The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes - Book 1 in the Expectant Detectives Mysteries
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Meet Kat Ailes, author of the Expectant Detectives Mysteries
Buy Kat's new book: Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes - released Jan 9, 2024 by Berkeley https://amzn.to/48LazxM
Author Chat Questions
0:00 Intro
0:37 Kat Ailes
1:30 Where is the book set
2:45 Synopsis
5:10 Pregnant Women
6:30 What’s Next
12:10 The RunnerUp Prize
14:00 Agent
15:10 Hippies
19:25 Food
21:30 Pubs
23:40 Millennial Cozy
26:20 British vs American cozies
28: 10 Inspiration
31:05 TM
32:30 The Town
34:00 Alice
35:50 Writing Plans
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The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes - Book 1 in the Expectant Detectives Mysteries
Jan 25, 2024
40 min 51 sec
This transcript was generated automatically by Spotify. Its accuracy may vary.
0:02
Hi everyone and welcome to the Mystery Mingle.I'm so excited because we have Kat Ailes with us today.Hi, Thanks so much for having me.Yeah, so if you can't hear, Kat has a wonderful British accent, which I always telling her like it doesn't matter what she says, it will just be brilliant because.
0:24
Thank you.So this way, no pressure.No.Whatever you say will be amazing, so why don't you tell us a little bit about you and where you're at and it's pretty late for you.Yeah, it it is.I'm over in England and it's 9:00 here, which for me is incredibly late because I have two small children.
0:45
So I go to bed at like 7:00 PM.But yeah.So thanks for having me on.I'm Kat.I have written a cosy mystery book with the expectant detectives which came out in America I think 2 weeks ago.I think it's pretty new for you guys.
1:02
It came out in the uka little bit earlier last summer, but yeah, it's just out in the States now.And so I'm hearing from lots of American readers through things like Instagram, which is lovely.And so it's great to be chatting with you about Cosy, mystery and the expectant detectives.
1:21
Do you want me to say a little bit about the book?Or yeah, that would read, yeah, let's tell everyone what the book's about and the murder mystery.Yeah, all right.So it's yeah, it's cosy mystery which you know that's the sort of lighter, the lighter side of murder mystery.
1:38
If that doesn't sound completely paradoxical, it is set in the UK because that's where I live and that's you know what I know.And and it's basically follows our main character and and the narrator Alice who moves from London to the Cotswolds which is a sort of very cute part of the British countryside.
2:03
And it is, it is where I live.It's very idyllic.It's the kind of places you see on those films like I don't know if you've seen like the holiday or something I think Oh yeah.Is it is it Jude Law in that?Yes.Yes.So he lives he his like little cottage or whatever that's in the Cotswolds.
2:21
So that's that's where the book is set.So when Alice and her boyfriend moved down to the Cotswolds, it's, you know, a bit of a culture shock from London to the to the countryside, and they're also expecting their first baby.And so they join a antenatal class.
2:39
Is that what you call it in in the States?And we call it, I don't know, I don't have kids, but prenatal, I think.Yeah, yes, prenatal sounds right.I did go through all this with when we did the, the sort of translation from UK English to US English, but it's some of it slipped out of my brain.
2:59
So yeah, so they've joined a prenatal class, and at their second class, things go a little bit wonky when one of the mums gives birth and at the same time someone is murdered in the shop below where the class is being held.
3:16
So then the the book sort of unfolds, the mystery unfolds.Alice and the other mums to be in the class are getting sort of drawn into this mystery in part to clear their names.They're under suspicion because of course they were.They were all there and in part to sort of do something in that weird hinterland that you have between that time with.
3:49
You froze.We'll just wait and see if it refreshes.Oh, you lost cat.
4:07
All right.Well, maybe she'll rejoin While we're waiting.It looked like she had a little bit of an Internet problem.So the book is about a pregnant detective.So her main character is pregnant.And inside of here, they were living in London.
4:25
They decide to move out to the country.It's their first time out in the country.They're definitely like city people.And when they get out there, there we go.You're back.I'm so sorry, I hope this isn't going to happen often.I was saying to Lisa before it's it's my rubbish, you know.
