TASTEFUL AMOUNT OF CRINGE Ft. Brooke Averick

It’s been a long time coming, Brooke Averick is here this week!! And romantasy book lovers… this is absolutely the episode for you. Drew and Brooke unpack their thoughts on everything from Throne of Glass, Acotar, The Summer I Tuned Pretty, and The Hunger Games. They talk about writing smut scenes, favorite romance tropes, Brooke’s dream look for a love interest character, Saturn chokers, being an original 1D stan, and so much more. Brooke’s book, Phoebe Berman’s Gonna Lose It, is out now! Brooke IG: https://www.instagram.com/brookeaverick/?hl=en Brooke Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ladyefron Follow The Comment Section on IG! https://www.instagram.com/thecommentsection/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Network freedom and flexibility. That's what you want in a healthcare plan. With a Humana Medicare Advantage PPO plan, you can see any doctor in the country who accepts Medicare, including specialists. No referrals, no kidding. Learn more at gethumana.com. See any doctor who accepts Medicare and is willing to bill Humana. Humana PPOs may not be available in all areas. Benefits and costs share may vary. Humana is a Medicare Advantage PPO organization with a Medicare contract. Enrollment in any Humana plan depends on contract renewal.

• 0:32Speaker 01

  So much of romance can be cringe. And I found that too, like reading things out loud is really helpful. And like some of it, some cringe is okay.

• 0:41Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Of course, but sometimes a tasteful amount of cringe is always okay. But when it makes you go like,

• 0:48Speaker 01

  and takes you out, yeah, it's really hard. It's, there's such a delicate balance.

• 0:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I agree.

• 1:01Drew Afualo?

  Hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of The Comment Section Show, starring me, your fave, everybody knows me, who cares about me. Onto the guest today, we have the iconic, the hilarious, the published author herself, Brooke Averick.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  Thank you so much for having me, Drew.

• 1:17Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my God, thank you so much for coming.

• 1:19Speaker 01

  I feel like it's been a long time.

• 1:20Drew Afualo?

  It has, it's been a long time coming, you and I.

• 1:22Speaker 01

  I'm really happy to be here.

• 1:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and you know what? No better time.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  No better time, like the present.

• 1:26Drew Afualo?

  Phoebe Vermin's gonna lose it.

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, my baby.

• 1:29Drew Afualo?

  You guys can see in the wide.

• 1:30Speaker 01

  I don't, when does this come out? Is she out yet? Or she's about to be out? Oh, she popped yesterday.

• 1:37Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 1:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:38Drew Afualo?

  Okay, very nice.

• 1:39Speaker 01

  So that's incredible. Yeah, so yes, I'm officially a published author as of yesterday.

• 1:43Drew Afualo?

  How exciting.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:44Drew Afualo?

  This episode of The Comment Section is presented to you by Barilla. You know those nights when you're deep in a reality TV binge? And suddenly the snacks aren't cutting it? You need a proper meal, something that hits as hard as the most unhinged clapback. Al bronzo by Barilla is crafted with textured ridges that actually hold on to sauce, so every bite is rich with flavor. That moment you go back to swipe the Clean plate, that's scarpetta. The art of savoring every last drop. Al Bronzo by Barilla. The pasta that does scarpetta. Look for the red bag. Please tell me about Phoebe Berman's gonna lose it. I really want to talk all things.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  I'd love to.

• 2:23Drew Afualo?

  Published author.

• 2:24Speaker 01

  Um, yeah, so Phoebe is a rom com.

• 2:28Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 2:29Speaker 01

  She is, basically it's about a hopeless romantic.

• 2:33Drew Afualo?

  Mm hmm.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  Phoebe, she's 29 years old. And even though she's a hopeless romantic, she has this very crippling intimacy anxiety.

• 2:41Drew Afualo?

  Mm hmm.

• 2:42Speaker 01

  That she's had since she was a teenager. And so she has not lost her virginity yet. And she becomes super obsessed with losing it in the 30 days before her 30th birthday. Which is when this book takes place. She makes a list and that is her goal is to lose it. And she goes from kind of a non-existent love life.

• 3:02Drew Afualo?

  Mm hmm.

• 3:02Speaker 01

  To having three prospects.

• 3:05Drew Afualo?

  Ooh.

• 3:05Speaker 01

  So it's kind of like, is she gonna lose it? If she loses it, who she's, who is she gonna lose it to? So kind of like mystery thriller element there as well.

• 3:13Drew Afualo?

  Murder mystery.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Murder mystery too. No, but it's just like, I tried to really channel those like early 2000s rom coms. And this one is for.

• 3:22Drew Afualo?

  Like Bridget Jones.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  Kind of like Bridget Jones. Um, yeah, she was like on a lot of anti-anxiety medications.

• 3:30Drew Afualo?

  Okay, so tell me about the process of coming to write a book. Like, I know you're a huge bookworm.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:35Drew Afualo?

  And I know you love to read, especially fiction, so.

• 3:38Speaker 01

  I do.

• 3:38Drew Afualo?

  Like, what, what inspired you to want to write your own? Like, did it kind of come naturally? Were you kind of like, I've always wanted to do this, now I have the opportunity?

• 3:46Speaker 01

  I have always wanted to write a book. And I have always wanted to write about this like super, uh, romantically anxious person.

• 3:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  Um, but I, I don't, I just like, thought I wasn't qualified. Like, I was always under the impression, like, I had to go back to school and like, get a masters in.

• 4:05Drew Afualo?

  I get that.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  Creative writing, or like, I had to take a class. Like, I was always looking up like, creative writing, like USC. And then, I don't know, I was just like, waiting for something to like, give me the permission that I was looking for.

• 4:20Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 4:20Speaker 01

  And then, one day I kind of just realized like, I think I don't need that. I think I can kind of just write a book if I want to.

• 4:28Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 4:28Speaker 01

  And I think giving myself that permission, kind of just like, the floodgates open.

• 4:33Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  And then, once I kind of wrote the first sentence, it just all like, ca- kind of spilled out.

• 4:39Drew Afualo?

  Just kind of spilled out to you at that point. Were you pulling from any inspo for, for Phoebe, the world itself?

• 4:45Speaker 01

  I was definitely, the anxiety piece I was kind of pulling

• 4:48Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  from my real life. I am also super anxious

• 4:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  when it comes to romance. And so, I had kind of used, like, my lack of dating experience and, and threw that in there.

• 5:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 5:02Speaker 01

  Um, so this one's definitely, yeah, for, for the late bloomers, for sure.

• 5:08Drew Afualo?

  Beautiful. I think that's a wonderful thing.

• 5:11Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 5:11Drew Afualo?

  Do you have any, like, any books that you were reading? Like, have you read adult fiction for a while, like, as an adult? Cause I got back into adult fiction, like, I want to say like two, three years ago. Like, I, for some reason, thought, like, at past a certain age, I'm like, oh, I guess I have to read self-help books for the rest of my life.

• 5:26Speaker 01

  Ah, yeah.

• 5:27Drew Afualo?

  But then I realized, I was like, wait, I don't have to do that. I can read fiction still. And then I kind of got back into it.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:31Drew Afualo?

  Was that the same for you?

• 5:32Speaker 01

  I've always, I've always been a fiction reader.

• 5:35Drew Afualo?

  Love.

• 5:35Speaker 01

  But for whatever reason, like, I wasn't reading, I was always like desperate for the romance.

• 5:42Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Within, like, literary fiction, because I kind of thought, like, the only thing I could be reading in my twenties was literary fiction.

• 5:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  For, I don't know, I guess you kind of like put yourself in a box once you turn a certain age.

• 5:53Drew Afualo?

  Exactly.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  For your reading. And then I was like, wait, I can be reading, like, cheesy romance, like, as much as I want. And then I was like, that's awesome.

• 6:02Drew Afualo?

  It's actually so tea.

• 6:03Speaker 01

  That's so tea.

• 6:04Drew Afualo?

  So fun.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  And that's so awesome.

• 6:06Drew Afualo?

  It's me and my Kindle against the world.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  It really is.

• 6:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  And so I think for Phoebe, I took from, like, every genre that I love. Like, there's part cheesy romance, there's part, like, just like general women's fiction and like

• 6:18Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 6:19Speaker 01

  weird girl lip fic, like, so I kind of, yeah, I drew from a lot of those.

• 6:24Drew Afualo?

  That's amazing. Do you have any favorite books that, like, were kind of inspiring to you as you were writing? Did you read it all while you wrote? Like, I know sometimes people have different writing processes.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  There is this author who I'm obsessed with, Emily Austin.

• 6:37Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  And she writes about really unique mentally ill women.

• 6:44Speaker 01

  And I'm obsessed with her and I think everyone should read her books. And those definitely informed my writing about mental illness, for sure. And also, just like a lot of, I just like love a good rom-com, like Emily Henry, Christina Lauren.

• 7:02Drew Afualo?

  Emily Henry wrote People We Meet on Vacation, right?

• 7:04Speaker 01

  People We Meet on Vacation. She wrote, Book Lovers is my favorite. I feel like she has five and everyone feels really, really strongly about like which one is the best.

• 7:13Drew Afualo?

  That's true. I know, the book talk girls do not play around.

• 7:17Speaker 01

  They do not play.

• 7:19Drew Afualo?

  No, on Goodreads, that was like one of the first things I talked about with my team when I came out with my first book. Because I was like, Goodreads is scary.

• 7:28Speaker 01

  Goodreads is scary.

• 7:29Drew Afualo?

  I take the recs very seriously, but Goodreads, man, do they write a novel in there if they don't like something.

• 7:35Speaker 01

  I have an addiction to Goodreads. Like, it's really bad. It's my most used app, which sucks because no one else uses it. But I check Goodreads probably fifty times a day.

• 7:45Drew Afualo?

  I love Goodreads. The recs are so real on there, but like, I was so afraid of my own book being put on there because I was so afraid of what people would write.

• 7:53Speaker 01

  It is terrifying. And I'm letting myself look at Phoebe Reviews before it comes out. And I'm gonna really, really try not to do that after it comes out.

• 8:05Drew Afualo?

  I think it's gonna do really well and I think everyone's gonna love. From what I've seen, everybody's already really loving it. So I think that's a beautiful thing.

• 8:12Speaker 01

  It is.

• 8:13Drew Afualo?

  Did you guys get to send out arcs and stuff?

• 8:15Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 8:15Drew Afualo?

  That's so great.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, that kind of stressed me out because I didn't know much about like that whole process.

• 8:22Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  But arcs, like there are some things that I've changed since the arc. And I have like pretty severe OCD, so like going to sleep at night knowing that like there are people reading an unfinished copy of my book.

• 8:35Drew Afualo?

  That's crazy that you change things after arcs, that's crazy.

• 8:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, uh, def- like, not a lot, like, no, like, the plot is the same.

• 8:43Drew Afualo?

  No, I love that.

• 8:43Speaker 01

  But like, there are some sentences in the arc that I'm like, "I hate this sentence." "It is killing me that people have read this sentence."

• 8:52Drew Afualo?

  I feel you. That's how I felt when I started writing the proposal for my fiction book. Because, uh, it went through so many versions that like, I changed some stuff, but just structurally, like, sentence-wise. So, the- some of the versions they got, I was kinda like, "Fuck."

• 9:07Speaker 01

  Did you have arcs with your book?

• 9:09Drew Afualo?

  With my first book, yes.

• 9:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, and you didn't change anything?

• 9:12Drew Afualo?

  No, cuz at that point, I feel like with that book was very different, though, for me, because I feel like, because it was like self-help slash memoir, it- it was almost like I wanted to set it and forget it, because it's really hard for me to be vulnerable like that, to that extent.

• 9:25Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 9:26Drew Afualo?

