KRISTIN DWYER: grief, joy, and the overlap between readers and K-Pop fans

Listen to find out what's in the locket and some unreleased information about upcoming books!
Kristin Dwyer is the author of two YA novels and an avid K-Pop fan, so clearly, we're meant to be best friends.
Is this conversation kinda all over the place? Yes. Is it fun as all get out? Also yes.

FOLLOW KRISTIN

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Some Mistakes Were Made
The Atlas of Us

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Some Mistakes Were Made
The Atlas of Us

BUY THE BOOK (LibroFM):
Some Mistakes Were Made
The Atlas of Us

Transcript

00;00;01;05 - 00;00;02;02
Speaker 1
Have those been announced?

00;00;02;02 - 00;00;03;04
Speaker 2
No, they have not. No.

00;00;03;07 - 00;00;05;03
Speaker 1
Yeah. Can you say anything about.

00;00;05;13 - 00;00;07;12
Speaker 2
Whatever you want? I actually don't know if I'm allowed.

00;00;07;12 - 00;00;10;08
Speaker 1
To, but ask for forgiveness later. Yeah, exactly.

00;00;14;26 - 00;00;44;25
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to the Literary Hype podcast. I'm Stephanie, the literary hype woman. Today's author conversation is one that is just so full of joy and excitement on its own, but paired with what's going on today and this week, it makes it all the more sweet. I recorded this conversation back in March, but I saved it for today and for this week for a purpose because this author and I are both huge beats fans, and this week is very important to beats.

00;00;45;02 - 00;01;13;14
Speaker 1
I'm posting this interview the week of June 30th, and that is because June 13th marks beats the 11th anniversary and making this even more meaningful. The day I am posting it is the day that Jim, the oldest member of Beats, returns home from the military. There's no better way to celebrate Jim's return or Independence Day, as I've seen some armies call it, than to have a conversation about K-pop and books with an author who will on a normal day.

00;01;13;17 - 00;01;32;24
Speaker 1
Gin is her favorite. I'm talking about Kristen Dwyer. She's the author of Atlas of US is her most recent book and we might get some tea on some new books on the way as well. So here's my conversation with Kristen Dwyer. Welcome to Emerald City Comic-Con. And this is so much fun to have you here as a panelist.

00;01;32;25 - 00;01;36;12
Speaker 1
Oh, my gosh. And to get to talk to you about your latest book, The Atlas of US.

00;01;36;16 - 00;01;38;24
Speaker 2
You, I'm honored to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

00;01;39;03 - 00;01;47;21
Speaker 1
Although I'm going to pick this bone in our books about this panel. None of you warned me that you and Nas and Anna O had dad books, and I read them all in a row.

00;01;47;24 - 00;01;53;24
Speaker 2
Oh, Lord. You know what? I'm really sorry about that. And I keep telling people, don't read my book. Like, just don't read it.

00;01;54;25 - 00;02;03;09
Speaker 1
I wouldn't go that far. Come on, go read it. A great book. It's just very emotional. So for anyone who hasn't seen this on social media yet, tell us what it's about.

00;02;03;09 - 00;02;25;29
Speaker 2
The loss of us is about a girl who she her dad dies, obviously, and she's kind of in a rough spot and she's labeled as like a bad kid. And so she decides to finish this list that her dad left her. One of the things on the list is like this trail. And so she ends up on this hiking trail with like four other kids who are all kind of in a bad way as well.

00;02;25;29 - 00;02;33;13
Speaker 2
And it's really about healing and falling in love and trusting people so a lot of found family. I love a found family trope, you know, but that kind of thing.

00;02;33;20 - 00;02;44;26
Speaker 1
There's a lot of your personal story in this, according to your acknowledgments. Yeah. Yeah. What made you decide to draw upon your own experience in this kind of really emotional way and put it on a page for everyone else?

00;02;44;27 - 00;03;02;13
Speaker 2
Yeah. I love trauma. I like I don't know. I like it. This is a really hard book for me to write. You write your first book and you're like, Oh, my God. I'm like, excellent at this. I'm so good. Everyone else is, you know, doesn't even know how excellent a writer I am. Just give me all the words now and then you can write your second book and you're like, I don't know.