4:46
It's fine.So I was filling them in.So the rest of the book, So it's a murder mystery and everybody's pregnant, right?Yeah.OK, so that's what I really loved about it.It's everyone's there is there are very few.I'm not going to say none, but I've never read any where the main character is actually pregnant, so I thought that was very cool.
5:08
Yeah, I mean, pregnant women are sort of weirdly invisible in a lot of it's.It's working.Again, Sorry.That was my final Just letting me know that our Internet's on the blink.Yeah, so pregnant women are sort of weirdly invisible in a lot of spheres, I think in like the workplace and everything, but also very noticeably in in sort of TV and books and and everything.
5:35
So I was pregnant at the time I started writing this and I thought, let's put some let's put some pregnant people centre stage.Yeah, yeah.Because I think people think, like, once women are pregnant, like they should just be sitting on a couch resting, doing absolutely nothing, right?
5:55
And these were all out and they're trying to solve a murder.And some of them are like our main characters in her 9th month, right?Yeah, yeah, she's about to.She's about to go, Yeah.I mean, yeah, people are very people have a lot of opinions, I think, about what women should and shouldn't do when they're pregnant.
6:11
But I mean, was it Serena Williams won Wimbledon or something when she was like 3 months pregnant?Like, you know, women can do a lot of things whilst being pregnant.Yeah.Yeah.And so the big question that everyone has or maybe it's just me.
6:29
So the next books in the series, what are we going to do?How is everyone going to remain pregnant?Just keep churning out the babies.So the second book is is done and I think comes out in America in June or July, but quite soon and and no one is pregnant in that.
6:52
So they they've all had the babies.And so instead of sort of leaning into the pregnant aspect that we had in the first book, it's now looking into the the sort of questions around new parenthood and new motherhood.
7:08
And I think a lot of the same, a lot of the same things apply, like the things that you can and can't do or should and shouldn't do as a new mum.Then people again have opinions on whether you should be working or not working or all of that.And so I've sort of looked at some of some of that in the second book.
7:26
And also, I mean, small children are quite a good vehicle for comedy because they do and say the weirdest things.So yeah, I've used that instead.And then in future books there will be more pregnancies.So it's going to be a three running theme of like pregnancy and motherhood and yeah, the different different aspects.
7:50
Very cool.And so this book, let's talk about the unique way that this came about.And I'm actually not familiar with the comedy women in print.So do you want to tell you when your origin story?Yeah, sure.So, so this book, it it the sort of kernel of it I guess started when I was pregnant.
8:15
I kept a a sort of diary for my son and through the tail end of my pregnancy and then through his first year he was a COVID baby and so he was born two days before the UK went into its first lockdown.
8:31
Did you have lockdowns in America?We definitely did, yeah.I would have known it all at the time, but it's all sorry now.My dog's trying to break into the.It's never ending.Yeah.So my son was was born two days before the UK went into lockdown.
8:49
So I kept a diary for him just because I thought it was, you know, it's a very interesting time to have been born.And and also because when we were all sort of stuck at home, it gave me a bit of a creative outlet.So these diary entries just started to become a bit more stylized and like, I started to like find a bit of a voice in there.
9:14
And then my husband read them and he thought they were quite funny and quite entertaining.So I thought, oh, maybe maybe there's something I can I can do with this, but I wasn't really sure what.And then Instagram advertised to me this thing called the comedy Women in Print Awards, which I hadn't heard of either.
9:36
But I clicked through and had a look, and they were looking for unpublished writers and they said submit 5000 words of your comedy novel.And I thought, OK, 5000 words.That felt sort of achievable.I looked at the deadline and it was 2 days away and I was like, OK, two days, but it's 5000 words, I can probably do that.
9:58
So I took my diary entries and just turned them into the opening of this novel.Obviously, obviously there was no murder at my prenatal class, but, and a lot of it is drawn from from our experience, which is my partner and I, we moved down from London to the Cotswolds when I was nine months pregnant and we joined a prenatal class and all of that.
10:24
So I was just fictionalising my my experience and my diary entries.And then I sent it off to this prize and didn't really think much more about it.And then two or three months later I had this e-mail saying that I'd been long listed and I thought that's great.
10:41
And I read the rest of the e-mail and it said please send your completed novel of no less than 80,000 words for the judges And I had not read the small print when I entered.
