Dear Chelsea - Nick & Night with Nicholas Sparks

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

Author Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook) joins Chelsea to talk about why he kept his day job even after a million-dollar book advance, the weirdest places someone’s proposed in front of him, and the everyday stuff that romantic gestures are really made of. Then: A freelance writer wonders if she’ll ever be able to write something for herself instead of just The Man.  A memoirist struggles to revisit her writing.  And a sister reconnects with an estranged family member, but worries the secret will destroy her parents.   * Pick up a copy of Nicholas Sparks’ new book REMAIN! * Need some advice from Chelsea? Email us at [e-mail] * Executive Producer Catherine Law Edited & Engineered by Brad Dickert * * * The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the Podcast author, or individuals participating in the Podcast, and do not represent the opinions of iHeartMedia or its employees.  This Podcast should not be used as medical advice, mental health advice, mental health counseling or therapy, or as imparting any health care recommendations at all.  Individuals are advised to seek independent medical, counseling advice and/or therapy from a competent health care professional with respect to any medical condition, mental health issues, health inquiry or matter, including matters discussed on this Podcast. Guests and listeners should not rely on matters discussed in the Podcast and shall not act or shall refrain from acting based on information contained in the Podcast without first seeking independent medical advice.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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No clue, Dakota. To find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple. podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I just announced all my tour dates. They just went on sale. It's called the High and Mighty Tour. I will be starting, debuting my new material in February of next year. So I'm coming to Washington, D.C., Norfolk, Virginia, Madison, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, Portland, Maine, Providence, Rhode Island, Springfield, Massachusetts, Chicago, of

course. Indianapolis, Indiana, Louisville, Kentucky, Albuquerque, Mesa, Arizona, Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Nashville, Tennessee, Charlotte, North Carolina, Durham, North Carolina, Saratoga, California, Monterey, California, Modesto, California, and Portchester, New York, Boston, Massachusetts, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. I will be touring from February through June. Those are the cities that I'm in. So go get your tickets now. If you want good seats and you want to come see me perform,

I will be on the high and mighty tour. Hi, Catherine. Hi, Chelsea. I probably shouldn't say this, but happy Halloween. Oh, God. Oh, God. I was trying to be a flying on Halloween so that I wouldn't have to show up at any parties. I mean, I'm not going to show up in any parties.

somebody invited me to a party with like that severance logo and it was the bottom half of my head and the top half of severance. And I was like, I hope this is just the invitation for me and not the whole party. But no, I don't, you know how I feel about Halloween. I'm a scrooge. You're not a dresser upper. No, not. Are you looking forward to it? I know you're dying for me to ask you so you can talk about it.

Well, I'm just going to have a little party because Brad's birthday is around this time. So we'll be throwing a little parties. have like a Halloween slash birthday party and yeah just you know still kind of cobbling together a costume but you know I love Halloween. I know I know how you feel about Halloween. I want to remind listeners that I've added to my boycott of Home Depot because companies that cooperate with ICE now we're adding Spotify. I deleted Spotify. I've deleted TikTok. I still have a TikTok account that my social media manages but I don't scroll TikTok anymore. I think the government running that is a shit show. And I, so I'm boycotting Home Depot and I'm boycotting Spotify and more to come.

Great, great. And I'm sure continuing on with the Target boycott after the removal of the DAI. Yeah, Target is over, which is the good store, Walmart? I don't know. I mean, they were always like the traditional evils. Costco is pretty good. Like Costco is good, right? They do good things, Costco.

Yeah, because I'd like to promote these good companies that do good things. And like for hardware stores, like, you know, local hardware stores, if we. We could all start sure. There's supposed to be some economic blackout that starts November 25th through December 2nd. I saw Rosie O'Donnell posted about that. So that would be great if we can all get on board with that. No shopping, no restaurants. I mean, that's a little conflicting because I have a show on November 29th in Vegas. But I care more about the country than I care about my show. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, economic blackout, November 20 something. I'm going to post about it. The only thing that anybody cares about is money. I can't. These ICE videos are so disgusting. administration is so gross. Who's our guest today? Are they going to cheer us up? Our guest today is Nicholas Sparks. He co-wrote his first spooky novel with M. Knight-Shaw Milan. They made the story together. And his new novel Remain also is now a New York Times number one bestseller. Oh, right. We have another author today. We're back-to-back author weeks. By the way, I've read Malala's book this week, and I've read Laura Lynn Jackson, who are both upcoming guests. Malala's funny.

I'm into her. She's real funny. Good. Okay. Yeah. So Nicholas Sparks is here today. Another bestselling, very famous author. I'm so excited to have him on and talk to him about his new novel. So let's get going. Nicholas Sparks, welcome to Dear Chelsea. Hey, I'm thrilled to be here. How fun is this? Oh, my God. It's the king of romance. The king. That's what they say. Aren't you inspiring today? I appreciate that. Oh, no. I'm here to inspire the whole world. We're in a dearth of inspiration. so I'm here to help, and you're here to help. I was just going over the list of books that you've written. I mean, a lot of them have been made into movies, so a lot of them, but let me just read them out loud to you in case you've forgotten any. Remain counting mirror. Remain is the newest one.

That's what we're going to be talking about today, everybody. Remain, counting miracles, dreamland, the wish, the return, every breath, two by two. See me, the longest ride, the best of me, safe haven, the last song, the lucky one, the choice, dear John, At first sight, true believer, three weeks with my brother, the wedding, the guardian, the Knights in Rodanthi?

Yeah. Yeah. I've watched that a couple of times. I like Diane Lane, and who's the guy in that in the movie? Richard Gear. Oh, yeah, of course. They were so hot together. They were in that, yeah, they went in a couple of, a walk to remember, message in a bottle,

which was another classic, and the notebook, which I think is probably the most popular of them all, so far. But what's interesting, we're going to get into your movies and your, well, your books that were made into movies and your books that you've written in a minute. But I wanted to talk a little about your latest, Remain, which you co-wrote. Is this the first time you've ever co-written something with anyone? Well, I did a nonfiction book with my brother years ago, three weeks with my brother, that you referenced there. And so he and I were the co-writers on that. And then for the last song, the screenplay, there was a, I worked with a co-writer on that.

