139. An Interview with Darynda Jones

[music]

Sarah Wendell:  Hello, and welcome to episode number 139 of the DBSA podcast.  I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and with me today is Darynda Jones, bestselling author of paranormal and Young Adult romance.  We’re going to talk about paranormal romance and Young Adult romance and being a writer and an enthusiastic reader, plus, to my utter delight, there are pets on the podcast as well.  I think it’s like a thing.  If I have an interview, the person who I’m interviewing should have their pets appear as a guest, even if they didn’t intend to have it happen.  I, it just makes me so happy.  So, yes, pets!  Pets on the podcast!

This podcast is brought to you by InterMix, publisher of Ever Night, the sexy new paranormal novella from New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter.  You can download it on May 19^th.

The music that you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater, and I will have information at the end of the podcast as to who this is and where you can purchase this fine music for your very own.

And now, on with the podcast.

[music]

Sarah:  Introduce yourself and tell the lovely people listening who you are!

Darynda Jones:  Okay!  [Laughs] I’m Darynda Jones.  I write the Charley Davidson series for St. Martin’s Press.  I also write Young Adults.  I write every genre under the sun, but I’m only published in two, so there’s that.

Sarah:  So what you’re saying is you write a lot of fanfic.

Darynda:  [Laughs] Basically!  Yeah!

Sarah:  Excellent!

Darynda:  Yeah, it’s funny that you even say that, because I think, I, I’m so opposite of what everybody else thinks about fanfiction.  I think it, it’s all fanfiction.  I think all fiction is fanfiction.  We, we, we, we hear stories, we, we like it, we, we watch movies, we read other books, and we get ideas from it.  I mean, I’m not –

Sarah:  I totally agree with you.

Darynda:  You know, I just, I just, yeah.  I think all my stuff is fanfiction.  It’s all an homage to other things that are out there.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So what are the pieces of Charley?  Your, your lead character, Charley Davidson.  What are the pieces that have made her up?  Who is she inspired by?

Darynda:  I think, well, you know, at first I didn’t really realize this, but looking back, I would say that at the time when I was trying to come up with Charley, I really wanted something paranormal –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – I wanted to dip back into the paranormal world.

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  I came up with her, and I thought, I would love a little bit of Buffy –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – you know, a little bit of the badassery in there.

Sarah:  And sarcasm.

Darynda:  A little bit of the, the clumsy, just stumbling through life of Stephanie Plum –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – and I would love a lot of the sassiness of Lorelai Gilmore from the Gilmore Girls.  [Laughs] It’s like –

Sarah:  So if Lorelai, Lorelai Gilmore, Buffy, and early Stephanie Plum had a baby –

Darynda:  Yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  – it would be Charley.

Darynda:  Yes, exactly.

Sarah:  I think that’s a pretty accurate description.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  So now you’re on, is it book nine?  That’s about to come out, or is it –

Darynda:  I’m writing the ninth.

Sarah:  You’re writing the ninth, and book eight comes out at the end of, in the middle of this month, in the middle of May.

Darynda:  Yeah, May 19^th, yeah.

Sarah:  So what’s happening with Charley now?

Darynda:  Well, in Eighth Grave, basically she, they are stuck in a convent –

Sarah:  Oh, boy.

Darynda:  – because – the whole gang is – because they have twelve angry hellhounds after them who have escaped from Hell to kill Charley –

Sarah:  Like you do.

Darynda:  – and – yes.  So, yeah, they’re stuck in a convent, they’re trying to figure out how to kill the hellhounds, and of course everything goes awry, so –

Sarah:  Well, yeah.

Darynda:  – as usual in Charley’s world.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So the start of every chapter has a T-shirt.  Do you just have, like, this long file of all the T-shirts?

Darynda:  I do, yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  And do you actually, like, do you go to, like, boardwalks and really kitschy shops and, like, start flipping through them and writing them down?

Darynda:  I do!  Everywhere I go.

[Laughter]

Darynda:  Everywhere I go, we write ‘em down.  I, we were in – where were we?  We went to the Karen Marie Moning and J. R. Ward event in Cincinnati –

Sarah:  Uh-huh.

Darynda:  – a few months ago, and we went to Dick’s, the restaurant Dick’s –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – and they had a lot of really nice fodder, so I wrote some stuff down in there.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So you basically can’t interact with T-shirts, tourist traps, boardwalks, or bumper stickers without having a notebook and pen nearby.

Darynda:  Oh, yeah, absolutely.  Absolutely.  And thank God for phones, because I can just –

Sarah:  Take a picture of them.

Darynda:  – take a picture.  Absolutely, yeah, it’s fantastic.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So now that you’ve been writing so many books with Charley – you know, actually,  I should back up a second, because I’m familiar with the series, and I’m presuming that you are also somewhat familiar with your series –

Darynda:  Fairly familiar.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  – but someone who’s listening to this going, who the hell is this, and what are you talking about?  Could you give, like, a basic in-, introduction of Charley?

Darynda:  Oh, sure.  Okay, so –

Sarah:  ‘Cause I should have done that first, duh.

Darynda:  [Laughs] Yes, Charley is a female private investigator who’s living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and she was born the Grim Reaper, and so, basically, in every book I have her solve a mystery for the living and a mystery for the dead, because those who did not cross after they died, she helps them with their, I guess, unfinished business, and then they can cross through her, whatever.  So there’re all kinds of mysteries, and, and I like to say that I have two mysteries per book.  I usually have about seventeen, which –

[Laughter]

Darynda:  – which is about, you know, fifteen too many for my editor.

Sarah:  Of course.

Darynda:  She’s not always fond of that, but – [laughs] – that’s just the way – I don’t know, Charley is ADHD, and so she’s constantly on different tracks, and, and, and just multiple things going on at any given moment.