  About myself. Like, I feel like I could write that way about other people or made up people, but like, about myself, it was making it hard. So I almost like, didn't wanna look at it again, cuz I felt like I might change too many things. But it was mostly cuz it was about me.

• 9:37Speaker 01

  That's really smart.

• 9:38Drew Afualo?

  I think I'll feel differently, though, about the fiction book. It feels different to me.

• 9:42Speaker 01

  Well, at some point, like, cuz I was still editing a little bit after the arc, um, and my agents were like, "You- you're making it worse and you have to stop." Like, it gets to a point where it's like, you- you just can't look at it anymore, which is so scary, cuz-

• 9:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's like, it's done now.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, I could've worked on that forever.

• 9:59Drew Afualo?

  Honestly, trust that you've done a wonderful job. I thought you've done a wonderful, wonderful job.

• 10:03Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 10:03Drew Afualo?

  Do you see Phoebe having any future books?

• 10:07Speaker 01

  It's a really good question. I definitely, so I got a- it was a two-book deal, and I didn't know what I was gonna do with the second book, but I think I've decided it's going to be like, in the Phoebe universe, so like, a character from Phoebe will make an appearance, but like, it won't be a direct sequel. And you can totally read it as a standalone.

• 10:27Drew Afualo?

  I think that's awesome, though.

• 10:28Speaker 01

  But I think, like, because a lot of Phoebe is like, about turning thirty, and something that I was grappling with, and like, I kind of used her to like, come to terms with something in my real life. I think if I have something like that again, where I'm like, "This is something that I need to come to terms with," I could bring back Phoebe. As like kind of like my therapy. She was really like the best therapy I've ever had.

• 10:50Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's so beautiful.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  So I think I could maybe bring her back in the future, but as for now, her story is.

• 10:56Drew Afualo?

  I think that's great, though. I love when we know, like you know for sure, because like even I've read some really, really good fiction books. That were just either standalones, or they were duologies, like no more than two.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:07Drew Afualo?

  I think that's great.

• 11:08Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:08Drew Afualo?

  I think that's beautiful.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:10Drew Afualo?

  How was the editing process?

• 11:12Speaker 01

  I like, I think I like editing more than.

• 11:15Drew Afualo?

  The writing. That's tea.

• 11:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think because it's like at least everything, the story and like where I wanted to go is out.

• 11:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 11:22Speaker 01

  And now it's just about like making everything flow.

• 11:26Drew Afualo?

  And like perfect.

• 11:27Speaker 01

  And perfect, which I think is a lot easier for me than just like getting the story out.

• 11:32Drew Afualo?

  Tea.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:33Drew Afualo?

  Did you have any, okay, so for the suitors of Phoebe.

• 11:36Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 11:36Drew Afualo?

  Did you have any people in mind? I always have people in mind.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  I, there's one, so there's three suitors.

• 11:43Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 11:44Speaker 01

  There's Jonathan, her roommate and best friend.

• 11:47Drew Afualo?

  Okay, love.

• 11:48Speaker 01

  There's Finn, who is a new teacher at her school.

• 11:51Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 11:51Speaker 01

  And then there's Matthew, who she went to high school with and resurfaces in her life. Through Hinge and also Words With Friends. And so Jonathan is described as like being like so hot, it's like kind of like overwhelming. And for him, I have, I was kind of always picturing David Cornsweater, Jonathan Bailey.

• 12:13Drew Afualo?

  Good choices.

• 12:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, because it's just like, who, what, what can you do there?

• 12:17Drew Afualo?

  They need that, though. I love, the book talk girls love a good description.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  So that, yeah, yeah, so, and then for Finn, I always pictured Evan Peters.

• 12:28Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 12:29Speaker 01

  When I was writing, but it changed to Hudson Williams pretty immediately upon heated rivalry.

• 12:34Drew Afualo?

  Had to swap really quick, yeah.

• 12:36Speaker 01

  And then Matthew, I've been picturing Joe Keery, because he's like a little bit alt.

• 12:42Drew Afualo?

  I love that.

• 12:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 12:43Drew Afualo?

  Nice diversity, nice different kinds of hotness.

• 12:45Speaker 01

  Yes, different kinds of hotness. And Phoebe, I can't picture.

• 12:49Drew Afualo?

  Phoebe is whoever she is.

• 12:51Speaker 01

  She's just kind of like a mop of curly hair to me, yeah.

• 12:55Drew Afualo?

  I love that. I think that's wonderful because I, I love watching the book talk girls do like sketches like of what they believe them to. My explore page is shocking when you see it and it's all romanticy stuff like, cause I feel like especially now I've been watching a lot of different kinds of like, I would say like, yeah, like romanticy, like fantasy kind of romance stuff, but also I've been watching lots of other things to try and inspire the writing of like, the fiction world and, cause the world building is, I would say the hardest part for me.

• 13:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I can't even imagine. I'm not smart enough to do that.

• 13:33Drew Afualo?

  Especially in the like romanticy world. That's actually why I'm co-writing, cause like I have someone helping me.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:38Drew Afualo?

  Because I feel really confident. I can write like characters, I can write banter, I can write romance, that kind of thing, but like the world building I was so like nervous about. Cause it's so expansive when it's like in a fantasy world.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  It really is.

• 13:52Drew Afualo?

  Like I think about how like the Game of Thrones universe was written all by one person and that like stresses me out.

• 13:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:57Drew Afualo?

  Cause I'm like, oh my God, how am I supposed to do that? Like I see people like Game of Thrones historians do family trees and I'm like, he wrote all the way back. That's crazy.

• 14:05Speaker 01

  How do you, I don't, how do you do that? Whenever I'm reading fantasy, it's almost like distracting, like how intense and I'm just like, how did someone, how did someone do this?

• 14:17Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, how did they, how did one person?

• 14:18Speaker 01

  From one brain?

• 14:19Drew Afualo?

  No, for real. I, I think the same thing. I think, what's your favorite kinds of tropes? Like in, not just like romanticy, but also just fiction in general, if you're looking at the romance fiction.

• 14:30Speaker 01

  I'm looking at the romance. I'm a, I, I love enemies to lovers.

• 14:35Drew Afualo?

  Me too.

• 14:36Speaker 01

  It doesn't get better than that, which like now looking at my book, it's like I did three friends to potential lovers options and it's like, wh- wh- why? Like, but it, it worked out, but it's like, next book, like maybe enemies to lovers.

• 14:49Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 14:50Speaker 01

  I love enemies to lovers. Like I, cause I need, I can't do insta-love. Like to me, like first kiss needs to happen, last page of the book.

• 15:00Drew Afualo?

  Chapter fifty.

• 15:01Speaker 01

  I need like the whole book to be like tension and buildup. To me, that's better than like when they actually get together.

• 15:07Drew Afualo?

  I agree.

• 15:08Speaker 01

  And that doesn't really happen with like insta-lover, less so friends to lovers, but I'm all about that. And then within enemies to lovers.

• 15:18Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 15:18Speaker 01

  One bed at the end. Like when I get those TikToks.

• 15:22Drew Afualo?

  Only one room left.

• 15:23Speaker 01

  Yes, when there's like memes of like, I'm reading Under My Covers 3am and there's one bed left at the end. Like I am sprinting around my house. Like it is truly.

• 15:32Drew Afualo?

  Well, now I'm gonna be up for hours.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  It is my favorite. Like the second an author mentions like, we need to stop at a hotel. I'm like, let's go.

• 15:42Drew Afualo?

  I'm like, yes, yes, yes. I know, I feel like that's why I've been averse to YA. Only because I don't mind YA. I feel like there's ways to do YA in a way that's like, you're not edging me the whole time. Like they give you a little something.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:58Drew Afualo?

  Obviously it doesn't need to be graphic. Like I, I felt like reading, that's how I felt reading Throne of Glass. Because I know Throne of Glass is really good. I really wanna get into it. I really loved the first one. I started the second one. And then they panned to the fireplace one too many times and I was like, they better kiss.

• 16:14Speaker 01

  Trust me Drew. You will like, it is gonna take you about 900, 900 plus pages. Uh, no, 900 times like three.

• 16:24Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 16:24Speaker 01

  But you will. It does like, I think as her audience grew, she got more comfortable with like.

• 16:29Drew Afualo?

  That's true.

• 16:29Speaker 01

  More like sexual scenes.

• 16:31Drew Afualo?

  That's true, yeah.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  And so you will get there.

• 16:33Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 16:33Speaker 01

  It will be in like the seventh book. But it was, it's worth it.

• 16:37Drew Afualo?

  Man, and I bet it's worth the wait too.

• 16:39Speaker 01

  I love Throne of Glass.

• 16:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I know. I've heard many a good thing about that series.

• 16:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:44Drew Afualo?

  And I also read Akatar, read the whole Akatar series too. I thought Akatar was awesome.

• 16:49Speaker 01

  I, I mean.

• 16:49Drew Afualo?

  I had a fucking blast.

• 16:50Speaker 01

  I would say with my full chest, I am in love with Akatar. Like I, I'm, I love it. Like to me, nothing compares to Reese.

• 17:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's really just like so, it honestly too, the fifth one, um, the sisterhood part of it brought me to tears.

• 17:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:08Drew Afualo?

  I was crying.

• 17:09Speaker 01

  There's, it's beautiful. And like there's so much, um. Like especially in like the second book like Farrah like coming to terms like with herself like there's so much more to it than just like romance.

• 17:23Drew Afualo?

  I agree.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:24Drew Afualo?

  The world building of that one is crazy.

• 17:26Speaker 01

  And just like powerful females just like being badasses.

• 17:30Drew Afualo?

  And I love banter.

• 17:31Speaker 01

  I love banter. That is um how I learned I love One Bed at the End. Like I learned, I really learned so much about myself. Talk about Slow Burn.

• 17:41Drew Afualo?

  Had to wait awhile for that one.

• 17:43Speaker 01

  Oh yeah.

• 17:44Drew Afualo?

  I know, I was even telling my, my friend, because I got my other friends, my girlfriends to read it, we were all kind of reading at the same time. Um, and then one of my friends, she was like, are they gonna fucking kiss or what? And I was like, girl, just steady the course. Cause when it happens, it's gonna be awesome. It's well worth the wait.

• 18:02Speaker 01

  Chapter fifty-five.

• 18:03Drew Afualo?

  The one, the only.

• 18:04Speaker 01

  Actually, I feel like you're either a chapter fifty-four girl, which is like, kind of the like lead up to chapter fifty-five. Or the chapter fifty-five.

• 18:13Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 18:14Speaker 01

  Girl, and I actually would say I'm a chapter fifty-four.

• 18:16Drew Afualo?

  Me too. Cause I, even in writing, well like first of all, writing smut in any regard, because I haven't even really touched it yet, I've only like, like barely scratched the surface on writing that, but I, even so, it's humiliating.

• 18:30Speaker 01

  I was gonna ask how you feel, I avoided it completely in Phoebe, because I just kept, I couldn't, I, I just kept thinking about my pop-up, reading it, and I was like, I'm, I'm gonna skip it for this book.

• 18:43Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, you know, you're got, I gotta baby step my way in there.

• 18:46Speaker 01

  I really, it freaks me out, like I, I want to do it, but I just can't.

• 18:51Drew Afualo?

  And I love to read it.

• 18:51Speaker 01

  I love to read it.

• 18:53Drew Afualo?

  But writing it, it's another animal entirely.

• 18:55Speaker 01

  People know you.

• 18:56Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 18:57Speaker 01

  And so it's really hard, I think, when people know you and you're writing like really intimate sex scenes and like, are they gonna be thinking of you? Like, how does this work? Like, what are the politics here?

• 19:08Drew Afualo?

  Right, what are the boundaries here?

• 19:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, what are the boundaries?

• 19:10Drew Afualo?

  I agree, because it, it is, even what I've written so far has not even crested really, it's not even actual smut, it's just like sexual tension.

