WEBVTT
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Hello, my book butterflies, and welcome to this week's episode of the main chapter podcast.
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My name is Brianna, and if you haven't already, please be sure to like and subscribe so we can continue growing and spreading our love of books through the entire world.
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Now, this week we are covering a romance that is perfect for this time of year.
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I just got done interviewing Laura Piper Lee, talking all about her new book, Doomsday, which follows our leads, Maisie and Everett, who go on a first date that is with a zombie apocalypse right now.
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And Maisie is a doomsday rapper.
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She spent the first 20 years of her life in isolation and basically is a survivalist in Everett, is a very soft-hearted professor who is a widower and this is actually his first date in three years.
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And they go on a road trip up in north to safety, where Maisie basically says she'll help ever survive if he can give her sex lessons because she is lacking in the romantic and intimacy area of her life, and she has a bucket list item to check off before she turns 30 in a few days.
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So it's a super fun book that honestly has you on the edge of your seat because you never know when a zombie is going to pop out.
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It was my first time reading like a zombie horror type romance, and I enjoyed it.
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But as a scaredy cat, I also had a lot of anxiety reading it, but in a good way.
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So it was definitely a roller coaster.
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And this is such a tender story, too.
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One of the most popular lines from the book is Maisie Tells Everett, and that he's helping her, she's helping him survive, but he's helping her learn how to live.
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And that is such the epitome of this book.
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There's such softies, and you're really rooting for them.
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And Laura and I talk all about developing their characters, the research behind the book, our favorite scenes.
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There are some spoilers.
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If you're listening, I will have the timestamps in the description.
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But here are the timestamps on the screen for those who are watching.
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So be sure to listen with discretion if you have not read the book yet and don't want to spoil it for yourself.
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But overall, fun romance for people who are new to kind of the horror romance genre.
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I think this is a great introduction.
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It was for me.
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And let's go ahead and roll the tape.
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Well, Laura, welcome to main chapter.
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I am so excited to have you.
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I spent last week reading Doomsday, and it was a little bit of a new experience for me because I've done paranormal romance like zombies and vampire, or not sort of vampires and werewolves, but never zombies.
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And it was definitely a different experience for me.
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And I was wondering when you were writing, it really blends basically like horror with like the tension and jump scares, but also the safety and happily ever after of romance.
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And what was like merging the two for you?
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You know, whenever you blend genres like that, you have to think about well, what what are the things that people love about this genre and this genre to make sure that you're kind of like meeting all the promises of the premise?
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And so I love zombie stories.
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Um, and so I have I just thought about well, what are the things that I love about zombie stories?
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Um, and those are things like I love playing in a broken world, you know, the idea that you can go in places that you would never have access to.
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Um, I enjoy like thinking up survival scenarios and things like that, or like, you know, interesting ways, um, like interesting settings to be attacked.
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You know, these are the things I like about a zombie story.
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It's like, you know, thinking through that.
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And um, and then also with romance, like this is a road trip rom-com.
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So I really thought about, well, what do I love about road trip rom-coms?
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And I just tried to combine, like knowing what people love about both things, specifically what I love about both kinds of stories, and then putting them together and seeing what I came up with.
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And it worked.
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Like I had a really good time writing this book because I love both just subgenres so much.
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Yeah, I could tell you had fun.
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It was a really fun read.
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I'm such a scaredy cat that when it said in the beginning, always like look out for a zombie.
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I feel like I was on alert the entire book.
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Like I always read before bed to relax.
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And I was loving reading before bed, but then I wasn't relaxing because I was like, okay, when's the zombie gonna come?
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When's the zombie gonna go come?
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I was always on alert, and then I finished the book, I think, at 2 a.m.
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on Friday night, and I couldn't go to sleep for another hour because I just had so much enjoy anyone reading your book because I'd never done a zombie romance before, but it was definitely a fun experience and perfect for this time of year.
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And then, of course, there's basically the book starts with the belief that another pandemic is about to happen when it ends up being a zombie apocalypse.
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But COVID is mentioned pretty frequently throughout the book.
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And I was wondering, did the pandemic serve as inspiration at all for you when writing Doomsday?
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And how so?
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Well, I think we all lived through a pandemic, right?
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And so I think that knowing we now, like at least this generation of people, um, would be familiar with the warning signs of like a vast, like what what are the things, what happens in society when a virus hits like that?
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And what are the safeguards?
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What are the first institutions that start to fall, whether it's hospitals and airports and things like that?
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And so I think that we all have a playbook for what a pandemic looks like now because we lived through it.
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Um, and so I definitely thought deeply about well, what would it feel like if we had another virus on the horizon, you know, only a few years really after COVID.
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Um, and what would that look like again?
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And how quickly would people react to it and how would they react to it?
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So, yeah, I definitely thought about our shared experience culturally in COVID when writing this particular zombie virus epidemic.
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Right.
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And I thought the book also came out at an interesting time right after the cyclospora scare.
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So I feel like it was definitely on everyone's minds.
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And you mentioned loving zombies and then ever in the book, he is a horror movie junkie as an overall, but he also likes zombie movies a lot.
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And I was wondering, was that a bit of a self-insert for you putting your love of zombie movies in a character that you were writing?
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Um, generally, no, only because I do love zombie movies, but I hate horror.
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And I had to consult, not hate, but I'm a big scaredy cat.
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And so I had to consult.
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I have two good friends who are very deep horror heads.
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They love all things horror.
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And so I had to consult with them about all the other kinds of horror movies.
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I mean, there are some that I definitely have seen and and you know, used a lot in the in the novel.
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Like I reference misery a lot.
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I've seen misery.
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Um, I reference uh and I've seen all the zombie movies that he references, but like really and truly, I just thought it would be fun if this professor who's you know specializes in pop culture would be able to bring his own skill set to the table.
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Um, because he's utterly useless otherwise, but he is very familiar with zombies as a concept because of being a film professor.
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And so that's really why I did it that way.
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Um, but uh, but yeah, I had a lot of fun, but I'm not a horror person generally.
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No, I'm not a horror person either.
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Like this was my little bit for me in terms of scarediness.
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I actually I'm mind nerd in film and television in college, and psycho was the scariest thing I had to watch.
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And I I really tried to steer away from horror.
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So I could appreciate that.
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But what draws you to zombies in particular, since that's what seems to be the only horror genre that you can get into.
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Um, I think it is the survival aspect.
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So ever since I was really little, I've always loved survival stories.
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Um, like all my favorite books growing up were like girls like stranded on an island, how are they going to survive?
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Or Island of Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, um, uh Loved the Boxcar Children.
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I just think that like seeing, like when I was a kid, seeing how kids could like confront these scary worlds on their own and be, you know, able to get by and survive was a very like empowering genre of books for me as a kid.
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I loved survival stories.
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And zombie stories are just they're just survival stories.
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That's what they are.
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It's just a different type of enemy.
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Um, and in some ways, I think a lot less dark.
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Like I think that there's, you know, there's lots of reasons why you might have a society breakdown.
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And at least in this one, it's not literally awful people doing awful things.
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It is people who've been transformed into zombies doing awful things, right?
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So I I kind of I think that like like there there's some like disaster, apocalypse, post-apocalypse fiction that can be super depressing because it's people hurting people, you know?
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And so um, I like zombies because it's like, and also I don't think zombies are typically very scary.
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No, I say that because there is definitely some hot like like 28 Days Later is a very scary zombie movie, and I loved it.
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I thought I think it's a great movie, but it is legitimately scary.
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But most of the time I don't think zombies are terribly scary, so it's just it's just a survival story, and I like those.
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You mentioned Hatchet, which brought back so many memories.
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We had to read that in middle school, and I just remembered a scene where he had to eat the mouse because he had nothing else to eat, and that stayed with it stayed with me with so long.
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But do you do you have a favorite zombie movie in particular?
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Um, well, I would say of scary ones, it would definitely be 28 days later, but my all-time my actual favorite is Zomby Land, which this movie is or this book is really inspired by.
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Like, I wanted Zombieland is also kind of a road trip, it's not a rom-com per se.
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There is that little romantic subplot, but like it's a road trip friends story set in the zombie apocalypse.
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And so I've always loved Zombieland.
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I think it's such a funny movie.
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Um, I I I like Shawn of the Dead too, but I Zombieland is is to me is just the the tip, the top.
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It's just awesome.
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Okay.
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Maybe one day, like if when I'm visiting like my parents and not home alone, I'll like try to see Zombieland and see if I can I can handle it because Zombieland isn't scary.
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I mean, obviously there's always a tension, right?
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There's always the fear of something jumping out.
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So, yes, there's that.
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And I hate to jump scared.
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Yeah, and I there's probably a few of those, but for the most part, I don't think it's as scary.
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Um it's just it's just very funny.
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Maybe I'll watch the trailer and that'll be my my temperature check for me.
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But one thing is, you know, talking about zombies, Everett basically has said, like during one of his conversations with Maisie, that zombie movies also can often be a critique of society.
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And I did get those vibes with Doomsday a lot, talking about the government and the standards America has for its food and society overall.
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And when you were interweaving those themes into your book, what were you hoping that people took away or picked up on?
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Well, um, it's a good question.
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I think that I I I really approached that aspect as carefully as possible because what I I wasn't trying, I wasn't setting out to say that like one type of eating is morally better.
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Um, and really and truly, I just thought, wouldn't it be funny if like we had this horrible zombie virus epidemic that was somehow related to food and the only people that survived were like super annoying vegan moms from Portland.
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That was like my I was like, oh, wouldn't that be funny if they were the ones who survived just because of their like super restricted life uh lifestyles and diets, you know?
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Um no offense to vegan moms in Portland.
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Um, but but that was my idea.
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That was where the genesis for um, you know, aspects of the of the story came from was like just what I thought would be funny.
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Um, but the more I got into it, I mean, food is very political.
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Access to food is very political.
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Um, food, you know, there's such a thing as a food desert where you might not have access to fresh food for, you know, like several miles around where you live, and everything you get is prod processed and pro, you know, packaged.
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And um, and I I have Crohn's disease, which I wrote a lot about in my earlier 2026 book, Pot Shot.
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Um, and Crohn's disease is, you know, there's a lot of theories about what can cause it, but what can definitely exacerbate it is processed food.
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And so in a way, I was kind of like, I'm mad about processed foods and I'm mad about Crohn's disease and pot shot.
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And then in in Doomsday, I'm like, I'm still mad about processed foods and how the government like it lets us be exposed to like all kinds of things that in other parts of the world they do not allow to be used in their food, but we do, because it's all about the dollar here.
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And so that's really what I wanted to talk about.
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Yeah, I definitely resonated with it because every time I travel abroad, whether it's like in Europe, I always feel so much better after eating a meal.
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My mom, who tends to be gluten-free, can eat the bread over there and be just fine.
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So the food really does suck here.
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I hope to like one day live abroad purely because I just love the food so much better when I'm not in America.
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So I definitely agree with that.
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But I will say that after I read your book, my first trip to the grocery store had me a little bit paranoid because I'm not a huge cooker.
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I love Trader Joe's, and I was looking at it, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm eating so much processed food.
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I would definitely be the first to go in your zombie world.
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And then we talked about Everett a little bit.
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And Maisie, she is this doomsday prepper.
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She was such a fascinating character to me.
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And she had this wealth of knowledge.
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What was it like researching her character and all the information she knew, the Reddits that she was in?
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How was that actually bringing her character to life?
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So the first thing I did was like, I was like, let me let me get on prepper Reddit and see what these people are talking about.
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And let me tell you, there are some dark corners of the internet in the prepper community.
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And so I was like, whoa.
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So I feel like I saw what she was trying to escape first, you know, um, because she's she's aware that like there's quite a lot of like super toxic, super racist, super everything, like people are the enemy, you know, very paranoid thinking that you can find in prepper Reddit.
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But then there's also prepper reddits that are like literally people who are just trying to figure out like how would they, you know, have their farm, how would they keep their farm with electricity?
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And like so they're more like like it really branched into two camps.
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There was like the ones who are like ready to kill everybody who comes on near their bunker, and then they're the ones who are like nerding out about solar panels.
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And so I enjoyed the solar panel nerds, like they, you know, they were really helpful.
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Like I even have like something that happens to her solar-powered rig, her car in the book.
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And it took me a while to decide like what the issue was going to be.
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And so I like went on that Reddit, the prepper, the energy people read it, and was like, here's my situation, you know, what do y'all think?
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And then they got into it.
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And I still get hit dings like two years later, where they're still talking about the best way to like outfit a certain energy supply thing.
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And I'm like, y'all are great, that's great.
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I love a science nerd.
