434. Fried Food, Family Drama (and Jazz): Sexy Small Towns with Reese Ryan

[music]

Sarah Wendell: Hello there! Thank you for inviting me into your eardrums. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Podcast, Trashy Books. Welcome to episode number 434! My guest today is Reese Ryan, who is a YouTube host and the author of many books, including a new book, Second Chance on Cypress Lane. We’re going to talk about that book, the levels of food porn found inside, which is substantial, and about her career. She has written so many books, including releasing four books in 2020, which is amazing, and we’re going to talk about some of her favorite covers for her Harlequin Desires as well, so make sure, if you’re curious what they look like, to check out the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.

I have a compliment for this episode, and I love this so much.

To Megan T.: You’re the human personification of the perfect filling inside the perfect flaky baked good, because being with you makes everything better. Like butter, but even better than that.

If you would like a compliment of your very own, have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges start at one whole dollar per month, and each pledge makes a deeply appreciated difference in making sure that the show continues and that every episode is accessible. So thank you to our Patreon community, and thank you to Megan T.

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Fear not: I will end this episode with a terrible joke. And I will link to all of the books and the YouTube channel that we talk about at length, and there’s a documentary mention here – I have a lot of links. Fear not, they will all be in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.

But now, let’s do this interview thing. On with my conversation with Reese Ryan!

[music]

Reese Ryan: I am Reese Ryan, and I write sexy, emotional romantic fiction featuring lots of family drama, surprising secrets, and a cast of complicated, sometimes messy characters. My jam is sexy small-town romance – [laughs] – and I have been writing for various imprints of Harlequin since 2013 – Carina Press, Kimani Romance, and now Desire – and I am launching a new series with Grand Central Forever, which I’m super excited about.

Sarah: Yay! Congrats on your new book, and congrats on such an awesome career!

Reese: Thank you! Thank you so much. It’s, it’s so funny –

Sarah: It’s no small deal; that’s a big deal!

Reese: – to hear you say that! [Laughs]

Sarah: It’s a big deal! I mean, that’s amazing!

Reese: Thank you. Thank you so much! Yeah, it’s so, it’s funny when you say that, because, like – and I think that’s a writer thing – you never think of yourself as being, okay, I, I, I don’t feel like I’ve done a lot, you know? I look at other people, like Maisey Yates just celebrated like a hundred books just with Harlequin? And I’m like, I want to be like that when I grow up, you know? Or –

Sarah: Yep.

Reese: – Brenda Jackson, who I, who has twenty-five years. You know, it’s just –

Sarah: Yep.

Reese: – wow! [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh no, I –

Reese: So thank you; I appreciate that though. Thank you so much.

Sarah: It, it – you’re very welcome, ‘cause it is important to sort of turn around and take a look back at what you’ve done? Like, I mean, come on, I, I run a website as my job, and I’m still trying to explain what that is to my mother-in-law, and I’ve been doing it for almost sixteen years?

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: And so I have that same problem where I’m like, oh yeah, I guess I do have a career! Oh cool!

[Laughter]

Reese: Exactly! It’s crazy!

Sarah: So what will readers find inside of Second Chance on Cypress Lane, in addition to career drama, family drama, and a really solid amount of food porn, by the way? Most excellent levels of food porn in this book: thank you for that!

Reese: [Laughs] You are welcome! There is – that’s a thing you’ll find in, like, every one of my books is food and music –

Sarah: Yes! Yes!

Reese: – and it’s, like, not even something I did intentionally, especially in the beginning. It’s just that I like to eat and I love music, and so those things kept cropping up again and again in every story that I would write, so.

Second Chance on Cypress Lane is about a rising star reporter who gets herself unwittingly caught up in a scandal that tanks her career, so she finds herself having to return to her small Outer Banks hometown while she licks her wounds and eats lots of lemon meringue pie – [laughs] – and tries to avoid, to avoid the man who broke her heart when she was a teenager. So lots of, lots of family stuff, lots of friend stuff; just, I, I love building these communities of secondary characters. Secondary characters are my jam too, so – [laughs] – this was especially fun, being able to build out all these different characters.

Sarah: I am very curious about the setting, because I love books that are set in, on islands, and I love reading about small towns, because small towns in different parts of the United States are all very different from each other. And, and I read in your bio that you are a relocated Midwesterner who lives in the South.

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: I grew up in Pittsburgh, which is very Midwestern in culture, and went to college in South Carolina, so let me just say your bio speaks to me on a deep level of cultural fluency? Is Holly Grove based on one of the Lowcountry islands?

Reese: It is, it is actually based on a trip that I took to Duck, North Carolina, in the Outer Banks.

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: [Laughs] I loved it in, you know, at the time we went, because first of all, we, we moved here to North Carolina from Cleveland, which, I’m a Clevelander.

Sarah: Oh! We do have a similar backdrop then!

Reese: [Laughs] Yeah! So, you know, I lived there most of my life, and so for, eleven years ago we moved to North Carolina, and we were here probably six, five or six years before we had ever gone to the beach, and so finally we went to the beach, and of course –

Sarah: [Laughs] Is that allowed?

Reese: It should not be! It’s terrible! And what makes it even worse is when we went it was March, which –

[Laughter]

Reese: – which is normally, like, here in North Carolina, you know, the deep into this December it’ll still be fairly, you know, decent weather –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – and a lot of times in March it’s really nice weather. Not that particular March: it was freezing that particular year at the end of March. So it was so cold, but we loved it. It was just such a, a beautiful little place, and it’s, it’s kind of private, ‘cause at the time they didn’t have a public beach. I think they still don’t have a public beach there, so –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – it, it’s not as crowded –

Sarah: I love it.

Reese: – as many of the other places in the Outer Banks and stuff, so, you know, just – and I love the way it’s, it’s set up. There’s sort of like, it’s this strip of land, basically, you know, and on one side you have the ocean; on the other side you have the sound, which I, I think is the Currituck Sound. So you can see water on either side, and it’s just like this quaint, little, kind of private place, and I loved it, and I’m like, I want to write about this. [Laughs] I want to write about a town like this, and so that’s what kind of inspired it, but in terms of, like, how I visualize, like, the shape of the island and stuff is closer to like Roanoke Island or something like that. One of those islands like that –

Sarah: Right.

Reese: – I think in terms of how the shape is and stuff. But yeah, I just love Duck so much, and we can’t wait to go back there, so. And it is, like, far north, ‘cause that’s the thing: you can, from where I am, not far from Raleigh – I’m in a suburb, suburb of Raleigh – you can drive to the beach, you know, in less than two hours. Oh, you know, Duck, from here, is like four hours – [laughs] –

Sarah: Yep.

Reese: – so. But it was, it was worth the drive. It was absolutely worth the drive.

Sarah: So what do you have planned for the Holly Grove Island series? There were, there were several characters that I’m very curious about in this book. ‘Cause I’ll let you know, I love how readers are like, oh, the hero and the heroine; I’m like, yeah, so tell me about all the friends?

