Speaker 1: Welcome back, you horny little rats. It's time to smut
Speaker 1: up and listen. Just a reminder for today's episode and
Speaker 1: all future episodes, our opinions are subjective. We don't advocate
Speaker 1: for kink shaming or author shaming. This is all in
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Speaker 1: will be doing blind reactions every Tuesday to Reddit eratica.
Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to a very special episode of
Speaker 1: smut Up and Listen. We are lucky enough to be
Speaker 1: here today with New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly,
Speaker 1: and Amazon Charts best selling author JT. Guysinger. She released
Speaker 1: her newest novel, Blackthorne, earlier this month, and she was
Speaker 1: kind enough to send us an arc for us to
Speaker 1: review and even nicer to hop on the podcast with us.
Speaker 1: So thank you so much, and we are so excited
Speaker 1: that you're here with us.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh, thank you for having me. It's so nice
Speaker 2: for you guys to want to chat about my work.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Yes, Oh my gosh, we're so excited.
Speaker 3: I know, I will jump in and we're gonna start
Speaker 3: talking about the writing process and the journey. Okay, here
Speaker 3: we go take a couple of one. So my question is,
Speaker 3: I would love to know what the inspiration was behind
Speaker 3: the plot of the story. If it was just like
Speaker 3: a random shower thought or a dream one night, or
Speaker 3: you know, if you just wanted something out of the
Speaker 3: two characters and you just let your creative writing do
Speaker 3: the rest.
Speaker 2: It's so funny when people ask me what my inspiration
Speaker 2: is for things. It's like I kind of never really know,
Speaker 2: because it's always there's always something brewing up there in
Speaker 2: my little, you know, witch's cauldron in my brain, and
Speaker 2: I'll just start writing things down. I have a huge
Speaker 2: folder of ideas and stuff, and I think I'll probably
Speaker 2: die before I can write all the books that I
Speaker 2: have in my brain. But Blackthorn, so I. So I
Speaker 2: usually begin with just two characters and a conflict, and
Speaker 2: Blackthorn was a book that my new publisher was like,
Speaker 2: we want you to write a romance for us, and
Speaker 2: we're just gonna have you do whatever you want. And
Speaker 2: I said, okay, well that's fun. And my roots were
Speaker 2: in when I first published my first series, it was
Speaker 2: paranormal and then I went to contemporary. But I always
Speaker 2: have kind of slipped in some paranormal aspects with my writing,
Speaker 2: and this one, it just kind of started out like
Speaker 2: it was a small town romance and you know, it
Speaker 2: was kind of a quirky family and stuff, and then
Speaker 2: all of these weird things started happening. I think I
Speaker 2: have a cat hair. Okay, yeah, sorry, And so as
Speaker 2: I started writing the book, it started getting weirder and
Speaker 2: weirder and weirder, and so I just usually let my
Speaker 2: imagination run and then it turned out to be this
Speaker 2: really cuckoo book. I mean, I'm not the writer that is, like,
Speaker 2: I usually don't know what the end of the book
Speaker 2: is going to be as I'm writing, and I'm just
Speaker 2: kind of like, okay, let's go and let's see, and
Speaker 2: then I let my imagination run wild. And then my
Speaker 2: readers are like, what the hell was that? Like, I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: On that way, you are the queen of a crazy ending.
Speaker 1: I'm always like, what just happened at the end of
Speaker 1: your books?
Speaker 2: Well, I try and make it interesting. So if I'm
Speaker 2: if I'm writing and I get bored, then I'll have
Speaker 2: to scrap it, because I figure the readers are going
Speaker 2: to get bored too, you know, because you can really
Speaker 2: get bogged down and too much backstory or too much detail.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm one of these people who I love
Speaker 2: to describe the interior of a room, and I've had
Speaker 2: so many readers just be like, Okay, that's enough about
Speaker 2: the wallpaper. Let's move on, you know. So I have
Speaker 2: to try and trade myself to keep the action going.
Speaker 2: But with this book, when I turned it into my publisher,
Speaker 2: she was like, okay, I really My editor was like,
Speaker 2: I really really like these certain aspects, but I want
Speaker 2: us to go darker and let's make it more funfable.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, I can do that. So
Speaker 2: then like the whole end of the book just became
Speaker 2: this fever dream of like what is even really going
Speaker 2: on here? And I turned it into it.
Speaker 1: She was like, yay, thank you. So yeah, it definitely
Speaker 1: was a fever dream at the end.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So I knew I wanted it to be
Speaker 2: ambiguous where people were like what was real and what wasn't.
Speaker 2: I like doing that because then you have to go
Speaker 2: back and read, okay from the beginning, because you will
Speaker 2: forget all the little crumbs that I dropped and all
Speaker 2: the little weird things that are happening, and maybe you
Speaker 2: read something differently into it the second time around. So
Speaker 2: that's fun. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I love that, especially with pen Pal, because I wound
Speaker 1: up reading that twice for the podcast. There was so
Speaker 1: much stuff that happened. I was like, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: how did I not catch this before? That's awesome?
Speaker 2: Well, pen Pal, I knew the end of the story.
