This episode features co-host Lisa Schmid discussing her upcoming middle-grade novel "Hart & Souls." The focus is on the challenges of writing a second novel, known as the sophomore slump, and the unique pressures and expectations that come with it.
Key Discussion Points:
1. Introduction to "Hart & Souls" - Lisa introduces her novel about Stix Hart, a sixth-grader dealing with anxiety from past bullying. He meets three ghosts with unresolved issues and helps them move on.
2. The Sophomore Slump - Beth and Lisa discuss the difficulties of writing a second novel and the pressures that come with following up a debut success.
3. Inspiration Behind the Story - Lisa shares a personal story about her son’s middle school experience and how an encounter with a troubled bully inspired "Hart & Souls."
4. Middle-Grade Writing - The importance of making books accessible, fun, and educational without being preachy. Lisa balances serious issues with an engaging narrative.
5. Lessons from the First Novel - Lisa reflects on the lessons learned from her debut, "Olly Oxley and the Ghost," and how they influenced her approach to her second novel.
6. Real-Life Issues in Fiction - Addressing topics like bullying, anxiety, LGBTQ+ issues, parental abuse, and racism in middle-grade fiction. Lisa highlights the importance of reflecting real-life struggles in a relatable way.
7. Writing Process and Craft - The challenges of creating multiple story arcs and weaving them together. Lisa emphasizes the importance of reading across genres to improve writing craft.
8. Advice for Aspiring Authors - Tips for those starting their second novel, including changing the point of view to ensure distinct characters and stories.
This episode provides a deep dive into the creative process behind "Hart & Souls," highlighting the challenges and triumphs of writing a second novel. Lisa Schmid's insights offer valuable lessons for aspiring authors and middle-grade enthusiasts.
Listeners are encouraged to pre-order 'Hart & Souls' and attend Lisa's book launch on July 27th at Ruby's Books in Folsom, where she will be in conversation with Beth McMullen. Additionally, Lisa will be at the ALA conference in San Diego on June 29th and 30th, signing books and participating in a panel discussion.
This episode features co-host Lisa Schmid discussing her upcoming middle-grade novel "Hart & Souls." The focus is on the challenges of writing a second novel, known as the sophomore slump, and the unique pressures and expectations that come with it.
Key Discussion Points:
1. Introduction to "Hart & Souls" - Lisa introduces her novel about Stix Hart, a sixth-grader dealing with anxiety from past bullying. He meets three ghosts with unresolved issues and helps them move on.
2. The Sophomore Slump - Beth and Lisa discuss the difficulties of writing a second novel and the pressures that come with following up a debut success.
3. Inspiration Behind the Story - Lisa shares a personal story about her son’s middle school experience and how an encounter with a troubled bully inspired "Hart & Souls."
4. Middle-Grade Writing - The importance of making books accessible, fun, and educational without being preachy. Lisa balances serious issues with an engaging narrative.
5. Lessons from the First Novel - Lisa reflects on the lessons learned from her debut, "Olly Oxley and the Ghost," and how they influenced her approach to her second novel.
6. Real-Life Issues in Fiction - Addressing topics like bullying, anxiety, LGBTQ+ issues, parental abuse, and racism in middle-grade fiction. Lisa highlights the importance of reflecting real-life struggles in a relatable way.
7. Writing Process and Craft - The challenges of creating multiple story arcs and weaving them together. Lisa emphasizes the importance of reading across genres to improve writing craft.
8. Advice for Aspiring Authors - Tips for those starting their second novel, including changing the point of view to ensure distinct characters and stories.
This episode provides a deep dive into the creative process behind "Hart & Souls," highlighting the challenges and triumphs of writing a second novel. Lisa Schmid's insights offer valuable lessons for aspiring authors and middle-grade enthusiasts.
Listeners are encouraged to pre-order 'Hart & Souls' and attend Lisa's book launch on July 27th at Ruby's Books in Folsom, where she will be in conversation with Beth McMullen. Additionally, Lisa will be at the ALA conference in San Diego on June 29th and 30th, signing books and participating in a panel discussion.
