So let's start with this, Heartbreak and the Hope.

Uh, yes, this is Lost and Found by Tara Dewitt.

She's one of my favorite romance authors.

She is the master of writing things that are the perfect mix of emotional and steamy.

She deals with some really emotional topics, but does it in a way that's never too heavy.

[laughs]

Um, but I wrote, wanted to write about an anxious woman in the romantic space.

So Phoebe is a hopeless romantic who has very severe intimacy anxiety.

So can you talk a little bit about some of the things that you've gone through with anxiety and OCD and how you learned to cope and a little bit more about that initial video that folks fell in love with?

Sure.

I don't know if I ever learned to cope until, like, recently.

Maybe part of the charm.

But yeah, I was very anxious at a very young age and had OCD that was undiagnosed because I think it was not fully understood at the time that OCD could also be about thought patterns, and so-When I was very young, I was five when 9/11 happened, and that was something that I thought was my responsibility.

I thought that I had done 9/11, and that was kind of my origin story with my mental illness was kind of then.

Just because I still don't really understand what my thought process was there.

How long did it take for you to write it? Did you create an outline? Walk me through the whole experience from a process point of view.

Mm-hmm

... my celebrity crushes.

So it was just, like, a lot of just, like, my romantic fantasies, like, projected onto them.

And then the friend group was also kind of, like, a mix of my friends in real life, and I have one friend, um, his name's Tristan, who is just, like, such a unique character that I've been, like, writing down some things that he says over the course of the years, and a lot of those made it into the character, um, one of Phoebe's friends, Alex.

So I'd say of anyone, like, besides me putting my anxiety into Phoebe, like, Alex is also-

What do you hope readers carry on with them and take away from her story in this book?

I think that, uh, one of Phoebe's issues is kind of, like, taking a step out of her head and away, um, from herself, and so she kind of thinks that everything's the end of the world, especially her not losing her virginity.

And kind of towards the end of the book, I think she starts to realize, like, maybe this is not the end of the world and maybe everybody has their own sort of hang-up and their own virginity, um, so to speak.

Can you talk a little bit about where the inspiration for this story came from?

Yeah.

Like you said, I'm a very avid romance reader.

I love romance, and I think that I was always kind of waiting for a character that was, I guess, more anxious and, and less confident.

I, like I said, like I, I, I love all of these books so much, but all of the characters that I'm used to reading about are very sexually empowered and confident, and that's awesome, and I think we need that.

But I was also kind of like, "Hi, uh," [laughs]

But were there things from your friend group that are in the book that are like nice little nods to your friends in real life?

I will say I have one friend who since the day I met him was like he, someone's gotta write a movie or a book where he is a character, 'cause he is like, you can't write it.

[laughs]

And I have, like, when I, i- 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?

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

Last night, like, in, I was reading a chapter of my book where, like, a fire sprite dr- 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-

Will you explain to everybody what Lady Efron is?

When I was, I think, 10, I was very in love with Zac Efron and just the whole High School Musical franchise, and that was my email address, was ladyefron@aol.com, and also my AIM screen name was Lady Efron.

And so when I went to make a TikTok, I just made that the username 'cause I was like, "I'm not gonna use this, and no one will find me, and I'm not posting anything." And then it turns out I like did post something, and then it did go viral, and then Lady Efron came with that.

When you say unhappy, what do you mean? You felt unfulfilled as a creator?

Well, I was teaching, and I loved the kids, but I was really struggling.

I think I have always wanted to do something creative, and I didn't feel like that need was met when I was teaching.

I was so tired from teaching.

Like, I would be done at 3:00 and that was it.

No worries if not.

It, it really was, like, a not...

It's, I'm, like, making something out of nothing.

It wasn't a thing, but just this, I, this guy liked me, and we had another date planned, and I was like, "I know that I'm not interested, and I don't wanna waste any more of his time." But we had a...

And I was, like, stressing about it for days, and then on the day of the date, I was like, "I, I'm, I can't do this." And so I sent him a text-

I actually am curious to hear you s- call yourself a Charlotte, too, because have you noticed any, like, cultural trends around, like, either the shift of Charlotte's character itself or just, like, the, how more people are identifying with her in general?

I think that we went through an amazing era of, like, Samantha, of, like, sexually, like, empowered women, which is amazing, but I think there are a lot of people who are m- like, more reserved and, like, shy, and, like, hopeless romantics.

And I think that we're kind of having our time now.