Speaker 2: I kind of had to know, so I uh that
Speaker 2: the inspiration for that book came from I was writing
Speaker 2: the third book in my Mafia series, the Queens and
Speaker 2: Monster series, and the main the heroine had been kidnapped
Speaker 2: by a Russian assassin and he took her to this,
Speaker 2: you know, his little cabin in the woods and oh hi, Riley, Sorry,
Speaker 2: that's okay. So yeah, so she was she was a
Speaker 2: book editor, but she started writing a book in during
Speaker 2: her captivity and there was one line that she says
Speaker 2: in Savage Hearts where she was like, oh, yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: writing a book about a woman who doesn't know that
Speaker 2: she's blank. And I won't give it away for anybody
Speaker 2: who hasn't read the book. But so that was the
Speaker 2: inspiration for pen Palain, a really good book. So I
Speaker 2: wrote that afterwards. That is so awesome.
Speaker 1: They're like tied together.
Speaker 2: Yes, they're tied together.
Speaker 4: Cool.
Speaker 1: So have you been writing since you were a child,
Speaker 1: and if so, what is the first story that you
Speaker 1: can kind of remember, even in childhood that you remember
Speaker 1: fully fleshing out and putting to paper.
Speaker 2: So I was always a reader. I came from a
Speaker 2: family of readers, and we were all super big book nerds.
Speaker 2: But my I used to tell stories, you know, as
Speaker 2: a as a really young kid, and my mother called
Speaker 2: them lies. But the first thing I ever wrote, the
Speaker 2: first story I ever remember telling, was our neighbor. I
Speaker 2: think I was five or six years old, and our neighbor.
Speaker 2: I told her that it was my birthday and that
Speaker 2: I wanted and it wasn't and that I wanted this
Speaker 2: certain like playset or whatever, and you know, I got
Speaker 2: in trouble for that. But yeah, so I've always been
Speaker 2: telling stories, but I didn't actually start writing until I
Speaker 2: was forty. I mean, I was just living my life
Speaker 2: and I was, you know, I had a business with
Speaker 2: my husband and everything, and I always wanted to write
Speaker 2: a book, which I think a lot of people, do
Speaker 2: you know, we feel like there's a story and us
Speaker 2: that we want to tell. And I thought, yeah, somebday
Speaker 2: I'll get to it. But I turned forty, and I
Speaker 2: just felt like that was a very big milestone for me. Anyway,
Speaker 2: And at that time, I was a big Twilight fan.
Speaker 2: And I had read an interview with Stephanie Meyer.
Speaker 5: I know, right, I loved we all are very big fans,
Speaker 5: but Jenna's the biggest fan.
Speaker 2: And well, I read an interview with Stephanie Meyer where
Speaker 2: she said that she was a stay at home mom.
Speaker 2: She didn't go to school for writing. She wasn't a
Speaker 2: journalist or anything like that. She had a dream one
Speaker 2: night and she woke up about a dream about this
Speaker 2: vampire that wanted to, you know, drink this girl's blood.
Speaker 2: And so she wrote the book and it ended up
Speaker 2: selling like, I don't know, one hundred and fifty million
Speaker 2: copies or something. And so I thought that was very
Speaker 2: inspirational that she could do that, just you know, and
Speaker 2: I thought, well, okay, I'm gonna do that too. If
Speaker 2: she can do it, I can do it. Right, She's
Speaker 2: just an average person, why not. I thought that was
Speaker 2: very inspirational. So I wrote my first book and I
Speaker 2: sold it to well, I got an agent, and I
Speaker 2: sold it to a publisher and it was the best seller.
Speaker 2: And I was just like, okay, I have a new career.
Speaker 1: So yes, the rest is history.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my god.
Speaker 5: My question is now that we kind of know you
Speaker 5: just get these ideas in your head and kind of
Speaker 5: jot them down when you actually sit down to write,
Speaker 5: do you have a writing routine, and if so, is
Speaker 5: it like your fun glass of wine into music or
Speaker 5: do you just like complete focus just jotting everything down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm the complete focus girl. Like I could never
Speaker 2: write in a coffee shop, you know, or anywhere I
Speaker 2: have to. I get distracted very easily. And I okay, honestly,
Speaker 2: I get irritated by noise. So like, even if I
Speaker 2: can hear my husband somewhere in the house, I'm just like,
Speaker 2: So I put my earbuds in and I usually have
Speaker 2: the cat with me, and I close the door, and
Speaker 2: usually it's best for I'm not a morning person at all.
Speaker 2: But if I wake up early and I don't check
Speaker 2: my email or Facebook or anything, and I just go
Speaker 2: to the computer and I start to write, it seems
Speaker 2: like my brain is very clear. Then, so I try
Speaker 2: and write early in the morning and get at least
Speaker 2: a few hours in and then I'll go on and
Speaker 2: do other things then and then later in the evening,
Speaker 2: like this kind of time of day, I'll come back
Speaker 2: to what I wrote. But I like to I like
Speaker 2: to be alone and I like to have chunks of time.
