Wow

...

I, with that one it started from a place of what I had felt, which was just feeling invisible suddenly when I hit my 40s, you know, um, and feeling very marginalized.

And so from there I developed Miriam, um, that she has shadow magic.

Uh, sort of that you can both hide in it, but then with shadow magic no one sees you coming.

So how does that, how do you turn what maybe feels like a flaw into, um, just empowerment? Yeah.

One thing I always liked, I know Joss Whedon is incredibly problematic, but I remember hearing about the writers' room, that he would say to the writers, um, "What's your, uh, what was a, a humiliating teen experience or something you felt, and then what's the monster that embodies that?" And I like to think about that with my characters.

Stop," you know? How do you keep going? Because that's what our p- podcast is trying to reach out to, those people who are just like, "I feel like quitting because this is too much." Do you have any words of wisdom to say to that author that's feeling a little discouraged with all the weight of all this right now?

So tell us about the world that you built here in the Golem for Broke World.

Right.

So magic is out in the open.

You're allowed to, you know, people have one kind of magic and these women, when they, they got their magic when they went through perimenopause.

And so the symptoms that they each suffer with the most.

became their magic system.

So the, my lead character, Tova, she has hot flash magic.

that that that's the power of god i mean okay um right so so which which stories and and and platforms did did you draw upon you know was it stuff that your your parents or grandparents told you was it stuff from from the bible did you know just

When you were in that, like, switch from screenplay or screenwriting to then becoming a novelist or writer, did you face feelings of self-doubt, eh, like, in that first bit of process? And then, and then I wonder if you could speak to the change in 25 books in.

Right.

So that first...

So in 2012, that was the YA pen name, and so that's not even part of the 25 books.

That's, like, five other books.

I think because I was treating it as an experiment, like, do I want to write, do I still enjoy writing 'cause I'm so burned out, um, I think in a lot of ways that was really good.

Like, it took a lot of the pressure off because I'm like, "Eh, I'm just gonna see what happens," you know? If worse comes to worst, I can go back to screenwriting, you know? And, and I was still teaching screenwriting, and so I had that.

And if you feel like sharing a little bit about your series that you have out, your multiple series that you have out, I would love to just have my audience learn a little bit more about that as well.

What's this book all about?

So Throwing Shade is the first in my Magic After Midlife series.

And it was the first time, this was my third series, there's seven books in it.

And for people who can see the cover, it's a purple cover with a stiletto, a purple stiletto high heel with magic swirls all around it.

And then it's got a little charm on it.

It's a gold glittery skull and crossbones, but it's really cutesy.

So I like to have fun with the magic and, you know, so it's an empowered woman and there's still a sense of cheeky fun and magic.

Panic.