Hi friends, I'm Beth McMullen and I'm Lisa Schmid, and we're the co-hosts of Writers with Wrinkles. Welcome back. This is season three, episode 21. And today we are doing something extra special in that one of us and Tint, not me is in the hot seat, and that is Lisa. She has a new middle grade novel, heart and Souls, coming out in July, which we are super excited about here. Of course, if you want to see this absolutely gorgeous book, we'll post pictures of it on our socials.
Speaker 1:
But also I've been thinking a lot about published authors and what we call the sophomore slump. We know many authors who publish a debut and think, yay, I'm in the club. But in many ways the second novel is harder to write and to publish. I remember being so surprised by this. They say that your first book sells your second. But what happens when you're past that debut glow? The sophomore novel comes with its own set of myths and pressures and intense expectations, yours and others. So whether you smashed it with your first book or simply learned valuable lessons from it, the second book is often seen as a proving ground for writers and for readers. So today we're putting these questions to Lisa, whose second novel is still very fresh in her mind and we're going to get some answers. Are you ready, lisa? I'm ready, okay, so before we jump into like the nitty gritty, I want you to take a minute and tell us all about the forthcoming novel.
Speaker 2:
Thank you. I'm super excited, of course, about this novel. It's Heart and Souls and it's about young boy Sticks Heart, who is starting sixth grade, new middle school student, and he is dealing with some residual anxiety, or this lingering anxiety, over an incident that happened in third grade and it was a bullying incident, and it really it weighs heavily on his mind as he moves into this new school that's much bigger and has a lot more kids to deal with. And so as he enters his first day, he just happens to meet three new kids who all seem different in their own ways, but they turn out to be ghosts and they are stuck in middle school because they have unresolved issues. And these issues need to be resolved by Sticks because he's the only person who can see them to help them move on. And by helping them move on or by helping them resolve their issues, he resolves his own and of course he can he can move on himself.
Speaker 1:
I I, of course, have read this book, so you know I'm I'm speaking from that point of view what I love, one of the many things I love about that. First of all, I love your writing is so accessible to the young people who are going to be reading this book. I know it's hard to read a middle grade book as an adult and not bring your adult baggage to it. But if you put yourself in the position of a 12 year old or a or a 10-year-old reading this book, it's so accessible to them, it's fun, it's funny, it's easy to read. This particular novel has a gorgeous set of illustrations throughout, so it's in that sweet spot not quite a graphic novel, but much more illustrated than a regular old middle grade novel, which I think kids really love. I love that about it.
Speaker 1:
But I also feel like you deal with heavy, difficult, complicated topics in a very deft and smooth way so that you don't, as the reader, realize that you are being educated almost about this type of anxiety and the impact that it can have. When you look at the inciting incident in third grade for Styx, you're like oh yeah, okay, you know bullying happens, blah, blah, blah. But we understand the long kind of tendrils of the effect of that, by traveling through this experience with him and helping the ghost, which I think not all middle grade novels rise to this level. So I think it's. It's exceptional in that way.
Speaker 1:
I also want to ask you a question, and this is really we're doing a little prep for when you go, you know, on tour and to conferences and to all the interviews that will be surrounding this book and its launch in July, you will be asked the following question. So I'm going to ask it first what is the little nugget or seed or moment that you were like, yeah, I got to write this book? What was the spark for Heart and Souls?
Speaker 2:
It was a really interesting. It was an interesting moment. I was actually my son was in sixth grade and he had started, you know, he went from a small elementary school to a big middle school and it was overwhelming and he had his own set of anxiety that came with it. Of course, you know all they all do. You know all sixth graders do, cause you're like you know this is, this is a lot, but it just so happened there was a kid at this, at this middle school that was kind of like tormenting everybody. And then, you know not necessarily my son, but just like you know, you would sit down at like a soccer game and all the moms would be talking about this one kid and the stuff that he was doing was so like textbook bullying, you know smashing ketchup on somebody's head, headbutting him in the cafeteria, just like stuff that you're just like, wow, this guy is just out tormenting everybody and like all the kids were afraid of him, like what's this kid going to do? And I saw him. I knew who he was. You know that somebody had pointed him out to me one day and I was like, oh, there's that. You know, there's that kid. It's like terrorizing the middle school and I saw him at Target. I was there just find something for Ollie for his middle school experience, like a school dance or something.