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: And the, and the dad? The dad gets –

Reese: I, I love Oliver –

Sarah: [Squees]

Reese: – I love Oliver so much. So yeah, lots of plans for – so when I, so when I first decided to write the series and sat down and plotted it out – ‘cause normally I don’t plot out a full series at the beginning completely? Like, maybe a few books in?

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: But this one, like, just spoke to me from the beginning. So, like, there were, I think I originally had plotted like six novels and two novellas. Definitely you’re going to see some of those friends. Sinclair for sure is – [laughs] – is our next character, and her book, we already know the name of the book, and that’s going to be Return to Hummingbird Way, and so it’s going to be her and Rhett or Garrett, which is Dexter’s cousin, and it’s going to be an Enemies to Lovers story for sure.

Sarah: Oh-ho!

Reese: [Laughs] They’re, they’re going to be – mm, they’re something, the two of them together. And then also Nick and Dexter’s younger sister Em are going to –

Sarah: Oh, I saw that one! Yes!

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes! Em was one of my favorite characters. Like, the minute she walked in with the whole, and, and, like, the jazz porn in this book is Wow.

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: There’s like a whole chapter and a half of pornographic jazz! Like, not actual pornographic, but, like, musically speaking. The minute Em walked on, on stage I was like, oh yes! Hello, yes? Hi, future heroine! How are you? Yes? Good?

Reese: Yay! Yay! I’m so excited to hear that, and that, that is weird too in itself, that that jazz club scene is, like, so lo-, it’s so long. [Laughs] And I don’t, I think of it more as like a collection of mini-scenes?

Sarah: Mm-hmm!

Reese: But yeah, there’s a lot going on there. So, yeah, you’re going to see a lot of those, those people in future stories for sure, so.

Sarah: So is there going to be more food courtship too? Because first of all, I don’t think you should ever control-F the word fried?

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: In your books. ‘Cause I was so, I was reading this, it was like 10:30, and I’m like, great, now I want fried food. Not fair! I’ve already brushed my teeth! But there’s also a scene where Dakota says to herself, the heroine says to herself, it’s just coffee and a bagel, girl; don’t get emotional.

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: And seriously, I would get emotional over a gentleman bringing me my favorite bagel and coffee in the morning. Like, that’s, that’s, that’s serious romance! Are you going to do more food courtship in the, in the future books?

Reese: I, see, I, and I love that. I love, love, love when the characters, you know, do food or something or, or make meals for each other.

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: Especially I love for the hero to make or bring –

Sarah: Yeess.

Reese: – something special to, to the, the heroine, so that happens a lot in my stories, and you’ll definitely see that in the future. And I, I love also, you know, being able to use that as one of the things that shows that the characters know each other really well, so –

Sarah: Mm-hmm! Mm-hmm!

Reese: – yeah. Yeah, you’ll see lots more of that.

Sarah: There’s a lot of gentlemen cooking in this book, too. I mean, her father cooks for her; her, her sort of love interest, kind of second-chance guy who gets under her skin brings her food. There’s a lot of fine men cooking in this book!

Reese: There is, there is, and it’s so funny, ‘cause, like, I’m working on a story right now for, for Harlequin Desire, and the, he’s a chef, so there’s lot –

Sarah: Oh!

Reese: – he’s doing a lot of cooking! [Laughs]

Sarah: Ah!

Reese: There’s some recipes –

Sarah: I really think, I really think you have set up your career brilliantly! You can now write off going to Duck; you can write off buying cookbooks; you can write off going to do any kind of jazz you want – this is really brilliant strategy!

Reese: Thank you very much! [Laughs]

Sarah: Well played!

Reese: Thank you so much! Yeah, all, it’s all things that I love. Like I said, in the beginning, the fact that food kept coming up in my books and music kept coming up in my books was just –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – sort of incidental. It was something I didn’t really think about until I kind of started to really focus in and think about what my brand was, and I realized that, like, some of the same things recur-, came up all the time, and also food and music, and so then – and of course the family drama – [laughs] –

Sarah: Hmm!

Reese: – and so then I just really embraced those things as being a part of my brand, and so they do make their appearance every single time in one way or another.

Sarah: Isn’t it funny to develop your brand backwards?

Reese: Yes! [Laughs]

Sarah: I did the same thing, but, like, it’s really strange to be like, oh, I guess that is a hallmark of mine. Okay!

Reese: Exactly. That’s exactly what it was, and I, I’m trying to think, it was some author at an RWA meeting who – I think the talk was about author branding and things, or maybe it might have been about things in, in what you’re writing, and so she had made the statement that, you know, basically, even if you don’t think you have things, you do. Go back and look at books you’ve written –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – whether you’re published or not, and you’ll see the same things recurring, and when I did that I’m like – [gasps] – she’s right!

[Laughter]

Reese: So for me it’s like, family, forgiveness, and self-identity. Those three things –

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: – keep coming back up again and again, so again, I’ve just learned to embrace them now.

Sarah: And you know, it’s interesting because you’ve come through Harlequin and written for so many of the different imprints of Harlequin, which are branded for the imprint –

Reese: Right.

Sarah: – and not necessarily for the author, so you’ve worked up a brand inside of another brand –

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: – which is no small feat!

Reese: That is, you know, I had never thought about that before, Sarah!

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: That is true!

Sarah: Yes, you have!

Reese: That is true.

Sarah: It can be very difficult to build a brand name inside of another stronger brand. And yet, game on! You totally did!

Reese: [Laughs] Thank you! You, and just, and – ‘cause I’m a little bit of a rebel and some time I do push back a little bit –

Sarah: Yep.

Reese: – [laughs] – and so, you know, so that’s true! I do, there are things that I, I, I feel like it’s not me, and it’s not my voice –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – unless some of those things come through. So, you know, that’s one of the things when I shifted over to, like, you know – first of all, I, I feel like for, I’ve been very, for a very long time writing sexy small-town romance, so when we –

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: – came over, when I came over here to Grand Central to do a, you know, small-town series, I was at first, you know, just a little bit intimidated by, you know, whether or not my brand as it already stands, how that was going to, you know, mesh with what people expected of small-town –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – romance and stuff, so, ‘cause, like, I’ve always written small town, but in the Harlequin lines, lines that I did it for, Kimani and Desire, the focus is on the wealth –

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: – and, you know, the sexiness and all that, which you don’t associate with small town, so even though they –

Sarah: No.

Reese: – take place in a small town, they’re not branded that way. So, and then, when I came over here, I’m like, okay, well, I don’t want to lose all the sexiness – [laughs] – so –

Sarah: No, definitely not, bad idea, mm-mm, no.

Reese: Yeah! So I was super excited when they embraced this, this idea of making it sexy or steamy small town, ‘cause I’m like, yes! That is what I write! Yes, thank you!