Okay, so what, tell me about the difference in between that, because this is, you co-wrote with M. Knight-Sharmelon, who I used to call M. Knight Shaka Khan until I could figure out how to pronounce his name properly. So now I can, and I'm pretty excited about it. You know, this was very different. The way we worked together primarily was I gave him a long leash when it came to the film, and he gave me a long leash when it came to the novel. And you really, the way to think about this is the two of us conceived this story together, and then he did one side of the coin, the film side, and I did the other side of the coin, the novel side. And so I didn't really dig in and hammer down and give long, detailed notes on the screenplay, and he didn't edit, for instance, the novel. We both decided

to take this story that we both came up with, and I did my medium, and he did his. It's the best way to think about it. Did you guys check in with each other? Like, what were, did you have tent polls that you had to follow or any sort of storyline that you had to stick to so that they would be analogous to each other? Oh, yeah. So, so here's how it came about, right? It's a very Hollywood thing in the original part. It was, I have people in Hollywood. He has people in Hollywood. My people got to, with his people, I don't know, they were to party or something and said, hey, we should get Nick and Knight. They should do something together. You know, I hear this from my Hollywood people all the time, right? And 99% of them amount to nothing. Well, that was in early January 23. And then in March 23, my guy calls me. And he says, you've got a meeting with Knight. It's going to be in Pennsylvania at Knight's Place. And the goal for that meeting was I was going to come up with an original story that would work as both a novel and a film and that would satisfy my readers and his fans.

And then he was going to do. do the same thing. So then we met in May of 2023, primarily to see if we wanted to work with each other, if we could work with each other, if it was going to be more hassle than at worth, because are we both prima donnas? You know, people can add stress to your life. And neither of us want, we've reached, we've been at this 30 years. We don't need more stress, right? Right. So we had this great meeting. I pitched my idea. He pitched his. We decided jointly to do his idea, and we hammered out all of the, or most of the specifics on the idea that eventually became Remain. So then I didn't hear anything until August of 2024, just a year, a year ago,

August. So not that long ago. And he calls me up and he says, I think this is going to be my next movie, which means he's going to write, direct, and produce. And so I say, oh, then I guess I'm going to do a novel because I didn't know what he didn't know what we were going to do what what were we going to do together was I going to write a short story and he would produce it was I going to do a novella were we going to do a TV show we didn't know anyway said this is going to be my next movie so I decide to do a novel so he works on the screenplay for about six weeks from late August till about October 12th I talked to him two or three times a week you know I'm cheerleading I'm brainstorming, I'm doing whatever.

And are you guys making sure that you're on similar pages, no pun intended? He was, we already knew what the story was because we had hammered that out in May of the previous year. So then I get the script. I say, okay, this is great. This is exactly the story we talked about. But I'm in a different medium. You know, I have more room for backstory.

I have more runway. I can hop into the character's heads a little bit more. So I set aside the novel I was working on. and started writing Remain in October, all of a sudden on a very big deadline, finish it in January. This was just last January. Go through the editing process. Here we are. The book's coming out.

The movie's already been filmed. And he's in the editing room. The novel's coming out. And the film will be out in 2026. Very fast. That's such a tight timeline. You wrote the book starting in October and it's coming out the following October, basically. Why do you have any separation between the book and the movie coming out?

I would think it would be fun to have them both released at the same time. Primarily because you want to have a couple of lives on the book, basically. You want to have a hardcover life and then a paperback life. So if you see the cover of Remain, right? So it's really pretty and it's a great book cover. But so we'll have that cover. That'll be the hard cover. And then when the paperback comes along, well, now we're probably going to see Jake

and Phoebe on the paperback version. Yeah. So Jake Gyllenhaal starring in the movie with Phoebe Denever, right? Or Dinnaver? Dinnaver? I don't know. Okay. Yeah.

The girl from Bridgerton, who, yeah, she's really good. Okay, so as a writer, I mean, first of all, you're responsible for so many broken hearts. I just want to come out and say that. I don't know. I mean, there must have been so many couples that read your books or leave the theater after seeing these movies and just leave their boyfriends. They're like, where's my fucking message in a bobbler? You know, like I could only imagine, because I remember as a young person, when I would watch, like, when I would read something really, like, romantic, because these books aren't, like, lusty. I wouldn't, it's not like smutty. I mean, they're love stories. You're kind of known for writing romantic novels, right? And not all of them have happy endings. Right, right. So it's not like it's just always the same formula. But I would imagine that you've gotten a lot of feedback about setting a measure of a standard of.

love and romance at a certain level that a lot of men probably can't attain or can't measure up to. I have heard such stories at my book signings, right? They're like, where's my no, or where's my John from Dear John, or where's my Landon from a walk to remember? I do hear those stories. And at the same time, I think in the course of my career, I've had seven marriage proposals in lines to sign my book. You know, they'll get up to the table, the do Doodle drop to his knees. And I feel so bad for him. I'm like, dude, you're in a Walmart and Birmingham, Alabama, you know, you really wouldn't propose it of Walmart and Birmingham or something like that. But it's happened. And, you know, I hear, I get a lot of letters also from people who say that the stories either remind me of their love story or someone they love. I can't tell you how many people wrote and said, the notebook is the story of my grandparents or the story of my parents or I lost my sister. You know, or I lost the love of my life to cancer, or I was, you know, in love with a girl and she left me because, you know, I was deployed too long like happened in Dear John. And so, you know,

you get a lot more of those kinds of stories than people coming up and saying, I've ruined, I've ruined men for the rest, which I'm glad. I would feel bad if that was more common, actually. No, that's what you come to Dear Chelsea for. Yeah. Yeah. To get uprated. Okay. So, How did you begin your, like, did you set out wanting to become a romance novelist? No. No, I was a regular guy. I was a good student, right? I was, well, let's see.

How far back? I was regular suburban family, high school valedictorian. I was also a pretty good runner. I got a full scholarship to the University of Notre Dame for track and field. Broke the school record there. Still hold it, by the way, after 40 years. Wow. No one's broken your record?

Not for 40 years. Oh, wow. That's lucky, yes. Look, you know, they've had the horse races. They just haven't had the horses, right? That's what I like to say. And let's see, I spent the first couple, a few years after graduation, trying to figure out what I wanted to do.

And I was writing on the side. I wrote a novel when I was 19 and another at 22. Was it a romance novel at 19? No, first one was a horror novel, and the second one was a murder mystery. Okay. So when we look at Remain, right, a little supernatural, little mystery. See, goes right back to my. roots. Then I was selling pharmaceuticals, had a midlife crisis, about 27 years old. What am I

doing with my life? And I decided to give writing another shot because those first novels had been unpublished. And I wrote the notebook. And here we are. Oh, God. Well, let's talk about that because I can't tell you how many times we've had callers come in that are working jobs that are dissatisfying and they want to take a leap of faith and get into their creative zone and do something like write a novel or write a book, and they're always torn and betwixt in between. So let's just talk about that moment in time for you personally when you were a pharmaceutical rep and how you made the decision to just kind of take a huge leap like that. Oh, well, you know, thank you for giving me way more kudos than I deserve.

