Well, Puck Me Runnin': An Interview with Allie Lasky

We're joined this week by Allie Lasky, sports lover and sports romance author. We talked about sportsball, we talked mental health, we talked about putting brie and some jam into a croissant as a snack, we decided Gonzo is a hockey player, and we might have spoiled something spicy.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Welcome to Booked All Night, the podcast where hot takes meet craft notes and no one gets enough sleep. I'm Jess. I'm Maggie. I'm Katie.

SPEAKER_04 0:08

I'm Julia. Get ready for unhinged hot takes. Midnight giggles. A whole lot of books.

SPEAKER_06 0:14

And zero shame. Grab your blankets, booklets. It's time to get booked all night. Welcome to Booked All Night, the podcast where hot takes meet craft notes and no one gets enough sleep. I'm your host, Jessica Mary, and today we're joined by Allie Lasky, author of more than a few romance series like The Boston Grizzlies, Neurospicy Book Club, X's and O's, and Light My Candle. So welcome to the pod.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_06 0:40

I'm so excited. I love interviewing authors. It's so much fun to talk writing and how bothersome it is and how much we love it all at the same time. Uh to get started, I do have a small game of superlatives. You can answer with any of your titles because you have so many. But it's just kind of like, you know, cutest couple, most likely to blah blah blah kind of thing. So my first one is most likely to lean in for the kiss.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Tripped up, Wyatt and Elsie.

SPEAKER_06 1:14

The second one is most likely to not understand the sports ball.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Rock me harder, Tony and Viv. She's a rugby player, he's a gymnast, they don't do it.

SPEAKER_06 1:28

They don't least likely to be least likely to like what's going on.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

Oh, Sven. Uh puppy twice, definitely.

SPEAKER_06 1:40

Most likely to be a creep.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Also Sven.

SPEAKER_06 1:45

And the last one is most likely to screw things up.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

All of them?

SPEAKER_06 1:50

All of them, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

I love a good gobble.

SPEAKER_06 1:56

Uh so now you have about 20 titles to your names, 20-ish, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Uh I think the count is 17 at the moment, but it's a lot.

SPEAKER_06 2:06

Yeah, just about. Like you're three shy of the 20 mark. That's a lot. And they're mostly sports romance, right? Like there's some football, some hockey, some rugby, you've got gymnastics, you said earlier. Uh, so my question is, do you understand the sports ball? Or do you just write about the people in the community involved?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

So I have always been a specific sports ball fan. Um, I was a big fan of dance and ballet specifically, and that translated into becoming a fan of gymnastics circa 2012, 2013. Um, and I really enjoyed watching Simone Biles become Simone Biles. I was a fan of gymnastics before she came onto the scene basically. Um, and in 2017, I was writing a book with a college female gymnast, uh, because I'm a big college gymnastics fan. It is the season right now, and I needed a male athlete, and I don't like football because it's gross, and baseball is the worst, and basketball, I can't stand the squeaking of the shoes. So I settled on hockey and I started watching the behind-the-scenes YouTube series, like all the different documentaries about the teams, and I fell in love with the Boston Bruins. Uh, and to this day I'm a Boston Bruins fan. Um, even the one that they lived to disappoint me. So I was a gymnastics fan and a hockey fan, and I didn't really like any other sports. Um, and then in 2020, there was nothing on TV.

unknown 3:38

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

And I was I was there's nothing. And I started watching baseball with my dad. I was living with my parents for for the duration of COVID. Uh, don't recommend. And I started watching baseball because the team was actually pretty good. And that's when Fernando Tlatis Jr. had his like breakout season with Padres. Yeah. He backslid a little bit, but he was he was great. And the butt was was even greater. So I started watching baseball. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna be a sports person now. I like hockey, I like gymnastics, I can tolerate baseball. We're good, we're good. So I started watching college football that fall, and I fell in love. Um, my team is Michigan, uh, which is a whole other story, but that was a terrible season for Michigan, but I fell in love with watching the sport. And fall 2020, I had a book planned for NanoRimo. It was planned, it was ready. On October 25th, I got an idea for a new book, and I said, if I can write 10,000 words by Halloween, Nano Eve, I will write that one instead. I didn't write 10,000 words, but I wrote 9,500. So I said that's good enough.

SPEAKER_05 4:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Uh so I wrote both books for Nano, which I do not recommend writing 100,000 words in a month. It nearly killed me.

SPEAKER_05 4:56

Um Yeah, Maggie, are you listening, Maggie? Don't do not write 100,000 words in a month.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

Don't don't call me out. I listen, it was grad school. It was a tough time for everybody involved.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Um, so that book that I wrote became the game plan. Um, and I had no intention of publishing it whatsoever. But then a critique partner said you'd be an idiot if you didn't publish it. She had already published one book and was doing a couple, like she was in the works of doing some others. So I wrote it in October 2020. I spent some time working on some other books and editing this one, and then it published in August 2022 and became the start of a five-book college football series.

unknown 5:44

Nice.

SPEAKER_06 5:47

Yeah, that's I love that you like have this love for it and like gymnastics. Oh man, I love watching gymnastics and figure skating. And oh, I was watching um I got into gymnastics a little bit before Rio. And if no one remembers this, there was uh a male gymnast that on his vault landed incorrectly and his uh shin broke.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

Oh yeah, and it is like right?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

I think so.