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Um, and so that side of it was really nice.
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Um, but there's a lot of dark stuff on the internet for sure.
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And the other thing that I did a lot of research for Maisie for was that she knows all kinds of weird statistics about death because of her job as an actuarial analyst.
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And I gave her that job because I figured if you were somebody who was raised kind of brainwashed to believe everything was dangerous, um, like in isolation out of society, uh, this would probably be a really good field for you to like learn the true risk, like the the true percentage risk of all these things that maybe you were taught would be super dangerous.
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And so I bought, I actually found this amazing book, like while I was doing this research, that is literally it's this huge tone called You Bet Your Life.
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And it's written by two actuarial analysts who literally just tell you every risk of death that they could think of, like every single one.
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It is a huge book.
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And I read that thing for pleasure.
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Like I enjoyed uh it's full of fascinating information.
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Um, and so that's I I consulted that book quite a lot for some of her weird death statistics that she uses.
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That sounds like quite the interesting book because of my friend group, I'm always the person who worries.
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Like whenever my friends and I go on hikes or we go to the beach, I'm like, guys, this is the statistic of a bear attack.
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This is a statistic of a shark attack.
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And I always feel that we are going to be in that statistic, and it's something I've had to work on through years.
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So I feel like that book would be really fascinating for me to read.
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But then I feel like then I would go around thinking, like, oh my gosh, what if I'm in that 3.5% that XYZ happens to?
00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:51.679
But moving on, I really liked about what Doom's Day is that it kind of switched these gender roles a little bit because I feel like in the romance community, we love the whole touch her and you die moment.
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And then I saw this was marketed as touch him and you die, where Maisie is the protector and Everett brings another set of skills where he's the more patient, calm, and grounding one.
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When a lot of times we see the woman trying to ground like the big scary survivalist man.
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So, what was it like kind of doing that role reversal and switching it for you?
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I just am per so whenever I write a book, like I I feel like I'm writing people that I have to be in love with too.
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Like I I want to I want to create characters that resonate with me, that I have a lot of love and sympathy for, um, and that I like.
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Because if I don't like them, then why would anybody else like them, you know?
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And so I just don't like an alpha male most of the time.
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Like it depends.
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Like if they're done really well, maybe.
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But like generally, like a bossy uh fly off a handle, quick to anger, violent man, like no, gross.
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That sounds horrible.
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That is a red flag on red flag on red flag.
00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:55.599
I I don't really want them in real life, and I don't almost ever appreciate it in fiction because of that.
00:17:55.839 --> 00:18:02.319
And so Everett, I was like, this is a this is a man that I would really love in real life.
00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.039
Like he's so kind and funny and sweet.
00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:07.759
Um, and he's a gentle giant.
00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:14.079
Uh, but like he and he is useful in his own ways, but um, they get going in the book.
00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:21.519
But like I I kind of wanted to talk about like, well, your average total sweetheart might not be so useful in a zombie apocalypse.
00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:27.279
Um, but that doesn't mean that you know he doesn't have value, and that's something he has to learn.
00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:34.000
That's like part of his big arc is that he is not helpless, that he does have value and can protect Maisie in his own way.
00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:45.920
Um, so I I I that's how I I mean I just write the characters that I like, and that tends to challenge, I think, a lot of stereotypes because I like different kinds of people, you know?
00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:48.640
Yeah, I'm not a huge alpha male person either.
00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:55.680
I have like a lot of friends who I love dearly who are into like the mafia romance or the alien romance where they're really scary and like throw the woman over their shoulder.
00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:03.039
Like it's so different in a book, and I can see why it appeals to some people, but like you, I like kind of like the goofy, soft-hearted, patient man.
00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:17.119
So Everett was really fun to see, and you were just rooting for him because as the reader, you have kind of like this bird's eye view that they don't always see as characters, and you're like, no, Everett, you do have value, and just seeing them both come into the roles of their relationship was just really beautiful.
00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:19.920
And when you're writing these characters, how does it work?
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:28.559
Do you typically write your FMC first and then the MMC or the MMC first and the FMC, or do they kind of come together um at the same time?
00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:31.519
Every book is different, you know.
00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:38.480
Sometimes I know who I just know who the characters are from the get-go, and then sometimes I really have to learn who they are.
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:44.880
Um, you know, when I set out to write Doomsday, I thought it was gonna be much more lighthearted.
00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:48.400
I thought it was gonna be like a total comedy the whole way through.
00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.279
Um, and then these two are just very sad.
00:19:51.440 --> 00:20:07.279
Like they they come into the story with a lot of groma uh grief and trauma, angst, and um, and and their love story is so tender and kind, uh, even when they're not seeing eye to eye, like they're very tender with each other and then they communicate and they get over their stuff.
00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:19.039
And so I had this like very mature relationship that was very kind and you know, I don't know, very sweet, tender relationship amidst this crazy zombie apocalypse.
00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:24.000
And I I'd not intended it for to be that way, but those were the characters that as they came out on the page.
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:28.160
Um, and so sometimes I think a character can just happen to a story.
00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:36.640
Like you've got the story and and you you you're writing, and this is just this is just who the person is in your in your mind, and they kind of take over from there.
00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:43.039
And I I feel like with this particular book, I knew both of them pretty well right off the bat.
00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:50.240
Um I I don't think like I I I I can't even remember feeling like I couldn't hear their voices.
00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.599
Like I feel like I I kind of knew who these sweethearts were from the beginning.
00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:55.039
Sometimes it takes me a while.
00:20:55.119 --> 00:21:00.160
Like I'm working on a book right now, and I I feel like I know the FMC really well.
00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.920
Um, but the the the male, it's he's hard.
00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:05.519
He's like been tough to crack.
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:08.240
Um, so it's like sometimes I don't know.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:10.720
Sometimes it takes a few passes to get it right.
00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:11.920
But these two I knew.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.880
I just they just kind of came together in the story itself.
00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:15.599
Yeah.
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:18.480
While I love books, I'm not like the best at writing stories.
00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:26.319
So it's always fascinating when I'm talking to authors and learning how like there are some times when you immediately know a character versus sometimes you have to truly get to know them.
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:32.240
Because I always thought it was like, oh, well, they come from your mind, you should be able to form them easily, but that's not always the case.
00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:42.160
So it's really interesting to me hearing these types of perspectives and stuff that go into different books, but it's nice to see that with Everett and Maisie, you knew them so intimately so quickly.
00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:53.039
And of course, sex lessons are a really big part of the book, too, where Maisie basically exchanges survival for Everett to teach her about intimacy, and they were very, very great scenes, by the way.
00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:53.839
I enjoyed them.
00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.759
And I was wondering when you're building, when intimacy is such a big part of the plot, what is your approach to?
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.680
Building sex scenes.
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:11.279
So sex scenes are, you know, again, I think it kind of depends on the dynamic that you're going for.
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:19.680
And like when I realized that part of why May why Maisie wanted Everett in particular, because like why would she trust anybody?
00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:20.000
Right?
00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:21.440
She has major trust issues.
00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:26.640
So like, what about this guy is the reason that she trusts him and decides him?
00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:29.839
I want to, I want to become that vulnerable with him.
00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:43.039
And I think it was because he was a professor, and maybe when she first came in back into society and didn't know anything, the only place where it was okay for her to be a novice and not know anything was college.
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.599
Like she went to college and she was able to learn.
00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:50.799
And I think and and like sit there and observe and trust the sources that she's hearing from.
00:22:50.960 --> 00:23:02.160
And so I felt like that probably was the first time that she felt like she was like in a safe place for for being who she was and with the amount of information she had to bring.
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:08.079
And I once I realized that that was part of what drew her to Everett, it made me, it just touched me.
00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:11.440
You know, I was like, oh, poor Maisie, like this poor babe, you know.
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:15.359
And so I had to think about her perspective in all of this.
00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:21.359
Like, how is she she definitely wants to do these things from a practical perspective?
00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:22.880
She's like, Yes, I want to do this.
00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:32.000
It means that it's, you know, it proves to me that I've assimilated, you know, if I if I can have a relationship or if I can have like these sexual uh acts with somebody else.
00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:37.599
Um, but then she surprises herself by actually wanting it and not she's never wanted somebody before.
00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:39.759
She's never experienced that, you know.
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:50.079
So I had to really put myself in her shoes, I feel like, to uh to be able to understand what those sex scenes needed to entail and how they needed to flow.
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:55.920
And then conversely, with Everett, he's a widower, he's he never thought he would love anybody again.
00:23:56.079 --> 00:23:59.440
He never thought he'd be in this, you know, role again.
00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:04.000
But there's this woman who is saving his life every moment of every day.
00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:11.359
And this is what she wants from him, and he wants to contribute, and he also is feeling things for the first time in many years.
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.240
And so I also had to put myself in his shoes.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.640
Like, why is he able to do this?
00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:28.960
Um, so like both of these characters' pasts really affect how they have sex and how they want to have sex and how and what kinds of sex they have and how they do it and all of it.
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:31.440
Um, that's not always the case in a romance.
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:38.240
Like sometimes it's like these characters are you know falling in love, but their sex could be like very different from their wounds.
00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:40.480
Like they're maybe their wounds are like they have daddy issues.
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:42.319
He's like, no, that has nothing to do, right?
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:56.480
Like, um but in this particular story, when you have sex lessons, it really is tied very deeply to like who they are, what they want, um, and why they're able to do this for each other in this extremely stressful time.
00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:04.559
There was such like tenderness in the scenes too, and I really appreciated that there was like a lot of patience and understanding.
00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:23.599
A few years ago when I was in a book club and we were talking about like spicy scenes and intimate scenes, and he said, like, you always love the scenes most for like for something like what you like desire in your own experience of partner, and seeing that I don't want to say slow, but like coming to understand one another and not rushing into anything was what made the book really stand out to me.
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:25.759
So I really, really enjoyed it.
00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:28.319
And of course, there's a variety of scenes to choose from.
00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:34.000
And I always like to ask authors if you had to pitch a scene to readers to convince them to read your book.
00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:37.119
It could be spicy or it can just be one of the other scenes.
00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:38.160
Which one would it be?
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.279
Like what was your favorite scene to write or now read back on?
00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:44.000
That's a good question.
00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:52.240
Um I really like I I really enjoyed writing several different scenes.
00:25:52.400 --> 00:26:00.480
I I would say um I think that probably the one that I had the most fun writing are is when they're in DC.
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:04.960
They go to Washington, DC and they visit the Arid Space Museum.
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:09.519
Um, you know, and they're zombies and and everything, and but they figure it out.
00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:18.720
And I really loved the DC scenes because I feel like they're very romantic, but it's also very fun and it's like a glimmer of hope in a really bad situation.
00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:23.839
So they're like they're they're a lighthearted, you know, kind of take, but then they have danger too.
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:29.359
And so, and there's some like really romantic moments between them on that day, on that day in DC.
00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:32.000
And so I guess I would say probably those.
00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:39.440
Um, but I I mean I really I really loved writing the the opening scenes with Maisie and Everett.
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:41.599
Like I always enjoy writing openings.
00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:45.279
I love I love showing you the characters where they are when you begin.
00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:53.519
Um, so you know, I'd say like just if you if you read the first couple of pages and you don't vibe with it, you probably won't vibe with the rest of the book.
00:26:53.680 --> 00:27:04.880
But if you like the humor and like can and are curious about how this poor doomsday prepper is gonna possibly get by and and you know achieve her goals, then I think that you would enjoy the rest of the book too.
00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:05.200
Yeah.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:10.480
I loved the opening scenes when she was quoting a reality television monologue on the first day.
00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:18.640
It was so hilarious because while I've never quoted like a bachelor or Love Island monologue on a date, I feel like I can be very awkward.
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:32.960
So my heart just felt your heart feels for both of them, but my heart especially felt for her in that moment because the poor girl just wanted to be accepted and only having reality TV as a point of reference was absolutely like heartwarming and hilarious at the same time.
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:45.359
I also yeah, I also really liked the lighthouse, uh, the scene when they were making dinner before they had the lighthouse making stir-fry, that sense of normalcy before the seagulls started kind of looming overhead.
00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.480
So that was also a fun book for uh part for me.
00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:56.559
So one of my favorite lines of the book was that he she goes, I may be teaching you how to survive, but ever you're teaching me how to live.
00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:04.079
And from the reviews I've seen and all like the little graphics people do about your book, that seems to be a really popular line that people also love.
00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:11.839
And what do you have like a favorite line in particular from your book or something that you love to talk about when it comes to their dynamic?
00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:16.240
Yeah, you know, I really love, I really loved that line.
