Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - ‘Open Book with Jenna’ Featuring Rebecca Yarros

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Hey Sunday Sitdown fans! As a bonus, we’re giving you a special preview of the first episode of an all-new season of Jenna Bush Hager’s podcast, ‘Open Book with Jenna’.In this season’s debut episode, Jenna sits down with bestselling author Rebecca Yarros. Together they talk about how Rebecca drew on her experience with chronic illness and life in a military family to write “Fourth Wing,” and her process to plot out five books in the series.To listen to the full conversation, just search ‘Open Book with Jenna’ wherever you’re listening to follow now, or click here: https://www.today.com/open-book-with-jenna  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, everyone, it's Jenna Bush-Hager. You're about to hear a special preview of my podcast, Open Book, with Jenna. Each episode, I get to have inspiring conversations with celebrities, authors, fellow book lovers, and more. And in the premiere episode of Season 2, I sit down with best-selling author, Rebecca Yaros, to talk about her latest novel, Onix Storm, and how she drew on her experience with chronic illness to write the best-selling fourth wing, and her process to plot out five books in the series. Here's Open Book with Jenna. Rebecca, I am so excited to be with you.

Take me back to when you first knew you were a reader. Because you are a reader first. I'm a reader, first and foremost. Yeah. I was a reader all through my childhood, honestly. As a military kid, we moved a lot. And so I found a lot of comfort in books. And then when I grew up, I became a military spouse.

And my husband deployed a lot. And he was injured during his first deployment, and I stopped sleeping at night. Yeah. And so I was reading a book a night. And finally, it was his third deployment. I said, I'm going to write one. I'm going to write an actual book. I'm going to finish this one.

And I wrote a page of night. And when he came home, I had my first book complete. You know, your meteoric rise. Surreal. I don't know that there's ever been anything like this. I haven't seen it. I think maybe Colleen Hoover a little bit. Who I also adore.

I love her. And she's who I called. Honestly, before Iron Flame, I was like, I don't know if I can do this. This is a lot. There's a lot of people. There's a lot of media. And she was someone I called and that really helped me get through it. You have had similar rises, actually, because you were writing sort of for yourself at the beginning.

You were writing romance. But it was when you really kind of got into this world of romanticcy that you had this huge following. Yeah. It happens super fast. Do you remember knowing that you had hit some sort of chord? I remember them telling me this book was going to be big and thinking, ha, ha, ha, no. Like, no, you can't ever guess. It's like, books are hit or miss.

This is fourth wing, right? And I've already written 20 books before this. And they were saying, oh, I think this is going to be big. And I'm like, okay, but no one thought it was going to be this big. But I was so focused on writing Iron Flame already and writing in the likely event. I wrote like four books that year. So. I mean, that is also wild.

Your productivity is insane. I wrote the last letter in about three weeks. I researched it for months. And then I wrote the last letter in three weeks. Like, it's just I hyperfixate. Yeah. And I live in the world. And the book just kind of.

pours out. And you spend sometimes like 12 hours writing. Is that right? 12 to 15. When I was on deadline for Onyx and writing variation at the same time, 12 to 15 hours a day. But we're back in that down this year. Yeah, you're slowing down. Do you think people that knew you and loved you could have predicted this for you? I don't know. I think I've always had a personality. If I set my mind to it, I'll get it done. Like if there's a goal, I'll meet the goal no matter what it costs. I will go get that goal. But I don't think anyone could have predict. is something like fourth wing. No. Like I really, I really don't.

No, the pace in which it became so popular is sort of the gold standard. And it's so interesting because I do feel like, you know, you've made people feel seen through Dragon Rider. You know, there's something that is not, that feels like a different world. Yeah. And I think that's very cool. It's like sometimes escaping to a place you've never been. It is.

And what's wild to me is that when you're there in an event with readers, everyone's been in my head. It's like this collective experience. So while to me this is like an imaginary place that I live and I go and I play with my imaginary friends, everyone's been there too. So if you've read it, you've been in my head. You've been there with me. It's this collective experience we all have. And I love seeing the readers like meet each other and make friends at events because they all love the same things. Like it's just, it's such a joyous atmosphere.

Thanks for listening. Search Open Book with Jenna to listen to the rest of the conversation now. And follow for all new episodes every Thursday, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you.