We felt like we needed to lighten up a bit, so this week we read books that made us laugh.

Lauren read an old favorite, One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. With two hot guys to choose from, plenty of action, and a funny grandma, what’s not to love about this? The good character development and nuanced setting raises this series above the average supermarket paperback.

Alisa also happened to do a humorous mystery/crime novel. In Faking It by Jennifer Cruise, everyone has an alter ego and there are so many people inside one actual closet that Alisa had her hands full keeping it all straight. Especially since she insists on reading all her books backwards. She still found it very funny, though, and more than a little spicy.

Aileen read The Humans by Matt Hague. In this laugh riot, an alien comes to planet Earth to kill a brilliant scientist who has just made a discovery that the rest of the universe agrees is way beyond humanity’s paygrade.

Josie read one of her favorites, Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. Ah, British humor. Love it or don’t particularly get it, there is no in-between. It’s geek humor galore for Josie, and she revels in this chance to inflict Diskworld upon her unsuspecting friends.

 

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The following transcript was translated by an AI program so unfortunately, we can’t vouch for its accuracy.

Alisa: [00:00:00] They were in love, but Andrew actually was gay.

Aileen: Josie did you just burp?

Josie: Sorry, Alyssa.

Aileen: And like if you turned your head, like that was going to keep us from hearing it, that’s what they mean by this more.

Alisa: See body functions, always

funny.

Josie: my God.

Hello and welcome to fiction between friends, a podcast, dedicated to books and book lovers like us. I’m Josephine, Angelina

Lauren: I’m Lauren Sanchez.

Alisa: I’m Alyssa hill finger,

Aileen: and I may lean Calderon,

Josie: we’re four childhood friends from the suburbs of Massachusetts.

Lauren: I’ve always loved to read almost as much as we love to talk to each other.

Alisa: We started this podcast as a way to celebrate how a really good book can come into your life and change.

Aileen: So if you’re looking for fun and engaging conversations about books, stick around.

Josie: This is fiction between friends. Um, we’re glad you’ve joined us. Welcome back. This is episode five, season two. I’m Josephine, Angelina, and joining me are my dear friends. Alien. Calderon.

Aileen: [00:01:00] hi. Oh, wait,

supposed to ask everybody to please leave us a review. you listen to podcasts, right?

Josie: that’s right? are supposed to remind

Aileen: Because Josie’s been asking people to leave reviews and they aren’t listening to ours. So please prove that you will listen to me, even if you don’t listen to Josie will appreciate it.

Josie: right. Please a review.

Aileen: Don’t try to get credit for my ass Josie. I am asking people to us a nice review, please.

Josie: Lauren Sanchez

Lauren: Hi.

Josie: and Alyssa hill finger.

 So but this week having, we have been laughing a lot, which is good because this week’s theme was, um, books that made us laugh. Did we all do the theme or did we not do the theme? I did the theme.

Aileen: I basically did the theme.

Josie: Lauren. Didn’t do the theme. She’s kinda

 high.

Alisa: Was your book a funny book, Lauren or humorous?

Lauren: yeah, no, no, it’s very good. It’s a crime. a novel, it made me laugh. I’ve read it before I read it a long time ago. [00:02:00] It’s by a, it’s one for the money by Janet Evanovich. It’s the first in the Stephanie plum series.

Um, I think there’s at least 28. It’s between 26 and 28. In fact, my mother is reading number 26.

Right now. I found that out today it was completely coincidental. Um, I pretty sure I got her hooked on the series a long time ago, it’s, it’s based in New Jersey. Ilene,

Aileen: Oh, where in New Jersey? Lauren. You’re just going to go first by the way, because

Lauren: I guess I’m going

first.

Alisa: about

it.

Aileen: for it.

Lauren: Yeah.

Aileen: Where in New Jersey.

Lauren: Trenton. Um, and I think it’s called the Chambersburg area, but they just call it the Berg. So you’ve got like the Polish, the Italians, the Germans, like all the different,

Josie: ethnicities or in different boroughs?

Lauren: it’s Stephanie plum is the protagonist. She is a college graduate and she lives in the same city that she grew up in. And, but she was a lingerie buyer at, uh, at a, what do you call that? Like, what is

Jordan Marsh department store?

Josie: [00:03:00] Yeah.

Lauren: And she lost her job for some reason, and she has no money.

So she lives in a little apartment with a bunch of elderly people surrounding her with her hamster named directs, who she feeds, whatever she feeds wrecks. I, I thought you guys would appreciate this. She feeds racks like donuts and Rex just like literally lives forever, uh, throughout all the

books.

Josie: has not been my experience with hamsters.

Lauren: Um, this first I’ve read a lot of her books. Um, uh, Janet advantage bitches. And I don’t know if I would say it gets better or, you know, kinda it’s formulaic or what, but she has these other little novellas, um, or full length novels, maybe taking place like a holiday one, for example, like, um, Saint Patrick’s day or Valentine’s day or

Josie: She has themed series.

Lauren: Yeah. So she has at least 28 books total out

and

Josie: the same protagonists. They’re all with the plum girl.

Lauren: yes, but there’s also other characters that are. Throughout the books, men, there’s three men that notable characters. [00:04:00] So there’s team ranger and there’s team Marelli. So if you’re a Janet advantage or a Stephanie plum reader, you’re either on the Marelli side or the ranger side.

So Joe Marelli is, okay, let me start over.

Aileen: What’s the summary of the

Lauren: Okay. Yeah. Stephanie plum is desperate for work. She goes to her cousin, Vinny thinking, maybe she’ll get a job filing. He, um, is a bond. He worked, he has his own bonding agency. So people get arrested. They get, And no, they don’t have the job for her, she ends up becoming a bounty hunter

Alisa: Okay.

Lauren: with literally no

experience.

Okay. Um,

Josie: bounty

Lauren: bounty hunter, um, And she has, she has no experience doing this, but the person that she wants to catch is Joe Morelli and Joe is a cop in Trenton. Um, but she also has a history with Joe. She basically lost her virginity to Joe and, um, you know, kinda wants to catch this guy, you know, cause he’s, she actually tried to run him over [00:05:00] once that didn’t didn’t work

either

Alisa: the bounty hunter or just before.

Lauren: bounty hunter. but she has no experience. You can doubt when she runs into Joe throughout the book, you know, there’s like a chemistry there, you know, they, they really have the hots for each other. He’s supposed to be really hot. Um, but there’s also this guy who’s sort of tutoring her named ranger, and he’s a Cuban American and he’s also very hot.

So she kind of has a thing for both. and I don’t think it’s ever really quite resolved except for maybe that she likes both Um, so the, this book is basically her trying to catch Joe morally But somebody is murdered. He is implicated in it. He, he doesn’t make his court date. She needs to, you know, bring them in and it’s all about that. But there’s also a character in the book. Um, Name Ramirez.

I keep Benita Ramirez and he’s a boxer in Trenton, very well known. And this is one thing about the book. I didn’t really think about when, [00:06:00] when I first read it there, we were just talking about trigger warnings the other week, and there’s a lot of stocking in this book and kind of like, it made me really uncomfortable reading it this time.