SPEAKER_06 6:17

Yeah, it broke the skin. It came out and it was like uh and then from then on my obsession kind of became like how these athletes come back from these injuries, because I there were a couple college um gymnasts that I'd seen on the bars, and they like slammed their toes because the bars weren't the correct distance away. I'm like, uh Oh, oh no. And the same thing with figure skaters, right? Like they when they fail, they fail hard. There's no such thing as like a short little bump in your figure skating program. You're on the ice and you just kind of crack into it. And so I I love that there is this passion for sports, and it's not just like, well, everybody else was writing hockey smut, and I decided I would also write hockey smut.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

I've been writing hockey smut since 2017, um, before I was even reading it. Um and that book will never be published. It's actually um those binders over there, that's where it lives. Um it is 140,000 words of a new adult college romance, college sports romance. It it will never see the light of day, if that's besides the point. Um, but I I mean I grew up, Tara Lapinski, Michelle Kwan, like I I skated at a rink that Michelle Kwan practiced at. Oh, wow. Like just because that happened to be my grandmother's local rank and she took me ice skating one day. But that's like the claim to fame, is like Michelle Kwan skated there. And so like I did like one, like not a lap around the ice, but like one open skate one day, and she was not there, but it was like the rank that claimed her fame.

SPEAKER_06 8:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

So that's like that, and I mean, I grew up with like the dominance of women's figure skating um all those years, and I can't figure skate like that. I can do like basic like laps around the ice, but I'm not very coordinated. I have no athletic ability whatsoever. I did gymnastics for like six months. I did two seasons of soccer, I did one season of Girl Scout basketball, and like that was it. Uh, we we never did softball because I'm afraid of like things flying at me. Um, so I I wear glasses right now. I'm wearing contacts, but I started wearing glasses when I was 10. And I was paralyzed, terrified of breaking my glasses and having a ball hit me in the face. If you can't tell I have anxiety. Um I was terrified of softball, terrified of tennis, like anything with like a projectile flying at you, aiming at like your upper body and your face, like terrified me. My brother did both softball or t-ball and and tennis. He was fine with it.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

I was not.

SPEAKER_06 9:10

I I did softball as a kid, and I lost all four front teeth to a wild pitch.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:17

Yeah. Um, that hurt. Uh, and I also like later played tennis, but tennis was like a little more comforting because you can put the racket in front of your face and block a lot of the thing that is flying at your at your eyeballs and your face. Uh, you can't do that with a bet. It doesn't quite work the same. Uh but I totally understand the I don't like it flying at my face.

unknown 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:43

Like, mm-mm. Especially once I started wearing glasses, because glasses back in the 2000s were, if you can imagine, even more expensive than they are now.

SPEAKER_04 9:52

Yep. So sports romance can get so specific because each sport has its own culture, physicality, and team dynamics. How do you make sure that sports aspects don't outshine the romance and vice versa?

SPEAKER_01 10:12

It's a very carefully balancing, very carefully like planned balancing act. Um I am a little more analytical with it after I've written the first draft and be like, okay, I need more of this or less of that, or like beef up this part. So I look at it very analytically and like, what does a story need to be a completely satisfying story? Um, what aspects can I punch up and bring to the forefront more? If that means I've written too much sports, um, I punch up the romance. If it means I've written too much romance, then I punch up the sports aspect. So it all feels balanced and satisfying at the end. Um, it's a whole process through the editing like timeline. And I have a very fantastic editor who holds my hands with a lot of things. Um, but just since working with her, my writing has grown and improved. And it my later books are completely different from my earlier books because I've seen that growth and progression.

SPEAKER_06 11:18

How do you like determine that one or the other is perhaps like too much? Or are you just like kind of waiting for your editor to be like, hey, sports gotta go. I need to see some kissing.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Um the sports don't have to go, but we add more kissing in and more more spicy bits. Um, but we we look at how we feel at the end of the book after we've read the whole thing in one setting, or maybe two, because it is usually a long book, and we say, okay, after consuming all of this book, how do we feel? What are we wanting more of? And that's what we go in and layer in. Um, what can we change to make it more impactful? Um, so writing is a very cathartic process, it's very emotionally driven, but I still have to be analytical about what goes into the complete package of the book. Yeah. And if you've done Clifton Strengths, I am number six analytical. Um, so it is definitely, I look at it from that lens versus these are my babies, don't don't kill my babies.

SPEAKER_06 12:33

Now this one's this question's not on my interview list, but I am always curious. Was there do you have a darling scene that had to come out of any of your books that you're like, I really wish I could have kept it, but for the sake of completion and for like the good feel at the end, it had to go?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

I've had a couple of them, and usually they make their way into bonus content. I so after you read the book, you have the epilogue, and then if you sign up for my newsletter, you get a bonus chapter or a second epilogue or deleted scene. So I save it for those so they can get the deleted scenes that I just couldn't bear to part with. Um, but typically I don't cut too much. Um, there's like a couple paragraphs we'll cut here and there, but I don't cut full like full scenes. Um, so usually there's like one line that I'm like committed to, and my editor will be like, no, that's gotta go. But but whole chapters typically don't come out. And so when they do, I make sure to save them and preserve them as best as I can. That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

You feature characters with autism, anxiety, ADHD, diabetes, and those who are sober. How do you approach the neurodiverse experience with regards to romance and sex?