00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:19.279
Because once I wrote it, I was like, that's what this book is about.
00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:21.200
Like that's like the thesis of this book.
00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:30.799
And I mean, because part of part of what was fun, you know, like to go back to an earlier question you had about zombie stories really being like a lens to critique society.
00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:38.319
What I used in a lot of ways use this zombie story was about both of these people are not alive, like when the book begins.
00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:46.400
Like greet, like grief has really transformed Everett into like this husk, like he's just kind of sleepwalking through his life when it begins.
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:55.359
And Maisie has been too afraid and too controlled by fear instilled by her mother, um, to really step out and like try to live her life.
00:28:55.519 --> 00:29:02.400
And so you have these two people who are coming back to life through each other, and that's zombies, right?
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:04.720
Like they're could these people are coming back to life around them.
00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:11.519
So I really enjoyed the metaphor for like these people falling in love as compared to the zombies.
00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:16.480
And so, in that particular note, I mean, that's really what they're doing.
00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:25.599
Like she's teach she is teaching them how to grab hold of life again and to want to survive as well as just real survive, right?
00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:37.200
And then he he's showing her like this is what it can be like to be with somebody, you know, this can be this is what it's like to go out and have fun and explore and you know, go shopping.
00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:39.359
Like they have all these experiences together.
00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:47.039
They're just set during the zombie apocalypse, and it is like the most experience she's ever had, and it's all being packed in this one really crazy week.
00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:52.319
And so, but yeah, once I I that is probably my favorite line in the book.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:05.519
Um, I also I really love uh when he's because he's also when when you pick up with him, he has lost his ability to watch horror movies and to care about movies at all, and that was what he loved most.
00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:07.279
And it was from his grief.
00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:13.839
Like he's like, you know, once you experience real horror in your life, like I don't really have a taste for the manufactured horror anymore.
00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:23.359
And then like through showing her movies and and you know, kind of like having this crazy week together, he starts to come back to life and starts enjoying things.
00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:29.200
He says to her, he's like, um, you know, maybe that's you, Maisie.
00:30:29.279 --> 00:30:34.240
Maybe you're my way back, talking about like his way back to what he loved and like being himself again.
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:38.480
And she says to him, like, that's funny because I think you're my way forward.
00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.279
And it's like, oh, that's also how it is, you know.
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:48.960
I loved writing that, and I just feel for these little tender doofuses, like they're so they're so sad, they're perfect for each other, you know.
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:55.920
They really became each other's soft place to land and they balanced each other out so well.
00:30:56.079 --> 00:30:58.160
I loved the New York day.
00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:06.559
I thought they were absolutely crazy going into one of the most popular cities of the US during a zombie apocalypse, but it made for us some really fun scenes.
00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:17.519
And now going into like some of my more spoiler-esque questions, one thing that set up to me was before the apocalypse, Maisie was supposed to go to New York to check out a house that her grandparents had left for her.
00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:25.920
And they go to New York, they're just a few blocks away from it when she kind of just like stops and she's like, I don't want to do this, and like her intuition is telling her to turn away.
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:35.680
And as the reader, I kind of interpret it as she's trying to close off that part of her life where she was scared and didn't know herself, even though there might still be some questions asked about it.
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:46.079
But I was wondering as the author, what was your intent when you were writing that she was never gonna go learn about her family or this house that she could have potentially lived in if the apocalypse didn't happen?
00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:48.240
I was on the fence with that.
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:49.920
Like I was like, should I show her go in?
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:52.240
And if I did, what would she find?
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:55.519
And then what would that say about everything about her life?
00:31:55.680 --> 00:31:57.759
And I I so I thought about it.
00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:15.839
Um, but in ultimately what I wrote felt really compassionate because her whole thing is like, you know, her mother who just wasn't was a normal person and then took her, you know, escaped essentially from her own parents, these these grandparents in New York.
00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:22.720
She escaped this life and took Maisie and raised her in isolation and like locked them out of society completely.
00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:28.559
And for, you know, the first 20 years of Maisie's life, the only person she had was her mother.
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:33.359
And so she's so torn because she knows on one hand that her mother was mentally ill.
00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:46.799
Um, but on the other hand, uh, she also, now that she's been in society for 10 years, she sees that there are a lot of terrible people doing terrible things and she understands why her mother made some of the decisions she made.
00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:50.240
Maybe not to that extent, but she's like, I I understand.
00:32:50.400 --> 00:33:00.799
Like, I I and so when it really came down to it, I think Maisie was looking at that choice to go in or not go in to this house that her mother escaped from.
00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:03.200
And it was like, do I believe women?
00:33:03.359 --> 00:33:04.400
Do I believe my mom?
00:33:04.559 --> 00:33:12.799
Do I believe, like, or am I questioning this massive decision that she, you know, that changed her whole life and changed the whole trajectory of my own?
00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:25.119
Um, or am I like it's almost like in a way she she almost was feeling like like it was almost a betrayal to her mother to go find this place that her mother tried so hard to protect her from.
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:41.200
And so I think in the end, that was really about Maisie feeling like left over, like like loyalty to her mother and like not wanting to undermine her mother's biggest decision that she made and just wanting to move forward from it, you know.
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:51.440
She and because that's also part of it, like Everett's like, listen, I'm proof that where you come from and the people that raised you don't have don't it doesn't dictate who you are.
00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:56.480
So you, Maisie, how could this house in New York tell you anything about who you are?
00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:59.839
You've never been there, you don't know these people, you don't know anything.
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:06.160
And what what would it make you feel better to know what horrible things happened to her mother there?
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:08.239
Like, would she even be able to find out?
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:19.599
And all of those questions, you know, we're probably combining with the real very real spidey sense that they should not be in New York, like that things are starting to turn for them to just be like, you know what?
00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:20.719
I don't want to do it.
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:23.679
I I don't feel good about this, and so that's why they leave.
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:25.280
But it was a hard decision.
00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:32.159
I mean, I really thought about uh what I would write if she went in into the house and found, you know, like what what would she find?
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:34.320
And then like, what would that say about the book?
00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:35.920
What would that say about her mother?
00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:40.639
And you know, do I do I make it a happy experience and then it undermines the mother?
00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:43.119
Do I make it a really sad experience?
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:46.639
Or do I make it like she goes in there and it's empty and it's nothing?
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:48.880
You know, it's just like so.
00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:55.920
I just it ultimately left it up to the reader to to assume to think about what they might expect to have that she would have found.
00:34:56.239 --> 00:34:56.639
That's true.
00:34:56.719 --> 00:34:59.280
Because for better, for for worse, her mother did shape her.
00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:02.800
And so she's gonna have that loyalty and sense of compassion to her.
00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:06.639
So I feel like my eyes were like opening up as you were talking about that perspective.
00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:22.079
And it also made me think of a quote that was pretty early on in the book where Maisie was talking about, even though that she was like a survivalist in isolation for 20 years, that she knows that some men are the boogemen in real life and that there are real dangers for women, in particular.
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:24.800
And that was like also a line that really stayed with me.
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:34.960
So it kind of came to mind when you were explaining Maisie's mother experience and what made her so scared that she experienced the real world and willingly didn't want to do it anymore.
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:42.880
And then kind of another scary moment on a completely different end was towards the end when Everett gets bit by Gramps.
00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:46.320
And I'm gonna have say that you really had me there for a minute.
00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:53.599
I thought that it was this was about to be kind of like a life lesson book, and where they like, oh, they enjoyed their time together and she moved forward, and I was going to be really mad.
00:35:54.239 --> 00:35:56.079
I was like piss off everybody.
00:35:56.400 --> 00:35:58.239
I was mad, and I thought that was about to happen.
00:35:58.320 --> 00:36:01.679
I was like, Did I really just read 400 pages for him to not live?
00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:06.320
So you had me like, I think that was another reason why I was up for like half the night afterwards.
00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:09.679
That because I had so much adrenaline thinking that Everett was going to die.
00:36:09.840 --> 00:36:11.519
And so, of course, it's a romance.
00:36:11.599 --> 00:36:14.880
So you know that there's like supposed to be a happily ever after.
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:17.679
But when you were writing your that scene, like what was going through your mind?
00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:23.760
Did you want to have readers at the edge of their seat thinking that Maisie was gonna walk out alone?
00:36:24.960 --> 00:36:31.519
I I mean, I hoped that people's faith in the HEA would get them through the uncertainty that I was presenting.
00:36:31.679 --> 00:36:40.320
But like to me, one of the things I love about a good romance, like a high-stakes romance, is that you know it's gonna be okay.
00:36:40.639 --> 00:36:46.000
But if the author can push you to this point where you're like, how on earth could it be okay?
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:49.039
And then and then makes you really like, oh, what is gonna happen?
00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:49.840
Like, I love that.
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:51.920
I love when authors do that to me.
00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:54.480
I wanted to do it to, I wanted to do it to the readers.
00:36:54.639 --> 00:37:02.000
And I feel like again, holding true to promises of both genres, like somebody always gets bit.
00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:03.760
There's always a turn, right?
00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:07.039
Like somebody, like like it's like the the gun on the mantle.
00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:10.800
Like if you put a gun on the mantle in act one by act three, it has to go off.
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:16.880
If you're in a zombie apocalypse book and you know that biting can transmit the virus, like somebody's gonna get bit, you know?
00:37:17.039 --> 00:37:30.480
Um, and so I think that if I had not done it, it would have felt like pulling a punch, like it would have felt like, you know, um, I don't know, just not not like riding the story's wave where it wanted to go.
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:33.920
Um, and I I I always knew it was gonna be okay for him.
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:40.639
Um I wasn't I wasn't totally sure exactly like how it was gonna be okay, like how am I going to explain this by the way, you know?
00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:55.840
But I always wanted there to be like a real, a real dark night of the soul for them, you know, and where they really have to to question like was because a big part of it is like them wondering, like, was this worth it?
00:37:55.920 --> 00:37:59.360
Like, what is it worth falling in love at the end of the world?
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:02.239
And they both come to the conclusion that yes, it was.
00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:05.760
Like this week meant so much to them, even if it ends in heartache.
00:38:05.840 --> 00:38:14.719
And because I think that if you're falling in love during an apocalypse, you have to understand that you know, there's a very high possibility of a bad outcome, right?
00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:20.159
Eventually, but it's about having hope and wanting to experience love and everything anyway.
00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:22.239
Um, so I had a fun time writing it.
00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:25.679
And I did know that it, I mean, it it's pretty sad.
00:38:25.760 --> 00:38:28.639
Uh, the whole that whole section of the book is sad, you know.
00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:31.039
Um, but I felt like like a zombie apocalypse.
00:38:31.119 --> 00:38:32.880
This isn't a c this isn't a total comedy.
00:38:33.039 --> 00:38:34.800
Like, you know, I gotta go there.
00:38:35.039 --> 00:38:38.239
Yeah, you definitely you definitely had my heart beating.
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:39.760
But we have a few minutes left.
00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:42.159
So I always like to end with some fun questions.
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:46.639
And so we can't talk not talk about chicken, the very adorable cat.
00:38:46.719 --> 00:38:56.159
And so we read in the book why Everett named the cat chicken, which was to honor like his late wife and not eat meat because of what she was going through.
00:38:56.320 --> 00:39:03.760
But how did you kind of form the name chicken in your mind when you were thinking, oh yes, like let me name a cat after a poultry animal?
00:39:04.639 --> 00:39:07.519
Well, when I was little, I had a cat named Chicken.
00:39:07.679 --> 00:39:23.599
Oh, and so I lived in the countryside, I lived in rural Georgia, and um, and so like we had there were just outsourced, there were there were just cats outside, you know, and I would name them and they'd go have their little wildcat babies, and I would name all of them as well.
00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:30.800
And um, and there was just one whole batch of kittens that I named after my favorite foods at the time.
00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:39.440
And so there were these two, and I kept these, like I made them into house cats, like they were my cats, but um, I kept chicken and enchiladas, those were my two.
00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:46.159
Yeah, and so but chicken was my favorite, and so it was really to honor this cat that I loved when I was really young.
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:51.199
Um, so yeah, Everett names the cat chicken because he's struggling with becoming a vegetarian.
00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:58.960
So he's like, if I named this beloved animal after this food that I want, it would make it easier for me to like not eat chicken.
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:00.559
So that's the reason I gave him.
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:03.440
But um, but yeah, it was really just because I had a cat named chicken.
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:13.679
And you know a lot of people name their cat chicken because everyone who's read this book, like I mean, I think I want to say at least four different people have reached out to me to be like, my cat's named chicken.
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:14.800
And I'm like, wow.
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:16.880
Oh my gosh, that's so crazy.