Um, but getting past that, I think what I like about Janet Evanovich books is they are funny.

They are sarcastic. Um, the characters really come to life in your mind. Uh, there’s Lula is a hooker, but she eventually works for the bonding agency as well. And also help Stephanie with some of her, you know, her cases,

Aileen: Okay.

Lauren: and this woman has no filter. She basically shot, shot a chicken one night at dinner or ham.

I don’t know, the and the toppy her, with the gun that Stephanie carts around, parents are a riot. I mean, I can, I’m reading this book, I can really visualize. It in my head and I, you get to know the characters really well. I mean, it is, you can buy these books and paperback at the [00:07:00] supermarket, but they, they really have a depth of character and that’s what makes them great.

And the humor is so funny. You can really, really like imagine that you’re there in Trenton, New Jersey, and she’s very good at, you know, putting you there.

Aileen: Lauren. Do you read many funny books? Cause I find humor really hard to find

Alisa: Hmm.

Aileen: books either the book is intended to be funny and ends up being kind of satirical. And either you go along

for that ride or you don’t like, it’s really, like I thought Eleanor oil font was great because the author just wove humor throughout the story.

And there were parts that made you laugh out loud, but it’s also just a poignant story.

Josie: Eleanor Oliphant made me cry, man. I read that book, Reese. I read it after we did the podcast thing on it and I was reading it. And even, I dunno, for some reason I felt so even when things were

funny, It felt so heavy

because I was like, damn, this girl has no idea how to be with other people anyway.

Aileen: Humor humor has gotten harder to do, especially these days, because I mean, I think mainly in like TV and movies, like, it’s really [00:08:00] hard to find something that appeals to a wide audience and everyone will find funny and that people like comedians are having a really hard time right now because people are so easily offended and you don’t want to offend someone.

And sometimes to be funny, you have to kind of pick one side or the other and have a strong point of view. So in books, I mean, are you come as a librarian? Are you coming across books that you would classify as being funny? Is that like a common theme or is it just not really out there?

Lauren: Well, I mean, I, I work with children’s books for the most part, and there are a lot of funny children’s books

Aileen: Yes, that’s a great

Alisa: well, I did.

Um,

Lauren: know a lot about the adult fiction. I have to be honest.

Alisa: search of, you know, humorous adult fiction books and there are subcategories. So you

mystery and crime is its own subcategory, which I think your book Lauren and my

book both fall into, then there’s satirical comedy, social comedy, romantic comedy. Then there’s two [00:09:00] that are, it strikes me as odd, but science fiction and fantasy

Josie: That’s what I have. I have a fantasy

Lauren: Terry Pratchett.

Alisa: And then children’s classics, like funny children’s classics.

Aileen: Yeah.

Josie: Hmm.

Aileen: books make me laugh more than children’s books. Like children’s books are so

Lauren: Yeah, the Dave Pelkey books are

so funny.

Josie: They’re so fun. He’s so fun.

Aileen: They’re great.

Josie: We do dog man, PLS dog, man. And she’s been doing these knock-knock jokes cause the little PD has all those knock-knock jokes, but, and it’s just basically an airplane pooped on your head and I’m like, Pia, if you say one more thing, pooped on my head,

Alisa: It’s cracking me up

Aileen: But that’s a bit, but you know what it is, there’s a universal humor that all kids have. It’s like potty humor being dirty and adult, you hear it, it brings you back. It makes

Alisa: right.

Aileen: Some

Josie: Yeah.

Aileen: are at heart anyways, but as adults, like your, what you think is funny starts to evolve and change. So I think probably as an author, it’s, it’s hard to kind of find that balance and find something that is going to appeal to people and people will find funny.

And also, I don’t know when you’re [00:10:00] reading a book, you don’t necessarily want the entire book to be funny. You just want to hit, you want to go along for the emotional ride. You want, you want to laugh at some points. You want to kind of feel upset at certain points. So I

Josie: I can’t be joke after joke

after joke.

Aileen: just calling your book, like my book is a humorous book.

It’s just going to put it in a certain category that it’s not going to appeal to

a lot of the people.

Alisa: can really have the humor unless you have the other emotions to juxtapose it so that the humor stands out.

You know? So I think it’s more, know. I, I that I enjoy books more that have elements of humor. this, you know,

had parts that were laugh out loud.

Funny, you know, as opposed to just,

this is a funny book.

Josie: the thing about comedy is that

like over the years, what’s funny changes too. So

Aileen: Yeah,

Josie: what was funny?

Aileen: except for

kids. The same things are always funny with kids. It’s beautiful. And it’s amazing.

Josie: fart jokes.

Aileen: Yes.

we encourage it a little too much in our house. Cause I don’t know, we kind of love fart jokes

Alisa: Does Wyatt has the farting.[00:11:00]

Aileen: Oh no, that sounds like when we should add,

although he started doing things like he does the baby dance, which is just him pulling his penis out of his pants, sitting around saying I’m doing the baby dance. And like, we can’t help the lap, but we’re like, why you can’t do that? Like that’s,

not. Okay. We shouldn’t encourage that.

But, but why do kids all love the same things? And then as adults, I mean, I guess you kind of learn and you grow and you evolve

for sure.

Alisa: Bodies are

Aileen: Yeah.

Josie: are hilarious.

Aileen: do we stop thinking? I mean, I guess I still think it’s funny, but like you, you learn, it’s not okay. And you shouldn’t laugh at

those things, but every little kid has the same sense of humor.

Alisa: Yeah.

Josie: Yep.

Lauren: I don’t think it goes away because my coworker Nancy and I find it hilarious.

Aileen: God bless the librarians.

Lauren: The other day, I was like, Nancy, I’m just going to warn you. I’m going to too. We were laughing so hard about something. I couldn’t even control it. It was just so funny.

Josie: We’re here, we’re in a library and there’s only two of us. It’s awful quiet. You’re going to hear it and smell it.

Alisa: [00:12:00] well, the science text thread, I cannot tell you how many times planet jokes come up. And Uranus is always,

Aileen: Oh, of course.

Alisa: a winner,

Aileen: Wait. That actually SEG segues pretty well into my book.

Alisa: Okay.

Aileen: I read the humans by Matt Hague. Uh, his more recent book was the midnight library, which was incredibly

popular.

Alisa: list to read.

Aileen: It’s really good. I read it. It, it, yeah, it’s a really good book. I recommend it. This one’s, um, one of his older books and it’s the story, um, of an alien who comes to planet earth and his objective is to kill a professor named Andrew Martin, who has discovered the solution for like a mathematical hypothesis.

It’s the Ryman hypothesis, which explains prime numbers. and apparently these aliens from outer space have decided that humans are not advanced enough to deal with repercussions of understanding prime numbers. Cause that’s basically unlocking the secrets of the universe and being able to figure out everything about technology and [00:13:00] advancements and humans can’t handle it.

