The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – A Wedding in Lake Como (Meet Me in Italy) by Jennifer Probst

Episode Date: July 7, 2024

A Wedding in Lake Como (Meet Me in Italy) by Jennifer Probst https://amzn.to/3WbvJl8 A destination wedding in Italy’s Lake Como brings three best friends back together to face the secrets of the past in this romantic novel from New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Probst. Best friends Ava, Madison, and Chelsea made a pact to reunite for each other’s weddings when their careers sent them in different directions. But after one of them makes a choice that tears the group apart, an upcoming wedding might be their last chance to heal old wounds. Ava is about to marry the man she loves in a lavish ceremony on the shores of Lake Como, but she’s haunted by the mistakes she’s made. Madison’s made a name for herself as an influencer in the fashion world but is threatened by a scandal impacting everything she holds dear. And Chelsea has the perfect family she always craved, but her professional dreams have fallen by the wayside. As they return to Italy’s gorgeous coast, the three women revisit their life-changing first trip to Lake Como during college. When Madison comes face-to-face with the college sweetheart who was at the heart of one of the most pivotal times of her life, can they forge a new way forward?

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. There you go. She does it so much better than me. Thanks for the Iron Lady for coming in there. The Iron Opera Lady.

That's what I need to call her, the Iron Opera Lady, because I'm not allowed to say the very large lady that was in the Bugs Bunny thing. But that's what it always reminds me of, the Iron Opera Lady and the Bugs Bunny cartoons, if you ever think about that. Anyway, thanks, guys, for joining the show. As always, we appreciate you guys. You know, we've been having a spectacular January of over 300% growth in the show. I guess everyone made it the New Year's resolutions. So we're hoping we're not like the gym where you guys are all

going to fall off and not come anymore. But the great thing is we don't make you sweat. We don't give you pain the next day. The Chris Voss Show just makes your brain grow and gets better. And we just pulled the numbers here. Let me see if I can pull them out. Yeah, there they are. We changed the format of the show from just interviewing tech CEOs and tech business for the first 10 years in 2020 because of COVID. And we just cared more about the world and we want to open the aperture, what it was. So we changed the format. We changed the whole show pretty much. And we pulled the numbers in four years of doing the show we've increased the downloads by 1405 percent so that's not a hundred times over that's not 200 times over that's four one thousand four hundred and five percent growth in the show over the last four years and if you

don't think that's hard to do then i got some stories to tell you so thank you very much for being the great audience you are we can do it without you because if we didn't i'd just be a madman sitting here talking to myself at the mic and guests would come on and be like what did i get myself into which is pretty much what explains the last 15 years go to goodreads.com fortunes chris voss linkedin.com fortunes chris voss chris voss won the tiktokity and you know all those other places i'm too tired to mess with Goodreads.com, Fortress Crispus, LinkedIn.com, Fortress Crispus, Crispus, one of the TikTokity, and all those other places. I'm too tired to mess with it this morning.

We have an amazing author on the show. She's going to blow your mind, and she's the prolific author of over 50 books. We have so many great authors on the show. So now we've got another one in the lineup that has over 50 books. It's just incredible. I love people that can do this because I'm still working on my second book, and at my pace, it's going to be 103 when it comes out. She is the author of the newest book to come out May 14th, 2024. Jennifer Probst joins us on the show.

Her book is called A Wedding in Lake Como. It is the Meet Me in Italy, part three of book three of the Meet Me in Italy series. And we're going to be talking about her amazing work. She wrote her first book when she was 12 years old. She bound it in a folder, read it to her classmates, and hasn't stopped writing since. She holds a master's in English literature and lives in the beautiful Hudson Valley in upstate New York. She is the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over 50 books, quite the feat, in contemporary romance fiction.

She was thrilled her book, The Marriage Bargain, spent 26 weeks on the New York Times. Her work has been translated over a dozen countries, sold over a million copies. It was dubbed a romance phenom by Kirkus Reviews. She loves hearing from readers as well, so you can reach out to her. We'll get her website here in a second. Welcome to the show, Jennifer.

