Bookwild - Skates, Snow, and Secrets : Wendy Walker's Blade

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

This week, I talk with Wendy Walker about her new ice skating thriller Blade! We dive into her past with ice skating, how she developed her cast of characters, and how she chose the unique plot structure.Blade SynopsisAna Robbins was an Olympic star in the making—until tragedy forced her to leave that world behind. At the age of sixteen, she gave up her dream and never looked back. Fourteen years later, she’s a successful defense attorney, revered for her work with minors. But when her former coach turns up dead, Ana lands right back where it all began, and abruptly The Palace, a world-renowned skating facility nestled high in the mountains of Colorado.Ana returns to The Palace to defend the young skater accused of the brutal crime—Grace Montgomery. Despite her claims of innocence, all evidence points squarely at Grace’s guilt, and she’s days away from facing charges of first-degree murder.But Ana’s investigation dredges up childhood memories of her own, triggering the fear that permeates this place where she once lived and trained far from home as an “Orphan.” With a blizzard raging outside, and time running out for Grace, Ana is determined to uncover the truth—even if it means exposing her own secrets that she buried here long ago. Check Out Author Social Media PackagesCheck out the Bookwild Community on PatreonCheck Out My Stories Are My Religion SubstackGet Bookwild MerchFollow @imbookwild on InstagramOther Co-hosts On Instagram:Gare Billings @gareindeedreadsSteph Lauer @books.in.badgerlandHalley Sutton @halleysutton25Brian Watson @readingwithbrianMacKenzie Green @missusa2mba 

This week I got to talk with Wendy Walker about her new thriller, Blade, which if you love sports and ambition-related thrillers, I think you will really enjoy this one. This is what it's about. Anna Robbins was an Olympic star in the making until tragedy forced her to leave that world behind. At the age of 16, she gave up her dream and never looked back. 14 years later, she's a successful defense attorney revered for her work with minors, but when her former coach turns up dead, Anna lands right back where it all began, the palace, a world-renowned skating facility, nestled high in the mountains of Colorado. Anna returns to the palace to defend the young skater accused of the brutal crime, Grace Montgomery. Despite her claims of innocence, all evidence points

squarely at Grace's guilt, and she's days away from facing charges of first-degree murder. But Anna's investigation dredges up childhood memories of her own, triggering the fear that permeates this place where she once lived and trained far from home as an orphan. With a blizzard raging outside and time running out for grace, Anna is determined to uncover the truth, even if it means exposing her own secrets that she buried here long ago. This one is super fun. If you enjoy ice skating, like being adjacent to that world, it is kind of like the favorites in that sense, a thriller version. and I just really loved how Wendy brought this story altogether. So that being said, let's hear from Wendy.

So this one, as everyone has kind of for the synopsis, has a lot of different elements going on. We kind of have like a past timeline, present timeline all around this like really intense skate camp kind of thing. So what was your initial idea for this one? So I actually was a competitive figure skater when I was younger. I started skating when I was, I don't know, six or seven. And when I was 13, I moved to a training facility in Colorado. They still have these. You know, you'll have like a coach who's really exceptional and has, you know,

produced a lot of, you know, world class skaters. And skaters will come to that place from around the world to train. and in my day, which was much longer ago than the book and more than reveal. But a long ago, they had, there was a dormitory there. I don't think it's still there, but I'm sure there are similar accommodations. But the dormitory was sort of like ice castles for anyone who remembers that movie or has watched that movie. Yeah. And skaters lived in this dormitory.

and I lived there away from home from 13 to 16. And at the time, they were very sort of unsupervised. It was, you know, and there were some rules and whatnot, but there was just one dorm parent and all of these skaters coming and going, men and women from, again, from around the world. So that experience stayed with me for higher life and shaped me in many, many ways, good and bad. I never thought I would write about it. I actually came to writing later in life after other careers and finance and the law and raising children. And after about 10 years of writing

thrillers, my agent suggested that I explore the world of figure skating for a novel. And, you know, the only way I could see into that world was the one that I had sort of traveled because all of the pieces, how I felt about it and what I experienced only really made sense in that construct. So I gave in, I set, I set the palace, which is where the girls in the book skate in Colorado. And I gave them a similar situation where they are in this dormitory and they are away from home. And from there, that's where I kind of left it. Yeah. All the dynamics in the book, the coach, the mothers in the stands, like, so. many of the other things. I, you know, I, you know, fictionalized everything, but, but that sort of