• 19:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:18Drew Afualo?

  Which I enjoy writing, like that, that part's easy.

• 19:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:21Drew Afualo?

  But even, there was like, there's like a little bit of physicality and not really anything at all, it's more so a pants to the fireplace thing, but like, I, even in baby stepping, and I'm like,

• 19:32Drew Afualo?

  I'm really gonna have to get in there, get my hands dirty, that sucks.

• 19:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:35Drew Afualo?

  I'm not looking forward to that.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  It's, God bless you and like, please let me know how it goes because I, I wanna, I wanna get there for book two.

• 19:43Drew Afualo?

  My hope, my hope is that I can offload most of it onto my co-writer.

• 19:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:48Drew Afualo?

  I'm like, you need to get in there, girl, and maybe I'll edit a little, cuz I'm getting, I'm getting nervous.

• 19:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:53Drew Afualo?

  Thinking about it.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:54Drew Afualo?

  Just getting anxious just thinking about it.

• 19:56Speaker 01

  I think, for me, it's just like, I'm thinking about like, my family reading it. I don't, I guess I don't really care about just like, anyone else besides my family. I don't know, it's just like, really freaks me out.

• 20:06Drew Afualo?

  I get that.

• 20:07Speaker 01

  I think I'll say I had a co-writer and just be like, she wrote those scenes. So from page, like, three hundred to three hundred two, like, I didn't write that.

• 20:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, don't worry about that.

• 20:16Speaker 01

  So like, don't worry about that.

• 20:17Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, don't associate that.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Skip it if you want, so I might just say like, yep, someone else wrote that, don't, you don't have to worry about it, I don't know what's actually.

• 20:23Drew Afualo?

  I agree, I, I was writing it in, like, I obviously want smut in mine, even my co-writer was like, I'm so excited, I really wanna write smut. Cuz in all of her books, they've all been like, the ones she's written before, they've all been YA. So she was like, I've actually never even really gotten to go there, so I'm excited, I'm like, and I'm excited for you.

• 20:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:41Drew Afualo?

  To get in there.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:42Drew Afualo?

  Uh, but I do feel like, I also have OCD, so I, I do feel like, I'm gonna be so analytical that I'm gonna have to get in there, but you're right. Cuz it is one of those things where you're like, if someone's reading this, are they gonna think that this is what I'm rocking with?

• 20:54Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 20:55Drew Afualo?

  And then it feels almost too intimate in that way.

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 20:57Drew Afualo?

  So I get it.

• 20:58Speaker 01

  And I have, like, when, in my, like, my smut preference, I, I'm still learning what that is, because I think it's really hard, a lot of, I'm reading Crescent City right now, have you read Crescent City?

• 21:11Drew Afualo?

  I've only skimmed a couple of it.

• 21:13Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:13Drew Afualo?

  A little bit of it, I haven't actually read it.

• 21:14Speaker 01

  Definitely daunting.

• 21:15Drew Afualo?

  I have it on my Kindle.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  I'm in the second book.

• 21:18Drew Afualo?

  They're huge, too.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  Eight hundred pages.

• 21:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 21:20Speaker 01

  Each, and like, set in modern day, which is really, kind of hard to wrap your head around.

• 21:25Drew Afualo?

  That was kinda the part that was throwing me. When I tried, I was kinda like, I don't like that they have iPhones, something about that.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  Yep, it's, it's definitely hard.

• 21:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 21:33Speaker 01

  But I just got to the book, I mean, kind of spoiler of when they first have sex, but they don't have sex until, like, the middle of book two.

• 21:42Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and we're talking about like, nine hundred plus pages.

• 21:45Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah. And the words that she's using to describe certain body parts, I don't feel like I'm aligning with. And I feel this a lot when I'm reading smut, like what, what words do you?

• 21:58Drew Afualo?

  You're right. That's tea.

• 22:00Speaker 01

  That's hard.

• 22:01Drew Afualo?

  You're right.

• 22:01Speaker 01

  Because right now, she's describing, like, the female anatomy. She's just using the word sex.

• 22:09Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  To describe like, oh, her sex. And I'm just like, I don't think I, I like that right now.

• 22:15Drew Afualo?

  I'm not loving that.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  But what else do you use?

• 22:17Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's hitting my, you're right.

• 22:19Speaker 01

  There's nothing that you can do.

• 22:20Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's true. It is kind of a dealer's choice.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  It's dealer's choice, and it, nothing, I haven't found anything yet that I'm like, yep, that's it.

• 22:29Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that doesn't make you go.

• 22:30Speaker 01

  That's the word, yeah.

• 22:31Drew Afualo?

  Doesn't make you recoil just a little.

• 22:33Speaker 01

  So I think that's something that, as authors, like, we will have to figure out. It's not easy. It's not easy.

• 22:40Drew Afualo?

  No, that's true. Like, I, that was something else I, because I had sent, and I'll send it to you too, actually, if you'd like, my, my proposal with my intro stuff. I'd love to, I'll text it to you after, but I, I sent it to my friend Taylor Tomlinson, and she was like, this is fucking awesome, because she loves reading fiction, and she was like, this is so good. And she was like, I love the banter, and that's kind of how I picture writing smut, because sometimes the banter, especially during smut, can be a little, it can throw me just a little, like, where I'm kind of like, well, why would you say that? Like, I, I think that, like, in my head, like, some of the things the men say to the women is kind of like,

• 23:17Speaker 01

  Ah!

• 23:17Drew Afualo?

  That would take me out of it. Yeah, that would take me out of it if that was me. Yeah, I mean, she'd go, oh, I hate that a little bit.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 23:23Drew Afualo?

  Uh, and I think that is like, I was talking about banter with her, and I was like, with banter, even with flirting, I like, I say it out loud, it to myself, and if it makes me like, ugh, then I don't, then I change it.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  That's so key.

• 23:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I, I have to hear it, and if it hits my ear wrong, I have to rewrite it.

• 23:41Speaker 01

  That's so smart.

• 23:42Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, because it's like, if it's cringe, if it makes me feel cringe, like, ugh, then I have to change it.

• 23:47Speaker 01

  That's so smart. Yeah, so much of romance can be cringe, and I found that too, like, reading things out loud is really helpful. And like, some of it, some cringe is okay.

• 23:58Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 23:58Speaker 01

  Of course, but sometimes, a tasteful amount of cringe is always okay, but when it makes you go like, ugh. And takes you out, yeah, it's really hard. It's, they're such a delicate balance.

• 24:09Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I agree. I even, um, one of, I think, like, my favorite fantasy romance books like that I've read is called, um, A Curse Carved in Bone. It's like a Viking one.

• 24:21Speaker 01

  Yes, that's a, that's a sequel to.

• 24:23Drew Afualo?

  Yes, it's like, there's two of them. So it's like a duology. It's done after the second one, which is kinda tea. I actually really love that author. I love her, her romanticy books. I've read a couple of them. Um, and they're all so good, but.

• 24:35Speaker 01

  Did you see she has a new one?

• 24:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, she has a new one called, well, I read Bridge Kingdom, which was also really good. That's like, I only read the first one though, and I, I was starting to read the second one, but she moved on to another couple. And I was like, ah, don't care about this couple. Like, the first couple took so long to get together that I was like, alright, then we're gonna go into them. And then the next one's her brother and his girl. And I was like, I don't care about them.

• 24:57Speaker 01

  Those are hit or miss when we, when we switch to a different couple.

• 25:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it depends.

• 25:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:01Drew Afualo?

  Like, if there's more, like, I feel like Akatar was different because there was, like, so much building.

• 25:06Speaker 01

  Right.

• 25:06Drew Afualo?

  That eventually, when you pivoted, you're like, okay, cool. Like, what are these two up to?

• 25:10Speaker 01

  It was also like a very natural segue in Akatar because she gave us that little one.

• 25:14Drew Afualo?

  Yes.

• 25:15Speaker 01

  That, kind of, yeah, the Christmas special that planted the seeds and kind of transitioned us seamlessly.

• 25:20Drew Afualo?

  You're right. I hated that one, but yes.

• 25:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:23Drew Afualo?

  I read it in like five hours. I felt like it was over so fast.

• 25:25Speaker 01

  Didn't like this one, couldn't put it down. Read it, read it in a few hours.

• 25:29Drew Afualo?

  I know, I was like, oh, she's just shopping this whole goddamn book.

• 25:32Speaker 01

  I kind of liked just like seeing like slice of life.

• 25:35Drew Afualo?

  No, you're right, though. That's tea because I was like, I am enjoying them living life, though. So I guess that's kinda nice.

• 25:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. It was kinda, like, I don't think we needed it, but like, I would read anything that she wrote.

• 25:46Drew Afualo?

  So I guess, I guess I needed it.

• 25:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 25:49Drew Afualo?

  It was for me specifically. But I read the Viking one and it was, I thought she did such a wonderful job of like, building like, tension. It was like an enemies to lovers thing. It was like a betrayal thing. Or re-earning trust, that kinda thing.

• 26:02Speaker 01

  Love it.

• 26:03Drew Afualo?

  What about tropes that make you DNF? Do you have any?

• 26:06Speaker 01

  I'm not. Uh, I don't really like an accidental pregnancy.

• 26:11Drew Afualo?

  I hate those ones.

• 26:12Speaker 01

  There's one that does it really well, called Out on a Limb.

• 26:16Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 26:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, which I, which I really liked, but I think that's a really, that's an exception.

• 26:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  I think, I, and that's because I love the author and I was like, I'll read this because I love her and it paid off. But I don't think I would pick up, uh, an accidental pregnancy.

• 26:32Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, same. That's, I read one.

• 26:35Speaker 01

  That's like a stress, that's stressful. Like, I don't want, I don't want to be thinking about that. Yeah, I don't want to immerse myself in that.

• 26:42Drew Afualo?

  Not in this world.

• 26:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, not right now.

• 26:44Drew Afualo?

  Not right now. I, I even like for the accident, the pregnancy trope one, I also hate that. I read one called From Blood and Ash.

• 26:52Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 26:53Drew Afualo?

  Have you read that one?

• 26:53Speaker 01

  No, but I've heard of it.

• 26:55Drew Afualo?

  Don't read it. It's pointless. Like, I, I enjoyed myself, I guess to an extent. Um, but I was kinda losing me because there were so many things going on that it was like, it felt like one of those where it feels like I'm being attacked on all sides.

• 27:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 27:09Drew Afualo?

  Like, I, I feel like I have to take notes because I can't remember any of the different magical elements and then like.

• 27:15Speaker 01

  It's so me with Crescent City right now.

• 27:17Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and there was a point where there were wolves too, and then the wolf like was talking about having like a threesome with her and her guy. And he was like, yeah, that sounds good. And I was like, what the hell is going on in this book?

• 27:29Speaker 01

  Do you ever like, when you're reading fantasy, just like read a page that you're like, if I read this out loud to someone?

• 27:40Speaker 00

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• 28:13Speaker 01

  They would commit me. Like, what am I reading?

• 28:16Drew Afualo?

  Like, if anyone caught me reading this, they would think I'm a freak weirdo.

• 28:20Speaker 01

  Last night, like, and I was reading a chapter of my book where, like, a fire sprite dra- dragon hybrid was lounging on a wooden coffee table, and it was singeing the coffee table, but her body was so curvy that, like, the guy didn't notice that his coffee table was burning, because she was so hot.

• 28:38Drew Afualo?

  What the hell are you talking?

• 28:39Speaker 01

  Because, like, physically, like, her body, and I was just like, what?

• 28:43Drew Afualo?

  What the hell?

• 28:44Speaker 01

  Where? Where? How did we get? How did we get here? I'm glad, but like, how?

• 28:50Drew Afualo?

  I'm not judging, I'm just kind of confused, I guess.

