Patron Saints of Romance Collection Conversations Transcript

Staci Hart: I have beverages. I have, I don't know what else I need, but I have beverages. That's top, top, top level importance.

Danielle with Violit Hour: That's a big one for sure. What is your beverage mix?

I have my tea, my Earl Grey, and I also have my water, my cute little cup. I have that. And then I have, I actually have two of these. We just had Kandi's, one of her, one of her, one of her like six baby showers at my house over the weekend. And so I was like, she has to use this special cup. Like we had her a special cup. So she had her little, I know. She can't, yeah.

I saw your photos but I didn't realize it was at your house.

Yeah, that was at my house. We were at my place. So we just, her assistant was putting it all together because her reader group really wanted to do something for her. And then we have girls locally who wanted to like do something in our like local book club that, and like the woman who runs our local book shop is amazing. Like it's, yeah, so they all wanted to come. So we put something together and Portina was like….This got really big, really fast, and we didn't know where to do it. And I was like, let's just do it at my house. 20 people is cool. We can swing that. And then half of them didn't show up. It was fine. It was fine. Yeah.
That's always how it works, but if you had a small place, everybody would have shown, you know, like it's like whatever it is. Yes, yes. my God. Well, let me kick us off because I do want to ask you more about candy and your friends and all that good stuff. And I'm going to run the whole interview with you just chatting away instead.

And they would have brought friends, like it would have been a mess, so for sure.

So thank you so much for sitting down with us. Stacey Hart, huge, huge fan of everything that you do and to be able to come back and read Wild Card recently was such a treat, such a joy. my god, phenomenal. I have many, many questions to get into you related to Wild Card, but I thought first we could just kick off with a couple of like fun, favorite things, like just get to know you a little bit, all that good stuff. Amazing. OK. So we already talked about beverages a little bit, but favorite snacks while you're writing, while you're reading, while you're editing, what is that looking like?

Let's do it. So I have ADHD, so if I have a snack here, it is gonna be gone. So I really abstain from snacking while I'm, grapes, like that feels safe to me. Like eat as many grapes as you want. Worst thing, you're gonna have a terrible stomach ache. Like it'll be fine. My pants will still fit tomorrow. So, but I love, and I love, I do love to snack on like salted almonds. Just like.

Yeah, these are healthy.

They are, but not if you eat like, you know, six cups of them at a time. Like, it's like, you should eat one tiny little handful and I'm like, seven? Like, put, put, if you put dried cranberries in it, like, I'm gone. Like, that's, I'm just gonna sit like this. Just like, yeah. Yes.

So good. I'm a volume player too. Like I would rather have something healthier but like five times the portion size then yeah.

Absolutely. Like, don't make me know when to stop. I can't control that.

I love it. Okay, so we did talk drinks as far as daytime, but go to cocktail or mocktail of choice.

I'm a gin drinker, so I love me. Let me some gin It's kind of hard to find a good gin drink out like that's not just a G &T and like I don't love tonic like I just sorry guys Sorry, sorry world. I don't love it. but you know, you can get a good French 70 77 75 77 75 what's 77 77 something else? I think it has elderberry in it anyway, but then I'm like drinking champagne and I'm like…

Ha! 75. Yeah.

This feels like a mistake and it usually is so but I do love gin I actually just got these little simple syrups from world market and they're a lavender lemon simple syrup and when you drink them with gin your life is changed and I also love Empress gin gin which is like it's like a cobalt color so when you mix it it's like purple. It makes the prettiest cocktails and it tastes wonderful, so 10 out of 10. It really is, it really is. I love me some gin, it's my favorite.

That is like perfect spring vibes. I feel like gin is a very classy beverage too. You know, like when you're going for that, it's very upscale. Yeah.

You know, it feels like I know what I'm doing, you know, and I'm like, except I need like, I need a good, I don't want to drink a gin and tonic. So there's my problem, but.

So we touched on gaming with the headphones, obviously, but as far as video games go, what are you playing right now and what is your all time favorite?

So this might be kind of I have a story and I don't tell quick stories I know you can relate and we share we share this this idiosyncrasy So I actually blew my thumb joint this one right here playing video games a few years ago What's funny is I'm not even that great anyway, but I'm I just really like to play and I have ADHD and so I will hyper fixate and sit there for like nine hours like So I was playing PlayStation and I blew my thumb and so I had switched to PC and that was in 2020. It was in 2020, February of 2020. I blew my thumb. It was a fun year for everyone. And so I, yeah, so I had surgery a year later and it's just never really been the same and I've been terrified to like play with a joystick. Because when you're playing video games, for those who don't know, when you're playing video games, your right hand, because most people right -handed, your right hand is controlling all of the, like your camera, but it's also doing a bunch of buttons, right? That's your smart thumb. Your dumb thumb just runs. So you just will be running eternally. You'll just be pushing it forever, and then you'll switch directions. So you're doing a lot of this, you know? But it's always activated because you're usually moving, right? So anyway, that's why it happened. So when Zelda came out last year, I was like well, we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna test the theory Okay, here's the time and I found these cute little tiny little little little I'm sorry nerd out about this. I found these tiny little Controllers and they're they call them adaptive and I and they they are I guess but really the best thing about them is that the joysticks are you don't have to push very hard, I mean.