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.679
Like, we know how we have like a census for like the most popular names.
00:40:19.760 --> 00:40:27.519
We need like a census for the most popular pet names because now I'm very curious where chicken ranks, but also I didn't know that you were from Georgia.
00:40:27.599 --> 00:40:29.280
I'm a Georgia baby too.
00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:33.519
I was in the suburbs, so I grew up in Kinnesaw, right outside Atlanta.
00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:36.880
So we have that Georgia, Georgia peachness in common.
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:48.159
And then talking also uh kind of I questions I like to ask during interviews is it's a main chapter tradition that I always ask authors what their least favorite trope is.
00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:51.280
Like what is a trope that they cannot see themselves writing?
00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:58.239
Because I interview a lot of romance authors, a lot of times I hear unplanned pregnancy, I get a lot of friends to lovers because people are like, why?
00:40:58.320 --> 00:41:00.079
They're your friends, like they've always been there.
00:41:00.159 --> 00:41:01.199
Why all of a sudden do you love them?
00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:03.840
But I've also gotten some out there answers too.
00:41:03.920 --> 00:41:06.559
I've gotten that I hate cancer books, I don't want to see them die.
00:41:06.639 --> 00:41:09.840
I've gotten I hate workplace romance because why are you writing about work?
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:11.280
Why are you writing about corporate?
00:41:11.360 --> 00:41:12.880
So it can be anything you want.
00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:18.000
What is a trope that you personally don't like reading or couldn't see yourself writing?
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:29.599
Well, I will say the one I don't like reading most of the time is uh a marriage in trouble book only because I think it's really hard to do well.
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:33.440
And the reason why for me is that I have to buy in to the situation.
00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:34.559
I have to buy in.
00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:38.719
If there's like a logical problem, like I have a hard time getting on board.
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:46.239
And I feel like with marriage in trouble books, either the thing that they're fighting about is so stupid that I disrespect them.
00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:49.280
I'm like, you're going to give up your marriage over that.
00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:55.039
Like it makes me so then I can't like them as characters if they are fighting over something dumb.
00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:59.840
Or it's something really big and you're like, yeah, that was really bad.
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:01.360
You probably should be divorced.
00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:15.280
Like I feel like it's really hard, you know, to like to find a problem that could jeopardize a marriage in such a way that it doesn't make you hate either of them, um, but feels big enough to like not be stupid.
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:17.599
Uh I think that's just really hard to do well.
00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:27.119
And so I've definitely read books where I I like really hated the guy or the woman for being so pissed about this thing um that seems so small to me.
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:34.400
Uh and then I've but then I've I have read some marriage and trouble books where, or like like they're, you know, they're divorced, like, but they're getting death cut.
00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:37.599
I've I've I've read some that I think do it really well.
00:42:37.760 --> 00:42:42.960
I feel like TerraDuit uh did it really well in Left of Forever.
00:42:43.199 --> 00:42:54.639
Um and like that was one where I was like, okay, this this seems like a very big issue, and I understand why they both went where they did, and now I can see how they're reconciling.
00:42:54.719 --> 00:42:55.840
And so I really loved that.
00:42:55.920 --> 00:43:01.599
So it's I wouldn't say that it's the trope itself, it's just that I think it's really hard to to balance that issue for me.
00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:02.480
That's fair.
00:43:02.559 --> 00:43:06.960
I've only I think I've only read one marriage in trouble book, and it wasn't my favorite.
00:43:07.039 --> 00:43:10.719
And I read one engagement in trouble book, You deserve each other.
00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:12.800
And that one I thought was well done.
00:43:12.960 --> 00:43:16.079
But typically, I'm like the kind of person where I'm like, no, dump them.
00:43:16.239 --> 00:43:18.320
Like I like will always say just break it to someone.
00:43:18.400 --> 00:43:23.599
So I feel like I feel like the marriage, yeah, the marriage in trouble one would probably not be a trope for me either.
00:43:23.679 --> 00:43:24.320
That's the first one.
00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:25.920
So I'm gonna keep that tally in my mind.
00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:28.480
I'm gonna use it as an example next time.
00:43:28.800 --> 00:43:36.480
But my last question for you is that since Doomsday has come out, that it was I saw it was a USA Today bestseller.
00:43:36.800 --> 00:43:37.599
Congratulations.
00:43:37.679 --> 00:43:39.119
That is so amazing.
00:43:39.280 --> 00:43:42.880
How does it feel like knowing one of your works gets this accomplishment?
00:43:42.960 --> 00:43:47.199
And what do you hope people take away when they're reading this book?
00:43:48.159 --> 00:43:50.159
Um, I was really happy about it.
00:43:50.320 --> 00:43:56.639
I so I had two books come out in 2026 with different publishers, and my first one was Pot Shot, came out in May.
00:43:56.800 --> 00:43:58.480
It also hit the USA today.
00:43:58.639 --> 00:43:59.679
That was a shocker.
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.719
Like, so I always thought this whole year, I was like, Doomsday's gonna be my bigger book.
00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:11.440
And I felt that way because it's such a high concept, like the idea of a first date ending in a zombie apocalypse, like that just feels like a movie, you know?
00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:14.239
And so I felt like that would be really catchy to people.
00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:18.239
And so, whereas Potsh, I just had no clue how it was gonna go.
00:44:18.400 --> 00:44:25.199
Um, and so when Podshot hit the list, I was like, Wood, oh my god, this is amazing.
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:29.840
Um, and I experienced most of the big emotions then because it was such a shocker to me.
00:44:30.079 --> 00:44:40.079
Um, and I then Doom State hit and I was so happy because I actually started to think maybe it wouldn't, only because it was coming out in a really busy week and it's all relative, right?
00:44:40.239 --> 00:44:47.760
Like, um, but like Grim Tidings was that week, um, but Lee Bardugo, like a lot of really big books came out the same day as mine.
00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:50.559
And so I wasn't, I didn't take anything for granted.
00:44:50.639 --> 00:44:55.039
Um, but I really loved I really loved seeing that, and I felt like it was a testament.
00:44:55.280 --> 00:44:58.960
Like Pot Shot really opened up a lot of people to my writing.
00:44:59.119 --> 00:45:03.440
Um, and those people are following me now, and they bought Doomsday too.
00:45:03.599 --> 00:45:04.480
And I love that.
00:45:04.639 --> 00:45:12.079
Like I love that I have people who love my my past books and are using them to like be like, yes, I want whatever you do next to.
00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:13.679
Um, so it feels good.
00:45:13.760 --> 00:45:24.079
It feels like I actually have like a real fan base now, um, and that people really get what I'm trying to do and appreciate my perspective because I write really quirky books compared to a lot of people.
00:45:24.400 --> 00:45:29.920
So I I'm I'm just happy that people are finding my books that really seem to enjoy them.
00:45:30.079 --> 00:45:31.920
Um, so yeah, that's what it's felt like.
00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:33.440
It's been it's been awesome.
00:45:33.760 --> 00:45:37.199
Yeah, that's so great that 2026 is your year.
00:45:37.360 --> 00:45:40.320
And I'm so excited to see what else you uh come out with.
00:45:40.480 --> 00:45:43.199
I haven't read Hot Shot yet, but it's on my list.
00:45:43.280 --> 00:45:47.760
And I saw that you have a haunted house romance coming out next fall, which will be exciting.
00:45:47.840 --> 00:45:56.239
I always love seasonal reads that really fit the vibe, which is why I think Doomsday doing kind of like a horror type book was really fun for me in October.
00:45:56.480 --> 00:45:58.000
So I really excited.
00:45:58.079 --> 00:46:11.199
And I know I also meant to say this earlier in the interview when you talked about the evil vegans from Portland, because that was just also such a funny moment in the book for me, but I've been using it to market it to a lot of my friends because a lot of my friends are from the specific Northwest.
00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:14.400
And for whatever reason, if you're not from Portland, you hate Portland.
00:46:14.480 --> 00:46:15.760
I am like learning that right now.
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.559
Like all my friends from like San Francisco and like Northern California and Seattle, they all have beef with it.
00:46:20.719 --> 00:46:27.360
So the fact that Portland's catching some heat in this book, I've been sharing it with them, and that's on it as well.
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.480
But thank you so much for joining me.
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:34.480
I had so much fun learned talking about Doomsday and seeing what's next.
00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:36.400
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:37.280
I appreciate it.
00:46:37.599 --> 00:46:39.039
Thank you so much for listening.
00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:42.320
I hope you enjoyed that, and I hope you read Doomsday.
00:46:42.480 --> 00:46:50.800
It is perfect for Halloween, perfect for October, but also perfect for any time of year, especially if you are a horror zombie enthusiast.
00:46:50.960 --> 00:46:55.039
And be sure to follow Laura on her socials if you haven't already.
00:46:55.280 --> 00:47:02.159
Next week, I am interviewing Jacqueline Snow, talking all about her new sports romance, A Swing and a Kiss.
00:47:02.320 --> 00:47:05.119
So I hope you come back for it, my book butterflies.
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:07.440
Have a great week, and I'll see you next time.
00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:06.559
Hello, my book butterflies, and welcome to this week's episode of the main chapter podcast.
00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:15.359
My name is Brianna, and if you haven't already, please be sure to like and subscribe so we can continue growing and spreading our love of books through the entire world.
00:00:15.519 --> 00:00:20.160
Now, this week we are covering a romance that is perfect for this time of year.
00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:32.640
I just got done interviewing Laura Piper Lee, talking all about her new book, Doomsday, which follows our leads, Maisie and Everett, who go on a first date that is with a zombie apocalypse right now.
00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:35.439
And Maisie is a doomsday rapper.
00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:50.240
She spent the first 20 years of her life in isolation and basically is a survivalist in Everett, is a very soft-hearted professor who is a widower and this is actually his first date in three years.
00:00:50.399 --> 00:01:07.519
And they go on a road trip up in north to safety, where Maisie basically says she'll help ever survive if he can give her sex lessons because she is lacking in the romantic and intimacy area of her life, and she has a bucket list item to check off before she turns 30 in a few days.
00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:14.000
So it's a super fun book that honestly has you on the edge of your seat because you never know when a zombie is going to pop out.
00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:19.439
It was my first time reading like a zombie horror type romance, and I enjoyed it.
00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:24.239
But as a scaredy cat, I also had a lot of anxiety reading it, but in a good way.
00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:26.560
So it was definitely a roller coaster.
00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:28.560
And this is such a tender story, too.
00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:37.599
One of the most popular lines from the book is Maisie Tells Everett, and that he's helping her, she's helping him survive, but he's helping her learn how to live.
00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:40.000
And that is such the epitome of this book.
00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:42.799
There's such softies, and you're really rooting for them.
00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:48.719
And Laura and I talk all about developing their characters, the research behind the book, our favorite scenes.
00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:50.000
There are some spoilers.
00:01:50.239 --> 00:01:53.120
If you're listening, I will have the timestamps in the description.
00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:56.640
But here are the timestamps on the screen for those who are watching.
00:01:56.879 --> 00:02:02.879
So be sure to listen with discretion if you have not read the book yet and don't want to spoil it for yourself.
00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:08.879
But overall, fun romance for people who are new to kind of the horror romance genre.
00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:10.560
I think this is a great introduction.
00:02:10.719 --> 00:02:11.840
It was for me.
00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:13.919
And let's go ahead and roll the tape.
00:02:14.159 --> 00:02:16.479
Well, Laura, welcome to main chapter.
00:02:16.639 --> 00:02:18.560
I am so excited to have you.
00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:31.280
I spent last week reading Doomsday, and it was a little bit of a new experience for me because I've done paranormal romance like zombies and vampire, or not sort of vampires and werewolves, but never zombies.
00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:34.000
And it was definitely a different experience for me.
00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:43.280
And I was wondering when you were writing, it really blends basically like horror with like the tension and jump scares, but also the safety and happily ever after of romance.
00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:45.919
And what was like merging the two for you?
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:58.960
You know, whenever you blend genres like that, you have to think about well, what what are the things that people love about this genre and this genre to make sure that you're kind of like meeting all the promises of the premise?
00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:02.000
And so I love zombie stories.
00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:07.280
Um, and so I have I just thought about well, what are the things that I love about zombie stories?
00:03:07.439 --> 00:03:15.360
Um, and those are things like I love playing in a broken world, you know, the idea that you can go in places that you would never have access to.
00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:25.759
Um, I enjoy like thinking up survival scenarios and things like that, or like, you know, interesting ways, um, like interesting settings to be attacked.
00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:28.319
You know, these are the things I like about a zombie story.
00:03:28.479 --> 00:03:30.319
It's like, you know, thinking through that.