10:57
I had not written the rest of the novel.When I logged back on to to look at their website it was like in sort of capital letters underlined like bold, like this must be part of a completed work.So I emailed the woman and I said I'm I'm like I'm a little bit short on my word count and you know neglected to mention that I was 75,000 words short and and maybe you know could I perhaps have a little extension on the deadline And she bless her she said Oh yeah I think we can we can give you a couple of weeks And I thought OK can I, can I write a novel in a couple of weeks I'll give it a crack.
11:41
And I I basically ruined a family holiday by doing it because we were already booked to go away with my in laws.And so we went on holiday and I sort of handed over my son for everyone else to do childcare while I bashed out 75,000 words.
11:59
And then I submitted my novel which I think was 80,000 and 20 words.So I just got it over the.Line.And yeah, and I didn't, you know, I didn't think it, you know, it wasn't my best work.It had been written in a bit of a rush, but it made the shortlist, which was great, and then it actually won the runner up prize.
12:22
So I was, I was so pleased about that because it had all happened in such a flurry.I had no perspective on whether it was any good or not.I hadn't had time to even properly read it through before I'd sent it in.So you know it's a lesson in always read the small print but then if I had I probably wouldn't have entered.
12:43
So I'm kind of glad I just went in head 1st and but of course you know that that sort of three-week writing job is not the finished product.I was very lucky that just in in getting the runners up prize, I got some interest from a few agents and met with them and signed with my current agent who is fantastic.
13:07
And then she worked on the manuscript with me and then my various editors, my UK editor, my US editor, they've all worked on on the book and it's a lot more polished now than than what I initially submitted.So yeah, that's sort of that's how it that's how it happened.
13:26
I mean, that's very impressive.Like, I'm a little short and you wrote 75.You wrote the whole thing like in a couple of weeks on holiday it was.It was an act of desperation, but also I think it was something I obviously really wanted to do, because probably the sensible thing at that point would have been to just say, oh, sorry, I haven't, I haven't done it, but I don't know, I think, I think if you, you might as well try.
13:56
Yeah, for sure.Yeah.You never know what could happen.I mean, you got an agent, so is your agent in the US or the UK or did it make a difference to?You.Yeah, I have AUK agent, so the my UK agent sells rights to like to different territories around the world.
14:17
So she sold it to AUK Publisher and AUS Publisher.And then it's also sold in a couple of European countries, so France, Denmark, Hungary.Oh, wow.Yeah, which is exciting.So keeping some sort of flipjackets in different languages and it's all very exciting.
14:37
Yeah, so let's talk about 'cause I know you said you put it in American, but, like, and I just read like the I went through the first few chapters, so let's just go through some British words that I was not familiar with, which I liked.I really, I wish they would have left all the British words in there, 'cause I like when I read a British cozy, like, oh, that's what they yeah, in case they for the 2nd book, so, but posh hippie.
15:03
So we say shabby sheep.I don't know if that's the same thing.Oh, kind of.So do you.Do you have hippies?We have like.We have.No.Oh, no, no.It's quite different.These are quite different.Any hippies?
15:18
Not since the 70s.It's like a old 1960s seventies thing.OK, well, it's it's still, it's definitely still going in the UK, especially in the countryside.I would say not so much, not so much in the cities, but yeah, I mean it's just a continuation of like the 60s movement.
15:41
But also I would say, I think Posh hippie is a quite a particular British thing and that so you know, like how hippies are.It's very earthy and it's all natural.And yeah, that sort of, yeah, yeah, like that kind of Earth Mother vibe.
16:04
You get a lot of hippies in the UK, not a lot, but a few hippies in the UK where it's a very wholesome sort of, I live a very simple life kind of portrayal.But then you find out that actually they have like a trust fund and you know they can afford to not be in like the capitalist rat race because they inherited £5,000,000.
16:30
So they're kind of like hippies.Kind of, yeah.Like, yeah, like, I'm sure they really, I think they really do believe like in all their like hippy values.But you know, to a certain extent it's a lot easier to buy into all of that if you have the comfort of a nice trust fund behind you and, you know, you find out that, like your hippy friend has like a £1,000,000 flat in London and like, you know, just things like that.