Well, you already pumped up your track record. I mean, I'm just trying to support the storytelling. I'm really proud of that track record, by the way. We're all proud of you right now. Look at this. So at that time, I was married. I had two kids, and my second son was real young. He was months old, and he was not a good sleeper.

So he was up all night, basically. So my wife at the time, Kathy, she was going to bed very early, you know, maybe eight o'clock because she wanted to get maybe three or four hours because she knew she was going to be awake the rest of the night. So I was kind of alone. I worked my job during the day. but then I have a choice. It's 8 p.m. I can watch TV or chase a drink.

I said, you know, I'm going to chase a dream. It's so funny. So off goes the TV and on and then I begin to write. So I wrote that in the evenings and maybe one morning on a weekend when the family hadn't yet decided what we're all going to do, go to the beach or whatever. And over a period of six months while working, I finished the novel. Now get this. I'd finished it. Then I had to go do the agent thing and, you know, work with her and edit the book. And I sold it in October of 1995, a year before it came out, sold it for the advance was really big back then.

It's kind of big now. It was like a million dollars. How did you get a million dollars for your first book? Yeah, a million dollars for the first book. It was the notebook. It's the notebook. I know, but like, was there a bidding war created? Like how did? Yeah, there was a, yeah. Everybody wanted it, and there was a bidding one. I get a million dollars, and the book doesn't come out for a year. But at that time, yes, that's a great deal of money. But, you know, when I was pretty good in math, and I was a business finance major, and you do the math, you're like, okay, after agent, you know, 15%.

And then you're singing to the choir. You pay taxes. Yeah, yeah, it's not what it is. And then I say, okay, I got enough to pay off my very reasonable $200,000 mortgage. I have enough to put money away for my kids to go to college. I got enough to maybe put some in retirement. But that's about it. I'm 28 years old and I'm going to have to turn on the lights and eat food the rest of my life. So I don't quit my job. And I don't even tell anyone at work that I've just basically won the lottery here. I worked for another year until October 1996.

Now the book comes out and now I have to tell everybody because I'm on, you know, CBS this morning and I'm in all the newspapers. My boss finds out. So I did not quit until then. I think the notebook had been on the list for 14 weeks. It was February of 97 that I quit. And I wasn't even willing to quit then except message in a bottle was going very well. And the publisher had made an offer on that. one. And it was more than I earned for the notebook. And I said, okay, maybe I can make a living doing this. So way less bravery than you give me credit for. I kind of played both sides, I guess. So you were able to basically write two books while you were working as a pharmaceutical rep. Yeah, yeah, I was about half done with message in a bottle when it was sold. But yeah. I do think that's such great advice. And it is what we've told people in the past. You don't have to like quit your job and then go try to be an actor or whatever your thing is. Keep doing what you can do while you're still like keeping lights on, like you said. Well, and I had two children, right? And my wife

was not working at the time. We'd made the joint decision that she would stay home when the kids were little. So what was, yeah, it just seemed like the logical choice. And, you know, writing a novel, yeah, it's a lot of work and it's a challenge and this and that. But depending on how long it is, If you're not writing war and peace, you know, I mean, it's reasonable. Like when I sit down to write, I try to write 2,000 words. Okay. Well, typical novel is 100,000 words. So it might take me, let's say, 130,000 to get the 100,000 that I keep, right?

Well, that's 65 days of writing over a 365-day year. That's good. And even with a notebook, let's say the notebook wasn't even that. The notebook, I think, was about 50 to 60,000 words. So even if I'm only writing it a thousand words a day, of course I had time in the evenings, right? You crank out 500 words or 1,000 words, eventually the novel's going to get done. I think it's more because I had written a couple of novels earlier in life that were never published. I never went to the keyboard and said to myself, there was never the thought that I wasn't going to finish.

there was the thought, am I good, am I going to be any good? Is that going to be terrible? There was thought there, but not the thought that I wasn't going to finish. So, hey, a little bit closer, hey, a little bit closer. Okay, now a real question. Do you cry when you watch your movies, the books that have been made into movies? Did you cry during the notebook? Yeah, of course.

You've got to cry at the end, right? I don't think, look, I'm not weeping and reaching for tissues, but I get a little teary. You know, I got teary at the notebook musical, too. I mean, they just did such a beautiful job. What about when you reread your material? At times, sure. I'll get choked up sometimes, sometimes. And, of course, I don't reread all the time.

I'm not that vain. But I'll pick up a book. You know, when you first finish a novel, you don't want to see the thing for about five years. It's just like the worst friend ever. You know, he just abused you for years and you're done with them, right? So you've got to give it some space. Well, and nowadays, when you publish a book, it's like, okay, you finish a book, it's a labor of love. Then, you know, you go through the editing process, which is less creatively fulfilling.

Yes, yes. It's just kind of tedious. And I mean, it's an important part of the process, but it's not like, I don't know why I'm acting like I'm from Canada saying process. But anyway, it's an important part of it, but it's also, it's just not a fulfilling part. It's like, yeah, I like learning about language and sentence structure and making sure I'm using the right words and the most powerful words when that's, you know, appropriate. But also, then you get, then the book is done. Then you have to shoot the cover. Then you have to agree on a cover. Then they send you 10,000 book slips now.

This is the new thing where they send you 10,000 bucks slips, which are the slips that are the first sheets that go into the book. and you have to sign 10,000 fucking copies. And that really takes the joy out of the entire process. And gives you carpal tunnel. Yeah, I've often joked about that. You know, people say, they'll say, what do you do? I say, I'm a writer.

And they say, well, what do you write? I say, well, mainly I write my name over and over and over and over again, yeah. I just got V.E. Schwab's new book. She did The Invisible Life of Eddie LaRue, and she did $30,000 for her. I'm like, that's too many. Somebody needs to, the next time I threw my back out twice, signing my last 10,000 batch of books. The next time I write a book, I need to be suspended from the ceiling, preferably a ceiling fan, in some sort of suspension gear where my back is not positioned in an awkward way so I could just go like this.

Because, you know, you could stamp them, but nobody wants to do that when you care about your readers. You want to, you know. So, I mean, it's not that your pigeon hold in, like, romance novels, but you've kind of sort of like, you've kind of chosen to write those books. Do you feel at all like that's what you're supposed to write, or do you feel pigeonholed in any way? Look, I write because I want people to read them. And look, I know what my readers have liked. And so I try to write in kind of that. But there's less pigeonholing than you'd think. Because I try to make each novel very different, even though we know the idea is very simple.