They’ll just destroy themselves because they’re an inferior species and it just can’t

happen. so

Alisa: this is a factual story.

Aileen: Yeah, pretty much. Yes. so this alien comes and assassinates Andrew Martin and basically takes over his body because then his mission becomes to kill anyone who he’s told that he has discovered this, the solution to this hypothesis. Like no one can know, so he’s supposed to become Andrew Martin and then just destroy anyone who knows about it.

And then he’s going to be whisked back off to his planet. so the beginning of the book is him as an alien observing humans. And it’s funny, the book goes from being funny to getting kind of more serious and emotional because he starts off just, he comes from a world where math is God. So it’s this very analytical world.

There’s just fact, that’s all there is. It’s kind of a boring world. Like there are just certain laws to the way that you live. There is no emotion. You just live by the rules and laws of math and science. And that is it. [00:14:00] Like they all live forever. They all live in harmony. It’s kind of boring.

There’s no conflict because everybody lives by the same rules.

Josie: Did they live forever until killed or do they just, there’s no

Aileen: th there’s there’s, there’s no death. So unlike humans who live in constant fear of death, they don’t even think about it. They don’t even worry about it. So the beginning is funny because it’s him coming as an alien and bot in this human’s body and observing humans. an alien thighs. Humans are fucking

ridiculous. So, so this is in the very beginning of the book. Um, the name of this chapter is preface and illogical hope in the face of overwhelming adversity. I know. And this is him reporting back basically to the, the aliens about what he’s observing about humans.

I know that some of you reading this are convinced humans are a myth, but I am here to state. They do actually exist for those that don’t know a human is a real bipedal life form of mid-range intelligence, living a largely diluted existence on a small waterlogged planet in a very lonely corner of the universe for the rest of you.

And [00:15:00] those who sent me, humans are in many respects. Exactly. As strange as you would expect them to be. Certainly it is true. Then a first sighting, you would be appalled by their physical appearance. So he’s just coming and I mean, he steps back. and he just has all these observations about humans that are really funny and really, um, accurate. a little bit it’s, it’s like observational humor in a way,

Lauren: I feel like humor is hard to talk about, like how

do you classify it?

Josie: Like how do you define it?

Aileen: Yeah. And I think this is funny because you recognize yourself and a lot of his observations and he’s doing it because he’s doing it as an alien and it’s also absurd or ridiculous to him. And he’s stating it in such a matter of fact way. It becomes pretty funny. Cause you’re like, yeah, you, it sounds ridiculous, but it’s so true.

Josie: Is the author British or

Aileen: British.

Josie: Um, mine’s a British. author

too.

Aileen: yeah.

so just little things like, uh, on earth, you have to spend a lot of time traveling in between places, be it on roads or on rail [00:16:00] tracks or in careers or relationships. particular type of road was a motorway. A motorway is the most advanced type of road there is, which as with most forms of human advancement essentially means accidental death is considerably more probable than formally.

So he starts just being disdainful of humans. Cause he doesn’t, he doesn’t understand them. They have so much emotion around things. They’re worried about dying there. have relationships like just all of those kinds of soft squishy things that if you just believe in math, in fact, you don’t have to worry about,

But he, then he, he starts to, so he’s embodying this now dead professor. Um, it’s funny also because when the book starts, he’s walking around naked. Um, and he doesn’t understand why everyone’s staring at him oddly, cause he cooks clothes. Just, aren’t a thing where he comes from. So he’s like, I’m just walking in my human form.

Like, I don’t know what pants, what are pants? Why would I need those? Um, but then gradually he gets to know, he gets to know the man’s wife and child and he starts to basically [00:17:00] understand emotion and kind of get swept up into everything that makes us human. and the book becomes less funny because

Josie: Yeah.

Aileen: yeah, the being human isn’t really funny.

It’s it’s there there’s a lot more to it. Um,

so this is one of his other observations. As well as religion, human history is full of depressing things like colonization disease, racism, sexism, homophobia, class, snobbery, environmental destruction, slavery. dictatorships, inventions of things, which they had no idea how to handle the atomic bomb, the internet, the semi-colon, the victimization of clever people, the worshiping of idiotic people, boredom, despair, periodic collapses, and catastrophic catastrophes within the psychic landscape and through it all, there’s always been some truly awful food. Yes. Humanity subbed summed up beautifully.

Alisa: depressed.

Lauren: you pick up that book?

Aileen: Google

Lauren: There you

Aileen: later, I could not because I read Eleanor Oliphant, which I think is it has a range of [00:18:00] emotions within it, but it’s definitely, there are parts that made me laugh out loud, which is very rare. So I just started Googling like humorous books and this one came up and

Josie: Yeah,

Aileen: like we were talking about before, there are parts of it that are really funny and make you laugh out loud.

But I don’t know if I would qualify the entire thing as being humorous because it goes, it goes deeper than just being funny. he uses humor where it’s appropriate, which is really in the beginning when he’s just looking at people and how absurd we really are. Josie, you’ll appreciate this Catholic.

I discovered meant a type of Christianity for humans who like gold leaf, Latin and guilt.

Josie: that’s my mom.

Alisa: Yeah. Like I found Bridget Jones’s diary to be funny. Like I would call that a funny book and the first time I read it, there were parts that I giggled or laughed out loud.

Lauren: Right.

Alisa: know that. Reading it again the second time. Third. Well, third, fourth, whatever many times, like in, you know, like you said, Lauren, like being in a different place in my life.

I’m like, doesn’t hit me the same way, but I would consider that a funny book, but I, [00:19:00] but it would never be classified in under humor. I don’t think,

Aileen: Josie, do you have, like, do you use humor in your books? Like, do you make a conscious effort to lighten up moments

or

Josie: I always have this talk with my husband. Who’s a screenwriter. So there are, there’s a vein of people who like to. Insert humor into high tension situations and it lets all the air out of the bag. And, sometimes it really works and it makes it hilarious.

Humor is great when you’re getting to know a character, because you want, if you laugh with them, you like them, but then once you like them, and once you’re invested in their storyline, everything has to matter. And as soon as you try to insert humor into the wrong part, and this is like a perfect example with the humans, the ending is supposed to be serious.

It’s supposed, you’re supposed to care enough that all of that matters, humor gets you to the caring bit.

Lauren: Um,

Josie: love Janet amount of itch because you love those characters because they’re funny and they’re, they’re real. Yeah. But they’re also not real. [00:20:00] Like, nobody’s, grandma’s actually like that, but you get it.

Like, everybody’s got a grandmother that said something blue once or twice, you

Lauren: um,

Josie: And you’re just like, dang grandma. Normally they’re not like that. She says something blue all the time because

it’s, that’s what makes you love her. Pulls you into that family humor opens up the reader, but then you have to pay it off.

Aileen: in books, it can also the whole tone of your book. Like you don’t like, you want people to take their things you want people to take seriously. And if you’re trying to be funny the whole time, I feel like they’re probably not quite as invested in the story and what’s happening because they’re not really taking it seriously or believing it.