environment was something that I experienced and really wanted to explore in the book. Yeah. That's it. And I was thinking about it too, because I thought I remembered you had done law as well. So it were practiced law, not done law. Yes. So when I was reading this character, I was like, oh my gosh, she has, she's bringing some of her own experience to the table here. Yeah, because Anna, in the present day, so it has two time frames. So in the present time frame, Anna, who was a skater 14 years ago, is now a defense attorney specializing in the defense of criminal adolescents and children.

So he's an advocate of children and, you know, child psychology and has these very strong beliefs about how children, she says, children become what we do to them. So she shapes her defenses of her clients around these sort of psychological, sort of things that they have that are ailments, really, that they got from their childhood. So anyway, so yes, I brought a lot of that, a lot of my own experience to bear. and both in both time frames. Yes, yeah. I love going back and forth almost all the time. I love that structure. Do you, I can't remember if you outline before you start or are you kind of in the middle. And then like with this one, did you write the past? So is it like chronologically in terms of actual

time or did you write it kind of the way it appears? Well, this book, wow, this book was the hardest book I've ever written. I will say because the first, first I had to go through and like mine all of my my personal experiences and the things that I remember. Even the small things like, what did it feel like when lacing up your skates? What was the train like back then? What did it, what did it feel like to be on the ice at 5.30 in the morning and try to really capture that so I could describe it? Then just the plot, trying to, keep everything fictionalized and not, you know, not write my own story. It was, it was really challenging. And I'm like, so, so the first, the first draft, there was a different kind of

plot and ended up rewriting the entire novel. This character stayed the same. We wrote the entire novel. And there was, and at that point, I did a lot of outlining because I had pieces to work with from the first draft and I wanted that I wanted to keep. And so it became this like puzzle of like, okay, you can keep this from chapter one and you're going to pull it down here. And so I have a road map that I followed for the rewrite. But I do plot. I'm a plotter through and through. Yeah. Yeah. The other, you're kind of talking about some of it. The other thing that's kind of cool is it has like the psychological thriller elements. It also has like some like courtroom drama elements. and we get to like hear from different people kind of through their testifying.

I almost said testimonial. And I'm like, that's not the right one. So did you know going into it that you kind of wanted to blend all of those? Or is it just kind of like that was the story that you wrote? I always wanted to do the past and present. I knew that was part of it because once I changed the story from that first draft, which was all in the present with a lot of flashbacks. And my agent read it and we, you know, thought about it together and decided, let's just take people back in time 14 years ago so that the present story, which is very, takes place over like two days in a snowstorm and it's very, you know, fast moving.

And then the backstory allows you to slow down a little bit and you know bad things are coming for these four skaters. You don't know exactly. And being able to sort of watch it unfold through their eyes was the plan. But then what happens when you have split timeframes and multiple characters, there's always information in every book, actually, there's information that you want the reader to know that neither character knows in the timeframe. Or they might know, but it's not. time for them to talk about it with you yet. Right. So it's not, there's no, there's no reason in the

plot for them to be thinking about it, remembering it, talking about it. Those are the little bits and pieces. And I was like, ah, how do I get this information? Yeah. I thought it will be so much more impactful if the listeners, if the readers or the listeners of the audio can really, you know, hear the voices of these characters who are so prominent in the story, but we don't actually see them in their own voice. So that's when I decided to write these little, their little excerpts from testimony. And so I don't really make it clear whether it's a testimony at trial or at a deposition or something being questioned. So it's just excerpts from, from, from testimony. And it's really fun in the audio book. So for those of you,

audio, because we cast, we ended up casting all of those characters. That's awesome. So, you know, there's the coach and there's the, the, you know, all the different skaters who were there and the psychiatrist who, like, works with the skaters who's kind of creepy and all of the people. And even, even the young skater accused of murdering her coach, Grace, hear all of their voices performed by amazing actors in like a real Q&A as if they're in like a deposition or a courtroom. So the audio is actually really fun too. Yes. Now I wish I need to just start asking everyone for the audio because I just, I love it. It's so much fun when you can like produce it that way and just kind of like