00;03;02;13 - 00;03;21;13
Speaker 2
Weird time meeting you, me, weird time you so bad. It's so bad with this book. I was just like, what do I feel like? I can put on a page and be proud of and connect with? And this this story about this girl who lost her dad was what what really resonated with me. And I just felt like the story kind of flew from there.

00;03;21;13 - 00;03;25;20
Speaker 2
And I was like, Dad, this is a love story. And I just kept going back to her, like, anger and her grief.

00;03;25;21 - 00;03;32;14
Speaker 1
Why is it important to you to show grief in a variety of different forms for teenagers, readers?

00;03;32;24 - 00;03;50;17
Speaker 2
I think for me, when I lost my dad, I was waiting for the end of my grief. And I was waiting for this place where you come to the end of grief and you're like, it's over. You know, and that never I'm. My dad's been gone almost 20 years, and I'm still really pissed about it. Like, you know, sometimes I will be like, why aren't you here?

00;03;50;17 - 00;04;13;21
Speaker 2
You know? And so for me, I really wanted to write a book where there was no end of grief. Right There was just this idea that you now are this new person that lives inside of this pain, you know, and this loss of a person. And and I also really connected with Atlas, because when you lose somebody, it's really hard to trust people and to let people into your pain.

00;04;13;29 - 00;04;22;04
Speaker 2
And that was really important for me to put on the page. Like what does it look like when you're you know, when you have to trust people and you have to, like, let people love you? And. Yeah.

00;04;22;16 - 00;04;31;07
Speaker 1
So your characters in this story go by nicknames while they're on this hiking trail. How much fun was it to create and pick these nicknames for these people along?

00;04;31;08 - 00;04;36;23
Speaker 2
So much harder than you would think. So much harder because some of them were like thinly veiled references to K-pop.

00;04;37;03 - 00;04;38;27
Speaker 1
And that was going to be my next question.

00;04;39;14 - 00;04;47;23
Speaker 2
And I was like, I was like, they all can't have K-pop nicknames. And so, like, I like only there's only two in there now because I had to, like, cut it, cut.

00;04;47;23 - 00;04;51;13
Speaker 1
It way back. So confirmed that sugar is sugar. Sugar.

00;04;51;13 - 00;05;07;25
Speaker 2
Yeah, obviously. And in fact, like in one of the very early drafts that actually didn't make it end, one of the things about it was like how they all got their nicknames. And he actually saw a card of Eunji on the back of her phone and was like, What's that? And he's like, She's like sugar and he's like, Sugar.

00;05;08;01 - 00;05;11;16
Speaker 2
Why do you have sugar on the back of your foot? Why is that man named Sugar? And like.

00;05;11;25 - 00;05;12;26
Speaker 1
You know, people do it so.

00;05;12;26 - 00;05;15;26
Speaker 2
Like it was and I ended up cutting that scene so yeah, that's why.

00;05;16;10 - 00;05;17;22
Speaker 1
I need that scene release.

00;05;17;24 - 00;05;18;15
Speaker 2
OK, all right.

00;05;18;17 - 00;05;21;06
Speaker 1
Just for my personal and just to you.

00;05;21;06 - 00;05;27;04
Speaker 2
Yeah. And then there's one of the people in the trailer named Key, and he's my bias and shiny. So I was like.

00;05;27;15 - 00;05;28;19
Speaker 1
I mean, oh, girl.

00;05;28;24 - 00;05;33;04
Speaker 2
Oh, well, you know, he's he's a good one. Mean, he's, he's really shirt off a lot.

00;05;34;04 - 00;05;38;11
Speaker 1
Oops. Yeah. I mean, and then there's tape and tape. It is just it's a.

00;05;38;11 - 00;05;40;10
Speaker 2
Perfect, perfect little memory. We love him.

00;05;40;12 - 00;05;58;02
Speaker 1
I love him so much. I love. So we're already at K-pop. Like, I knew this was how to take this long to get to K-pop. Yeah. At all. I'm sorry. It's fine. This is what we do. I love K-pop. We'll get back to the K-pop. Now, I got to remember what else was on here because I got excited.

00;05;58;15 - 00;06;00;10
Speaker 1
I'm very excited about it. I got.

00;06;02;15 - 00;06;03;24
Speaker 2
My. My locket.