Josie: And the funny thing is, is that when you’re writing, sometimes you’re writing a serious scene and you care about your

Aileen: Yeah.

Josie: You always have, want to insert something funny to let the air out so that it doesn’t

Aileen: Okay.

Josie: tense.

Aileen: And

Josie: used to do that a lot in my early writing and my husband, who would always be my Bader eater, like my first beta reader.

He’d be like, not a funny moment. And I’d be like, what? He get mad at me. He’d be like, you work so [00:21:00] hard to build the tension for this scene. And then you crack a joke in it. It’s like, it’s funny, but it ruins what you’re trying to do with the scene. So it’s like

a humor is this really? it’s like a double-edged sword when you’re writing.

It’s like, when do you use it? How to use it? and sometimes you crack a joke at the wrong spot And. it’s Like,

Alisa: Yeah.

Josie: you just killed it.

Aileen: but humor is so important in life. Like, I, I mean, So, I mean, they’re like, I use humor as a tool to get me through uncomfortable moment, unhappy moments. Anytime I see a medical professional, I become a comedian. Like I went to the dentist last week for the first time and an embarrassing number of years because of the pandemic and everything else.

And I just like, I have, I have like dentist jokes that I pull out and I’m like, cause I just want them to like laugh and I want to feel like we’re on the same page. And it just makes me feel at ease. And I feel like they feel at ease.

Josie: laughter creates oxytocin and that’s the bonding

chemical, like we all know what that is. Yep.

Lauren: don’t laugh,

you cry.

Aileen: Yes. It’s true.

Alisa: quote that I

heard [00:22:00] that is the tangible expression of hope.

Josie: Oh, that’s beautiful.

It’s

so important right.

now, everyone really does need a left, uh, a good girlfriend of mine. I was just at a play date this morning with a friend of mine. Who’s um, she’s a screenwriter and she’s a director um, she’s got this, she’s got this screenplay due and it’s like this huge, time-travel super complicated.

It’s like it’s very ambitious and like whole team, like her managers, her agents, they’re all like, where’s the damn cyclotron movie. And she’s like, ah, she’s like, she’s too scared to tell them that she kind of put it aside write this funny girl, buddy comedy about two women who get super high in Griffith park

Aileen: bring it on. We need that.

Alisa: Yeah, exactly

Josie: me, she was telling me about this idea that she had.

She’s only on page 11, writing it right now, but she like, she’s like, I just, every single page makes me laugh and I need to write it because I need to laugh right now. It’s like, everything is so serious right now. She was just telling me what she was doing with it. And [00:23:00] I had to get up and leave the room for a second.

I was crying, laughing. I was like, we

need this right now. We all need to laugh and bring on the girl, buddy movie is all

Aileen: Yes.

Alisa: Actually, my book is very female dominant.

Aileen: Good, good

Alisa: Yeah, my book has I think all, I mean, all the main characters are women. So I read, faking it by Jennifer Cruz

this sometimes is billed as a sequel to her, to another book, but it’s, it’s not where she takes characters that people might be familiar with.

And then those characters kind of appear in this book, but this is an opportunity to tell a new story. So there’s a family called the good night. Um, and they have an art gallery it is the mother Gwen, her oldest daughter, Eve, and then the youngest daughter, Matilda. The father died at some point in the past Tony and they’ve had five or six generations of good Knights who are painters and [00:24:00] gallery owners.

And, and so this story is about this family and the gallery and the paintings, but it is, uh, like really campy over the top caper of just twisted plot lines and stuff that you read. And you’re like, ah, of course. You know, Eve has an alter ego named Louise who sings in a nightclub three days a week. And does all the things that you’ve can’t do because Eve is a single mom to Nadine who is also in the book.

Um, each person in the book has multiple personalities and plays different people So Eve is Louise for her nightclub days. It’s very confusing. married her high school sweetheart. only because they had, she was pregnant, but Andrew, her husband for a little while was gay. and so they ended up getting divorced, but they still live together and co-parent, and he plays a big part in this. And, his [00:25:00] partner, Jeff is in it. And then

Aileen: What’s the main

plot line, like what’s happening.

Alisa: What is the main

plot line

So when you first kind of meet the characters. You meet Tilda, who that’s Matilda. She goes by Tilda. Um, she is breaking into a house to steal back a painting that she had

and needed to get it out of circulation. So while she’s trying to steal this painting, somebody comes in.

So she jumps in the closet when she jumps in the closet. There’s a guy already in there who also had been trying to break in

and

Aileen: Was it Brad Pitt, please

Alisa: no.

Aileen: Pitt.

Alisa: No, this is Davey

And, and so you have these two circles now of two people breaking into the same place, trying to get something from CLIA. That’s the woman they’re trying to steal it from Davies, trying to break in and get [00:26:00] money back that was owed to him and tell, just trying to get this painting and they end up together and, and they’re both like completely startled that they’re both in the closet while a third person then comes in to try and burglarize room.

Josie: It’s like a pink Panther movie And, they’re all like, they’re all like hiding in

different parts of the same room.

Alisa: and and so of course the two of them are in this closet together and there’s, you know, the sexual chemistry and they kiss and it’s, you know, hot and they don’t know who each other is. And, um, so then Davey follows Tilda. And because of course the gallery also, like own a building and the galleries on the first floor, the family lives maybe in different rooms on the second floor, but they rent out apartments on the third floor.

So Davey then runs an apartment so he can be near Tilda. And then it’s the whole book is like the overlapping of their lives in the circles. And then trying to each of them figure out what it is. They’re trying to [00:27:00] steal from this woman hires a Hitman to take out Davey CLIA, his is hitting on the owner of the gallery.

It’s

Josie: Dude. I can just see, I can see this authors like corkboard and it’s just got

all of these like lines and like

little post-it notes.

Alisa: where they have

Josie: Yeah. Yeah.

It’s a murder wall.

Alisa: and they have the pins in the cards and

yeah.

Aileen: Madcap

Alisa: Yeah.

Lauren: Contemporary.

Alisa: is, I mean, as, as far as like, taking place now, there’s, there’s no references to politics or pop culture or, you know, things like that.

But

Lauren: phones

Alisa: yeah, I mean, they’re, they’re on cell phones and stuff,

Josie: Is it situational humor or is it more like the dialogue

Alisa: it’s, it’s both it’s I think that it largely depends on situational humor of like, of course he’s not who he says he is. He’s actually, you know, and pick the most ridiculous option. And that’s who [00:28:00] he really is. you know, so it’s very situational and, and I think that’s also why it works because the characters are very relatable and Tilda is pretty guarded and sarcastic.

Eve is a really good mom with Nadine who is a really fun, quirky teenager. so there are some really steamy sex

Lauren: Oh,

Aileen: And Lauren’s back.

Alisa: um, but there was, there was the first sex scene between Matilda and Davey though is disastrous. It’s terrible.

So it starts with Davey’s kiss tasted like vodka and disaster

Aileen: We’ve all been there.