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Well, first of all, I am neurodivergent myself. Um, I'm autistic in ADHD. I have a whole host of diagnoses. Um, I am personally sober as well. And we deserve love just as much as anyone else. Um, so I try to represent characters that are people like me, people like my friends, people like my family, and just show another another viewpoint. Um, we all we all deserve love. If that's what we want, we all deserve love.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Do you find that it's hard to write um dialogue from as someone with ADHD? Um ADHD dialogue because uh, you know, our brains, they go on tracks.

SPEAKER_06 14:45

That's that's a wild assumption that mine stays on the track, right? Like mine is derailed.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

The squirrels are bringing it in sometimes. Um I find writing neurotypical people more difficult than writing neurodivergent people. It's such a foreign experience to me. So it really pushes me to grow. Um, I do have a couple books with like completely neurotypical characters, and their dialogue is different than my neurodivergent characters. Um, and that's like it's all on purpose. It's just it's a different experience, and I have to really work to like understand that experience. Um, and I do like interviews with other people. It's hard because most of my friends are neurospicy as well, so it's hard to find those people who are neurotypical. Um, we all hang out together. Um but once I get a feel of who the character is, the character informs how the dialogue gets spoken. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 15:46

I find so most of us here at the ePod are writers as well. And writing people that don't have any sort of mental illness or issue, I'm like, how do you go about your day? Like, what do you mean you don't worry about the house burning down if you don't touch the doorknob five times? I don't understand how you just up and go. Like, I need like a whole hour of prep time to make sure everything in my house is correct before I leave. What do you mean? What do you mean you just you just walk out the door? It's bullshit. I don't believe you.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Yeah. I just finished a book with a character who has OCD and PMDD. Uh, and I my current work in progress has a autistic character and a character with ADHD. And it just I know the ins and outs of these diagnoses, even ones I don't have myself. I've learned enough about them and I've been through enough therapy, uh, both group and individual therapy. So I've been around other people who are also neurospicy or also dealing with mental health challenges. I suppose it's impossi it's entirely possible for someone to have no mental health challenges whatsoever, but I've yet to meet a person like that. Right. Whether they are able to be diagnosed or whether they're just struggling on their own, everyone has their own challenges and their own hurdles to bear. And all I can do is represent those different challenges.

SPEAKER_06 17:22

Yeah. I like that. I also like the idea that no one is actually neurotypical.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

I have yet to meet a single person on this planet who is not in need of therapy. Not a single person. Even therapists need therapy. Um, and there's always something that someone needs to work out. You can be like completely self-actualized and still need help and just verbal processing, whatever it is. There's no one who doesn't need therapy on this planet.

SPEAKER_06 17:59

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

And if you don't think you need therapy, you need therapy double. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

I'm a big proponent of therapy. I've been in and out for about 10 years now. Um, and it's made such a difference in my life. Um, I'm a huge proponent, um, and I will highly recommend anyone who has any questions about it. Finding a therapist is like dating. It's sometimes harder than dating because you're really getting vulnerable with that person. Um, so go into it knowing that you're gonna lay yourself bare and they're gonna see like the inner workings of your brain, and that's terrifying for some people.

SPEAKER_06 18:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Um, but that's why you need to do it.

SPEAKER_06 18:50

I would say in the mental health sphere, that finding a therapist and finding the correct medications if you need them are quite similar of a journey that like you've gotta mix and match sometimes, and you've gotta come off of this one and go on to a new one. And maybe that one's not right for you, but this other one will be right for you. And I think a lot of people don't realize that it's not like, okay, I found a therapist near me, and I'm going to go and we're going to talk, and then I'm going to be fine. Like, no.

SPEAKER_05 19:20

No.

SPEAKER_06 19:22

That's not quite how and if if that's how it works for you, congratulations. But no, that's not usually how that works.

unknown 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

I remember in The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, um, in the book, not the movie, the book, Lily, the best friend, talks about self-actualization and how Mia will never be self-actualized if she doesn't work on A, B, and C and all that stuff. And to me, self-actualization is a pipe dream. Like it doesn't exist. You're always working on something else. You'll never be magically fixed and whole and perfect. You're always gonna have something that you need to work on. And going into it with that like foundational knowledge will make actually achieving it so much easier. It's never the top of the mountain, you're you're not gonna hit some impossible standard. You're gonna keep going and keep progressing.

SPEAKER_06 20:18

I like to say, I I don't like to say like it's cured or I'm fixed. I prefer to say like I'm at a manageable place right now. Because I I think that's more realistic, especially if like you're neurospicy or neurosparkly and you have a lot of things going on. Like, you might find a spot where your depression is okay, but your anxiety is off the charts, or like your ADHD is kind of in check, and you can kind of remember to put stuff away. But uh, you're also going to have the worst executive dysfunction about choosing what food to take out of the freezer. Like, yeah, it's all over the place. With that lovely, lovely statement, uh, that brings us to the very first game of the podcast, the very first official game of the podcast, which is Space Em or Embrace'em Romance Edition. So, in Space Em or Embrace'em, you are traveling through space with a cargo full of tropes and cliche, but uh-oh! You getting sucked into a black hole. You have to get rid of some of the cargo in order to escape. I have a magic number that you need to dwindle down to in order to break free. You get two choices at a time, and you must choose one to launch out the airlock and one to keep. You can keep or launch both options if you want, but eventually you will have to choose in order to get away. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 21:43

Okay. The first two options are fake dating or second chance romance.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Get rid of second chance. I love it, but I like fake dating more. I love fake dating.