00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:34.479
And um, and then also with romance, like this is a road trip rom-com.
00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:38.000
So I really thought about, well, what do I love about road trip rom-coms?
00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:48.719
And I just tried to combine, like knowing what people love about both things, specifically what I love about both kinds of stories, and then putting them together and seeing what I came up with.
00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:49.599
And it worked.
00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:54.319
Like I had a really good time writing this book because I love both just subgenres so much.
00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:56.080
Yeah, I could tell you had fun.
00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:57.360
It was a really fun read.
00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:02.639
I'm such a scaredy cat that when it said in the beginning, always like look out for a zombie.
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:04.560
I feel like I was on alert the entire book.
00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:07.520
Like I always read before bed to relax.
00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:11.919
And I was loving reading before bed, but then I wasn't relaxing because I was like, okay, when's the zombie gonna come?
00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:13.360
When's the zombie gonna go come?
00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.879
I was always on alert, and then I finished the book, I think, at 2 a.m.
00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:28.480
on Friday night, and I couldn't go to sleep for another hour because I just had so much enjoy anyone reading your book because I'd never done a zombie romance before, but it was definitely a fun experience and perfect for this time of year.
00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:36.639
And then, of course, there's basically the book starts with the belief that another pandemic is about to happen when it ends up being a zombie apocalypse.
00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:39.600
But COVID is mentioned pretty frequently throughout the book.
00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:44.720
And I was wondering, did the pandemic serve as inspiration at all for you when writing Doomsday?
00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:45.680
And how so?
00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:48.720
Well, I think we all lived through a pandemic, right?
00:04:48.800 --> 00:05:02.319
And so I think that knowing we now, like at least this generation of people, um, would be familiar with the warning signs of like a vast, like what what are the things, what happens in society when a virus hits like that?
00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:04.160
And what are the safeguards?
00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:09.920
What are the first institutions that start to fall, whether it's hospitals and airports and things like that?
00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:16.240
And so I think that we all have a playbook for what a pandemic looks like now because we lived through it.
00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:27.199
Um, and so I definitely thought deeply about well, what would it feel like if we had another virus on the horizon, you know, only a few years really after COVID.
00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:29.600
Um, and what would that look like again?
00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.959
And how quickly would people react to it and how would they react to it?
00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:40.480
So, yeah, I definitely thought about our shared experience culturally in COVID when writing this particular zombie virus epidemic.
00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:40.959
Right.
00:05:41.040 --> 00:05:45.759
And I thought the book also came out at an interesting time right after the cyclospora scare.
00:05:45.839 --> 00:05:48.800
So I feel like it was definitely on everyone's minds.
00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:56.240
And you mentioned loving zombies and then ever in the book, he is a horror movie junkie as an overall, but he also likes zombie movies a lot.
00:05:56.319 --> 00:06:02.879
And I was wondering, was that a bit of a self-insert for you putting your love of zombie movies in a character that you were writing?
00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:08.480
Um, generally, no, only because I do love zombie movies, but I hate horror.
00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:12.560
And I had to consult, not hate, but I'm a big scaredy cat.
00:06:12.720 --> 00:06:14.079
And so I had to consult.
00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:17.120
I have two good friends who are very deep horror heads.
00:06:17.199 --> 00:06:18.959
They love all things horror.
00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:22.879
And so I had to consult with them about all the other kinds of horror movies.
00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:28.720
I mean, there are some that I definitely have seen and and you know, used a lot in the in the novel.
00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:30.240
Like I reference misery a lot.
00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:31.439
I've seen misery.
00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:46.959
Um, I reference uh and I've seen all the zombie movies that he references, but like really and truly, I just thought it would be fun if this professor who's you know specializes in pop culture would be able to bring his own skill set to the table.
00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:54.560
Um, because he's utterly useless otherwise, but he is very familiar with zombies as a concept because of being a film professor.
00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:56.800
And so that's really why I did it that way.
00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:01.600
Um, but uh, but yeah, I had a lot of fun, but I'm not a horror person generally.
00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:03.839
No, I'm not a horror person either.
00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:07.519
Like this was my little bit for me in terms of scarediness.
00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:13.680
I actually I'm mind nerd in film and television in college, and psycho was the scariest thing I had to watch.
00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:16.399
And I I really tried to steer away from horror.
00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:18.319
So I could appreciate that.
00:07:18.480 --> 00:07:24.240
But what draws you to zombies in particular, since that's what seems to be the only horror genre that you can get into.
00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:27.360
Um, I think it is the survival aspect.
00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:31.360
So ever since I was really little, I've always loved survival stories.
00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:38.079
Um, like all my favorite books growing up were like girls like stranded on an island, how are they going to survive?
00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:44.000
Or Island of Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, um, uh Loved the Boxcar Children.
00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:58.079
I just think that like seeing, like when I was a kid, seeing how kids could like confront these scary worlds on their own and be, you know, able to get by and survive was a very like empowering genre of books for me as a kid.
00:07:58.160 --> 00:07:59.839
I loved survival stories.
00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:04.079
And zombie stories are just they're just survival stories.
00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:04.879
That's what they are.
00:08:04.959 --> 00:08:07.120
It's just a different type of enemy.
00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.639
Um, and in some ways, I think a lot less dark.
00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:17.199
Like I think that there's, you know, there's lots of reasons why you might have a society breakdown.
00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:22.959
And at least in this one, it's not literally awful people doing awful things.
00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:26.720
It is people who've been transformed into zombies doing awful things, right?
00:08:26.959 --> 00:08:38.320
So I I kind of I think that like like there there's some like disaster, apocalypse, post-apocalypse fiction that can be super depressing because it's people hurting people, you know?
00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:45.200
And so um, I like zombies because it's like, and also I don't think zombies are typically very scary.
00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:52.320
No, I say that because there is definitely some hot like like 28 Days Later is a very scary zombie movie, and I loved it.
00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:55.600
I thought I think it's a great movie, but it is legitimately scary.
00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:01.600
But most of the time I don't think zombies are terribly scary, so it's just it's just a survival story, and I like those.
00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:04.559
You mentioned Hatchet, which brought back so many memories.
00:09:04.639 --> 00:09:12.399
We had to read that in middle school, and I just remembered a scene where he had to eat the mouse because he had nothing else to eat, and that stayed with it stayed with me with so long.
00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.399
But do you do you have a favorite zombie movie in particular?
00:09:17.440 --> 00:09:28.639
Um, well, I would say of scary ones, it would definitely be 28 days later, but my all-time my actual favorite is Zomby Land, which this movie is or this book is really inspired by.
00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:34.000
Like, I wanted Zombieland is also kind of a road trip, it's not a rom-com per se.
00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:39.519
There is that little romantic subplot, but like it's a road trip friends story set in the zombie apocalypse.
00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.600
And so I've always loved Zombieland.
00:09:41.679 --> 00:09:43.120
I think it's such a funny movie.
00:09:43.279 --> 00:09:49.279
Um, I I I like Shawn of the Dead too, but I Zombieland is is to me is just the the tip, the top.
00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:50.559
It's just awesome.
00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:50.960
Okay.
00:09:51.279 --> 00:10:00.559
Maybe one day, like if when I'm visiting like my parents and not home alone, I'll like try to see Zombieland and see if I can I can handle it because Zombieland isn't scary.
00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.360
I mean, obviously there's always a tension, right?
00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:05.120
There's always the fear of something jumping out.
00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:06.159
So, yes, there's that.
00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:08.000
And I hate to jump scared.
00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:13.919
Yeah, and I there's probably a few of those, but for the most part, I don't think it's as scary.
00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:15.840
Um it's just it's just very funny.
00:10:16.080 --> 00:10:20.000
Maybe I'll watch the trailer and that'll be my my temperature check for me.
00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:30.159
But one thing is, you know, talking about zombies, Everett basically has said, like during one of his conversations with Maisie, that zombie movies also can often be a critique of society.
00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:37.679
And I did get those vibes with Doomsday a lot, talking about the government and the standards America has for its food and society overall.
00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:43.440
And when you were interweaving those themes into your book, what were you hoping that people took away or picked up on?
00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:46.559
Well, um, it's a good question.
00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:59.679
I think that I I I really approached that aspect as carefully as possible because what I I wasn't trying, I wasn't setting out to say that like one type of eating is morally better.
00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:14.639
Um, and really and truly, I just thought, wouldn't it be funny if like we had this horrible zombie virus epidemic that was somehow related to food and the only people that survived were like super annoying vegan moms from Portland.
00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:22.480
That was like my I was like, oh, wouldn't that be funny if they were the ones who survived just because of their like super restricted life uh lifestyles and diets, you know?
00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:26.000
Um no offense to vegan moms in Portland.
00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:28.480
Um, but but that was my idea.
00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:36.480
That was where the genesis for um, you know, aspects of the of the story came from was like just what I thought would be funny.
00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:40.639
Um, but the more I got into it, I mean, food is very political.
00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:42.799
Access to food is very political.
00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:55.679
Um, food, you know, there's such a thing as a food desert where you might not have access to fresh food for, you know, like several miles around where you live, and everything you get is prod processed and pro, you know, packaged.
00:11:55.759 --> 00:12:03.279
And um, and I I have Crohn's disease, which I wrote a lot about in my earlier 2026 book, Pot Shot.
00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:11.919
Um, and Crohn's disease is, you know, there's a lot of theories about what can cause it, but what can definitely exacerbate it is processed food.
00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:18.720
And so in a way, I was kind of like, I'm mad about processed foods and I'm mad about Crohn's disease and pot shot.
00:12:18.799 --> 00:12:34.320
And then in in Doomsday, I'm like, I'm still mad about processed foods and how the government like it lets us be exposed to like all kinds of things that in other parts of the world they do not allow to be used in their food, but we do, because it's all about the dollar here.
00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:36.559
And so that's really what I wanted to talk about.
00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:45.039
Yeah, I definitely resonated with it because every time I travel abroad, whether it's like in Europe, I always feel so much better after eating a meal.
00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:49.679
My mom, who tends to be gluten-free, can eat the bread over there and be just fine.
00:12:49.759 --> 00:12:51.600
So the food really does suck here.
00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:58.480
I hope to like one day live abroad purely because I just love the food so much better when I'm not in America.
00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:00.000
So I definitely agree with that.
00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:07.200
But I will say that after I read your book, my first trip to the grocery store had me a little bit paranoid because I'm not a huge cooker.
00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:12.559
I love Trader Joe's, and I was looking at it, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm eating so much processed food.
00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:17.360
I would definitely be the first to go in your zombie world.
00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:19.600
And then we talked about Everett a little bit.
00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:22.639
And Maisie, she is this doomsday prepper.
00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:24.480
She was such a fascinating character to me.
00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:26.720
And she had this wealth of knowledge.
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:32.960
What was it like researching her character and all the information she knew, the Reddits that she was in?
00:13:33.120 --> 00:13:36.000
How was that actually bringing her character to life?
00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:42.720
So the first thing I did was like, I was like, let me let me get on prepper Reddit and see what these people are talking about.
00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:47.919
And let me tell you, there are some dark corners of the internet in the prepper community.
00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:49.279
And so I was like, whoa.
00:13:49.440 --> 00:14:06.480
So I feel like I saw what she was trying to escape first, you know, um, because she's she's aware that like there's quite a lot of like super toxic, super racist, super everything, like people are the enemy, you know, very paranoid thinking that you can find in prepper Reddit.
00:14:06.799 --> 00:14:17.759
But then there's also prepper reddits that are like literally people who are just trying to figure out like how would they, you know, have their farm, how would they keep their farm with electricity?
00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:20.960
And like so they're more like like it really branched into two camps.
00:14:21.039 --> 00:14:29.440
There was like the ones who are like ready to kill everybody who comes on near their bunker, and then they're the ones who are like nerding out about solar panels.
00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:34.399
And so I enjoyed the solar panel nerds, like they, you know, they were really helpful.
00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:40.399
Like I even have like something that happens to her solar-powered rig, her car in the book.
00:14:40.639 --> 00:14:44.000
And it took me a while to decide like what the issue was going to be.
00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:51.679
And so I like went on that Reddit, the prepper, the energy people read it, and was like, here's my situation, you know, what do y'all think?
00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:52.960
And then they got into it.
00:14:53.039 --> 00:15:00.639
And I still get hit dings like two years later, where they're still talking about the best way to like outfit a certain energy supply thing.
00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:02.720
And I'm like, y'all are great, that's great.
00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:04.159
I love a science nerd.
00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:07.120
Um, and so that side of it was really nice.
00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:10.720
Um, but there's a lot of dark stuff on the internet for sure.