17:00
And their name's not really Ocean, It's actually like Petronella or something really fancy.So yeah, there's we also, it's sometimes called, like champagne socialism in the UK as well, like it's it's definitely a bit of a thing.
17:17
And where I live in the Cotswolds, there's quite a bit of it.That's very cool.OK, so now let's go to and I don't even know if the P is pence or PS99P Chicken Mcgristle burger.I I was like, when I saw the mic, I was like, is that McDonald's?
17:33
I was like, I don't know.Yeah, that's sort of, yeah.Do you have like the 99, like a $0.99 menu or anything at McDonald's in America?I.Don't think so.OK, so in the in the UK the McDonald's have like the whole like 99 P menu, which is just like the real like.
17:55
And I mean McDonald's is not expensive quality meat, but this is like the really cheap like the 99 P burger.It's like you don't want to think about what's gone into that.Yeah, we don't have that at all.And so it's £0.99 is that?
18:10
Yeah, £0.99, so it's like almost a pound.I don't know what that would be like, Just over a dollar, I guess.I think it's $2 in the US, OK.I do find it interesting though, like because I I have spent some time in America and I went to quite a few McDonald's.
18:25
And it is interesting, like in different countries they have different menus, they have different stuff on offer.So when I went, I went to a McDonald's in California and they had a burger where the the bun was replaced with like pancakes.
18:43
That that was incredible.Oh yeah, I've never heard of that either.But yeah, I've never heard.We do not have an.I mean, I just got so I really like the breakfast burrito and the hash brown at McDonald's for breakfast, and I think that was like $10 or something for just two things.
19:01
So our McDonald's menu is very expensive.Oh yeah.No, we have like we have the 99 P menu.So yeah, that's sort of what I was referencing.We didn't have that.OK, very cool.And then the last one is cheese straw.Oh yeah, you don't have to use straws.
19:18
I don't even know what that is.Is that a concept?Is that like something you eat?Is that?Yeah.Yeah, it's like, it's like flaky.It's like a flaky pastry, savoury pastry, and it's like a like a pastry twist with cheese in it.
19:36
Oh, a cheese straw.Yeah, I don't know why the.We don't have that.They have savoury pastries that you could buy.So there's one place that has savoury pastries, they're pot pies.But it's British.It's a British pot pie and that's and it's like unique.
19:54
It's the only one I've ever seen ever really in the US.It's so interesting that like, the food cultures are so different.Yeah, for sure.A lot of the things that that my American editor was picking up on when she went through it, it was the food things.
20:12
It was like, oh, we don't have this brand of food here.And I think I had thought that there was a lot more crossover than there actually is.Yeah, I don't know.I mean, I've only been to London, so I've never.I think I was in the countryside for a little bit and then but just visiting friends and then we went right back to London.
20:34
Yeah, I've been there.In fact, I was going to ask you about beer.So every day.I just know it was really nice.Every day everyone's like, we have to get to the pub, get a pint.Like we just had to go like 4:00.It was pretty early.Do you still do?
20:49
Do they do that in the countryside too?Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.Like the post work.Pints is a big, is a big part of British culture, I think.Well, because pubs.Pubs are such a huge part of British culture because in America it's much more bar.We don't have pubs.
21:07
We have there'll be something that's called a gastropub, but nobody knows where it is or how to find it.It's usually some weird thing that like maybe there's one in a city and that's it.But everyone just goes to the bar.There's no do.You have, Do you have like Irish pubs?
21:25
We have Irish bars, we have bars that are Irish, but we still call them bars and they don't do so like I remember in London it was like everyone flooded the pubs at like 4:00 and then everyone, it was like a ghost town.Then by like 530 or 6, everyone was gone.
21:41
Yeah.Yeah, because everyone goes for like the like decompression pint after work.But then I think we have a culture of going home much earlier.Yeah.When I visited a friend in New York, I was amazed at how much New Yorkers could pack into like 1 evening.
22:03
It would be like, after work, I met her and she was like, we're going for a yoga class.And I was like, OK, And then after that we were going for dinner and I was like, yeah, that's fair enough.Then after that, we were going for drinks and I was like, yeah, it's getting quite late.Then after that we went to a gig and I was just like done more in one evening than I would normally do in like an entire week.