SPEAKER_06 22:02

Uh, one bed, two idiots.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

One bed, I'm gonna keep.

SPEAKER_06 22:07

Sorry. One bed, two idiots is the trope, and the next one is love triangle.

SPEAKER_01 22:11

Oh, get rid of love triangle. I'm not here for that.

SPEAKER_06 22:15

Yo, me either. I say as we continue to read at Hunger Games. No worse. Grumpy Sunshine or the Miscommunication Trope.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

I need to keep both of those. I love a miscommunication trope. I know people hate it, but I love it so much.

SPEAKER_06 22:33

I have a personal vendetta against it. Uh sports rivalry romance or friends to lovers.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Keep friends to lovers, but lovingly toss aside sports rivalry. Like gently eat.

unknown 22:47

Gently eat.

SPEAKER_06 22:50

Secret relationship or grand gesture in public.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Uh well keep secret but lovingly toss grand gesture. I like a private grand gesture.

SPEAKER_06 23:07

I just have to make sure I X these so I don't go through them again. Alright, we have to keep going because you're not down to the magic number. So fake dating or one bed, two idiots. One bed. We're gonna keep it. We're gonna keep one bed. Fake dating goes. Grumpy sunshine or the miscommunication trope. We're gonna keep grumpy sunshine.

unknown 23:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 23:35

Friends to lovers or secret relationship? We can yeet both of those. We can yeet both of them. That means you do escape the black hole, and all you have left are one bed, two idiots, and grumpy sunshine.

unknown 23:53

Yes!

SPEAKER_00 23:55

That's what I was hoping for.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

Especially when the rock past would be like, oh, I'm gonna take the floor, and the other one's like, no, don't bother, we're good. And then they end up cuddling, and there's an awkward morning boner morning boner situation.

SPEAKER_06 24:10

Love it. Always. Always an awkward morning boner. I've said penis so much this season already, and we're only like four episodes into recording.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_06 24:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 24:25

So much.

unknown 24:26

So much.

SPEAKER_06 24:28

That launches us.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

There's something about a one bed, though, that's just like, yes, do it. Do it.

SPEAKER_06 24:34

My very first one bed at the inn was actually Moby Dick. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:42

What? Yeah, so in the beginning, when Ishmael's got whales in that book?

SPEAKER_06 24:48

Yeah, it's like the first five chapters before they get on the boat, uh, which is hilarious, by the way. So Ishmael goes to the inn and he gets a room and he wakes up and Quequeg is in the bed with him. Oh, and he's like snuggling him. He's like, who the what? Who is this man? That is that is the the very first You know, you ruined it. It's you know why it's the second chapter. I didn't ruin shit.

SPEAKER_02 25:15

No, you ruined one bed the one.

SPEAKER_04 25:19

I feel like that was one of the chapters that my high school teacher told us to skip. It's not the first every other chapter. Because one, we don't need to read. We were 15, we don't need to read 16 chapters on the whaling business when we're just trying to read a classic, and he was just like, skip every other chapter. And I think that was one of them because I don't remember that. That's fairly everyone should be 20 years ago, but still.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

I blobed that out of my mind.

SPEAKER_06 25:44

Everyone should learn about the whaling industry by taking encyclopedic chapters verbatim and claiming them as their own. I don't understand.

SPEAKER_04 25:52

Alright, Melville, you get it. You're autistic, please.

SPEAKER_06 25:55

I know.

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Speak some time for your hyperfixation lore dumps.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06 26:04

Brings us to questions specifically about reading and writing.

SPEAKER_04 26:08

Wokey dookie. So, number one, where do your ideas start? With a character, a scene, a theme?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Yes. All of them.

SPEAKER_04 26:20

Yeah, that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Uh some are I have a character from another book that wants that's shouting for attention. Um of them are I see a meme, um, and I have a couple of different memes saved in my folder of like, okay, this is gonna be a book. Um, some of them it's a song. Um, I am obsessed with the song Water at a Wedding by Grayland James. Um, and I I need to write a book about that. I don't know how I'm gonna make it a romance, because technically it's cheating, but I'm gonna make it work. Um and just vibes. Sometimes it's just the trope and the vibe, and just pray for it. Um it there's no magic, like this is the formula. Every book is different. And the book that I'm editing now, Game Misconduct, um, I had the idea for it in like January 2024. January 24. Um, no, the book came out in January 24, so it would have been fall of 23 when I was writing the what would become the first book in the Neurospicy series. But I've known at least that long that this book would be the specific trope and vibe. I mean, finally publishing it, and like it's been a journey, but it's been in the back of my mind all these years, and I just knew like basic like bullet points of like three things that I wanted to do with it, and that was it. So it was more like trope and vibe and a little bit of character-driven. Um, and there's some where it's like the plot drives the story, but most of my books are character driven, so the characters appear in previous books, and like, okay, this is gonna be the perfect story for them. And it just kind of percolates in the back of my mind until I'm ready for it.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 28:14