00;06;04;26 - 00;06;07;04
Speaker 1
She's got junk. I can be in a locker.

00;06;07;20 - 00;06;17;15
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. So my friend Stephanie Garber got me this locket for my birthday, and she's like, you could put everything. You could put your kids in there. Your husband. I was like, I will put the thing I love the most.

00;06;19;27 - 00;06;28;01
Speaker 1
I love this so much. My sister's a junk food stand, so she would appreciate this. Oh, so much. Any of the troublemakers. That's her. Yeah.

00;06;28;01 - 00;06;39;09
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah. The money line is pretty bad. I'm a I am a I'm biased fluid. So I. Right, I'm typically a gym girl, but, like, right now, I'm having a real hard time with junk food, so, like, it's it's.

00;06;39;09 - 00;06;41;05
Speaker 1
Right. I mean, seven.

00;06;41;12 - 00;06;41;24
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;06;42;08 - 00;06;43;24
Speaker 1
Yeah. How could you ignore that.

00;06;43;25 - 00;07;00;14
Speaker 2
Part, those hearts? And then OK. And so then the last song is chock full of tears. And I'm going to tell you my completely unhinged. I can't even believe this. Yes, I'm listening. I happen to be with a bunch of my friends, and we're all listening to the whole album together. Like, you know, being as, like, ridiculous as possible.

00;07;00;14 - 00;07;20;12
Speaker 2
And that song comes on. It's like the line 42 in her body. And I was 42 years old and I was like, Are you singing about me and my friends? We're like, You look unwell right now. Your eyes are this big. And you're like, Conspiracy theory. I'm like, Charlie with, like, the red string everywhere. I'm like, This is about me.

00;07;21;01 - 00;07;26;23
Speaker 2
Like, you're a lunatic. And I still said that that song is about me and that he is stopping me. Prove me wrong.

00;07;26;23 - 00;07;29;19
Speaker 1
You can't you know you can't.

00;07;29;24 - 00;07;30;11
Speaker 2
You really.

00;07;30;11 - 00;07;32;14
Speaker 1
Can't. Can't prove you're right either.

00;07;32;14 - 00;07;35;28
Speaker 2
No, you can't. But that does it. That's not part of the equation that we're talking about.

00;07;36;04 - 00;07;36;23
Speaker 1
Exactly.

00;07;36;23 - 00;07;37;28
Speaker 2
You're focusing on me.

00;07;40;08 - 00;07;48;24
Speaker 1
So since we keep coming back to K-pop, how does the K-pop community compare with the writing community in your experience and how do they overlap?

00;07;49;13 - 00;08;20;14
Speaker 2
I think there's a ton of overlap in the K-pop and writing communities, and I think that it's funny because the writing community is bookish and like we find fandoms and we're like, Oh my God, I, you know, I'm obsessed with like the Sarah Demas books and, you know, I love, you know, Rebecca Ross's series. And I all I want to do is talk about Roman and Iris and, and it's it's this really beautiful thing, but it is also we're also looking for the next thing all the time.

00;08;20;14 - 00;08;39;23
Speaker 2
Right. And in K-pop, like you find, you find your boys or your girls, and then you're done, right? You're like and you can love other people but these are the ones that you would die for, right? And then there's this camaraderie in K-pop that I don't I actually don't see anywhere else, really, where when I tell people that I am a K-pop stand, they immediately buy my book.

00;08;39;24 - 00;08;48;16
Speaker 2
They don't they don't care what it's about, you know, they're like, we just want to support you. And I mean, K-pop, we buy whales, you know, we like you know, we we build roads.

00;08;48;25 - 00;08;57;03
Speaker 1
We bought the hand sanitizer covers because they were astronauts. Yeah, yeah. And we put Jin's little character, RJ, in there.

00;08;57;13 - 00;09;19;03
Speaker 2
Yes. I mean, we like there is a philanthropist like level to K-pop that I just don't see other places as well. And like the instant connection and community where you talk about this thing that you love and it doesn't ever shift, right? We all still there's very little that I can imagine my seven babies ever doing that would make me, you know, not love them.

00;09;19;03 - 00;09;24;17
Speaker 2
I mean, they would really have to, like, kill my dog. I mean, even they kill my kids. No, I'm just kidding. I'm like, hey, no.