It's a love story. It's going to be said in North Carolina. But other than that, I want it to be as different as possible. So I'll write some in first person, some in third person, some in third person limited omniscient. I'll do some with A stories and B stories that collide in the way a reader don't expect. I'll do epic novels. I'll do characters in their teens or their 40s or characters in their 80s. I'll have happy endings, bittersweet endings, and sad endings. I'll have tragedy and other forms. With that said, I also vary the themes. So some might be love and danger. The one remain here is love and the supernatural. I've done love and mystery. So the great thing when you're just really writing about human emotion is I have a great ability to add the elements of all kinds

of different stories, right? I've had soldiers in my novels. I've had mysteries in my novels. I've had arsons, you know, in my novels. So all sorts of different things. So while it is pigeonholing, yeah, it's a love story in North Carolina, aside from Romaine, which is set in Cape Cod, it's okay. What I would tell people is, even though it's those two things, it's different than anything else I've ever done. There's going to be other themes you don't expect, and you won't see the ending coming. And there's a lot of a challenge in that, and I enjoy it. Yeah. I mean, I think one of the key things you said is instead of like, you know, your wife goes to bed at 8 p.m. when you had the little kids and you had a choice to sit on the sofa and watch television

or shut the TV off and write a fucking book. And I think therein lies your answer. You know, you could be some. I mean, I wrestled with this all the time. Yesterday I was reading my friend's book who's coming on the podcast and I was like, I went to go turn on the TV and the TVs weren't working. I'm in this rental house and they weren't working. The cable was down. like, oh. And then I was like, well, I could possibly read a book, idiot. So I went and I got the book and I was read a chapter and then I saw the TVs come on and I'm like, you have a choice right now. You can either continue reading, which is better for your brain or be mind, you know, mindless. Like, you know, watching TV can be so numbing and, you know, it's very rare that there's

an incredible show out there now. I mean, there's a lot of shows out there, but to get a really good one. So, but I think therein lies the difference. You do have to make it the choice to do the work, you know, in order to take the chance to try something new. You have to put the effort in. Yeah. And, of course, these days you also have to put down the phone, which I think people, I think some people might spend more time in front of a screen than a TV screen. I don't know.

I'm not, it seems like it, especially. So you have to now put two things down, I guess, to chase a dream and your off time. How do you manage your phone, Nicholas? Oh, it's not a big deal. You know, once you get into, look, I'll fart around. my phone just like everybody does. But I probably, you know, I work out a couple hours a day. I probably read two or three hours a day. I work five or six hours a day. And I, you know, I'm on the phone talking to friends or visiting with friends. Not every day. I'm not that social,

but enough in the course of a week. So, and then, you know, you're sleeping and you're on your phone the rest of the time. Usually playing games. I'm a big backgammon nut, so I play a lot of backgammon. Okay. And so do you write five to six hours a day? Is that what you said? Yeah, it's about five on days that I write, but I don't write every day. Do you write first thing in the morning? I write after coffee and after my workout. Oh, okay. Interesting. We talked to a Mitch album last week, and he writes first thing in the morning. And I was telling him about this book that I had picked up years ago called Daily Rituals,

which talks about all these famous kind of authors, physicists, philosophers, and what their kind of work ethics are, were, and a lot of them just get up, you know, five in the morning and they work for three hours, and then they're done for the rest of the day. Their creative juices, pretty much they are just first thing in the morning. That's, I'm a first thing in the morning kind of person. That's when I get my best shit done. Well, I'm an early riser. Yeah, I'm usually up about 430 or 5 most mornings, but I can't start my day without coffee. And I like to, I like to get my prayers in and get my dog out because I like my dog too. And I, then I like to exercise. You know, I mean, I just, I know if I'm not, after I'm done writing, I'm too tired to exercise. So I got to

write first. And, you know, so I'm usually in the, you know, in front of the computer, not late, about nine. And it's not five or six hours. It's usually three to five. Today, I think it was like three. It really depends. Again, I don't write every day. Some days I edit. And some days I'm just trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do next. And that it's not a faucet that you can turn on. I say my way of describing writing a novel is you have to know what to write. That's part of it. And then you have to know how to write it. Now, if you know what you're doing, the how, you can always get through that. It may take more or less time than you think. But if you don't know what to do, man, there's no reason to put any words down at all. I think I spent three or four days

trying to figure out what the next 500 or 700 words were in this novel and didn't do anything for three days or four days. And boom, 700 words came in like 20 minutes. I'm like, I literally, I'm like, this is ridiculous. I wish I could turn it on and off like a faucet, but I don't understand. So you're saying the idea has to come to you and then you can put it to paper. You have to have a direction. Yeah, exactly. If you don't know what you're writing and what would work exactly best, within all these other ideas about what the novel is supposed to be. Not only what specific, like, how do I describe this thing, this particular passage of time without being repetitive or boring and knowing that I have to do this again in a couple of chapters where I am going to have

to use this one way to do it, but what's the other way to do it and how can I do it? And what's a new way and what's going to be interesting in flow? I had no idea. I had no idea. It took a little editing on what I'd already written. And then, okay, I was ready to write the words. And they just literally poured out. I love it. I love it. As somebody who writes a lot of romance novels, what is the most romantic gesture that you've ever done for someone else? Oh, gosh. Or one that's been done for you. Yeah. You know, it's funny. When I was married, what my Kathy liked at the time, because we had, children, right? We had two and then we had three more. So we had five kids. So it was always a

very bustly, busy house. And what she really most appreciated were evenings off, like, where she could just, you take care of the kids, I don't want to feed them, the whole bit, all the way into bed, you know, do this one soccer practice and do this with the others. I just want to sit on the back porch for a while. Then I want to take a long tub. Then I want to go lay in bed and watch brainless TV and then pass out. So I made a point to do those kinds. That's what she swore she wanted more than anything. Yeah, I think that's real, real life romance. And she told me that was romantic. Yeah. No, no, no, I can appreciate that that's romantic. I mean, I'm not interested in getting flowers from a lover. Like, I find actual traditional,

and I don't even have children, but I find very traditional romantic things unnecessary. It's really those deeper meaning, like very thoughtful gestures that really actually make a difference in everybody's lives. Absolutely. When you really know somebody and what they need, that's real love and romance. Okay, we're going to take a break and we're going to be right back with Nicholas Sparks. I used to wake up at 2 a.m. drenched in my own sweat, not the cutest. Then I found pod five from eight sleep and it changed everything. It's built with women's health in mind and helps with those brutal hot flashes. It is a smart mattress cover that cools your body before a hot flash hits. And when I need an instant relief, I just tap the bed to use the app to activate

hot flash mode. It's clinically proven to reduce hot flashes by over 50% and it even cools each side of the bed independently. So go to 8Sleep.com slash Chelsea. Use code Chelsea and get $350 off. You will thank me later. Here we go. Hey, I'm Kelp. Penn, and on my new podcast, here we go again. We'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harold and Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions. Like, are we

heading towards another financial crash, like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia.