Alisa: That’s

Josie: we kissed that guy.

Alisa: been there.

Aileen: College.

Alisa: And then it, it goes on to kind of talk about his hand, goes up her shirt and, you know, she’s like, do I want this, do I not want

 And then Davey kissed her again, another deep warm kiss and she cuddled closer, but the [00:29:00] wildness wasn’t there. She missed the closet if only they’d done it in the closet. Like, she’s basically trying to talk herself into it. She’s like, oh, just do it. She told herself you could use this. and so,

Lauren: That’ll be me.

Alisa: So he moved his hand under her bra and she considered a moan, which was better than heavy breathing because if she breathe too heavy, she’d ended up in an asthma attack and that would be the end topless. Geekdom pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. Definitely, definitely. Moaning is the way to go.

Aileen: That’s fun. That makes me not that I can totally relate to that, but being relatable as part of something being funny, the minute you hear something and it’s absurd, but you’re like,

Alisa: Yeah. And then she, she’s talking about like, please don’t have a nosebleed, please don’t have a nosebleed as she’s trying to.

Josie: Oh, my God. She’s

nose bleeds.

Lauren: She’s a

mess.

Aileen: she’s

a hot mess.

Alisa: going through the motions and, and finally she, after they have sex, she’s laying there and she’s like, well, it didn’t hurt. There’s a recommendation [00:30:00] for you.

She thought it didn’t hurt.

Josie: No,

no.

Lauren: Kind of miserable.

Alisa: is,

but

Aileen: woman.

Alisa: of this. So like then they in their relationship have to overcome this idea of like, they had really bad sex, I’ve never seen that written in a book. It just, it was a really interesting take on the relationship that started all hot and heavy in the closet.

But then,

Aileen: Where do you go from there?

Lauren: Yeah. I mean, if you think about it, not that this has ever happened to me, but you, well, you can have like a really great hook

Josie: like, wait a minute.

Lauren: alcohol fueled hookup. Right. And then like, think, okay, let’s hang out sometime or let’s go on a date and it. Because you don’t have that sort of inhibition.

you know what I mean?

Alisa: Yeah, it was,

Lauren: Was that a confession right there?

Aileen: Married women are just nodding silently.

Josie: We’re all like, I’m not talking about it. I’m not going anywhere near it. That potato is going to stay over there. [00:31:00] Don’t pass it to me.

Alisa: it’s a very interesting book. It is so hard for me to keep track of all the characters though, because as I

said, each character has at least one alter ego. And so

Aileen: Did it get

confusing?

Alisa: I mean, I started at the

end and then

Josie: We started at the end.

Alisa: you know,

quickly

Aileen: she did he climaxed and then

Josie: Of course. You’re going to be confused. You’ve got to start on page one

and then go to page two.

Alisa: I like to know the names of characters at the end, so I can like almost myself to pay more attention.

Okay.

Lauren: I challenge you to not do that on your next book.

You got to

Alisa: Y

Aileen: Wait, let me ask, let me ask you another question. Do you ever just do things spontaneously? Like you’re just kind of like, I’m going home. I usually take a right. I’m going to take a left today and see what happens. Like even at that level, like, do you ever just kind of like life on the edge a little bit?

Alisa: I do I do. I know, I sound like a really uptight, [00:32:00] nerdy, straight lay science person and 90% of the time I am, but I.

Aileen: Wait, can I post the video of you

performing

Alisa: don’t, I

Josie: Oh, I love

it

Alisa: is, I mean, it is on YouTube, so I don’t think there’s any

restrictions.

Aileen: I’ve ever seen in my entire

life and it’s amazing.

Lauren: awesome.

Aileen: my

God. You’re incredible.

Alisa: ass of myself. I mean,

Aileen: But you didn’t even make an ass of yourself. That was an incredible

Josie: No, you were good.

Aileen: my God. I was so impressed with

Josie: You would you. like dude? You Mike dropped

it.

Aileen: God. That was incredible. Like I wish I could do that. I could never in a million

Alisa: okay. So going back to this idea of multiple personas, put on a wig, you dress up like

Josie: Hmm.

Alisa: you can act more freely.

Josie: Yes, you can.

Aileen: I’m impressed. You can. I think I would still feel really subconscious and not be able to pull that off. But

you, that was

Lauren: a

Alisa: Oh, but you,

well, Lauren, you did theater. Ilene. I don’t think you never did any

of

the.

Aileen: theatre is never my thing,

Lauren: in the [00:33:00] background. I

Aileen: but you were, you were still on stage. You

still, you guys all did theater.

Lauren: I’m

Josie: Yeah.

Lauren: utricle at all. Okay. I do do story time.

Aileen: There you go.

Josie: You read the kids. Oh, wait. My book is about, kind of about the theater.

Aileen: Oh, let’s let’s switch Josie.

Josie: Okay. So I did a book number six in Terry Pratchett’s series, Terry Pratchett, sir, Terry Pratchett. he was a writer until 2016 when he died of Alzheimer’s he wrote 41 Discworld books, 41, you guys, and huge. He’s a huge, huge, huge international bestseller.

Um, he also wrote good almonds. That was a TV that was turned into a TV show. He wrote that with anyway, I can’t tell you how much people love his stories. And there’s a reason for that. So I read weird sisters, which is book number six, because this one it’s kind of my favorite because

it’s, I have, I got a lot of words.

Well, it’s about which is, and which is a right up my alley Magna at garlic nanny org, and granny Weatherwax are [00:34:00] the three. Um, I love them. I love these characters. They’re hilarious. Like nanny . She was a big old hoe when she was a kid, but now she’s like super old and granny Weatherwax is like the straight laced witch.

And magret garlic is like, she’s like the youngest, which I know. Right. Magret she’s got these ideas about what a witch should be, and she’s very into the occult she’s she actually can do magic, but she kind of always like, sort of disappoints herself. Like she has this idea about what a witch should be and like this beautiful person.

And she’s like really flat chested and her hair is super frizzy, but she’s lovely. She’s just these wonderful, they’re wonderful, lovely characters. Okay. So his last book, his 41st book came out posthumously and most, a lot of his true followers bought the book and never read it.

They put it on the shelf so that they would always have an unread book by Terry

waiting for them.

Like that’s

how much love you just always want to have one of his books on your shelf that you haven’t read yet.

Aileen: So you always have something to look forward to.

Yeah,

Josie: So These characters that [00:35:00] are, you know, them, even if they are super strange and by super strange, I mean, let me find the librarian. the librarian is a, uh, an orangutan and, um, So the librarian is just a callback character. He’s a character that pops

up in all the Discworld series, not a main character he’s created. And then he just sort of floats in and out of the story. And I’m going to read who the librarian is. So the librarian there at a bar there, and the librarian gets angry. Somebody says something mean about hairy people. I’m an explanation. He also uses all these asterisks. So it takes you out of the moment, but he does it purposely, even though his stories are really well-crafted like this one is all built on Shakespearian plays.