00;09;24;25 - 00;09;29;07
Speaker 1
Nope, not the not the kids. Just but the dog. That's the lion. The dog is love.

00;09;29;09 - 00;09;43;03
Speaker 2
I love my dog. It's, I don't know, I, I love it. I, I think that K-pop is really my home right now is really my art. And I love when those two things blend together. Like when people write K-pop books, I'm always like, yes.

00;09;43;09 - 00;09;44;16
Speaker 1
You know, like, sign me.

00;09;44;16 - 00;09;54;01
Speaker 2
Yes. Oh, yeah. I'll read anything Susan Lee writes, I'll read anything. Axl writes, I'll read anything. Stephon Lee writes like a cat. Any but m like I will read all of your books.

00;09;54;08 - 00;10;01;23
Speaker 1
So 100% on that team yeah. Yeah. What K-pop would you recommend to someone who's trying to dip their toe into it?

00;10;01;23 - 00;10;18;29
Speaker 2
Dip their toe into it? Well, if you had not ever done any K-pop, I would always suggest B test is English language everything. Right? Like you could listen to All of Golden by John Cook and like get a really good sense of like what kind of music they're really they really are because he is such an amalgamation of everybody.

00;10;19;11 - 00;10;32;23
Speaker 2
And then you can listen to like dynamite and butter and permission to dance and like kind of see them and but you really if you're going to be like, where do I start? Music videos start with the music videos. That's like the most important.

00;10;33;03 - 00;10;34;08
Speaker 1
And they're fun to watch.

00;10;34;08 - 00;10;37;22
Speaker 2
Yes. And when that dance practices and you're like watching them and it's just like.

00;10;37;22 - 00;10;40;18
Speaker 1
OK, can we talk about the run betas dance practice?

00;10;40;23 - 00;10;41;02
Speaker 2
I can't.

00;10;41;07 - 00;10;43;13
Speaker 1
And you, me coming out with that man, Mike.

00;10;43;18 - 00;10;59;29
Speaker 2
Can't talk about your hair, can't talk about it because his birthday is coming up and he's trying to hurt me. And I yeah. The other day somebody was like I was like, well, you know, it's because he's a Pisces and they're like, do you know all of their astrological signs? And I was like, Yes, I do. Why would I not?

00;11;00;11 - 00;11;06;22
Speaker 1
Who doesn't know when their birthdays are psychos? All that's fine. Everything's fine.

00;11;06;24 - 00;11;07;21
Speaker 2
Everything is fine.

00;11;07;21 - 00;11;10;20
Speaker 1
But anyway, back to the book. Yeah, the.

00;11;10;23 - 00;11;11;12
Speaker 2
Books.

00;11;11;17 - 00;11;25;18
Speaker 1
Right. So you had this really great line laughing is for people who feel like they have most of the pieces of themselves. You talk about crafting that line because that was that one, one that just flew out of you. Or is that when you really sat and thought with.

00;11;26;04 - 00;11;51;13
Speaker 2
I don't I don't actually think about a lot of my lines, and I and that's a really crappy thing to say, you know, but I just felt like in that moment, that's that was what resonated with me. Like, I felt like when you're angry or you're broken or you're sad or like there are all of these really intense emotions that especially young people feel and girls, you know, we're always told that, you know, we're too something, we're too emotional, we're too whatever.

00;11;51;23 - 00;12;06;10
Speaker 2
And you you're you feel all these things that you don't feel like laughing and you see somebody and it's like this freedom that someone else has that you're like, I don't feel like I can do that. I don't feel like I can I can do that. So that's really where that line came from.

00;12;06;15 - 00;12;19;15
Speaker 1
I love it. Or I wonder if boys in anime shirts like Scars there's so many nerdy references. Yeah. Which fun was it to put all these anime? Really? So. So I try and make.

00;12;19;27 - 00;12;39;14
Speaker 2
My kids I'm not allowed to tell people but they're like super down to me and like, it's something that we like to do as a family. And when I actually made my husband, he was like, We're not getting married until you have seen, like, at that point the entire Miyazaki canon. Like you, we I can't marry somebody who doesn't know the glory of his marriage household.

