't know, I wasn't willing to wait for the querying process. I mean, that can take years.
Allie Samberts:I just really wanted to hold it in my hands and I knew it was good. Right, Like I knew, you know, I teach English, I've studied literature, I have a bachelor's and a master's in English literature and so like I've done the dirty work as far as like studying story structure and characterization and pros, you know different types of writing and that kind of stuff, and you know, and I have a minor in creative writing, so like I knew that I had a good story and I just wanted it in the world, I wanted to share that and so the self publishing route seemed faster, which it is. It is faster. I knew it was going to be more work than traditionally publishing as far as like the marketing and like picking your cover and like because all of that falls on you as an indie author. But I also kind of like that. So I'm both impatient and I'm a control freak. And so self publishing really was like. I was like oh, this is my wheelhouse, Like I can have control over everything and do it really fast, and so it felt like a really good fit.
Allie Samberts:I do have an agent now but she's dealing with like secondary submissions, so like translations and audio and like that kind of stuff. But but at the time I was like well, let's just, you know, because because that's the thing about being an author you can indie publish something, you can query something else to be traditionally published. Like you can kind of do a hybrid. Some indie authors are really wildly successful and get picked up by traditional publishers. So I just I knew that it was pretty low stakes whichever decision I made, because I could always go back and make a different decision, but this felt right for me because of who I am and my goals, and so that's kind of where I was and, like you know, no shade at traditionally published authors. I think that's great. I would love to explore that someday, but for right now, I kind of like.
Kristen Bahls:I kind of like this that's, that's fun you know, I do too, and you get to really interact with your readers a little bit more and, like you said, since you're in charge of the marketing and the cover, you know that whatever you're producing is just 100% you and not influenced by anyone else. But for someone who wanted to kind of go on the self publishing route, is there like a specific resource that you would suggest that they start with?
Allie Samberts:Honestly, the most that I've learned is just from talking to other authors, and I know that, especially when you are an author, it I think I think authors tend to be a little bit more introverted because we, you know, we like our books and we like our cozy spaces and we, like you know, sitting with our headphones and typing and like nobody bother us and stuff. And I'm not I'm I'm that way too, but I'm a teacher, so I'm like talking to people, I want to learn stuff, and so I just cold called some authors I just started reaching out on Instagram was like what can you tell me? What do I need to know? What do I need to do? And I think that was probably probably the best resource.
Allie Samberts:You know, I tried to read some self publishing books, but a lot of them I mean the market changes so quickly. Self publishing now looks completely different than it did in, you know, 2017 or you know like five or 10 years ago. So you know, keeping up with all of that is is kind of hard, and I think so that's why I think like people who are currently doing it are probably the best resource.
Kristen Bahls:That makes sense. So what is the hardest thing about trying to write a romance novel?
Allie Samberts:Romance specifically or just in writing in general? Either one, Because writing in general it's like my kids yelling at me. But maybe that's romance too, because if I am writing a steamy scene like I can't, I can't, like my kids can't be screaming at me, it's not. That does not set the mood for that.
Allie Samberts:You know which sounds really ridiculous and obvious to say, but it's like it happens right, where my kids are just like mom, mom, mom, mom, and I'm like, oh my God, my characters are kissing, like leave me alone. So maybe that is the hardest part, is just like the act of like writing it. But I think every character or every couple is different, right, the hardest part for Katie and Brandon was that they were married and I really still wanted it to be a slow burn because I just I live for the slow burn. That's just that's what I read, that's what I write, I just love it. And so they were married and like trying to find ways to keep them from being together was kind of hard because they're married and they're with each other all the time. So that was hard.
Allie Samberts:With Jenny and Ben, I think it was sort of the same thing. It was just sort of answering the question of they've known each other for 10 years. Why have they not hooked up at least? You know what kept them from each other? Why did he act the way he did in the right place? You know, like answering all of those questions for Mac and Daniel.
Allie Samberts:I think it was just they were like me in a lot of ways, you know, mac is a teacher and she loves books and Daniel is kind of this broody writer, and so they both kind of had a piece of me, but they were really unlike me in a lot of ways. They made a lot of choices that I wouldn't make. Mac is kind of meek and mild in some ways and I'm like I'm more Jenny. I'm like just going to tell you what I think you know. So I had to kind of work with their characters to make them authentic to themselves and not just sort of do what I would do, which was, I think and that's, I think, true for all my characters, right, for any characters that you have to let them be who they are and have to figure out who they are and what they would do, and then you have to let them do it as opposed to be like, like, but I could just make you figure it out, you know, because that's not real life, that's not how people function.
Kristen Bahls:Yeah, exactly, and everyone has, like you said, different personalities and they're going to come into any situation or even any communication different, and the outcome is going to be vastly different than what you would do. So I could see how that would be easy or hard to just want to write. You know how you're going to handle a situation by having to kind of put yourself in the characters space, for sure. Yeah, yeah, thank you so much for joining me, thanks for having me, and that's it today. Thanks for listening to where I left off a bookish podcast, and you can sign up for Ali's newsletter and purchase her novels through the link in the show notes or, of course, you can find them on Kindle Limited.