brings it to life in a whole other way. Yeah. So the other thing is it really, the story really deals with trauma and kind of like the lasting effects of that. Like the quote you were mentioning like kids become who we treat them to be. I think was that what it was. Children become what we do to them, which isn't like. Okay, that one. Yeah. Proper grammatically. But, but I think it works. Yeah. It was meant to sort of make a point because it makes you stop. It's not a correct sentence. But okay. saying is that, you know, the things that the way children are nurtured has a huge impact on on who they become, both in their childhood and then as adults. And there's a lot of controversy, of course, about nature versus nurture. And there was a time, certainly when I was growing up, when, you know, it was believed that you just were what you were. And as long as you were fed and, you know, And clothes and housed and went to school that whatever misbehavior or whatever maladies you might have emotionally or psychologically, you know, was just inevitable from your genetics.

But I think and now there still is controversy. Some people have both. Some people think it's, you know, that everyone is born with the potential for, you know, to be within a range of the emotional, you know, like adult. And that it's all, you know, all the nurturing, like the things that happen in early childhood that messes up for life. And that's kind of what Anna believes in the story. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's a lot of like conversation to be had around ambition and kind of like all the different ways that that plays out.

And sometimes as a little bit of an overachiever myself, I feel like it was also. like sometimes you can just dive into ambition to like not feel a trauma or not deal with your feelings. So you just talk about like the talking about ambition like with the characters. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I just I just answered a question about this. Oh nice. It's it's like I don't know. It's baked into me. And I can't remember. If I think about the first time I stepped on the ice, you know, I loved the feeling of it. I loved the challenge of it.

It was moving in a new way, learning new skills constantly. I was very competitive with myself. I don't remember looking at other skaters and thinking they have that, they have that. It was more like, I need to achieve these things. And just getting on this rigorous schedule, six hours a day, skating all weekend. and just and then also getting straight A's in school. Right. Nothing else.

And this, you know, you get into this mode. And I think a lot of athletes can get sort of their brains start to get trained this way. And you're like ingraining in yourself when you're allowed to have pleasure and what brings you joy. And so there's this, you get these little, little existential hits of like little hits of joy that bring a little dopamine when you feel. finish something. Okay, I finish the work for the day. And then, you know, I'll feel this burst of glee. And then it's like, okay, but that's like, what am I actually enjoying? Like, I'm, you know, and it's been with me my whole life. And I, yeah, and I'm just now starting to feel like I have a little more time. My kids are all grown. Yeah. My work is at a steady pace. I'm not like,

you know, back-to-back projects. They're kind of, I kind of got in front of them a little bit. And I feel like, okay, I could have like normal work hours now. Yes. But I honestly don't know what to do with myself. Like I call, I have friends. I get it. I won't say who they are, but I have like one friend who, you know,

she's so good about just binging Netflix in the middle of the day. Oh, yeah. They're chapters and I'll be like, what are you doing? I'm just binging Netflix. Like just. like but it's the middle of the day so right and sometimes that's the time we have yeah it's going to be more like that like why not like it's this is one of the perks of the job is that you know we work on and where's we work whenever it's needed but sometimes the middle of the day we have a break and like

you got to seize the moment and enjoy you know yeah so but i think it's it's um i i i mean sure every person who trained for athletics. Oh, yeah. As a child, like, has the same struggle into adulthood and how to, you know, how to transition that or maybe, maybe they never do. I don't know. I'm at this late stage. Not everyone does. Yeah. Trying to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the other thing I was thinking about, too, with this one is there's the there's some really stark power imbalances obviously when when you have especially when you have kind of like manipulative and a little bit corrupted adults in charge of children who in this case you call them the orphans yeah and so yeah there's this huge power imbalance and there's like

it's happening in a competitive arena itself so sometimes i feel like it's hard to tell you hell, like, is the coach actually dangerous or are they just like pushing? So can you kind of talk about like that part of it? So first I'll say that my coach was not at all like like. Yeah. So, um, he was, um, he was just a, he was just a very straightforward coach. You know, we came down for the lesson. You had your lesson. And then he went off and gave someone else a lesson. Um, there was no talk about your personal life. How are you feeling? Are you homesick? you know, none of that stuff. And it was just a different time, you know, as well where, again, the attention to psychology was really not there.