Sarah:  And she has a sort of ongoing, developing relationship with someone who is not very good for her.

Darynda:  Yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  And that’s not, and it’s hard to talk about that, because so much of the mystery begins in the first book and continues.

Darynda:  Right.

Sarah:  So there is a, there is a relationship.

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  It’s with a, with a dude, somewhat.

Darynda:  Yes, yes.

Sarah:  Something of a dude.  Something like a dude?

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  That would be a really good cover band, by the way, Something Like a Dude?

Darynda:  [Laughs] That would –

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Am I terrible?

Darynda:  I like that!  I’m going to have to write that down.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Feel free.

Darynda:  Okay.

Sarah:  And in every book, it’s a mixture of mystery, thriller, urban fantasy, paranormal, and sarcasm.  You written, now you’re writing the tenth book.  Do you ever, do you ever get a little tired of Charley?  Or do you really have a fun time with her?

Darynda:  You know, you would think that I would.  Every book is a new challenge, and that’s what I’m learning.  You, I, I don’t know.  Every book, they do, it does seem like they’re getting a little harder, and it’s not that the books are harder to write, it’s that I don’t want to let my readers down, so there’s that expectation –

Sarah:  Of course.

Darynda:  – you know, and so I’m like, how can I top the last book?  ‘Cause they really liked it!  I mean, if they wouldn’t have liked it, then it wouldn’t have been that bad, but they really liked it, so what am I going to do now?  You know.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Well, I, when, when I was, when I was writing up all of the books for the, for the one-day sale –

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  – on Sunday, yesterday –

Darynda:  Thank you for that, by the way.

Sarah:  You’re so welcome.  Was that yesterday?  That was yesterday, right?

Darynda:  Yes, it was, yes.

Sarah:  I have no concept of time.  Like, I’m listening to this organizational podcast, and it’s like, you need to figure out how long things take, and I’m like, I can’t do that.  I don’t ever know what time it is!

Darynda:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I don’t know how long things take!  I don’t even know what time it is right now!  So, stop.  So that’s not going to work for me.

Darynda:  I’m right there with you.

Sarah:  I don’t know what time it is.  I don’t know what day it is.  I don’t remember what I was wearing yesterday.  So anyway, while I was writing those up, I realized, every single one of those books has greater than a four-plus star average on Goodreads with more than 15,000 ratings!

Darynda:  Yeah –

Sarah:  DUDE!

Darynda:  I know.

Sarah:  That’s unnatural!

Darynda:  [Laughs] That’s –

Sarah:  That’s not normal!

Darynda:  I’m so grateful.

Sarah:  Maybe, maybe, maybe Goodreads is, like, this urban fantasy, paranormal world that we don’t know about.  And they’re all into Charley, ‘cause she’s like, well, we can’t fuck with her, ‘cause she’s the Grim Reaper, so four stars, Charley!  On your way!

Darynda:  Oh, I have the best readers.  I tell you what, I have the best readers.

Sarah:  I mean –

Darynda:  They’re so fantastic.

Sarah:  – that’s unheard of!  Even the books that everyone loves, there’s always, there’s always a conversation, which I always say is a beneficial conversation, of I didn’t like it, and here’s why.

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  The, the people who dislike it still own how much they enjoy reading it, because –

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  – she’s so fun to hang out with.

Darynda:  Oh, she is.  I love – and that’s, again, I just, I love writing her.  She’s, she never ceases to surprise me, and I just, I’m, I love it.  I, I don’t think I’m ever going to get tired of it.  I know people are going to get tired of reading her before I get tired of writing her.  I’ve decided that.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Well, aren’t you always, I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s hard when you have the expectation to please the readers who have been so happy with the series, but you also have to write to make yourself happy, ‘cause if you’re not enjoying it –

Darynda:  It’s true.

Sarah:  – it kind of shows.

Darynda:  That’s true.

Sarah:  At least in my experience.

Darynda:  I think it does.  I absolutely think it does, yeah.  And so I’m hoping that the books do show how much I enjoy writing her, because she’s just so fun.  She’s just fun.

Sarah:  I didn’t actually re-, read your books; I listened to them.

Darynda:  Oh, nice!

Sarah:  And Lorelei King –

Darynda:  Oh, my God!

Sarah:  -is a terrific narrator for Charley.

Darynda:  Oh, my God, she’s amazing.  She is amazing.

Sarah:  She gets, she gets just the right edge of sarcasm –

Darynda:  Yep.

Sarah:  – and she’s really good with dialog, so –

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  – the best thing about buying the books when they’re on sale is that you get, often get a discount on the audio version as well.

Darynda:  Oh, that’s true, yeah!

Sarah:  Which is, like, a nice tie-in.  It’s, it’s, it’s weird to have both the text and the audio work so well for so many people.  Nice job!  Well done!

Darynda:  Oh, thank you!  [Laughs] I’ll tell you what, when they wrote me – okay, so – and I’m not just saying this, this is, like, the most bizarre thing – Lorelei King was my favorite narrator anyway.

Sarah:  Really, that’s so funny!

Darynda:  I love, oh, yeah, I love audiobooks, I love them, and she narrates the Stephanie Plum series, but she also narrates Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, which I adore –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – and when they told me, I think it was the, the audiobook producer at Macmillan, Nancy, who wrote me, and she’s like, well, we got Lorelei King.  What do you, what do you think?  Are you okay with that?  I’m like –

Sarah:  Buuuh!

Darynda:  – I almost fell out of my chair!

[Laughter]

Darynda:  I’m like, are you kidding me?  What?  I was just floored.  I was so floored.  I was so amazed, and I love her.  I got to hang out with her in New York, and just, if you’re wondering, she is the absolute coolest lady ever.

Sarah:  Really?

Darynda:  She’s just so nice and so cool and just so positive and, and just fun to hang out with.  Oh!  I just loved her.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So you listen to a lot of audiobooks.