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: So.

Sarah: And I mean, people in small towns do, in fact, have sex!

Reese: [Laughs] They do indeed!

Sarah: Pretty sure, anyway. I mean, I haven’t taken a, a, a massive survey, but it is a good guess on your part.

But also, you write small towns that are diverse in the South, and one thing I’ve learned from my friends who still live in the South and live in small towns, and I’ve sent them books to read, and they’re like, listen, everyone in this town is white, and it’s in the South, and the reason why that happens is really bad, and I’m having a hard time enjoying this book –

Reese: Mmm!

Sarah: – because that’s all I can think about.

Reese: Right.

Sarah: And, and I was like, oh! But you’re writing towns that are representative of what small towns look like.

Reese: And that has been so exciting for me, to be able –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – to write a more diverse small town. Oh, I love that!

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: I love that! [Laughs] That makes me so happy.

Sarah: Well, small towns in romance can be very white.

Reese: And that, we’ve always look at it that – you know, that’s the way we’ve already, always looked at it –

Sarah: Right!

Reese: – but at the same time I feel like there are a lot of authors who are out there writing small-town romances that are diverse, but a lot of times they –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – just not mentioned, you know, in this small town. Kathy Douglass, for instance, is one –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – who writes amazing small town for Special Edit-, Harlequin Special Edition, along with Rochelle Alers, so.

Sarah: Yes. Rochelle Alers writes wonderful communities!

Reese: Yes, she does. And so, and then even, like, Alisha Rai’s Forbidden Hearts series, which I freaking love that series, it, it’s set in a small town! You know, it’s super sexy –

Sarah: You’re totally right!

Reese: – and all that other stuff, but it, it’s set in a small town, but, you know, you don’t hear people list it as small town.

Sarah: Call it a small-town romance.

Reese: Right.

Sarah: Oh wow!

Reese: Right.

Sarah: That’s a really good point!

Reese: So it’s so exciting to me to not only, you know, be writing this, but to, you know, be talking about all the other authors who are doing it already and have been for some time.

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: So, and that was one of the things, we actually did a show on the YouTube channel that I do on that topic, and so it was so exciting to hear all the recommendations of all the, all those who are doing that already, so.

Sarah: Fear not: I will link to it.

[Laughter]

Sarah: I will get email. If a guest mentions something that includes recommendations elsewhere and I don’t link to it, it’ll be like, ah, Sarah? Sarah, you forgot that link; I need that link really, really bad. Like, I just paused my podcast to ask you, please, please add the link. Don’t worry; I will link to it!

Reese: [Laughs] Oh my goodness, that show is chock-full of recommendations –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – yes.

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: So, yep. Great.

Sarah: And you’ve, you’ve mentioned that, you know, you’re a bit of a rebel and you push back, and that writing small towns goes along with writing stories of self-actualization and self-realization and self-reliance, and one of the things I love about stories set in small communities is that there is a real and tangible pressure to do things the way you’ve always done them because –

Reese: Mmm.

Sarah: – that’s the way they’ve always been done –

Reese: Right.

Sarah: – without really questioning, okay, but why do we do it that way?

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: Because maybe we could not? Which is, like, how I live my whole life, which is super annoying to my husband, who really likes rules and, you know, routine and a schedule, and I’m like, but what if we didn’t?! So when you’re writing these small towns, you’re putting these characters in situations where they might be shaking things up and have to come up against that, that small community But This Is How We Do Things Here pressure.

Reese: Yes, yes, and I definitely, this is, that’s one of the things I wanted to make sure I included in this, this series for sure, because that’s a real issue in some small towns, especially in the Outer Banks?

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: So, you know, you’ll get a lot of pushback if somebody tries to come in; for instance, I was just looking at the Duck, some information on the town of Duck –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – and they talked about how, we had a close call, you know, several years ago when a big box store tried to come and move into town, you know!

[Laughter]

Reese: I mean, so it’s a real issue –

Sarah: Yep.

Reese: – especially in smaller communities like that. They want to keep out the chain stores; they want to keep out the big box stores and stuff. You can drive to a, a Wally World, you know? [Laughs]

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: But you might have to just drive like a little, a twenty-minute drive to get outside of town to get to it, because they try to kind of preserve the things that make their –

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: – their community unique, and so that was kind of a fun thing to deal with in this story as well, that you have, you know, the hardliners in the community who are like, no, no, no! We don’t want to bring more people in! We just want the –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – usual folks to, to come and visit every year that have been coming with their families for, for twenty years or whatever, and then on the other hand you have this resort that they’ve built that’s going to –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – bring more people in, so I, it was fun creating that kind of, that, that dynamic between them with the town’s folks, so, and I guess I, for anybody who lives in towns like that, they know, that is a real –

Sarah: Oh yeah.

Reese: – real, real issue! [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh, it’s definitely a thing.

Reese: Yes.

Sarah: And I’m trying to think if this is too much of a spoiler, ‘cause it happens pretty well into the book, but I don’t think it’s a super big, big spoiler that the scene where Dakota and Dexter have to have a really honest conversation with some of those old-timers –

Reese: Mm-hmm.

Sarah: – and, and, and, I mean, she really has a pretty frank conversation with them about, yes, I understand, these things are important, but, you know, your children don’t live here.

Reese: Yes!

Sarah: Oh God, I love that scene so much. I loved it! Loved it so much!

Reese: Yay, thank you! Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s so funny, ‘cause, like, I, when I was writing that scene, it’s, I, I almost felt like the character wrote the scene for me.

[Laughter]

Reese: And those are the best moments when, when I’m writing, when it feels like the characters are kind of like taking over.

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: So yeah, it was like, yeah, you, you don’t want any of these opportunities coming, I get that, but that’s why your kids don’t live here anymore, because there were no opportunities for them, so, you know –

Sarah: There’s balance –

Reese: – meet, meet us halfway! [Laughs]

Sarah: There’s balance in change! It’s not just –

Reese: Yes.

Sarah: – change everything; there’s balance there.

Reese: That’s the key, right there, and so I, I just feel like Dexter is that kind of solid, kind of easygoing, kind of want to take care of everybody person, and –

Sarah: – Yes.

Reese: – Dakota has that, you know, sensible thing about her, so it worked out well. [Laughs] And Nick is just there to charm everybody, so.

Sarah: Yes! He could sell paint to a wall. Like, it’s incredible. So –

Reese: [Laughs] I can’t wait to, to write his story; it’s going to be fun.

Sarah: Oh my God! Ah! So many sparks!

So when, when you’re writing, do you start with the character or do you start with the plot? Because you write characters that you describe as messy, who come with family drama and come with, you know, some career drama, but you’re also writing plots that affect these characters and their own sort of self-reliance and self-, I’m going to say self-vision, how they see themselves and how – self-concept I think is the word I’m looking for. Where do you start? Is it character and plot? Or one, or more than the other?