That's fair. I have a lot of ideas that kind of start out that way where it's just like the hook or just like the three bullet points, and I know that I want to include these things, and it does have to just sit there on the back burner for a while until I get other details. Like, it's I'm I'm so happy that a lot of authors now on social media are like coming out and they're like, I'm struggling to write, I'm doing this, this is my process, and like everybody is kind of sharing from behind the curtain where it used to just kind of be like, Oh, I just sit down and write. Okay, Stephen King, I'm sure you do. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Uh but hear that some Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. Right, Stephen King was high out of his mind on oxies and other things when he wrote most of his work. And hi in his own words, he does not remember writing them. But it's really nice to hear that like other people have a similar process to mine, because then I don't feel so like outed from the writing community because I don't like sit-yeah, isolated, exactly. That I don't just kinda sit down and do it, or that I have an idea, but it stays there for a while, and I don't immediately kind of attack it and go for things.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

I think it's like that with a lot of art though. Like I I'm a painter, I'm not a writer, you guys are amazing. Those who can write, I'm like, I edit. Like, no, I can tell I can tell you what's wrong. Um, but like I'll sit on a painting for years before I touch it again. So yeah, yeah. So fun. Art is so fun.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Knowing that progress isn't linear made accepting that so much easier, like figuring out my own process. Because I've written 17 books plus a couple short stories, and it's been a different journey on almost every single one. What worked on one book won't work on the next. And I calculate both writing days and calendar days on my on each book. I started doing this last year, and I've learned that sometimes it's the shorter books that take longer, and sometimes the longer books just pour out of me. And I can't, okay, this book is gonna take me this long, and then then the next one takes twice as long. Because as soon as I set a standard to it, I can't fulfill that. But if I just kind of like pants it, as I pants almost everything in my life, um, it flows so much easier. Once I take that pressure off, it flows so much easier. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

Do you write multiple books at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 30:54

I will write a book and edit a book simultaneously, but I don't actively write on two books simultaneously. I have in the past, it didn't turn out well.

SPEAKER_06 31:06

Yeah, I barely have the uh attention span to remember to take stuff out of the freezer. I don't think I could ever write two books at the same time. And like when you're sorry, no, go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

No, that's okay. When you're writing, or sorry, when you're writing and then editing a book at the same time, you have um multiple different like worlds, I guess, that you've written. And do you stick with the same world or yes, dude to dump are you cross?

SPEAKER_01 31:36

So I am currently in edits on game misconduct, which is coming out in March, and I am writing on Instigator, which is hopefully coming out in May. So I wrote Game Misconduct, I delivered it to my editor. She did my first draft of edits, my developmental edits, sent it back to me after I'd already started Instigator. So, in theory, I should be putting Instigator aside to work on Game Misconduct. Brooklyn, please don't hear this. I haven't touched Game Misconduct since I started on Instagator, but I will. Um, and I will go back through and okay, I'm gonna focus on one for the day or for a couple days and then go back to the other. But I don't try to do them on the same day um because it's just too overwhelming. But the edits on Game Misconduct are informing where Instigator has to start. So we had to tweak a couple of things to make them both work out.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

That makes sense. Do you find like because a lot of your books are obviously like based on the same world but just different characters? Do you know which characters you're gonna be talking about at the beginning of the um book series?

SPEAKER_01 32:50

At the beginning of the series, no. Um purely because I did not plan intentionally, and I should have. So going forward, I will be. Um, I have a much clearer idea of what the next couple series will be. But this current series, I got to like I I finished Puck Me Twice in I published it in June 24, and then I worked on a couple other books. I worked on Sports Ballas for Lovers in my Neurospicy Book Club series. I did a Light My Candle novella, I did a holiday novella in my Boston Grizzly series, I did Ruck Me Harder in my Neurospicy series, and then I went back. Oh, and then I did Tripped Up in my Neurospicy series because I had uh contractual obligations for Ruck Me Harder and for Tripped Up, and actually for home for the holidays, now that I think about it. Um and then since then it's like okay, now I'm gonna get back on track. And the Neurospicy Book Club series is complete at four books, and the Boston Grizzlies should be complete by the end of this year. Um, I'll be sad to leave it, but we're not going very far. And once I started intentionally thinking about the series, starting with um Body Check, which is book if Home for the Holidays is 1.5, this is book two. Um, so I started really diving in and being intentional with Body Check and the subsequent books. Um so I am trying not to pants so hard. Um, like panting a little bit is okay, but um my strengths are strategic and analytical, and I was not strategic or analytical in 23 and 24, and I'm really trying to get back to like who I am and what I want out of my author career, and that means listening to my strengths. I'm a big fan of Becca Syme and the Clifton strengths in general.

SPEAKER_04 34:54

Um speaking of um every writer has a collection of post-its, notebooks, word art with craft tips, and they call that collection the the writer's toolbox. Other than craft books, what other titles have made it into your writer's toolbox?

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Um other than craft books. I I I read a lot of craft books, a lot of business business books. I'm starting, um, I joined a book club, so it's more like mindset nonfiction, which I'm I love therapy. I don't like being preached at in writing, so I'm struggling with like the the preachiness of the nonfiction help books. Um, but I'm I'm doing the book club, so I'm gonna try it. And I'm doing a lot of that lately, and I just read widely in my genre. I I write sports romance because I love sports romance, like that is what I enjoy reading. So 90% of what I read is sports romance. Um it's it's my happy place.

SPEAKER_06 36:11

So are you like a like put it on a corkboard kind of planner with that? Or like like because you try and you don't want to like keep pantsing, but like what are your kind of planning stuff?