What I tried to do in the book was, you know, focus in on isolation. So you take these young girls, isolate them from their families. So all they have is each other. And they're all, they're trying to be helpful to each other. but they're all kind of in the same boat. Like they don't really know what they're doing. They're all sort of struggling in their own way with different things. And they're coming of age, right?

So they're teenage girls coming of age in this environment. And that's really the focus of the book. Skating is kind of like just the backdrop for it. And so I tried to create this coach who would be like someone that they would have a really unhealthy attachment to. So she, you know, cultivates. She wants to be the most important force in their lives so that they will do anything to please her.

And that get them to hurl themselves into the air, to try new triples, get higher, go faster to get the rotation on the new jumps, fight those jumps. And that they, because they don't want to displease her. because sometimes wanting something for yourself is not override the fear of the things you have to do to excel in this sport, especially like skating in gymnastics when you are hurling yourself into the air. And every part of your brain is telling you to slow down, don't jump as high, don't go as fast. And that's and you have to override that. And I remember like I would be circling the ice and when I was trying a triple and I would be making bar. with myself, like, okay, if you just do it this time, slow down on the takeoff, then you can go home

and have a whole ice cream Sunday, or you can go home and, like, not do your homework tonight, or you can go, like, I would, I would like make these bargains, and I'd be circling the eyes, and I'd get, and I was, I was not cut out for triple jumps, and I would feel my edge, like I'd be approaching, I'm like, please don't slow down, and my edge crush into the ice just enough to slow me down before the takeoff and I wouldn't get the height to make rotations and I fall. And so, yeah, it's skating in gymnastics in particular, I think have that element to a built in fear that your brain kicks in out of instinct. And so to override that Don's theory is that she needs these skaters to it's not enough that they want it for themselves. They have to fear losing her affection.

And for that to be in fear, she has to be their most. important attachment. So she uses these gaslighting and all the things that people, we've all read about these people, right, who come and they just get under our skin and we start to need them and want them, their approval, their attention, and for how to manipulate us so that, you know, there's a constant push pull. We never know. Get what we want from them. But we're always trying. And it becomes this very intense but unhealthy attachment. And then everything goes downhill from there. Right.

Yeah. And especially in their case, like, they're literally children, too. So it's like the desire to please is so intertwined with like survival for them at this point. Yeah. So it's it's going to work on them in that case, unfortunately. Yeah. Did you, how did you, sometimes I always wonder when there are like multiple, there are

multiple girls in the orphans. Did you play around with like how many were going to be there in that group or did you just kind of like, no? I don't know. I know, you know, I kind of, I had like the idea for, because they kind of started to mimic a family. So, so Jolene and Kayla are slightly older and Jolene is a little more maternal and Kayla's a little rougher around the edges. So kind of a maternal figure and a more traditionally male figure and in sort of old or traditional ways of thinking about families. And the, and then Indy is a little bit older than Anna, but she's still young and precocious. So she's sort of like the, you know, the older sister. And they operate in that way where, you know, Jolene will be the one to, you know, give them a hug and try to give them guidance.

And Kayla is the one who will go out and beat someone up for them. Yes. And then Indy and Anna are like, you know, together. And they are the best friends. And but Indy is just slightly older and has a different outlook because of her unique situation. She has a different outlook on the place than Anna does. Totally. You've mentioned your past with figure skating.

Was there anything like other research that you ended up doing to, like bring the story to life in like these times yeah well i mean i had to actually figure out what the sort of point system and the rules and how skating is today in terms of competition and 14 years ago because i haven't skated more years than that and i watch skating and i'm very involved i'm involved in skating i watch it you know the nationals every year i watch the Olympics. I also, my, you know, one of my very best friends runs an organization called Fingers Skating and Star Wars. Yeah. And I was the, you know, the founding chairwoman for her years ago and I go to the gala every year. So, you know, I'm involved in skating to some extent. But I don't know

how exactly things are structured, like, you know, which competitions get you to nationals. It used to be a certain way. So I found someone who, was current and involved in skating. It was able to walk me through that. And then I did additional research into child psychology and the current thinking about the nurse as nurture because, you know, it was, I guess, over 10 years ago when I was practicing law and, you know, sort of involved in those areas. So that wanted to make sure there wasn't more current research that I needed to be aware of.