Reese: So for me, I feel like it’s always a situation. So I think –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – I start with a situation, and then the plot and the characters that would be in that situation come later. So it’s weird because I am all about character. Character is definitely, you know, I, I definitely write character-driven stories. Yet –

Sarah: And dialogue too!

Reese: Thank you! But at the, I do feel like the character almost comes last, ‘cause the situation comes first. Good example of that is my Bourbon Brothers series. So –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – what made, how I came up with that series is I saw the story about Nearest Green, who was a formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniels how to make whiskey, and then not long after that I watched, with my husband, we watched The Men Who Built America, which was, like, I think on the History channel. Sounds boring; fascinating stuff about Ford and Tesla and all these men like that, and just, like, they’re not who you thought they were at all. [Laughs] But it’s just so much drama about these empires that they built, and so that intersection, I thought, I was thinking, okay, well, what if a Black man and his family were able to build their own empire instead of enriching a white man and his family to, to create their empire? And so that’s kind of where the Bourbon Brothers storyline came from, and then after that it was just a matter of creating the individual family members and then what each of their stories would be, so. That’s the best way I can explain how the situation got to, comes first. [Laughs]

It’s so interesting. I’m always interested in what adversity shows us about who we are, and so –

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: – seeing the characters go through these kind of, these challenging times and come through the other side is so much fun for me. It’s so much more fun watching them do it than it is having it happen to me in real life, that’s for sure. [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh, oh –

Reese: So –

Sarah: – yes!

Reese: Just like the whole family drama thing; it’s like, okay, in my literary worlds that I create, I control everybody –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Reese: – so I can make everybody do what I want them – you know, they can act the way I want them to act! In real life, it’s a lot harder to deal with, you know, your family issues, so –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – you know, writing those characters and watching them work out their stuff is kind of like therapy that I don’t have to pay for, so. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes! It’s one of the reasons why I love reading romance, because I can go through these experiences knowing for certain that the end will be okay.

Reese: Yes.

Sarah: And also going through situations with characters when I’m like, yes, I have been here, it is, it is very, very hopeful to know that it, it will end okay, because being in it is awful.

Reese: Yes, yes. That’s one of the things I love. It’s two things I love about writing romance, and one is giving people a chance to experience someone else’s life, you know, in a way. You know –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – people who don’t look like you. People who don’t –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – live in communities like the one you live in. You kind of get to see how other people live or, in a way that can develop empathy in us.

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: You know, and so I, I love being able to, to do that, and to also give people a chance to, to connect in a way that makes them feel like, I recognize that person, or I recognize that situation, and, you know, maybe it’s going, like you said, maybe it’s going to be all right. [Laughs]

Sarah: Mm-hmm!

Reese: So that, that makes me feel good, to be able to, you know, lift them up, lift other people in a way. You know, sometimes –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – readers will say, yay, hey, your, that book or that series got me through XYZ, and that is just the best moment.

Sarah: Isn’t that a wonderful compliment?

Reese: It really is. It really, truly is.

Sarah: Now, speaking of your career, you released four books in 2020.

Reese: Yes.

Sarah: Hot damn!

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: This is not an easy year to release a book and you released four! In the Quarantimes!

Reese: Yeah. I love that phrase –

Sarah: Would you –

Reese: – Quarantimes. Yes.

Sarah: Thank you. There’s the Beforetimes and the Quarantimes.

Reese: Yes. Mm!

Sarah: And the Quarantimes are real and hard and long and weird.

Reese: Ugh.

Sarah: So weird! Oh my gosh. So –

Reese: More every day. [Laughs]

Sarah: – please tell me about A Reunion of Rivals, Candidly Yours, Secret Heir Seduction. Please tell me about all of these books, and I’d love to know what you did to bring them out into the world in this weird-ass time.

Reese: Oh my God, it’s so weird, so weird. So actually –

Sarah: It is so weird!

Reese: [Laughs] Actually, the last, the – this is crazy – so I think Second Chance on Cypress Lane, coming out December 1st –

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: – is going to be my fourth book this year; it’s going to be my twenty-first book period. However, it’s crazy how, like, okay, so in 2013 my first two books were published, and then I kind of took a little break and was kind of rethinking some things, and so –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – since then, it seems like I’ve had like fi-, so I had five books a year the two previous years, which was nuts.

Sarah: Great day in the morning!

Reese: Yeah! [Laughs]

Sarah: Wow!

Reese: Yeah, it’s nuts. So this was actually kind of a little bit of a break, ‘cause it was four! [Laughs]

Sarah: Oh yeah, four!

Reese: But because of the times that we’re in, it’s just, you know, with all of the –

Sarah: Each, each month is a year, so yeah!

Reese: It’s so long, so long. So it’s been a little bit nuts. So this year Secret Heir Seduction, which is probably my favorite cover ever of mine, I love it so much, is –

Sarah: Oh!

Reese: – is my third contribution to the Texas Cattleman’s Club, which is, for anyone who is not familiar with it, a super-long-running, like twenty years long –

Sarah: Oh!

Reese: – Desire has been running this Texas Cattleman’s Club series, and so what they do is they have all these little miniseries, and so this is my third miniseries that I was in for this one. This – and this is the other thing: this was not on purpose, but this turned out to be my year of second-chance romances. So of these four books, all are second-chance romance except for one.

[Laughter]

Reese: It’s just insane that they all came together that way. I don’t even know how that happened. [Laughs] So that, and then the reunion, A Reunion of Rivals is the fourth book in my Bourbon Brothers series, so, and that’s a second-chance romance, and it was, it’s so much fun writing, writing that one’s book, just because of the dialogue and back-and-forth between them, and one thing that I found in Romancelandia is it’s easier to get a hero right than it is a heroine. Romancelandia is very picky about their heroines, and so –

Sarah: It’s so true!

Reese: We, we just don’t give them the same grace that we give a hero. You know, like, he can be –

Sarah: Nope.

Reese: – kind of a jerk and, and transform, but, like, with the heroines, they’re, I – that’s a pet peeve of mine. We’ll have a, that’s a conversation for another day.

[Laughter]

Sarah: I’m with you a hundred percent; I know what you mean.

Reese: So I especially love that, that with that book everybody talks about Quinn, which is the, the heroine in that book, and how much they love her, so that made me super happy!

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: And then for Candidly Yours, is a young, younger man/older woman story, and I set that one in my Pleasure Cove world as well, and I love that one because, in addition to the, the forty-, forty-year-old heroine, which is, it’s a shame we don’t see ‘em as much as we, we don’t see them that much these days, or we’re seeing more I think now, older heroines.

Sarah: I think so, yeah, but you still say, if you, if you say forty-year-old heroine I go, oh? What?

Reese: Yeah! [Laughs]

Sarah: What? Really?