So it’s like a combination of Hamlet. Macbeth and it’s got some Tempest thrown in there and even one of the Henrys that has like the St Crispin day speech from, I think, Henry for something like that. So an explanation may be needed at [00:36:00] this point, the librarian of the magic library at unseen university.

First of all, it’s the wizard college is called unseen university. Brilliant. The discs, the disc is the world. The disc is the entire world. The discs premier college of wizardry had been turned into an Orangutang some years previously by a magical accident in that accident prone academy. And since then has strenuously resisted all well-meaning efforts to turn him back for one thing longer arms and prehensile toes make getting around the higher shelves a whole lot easier and being an eight meant that you didn’t have to bother with all the angst business. He’d also been rather pleased to find that his new body, although looking deceptively like a rubber sack full of water, gave him three times of strength and twice the reach of his old one. And I just read that and I was like, so the librarian like pops up for no good reason. Like he’s just in a bar and he gets into a brawl, like an ape.

And a Barbara is just fantastic,

Alisa: It’s funny.

Josie: which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot, but [00:37:00] the world that he’s created. So this is Discworld This is a description of the world itself through the fathomless deeps of space, swims the star to turtle great attune. So there’s a turtle swimming through space, bearing on its back.

The four giant elephants who carry on their shoulders, the mass of the disc world. So it’s like this completely almost Hindu world. And it’s true. And a tiny sun and moon spin around them on a complicated orbit to induce seasons. So probably nowhere else in the multi-verse is it sometimes necessary for an elephant to a leg to allow the sun to go past.

Lauren: I mean, what an imagination, just to come up with that.

Josie: It’s this great story of these three witches and it starts off just like Macbeth does it starts off the wind howled, lightening stabbed at the earth, radically like an inefficient assassin, thunder rolled back and forth across the dark rain lashed Hills. As the cauldron bubbled and Eldridge forts voice [00:38:00] street wind.

Shall we three meet again? There was a pause. Finally another voice said in a far more ordinary tone, well, I can do next Tuesday. So it’s like, he starts off with these wonderful, like Shakespearian moments. He’s setting it up. He’s like, okay, so you have the duke kills the king. He murders him and he ends up like washing his hands constantly.

Cause now he’s going mad. The baby that the actual heir to the throne is spirited off in the middle of the night. And given to these three witches, the witches, hide the baby with a troupe of actors and give him these three gifts of like, he’ll always remember the words. He’ll always, they give him like these three gifts that have meaning for them.

Like everyone will like him. He’ll be whoever he wants to be. So it’s like the three fairy godmothers, give him all, everything he’d need to be, become the best actor in the world. And then it gives them to this like theater troupe and, the. Theater troupe has a main head writer. Who’s a troll and trolls are supposed to be like thump, thump, tub, [00:39:00] funder guts.

So

Alisa: Yeah.

Josie: like they’ve got all these crazy names and they’re supposed to like ho they cough lots of beer and they’ve got hammers and, and he’s, he’s a writer and he doesn’t, he’s never felt like he fit in and he has, he gets inspiration and he describes inspiration in a way that has stuck with me my whole life.

I read this when I was very young and I’ve loved it ever since. Let me just find,

Lauren: see that you love these books cause you loved the, um,

Josie: I love that. I love

the Shakespearian element to it. I do.

And it is,

Lauren: books and this kind of just gives me that

Aileen: It’s such a specific type of humor.

Josie: it really is.

Aileen: an absurdity to it and taking what you know, and flipping it on its

head. It’s like, I think about the humor in this, and it’s so different from the humor and like my book, or like LOL any of your other books. Like it’s very specific.

Josie: It is. And it’s, it’s one of those things where you can’t, you know, it, when you see it, like, you know what I mean? It’s like, you know, why is that the wrong one? Anyway?

Aileen: Maybe because you have [00:40:00] 20,000 post-it notes in that

Josie: I know it’s that terrible?

Aileen: means you were very inspired.

Josie: I just, everything he writes, I think is a little bit funny.

Aileen: It’s

Josie: so

Aileen: is a whole book. Funny. Are there a serious moments or is it just

Josie: there are,

Aileen: moment after another.

Josie: and sometimes I think his humor does get in the way of allowing the story to, because he does write these very complicated stories. Like he that’s my only, the only thing that I would say about it is that especially towards the end where I wish he’d stopped cracking jokes, do, he does allow serious moments, but every now and again, he’ll write.

He lets he lets the air out of the scene. Like he just he’ll he’ll allow the tension to dissipate he wants to remind you that this is still a funny book. Like none of it’s that serious.

Aileen: So interesting. It’s humor. Humor is a tool

Josie: right.

Aileen: is, what it comes down to. And you have to be careful about how you use it and you have to use it wisely.

Josie: But he, so he’ll write about these series characters, like the fool in this, the fool who actually ends up being the king at the end. So it’s like hidden destiny on all that stuff. And there are all these [00:41:00] jokes about destiny. so he’s in love with magret like he’s the fool and Margaret has sort of fallen awkwardly in love with each other.

And it’s just, funny because he says like the majority of true love is like 90% ear burning embarrassment and that’s the way that they are with each other. Like whenever they’re together, they’re like, oh, I think I’m going to be washing my hair. It’s just like horribly

awkward.

 So the full never wanted to be a full, he was made to be a few full. He had like an abusive

Aileen: Yeah.

Josie: who like, who was the funniest man in the world.

Aileen: Yeah.

Josie: like I’m so funny. Everybody knows I’m funny. And like he forces his grandson to become a fool. said, magret her voice higher than usual it must be a happy life making people laugh. I mean, when there was No,

reply, she turned to look at the men. His face was like stone in a low voice talking as though she was not there.

The fool spoke, spoke of the Guild of fools and calculators ALK Moore park. And he talks about how most visitors mistook it. At first sight for the offices of the Guild [00:42:00] of assassins, which was in fact, the rather pleasant area collection of buildings

next door. Sometimes the young fools slaving at their wrote in rooms that were always freezing even in high summer, heard the young

Aileen: Yeah.

Josie: that play over the wall and envied them.

Even though of course, the number of piping voices grew noticeably fewer toward the end of them. The assassins also believed in competitive examinations, the full spoke bitterly of the huge

Aileen: Okay.

Josie: brother, prankster of evenings learning the Mary

Aileen: Yeah,

Josie: of long mornings in the freezing gymnasium, learning the 18

Aileen: yeah,

Josie: and the accepted trajectory for a custard pie and juggling

Aileen: yeah.

Josie: brother, Jake, a man with a soul like cold boiled string taut juggling. It’s like, so He’s describing this horrible childhood, but it’s hilarious. Like you laugh at it.

Aileen: Is it offensive if I call it nerd humor?

Josie: It’s nerd

humor. No, it’s totally

Alisa: Yeah.

Aileen: Very like, It’s referential and there’s a smartness to it, but it’s a

Lauren: I think my [00:43:00] dad would

have liked it.

Aileen: yes. Yeah.

Lauren: have read it.

