Today I get to chat with a debut author, Alexa Martin, about her upcoming book, Intercepted, which comes out on the 11th of September.
Intercepted is very much inspired by her own life as the spouse of an NFL player, and by her affectionate love of Real Housewives, and her very real friends from various NFL team communities. We talk about her start in Pitch Wars, her rewrites of the original story, and her own experiences which found their way into the book. We talk about being an NFL wife and get a behind-the-scenes account of what that’s like, and we go into one of my favorite parts of her book: her fantasy nightclub/bar for women (which I wish was real, you have no idea). A lot of our discussion is about friendship, especially the ways her friendships influenced the foundation of Intercepted, and influenced the characters that surround her heroine, Marlee.
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Find out more about Alexa Martin and her books on her website, AlexaMartinBooks.com, on Twitter @AlexaMBooks, and on Instagram at @AlexaMBooks.
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Our music is provided by Sassy Outwater.
This is “Marx Terrace,” by the Peatbog Fairies, from their album Dust.
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Podcast Sponsor
This week’s podcast is brought to you by Wind River Lawman by Lindsay McKenna.
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Transcript
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[music]
Sarah Wendell: Hello, and welcome to episode number 315 of Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. With me today is Alexa Martin. Today we are going to talk to a debut author – that would be Alexa Martin – about her upcoming book Intercepted, which comes out on the 11th of September. Intercepted is very much inspired by Alexa Martin’s own life as the spouse of an NFL player and by her affectionate love of the Real Housewives and her very real friends from various NFL team communities. We talk about her start as a writer in Pitch Wars, her rewrites of the original story, and her own experiences which found their way into the book. We talk about being an NFL wife and get a behind-the-scenes account of what that’s like, and we go into one of my favorite parts of her book, her fantasy nightclub/bar for women, which you have no idea how much I wish it was real. A lot of our discussion is about friendship, especially the ways her friendships influenced the foundation of Intercepted and influenced the characters that surround her heroine, Marlee. I really enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as well!
This podcast episode is brought to you by Wind River Lawman by Lindsay McKenna. Former Navy medic Dawson Callahan thought he left the war behind him when he settled into the wide-open spaces of Wind River Valley in Wyoming. But when Sheriff Sarah Carter asks for Dawson’s help with the incursion of a drug cartel into the once peaceful valley, Dawson considers it his duty to rid his new home of any threat. Wind River Lawman from bestselling author Lindsay McKenna is on sale now wherever books are sold and at kensingtonbooks.com.
Every podcast episode, as I’m sure you know, gets a transcript compiled by garlicknitter – thank you, garlicknitter! – and this week’s podcast transcript is sponsored by Undue Influence by Jenny Holiday. This male/male retelling of Persuasion will appeal to Jane Austen fans but can also be enjoyed by anyone who might be allergic to the 19th century. Celebrity chef Freddy Wentworth has begrudgingly returned to the town of his youth where his sister has bought a down-at-heels vineyard in a foreclosure auction. Adam Elliot is crushed that the family vineyard has been lost and heartbroken when the sale forces him to confront the biggest mistake he ever made: forsaking Freddy, his first and only love. As a young man, Adam was too easily swayed by his status-obsessed family and by his best friend Rusty, who thought Freddy wasn’t good enough for him. This slow-burn romance contains a yippy dog named Mr. Collins, wine slushies, and a serious dose of angst. For more information and a two-chapter excerpt, visit jennyholiday.com/undue-influence.
We have a podcast Patreon. Can I tell you about it? Cool! It’ll only take a second. If you have supported the show with a monthly pledge of any amount, thank you so much! If you would like to join the Patreon community, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. You will help keep the show going each week, and you help make sure each episode is available to everyone in every possible format. Monthly pledges start at a dollar a month, and you would also be part of the group who helps me develop questions for upcoming interviews and suggests guests as well.
I also want to thank some of the Patreon folks personally, so to Elizabeth, Kathleen, V, Sarahjane, and Dorothy, thank you for being part of the podcast Patreon.
Are there other ways to support the show? You bet there are! Easy! You can leave a review wherever you listen or however you listen. You can tell a friend, you can subscribe, whatever works, but if I’m in your eardrums right now, thank you very much for hanging out with me. I’m honored to be here.
Coming up at the end of the show, I will have information about the music that you are probably listening to, or at least wondering if you can hear it. It’s – you know it’s called a bed? Isn’t that great? I think it’s a cool term. So the bed is the music that plays under my voice, and I have to drop the volume and then raise it up, which is why I try not to use music that has lyrics in it, because then there’s going to be words conflicting with the words that I’m trying to say. But anyway, if you’re curious about the bed of music that you’re hearing, I will have information at the end of the episode as to who this is. I will also have a super terrible, horrible joke; it’s so bad. And I will have a preview of what’s coming up on the website next week.
In the podcast show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast, I will have information about the books that we discuss, plus links where you can find Alexa Martin and her book and her upcoming books – this is the first of a new trilogy.
But enough of me talking! I’m going to elevate the volume of the music playing behind me, and then we’re going to start an interview! On with the podcast.
[music]
Alexa Martin: I am Alexa Martin. My first book, Intercepted, is coming out in September with Berkley.
Sarah: Yay!
Alexa: Yay! I am a, other than writing, I’m a stay-at-home mom. I have four kids, and I’m married to my husband, who was in the NFL for eight years and was part of the inspiration behind my book. I don’t know if there’s much else to tell about me.
[Laughter]
Sarah: So the obvious first question here is what led you to writing Intercepted? Where did you get the inspiration for your book? I’m going to take a long shot and guess, like, your life.
Alexa: Yeah.
[Laughter]
Alexa: Basically. Well, except for it’s definitely not, like, fully based. It’s like my life meets, like, a very dramatic E! reality show. [Laughs] It’s definitely not a lot of stuff that happens to me? I actually started writing Intercepted like five years ago, and it was a totally different book then than what you’ll be reading. I was like, I don’t want to write about football; it’s boring. Nobody wants to read about football.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: And so I was like, nope, and I, I’d tried out for Pitch Wars, which is a writing contest that I found through Twitter where you submit your manuscript to different mentors and hopefully one will pick you, and they will help polish your manuscripts and help you query for an agent, and they’re just like, yeah, this is kind of a hot mess. Like, you have a good voice, but this is kind of a mess, and so thankfully they chose me, even though it was a disaster. They were just like, you need to pick a lane, ‘cause you are all over the place right now. They were like, what do you think about making it more – ‘cause there were still some sports in it, but not as much – they were like, what do you think about doing more of the sports, and I was like, I’m not sure, and then, like, I kind of thought about it, and I was just, like, an idea popped up, and I was able to write this, like – [laughs] – the first one took me, like, three years, and this one took me about two months?
Sarah: Wow!
Alexa: So it just kind of, like, flew out, which is probably not ever going to happen again. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah.
Alexa: I am not a very fast writer. But, so, yeah, it was just a lot of, I would say the people that I’ve met kind of rolled into the good characters and a lot of the fun Real Housewives, E! drama kind of turned into a villain type thing, and it just kind of flew out, and it was just such a fun book to write.
Sarah: Well, it sounds like you are having a really good time. Like, the tone of the book is very much I am going to tell you the craziest story you ever heard.
Alexa: Yeah. [Laughs] Yeah, I had a lot of fun writing it, had a lot of fun writing it.
Sarah: You can totally tell, because it is very much – it, the whole book, like, there are scenes in the book where the characters are having drinks together or they’re talking, but the whole book also reads like, all right, I just have to tell you this incredible story. Get three martinis and strap in, ‘cause here it comes.