SPEAKER_01 36:25

So I put everything on paper and then I put it in my Notion. So I live in Notion. Um, it is my hub for everything, and I have this beautiful database. It's actually four databases, um, and it's one per series, and I have all the books planned out and like the character and the trope, and within each database is a page for like, okay, oh, here's a meme. I'm gonna use this meme in the book, or here's a line. I have a beautiful line for my Luke Henry book, and like that's gonna be the opening line of page one. And like I'm I'm ready for it.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

I love that. I'm so excited for you.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

The line came to me at like two o'clock in the morning one night, woke up out of a dead sleep, and I I knew it. So I scribbled it down, and I could barely read it in the morning. So I literally wrote it on a pad on with like pen and paper in the dark. Um, and I wrote over a list of like something else, like I could barely read it. And then I should have just put in my notion on my phone. Like, I don't know why I didn't think of that. Two o'clock in the morning. Um, but then I woke up and I transcribed it. I was like, oh, that's beautiful. So it's saved in my notion for this book. And I don't know the title. I I know the female character's name because I laid some seeds for that in another book. Um, and I know the tropes already because he was very insistent on these tropes. Um, but I I know nothing else about the story. I don't know what number it is in the series, it'll be the next series after this, but like if it's book one, book two, book five, I don't know. I just know Luke Henry is getting a book, and he's been in two other three, two other books plus Game of Misconduct, so three total. He's showing up on page, and he's just so fun. And my alpha reader is yelling at me he needs a book. My editor is yelling at me he needs a book. So he's getting a book, and I'm so excited for it. But I don't know what's happening with it yet because I have like three or four books to write before I even think about him.

SPEAKER_06 38:25

I'm getting so Maggie and I did our MFA together, and one of the pieces that I had written prior to getting to that point, Maggie wrote fan fiction of, and I kind of get the the the same vibe where people are like, I need this story, and like it's not there yet. You know, it just I'm glad that there are similar experiences in the world where everyone's like, no, I need to know.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

So um, when you're reading, what keeps you hooked?

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Oh, good characters, not good as in pure, but like well-written characters, flawed characters. Characters just want to like reach into the book and shake them because they're so stupid. I love it. Um I love the miscommunication trope. So like I love when they're like you can just shake them, you're like, just talk it out. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 39:30

Um that's wild to me. I have thrown books across rooms because of a miscommunication trope. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

But that helps me and keeps me reading.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

That's fair.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Um, I am a sucker for a grumpy sunshine. I'm a sucker for a black cat grumpy sunshine where she's the grump. Um, I love anything that inverts a trope. Like, I'm sick. Um, I love a reverse age gap. And I know we shouldn't say like reverse because anyone could be the older one, but like the I hate the word cougar where it like she's older. So I prefer to use the words reverse age gap. So you know I'm not talking about an older man, younger woman.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Um, like I have to think through like how I'm gonna phrase the discourse of it because I am writing a reverse age gap book, and I want to make clear he is younger. He's still an adult, he's 31, but like she's 43. Like there is a definite age gap, and it will definitely play into the book. Um, I did write a typical age gap where he's 37 and she's 27, and every time I say to someone it's age gap, they kind of like recoil in horror. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. She's an adult, she's 27, like she's a fully functioning adult. Well, mostly functioning, she's an adult. But there's nothing wrong with younger. That's not what I'm writing.

SPEAKER_05 40:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

And people laugh at me when I say this, but I'm 35. I can't wait till I hit 40 and I can start writing characters in their 40s all the time. Like, I'm not quite ready to be there yet, especially because I am writing hockey, and so it does have to be a little bit younger. But like, I don't write 22-year-old hockey players. There's a reason for that. Um, but I I love writing a little bit older characters, people who have life experience. That's just the kind of stories that are catnip to me.

SPEAKER_02 41:27

Did you I miss, I'm so sorry, I missed a little bit of the beginning there. But did you grow up around like hockey players and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_01 41:35

Nope.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

No, okay, not at all.

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Um, hockey is not a thing in San Diego where I'm from. Oh, yeah, that makes sense. And I have gone to the AHL game. Um, I've been to a couple of ducks games, but they they weren't there when I was a kid. And it's funny because I lived in LA during the King Stanley Cup like wins, and I was not a hockey fan whatsoever. And a really good friend of mine was such a big fan, he got the Stanley Cup like tattooed on his leg after the win. And I was like, we we don't get tattoos in our culture, so like it was a big thing. Um, but he he was such a big fan, and he still is to this day. Um, but I was not a fan, and then a couple years later, 2017 hits, I start getting invested, and I become a full-fledged hockey fan. And of course, living in LA, I can't root for the Kings. So I settled on the Boston Bruins. Um, yeah. And I've been a Bruins fan even when they hurt me ever since.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Yeah. I mean, I'm Canadian, um, so you know, hockey is in our blood. So I can understand your heart breaking over a team constantly. Just consistent. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

I still think about that regularly.

SPEAKER_06 43:03

Uh I'm from just outside Philadelphia. So all the Philly teams, which regularly lose almost every season. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's right.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

I'm an Oilers fan, so losing back-to-back Stanley Cup finals has been it's been it's been like a really fun time. Like truly, truly a fun time. That's we're fine.

SPEAKER_01 43:29

I got rid of Cory Perry, the curse, so you should be okay.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

Yeah, we'll see. We're having we're just we're doing we're doing great. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 43:39

That feels that feels almost worse to like get all the way to the cup and then lose twice. Because like we're used to Philly losing. And like win or lose, Philly's gonna riot. That's why they grease the lamp poles so people don't climb on them. Uh but like my whole childhood was just oh, Philly's supplying? Oh, they lost. Okay, anywho, what what's next?