How are you? Thanks, Chris. I'm so happy to be here. And, you know, always hearing those blurbs, they don't show you in the office alone like crying over your manuscript. You sound so fabulous, right? Shh, don't tell anyone. So, alone, like crying over your manuscript. You sound so fabulous, right? Don't tell anyone. So Jennifer, give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs?

Yeah, I'm pretty much everywhere. I love to show, tell people to run to my website because there's lots of good stuff there. Not only books, but like podcast interviews and bonus content and you get a free book. So it's www.jenniferprobes.com. And I'm pretty aware I'm everywhere on social medias. I'm on TikTok, author Jennifer Probst. I'm on Instagram, author Jennifer Probst. I'm on Facebook, author Jennifer Probst.

I think I'm on threads now too. I'm pretty much everywhere. Yeah. And I just started like a really cool subscription thing where I can do like extra stuff on Reem Stories at Jennifer Probst. So So yeah, I'm everywhere. You are everywhere and all over and filling up bookshelves with 50 plus books. So give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside your new book, A Wedding in Lake Como. Oh yeah. I am so excited about this book because I feel like it's a little bit different.

Basically, it's about three women who meet in college and become best friends. And over the years, they go up and down with, you know, what career they're going to do and relationships. And they make a pact to always be there for each other at each other's weddings. But then a secret destroys the group and they go their separate ways.

And five years later, our heroine gets a wedding invitation inviting her to the friend's lavish wedding in Italy, Lake Como. And she goes there and the secrets are revealed. And we kind of get the fallout of what happened in the story. And of course, there's always a little bit of romance. So we explore that first love and her first love goes back to the wedding too. So it's kind of like confrontation. So the book takes you back and forth between what happened like through college and then afterward.

I have some guesses, but I guess we have to leave some of these things a secret. Yes. I definitely need to keep this. I'm not, I'm going to leave, I'm going to keep my guesses to myself. So there you go.

I have some, I have some, I have some guesses on, but I don't know you gotta read the book folks that's the whole point yes you can email me after the show crest and tell me if you if you can guess it correctly i'm just let me call vegas first there you go uh so need something like that right they need a little bit of a twist to keep the readers going they do now this is part three of your three-book series of this series called Meet Me

in Italy. There's Our Italian Summer. Yes. And then there's the Secret Love Letters of Olivia Moretti? Yes, correct. There you go. So, it's a series. It's called Meet Me in Italy, but actually each of the books are a standalone. What we did is I decided to write different stories where the setting is Italy. And Italy almost becomes a character unto itself with the food and the travel. And so each of the books is completely different. It's not like a series where book one leads to two to three. You can pick up any of them. We just kind of like, the publisher liked to brand them.

So basically if you want to know anything about Italy or going on a tour for Italy and you want a good love story, you pick one up. There you go. Now it says here that they're part of the Ferrari family. Is that the real Italian Ferrari family that you're based on?

No, no. I was researching good Italian names and the secret love letters of Olivia Moretti is, yeah, we've gotten our Italian summer Ferrari. Nope, just, just, you know, there's, when you write so many books, you start running out of names and you got to go down the funnel. You're probably running out of names, I guess. Yeah, at this point, that would make sense after 50 books. So tell us a little bit more about you. So how did you grow up? We, you know, we know you were at your first book very early on. How did you know you were a wordsmith, a booksmith? Yeah. I always say that I was very blessed and lucky because I kind of found my

true North when I was like six years old. I was one of those ones that the minute I picked up a book, I just knew I was going to write. So when I was seven, I actually found an old diary where it was like talking about like TV crushes that I had and through every one was when I become an author, when I become a famous author. So it was something that was kind of like navigated, but I'm also from the

dinosaur age. So this is before internet. And this is before, this is when, if you wanted to get published, you get your little butt to the library and you spend three hours under the writer's digest magazine, like writing hard copy of who to pitch and who to send. And also back then I was fearless. So at 12 years old, I was saving my allowance for the writer's digest magazines. And basically all the advice was telling me writers, right? So I said, okay, well, I'm going to be a writer. I'm going to sit down and write my book. So at 12 years old, I write my book at 13. I wrote another book at 15. I wrote another book at 16. I wrote another book. And then I learned about like getting paid for your work and trying to