Reese: So I love it! She’s thirty-, she turns for-, forty, I’m sorry, in the book, and he’s, he’s thirty, so there’s a ten-year age gap with them, but the other thing that was fun about Candidly Yours is that one is based on carnival culture, so they travel to these different carnivals in the Caribbean, working on a project –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – together and kind of fall in love, so it was so cool learning about all the different carnival culture, and now I totally want to go to one if Quarantimes ever end. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes! Oh my gosh, please. ‘Cause, ‘cause just like small towns in different parts of the, of the States, carnivals are, have, each have a very unique flavor and customs and history and culture surrounding them, right?

Reese: Yes, absolutely. And so, some of the places they go to are, are just so different in terms of, you know, all the different customs and stuff that they have and, you know, kind of learning about the, the different things that they, they do in terms of, like, how they handle J’Ouvert? The – and so actually in the book, I actually in the little, in the beginning I have a few notes about different little terms that relate to carnival, like playing mas, which is the whole thing about dressing up, or J’Ouvert –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – which is that huge street party they have that kicks off carnival, and a lot of times they, they throw colored powder or paints or whatever, and just so, so, so much fun to write that book and to have those characters, you know, go to those different places, so. [Laughs] I get lost a little bit sometimes when I do research for stuff like that, ‘cause I, I need to feel like that I’m there, and I need to –

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: – the, the reader to feel like they’re there. So one of the biggest compliments I got on Candidly Yours was a reader who is from the Caribbean said that she felt like it just nailed being at carnival – [laughs] – and so I was like, yes!

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: Yes! [Laughs]

Sarah: That’s awesome!

Reese: Yes, that was, that made me super happy, so.

Sarah: Oh, what an awesome compliment!

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: Now, you mentioned that the cover of Secret Heir Seduction is one of your favorites.

Reese: Yesss!

Sarah: That’s a hot cover. Why is it one of your favorites?

Reese: I think I love this one – first of all, it’s just a gorgeous couple. The second thing was I fought for, it was the, the bald guy. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: I really wanted that! And so at first they’re like, I don’t know if we have a model like that. I’m like, please, please, please! So, like, I wrote it, like, just hoping it would come true.

[Laughter]

Reese: And so then when they, I was still doing revisions I think when they came back and said, okay, we found a bald model, and I’m like, yay!

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: So then I was able to actually make sure it mentioned in the book that he was bald, so I love that. But this one I think of all the covers that I have is the close-, the close-up on the couple; like, they’re right there –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – staring at you, and they’re both just gorgeous, and it has this beautiful rooftop background that’s essential to the story, so that’s why I love that cover, period, but I mean, Harlequin Desire has been really good to me with the covers?

Sarah: Oh my gosh.

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: And I’ll be –

Sarah: They’re gorgeous!

Reese: – I’ll be honest: like, when I first was, came over to Desire, I was freaked out because I’m like, okay, there hadn’t been, at that point, there hadn’t been a, you know, a lot of Black authors at Desire, and so –

Sarah: No!

Reese: – I didn’t know what I was going to end up with! [Laughs] You know, so I was a little worried, and so that first cover of Savannah’s Secrets, I, like, literally –

Sarah: Oh!

Reese: – squealed when I saw that cover, I was so excited, and they just, they nailed who I saw that couple as, and they were even –

Sarah: Ah!

Reese: – wearing exact clothing that I described – [laughs] – in my art fact sheet, and so ever since then I take those art fact sheets super seriously.

[Laughter]

Reese: I do my Pinterest board, which I share with the art department and stuff, and so I’ve been just really, really grateful to them because they, every time they seem to really nail what I’m going for as far as the aesthetic of the cover, and I’m just, just so happy. And then probably my second favorite would probably be A Reunion of Rivals, so both of those came out back to back, so. [Laughs]

Sarah: They are both seriously hot covers. I mean, I remember –

Reese: Thank you!

Sarah: – when we first saw Savannah’s Secrets, my, my internal reviewers’ Slack went – [gasps] – oh my gosh!

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: Just her hair and the dress and the pose?

Reese: Yes! That made me really, really happy! And I was, I was just so excited about it, and then another cover I think that I got a lot of, I got a lot of feedback on was Off Limits Lovers, which was my second Texas Cattleman’s Club book?

Sarah: Mmm?

Reese: And that heroine is biracial, but on that cover she’s wearing braids, and that’s not something you see a lot –

Sarah: Long braids!

Reese: – especially on –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – you know – [laughs] – a lot of the traditional publishers’ books, and so –

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: – I got, I got a lot of feedback about that. And so, I don’t know if you’ve seen the cover for my upcoming Bourbon Brothers book, Waking Up Married, and she has the, she has the afro going, and I just love it. I just absolutely love it. [Laughs] So they have been very good to me with these covers.

Sarah: I am furiously googling, ‘cause I have not seen this one yet.

Reese: [Laughs] Yeah.

Sarah: Oh – [gasps] – look at her hair!

Reese: I know!

Sarah: And that dress! Excuse me?

Reese: Yes! [Laughs] So I was so excited about that cover, so it is, again – I love you, Harlequin Desire art department!

Sarah: Oh my gosh!

Reese: It’s been fantastic, so.

Sarah: I cannot wait to put this in the show notes and be like, look at this cover! And this one!

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: And this one! And this one over here! And also that one! Oh my God.

Reese: Yes, so, yes, yes! Make sure you fill out, fellow authors, make sure you fill out that art fact sheet to the letter. [Laughs] Like, be as –

Sarah: Right.

Reese: – specific, overexplain, give them all the, the samples that you possibly can in terms of what you’re looking for. That helps a lot, so.

Sarah: Oh my gosh, and to say nothing of browsing Pinterest on purpose for work!

Reese: [Laughs] That is another rabbit hole which I often fall down, because –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Reese: – I am one of those people, like, if I’m describing a scene and she’s wearing, I’ll say, oh, you know, she’s wearing a dress. I can’t just say she’s wearing a dress.

Sarah: No!

Reese: I have to know what the dress looks like, so –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – now I’m on Pinterest – [laughs] – looking for her dress and describing it, and I literally might only have like a sentence about this dress, but I spent three hours on Pinterest looking, looking for it!

Sarah: Well, of course!

Reese: [Laughs] It just happens that way; I can’t help it.

Sarah: I have a piece of software on my laptop and on my phone called RescueTime that will tell me about how many hours I spend on things that are productive and things that I spend that are distracting, and there’s a couple of times where I’ve had to tell it, nonononono, this is for work. Instagram is not a distraction; I was actually working when I was on Instagram. Okay, that Pinterest was for work, and that is also productive time, thank you, and I get to tell it, nonononono, that was, that was work! Work time!