Speaker 2:
And as I was walking in the door I see this kid and he's pacing back and forth in front of like by the, where the shopping carts are, and he was crying and I could see he still had a school backpack on and that, you know, it was obvious to me what had happened. He hadn't been picked up at school and he had walked to target and so I went in and I kind of listened in on the call to make sure he was okay and he was crying. He was like where are you? I didn't know where else to go. I'm not allowed. You know, you can't stay on school grounds.
Speaker 2:
And he was just scared and I was like, oh my God, you know, there is a backstory that we always, you know, in the moment of hearing about these kids, that we can forget, even though we know that there's something. And I've always told you know, my son, that if somebody is mean to you it has nothing to do with you. There is a struggle going on in their life and they're, you know, projecting it or because whatever is going on at home. And so it was just a really stark reminder of that. And so I was walking through the store, the whole, like the concept came to me, the title came to me right away, at my heart and souls, like I'm going to write a story about, like these three kids that are trapped in middle school, but I'm going to give a backstory.
Speaker 2:
And this kid who, like, sparked this idea, he's going to be one of the main characters. He's a secondary character, but I want to give his backstory. And so then I had to come up with backstories for these two other kids that you know were going to be ghosts. But I, literally, by the time I got to the car, I kind of penciled it out in my phone what I was going to end or begin and end. I knew, and I always know, that I know the beginning and the end and that you know how the rest played beginning and the end and that you know how the rest played out. Was was a different. It's a different beast.
Speaker 1:
That is something to be envied. I think that you, that you know the beginning and the end, most people are like I know what I'm writing toward, but I don't know where to start, or I have my beginning, but I don't know where I'm going. So I think that that must have made it. Actually, I know that you weren't always having fun writing this, but it makes the path a little clearer. Okay, so that's the book. Everybody, go pre-order it please. Right now, we'll even pause for 10 seconds for you to go and order the book. This is the pause. Okay, good, you're done. All right, what lessons did you learn writing Olly Oxley and the Ghost, which is your first middle grade novel that you applied to writing art and souls, because there are always lessons learned in that first book. And you say to yourself along the way okay, next time I'm not going to do this or that, or I'm going to do this other thing. What were those lessons that you learned between one and two?
Speaker 2:
There was some big lessons. When I was writing Polyoxy and the Ghost, my son was in elementary school and he was very young and so I didn't have that like current middle grade kind of experience. I was still in the like kindergarten, first grade adorable, my God, he's so sweet and all the kids are so sweet. I only had my old experiences to deal with, to tap into, which were good. I wrote some of what I could remember, like those feelings and stuff. But I was also really afraid to because I was dealing, dealing with it from the perspective of like kind of through all these eyes. Like you know, he was a little kid, like I was around elementary school kids and so I was. I was afraid to kind of dig deep. You know what I mean. It was like a very lighthearted story, which was fine. You know it was perfect for that book because it's very much a lower middle grade.
Speaker 2:
I remember in the first chapter I wrote something and it's about Olly Oxley's, about a kid who moves all the time and he's just really sick of moving and he's angry and you know he's not happy that. You know he's always like changing up schools and having to make new friends, changing up schools and having to make new friends. And one line I wrote was moving socks. And I sat there like do I want to say the word socks? Like I really toyed with it, like it was some horrible you know swear word that you know, my God, it's so shocking and I left it in.
Speaker 2:
But I was still so uncomfortable with it. When I read that first chapter out loud to kids I always changed the word to stinks, like moving stinks. It was like that's where my brain was at Cause. My brain was like with Ollie in elementary school, and so I was afraid to you know, I just was afraid to go any further than that, and so I so I look back on that and laugh. You know now that I, you know, after being around middle school kids, I'm like, oh my God not to mention the high school kids where you're like.
Speaker 1:
I am scandalized by what you're saying right now.
Speaker 2:
I mean, I I'll never forget the first time I had, you know, all these middle school friends that you know they'd grown, they'd grown up around me, you know, and there was this one kid I don't want to say his name, but he was, they were. He was the really quiet kid and I was. He was in the back of my car and I was driving them to the first little middle school dance and he really spoke. I mean, he was so crying, shy, and then all of a sudden he's on his phone, they're looking at something, and the first word out of his mouth is the F-bomb and he's talking about some game. And I'm like, oh my God, he's wearing my car. So shocking to me. I was just like they had totally forgot that there was a parental unit driving them. They were so like consumed with their little game and I just that literally changed my whole perspective of, like middle school kids. I was like, okay, it's on, things are different, you can tell that between Olly Oxley and Heart and Souls.