00;12;39;23 - 00;12;48;27
Speaker 2
And so those were my kids like Disney movies. They weren't like they weren't watching, like Tangled or Frozen. They're watching us move Castle and Spirited Away and princess monarchies, wild for children and like.

00;12;48;27 - 00;12;49;20
Speaker 1
Just a fight.

00;12;50;02 - 00;12;51;06
Speaker 2
Maybe, maybe not the best.

00;12;51;06 - 00;12;53;21
Speaker 1
So so do animal anime boys likes guys?

00;12;53;21 - 00;12;56;14
Speaker 2
Obviously. Obviously, he absolutely does.

00;12;56;26 - 00;13;06;00
Speaker 1
In this story, Atlas who becomes maps yeah. She goes on this like hike to kind of rehabilitate herself. Is this an actual program? Yeah.

00;13;06;06 - 00;13;22;15
Speaker 2
Yeah, it is in California. Well, I mean, it was I don't know if it still is, but in California, there's this thing called Work Project. And if you get into trouble, you can do work project as a youth. Yeah. So it's basically like you don't go to juvenile hall. You don't like it's you're working off all of your community service hours.

00;13;22;24 - 00;13;43;02
Speaker 2
And it's at the time it was for kids that had a lot of community service hours. So I personally got like 500 community service hours. I had to work off and it was very difficult. And I did not do the overnight version of this. But I do know that that exists. And where you rehabilitate, rehabilitate trails so and I'm not like an outdoor person, so I was like, this is not for me.

00;13;43;17 - 00;13;49;11
Speaker 1
Did you do a lot of research on the program and like the places that you talk about along with like.

00;13;49;11 - 00;14;12;28
Speaker 2
I grew up in like Sacramento and you are at Tahoe a lot and Truckee and all these places that I kind of based this off of the west here trail is not real, but it was kind of like a specific style type thing. And I really I have hiked those kinds of trails and I've seen what people that need to go in and like reopen trails have to do.

00;14;12;28 - 00;14;32;10
Speaker 2
And my brother in law and my sister in law are actually like I used to call them professional Boy Scouts but they would take kids from like the inner cities and take them out to like the absolute wilderness where there's no light pollution that's the first time these kids have ever seen stars or like they teach them how to survive on their own.

00;14;32;10 - 00;14;39;16
Speaker 2
And so I would ask them like, what do you do for water? And they're like, bleach. And I'm like, Oh, this is good. They're like, it works and I'm like, Oh, OK.

00;14;41;09 - 00;14;48;15
Speaker 1
So this book is kind of heavy subject matter. Yeah. How do you take care of yourself when you're writing something so heavy and emotional? I am.

00;14;49;08 - 00;15;22;11
Speaker 2
Yeah. That's a really good question. I am. I try to be really good to myself when I'm writing. I try to make sure that I'm I'm easy with myself. I try to do less in those moments. And I like try to give myself permission to go to places that are a little bit more vulnerable for me. So I give myself like if I'm going to write for 3 hours in this very vulnerable state that I'm going to have 2 hours where I binge watch something on television that makes me feel better or I, you know, listen to something that I love or watch on beats, you know, like something like that.

00;15;22;11 - 00;15;29;16
Speaker 2
So that's kind of how I feel because I'm a happy person. I just write really sad crap. I don't know why.

00;15;29;27 - 00;15;30;20
Speaker 1
They're both valid.

00;15;30;23 - 00;15;31;21
Speaker 2
Yeah, we.

00;15;31;21 - 00;15;33;07
Speaker 1
Need both sides of the coin.

00;15;33;08 - 00;15;34;29
Speaker 2
Though. I am so fine. I don't.

00;15;34;29 - 00;15;36;25
Speaker 1
Know. Truly, truly. I'm work.

00;15;37;01 - 00;15;37;24
Speaker 2
Less.

00;15;38;13 - 00;15;39;16
Speaker 1
I don't know about you. Although we're having.

00;15;39;16 - 00;15;43;01
Speaker 2
Fun I'm a delight. I don't understand who writes the sad stuff.

00;15;43;22 - 00;15;46;20
Speaker 1
We'll talk about the fun stuff in this book. Like the popsicle hierarchy.