Darynda:  I do; I love them.  Constantly, yeah.

Sarah:  What are some of your favorites?  What are the ones that you recommend most?

Darynda:  Um – you know what?  It’s so weird, because I have this one favorite that I have to listen to about once a year, and I don’t know if it’s because it’s about an editor and writer and that, and it’s a book within a book within a book type thing, but I love Sandra Brown’s Envy.  I –

Sarah:  I love that book!

Darynda:  I love Envy!

Sarah:  I, I don’t know what it is.  I mean, I don’t even like romantic suspense, and Sandra Brown is like crack!  It’s like –

Darynda:  Oh, geeze!

Sarah:  – eighties, eighties hair, shoulder pads, crack!

Darynda:  [Laughs] She is!  She is; I just adore her, and she’s absolutely – that’s my favorite audiobook.  It’s, of all time.  And, and I love the narrator too, who I can’t remember his name.  It’s, he was an actor, kind of an old-school actor, and –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – I don’t think he’s with us anymore, but oh, my God, he was amazing.  He’s just amazing in that book.  What else do I – I recommend every – I love, I’ve listened to everything on audiobook, and a lot of times what I do is I’ll start them on audiobook, and I’ll finish reading them –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – because I won’t be in a, like, I, I travel so much, so I listen to audiobooks a lot when I’m traveling, and when I get home, I just want to read and, you know, finish the book, ‘cause I can’t wait.  So I start a lot of audiobooks and, and read at the same time.

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  I, I read several books at the same time.  Do you ever do that?

Sarah:  I do.  Usually it’s a sign that I’m stressed out.  I call it buffeting my reading.

Darynda:  Ooh, that’s interesting.

Sarah:  For me, it’s a sign that I can’t grab onto one thing and keep going, but I’m almost always reading something fiction and nonfiction at the same time, almost always.

Darynda:  Me too, yep, yep.  I do the same thing.  Yeah, yeah, so, interesting.

Sarah:  Do you listen to both on audiobook?

Darynda:  I do some.  I just started one last night, actually.  Not nonfiction; fiction by Jennifer L. Armentrout?

Sarah:  Uh-huh?

Darynda:  White Hot Kiss, I think, is what it’s called.

Sarah:  Ooh!

Darynda:  Yes, I like this.

Sarah:  And you started listening or reading?

Darynda:  I started listening to it, and oh, my God, it’s so good!  I – she’s amazing.

Sarah:  Really!

Darynda:  I don’t know if you’ve ever read her.  She’s –

Sarah:  I have not.

Darynda:  Oh, my God.  I can see, number one, she came out after I did.  I was first pub-, published in February 2011.  I think she was about, came out about six months later.  She’s already a number one New York Times bestselling author.  She’s amazing!  Oh, my God, I’m loving her stuff.

Sarah:  So your first book was 2011 –

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  – and now you’ve written ten books.

Darynda:  Yeah, I actually –

Sarah:  In four years.  Five years.

Darynda:  Yeah, my twelfth book, Eighth Grave, that comes out, is actually going to be my twelfth book that’s out.  One of them is an anthology, but, so really, technically eleven, ‘cause I have three Young Adult books out as well.

Sarah:  That’s right!

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  Tell me about the Young Adult books!

Darynda:  They are about – we’re going to have to pause one sec –

Sarah:  Doggies!  Hi, pooch!

Darynda:  Yes, doggies.  Let the doggies in.

Sarah:  Oh, no, pets are welcome.  Pets are very welcome on my podcast.

Darynda:  Oh, are they?  [Laughs]

Sarah:  ‘Cause until about, earlier this month, I had an elderly cat who, she would hear me talking, and she would come, and you would hear MROWW.

Darynda:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  And so she, we had to put her to sleep in the beginning of April –

Darynda:  Oh –

Sarah:  – and so I had to actually talk about her on the podcast ‘cause everyone would hear her, and then people were like, oh, my God, I can’t believe she’s gone.  So since then, every guest that I’ve had, their pets have shown up on the podcast, so dogs are totally welcome!  If you, if they bark, it’s totally great!

Darynda:  Because they’re wrestling right now while we’re –

Sarah:  Of course they are!

Darynda:  [Laughs] Oh, they’re so cute.

Sarah:  I just walked mine, and he, he is passed out on the floor, so there’s not going to be any pet noise on my end, but dogs are totally welcome.

Darynda:  Okay, yes.

Sarah:  What are your dogs’ names?

Dog:  Grrrr!

Sarah:  That’s right, you’re totally welcome!

Darynda:  They’re Cain and Cargo, and –

Sarah:  They’re big!  They’re big dogs.

Darynda:  Yes.  I have a, a 95-pound pit bull – [laughs] – and then I have a little 35-pound Staffie, who –

Sarah:  And he is the boss, right?

Darynda:  – that’s – yes, absolutely.

Sarah:  Of course.

Darynda:  She rules the – absolutely.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Yeah, I have two dogs of different size, and the small one is the boss.

Darynda:  Yeah, yeah.

Sarah:  I don’t know how that works.

Darynda:  It is, it’s funny.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  And, and you see people who are absolutely just in-, immediately terrified of pit bulls, and every pit bull I’ve met has (a) been very kind and (b) been ruled by a much smaller dog.

Darynda:  Yes.

[Laughter]

Sarah:  Like, there’s, like, you know what, if you’re a smaller dog, I’m following you; it’s totally cool.

Darynda:  Oh, yes!  They’re absolutely the sweetest dogs ever!  I’ve never fallen so in love with more dogs than – and I was the same way.  My son got a pit bull, and we refused to let him bring him home, and so he stayed at his girlfriend’s house for a while –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – and his name was Dooley , and Casey would bring him over to spend the night, you know?