Speaker 1:
I think what you said about feeling like you had permission to go deeper into that middle school kid brain you can tell that because Olly Oxley I remember most about it and it's been a few years since I've read it is that it's funny, like you're laughing and it it is very light-hearted, like you said, like anybody can read it and get through and have a good experience, like it's fun, doesn't force you to look at things that are a little bit uncomfortable, perhaps where this one is looking at anxiety, which so many kids suffer from now, especially post pandemic, I think, definitely heightened that in school age kids. So, yeah, you can tell that you've done more work and you have more craft and those things. Let you do things that you couldn't do in Alioxy, which is super fun for the reader but also probably pretty good on the writing side, where you're like oh yeah, I got this. No big deal.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it was. It was fun. I mean I had I had basically four characters to like the backstories to and give like some really complex issues and I went there. I was like, you know, there's I, there's a lot there's, you know, a parent that dies. That, you know, impacts a child there's, you know there's LGBTQ issues there's, you know some parent that was a kind of abusive, there's racism there. You know, I I kind of really was just like taking and these are like everything I talked about I were things I had witnessed myself. Real life. You're reflecting a slice of real life. Yeah, I mean, I remember there was, you know, I used this in one scene.
Speaker 2:
I was at a basketball game one time and there was two parents that they had the bizarre notion that their children were going to end up in the NBA and they were so just like abusive from the sidelines towards their kids. And I remember one time this guy, this dad, went up and grabbed his son by the ear off the kid in the middle of the court and dragged him to the side and was yelling at him about your you know, you'll never make the NBA playing like that. And I was just watching this and the kid was like 11. And I'm like what is happening and so is from a parent's point of view I saw things that were just shocking to my senses and my being. And seeing what kids are dealing with out there is just in in full view, was shocking. And I use that scene in my story because I'm like that is real life crap that these kids deal with. You know these intense situations.
Speaker 2:
And then you know there was racism that I threw in there and I didn't, I didn't want to tell that story, I wasn't, I really didn't know how to touch on that one, but I threw it in there and there was. I went to a parent meeting at middle school and they were talking, you know all the parents in there, their kids were being targeted and being called immigrants and to go home. And you know there was there was like a big time, like after, like after the election, where you know racism was like open. It was so suddenly okay to like, not suddenly, but it was even more prevalent than it ever had been before and I was like all these I was talking to, all these parents and their kids were just being targeted and it was horrible. And so I threw that in there, and so I just I kept hearing real life situations that I was like I'm throwing it into this book and if anybody asked me to take it out, you know it would have been hard now.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, but again I point back to what I said before about the way that you do it is. It's never being hit over the head, as in. I'm talking about an issue and you feel the author preaching to you. Do you know how you read that in some books, where you feel like the author's giving you a lecture? What Lisa does so well, and why you should all buy this book, is because it's woven in in such a natural way that it's just part of the story. It's part of the environment and you see and feel for the children who are experiencing the effects of this. It never feels preachy, which definitely happens in some middle grade books that I can think of a bunch off the top of my head where I feel like, okay, now I feel the author talking to me, rather than the storytelling itself, which you do exceptionally well in this book.
Speaker 1:
So what? This is like my favorite question. So what were the challenges unique to writing a second novel that you did not expect? So you're sitting there writing Ali Oxley and you're like, yay, awesome. And then you get to Heart and Souls and you're like, wait a minute, this is not what I thought was going to happen. What were some of those challenges? Or one?
Speaker 2:
And I just I feel bad for you because you've experienced them all with me along the road. There's not saying that everybody has one book in them, you know, and I you know whether that's true or not, I don't know. You know, I think everybody has a book idea that they want. You know that they have percolating in their brain. I mean, how many times have you has somebody said like, oh, I want to write this book? And you're like, okay, you know, it just is Right. You're like that's nice, yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 2:
There's not many of us that actually sit down and do it, which is, you know, the crazy thing. And I think everybody has like their book of their hearts, like that one, that story that they just want. They feel compelled to sit down and just like put on paper. And you know, if it's something, it's tapping into a life experience, a trauma that we're working through. Like when I was writing, all honestly, I moved around all the time when I was a kid, so that was really easy for me to write a story about that and look through my angst and my anger, and I don't know if it really helped. Certainly, in the moment felt really good writing it, so I kind of tapped into that.