Speaker 2: And it's actually really hard because you know, I'll have
Speaker 2: to leave my phone out of the room and things,
Speaker 2: because you if you start checking your notifications and all
Speaker 2: of that, you really can't get things done. And I'm
Speaker 2: not a very fast writer, so I have to I
Speaker 2: have to force myself to focus and just be in
Speaker 2: the zone and you know, like close the drapes and
Speaker 2: just be in this little room by myself, and that
Speaker 2: helps a lot. So cool.
Speaker 3: Your question, right, Oh oh, keep just looking at her.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 4: So, what is like your favorite book that you've written,
Speaker 4: or the one that you enjoyed writing the most.
Speaker 2: I had a lot. I don't know if you guys
Speaker 2: have read Perfect Strangers, but I had a lot of
Speaker 2: fun writing that that was. It has a plot twist,
Speaker 2: the same kind of a smack your face plot twist
Speaker 2: like pen Pal does, but That was also the first
Speaker 2: time that I had done something like that, and I
Speaker 2: think it came out like in twenty nineteen. I think
Speaker 2: the reviewers were just like, what is this book? Like,
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes people are not expecting to have these
Speaker 2: random things happen in my books. Now I think they
Speaker 2: know a little bit better because they don't trust me anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Perfect Strangers was fun and pen Pal was fun, but
Speaker 2: because I knew the whole time what was happening, it
Speaker 2: was a little heart wrenching for me to be writing this.
Speaker 2: You know, these love scenes and stuff, and I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 1: So, I mean definitely ever After.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean some people think it's I think it's
Speaker 2: a happily ever after. Some people disagree, So you know,
Speaker 2: it's up to the readers. Yeah, yeah, Okay, So.
Speaker 3: This is about book specific questions about Blackthorne.
Speaker 1: When you were just brainstorming.
Speaker 3: The whole idea, did you off the bat that you
Speaker 3: wanted to do like a dual point of view or
Speaker 3: did that kind of happen organically as you were writing
Speaker 3: and you just kind of were like, oh, I kind
Speaker 3: of want this enemy clever her trope and also get
Speaker 3: that second person's perspective.
Speaker 2: I wanted it to be completely from Maven's perspective because
Speaker 2: I wanted her to be a unreliable narrator. And my
Speaker 2: editor came back and said, I think we need a
Speaker 2: few chapters from Ronan because it'll give a little bit
Speaker 2: of backstory and a little bit more insight into the character. So,
Speaker 2: you know, normally I don't work so closely with an
Speaker 2: editor as I did on this one, but because I
Speaker 2: admire her so much and I think she has really
Speaker 2: good instincts, I was like, okay, I'm gonna let you
Speaker 2: you guide me here in this situation. But the first
Speaker 2: draft there was no Ronan. And then I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: you know, it would be a good idea if we
Speaker 2: have some of him in here, and I think it
Speaker 2: helps the reader to know the male character a little
Speaker 2: bit more. But also it's tough because once you start
Speaker 2: getting into his head, you know, there's less mystery of
Speaker 2: what's going on, and this whole book is predicated on
Speaker 2: it's the mystery of what actually is going on in Solstice,
Speaker 2: what happened with the Grandma? Who are these aunts?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: Are they good or are they bad? So there's a
Speaker 2: big mystery. So if I I thought if I put
Speaker 2: too much from Ronan's point of view, it would it
Speaker 2: would give too much away because he knows everything. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he's also unreliable too, and I think by the
Speaker 2: end of the book, you're like, Okay, what actually happened?
Speaker 2: And is he was that all a dream sequence or what?
Speaker 3: So Yeah, when I got to the first Ronan chapter,
Speaker 3: I updated my good Reads percentage and I was like,
Speaker 3: I'm literally foaming at the mouth right right now.
Speaker 2: Like I was so excited. Well, you know, and I
Speaker 2: write that stuff and I'm just writing it, and I'm
Speaker 2: just I'm in my little room doing my little weird
Speaker 2: cave writing thing, and I'm just like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: this is going to be so weird if people are
Speaker 2: going to think I'm so weird. And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: but it's so good. You know, they're so good. We
Speaker 2: love the weird, Okaycause it's hard not to censor yourself
Speaker 2: as you're writing this stuff because and the longer I'm
Speaker 2: a writer, and the more that you know you get,
Speaker 2: you know, you have interviews and you read reviews and
Speaker 2: things like that, it's hard not to let all of
Speaker 2: that noise go into your head and affect the writing process,
Speaker 2: so I try and stay away from it, but I've
Speaker 2: learned a little bit to just let myself get weird
Speaker 2: and then at the end it's like, Okay, if it's
Speaker 2: too weird, you can take it out. But I never
Speaker 2: end up taking it out, So.
Speaker 1: Please never can handle the weird.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I have. I have like at sidebar question from that,
Speaker 4: since you mentioned reviews, do you ever feel like when
Speaker 4: you do read the reviews, it like changes how you
Speaker 4: view your book or like, you know, you see people's
Speaker 4: different perspectives on it, and have you ever been.
Speaker 2: Like huh yeah, like.
Speaker 1: Guys, ever, I think it's changed.