Reese: I didn’t know, I didn’t know you could tell it that that’s work time. That’s pretty good, ‘cause I need to –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – I need to do that! [Laughs]

Sarah: You can change it and say no. Like, for example, there are certain URLs where if I’m working on the back end of the site I’m not actually browsing the internet, I’m actually working, so I’ve had to tell it, this URL is work and this one is not – I’ll be honest with you. This one is work and this one is productive time, and if I’m on this URL, then I am being very productive, and it, and it, it skews my results so that I have a better snapshot of how many hours I spend at the computer, but how many of those hours are actually me getting stuff done –

Reese: Hmm.

Sarah: – so that I can not be at the computer. [Laughs]

Reese: I love that, I love that. Okay, I have to check that out then. Thank you!

Sarah: You’re welcome! Now, can I ask you about your YouTube channel?

Reese: Ohhh. So that is the gift from the pan-, pandemic, okay. [Laughs] So –

Sarah: I love it! I, first of all, your intro welcoming video is so great, and I know, I don’t mean to be, sound creepy, but I really, really love your nose piercing?

Reese: Oh, thank you!

Sarah: Like, I love it a lot! I was like, okay, I was like, I was, I have this big monitor, and I’m like, is that a baguette? Is that a mar-, marquis cut? What is – it’s gorgeous, it’s sparkly, what, what is that? Like, I might have listened to that video twice just trying to get, like, a better – it’s gorgeous! Oh my gosh!

Reese: [Laughs] Thank you! You know, this, what’s hilarious, okay, so confession: so for –

Sarah: Yes?

Reese: – for this YouTube, I’ve been wanting to do this for like two years, and –

Sarah: Awesome!

Reese: – I, I kept debating and debating and debating it, so then the, the pandemic hit, and at first, like, I just mentally wasn’t in a space to write, so I was doing a lot of reading or whatever, and –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – then I said, okay, this is the time to, to do this, and the, I was debating between a podcast and video, and I’ll be honest, the thing that made me go with video is right before the pandemic and the lockdown, for my fiftieth birthday this year, I decided to get my nose pierced and a tattoo.

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: So I get my nose pierced, and, like, the next day, we have to wear masks all the time outside!

[Laughter]

Reese: So, so I’m like, okay! I’m definitely doing video! [Laughs] And so –

Sarah: Got to show off that nose piercing!

Reese: So that, that and the pandemic helped prompt that, along with the fact that, you know, we couldn’t go to any of the reader conferences that I had planned to attend.

Sarah: No!

Reese: So I’m a person who really just started attending reader conferences like maybe two years ago! So it’s new to me, fairly still new to me, and I’m, I was loving it, and so during the pandemic I’m like, okay, I, I want to find a way for, to have this really interactive space where romance readers and authors can connect, and so that is what led to the YouTube show. And then the reason I focus on the live streams is because –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – I don’t have the talent and skill to do the editing!

[Laughter]

Sarah: That was something I wanted to ask you about!

Reese: So that way I don’t have to do the editing; we just hop on. Now, I was incorrect in thinking, okay, it’s not going to take any time because I’m, we’re just going to hop on and we’re going to chat, but you know, you do interviews, there’s a lot of prep and stuff that goes into –

Sarah: Oh, yes there is.

Reese: – before, the before, you know, and not to mention the promo before and after, so that’s –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – all a lot more time intensive than I thought it would be, but I love doing the live stream chaps, chats. And then the other thing is, you know, StreamYard, the, that technology was just, like, perfect. It’s, like, for dummies basically – [laughs] –

Sarah: Mm-hmm. Oh yeah.

Reese: – and it’s so easily accessible and, you know, it made it where I could easily do these really, really interactive chats, and so during the chat, you know, readers can ask questions and make comments and what have you, and then –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – for, like, the two recent chats I did with Brenda Jackson and Beverly Jenkins, I was able to, in my private readers group, my VIP readers group on Facebook, I posed, I asked them, you know, what questions would you want to ask them –

Sarah: Ah!

Reese: – and so –

Sarah: Love it!

Reese: Yes! So they got to answer the questions I asked; a lot of them were directly from the readers, in addition to the ones we answered right there on the spot with the readers, so. It’s just been so much fun, and we’ve had such great conversations about just a little bit of everything from, you know, like, we talked about diverse small towns. You know, Kathy Douglass and I –

Sarah: Yep.

Reese: – had one about that: great conversation. I had a panel with Karen Booth, who is a fellow Desire author, and as a matter of fact, speaking of seasoned romances, because that’s what we –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: You know, so, she runs the Seasoned Romance, she and Maggie Wells run the Seasoned Romance group, and so, you know, it’s me and Karen and Sheryl Lister, who writes Black romance with grown folks. I like, I call it grown, I prefer the term grown folks to seasoned romance –

Sarah: Okay, I love that!

Reese: – because seasoned romance, when I think sea-, when, every time I hear the word seasoned I think about bland chicken? [Laughs] So –

[Laughter]

Reese: So, so, so I hate that term! I only use it so that people will know what it is, but I hate it! So I –

Sarah: Grown folks romance –

Reese: So I say –

Sarah: – communicates so much.

Reese: – grown folks romance, and in Romancelandia, sadly, you know, that’s thirty-plus, you know.

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: But we’re, we are starting to see more in the forties and fifties, and so it was, you know, me, Sheryl, Suzette Harrison, and then Lisa Salvary, who runs Romance in Her Prime Facebook group. So we had a great chat about that. That was a really great interactive chat, you know. Just lots of conversations that we’ve had with the readers that have been so, so much fun. And then authors like, you know, Kennedy Ryan and, and Vanessa Riley, who was an absolute hoot. [Laughs] Just, you know, lots of different chats about – oh, Naima Simone, the chat we had about writing sexytimes with heart; lots of giggling between the two of us – [laughs] – and some great comments from, from readers, so.

Just, just, it’s, I just have fun with it every single week, and so the readers and stuff have been responding, and so it’s been, it’s been fantastic. So I’m looking forward to doing lots of chats next year.

Sarah: I, I love that. I love my podcast. I’ve been doing it for a long time, and I love when I get to interact with the people who are, who are listening. And for me, I get, I get a lot of questions for upcoming interviews or, or episodes that I’m doing from my Patreon group –

Reese: Mm.

Sarah: – and they’re wonderful and being like, oh my God, ask this! Oh my gosh, I’m so excited!

Reese: [Laughs]

Sarah: You’re excited! I’m excited! I can’t believe I’m going to interview this author! Having questions from, from other people, it’s so interesting to me that, you know, you and I are in totally different places, and this is voice only, but when you get used to talking to someone digitally, you get used to moving up a level in conversation.

Reese: Mmm.

Sarah: You know, and I’ve noticed that with YouTube too. It’s this really interesting form of digital intimacy?

Reese: Yes.

Sarah: Where you’re having this really high-level, detailed conversation with someone, but it’s still very far apart and you’re, you know, you’re not near each other ‘cause, you know, Quarantimes!

Reese: Right. [Laughs]

Sarah: What are some of your favorite things about doing the live streams? What parts do you enjoy the absolute most?