No.

A normal controller is made for like a six foot tall man, which is really ambitious for like most of the men in our country. So, you know, we can't like, they're huge, they're big. It requires a long, a long thumb and I have long thumbs, but they, you know, it just requires a lot to push it. So I love my tiny little ones and I can just be like, I have to wear a brace. I have to be very careful. I have to take a lot of breaks, but I did it. So I actually recently moved. I have long COVID too. That's a fun thing. So I spend a lot of time in bed. Sometimes I just can't, I just like can't get out of bed. Like I'm really, like it's almost like I have COVID and I'm really sick. I can't get, I'm fatigued. I can't get out of bed. And so I, to keep myself occupied, brought my PlayStation down. I was like, we're going to try it. Okay, we're going to do it. We're going to do it. And I did it and I'm doing it and it's great. And I'm so excited. So. All of that to say I'm playing God of War right now I'm playing I'm playing God of War Ragnarok because I missed all these games that came out because I haven't been playing console So I had started to play Fallout New Vegas again after watching the show which is phenomenal if you have not seen it You need to watch it. You need no you need nothing to go into it. It is wonderful And I also downloaded Fallout 4 on the PlayStation so I'm gonna play that, and then I've got the newest Horizon game, which is a really fun post -apocalyptic, really cool, very fun, I'm very excited about it. But I'm in the middle of the God of War and it's all him and his son and there's all these feelings and the graphics are amazing. I get to kill stuff, it's awesome. It's great.

I love that. Do any of your kids or your husband play it with you or is this a solo?

Nobody plays like me. My husband, he's one of those doers who always needs to be moving around and doing, I'm not, I'm a great sitter. I don't do stuff, I sit, I'm great at that. I could sit forever and win awards. It really is, thank you. I appreciate that recognition. And I love it because again, my ADHD brain is like, I'm being productive, I'm crossing things off lists, I'm like, you know, and they're like, I'm doing things, my brain is working, but I can just be a slut. It's great. So, my kids play, but not the same as I do. My oldest, who's 20, plays, but still not. They don't play shooters or games where you... They like the ones where there's not a big open world to run around. They like it to be like, go here and do this one thing. And I'm like, I want all the things. And I want to ride a horse to get there.

I live by those words in every area of my life, so completely. Yes. Okay, just a few more and then we'll switch, but favorite tattoo of yours, if you don't mind sharing.

Let's see if I can show you. I have a jackalope on my back.

My god, yes I can see it, that's gorgeous. Yes.

Isn't that fun? So, Jackalopes are the unicorn of the American South. They are not real animals. The legend says that they only mate during lightning storms. You can lure them out with whiskey. Like you can, they, yeah, they're elusive creatures. They're like unicorns, but you know, make it American South. More like maybe even like more Southwest. I feel like they're more like kind of an I'm from Texas I feel like it's more of a like sorry Texans. We're not from the south. We're actually from the Southwest. Don't don't I'm allowed to say that they are they they're very specific about a lot of things I like there we love they love their Texas. Yes It really is they like to they like to remind America of that too. They're like we're out.

Yes. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's its own country almost. So was it a Texas to Tennessee move that you did or were you somewhere else before?

Yeah, no. No, we've been all over the place. So I met my husband in June of 2002. We started dating in July. In September, we got married. And then in October, we moved to Florida for him to go to private school for a year. He has a degree in sound engineering. So we were in Florida for a year and a half. On our year anniversary, I was six months pregnant. And then when I, huh, yeah. And then I had, and then we moved to LA where he was working in sound for like, for a few years. So we lived in Southern California for eight years. And then I got pregnant with the third kid and I was like, we, we gotta get out of here. Like this is, we're done with that. So we moved to Colorado, which at the time we were like, my God, it's so cheap here in Denver. Now it's like, bananas. So, yeah, so we lived in Denver for 10 years minus one that we lived in Europe. So we lived in Holland for a year, just south of Amsterdam. Yeah! So we lived there and then we moved back to Denver. And then we were just, we were ready to buy a house and we were feeling cramped in where we were. And it just, my parents live an hour and a half north of where we are now in Tennessee, in Chattanooga. And his mom was in Arkansas and we were like, they're getting older, they're starting to need help. So we really thought it would be a lot better if we could be in a place where it was easier to reach them. Denver is not close to anything. So it's not easy to reach anything. There's like nothing in a thousand miles of Denver.

