Hi angels
Hi angels
Hi angels
It is Olivia [music] Ponton and welcome back to another episode of Book to Busy
Book to Busy
Book to Busy. >> [music] >> Cuz sometimes when I read like the He Hates Everyone But Her, I'm like that's just never going to happen in real life
Well, and then like do you would you really want him coming to Thanksgiving dinner with your whole family if he's going to be horrible to your mom and and your uncle and your little brother and like and you just It's okay guys, he really loves me. >> [laughter] >> We're having to be like wait, I promise he's a good guy
I promise
Listen, and he's really great to me behind closed doors. [laughter] Behind closed doors. >> I see your content
Like I know what content I share
It is me and so you are allowing people into your heart, your soul, but how do you kind of gauge that of you know, sharing all of yourself versus just pieces of yourself? >> I was literally just asked about this on a panel at Harvard
Oh, wow
Yeah, I saw [laughter] you
Congratulations
I saw that was That was a question that a lot of people were asking me
Truly, I feel like it's finding a balance and having the boundaries of like okay, I'm going to share this part of my life, but these three or four things in my life, these are for me
These are what I'm going to keep, you know, and I'm never going to share with anyone else besides like the people in my immediate life. >> I think people would probably be surprised to know that I don't listen to audiobooks
See, there we go
Because Most of them are probably in your voice. [laughter] Well, there's that
I don't listen to myself, so what could possibly be left? No, it's um no, I mean I do it for professional reasons
Um and I also have so much narrative in my head at any given time and I can't possibly have yet another voice in my head
Do you listen to music then? I do
And even sometimes I can't listen to music with lyrics
Like if it's been a big word day. >> [laughter] >> Wait, I get that. >> I'd like some instrumental, please
It was 2021 when we were living together in that that rat apartment. >> [laughter] >> That was yeah, a scary scary place
We were living together and you came home with a humongous book
It was Crave by Tracy Wolff and I don't know, you just really got into it
Like in a very obsessive fashion
I read it when I had COVID in New York City, so I didn't I was locked in my apartment for two weeks
I couldn't tell you what in my brain was like let's pick up this 500 page book and like let me just try reading it
I did
Like off rip, like had did not read anything else prior to that
You loved it so much and it made me want to love something that much. [laughter] I have never been a big surfer, but I grew up in Hawaii
Like I went to the kind of high school where in the morning everybody had their surfboards in the back of their pickup trucks and were like toweling off from the beach
Like that's just like what you did at 5:00 a.m
Before school
I did a little I did a little bit, but like I never really took to it
Why? >> I don't know
It's so crazy to me. >> I was honestly like a born New Yorker just like trapped in the body of somebody who was like living like like cosplaying somebody who lived in Hawaii, but I feel like Hawaii and Malibu have a lot in common in terms of like when you live in a place where the water is so like omnipresent, I think it really establishes a lot about what the culture is and I think people are like really drawn back to the water
Like I think people who are who grew up surfing in particular like want to return to the place where they can be in conversation with the water in that way
What inspired this book and did you just wake up on a random Tuesday and decide to like write the most gut-wrenching piece [laughter] of literature that I've read? You know, it was one of those things that the story actually came all together in a college class and uh she posed a really interesting question which was if you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be and make a quote
And I was like okay, that's not going to dig up childhood trauma at all
And so the idea started coming from this idea of like, you know, when you think about all the things that you wish you would have done or you wish you would have said, I really wanted to tell my younger self, you know, speak now, act now, love now because tomorrow isn't forever
And so that was kind of the quote that started the short story
And then my professor said your characters have more to say
And they told me like this book really got me through a hard time in my life
And at that moment I was like okay, that's it
Like I'm only going to think about this one person, not, you know, a bunch of people who are waiting for the book
This just this one person who I had a very human connection with and it unlocked something. >> But I also was dealing with the grief of losing what you thought your life was going to be about
I had been an actor my entire life
I really thought that's what I was going to do and I was coming up against but is this what I want to do? And it's that moment that happens when you realize your dreams change