Alexa: It’s basically what I did.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Awesome! So how did your experiences as an NFL wife play into the storyline of the book? I particularly loved the way you described it as the faux fame of being an athlete’s wife? Like, you’re fame-adjacent in a way.
Alexa: Yeah. I think that was – so my husband played on, say, five different teams, if I count them out – I kind of lost track as it all happened – but in some of the smaller towns it was weird, like, because you’re forced as, like, a group together –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – and you don’t know each other, and especially in the smaller towns where the fame feels bigger, right, like –
Sarah: Right.
Alexa: – when he first, he played for the New York Giants, like, nobody knew who he was, and it’s hard to spot in New Jersey or New York. Like, they’re not going to see you. Then those other towns, I remember I went to a jewelry party with my two young children, and I walked in, and there was a camera crew there, and I was like, whoa! What is happening? They’re, like, recording it for the news. It was just so strange to me. I was just like, why though?
[Laughter]
Alexa: Why are you guys here? What’s going on? And I remember somebody, the news, the guy who was interviewing, he asked, like, mic, to put a mic on me to interview me. I was like, no thank you! He was like, why not? You’d be great! I was just like, no thank you. Like, this wasn’t my gig; like, that’s my husband that likes to be in the spotlight. I just wanted to try on some jewelry. And it was like this thing that he was just like, okay. Like, he – and, like, somebody else was just like, I will! But it was just that weird balance of, like, I didn’t do anything. Like, me and my husband met in high school. Like, I literally was just like, yeah, sure, I’ll move with you! Like, that was all that happened. I did nothing. He went to practice every day, I didn’t, so it was just, you know, kind of that weird balance, and – granted, my husband was never, like, a giant, giant name on the team, so maybe that was a difference too. It would probably be, if I was married to, like, Peyton Manning, and I’m sure that would be weird, even though I never hear any stories about his wife either, but you know, it’s just – [laughs] – not, like, letting it get to your head, because really, I didn’t do anything.
Sarah: I love that you met your husband in high school. I also met my husband in high school –
Alexa: Yay!
Sarah: – and we’ve been together since we were nineteen, and it’s weird when you tell people that, right?
Alexa: Oh yeah. My, my best friend was just like –
Sarah: People are like, you what?!
Alexa: – who marries their high school sweetheart besides the Amish? And I was like, okay.
Sarah: [Laughs] I always introduce it, and I’m like, listen, I am fully aware this is nauseating. Yes, I’m aware.
Alexa: Yeah. [Laughs]
Sarah: Super gross, and my husband had a mullet like it was a whole other world.
Alexa: Oh my God! [Laughs] That’s so funny.
Sarah: Big –
Alexa: My husband tried to grow a rat tail? He was like, I’m going to make it come back. I was like, you’re not.
Sarah: [Laughs] No, no, no!
Alexa: In fact, he really tried; for a solid six months he was trying to grow it out. It was just like, this is not the look you want to go for, but okay.
[Laughter]
Sarah: I’m sorry; the rat tail has got me – [laughs]
Alexa: I mean, it was like, when it was 2004, it was like, why?
Sarah: Oh no. No, no!
Alexa: Why are you doing this? [Laughs]
Sarah: So you guys met in high school, and –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – you’ve just been together since then, and he was like, you know, I’m going to go play for the NFL, and you were like, okay, whatever.
Alexa: Yeah. Well, so, obviously, we started dating when I was fifteen, sixteen, so there was – and he graduated right as we started, so there was, like, the long-distance; it was, like, kind of bumpy and, you know, as teenagers will do, we were very on and off with certain points, but yeah, so, when he got drafted he was like, do you want to come with me? And I was like, hmm, okay. [Laughs]
Sarah: I don’t know; whatever.
Alexa: Yeah. So I just moved across the country like that was no big deal. It was – I remember being so afraid. I remember going to this one woman, and we were talking. I was just like, I’m going to meet a whole new breed of women, and I don’t even know –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: Because, like, I have watched the Real Housewives since Orange County season one, and so –
Sarah: Of course!
Alexa: – that is what I was expecting, and pleasant surprise, it was not like that. They were wonderful and lovely. They’re just like, oh, you’re so small! Let me make you my little sister and put you in my pocket and – [laughs] – guide you.
[Laughter]
Alexa: They were very, like –
Sarah: But there’s still, like, a, there’s still, like, a, a politics of being a player’s wife, right?
Alexa: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, I don’t think I saw it as much. I will never forget, I read an interview after my husband, then boyfriend, had gotten drafted. I think it was Holly Robinson Peete, and she had said something like, if you’re a girlfriend, sit down; you don’t have the same standing as, like, a wife. Some, I, it was a long time ago, so I don’t remember the direct quote, but it was something like that –
Sarah: Right.
Alexa: – and I was like, what?
Sarah: Ohhh.
Alexa: And so I’d say there was, like, a, maybe a few, and I think it was more or less that what I didn’t know that first season is you just come and go, right.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: It’s hard to make these connections when people get traded or they get cut, and it’s hard to create those friendships, and sometimes even more so if you’re a girlfriend and you don’t know if they’re going to stick around. It’s like investing your time to make this friendship that you don’t know if it’s going to last –
Sarah: Right.
Alexa: – which isn’t necessarily something that, like, I ever went through. I mean, my, Derrick’s last few seasons playing, I didn’t move with him ‘cause our kids were getting older, and I was like, this is too much. We’re just going to stay here, and I’ll visit you –
Sarah: Yep.
Alexa: – sometimes, and you can come back. But, so that wasn’t even something that actually really happened to me. It was like, oh yeah, you’re nice to me, I’m nice to you; let’s be friends. We can make bracelets –
Sarah: Yeah.
Alexa: – and bedazzle shirts.
[Laughter]
Alexa: But yeah, there’s a little bit. You know, you see it with some women, but I would say they’re the vast minority.
Sarah: That’s probably a good thing, because the –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – Marlee, in the book, has some extremely interesting experiences –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – with the wives on the team, and I’m guessing that there are a few people that you sort of combined into these characters, or –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – or, or is someone from, like, a past team going to read this and completely recognize themselves?
Alexa: No, I don’t think so. I hope not.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: I mean, there were, like, I did hear, not from a person directly, but I did hear something about, like, there’s a one-comma club and a two-comma club? I mean, that was kind of through the grapevine that somebody heard so-and-so say type thing?
Sarah: Yeah.
Alexa: But, yeah, I, I hope not. I mean, if they do see themselves, it’s probably them seeing themselves, not me seeing them. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yes, that reflection is often self-directed.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: So have you had any completely off-the-wall experiences with people or people who are surrounding the team? ‘Cause it seems like the players, they’re very busy; they have a lot of things to do.
Alexa: Yeah. Yes –
Sarah: ‘Cause surrounding them –
Alexa: – they’re gone most of the time.
Sarah: Right! And you have this weird community of wives and girlfriends and children and family, and I’m assuming maybe even some parents as well.
Alexa: Ah, yeah, I never really met many moms, the parents that would come in. Like, when they would, it was more of – yeah, I never really met many parents. I would say, so my husband’s first team, the team he was with the longest, was Baltimore, and that was, like, there was, like, a Lady Ravens where we would do charity work, and we had cute matching vests, and – [laughs] – we would do that stuff, but it was one of those great groups where even though we didn’t really have much connection before, everybody just kind of melded really well, and everybody just got along, and so we’d go over to each others’ houses for away games and watch them, and I think there was, like, a period of, like, like a year where like ten of us had babies, so we all –
Sarah: Oh God!