00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:20.879
And the other thing that I did a lot of research for Maisie for was that she knows all kinds of weird statistics about death because of her job as an actuarial analyst.
00:15:20.960 --> 00:15:40.960
And I gave her that job because I figured if you were somebody who was raised kind of brainwashed to believe everything was dangerous, um, like in isolation out of society, uh, this would probably be a really good field for you to like learn the true risk, like the the true percentage risk of all these things that maybe you were taught would be super dangerous.
00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:50.320
And so I bought, I actually found this amazing book, like while I was doing this research, that is literally it's this huge tone called You Bet Your Life.
00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:58.159
And it's written by two actuarial analysts who literally just tell you every risk of death that they could think of, like every single one.
00:15:58.480 --> 00:15:59.519
It is a huge book.
00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:01.279
And I read that thing for pleasure.
00:16:01.440 --> 00:16:05.360
Like I enjoyed uh it's full of fascinating information.
00:16:05.519 --> 00:16:12.480
Um, and so that's I I consulted that book quite a lot for some of her weird death statistics that she uses.
00:16:12.799 --> 00:16:18.159
That sounds like quite the interesting book because of my friend group, I'm always the person who worries.
00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:22.960
Like whenever my friends and I go on hikes or we go to the beach, I'm like, guys, this is the statistic of a bear attack.
00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:24.399
This is a statistic of a shark attack.
00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:30.000
And I always feel that we are going to be in that statistic, and it's something I've had to work on through years.
00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:32.639
So I feel like that book would be really fascinating for me to read.
00:16:32.799 --> 00:16:40.240
But then I feel like then I would go around thinking, like, oh my gosh, what if I'm in that 3.5% that XYZ happens to?
00:16:40.799 --> 00:16:51.679
But moving on, I really liked about what Doom's Day is that it kind of switched these gender roles a little bit because I feel like in the romance community, we love the whole touch her and you die moment.
00:16:51.759 --> 00:17:01.679
And then I saw this was marketed as touch him and you die, where Maisie is the protector and Everett brings another set of skills where he's the more patient, calm, and grounding one.
00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:06.400
When a lot of times we see the woman trying to ground like the big scary survivalist man.
00:17:06.559 --> 00:17:10.400
So, what was it like kind of doing that role reversal and switching it for you?
00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:19.279
I just am per so whenever I write a book, like I I feel like I'm writing people that I have to be in love with too.
00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:27.440
Like I I want to I want to create characters that resonate with me, that I have a lot of love and sympathy for, um, and that I like.
00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:31.440
Because if I don't like them, then why would anybody else like them, you know?
00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:36.079
And so I just don't like an alpha male most of the time.
00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:37.039
Like it depends.
00:17:37.119 --> 00:17:38.960
Like if they're done really well, maybe.
00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:46.799
But like generally, like a bossy uh fly off a handle, quick to anger, violent man, like no, gross.
00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:47.759
That sounds horrible.
00:17:47.839 --> 00:17:50.160
That is a red flag on red flag on red flag.
00:17:50.240 --> 00:17:55.599
I I don't really want them in real life, and I don't almost ever appreciate it in fiction because of that.
00:17:55.839 --> 00:18:02.319
And so Everett, I was like, this is a this is a man that I would really love in real life.
00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.039
Like he's so kind and funny and sweet.
00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:07.759
Um, and he's a gentle giant.
00:18:07.920 --> 00:18:14.079
Uh, but like he and he is useful in his own ways, but um, they get going in the book.
00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:21.519
But like I I kind of wanted to talk about like, well, your average total sweetheart might not be so useful in a zombie apocalypse.
00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:27.279
Um, but that doesn't mean that you know he doesn't have value, and that's something he has to learn.
00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:34.000
That's like part of his big arc is that he is not helpless, that he does have value and can protect Maisie in his own way.
00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:45.920
Um, so I I I that's how I I mean I just write the characters that I like, and that tends to challenge, I think, a lot of stereotypes because I like different kinds of people, you know?
00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:48.640
Yeah, I'm not a huge alpha male person either.
00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:55.680
I have like a lot of friends who I love dearly who are into like the mafia romance or the alien romance where they're really scary and like throw the woman over their shoulder.
00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:03.039
Like it's so different in a book, and I can see why it appeals to some people, but like you, I like kind of like the goofy, soft-hearted, patient man.
00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:17.119
So Everett was really fun to see, and you were just rooting for him because as the reader, you have kind of like this bird's eye view that they don't always see as characters, and you're like, no, Everett, you do have value, and just seeing them both come into the roles of their relationship was just really beautiful.
00:19:17.279 --> 00:19:19.920
And when you're writing these characters, how does it work?
00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:28.559
Do you typically write your FMC first and then the MMC or the MMC first and the FMC, or do they kind of come together um at the same time?
00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:31.519
Every book is different, you know.
00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:38.480
Sometimes I know who I just know who the characters are from the get-go, and then sometimes I really have to learn who they are.
00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:44.880
Um, you know, when I set out to write Doomsday, I thought it was gonna be much more lighthearted.
00:19:44.960 --> 00:19:48.400
I thought it was gonna be like a total comedy the whole way through.
00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:51.279
Um, and then these two are just very sad.
00:19:51.440 --> 00:20:07.279
Like they they come into the story with a lot of groma uh grief and trauma, angst, and um, and and their love story is so tender and kind, uh, even when they're not seeing eye to eye, like they're very tender with each other and then they communicate and they get over their stuff.
00:20:07.519 --> 00:20:19.039
And so I had this like very mature relationship that was very kind and you know, I don't know, very sweet, tender relationship amidst this crazy zombie apocalypse.
00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:24.000
And I I'd not intended it for to be that way, but those were the characters that as they came out on the page.
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:28.160
Um, and so sometimes I think a character can just happen to a story.
00:20:28.319 --> 00:20:36.640
Like you've got the story and and you you you're writing, and this is just this is just who the person is in your in your mind, and they kind of take over from there.
00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:43.039
And I I feel like with this particular book, I knew both of them pretty well right off the bat.
00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:50.240
Um I I don't think like I I I I can't even remember feeling like I couldn't hear their voices.
00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:53.599
Like I feel like I I kind of knew who these sweethearts were from the beginning.
00:20:53.839 --> 00:20:55.039
Sometimes it takes me a while.
00:20:55.119 --> 00:21:00.160
Like I'm working on a book right now, and I I feel like I know the FMC really well.
00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:03.920
Um, but the the the male, it's he's hard.
00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:05.519
He's like been tough to crack.
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:08.240
Um, so it's like sometimes I don't know.
00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:10.720
Sometimes it takes a few passes to get it right.
00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:11.920
But these two I knew.
00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.880
I just they just kind of came together in the story itself.
00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:15.599
Yeah.
00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:18.480
While I love books, I'm not like the best at writing stories.
00:21:18.559 --> 00:21:26.319
So it's always fascinating when I'm talking to authors and learning how like there are some times when you immediately know a character versus sometimes you have to truly get to know them.
00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:32.240
Because I always thought it was like, oh, well, they come from your mind, you should be able to form them easily, but that's not always the case.
00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:42.160
So it's really interesting to me hearing these types of perspectives and stuff that go into different books, but it's nice to see that with Everett and Maisie, you knew them so intimately so quickly.
00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:53.039
And of course, sex lessons are a really big part of the book, too, where Maisie basically exchanges survival for Everett to teach her about intimacy, and they were very, very great scenes, by the way.
00:21:53.119 --> 00:21:53.839
I enjoyed them.
00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.759
And I was wondering when you're building, when intimacy is such a big part of the plot, what is your approach to?
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.680
Building sex scenes.
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:11.279
So sex scenes are, you know, again, I think it kind of depends on the dynamic that you're going for.
00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:19.680
And like when I realized that part of why May why Maisie wanted Everett in particular, because like why would she trust anybody?
00:22:19.759 --> 00:22:20.000
Right?
00:22:20.079 --> 00:22:21.440
She has major trust issues.
00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:26.640
So like, what about this guy is the reason that she trusts him and decides him?
00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:29.839
I want to, I want to become that vulnerable with him.
00:22:30.079 --> 00:22:43.039
And I think it was because he was a professor, and maybe when she first came in back into society and didn't know anything, the only place where it was okay for her to be a novice and not know anything was college.
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.599
Like she went to college and she was able to learn.
00:22:45.759 --> 00:22:50.799
And I think and and like sit there and observe and trust the sources that she's hearing from.
00:22:50.960 --> 00:23:02.160
And so I felt like that probably was the first time that she felt like she was like in a safe place for for being who she was and with the amount of information she had to bring.
00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:08.079
And I once I realized that that was part of what drew her to Everett, it made me, it just touched me.
00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:11.440
You know, I was like, oh, poor Maisie, like this poor babe, you know.
00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:15.359
And so I had to think about her perspective in all of this.
00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:21.359
Like, how is she she definitely wants to do these things from a practical perspective?
00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:22.880
She's like, Yes, I want to do this.
00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:32.000
It means that it's, you know, it proves to me that I've assimilated, you know, if I if I can have a relationship or if I can have like these sexual uh acts with somebody else.
00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:37.599
Um, but then she surprises herself by actually wanting it and not she's never wanted somebody before.
00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:39.759
She's never experienced that, you know.
00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:50.079
So I had to really put myself in her shoes, I feel like, to uh to be able to understand what those sex scenes needed to entail and how they needed to flow.
00:23:50.240 --> 00:23:55.920
And then conversely, with Everett, he's a widower, he's he never thought he would love anybody again.
00:23:56.079 --> 00:23:59.440
He never thought he'd be in this, you know, role again.
00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:04.000
But there's this woman who is saving his life every moment of every day.
00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:11.359
And this is what she wants from him, and he wants to contribute, and he also is feeling things for the first time in many years.
00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.240
And so I also had to put myself in his shoes.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:16.640
Like, why is he able to do this?
00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:28.960
Um, so like both of these characters' pasts really affect how they have sex and how they want to have sex and how and what kinds of sex they have and how they do it and all of it.
00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:31.440
Um, that's not always the case in a romance.
00:24:31.599 --> 00:24:38.240
Like sometimes it's like these characters are you know falling in love, but their sex could be like very different from their wounds.
00:24:38.319 --> 00:24:40.480
Like they're maybe their wounds are like they have daddy issues.
00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:42.319
He's like, no, that has nothing to do, right?
00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:56.480
Like, um but in this particular story, when you have sex lessons, it really is tied very deeply to like who they are, what they want, um, and why they're able to do this for each other in this extremely stressful time.
00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:04.559
There was such like tenderness in the scenes too, and I really appreciated that there was like a lot of patience and understanding.
00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:23.599
A few years ago when I was in a book club and we were talking about like spicy scenes and intimate scenes, and he said, like, you always love the scenes most for like for something like what you like desire in your own experience of partner, and seeing that I don't want to say slow, but like coming to understand one another and not rushing into anything was what made the book really stand out to me.
00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:25.759
So I really, really enjoyed it.
00:25:25.839 --> 00:25:28.319
And of course, there's a variety of scenes to choose from.
00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:34.000
And I always like to ask authors if you had to pitch a scene to readers to convince them to read your book.
00:25:34.160 --> 00:25:37.119
It could be spicy or it can just be one of the other scenes.
00:25:37.279 --> 00:25:38.160
Which one would it be?
00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.279
Like what was your favorite scene to write or now read back on?
00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:44.000
That's a good question.
00:25:44.319 --> 00:25:52.240
Um I really like I I really enjoyed writing several different scenes.
00:25:52.400 --> 00:26:00.480
I I would say um I think that probably the one that I had the most fun writing are is when they're in DC.
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:04.960
They go to Washington, DC and they visit the Arid Space Museum.
00:26:05.200 --> 00:26:09.519
Um, you know, and they're zombies and and everything, and but they figure it out.
00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:18.720
And I really loved the DC scenes because I feel like they're very romantic, but it's also very fun and it's like a glimmer of hope in a really bad situation.
00:26:18.799 --> 00:26:23.839
So they're like they're they're a lighthearted, you know, kind of take, but then they have danger too.
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:29.359
And so, and there's some like really romantic moments between them on that day, on that day in DC.
00:26:29.519 --> 00:26:32.000
And so I guess I would say probably those.
00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:39.440
Um, but I I mean I really I really loved writing the the opening scenes with Maisie and Everett.
00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:41.599
Like I always enjoy writing openings.
00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:45.279
I love I love showing you the characters where they are when you begin.
00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:53.519
Um, so you know, I'd say like just if you if you read the first couple of pages and you don't vibe with it, you probably won't vibe with the rest of the book.