• 28:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:53Drew Afualo?

  I'm a little uncomfy. That is how I felt reading From Blood and Ash, like, and I read the, the prequel to it, because, like, the, the From Blood and Ash one, I think there's like, five books, I read three of them, because I was, at first, when I started reading fiction, I was like, I was trying to be a completionist, so I was like, let me at least finish.

• 29:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:09Drew Afualo?

  But then it got to a point where I was like, ah, these books are so goddamn long, I can't take it anymore. So I switched to the prequel, almost identical in every way, except it was ancestors, like, the, her ancestors, but it was still good, so I was, like, enjoying myself. But then, it was like, that one's like, four books, I think I got to book three. They're building up to this enormous war. They're like, this is this huge fucking thing, she spent so much time, like, earning respect from other gods and whatever the fuck was going on. And then, literally, I saw, like, the start of one chapter, it starts saying that she starts feeling sick. I go, no, they're not gonna do that to my fucking girl. I literally was like, they're not gonna do that to my fucking girl, there's no way.

• 29:52Drew Afualo?

  I've spent six books getting here, there's no fucking way. And then it was like, another one, she randomly threw up again, I said, no fucking way, dude, no way, no way. Then she finds out, she, like, goes to her friend, who, like, is like, a doula, in, in essence, in this world. And she, like, tests her, essentially, and she's like, oh my god, pregnant, not just pregnant, pregnant with twins.

• 30:11Speaker 01

  No.

• 30:12Drew Afualo?

  Pregnant with twins, in fact, so much so, that they're both magical, and they're siphoning all her power, so she actually can't

• 30:18Speaker 01

  No.

• 30:18Drew Afualo?

  Fight in the war.

• 30:19Speaker 01

  No.

• 30:19Drew Afualo?

  I said, DNF, I'm not finishing this book. I was like, I was so angry, I put it down, I was like, I'm not, you guys have wasted my time, and now you're gonna take my girl out right before the big game? That's crazy.

• 30:31Speaker 01

  There's never a normal pregnancy in these books. It's either, like, They're siphoning their power.

• 30:37Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 30:37Speaker 01

  One has wings that won't fit through your pelvis. It's like always something like extremely

• 30:43Drew Afualo?

  And awful.

• 30:43Speaker 01

  Dramatic and awful.

• 30:44Drew Afualo?

  And you would think in the magical world, they would have figured that out.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  Just figure it out.

• 30:48Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you, they would have figured that out.

• 30:49Speaker 01

  Like you have all the control. That's like a crazy thing about romanticy that like sometimes bothers me is that like

• 30:57Speaker 01

  A character could be in a situation where it's like you have no way out. Like you will die.

• 31:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 31:02Speaker 01

  And then it's like, wait a minute. I've had this amulet in my pocket the entire time, as it turns out randomly.

• 31:10Drew Afualo?

  Realized.

• 31:10Speaker 01

  Just put these pants on this morning, amulet happens to be in it and it's gonna get me out of this exact situation that I had no loophole.

• 31:17Drew Afualo?

  And that, and that we have been like agonizing over for the last eight chapters.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  And it's like, I'd almost rather the person die.

• 31:25Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 31:27Speaker 01

  It feels, I don't know, it kind of almost feels like a cop out sometimes.

• 31:31Drew Afualo?

  I agree.

• 31:31Speaker 01

  Fantasy when you just throw in this like magical

• 31:33Drew Afualo?

  Thing.

• 31:34Speaker 01

  Artifact that.

• 31:35Drew Afualo?

  Well, especially because the whole time magic has not been helpful and then all of a sudden it is.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  It's just helpful when, when it is.

• 31:41Drew Afualo?

  When you don't want her to die.

• 31:42Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 31:43Drew Afualo?

  And that's why when they, when they benched her before the big fight, I was like, I'm not reading this shit. I'm not reading this shit. Not to mention, those entire books, they were fucking and sucking all over those books. Why now? You got pregnant all of a sudden.

• 31:55Speaker 01

  Why now?

• 31:56Drew Afualo?

  All of a sudden.

• 31:57Speaker 01

  Why before the war?

• 31:57Drew Afualo?

  Uh, yeah, right before the war, huh? Decided not to pull out right before the war, all of a sudden.

• 32:01Speaker 01

  Do you feel like good about DNFing?

• 32:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, if, if it's justified in that way, yes. Sometimes I feel like, I should go back and finish it because I was just getting annoyed and so that's why I like, I don't always DNF unless something like that happens and I'm like, I'm never gonna, I don't need to see how this ends because I'm over it.

• 32:20Speaker 01

  I wish I could DNF.

• 32:21Drew Afualo?

  And if I needed to, if I really needed to, I would just look up the end. I was like, I'm not wasting my time reading this. I'm just gonna look it up because I'm angry now.

• 32:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:28Drew Afualo?

  Which is what I did with that book.

• 32:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:30Drew Afualo?

  Because I was like, I'm not sitting through another book when you're gonna bench my girl. And I was like really rooting for her at that point. I was like, yes, yes, yes. Like I'm so down.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  My mind like won't let me DNF a book because it's like, if this isn't, like if I already read 200 pages of this, it's gonna count towards my Goodreads goal. It's gonna have to, and if I can't mark it, I have to mark it as read on Goodreads for it to count.

• 32:54Drew Afualo?

  That's true. That's a good, that's a good like, goal marker though.

• 32:57Speaker 01

  And I can't mark it as read if I didn't read it to completion.

• 33:00Drew Afualo?

  My sister says on her Kindle that the little like, the little percentage at the bottom, she's like racing that thing.

• 33:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:07Drew Afualo?

  She's like, every time I see it, I'm like, oh my god, I'm almost done. I'm like fifty percent of the way through.

• 33:11Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 33:12Drew Afualo?

  Sometimes that makes me sad when I look at that thing. I'm like, I'm almost done. That's a bummer.

• 33:16Speaker 01

  I read the Throne of Glass Kindle version that was all of the books in one PDF, I guess, or one ebook. And I was done. I would say I read like probably the first three books, so like over a thousand pages, two percent done.

• 33:34Speaker 01

  That was really, really hard.

• 33:36Drew Afualo?

  That's fucking insane. What about Fourth Wing? You've read Fourth Wing?

• 33:39Speaker 01

  I've read Fourth Wing.

• 33:40Drew Afualo?

  How do you feel about it?

• 33:41Speaker 01

  I am much more of an Akatar.

• 33:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  Girl.

• 33:45Drew Afualo?

  I feel that. I've read the first one.

• 33:47Speaker 01

  And I think I read Fourth Wing right after I finished all of Akatar, and Akatar was my first ever romanticy.

• 33:53Drew Afualo?

  Oh yeah.

• 33:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, and so then to read Fourth Wing right after it, I was like, this just kind of feels like a fanfiction.

• 33:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  Of Akatar. It was like Zayden was like doing shadows and mind reading. It was just like all too similar.

• 34:06Drew Afualo?

  Right, I agree.

• 34:07Speaker 01

  And not as good to me. And so I was, I didn't mind it. Like, I was totally entertained. I actually liked the-

• 34:13Drew Afualo?

  The world itself is cool.

• 34:14Speaker 01

  The world itself is cool. I liked the school. Like, it kind of gave like Hogwarts vibes, which I really liked.

• 34:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 34:20Speaker 01

  And I actually liked the second one better.

• 34:22Drew Afualo?

  Oh, tay.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  Which most people like hate the second one. I liked the second one better, and then the third one, I was like, I'm done.

• 34:29Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I'm finished now.

• 34:31Speaker 01

  I have actually completely finished. Thank you, though. Thank you.

• 34:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the Gen Z banter.

• 34:37Speaker 01

  Gen Z banter is hard.

• 34:39Drew Afualo?

  You know, not my fave. I'll be honest, not my fave.

• 34:42Speaker 01

  And I really struggled with Violet, just because I, I really like what the author was trying to do with like chronic illness rep. But it was really hard to like believe, like on one hand, she's like this really, really fragile girl, and then on the other hand, she is saving the entire kingdom, like physically with her power and her body.

• 35:05Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 35:05Speaker 01

  So at that, I was like trying, having a hard time wrapping my head around. But-

• 35:11Speaker 01

  Yeah, and like one second she can't, cannot walk.

• 35:13Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 35:13Speaker 01

  And the other second, she has completely saved the entire world.

• 35:16Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and then she's like, mm, that was nothing but a scratch.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 35:19Drew Afualo?

  I'm good.

• 35:20Speaker 01

  So that was hard.

• 35:21Drew Afualo?

  This episode is brought to you by Pandora. I'm such a sentimental gift giver, like, I need the gift to mean something, which is why Pandora is kind of perfect. And for me personally, if I was gonna get someone a gift from Pandora, I would get them earrings. My Pandora earrings are some of my faves. I'm wearing one right now. Woo, beautiful. But they don't just have earrings, they also have everything. From lab-grown diamonds to colorful enamel pieces, so it never feels generic. It's always giving thoughtful. Because Pandora is more than just jewelry, it's personal. Shop Pandora today in-store or online at pandora.net. I read Quicksilver. Did you read Quicksilver?

• 36:03Speaker 01

  I fucked with Quicksilver.

• 36:04Drew Afualo?

  Me too. I fucked heavy with that one. Did you read the second one?

• 36:08Speaker 01

  No, did you?

• 36:09Drew Afualo?

  No, I started it, haven't finished it yet, though. But I'm not DNFing it, I just haven't finished.

• 36:13Speaker 01

  Is it, what's it, what's it like?

• 36:15Drew Afualo?

  It's really, it's good still, but it is getting insane.

• 36:19Speaker 01

  I forget everything that happened in Quicksilver, which is hard.

• 36:22Drew Afualo?

  Well, that's another thing, too. Like, once they brought in the vampires at the end, I was kinda like, like, I would say, up until like 85, 90% of the book, I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Once they brought in the vampires, I was kinda like, alright.

• 36:34Speaker 01

  Alright, we're going somewhere completely different.

• 36:36Drew Afualo?

  No worries, but I just felt like there was already so much happening. I was like, okay, a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth magical element, okay.

• 36:44Speaker 01

  Alright.

• 36:44Drew Afualo?

  So I, I liked how it ended, I loved it, I had such a blast reading it. I thought it was so tea. Second one I was reading and I was kinda like, okay, alright. Like, there's just a lot going on with the vampire element of it. Which is, it's, it's kinda throwing me a little bit. Which is a bummer, because I really loved the first one.

• 37:02Speaker 01

  You'll have to let me know, because it's really hard for me to read a sequel when I don't remember anything. From the first one.

• 37:10Drew Afualo?

  Yo, let's just leave it as it was.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:12Drew Afualo?

  What it was, it was beautiful.

• 37:13Speaker 01

  But some girls who recap on TikTok like are doing God's work. Like if I like looked up, I forget what just came out. I think for Fourth Wing, I was like, Fourth Wing recap.

• 37:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 37:24Speaker 01

  When the third one came out, and these girls are doing whiteboards, like full like notebook of notes.

• 37:29Drew Afualo?

  Low charts.

• 37:30Speaker 01

  Really, really helpful, so I could.

• 37:32Drew Afualo?

  It helps to brush up.

• 37:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:33Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I've done that before with um like YouTube videos.

• 37:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:36Drew Afualo?

  Like sometimes people do like little animations of it, just to kind of walk you through it again.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:41Drew Afualo?

  Which I appreciate.

• 37:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, I really need that.

• 37:43Drew Afualo?

  Heavy with Quicksilver.

• 37:44Speaker 01

  I really liked Quicksilver. It was one of those that I closed the book and I was like, wow, five stars. And then I opened Goodreads and everyone's like, worst thing I've ever read.

• 37:54Speaker 01

  And I'm like, oh wait, shoot.