make a living from your work and rejection from your work. But I'm glad that that came later. And so when I was 19, I started submitting and I got rejections. And when that first rejection letter came, I tell people all the time, we always get a path we get to choose. We get to say, yeah, they're right. I'm wrong. I'm not talented enough. I'm not, you know, inserted. Or you get to say, yeah, they're right. I'm wrong. I'm not talented enough. I'm not, you know, insert it. Or you get to say, I'm going to prove it to you that I have what it takes, even no matter how long it takes. So I put that rejection letter right over my desk. So I saw it every day. Yeah. There you go.

There you go. I love that. That I was a writer. So I was a real writer because I got my first rejection letter. Now, after after 50 after that it got a little heart sick but again it's just it's what then i had the folder chris not the letter it's all over the wall i like how you i like how you i like how you frame that perception though you know most people get a rejection letter and go i suck at this you're like i'm a real author

because i got rejected. I like how you frame that. Thank you. I just feel like you have to be in the game and failure is a part of growth. And I just don't think that anything that you get that easy is valued as much as something that you have to fight over 20 years for. Now, did you get 50 letters or was that? No, that is not that I did. I got over 50 letters because I have been, yeah, I was submitting since I was 19. And my book that

finally went viral, The Marriage Bargain, that was basically number one on Barnes and Noble and Hunger Games was number two. So when my husband and I saw that it hit, we literally unplugged the computer. We were like, something's definitely wrong. Well, I mean, here you are a prolific author of over 50 books that have sold very successfully. Yeah. You know, I'm seeing all the reviews on Amazon. I think there's a link probably to Goodreads. They've got Goodreads showing up now on the reviews. And do you ever call those people and go, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah? I don't. I have my own revenge very quietly, but I will tell a quickie story. When I was in high

school English accelerated, I had an English teacher who was quite cruel. And at the end of the class, she said to me, I know you want to be a writer. I don't think that you'll ever make it. And this is high school. I was in 11th grade at the time. And I came back devastated. And again, it goes back to, and I was like, okay, well, I can't be a writer because she knows what she's doing. She's a teacher. She's this, she's that. So she has, her face has inspired me many, many times as I hit the New York Times

list. And I wonder while she's out there, who she's teaching and who she's trying to kind of like rip down because she has her own stuff going on. But you know, that's another lesson. People have their own stuff going on. Just because you know, that's another lesson. People have their own stuff going on. Just because somebody says that you're not good at this, they're coming from their own judgment. There's 300 other people who will love what you do. You know, that's such a great story and probably lesson for people that when people take a giant dump on your dreams, maybe it's them. You know, we had a great artist on last week who and i guess this happened to several artists that he quoted that were famous but his father it was having a very

hard time and and job issues and different things and and took a giant dump on his painting and said you know you suck at this you're a painter you need to quit doing this and go get a real job. And he quit painting for, I think, almost 20 years, 20 or 12 years. But now he inspires people with his painting. He teaches creativity. He takes easels up on mountainsides and he has to strap the easels down because in some of these places the wind, you know, is blowing and he's fighting the elements as he creates this artwork. And, you know, people can really ruin people's dreams.

Knock it off. Whoever's out there. I hope you hear me. Yeah. Especially as you're sensitive. Yeah. So yeah, it's important part of my work to just kind of remind people that there's a

lot of, you know, creatives, we're all creatives out there are more sensitive than others and to fight for it. Yeah. Even as an entrepreneur, you know,

people you'll people you'll you'll tell people your idea as an entrepreneur i remember when i was young people were like you're you're an idiot kid and i was but i you know i could there was probably a chance i could find my way through yeah and somehow i did and i'm still an idiot kid so i got that going for me i'm the nerd i'm the one who was like not dating. Literally my cousin, I think I was like 22. She found a manuscript in my thing, like 400 like type pages. And she goes, I guess you don't date much, do you?

Wow. And I was like, I guess not. Are you married now? And she's not? Do you get revenge that way? I don't do anything bad. Yeah, no, it was. Yeah, I am.