SPEAKER_02 44:02

Like We've all had those phases. Yeah. Anyway, um That actually you got your game?

SPEAKER_06 44:10

Yeah. Second game. My most pettiest game in the history of the podcast is Never Have I Ever Spoiled My Own Book, which is I've got ten options for you. If you have done five or more, you have to spoil something from your upcoming book from Act One or Beyond. And uh most of them are like stereotypical writerly readerly things to do, like never have I ever written a coffee shop, never have I ever lost a notebook. However, I am incredibly petty and not above things like never have I ever written a hockey romance, or never have I ever written a book titled Ruck Me Harder. Just I'm I'm right there. Like, never have I ever been named Allie Lasky, like I I just truly petty. Okay. Do you have it? Okay. The first one. Never have I ever teased a cover reveal.

SPEAKER_00 45:05

Oh, I haven't done that.

SPEAKER_06 45:08

Never have I ever accidentally gave away a spoiler during a QA.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

It was a TikTok live. It wasn't a QA, it was basically just like a live show with some friends, but yes. Definitely.

SPEAKER_06 45:22

Never have I ever told a friend the ending.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Oh, all the time.

SPEAKER_06 45:27

Three. Never have I ever written while watching a hockey game.

SPEAKER_01 45:32

Almost every hockey game, yeah.

unknown 45:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 45:35

Never have I ever read my reviews.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

Oh, I okay. I don't read all of them, but I read them for the first two to four weeks. Um, and then I track how my reviews are doing, and then I kind of turn it off after that. Um, but I check to see how my arc readers are responding. Um and go from there.

SPEAKER_06 45:55

That seems smart. Never have I ever been distracted by my dog. I don't have a dog. Oh! Then you can't be distracted by your animal.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

Um, my parents have a dog who is very his name is Barkley because he barks so much. So he has distracted me in that, but he's not my dog technically.

SPEAKER_06 46:15

That's I'll give it to you.

SPEAKER_02 46:17

Can't count it. Can't count it. But I'm okay.

SPEAKER_06 46:22

Never have I ever posted a quote from my own book on Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 46:26

Oh, I do that all the time.

SPEAKER_06 46:29

Never have I ever flipped off the notes my editor left me.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

I have not. And I haven't cried out in the notes either. Um I know a lot of people are like terrified with their notes. I love going into it because I want to see what other people are thinking. Because the only thing I can do is make it better. I mean, I could make it worse, but like, she's gonna help me make it better. Um, is like going to the doctor and getting your flu shot. Like, it's going to make you better. So you do it.

SPEAKER_06 46:59

I like that. I going through like a writing program, I've definitely gotten feedback that I have flipped off because I hate that person. But I hate it.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Yes. But all my editors, I love her.

SPEAKER_06 47:14

But like ultimately, yes, we're there to make it better. And for the most part, people are suggesting things that they think would make the work better.

SPEAKER_01 47:21

Uh in creative writing, yes.

SPEAKER_06 47:23

Yeah. You understand. Never have I ever run sex scenes by my partner to gauge their temperature.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

I don't have a partner, but I have run it by friends before.

SPEAKER_06 47:38

My said partner, so I won't give you that one. And the last one is never have I ever tried to push my glasses up when I wasn't wearing them.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Oh, every day.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

I did that this morning. I feel called out.

SPEAKER_04 47:52

How many times I've poked myself in the eye doing that?

SPEAKER_06 47:55

Yo. I'm like wired. So that's seven. So funny. Uh, seven total. So you do have to spoil something from beyond what you consider act one, and you can be as vague or as specific as you wish.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

So I'm gonna set the scene a little bit. Um Bex and Nick had a one-night stand three years ago. Um they don't know how intimately they are connected. She only knows him as Nick, no last name. He is her best friend's male bestie, Mitch, and he is the man her brother has hated for 14 years, uh, Mitchell. Um, and she has no idea about who he is. He has no idea it is his rival's little sister. Um, and her brother and her other best friend have just gotten together and they are celebrating their engagement, and they meet for the first time, and he goes, Oh shit. That is chapter one, page one, page two.

SPEAKER_06 49:04

See, I love that. I I love that. That's love that.

SPEAKER_01 49:09

So they this the first third of the story is multiple timelines between three years ago there one night, two years ago when they reconnect, and then present day. So it's multiple timelines. Um and his whole thing is she he doesn't know why she hates him and why he why she basically left him naked in the hotel room um after their afternoon delight. Um, so he he's struggling with it. Um and he's totally simping for her. Like he he hasn't been able to get over her for the last three years. Um so the spoiler is there is a well, she is the concussion spotter for the team, and she has he has an issue on the ice and she has to to review him. And she is the one who acts first and she's the one who kisses him. Um and then some other things happen, which I won't spoil all of it. Um, but one of my favorite things that happens is the next day there's an awkward moan mo I cannot say the words. Awkward mor morning boner situation. Um and I I love it. I can't, I physically cannot speak the words. Um, but so it is directly after that kiss, and it is beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 50:44

One of your books gets made into a Muppets movie, who plays who and who's the only human character.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Talk me twice. Yeah uh Sven is a human. Um so he's the autistic hockey player who's touching. He does not realize they are Muppets.

SPEAKER_02 51:11

That's so amazing.