But other than that, yeah, those were really the two big areas that I had to go back and really research. And how much has changed, which is so fascinating is that in terms of, so one of the girls, Indy is in the book, is trying to land the triple axle. And when I started writing it, I was like, well, that's how it was when I was skating. It wasn't the triple axle at the time. The men were like to the triple axle. but I was like, oh, you know, I think the women are, you know, it's still kind of, it's still kind of hard for women to land a triple axle, not like many of them have it. And that's still the case.

It's so interesting to see how, you know, sort of the progression of the sport. Women definitely have a lot more triples than they had when I was skating. But that was interesting that that is still the case that the triple axle. is still this, you know, really difficult milestone for the women's skaters. Yeah. It's, I mean, it seems really difficult. So I could see how. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. I don't think I could do much, but barely skate in a straight line. Yeah. I mean, the jumps are a whole, like, it's, and actually, I got back on the ice. I hadn't skated for 15 years. But before that, before that I had gone, I had gone skating like every, couple of years, every few years. Just, and then when I had my kids, I would go, I tried to teach each of them how to skate. And I would skate around and it felt like totally normal. I mean,

I would try to do a spin. I could do the spin, but I would get really dizzy when you're a skater. You don't, you stop getting dizzy. You'd never get dizzy. Yeah. And doing the spins or jumps or anything like that. So, but after 15 years of not being on the ice at all, it was, it was crazy. went on the ice and it was like I felt like I'd never skated before. And I just stepped away from the boards like I was just going to skate. And I started to stumble. And I thought, is there something on my blades? Like, is there some something stuck in my blades or something wrong with this ice? And my boyfriend who plays hockey, he was there with me. And he was like, just keep going. It'll click in. And so, you know, I just kept stumbling. And I kept and within like a minute,

the brain-body connection, like, united. And I was able to start to crossovers. And I was like, okay, all right. Yeah. It was slow. It just has to like remember. Yeah. Yeah. It was so interesting, though, how, you know, those memories are there, but your brain has to dig for them when you're in time. Totally. Yeah. My niece is playing volleyball now. And I played volleyball like, you know, like 20 years ago, I think at this point. And yeah, like seeing her play, I'm like, like my body kind of remembers some of it. And then I'm like, I don't know that I could still play it though if I tried to right now. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It just changes. It does. It does. And it's sort of hard. It was kind of like, I mean, it was nice to like remember what it felt like and how I actually

used to just love, love, love to skate. I mean, that's why I did. in all those years. And, but also having an acceptance of, you know, where I am now and what I'm capable of, I'm not going to be jumping anytime soon. Yes. Or probably. But, but that's okay. That's okay.

Yeah. It is. You have, you can, you can write and read and maybe, maybe you'll watch Netflix in the afternoon one day. I aspire to, like, Slack. This is my new, New Year's resolution is to Slack. off more. Yes. Yeah. Some of us need to remind ourselves to do it. We're there. Yeah. You're your podcast. I mean, right? These are things like, I'm sure, you know, like,

things that you do that, you know, you've driven, driven to keep going. Yes. Totally. Yeah. Were there any, like, characters or obviously you can't do like spoilery scenes, but or scenes that were like the most difficult to write or were, like, we're like, like different for you than what you've written before? Well, I will say like writing the descriptions of the, of the skating and the rink and the all of that. I just didn't know how much. It's always a little balance with a thriller because you want to provide the atmosphere

and sometimes it's part of the stakes of the story. Like there's a snowstorm. Describe that and keep reminding the reader. there's this blizzard outside so the characters are on like another level and and describing you know the skating moves and what it felt like to skate as a way of really you know bringing readers into this world so they like they really understand where these girls are are residing emotionally physically but also emotionally so that was hard and that took a couple of edits. I did one, it was too little, then I over did it and I had to pair it back,

and then I think we got it just. It'll be too much for some readers and too little for others, but hopefully the vast majority of readers would be like to find it the right amount. And then there were some scenes that were that were difficult just because they involved, you know, these things that happened to the girls that are disturbing and a little personal. And I try not to be too graphic because unless it's necessary for the story. So, you know, you want to try to bring, again, bring the reader into what this character is going through emotionally without, you know, without requiring them to read things that might be upsetting. or true to some to some women so and men as well. Totally.

