Talking Cons with Author Megan Mackie

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Hello, Hello. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Mallory's Weird World Adventures, the podcast. I'm your host, Mallory, and I'm here to show you just how weird this world of ours really is. For those of us joining us for the first time, Weird World Adventures is a brand with a focus on travel. Overall, though, our specialty lies in featuring the strangest and most unusual places around the world. We highlight myths, legends, belief systems, and weird people living weird lives in a very celebratory way. As a proud weirdo myself, I'm happy to see the brand come to life. Watch Weird World Adventures on Amazon prime, our TV show, or visit mallorysadventures.com for more. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. On Instagram, we're Alories Adventures. On Facebook, we're Eirdworld Adventures. And on TikTok, we're @ Mallory's Adventures as your guide and host. I'm a board member in the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Explorers Club. I am a journalist with a specialty in mythology, folklore, and the occult. And I'm excited because I have my friend Megan Mackey here with me today. And. Spelled differently, but, yes, I feel like. [00:01:14] Speaker B: We should be Bugs and Babs, right? Buster and Babs. No relation. [00:01:18] Speaker A: Yeah, no relation. Mackie and Mackie. [00:01:21] Speaker B: We don't even spell it the same way. [00:01:22] Speaker A: And yet, I mean, there's not that many Mackies. And I think I. I knew one other Mackie my whole life. [00:01:29] Speaker B: Oh. I. I mean, I know several Mackies, but they're all related to my husband in some way, so. [00:01:33] Speaker A: Well, that's. That's. I guess that's a good point. I guess. [00:01:37] Speaker B: My sister, to be fair. Yeah. [00:01:38] Speaker A: My grandpa. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:41] Speaker A: So there's that. But I wanted to talk to you today about. We both were just speaking recently at Con Carolinas. [00:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that was my first time going. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Oh, it was. [00:01:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Amazing. It was my first time, too. So I guess. What. What was your. You do the con scene, a lot, right? [00:02:01] Speaker B: I do. I do a lot. It was like, if anyone's ever been to Dragon Con, which at least 65,000 people have, you know, every year, Dragon Con is this big, intense networking thing that is like several cons going all at once. This was like that, but like a slice of Dragon Con. So, you know, a lot of the same people that I would interact with and hang out with at, like, the. The Author's Bar in the west and were here. And I. Like I said, we all get, like, a little more share of the conversation because we're not all competing to show how great we're doing or how great we're going to do. So it was. It was nice to have more. More words to say. And I could hear myself think because there was less thumpy music. [00:02:44] Speaker A: Yes. It was a nice mix of people. What. What tract were you mostly speaking in? Was it the geek life? [00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. It was like, writing tracks and then, I think, urban fantasy track, which is, you know, par for the course. [00:02:59] Speaker A: Right. I know. I was put on the paranormal track, which I was like. Okay. I mean, I guess my show has. [00:03:05] Speaker B: A lot of patterns. That's how we crossed. Yes, that's how we cross paths. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And then we were in the. Buffy. The Buffy one, which I'm so, so excited about. Buffy. [00:03:16] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I really. I. I know my head cannon for that will not come to pass because I'm not in the right place at the right time, but, man, I really wish it would. [00:03:24] Speaker A: I know. I have to ask, so. So me and Michael, my husband, are. We're rewatching or. I'm rewatching. He's watching for the first time, angel right now. [00:03:33] Speaker B: The Voyagen. [00:03:35] Speaker A: Yes. We're only. We. We watched season one, which, you know, is just a trip and so different proof of concept. [00:03:43] Speaker B: Hard. [00:03:44] Speaker A: Yes. Like Vampire Detective in Los Angeles. [00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And definitely Giles is a little too close to the 16 year old in terms of space in a school setting. And you're like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:04:00] Speaker A: And so now we're on season. We're in season two of angel, and we're just getting to the good stuff. We're just getting to, like the Darla stuff. [00:04:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. The Darla arc was probably. I wouldn't say it's their best one, but it's. It's definitely up there. It's solid. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Yes. And anything. I just. I love the Wolfram and Heart stuff and I secretly love Lila Morgan. I think she's great. So I'm, like, excited to kind of get into that Lindsay. Lila rivalry that unfortunately didn't really go anywhere that. [00:04:31] Speaker B: No, it didn't, did it? [00:04:33] Speaker A: Because they got. Lindsay left the show and they brought in Gavin and he was just not comparable. [00:04:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, God, I forgot about Gavin. That's exactly what the problem with Gavin is. [00:04:43] Speaker A: Yes. Anyway. Sorry. Every time Buffy comes up, I just. I just digress so hard. [00:04:49] Speaker B: Poor Gavin. [00:04:51] Speaker A: I know. Yeah. Yeah. He's. It's funny because Michael's watching Lost. I'm like, I'm not watching Lost, but I'm around while he's watching Lost. [00:05:00] Speaker B: You're absorbing Lost. [00:05:01] Speaker A: Yes. And he's in Lost. And so is Guy that plays Holland Manors. A lot of Wolfram and Hart is on Lost. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Really? [00:05:10] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:11] Speaker B: Oh, funny. They must have had the same casting director. [00:05:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's the same time frame. [00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. It's literally like, hey, I need a little more money to make my rent. Okay. I got this other thing you can go do. [00:05:22] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:23] Speaker B: Right. [00:05:25] Speaker A: I'm like, I know that person from Angel. I know that person from Angel. I know that person from Angel. And if I see. Or Buffy. And if I see someone in any show from that timeline, I mean, and I recognize them, I'm like, well, I either know them from Buffy or Angel, which I'll. I'll know that I do. Or if I can't pinpoint why that I know them, but I know that I know them. It's because they were also on Just Shoot Me, which is also on at that time. [00:05:46] Speaker B: Well, like, I forgot that Zoe from Firefly was on Angel. She was the daughter. [00:05:52] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:05:53] Speaker B: Profit thing. And I was like, oh, man. [00:05:56] Speaker A: Yes. Jasmine. I. I, like, controversially, really love that storyline. After all the badness, like, when. After she's birthed the, like. [00:06:09] Speaker B: Right. [00:06:09] Speaker A: The. The metaphor and, like, just the idea of, like, this God being like, well, I make everything better. Worship me. Why aren't you worshiping me? You should, you know. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:06:18] Speaker A: The commentary on religion. I. I liked it quite a lot. [00:06:22] Speaker B: Well, and it's the. I think the hardest part about that whole thing is she is so innocent in this whole thing. She really is like, I'm just doing what I'm here to do. This is how it's supposed to be. And she's like, oh, my God. You're just a child. You don't. You don't. Haven't really thought out your nefarious plan. You're just existing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's just incredibly innocent of the whole situation. And it's like, oh, this. That hurts. [00:06:50] Speaker A: I. You kill. You kill people. I kill thousands to save millions. Like, it's like. [00:06:55] Speaker B: Right. It makes perfect sense. [00:06:57] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. It just The. I like the gray line. Like that. It walks the gray line. [00:07:04] Speaker B: She doesn't know right and wrong. [00:07:05] Speaker A: Right. More than, like, Buffy, which is, like, black and white, like, good and evil a lot of times. [00:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:10] Speaker A: Very gray. [00:07:11] Speaker B: That always takes me back to. To vision. I was only born yesterday. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes. So good. [00:07:20] Speaker B: So good. [00:07:21] Speaker A: So I want to ask. We will go back a little bit to your history, to you about what brought you to the con scene. You're a writer. Can you tell us a little bit about your writer? [00:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I am urban fantasy, cyberpunk, cozy, paranormal romance, zombie apocalypse, and a bunch of other things writer. So I was. I applied to be a speaker at Conc Carolinas, and I got pulled in and. And then I was like, oh, boy. Because I've heard so many people I know have gone to Con Carolinas before who are in the writing scene, and I was encouraged strongly to go in. Man. Like, just from the first five minutes of being there, I was like, oh, yeah, I would. This was the absolute right move to come here. And I had a really good time. I got to promote my books. I got to meet the patron saint of indie authors. Do you. Oh, my God, I loved him already. And I only met him for five minutes. [00:08:19] Speaker A: I didn't meet him. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Yep. He walks around and buys every one of your books on your table, especially if you're the new one that's there. And he. I. That's what I called him. Was like, oh, you're the patron saint of indie authors. [00:08:32] Speaker A: Oh, that's so cool. I know. I'm hoping to be in the author alley next year, because I'll have six books next year. [00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I wanted to ask you because you got stuck into the. I guess the artist room or the. The second dealer's room to sign books. Did anyone show up? [00:08:49] Speaker A: There was a few. We definitely books. But it was very, like, kind of an afterthought, like, oh, we'll have some of our speakers, like, sign books for a couple of hours. But it, you know, I mean, it was just very, like, in the back, though, so it was like, exactly. [00:09:03] Speaker B: I was wondering why you didn't have a spot in the author's alley where the rest of us were. And there was traffic. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Right. Well, you know, originally they had sent me the stuff for it, and then they said that you have to have at least like, five books. And I have. I mean, I have them, but they're not out yet. [00:09:19] Speaker B: So I'm like, oh, gotcha. [00:09:20] Speaker A: Next year. [00:09:21] Speaker B: Well, I know a couple people who only had one. That meant they had to split a table. But you wouldn't have cared about that because. Yeah, there was a couple. Boo. That only had like, one or two, and they had to split a table. I got a full table because I had so many titles. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Right. Interesting. Yeah, because they. They said, like, nope, you have to have at least five. But I think. I think it was late because they were supposed to send it to me, and they sent it to me late. And I think There was just no space and they just didn't. [00:09:42] Speaker B: There. Yeah, that could very well be. There was no room at the end. [00:09:46] Speaker A: But I'm excited to next year to get that out. The. Thank goodness that the bookstore is done. [00:09:51] Speaker B: Right. Right. [00:09:53] Speaker A: How many. So how many books have you written? [00:09:55] Speaker B: I've written. I think I'm up to 21 now. [00:09:58] Speaker A: Wow. [00:09:59] Speaker B: So, like, my. My book career is old enough to vote and drink. Wow. [00:10:06] Speaker A: Wow. [00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Impressive because so many people, like, say they want to write a book and they never get around to it. [00:10:13] Speaker B: Right. The first book is hardest, but, you know what's. Is your second book? Writing the second book is actually harder. It's just like the terrible twos will wait till the terrible threes. [00:10:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Now they can run around. [00:10:27] Speaker A: I feel. Have you started using any AI tools? Not to write. I. But like. But like to plan out or, like, organize your structure? [00:10:38] Speaker B: Oh, I messed with it once when Chat GPT first came out. I did, like, okay, well, come up with a schedule for me to put Facebook content out. And it did. And I kind of did. But I haven't done it more since because it was. As much as. It was nice to have that guideline, it was still pretty generic. It was things everybody else was putting out. And I don't like to do what everybody else is doing, which is why I'm. I'm always doing the unconventional things, and I only jump on the bandwagons. I was already on, like. [00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:09] Speaker B: You know, like, I knew who Peter Dinklage was before he got into Game of Thrones, so when I heard what his casting was, I was like, oh, man, I'm a big fan of him. He's going to do a great job. Job. So, like, I'm the original person on that bandwagon, so I feel like I'm not getting off. You guys get off. [00:11:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's. It's the way to be. You gotta. [00:11:28] Speaker B: You gotta be. [00:11:28] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. And be, like, true to yourself. I. I was hard against AI, and then I work with a marketing firm, and they use it a lot for planning. And my boss is like, just. Just try. Just try it to, like, you know, do some of these tasks to make your life easier. And I used Claude, which is like a different. [00:11:49] Speaker B: Like, oh, okay. [00:11:50] Speaker A: And I found if you can write aggressively detailed instructions about what you want, it's really good about organizing your thoughts. So we were working on a. I've never really done much of fiction, but me and my husband are, like, kind of working on something now. And I was like, this is, like, the full, like, arc of what we want to see here. Like, how would you structure these chapters? And it can, like, help you, guide you. [00:12:15] Speaker B: Oh, especially if you don't know how to outline. Yeah, yeah, I'm not. Which. That's AI part aside, but that is. Is planning. There's planning, pantsing and plantsing. And I'm a plantser. I'm in the between of actually outlining the whole book and writing by the seat of my pants. And. And it comes back to acting training because, like, you want the guidelines of the script and everything, but you have to have room for spontaneity and improvisation. So, yeah, that's. I could see that being very useful using AI to create yourself an outline when. Especially if you're not really an outliner, because there's a handful of genres you absolutely have to outline. You have to kind of follow the formula. And that, like, the big one is romance. Romance has a set formula. If you don't follow that formula, you didn't write a romance. You can have. Write something with romance elements in it, but you didn't write a romance. It's like if you didn't follow the instructions to make a souffle, you didn't make a souffle. You made souffle, like, thing, but it wasn't a souffle. [00:13:16] Speaker A: Right. And the people that read romance know what they want to read. Like, they. They're getting it because they want it to be like every other romance that they read, but slightly different. Just a different. [00:13:24] Speaker B: Right. But so still surprise them and twist. Twist it when they don't see it coming and still make the stakes seem believable. And that's still hard. [00:13:31] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:32] Speaker B: Right. [00:13:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's. Yeah, it's been. It's been interesting. So I'm just curious because I'm. I'm in a. I'm an aggressive planner, but. But then I allow myself to stray. But I mostly do nonfiction, so, you know, if I'm writing. [00:13:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And nonfiction also has to be very structured because you have to create the story out of the facts. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:54] Speaker B: And not find the facts to support the story. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Yes. It's. It's my comfort zone because I came from editorial writing, but I'm. I'm feeling more confident recently. But I want to. I want to ask you about your most recent book. [00:14:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I have cookbooks and demons, and the second one is Baking and Angels that just came out. It's my cozy paranormal romance. And the. The basic premise is it's about a woman who doesn't know how to cook and somehow summons a demon. It's really straightforward. Mannequins ensue. [00:14:29] Speaker A: I love it. [00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And it's doing really well. I'm looking forward to. I'm going to Indie popcon here. I'm driving tomorrow to Indianapolis to do indie popcorn. I don't know when this. This podcast is coming out. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Tonight, so. [00:14:44] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Okay. So, yeah. Yeah. For those who are in Indiana and want something to do this weekend, come find me at Indiana Indie popcon in Indianapolis. It'll be, I think, the first time. I've, like, I've had both books at con. At cons, but I've only had, like, a handful of the second one because that's usually what you do. You bring a bunch of the first one and a couple of the second one, but I keep selling out of the second one, like, way too fast. So this is first time. I'm going to come in with a full complement of the second one, and we'll see what happens. Could be a very good day for my bank account. [00:15:17] Speaker A: How. How long have you been in the con scene? [00:15:21] Speaker B: I started doing cons not too long after I first published my first book because I was having a very difficult time figuring out how do I sell this book now that I've published it. And the first one, of course, you know, there used to be a time where you could publish on Amazon and do no marketing, and people would just find it and buy it. The algorithm would just present them with the book and people would buy it and you'd. And then it take off there. But that window closed years ago, definitely before I started doing things. So I started in 2017 was when I published my first book. And then I think a few months after that, I went to my first con, which was this is this little geek person con. It doesn't exist anymore. I can't even remember what the name of it was. All I remember about it was that it took place on a indoor soccer pitch, so the ground was super spongy, which set me up for misunderstanding how every other con in the world will be on freaking concrete. [00:16:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, right. Yes. [00:16:17] Speaker B: So it took me a long time to realize the right shoes I should be wearing, because that first one, I was fine in my regular shoes, but that was a lot of fun. It was the I. I sold 20. I was pretty happy with myself. It was a good start. And it was the. When my book was at its rawest, but when I was still learning how to do a proper edit and Do a. Do proper layout and stuff like that. So anybody who's got those early editions of that book and stuff, you know, hang on to them. They're going to be very valuable someday. I actually got one of mine back. I got it back from. It was in a store getting resold and I was like, oh, this is a first. This is one of the first ones I made. I don't have this. I need to take this back. [00:16:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:57] Speaker B: And they actually gave it to me for free because it was my book, which was nice. Yeah. [00:17:03] Speaker A: Yeah. I. My first published book was a memoir and. Oh, it was so. It was through publisher and it somehow the editor, like, was not. Was not doing a good job and it. It like reverted. I mean, it be. It had so many grammatical errors and things that shouldn't have been there because someone just wasn't paying attention and things. So I looked at it. This is crazy. Like, it was something that actually had to get pulled for like a second edition because it was. It was so, like, not well edited. [00:17:40] Speaker B: You know, I got the edited and they made it worse. [00:17:42] Speaker A: Yes. [00:17:43] Speaker B: Oh, God, that. [00:17:45] Speaker A: I mean, that was. It was crazy because, you know, I'm like, I have a publisher and it's like the real deal and I have an editor and this. And it was just like, what? [00:17:53] Speaker B: No. Sometimes. No, no. [00:17:55] Speaker A: And my. My husband, like, recently read through it and was. He made fun of me because I like, we. We've changed it. We have since changed it. So it's all good. But, you know, it said. [00:18:06] Speaker B: Right, right, right. No, believe me, Finder has gone through like six edits. It's. It's as good as it's gonna ever get, you know. Okay. Yeah, there's one typo still in there, but, you know, at this point, we salute thee. [00:18:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:16] Speaker B: Well done. You've survived the battle. You deserve. You deserve to exist. In my book. [00:18:21] Speaker A: Yes. It said deductive reasoning and they changed it to abducted reasoning. [00:18:27] Speaker B: Oh, funny. Like that. [00:18:30] Speaker A: And have that out there. I'm like, this has to change now. So that one has been changed, right? Yeah. [00:18:35] Speaker B: I had a word. I had segue S E G U E. And they changed it to segue S E G W A Y. So apparently instead of. We're going to segue over to this idea, we're going to literally go on this little scooter thing. And apparently that's what was happening. [00:18:53] Speaker A: Oh, that's so good. You know, that's another great tool for AI is editing AI like the. The club. [00:19:03] Speaker B: And there's no choice now. Like, like word has put their AI on their. Their spell check. [00:19:12] Speaker A: Yes. [00:19:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Which I find very insulting sometimes because it's like, this would be a better way to write it. Yeah, well, you're not writing it right. This is dialogue. Nobody speaks that way, you stupid computer. [00:19:24] Speaker A: That's fair. That's. You can, like, take a chapter and put it in Claude and say, don't change any of, like, the meanings or the words. Just check and fix any grammar issues, and it'll fix. [00:19:37] Speaker B: Right, Right. Like, I'm notoriously bad with commas, and I don't care if the thing says the comma goes here. I'm like, I don't argue with you. I don't care where the comma goes, as long as it's not something that's obviously wrong. [00:19:48] Speaker A: Right. I. Yeah. The theater training for me is overusing commas because of pauses. [00:19:55] Speaker B: I'm like, well, yeah, that was my biggest pitfall. That was my biggest pitfall when I first started writing. Because, yeah, you use repetition to emphasize something, but you don't repetition so much in the written word because you don't hear it the way you would say it. [00:20:11] Speaker A: Yes. [00:20:12] Speaker B: No, Or. Or, like, M dashes mean longer pause or a break. And they don't like em dashes in actual literature. It's sad, but true. [00:20:24] Speaker A: Yes, it's true. So it's interesting. I'm curious to see how that's going to develop and change in the future. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Well, there's only one case I've run across so far where I don't disparage this person for considering to use AI to write their book because she's 86, she's got heart failure. Like, she's in decline, and she wrote this trilogy, and she didn't get the third one done. And she's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I can't afford to do. Have a ghostwriter finish this for me. I don't. You know, and it's. Sometimes there are days that go by and I can't. I can't, you know, because it's just too much. And I told her. He's like, you know what? This is the one case I have found so far. Like, go put your thing in AI thing. Make it spit out a rough draft for yourself, and you go reedit it and revise it, and then you turn that into your third book. Because she doesn't have the time, she doesn't have the money, and I don't think anybody in the world would fault her because, you know, if she's still around in a year. I'll be very pleased because she's my friend. But I will be also a bit surprised the way things have been going for her. [00:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:34] Speaker B: So that's the one, one case I found so far about like letting AI write your book where I'm like, yeah, because. [00:21:41] Speaker A: Right. I mean, what else do you have to finish? [00:21:44] Speaker B: What else is she gonna do? Yeah. [00:21:46] Speaker A: And you can train AI on voices. Like if you put in your other. Her first, she could put in her first two books and say, learn this voice. Write it in this style and it's very good. Like her voice, her style. [00:22:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Just take the first two books, feed it into the machine and how that help you write the third one and nobody needs to know. [00:22:06] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. [00:22:08] Speaker B: But then at least her trilogy be done and she can feel complete. [00:22:13] Speaker A: Yes, Yes. I have to ask you too about Con Carolinas. What was the most interesting cosplay that you saw? [00:22:25] Speaker B: Oh, there was the, there was that guy there that was doing Planet of the Apes. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't see that. [00:22:35] Speaker B: Oh, it was creepy. Uncanny. But convincing. I don't know, it looked like he'd walked off the set of the movie, you know, but his eyes were moving around and everything and he was still expressing through his eyes. So I was like, I'm, I having a hard time not believing you're a monkey person. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:54] Speaker B: You know, and then he came over and talked to us about like, oh, I create this stuff. This is my job. I create this stuff and build it and add a syntax and latex and stuff. And, and I was just like, I was impressed. And he handed me a card and I was like, cool. I don't know when I'll ever use you, but cool. That's really cool. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the hardest part is to not hide your eyes so that it doesn't look like a flat face. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Interesting. I like the dog. There was a dog that was spray painted, which I didn't love actually, but to be something. And I don't even know what it was, but that, that dog had like a whole hairdo spray painting experience. [00:23:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw that dog. Was it a dinosaur? [00:23:37] Speaker A: It looked, I, I, it was. [00:23:38] Speaker B: No, it was a dragon. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Yes. [00:23:40] Speaker B: Okay, that, because I remember on the side they had had buzzed out the wings, the wing shape, which is the only thing that told me this was supposed to be a dragon. But yeah, the dog seemed fine, but I was like, that's a lot of hair dye. Yes, it was very tolerant dog. [00:24:01] Speaker A: It seems so sweet. [00:24:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. The Dog was having the best of times. Everyone kept giving treats and stuff. [00:24:08] Speaker A: You know, it's funny that the panel that I did that got just the most, like, attendance and excitement and people, like, really aggressively wanting to talk was. [00:24:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Vampire panel. Which is funny that no one came to Buffy because there was, like, a vampire panel. [00:24:24] Speaker B: And I think Buffy was. It was too early in the day. [00:24:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:27] Speaker B: Probably because, like, the subject matter is vampires. We needed to do it in the evening. [00:24:32] Speaker A: Oh, it's fair. Yeah. This one, I guess, was, like, evening. Ish. I think I did it after. Before dinner. That. [00:24:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:41] Speaker A: Yeah. But it was. It was, like, a huge turnout. And people were so excited to talk about vampires. And I'm like, well, this is good. Great. [00:24:49] Speaker B: Vampires are not dead. They're just. I don't know. I get. I kind of agree. We need to make vampires monsters again. [00:24:57] Speaker A: Yes. We were having that conversation last night, me and my husband, because we were debating watching True Blood because I haven't seen it, and people are shocked. I haven't seen it because I love Buffy so much. And I'm like, yeah, but the thing I like about Buffy and Angel is that they're monsters. You know, it's not just, like, weird sexualized thing where, like, True Blood. I know I'm going into some, like, weird sexualized thing. [00:25:20] Speaker B: Right, right. You know what I really liked is in Baldur's Gate, at least one version of the story that they had there is, you know, he's the God. [00:25:29] Speaker A: His name. I know who you're talking about. [00:25:31] Speaker B: You know who I'm talking about. [00:25:32] Speaker A: I know you're talking about. He looks like Spike. It's just Spike. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Just basically elf version of Spike. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:40] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I'm blaking Astarion. There we go. I got it. Starion. [00:25:44] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:45] Speaker B: I got there. I got there. You know, I feel, anyway, that if you kind of help him find redemption, by the end, like, he's a vampire, but by the end, he's an elf. That's just dealing with vampirism. And it gets. Stopped becoming a part of his identity and just became the. You know, like any other ism. It's just one slice of him that he has to deal with. [00:26:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:06] Speaker B: And I kind of like that idea because I sort of felt like that's what angel was. It was like, yeah, I'm a vampire, but I'm really a guy who's just got vampirism. [00:26:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:16] Speaker B: And. And Spike got there, too. It was like, I am a recovering vampire. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, it was always. It was so interesting. To me. And it was never fully explained, which I don't think is a bad thing either, that Spike without a soul could, like, love and. And had strong feelings that you would have with the soul as a human, but other vampires didn't. It was like, you don't have a soul, you don't have feelings. You're just like a monster. An angel was the way. But Spike, like, was different because he always kind of had those. But I guess as a human, he had those strong feelings. Then he had this feeling as a vamp. Fire was interesting. [00:26:56] Speaker B: You see, that's where I'd love for my. My brainchild to happen. Because if we got to have him come back and be alive and have to deal with the spirit of his other self, his nerdy human self, competing with the Spike, you know, because I have it that like the. The. The. With the Egyptian urn of some sort would combine the bond, the cost of this, the one with the soul and the one in the spirit that's a ghost. And so that's why he's alive and why he's aged. [00:27:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:26] Speaker B: And because then we would get to have more of that conversation of why is it that Spike was able to love. [00:27:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:34] Speaker B: Have a soul if that's part of the spirit. So, you know, it just, you know, there's a lot of room to explore that question in that. In my story head canon. [00:27:43] Speaker A: I know you got to get your story head canon out there. Elsa. [00:27:47] Speaker B: Sarah Michelle Geller, hire me. I have it figured out. We can get Spike back. [00:27:53] Speaker A: She knows all about the Buffy. That's. I. Sarah. Sarah Michelle Geller was so separated from angel that I worry about the continuity of the new Buffy because she has, like. I don't think they're going to value the continuity of Angel. I honestly don't know. [00:28:12] Speaker B: I feel like, like today or yesterday there was some announcement that she put out about how it's going to be a