Speaker 2:
You know that feeling and so I kind of knew like this I I built my story around that that you know trauma of my childhood, and so that was that story, and so when you come to the second book, you don't have that book of your heart anymore. It's like suddenly you have to find like a story just out there that you've never even conceptualized. It's not something you've thought about your whole life. It's like, oh my God, I have to like come up with an idea and that's really big. And I remember throwing some crazy teeth at you and I just like nothing was coming to me and I like it took me a while, like I have. So I have so much respect for authors who can just jump from story to story and that's why I don't and I know you get mad at me for saying this, but I don't think of myself as a real author, like I think of myself as somebody who's like just scrapping to like find a story and then that's called imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1:
I know you do splash. You're a real author. I know it's hard for you to digest, but it's true.
Speaker 2:
I know, and it's just one of those things like I don't have that ability to just jump from story to story. You know, just it's not. It's not how I work, it's not how I'm built, and so it took me a long time to find this story. But when it finally did, I was like, okay, I think I've got the story. And then I did the crazy thing of having, you know, four story arcs that I had to find a way to weave together and make, make it all make sense, like I don't know why I went so big and hard the second time.
Speaker 1:
Go big, or go home, isn't that what they say?
Speaker 2:
And it just it almost broke my brain. I'm like, how am I going to make this all work together? And my writing is very there's a lot of serendipity with the things, my process, you know, I'll throw something in and all of a sudden I'm just like, oh yeah, I can use that, you know, and it just kind of works itself out. I write chapter by chapter and it's it's still shocking to me that I was able to make all these characters come together and make sense, and make sense for Styx Hart, who's the main character at the end, and drive them to that final moment, which is where I wanted to end the story. So I think that's the biggest thing is like finding that second story is shockingly hard, you know, because, again, that first story is the story of your heart and then the second story is not the story of your heart.
Speaker 1:
It's the story of your heart and soul. Is what you're trying to say. Yeah, nice, that was pretty good, right, and I'm not good at those wordplay things as you are. I think there's lots of truth in that. There's a pressure on the sophomore effort that you just didn't have when you're writing your first book. Because you're writing your first book free and unencumbered. For the most part, you haven't sold it. It can take five years, nobody cares. Do you know what I mean? You're very free in writing it.
Speaker 1:
And then the second book. Suddenly you have these outside pressures, whether you're working on a deadline, or it was a two book deal and you're trying to fulfill that second book, or it's a sequel and you suddenly didn't realize you were going to be writing a sequel, and now it's all a big mess or whatever it is, these outside pressures on that novel, and it's not something that came from a moment of okay, I think I'm going to write a book and I think this is what it's going to be about, and you've been mulling it for however many years. It's intimidating. It's really intimidating.
Speaker 2:
But it is intimidating and I there was a moment where I was like I don't think I have it in me, but then honestly I was. We were out someplace, I can't remember, and I'm like, but I just want to still keep hanging out with Beth and be like a writer person writing. I won't have like my writer friends. You know I have all these writer friends now and I'm like I still want to be part of the gang. I don't want to get kicked out of the club.
Speaker 2:
I don't want to get kicked out, just write, lisa write that's a good bumper sticker, right Lisa write. I like it and it was hard. It was hard. I remember you halfway through just going, ah, I don't want to do this anymore, and you know. And then you had to give me the pep talk and and then I I dug my way out and got through it, but I think you, you start relying in your second book more on craft as in.
Speaker 1:
I know how to make this happen. I might not feel it in the same visceral way that I did with my first book, but I know how to get from point A to point B, because I've done all this practice and I've done all this writing and now I have an understanding of what needs to be the foundation of this effort. So I think that changes from book one to two, three, four, changes from book one to two, three, four, et cetera. I'm on book 11 and I still am like what am I doing? I don't, you know, I mean, I don't know that that feeling ever goes away after book one.