Yeah. This has to be like one of the hard balances with thrillers because you have tons of thriller readers who like maybe even if that's happened to them, it doesn't feel like a trigger for them or difficult to read. But then like you don't want to seem gratuitous with it too, I think is probably some of what you're kind of saying, especially when it's kids. Yeah. Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm writing about these younger girls, but the book really is for mature, mature audiences. So it's kind of not really YA. No, I think it's like, especially because it's the timeline hopping. Like it's the adult remembering. Exactly. Yeah.

Well, the other thing that is fun about it, I don't think it's a spoiler. The title's Blade. And in the first, first chapter. we have like a girl holding a blade that I think is bloody at that point. So the other thing I was wondering was like when you started the idea where you're were you like I need to center some murders around the blade of an ice gate. Well, so the idea for that when I was talking to my agent about about you know what this story should be and sort of bringing talking about my experiences and some of the crazy things that happened while I was,

while I was at this training center and, and not wanting to use them exactly, but to draw from them, the themes of them. And then there was, there was, there was something that, that, from my experience, that nobody was murdered or threatened with a blade, but where they slipped their hand inside the boot and, you know, and was like considering using the blade like in self-defense and that had stayed with me this vulnerable girl like scared of being attacked and like you know only having her ice skates with her and putting her hand inside a boot and like getting it having it ready to use and the the image of that like you know of

this young girl in a skating dress and these you know skating we always think of as being you know sort of a princessy sport, even though it's extremely grueling and athletic. But that's just the imagery. And so to see all in fear of her life with her hand in her skate. So when I thought about that and wanted to incorporate that into the book, because I just felt it was so, it was such a great. And it really captures the theme of the book, which is, yes, they're in this young girls, but then there's also all this danger around them. So the murder of the murder of this assistant coach is with the heel of a skating blade. And so I was telling this to my agent and I said, and then we can call it Blade.

And he was like, okay? And then, you know, it did go through multiple drafts, but the title never changed. The type of murder never changed. And that moment and the story never changed because that was sort of. the way to lead into this, you know, the themes about vulnerability and, you know, and how the sport is perceived. And then the realities at some of these, you know, training facilities, and some of the realities for young girls and, and also boys as well. Yes. Yeah, I loved it because it's fun when thrillers are, like, taking place in a very specific, like, community or setting

or location or, like, sport in this case. And I think it's fun when authors are able to, like, really blend the thriller into, into, like, literal items or whatever of that world. Because I don't know if you read, there's a book, Bodies to Die for by Lori Brand. And it takes place in, like, bodybuilding culture. So she, like, has so much fun with, like, like waste trainers as like creating injuries and like so she uses like all these things from it and that was one of the first books where I was like oh so this is what can be really fun about putting a thriller in like a really specific place because you're like oh you're like really pulling from everything in that world so yeah I thought it was awesome when I got through the like prolog and I was like

there you go we already know where the title comes from yeah that was the pro I was like I need a I need to bring people viscerally into this story. Like, who is the girl in the woods? Yes. Does this respect to the murder? And then, you know, hopefully the ending is a big twist and surprise. So. Yes.

Yeah. It was for me. Oh, hey. Yeah. I'm so glad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I do feel like the, um, the timing of the release too is pretty perfect too, especially for, I definitely read my books any season. but I feel like some people are going to love it for a winter thriller since a lot of us are being frozen right now. Yeah, and also the Olympics are, the book comes out very first and the Olympics are starting that week. So, yeah, and even though it's a, you know, it's a thriller, so it's a dark take on this, on this training facility. But I hope what comes through is, you know, is first of all.

It's a thriller. It's fiction is the joy of figure skating and the accurate, hopefully the accurate descriptions of how hard these moves are and how hard these girls and what goes into, and especially the triple axle, which is, you know, all the talk at, you know, with the women's event. And so hopefully the book will be a fun kind of escape. And we'll tie into the. to the Olympics and it'll just be able to read in tandem while watching these amazing skaters

perform these jumps and other gorgeous moves. Yeah. I had I knew it was coming up but I had impaired those two together. So that's yeah. It's perfect. And this will be coming out like as as the book comes out. So everyone who's listening right now can you start reading right now. We have three women in the Olympics. Yes. It's incredible. I mean, we don't always have three contenders. And it's so great.