• 37:56Drew Afualo?

  It was like, oh, I had a blast.

• 37:58Speaker 01

  And then do you ever like read their reviews and you're and you're like, okay, yeah, that is true.

• 38:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, like I'll give you that, sure.

• 38:04Speaker 01

  I will give you that, yeah. That that happens to me a lot when I'm like, and sometimes it was lit fic too, when they're like, this was really har- like bad, problematic, harmful, and I'm like, shit. I completely missed that.

• 38:19Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you're like, oh.

• 38:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I I read um, have you ever read Phantasma?

• 38:26Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:27Drew Afualo?

  What'd you think about that one?

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Let me pull up my Goodreads review.

• 38:29Drew Afualo?

  Yes, ring up your Goodreads.

• 38:31Speaker 01

  I remember I had a problem with it.

• 38:33Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  Oh, I think it was the end, didn't make any sense to me.

• 38:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the end was really confusing.

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think I just really had a, like, I didn't understand it. Enchondra.

• 38:42Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 38:43Speaker 01

  I gave it three stars.

• 38:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, see the sa- I would give it three too, with the second one especially.

• 38:47Speaker 01

  My review was, another book that begs the age old question, am I dumb or was that ending bad? Like, I just think I didn't, nothing made, oh yeah, because he was like a du- sorry spoiler for Phantasma.

• 38:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 38:57Speaker 01

  He was like a double agent, but also.

• 38:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 39:00Speaker 01

  He also didn't remember her at all. I I I didn't.

• 39:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he was like, he he was saying like the first time he met her met her as a spirit on the outside of the house, like he doesn't remember that because his dad wiped his memory.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  His dad wiped his memory.

• 39:13Drew Afualo?

  Which I was like so in the whole time, because I was like, wow, Victorian, like ghosts, kind of like spiritual kind of thing. I've never read one like that, like, wow, okay. And it was like so horror, like there was so much horror to it.

• 39:25Speaker 01

  It had so much potential, I think.

• 39:26Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like, so I was like, alright, like, and then at the end, I I too was like. What? Like, I was so confused, like, and then the second one was so freaked out. I was like, I can't even.

• 39:37Speaker 01

  DNS?

• 39:38Drew Afualo?

  No, I finished the whole thing. I just couldn't even, I was like, I feel like this was mostly for the sex, the second one.

• 39:44Speaker 01

  And then sometimes it's like.

• 39:45Drew Afualo?

  And that's okay, too.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  That's okay.

• 39:47Drew Afualo?

  I just thought the first one had so much, like, lore, too. And it took forever for them to fuck, like, it took forever.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  It did, but also that one, like, the, what I really liked about it, like, I was, I felt like I was there, like, the ambiance was really, really good.

• 40:00Drew Afualo?

  Same, I agree. The world building was so awesome.

• 40:02Speaker 01

  Yes, it was, but just like, the plot just really fell through at the end.

• 40:07Drew Afualo?

  And the second one, I was like, okay, so it's like the movie Ready or Not? Like, have you ever seen that movie?

• 40:11Speaker 01

  I don't think so.

• 40:12Drew Afualo?

  It's basically like she marries into a family and then, uh, they basically all try to kill her until the very next day. She has to, like, run from them the whole time. That's like their thing. And I've told people, like, that's essentially the plot of the second one, like, in Chantro, she's like, they're playing this game and, like, they're trying to kill each other, but they're all spirits, she's not, so if she dies, she'll die for real. But like, her guy and like the, uh, there was so much sex in that one, way more than the first one, which I'm like, that's cool, but it kind of feels like we're moving from one room to the next, just to fuck in a different way.

• 40:42Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 40:42Drew Afualo?

  Like, that's, it felt like we're, we're just, this is all fluff until the next time we fuck.

• 40:46Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 40:46Drew Afualo?

  Which I, that's when you start losing me, because I, I am a huge fan of, of smut in the books, don't get me wrong, but it has to be like.

• 40:52Speaker 01

  It needs to enhance the plot.

• 40:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, there has to be a payoff to some extent, when you're just wanting to watch them fuck in different areas of the house, I'm kind of like.

• 41:00Speaker 01

  And it was a spirit?

• 41:02Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, he, well, he was a demon that time.

• 41:04Speaker 01

  Oh, I love that.

• 41:04Drew Afualo?

  I think the first one was a spirit, this one's a demon.

• 41:07Speaker 01

  Blackwell, I actually remember him well. I remember.

• 41:10Drew Afualo?

  I know him well.

• 41:11Speaker 01

  I know him well, and the second they introduced him as having, like, white blonde hair, I was like, no! Why did you tell, why did you say that? Don't tell me that, because then it's like, okay, this is Malfoy.

• 41:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too, and then I'm all, then I'm kind of creeped out.

• 41:27Speaker 01

  I know.

• 41:28Drew Afualo?

  Then I'm thinking, Lucius Malfoy.

• 41:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:31Drew Afualo?

  I know, cause the second guy had brown hair.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, okay, that's so maybe I'll read, maybe I'll read, maybe I'll read.

• 41:36Drew Afualo?

  But the second one, there's a point where they, sorry spoiler, there's a like, I don't know, the third or fourth time they fuck, but they like fuck for real, I guess. And he, when he pulls his dick out, she talks about there being a piercing.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  No.

• 41:48Drew Afualo?

  And I said, so now they have Prince Albert's in the spiritual realm?

• 41:54Speaker 01

  No.

• 41:54Drew Afualo?

  When did that demon go to get a piercing?

• 41:56Speaker 01

  I guess that like fits with like my vision of a demon.

• 41:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I guess, but like who pierced the demon? Like, did he go to a shop? Like, that's where I was kinda like, you lost me.

• 42:04Speaker 01

  That's when it's like, I need more world building.

• 42:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's why I was like, I need more context.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  The piercing shop.

• 42:08Drew Afualo?

  I'm leaving with more questions than answers.

• 42:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:11Drew Afualo?

  So that's why I was like, when I read that part, I went, I was on a plane, I remember reading it and I was going, now, why would they write that part in there?

• 42:19Speaker 01

  It's like, does the person next to me know that?

• 42:21Drew Afualo?

  I'm reading about a dick piercing and a demon.

• 42:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm a demon, yeah.

• 42:24Drew Afualo?

  And then she's like, ooh.

• 42:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 42:27Drew Afualo?

  Like, it's that that whole paragraph is just for her to be like, oh, whoa.

• 42:31Speaker 01

  Right, no.

• 42:32Drew Afualo?

  So it really serves nothing.

• 42:33Speaker 01

  That would take me out a pretty good bit, yeah, that's hard.

• 42:36Drew Afualo?

  I just didn't think demons were doing that shit, but you know, what do I know?

• 42:39Speaker 01

  What do I know?

• 42:40Drew Afualo?

  I know nothing. I will say the ending of that one, though, is really beautiful and sweet, and I think it's, cause there's a part at the end of that one, which, not to spoil it, but like, there's a part at the end where she forgets everything.

• 42:52Speaker 01

  That author loves that. Yeah.

• 42:54Drew Afualo?

  She loves to wipe people's memories.

• 42:56Speaker 01

  Complete amnesia.

• 42:57Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, so she forgets everything, and then the demon guy keeps with the dick piercing, he keeps coming back, um, to the same spot to like essentially wait for her memory to like kick in.

• 43:08Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 43:08Drew Afualo?

  Takes her maybe a couple of weeks after they get out of the house, and then she's like, I remember everything, and then he's like, thank God, by the way, don't forget, I have a dick piercing.

• 43:16Speaker 01

  Don't forget, one thing you can't forget.

• 43:20Drew Afualo?

  The one thing you can't forget. Okay, what's, what are some fiction books that you like always recommend to people? Like, you're like, if you're, if you're going into your foray of adult fiction, like, what are some that you're always recommending?

• 43:32Speaker 01

  There is this book that really has not gotten its flowers, it's called Idlewild.

• 43:38Drew Afualo?

  Oh, okay.

• 43:39Speaker 01

  Um, by-

• 43:40Drew Afualo?

  I've heard of it.

• 43:40Speaker 01

  You have?

• 43:41Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I've heard of it.

• 43:42Speaker 01

  Okay, it's by, I believe the author's name is James Frankie Thomas.

• 43:46Drew Afualo?

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:47Speaker 01

  And the book is about just these two- Like, kind of like weird girls in high school. And the high school is this like really like tiny like Quaker liberal arts school, it's super gay.

• 44:00Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 44:00Speaker 01

  And it's just like about these two girls like finding themselves through like fanfiction and like sexuality. And just like, it really like captures the way, I just remember how I felt in high school. And it felt like everything was so intense.

• 44:15Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 44:16Speaker 01

  And the end of the world. And just like, if my crush doesn't like me back, like there's no reason for

• 44:23Speaker 00

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• 44:56Speaker 01

  For me to keep on living. And like, I just felt like I was back there when I read this book. And the characters were just so well-developed. And I thought, that was brilliant. And that is a book, when I read it, that I was like, I want to write.

• 45:08Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's so nice.

• 45:09Speaker 01

  Because it just, it just really, yeah, it's one of those books that makes you think about how important writing is. And like, what you can do with it.

• 45:16Drew Afualo?

  How powerful it can be.

• 45:17Speaker 01

  How powerful it can be.

• 45:17Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  So that book, I really love. There's also, I was telling you, Emily Austin, I just love her books. Like, that's like the best weird girl lit. Like, in one of her books, there's this like, the main character is just like, has a phobia of bald men. And like, the book is about her kind of navigating, navigating that deep fear.

• 45:40Drew Afualo?

  Oh.

• 45:41Speaker 01

  And what else? I mean, Akatar, I'm always like, you guys, you must.

• 45:46Drew Afualo?

  If you need romantic, see, dip the toe.

• 45:49Speaker 01

  Must.

• 45:49Drew Afualo?

  Get into that.

• 45:50Speaker 01

  I also really, this is, not a lot of people, this is, I don't know how people will feel about this. I love Ally Hazelwood.

• 45:58Drew Afualo?

  Okay.

• 45:58Speaker 01

  And I think she is, she writes really cheesy books in a way that I love.

• 46:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 46:04Speaker 01

  The Love Hypothesis. Some people are like, this is too cheesy for me.

• 46:07Drew Afualo?

  Is that the one that Lily Ryan was making?

• 46:09Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. And I do get that. But something about it.

• 46:16Speaker 01

  Like, worked for me.

• 46:17Drew Afualo?

  It's hidden.

• 46:18Speaker 01

  Every way, there is a scene where one of my friends wrote it and was like, I can't read this.

• 46:25Drew Afualo?

  She said.

• 46:25Speaker 01

  She basically is fake dating her professor and there's, there's a scene where there's no seats left in the lecture hall. And her and her professor, everyone knows they're dating.

• 46:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  Quote unquote. And she needs a seat and so she has to like sit on his lap. And most people are like, absolutely not, like can't do the scene. I was literally like chewing the pages.

• 46:48Drew Afualo?

  You said it was working for me.

• 46:49Speaker 01

  I was like, I loved that book. There's also this scene, they have to like, they're still trying to prove to everyone they're dating.

• 46:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 46:56Speaker 01

  And where she has to put sunscreen on him. To me, this is like, smile, like, I like, I just, I loved that book. And they're like really nerdy, which I really enjoyed. Like she writes a lot of like STEM romance.

• 47:08Drew Afualo?

  I think that's really cute though. I think when you can enjoy, it's like, like we said earlier, cringey, but a tasteful amount.

• 47:14Speaker 01

  It was, some people are like too mu- that.

• 47:17Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  Not tasteful for me. It was too much for me. I was like, this.

• 47:20Drew Afualo?

  It was just the right amount.

• 47:21Speaker 01

  Awesome. And her, she kind of copy and pastes her books in a way that I love, because I, I, I'm just reading the same thing over and over again.