Alexa: – just, like, getting together with, like, our small children and, you know, going on walks or doing, like, Mommy and Me classes.
Sarah: Right.
Alexa: I would say Green Bay is where he played next, and that was a smaller town, and that was harder for me as well, because when I moved there I was super pregnant, and so I didn’t really – and it’s very cold there – so I didn’t really –
Sarah: It is super cold there!
Alexa: Very cold there, so I didn’t really go out that first year, and the second year, like, they had, like, tennis classes for the wives and stuff, and so I was, like, trying to, like, make friends, and I did tennis lessons, and so that was fun, but there’s that many, like – the, the jewelry party with the camera crew was probably, like, my most, like, off-the-wall story. People are like, really?
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: And it still makes me laugh when I think about it. [Laughs] I, like, walked in and, like, pulled a bottle of wine out of my diaper bag, and I was like, oh, I hope you didn’t have that on camera!
[Laughter]
Alexa: Don’t usually bring alcohol –
Sarah: But what else are you going to keep in your diaper bag?
Alexa: Yeah, I mean it –
Sarah: Keep wine in your diaper bag!
Alexa: – carries so much and is so large. Why would I not put it in here? So.
Sarah: Of course! And you also have this community of women who are not in control of where they may end up moving next, because it’s all based on, like you said, getting traded or –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – getting cut, but you also have this experience where you, you and these other women are going to understand what it’s like.
Alexa: Yeah, it’s like a sorority of –
Sarah: Right, like, you’re really the only ones who understand what that’s like.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: So I have a very personal question here. Does Hers, does the club Hers exist, and if so, where? Or if you made it up –
Alexa: No, it’s just in my mind.
Sarah: – do you need investors?
Alexa: I know.
Sarah: Okay, so please tell me the, the, the background to developing this amazing idea. I have, I, I’m an introvert; I don’t like to put on shoes or even real pants sometimes. I am dying to go to this place.
Alexa: I know! I want, I want it so bad. [Laughs] So actually, I was talking to, to two of my, like, football-wife friends. We have, like, a group chat going, and I think I was randomly like, oh my gosh, what if we started this business? And they were just like, what are you talking about?
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: I said, just hear me out, and they’re like, okay. I was like, it’s a sports bar, but for women, and instead of sports there’s, like, Real Housewives, and then instead of beer on tap there’s, like, Skinny Girl on tap, and they’re just like, cool idea, Alexa. [Laughs] I’m like, I’m like –
Sarah: Okay!
Alexa: Yeah. And so I was just, like, telling them about this, and this is what I’ve realized: like, I thought I used to just have a lot of, like, clueless ideas that would never actually come to fruition; it was like, but now I can write them! Like, I’m not a crazy person –
Sarah: Nope!
Alexa: – who just thinks of randy, random things and so, yeah, it was just like a random thing when I was talking to my friends, and it was just like, instead of, like, a shoe shine, they do your nails. They’re just like, yeah, that would be awesome! But, like, no. And I was like, okay. And so then that was like, I would say that was just a couple of months before I started writing this new version and –
Sarah: Yep!
Alexa: – ooh! I can make it real!
Sarah: It’s real now! [Laughs]
Alexa: Yeah. I loved writing Hers.
Sarah: Is it – seriously, I, I don’t go out; I am not a clubby-type person.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: I was like, oh my goodness, I know exactly who would go to this place. And just the whole idea of having, like, a, a photo booth outside the ladies’ room so you can –
Alexa: Yeah!
Sarah: – have a selfie bar? Like, a, a nail bar and a selfie bar: that’s brilliant!
Alexa: I mean, how many times do you meet people – I have so many friends that I have met in a bathroom. I don’t know where they are now, but, like, that night, we were really good friends, and we made a connection.
Sarah: Yeah, absolutely!
Alexa: And if we had, like, a selfie to share that, it probably would have gone a long way. [Laughs]
Sarah: Of course!
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: So do you think that being an NFL wife and having this experience of moving from place to place has made you better able to make friends quickly and find commonalities with people?
Alexa: No, mm-mm.
Sarah: No! Interesting!
Alexa: No, I am for sure a super introvert, and when I have to meet new people, I get so anxious and nervous and, like, jittery. I, as long as I have one person with me –
Sarah: Yep.
Alexa: – I mean, it’s made me better at, like, going out there, but it hasn’t made it, hasn’t made me less nervous doing it. Like, I’ll do it now, and so that’s the thing; like, I will put myself out there, where I used to not do that, so I guess kind of in a way, but I definitely, it still makes me just as nervous as it ever did. I, if I have one friend with me I’m okay, ‘cause I’m like –
Sarah: Right.
Alexa: – if everybody else hates me, I still have this one friend, but if I’m by myself, I am a nervous wreck.
Sarah: So maybe what we need to do is, is find all of your venture capitalists for Hers –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – and then start these clubs and then there’ll, there’ll be, like, an introvert room.
Alexa: Yes! That is, an introvert room in a club is literally what I’ve always needed, and I never even knew I needed it until now.
Sarah: [Laughs] Like, when I’m at a conference or I’m at a place that’s really loud, like, I want a portable sensory deprivation tank so I can just have silence and no people for, like, ten minutes to recharge. If you had, like, the introvert room in the club that you could just recharge all the introverts –
Alexa: Oh my gosh, that is –
Sarah: – [laughs] – and we’d have such a good time! Wouldn’t that be great?
Alexa: – lovely. Just, like, a room of, like, pods where you could just, like –
Sarah: Yes!
Alexa: – zip it and just nothing. Yeah.
Sarah: Right? I will charge my phone; I will charge my brain.
Alexa: [Laughs] Yeah.
Sarah: Nobody talk to me.
Alexa: [Laughs] It is – charging –
Sarah: So – oh, I would love it – what, what does your husband think of the, of the novel? And are your kids – I mean, some of your children are old enough to be aware of it; I’m presuming that they haven’t read it.
Alexa: No, they have not. My oldest is ten.
Sarah: Yeah.
Alexa: My husband hasn’t read it either yet. I mean, he’s, like –
Sarah: Oh my goodness!
Alexa: – all behind it, but I haven’t, like, given it to him. I’ve never, like – [laughs] – he’s never asked, and I’ve never, like, pushed it. I’ve always just kind of been like, yeah. I’m sure he’ll read it eventually, but no, he hasn’t yet. And my kids, they have mixed emotions about it. Like, sometimes they think it’s really cool, but they like to guilt me now. They’re just like, all you ever do is write your book; all you ever do is care about your book and go away.
Sarah: Yes!
Alexa: And – [laughs] – they don’t say it as much anymore, because I go, you never care when Dad leaves! Dad leaves all the time! Is it because I’m a girl? Girls do that too! Moms don’t have to stay home! Why can’t I have a job? They’re like, okay, I’m sorry! I’m like, yeah! Dad leaves, and you don’t say anything! Probably ‘cause I’m, I, I’m more of a pushover than Dad. It’s just probably –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: But they like telling, like, their friends, and I think they’ve, like, told their teacher that I write, but still, like, my boy is like, their dad played football and has two Super Bowl rings, and so he’s still way cooler than me, apparently. Whatever.
Sarah: It’s the ring that makes it just, just like, yeah, I can’t compete with that.
Alexa: I can’t at all; there’s no competing. They, yeah, there’s nothing to compete with that. It’s just like, but look at, your names are in the beginning of my book, and they’re like, yeah, cool. [Laughs]
Sarah: Whatever.