How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, my neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing. I try to report them, but things are. keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult? Hold up, Sophia. A real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with their ceiling,

and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did! And now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the... the Ok Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up everybody? This is Snacks from the Trabner's podcast, and we're bringing you the horror every week all October long.

Kicking off this month, I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear-inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Silent Hill, me and Tony bringing back fire team on Left for Dead too, and we're just going to be going over some of the greats. Also in October, we'll be talking about our favorite horror and Halloween movie, and figure out why black people always got to of daffers the umbral reliquary invites any and all fooling brave enough to peruse its many curiosities but take heed all sales are final weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly with a full episode read and a commentary special and we will cap it off with horror movie battle royale jason versus freddie michael myers versus the a thing with the little tongue muster

October, we're doing it Halloween style. Listen to the Travener's podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're already back with Nicholas Sparks. How quick was that? You know, the wonders of technology. The wonders of the interweb. They never cease to amaze me.

I love it. Whoever came up with Zoom and whoever came up with DocuSign and whoever came up with an airfriar, I need to personally thank all of those. people. Because those are three of the biggest game changers in my life in the last three years, yes. All right. What do you put in your air fryer? What do you do? Anything. Everything. I can't cook, so I put anything in there. Okay. I like that. I like that. I have one of those, it's like a toaster oven also air fryer, so you can turn it on toast or you can turn it on air fryer. I mean, I don't know how to change the settings, so it's always on air fryer. I got you. Well, airfires are great.

They're especially great when it comes to reheating things. Yeah, yeah. That's usually. what I'm doing anyway, is reheating. And literally, that I will be using my air fryer tonight, so I'm with you. There's nothing better than seeing, like, you know, if I love salmon, I love chicken, like putting it in just for two minutes and just hearing the sizzle to get the crispiness. I'm like, oh, my God, this is all I've ever wanted was crispy food. That's really my, that's what I want. Yeah.

I agree. I agree. Amazing. And yeah, I'm with you on the others too. I like docu-sign and Zoom. They're very handy. I remember I used to get a lot of. contracts that I used to have to sign because I'm published in like 50 different languages.

Oh, right. I mean, so for every book you're getting this. And then, I mean, I get, I get FedEx is this thing, you know, just filled with contracts I have to sign. Now it's click, click, click. I love it. It's great. Yeah, docu sign is really the best, the best thing that's ever happens. I mean, not to have to sit there with somebody with a notary and sign contracts. I'm like, oh my God, and fingerprints. I'm like, no. And once you do. check into docu-it's like a commercial for docky sign once you check into docu-side and give them your first signature that's it just does it it's just over i'm like oh my god i just want to like i want to perform

for that person and whatever way they want me to listen i will find the CEO of docu-sign and get you guys thank you nicholas this is a part of the show where we take questions from callers okay great okay yeah well our first question comes from kisha she says hi chelsea and katherine and any other beautiful folks who read this. I'm a writer. I'm actually a sometimes part-time, sometimes contract, sometimes unpaid, sometimes for myself writer, and have been for many years. I'm in my 30s and make my money in a career that's not writing. That said, my writing has been published, and I've been paid for my writing for over a decade now. Here's what I want to get a read on. Are any freelancers currently making it out there? Do you really have to have a whole online

persona, read, impressive Instagram or TikTok to get traction these days? The best of The best luck I've had to make a career, i.e. money, is copywriting in my technical field subject matter. It's extremely sanitized, and I obviously can't put much of a stamp on anything. Should I just be grateful I'm getting paid to write at all? And why is this reading like a diary entry? Dear Chelsea, I'm interested in thoughts and advice to advance my writing career or perhaps to redefine it. Very, very best, Keisha. I thought about making this anonymous, but isn't that antithetical to my whole thing? Yes, yes. You can't be anonymous, Keisha. But actually, we were just having this very conversation.

This is our special guest, Nicholas Sparks, is here today. Hi, wow. Nice to meet you. Yeah. How are you? He was just the person. Yeah, exactly. Nicholas, tell her what you were telling us, please.

Well, when I first began writing, I ended up writing my novels in my spare time after work. Usually in the evening, I would write from 8 o'clock to 11 o'clock or maybe even midnight. and then I'd work my regular shift. I'd also write one day on the weekend. I had a wife and I had two young children at home. And I really felt like writing was important to me. I wanted to chase a dream, so I made time for it. So I think if I was you, I would to really start and really answer the very first question

is what kind of writing do you want to do? Is it, do you want to be a novelist? Do you want to be one of the people that, let's say, publishing, call to write a famous person's biography. Do you want to be an anonymous biographer? Do you want to be someone who publishes on substack and journalistic pieces? What kind of writer do you want to be? And I think until you're clear about exactly the kind that you want to be, you're probably just better doing what you're doing and mastering the skill. that you're developing because, as you said, you know, you do some copy this, you do some

writing on your own, you do some writing that gets published. And that's all great. All of writing is a skill and you do need to practice it. And it's wonderful that not only do you get paid a little bit to do it, but you also make time to write what you want to write. So once you decide then what you want to write, then you have to break it down further. Can I ask what your dream writing thing would be, screenplays, novels, nonfiction, you know, what, what are you thinking? What I've really enjoyed that I've actually been able to do has been some short stories, some short format fiction. The problem is obviously like short format as a medium is kind of shrinking. We'll see how that goes. But I have actually really enjoyed that. I kind of like those sort

of internal storytelling. It's very powerful to me. It's very fun. I'm very fun. I, um, I do. have like half a novel geared towards adults that I actually found not that fun. And then there's like some a little bit longer, maybe middle children age books that I have been really getting into. Okay. I have a little kid now. And now I'm thinking about like sort of stories that I sort of tell her and like how would that change like when she's like in the second or third or fourth grade and how fun that would be. And I'm actually really enjoying sort of plot in that out. And I'm a morning person. So I like what you're saying about you would carve out your time in the evenings. Honey, I'm in bed.

But what I do do, and I love that you said that, is I do tend to get up around 4.30 or 5 nowadays and everybody else is asleep till 7. Yeah. Yeah. I think I should make more of an effort to protect that, right? Sure. That's a great thing. And you're right, short story fiction is really tough these days. But it's been tough for probably 20 or 30 years.