I'm happily married and Lord bless him because living with a writer were a lot of, you know, not a lot seen. We'll say that. There you go. I don't know. Maybe I should marry a writer. That seems like a good thing. I had a great relationship one time with a gal who was a flight stewardess.

Yeah. And that was kind of nice because she was gone for two weeks at a time usually. And it made for a healthy relationship because I'm pretty broken. We all are. But it was kind of like nice. She's not here telling me why I'm a horrible person all the time. Oh, she's so funny. Which I am.

So in your book, tell us more about some of the characters in it and why you chose them, why you flushed them out the way you did. Yeah, I had a lot of fun with this one. Usually I write in a couple of points of view, but when I started the book, it's about three best friends. So I was like, okay, I'm going to have three points of view like I had done in my first and second book, but it wasn't gelling. There was something not going. And then I realized that it was just one character story. So sometimes you don't know things until you start writing it. My muse is kind of, you know, kind of bitchy and she's kind of, you know, so she'll be like, no, no, no, this is not how we're doing it. So I said, okay. So Maddie is the only one out of the girls who

we hear from. And she's got, she has a tough life. Her mom and dad like pretty much didn't want her. So you'll see her interactions with her friends as her family. I like to say the book started from, it was like an exploration into the complications of female friendship and the impact of the ones we choose to love, not the ones who are our family, but the ones that we actually choose to bring into our circle. And the female complications, I take the girls from college where, you know, you're just kind of like passionate, you don't know what you're doing, all through like finding building their career. Maddie wants to be a social influencer with fashion. So she's always doing social media. And she, you know, dreams of being famous and what happens when you get your dreams and they're not how, what you expect. And also with female

friendships coming, Chris, which you don't know, because my husband is like, just tell her that. And I said, are you kidding? You can't do that with women. Like you have to be, there's a, there's a delicate dance, as I say, with women. There can be some toxicity there and some envy and some competition. But then there's also the greatest love and support you'll ever have. So you've got this whole big ball of wax. And so the story really breaks down the ins and outs of the female friendships against this fantastic love story and Italy. And I had a great, a lot of fun doing it.

There you go. You know, I, it's interesting to me the way females keep friends. Like I, I, most of my girlfriends after they come back from ladies night or whatever, and they,

they tell their stories. I'm just like, just like, you know, you talk about your friends. Like I talk about enemies. I want to kill. I don't, I don't understand the relationships you guys have but whatever just no they're very different right male and female they really are like my friends i i'm like i'll help i'll help

you bury a body that's no problem but my husband is so mean to his friends the minute also his education level goes down to the toilet like i know when he's mean to his friends. The minute also his education level goes down to the toilet. Like I know when he's talking to his friends in the toilet, like, who are you? He's man, dude, he grunts. There's all this other thing, you know, it's fascinating. Especially as a writer, because you kind of like, you know, you see those different interactions. Yeah. I mean, we, we, we haze each other to make sure that we're up to par.

It's a way we make sure everyone in the tribe is, is, you know, can go kill the elephant together. Cause you don't want that guy running off when, when you're, when you're, you know, trying to fight whatever tribe battle you're trying to fight. Yeah. Women are funny that way. It's, it's interesting to watch their dynamics and stuff. And, and you know, they're there. Sometimes you're just like, do you really like that person? Or do you, it seems like you're just in competition.

You just hate them. So you're just living your best life to try and, I don't know, shoving their feet. It's really weird. But sometimes the other stuff rises to the top. You know, I'll watch, you know, my husband's friend would be like, oh, dude, you're fat. You gained weight. I'm like, oh my God, I would, that would be it. It would be broken friendship forever. But the other half of that is the support, especially the emotional support that women give. Like sometimes I want to go to my friend over even my husband and it's not because

I don't trust and love my husband, but they give me something that is, I just don't think that you can be found in other ways. Yeah, I agree. Guys, we have a different way of loyalty. And the hazing that we do to each other is kind of our way of saying, hey, man, I love you and support you. We kick each other and all that stuff, but it's a tribal man thing. Yeah, it's funny with women. Now, why did you pick Lake Como?