Josie: It’s, it’s one of those things where if you, you either love it or you don’t love it. And when you really love, when you really love this kind of humor, like the British humor, and I did grow up on Douglas Adams, there’s also, there’s so much, here’s why the humor sometimes I’m like, oh, I wish you’d let that be a serious moment.

But here’s why the human never really takes me 100% out of it. It’s because he loves this world so much, So there’s the biggest city is called. More park and at UNC more pork, it’s almost impossible to say, but it looks hilarious on the page. That’s another thing like the K’s and the H is like, he knows how to write a funny word.

So people describe more pork has, Um, the hope. Okay. That’s, there’s something about that city said, granny, It’s like a drain. Like everybody always ends up there eventually, but in a terrible way, you know, and

Alisa: like New Jersey,

Josie: there’s like a Guild of assassins and like you have to give [00:44:00] receipts. So the only way to, to keep crime in hand is to actually like make crime super organized, like criminals. If they beat you up or if they take your money, they have to give you a receipt and they can’t do it too many times in a year.

And so they accidentally,

Aileen: I love that

Josie: so a group of a group of.

Aileen: crime.

Josie: They beat up a fool and the fool has too much gold on him and they’re like, oh, we can’t take this, but I already did the receipt. And they’re like having this argument over his beat up little body, like, why do you have this much money on you? This is terrible.

I’m going to get in so much trouble. It’s like, it’s hilarious. It makes all of these situations ridiculous, but Discworld is ultimately, even though they talk about how, you know, it’s such a dangerous place, they’re assassins everywhere there, Ruffins everywhere. It ultimately, it feels more like a homey, comfortable place that you can go back to, which is why everybody loves the Discworld series.

So it’s just smart. It’s well woven [00:45:00] together and the way that he brings, um, Macbeth and Hamlet. And then there’s a little bit of the Tempest in there because there’s this storm that keeps circling around and the storm is like waiting for its big break when it can really show everyone what it can do.

And it has that underlying theatrical aspect to it. It just, it’s, it’s really brilliantly woven together so much. So that. Like can read it for the humor, but then if you’re looking for satire or story underneath it in a well-crafted story, Terry Pratchett, like you really can’t go wrong with any of these books.

But if you don’t like British humor, you’re probably not going to

Alisa: Yeah. And that’s its own brand British humor. Add that to the list of categories

Josie: Discworld is.

Pretty much the one place that he writes. and it’s, he uses it as a stage for satire, I mean, there are all these interesting, weird little things that he puts into it, like these interesting, fantastic elements, like the luggage for people who know this world, they know what the luggage is.

It’s two flowers, luggage, and the color [00:46:00] of magic, which is like the first book. It’s hilarious. The Le the luggage is basically the entrance to a black hole, but it also holds all of two flowers, laundry. So it’s like,

Aileen: So

Josie: they make, Yeah.

it’s So random

and strange. And everybody’s afraid of the luggage, because if the luggage swallows you, nobody knows where you go.

Like you just disappear.

Lauren: Oh, that was like my biggest fear when I was a

kid,

Alisa: being swallowed by login.

Josie: Really the luggage.

Aileen: really?

Lauren: of the world was the cul-de-sac at the other end

Alisa: Uh, well, yeah,

Aileen: Oh, it kind of felt like it, but it was a bridge to another

Alisa: wait, the col-de-sac by me. That link to AYLIEN’s neighborhood.

Lauren: the other one by the

Alisa: Oh no, that one was scary.

Aileen: oh, now we went to like Cedar street or

something like a busy road. Like that was a scary.

Lauren: like if you stepped off the edge, you just disappeared. Nobody would ever

Josie: Where the sidewalk ends.

Lauren: yes.

Aileen: Wait, can I read you guys one more passage from my book? That’s

Josie: Definitely.

Aileen: Um, this was, this is towards the end of the book as he’s. This alien has become more human and is starting to understand humans and is [00:47:00] explaining them from his point of view. Um, once humans really study things in depth, whether in the artificially divided fields of quantum physics or biology or neuroscience or mathematics or love, they come closer and closer to nonsense, irrationality and anarchy.

they know is disproved over and over again, the earth is not flat. Litas have no medicinal value. There is no God is a myth. The present is all they have, and this doesn’t just happen on the big scale. It happens to each individual to in every human life. There is a moment of crisis.

that says what I believe is wrong. It happens to everyone. The only difference being how that knowledge changes them. most cases, it is simply a case of bear bearing that knowledge and pretending it isn’t there. That is how humans grow old. is ultimately what creases their faces and curves or backs and shrinks their mouths.

And. The weight of that denial, the stress of it. This is not unique to humans. The single biggest act of bravery or madness anyone can do is the act of change.

Lauren: Hmm.

Josie: beautiful.[00:48:00]

Aileen: I thought that

Josie: Deep.

Aileen: like deep and meaningful and so true.

Lauren: Yeah.

Alisa: Well, that’s a downer.

Aileen: I know that’s not really a happy note to end this

episode

on.

Lauren: had a passage to read to you guys from my book.

Josie: I’m going to do one Cause it’s, it’s so this is just talking about,

Aileen: us back up.

Josie: well, it’s not, it’s not that it’s funny. It’s just more uplifting and it’s, he’s talking about the theater and the power of the theater. So. Crazy duke film at the one who’s washing his hands constantly because

he committed the murder.

And now he’s got that. he

Alisa: Did a murder.

Josie: Um, he wants to, he wants to change history. So he’s hired the players, the group of players, where the Kings air is now 18 years. Because granny Weatherwax brought them 15 years into the future because she was sick of waiting. Like that’s just who she is. Um, she realizes they’re watching this play.

That’s sort of rewriting the history of it. So that film it, the duke isn’t a murderer and it’s making it out. So that king the guy who got murdered was actually an idiot who needed [00:49:00] to be taken out. So granny sitting there, granny had never had much time for words.

They were so insubstantial. Now she wished that she had found the time words where indeed in substantial, they were as soft as water, but they were also as powerful as water.

And now that we’re rushing over the audience are eroding the levies of veracity and carrying away the past. you know, that’s beautiful. Just really good writing in between some pretty hilarious jokes about death. Death is a character that reappears often like actual death comes in and he speaks in all caps.

Aileen: Well,

Josie: He always speaks in all.

Aileen: death, a funny character. I 100% appreciate. That’s great.

Josie: Yup. And he’s like this really likable entity and he loves cats and he does. And like,

after, after he’s, after he’s like gathered a whole bunch of souls from a plague or something, he’ll go and he’ll get takeaway and they’ll just be hanging out and everyone will be sort Of like in the takeaway place, like [00:50:00] trying to move away from him, like, cause they get this really weird feeling and he’ll be like, I’m not that bad, you know, but he always speaks in these leaden tones and everyone always freaks out.

so, and he brings death back again And again, is this, you know, very lovable character in a strange way, like death or is sort of, yeah. there’s even a book called Mort in this book. Death gets an apprentice because death needs a break. He wants to take a little vacation.