Speaker 2: Someone is talking about my work is good for me,
Speaker 2: even if it's bad. Because some of my most controversial books,
Speaker 2: like Penpal, there was a lot of negativity on one
Speaker 2: side with that, but you know, all it did was
Speaker 2: help my sales. So I was like, okay, because people
Speaker 2: and it's okay for people to have very passionate, even
Speaker 2: negative opinions about your work. It means that you're at
Speaker 2: least affecting them in some way. I never want someone
Speaker 2: to put down one of my books and just be
Speaker 2: like yahn, you know, at least at least if they
Speaker 2: hate it, they had some kind of a reaction to it,
Speaker 2: and there's actually it's because I'm pushing, you know, all
Speaker 2: these different buttons. But when I first started out writing,
Speaker 2: I would I would take these reviews, bad reviews, to heart.
Speaker 2: But you can't do that because I'm really just writing.
Speaker 2: I'm telling a story, and I'm kind of almost just
Speaker 2: telling myself a story. And I do want to connect
Speaker 2: with the readers, and I want to write books that
Speaker 2: are going to be memorable, because there are so many
Speaker 2: cookie cutter books that are fine and it's fine as
Speaker 2: entertainment and that we can enjoy and you can put aside.
Speaker 2: But I really want to have something that sticks in
Speaker 2: your mind. So if a reader is, you know, unhappy
Speaker 2: with it, that's actually okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And reading is so subjective. I don't think there's no
Speaker 1: clear cut good or bad books, right. It's all dependent
Speaker 1: on who's reading it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so I just figure, like, Okay, if I
Speaker 2: get a one star review on whatever, it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's not my person, that's not my reader. And it's
Speaker 2: actually good because if they're articulating what it is that
Speaker 2: they didn't like, and someone else reads that and they
Speaker 2: figure Okay, well I actually don't like that too, and
Speaker 2: they don't read the book, well, then they've done another
Speaker 2: person of service, and then I'm not going to get
Speaker 2: another one star review just because of that. So it's
Speaker 2: all good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's a privilege to get good reviews and bad
Speaker 2: reviews and all of it is just part of it.
Speaker 2: So I try and keep an arm's length distance from
Speaker 2: that and not let it affect me because I know,
Speaker 2: I know what I'm trying to say, and you know,
Speaker 2: like you said, any kind of artists, you can't please everybody.
Speaker 2: So you have even amazing rock bands or even amazing
Speaker 2: movies or whatever, they have their fans and they have
Speaker 2: their detractors. So it's all good.
Speaker 1: And I was going to be sorry, Charlotte. I was
Speaker 1: going to ask you how you felt about one star reviews,
Speaker 1: but then I saw your TikTok and you recently posted
Speaker 1: a TikTok of one star reviews, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: she doesn't care about one star reviews.
Speaker 2: You know, I think, well, look, we all are human
Speaker 2: with you know, feelings. But I also, like I said,
Speaker 2: I am able to distance it from myself a little,
Speaker 2: like these people don't know me. As a person, and
Speaker 2: they're not. It's not They're just critiquing the work and
Speaker 2: what they don't like about it, which is totally legitimate,
Speaker 2: and I feel like that's that's what book reviews are
Speaker 2: for and movies so people can talk about it, right
Speaker 2: and they can decide what they want. But some of
Speaker 2: these one star reviews are so damn funny and they're
Speaker 2: so they're so mad, and I just start giggling when
Speaker 2: I read them because it's like, oh my god, because
Speaker 2: this is your taking this way too seriously, therap.
Speaker 1: But it's been there's been some one star reviews that
Speaker 1: I've read where I'm like, this makes me want to
Speaker 1: read the book. Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
Speaker 4: Somebody can tell me they hate a book and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 4: give it to me, Yeah, I want.
Speaker 1: To read it.
Speaker 2: This is the reasons why. And you're like, yes, yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's all fair.
Speaker 1: So obviously, in an ideal world, Blackthorn gets a movie.
Speaker 1: What is your ideal fan cast for Maven Ronan and
Speaker 1: more specifically Q, because I want you to know more
Speaker 1: about Q.
Speaker 2: It's funny because I don't I don't ever do fan
Speaker 2: casting in my head of like, who these people are.
Speaker 2: I don't have mood boards of, you know, certain actors
Speaker 2: or whatever they are, because I don't know. I don't
Speaker 2: base it on anyone. So to me, it's just when
Speaker 2: I start writing the book, I'm just getting to know
Speaker 2: these characters, and I start like the first twenty percent
Speaker 2: is just me sussing out who is who and what
Speaker 2: they are. So I don't have a picture in my
Speaker 2: mind of who these characters are. And people always want
Speaker 2: to know, well, who would play this or who would play that?
Speaker 2: I'm like, I don't know. Usually my answer is I
Speaker 2: wouldn't want it to be somebody super famous that's going
Speaker 2: to bring some kind of preconceived, you know whatever notion, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: it can't be Henry Caville, it can't be Jason Momoa, like,
Speaker 2: it has to be somebody that you can lose yourself
Speaker 2: in the character as you're watching it. So I don't know.
Speaker 2: You guys will have to tell me.