00;15;46;21 - 00;15;47;28
Speaker 2
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;15;48;00 - 00;15;51;26
Speaker 1
How did you decide what colors were? The hierarchy?

00;15;51;29 - 00;16;09;07
Speaker 2
OK, because this is an argument that we have a lot in our house. We talk about like what the good popsicles are and what are the bad popsicles. I always end up stuck at the bottom, right like that. Nobody ever eaves. And my husband is a huge red fan, and I was like, nobody likes red. And he was like, everybody likes red.

00;16;09;07 - 00;16;25;16
Speaker 2
Kristen And I'm like, No, purple is the best. He's like, Nobody likes purple. And I'm like, all right. So we actually we like, looked it up and we're like, What's the most popular popsicle color? And you know, what comes next? And like the hierarchy of them. And I just love the idea of some girl going, like, is there a Wikipedia page?

00;16;25;16 - 00;16;28;23
Speaker 2
Like, how do you know all this? Like, what? What is happening here?

00;16;28;28 - 00;16;35;24
Speaker 1
And making them into a code is just so much fun. I'm like, boys trying to tell girls that they like them. I'm out sick. I know, I know. So high school.

00;16;35;24 - 00;16;53;14
Speaker 2
But you know what it's like? It's the psychosis that like we do, like, as you know, when we are do they like me? You know? Oh, my God. Is it like, you know, I love I love, like, the whole thing with, like, junior being like, you know, things. I love green. And then he's like, I just told that boy that I like green, and now he's going to give me green.

00;16;53;24 - 00;17;07;00
Speaker 2
And if he doesn't give me green, I'm going to be sad. But if he does give me green green now I have a green popsicle again. I like this. OK, that was so hilarious. My agent read it, and then like every version of this, she was like, do not remove the popsicles, Kristen and the pine popsicle.

00;17;07;00 - 00;17;19;15
Speaker 1
Stay it was such a fun little touch. Like a little ice breaker. Yeah. In among all the the the trauma, the national trauma how do you feel about making your readers cry?

00;17;19;23 - 00;17;38;07
Speaker 2
I love a full circle moment, right? Like, so I love when you take somebody that's, like, in one place and then comes out, like, on the other side but better, you know? And I don't mean to write, like, the Pinterest version of, like, a book, but like, I feel like that's kind of what I know how to do.

00;17;38;07 - 00;17;53;10
Speaker 2
And so, like, if it connects with you and you cry like, I'm I'm really glad. I hope that was a safe space for a reader. Like to feel like they could go through those emotions, you know, and if they did not feel like it was a safe space. My name is Adrienne Young, and please leave a good review there.

00;17;53;11 - 00;17;53;18
Speaker 2
Yeah.

00;17;55;07 - 00;17;55;23
Speaker 1
Adrian.

00;17;56;01 - 00;17;57;23
Speaker 2
She'll be fine. So great reviews.

00;17;58;26 - 00;18;03;15
Speaker 1
So in your bio, it says that you're a part time hair model. Tell me about those.

00;18;04;18 - 00;18;08;13
Speaker 2
So I am slightly ridiculous. And my.

00;18;08;14 - 00;18;08;26
Speaker 1
Love.

00;18;09;05 - 00;18;25;16
Speaker 2
I know what my hair stylist like the girl that I would see to do my hair, she's like, I really love your hair. Can I, like, use you for, like, my cards? Like, you know, to hand out to people or like for my website and stuff. And I was like, sure. And she's like, I'll pay you. And I was like, does that make me a professional hair model?

00;18;25;23 - 00;18;32;06
Speaker 2
And she goes, I think it does. And I was like, This is going to my bio if I ever sell a book, and you know what I did. So guess what? It's in my bio.

00;18;32;14 - 00;18;34;18
Speaker 1
You didn't only sell one book, you sell two books. I did.

00;18;34;18 - 00;18;37;08
Speaker 2
I actually sold Warbucks because I have two more coming out.

00;18;37;21 - 00;18;39;23
Speaker 1
Oh, have those been announced?

00;18;39;23 - 00;18;41;07
Speaker 2
No, they have not. No. Yeah.

00;18;41;17 - 00;18;46;03
Speaker 1
Can you say anything about me? Whatever you want to tell me. I mean, three and four.