Alexa: Dad’s is shiny.
[Laughter]
Sarah: So when your husband does read the book, ‘cause he has to –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – what do you think his reaction might be?
Alexa: I don’t know! I mean, I think –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: I have no idea. I think he’ll be pretty imp-, I think he’ll just be impressed, honestly, because I’ve done, like, a lot of –
Sarah: Well, it is impressive!
Alexa: Yeah, but, like, I just, I wrote a book. I think he’ll just – he’s, he’s been very supportive, and he’s, like, very proud of me for, like, doing this, because, again, I wrote the first one for a very long time, and he was probably like, yeah, sure you’re going to write a book. So –
[Laughter]
Alexa: – the fact that, like, I’ve done it, and now I’ve just, like, finished up the third one, like, he’s just impressed that I’ve done it.
Sarah: So there are two more!
Alexa: Yes, two more; it’s a series of three, like, interconnected.
Sarah: So, so book one is Marlee –
Alexa: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: – and Gavin. What are book two and book three? Tell me about them.
Alexa: Book –
Sarah: You can just, just summarize the whole plot.
Alexa: Okay, yeah.
Sarah: [Laughs] I’m kidding!
Alexa: I’m really good at sum-, talking about what I wrote. Well, so book two is Poppy and T.K., and you don’t see Poppy in the first book, but you see T.K. briefly –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – and it’s kind of like a second-chance romance?
Sarah: Oooh!
Alexa: Yeah, it’s – and I would say I had a lot of fun writing book one, and I would say book two was, like, more like heart-, like, there’s, like, a bigger group of women, which are scenes that I love writing. I love writing, like, the scenes between, like, the girlfriends, so it’s like more of the, the nice wives than the wicked wives, and I would say it touches on some, like, harder topics in the NFL like with, you know, the concussions and all that stuff as well. And then book three is Bryn’s book, so Bryn and Maxwell. Bryn is the owner of Hers in the first ones, and so she gets her book as the last one.
Sarah: Oooh!
Alexa: Yeah. Yeah, it’s kind of –
Sarah: So –
Alexa: – like enemies, friends to lovers; there’s a lot going on, I feel like. [Laughs]
Sarah: Fabulous!
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: So how are you writing and, and dealing with – I almost said, how are you tackling, which is so very predictable.
Alexa: [Laughs] Punny!
Sarah: The – yeah, exactly – how, how are you, you know, sort of grappling with CTE and concussions and the long-term health problems of, of football players in the series? Can you talk about that, or is it still in development?
Alexa: I mean, it’s still, I’m working on, at it. I just, I feel like through me personally, I love sports romances, but it’s never something, it’s not very romantic to talk about the possibility of, like, early death or your spouse completely having a personality change and not recognizing them at all by the time they’re fifty or, you know, but I also feel like there’s, like, a responsibility, like, seeing what I’ve seen and knowing what I’ve known, and to not talk about it and to not have –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – it be – like, for me personally and our family, like, we haven’t let our boys play tackle football yet. Personal decision, and people, I have friends that their kids start playing in kindergarten; totally up to them. We are like, maybe; we’re like, you can do it in sixth grade, and now our son is a fifth grader, and we’re like, maybe eighth grade.
[Laughter]
Alexa: He is still –
Sarah: What’s his take on that? He okay with that, or is he like –
Alexa: Uh, no.
Sarah: – but Mom –
Alexa: He got very upset with us. It is a point of contention every single year. We let him play flag football, and he’s like, but my friends play tackle! He’s like, you just don’t believe in me, and I’m like, we do believe in you; you are a great athlete, but it’s just, we would like your brain to be a little more developed before we start with these hits. I mean, he plays soccer, and obviously there’s dangers in every sport, and he plays basketball; he plays flag football. You can get hits, and it’s an elbow or a soccer ball, and you know, you never know what could happen. It’s just something where that is also something that just, you know, it comes up in the book. It’s, when you see the stuff, I think, it’s – there’s, Serena Williams did a documentary on HBO, and she said that she doesn’t want her daughter to ever play tennis, and I just think that’s kind of the same thing. Like, when you see something from the inside, it’s never as pretty as it is from the outside? So we’re just, like, trying, we’re like, but soccer! And golf! [Laughs] And, yeah, so we’ll see. And in the book it’s just a lot of the worries that come with, like, being a girlfriend or a spouse and maybe seeing little changes and, like, worrying, like, if that is –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – like, an indication of something bigger to come, I would say.
Sarah: Yeah. I know in the book that Marlee’s friends are extremely important to her and are a major part of her romance, and, and you mentioned that you really liked writing the scenes between all of the women. Were some of the stories based on, you know, experiences or people you know, and have your friends read your book?
Alexa: Yeah, actually; a few of my, like, they sent ARCs to some of, like, the WAGs, so a few –
[Laughter]
Alexa: – a few of my friends have had the book, and they loved it. I would say that, like, her friends are kind of all of my friends rolled up into these characters.
Sarah: Ahh!
Alexa: I know, I – they’re just the most fun for me. I love, I love the strong female friendship, and I would say, like, writing the wicked wives was probably the hardest part for me, because I did have such great experiences?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: But, yeah, I would say Naomi and Bryn are for sure just like the women that I have met, and in book two I would say more of that; like, there’s, like, specific people that are like specific characters in these books that, like, I just had great experiences with, but I would say Naomi is like everybody that I’ve known, like, rolled into one, like –
Sarah: One lovely character.
Alexa: Yes, mm-hmm.
Sarah: So what do you think are some of the elements to, to writing the scenes with Marlee and her friends that you liked the best? What parts of writing those scenes did you enjoy?
Alexa: I just think they’re so fun. I love, like, going out with my girlfriends, and I love the support they can offer. I think that it’s – I don’t think that anybody can have a story that’s just them and the, like, love interest, right? Like, you go back and you tell your friends these things; like, they’re a part of your story as well. Like, I, when me and my husband, even though it was forever ago, started dating, like, I remember, like, telling my friends, like, oh my gosh, he asked me out, and I remember going with them and, you know talking with them. Obviously, we were too young to go to bars and all that fun stuff; however, if there were –
[Laughter]
Sarah: It was a place like Hers.
Alexa: – a lot of margaritas in the mix, and so being able to write that, I don’t know, I just think having somebody strong and supportive is just so important and, like, for that balance. I think that was the big thing for Intercepted for me as well was for it to have a balance in her life –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – because it can be so easy, especially in, like, the NFL world, to totally fall into their world and not have it, like the faux fame and, you know, you’re just totally wrapped up in them? And so it was important for me, for Marlee, to have her friends to keep her outside of just, like, tumbling back into that world and not having her own –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – like, thought – not thoughts, I don’t want to say that, but, you know, just, like, having her own life where it’s not totally revolving around this guy and his career; like, she still had something, and they keep her kind of focused on that.
Sarah: I did really like that about her, that she has, she has this really interesting start where she’s this incredibly confident and very smart woman. Like, she can read a room so fast and knows exactly how to push people’s buttons and, and is really just fresh out of fucks to give. Like –
Alexa: Yeah. [Laughs] Zero.
Sarah: She has so much confidence and is so aware and accepting of who she is, and yet in the beginning, she’s putting up with this really crappy situation where she knows that her boyfriend has cheated on her, and she’s sort of pretending like everything’s okay when it’s not.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: That’s a really difficult balance to, to sort of write. How, how did you go into that character setup?