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Darynda:  And we fell –

Sarah:  To visit the grandparents?

Darynda:  Yes, yes.  We fell, about the second time, we fell in love with that dog.

Sarah:  Awww!

Darynda:  We’re like, okay, you can bring him.  And we just absolutely – he just died, we had to put him down in October.  He died of cancer, and –

Sarah:  Oh!  I’m so sorry.  It’s the worst part, right?

Darynda:  – it just – yes!  Oh!

Sarah:  It’s like, it’s the most important thing you do as a pet owner, and it is the worst part ever.

Darynda:  Yes, it is.  It was so, so hard.  I’m never, it just – it was hard.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I was, as my kids are young, they’re seven and nine, and I had to explain, you know, in your lifetime, if you’re lucky, you’ll have a lot of wonderful pets, because most of the time, the pets that you have last maybe ten to fifteen years, and humans live much longer, and my younger son was like, that is so not fair!  And I was like, you’re totally right, dude!

Darynda:  I agree!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  It’s not fair!  [Laughs]

Darynda:  I completely agree.

Sarah:  ‘Cause, you know, he’s in second grade.  Everything is fair or not fair.

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  He’s totally right on about that one.  It’s not fair!

Darynda:  There’s no gray; it’s black and white.

Sarah:  That’s right.  And it’s not fair, but it sucks, and I’m very sorry.

Darynda:  Yes, thank you, thank you.  It was very hard, but – [laughs] oh, well.  We, we got Cargo, who actually, for, she – so he was a pit bull, and Cargo’s a Staffie, but she looks bizarrely alike.

[Laughter]

Darynda:  Like Dooley, the one who passed away.  I don’t know that we, we didn’t do that on purpose, but it’s like a little bitty version of Dooley.  It’s so sweet.  She’s a doll.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  That’s awesome.  Well, I’m down to a normal number of pets.  I used to have three cats and two dogs.  Now I have two dogs and one cat, and I’m like, that’s, like, normal?  That’s not good.  I need, I need an absurd number of animals.

Darynda:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I, I need, like, you know, so-, like, like, a donkey?

Darynda:  Yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Maybe a giraffe?  Some alpacas –

Darynda:  Ostrich?  [Laughs]

Sarah:  – chicken, ostrich?  Oh, yeah.  My husband hates birds.  If I had an ostrich, he’d be like, all right, now we need to have a talk.  [Laughs]

Darynda:  Yeah.  I’m not the biggest fan.  I love animals, I, I absolutely love them, but there are certain animals that I just don’t know that I would want in my house, you know?  As much as I love them –

Sarah:  Yep.

Darynda:  – to look at them, I, yeah.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  One of the things that’s very popular around me is to get chickens so you can have fresh eggs, and every time we walk by a house that has set up a chicken coop, my husband’s like, no.  Just no.  Just, there is no way.  There, just no.

Darynda:  Don’t even think about it.

Sarah:  Just no.  Just birds, no.  Just – I’m okay, that’s fine.  I’ll just, you know, become friends with those neighbors.

Darynda:  Okay.

Sarah:  Like, can I trade you baked goods for your eggs?  ‘Cause no birds.  I can have, like, nineteen cats, but no birds.

Darynda:  Right, birds.

Sarah:  [Laughs] So, anyway, before awesome pet, pet appearance – hi, dogs! – tell me about your Young Adult series.

Darynda:  Oh, right, okay.  So – [laughs] – it is about, it’s just a trilogy, and it is about a girl whose life is changed when the Angel of Death starts high school in her home town.

Sarah:  Like you do.

Darynda:  Yeah, yeah.  And so, and it’s kind of funny that we were talking about Lorelei, because my agent and I – so I’d written, I had written the first of the Young Adults –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – and set it aside, thinking it would never sell.  Then I wrote First Grave on the Right, and it sold first, obviously –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – and then the Young Adult sold.

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  But then I had to change the names, because the names were too much alike.

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  I had Charley and Chelsea, and I didn’t like it.

Sarah:  That is a little close.

Darynda:  Yeah, so I was trying to come up with –

Sarah:  I would mess that up.  All of a sudden, Chelsea would be running around with Charley, and I would be –

Darynda:   Yeah, yeah, it would be, it would be too much for my head to manage.  I can only manage so much, so – [laughs]

Sarah:  Of course, I wrote a novella, and the characters were Genevieve and Jeremy, so it was Gen and Jer, and I was like, what did I do to myself?  Why did I do that?  That was dumb!

Darynda:  Exactly!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  There was so much copyediting of, like, three-letter names.

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  So I, I admire your decision to change your name –

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  – ‘cause that was really smart!

[Laughter]

Sarah:  So Chelsea became, what’s her name now?

Darynda:  Chelsea became, well, I had originally called her Laney –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – just because that, that’s a cute name, and well, my agent was like, oh, we need something, something stronger or something more whatever, and we’d started talking about Lorelei King, and, and my agent, who is Alexandra Machinist, and –

Sarah:  Yeah.

Darynda:  – she was like, that’s it!  Lorelei!  That’s the perfect name!  And so –

Sarah:  [Laughs] Nice!

Darynda:  Yeah, so, Lorelei, my, my heroine, is named after Lorelei King, and it was just very cool because Lorelei ended up narrating those books as well.

Sarah:  Fabulous.

Darynda:  Yeah, she, she likes, she likes that, so I was like, oh, and so, and she did such a fantastic job!  Oh!  How, how she does that, I don’t know.  Anyway.

Sarah:  Do you listen to your own books?

Darynda:  So I listened to the first Charley Davidson, and I listened to the first Darklight –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – the trilogy, and what’s really crazy is that even when I listen to them, all I hear is the mistakes that I made.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Darynda:  That’s all I hear.  I can’t re-read my books.  It’s horrible, because then I forget what’s happening, and I just, I can’t re-read them, so I listen to snippets.