• 47:31Drew Afualo?

  Same tropes, different, different setting.

• 47:32Speaker 01

  And it's always just like this massive, hulking, nerdy guy that is so hot and smart and yet has never had a girlfriend.

• 47:42Drew Afualo?

  And for some reason.

• 47:43Speaker 01

  And it's awesome.

• 47:45Drew Afualo?

  Has literally, no one's ever taken off his glasses and seen how beautiful he is.

• 47:48Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 47:49Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  So I really, I love her. I really do.

• 47:53Drew Afualo?

  I think that's great. That's how I felt about the Summer I Tuned Pretty books.

• 47:55Speaker 01

  I get that.

• 47:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I felt, I read all those books in like two days, because they're pretty, pretty quick reads, but I was like, I was eating it up. I will say though, I am one of those people that if it starts going the way I do not like, sometimes I will stop reading. Because I have the ending, it's up here.

• 48:09Speaker 01

  That's amazing that you can do that.

• 48:10Drew Afualo?

  It's up here.

• 48:11Speaker 01

  Yeah. I haven't read YA in a really long time and I'd like to.

• 48:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I read tho- those ones, I would say like, even if you watch the show, I would say that both brothers are infinitely worse in the books.

• 48:23Speaker 01

  No.

• 48:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they both are even more terrible.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  Team Jer- like you had this whole thing.

• 48:27Drew Afualo?

  I was Team Jeremiah. I was Team Jeremiah when I watched the show initially. Um, and then obviously in the last season, they made him the op of the century. I literally, episode one, I was like, they are running a smear campaign on my guy and it's working.

• 48:41Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:41Drew Afualo?

  Because I hate him now too. Like, he fucking sucks. Like, they made him unbearable in the last season.

• 48:46Speaker 01

  They did.

• 48:47Drew Afualo?

  And he was like, not like that the other fucking two. So in the books, both brothers are infinitely worse. Like, they're, like, the cheating's far worse. Con- Conrad's way meaner.

• 48:57Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 48:58Drew Afualo?

  Like, they're actually way fucking meaner to her in the books than they are in the show. Like, in the show, they really soften the edges. So like, I, that book series is a perfect example of like, cheesy, but I, I was eating it up.

• 49:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I get that. With that, like, I feel like I just watched the show. I didn't read the books. But like, that should have been like my bread and butter. But for whatever reason, I was like, I don't like Jeremiah. I don't really like Conrad. And then everyone's like, well, you're Team Belly. And I'm like, I don't think I like her either.

• 49:28Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, they made her unlikable as well.

• 49:30Speaker 01

  Can't do Laurel.

• 49:31Drew Afualo?

  No, no, yeah, no, I was like, yeah.

• 49:34Speaker 01

  Can't do Moms.

• 49:34Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, unfortunately.

• 49:35Speaker 01

  I kind of was just watching for like, the vibes. Yeah.

• 49:38Drew Afualo?

  I agree.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  And I love when we're all doing a collective watch of something. Like, I'll always watch that.

• 49:42Drew Afualo?

  I don't appreciate getting, trying, people trying to jump me for it, but I did, I did.

• 49:45Speaker 01

  No, I wouldn't appreciate that either.

• 49:46Drew Afualo?

  You know what's funny though, is when I was going to bat for like, the Jeremiah girls? Because I was like, I'm, I'm standing on the platform of the last two seasons. Like, he was awesome in the first two.

• 49:56Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 49:56Drew Afualo?

  The last one, yeah, he sucked. But that made Lola Tong follow me. So, so you tell me. You tell me.

• 50:03Speaker 01

  That's so cool. Yeah. I wonder, I know she's always like, no, I'm Team Belly. Like, I would love to know her unfiltered thoughts.

• 50:09Drew Afualo?

  Her actual fucking team?

• 50:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:11Drew Afualo?

  And this isn't also kind of random, but like Conrad, the guy who plays Conrad, his real life girlfriend also follows me.

• 50:17Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 50:17Drew Afualo?

  So I'm like. You know, oh, and Minnie too, Minnie Mills, like she played, uh, Steven's girlfriend.

• 50:22Speaker 01

  Yup.

• 50:23Drew Afualo?

  She also follows me.

• 50:24Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 50:24Drew Afualo?

  That whole cast.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  Wow, wow.

• 50:26Drew Afualo?

  The girls are fucking with me over there.

• 50:27Speaker 01

  You've got them wrapped around your finger.

• 50:28Drew Afualo?

  So now I have to go ask them what team they are for real.

• 50:31Speaker 01

  Oh, and report back.

• 50:32Drew Afualo?

  And then I violate their HIPAA rights and I'm gonna tell everyone.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  That's fine, they won't mind.

• 50:36Drew Afualo?

  They won't mind.

• 50:37Speaker 01

  They will not mind.

• 50:37Drew Afualo?

  What about, um, like, any sort of book series when you were a kid? Like, did you love any book series as a kid?

• 50:43Speaker 01

  Yes. When I was like little, little, I loved Junie B. Jones.

• 50:47Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I loved those books.

• 50:48Speaker 01

  Which I feel like she was like the first, like, weird girl lit.

• 50:52Drew Afualo?

  Totally.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  Um, the precursor. And I loved Gregor the Overlander. Did you read those?

• 50:59Drew Afualo?

  I didn't read those ones.

• 51:00Speaker 01

  It was Suzanne Collins's series before Hunger Games.

• 51:04Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 51:04Speaker 01

  And it was more middle grade.

• 51:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 51:06Speaker 01

  And it was about this boy, I think he like fell through his laundry machine and then stumbled along like the underworld with like these massive bats. I don't really remember what it was about, but it was amazing. And I would reread those in a second.

• 51:22Drew Afualo?

  Love.

• 51:23Speaker 01

  I loved the clickbooks.

• 51:24Drew Afualo?

  Oh, I loved the clickbooks.

• 51:26Speaker 01

  I wanna reread those.

• 51:27Drew Afualo?

  That, I know, I'm curious if they've held up.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  I would say they probably haven't, but I wanna see how.

• 51:32Drew Afualo?

  I read the clickbooks and Pretty Little Liars 2 I read as a book, book series too.

• 51:36Speaker 01

  I feel like I stopped at some point with Pretty Little Liars, but I definitely was loving those.

• 51:40Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 51:40Speaker 01

  And then, did you ever read the TTYL, TTFN books?

• 51:43Drew Afualo?

  The white, they were like green, pink, and they all talked all.

• 51:46Speaker 01

  Later Gator.

• 51:47Drew Afualo?

  Like solely in IM.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  It, that was genius to me.

• 51:51Drew Afualo?

  At the time, I was like, this is revolutionary.

• 51:54Speaker 01

  This is like my Da Vinci Code. Like, this is awesome.

• 51:57Drew Afualo?

  Right.

• 51:58Speaker 01

  Oh, I loved those.

• 52:00Drew Afualo?

  Were you a Twilight girl?

• 52:01Speaker 01

  I was such a Twilight girl.

• 52:03Drew Afualo?

  Loved Twilight too.

• 52:04Speaker 01

  Were you Team Jacob? I feel like I see that for you.

• 52:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was Team Jacob initially. I think, I think just across the board standard, I'll normally pick the brown one.

• 52:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:12Drew Afualo?

  If it's between a brown and a white guy, I'm like, well, obviously I'm gonna pick the brown one. Um, I think that's just kinda my vibes, but like, as an adult, I think Edward made more sense, but that's only because I'm thinking about the money. Like, he has endless amounts of money and you could live forever and you guys are in love, so I guess it kinda works out. But I think she would've been cool either way, honestly. Like, I think she would've been happy no matter what.

• 52:34Speaker 01

  Except for when she had a kid.

• 52:36Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 52:37Speaker 01

  Well, actually, I wonder like what would happen if she had a kid with Jacob. I guess that wouldn't, I guess he wouldn't imprint on his own kid.

• 52:44Drew Afualo?

  No, I doubted it, honestly. Well, that part did throw me. I remember being like, I read those when I was in middle school, so I remember when I read that part, I was like, what? Like, I remember being like, and I remember I read the first three, and then my friend was telling me, oh, this is like the final one, like Breaking Dawn. And I was like, oh, and then she told me, yeah, like, I think she has a baby in this one, and like Jacob. I remember her kind of telling me, and I was like, you're fucking lying to me. And she was like, no, I swear to God, that's what happens in this book, and that made me read it. And I was like, damn, she wasn't fucking kidding, they do do that in this book.

• 53:19Speaker 01

  I remember it like making complete sense to me at the time.

• 53:23Drew Afualo?

  It's like, everybody wins.

• 53:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:25Drew Afualo?

  Like, in that regard.

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Like him falling to his knees over the baby and was like, yeah.

• 53:30Drew Afualo?

  Well.

• 53:30Speaker 01

  Well, he's imprinting.

• 53:31Drew Afualo?

  And then when he's like, well, haven't you, didn't it seem weird that we wanted to be around each other so much lately? While she's like, getting full term with her baby?

• 53:39Speaker 01

  Yeah. I'm like, yeah, it makes, makes sense to me. That checks out.

• 53:44Drew Afualo?

  I, I think that The Hunger Games, I love that book series. And I've, I even said this, like, in my publisher meetings, like when I was selling my fantasy book. Um, but I think The Hunger Games, to this day, has one of the strongest love triangles, like, ever written. Because it persists until the end.

• 54:03Speaker 01

  That's so true.

• 54:04Drew Afualo?

  And also, like, the love triangle exists as like, it's not necessarily like which one's better, it's like who she is when she's with them. So it's like, who, who does she wanna be, who does she feel more aligned with? So like, obviously, Gail is like more of her fire, it's more of her resentment, it's more of her bitterness, like it's revenge, it's all that kind of stuff, which she's already had. And then Peter's different, it's like a, an acceptance, a peace, a love, like, that kind of calm.

• 54:30Speaker 01

  Full body chill.

• 54:32Drew Afualo?

  And I was like, I really did feel like that was one of the strongest love triangles, because like, Obviously it's YA, so there's no like sex happening, which that, that book series does not need sex. They have a lot of things going on.

• 54:44Speaker 01

  Already a lot going on.

• 54:45Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they have way too much going on, but like, I think that it's beautiful the way that at the end, first of all, it ends the right way. I was always a teen PETA girl, but also I felt like she chose on her own and she chose because she's, it's not necessarily what happened with Gail, it's more so that like, she doesn't want to be angry anymore and she doesn't want to feel bitterness anymore. And she's like, he makes me feel like I could be more than that, which I was like, tea. Like, I think that's one of the strongest love triangles.

• 55:12Speaker 01

  And so true.

• 55:13Drew Afualo?

  That's where I thought it, it fell a little short for me with Twilight, because I loved that love triangle too. But it was, it wasn't really her choice in the end, like it kinda was, like she did choose Edward, yeah. But then she still held on to Jacob until the very last second and then he imprinted, imprinted and then she's like, okay, well, he's good now. So now I can be happy. Which I didn't really love. I was like, you didn't close that one the right way.

• 55:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:37Drew Afualo?

  Like, it felt very like, hmm, I want her to be with Edward, so he's gonna be with Edward.

• 55:42Speaker 01

  I wonder how you'll feel about Phoebe's love square.

• 55:43Drew Afualo?

  I know, I'm so excited to read it, cuz I, I love a love triangle.

• 55:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:47Drew Afualo?

  I think love triangles are fun.

• 55:48Speaker 01

  I do too.

• 55:49Drew Afualo?

  I think it's fun when the women's autonomous and that. I also want to say, I do love that Phoebe is 29.

• 55:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:54Drew Afualo?

  My girl's also 29.

• 55:56Speaker 01

  I love that.

• 55:56Drew Afualo?