22:23
Yeah, yeah.I moved to San Diego after being in New York and it's everything shuts down early everywhere else though, other than New York.Oh, OK, that's the New York thing then.Not like a Pan American, yeah, but yeah, pubs.Pubs here are a huge part of the culture and in the countryside I think it's it's slightly different in that you like a country pub and a city pub are quite different vibes.
22:49
I would say the country pub, it's more like people have been out on like a long country walk and there's a lot of dogs around.There's probably like an open fire in the winter, but it's still that same sort of if you stay for like a leisurely pint or two and then you just sort of head on your head on your way.
23:10
Yeah, then the US.Once you're there, you're just there the whole night.It just keeps going.No one goes home.Oh, look, there's someone listening.Cheese straws are delicious, OK?OK.Starry Star McKnight, we used.
23:27
I just called her McKnight.Starry Starry Night.We used to have a $1.00 menu, but I don't know now.Oh yeah, maybe we do have.OK, so that would have been the same.Same idea all.Right.All right.So this cozy, I really like and I told so I'm saying you're keeping it real.
23:43
So this is, would you consider this a millennial cozy and do you guys have that concept over there?Do you have millennial cozies or no?I I mean obviously we have like the whole like millennial culture, but I I've not actually heard like the phrase millennial cozy before and because so obviously like the cozy crime thing has really taken off and I think particularly with the millennial generation, but I don't think, I don't think millennial cozy is like a a like concept over here.
24:25
I mean I was very consciously writing for like the sort of millennial generation, although weirdly it's been like really popular with more like my parents generation, like the boomer generation.So like, it's being bought by a lot of sort of 6070 year old women.
24:42
I think even my my partner's Gran who's 96, she was like, oh, I loved it.I've given it to all the girls at the Golf Club and I was like, OK, it wasn't my target audience, but OK.Well, I just like that you were keeping it real.
24:58
So, like, there's actual, real language in here.So we have the H double hockey sticks.We have the F word, the poop word.That's another way to say male genitalia words.So like, were you purposely trying to add those to infuse it to, like, make her more real?
25:13
Or you didn't even think about it?They just kind of showed up in the book.Yeah, I didn't massively think about it, but I do think they just became quite integral to Alice's voice.I think they perhaps they were like sort of subconsciously a way of me making it a bit more millennial in order to differentiate it from the cosy mystery genre that sort of come before.
25:40
So we have a like a long back history of cosy mystery in the UK with things like Agatha Christie and like it's very twee and it's very cute and quaint.And you know, obviously my book is picking up on a lot of that.
25:55
It's got this cute, quaint little English village, so which is very sweet.And then I I think maybe the the slightly vulgar language was perhaps a way to counterbalance that and to freshen it up a bit.
26:12
I don't know.Yeah, I don't.Actually think I swear that much, Yeah.Yeah.Speaking.I know I do in the book, but.So in the book, I guess what in your mind really differentiates British cozies from American cozies?So I've got to be honest, I've not read that many American cozies.
26:32
I read quite a lot of American authors, but not that many of the the American cozy crimes.I really, really need to read the Finley Donovan.I'm getting so many comparisons and references on like social media and in reviews and stuff.
26:50
So that is that is my next read and I've read some Catherine McKenzie and actually I I thought it was doing something very similar to mine.I didn't think it was wildly different.
27:05
But then I think, I think British and American cultures, you know, obviously there's points of difference and we've, you know, touched on a few of them.But I also think that quite often we're coming from similar places.
27:21
And so I think in, in, in the few that I have read, I didn't notice like vast differences, perhaps the fact that British cosy mystery almost always happens in the countryside, like almost exclusively I would say, whereas American cozy perhaps not so much.
27:47
I mean your Backcountry is so vast, I guess it's not quite such a cozy vibe.You've got like massive mountain ranges and like canyons and deserts and everything and we have sort of rolling green hills and like little woods and stuff.
28:04
So I guess that would be the biggest difference.OK.Yeah.Was there any particular novel that like was an inspiration for this book?Or did you just like write how you just you're just like this Is my experiences not really modelling it after another book?
28:21
I don't think I did model it after another book.I mean, inescapably, like the sort of King of cosy crime.Certainly over here is Richard Osmond with the Thursday Murder Club series.Like, they're just so popular.