I'm quite literally going through that right now
So it's really crazy that you're saying that because dealing with grief in the plans that you have for yourself is such a different I mean you're losing a part of yourself
I was like is that really what I want or is that just something that I thought I wanted for the past like 10-ish years? Specifically the past like two or three months I've been like trying to shift that and figure out what I want and that's honestly why I started Book to Busy, but yeah. >> good for you because we tell people never give up on your dreams
Mm, make sure you're checking in with your dreams
There's that saying, you know, that like a crush is just a lack of information
I and love that by the way
I'm like yes
And sometimes that's what a dream is
Like everyone can start out saying I want to be an actor, but then you get into it and once you have more information and you see what it requires of you and what your life is like maybe you don't want to do it anymore and it's not a problem
It's not a failure to quote unquote give up on that dream. >> How many hours are you writing a day? Um I would say probably three to four
Okay, see like that's manageable
Yes
I was kind of envisioning that people sat sat down and wrote for like 12 hours a day. >> I think some do
No
Yeah, and then they write 10,000 words and their book is done in 10 days
I hate them. >> [laughter] >> I'm just kidding
I love you
I'm so impressed by you
I'm secretly really jealous. >> [laughter] >> So jealous. >> in Colombia with my family for Christmas. >> Yes. >> Yeah, and there was guys, six people in a one bedroom apartment
Me and my dad, my sister and it was a lot
But I didn't really have anything to do, so I read this gut-wrenching book and it was so cute
It was a love story and the ending happened and I woke everyone up from how loudly I was crying at night. [laughter] And they were like what My mom literally thought like something really traumatic happened to me and I was like my book and she's like bro, are you kidding me? >> Wait, I want to cry
Having that sense of friendship with Danny like almost kind of made me emotionally sad because I've always craved that friendship that you've had with someone where it's like no matter where in the world Danny will always be there for you
And honestly, I think I was just jealous
Yeah
That at the core of it
I think that that's well said
I mean I think that the friendship love story is a very aspirational and I think that when I wrote it, I was single and my friends were really like my family and I think in a way that they really can be before people have families
I think part of the like unglamorous reality of that kind of friendship is that inevitably some sacrifices have to be made for like the differing lives that you start to lead, right? Like your lives grow in different directions and some people get married or some people don't or and it becomes more and more challenging to prioritize each other, which is why I say it's so aspirational because I feel like it it becomes very rare to have friendships like that that are like really so core
I'm I'm very lucky that I do, but I think that they've also changed as we've like started families of our own
The idea of it sounds like really lovely
The practical reality is just not always that way and it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something that I even myself find like I long for
So I went into my bedroom and I started ripping open boxes to find old journals
So I was like I need to remember who I was, what was I thinking as a kid? I had an entry about a boy that I was absolutely obsessed with
There is like pages where I had obviously cried cuz there was dried tears
Yeah, I have a lot of journals at home and every time I go home and I read them, I wish I didn't do that because I start getting really emo and I just cry and then my mom has to come in and be like what's wrong? And I'm like oh, I'm reading this like gut-wrenching entry from when I was 12 years old and in love with this boy who didn't even know I existed. >> Exactly
I'm like right, right
In that book, I I learned a lesson
Actually, I didn't learn it this time
I learned it the next time
When my editor says this name is awfully similar to this other character's name, can you change one? I thought if I said okay, change it, I thought they would change it
They thought I would change it
So in this book, there's a scene where a character introduces another character and in the next sentence another character says nice to meet you, different name
And I I cannot tell you how many how many thousands of emails I've gotten over that. >> people being confused or what you mean? Yeah, cuz I mean it was back to back
And then I did it again No
In the next book, Things We Hide from the Light, did it again cuz it was the same thing
They're like we don't like that this name is so close to this other character's name
Same exact thing happened
I said go ahead, change it
And then changed it in one place, not the rest