It's not even close to the airport. I'm in Northern Colorado and it really is just like... Even if you were in downtown Denver, it's gonna take you an hour to get to the airport to then go somewhere else. I mean, it's... Yeah. Yes.

Okay, yeah absolutely. Well, they built it in the middle of nowhere. So that's, you know, part of the, but yeah, it's, it's, it's its own, it's its own place. So, so yeah. And so that's why we moved here. And I actually love it here. Chattanooga is a lot like, it's like a teeny tiny little baby Denver history lesson. So, it pre railroad the, there are two rivers that converging Chattanooga. And so it was a major crossway for trade because the rivers were bringing goods up and down. And then the Chattanooga Choo -Choo, so there was a major train line that ran through here as well. So we have all these incredible old, beautiful old warehouse district full of like eight, you know, buildings from the 1800s, red brick, like gorgeous. There's a lot of history here. Tennessee was actually part of the Union and not the Confederacy. And so there's a lot of Confederate, like, well, Union type stuff, but there's a lot of history here because we're right on the Georgia border. And so yeah, so it's pretty cool. There's a lot of history here. It's beautiful. We have vertical landscape. Like we live on the mountain, which is funny coming from Denver. I'm like, we're like 1900 feet. Hee, you know, like we're up on the mountain. Woo hoo, you know, like, but people drive up here and they're like, my God. I'm like, man, I've been up to Pike's Peak. This is nothing. I can't. The altitude. Who are my little tipsy? The altitude must be kidding me. Yes. Yes. So yeah.

That - I had no idea and I really need to clarify, did you say the Chattanooga Choo Choo? That's the name of it? Is that the official name?

I did. No, I mean that from the song, you know, the, the, the, all aboard the Chattanooga choo -choo. So we have the, we have a lot of Chattanooga choo -choo stuff here. Like there was just a major train line went through here. It was a, it was a major hub back in the day when the railroad was the way to travel. So, isn't that fun? Yeah. And there's water everywhere. Like I missed that in Denver for sure. There's just no water anywhere, you know? And so, so nice. We have rivers and it's just, and it's green and lush and the hills look like broccoli. Like it's great. We love it.

That's incredible. Yes. I love it. I've been looking at Blackberry Farms to go just like, it seems gorgeous out there.

Mm -hmm. It really, really is. It's really beautiful. It's been great, and now Candy Steiner lives near me, and she's 20 minutes away, and so, like, I just love, like, we just spent the whole last week together. We were together, like, every single day around the shower, and we had people in town, and it was just, ugh, I'm like, we just get to do this now! Yay! So.

It's such a nice feeling to be around your close friends and, you know, just I feel like it's such a luxury to do this stuff that when you're far away, you don't get to do like, let's just swing by a store or like just dumb, you know, daily tasks. Feels so nice.

Yes. Yes. It really is. Yeah. Can I borrow your bread maker? Sure, come grab it. Okay.

So can we talk a little bit about your friendship with Kandi and sort of like, where did it start? And just all that good stuff.

Yeah! I just love her. I always feel like when I talk about her, I'm like, she's, I just love her so much. She's the best thing in the whole world. We met through writing. So we were all in this big readers writer group together, like, like everyone, like all of us from that time, like Brittany Cherry and like Helena hunting and like all of us, all of those people, Sarah and I like Penny Reed, all of us. So we're all have been in this little, this little community and really close for a really long time. And so it was back in the beginning of Facebook Lives and she was so funny. She would just go live all the time. She would just be like after Zumba and sitting in her car and like all like red face and just being silly or talking about something. And I saw one and I don't remember even what it was about, but I messaged her and like we knew each other. Like it wasn't like she'd never, we'd never talked or anything before, but I was like, where did you come from and who are you and let's be best friends and then I made her my best friend. I was like, and now you're mine. Actually, no, I actually call her Polly Pocket because she's like having my little Polly Pocket in my pocket. She's like, you're the best, you know, keep going. She's always cheering me on. She's always helping. She's always there for me and it's one of the great friendships of my life. I love her so much. So I'm so lucky to have her.