28:36
Are they?Are they as popular in the States?I've actually never heard of them.Oh, OK, so Richard Osmond was he's ATV presenter.Oh, Richard Osmond.Oh yeah, yeah, Everybody knows Richard.Oh, yeah.So he yeah.
28:51
Like, obviously his Thursday Murder Club is doing something very similar.It's pensioners.And I've gone to the other end of the age spectrum in a way.I hadn't actually read the Thursday Murder Club when I wrote my first book.I've read all of them since and I absolutely love them.
29:10
So I definitely wasn't like modelling, modelling on him.And I I actually have to be a little bit careful when I'm in the actual process of writing not to read too much in that genre, because I'll start to like a pair.
29:27
I'll start to chameleon it, which is not, you know, not great.So yeah, I've heard that from other people too.They just like any accidental influences.Yeah, because it just, you know, when you're reading something, it just seeps into your brain and it affects like your internal monologue and how you're talking to yourself and all of that is so like sponge, like, so when I'm not writing, I will devour so many, like, cosy mysteries, but when I'm actually doing the writing, I need to step back and read different things and read read elsewhere.
30:03
But yeah, so it wasn't, it wasn't modelled on any particular book.But I do read a lot of Cosy Mystery which has probably definitely will have influenced it somehow.And and one series that I love that really actually got me into Cosy Mystery as an adult is actually a middle grade series.
30:22
It's the Robin Stevens.I don't know if you've come across them.It's the murder most fun ladylike series.They're so British.They're so British.Book recommendation.Yeah.So I mean, they're written for I guess like probably 8 to 12 year olds like middle grades and they're set in the back in the 30s in 1930s Britain.
30:51
And they're just, they're just delightful really.They're just, yeah.And so I think those that definitely got me into the genre as an adult.And now, so this.So going back to the countryside, did I read that right in the first paragraph or the first chapter?
31:09
It said there's a trademark in there ATM right?Oh yeah.What is that about?That's just so maybe that's like a peculiarly British thing.So sometimes if you say something and it's like a bit of a thing, you might put ATM at the end just to like be like oh, it's a thing, so like moving because like moving to the country, it's, I don't know if you have the same thing.
31:35
I've never seen that in a book and I I think I've read some British books, but maybe I haven't.So it's that.So you didn't actually trademark it.It's.Just a It's just like.A depression.OK, so if we saw that in another book, it just means like it's a fun phrase that everyone says.
31:55
Yeah, it's just a weird phrase.That's maybe weird British phrase, from the sounds of things.Yeah.Just to like sort of it.Just like flags, like, oh, this is a thing that everyone's doing.And because, yeah, like moving to the country to have kids, like, that's everyone where I live right now.
32:16
It's like, Oh yeah, I used to live in London, then I had children and now I live down here and I have a dog and yeah, it's.I get All right.So and is Penton a fictional town?Yes, yes, it is.
32:32
It's.Modelled after Cotswolds.Well, so the town like, so the Cotswolds is like an area, it's in the UK, we have this thing called like areas of outstanding national or natural areas of outstanding natural beauty and they're like little pockets around the countryside that are considered especially lovely.
32:54
And so the Cotswolds is that whole area.And then within the Cotswolds we have several.There are several large towns and a couple of of cities.So I live in a town called Stroud, which is about, I think about 30,000 people.So it's a small, small town and Penton is definitely quite heavily based on it.
33:15
Although in my head Penton is a bit smaller.But yeah, it's, it's heavily based on Stroud.Stroud is a bit posh hippy, It's a bit alternative.There's a lot of so in the book there's sort of this commune that's up in the woods and there's the sort of apothecary shop that the the murdered guy runs and Stroud is like pretty heavy on all those kinds of of things.
33:42
We even have a so in the book, the women's Inner Goddess Temple crops up and that is something that we have in Stroud and they, they do a very good gong bath, which I have been to and it's yeah, so yeah, IA.
34:00
Lot of this is from your real life and like, how much is Alice like you like her personality and her mannerisms?I I think quite a lot.I think I'd be.I'd be lying if I said, Oh no, she's totally fictional.It definitely comes a lot from from my own voice in my own head.
34:20
I I think I've exaggerated a lot of the aspects of of my character in her and and she's not she's not purely me.I've just drawn on, I think, aspects of my character which can make it feel quite personal when people say like, you know, like, oh, she's like such a ditz.