00:26:53.680 --> 00:27:04.880
But if you like the humor and like can and are curious about how this poor doomsday prepper is gonna possibly get by and and you know achieve her goals, then I think that you would enjoy the rest of the book too.
00:27:05.039 --> 00:27:05.200
Yeah.
00:27:05.359 --> 00:27:10.480
I loved the opening scenes when she was quoting a reality television monologue on the first day.
00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:18.640
It was so hilarious because while I've never quoted like a bachelor or Love Island monologue on a date, I feel like I can be very awkward.
00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:32.960
So my heart just felt your heart feels for both of them, but my heart especially felt for her in that moment because the poor girl just wanted to be accepted and only having reality TV as a point of reference was absolutely like heartwarming and hilarious at the same time.
00:27:33.279 --> 00:27:45.359
I also yeah, I also really liked the lighthouse, uh, the scene when they were making dinner before they had the lighthouse making stir-fry, that sense of normalcy before the seagulls started kind of looming overhead.
00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.480
So that was also a fun book for uh part for me.
00:27:48.640 --> 00:27:56.559
So one of my favorite lines of the book was that he she goes, I may be teaching you how to survive, but ever you're teaching me how to live.
00:27:56.720 --> 00:28:04.079
And from the reviews I've seen and all like the little graphics people do about your book, that seems to be a really popular line that people also love.
00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:11.839
And what do you have like a favorite line in particular from your book or something that you love to talk about when it comes to their dynamic?
00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:16.240
Yeah, you know, I really love, I really loved that line.
00:28:16.319 --> 00:28:19.279
Because once I wrote it, I was like, that's what this book is about.
00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:21.200
Like that's like the thesis of this book.
00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:30.799
And I mean, because part of part of what was fun, you know, like to go back to an earlier question you had about zombie stories really being like a lens to critique society.
00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:38.319
What I used in a lot of ways use this zombie story was about both of these people are not alive, like when the book begins.
00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:46.400
Like greet, like grief has really transformed Everett into like this husk, like he's just kind of sleepwalking through his life when it begins.
00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:55.359
And Maisie has been too afraid and too controlled by fear instilled by her mother, um, to really step out and like try to live her life.
00:28:55.519 --> 00:29:02.400
And so you have these two people who are coming back to life through each other, and that's zombies, right?
00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:04.720
Like they're could these people are coming back to life around them.
00:29:04.799 --> 00:29:11.519
So I really enjoyed the metaphor for like these people falling in love as compared to the zombies.
00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:16.480
And so, in that particular note, I mean, that's really what they're doing.
00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:25.599
Like she's teach she is teaching them how to grab hold of life again and to want to survive as well as just real survive, right?
00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:37.200
And then he he's showing her like this is what it can be like to be with somebody, you know, this can be this is what it's like to go out and have fun and explore and you know, go shopping.
00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:39.359
Like they have all these experiences together.
00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:47.039
They're just set during the zombie apocalypse, and it is like the most experience she's ever had, and it's all being packed in this one really crazy week.
00:29:47.200 --> 00:29:52.319
And so, but yeah, once I I that is probably my favorite line in the book.
00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:05.519
Um, I also I really love uh when he's because he's also when when you pick up with him, he has lost his ability to watch horror movies and to care about movies at all, and that was what he loved most.
00:30:05.839 --> 00:30:07.279
And it was from his grief.
00:30:07.359 --> 00:30:13.839
Like he's like, you know, once you experience real horror in your life, like I don't really have a taste for the manufactured horror anymore.
00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:23.359
And then like through showing her movies and and you know, kind of like having this crazy week together, he starts to come back to life and starts enjoying things.
00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:29.200
He says to her, he's like, um, you know, maybe that's you, Maisie.
00:30:29.279 --> 00:30:34.240
Maybe you're my way back, talking about like his way back to what he loved and like being himself again.
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:38.480
And she says to him, like, that's funny because I think you're my way forward.
00:30:38.720 --> 00:30:41.279
And it's like, oh, that's also how it is, you know.
00:30:41.680 --> 00:30:48.960
I loved writing that, and I just feel for these little tender doofuses, like they're so they're so sad, they're perfect for each other, you know.
00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:55.920
They really became each other's soft place to land and they balanced each other out so well.
00:30:56.079 --> 00:30:58.160
I loved the New York day.
00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:06.559
I thought they were absolutely crazy going into one of the most popular cities of the US during a zombie apocalypse, but it made for us some really fun scenes.
00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:17.519
And now going into like some of my more spoiler-esque questions, one thing that set up to me was before the apocalypse, Maisie was supposed to go to New York to check out a house that her grandparents had left for her.
00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:25.920
And they go to New York, they're just a few blocks away from it when she kind of just like stops and she's like, I don't want to do this, and like her intuition is telling her to turn away.
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:35.680
And as the reader, I kind of interpret it as she's trying to close off that part of her life where she was scared and didn't know herself, even though there might still be some questions asked about it.
00:31:35.839 --> 00:31:46.079
But I was wondering as the author, what was your intent when you were writing that she was never gonna go learn about her family or this house that she could have potentially lived in if the apocalypse didn't happen?
00:31:46.960 --> 00:31:48.240
I was on the fence with that.
00:31:48.319 --> 00:31:49.920
Like I was like, should I show her go in?
00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:52.240
And if I did, what would she find?
00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:55.519
And then what would that say about everything about her life?
00:31:55.680 --> 00:31:57.759
And I I so I thought about it.
00:31:57.920 --> 00:32:15.839
Um, but in ultimately what I wrote felt really compassionate because her whole thing is like, you know, her mother who just wasn't was a normal person and then took her, you know, escaped essentially from her own parents, these these grandparents in New York.
00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:22.720
She escaped this life and took Maisie and raised her in isolation and like locked them out of society completely.
00:32:23.119 --> 00:32:28.559
And for, you know, the first 20 years of Maisie's life, the only person she had was her mother.
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:33.359
And so she's so torn because she knows on one hand that her mother was mentally ill.
00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:46.799
Um, but on the other hand, uh, she also, now that she's been in society for 10 years, she sees that there are a lot of terrible people doing terrible things and she understands why her mother made some of the decisions she made.
00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:50.240
Maybe not to that extent, but she's like, I I understand.
00:32:50.400 --> 00:33:00.799
Like, I I and so when it really came down to it, I think Maisie was looking at that choice to go in or not go in to this house that her mother escaped from.
00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:03.200
And it was like, do I believe women?
00:33:03.359 --> 00:33:04.400
Do I believe my mom?
00:33:04.559 --> 00:33:12.799
Do I believe, like, or am I questioning this massive decision that she, you know, that changed her whole life and changed the whole trajectory of my own?
00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:25.119
Um, or am I like it's almost like in a way she she almost was feeling like like it was almost a betrayal to her mother to go find this place that her mother tried so hard to protect her from.
00:33:25.359 --> 00:33:41.200
And so I think in the end, that was really about Maisie feeling like left over, like like loyalty to her mother and like not wanting to undermine her mother's biggest decision that she made and just wanting to move forward from it, you know.
00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:51.440
She and because that's also part of it, like Everett's like, listen, I'm proof that where you come from and the people that raised you don't have don't it doesn't dictate who you are.
00:33:51.599 --> 00:33:56.480
So you, Maisie, how could this house in New York tell you anything about who you are?
00:33:56.640 --> 00:33:59.839
You've never been there, you don't know these people, you don't know anything.
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:06.160
And what what would it make you feel better to know what horrible things happened to her mother there?
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:08.239
Like, would she even be able to find out?
00:34:08.400 --> 00:34:19.599
And all of those questions, you know, we're probably combining with the real very real spidey sense that they should not be in New York, like that things are starting to turn for them to just be like, you know what?
00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:20.719
I don't want to do it.
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:23.679
I I don't feel good about this, and so that's why they leave.
00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:25.280
But it was a hard decision.
00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:32.159
I mean, I really thought about uh what I would write if she went in into the house and found, you know, like what what would she find?
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:34.320
And then like, what would that say about the book?
00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:35.920
What would that say about her mother?
00:34:36.079 --> 00:34:40.639
And you know, do I do I make it a happy experience and then it undermines the mother?
00:34:40.800 --> 00:34:43.119
Do I make it a really sad experience?
00:34:43.280 --> 00:34:46.639
Or do I make it like she goes in there and it's empty and it's nothing?
00:34:46.800 --> 00:34:48.880
You know, it's just like so.
00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:55.920
I just it ultimately left it up to the reader to to assume to think about what they might expect to have that she would have found.
00:34:56.239 --> 00:34:56.639
That's true.
00:34:56.719 --> 00:34:59.280
Because for better, for for worse, her mother did shape her.
00:34:59.360 --> 00:35:02.800
And so she's gonna have that loyalty and sense of compassion to her.
00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:06.639
So I feel like my eyes were like opening up as you were talking about that perspective.
00:35:06.719 --> 00:35:22.079
And it also made me think of a quote that was pretty early on in the book where Maisie was talking about, even though that she was like a survivalist in isolation for 20 years, that she knows that some men are the boogemen in real life and that there are real dangers for women, in particular.
00:35:22.400 --> 00:35:24.800
And that was like also a line that really stayed with me.
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:34.960
So it kind of came to mind when you were explaining Maisie's mother experience and what made her so scared that she experienced the real world and willingly didn't want to do it anymore.
00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:42.880
And then kind of another scary moment on a completely different end was towards the end when Everett gets bit by Gramps.
00:35:43.039 --> 00:35:46.320
And I'm gonna have say that you really had me there for a minute.
00:35:46.480 --> 00:35:53.599
I thought that it was this was about to be kind of like a life lesson book, and where they like, oh, they enjoyed their time together and she moved forward, and I was going to be really mad.
00:35:54.239 --> 00:35:56.079
I was like piss off everybody.
00:35:56.400 --> 00:35:58.239
I was mad, and I thought that was about to happen.
00:35:58.320 --> 00:36:01.679
I was like, Did I really just read 400 pages for him to not live?
00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:06.320
So you had me like, I think that was another reason why I was up for like half the night afterwards.
00:36:06.400 --> 00:36:09.679
That because I had so much adrenaline thinking that Everett was going to die.
00:36:09.840 --> 00:36:11.519
And so, of course, it's a romance.
00:36:11.599 --> 00:36:14.880
So you know that there's like supposed to be a happily ever after.
00:36:14.960 --> 00:36:17.679
But when you were writing your that scene, like what was going through your mind?
00:36:17.840 --> 00:36:23.760
Did you want to have readers at the edge of their seat thinking that Maisie was gonna walk out alone?
00:36:24.960 --> 00:36:31.519
I I mean, I hoped that people's faith in the HEA would get them through the uncertainty that I was presenting.
00:36:31.679 --> 00:36:40.320
But like to me, one of the things I love about a good romance, like a high-stakes romance, is that you know it's gonna be okay.
00:36:40.639 --> 00:36:46.000
But if the author can push you to this point where you're like, how on earth could it be okay?
00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:49.039
And then and then makes you really like, oh, what is gonna happen?
00:36:49.199 --> 00:36:49.840
Like, I love that.
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:51.920
I love when authors do that to me.
00:36:52.079 --> 00:36:54.480
I wanted to do it to, I wanted to do it to the readers.
00:36:54.639 --> 00:37:02.000
And I feel like again, holding true to promises of both genres, like somebody always gets bit.
00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:03.760
There's always a turn, right?
00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:07.039
Like somebody, like like it's like the the gun on the mantle.
00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:10.800
Like if you put a gun on the mantle in act one by act three, it has to go off.
00:37:10.960 --> 00:37:16.880
If you're in a zombie apocalypse book and you know that biting can transmit the virus, like somebody's gonna get bit, you know?
00:37:17.039 --> 00:37:30.480
Um, and so I think that if I had not done it, it would have felt like pulling a punch, like it would have felt like, you know, um, I don't know, just not not like riding the story's wave where it wanted to go.
00:37:30.639 --> 00:37:33.920
Um, and I I I always knew it was gonna be okay for him.
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:40.639
Um I wasn't I wasn't totally sure exactly like how it was gonna be okay, like how am I going to explain this by the way, you know?
00:37:40.880 --> 00:37:55.840
But I always wanted there to be like a real, a real dark night of the soul for them, you know, and where they really have to to question like was because a big part of it is like them wondering, like, was this worth it?
00:37:55.920 --> 00:37:59.360
Like, what is it worth falling in love at the end of the world?
00:37:59.519 --> 00:38:02.239
And they both come to the conclusion that yes, it was.
00:38:02.320 --> 00:38:05.760
Like this week meant so much to them, even if it ends in heartache.