Alexa: I think it had also not – I’ve known, you know, women who, their spouses have cheated, and they’ve known it, and they’ve just kind of been like, well, you know, it happens, and not necessarily being, like, making the steps to fix it but just kind of ignoring it and thinking, like, well, you know. I, I think it’s a lot of too, like, what you see on TV and how, like, you expect these athletes to behave –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – and so, like, thinking, like, well, is it going to get better if I leave anyways, type of thing?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: So it’s just, and, you know, once you’ve, I think for anybody, once you’ve invested that much time of your life into somebody, it’s hard to leave. It’s hard to take that step into what’s, to the unknown, and so it’s just finally that snapping point where you’re just like, you know what? I would rather be alone than unhappy, and life is too short to keep dealing with this over and over and over again. I think everybody has, no matter how forgiving you can be in the past, like, everybody has, like, a snapping point, and I think Marlee just finally hit hers.
Sarah: Yes, and the thing that I liked about the, the setup is that you, in the beginning of the book, you can see how much work she does on his behalf.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: You know –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – she puts up with these horrible women; she masterminds an entire fundraiser, allows them to treat her poorly because she’s, you know, “just a girlfriend” –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – and yet she has invested and committed so much energy. You can see how much she’s put up with him, and she really does sort of hit this point where she’s like, the bare minimum –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – could have been not cheating on me.
Alexa: Yeah, just, like, decency, right, and –
Sarah: As a friend of mine says, that’s the floor. That’s not even the ceiling.
Alexa: Yeah, exactly! Exactly. Literally the least that you could do is just not be a scumbag. And –
Sarah: And she’s just like, all right, that’s it, I’m done, I’m out. Bye.
Alexa: Yeah, and I think that is too, right, like, when you know you’re giving your all, and they can’t even do one tiny thing. Like, and –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – really, like, even hide it well. Like, he just had pictures. Here’s just everything that had happened, and like, he just didn’t care, and so I think when you’re putting in that much effort and you realize, like, there’s no giveback that you just kind of, you’re just like, you know what? Never mind. I would just, I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it. Yeah.
Sarah: Yep. And she – [laughs] – she has to deal with him being unable to, to accept the consequences of his own actions.
Alexa: I mean, I think that also is kind of one of those things that’s not that hard to write in these books for, like, any man, but I think especially for sometimes, like, these athletes and, who have – not saying this is, this is where I say, this is not my relationship; this is not my life – but a lot of times they’ve been coddled their whole lives, and they get what they want –
Sarah: Yep.
Alexa: – when they want it, and so when they want what they want and they can’t get it, even though they didn’t really want it, it’s still one of those things – [laughs] –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – that they’re going to fight for anyways. It’s just like, make up your mind, but they want everything. Again, not my life, not my husband disclaimer. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yep. I also love that Gavin is unafraid to –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – call other people on their bullshit? Which is not a thing that I’ve seen a lot of male characters do who are athletes.
Alexa: Yeah, I – Gavin was my –
Sarah: Was he fun to write?
Alexa: Ah, yeah, he was so dreamy. For my –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: – my one football wife rant, I will say I was nervous when I, like, friends that were football wives read it because of the whole wicked wives thing; I was like, oh my gosh, are they going to be, like, mad at me? And they were just like, oh my God, Gavin; where do I find him?
[Laughter]
Alexa: How do I find Gavin? Yeah, he was fun to write, except for they were just like, he needs flaws, and I was like, but why? [Laughs]
Sarah: He doesn’t need flaws! He has a truck, and he drives her away!
Alexa: Right?
[Laughter]
Alexa: He drives a pickup truck and, like, it’s, so I was, like, finding, like, the flaws was, like, a harder thing for me to do. It was just like, can’t he just be perfect? Like, he probably doesn’t need – doesn’t he just need to be perfect, and they’re just like, no, and I was like, okay, fine.
[Laughter]
Alexa: If you insist.
Sarah: Fine.
Alexa: Yeah. I loved writing him. I loved writing all of the characters, honestly. Like I said, the wicked wives were harder to write, but it, it was still kind of fun to write them, like, being awful.
Sarah: Well, you could totally see the shades of Real Housewives –
Alexa: Yeah, oh my gosh.
Sarah: – where the, the motivations are very obvious and yet also completely silly.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: Like, really, this is the hill you’re dying on today.
Alexa: Yeah, yeah.
Sarah: Okay!
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: What?!
Alexa: I know.
Sarah: I also think that one of the aspects of, of Chris as a character is that Marlee puts up a lot from him that she would not tolerate from one of her friends.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: And she, she sort of, one of the things that happens in the book is that she realizes that her partner in her, her romantic partner should also act like her friend.
Alexa: Yes.
Sarah: It seems like that’s a very important element to her development as a character.
Alexa: Yeah, I think so. I think it’s just realizing that, like, when you’re putting in that much work, like, I think for me it’s just that’s her finding, like, life is too short to be anything but happy, and so to find, like, a partner who can, is well rounded, like who can keep you happy on all the levels, right –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – like, not just, like, a certain one, and who will support you, and especially after being in a relationship with somebody who did not at all? Like, she just, like, set her standards up, and so the things that she would accept from other people, she was like, not doing that anymore. I think especially after you’ve, not wasted, but spent ten years of your life on somebody and you’re just like, yeah, I’m not making that mistake again ever –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – so it’s just like her learning from her mistakes and what she wanted in people, and I think that’s, like, a natural progression in life as well, but especially after, like, a big breakup, where really your whole life is kind of turned, and also with her, her friends, being with him that long, were his friends, and, like –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – knowing that, like, you could real-, she thankfully had her, you know, good friends that stuck by her, but when you’ve, like, given your whole life for somebody that you literally could have come out with nothing except for your parents. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah.
Alexa: You don’t want to do that again.
Sarah: It’s very difficult.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: I love how in the book the sign of a very good gathering of friends is nobody orders a salad.
Alexa: Yeah. No. Don’t do that.
Sarah: There’s, like, the public performance of eating, and then there’s the, no, I actually really want nachos right now.
Alexa: Yeah. Don’t order a salad. If we’re going out and you order a salad with me, I, like, I’m probably, I’m, I’m going to give you crap about it, because I’m not ordering salad, and then it just, you’re just making me feel bad about myself, because –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: Don’t do that to me. Like, I don’t want salad; I want a French fry. I want French fries with, like, ranch to dip them in. Like, I don’t want to dip lettuce in ranch; I want, like, something like this, like, when my friends go out, like, we share, me and my friends, we shared these nachos, but they had Tater Tots and chicken, like boneless, like, Buffalo wings on there, and I was like, see this is why we are friends, because I appreciate this, and, like, we shared, like, macaroni and cheese as an appetizer. It was like, yes, this is how we go out. This is like real home, we can eat salads –
Sarah: I also, I love the contrast of Marlee with her friends, no one orders a salad, but then with the wives in the, the, the women, the, the wives’ group –
Alexa: Mm-hmm.
Sarah: – when they eat together, everyone is performing.
Alexa: Yes, I was just going to say, it’s a performance, right, and –
Sarah: It’s absolutely a performance.
Alexa: I mean, I rem-, I still remember going to my husband’s football games, like I remember the first game I went to and just, like, the, from the beginning to the end of his career, I’m like, that transformation and kind of like realizing that people are watching you? So, like, not going in my old hoodie from when I visited colleges and, like, ratty tennis shoes to going in, like, very nice high heels and nice purses that, like, I can’t even walk in now that he doesn’t play anymore. I literally am, like, selling my high heels, ‘cause, like, my ankles feel like they’re going to snap; why did I do this to myself ever?