combination, respecting the old canon, but creating something new. And just because some characters are dead doesn't mean they're not coming back. Which first off, I was like, okay, Anya's back. Because Anya's still, like, the actress is still alive and they're friends. Yeah, they're friends. So she's probably coming back. [00:28:36] Speaker A: I think. I think she would have charisma. Carpenter has been so public. I feel like that she would. She's also starting a podcast to watch Buffy and Angel. I just saw that announcement yesterday, so I feel like she would be involved, like, if she could bring back friends, like, she's gonna Bring them back. [00:28:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I would think that'd be a good one and a way to reclaim that character. Because the way she went out was she went out in a, you know, stylish manner, but it didn't feel good. [00:29:04] Speaker A: No. I cried so hard when that happened. [00:29:07] Speaker B: That's right up there with Wash. You can kill Wash. [00:29:11] Speaker A: I predicted that. I. We were in this. I was so into the Joss Whedon. Like. [00:29:16] Speaker B: Like, I. [00:29:17] Speaker A: Like I could read his expected code. Yes. So much that we were sitting in the movie theater, and I was with my friend, and right when he landed the. You know, the. The spaceship or whatever was like. And, you know, saying. I was like, they're gonna kill him right here. And they. Like. I predicted it before it happened. [00:29:32] Speaker B: Right. Right before it happened. [00:29:34] Speaker A: I have the. [00:29:35] Speaker B: I went back to see if there was any hints. I went back when I got. When the movie came out on. On whatever DVD or something, I went back to and, like, watched it religiously, trying to figure out, was there a hint that he was gonna die? And there was one. There was one where he was marked. And it was when they're standing in the. In the. The refuse of the town where all the people that just laid down and died and they're doing this pan shot, and I think it's Jane saying, man, this is just ridiculous. What a senseless way to die. And it stops on Wash. Over his shoulder, the full frame of Wash. And it's just like. That was our only hint. Yeah. [00:30:08] Speaker A: It was also, like, a very mirrored reflection to, like, Tara being an unexpected death. Death. [00:30:16] Speaker B: I liked Tara's death, though. Isn't that strange? I did like her death because. I don't know. Hit it. Hit it. Had a reverberation in the group where I feel like charisma. Carpenter was already gone by that point. So then it was just putting a button on it. [00:30:42] Speaker A: I feel like I'm gonna spoil this for everybody. Well, I mean, it's been out for years, right? So, spoilers. This is Firefly and Buffy and Angel. The whole. [00:30:53] Speaker B: The whole. [00:30:55] Speaker A: He killed all three female main characters in angel within half a season of each other. [00:31:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I remember that. Coming up on the panel. Hadn't realized it till someone said it. I was like, oh, my God. [00:31:08] Speaker A: It was very. It's always bothered me because I'm like. [00:31:11] Speaker B: You know, like, I'm wondering if that's when he was starting to turn to the dark side, because I don't feel like he started there, but he definitely. Once he started getting a taste of power, I Think he went there. [00:31:22] Speaker A: I agree. And definitely, I mean, it was just. Just felt like a betrayal of, like, I don't know, especially with Cordy. Like, angel needed that grounded, like that. [00:31:35] Speaker B: Big sister that he never knew he needed. Yeah, she was definitely that. She was kind of a Donna in that way, if, you know, because I was in the Doctor panel too, and we were talking about the companions, and Dania is so unique amongst Dark, the Doctor's companions, because she was his big sister that he didn't know he needed or wanted, you know, and nobody other companion has ever been that. [00:31:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:55] Speaker B: Like, I don't really give a care. If you're thousands of years old, you are an idiot. [00:32:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:32:01] Speaker B: And that was Cordy. [00:32:03] Speaker A: Oh, definitely. [00:32:05] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely, definitely. [00:32:07] Speaker A: Oh, it's so good. This is why we were on the panel for Buffy and the nerd stuff. [00:32:14] Speaker B: We've got opinions. They must be expressed. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, my gosh. I could talk about it all day. What is your favorite convention that you've been to? The Dragon convention. Or is there another. [00:32:28] Speaker B: I wouldn't say Dragon Con. Dragon Con is in a category, so it's like riding a hurricane. [00:32:35] Speaker A: Yes. [00:32:35] Speaker B: I love going. I will always go, especially if I always get in as a pro or a guest, even. But is it my favorite con? I don't know if I could say that, because it's a monster all on its own. It's like, so what would be my favorite, actually, if I am honest? It's going to be C2E2 here in Chicago, I have to say. C2E2 is my local con, but it's a monster onto itself. It's a granddaddy con. It's huge. But it's so. There's so many of these cons that get very corporate and people. You know. You know what I mean? Like, it's Disney and it's. It's, you know. [00:33:10] Speaker A: Right. [00:33:11] Speaker B: Crunchyroll, and it's. It's, you know, whatever they're promoting that year. Yes, Marvel. But at C2E2, a good half of the room is dedicated to artists and original creators and indie creators. And that was what I always felt that people really came to C2E2 for, was to find. And it's the biggest venue for those kinds of people. And even if there were, like, you know, 200 artists there or, you know, and half of, you know, good, maybe 50 of them are authors, either, and there's only so many dollars they can go around in any given room. Right. Well, even then, I would always do extremely well. I would. I would still be selling a. Like a 1.01% of. Of the total population that was there. And that was still amazing for me. I would still walk away with record sales because there was. Everybody came to look for us there, you know, and now they've got the writers alley at C2E2. And I thought that was going to be death. And the first year it was death. I will. I will be. You know, writers alleys can be absolute death because people skip them. And in that first year, they. They had a court, like one of those material walls between them and the artist alley to delineate it. And nobody knew they were back there. They had to take it down for the second day because people were complaining so much. Nobody knew they were back there. Then they moved us over to a different space that has the. Goes up the escalators towards the panel. So everyone has to. [00:34:42] Speaker A: Past us, right. [00:34:44] Speaker B: And we pull and they go through a wa. Basically a water wheel. And we sell really, really well in the. In the author's alley. So I gotta say. Yeah, well. And there's something to be said. As much as I like traveling and I like going to. Staying in hotels and everything, there's something we said for sleeping in your own bed. And this is literally like 20 minutes from my house if the highway's not locked up. [00:35:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:06] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's like. And it. And it's. I think I got the most friends at it because of course, I've met all these people in other local cons and there's people that come from far away that go to this one because it's a big one. So. Yeah, I would say that one's my favorite for on the all them reasons. [00:35:25] Speaker A: Have you ever been to San Diego Comic Con? [00:35:28] Speaker B: Nope. Nope. And I don't. I mean, I would go if invited, but I've always been warned away from San Diego, really. [00:35:37] Speaker A: It's chaos. I've only ever gone as a guest because we used to model for these benchwarmer trading cards and so would be, like, invited to sign at the Previews world booth, which I love. Previous world. And we got the special spider Gwen hoodies before they came out, and I was all excited. [00:35:55] Speaker