That's incredible. that's so incredible. And you credit her a lot as far as getting you through, you know, the writing process for Wildcard. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Yeah, I was in some pretty deep burnout. I had also probably gonna be a long story, but I will briefly say that I had during COVID, it was like injuries. I hurt my thumb. I could not pick, I mean, I could not pick anything up. I couldn't, one night I made baked potatoes and I was like, I can make baked potatoes. I couldn't open the baked potatoes. Like I couldn't hold, I couldn't squeeze. I couldn't hold anything. But the same was basically just for looks. And so my husband tore his Achilles. It was COVID. We had my oldest, we were building a house. My oldest, who was trans, was suicidal through that period of time. And so that was an incredible, and I was like in and out of the hospital attempts. It was the most difficult thing I've ever been through. On top of being isolated, on top of everything else, like it was just so, so many terrible difficult things all at one time. And I was still writing through it and I'd be like, it's okay, we're gonna take a week off, we're gonna take two weeks off, then we'll get back to it. And so I think what happened was that I started to associate that trauma with writing. And so once everybody else was okay and everyone, surgeries were done, the house was finished, we were moving and everything was done, I had...the mother of all men TVs. I was like, now I'm done. And so we dove headfirst into intensive therapy and I was able to process all of that stuff that I had not been able to. I didn't have time to because I was on the schedule. I had to go, I had to write, it didn't matter. It didn't matter what was going on. I had to write, I had to publish, I had a deadline, I had all these things. And so it was a lot. And so, you know, when we moved, I was like, I don't even know if I can do this anymore. Like, I don't even know if this is what I wanna do. I'm a graphic designer by trade prior to writing. And so I was like, you know what, I should just do that for a while. You know, I know people want, people need covers. Like, we'll see if I can, you know, just do that and have a creative outlet. And it was so great because it was, I was enjoying it so much and I was able to create and make things and participate in the community and be there kind of even if on the fringes and still be a part of that, but also going through this like my identity of being a writer just like evaporating and being like, who even am I? What am I even doing? What do I even want anymore? So it was a big, it was a lot. And Candy was there through all of it and she was just like, you know, she was just always there. She was always there to help. She was always there to listen.

Absolutely.

She was there to work through all of these things with me and to help me figure out like what do I want to do? And so in the end, you know, it took a while. I did the Becca Simes class. I don't know if you've heard of her, but she does. She writes a bunch of like one of her most famous books is Write Better Faster, which basically, yeah. So, but essentially what it does is it takes your strengths. So you take the Clifton strength test and then you have a coaching meeting with one of her trained coaches and they take that and apply it into writing directly. And all of her classes are about writing and using your strengths and the different way that the strengths work with if you're with your Myers -Briggs or your Enneagram or whatever else, and to be able to help you figure out what your process is so that you can write efficiently, and that's really what it is, is it's not like write better faster, it's like how can you be the most efficient with your strengths, right? Because if our strengths are running unchecked, they actually feel like weaknesses are working against us because we don't know what they are and they're these things that are, like my number one is activator, which means that I just wanna go. Like I'm ready to go, I'm ready to do it, I wanna make a plan, I wanna do it, I wanna go. And that's a problem because sometimes I'm like, okay, well, we need to actually not go for a second and just be still. And that's really hard for me, especially if I have a solution. So anyway.

Yes.

Kandi suggested I do that and she helped me through all of that and I did like Becca Simon says a burnout series on YouTube. Guys, if you're even feeling a little bit of burnout, go watch that. It's like little 20 minute, I think there are five or six of them. And like the weeping that I went, I was like taking notes and I would have to just pause it and like put my head down on my desk. I was like, it's fun, everything's fun. Because the way that she talks about it and it's like, my God, I'm not alone, I'm not weird. Like this is — this is all documented stuff, there's a way out of it, this isn't forever, like, you know. And through all of that I kind of figured out, like, yeah, I do want to write again. She was there to plot with me, she was there to help me, like, figure out my marketing stuff and my branding stuff and just all of it. And she really just helped motivate me through the whole thing. She's like, you did it, and I was like, I did it, but you held me up so that I could do it or else I was on the ground, like, I couldn't do anything, I didn't even know if I wanted to do it anymore. And then once I said, in fact, when I started writing again, the first three times I sat down to write, I had a panic attack. I was like, okay. And then I had to take two weeks and just like, okay. You reset, totally deal with all of those feelings and not be like, it's fine, everything's fine. Be like, okay, no, we're gonna have to, that's the worst part of it, right? Is that you have to sit in the mess and be uncomfortable and be unhappy and feel those feelings and I don't like that, but I did it. And so, but once I got going, man, I was on fire. I was like, wow, like it just, it was so, it was so much fun. It was just so much fun. So anyway, that's my, again, long story. I'm sorry. I can't be, I can't tell a short story. I can't give like, I can't give like a, yeah, she helped me out. Like that's not, I'm never gonna be Corbin Dallas in this situation. I don't know if anybody gets that reference from the fifth element.