00;18;46;04 - 00;18;47;20
Speaker 2
I actually don't know if I'm allowed to, but.

00;18;48;11 - 00;18;49;09
Speaker 1
Ask for forgiveness later.

00;18;49;09 - 00;19;09;24
Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. I sold two books and one of them, I don't know what it's about yet, but the first one is about it's speculative romance, and it's about a girl whose boyfriend dies tragically in the river trying to save her from drowning. And she is like, devastated and like, just cannot move forward and cannot return back to college or anything.

00;19;10;02 - 00;19;30;00
Speaker 2
And so she goes home to her grandmother's house and basically says, I don't want to move forward. With my life. I want to go backwards. And through a series of, like, magical events, she ends up waking up on her first day of college that she met her boyfriend, but she realizes if she wants to keep her boyfriend safe, and not drowned again, that she has to fall in love with his best friend who hates her guts.

00;19;30;08 - 00;19;31;23
Speaker 1
Ooh, drama.

00;19;31;23 - 00;19;32;27
Speaker 2
Yeah, lots of drama.

00;19;32;27 - 00;19;36;17
Speaker 1
How much fun is it getting to getting to dip into the magical realism?

00;19;36;17 - 00;19;54;26
Speaker 2
A lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Like had an anxiety attack. I was like, I'm not going to be able to do this and ended up being really fun. And easy. And because I think that we all kind of want to, like, believe in a little bit of magic every day anyways. Like, I want to believe that, like, I could turn the corner and Jonah Cook would be there.

00;19;54;27 - 00;20;03;01
Speaker 2
You know, like, isn't we all? Yeah. Is that realistic? Absolutely not. But in my mind, I'm like, that would happen to me. It's magic, magical thinking.

00;20;03;07 - 00;20;07;11
Speaker 1
What do you know about writing now that you wish you would have known when you first started?

00;20;07;16 - 00;20;28;22
Speaker 2
That is a really good question. I wish I would have known that writing is a business and that you cannot be precious about it. And although, like, this is our art, this is also something that, like, we're so much harder on ourselves than anybody else. Like, you're harder about your art every time than I will ever be about your art.

00;20;29;03 - 00;20;41;02
Speaker 2
And we get so in our head about our craft when really we end up stopping ourselves from keeping creating art because it is a business and, you know, nobody waits for you. So that's what I wish I would've known.

00;20;41;08 - 00;20;42;19
Speaker 1
Is there anything else you want to talk about?

00;20;43;26 - 00;20;45;14
Speaker 2
I want to ask you. Your bias.

00;20;45;14 - 00;20;48;03
Speaker 1
Is numb, June and Jim, and.

00;20;48;03 - 00;20;48;25
Speaker 2
That is a great.

00;20;48;25 - 00;20;51;19
Speaker 1
Bias, as my sister says, the two sides of my personality.

00;20;51;19 - 00;20;54;12
Speaker 2
Oh, great. I love that. I love.

00;20;54;12 - 00;21;13;05
Speaker 1
That. You see what? I watched the Carpool Karaoke when I was first getting into it, I said, Who stood out to you? And you was like the one in English and the one in the red. And she's like, That makes sense, those two halves of your personality. And I was like, What do you mean? She goes, Well, Rahm is very he loves to read and he hates seafood, and he's very bossy.

00;21;13;22 - 00;21;19;24
Speaker 1
And he breaks stuff accidentally. And then Jimin is super cute and sassy and falls out of chairs.

00;21;20;02 - 00;21;20;24
Speaker 2
He really does.

00;21;21;02 - 00;21;23;19
Speaker 1
And I fell down a lot so.

00;21;24;00 - 00;21;29;13
Speaker 2
He's he's he's the cutest, right? He was like you, you pop emoji. And I was like, I'm hungry, Papa.

00;21;29;23 - 00;21;31;01
Speaker 1
I'm hungry, papa.

00;21;31;01 - 00;21;34;07
Speaker 2
I say that all the time. When I'm like, Oh, I'm hungry, papa.

00;21;34;13 - 00;21;43;22
Speaker 1
I whenever I want you, I'm like, Papa, what you want, baby monkey. All I need watching this where we are.

00;21;44;13 - 00;21;46;14
Speaker 2
That's all we want to do is talk about K-pop. I'm sorry.