Reese: Absolutely it’s the interaction with the, with the readers. The fact that –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – I, I try to, even though, you know, the authors, it’s authors mostly that I’ve been interviewing up to this point, though next year I do have plans to do some reader chats as well.

Sarah: [Squees]

Reese: [Laughs] But, you know, I just, I love being able to have those conversations with them, and just focus on things that they want to hear, so it’s just so much fun, the discussions that we have, and so, you know, as I went on with a little bit I was able to start kind of turning out the questions more to the readers so that we can get them even more involved in the conversation, and that’s just –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – just so much. So it’s just like when we sit down, you know, even if the author has, like, a, a book out and we’re going to, we’re going to, we’re going to talk about the book, but there’s usually some bigger topic that we’re discussing, and the main thing –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – is, I want people to walk away feeling like the two of us, you know, as authors, were sitting down chatting over coffee, and they got a chance to be a part of the conversation. That’s, that’s what –

Sarah: Yes!

Reese: – I want people to walk away with. And so, so far, it feels like they get that? [Laughs]

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: And so I’ve been really happy with that.

Sarah: And it’s a really good sort of semi-replacement for reader events?

Reese: Yes.

Sarah: Because you’re centering reader conversations, but you’re also talking to authors and introducing the people who are watching to books that they might not have encountered yet!

Reese: Yes, yes. That’s another thing that’s really fun about it is when I’ve had so many comments from, from different readers saying that I introduced them to a new author, and that’s one of the things I love doing anyway, ‘cause even in my readers’ group we, you know, have, one or two times a month an author will come to visit, or if there’s somebody who has a book on sale or whatever, I’m always going to, you know, share that, because I want to introduce readers to other people, and so whenever a reader tells me that, oh, oh my God, I’ve got all these new authors that I follow now because of you! That, that just makes my day. That makes my heart so happy. [Laughs]

Sarah: Isn’t that the greatest?

Reese: Mmm, it is.

Sarah: Helping someone discover a book that they love is the best feeling; I love it so much.

Reese: Yes, absolutely. I’m like, I’m like that about music too, so, like, whenever, so whenever –

Sarah: Yeah?

Reese: – I introduce someone to a, a TV show or music or a book or whatever that, or an author that they love, that, that just makes me super happy. [Laughs]

Sarah: So what are you working on right now that, can you talk about it? It’s okay if you can’t talk about it.

Reese: So – [laughs] – so I’m working on a trilogy with –

Sarah: Oh my gosh!

Reese: [Laughs] It is, it is a trilogy with three authors. So the fabulous Joss Wood proposed that she, Karen Booth, and I do a trilogy together, and so it was really fun doing this, because all of us have participated in multiple Texas Cattleman’s Club books, and for, you know, those are continuities –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – where you’re essentially given a story bible. You know, you have –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – a lot of room to create whatever you want about the story. You know, you can absolutely make it your own. If five people are given this story bible you’re going to get five totally different books. So, but we’ve all done that, but you know, the thing is, it’s, somebody else has created the bible, and so this time the three of us were able to get together and create our own essential bi-, you know, bible of what happens in these three stories, and so –

Sarah: Oooh!

Reese: – Joss took the, has the first one, Karen has the second one, and I have the third one, so that’s the, what, what I’m working on now. And so here’s the thing – [laughs] – so it’s a Harlequin Desire book, so it’s category, you know, so the length –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – is about 50K.

Sarah: Oh boy.

Reese: Okay. [Laughs] So I don’t know why this happened, I don’t know why this happened, but it took me forever to finish this book, and by the time I finished it, it was 89K. So –

Sarah: Oh, oh! That, oh dear.

Reese: Yes. So I have been chipping away at that. That is what I’ve been doing. [Laughs] And I’m on my second round now, because I still have about another 6K to –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Reese: – to chip away before I can hand it in, and then after that I am working on Sinclair and Garrett’s story, so for second, you know, for the Holly Grove Island series, so. Excited about them! I’m excited about them. [Laughs]

Sarah: That’s, that sounds like so much creative freedom, and yet you have to knock it back to fifty thousand! [Laughs]

Reese: I know! I know! My God, like, like I say, I have been, lately, turning, you know, I’ve been writing them longer. Like, the last few books I’ve turned in have been probably like anywhere from 5 to 10K over, and I’ve had to knock that down, but I’ve never done anything like this. It’s, it’s insane. It’s, I, I can’t even believe that I wrote that much.

[Laughter]

Reese: I just really cannot believe that. I, I don’t, I don’t even know how that happened, but I love the characters, and I love the storyline, and so I’m, I’m excited, ‘cause this trilogy that we’re writing is about three foster brothers who were adopted by a man who runs a resort. Over the years they had a falling out years ago, and so their father be-, gets ill, and they all come back to, to take their turn at helping out with the resort, and of course they all fall in love while, while they’re there, and they rediscover lessons of family. So that’s what I’ve been working on. Like I said, I, I love the story! But I just – so it’s, like, hard to let go of stuff. Like, okay, I don’t want to cut that scene. Oh, that’s – I don’t want to cut that scene. Ooh, I want to cut that dialogue.

[Laughter]

Reese: And so, so I’m going to get it down to a decent amount, and then I’m going to hand it over and the editor can, is going to, will take it from there, so.

Sarah: When are those scheduled to come out? 2021?

Reese: Yesss!

Sarah: Awesome.

Reese: 2021, yep. They’re going to come out next then.

Sarah: So how many books do you have planned in 2021? Seven?

Reese: [Laughs] Actually –

Sarah: Fourteen?

Reese: – it’s, it’s, it’s – no, for a change –

[Laughter]

Reese: – for a change, it’s, let me see, I think that there’s going to be, okay, let’s see: so Waking Up Married comes out in March, and then, let me see, the last book in that series comes out in December of that year, and now – I think four. Yeah. [Laughs] I will have at least four.

Sarah: So far. So far.

Reese: I will have – yeah. I’ll have at least four books. [Laughs] I’ll have at least four books next year as well, so. It’s, it’s, it’s just, it’s been wild, a wild ride for these, you know, last few years. I would never have imagined that I would be putting out like four or five books a year, and just, wow. It’s been a, I’m, I’m thankful for it, but yes, in the time, in Quarantimes it definitely –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – became difficult, so. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: Yeah. When you’re – I’ll admit, I am a horrible procrastinator, and so –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Reese: – that’s that was the, that’s the issue, that was the issue to start with, and then you add Quarantimes on top of that, and then this year I’ve been helping out with my grandkids a couple days a week, which is something else I did not expect when I made this really crazy schedule?

Sarah: [Laughs] Yeah!

Reese: Yeah.

Sarah: Yeah, oops!

Reese: And then that whole thing of, like, there are times in this crazy, you know, be-, between the stress of, you know, politics and then, you know, the pandemic and all that, there are just times when your brain is like, it’s not happening now, sister. Sorry! [Laughs]

Sarah: Mm-hmm, yep!