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  [Laughs] I go through and I listen to parts and, and, and this and that, and I’ll scroll through, because Lorelei’s so amazing and, you know, I just, I love listening to her, but again, even with her incredible talent, I still hear my mistakes.

Sarah:  Yep.

Darynda:  It’s the weirdest thing.  I don’t know.

Sarah:  No, I don’t think it’s weird at all.  When I’m proofreading, I read aloud to myself, but I, I do it in different voices?

Darynda:  Mm-hmm.

Sarah:  Because then I’m concentrating on changing my voice enough, I start to hear the errors that I don’t see.  Like, when you meant to write certain words, you see those words, even though they’re not there?

Darynda:  Absolutely you do.

Sarah:  ‘Cause our brains are amazing at making us look really dumb.  [Laughs]

Darynda:  Yes.  Yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So I had, I end up reading things to myself aloud in different voices or different characters, so that’s when I will hear, oh, geeze, I don’t know how to use verbs at all, do I?

[Laughter]

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  I am terrible at verb, verb, noun-verb agreement.

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  The, the singular, singular nouns and plural verbs, no problem.  Yeah, I’ll do it all the time.

Darynda:  Yeah.  Yes, yes.  I don’t know.  I have certain, yeah, certain things that just will not click in my head, and that’s one of them.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Yep.  Yep, yep, yep.  But then, once I learn the rule, I see it everywhere else, and I’m like, I should just not be so worked up about this, ‘cause everyone else is making the same mistakes.

Darynda:  Right!

Sarah:  Why should I worry about it?

Darynda:  Yeah, yeah!

Sarah:  The heck with it.

Darynda:  [Laughs] Very true!

Sarah:  So is the Young Adult series just a trilogy?

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  Are you going to write another?

Darynda:  I am actually working on another Young Adult series right now for my agent –

Sarah:  Ooh!

Darynda:  – and I’m working, I’m working on two different series for my agent.  My agent want to see, I actually pitched, like, forty-seven to her, but – [laughs]

Sarah:  As you do.

Darynda:  Yes, as I do, and so she, she picked two, and so, one is Young Adult, historical paranormal Young Adult, and then one is just, bizarrely, historical fiction.  I’m not sure –

Sarah:  Nice!

Darynda:  – where I’m going to go with that, but that’s what I’m doing.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  That’s a change, a, a major change of genre.

Darynda:  It is, it is.  I’m not sure where –

Sarah:  What, what, what historical period?

Darynda:  It’s in a set, okay, the Young Adult is set in seven-, the 1730s –

Sarah:  Whoa!

Darynda:  – Orleans, New Orleans.

Sarah:  Cool!

Darynda:  Yeah, and it’s, it’s when they emptied out the insane asylums and prisons in France and brought, to occupy New Orleans so they’d have more people there?  Not realizing if you put insane people and prisoners in a town that it was going to become a little weird, and so – [laughs]

Sarah:  All of Australia who is listening is like, yeah, you don’t say.

Darynda:  Yeah, exactly.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  New Zealand’s like, yep!  Totally true!  [Laughs]

Darynda:  Exactly, exactly.  That’s how New Orleans got their people.  So, so it’s basically set in that time period, and then my, my historical fiction is set in 1860s New York.

Sarah:  Cool!

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  So you’re, you’re going to help revive American historicals.  I’m totally in favor.

Darynda:  [Laughs] Hopefully; that’d be fun.

Sarah:  Well, I always think of Kathe Robin from, from Romantic Times who, who when she does a panel says, you know, we have been re-, reading about the Regency about four times longer than it actually existed.

Darynda:  [Laughs] Yeah.

Sarah:  There are other time periods in the world!  [Laughs]

Darynda:  That’s true!

Sarah:  And yet, it’s, I love it, like, all the classic Regencies, I love those.  I will read those end-to-end, no problem.  Carla Kelly is the bomb!

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  But she’s totally, but Kathe’s totally right.  We have been reading about the Regency, like, five times longer than it existed.

Darynda:  That’s true, that’s true.

Sarah:  So go you!

Darynda:  My first, my first manuscript that I wrote was historical romance, set in the Regency.

Sarah:  Excellent!  Charley had a, had a corset and some ruffles?

Darynda:  [Laughs] You know, it’s funny that, it actually just kind of happened to be set there because I wanted to, I included, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet –

Sarah:  Oh!

Darynda:  – actually makes an appearance in the books, so I had to make it, I think it was 1815 is when he went over to England and –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  So there he is!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  That’s where it was set.  So are you ever going to sell that?  Or self-publish it, or is that like, no –

Darynda:   I don’t know –

Sarah:  – that cannot leave the drawer?

Darynda:  Forever I thought it cannot leave the drawer.  That’s what it was.  It was my under-the-bed –

Sarah:  Yep.

Darynda:  – never going to go anywhere.

Sarah:  Yep.

Darynda:  What’s really crazy is that a couple of friends of mine did an intervention – [laughs] – and they had read my first, the historical, a long time, way before I ever got published.

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  Everybody, okay, so, long story short, how am I going to do this?  I, I was teaching at the time.  I was teaching at a, a small community college –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – and all my students found out that I was writing this, that I had written this manuscript, right?

Sarah:  Cool!

Darynda:  And so they all wanted to read it, and I’m like, I don’t know, guys.  I don’t know.  You know, I didn’t know what they’d think of it.  There’s sex in it!  I don’t know that you should read this –

[Laughter]

Darynda:  – and they, yeah, they absolutely loved it!  And so –

Sarah:  Ooh!

Darynda:  – as it turns out, every single one of the people who read the, my historical romance like it better than the Charley Davidson series.  Like, all of them.

Sarah:  Really!