Ugh. No, not at all. This is so important. No.

He answers everything in one word like, yes, no, I can't be that.

It is one of those things where I'm like, I wish I could be that person. It's a very like sexy indifference almost, you know, but it's just no, no. And we love that. No?

Do you listen to Chappell Rhone? You need to listen to Chappell Rhone, but she has a lyric that says, I try to be the gentle girl who holds her tongue and gives you space. I try to be the gentle girl, but honestly, I'm not. I'm just not. Write it down, Chappell Rhone. She is slumber party girly pop, super raunchy. I love her. I'm obsessed with her.

I'm writing that down right now to go listen, yes. Love that. Well, we already know we have similar music taste. Do you listen when you're writing?

I have to listen to her album once a day. Yes, so yeah, I do. I do, I do. I have to be careful though. I usually am listening to electronic type music. I come from the 90s, reverse days. So I listen to a lot of house music and things like electronic music. So right now I'm stuck on the new Justice album. If you haven't heard it, Taemin Paula is on several tracks and it is phenomenal. So.

I can see how you could write to something like that where it's like got that steady rhythm and just kind of keeps you going.

Yeah. I do a little bit of a beat, not too much talking because I get distracted. I have to have music on. I cannot be in the quiet ever. Ever. Even when I sleep, we have like two white noise machines. One wasn't enough. We needed two and a fan. So like it cannot be quiet. I don't like it. Part of it is I have tinnitus and it's really loud and so the music kind of makes it, I don't hear it as much. When it's really quiet, I like listen to the ringing and I'm like, ha ha, probably deaf. It's fine. No, it's really not. It's really not. Listen, I spent a lot of time in clubs in the 90s, so I'm just saying. It was of my own doing. I did it to myself. People wore earplugs and I was like, dork, you know, like it was... They were smart. They can still hear. I'm gonna need a hearing aid. It's gonna be fine. Your body is not doing you favors to get you through this, Ross.

Yeah. All of those things of our youth. It's fine. It's fine. OK, so I know you had kind of mentioned the writing process of Wild Card once you were in it was your most pleasurable writing experience or most enjoyable. I do not want to misquote you at all. And part of it, did it go out on Kindle Vella? Was that how you were originally doing it?

Yes, but I had most of it written in advance because I wasn't comfortable with the deadline. Like I realized that part of, part of the burnout and part of the association had to do with, the deadline part of it. And so I, I had a lot, I still kind of, I still have a lot of anxiety about that. So like right now it says the next book in this series is going to be out in March. That's just the longest I could make it. And I'm going to move it up when, don't worry, hopefully this fall, but.

Sure.

So people are like, my God, I have to wait a year. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I just can't. I wanted you to be able to pre -order it, but also I need to protect my mental health, which means we're not doing deadlines. We're doing, we have goals, we have things we're doing, but we're not. Anyway, so Vela stressed me out, because I was like, because Candy's just like, just sit down on a Saturday and write for an hour and do it. And I were like, I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not that. That's not me.

Yup.

And so, so yeah, so I put it out that way. It was really fun. I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed getting feedback because there's a wedding in this book for those of you haven't read it. I won't spoil anything, but there's a wedding in this book and for a long time I had not planned on actually writing the wedding itself. Her best friend's getting married and everyone was like, my God, I have got to know what's going to happen at this wedding. And I was like, what wedding? Maybe I should write that. Let me work that in. Okay. Okay. Which I'm really, obviously, I'm glad I did. And I think I probably would have figured it out when I got there. And I had the thought on my own prior to that, but I was like, you know, we should do that. I think, I'm really glad I did because it worked out really well. It was one of my favorite parts.

Completely! It's one of my favorite parts as well and I do feel like it's one of those things where I can only imagine I am NOT a writer but like living in it day in and day out I feel like you're so close to it that sometimes it is that you know, there's something really glaringly obvious and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So it was nice to be getting that feedback while I was writing. I can't do like Kandi where she's like, what do you want to happen next? I'm like, nah, y 'all, I need to know. And if I need to know what's going to happen, like I ask them, what do you think is going to happen next? But you can't, you don't get to tell me what's going to happen next. I don't do well with that. Don't tell me what to do. Yeah.

That is very fair. And you, I'm guessing, design all your covers, is that right? Okay, perfect. I love the cover so much. What inspired you with it? And do you think about the cover while you're writing or is that something that's sort of like at the very end?