Speaker 5: I think after seeing the previews for Frankenstein, Jacob Elordius,
Speaker 5: Frankenstein should be cute.
Speaker 2: Isn't he amazing?
Speaker 4: Though?
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't even know who this actor was,
Speaker 2: and I saw like, I can't wait to see that movie.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so if Guermo del Toro can direct, that's
Speaker 2: all I want.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Giermo, if you're watching.
Speaker 5: Gmo is my man, he's clearly listening to smut up
Speaker 5: and listen.
Speaker 2: So I.
Speaker 4: Feel like he'd be perfect this book tip.
Speaker 2: And he you would make it even better than I
Speaker 2: can never even dream about it. I'd be like, you
Speaker 2: take it, you do it. I'll be hearing going yes.
Speaker 1: Right is sexy?
Speaker 2: Then depends on what your type is. Right, true should
Speaker 2: be sexy. I mean you never know. It's all the casting,
Speaker 2: like does he have that whole you know, look, I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 3: Definitely, he's definitely a real freak.
Speaker 2: I mean, let's face the whole family or freaks. But
Speaker 2: then the whole thing you're like or are they like?
Speaker 2: Are they I don't know?
Speaker 1: Rightturing, I was picturing Hilda and Zelda as the anties.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, in my head, Yeah, I loved him. I
Speaker 2: know you could go in any which direction.
Speaker 4: I'm really yeah yeah, right, what made you decide to
Speaker 4: make the ending a big and is it open to
Speaker 4: interpretation or is it a supernatural story?
Speaker 2: It is open to interpretation unless I do a sequel,
Speaker 2: and that it will, you know, everything will have to be.
Speaker 2: But I think if I did do a sequel, I
Speaker 2: would take it from the daughter's point of view. I
Speaker 2: think I would take it from this point of view
Speaker 2: and she would be a little bit older and it
Speaker 2: would go from there. So I wanted to leave things.
Speaker 2: I like to leave things open and unanswered because it's
Speaker 2: kind of like life, like there are no there are
Speaker 2: no hard answers. Yeah, so you got to make it
Speaker 2: up for yourself.
Speaker 4: Sometimes I love that, and then sometimes I'm like, just
Speaker 4: tell me, tell me, just tell.
Speaker 2: This one. This one I was deliberately, especially with the
Speaker 2: epilogue that you see from the detectives that kind of
Speaker 2: made it even like, okay, wait, now there's a fox
Speaker 2: over there that's looking at weird, you know. So then
Speaker 2: I like to have usually either the house is a
Speaker 2: character in and of itself, or the season is a
Speaker 2: character too, Like you know, it's Halloween and it's all
Speaker 2: spooky and everything. I like to get all that stuff going,
Speaker 2: so I'm really sure what's happening.
Speaker 1: We did discuss that in the episode yesterday too, where
Speaker 1: I was like, there was so much stuff happening before
Speaker 1: outside of the house. There's no way that the ending
Speaker 1: isn't supernatural but open to interpretation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean I have I have my you know,
Speaker 2: I mean, I know it's real and yeah, but right, yeah,
Speaker 2: but maybe you will with the sequel. We'll see if
Speaker 2: there's a sequel. I don't know, somebody.
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 2: I'm like, if that's done and I'm going on to
Speaker 2: something else, and I'm bored with it, So I don't know.
Speaker 3: I feel like you tied it in like a nice
Speaker 3: pretty bow, but you also left it like open, so
Speaker 3: we can that door can be like wedged right open
Speaker 3: and you can continue on. Yeah, it can be a standalone,
Speaker 3: but it can also definitely be part of a series.
Speaker 2: Do you think penn Pal could be a sequel?
Speaker 1: Yeah, she said, immediately write it right now.
Speaker 2: In fact the art please. Yeah, I'm just asking. I
Speaker 2: think you write it.
Speaker 1: We'll read it, Yeah, we will.
Speaker 5: My question was kind of along the same lines as Riley's,
Speaker 5: but you may answer. Can you give us one example
Speaker 5: where it was reality and where it was skewed perception
Speaker 5: for Mateman, Like, was one particular thing actually the carbon
Speaker 5: monoxide or was it.
Speaker 2: Or was it not carbon monoxide? And it was the house, right,
Speaker 2: So the house itself is a third Well, I don't
Speaker 2: know how many characters we have, but but the theories are, Okay,
Speaker 2: it was carbon monoxide poisoning, or they're witches, and or
Speaker 2: the house itself is an evil entity, right, so those
Speaker 2: are all kind of like, who's really the main player here?
Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys ever read the Haunting
Speaker 2: of Hill House. It's a really good older story and
Speaker 2: it hits I mean, it's spooky, and so it's it's
Speaker 2: kind of like that where the house has its own
Speaker 2: wants and desires, and so because this house is like
Speaker 2: generally generationally I can't even say that word right now,
Speaker 2: is the one It's been around for a long time, right,
Speaker 2: and it's had it's housed all these generations of women
Speaker 2: who've been persecuted. So like, is the house itself just
Speaker 2: absorbing the energy? And I don't know, Yeah, I can't
Speaker 2: tell you.