Darynda:  And so they’re like, Darynda, you’ve got to put this out!  You have to sell it, you know, and all this, so, so I actually ended up sending it to my agent, and she’s like, she’s like, Darynda, I’m not going to sell this until you can turn a book in on time.  I’m like, oh, that could be a while.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Oh, sh-, ouch!  Ouch!  Ouuuch!  Ouch, ouch.

Darynda:  Now, in my own defense, I do turn my books in a, a week or so late, usually.

Sarah:  Oh, is that all?  A week?

Darynda:  There have been a couple, little, couple more were a little longer.  But everything else I turn in on time.  I, revisions –

Sarah:  Right.

Darynda:  – edits, copyedits, everything, I’m very good about getting those in right on time, but it’s just that initial deadline that just kills me –

Sarah:  Yep.

Darynda:  – which I’m on right now, which I’m very behind, which is Friday, and I’m on page twelve.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Better than being on page two!

Darynda:  That is true.  That’s very true.  [Laughs] It’s all good, though.

Sarah:  So do you, so do you think you will eventually sell it, or you think you might self-publish it?  ‘Cause I, I already can hear people saying, well, well, I want to read that, right now!  Give it to me!

Darynda:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Give it to me now!

Darynda:  Well, I actually, that’s, when I had, was talking to my agent, I told her, you know, that I kind of think about just, just putting it out there –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – self-publishing it, and she’s like, well, why would you put something out there that’s not your best work?  And I said, well, I didn’t think it was my best work, but everybody likes it, so I’m thinking maybe?  Maybe it’s not bad.  Maybe I should put it out there!  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I think that you can frame it as, this is the book that I wrote first, and –

Darynda:  Right.

Sarah:  – I mean, I know there’s a number of people who have written early books and then gotten the rights back and published them and said, this is one of the earliest books I’ve ever written, and now I write all of these other things.

Darynda:  Right.

Sarah:  I think that – in my opinion, and keep in mind I’m as full of shit as anybody – I think that the –

Darynda:  [Laughs] I love your shit.  I’m sure –

Sarah:  I’m as full of shit as anybody.  Grain of salt, yea big.  So I, I think that the longer readers spend online talking to authors and everyone else, the more that readers learn how publishing works and how authors grow and how people change as writers.  I mean, I do not understand why all of my favorite historical writers from the eighties now write romantic suspense, which I don’t like.

Darynda:  Yes!

Sarah:  I don’t get it, but that’s what they do, because that genre was selling, and so they –

Darynda:  Exactly.

Sarah:  – all moved over, and –

Darynda:  Exactly!

Sarah:  – I don’t like them, but oh, well, I understand it.  That –

Darynda:  We’re talking to you, Judith McNaught.  Just so you know.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  And Julie Garwood –

Darynda:  Yes!

Sarah:  – and Catherine Coulter?

Darynda:  Yes!

Sarah:  Oh, my God, Catherine Coulter had, like, rapetastic fuchsia craziness!

Darynda:  Exactly, exactly!

Sarah:  That was my first romance, and now it’s suspense, and I don’t like that –

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  – but that’s okay!

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  Because that’s the decision that they have to make, and they grow as writers, and that’s totally cool –

Darynda:  Right.

Sarah:  – and I get that.  And I think that the more readers interact with one another online and interact with authors, they understand that the things that authors publish now may not be being, it may not be a sequence.  It may be, hey, I got the rights back to these books –

Darynda:  Right.

Sarah:  – and now I’m bringing them back out into the world.  Like, for example, Carla Kelly is a great example.  She now writes inspirational romance that is for the Latter-Day Saints audience.

Darynda:  Wow.

Sarah:  That is not, I am not in that audience.

Darynda:  Yeah.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  But her early Regencies, which are being published now by InterMix and were originally published, I think, by Signet, and she self-published a couple of them?  Those are ten, fifteen years old.  They’re wonderful!

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  And I fully recognize the – this is a hard word – the antiquity of the style.  I recognize that those are older books.

Darynda:  Right.

Sarah:  I totally get the differences in the languages.

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  I can handle it.  So I think if you were to be, like, this is the first book I ever read, and people thought it was good, and, you know –

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:   – here you go.  I say go for it.

Darynda:  Okay, thank you.  I’m going to tell my agent you said I could do it.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  Yeah, and she’ll be like, Sarah’s full of shit!  What does she know?  And I’m going to be like, this is true.  I am very full of shit!  Frequently.  Frequently full of shit.  Like, every day.

Darynda:  I am too, quite often.

Sarah:  Good plan!  [Laughs] So once you finish your deadline, once you’re done –

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  – and you’ve written twelve, pages, pages thirteen through –

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  – two hundred and something –

Darynda:  Yes.

Sarah:  – are you a fast writer?  I’m assuming you must be a pretty zippy –

Darynda:  I am.

Sarah:  – pretty zippy writer.

Darynda:  Once I get, I’m an, I’m – it takes me forever to outline ‘cause I’m so anal about it –

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  – but once I have that outline done, yeah, I can write it really fast.

Sarah:  That’s cool!

Darynda:  Yeah.

Sarah:  So you’re sort of like a half plot, plotser-pantser.

Darynda:  Yeah, yeah, well, kind of.  I, my, my, my outlines are ridiculous.  They’re, they can be sixty pages long.  There so ri-, they’re just, I’m so –

Sarah:  Wow.

Darynda:  – I mean, I have every little detail, and yet, I still change it.  I mean it’s, nothing is written in stone, you know, so –

Sarah:  Of course.

Darynda:  But I am really anal about my, about my outline.  I admit that.  I freely admit it.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  So once you’re done with your deadline, is there anything you’re looking forward to reading?  Is there anything you’re saving?

Darynda:  There is!  I, I’ve been saving, I have, a really good friend of mine just came out with, Tamra Baumann just came out with a book called It Had to Be Him, and, published with Montlake.