  Look at us.

• 55:57Speaker 01

  Really, really key age.

• 55:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, I was gonna say.

• 55:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, a lot happens then.

• 56:01Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, and even in one of the publisher meetings I had, one question the woman asked me was, would you be interested in making her 23? And I was like, no. Like, and also she's a fairy, so like technically speaking, she's 700, I think she's fine. Everybody's in their hundreds, so I think it's, I think she's good.

• 56:19Speaker 01

  I kind of hate reading books now when people are younger than me.

• 56:22Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 56:22Speaker 01

  Which obviously is happening a lot as I age.

• 56:24Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, well, they're also like 18.

• 56:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:27Drew Afualo?

  19.

• 56:28Speaker 01

  And that's so young.

• 56:29Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, that's why they're like, now I'm ready to have a baby.

• 56:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:33Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, save the world first, now I'm ready to have a baby and I'm 21. Works out perfectly.

• 56:38Speaker 01

  Like, I feel like it, I don't know when Feyre's age was mentioned for the first time in Akatar, but like when they dropped that like 23 bomb, I was like, ah.

• 56:48Drew Afualo?

  Oh, man. Like, don't, and she's the youngest, too.

• 56:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:54Drew Afualo?

  Or the middle.

• 56:54Speaker 01

  Maybe middle, I don't know, youngest or middle.

• 56:56Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, but she's not the oldest, which was another thing I didn't like either. That's, they made, I felt like Nesta was so hard to love for so long, which I was like, I get it. But I was like, wrap this up a little bit sooner. It's making it hard for me to root for her.

• 57:11Speaker 01

  I know. I, truthfully, I haven't given in to Nesta yet. She was too awful. Like, I'm all for like, an unlikable

• 57:18Drew Afualo?

  Me too.

• 57:18Speaker 01

  female character who has her demons.

• 57:20Drew Afualo?

  That has like an arc.

• 57:21Speaker 01

  She went a few steps too far, always. Like, she, she was bad to the bone.

• 57:28Speaker 01

  And like, so many people are like, oh, I'm so Nesta. And I'm like, to, to an extent, but like, she was so cruel.

• 57:35Drew Afualo?

  She was so bad. Like, especially in the fifth book, even like, my friend Carrie read it, like, after me, like, as I was finishing it. And she was like, I might quit. I really can't stand her.

• 57:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 57:45Drew Afualo?

  And I was like, I promise it gets better. Like, it's not till the last fucking two chapters, but I promise it gets better. Like, she gets less awful, I promise.

• 57:53Speaker 01

  And it went on for so long. She waited to, for that character redemption arc until the last page.

• 57:59Drew Afualo?

  The last second, right? When you're like, okay, so I'm just gonna hate her forever, I guess. I guess that's kind of my thing with her.

• 58:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 58:05Drew Afualo?

  But I'm with you on the age. I love that. I think that we need more adult fiction with older women.

• 58:10Speaker 01

  Completely.

• 58:11Drew Afualo?

  Cause you don't turn into dust when you turn thirty.

• 58:13Speaker 01

  You don't turn into dust.

• 58:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. You can still look young.

• 58:16Speaker 01

  Exactly. Thank you for saying that.

• 58:19Drew Afualo?

  Okay, I'm gonna transition now into some fun facts about you, Miss Author. Yeah, we're gonna read some fun facts about you, and you can tell Amanda if they're incorrect.

• 58:28Speaker 01

  Interesting, okay.

• 58:30Drew Afualo?

  Okay. This one says, there has been a New York Post article written about you with the headline, quote, "Woman mortified to match with brother on dating app."

• 58:40Speaker 01

  I would assume that's true.

• 58:43Drew Afualo?

  I do remember that story.

• 58:44Speaker 01

  I did match with my brother on a dating app. Or no, we didn't match. We

• 58:49Drew Afualo?

  You just saw each other.

• 58:49Speaker 01

  He was my suggested most compatible. I did not match with my brother.

• 58:54Drew Afualo?

  Let, I just wanted to clear that up really quick, but we did not match.

• 58:57Speaker 01

  We did not mutually swipe right. He was a suggested most compatible, which I, and I left swiped him.

• 59:06Drew Afualo?

  What's your brother say? He was kinda like, "Well, that sucks."

• 59:09Speaker 01

  I hope he left swiped me. We were both home for Thanksgiving, which is why we got each other, because we were in the same house.

• 59:14Drew Afualo?

  They're like, they're geolocating the two of you.

• 59:16Speaker 01

  I just opened it and saw him and I was like, "This is horrible."

• 59:20Drew Afualo?

  That being the first one you see too, it's painful.

• 59:22Speaker 01

  Painful.

• 59:23Drew Afualo?

  Especially in dating apps. Yeah, they're a prison.

• 59:26Speaker 01

  Prison.

• 59:28Drew Afualo?

  Okay, this one says, "Your very first post on Instagram is from 2012. It's a picture of Harry Styles with the caption, quote, 'Harry eating a pie.'"

• 59:38Speaker 01

  That's, yeah, that sounds true. That sounds true as well.

• 59:42Drew Afualo?

  Just like an update on him?

• 59:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was a picture from eating a pie. With a hea- heavily filtered.

• 59:47Drew Afualo?

  Heavily filtered.

• 59:48Speaker 01

  Heavily filtered, yeah.

• 59:49Drew Afualo?

  Any particular reason, or just letting everybody know?

• 59:51Speaker 01

  I think, yeah, I was just letting everyone know. I just posted like pictures of like Ha- Harry and Niall for, for quite some time.

• 59:57Drew Afualo?

  Those were the, the, your faves?

• 59:59Speaker 01

  Yeah, and it was like that humor, I thought like, being funny was, there was this really weird Era in like 2013 where like Humor was just like

• 1:00:11Speaker 01

  Observations.

• 1:00:12Drew Afualo?

  Right, it was just like things you thought.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  Like that's so random, like, yeah, exactly. So, I'm sure I was trying to be funny.

• 1:00:20Drew Afualo?

  Some of my old like, like my oldest tweets, like my Twitter's been gone for years now, but like I would say Twitter was probably the first like social media presence I had outside of like Facebook. But, um, the thoughts I had and shared, like, nobody needs to know those. They weren't even bad, they're just like pointless, like they, they really serve no purpose at all.

• 1:00:40Speaker 01

  The way I spoke back then was so specific and weird. And like not, like, it's like a different language of, of its time. I.e. Harry eating a pie. Okay?

• 1:00:51Drew Afualo?

  Okay, perfect. Did you, uh, uh, read any fanfic? About like Harry and all them?

• 1:00:57Speaker 01

  I did more imagins and one shots.

• 1:00:59Drew Afualo?

  Oh yeah, one shots were my deal too.

• 1:01:01Speaker 01

  I, I lived for those.

• 1:01:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, my sister and I would send them to each other, my sister being a lesbian by the way, so that's extra funny. That we would like send them to each other in college before she knew she was like a lesbian. Because I'm like, now that I look back, I'm like, what were you getting out of that?

• 1:01:17Speaker 01

  Hey, everyone could get something from a one shot.

• 1:01:20Drew Afualo?

  It's really just, it's perspective.

• 1:01:22Speaker 01

  They were that good.

• 1:01:23Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, they were just that good. I recently read I am a big Avatar The Last Airbender fan. So I love that show. They're coming out with a movie. The movie got leaked and there's like a ton of like edits being made of the movie like. And all of the characters are now like 250 pounds of pure muscle and everybody's in their 30s.

• 1:01:44Speaker 01

  Oh wow.

• 1:01:45Drew Afualo?

  So all the girls are like, now what is this? And I I'm seeing so many edits that I got one of random TikTok that was like, oh, the to the girls who love shipping certain characters together of this animated series. They're going crazy with the fanfiction right now. You know what that made me do? Open up AO3.

• 1:02:03Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:02:03Drew Afualo?

  I had to open it up again and I went and looked and now I'm reading one. I'll keep you guys updated on it if I like it.

• 1:02:08Speaker 01

  Please do. I love fanfiction.

• 1:02:10Drew Afualo?

  I love fanfiction, honestly. I think it really. It's one of the ancient texts in my opinion. Especially for like a fiction that we love reading.

• 1:02:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:02:18Drew Afualo?

  And smut. Are you kidding me?

• 1:02:20Speaker 01

  I was really into the Glee fanfiction space.

• 1:02:22Drew Afualo?

  Oh yeah, you're a big Glee.

• 1:02:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:24Drew Afualo?

  I was a huge Glee too.

• 1:02:25Speaker 01

  I did a lot of clean fanfic. Yeah.

• 1:02:30Drew Afualo?

  Big clean.

• 1:02:31Speaker 01

  Big clean girl over here.

• 1:02:33Drew Afualo?

  I was on um the podcast with um Jenna Ushkiewicz.

• 1:02:38Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:02:38Drew Afualo?

  And um I forget Artie's real name.

• 1:02:40Speaker 01

  Kevin McHale. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:02:42Drew Afualo?

  I was on their podcast. It was really fun and there was a part where they were like. We were talking about covers and I was like, there are, I listen to Glee covers to this day because they're so good. Some of them, dare I say, better than the originals.

• 1:02:52Speaker 01

  Complete most.

• 1:02:53Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, most if not all.

• 1:02:55Speaker 01

  Most if not all.

• 1:02:56Drew Afualo?

  And one of them I really love is I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You.

• 1:02:59Speaker 01

  So good.

• 1:02:59Drew Afualo?

  By Blaine, of course.

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  The Blaine, like no one stood a chance when Blaine was covering the song.

• 1:03:04Drew Afualo?

  And that one especially I loved and they were both like, that's so funny you say that like uh if people bring up Blaine covers, that's like always one of them that they bring up is I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You. And I said, I think that's because like, obviously you know Blaine is a gay man in the show. And you know he's with Kurt and you're like, okay, yeah, I know that.

• 1:03:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:22Drew Afualo?

  But then when you watched him sing that song, that was like one of the first times I watched him and I was kind of like.

• 1:03:28Drew Afualo?

  Why he kinda? He's kinda sexy. What is that? Well, that's kinda strange.

• 1:03:32Speaker 01

  Oh, Blaine Anderson is the hottest man alive. Truly.

• 1:03:38Drew Afualo?

  In that one song, I felt moved. I felt moved.

• 1:03:41Speaker 01

  I'm, I have been moved by him since I was a very young girl.

• 1:03:45Drew Afualo?

  I know you're a huge Jonathan Groff fan too, so him being on that show, it's all your favorite things.

• 1:03:50Speaker 01

  I will never be as alive as I was on Tuesday nights at 8pm in 2010.

• 1:03:56Drew Afualo?

  I rewatched Glee a few years ago too, like, front to back, and it's still great.

• 1:04:01Speaker 01

  It's still incredible, those first three seasons.

• 1:04:03Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:04Speaker 01

  And then, I can't speak for the rest.

• 1:04:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, yeah, they were really phoning it in at the end, but like, at the very end, but right in the middle, like, three, I would say like two and three, I was like.

• 1:04:14Speaker 01

  Incredible, like best show it's ever been made.

• 1:04:17Drew Afualo?

  It was so good. And honestly, really progressive for the time.

• 1:04:19Speaker 01

  Completely.

• 1:04:20Drew Afualo?

  When I look back now, I'm like, that show was honestly way ahead of its time.

• 1:04:24Speaker 01

  It really was.

• 1:04:24Drew Afualo?

  Like, way before any other shows were like daring to foray into shit like that.

• 1:04:29Speaker 01

  No, I remember like when Kurt and Blaine had sex for the first time, it was like a crazy thing that they aired that episode.

• 1:04:35Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, like no one could believe it.

• 1:04:36Speaker 01

  Like, no one could believe it. And like, now it's like heated rivalry, like, like, and but they, Kurt and Blaine walked so Ilya and Shane could run.