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: To, like, you know, because you realize, like, people are watching, and it is this performance of you walking out with them and, like, you going, and when you’re like – I think also when in you’re in a big group of women who might not really be friends, you’re just like, I don’t want to give them any more ammunition, especially ‘cause, like, they’re, those really will be judgy eyes. Like, it’s not, like, me imagining them. [Laughs]
Sarah: Right. So at a game, you guys had your own section, and you had your own sort of gathering area.
Alexa: Yeah, well, more or less. There’s usually, like, three or four sections that we would be spread out across –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Alexa: – but yeah, and, like, that same kind of group, and then there are some women who, you know, their husbands made more money, that would, like, share boxes. But yeah, you’re usually in, like, that same group, and they had, like, family rooms that you could, like, go to, to, like, kind of like sit down in –
Sarah: Yeah.
Alexa: – which were wonderful and heated.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Which in Green Bay was a very important thing.
Alexa: Yeah, in Green Bay, so they have, they, like, are keeping, like, the integrity of, like, the stadium, ‘cause it’s so old, and so they still literally have metal bleachers with, like, stamps, like, of numbers.
Sarah: Ouch!
Alexa: Do you know how cold you get if you sit –
Sarah: Oh my gosh!
Alexa: – on a metal bleacher? It just, like, goes through your bones. [Laughs]
Sarah: Oh my gosh!
Alexa: You’re just, like, rubbing thighs with, like, the strangers next to you, trying to keep warm. Like –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: – let’s just cuddle, guys. I know we don’t know each other, but it is cold.
Sarah: We’re going to be good friends now, yes.
Alexa: Yeah. Derrick’s cousin came to one of the games with us, and it was a cold one, and I was like, I’m just going to go to this room; I’ll be back, and he was like, he’s still, he’s like, you never came back to me. Like, he will still bring it up to me. He’s like, you just left me in the cold. I was like, yeah, it was very cold. Like, I’m sorry, but, like, I’m not sorry. I don’t know what you expected me to do.
Sarah: [Laughs] Look, when it’s that cold, it’s, it’s every woman for herself.
Alexa: Exactly, exactly.
Sarah: You need to go.
Alexa: You wanted to come to this game; you have fun. I’ve been to enough. I am going to go watch it on TV inside. Just stay home.
Sarah: [Laughs] So in the dedication, I have to ask, you acknowledge the Bra: You know who you are; thank you for supporting me always. Please tell me, is this an actual bra, or is this like a –
Alexa: It’s a, it’s like a group; that’s, like, a mom group that I’m in. We call ourselves the Bra, ‘cause, like, good support –
Sarah: Okay, good, ‘cause I was like –
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: – if you have a bra recommendation and you –
Alexa: No.
Sarah: – didn’t put it in the book, then I need to know.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: Like, I need to know.
Alexa: [Laughs] No, it’s just a group of friends. It was, like, started with, like, the Over-the-Shoulder Boulder Holders, and then was condensed to the Bra.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: Yeah, we’re very classy like that, yeah.
Sarah: That’s a, that’s a really lovely way to describe your friends.
Alexa: Yeah. Yeah –
Sarah: It’s the Bra that supports you always.
Alexa: Yes, mm-hmm. [Laughs]
Sarah: Because I feel like a good third of my Instagram right now are people trying to sell me the, the illusion of bras being comfortable?
Alexa: No, they’re not.
Sarah: Like, try this bra! It’s going to be comfortable. Try this bra! It’s going to be weightless. Like, no, it’s really not; don’t lie to me.
Alexa: It’s been so hot, too; I just told my husband yesterday, I was like, if you’re thinking of Christmas gifts, I would really like that, like, the boob towel sling that, like, holds them so you don’t get, like, the boob sweat, and he was like, really? And I was like, yeah, no, I’m really serious. You don’t understand.
Sarah: Ohhh! Oh no, boob sweat is the worst!
Alexa: Yeah, it’s so bad. That’s what I told my husband just last night that I wanted, so you’re right; they’re not comfortable, and, like, you, but you, like, need them, but they’re –
Sarah: Yeah!
Alexa: – awful; they’re the worst. Yeah.
Sarah: I kind of wish you did have a perfect bra recommendation –
Alexa: I know.
Sarah: – but I love that you call your group of friends the Bra.
Alexa: Yeah. [Laughs] Yeah!
Sarah: That’s just wonderful!
Alexa: Yeah!
[Laughter]
Sarah: Now, I also understand that among the things that support you is, is wine.
Alexa: Oh yeah.
Sarah: And that you have a wine subscription.
Alexa: I do. [Laughs] Yeah. So I have four kids, and I write, so –
Sarah: So obviously you have wine. I totally understand!
Alexa: – there’s a lot of wine. Yeah, so it’s just this wine of the month subscription then, so it’s just like every month they send four bottles of wine, and, but to be fair, I save, like, two or three of them, and I have a book club with my friends, and, which is mainly drinking and a little bit of books that we talk about, and so I, I share the wealth of wine.
Sarah: Aw!
Alexa: I don’t just drink whole bottles by myself. Most of the time.
Sarah: Well, I mean, you can.
Alexa: Most of the times. There have been times where I’m just like, sorry, guys, I’ve got to get other wine today. This, this was a rough month.
[Laughter]
Sarah: So I understand that you do unboxing videos with your youngest.
Alexa: Yeah! I’m a really good mom – oh my goodness – but she is way cuter than me – [laughs] –
Sarah: Squee!
Alexa: – and I’m usually in my pajamas, and even if she is in her pajamas, she still looks adorable, and so she opens the box on, like, my Facebook and does the, she’s like, wine! I’m like, yay!
[Laughter]
Alexa: And we’ll show everybody. It’s pretty adorable, if I say so myself, even though I know it looks like a very questionable mom move that she’s so excited about my wine, but then she, like, will also adorably go to my bookshelf and pick a book and be like, ‘kay, and read this book, ‘cause she knows I do it for, like, book club?
[Laughter]
Alexa: So last month she got down The Kiss Quotient, and she was like, okay, I’m going to read it, and she’s like, it’s about a boy and a girl, and I was like, you’re right!
Sarah: Aw!
Alexa: Give me the book back! Don’t bend the pages!
[Laughter]
Alexa: But yeah, so she opens the box for me. It’s very cute.
Sarah: I don’t know; I, I’m a parent of two boys. They are ten and twelve, and I think from my vantage point that teaching your daughter at a young age about the importance of wine and romance fiction is a very good parenting decision.
Alexa: Thank you! Thank you. I appreciate your viewpoint, and I will write that down as a defense if anybody dumps on me. [Laughs]
Sarah: Yeah, you can send them to me. Like, there’s, really. Like, I, I – [laughs] – I talk, when I was, when my kids were really young, I always thought that the top of, like, a take-out coffee container, like a Starbucks cup, it looks a lot like a sippy cup –
Alexa: It does.
Sarah: – because it’s got the – right?
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: And so that’s Mommy’s sippy cup, right?
Alexa: Yes.
Sarah: Well then I was given a plastic tumbler for wine, but it’s insulated, and it has a sippy cup top. Like, I upgraded my adult sippy cup. I was so excited about this, and my kids were like, Mom, you really need to stop talking about your grown-up sippy cup. No, you don’t understand!
Alexa: That is brilliance. I have, my hus-, so my husband now coaches high school football for the same high school that we met at, which is like –
Sarah: Okay, that’s seriously, adorably nauseating.
Alexa: It’s – yeah, I was going to say, it’s like, it just elevates it even more.