With that said, you know, it's a wonderful way to develop your storytelling. ability. What you might consider is maybe taking, and this is an idea, and feel free to throw this out because it's not good. But you know, you think of some of these ideas that you're thinking about for your daughter, maybe in second or third grade, and fairy tales or whatever, whatever adventure tale or a mystery tale, right? What if you actually compile those and it's, you're not trying to just publish one story in an offbeat magazine, but you eventually try to publish those stories as as a collection, an anthology, or another option is to perhaps, and you don't have to take these ideas, is to perhaps if you so much enjoy short story fiction, think of a broad story

with multiple characters and somehow tell a dozen short stories that all come together at the end. I love that. So there's different ways you can chase your dream, but of course, you know, we only have so much time and good for you for really developing your skill. Yeah, I mean, I think that's great advice. I was going to say one of those things, not the second one, which is even better advice than the first one. I mean, you can combine all of those stories and, I mean, make that a big book, or you can make one, you know, all of these stories within one big book. But you could have a book of short stories, you know, those are still relevant. And also just like, I had this conversation

with a group of women from like Silicon Valley last night. We had a tech kind of meeting and it's kind of like, I hate letting like the market dictate what you're going to bring to it. Like, you know, when you have a talent and you have a desire, do what you love to do and bring it to the marketplace. Don't let whatever's popular or not popular dictate what you're going to do in your spare time. You have the spare time. That's the first thing you need. You have the time in the morning, as you already mentioned, just use that time, like, dedicate that time to really focusing on one of those two options that Nick mentioned. And I think, you know, like in a couple months, you're going to be farther down the road. Listen, children's books are always going to be

viable. They're always going to be a selling. People always want a nice parable or an adventure series. You know, that's something you can make more and more out of in success. You know, remember Ramona? What was her name? Ramona. Those are the books. Beasley? Yeah, other than Judy Bloom. Like, Ramona and, yeah, the cat ate my jumpsuit was Judy Blume, but then there was another series with Ramona who was always in trouble, and I love that. But like, you know, when you're thinking about children's stories, like, that's something that's kind of always has the potential to resonate. So it's really about picking exactly, like, where you're going to put your energy into and just

giving yourself that time every day and doing it. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I think sometimes you see somebody to say, like, keep going, keep doing it. And also the whole thing about, you know, building a platform, I think that's part of where it does get a little bit rough because it's like you're kind of going to the marketplace. You know, what's marketable? Am I marketable? It's like part before the horse. And so that can be pretty like kind of a bummer. But I like that you guys are like, don't even think about that right now. Yeah. And also like don't make it a bummer. Make it an adventure. Make it like, okay, fun. Okay, I'm going to go online. I'm going to go on my social media platform and ask people, what would they like the most? Would you like a short, you know,

would you like a short story for your second or third grader, a book about being a young person or a young child? Would you like, you know, maybe you could get feedback that way, you know, but don't be worried about the response of anybody at this point. Just be worried about moving towards your goal because what you said in the letter is like, should I be satisfied writing this kind of sanitized stuff? Like, no, you shouldn't be satisfied with that. That's a way for you to make money, but you should go after your dreams. Like, we only have a short time here. I mean, you might as well make them count for you.

I forget where I heard this, but recently I read something that said something along the lines of your desires are what bring you toward your purpose. So, like, don't discount that you do want more than that. And like Mr. Sparks, it counts. It's good experience. Like, I'm definitely learning. Self-editing is a really big tool that I've learned a lot from, copywriting. Yeah. Edit to amplify. Edit to amplify. Yeah, for sure. It's also just hard,

you know, you start to get older and you start to think it all ties into sort of like youth culture and taking up these audience numbers on these sort of arbitrary formats. But maybe that's not your thing. It's not really not. No, but it doesn't matter. But also on this, on the subject of age, like that is, there's a million people that are your age. Who cares about what young people are doing? Focus on the people that you're going to be servicing. Focus on your group of people. Don't worry about what people who are 20 and 30 years old are doing. That's not relevant to you, you know? So I just like, don't forget there's a bunch of other people.

It's not like you have to be this new, young, fresh, hot thing all of the time. That's not real. That's just what we've been served up. So just enjoy, like, where you are in your life, appreciate it. You have the passion, and now you just need the commitment and the drive. I really appreciate that. And you're a great testament to that of you're not chasing anything. You've grown and developed sort of based on your interests.

interests. And that's been really powerful to see. Oh, well, I love that. Thank you. Will you follow up with us? Yes. Keep us posted. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. I hope you have a good one. Awesome. Thank you. Good writing question for us. For our special guests today, especially. Well, this next question isn't about writing, but it is about a family secret. And I feel like you are someone who is a specialist in juicy secrets. In fictional family secrets. Well, our next question comes from Lynn. She says, dear Chelsea. Three and a half years ago, I rekindled my relationship with my older sister without telling the rest of my family. She was nine when I was born. And as a little girl, I idolized her. My love of tie-dye and the Grateful Dead come straight from her in the 80s. When she was applying to colleges, there was a huge fight between her and my parents. My parents told her they couldn't afford to pay the tuition to the college of her dreams. There were some harsh words on both sides. It destroyed their relationship, and she cut herself off from my family.

Growing up, I asked questions about why I no longer saw her and basically was told it was her choice to be so selfish. Years later, her husband actually wrote me a letter and told me that she missed me and would like to have a relationship with just me. I hate to admit it, but at the time, I was not ready for that. I was still under the impression that my dad was perfect, and I told her as much when I called her. I was awful and so hurtful.

After I had my own kids, though, it started to dawn on me that parents are just doing the best they can. In fact, I started thinking that it was my parents who fucked up more than my sister. Yeah, it sounds like it. At 18, she was a child when the rift happened, and it all just made me so sad. I felt like I was missing a piece for 30 years, and I just flat out missed my big sister. So I reached out online, and we agreed to meet. Over the last three years, we have become so close again. We have a ton of similarities beyond just how much we look alike.

We're both teachers, same political beliefs. We love cats over dogs, even our mannerisms. We've become part of each other's families. Here is my problem. All of this has happened in secret on my side. I haven't told my parents or younger sister that I have a relationship with my older sister. And at first it was to protect the fragile relationship I was trying to form, but now it's just out of worry and guilt. She wants nothing to do with my parents or younger sister, and I worry about hurting my dad, who is in the early stages of dementia. I would keep this a secret forever, but now my kids have formed a relationship with my older sister and her family too. We're very close with my parents and my kids see them every day. I feel awful having them lie to my parents when we have plans with my older

sister and her family. I don't want my older sister to be some guilty secret. Do I confess to my parents and younger sister? And if so, how do I do it in a way that's not going to hurt their feelings since I've been hiding this from them for years? Help Lynn. Hi, this is Nicholas Sparks, our special guest today. Hi. And yeah, do you want me to answer this question? Would you like to go first? You're welcome to. I don't. I don't think I have the expertise to answer such a question. Other than to say, you know, if you're still close with your parents, I don't see how you can continue to lie to them, right?