And it's so great to watch their friendship and how, you know, they are in different ages and they've all watched each other for many years at their different struggles. And they've been very open talking about all of that. And it's just, I don't know, it's been really refreshing to see them. Yeah. I'll be sitting on my. couch rooting for them the whole time. Yes. Well, between Blade from you and the favorites from Lane Fargo, which I saw she was bullet down the back too. I was like, I'm, I have to watch the figure skating this

year. So, yeah, I know for a long time. I knew her when she was writing her thrillers and I've been a huge fan of her work. And so we're doing an event together in Chicago. Oh, that's cool. Two weeks. And yeah, so it'll be really fun. And I think I hope she writes about skating again. I don't think I will, but I think she. And actually when she was writing the book and we had a conversation about it and I just told her things I knew. And she wrote about ice dancing and did a ton of research and she follows a sport. But I just gave her my two cents.

And I was like, I'm never going to write about skating. So have that it. Like, it's whatever you want because I'm never going to write about skating. And then two years later, my age is like, I think you should delve into the world of skating. And I was like, what? Oh, my God. Kidding? Like, I said I wouldn't.

I said, not like I say that, but I never, ever, ever thought I would write about it. It just so fascinating that, yeah, it was just advice. I thought I would feel so vulnerable because I knew there'd be no way to write about it without, you know, to write a thriller. I knew I would have to, you know, write about some of the things. that, you know, that some of the emotional threads that were coming from my own experience. And so, but surprisingly, I feel like I don't, I don't feel that vulnerable about it. It's, you know, coming out into the world and I'm happy to talk about it. And I guess I'm at that stage of life where, you know, it's, it's well in the past.

and I've been able to frame it and I also see the sport and the whole experience, you know, as having some really positive things as well. And it really was a great source of joy for me when I was when I was growing up. Right. Yeah. That's cool that you got to. You were like, oh, look, I can't write an ice skating thriller. Yeah, look at that.

Wow. And I know that I'll do it again. Yeah. knows but um but this one uh i'm really proud of it and i think it i hope readers love it yeah well i loved it if you need just a really fun bingey thriller i highly recommend it especially if you're a seasonal reader like we were talking about and it also sounds like i did not personally listen but it sounds like for our audiobook listeners it's definitely that out and so yeah i write i um I write for Audible.

I write original content for them. So if you like audio and listen to audio, you can check out my work there, but I hit a piece come out earlier this in the fall called The Room Next Door. And that was a fully novel. It has an entirely new format. It was written just for audio. And incredible narrators, Julia Whalen, Elizabeth Evans, BB. And I added in these little moments of dialogue where you hear the actual voice of the character, even if it's an internal thought.

So we have a full cast of 33 cast members. There are sound effects, there's music. I was one of the executive producers on the project, so I was involved in like every sound effect, every little footstep, every piece of music. There were three EPs on it. a spreadsheet. I mean, we, we were like, that is so cool. It was because it was this new format, we were like, okay, how do we produce this? Like, what do we, how do we meld in these, these voices into the narration, these little pops of dialogue? And it was new. It hadn't been done before. And we wanted, we all had a different opinion on like how much sound effects should be around the

dialogue and how much music and just be bare. And so we, We really gave it a great deal of thought. And it's, it's, I, I'm very grateful that listeners are, are loving it. So with Blade, we brought in a full cast for these little, these chapters that are interviews. And we have Julia Whalen narrating Anna and then Bibi Wood, who's telling the back story. And the narration, I listen to the whole thing. It's so great. If you like audio, check it out.