No, no, I don't usually, well most of mine I went back and redid all the illustrated covers so that was post post. Sometimes I think about it but not usually. Usually it's inspired by whatever the book ends up being. This one in particular, so it's kind of a weird thing. So I found these like pop art illustrations on, they were on stocks. But they were JPEGs, like somebody's dad or somebody probably, like old granddad or somebody was in there, like used to be a comic person, it was in their drawing and stuff. So what I actually did though was I took it because I wanted it to feel more like it was from my hand and I took it and I wanted access to it in a different way. And so I took it and I drew over it. So people are like, she drew it herself. Like I'm I can draw I'm not that good and we're working on it, but I'm not that good so so I so I did that and I took I Like I drew over it and then I have these really amazing brushes. It's like high It's like high level coloring so it's their CMYK halftone brushes So, you know like color when you do a color process of CMYK it prints four times a eyan, magenta, yellow, gray, black. And those are the only four colors that are in it, but it makes them different transparencies and layers them on top of each other and gives you different colors because of the overlay. So like these brushes came with a chart, so you pick which color you want and it's like, okay, use the yellow brush at 20%, use the magenta brush at whatever. And then you just color over it. So it was really, it was kind of intense because you have like, all these layers and like for me I discover a lot of color what I want to do with color while I'm doing it so I'm like shit I'm gonna have to erase all this I have to go back but yeah it was it was really cool and then to have the idea because in the in the hot boy cover in the ebook cover you know I loved the idea of doing the box around him where he's like kind of half in and out of this box so all four of the covers are they're like half and half out of like they're like climbing out of the box actually but I was like, what if I brought it in by doing the baseball, like the plate diamond, and then put it around them and it's in and out and you can see the baseball field behind them and stuff. And so it worked out really well and I just love the vintage feel of it. And like, it's very me. Yeah, I am obsessed. I wish I could, I wish I could, I'll show you all of them, but I wish I could show everyone all of them, but I'll show you. You can get a sneak peek. But they're so cool, because I have all four of them done and they're ridiculous and I fucking love.

PLEASE

I'm so excited. So, yeah, I really, really love them. And then all the colors, and they all coincide with the boy covers too. So, like, they all look so great together, like, ugh. And then I did all the other drawings. So I do draw like that, but what I do is I use photo references. So I have, so I'll take a photograph or multiple photographs and kind of use those to draw. But I do a lot of drawing on top of it. You still have to have an artistic hand and you still have to know a lot, but it's not, I can't just like, I'm bad at proportions. That's what I'm learning. I don't understand, I'm like, why does it look weird? Well, his eyes are in the wrong place, so that probably has something to do with it. So yeah, but it's a lot of fun. It's been so much fun doing all the art and everything for this, all the swag art and everything is really cool.

The swag is so good. Can I just tell you, I saw your pictures from the farmer's market and I was like, this is a dream.

Thanks. I'm obsessed. I got two baseball. I have another baseball hat that's black, like a distressed black with red stitching and it's so cool. So I'm really excited. I know, I'm obsessed. I love it.

So why baseball? What sort of like got you on that?

Well, I used to watch baseball growing up. I'm from Houston and big Astros fan in my house and the Rangers too, big baseball fans. And so we went to a, we always went to a few baseball games every summer with my family. I used to watch games with my dad. My grandpa would always, all day, every day had baseball on, was always on television. And so it was just kind of a part of, a part of like the background of my life as growing up. And in high school, I graduated from a really small town in Texas, and our football team was fucking terrible. I'm sorry, can I cuss? I'm sorry, can you bleep? Do you bleep me? Okay. But they were awful, but our baseball team was great. And so, you know, we always, yeah, so baseball, I don't know, I just love it. I love baseball players and it's fun. I love going to baseball games, but...

Please, yeah, by all means.

I actually had started this book years ago. So I had written the opening chapters of this years and years ago and I gave it to my agent, but we were trying, I mean, it was just, the timing was really bad. It was like, like I said, it was like COVID and there was a lot of social upheaval and it just was just not the time to be shopping anything. So I just pulled it and kept it and I was like, someday maybe I'll write this. And I had started thinking about it because I had, I had, it was when we were talking about moving here and I was like, Tennessee's so beautiful. And so I had all this visual in my head about things that I had encountered when I was here and just being like, ugh, it's so dreamy in so many ways. And so, yeah, so that kind of got it started and I was like, I could do Tennessee and what if she's a British lady and he's this like, you know, beast of a baseball player that can just like put the heat on a ball and just knock it all the way all the way over the fence. And so, and I just, I love opposites attract. I love like, I love all of that. But, but anyway, the baseball thing, just because that was already part of his backstory, I was like, what if he's a baseball player and like, but he had to, you know, he stayed back, he hung back to take care of his mom. So he didn't get, he had a pro contract and didn't take it. And so part of his story is like him finding that thing that he thought that he had lost forever and being able to reclaim that and have it after all. Which ended up being very poignant for me, coming back to writing after not knowing that I was ever gonna have my dream again. So I had a lot of, I felt a lot of kinship with him in that, being like, no man, the door's closed. It's closed, painted over, there's no opening it again. The ship has sailed, I'm too old, I can't go back now.