Speaker 5: I got an extra theory, and I really like the
Speaker 5: extra theory, so kind of gone with that now.
Speaker 3: Okay, now we're just in our little random set of
Speaker 3: question section. If you have built multiple settings and whole
Speaker 3: worlds under your pen name, knowing how far your reach
Speaker 3: has grown and how much your readers connect with it.
Speaker 3: If given the chance, would you choose to still go
Speaker 3: by J. T. Geisinger or would you change it?
Speaker 2: You mean, change it to a different name, your.
Speaker 3: Real name, whatever, like whichever. Now that you know, like
Speaker 3: you know how far your reach has gone. If you
Speaker 3: knew from the very beginning that you would be a
Speaker 3: New York Times bestselling publisher, do you think you would
Speaker 3: still use a pen name or your real name.
Speaker 2: I would definitely use a pen name, and I would
Speaker 2: make it simpler. So Guy Singer is actually my real
Speaker 2: last name, so it's like that's not even really a
Speaker 2: pen name, and it's like I'm married into that name,
Speaker 2: so nobody knows how to pronounce it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I would have made it something easy, like stone or
Speaker 2: just something super simple, because it's way and it looks
Speaker 2: easier on it, it looks better on a book cover.
Speaker 2: And yeah, so if I had to give advice to
Speaker 2: a wrioter starting out, definitely take a pen name, especially
Speaker 2: because people are cuckoo and I get the weirdest stalkers.
Speaker 2: I mean, you would not imagine the stuff that people
Speaker 2: will send me and they'll try and find me and
Speaker 2: all this other just because I wrote some character that
Speaker 2: they're obsessed with, and to me, it's like, you know, you, guys,
Speaker 2: you realize this is fake and made up, right, It's yeah,
Speaker 2: it's made up. It doesn't exist, but people get so
Speaker 2: crazy about it. So yeah, I would definitely I would
Speaker 2: be like, I don't even know, maybe I would if
Speaker 2: I really had it to do all over again. I
Speaker 2: think I would never show my face and I would
Speaker 2: be a name that you didn't know if there was
Speaker 2: a gender or a race or what the identity was.
Speaker 2: It would be completely neutral. And I would probably, like
Speaker 2: if I was going to do an interview like this,
Speaker 2: I would probably like just have some kind of a
Speaker 2: sticker over my face and like the voice like in
Speaker 2: the Witness Protection. Yeah, I think it's very important to
Speaker 2: it's nice to connect with your readers, but you can
Speaker 2: do that in a way that's not, you know, physically present.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't know. Yeah, so i'd go with
Speaker 2: a different name. Very cool, that's really awesome, totally fair.
Speaker 1: So, if time and money were not an issue, what
Speaker 1: would be your ideal setting to just sit down and
Speaker 1: write for like an entire week.
Speaker 2: Well, it's funny that you say that, because sometimes when
Speaker 2: I'm on a deadline and I really need to focus,
Speaker 2: I will go away. So when I lived in southern California,
Speaker 2: I would drive up to Santa Barbara and I would
Speaker 2: stay for a couple of weeks at this little place
Speaker 2: called the Spanish Garden Inn. And it was quaint and
Speaker 2: it was small, and I would lock myself in there
Speaker 2: and I would finish the book because and I would
Speaker 2: just get room service. And when I would check out,
Speaker 2: they would be like, We've never had anybody spend so
Speaker 2: much money from my gosh, I'm thank you or you know.
Speaker 2: Now that I live up in the Tahoe area, sometimes
Speaker 2: I'll go to Lake Tahoe and I'll just stay there
Speaker 2: for a week. So for me, it's where would I
Speaker 2: go now? I mean, I don't know. I would just
Speaker 2: go somewhere. I love room service, So anywhere that has
Speaker 2: a you know.
Speaker 5: Hotel, five star room service.
Speaker 2: With a view. I like to look out and see something,
Speaker 2: you know. Yeah, so it doesn't matter where it is
Speaker 2: in the world. But alone with room service, Yeah, that
Speaker 2: would be my thing.
Speaker 3: To go to the pepper Mill. They have a little pool.
Speaker 3: It'll be a great pepper miller, immaculate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2: Going off of food.
Speaker 5: If you can only eat one food item for a
Speaker 5: whole year, what would you pick?
Speaker 2: I mean, why, it's got nutrients, it's got like you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Yeah, one food item for a whole year,
Speaker 2: like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Yeah yeah, pizza, probably locos.
Speaker 2: I do love a good taco, yeah, yeah, nothing healthy
Speaker 2: like yogurt no.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, imagine yogurt for a whole year.
Speaker 4: I couldn't.
Speaker 2: You just because.
Speaker 4: Yeah, see what is your favorite movie and your like.
Speaker 1: Favorite genre of movies or yeah, of movies.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I have a couple. I love The Princess
Speaker 2: Bride because it's just such a cute, you know, it's
Speaker 2: very sweet. And I love The Notebook because it made
Speaker 2: me cry and it's and it's a it's a real
Speaker 2: good love story. Yeah, and Ryan Gosling is just you know, yes,
Speaker 2: I just like him. There's something about him. My husband's
Speaker 2: like really and my favorite genre for movies, I mean,
Speaker 2: I love I love romance. I love to watch romances.