So um after that, every time they say this name is too close, I say too bad. >> [laughter] >> Also something maybe hopefully shocking is that I wear sweatpants every single day
I never do my hair
Like I don't wear makeup every day
When I do my Q&A, like oh, how is your hair? I'm like my hair never looks like this
But if you were to ask me on a Tuesday, like you will not care about my hair routine
You'll be like how do I get my hair not to look like that? You mostly see the glamorous part about this job and I'm sure like you you feel the same
You don't see the behind the scenes
I think I enjoy that also with books is with the authors
Yes, they'll share different story lines and dialogue and characters, but at the core of it, they're still them as a human
So they bring in aspects. >> There's a voice
Yeah, and maybe it's a comfort thing
Maybe it's like because I'm scared to risk it
Yeah
Risk it
Cuz a book is like it's a commitment
It's like 12 hours of your life. [laughter] That's a lot for me. >> Tell me about it
Whenever I was younger, I really was a big Hunger Games girl
So like that era of time where like Maze Runner, like Divergent. was >> going to ask you
I was like if you had to pick a a movie between Divergent, Hunger Games, and Maze Runner, which would be your favorite movie? >> Hunger Games. >> Really? >> Catching Fire specifically
I was a Hunger Games girl
Like, I had the side braid and everything
I was a Gale
I was just attracted to Liam Hemsworth whenever I was a kid. >> In Five Years was inspired almost entirely from this medium reading who gave me a psychic prophecy about my love life. >> Wait
Yeah
That's kind of crazy. >> I was I think 24, and she told me who my future husband would be and like what his name was and like how I would meet him and when
Was it true? >> Um yeah, and it was all true and I ended up meeting him and then like the timing was just like it was honestly off by a day
It was the craziest thing ever
I ended up, thank God it didn't work out because I ended up meeting my husband who was >> Oh, you didn't end up No, who was like my genuine like true soulmate
But, how crazy like this prophecy and then I end up meeting him but like it's not it's him but it's not him
This idea that even if we can see what's coming, we can't see what it will mean
And that became the entry point of In Five Years, that you can see you could maybe see what's coming
Like we have ideas about our lives and then like how they're going to turn out and what we want and we can build and we can plan, but we can't ever actually know what the things that we want will look like or feel like in our actual life once we're there. >> It's Crown Tides
I'm like 70% done with the book at this point and it's the night before a big shoot
I'm really excited about this
Again, guys, had no idea this was going to be a gut-wrenching story
I think >> I had like 30, 40 pages left and that was when I started connecting the dots
Oh, I posted it on my story
I was bawling like I have not cried over a book like that in ages, but by the end I was so the best way of saying it is emo
I was just like, what is going on? So, why yeah, why? That's my question
It's like why? >> So, I was just in LA and I met with Universal
I met with like the producers of Twilight and all those movies
I have read a script like private script and it's the thing that I really care about beyond obviously the normal stuff is aisleless dresses
And they're like, well, you know, like Wicked like we had a great cast too
And I'm like, Oh my god. thing so is really interesting because there are a few names that like I think my readers would freak out if it was them
Readers will tag me in their casting choices and I send that to the producers
Because they care and they should
Like nowadays really the readers are who are getting people into theaters
So, I'm so excited
And Summer of the City is also being made into a movie by New Line or Warner Brothers
So, weirdly that has progressed very quickly
Like >> Really? >> Like yeah
I think that I'm going to have a lot to say in the new year. >> I don't want to scare you off with too much woo-woo hippy manifestation stuff. >> Oh, I'm a manifestor. >> Oh, thank god
Okay. [laughter] All right
So, you know with manifestation like one of the biggest, most important things is to be able to actually feel like you have the thing that you want. >> Oh, you have to speak it into existence. >> Yes
The things that I manifest right now, I'm like, I am going to the like there's no world that that doesn't happen. >> Right
So, I think I approach writing a little bit like that
I'm like, what is the feeling that I want to deliver here? And I get into that feeling and then I write the scene. >> I've never heard that >> [laughter] >> That's I write this and I feel this and then you read it and you feel the same thing
Like that's that's mind-blowing. >> Campus life or countryside? >> Countryside. >> Really? >> Yeah
At this point in my life. >> Like Oxford? >> Oh, no
I'd be in Oxford
I'd be in Oxford tomorrow
It's my favorite place in the world, but no, for my own like actual life, I don't need to be on a campus anymore