00:38:05.840 --> 00:38:14.719
And because I think that if you're falling in love during an apocalypse, you have to understand that you know, there's a very high possibility of a bad outcome, right?
00:38:14.880 --> 00:38:20.159
Eventually, but it's about having hope and wanting to experience love and everything anyway.
00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:22.239
Um, so I had a fun time writing it.
00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:25.679
And I did know that it, I mean, it it's pretty sad.
00:38:25.760 --> 00:38:28.639
Uh, the whole that whole section of the book is sad, you know.
00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:31.039
Um, but I felt like like a zombie apocalypse.
00:38:31.119 --> 00:38:32.880
This isn't a c this isn't a total comedy.
00:38:33.039 --> 00:38:34.800
Like, you know, I gotta go there.
00:38:35.039 --> 00:38:38.239
Yeah, you definitely you definitely had my heart beating.
00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:39.760
But we have a few minutes left.
00:38:39.840 --> 00:38:42.159
So I always like to end with some fun questions.
00:38:42.239 --> 00:38:46.639
And so we can't talk not talk about chicken, the very adorable cat.
00:38:46.719 --> 00:38:56.159
And so we read in the book why Everett named the cat chicken, which was to honor like his late wife and not eat meat because of what she was going through.
00:38:56.320 --> 00:39:03.760
But how did you kind of form the name chicken in your mind when you were thinking, oh yes, like let me name a cat after a poultry animal?
00:39:04.639 --> 00:39:07.519
Well, when I was little, I had a cat named Chicken.
00:39:07.679 --> 00:39:23.599
Oh, and so I lived in the countryside, I lived in rural Georgia, and um, and so like we had there were just outsourced, there were there were just cats outside, you know, and I would name them and they'd go have their little wildcat babies, and I would name all of them as well.
00:39:23.840 --> 00:39:30.800
And um, and there was just one whole batch of kittens that I named after my favorite foods at the time.
00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:39.440
And so there were these two, and I kept these, like I made them into house cats, like they were my cats, but um, I kept chicken and enchiladas, those were my two.
00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:46.159
Yeah, and so but chicken was my favorite, and so it was really to honor this cat that I loved when I was really young.
00:39:46.320 --> 00:39:51.199
Um, so yeah, Everett names the cat chicken because he's struggling with becoming a vegetarian.
00:39:51.360 --> 00:39:58.960
So he's like, if I named this beloved animal after this food that I want, it would make it easier for me to like not eat chicken.
00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:00.559
So that's the reason I gave him.
00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:03.440
But um, but yeah, it was really just because I had a cat named chicken.
00:40:03.519 --> 00:40:13.679
And you know a lot of people name their cat chicken because everyone who's read this book, like I mean, I think I want to say at least four different people have reached out to me to be like, my cat's named chicken.
00:40:13.760 --> 00:40:14.800
And I'm like, wow.
00:40:15.280 --> 00:40:16.880
Oh my gosh, that's so crazy.
00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:19.679
Like, we know how we have like a census for like the most popular names.
00:40:19.760 --> 00:40:27.519
We need like a census for the most popular pet names because now I'm very curious where chicken ranks, but also I didn't know that you were from Georgia.
00:40:27.599 --> 00:40:29.280
I'm a Georgia baby too.
00:40:29.440 --> 00:40:33.519
I was in the suburbs, so I grew up in Kinnesaw, right outside Atlanta.
00:40:33.599 --> 00:40:36.880
So we have that Georgia, Georgia peachness in common.
00:40:37.119 --> 00:40:48.159
And then talking also uh kind of I questions I like to ask during interviews is it's a main chapter tradition that I always ask authors what their least favorite trope is.
00:40:48.239 --> 00:40:51.280
Like what is a trope that they cannot see themselves writing?
00:40:51.440 --> 00:40:58.239
Because I interview a lot of romance authors, a lot of times I hear unplanned pregnancy, I get a lot of friends to lovers because people are like, why?
00:40:58.320 --> 00:41:00.079
They're your friends, like they've always been there.
00:41:00.159 --> 00:41:01.199
Why all of a sudden do you love them?
00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:03.840
But I've also gotten some out there answers too.
00:41:03.920 --> 00:41:06.559
I've gotten that I hate cancer books, I don't want to see them die.
00:41:06.639 --> 00:41:09.840
I've gotten I hate workplace romance because why are you writing about work?
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:11.280
Why are you writing about corporate?
00:41:11.360 --> 00:41:12.880
So it can be anything you want.
00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:18.000
What is a trope that you personally don't like reading or couldn't see yourself writing?
00:41:18.880 --> 00:41:29.599
Well, I will say the one I don't like reading most of the time is uh a marriage in trouble book only because I think it's really hard to do well.
00:41:29.679 --> 00:41:33.440
And the reason why for me is that I have to buy in to the situation.
00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:34.559
I have to buy in.
00:41:34.719 --> 00:41:38.719
If there's like a logical problem, like I have a hard time getting on board.
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:46.239
And I feel like with marriage in trouble books, either the thing that they're fighting about is so stupid that I disrespect them.
00:41:46.320 --> 00:41:49.280
I'm like, you're going to give up your marriage over that.
00:41:49.440 --> 00:41:55.039
Like it makes me so then I can't like them as characters if they are fighting over something dumb.
00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:59.840
Or it's something really big and you're like, yeah, that was really bad.
00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:01.360
You probably should be divorced.
00:42:01.519 --> 00:42:15.280
Like I feel like it's really hard, you know, to like to find a problem that could jeopardize a marriage in such a way that it doesn't make you hate either of them, um, but feels big enough to like not be stupid.
00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:17.599
Uh I think that's just really hard to do well.
00:42:17.760 --> 00:42:27.119
And so I've definitely read books where I I like really hated the guy or the woman for being so pissed about this thing um that seems so small to me.
00:42:27.360 --> 00:42:34.400
Uh and then I've but then I've I have read some marriage and trouble books where, or like like they're, you know, they're divorced, like, but they're getting death cut.
00:42:34.559 --> 00:42:37.599
I've I've I've read some that I think do it really well.
00:42:37.760 --> 00:42:42.960
I feel like TerraDuit uh did it really well in Left of Forever.
00:42:43.199 --> 00:42:54.639
Um and like that was one where I was like, okay, this this seems like a very big issue, and I understand why they both went where they did, and now I can see how they're reconciling.
00:42:54.719 --> 00:42:55.840
And so I really loved that.
00:42:55.920 --> 00:43:01.599
So it's I wouldn't say that it's the trope itself, it's just that I think it's really hard to to balance that issue for me.
00:43:01.920 --> 00:43:02.480
That's fair.
00:43:02.559 --> 00:43:06.960
I've only I think I've only read one marriage in trouble book, and it wasn't my favorite.
00:43:07.039 --> 00:43:10.719
And I read one engagement in trouble book, You deserve each other.
00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:12.800
And that one I thought was well done.
00:43:12.960 --> 00:43:16.079
But typically, I'm like the kind of person where I'm like, no, dump them.
00:43:16.239 --> 00:43:18.320
Like I like will always say just break it to someone.
00:43:18.400 --> 00:43:23.599
So I feel like I feel like the marriage, yeah, the marriage in trouble one would probably not be a trope for me either.
00:43:23.679 --> 00:43:24.320
That's the first one.
00:43:24.400 --> 00:43:25.920
So I'm gonna keep that tally in my mind.
00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:28.480
I'm gonna use it as an example next time.
00:43:28.800 --> 00:43:36.480
But my last question for you is that since Doomsday has come out, that it was I saw it was a USA Today bestseller.
00:43:36.800 --> 00:43:37.599
Congratulations.
00:43:37.679 --> 00:43:39.119
That is so amazing.
00:43:39.280 --> 00:43:42.880
How does it feel like knowing one of your works gets this accomplishment?
00:43:42.960 --> 00:43:47.199
And what do you hope people take away when they're reading this book?
00:43:48.159 --> 00:43:50.159
Um, I was really happy about it.
00:43:50.320 --> 00:43:56.639
I so I had two books come out in 2026 with different publishers, and my first one was Pot Shot, came out in May.
00:43:56.800 --> 00:43:58.480
It also hit the USA today.
00:43:58.639 --> 00:43:59.679
That was a shocker.
00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.719
Like, so I always thought this whole year, I was like, Doomsday's gonna be my bigger book.
00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:11.440
And I felt that way because it's such a high concept, like the idea of a first date ending in a zombie apocalypse, like that just feels like a movie, you know?
00:44:11.679 --> 00:44:14.239
And so I felt like that would be really catchy to people.
00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:18.239
And so, whereas Potsh, I just had no clue how it was gonna go.
00:44:18.400 --> 00:44:25.199
Um, and so when Podshot hit the list, I was like, Wood, oh my god, this is amazing.
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:29.840
Um, and I experienced most of the big emotions then because it was such a shocker to me.
00:44:30.079 --> 00:44:40.079
Um, and I then Doom State hit and I was so happy because I actually started to think maybe it wouldn't, only because it was coming out in a really busy week and it's all relative, right?
00:44:40.239 --> 00:44:47.760
Like, um, but like Grim Tidings was that week, um, but Lee Bardugo, like a lot of really big books came out the same day as mine.
00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:50.559
And so I wasn't, I didn't take anything for granted.
00:44:50.639 --> 00:44:55.039
Um, but I really loved I really loved seeing that, and I felt like it was a testament.
00:44:55.280 --> 00:44:58.960
Like Pot Shot really opened up a lot of people to my writing.
00:44:59.119 --> 00:45:03.440
Um, and those people are following me now, and they bought Doomsday too.
00:45:03.599 --> 00:45:04.480
And I love that.
00:45:04.639 --> 00:45:12.079
Like I love that I have people who love my my past books and are using them to like be like, yes, I want whatever you do next to.
00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:13.679
Um, so it feels good.
00:45:13.760 --> 00:45:24.079
It feels like I actually have like a real fan base now, um, and that people really get what I'm trying to do and appreciate my perspective because I write really quirky books compared to a lot of people.
00:45:24.400 --> 00:45:29.920
So I I'm I'm just happy that people are finding my books that really seem to enjoy them.
00:45:30.079 --> 00:45:31.920
Um, so yeah, that's what it's felt like.
00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:33.440
It's been it's been awesome.
00:45:33.760 --> 00:45:37.199
Yeah, that's so great that 2026 is your year.
00:45:37.360 --> 00:45:40.320
And I'm so excited to see what else you uh come out with.
00:45:40.480 --> 00:45:43.199
I haven't read Hot Shot yet, but it's on my list.
00:45:43.280 --> 00:45:47.760
And I saw that you have a haunted house romance coming out next fall, which will be exciting.
00:45:47.840 --> 00:45:56.239
I always love seasonal reads that really fit the vibe, which is why I think Doomsday doing kind of like a horror type book was really fun for me in October.
00:45:56.480 --> 00:45:58.000
So I really excited.
00:45:58.079 --> 00:46:11.199
And I know I also meant to say this earlier in the interview when you talked about the evil vegans from Portland, because that was just also such a funny moment in the book for me, but I've been using it to market it to a lot of my friends because a lot of my friends are from the specific Northwest.
00:46:11.360 --> 00:46:14.400
And for whatever reason, if you're not from Portland, you hate Portland.
00:46:14.480 --> 00:46:15.760
I am like learning that right now.
00:46:15.840 --> 00:46:20.559
Like all my friends from like San Francisco and like Northern California and Seattle, they all have beef with it.
00:46:20.719 --> 00:46:27.360
So the fact that Portland's catching some heat in this book, I've been sharing it with them, and that's on it as well.
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.480
But thank you so much for joining me.
00:46:30.639 --> 00:46:34.480
I had so much fun learned talking about Doomsday and seeing what's next.
00:46:34.800 --> 00:46:36.400
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
00:46:36.480 --> 00:46:37.280
I appreciate it.
00:46:37.599 --> 00:46:39.039
Thank you so much for listening.
00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:42.320
I hope you enjoyed that, and I hope you read Doomsday.
00:46:42.480 --> 00:46:50.800
It is perfect for Halloween, perfect for October, but also perfect for any time of year, especially if you are a horror zombie enthusiast.
00:46:50.960 --> 00:46:55.039
And be sure to follow Laura on her socials if you haven't already.
00:46:55.280 --> 00:47:02.159
Next week, I am interviewing Jacqueline Snow, talking all about her new sports romance, A Swing and a Kiss.
00:47:02.320 --> 00:47:05.119
So I hope you come back for it, my book butterflies.
00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:07.440
Have a great week, and I'll see you next time.