Alisa: is Mort.

Josie: his name is Mort. It’s gotta be,

Aileen: Jr.

Josie: Anyway, so who has one funny quote, one funny quote so we

can,

Alisa: uh,

Aileen: on a funny

note, I,

Lauren: one, hold

on.

Alisa: I think I had one. There was one sentence. So Andrew was the gay and Jeff became

Josie: huh.

Alisa: hold on. Jeff was the control variable in an experiment of. Disillusioned divas. It was something, something to that effect.

And it just like, it’s summed up everything. Like all of these women are disillusioned, disillusioned, divas with all their characters. And [00:51:00] then Jeff is like this

Josie: He’s the baseline.

Alisa: everything out.

Aileen: I’ve got one.

the next day I had a hangover. I realized if getting drunk was how people forgot. They were mortal than hangovers were how they remembered.

Alisa: That is true. Oh,

that’s so good because you feel invincible and then you don’t.

Aileen: You’re not.

 One other, um, a cat I discovered was very much like a dog, but smaller and without the self-esteem issues,

Josie: I love it.

We’ve got to do more comedy books. You guys,

Lauren: Yeah, we

should.

Aileen: to

find. It’s hard

Josie: they really are.

Aileen: are funny or that you find funny, you

know,

Josie: that’s so hard.

Aileen: Write a funny book for us.

Josie: I’m I, you know, I have, it’s just not, it’s not out yet. So I have, um, at this series it’s called my lucid Topia series and it’s I started writing it basically because I just finished writing this super deep book and I needed a break, like an [00:52:00] emotional from it. And, um, it’s kind of a it’s kind of got this sort of British humor. to it.

It’s about a girl who. It’s usual setup. She gets it’s called the illustrated girl. She sees a picture in a book and she goes, God, I wish I was That person. And she winds up going into the book and it’s like a fairytale. So she becomes princess pleasant. And she realizes that it’s just awful.

Aileen: That sounds terrible.

Josie: it’s, she’s a girl in a tower and she’s like, this is the worst place I’ve ever.

Why the hell did I think this was a good idea. So she’s desperately trying to get out of Lusa Topia, which turns out to be a medieval nightmare. And it’s, it’s funny. It’s very jokey. There’s a lot of British humor in it. It’s, it’s like sort of my homage to disk world. Um, but it’s set very much in like medieval, you know, basically toking type landscape and all that

stuff. So I have, I haven’t them out yet, but I’m going to be putting them out starting and I have like three books written in it and I’m going to start putting them out

Aileen: when does it [00:53:00] come out?

Josie: I think we’re going to put out? illustrated girl next year after science.

Aileen: you’ve

Josie: to give it away.

Aileen: you’ve a million books. us an update on your new publishing empire that you’re building.

I feel like we never talk about it and we probably should. happening next.

Josie: so science is, we’re deciding whether it’s going to be beginning of September, end of September, this year when it comes out. Um,

Aileen: That’s the next book that you guys are the first book you guys will publish.

Josie: Yeah. That’ll be our first book out. It’s the fourth book in the star cross series. And then we’re going to give away the first book in the Lusa Topia series, because I’ve got two more books written in that series ready to go out right after it.

So we’re just going to give away, illustrate a girl, cause it’s kind of a novella and It’s cute and sweet and fun. Alyssa, you’re going to love it because

Alisa: not threatening and it’s

Aileen: We can read it from the beginning.

Josie: and um, then timeless comes out, which is the fifth book and then widow comes out. That was the big book that I wrote.

It’s like a huge world called nine [00:54:00] land. It’s very dark, very multiple characters,

Alisa: not the same series. So that’s a

different story.

Josie: series.

Aileen: Oh, wow.

Josie: a different story.

It’s a new series.

Aileen: What does that come out?

Josie: that comes out? I think by the end of I have this? My husband has me on a schedule for my releases, because if I don’t write, I get beaten.

The edits are due. When does date is June of 23rd

Lauren: Yeah,

Aileen: Oh

Lauren: well, I had a library patron come in and I think I sent you a text about it, but she was like, I need some new young adult books, probably in her early twenties. And I recommended yours and she,

Josie: Oh,

Lauren: she read them all and I, she returned them the other day and once more, uh, recommendations, but I said, well, there’s more coming out.

So

Josie: Awesome.

Aileen: listen to our podcasts fiction between friends

Lauren: yeah.

Alisa: Hey, do you go on like publicity tours? So will you come to the east coast or is it all west coast?[00:55:00]

Josie: I don’t know what it’s going to be like with COVID. Um,

I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’d love to

come back east

Aileen: come to New Jersey

Josie: I know I

Alisa: come east

Josie: been years since I’ve

Alisa: and do a double feature of a book with then podcast.

Josie: I would love

Aileen: like a live podcast. Is that

what you’re saying?

Alisa: we’ll all like show up in crash the book party

Josie: I’d love that. And then we can all talk. And then instead of talking about my book, I can talk about somebody else’s book, because once you’ve pitched your book a hundred times, you’re like it’s a modern day retaliatory, Haley ad where Helen a try mates and you’re like, just shoot me. I don’t want to say this anymore.

Aileen: I don’t know. I think we need to do an episode where we each read one of your books and you need to sit here while we

discuss your books. I think we’re going to have to do it

Josie: Yeah. How weird it is for me that you guys have read my books at all. D D it just doesn’t if it’s people out in the world that I don’t know, it’s fine. But if it’s people that I know, it feels very strange to know that you guys have read it. yeah.

Like,

Lauren: It’s my

daughter’s favorite series.

Alisa: [00:56:00] Yeah, but go back to all the slumber parties that we had with the storytelling. It’s not different.

Josie: yeah. No, but that we were telling those stories together. You know what I mean? This was like, I don’t know. Why is it weird

Aileen: don’t know. Cause you, cause once you get published, you’ve jumped so many hoops and you have so many layers of approval. I would think it’d be like, this is okay for the

Lauren: Okay.

Aileen: read. So it should be okay for us.

Josie: of course. But I feel strange when I think of like my family or my close friends, like people who really know me and they probably read stuff in it and they’re like, oh Yeah.

Josie did that.

Lauren: Yeah.

Josie: you know what I mean? Like, you guys know, see people out in the world, they don’t know when I’m actually taking a moment from my life And putting it in a book.

You guys know all my secrets. Like, you know,

Aileen: Well, yes we do. And we have the pictures to

prove it.

 All right. Lauren’s falling asleep. I

think

Lauren: Uh, I know it’s pathetic.

Josie: All right,

Lauren: Okay.

Aileen: ladies.

Josie: You guys

Alisa: yeah.

Aileen: All right, bye.

Josie: Night

Josie: You’ve been listening to fiction between friends to find [00:57:00] the show notes for this episode, or to subscribe and get new episodes delivered automatically. Visit fiction between friends.com. Also, if you happen to have a moment and you’ve liked what you’ve heard, please help support our podcast by leaving a review on apple podcasts.

We would be immensely grateful. Thank you for listening.