• 1:04:47Drew Afualo?

  That's true.

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:49Drew Afualo?

  We must pay respect.

• 1:04:50Speaker 01

  We must.

• 1:04:50Drew Afualo?

  To the ancient texts. Okay. Uh, this next fun fact says you used to have a choker with the planet Saturn on it.

• 1:04:58Speaker 01

  Probably.

• 1:05:01Drew Afualo?

  Every fact you're like, I think so.

• 1:05:03Speaker 01

  I'm sure, I think, did I Instagram just a picture of the choker?

• 1:05:06Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:06Speaker 01

  And, yeah, like li- lower lip choker shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:05:11Drew Afualo?

  You a big fan of Saturn?

• 1:05:12Speaker 01

  Posted it on Tumblr. I fucking love Saturn.

• 1:05:14Drew Afualo?

  You love Saturn? That's your favorite, is that your favorite planet?

• 1:05:16Speaker 01

  Sure.

• 1:05:18Drew Afualo?

  I mean, yeah, sure.

• 1:05:19Speaker 01

  I mean, yeah, if I had to pick one.

• 1:05:21Drew Afualo?

  I guess. Okay, next one says, before you got big on TikTok, you worked as a preschool teacher.

• 1:05:27Speaker 01

  That's true.

• 1:05:27Drew Afualo?

  And how were you with the kids? Philly kids would love you.

• 1:05:30Speaker 01

  I think good. Like, I, I, yeah, I loved the kids so much, but that really was the only part of the job I liked. Like, I couldn't do the lifestyle. I, yeah, it was really, it was hard.

• 1:05:41Drew Afualo?

  Of being a preschool teacher?

• 1:05:42Speaker 01

  I was like so drained.

• 1:05:45Drew Afualo?

  Oh, my god, I can only imagine.

• 1:05:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, I really, I didn't really have a life.

• 1:05:48Drew Afualo?

  Molding mines?

• 1:05:49Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:05:50Drew Afualo?

  That's what you were doing?

• 1:05:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. Oh, completely.

• 1:05:53Drew Afualo?

  Okay, last one, it says, in a quote from your high school newspaper.

• 1:05:57Speaker 01

  You really dug deep.

• 1:05:58Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, you said your brother Noah would, quote, eat all the applesauce packets and leave none for you.

• 1:06:05Speaker 01

  That's a quote in my high school's newspaper?

• 1:06:07Drew Afualo?

  You and your brother, man.

• 1:06:08Speaker 01

  Damn. I, I mean, if I said it, I, I don't, I feel like I wouldn't lie about that.

• 1:06:16Speaker 01

  There was no context of that? It was just a picture of us. Uh, damn.

• 1:06:21Drew Afualo?

  Can I get a quote about your brother? And you're like, yeah, he fucking eats all the applesauce. So, there you go.

• 1:06:25Speaker 01

  Oh, you know what this was? No. It was in the era of Go-Go Squeezes.

• 1:06:30Drew Afualo?

  Oh, okay, okay.

• 1:06:31Speaker 01

  And I was obsessed with those. Yeah, and I guess he ate them all. Yeah, that's, that rings true.

• 1:06:37Drew Afualo?

  And you had to hold him accountable.

• 1:06:38Speaker 01

  That rings true. Yeah. You completely blasted him in the school paper.

• 1:06:43Drew Afualo?

  Put out a hit piece on your brother in the school newspaper. When I was in high school, I got voted most likely to want to be stranded on an island with, which felt racially charged.

• 1:06:53Speaker 01

  Really?

• 1:06:54Drew Afualo?

  For me. Well, I just thought, I was like, you guys think I'm gonna turn into fucking Tom Hanks when I go there.

• 1:06:58Speaker 01

  I get that.

• 1:06:59Drew Afualo?

  I'm just gonna automatically assimilate like that. Wrong. Um, but I felt like I should have gotten something else, like, like funniest.

• 1:07:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:07Drew Afualo?

  I don't know, I felt shortchanged.

• 1:07:08Speaker 01

  We had to write our own, which is...

• 1:07:10Drew Afualo?

  Like, for yourselves?

• 1:07:11Speaker 01

  Our mo- our own most likely to's, which is so dumb. Um, but I saw mine circulating on TikTok the other day. Cause some girl, I guess, from my high school found a, an old yearbook there. So, like, I'm, like, mortified. It was like, most likely to be betrothed to all of the members of One Direction at the same time. Like, don't let eighteen-year-olds write their most likely to's. Don't do that.

• 1:07:37Drew Afualo?

  Why would you do that to me?

• 1:07:38Speaker 01

  Don't do that to me. Now it's on the internet.

• 1:07:40Drew Afualo?

  Don't post it again.

• 1:07:42Speaker 01

  Do not post that.

• 1:07:45Drew Afualo?

  I got into One Direction, I felt like a tiny bit late, but when I was in there, I was in there.

• 1:07:49Speaker 01

  Oh, I was.

• 1:07:50Drew Afualo?

  I was a big Jonas Brothers girl, though, so that's.

• 1:07:52Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:07:52Drew Afualo?

  I think that's why. I was like so balls deep in Jonas Brothers shit that like, when One Direction came around, I remember like actively thinking to myself, I can't get into that.

• 1:08:00Speaker 01

  I don't have the bandwidth.

• 1:08:03Drew Afualo?

  I can't even open the door, because if I do, that's all that's gonna be up here, and I need to focus.

• 1:08:09Speaker 01

  Oh, I was so sick.

• 1:08:10Drew Afualo?

  But then eventually, I had to give in. Eventually, they got me. They got my fucking ass.

• 1:08:14Speaker 01

  Oh my god, I was so, so sick.

• 1:08:15Drew Afualo?

  I watched that acoustic cover they did on YouTube of One Thing. You guys can look it up still. It has like fucking fifty million fucking views, but that was the first video I watched of them, and I said, well, now I gotta get into this. I'd like to get involved with that.

• 1:08:27Speaker 01

  Do you remember the acoustic cover of them doing More Than This in the baseball jerseys?

• 1:08:31Drew Afualo?

  Yes, of course I do.

• 1:08:32Speaker 01

  That, I think that was my most, that is my most watched YouTube video of all time. Yeah. That is burned into my brain.

• 1:08:38Drew Afualo?

  When Harry got long hair, I said, now you're gonna have to stop, or I'm gonna be, I'm gonna do something crazy.

• 1:08:43Speaker 01

  He...

• 1:08:46Speaker 01

  He, that, nothing has existed like that, or will exist again.

• 1:08:50Drew Afualo?

  I'm telling you.

• 1:08:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. The way that he made me feel.

• 1:08:54Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, the, it's.

• 1:08:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:08:55Drew Afualo?

  The feeling I got inside my body.

• 1:08:57Speaker 01

  I almost felt sick all the time. Yeah.

• 1:08:59Drew Afualo?

  Yeah, just thinking about it.

• 1:09:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:09:02Drew Afualo?

  Okay. Those are all your fun facts.

• 1:09:04Speaker 01

  Awesome.

• 1:09:05Drew Afualo?

  But to circle back, you're, you're so fun. You have so many fun facts.

• 1:09:08Speaker 01

  Thank you. I, I sure do.

• 1:09:11Drew Afualo?

  I wanna circle back to Phoebe. Um, what do you hope everybody takes away from your, from your very first book? How exciting. But also, uh, just your first fiction book, your first world-building kind of book?

• 1:09:22Speaker 01

  I hope that everyone takes away that everyone has their own metaphorical virginity. Something that they're really focused on, a milestone that they feel like they should have hit, and they haven't. So you're not alone in that, and you're gonna, you're not a freak. Everyone has their thing, everyone has their shit.

• 1:09:44Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:45Speaker 01

  And...

• 1:09:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:09:47Drew Afualo?

  I think that's beautiful. And would you want to see Phoebe get made into a movie or a TV show?

• 1:09:52Speaker 01

  I would, yeah, that would be, I think she'd make a good movie.

• 1:09:55Drew Afualo?

  Do you think you would be in it?

• 1:09:56Speaker 01

  I would like to be, there's like a very, there's like a side character at one point who has like five lines, who I could see myself making one of those author cameos as.

• 1:10:07Drew Afualo?

  If you were gonna cast it, who would you cast? In your main, in your principal cast?

• 1:10:11Speaker 01

  Well, I would, I think Joe Keery.

• 1:10:14Drew Afualo?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:15Speaker 01

  Um.

• 1:10:15Drew Afualo?

  David Cornsweat.

• 1:10:16Speaker 01

  David Cornsweat.

• 1:10:17Drew Afualo?

  Evan Peters.

• 1:10:18Speaker 01

  Evan Peters.

• 1:10:19Drew Afualo?

  For the men.

• 1:10:19Speaker 01

  Actually, I'm switching him out.

• 1:10:21Drew Afualo?

  Oh, to Hudson. That's right.

• 1:10:23Speaker 01

  Um, and I would want Phoebe to be an unknown actress.

• 1:10:26Drew Afualo?

  Oh, that's such a great idea. That's beautiful. I love that. Look at you, you have all the plans.

• 1:10:31Speaker 01

  Thank you.

• 1:10:32Drew Afualo?

  I'm so excited. Do you have anything you want to tease about your next book, or just to expect it other book?

• 1:10:37Speaker 01

  I hope you can expect it.

• 1:10:40Speaker 01

  It's definitely like a psychological process that I'm going through to write a second book after this one, but hopefully you can expect it.

• 1:10:48Drew Afualo?

  Yes, I think you can. And I want to say too, I'm so excited for you. I'm so proud of you.

• 1:10:53Speaker 01

  I cannot wait to read your romantic.

• 1:10:55Drew Afualo?

  Oh my gosh, I can't wait to read Phoebe. Oh my god, I can't wait. It's gonna be amazing and beautiful. I'm so happy for you.

• 1:11:01Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 1:11:01Drew Afualo?

  And I really do think this is like, this makes the most sense for you, like to write a fiction, to write a rom-com, like anything like that. I think you're like such a genius for doing it, but I also think you have the brain for it. And I'm so excited to see what else you build.

• 1:11:15Speaker 01

  Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.

• 1:11:17Drew Afualo?

  It's gonna be amazing and beautiful. Thank you all so much to you for tuning into this episode of the comment section. Thank you so much to my amazing guest, Brooke Averick, for maybe the one or two people that don't know you.

• 1:11:27Speaker 01

  Oh, please.

• 1:11:27Drew Afualo?

  Where can everybody find you?

• 1:11:28Speaker 01

  Um, I also have a podcast called Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast. You can find that anywhere. And, yeah, a few on Goodreads, Brooke Averick, and then I think that on Instagram as well.

• 1:11:41Drew Afualo?

  Yes, and make sure y'all go get your copy of Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It.

• 1:11:45Speaker 01

  Out yesterday.

• 1:11:46Drew Afualo?

  Yes, out yesterday. Make sure, I'm sure all of you bitches already have it, but if you don't, make sure you go get it. I actually also bought a copy.

• 1:11:52Speaker 01

  Drew, that's so sweet. You didn't have to do that.

• 1:11:54Drew Afualo?

  I know I didn't.

• 1:11:55Speaker 01

  That's very, that's very sweet.

• 1:11:56Drew Afualo?

  I know that. I'm very, and trust me, I do not buy every book I see. Thank you. So I'm very excited for you all to read it. I think it's gonna be amazing. Thank you so much to the amazing Brooke for coming on the show. Don't forget, new episodes of the comment section drop every Wednesday. You can stream the audio on all streaming platforms. The video right now is on Spotify, but it will soon be on YouTube. Thank you so much to my amazing guests. Thank you so much to all of you, and I'll see you next time. Bye.

• 1:12:30Speaker 00

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