Speaker 1:
All the rest of them are a little shocking. So we kind of answered this a little bit, but I want to, I want to put the question to you anyway. So did you feel more freedom or more constrained in book two? Some of these reasons we talked about already in that, you know, you feel like I have to keep doing this. I've done it once, but I don't have that story that I am extremely passionate about or whatever. So what did you? How would you answer that as?
Speaker 2:
far as constraints, I just I had zero constraints. I was in that sense of like I'm throwing everything at this book and I'm really. I'm like you, I don't like books that feel preachy and you can, like you said, you can feel it, and so I didn't want to pull that back at all, and so I I just was like I'm putting it all in there and if somebody doesn't like it, and if a reader doesn't like it, or if there's, you know, we have all that book banding going on and all that nonsense, and I was like I just don't care, like I the I don't care hat was on my head the whole time. I was like I am throwing it in there and if anybody's offended, I do not care, because these kids need to hear stories and they need it to be told in a way that is relatable and that's.
Speaker 2:
You know, whenever I'm writing, I'm always just trying to think like, does this sound preachy? Would I be irritated? Like? There's times when I'm reading a book, I'm like I'm irritated by this and I'm like that's. You know, that's my biggest thing, and so I think I just there is a freedom and it's just. You know, if I don't get, if it doesn't get published. It doesn't get published. You know, I just kind of had that attitude of like c'est la vie, let's, let's do this Well it's writing without fear.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you're just. You know going for it and telling the story you want to tell and not worrying about who's going to be upset by this or concerned like this. You know being respectful of the things that we want to pay attention to creating authentic characters who are. You know who makes sense in the world that you're putting them into and all of those things, but not worrying about. You know who makes sense in the world that you're putting them into and all of those things, but not worrying about. You know some parent in some place where book banning is all the rage is going to get upset because you're not writing for that person. Yeah, I don't care, I think that's very.
Speaker 1:
I think that's very healthy and listeners should all be taking notes.
Speaker 2:
Don't care, Write that on your, on your yeah, only only especially if you're writing for kid lit. It's like do you not care about, like, what a grownup thinks Like this is? This is where where our space is, like we're like here to serve these kids, write stories for these kids and hopefully make some like impact that you know affects their life in a positive way, and so that was a. That was a really freeing thing for me, because book one I was all about oh, what can I say, what can I not say? I just didn't know and I didn't have enough experience writing or reading contemporary books.
Speaker 2:
I was all into magic. You know everything is was in. You know it was ghosts and magic. That's everything I love to read. So I didn't, I wasn't really aware, and that's like another reason why I'm always telling people is read, read, read. Because I hadn't read enough across different genres to really fully understand, you know, or have a better grasp on the craft of what I was writing in, and so now I read across, like I read different stories, so that I can really get an understanding of how to write better.
Speaker 1:
This is our message that we're constantly preaching Go read, of course. I stayed up last night till like two o'clock in the morning reading. Don't do that, because today I'm a little bleary eyed and the bags under my eyes are big enough for, like checkable luggage. It's pretty bad. Okay, this is a good question. We usually ask this question of all of our guests in some flavor or another. What advice would you give to someone about to start their second novel, whether it be middle grade or whatever.
Speaker 2:
Change your point of view. Like you've just written a book that is, it's taken you years to write and your brain has been so ensconced in that story. Find a way to change your point of view. Like you have to get out of that voice. You have to get out of that story.
Speaker 2:
And I think for me, when I was writing Heart and Souls, when I first started it, I still had the character and the story of Folly Oxley so ingrained in my brain. It was really hard to like separate the two and change up my voice. And I still like it doesn't matter what I write or what you write. Your voice is always going to be there. But you still have to switch up your character in a way that it doesn't sound like just another version of the character that you just finished writing. And so that, to me, is like my word of caution is like be careful of not carrying that voice over to your second story and finding a way to change your point of view and like fully separate from the story that you've just written. That's been you've been writing for years.
Speaker 1:
That's so, that's such a good way to put it and it's so true. You can be haunted by that voice that you had created and you definitely don't want to just keep writing the same person over and over, because your readers will know, you know they want something fresh and different. Of course, in a series, you get to keep that voice, but if you're not writing a series, be mindful of those things, as Lisa just told you.