It's really, really great. my gosh well now I want to listen to the room next door as well that oh you have to you like audio books I do I knew about yeah check it about American girl but I had not listened to this one oh this sounds amazing I got so into audiobooks last year like it's like still kind of new for me yeah and now I'm obsessed because I write this content now and so and I'm now kind of doing two books a year because I do original content for them and then I write my novels. And so I'm I'm gaining these like these skills that are I you know there's there's sort of translating into when I write my novels I think I think carefully about okay this what what would be I don't or audio but

I'm very cognizant of writing things that are going to be stumbling blocks for an audio performer because I would love all of the formats. It'd be really really solid. So it's been wonderful. Yeah. I'm loving it right now. I had a great, I feel like I'm at a great spot in my career. So it's nice. You are. You're doing it all. We'll have to do an audio book adjacent episode at some point because I, I narrated one with Sagitt Shorts. Yeah, this year. So we didn't do sound effects with it. But I am like, I'm, I am an audio book junkie after 2025. So, yeah. Well, check out, check out the room next door and also Madlove, which is a shorter scripted piece that I did a couple of years ago. Yeah. And they are really, really fun if you like

audiobooks. Yeah, I would be adding them. Yeah, I can talk all things audio because. Yes. Yeah. It's fun. And it's the whole other thing and not everyone does it. So I think it's kind of its own subject or not everyone listens, but yeah, that would be fun. And they're getting more much, you know, like it's not just like somebody's just, you know, reading a book to you. It's really, they are performances. And you, you get sucked in and transformed by the way that they are being read and performed. And so it's, it's much different than it's ever been and it's evolving.

and it's just, performers are incredible. So yeah, that's really fun. That's what the crazy thing for me too is like when I find a narrator I really love. It was that and audio books that kind of pushed me into other genres last year because like there's a lot of like historical horror that I discovered I really liked. But it's kind of because I loved a narrator.

So it does just like change your whole reading life. Yeah. I found one area that I've been, yeah, I've been listening to. And now I'm like, oh, I'll just listen to that book because I really like her. Yeah.

She might find it entertaining. So yeah, it's great. It changes it. Well, we definitely, people should go listen to the room next door as well and Blade. But I do always ask at the end also if you have any books that you read that you loved recently or if there's just a book you always recommend. Oh my gosh. Well, I'm now listening to REC, which.

is the follow-up to sandwich by Catherine Newman. It's just, I don't know, it's just about the life of a 55-year-old woman and what, you know, going through all that stuff. So empty-nesting and all that. So I relate to it on a personal level. And then the wedding people I absolutely loved. So that's where an audio got me into a different genre. Yeah.

I really loved all the colors of the dark as so many other people did. Yes. which is really incredible. And a book, one of my favorite books, I guess, that I always recommend is the kite runner, which is old and older. But that book, that book really brought me back into reading fiction after many years of just, you know, before I was writing and I was, you know, just practicing law and I had kids. And it was like, ugh.

Right. I didn't really read. I was, I really read all day long. So that brought me back. in action yeah and storytelling and I found it loved it. It had such a great twist and the way that the author draws all of the threads together. I thought it really got me thinking about storytelling. I think about it to this day too. Yeah. Those are so impactful. Yeah. I have to read the wedding people because one of my friends really loves it. So many people love it.

And it's another one where again, I might not have read it before audiobooks, but I'm like, I need to listen to this book when I need to like. You can narrate it. It's such a great, it's such a great audio book. It's the kind of thing that I, like, when I'm walking around the house and I'm in the kitchen cooking, I just put it on. Yeah. You know, then I'm going to turn it off and I go in the car.

I'm like just driving to the grocery. I put it on, you know. I mean, it doesn't matter. I don't like pick like a long drive or a long walk. I just play, play all throughout the day, working out, play. you know, whatever, just doing the laundry, I hit play. And I just, I'm always so happy to go back into that world with the characters. And it's not stressed.

So you don't really lose your place. And it's, and I was so sad when it ended because I just wanted to stay with those people in that, in that, whatever, in that nice inn. And I guess they were in Newport, you know, this group of characters. I just wanted to like keep hanging out with them. You know, that was the feeling that it really wonderful. I love when you have that feeling. That's so great. Yeah. It's such a nice attachment to a book. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Well, I will be taking your recommendations. I'm adding these to my list now too. And I'm excited to see what you do next. And thank you for talking about it with me. Yeah, well, there'll be another novel next year and probably another

audible original in the next year and a half or so. So I'm going to start writing that. But yeah, I've finished a draft of the new novel set in wealthy suburbia. It's going to have a love triangle, a forbidden love story, and a murder. So it is always fun. Yeah, exactly. So, so, yep, hopefully going to be turning around revisions and getting that into the hoppers. Nice. Look for that next year. Yeah.

Well, I'm excited for it. Thank you. Thanks for having me on.