What they do with information is going to be up to them. They might be reasonable. They might not be. But I certainly don't think it's good that your kids have now kind of got caught up into it. Not like they're lying to them, but when you're going to go see the sister and her fans. and they have to lie about that, I always kind of lead my life, and I really do, and most everyone who's very close with me, would agree with this is, look, this is who I am. I'd rather you know the real me and choose to have a relationship with me or like me or dislike me after

this. But here's the real me. And I don't try to hide that. And I don't recall ever losing someone with that kind of honesty that was important to me. Now, I don't know your parents, and they might be that kind. But I would say, you think you have a relationship with your parents, but they don't even know the real you. They have a relationship with the facade of you. And I'm older than you. So I just don't really care anymore. Here I am. And if you don't like me, you don't want to talk to me anymore.

Okay, good on you. Wish you well. Lynn, can I ask you, this all happened because of college? Because they had a disagreement over where she was going to go to college. Yeah. Are your parents religious or something? Like, is there, I just can't believe. Like one blow up.

Yeah, one blow up. And they're so close with the rest of the family. and they just extricated. She was, like, ostracized from the family for the rest of her life? So it wasn't that she was, well, I mean, I guess she was kind of ostracized. So now, I was nine. So this is, I've piecemealed it back together a little bit. We've talked a little bit about it, but we've just tried to kind of move on. That was, I guess, the biggest argument that set her over the edge to be like you don't even care about me going to college. Therefore, I'm going to do what I, want to do and I want nothing to do with you. So she removed herself from the relationship

and my parents just basically pretended she never existed after that, as did the rest of my dad's side of the family. Yeah, I would just, I mean, honestly, it's really, that's, it's not your problem. The fact that you reconnected with your sister is beautiful and that's exactly what you should do. And you should probably encourage your younger sister to reconnect with your sister too. because anybody who can write their own child off at 18 years old is that's not right you know and I mean obviously I'm not that sounds like I'm passing judgment on your parents but like I agree with Nick like you want to be upfront there's nothing wrong with what you're doing reconnecting with one of your family members who was kind of taken out of your life as a nine year old kid I lost my brother

at nine like it's not the same circumstance but I would do anything to be able to reconnect with him to be able to have a conversation with him you know like of course that's a natural instinct that's a natural way for a human being to relate to another person in your family. And yeah, your father is in the beginning stages of dementia. That's unfortunate, but it's also not your responsibility to take care of your parents' feelings. You're an adult who has children that you want to set an example for, right? I completely agree. So I have intentions of telling my parents, like, I feel bad that I've waited four years to tell them. I'm just trying to figure out at this point how to do it without the feeling dropping a bomb.

I have an idea. Okay. It's the best way. Go over, have a nice day with them. And then when there's 10 minutes to go until you have to leave, send the kids the car, talk to him. You'll give them a hug, say, oh, before I go, you should really know this. Tell them, then go get in the car. Let those two deal with it without you having to see their reaction.

Okay. and then call, you know, a couple days or whatever your day, your call schedule. Let's say, hey, hey, mom, hey, dad, how are you doing? Or whatever you do. That's what I would do. Yeah, that's exactly. I would have to sit down and say, okay, we're going to talk about this for the next three hours. No, this is more of a you're not doing anything wrong.

You tell them, and then you let those two deal with it. Yeah, that's great. I also think some of the guilt of this is coming from, like, how long it's been. I think get nebulous on that detail. Just say, look, I've reconnected with her and we've become pretty close. And I just thought that you should know that. I just didn't feel, I felt it wouldn't be good of me to lie. I don't want to raise my kids, you know, knowing this lie.

And I just wanted you to know that we've reconnected. We're really getting along my kids like her kids. And I think she's a terrific, wonderful person. Done. Walk to the car. How do you feel about that, Lynn? Yeah. No, I feel like I could do that.

that for sure. I actually had talked to my therapist about ways as well to try and just like drop the truth bomb and run. The funny thing is I don't actually, I'm horrible at keeping secrets. So the fact that this is a secret that I've been keeping is like me alive. Yeah. I mean, I would also just not, you don't have to explain every single detail. You know what I mean? You just kind of give them the information that's absolutely necessary and walk to the car and follow up with them a couple days later. And if they don't want to talk to you for a while, then they don't want to talk to you for a while. But it's better just to tell the truth, you know? And also for the sake of your children, you know what I mean?

You just have to demonstrate how you want them to go through life. And lies are the worst, and they always come out. Everyone finds out about everything. So I don't understand why people continue to lie. But, I mean, I understand your situation. But just, you know, you want to live in truth. Yeah, I agree. Okay, well, good luck with everything.

Let us know how it goes, okay? Yeah, I appreciate it. Okay. Okay. We'll take a quick break and then we'll be right back with Nicholas Sparks. I used to wake up at 2 a.m. drenched in my own sweat. Not the cutest. Then I found Pod 5 from 8 sleep and it changed everything. It's built with women's health in mind and helps with those brutal hot flashes. It is a smart mattress cover that cools your body before a hot flash hits. And when I need an instant relief, I just tap the bed to use the app to activate hot flash mode. It's clinically proven to reduce hot flashes by over 50%, and it even cools each side of the bed independently. So go to 8Sleep.com slash Chelsea, use code Chelsea, and get $350 off. You will thank me later.

Here we go. Hey, I'm Cal Penn. And on my new podcast, Here We Go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself? You may know me as the second hottest actor from the Harolding. Kumar movies, but I'm also an author, a White House staffer, and as of like 15 seconds ago, a podcast host. Along the way, I've made some friends who are experts in science, politics, and pop culture. And each week, one of them will be joining me to answer my burning questions.

Like, are we heading towards another financial crash, like in 08? Is non-monogamy back in style? And how come there's never a gate ready for your flight when it lands like two minutes early? We've got guests like Pete Buttigieg, Stacey Abrams, Lili Singh, and Bill Nye. When you start weaponizing outer space, things can potentially go really wrong. Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now, because it is. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered.

her. Well, wait a minute, Sophia. How'd you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so you'll find out soon. This person writes, my neighbor's been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling

is collapsing. I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they may be part of a cult. Hold up, Sophia, a real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue. But according to this person, contractors are tearing down the patio to find out what's going on with her ceiling,

and her neighbors are not happy. Well, she needs to report them ASAP. She did, and now they've been confronting her in really creepy ways all the time. So, do we find out if this person survives their neighborhood cult or not? To hear the explosive finale, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everybody? This is Snacks from the Trap Nerds podcast, and we're bringing you the horror

every week all October long. Kicking up this month, I'll be bringing you all my greatest fear-inducing horror games from Resident Evil to Silent Hill, me and Tony Bringing Back Fire Team on Left for Dead 2, and we're just going to be going over some of the greats. Also in October, we'll be talking about our favorite

horror and Halloween movie, and figure out why black people always got to die first. The umbral reliquary invites any and all fooling, brave enough, to peruse its many curiosities. But take it. All sales are final. Weekly horror side quests written and narrated by yours truly.