Incredible. Do you relate to Remy more than any other character that you've written or do you feel like you have a special bond with any of your main characters?

I do really love him. He is my favorite hero that I've written. So I have long said that in my formative years, my ideas of romance and what I found appealing in a man was shaped heavily by Harrison Ford, mostly as Han Solo, but also as Indiana Jones. And so...When I was writing him I was like, my god, he sounds like if Han Solo had a dirty mouth. Like, this is my guy. Like, I love when a guy knows what he wants. And he's like, and it could be good, my husband did that. I had a boyfriend when we met and he was like, do you? Let's see about that. Yes, yes. Yes!

Love this! I'm so glad that we circled around to this part of the meet huge story.

Yes, to be fair, the guy I was dating was an asshole and he treated me terribly and so there were many, many reasons for me to leave. And, you know, a hot guy who was like treating me like a queen with a... who was funny and smart and into music, like... it was a no -brainer. Yeah, it was an easy, easy -peasy. But I also love that, that like he knew. He was like, nope. Guess what? You're mine. And it's sometimes like, you know, you worry writing especially. It's like, is it hot or creepy? Like it's like, good thing he's hot, cause otherwise this would be really weird. Like, do we need to call the police? I don't know. And so, but he would do stuff like, we worked at a restaurant and he would be, I would get off work and he'd be like, come sit in my section and have lunch. And I would sit down and then he would, he wouldn't let me pay for my meal. He would pay for it or like, you know, just whatever stuff like that. I will say that the female character I relate most to is probably Bad Penny, which is weird and not in the way that people might think because she's actually a self -proclaimed ho. But she's like, people call me boy crazy, like it's a bad thing, I don't get it, you know?

Which no hate, no shame at all.

But only because I put a lot of my own stories into her, or my dating experience because it was like that either I dated a guy who was so obsessed with me that it was like bro -wo or it was it was me being so obsessed that I had like lost myself into this thing you know so and that's kind of her problem so she's like look I I go on three dates max like we we are serial dater we do not like long time long -term date people we just do all that's fun and then we we peace out before either he goes crazy or I'm going to and there's no way between. But I used all my old stories, so to all the boys I dated before, sorry you're famous. Thanks for the material. Well there is even like a, so when we worked at the restaurant and I'd broken up with my ex -boyfriend and I had moved out and was living with a friend and seeing my husband and.

Thanks for the material, and see you never.

I got flowers at the restaurant. Somebody sent me flowers. And I was like, my God. And I thought it was my husband. I was like, my gosh, she sent me flowers at work. And now everyone knows who they were, and I'm like, hee hee. And I went in and they were from the wrong guy. And I burst into tears. I was like, they're from the wrong guy. And so I put it in Penny. They're kind of on the outs, and she gets flowers. And she was like, my God, flowers. And she reads, and she's like, bruh. Ew, Brad and she throws them in the trash. They're supposed to be for Brad. So I relate a lot to her for that because she's just like, I put a lot of my own and my own sense of humor and I just love her. I love her. Yeah, it's in. It's in. It's in.

That is incredible. I can't believe that story actually happened to you. Well, you know what? Real life inspiration.

You know? Or like the other one where she's like... I was actually reading through it. I was like going to pull quotes and stuff and she was like, you know, the last one he was like, you know, I was like, we hooked up and I was getting dressed and I was leaving and he was like, looked at me all like the saddest beagle and was like, I feel like you're using me. She's like, honey, I'll call you. We didn't call him. We didn't call him. So maybe I was a hoe little bit.

Yeah, yeah. Hey, you know what? Again, no hate to the game.

I got locked I got locked down really young. I was 22 so.

And look, it worked out so well. I mean, it's a testament to, you know, just finding that right person.

Unfortunately, yeah. It really is, but it's funny because people will sometimes... I always know when it's gonna happen. They'll ask, so how long did you guys date again before you got married? And I was like, listen, I don't know who you've just started dating, but do not be me. Okay, we got lucky. He could have been an axe murderer. Like, we did not know. It was too soon. No, be me.

Yeah, not something to benchmark against, but when you know, you know for sure Completely, completely.

They're always looking for permission, you know what I mean? So far none of them have worked out for the other people, so I'm like...