Reese: So I had to kind of realize that, and so sometime it’s just like, okay, it’s just not happening right now, so.

Sarah: But you have so many options now, with the YouTube channel and different projects and – you have all these different creative outlets to shift your energy. Do you find that that helps a little bit?

Reese: It really does. It really does –

Sarah: Yeah.

Reese: – to be able to say, okay, my mind’s just not working with this right now; let me go do this thing. And so that helps a lot. And a friend of mine, I was talking to a friend that I hadn’t talked to in a while yesterday, and I was telling her about this, and so she brought up something else that I hadn’t really thought about. She’s just like, you know, as a creative person, you know, you need to go out and experience the world to be inspired. [Laughs]

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: It’s just like, you’re not getting to do that right now; that has to, like, that has to, like, harm your, your creative abilities.

Sarah: You have to –

Reese: And if I –

Sarah: You have to limit your, your exposure to the world, literally.

Reese: Mm. [Laughs] Right, so you have the balance between, like, there’s certain things like, you’re trying to cut that out, and then there’s other thing that you, like, you know, you can’t just go out and, you know, go to the park the way you used to or to a –

Sarah: No.

Reese: – you know, a restaurant the way you used to and sit and observe people and hear and – [laughs] – hear things that inspire stories the way you would in the past, so, you know, it’s just crazy, a really, really, really different times that we have to –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – you know, learn to adjust to, and yeah. It’s, it’s something, like, and like you said, it just, every month feels like a year. [Laughs]

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: And when you think things cannot get any weirder, they do.

Sarah: They do, right? Oh my gosh.

Reese: Every time. Every time you think it can’t get any weirder, worse, whatever –

Sarah: [Laughs]

Reese: – it does! And I, and it just, I –

Sarah: Surprise!

Reese: – I think to myself all the time, if somebody had written this stuff like two years ago, we’d be slamming it for being unrealistic. [Laughs] So we’re –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – if, you know, we just wouldn’t even believe it, but here we are.

Sarah: Are there any books that you’ve read that you want to tell people about?

Reese: Oof. Okay, so – [laughs] –

Sarah: Okay. Strapping in. Getting ready! Let’s do it!

Reese: So here’s the thing, first of all, let me just say, because I’ve been just, like, drowning in deadlines for months, like for months I’ve been like, I’ve had one deadline after the other? As soon as I finish one thing I have to jump right into the next, so it’s been hard for me – ‘cause, like, I saw, started this year reading a ton because I couldn’t write –

Sarah: Mm-hmm.

Reese: – and, you know, with the pandemic –

Sarah: Yeah!

Reese: – and everything, and then I switched to, like, just writing, writing, and haven’t had a chance to read anything. So, but here’s my, my books. [Laughs]

So one of the books I read, it was either this year or late last year – I think it was this year – that I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved was Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez. Talk about this book all the time.

Sarah: Oooh!

Reese: I love it so much ‘cause it’s an alpha heroine; instead of the hero being the alpha, she’s the alpha, she’s the billionaire. Love it, love it, love it, and super hot, super sexy, and so I love that book, and so her follow-up, Hate Crush, has come out, and so that’s high on my TBR, treating myself list, once I’m finally done with this last book for the year.

Sarah: Awesome!

Reese: [Laughs] And I, I think the, the book I am finishing right now is Hide and Keep by K. Sterling, who – and that’s a male/male. So she writes male/male, and the hero, one of the, one of the heroes in that book is autistic. He has Asperger’s, and I have multiple people in my life who have Asperger’s, so I love how she, the things she shows about this character and that he finds his, his love story, so I love that.

And there is a book, I think it’s called A Taste of Her Own Medicine by Tasha L. Harrison. Fantastic book. Also an older heroine.

Sarah: Yes.

Reese: Love, love, love that book. And finally, finally read recently Get a Life, Chloe Brown. I know I’m late to the party on that. [Laughs] So, but I love, I loved reading that book. I just, I just loved the hero and the heroine in that book, and so I would highly recommend that, and I can’t wait to read the rest of that series as well.

And then another book that’s on my TBR that I can’t read to, wait to read is Being Hospitable by Meka James. That is a female/female, and it is a, a Best Friend’s Little Sister – [laughs] – but it’s, but with a female/female. And so I’m looking forward to reading that one as well; that’s high on my TBR list here.

Sarah: Oh wow.

Reese: I’m really trying to branch out this year. So that was one of the things for myself, ‘cause when the whole explosion about RWA happened at the end of last year –

Sarah: Can you believe that was only a year ago?

Reese: I – can you – yes. Can you believe the world got so much worse – [laughs] –

Sarah: Oh yeah!

Reese: – after that. So –

Sarah: And I can’t believe I’m looking back at it like, wow, that was such a quaint time.

Reese: I know! I was thinking the same thing, and –

[Laughter]

Reese: So, but one of the things that happened from that for me is, you know, I’m like, okay, I already read, I’m like, I read, of course I read Black romance and I, and I read lots of mainstream romance and stuff, but I was like, I wanted to make sure that I was reading more books with, you know, people of other races and ethnicities, aside from Black and white. [Laughs] And so, and al-, I also added that I wanted to read more LGBTQ stories as well, so I definitely have been working to make sure that I’m getting all those wonderful stories in there as well.

[music]

Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this week’s episode. Thank you to Reese Ryan for hanging out with me and talking about so many things. You can find her at reeseryan.com, and I will link to her YouTube channel as well in the show notes, never fear.

And if you would like to get in touch with me, I would love to hear from you: [email protected] or 1-201-371-3272. Tell me a bad joke; you know how much I love those. I love hearing from you, I like your suggestions, and I love when you ask for book recommendations, ‘cause Amanda and I are like, mwah-ha-ha! Game on!

I have also noticed several new reviews for the show, and I wanted to say thank you! Valkyrie on iTunes, or Apple Podcasts or whatever they’re calling themselves this week, gave us five stars, and Neil says that they could listen to me for hours! Well, well, thank you! If you rate and review the show, however you listen, thank you so much! You’re making it easier for other people to find the show, and I really appreciate it. It is really heartening to know that you enjoy this work, so thank you.

And now it’s time for a bad joke, because I can offer copious amounts of gratitude and then I can offer you a really truly awful piece of humor. This is from Emily Jane, who listens to the show. Emily Jane, thank you for this. Are you guys ready? You ready? You ready? Okay, here we go!

What is the most condescending type of bear?

Give up? The most condescending type of bear?

A pan-duh!

[Laughs] I told my older child that, and his response was, oh my God, Mom. Pan-duh! Thank you, Emily Jane! I love bad jokes; they’re so great!

On behalf of everyone here, thank you so much for listening. We will be back next week, but until then, we wish you the very best of reading.

Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network, and you can find terrific shows to listen to at frolic.media/podcasts.

[nice music]