Speaker 2:
I just I remember my critic partner, Catherine, when she had read my first couple chapters of Heart and Soul. She's like, this sounds like Olly Oxley. And I was like, no, you're like, so what? What do you mean by that? Like, what do you mean that like? What do you mean? But it was like and she was right, I was using some of the same like little you know his wordplay and stuff, and I just I looked at it and I'm like, oh my gosh, I do sound like Ollie Oxley. I and I needed to step back and kind of find a new like a new personality, a new persona for this, this kid kid, and so that's. You know, that was my big challenge, and so that's what my, my word of warning to everybody is like just make sure there's like that separation and that you can find that new voice for the new character by by still retaining your voice, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:
And I think, knowing that upfront, that it's a possibility, if you're writing in the same genre, that if you're just thinking about that from page one, how is this going to be its own unique character? And I'm not going to default to the one I wrote before that's probably a really good thing to just keep front and center in your mind as you're working through the beginning of your second novel or third or whatever. It is Okay. So before we wrap up, tell us where you're going to be. I know you're at some things over the coming months. Can you just tell us where you're going to?
Speaker 2:
be, so I will be at. Well, of course, I'm having my book launch, and that is July 27th at Ruby's Books and Folsom, and I will be in conversation with oh my gosh Beth McMullen, are you?
Speaker 1:
kidding me? You're going to talk to her? Oh my God. Well, this is our practice, you guys. So you know, hopefully we did well enough that I won't be. I'm saving questions for your, for your book launch. The hard hitting ones are for the book launch.
Speaker 2:
And you know what? I have to just throw this in because it's so amazing. We went to Bitsy Kemper's book launch over the weekend and it was so much fun she throws like an event. Can I just say that she puts every single book launch I've ever been to to shame. I was stunned.
Speaker 1:
I was stunned by the spread right.
Speaker 2:
It's better than any party I've ever thrown, I mean any birthday party I've ever thrown for, you know, my son, yeah, like you know, crayons with her little name on it and like a station for the little kids. And then there was like a station for the big kids with, like meaning us, with mimosas and cupcakes of all these different flavors and varieties, and there was like I mean it was insane. And I was telling her afterwards I'm like, oh, my God, yeah, and it was mother's day.
Speaker 1:
It was mother's day and the location where the bookstore is it's kind of like right in the middle of this little town area and so tons of people were just coming in, people that were out with like their little kids and stuff. Yeah, she nailed that.
Speaker 2:
A million books and a lot of books. Like she asked me, like what are you going to do? And I said, oh, I want to do a little heart and soul, like heart shaped cookies and ghost cookies. And so she texted me later on she's like all right, I'm making them for you. And I just thought, oh, I've seen your home for all of you, isn't she just the sweetest?
Speaker 1:
That is sweet, she's lovely, and she's still like plugged in. You know, if you want to know what's going on, she's the one you ask yeah, okay, so you're having your book launch, you are at a. Are you at a conference? You're at a conference.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and at the end this is like crazy fun. I've always wanted to go to ALA and get invited. So I got invited by my publisher, andrews McNeil, and I'm going to be. It's in San Diego at the end of June, beginning of July, so the 29th and 30th I will be at ALA signing books and doing a panel discussion. So I'm super excited about that because you see the pictures and you're just like, ooh, that looks so much fun.
Speaker 1:
If you guys are going to ALA. Put this on your agenda to show up and say hi to Lisa, and we will remind you of these things. I will also put them in the podcast notes and in the blog so you can add them to your calendar. So, lisa, thank you for joining us here at Writers with Wrinkles. You were a great guest.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, I was prepared. I had notes. I want everybody to know that. Put little notes off to the side. I'm like mess up, mess up.
Speaker 1:
So, yeah, now you know what it's like to be sitting on the other side of that. So, listeners, please remember to check out writerswithwrinklesnet to follow, support and share about the show. You can also find all the information I just talked about where Lisa's going to be, et cetera, there, and we will see you again next week, which will be May 27th, when we're talking to Josh Pruitt, who is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and Emmy Award winner. He is the only human being on Earth to have written for both Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Doctor who, and is currently working on the widely anticipated return of Disney's Phineas and Ferb. I am a huge fan of that show, so I can't wait. There are so many things we're going to ask him, so please join us for that and until then, happy reading, writing and listening. Bye Lisa, Bye Beth, Bye guys.