[Laughter]
Alexa: But so I’ve seen online, and so it’s me with my four kids and my friends who also have, like, between the three of us, like, “coach’s wives” – I’m using air quotes around that, because that sounds ridiculous as well. There’s ten children, like, and so there’s just a lot of kids, and I’ve seen on Facebook that purse that has, like, the wine spouts? Right, they come –
Sarah: Yes!
Alexa: And I’m just like, I need to start bringing that. [Laughs] Just, like, need to bring this to the games. But in adults it be-, might also be on the radar, ‘cause the season’s just starting up, so I might need that.
Sarah: I’ve, I asked what your, what your kids thought about the book, and they haven’t read it yet, but what are some of your favorite things about being a parent to your children?
Alexa: They’re just so much fun. I mean, I won’t, I can’t lie and say they don’t drive me absolutely crazy sometimes, but they’re just so much fun. Like this morning, I got my kids off to school, and my youngest was still like, she’s, I like, she’s my baby; I coddle her. She still sleeps with me half the time. That’s what she, like, I was downstairs making tea, and she came, she was like, Mom! And I was like, what? And she was like, don’t you disappear on me again! And I was like, oh my God, you’re so adorable! Freaking so –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: – cute. I’m like, okay, I won’t disappear on you. And just, like, the fun things, like my oldest daughter, she’s eight, and she’s doing, like, acting classes, and she loves art, and she loves to read, and my son loves football and basketball and all these sports, and my youngest son is just, he’s, I’ve said since he was one that he’s going to be, like, a fraternity president? Like, it’s just so fun watching their personalities, like how they, like, all came from the same two people and are so different, but, like, watching –
Sarah: Oh, I know.
Alexa: – their interests grow, and them take, like, you know, like my son, you know, he loves stories, like, he loves to write, and I think even more so since I’ve been writing. Like, he’s always writing stories and, like, he’ll want me to, like, print them out for him on the computer, and, like, it’s just so cute. Like, I just love watching them grow –
Sarah: Aw.
Alexa: – and even though they fight like crazy, I was an only child, so sometimes I’m like, is this normal fighting? And my friends are like, yeah, that’s normal, but, like, when they get along really well, watching that, like, connection that they have is just so wonderful.
Sarah: Isn’t it?
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: It’s the best! Now, you mentioned you’re an introvert. Is your husband also an introvert?
Alexa: No. God, no. No.
[Laughter]
Alexa: No, he is not. He is the biggest, most people-est people person ever. Like, I can’t go anywhere with him. He knows somebody everywhere we go. If he doesn’t, he will talk to somebody, and I’m just like, I can’t. And, like, my daughter also, my eight-year-old, she is also not an introvert, and I hate taking her to the store, because she always makes me talk to people, and it’s like repeating, like, giving her, like, glare eyes, and like, under my breath I’m like, stranger danger! Stranger danger! ‘Cause she will just talk to anybody and, like, tell them anything, and then, like, I have to talk to them, and I hate it so much.
[Laughter]
Alexa: Why? Why?
Sarah: Quit making me adult! I hate it!
Alexa: Yeah, and I have this, like, I compliment people, and they’re not like ones that I don’t mean, but it’s like I am around somebody, I’m just like, oh my gosh, what, like, I love your nails! And it’s just like, if I notice something that I like about somebody, then I will say it at, like, the checkout.
Sarah: Oh, I do same thing!
Alexa: Yeah! Right, like, I will just always say it, but, like, I have the good timing to do it as I’m walking away –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: – and my daughter does it as soon as we arrive, and then there’s just like all then, like, we have to keep talking, like, throughout the entire checkout process, and I’m like, we’ve got to work on your timing. We have to. It’s as we’re leaving, not, like, we can’t talk, because when I go to the grocery store with four kids, like, there’s a lot of groceries and unnecessary items –
Sarah: Yeah. Oh yeah.
Alexa: – and –
Sarah: You’re there a while.
Alexa: Yeah. And be like, and that checkout aisle is the worst part of the store, right? Like, they just trap you next to all of the candy and the snacks, so it’s like, me, them, like, the checkout person talking to me as I’m like, no, no, no! No gum! Like, slapping things away, and I’m like we need to –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: – as we’re leaving, you can compliment people, but please just, like, wait, ‘cause I was just – my husband was like, why does she always compliment people? And I was like, ohhh. Like, I was like, they’ve made me very self-aware as well, like the things that I do. I’m like, oh, she got that from me, but, like, sometimes I just like, now just pay attention to when I do it so that you don’t make me do this every day. But it’s fun. She told, like, this one woman in Walmart – we lived in Wyoming, and so Walmart – in Laramie – and so Walmart was, like, our only option of places to go, and this woman was like, oh, you’re so cute! And she’s like, thanks! I’m Harlow Martin. She’s like, this is my brother DJ Martin, but his name is really Derrick Jerome Martin III, and DJ was like, Harlow! Don’t do that! Stop telling her everything about you! He was, like, so offended that she would give all of his information away to a stranger in the meat section at Walmart. Yeah, it was pretty funny.
[Laughter]
Sarah: TMI!
Alexa: Yeah!
Sarah: Okay. Did you name your car as well, as Marlee did?
Alexa: We just call it the Swagger – I drive a minivan, so it’s, like, not very cool, so we just call it the Swagger Wagon. [Laughs]
Sarah: Okay, that’s an excellent name. I mean, I drive a, I drive a 2004 Matrix with stickers all over it, and it’s the Sticker Mobile –
Alexa: Oh!
Sarah: – because we’re not terribly original here, but the Swagger Wagon is a pretty great name.
Alexa: I think that there was actually a, like, Toyota that has, like, a video, like the Sienna, like, and I think, like, there’s, like, actually creative. Like, I think if you go on YouTube and, like, Google it, there’s, like, a music video for, like, Swagger Wagon for, like, a Toyota or something.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: And I cried, my husband was like, when I was, like, after we had, like, our third child, he was like, I think we need a minivan, and I was like, no!
[Laughter]
Alexa: The last piece of me, don’t make me drive a minivan. It’s like I swore I would never drive a minivan, but now that I have one, I will never get rid of it; it is amazing.
Sarah: Oh, my neighbors who have them adore them.
Alexa: Oh my God, it’s the best thing ever. I mean, I can’t even imagine –
Sarah: You can shove everyone and everything!
Alexa: And you don’t have to worry about them dinging other cars when they’re getting out, and it is the best. They just, like, climb in that mother, and we just go.
[Laughter]
Sarah: And everybody fits!
Alexa: Everybody fits.
Sarah: Our first friends who bought a minivan were our friends who were trying for child number two and conceived identical triplets.
Alexa: Oh my God, are you – okay, tell me the story.
Sarah: No! They went from one to four.
Alexa: Yes-, yesterday, my, my kids were sick, and they gave it to me, and so as I was, like, sick and lying in bed, I watched on YouTube, like, people telling their family that they were pregnant with triplets, so that’s funny that you brought it up. Like –
Sarah: Oh my gosh!
Alexa: – kind of the same thing that I watched on YouTube yesterday, but –
[Laughter]
Sarah: So they had to get a minivan, but not only did they have to get a minivan, but their older son was two, so they had to get a minivan that could accommodate four car seats.
Alexa: Yeah.
Sarah: This is a lot.
Alexa: People ask me if we’re going to have more kids, and I’m like, well, no, because the minivan is full; we can’t fit another car seat in there, and we’re not moving to a church van, so no more children. And like –
Sarah: And they can’t go on the roof. Like, there’s some law!