With a full episode read and a commentary special. And we will cap it off with horror movie battle royale. Jason versus Freddie. Michael Myers versus the 80 thing with the little tongue muster. October, we're doing it Halloween style. Listen to the Travener's podcast from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. How do you like our therapy session? far, Nicholas. Wow, these are tricky questions. Seriously. I don't know that I'd like to do this

every, like you guys do. I don't want to give people advice. I barely can handle my life, let alone trying to help other people with their lives. No shit. I mean, I wish I gave the advice I give to other people to myself because it's much different. What do we have to wrap up? Well, we do have one last question. So Carrie says, Dear Chelsea, I've never really referred to myself as an artist, but I've always needed to outwardly express myself. I love to sing, dance, draw, and I was a gymnast as a young girl. I've been through a lot in my 56 years. My mother is white and Jewish, and my father is black. Growing up in the suburbs of New York in the 70s and 80s, there were no other families that resembled mine. I grew thick skin and learned how to thrive

in survival mode. I'd subscribe to the belief that we can all be happy, but we must do the work on ourselves in order to live a happy life. I have often thought about writing my story of resilience to share with others with the hopes of inspiring people who've struggled. Two years ago, my husband and I went to D.C. for his college reunion with a group of friends. We stayed in a big Victorian house and hung out. A few of us were in a transition phase and longing for something, but not sure what it was or how to achieve it. One of our friends suggested we do an exercise. We had to describe our dream life five years from now as if it had already happened. I told them that my husband and I have been traveling all over the world. I blurted out that I had

written a New York Times bestseller and I was currently on my book tour. I had toyed with the idea of writing a book but had never said the words out loud. When we got home, I committed to writing daily and began with essays about my childhood, adulthood, trauma, all of it. I kept at it and eventually there was a book. Here's my issue. I haven't reread the book since I finished it or taken the next steps to find an editor. I'm very proud of myself for this achievement. I know it's a big deal. I also know that my stories will resonate with so many as the struggles I've been through are not uncommon, and my basic message is that we can get through anything. I realize that it is the fear of revealing myself and being vulnerable that's holding me back. Do you have any advice on

how to push through the fear and take the next steps? Carrie. Yeah, walk through that door, Carrie. You got to walk. I mean, fear is there to face the challenge. I look at fear always as a challenge that I will overcome. If I'm scared of something, I move towards it even more forcefully. Unless you want to keep this book to yourself, you're going to have to take the steps to get it read by people and to get some feedback and some direction. Nicholas, what's your advice for a first-time author trying to get their stuff read? Self-edit. Self-edit. You know, if you haven't even read the book since you've done... Yeah, you have to go back and read it. I cannot tell you guys how many times I edit everything that I write. Right. I edit every fourth sentence. I go back and edit those four.

I edit every clump of two pages. I edit every, from the beginning, clump of ten pages. Then I go back, can I edit from the beginning once I hit a section, then my agent edits, then I edit, then I edit some more. I would say every sentence in every one of my novels, I probably examined closely word by word and within the context of a page or chapter 15 times. And I did the same prior to trying to even find an agent or a publisher for the notebook. If you're going to try to find an agent who are very selective because lots of people want to have books published, or you want to try to get your novel published by a big publishing house who also have lots and thousands and thousands of submissions, you're not doing yourself any favors by not handing them the very best possible work that you could do. Yeah, yeah, you have to reread your book. Also, like, I mean, yeah, you have to go because you're going to, I know you think like, oh, you're done, you have a book.

That's everything he says is absolutely true. And also, you can give it to a couple people. Get some feedback. That'll help you with your editing, perhaps. But you definitely have to get it out there, like the fear of showing it to people. You got to get past that. You have to be open to criticism and constructive critique. Like, you just have to be open to it.

That's part of the process. So good luck to you. And hopefully we'll hear about your book in the future coming. out and being published. And that's our episode for today. You guys, everyone, go out and get Remain, the novel by Nicholas Sparks with M. Knight, not Shaka Khan, Shamalan. And it's going to come out as a movie, so you want to make sure you read the book before you see the movie. That's the order of business out here. Thank you so much, Nicholas. What a pleasure to speak with you. Hey, thank you for having me. And you did. You said his name exactly right. I listened.

Thank you. Shamalan. That is exactly how you say it. I'm going to tell him you know how now. Yeah, please, let him know. Please. Okay, take care. Nicklay has so much. Bye, bye, bye. I just announced all my tour dates.

They just went on sale this week. It's called the High and Mighty Tour. I will be starting in February of next year. So I will be touring from February through June. So go get your tickets now. If you want good seats and you want to come see me perform, I will be on the High and Mighty Tour. Do you want advice from Chelsea?

Write into Dear Chelsea Podcast at gmail.com. Find full video episodes of Dear Chelsea on YouTube by searching at Dear Chelsea Pod. Dear Chelsea is edited and engineered by Brad Dickert, executive producer, Catherine Law. And be sure to check out our merch at chelseahandler.com. Hello, America's sweetheart Johnny Knoxville here. I want to tell you about my new. True Crime Podcast, Crimeless, Hillbilly Heist, from Smartless Media, Campside Media, and Big Money Players.

It's a wild tale about a gang of high-functioning nitwits who somehow pulled off America's third largest cash heist. Kind of like Robin Hood, except for the part where he steals from rich and gives to the poor. I'm not that generous. It's a damn near inspiring true story for anyone out there who's ever shot for the moon. then just totally muffed up the landing. They stole $17 million and had not bought a ticket to help him escape. So we're saying, like, oh, God, what do we do? What do we do?

That was dumb. People do not follow my example. Listen to Crimless, Hillbilly Heist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I live below a cult leader, and I fear I've angered her. Wait a minute, Sophia. How do you know she's a cult leader? Well, Dakota, luckily it's I'm not afraid of a scary story week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my neighbor has been blasting music every day and doing dirt rituals, and now my ceiling is collapsing.

I try to report them, but things keep getting weirder. I think they might be part of a cult. Hold up, a real-life cult? And what is a dirt ritual? No clue, Dakota. To find out how it ends, listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Cal Penn, and on my new podcast, here we go again, we'll take today's trends and headlines and ask, why does history keep repeating itself?

Each week, I'm calling up my friends, like Bill Nye, Lily Singh, and Pete Buttigieg, to talk about everything from the space race to movie remakes to psychedelics. Put another way, are you high? Look, the world can seem pretty scary right now. But my goal here is for you to listen and feel a little better about the future. Listen and subscribe to Here We Go Again with Cal Penn on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day. My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day.

Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development for the AI world and how you think, about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.