Sarah:  Uh-huh.

Darynda:  Oh, my God, I love her writing.  Like, I love it so insanely much, and so I’ve been saving that one.  And I’ve also been saving Jeffe Kennedy’s The Mark of the Tala, I still have not read.  I’m saving those two.  Those are, like, my, I’m salivating to read them.  I’m like, oh, I’ve got to get this book done.  I’ve got to get it – but, yeah, they just – Tam, Tammy writes, like, her heroes, I can’t even, she’s one of those, I’m so jealous of her heroes because they’re just –

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Darynda:  – oh, my God, they’re so delicious.  They’re just so scrumptious, and you just, and they’re not all alpha.  They’re just charming.  They’re literally, like, Prince Charming in this gorgeous body and, oh, I can’t wait to read her book.  [Laughs] Can you tell?

Sarah:  Yes!  You, you have my attention, all of this scrumptious hero-ness.

Darynda:  Yes.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I’m, I, I’m, I’m listening.

Darynda:  She’s very good.  She’s very good.  And, and Jeffe Kennedy’s books are just, they’re doing so insanely well.  She got an RT four and a half gold?

Sarah:  Whoa!

Darynda:  Trying to think if I ever met anybody that’s got a four and a half gold, and she’s also up for Book of the Year at RT –

Sarah:  Wow.

Darynda:  – so I’m, I’ve been like, I, what, I’m so behind on everything.  I’ve got to get this read, but – [laughs]

Sarah:  Are you going to RT?

Darynda:  I am going to RT.  I’m really excited.

Sarah:  Woohoo!  Yay!

Darynda:  Yes, yes.

Sarah:  Are you on any panels while you’re there?

Darynda:  I am.  I am on several, and you’re going to ask me which ones they are, and I have no idea.  [Laughs] Okay.

Sarah:  I presume that, you know, you’re talking about paranormal romance and urban fantasy?

Darynda:  Yes, yes.

Sarah:  And kickass heroines?

Darynda:  Yes.  I’m on, I know I’m on Heroes and Heartbreakers one.  I’m, I’m actually doing a Scrapbooking Mania with Jennifer L. Armentrout, which is why I wanted to at least sample her books, and now I can’t stop, ‘cause she’s amazing.  Am I on, oh, I’m on one with Jeffe Kennedy about paranormal.  It’s got Chloe Neill and, and Jennifer Estep and Lauren Dane and –

Sarah:  All the usual suspects.

Darynda:  – Tamora Pierce.  Yeah, just, yeah.  I’m so excited.  I, I freak out at the people I’m on panels with.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Darynda:  Oh, my God, I fangirl so hard.  It’s insane.  I’m just like, she’s sitting right beside me!  You know, I just, oh, my God, I, I get very excited.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I was once on a panel with L. A. Banks, and I could barely talk.

Darynda:  Nice!

Sarah:  I was just like –

Darynda:  Yes.  Yes.

Sarah:  She’s right there!  She’s right, she’s right next to me!  What do I, what do I do?

Darynda:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  And, and if you’ve ever met L. A. Banks, she was one of the most friendly, welcoming, nice –

Darynda:  Oh, yes, I have.

Sarah:  She was so incredibly welcoming, and I’m sitting there, and my inner thirteen-year-old is going, oh, my God!  AAHHHH!  [Laughs]

Darynda:  Oh, I loved her!  She had the best personality.  She’s amazing!  I –

Sarah:  Oh, she’s one of the most lovely human beings I have ever met –

Darynda:  Yes.  Absolutely.

Sarah:  – and sitting next to her on a panel turned out to be a truly wonderful experience, but when I sat down, I was like, please don’t let me make a complete ass of myself!

Darynda:  Right!

Sarah:  Oh, my God!  I can’t believe I’m sitting right there!

Darynda:  I know.  I always, very often do that.  Very often.  I was on a panel at RT last year, and we’re sitting there, it was a very early panel, so we didn’t expect that many people, and there were quite a few people, we were very pleased, and it was on blogging and blog, the blogger/author relationship, and it was a fantastic panel, and in walks E. L. James.

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Darynda:  And we’re just like –

Sarah:  Buh?

Darynda:  – what the fu-, oh, my God!

Sarah:  [Laughs]

Darynda:  And I’m texting, and I’m texting my sister, holy shit!  E. L. James is in the audience!  And my sister’s like, who’s E. L. James?

[Laughter]

Sarah:  You can’t even properly appreciate my freaking out.  I am not texting you again!

Darynda:  [Laughs] That’s so wrong! And we were, everybody on the panel was just kind of freaking out.

Sarah:  Gll!  Yeah?

Darynda:  I got to meet her.  It was very cool.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  I, I, I would have just, I would have just bjo, I would have – I can’t even talk right now at the idea!  Oh, my lord.

Darynda:  You know what, and I thought, yeah, I thought, when it was over I thought, I have to, I have to introduce, how many opportunities am I going to have?  So, I went up to her, and I said, I love your books, I just want you to know, and can I have your, my, my picture with you?  And she’s like, oh, well, certainly, of course you can!  You know, she’s so, she’s so nice.  We’re having a picture, and she looks at my name badge, and she goes, oh, my gosh, you’re Darynda Jones!  I love your books too!  I’m like –

Sarah:  AAHHH!

Darynda:  – so of course, I about passed out.  [Laughs]

Sarah:  There’s an ee, and that’s when your inner thirteen-year-old is like, I need to lie down now.

Darynda:  [Laughs] Yes!

Sarah:  I can’t handle this.

Darynda:  Very much so.  Very much so.  And the same thing happened, I went to, at the Karen Marie Moning event, oh, my God.  She was like, I love your books!  There’s nothing, there is nothing more than when somebody who you admire so much loves what, that you’ve written.