Speaker 2: So my husband likes actual movies. So there's always things
Speaker 2: blowing up and people getting killed, and I'm like, where's
Speaker 2: the love story? You know, if there's not some love story.
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 2: I'll just get up and leave because it's just like,
Speaker 2: why do you like death so much?
Speaker 1: You know? My husband with a Jason State, I'll.
Speaker 2: Read him every once in a while a little snippet
Speaker 2: of my book. I read him this one portion of
Speaker 2: Blackthorn where it's like when can I even say it?
Speaker 2: I think it's the Greenhouse. Oh yeah, and you know
Speaker 2: there's like some comparison to a French bottle of wine.
Speaker 2: And I read read to my husband and he's like,
Speaker 2: what is wrong with you? They don't get it? To me?
Speaker 2: I thought it was really good and he's like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, it's discussed. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: I liked it.
Speaker 3: It made me lol, Like I was laughing out loud
Speaker 3: when I read that part.
Speaker 2: I loved it. I brushed his teeth.
Speaker 1: He was just like, during our episodes, we'll make Riley
Speaker 1: read excerpts of like the wildest sex scenes in the books.
Speaker 5: And we've made her read that one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she's like, one of my questions is going
Speaker 1: to be what made you choose to use the term
Speaker 1: wet hole?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 1: I forgot I was going to ask that because that is.
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, I always like I always want to ask
Speaker 4: like what makes like what makes you choose like tight
Speaker 4: ring of muscle, wet hole stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: After writing so many sex scenes. So I've written thirty
Speaker 2: five novels and they're all they all have romance and
Speaker 2: love scenes and whatever. Before both of my parents passed away,
Speaker 2: I was a little bit more poetic about it. It
Speaker 2: was a little bit more not his throbbing member, but
Speaker 2: a little bit more you know, oh yeah. And then
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know if it's bad to say,
Speaker 2: but I feel like once they both passed away, I
Speaker 2: felt this like, oh, I'm just they're not going to
Speaker 2: read it, so I'm just lose. And there's only so
Speaker 2: many ways that you can say these things, and so
Speaker 2: depending upon the character and how how they would perceive
Speaker 2: it or say it, you know. So like my Mafia
Speaker 2: guys and in the Queen's Monster series, they're just saying
Speaker 2: all the words and it's really super raunchy. And after
Speaker 2: a while, I just like, if I'm if I'm in
Speaker 2: a mood, if I'm writing a sex scene and I'm
Speaker 2: in a mood, I'll just be like oh yeah, and
Speaker 2: again and again, I tell myself if it's too gross,
Speaker 2: at the end. You can always edit it out, but
Speaker 2: I ye just leave it in because I'm just like whatever,
Speaker 2: they're gonna like it or they're not going to like
Speaker 2: love it.
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean it. He did suck his own come
Speaker 1: out of her bow hole, so yeah, that real wild
Speaker 1: with it.
Speaker 2: The part of my husband was just like sex scene.
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm going to die.
Speaker 1: He's like, you don't want me to do that, do you?
Speaker 2: I mean, he doesn't even want to know what goes
Speaker 2: on in my books. He would He's like, you're disturbed.
Speaker 2: I read not too so you know, I I you know,
Speaker 2: I get all these ideas like, oh, pretty good, but
Speaker 2: you have to be in the right moment and the
Speaker 2: character has to feel correct, you know, for you to
Speaker 2: do that. And some people love it and other people
Speaker 2: just like, you know, what's funny, most people don't get
Speaker 2: offended in my books at the sex scenes. They'll get
Speaker 2: offended if I'll say something because there's a church scene
Speaker 2: in Blackthorn too, where she goes into the church, you know,
Speaker 2: and there's like Jesus's head falls off the crucifix and
Speaker 2: and there's there's discussions about Mary's. People get more offended
Speaker 2: about that than they really rawchy sex. So yeah, so
Speaker 2: everybody has their trigger, right.
Speaker 1: It was so ambient and spooky. I thought you did it.
Speaker 4: So well, Yeah you did because I was scared. I said,
Speaker 4: absolutely not.
Speaker 2: That would be a good like a Gearmo del Toro scene.
Speaker 5: Yes see, he would probably have like the Virgin Mary,
Speaker 5: like have like blood coming down her eyes or something
Speaker 5: too like h.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So our final question would be what is currently on
Speaker 1: your TVR and also what books would you consider your
Speaker 1: own personal five star reads?
Speaker 2: On my TBR, Naima Simone wrote a book or published
Speaker 2: a book recently called Huntsman and I think it's a
Speaker 2: retelling of uh is it Robin Hood. It's a retelling
Speaker 2: in one of them, but it sounds like a sexy yeah,
Speaker 2: and she's really cute and sweet and I love her.
Speaker 2: And on my TVR. I'm so bad with books because
Speaker 2: when I'm writing something, I try not to, especially try
Speaker 2: not to read romance because I don't want to get
Speaker 2: in my brain and come out. But yeah, what was
Speaker 2: the other part of the question my.