Alexa: Yeah, no, I can’t get, like, a church van. That is out of the question, so, no, we cannot have any more kids.
Sarah: [Laughs] Church van!
Alexa: That was…. Yeah.
Sarah: But imagine the, the decal you could put on the side of a church van.
Alexa: Yeah, you’re right; it could be really good. I could, like, go and get, like, one, like, designed. Get like a logo. [Laughs]
Sarah: Like, you could bedazzle the hell out of that.
Alexa: I – oh my gosh, I’ve honestly thought of, like, bedazzling the, like, license plate tag? But I was just like, don’t do it.
Sarah: I don’t know, dude. There’s a lot of sun in Colorado; you’d get a lot of sparkle out of that.
Alexa: You’re right. That’s just what – see, that sounds dangerous now.
[Laughter]
Alexa: We could blind the drivers around me.
Sarah: So the question I always ask, and I should have prepared you or given you a heads-up about this earlier: do you have any books that you have read that you want to tell people about or make sure they know about?
Alexa: Oh gosh. I, so I’ve been, like, in the editing hole, so I don’t know if I’ve read a ton of books lately. I am, right now, I’m reading A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole and obsessed with it. I love it so much. Like everything that Alyssa Cole does, it’s amazing.
I just, I did finish Kristen Ashley’s new book, Wild Like the Wind, and I am a giant Kristen Ashley fan. Like, it’s probably a problem. I’ve lost multiple days of my life reading her books.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Alexa: Like, after I was introduced to her, like, I don’t think I remember anything for a month –
Sarah: Yes!
Alexa: – just catching up on everything.
Sarah: [Laughs] I have a friend who discovered Kristen Ashley and told someone else, and they were like, oh my God, I just started this book, and she literally said, okay, see you next month.
Alexa: Yeah! She’s, got, like –
Sarah: Like, bye! I –
Alexa: – such, like, a back catalog. Like, sometimes I’m like, oh, man, I wish I would have started a few years later, and then I would have had like another month to be, like, packed away, but yeah, so I just, I love, I love Kristen Ashley.
I was introduced to this new author, Dylan Allen. I don’t think she’s actually that new, but she was new to me, and I loved her books. I’m trying to remember what the name of the book that – it was a series that now I cannot remember the name of.
Sarah: Thicker Than Water? Remember, Remember 2?
Alexa: Maybe it was Thicker Than Water. I think it was that ser- – it was the Symbols of Love series.
Sarah: Ooh! So Remember and –
Alexa: Yes, Remember and Rise, and I started with the last book, which might not have been the best way to do it, but it was set in Ghana in Africa, and I’d never read a book set in Ghana before, and I loved – I mean, the whole book was great, but, like, I loved that choice.
[music]
Sarah: And that brings us to the end of the interview. I want to thank Alexa Martin for hanging out with me. If you would like to find out more about Alexa and her books, you can find her at alexamartinbooks.com, and she is on Instagram and on Twitter @AlexaMBooks, and I will have links to all of those places, plus the books that she talked about at the end of the episode, in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.
This episode is brought to you by Wind River Lawman by Lindsay McKenna. Former Navy medic Dawson Callahan thought he left the war behind him when he settled into the wide-open spaces of Wind River Valley in Wyoming. But when Sheriff Sarah Carter asks for Dawson’s help with the incursion of a drug cartel into the once peaceful valley, Dawson considers it his duty to rid his new home of any threat. Wind River Lawman from bestselling author Lindsay McKenna is on sale now wherever books are sold and at kensingtonbooks.com.
Each podcast episode receives a transcript compiled by garlicknitter. Thank you, garlicknitter! [You’re welcome! – gk] This week’s podcast transcript is sponsored by Undue Influence by Jenny Holiday. This male/male retelling of Persuasion will appeal to Jane Austen fans but can also be enjoyed by those allergic to the 19th century. Celebrity chef Freddy Wentworth has begrudgingly returned to the town of his youth where his sister has bought a down-at-heels vineyard in a foreclosure auction. Adam Elliot is crushed that the family vineyard has been lost and heartbroken when the sale forces him to confront the biggest mistake he ever made: forsaking Freddy, his first and only love. As a young man, Adam was too easily swayed by his status-obsessed family and by his best friend Rusty, who thought Freddy wasn’t good enough for him. This slow-burn romance contains a yippy dog named Mr. Collins, wine slushies, and a serious dose of angst. For more information and a two-chapter excerpt, visit jennyholiday.com/undue-influence.
We have a podcast Patreon, and I would like to tell you about it, so sit tight for, like, twenty-five seconds. If you go to patreon.com/SmartBitches, you can learn more about the pledge levels, starting at one dollar a month, which help me keep the show going, make sure that every episode is available to everyone. If you also join, you can be part of the group who helps me develop questions for upcoming interviews and helps me suggest guests for upcoming episodes too. So if you’re curious: patreon.com/SmartBitches.
Are there other ways to support the podcast? Absolutely yes! You can leave a review wherever you listen or however you listen; you can tell a friend; you can subscribe. Whatever works! Thank you for hanging out with me each week; it’s very cool to hear that you’re enjoying the show.
The music you’re listening to is provided by Sassy Outwater. You can find her on Twitter @SassyOutwater. This is “Marx Terrace” by Peatbog Faeries from their album Dust, which you can find on Amazon and on iTunes and wherever you buy your funky, funky music.
Now, there is a website that goes with the podcast, which I’m assuming you knew. This week on Smart Bitches – duh duh duhh! – we have a really incredible and thought-provoking Q & A about portrayals of domestic violence in romance. We have everyone’s favorite, Cover Snark. We have Help a Bitch Out, and a special coupon for Adam & Eve dot com [adameve.com] this week. Plus, we have reviews for new books, posts about books on sale, and more, so I hope you’ll stop by and hang out with us.
And now it’s the end of the episode. It’s the part where you really, really enjoy a really, really terrible joke. Are you rather? Are you ready? Ready? Ready? Here we go. Ooh, I could do a drum roll on my desk here. [drum roll] Oh, that was cool! And a nice waveform, too. Okay, here we go. [Clears throat]
Did you hear about the guy who got a new senior position at Old MacDonald’s Farm?
He’s the new C-I-E-I-O.
[Laughs] Now, if you have small children, I also want to recommend two books called Punk Farm and Punk Farm on Tour. They are a punk band at a farm who go on tour without their farmer knowing about it, but yes. They don’t have a CIEIO. [Laughs more] That joke is from kilobenny, and that was just making my day.
So on behalf of Alexa Martin and everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a great weekend. We will see you back here next week.
[fast music]
This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
Transcript Sponsor
Today’s podcast transcript is sponsored by Undue Influence by Jenny Holiday. This male/male retelling of Persuasion will appeal to Jane Austen fans but can also be enjoyed by those allergic to the nineteenth century.
Celebrity chef Freddy Wentworth has begrudgingly returned to the town of his youth, where his sister has bought a down-at-heels vineyard in a foreclosure auction. Adam Eliot is crushed that the family vineyard has been lost, and heartbroken when the sale forces him confront the biggest mistake he ever made—forsaking Freddy, his first and only love.
As a young man, Adam was too easily swayed by his status-obsessed family and by his best friend Rusty, who thought Freddy wasn’t good enough for him.
This slow-burn romance contains a yippy dog named Mr. Collins, wine slushies, and a serious dose of angst. For more information and a two-chapter excerpt, visit jennyholiday.com/undueinfluence.
Thanks for a fun interview.