00;21;46;14 - 00;21;58;21
Speaker 1
It really is. That was the initial plan was to do a K-pop panel, but the powers that be still have not been convinced that books and K-pop are enough of an overlap.

00;21;58;29 - 00;22;15;23
Speaker 2
There is a huge overlap in books and K-pop, right? It's fandom, right? The same things that were, oh, my God, I'm going to go on a rant. I can feel it. Oh, no. The same things, the same feelings that we get from books that we love, that we connect with these characters. Those are the same things that K-pop makes us feel right.

00;22;15;23 - 00;22;32;09
Speaker 2
Which is which is the reason that we get into it, because K-pop is not music, right? K-pop is not the singular thing that happens. K-pop is this. This is a person that you're following, that you're engaged with, that you feel connected to. This is a journey that they go on. You're watching their whole lives. You're watching them perform.

00;22;32;15 - 00;22;50;04
Speaker 2
You root for them. You watch how much you know they put into their music. You know, it's not just a one thing. They work harder than everybody else. And so we root for them the same way that we root for the, you know, the good guys in a story, right? So there's so much overlap there. And Preacher, the fandoms love each other.

00;22;50;10 - 00;23;03;05
Speaker 1
They really are very similar. I saw a tech talk of a girl who is like the reasons book talk and K-pop talk get along is because we're both obsessed with men that don't know we exist because sometimes they don't actually exist.

00;23;03;13 - 00;23;11;29
Speaker 2
Yeah, right. Yeah. And this is true. This is 100% true. I'm like, baby Jess, Israel, everything they do is perfect. And they would never hide themselves from me.

00;23;12;07 - 00;23;12;18
Speaker 1
Never.

00;23;12;29 - 00;23;13;14
Speaker 2
Never.

00;23;13;22 - 00;23;17;18
Speaker 1
We're going to find them now. Not we are not that level of Dilulio.

00;23;18;11 - 00;23;19;05
Speaker 2
I might be.

00;23;21;22 - 00;23;23;28
Speaker 1
This is literary hype. What books are you hyped about?

00;23;23;28 - 00;23;29;02
Speaker 2
Oh, my gosh. OK, like all of the books are in hyped about our books that are, like, not out yet.

00;23;29;03 - 00;23;30;03
Speaker 1
Well, that's OK.

00;23;30;11 - 00;23;33;00
Speaker 2
Well, not even announced, right? Like, oh, yeah, like, so.

00;23;33;00 - 00;23;34;11
Speaker 1
You can't spill other people's teeth.

00;23;34;11 - 00;23;50;23
Speaker 2
Yes. Like, I was just talking with somebody who, like, has a book coming out in the adult genre. And I'm, like, so excited for that book, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. But I feel like, you know, people could probably figure out who that might be. And then Adrian Young's new novel is going to be amazing.

00;23;50;23 - 00;24;10;28
Speaker 2
Ellen Grace is working on a new book that I love. I love my friends. I also am really excited to read Bride. It's so good. Yeah. And then I read a book by Regina Black that's actually I'm actually halfway through it right now, and it's called The Art of Scandal, and it's so good. It's partially one of the best romances I've read in a really long time.

00;24;10;28 - 00;24;15;12
Speaker 2
It's about a politician's wife who anyway. Yeah, it's very good. Check it out.

00;24;15;19 - 00;24;23;16
Speaker 1
Well, thank you so much for taking time to chat with me about books and K-pop. Really? We wanted to talk about K-pop. Yes. It was really just an excuse to talk about K-pop.

00;24;23;29 - 00;24;25;00
Speaker 2
Thank you for having me.

00;24;30;15 - 00;24;49;07
Speaker 1
Thanks again to Kristin for coming to Emerald City to be part of the panels with me. I greatly appreciate that alone. But then to do an interview as well to talk the Atlas of US was a very special moment. I hope you enjoyed that conversation because we just became besties during it. So you've witnessed a very special moment in both of our lives as we became besties.

00;24;49;08 - 00;25;00;29
Speaker 1
If you would like to get a hold of Kristen's books, the lengths to do so are in the show notes for you. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to give us some stars and subscribe. Thanks for listening to the Literary Hype podcast.