[Laughter]

Darynda:  They like it?  They really like it?  Oh, my God, it was amazing.  [Laughs] It was amazing, and J. R. Ward, too.  I mean, she gave me my first blurb.  It was just, my first cover quote, so, oh!  There’s nothing greater, nothing greater than that.

Sarah:  So you’re still not used to being a bestseller, huh?

Darynda:  Oh, gosh, no.

[Laughter]

Darynda:  No, I’m still, no, I’m still a fangirl.  I don’t, I’m not quite in that, in that league yet, but maybe someday.

Sarah:  Is, is there anyone you’re, you’re still excited to meet?  Is there anyone you’re going to see at RT that you’re really excited to meet?  That you haven’t met yet?  Or have you been around the community enough that you’re sort of like, I kind of know everybody?

Darynda:  There’s always people.  I love, like, when I look at the people I’m on panels with, you know, I’m, I’m always just freaking out.  And even though I know that I’ve met Lauren, I think I’ve met Lauren Dane before, I can’t, I can’t even remember now, but I’m so excited that I get to meet her.  I’m really looking forward to, to meeting Lauren Dane and, and, and seeing Jennifer now that – so I was on this, this Scrapbooking Mania with her last year, but I hadn’t read anything of hers, and so now, I’ve read her stuff, and so now I’m going in fangirl.  I can’t wait to just go up and hug her and tell her how much I love her and – [laughs]

Sarah:  Oh, that’s awesome!

Darynda:  Yeah, she’s, just love her work, so.

Sarah:  So you still get excited about reading other books and about writing books, and it never gets old.  My dog would like to add to this question.

Dog:  Woof!  Woof, woof, woof!

Darynda:  [Laughs]

Sarah:  My dog is actually aware that the UPS man has arrived.  And we must, we must summon, summon the guardians.  Look, your brother’s just, like, lying there with his feet in the air.  He doesn’t even care.  Thank you for defending the porch.  You’re a good boy.  Yeah.  I’m going to go bark some more.  Anyway.  So you still get excited about reading and writing in, in romance and urban fantasy.

Darynda:  Absolutely.  Absolutely, yeah.  It, it never gets old.

Sarah:  That’s so cool!

Darynda:  Yeah, yeah.  [Laughs] I do.

Sarah:  Before we go, is there any series or any, any author that you always recommend to someone who says, oh, I’ve never tried urban fantasy.  I’ve never tried this genre.  Who should I read?  What should I try?

Darynda:  I always recommend J. R. Ward.

Sarah:  Mm-hmm.

Darynda:  Because Zsadist is my secret lover and – [laughs] – he is my book boyfriend forever and ever until the end of time.

Sarah:  Somebody’s listening going, nuh-uh!  No, no, no!  He’s mine.  I think four people are probably saying that right now.

Darynda:  Oh, no, seriously.  And, yeah, when I do recommend urban fantasy, I, and I just started, oh, who else do I – I just started Faith Hunter, too.

Sarah:  Yeah?

Darynda:  She’s amazing.  Oh, my God, she’s so good.  So I really like hers.  Of course Karen Marie Moning is amazing.  I love, I absolutely, I still love to this day historical romance, and I love Julia Quinn.  I will always love Julia Quinn.  There’s a lot.  I, there’s, I have a ton of authors.  I still love, I don’t care what anybody says, I don’t care:  I am a Twilight fan.  I, ‘til, ‘til the day I die.

Sarah:  No shame!

Darynda:  I love Twilight – [laughs] – and I don’t, you know, I still will recommend it.  I don’t care what anybody says.  Hunger Games, of course, Suzanne Collins I love.  I read a lot of Young Adult, too, so, so there’s a lot of that.

[music]

Sarah:  And that is all for this week’s podcast.  I want to thank Darynda Jones for taking the time to talk to me about being a fan of all of the writers.  Isn’t it cool when you listen to someone who’s a bestseller who’s incredibly successful, and then, and then you hear them talking so enthusiastically about the books and authors they love?  That’s the, that’s just the best.  It’s so cool.

This podcast was brought to you by InterMix, publisher of Ever Night, the sexy new paranormal novella from New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter.  Download it on May 19^th.

The music you’re listening to was provided by Sassy Outwater.  This is Caravan Palace.  This track is called “Cotton Heads,” and it’s from their albumPanic in the USA.  You can find it online at Amazon or iTunes, or wherever you like to buy some fine, fine music.

Future podcasts will include me and also Jane talking about books.  We’re going to talk about Romantic Times, and I’ve scheduled a bunch of micro-interviews during RT, so you’ll hear from some people who listen to the podcast, which is really cool ‘cause I always have this fear that, like, you know, despite the stats that I have, which aren’t many – there’s, it’s weird, like, iTunes gives you no stats, which is just ridiculous.  They will tell you they don’t like the name of your podcast, but then they won’t tell you how many people listen to it.  Not that I’m bitter.  But anyway, I’m always amazed when people are like, I love your podcast!  And I’m like, oh, my gosh, there’s, like, more than twenty people.  That’s amazing!  So more than twenty people are contacting me to do micro-interviews, so you’ll hear from some of the awesome humans who listen to the podcast, and you’re one of them, so thank you!

And if you have ideas or suggestions or questions, you can email us at [email protected].  We really like your email.  I have a lot of it saved up, and I’m going to do a future mailbag episode.  Although the problem with the mailbag is that I talk all the time through.  I read the email, and then I answer the email, and I think I should hire people or find people to read the letters.  So like, I have a friend who used to work for news radio, and he’s got one of those deep news radio voices.  I should totally have him do it, right?  Of course.  It would be great.  He’ll be like, what are you talking about, and why am I reading a letter about mantitty?  But anyway!

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, on behalf of Darynda Jones and Jane and myself, have a great weekend, and thank you for listening.

[grooviest music that ever grooved]