I know my husband, we were together for nine years before we even got engaged. Like we are the exact opposite. But again, it was just one of those things from like, we're here. We're happy. It's good.

You know? Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think he's an activator also. So we're just like, hey, you, me, you, me, yeah, you, me, you, me, yeah, married, yeah, let's just do it, okay.

So well, well, I do not want to hold you for too long, but I do want to ask just one more question if that's all right with you. OK, amazing, amazing. OK, then maybe I'll ask too. Thank you. Hard same, hard same. OK, then I will do two. So the first one is spice related, because obviously, right, top tier spice, the dryer scene alone was beyond inspired. I have never looked at laundry the same way after reading that.

Yeah. You can ask as many as you want. I'm here. I enjoy your company.

Hahaha! Thank you. My work here is done.

Yeah, done and done.

Would you say that's an easier part of your rating process or a more challenging part?

No. No, it is not. I take extensive notes. I watch, I do a lot of research on PornHub and I, you know, it's, for me, is difficult. I'm a kid in the 90s and so for us, like, we have this kind of weird, like, brain thing about porn because the only, and really maybe just sex in general because we did not have access in the way that millennials did. We had, maybe your creepy uncle had some porn, or maybe there was some stuff you lifted from the back room at the VHS store, but it's always gross and terrible and like, eww. Or maybe in movies, but that's also not very graphic, obviously, and so you don't really know. Maybe some Skinimax, you know, a little bit in there, that was probably the closest thing we got, yeah. And so it's like, any time when we think about like, dirty talk or whatever.

Skinemax. Such a throwback, yeah.

We think about it in this like, yeah baby, like kind of like 70s, porny, gross, like Ron Jeremy. And so I think that a lot of us Gen Xers have some hangups on that. And I was kind of working through that a little bit, I think. And I was like, I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna have Jessa be like, no one has ever spoken to me like that before. What the fuck? And so...

Yes.

So I kind of, like, I decided I was really going to dig into that and kind of be like, have her be like, I don't know what this is, like, why do you, what? I really love when, when, it has to feel real for me and that's, I think, part of the problem, part of my problem, like, when it comes to reading it, is that if it doesn't feel like this character would say this thing or do this thing, it's really hard for me. I'm like, ehh, ick, you know, and so.

Yeah.

So I was very cognizant of that and I thought a lot about that and I thought about who he was and what he would say and it's like, you know, see a thing, do a thing, say a thing, right? Like you're like, it's part of what's happening and not just like, you know, so I'm like, yeah, just blah, blah, you know? And because sometimes it happens in books and I'm like, this guy would never, literally never ever. And so I work hard on that part of it, but I do, I take a lot of notes, I kind of choreograph.

Yes.

Everything and like where it's gonna be and it takes me all day. It is the slowest writing I ever do because I'm very, I'm thinking about it. I'm like, hmm, do you wanna, yeah, yeah, you know, so there's a lot of like, you know, like, just a lot of thinking involved, but I'm always really happy with it. I'm like, well, look at that, you know, whereas before I would write them and kind of be like, like blah blah blah, like blah, you know what I mean? Everybody came in like, can we just be done now? And so, except for in Penny, Penny's is also pretty dirty, but that felt so real for those characters to be that way. And so a lot of the time, especially when I'm writing softer characters or like Jane Austen characters, I'm like, I can't like, okay, we can't do that. So.

0 to 100, for sure.

Yeah, yeah, but I definitely, part of my goal with this was to level up from what I was writing before on all counts and I really feel like I did that and this was a huge part of that. I really wanted to go big on the spice and like make it like excellent. Like it had to be like most excellent. So, thank you. Thank you, thanks. I worked hard for it. Yeah.

It definitely was. Succeeded with flying colors, can I tell you?

Yeah, no, we absolutely love it. Well, I will bother you all day long, so I will end with this final one, which is just where can your readers find you and kind of how can readers support you? Because I think there's been so much lately going on just as far as readers really sharing that maybe they don't understand the best ways to support the authors that they love or like hidden areas that they might not realize that they can reach you.

Yeah, I mean, at this point right now, my social, like the places that I'm most active are on TikTok and Instagram and following me in those places and engaging with me there because I'm not one of the authors who like disappears, like post something and then leaves. Like I'm on social, I comment or respond to almost everything that comes my way. So that is the fastest way to get a hold of me, to support me on that level for sure. I'm in KU so you can always read there and it's free for you so that's a good way to just keep reading.

That is the easiest ask that you could possibly have. Well, Staci, thank you so much. This was a dream, honestly. Like, I'm going to float through the rest of my day here. So thank you.

Titles by Staci Hart