SPEAKER_01 51:12

Alternatively, alternatively, um PowerPlay Al because his nickname is Gonzo, not because of his last name Gonzalez, but because he looks like the Muppet.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

It's like the Spider-Man meme. Amazing. Um you have to survive an entire football season powered by one kind of snack. What is your pick and how long before you regret it?

SPEAKER_01 51:45

Um it's a two-part snack. Okay. And it is fig jam covered brie with weakens. Ooh, fancy. It's a fancy snack. We found that out between Thanksgiving and New Year's.

SPEAKER_02 52:00

It was so good. Um throw a little time on there. Sounds delicious.

SPEAKER_06 52:06

I'm sitting here thinking the answer is gonna be like hockey arena nachos, but no, she's out there with like brie. Brie.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

So if you want to go fancy, you wrap it in a crescent roll.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Um you want to go more fancy than brie.

SPEAKER_01 52:21

I love but and then it's like a doughy cheese. Yeah. But sometimes the crescent roll dough is a little too thick, so it doesn't always bake like to the right thing. So, Jess, I take a round of brie, I score it, I put two spoonfuls of fig jam. I've also used orange marmalade, and I have a caramelized onion jam I want to use next time. But you just put two spoonfuls of it, put it in the oven for 15 minutes, and then wheatins, wheat fins are the best.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

Amazing. That sounds so good. I think of the now.

SPEAKER_01 52:52

I gotta go out and get the briefe on Instagram. Because you haven't finished the wheel of brie because you can't eat an entire wheel of brie by yourself. Your stomach.

SPEAKER_06 53:02

Sounds like a chat.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

That sounds like a bitch. If you eat like two-thirds of it, you get bored, so you chop it up into like bite-sized pieces, put an extra spoonful of jam on it, put it back in the oven, and it remelts again. So that so you use the whole wheel of brie in a weekend.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

In a weekend.

SPEAKER_06 53:24

The weekend, also known as Friday night for Jessica. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

I love this one all day, Sunday NFL all day. That is my weekend plan most weekends in the fall.

SPEAKER_02 53:36

That is solid. I've got a lot of things, and I'm very excited. Um if your next romance could be co-written with a sentient object like your laptop, a water bottle, or your favorite pen, which one are you trusting and why? A can of Coke Zero.

SPEAKER_01 53:53

It is by me at all times. I have a mug full of Coke Zero right here. Um with me. Uh so I it's classy.

SPEAKER_06 54:05

It could be coffee, but it's Coke Zero.

SPEAKER_01 54:09

Um, where Rory hated coffee in real life, so she had Coke in all of her coffee cups. I have thrown all my coffee cups. I do drink coffee. I like coffee, but I wasn't in the mood for coffee today.

SPEAKER_06 54:23

That's fair.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

That's fair. I love that so much. I'm a diet Pepsi girl.

SPEAKER_01 54:29

I can't do Pepsi, it gives me headaches. I wish because Panera has has Pepsi and I'm at Panera all the time. Um I'd bring my own Coke Zero to Panera when I'm there.

SPEAKER_02 54:42

Amazing. I'm a real Coke but diet Pepsi person, like a psychopath.

SPEAKER_06 54:48

You can claim I can do the Diet Pepsi and I can do Coke Zero, but they have to be ice cold. Like once those things get to room temperature, there is a taste, like capital T taste, that stays in your mouth and it is gross, and I can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 55:06

But can or fountain? What is your pick? Fountain. Allie, do you have a coke? Do you have a couple?

SPEAKER_01 55:17

Fountain only at McDonald's, and it's Coke Zero, no ice, large Coke Zero, no ice. Um, everywhere else it's can. I do not drink two-liter bottles, and I drink the 20-ounce bottles like from the gas station only when I am like at a signing or at the airport. Um I do them for travel, but only because I can't do a can at like a signing, I can't have an open cup. Um, something that with a top that will screw on, but I will not drink a two-liter bottle. Um, and my my parents love two-liter bottles, and it's like, I will not drink it, I will bring my own.

SPEAKER_04 55:53

I could only do a two-liter bottle if someone else is drinking it because I will not drink it all in one sitting, and the second I put it down in a way like for the next day, I can't do it. I can't do flat soda.

SPEAKER_06 56:05

Oh no, flat soda is disgusting.

SPEAKER_04 56:08

Uh agreed.

SPEAKER_06 56:09

That's why you gotta drink the entire two-liter in one go, Maggie. You gotta help the game.

unknown 56:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 56:15

Listen, uh, my diabetic ass can't handle a whole two-liter in one go.

SPEAKER_06 56:20

I mean, neither can mine, but what? So, this final question I ask of every author that comes to the podcast, and that is uh for anyone who helped you get the book out in the world, agents, editors, publishers, beta readers, workshop partners, I believe everyone deserves a thanks because getting a book out is a community job. So, is there anyone that you would like to give a shout out to today?

SPEAKER_01 56:47

Uh, definitely. So, my editor is Brooklyn Sorensen with Brazen Hearts. She is amazing. I absolutely adore her. Um, my alpha reader is AJ Alexander, and my hockey hijinks crew are AJ, Susan Renee, and Jenna McCall. And we they're amazing. I absolutely adore them. Um, and then my author bestie is LM Drew, and I would not be able to write most books without her and AJ in my ear telling me that I can do this. Um, so I rely on them quite heavily, and they they cheer me on, and I definitely appreciate it. Lovely. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 57:29

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