B: Oh, cool. But you get to keep them. [00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, it was great. I love that hoodie. But anyway, it's. It's. It's. It's like another world. It's crazy. [00:36:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, and I bet it is. It's right up there with Dragon Con and everything, because. But I just. I've been warned away from San Diego because It is more corporate than any other of the cons. And they. And maybe this is changing. Maybe they're trying to do a cultural shift of some sort. But like Dragon Con and everything, they've carved out these niche areas for indeed creators in every track that they've created. [00:36:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:39] Speaker B: And I don't know that San Diego has done that. I haven't heard. So they say, like, you can go to San Diego and actually not do really well because. No, you know, unless you're writing for like, Star Trek or Marvel or. [00:36:51] Speaker A: Right. [00:36:52] Speaker B: You know, you're not going to get noticed at all. [00:36:56] Speaker A: I can see that. I feel like it's a good place to go for the experience, but not from like a sales perspective or like a business perspective. [00:37:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I'd maybe go to do it just to be a participant, but I don't so far. I mean, unless I get a tie in book from Disney or something, or again, Sarah Michelle Geller, call me. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Right. [00:37:19] Speaker B: I. I don't think I would go by choice as a seller or an author. That's. [00:37:27] Speaker A: I. I agree with that, with that thought process too. Like, we. Yeah, it's a place to go. My friend was. She had friends at Nintendo, so we wound up on the Nintendo Yacht. They had like a Nintendo Yacht in the heart. [00:37:40] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. That's so cool. [00:37:42] Speaker A: And we were on the Nintendo Yacht and they had like, they were promoting Scream Queens and Jamie Lee Curtis was there, and my friend was dressed up like Squirrel Girl in this, like, elaborate squirrel outfit. [00:37:55] Speaker B: Wow. [00:37:56] Speaker A: Curtis took her picture and I was like, what? Like, that's why you go to San Diego Comic Con. [00:38:01] Speaker B: Right. [00:38:01] Speaker A: Because you're like, what is happening? [00:38:03] Speaker B: They're people too. They're there to have fun as well. [00:38:08] Speaker A: But yeah, but, yeah. Not a good indie place. I. I can definitely agree with that. [00:38:12] Speaker B: Well, there's like. Like Gen Con is like that too. It's so focused on games and, and of all sorts and kinds and everything. There is an author's alley there. I've heard such mixed reviews that I've just never pulled the trigger on it. Especially because it's always been in, like, at the same time as something else that I would rather do. But it's like there's some of those kinds of cons that are just like, they're so narrowly focused on the thing. They're focused on that there's no room for anything else, anything else that could show up and do the thing with them. [00:38:43] Speaker A: That's fair. I know. I'm. I'm trying to, like, find My sweet spot in conventions still, because I've done several paracons like that are just full of paracons and because the show, like, walks that line where it's appropriate for the paracon stuff. So I've done that. And then I'm, you know, trying to get into the travel and adventure show because, you know, we have all the adventure stuff and a lot of the books are adventure themed and it's a travel brand and it, like, fits in with that world. So it's like walking the line of like, I guess we can do this and we can do this. But then, like, I love the nerdy comic con stuff and we kind of fit into some of these different tracks. So I think we're trying to, like, find that sweet spot. [00:39:22] Speaker B: Well, and I'm kind of doing the same thing where like, like, now that I've got the cozy paranormal romance, I could go do romanticons. I could go do book romance focused shows. I just haven't yet because comic cons were my bread and butter. So now I'm trying to figure out how to expand and. And check those places out and find my audience that way. I. To let you know, I have watched the first and a half episodes of your. Of the travel show. Yeah. Yeah. That was the. It's like. I like what you got going on there. That was cool. [00:39:54] Speaker A: Thank you. You know, the first season is so. I think I mentioned. I told you it's so not exactly what we wanted it to be because we were in development with several, like, major networks. It was like skipping around. We were getting lots of cooking. [00:40:07] Speaker B: Some. [00:40:07] Speaker A: You should do this. You should do this. It got pushed really hard into the paranormal. Not that I don't love the paranormal, but the second season is like international travel, like cultural folklore. The really, like. [00:40:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:19] Speaker A: Crazy, weird, interesting places. So I'm excited to, like, in the fall, like, have these 10 episodes come out that are really what we wanted. This. [00:40:27] Speaker B: Right. The real vision of where you were going. [00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:30] Speaker B: But I love that I really. You went to that one guy who has all those statues and things. I lost it when he said, that's a. A real asinine statue. And I. And I just lost it. I had to stop the recording because I couldn't stop laughing because I looked at it. It's such a dumb pun. [00:40:52] Speaker A: I know. [00:40:53] Speaker B: You know anybody? Of course, none of you who are listening to us have seen what I'm talking about. It's like a nine with a donkey going through it. And it's an asinine. I love Me a pun. I'm sorry. [00:41:07] Speaker A: This guy was great. Like, when we, when we connected, I. I couldn't even email him because he was so old school. I'd like, call him on the phone and. [00:41:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:41:17] Speaker A: He's like, sorry, I just got back from a parade today, and I was dressed up like Willy Wonka throwing candy at kids. And I'm like, oh, this is gonna be. [00:41:27] Speaker B: He's living his best life every moment. I think he is. [00:41:31] Speaker A: I love that. I love just the. [00:41:33] Speaker B: Those people. [00:41:34] Speaker A: Dinosaur warfare. I'm like, this is great. Natural bridge. Got some dinos and some Civil War soldiers. [00:41:42] Speaker B: You're like, well, what I liked about that story was as it unfolded, at first it just seems like, oh, this is just a weird guy with a very obsessive hobby. But then he started saying, like, oh, no, I've done this for, like, this amusement park. I've created this for that amusement park. He's like, oh, no, no, this is a proper business. Yeah, he knows what he's doing and he knows what he needs to do to make it a business. And it's just also crazy, Crazy art. [00:42:05] Speaker A: Yeah. He created Foam Hinge, which was like a full scale Styrofoam replica, a Stonehenge. And I think it's not there anymore, but it was in Virginia for a long time, like one of those wonky, like, side roadside attractions. And I'm like, great, just stop in and foam hinge today. [00:42:21] Speaker B: Well, and then there's Bunnyhenge. That wasn't in the same place, right? [00:42:24] Speaker A: No, Bunny Hinge is in California. [00:42:27] Speaker B: Newport Beach. [00:42:28] Speaker A: Yeah, it's. I. I found out about Bunny Hinge and was like, well, I have to go to Bunny hinge now. What this needs to happen. The guy, the guy that created it, I. I don't know, it got a lot of issues with the, with the local government trying to, like, get like, they got angry that taxpayer money was spent on all those bunnies, so. Oh, no, it was just. [00:42:55] Speaker B: You can see the picket signs. Down with the carrot. [00:42:58] Speaker A: He. He had a. One of the politicians had a campaign video blowing up the bunnies. Because that was like his, like, pitch into getting into office. Like, if you get me in office, I'll blow up the bunnies. [00:43:08] Speaker B: All right. But he didn't actually blow up the. [00:43:09] Speaker A: Bunnies because he didn't blow up the bunnies. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Destruction of public property. I would love to sit down on that court, on that trial when you have to describe how you destroyed public property. [00:43:22] Speaker A: Right? It's like, at this point, the money's already Bunnies. Yeah. So good. There's, there's some good stuff. I'm curious to see what you feel later on too, because there's like a cat guy that created a museum dedicated to cats to fund like a cageless cat shelter. Like, there's, there's some fun stuff that's like. [00:43:40] Speaker B: Okay, I'll let you know when I hit them. Yeah, I'll start texting you comments as I watch it. [00:43:48] Speaker A: So what's, what's your plan for your next series of books? [00:43:52] Speaker B: Well, the next book, I'm writing two books simultaneously right now. And they're actually my first two main series. So there's the urban fantasy cyberpunk series, and then I'm writing the third book of the cozy paranormal series, which is TN Imps. And I have the first three chapters up on ream. I'm gonna give that a try. And like, come, come follow me. Come join along and read as I write and you can give me feedback. And I'll ignore it. It probably not, but I. I'm giving that a try. So I'm in progress. I've got like 10 chapters of the third one done. And I, I think I really do know where this is going. And then I'm also writing the fifth one of, you know, the Finder, the Licky Devil series, which is my urban fantasy cyberpunk. I'm writing the fifth one, Demonic Inc. And then I have one more book after that and that series will pause. Like that arc will be done. But I may not. I may come back to it another time when I figure out another arc, that kind of thing. And then, and then, and then I write another million other books in between and try to figure out which one is trending right now. [00:45:00] Speaker A: How many books do you write in a year on average? [00:45:04] Speaker B: This I'm still figuring out because like two years ago I wrote eight full length novels in a year. Last year I only wrote one. And I think somewhere in the middle is probably my sweet but. [00:45:18] Speaker A: And that's what you do full time because I mean, how can you write? [00:45:21] Speaker B: That is my job right now. I. I do have the benefit of a husband who is supporting me, but I'm also supporting him. So I feel like it's a fair trade. So, yeah, this is my. I've dedicated. I mean, Covid basically ate my real job. And. And so at that point I was like, I guess I'm all in on the writing and I haven't gone back since yet. Knock on wood and all that jazz. [00:45:42] Speaker A: Amazing. It's a Great place to be. [00:45:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, I love it. It's my passion. I just hired a publicist who I hope it will take me to the next level. And so far, I've been very impressed with her. And I now have an assistant who's helping me do these shows, which I. It was getting to be too many hats. Hats and not enough me to put the hat on. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Yes. [00:46:05] Speaker B: So, yeah, I'm building my business out. [00:46:08] Speaker A: That's amazing. And I mean, brand building is where it's at in today's time. You know, having your own brand and your own business and just, you know, doing what you want to do. [00:46:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's like, I don't think you have to learn to do it all, but you need to have an under basic understanding of what it is, which I think is what, you know, all the stuff I've done on social media marketing and all the stuff I've learned, and now I'm passing it to this publicist. This. But I know what she's talking about most of the time. So I also can also identify whether it's scamming me or not, because there's been a couple of other people I've tried to work with where they start saying things. I'm like, actually, that's not how it works, because I know it doesn't work. I do this and this and this. And then they're like, oh. I'm like, oh, shoot, do I know more than you about social marketing management? Yeah, this isn't gonna work. Bye. [00:46:58] Speaker A: It is a time where everybody thinks that they are, you know, a marketing expert. That's one of those, like, vague things that doesn't require, you know, a degree and people. Everyone just is good at it. And it's one of those things that you can learn. But yeah, it's. Finding an expert is definitely. [00:47:16] Speaker B: Yeah. So this person's helping me unify my brand and clean up my Facebook. It's a travesty. [00:47:21] Speaker A: Oh, no. [00:47:24] Speaker B: My Instagram is shiny and pretty, but my. My Facebook is not so much. So she's. She's giving me a good cleaning. [00:47:41] Speaker A: Still mildly dying. [00:47:43] Speaker B: Oh, you got sick. [00:47:44] Speaker A: Well, my daughter brought home the preschool plague. It was a long. It was a long time ago. It was. It was like a month and a half ago. And then. [00:47:53] Speaker B: So it's lingering. [00:47:55] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I'm clear. It, like, kind of comes a little bit back and. [00:48:02] Speaker B: You need to go get a neti pot and just, you know, do a full flush out. [00:48:07] Speaker A: I love neti pots so much. [00:48:09] Speaker B: Yeah, they're A weird thing. It's like, I feel like I just jumped off the high board, but I, you know. [00:48:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:15] Speaker B: Slowly dropped myself. I'm waterboarding myself in order to breathe again. [00:48:19] Speaker A: It's great. It's very cathartic for me. I don't know. I love. There's been times where I've been traveling. Like, I was in Germany, and I had to go find one. Like, I needed Nettie pot, and I'm gonna buy in. [00:48:28] Speaker B: Do you kind of, like, set the mood for it? Like, you light candles around the bathroom, turn off the lights, and have soft music playing as you. [00:48:34] Speaker A: Oh, but I wish. It's a great idea. [00:48:36] Speaker B: Make it a whole thing. [00:48:38] Speaker A: Great idea. Part of the bath routine. Just flush it out. [00:48:43] Speaker B: Instead of using water, use chardonnay. [00:48:45] Speaker A: Oh, my God. It's like when you get hookah and they put wine in the bowl. Have you had that? No, I. I'm, like, sad to say. I know. I know it's not great. But I, like, recently was like, I never had hookah before. I was so, like, I don't know, vanilla PC. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna. My husband's like, we should. We should just do a hookah because they had a hookah somewhere. I'm like, yeah. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is great. Which. Which, again, like, you don't need to do this that often. But, like, we went a few times, and then they had one that was like, you can add wine into the bowl. And I'm like, oh, we should do that. And then we're like, oh, God, this is a terrible idea. [00:49:24] Speaker B: What happens when you add wine to the bowl? [00:49:26] Speaker A: It just makes it, like, extra strong. [00:49:29] Speaker B: Oh, it hits you harder. [00:49:31] Speaker A: It hits you harder. It's like that, where you get, like, a little light when you're doing it. Like, oh, I feel so light. It just comes so much harder all at once. [00:49:40] Speaker B: Right. Right. [00:49:41] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:49:43] Speaker B: Oh, you think this is all song and roses? Well, this one hates you. You. [00:49:47] Speaker A: It does. Yeah. And, like, there's this. So vasovagal syncope. It's when you stand up too fast and you get dizzy, and you're like. You know, you start. [00:49:56] Speaker B: Oh, of course it has a name. We put a name on everything. [00:49:59] Speaker A: Yes. And I. I get that all the time. And sometimes I'll just be hanging out, and me and my husband call it vagling for sure. It's not like I'm vagaling. Vagaling. And so when I do the hookah, I'll be like, oh, God, I'M vagling a little bit, but it's like a good vagle. Like I like I. It's like. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Right, right, right. [00:50:17] Speaker A: Okay. I'm feeling the tape. [00:50:19] Speaker B: I haven't done too many substances myself. Like I think I had my first pot brownie like two years ago and I'm in my 40s and it was not good because I, I had one of the brownies and then after an hour nothing had happened yet. So my sister in law said, well just have a second one then. It's probably you didn't get a potent enough section of it or something. That was a very big mistake. Mistake. Because then about a half an hour after that, the first brownie finally hit and then, you know, and then shortly after that, the second brownie hit and I was like, I'm not okay. And I went on a journey. I became the goddess of the universe, pontificating to the masses. And apparently there was a crowd of people listening to me say some really cool things that were real deep and. And then I would like. But to me it felt like I was falling asleep and waking up and falling asleep and waking up and falling asleep and waking up over and over within seconds of each other. It was strange sensation. And I keep forgetting that my husband was right there with me. And apparently I'm still like, I got, he got the proof that I still love him. And I'm not lying to him because every time I'd like forget and then look at him again. Hi. [00:51:30] Speaker A: Oh, you. That's really funny. [00:51:36] Speaker B: I keep falling in love with him every five minutes. [00:51:40] Speaker A: That's real love. [00:51:42] Speaker B: Yep, yep. I'm. I'm in it to win it. [00:51:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I haven't, I haven't done that. But I'm always afraid. I don't know, I'm afraid because we, we found out too that just thing. Things like that at all will just hit me so hard. So I'm always afraid to. Like, nothing is better than the best. [00:51:59] Speaker B: I have had slightly better. I've had slightly better experiences since then. Not too many, but like there was this one woman who made popcorn with the butter on it, but she actually knew how to measure it down to the like the pre dice. So she knew precisely how much was in each bag. She's like, this is only 5. You will not get that sick again. Because yeah, I didn't feel better after the brownie until I threw it up. [00:52:22] Speaker A: Oh. [00:52:24] Speaker B: Yep. And that was like. That's not how I wanted to impress anybody in this party. But I felt a lot better after that. So she's like, you will not throw up. Just eat the popcorn. And I had a great time with the popcorn because once I eat the one bag, everything was a sexual innuendo, and I couldn't stop giggling. It made no sense to anyone else, but I just thought it was hilarious. Everything's a sexual innuendo. [00:52:48] Speaker A: Right? It's the way to live life. Right. [00:52:51] Speaker B: And we're playing board games at the time. [00:52:53] Speaker A: Oh, that's fun. [00:52:55] Speaker B: Sometimes. It really was. [00:52:56] Speaker A: Oh, that's fun. Oh, wow. So, Megan, tell everyone where they can find you next. I know you just told us about the next convention, but what's your lineup look like? [00:53:09] Speaker B: Like, let's see, I got Indie popcon is this weekend, and then in two weeks, I've got New Orleans Galaxy Con. And then I don't think I'm doing anything until Dragon Con. And because I. I avoided doing things around Dragon Con because you just. Dragon Con's five days, and. And you're devastated for two weeks after that, so you gotta, like, buffer it. And then after that, I think I'm going to be at the Sleepy Hollow Ren Fair, of all places, selling books out of a gypsy wagon that my friend has. He's. He's been doing it for two years now. He has this gypsy wagon that he put all his books in, and they love him so much, they gave him the bookstore, and he's like, so I need help running the bookstore and the gypsy wagon. So he called all his author friends and said, we'll put all the books in in the. The gypsy wagon every weekend. You have to come for one weekend and run the. The wagon. So that will be my turn to run the wagon. Hey. Right? I love Ren Fairs. I have the complete costume for, you know, Elizabethan Bristol time. So I'm gonna. I'll, you know, go hang out for two days. I gotta find out, though, if we have a place to sleep or if I have to, like, camp or. Right. Well, it doesn't look like it has a lot of floor space. I say gypsy wagon. Very, like. Like a miniaturized gypsy wagon. It's like, you know, more in style than in actual, like, what they would actually have lived in. [00:54:43] Speaker A: Right, Right. [00:54:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:45] Speaker A: Oh, that's cool. You know, my. My Ren Fair dress, I had my friend who was a costume designer remake one of the dresses from Everett after. Oh, cool. New one where. Where Drew Barrymore goes to, like, the monastery with the prince. [00:55:01] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, man. She had good dresses in that show. In that movie. [00:55:05] Speaker A: I. That's my favorite movie of all Time. And I recognize that it's not, like, a great movie, but it. It just hits. Right. You know, it's like. [00:55:12] Speaker B: I think it's a great movie. [00:55:14] Speaker A: It is a. I don't know why. [00:55:15] Speaker B: People say it isn't. It's like, what's. What. Why is it not a great movie? [00:55:19] Speaker A: I think it's perfect. That's just. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's a great interpretation of Cinderella. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Yes. And I. [00:55:26] Speaker B: And one that kind of made sense how it all went down. [00:55:30] Speaker A: I liked that they had all the references to Utopia. I like that. That Da Vinci is just a badass character. [00:55:38] Speaker B: Right. And that man who opened the door. [00:55:44] Speaker A: That's the best line. So good. And they're in Italian Renaissance clothes in France, speaking with English accents. You're just like. Yeah. You don't think too hard about it. It's great. [00:55:57] Speaker B: Don't think too hard about it. It's their own magical world. [00:56:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's. Angelica Houston is like, the best. Everybody in that movie was great, too. I like the. Both the stepsisters, too. [00:56:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And I like that the stepsisters were unique personalities to themselves, you know, like. Yeah. They both start out being bad, but then one turns out to be not so bad, and the other one is definitely all in on being like her mother. [00:56:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:21] Speaker B: And it's not simple, and I prefer that. [00:56:25] Speaker A: Yes. I love the. The nice one at the very end. The. Of course not, Mother. I'm mainly here for the food. [00:56:33] Speaker B: I've seen her in so many other things, too, and she is so sassy. [00:56:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. She's. She's the stalker in Two and a Half Men. [00:56:40] Speaker B: Oh, God. That's right. [00:56:42] Speaker A: And she was in the last of us, right? [00:56:44] Speaker B: Huh? [00:56:45] Speaker A: She was in the last of us, right? Right? [00:56:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. I mean, I. She's so good. She'll work forever. [00:56:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:54] Speaker B: She's got crazy down. [00:56:55] Speaker A: Oh, definitely the best way. [00:56:58] Speaker B: Crazy old woman. You can work forever. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So, Megan, tell us where we can find you on social media. [00:57:05] Speaker B: Okay. You can find me at Megan Mackey, author, on Instagram and on Facebook. I also have the Megan's Book Bar, which is my Facebook reading group. I'd love for people to come. That's where I put most of my social stuff about what I'm doing and what cons I'm at. It's the more insider access thing. You can also join my [email protected] newsletter. I give away a free serial chapter every week of this LITRPG adventure story that I just write for fun. And I'm up to, like, 70 chapters now, so. And then you can read the. The back chapters on Wattpad. So you can. If you want a taste of my stuff for free, you can go to Wattpad and read. Read up on those chapters and give me stars in every chapter, please, because that really helps. [00:57:52] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for joining me today. [00:57:54] Speaker B: Yeah, this was fun. [00:57:56] Speaker A: So much fun. And until next time, everybody stay weird.