At this point I just like >> Kids, get off my lawn
That's how I feel most of the time. >> I like to listen to like a playlist that matches my book. >> You're one of those people
Oh my god
When I was reading Throne of Glass, like I was playing dun dun dun dun dun >> Oh, yeah
Oh my god
I'm going to sound like a crazy person
Okay
Whatever
They were [snorts] on the battlefield and like the like the perfect song starts playing and like a scene is playing out in a book
Oh my god
It just feels like so serendipitous
It's so awesome
So, right now I'm trying to get through a book tour with my husband and my baby daughter, which is insane
Like it seemed like a really good idea to bring them
And now like halfway into day one, I'm like, SOS
And then I am working on five film adaptations of these books
So, and I'm producing all of them
And then I am I'm kicking around another idea that will be a ways down the Right now it's just all about Once and Again. >> Yeah, as it should be
So, I like sometimes when I go on to broadcast and they ask me what's next, I'm like, I'm just happy I'm here. >> I know
I'm like, I needed here
I've tried to be really honest about this because I do think when people see like, oh, you're publishing like three, four books a year
And I think if you just say like, oh yeah, it's great, then people who are struggling feel worse
Um and so it has been really hard
This has been the hardest year of my life
I have had multiple like burnout moments
I've had multiple times where I'm like on tour just like sobbing on the floor like in the shower
Like I I can't even talk
And so the fact that I'm doing it so much and every day has become a a problem
And so there are moments where I'm not doing well
I get what you're saying like crying in the back of an Uber
Very real
Right? And Yeah, and sometimes it just You just It's all It's all at once and people are asking you so many things at once and you're like >> So, thank you for whoever I said I'm fine right now and I'm lucky that I get to pull back when I want to, but I mean I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it
This is my dream come true and I've wanted to do this since I was a little kid and every single day I wake up so happy and so grateful and also just like mystified that I get to do this
I love my job and it's that love that allows me to be able to write these >> wait until I'm in my 30s and people look at me like I'm crazy and I'm like, I just know once I hit my 30s I'm going to be thriving rather than in your 20s where I'm at right now
I feel like everyone's being like, you need to figure out what you want
You need to figure out what you want
No, no, the 20s are for experimenting
The 20s are you need to try as many things so you know exactly what you like and what you don't like
Don't try to settle down into something, you know, don't try to like pigeonhole yourself into some career or whatever in your 20s
No
Try everything. >> Couldn't have said that better. >> [laughter] >> I'm good with words
You know, my my original writing process was so detailed and so organized
I was always so proud of myself for how I would write
And then I wrote this story and blew it all up 100%
I went for the index card method and I had told my parents, "Oh, don't worry
I'm just going to lay out this idea in my head
I need this timeline
If the scene doesn't connect the reader to a feeling, then it's not needed." And so as I was writing it, I literally had all these little index cards and I had laid them on my kitchen floor in a line thinking that I'm going to be done in a day
It's going to be totally fine
We can eat dinner
We did not eat dinner for a week
It was a DoorDash moment
Um content, there is a huge new character that you have not met that has been mentioned since book one
He is Can we know who? I feel like it would ruin it. >> Okay, so maybe not
Maybe [laughter] not
It is the villain of this book
It's someone who you you heard about in book one
Wait, I'm going to I I know
Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> [laughter] >> And it was a huge, huge part of the future of the series like especially Crown Tides
And then I've said this, there's the biggest plot twist of the entire series right in the middle of Crown Tides
And I think >> This is like torture
I'm like, I need to know half right now. >> Then the proofreaders got it and they tell me, "You don't know how to use commas." I know I don't. >> [laughter] >> Just I don't know how to do that
I If it weren't for that editorial team, it would not make sense
These books would not be legible. >> [laughter] >> I feel like that is um me with my text messages and [laughter] emails
I text and I'm like, that didn't make grammatical sense
I didn't spell it right
What is It's good to know that publishers are also does that
It makes you feel a lot better. >> I make a lot of mistakes
It's like is cell phone one word or two? I don't know
I always I think it's one word
Is backseat one word or two? How do you spell restaurant? >> I don't know
There's a U in it and I don't know where the U goes. >> [music] [music]