34:41
How does she not know this?And I'm like, I did not know that.And people saying, oh, but you never actually do this.And I'm like, yeah, no, I did do that because a lot of the little small incidents are drawn from my lived experience.
35:00
So things like at one point she's just going on a dog walk trying to make a new friend and she's finds she's put an omelette in her pocket.And that is something that I did.I mean, I was like 9 months pregnant.I had my brain was like swamped with hormones and I had just put this omelette in my pocket at some point.
35:20
And I was trying to impress this.You know when you're trying to make new friends as an adult and you're like, you know, I've got to be really cool and like, doesn't work if you have an omelet in your pocket.Yeah, maybe.Unless the person was really hungry for an omelette from someone's pocket.
35:37
Yeah, still makes me, you know those things that we still feel a bit ashamed when you remember it, like three years ago?Exactly.I have a hot.Rush OK, so very cool.So you oh, look at that.We have a fan.Daniel Lynn.The expected detectives is great.
35:54
Oh, thank you.So what are your writing?So the second book is coming out this summer.And then what are your writing plans this year for 2024?My writing plans are I am supposed to be writing book three right now, and I I've done the pitch, I've done the sort of the synopsis, We've got the general arc of book three, and what I haven't got is actual words on the page.
36:26
So that has to happen this year.But this is my first time writing with like a really newborn baby who I can actually hear crying upstairs.So my daughter is she's just turned 5 months old and I wrote the previous one when my son was about 1:00 and I wrote the second one when my son was just turned 3.
36:56
So I've written, I've written books with the toddler around, but I've never done it with a really newborn baby and it is quite challenging in a number of ways.So my writing plans are try and get book 3 written somehow.
37:15
OK, because you also have a day job too, right?I do, yes.I also.I actually work in publishing.I'm sort of an insider.Although I work, I have always worked solely on non fiction, so I'm an editor for like quite serious non fiction.
37:33
I do politics and history and science and and that kind of thing.So it's very far removed from from what I'm writing, which is good, which is good.I think it would be too hard to be, yeah, like sitting on both sides of the fence as as author and editor.
37:52
So yeah, I will be going back to my day job in in the summer in August, and I really need to have Book 3 written by then.So the clock is ticking.Do you have a secret to anyone that you can share with anyone else on how to balance 2 toddlers and still find time to write?
38:13
No, because I haven't.I haven't managed it yet.We'll talk back with you for Book 2.Maybe I just need to give myself that three weeks again and be like going to blast it in three weeks.I think that probably is what I'll I will do though for the first draft I with both books, the first and second books.
38:32
It feels good just to get like words on the page because you can go back and you can reshape and reshape and reshape you can edit as much as you need to.But getting that first draft down, I think is is you've just got to throw everything at it.
38:49
And then someone in the audience asked you, like complete silence or background noise while you write?I currently have the background noise of a quite upset baby she's with.She's with her dad though, so she's she's absolutely fine and I I normally have music playing when I write.
39:10
But lyrics or no lyrics?Well.I can't have lyrics, English lyrics because I there's too much going on so.But I listen to a lot of West African music which is often in French or in various sort of West African languages, none of which I speak.
39:30
So I have the music and I like having the the voices, but I'm not listening to the the meaning.So that's that's what I listen to all.Right.Pretty cool.And so where can readers find you if they wanted to find you on social media?
39:48
I am only on Instagram.I've I've never, I've never embarked on Twitter, Slash X or TikTok, which I probably I probably should, but there's so many these days.I sound 100 years old.There are.
40:05
I'm on Instagram just I think K dot ales or cat dot ales.OK.Yeah, and I love, I love seeing the book popping up on Instagram.It's it feels amazing to, you know, see people reading it.Yeah, it's great.
40:21
Awesome.Well, thanks so much for being here.And we do have a book giveaway.I'm going to give it to Starry Starry Night.She's been the best commenter for here.So if you want to send me an e-mail at lisa@lisaseafood.com, we'll get that book sent out to you.
40:36
So great.Thanks for for having me on for a chat.It's been lovely.Yeah.And thanks for educating me on all things British.All right.Bye, everyone.Bye.
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