Speaker 1: Tv your own personal five stars romance wise or just anything?
Speaker 2: Well, I generally like books where everyone is dead at
Speaker 2: the end. So I like books that have a really
Speaker 2: emotional experience for me, that's what makes you remember these books.
Speaker 2: So The Road by Cormick McCarthy, it's a dystopian novel
Speaker 2: the World, and it's a man who's walking through a
Speaker 2: burned out in America with his young son. At the
Speaker 2: end of that book, I mean, that's like one of
Speaker 2: the books that wanted me made me want to be
Speaker 2: a writer because the language and the way that he
Speaker 2: and then the end you're so devastated. So that book too.
Speaker 2: One of the books I read with in the last
Speaker 2: year that was it's a monster smut romance that I
Speaker 2: thought was so good. It's called The Lady of Rooks
Speaker 2: Grave Manner.
Speaker 1: We've done that one.
Speaker 2: Oh right, this is so creative and it's very sexy
Speaker 2: and it's all over the place and there's all these
Speaker 2: men and I'm like, pretty good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that one was like banging the whole time, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was different, it was unusual, and it was
Speaker 2: a little bit like it felt historical sort of, you know.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I really like that that book. But yeah,
Speaker 2: there's I'll have to send you my list of like
Speaker 2: all the stuff because I won't remember, right, now I shall.
Speaker 4: Look it up.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of good books to be read. I
Speaker 2: feel like you just can't.
Speaker 1: Get so it's not depressing.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah. If you guys listen to books or do
Speaker 2: you read them physically? I mostly reading both, Okay, I
Speaker 2: mostly reading.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I listened to books, like while I'm working all
Speaker 3: day long, I'll like listen to audiobooks and then when
Speaker 3: I get home, I physically read, like I'm always reading.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel audio books you can do it anytime.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I can't really listen to them because most of
Speaker 4: the time the narrators do not sound how I want
Speaker 4: them to sound.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a it's a real struggle.
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, so I just read it myself.
Speaker 2: It's fair. Was the last books that I produced too
Speaker 2: that were like, I'm just like, it doesn't sound right,
Speaker 2: and so just ye, story is wrong.
Speaker 1: But yeah, what was the last book you read? Rightly?
Speaker 1: Don't do her dirty like that, because I know what
Speaker 1: it is and she gave it five stars.
Speaker 4: I did give it five stars. It was called Suck
Speaker 4: Mommy's Piss Flaps.
Speaker 1: It was fair to the tbr Oh yeah, one.
Speaker 2: For you guys. Okay, as we're all ladies here, have
Speaker 2: you read All Fours by Miranda July. No, No, it's
Speaker 2: really interesting. It's a little bit older than your guys's age,
Speaker 2: but it's a woman who's having like an early midlife
Speaker 2: crisis and she's a writer and she accepts an offer
Speaker 2: to go to New York and like, I don't know
Speaker 2: if she's doing some publication tour whatever. She lives in California,
Speaker 2: so she's like, I'm gonna drive. I just feel like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna drive. She has a husband and a young
Speaker 2: son at home. So she makes it like an hour
Speaker 2: outside of LA and she stops at a gas station
Speaker 2: and the guy who's like cleaning her windshields, she's like,
Speaker 2: she gets a hotel, and the rest of the book
Speaker 2: is her having this crazy midlife crisis with this gas
Speaker 2: station attendant. It's so good. It's like this it's almost
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's like feminist, you know, literature
Speaker 2: or whatever it is, but she's having an absolute meltdown
Speaker 2: and a sexual awakening at the whole time. I could
Speaker 2: not look away. It was a train wreck of a book.
Speaker 2: It was so good and so well written from a
Speaker 2: woman's perspective of like what you go through with your
Speaker 2: sexuality and with being a mom and just wanting to
Speaker 2: get away from your whole life. And then she just
Speaker 2: does for a week, and she lies to her husband
Speaker 2: the whole time. She's like, oh yeah, now I'm in Colorado,
Speaker 2: but she's in this hotel room.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that sounds so good.
Speaker 2: That sounds immediately out of it, or you'll just be
Speaker 2: like this woman is terrible, which she is really really good.
Speaker 4: So I.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so so much with us, Yes, and
Speaker 1: anybody who's listening. If you need like a romantic, spooky
Speaker 1: ambient read Blackthorn by JT. Guysinger check it out. It
Speaker 1: is so good, so.
Speaker 2: Good, little twisty thank you, thank you. Okay, we'll have
Speaker 2: a good rest of your night.
Speaker 4: You too.
Speaker 1: It's been a pleasure meeting you. Yes, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: JT. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Bye, Okay, next time, see you bye bye. All right. Well,
Speaker 1: if you liked this episode, make sure you rate, review,
Speaker 1: and subscribe, Follow.
Speaker 3: Us on Instagram at smut up and Listen podcast, and
Speaker 3: on TikTok at smut up and Listen.
Speaker 4: Tell your friends but not your mom, and we'll see
Speaker 4: you later. You have morny little rats.
Speaker 2: Bye.