Why did you set the story there? Lake Como, I had gone in just for a day, and it was a very magical place. There's something about the mansions. The heroine, Ava, who was like the center of the book, she has a rich Italian family, and she owns one of the villas on Lake Como. And it was like the perfect backdrop to it takes place in New York City. That's where all the girls go to college. So taking it from a thriving New York City atmosphere to kind of like the stillness and the serenity of Lake Como. And they have fantastic little towns there, Bellagio, shopping.

It kind of takes you into a place that's more isolated and stripped down. And just Italy does that to you. So I kind of like that contradiction. There you go. Italy is such a wonderful place. Now, is the prior two books, are they set in Italy or? Yes. Our Italian Summer is a tour tour so they do 15 stops over

a two-week period and the second one a secret love letters of Olivia Moretti takes place in Positano Italy so each one and the one that I just finished up now is going to take place in Sicily so what do you like about Italian culture and life in your book? Does it just make for better romance? Yes. My grandmother was from Naples, so she lived with us. And I would get off the school bus, and she would make coffee, and we would just talk about her Italian parents. And I grew up with the seven platters of food and Sundays, five courses and pinochle with the men. And just, it was a beautiful kind of childhood memory. And so when I set foot in Italy for the tour,

the first time I was there was I was 23. I did a 15 day tour with my girlfriend. I fell in love there. It's kind of like another world, you know, here we're just very driven. We're competition achiever oriented, which is great. But there you get to take a breath. You get to actually enjoy the environment. The food and the wine is almost like an experience. It's the churches. Everything just slows down and you become more of yourself.

And we forget with social media and our attention being like stolen everywhere what it's like just to put your feet on the ground and breathe and be quiet and be who you are and connect with other people over food and wine so yeah that's what italy is for me that's what i love about italy and and countries that are over there maybe sp Spain, they, you know, eating and food and drinking is like a real social event. Yeah. Like over here in America, I think now after COVID, we all just do it alone in silence. Yeah.

In front of the TV. In front of the TV. Yeah. No, no. And drink. Don't do that. And, you know, sitting in whole groups of people, I really, I just find that so wonderful. And then, of course, they have such a wonderful espresso.

I've started getting into the espresso Italian cult this last year. You did? Yeah. I'm broke. But I have really great machines. I still have a $250 little espresso weight that is so complicated, I have to go read a manual to figure it out for you. Because when I came back from Italy, I insisted that I get one of these big Italian coffee machines, you know, maker and stuff like that. And just like you, I said,

came back and I said, I am going to drink cappuccino every day. It's changed my life. And then it took an hour and I just want my caffeine in the morning. I was like, this is not working for me. There's, there's, there's guys that they hack them so that they can have a auto turn on thing or something. And so it starts warming up the big, the big giant machine. And I still haven't bought the giant machine yet. I'm just like trying to decide which, which kidney I want to give up the left one and the right one, the right

one. And it's, it's insane. It's such a wormhole that you can go down. There's just, you're just like, I mean, even the, like utensils and accessories, but, um, I I've, I've gone the cheap route. I'm just running off. Uh, what do they call it? The motor moki pot. So I'm doing that, but I bought a really nice expensive grinder. In fact, the grinder is more expensive than the coffee maker at this point. And people are like, how much for the grinder? You know, you can get one for $12 on Amazon. And you're like, no, this stuff's special. And you're like, well, what's special? And you're like, I don't know. It's just expensive and it's Italian, so it must

be good. It's kind of like Ferrari. It must be good. Although my friends tell me every time they drive theirs, the lights all come on and they have to get service. So it seems like it works for them. What else should we tease out about your books that you want people to know about? Just that pretty much going over 50 books. I mean, there's a lot of women's fiction. There's a lot of romance. I've written two children's books, but there's also two books that have been very well known.

Three books, actually, nonfiction about writing. I'm very passionate about writing and the craft. So I've done deep dives into that. So there's always writing books to pick up. There's a lot at my website. I'm one of these writers who I love doing different things at all times. I've written novellas, the short story, the 120,000 word book, the 70,000 word book I've written. I mean, this is 40 years of writing right now. So I just have a love for

the craft and I never want to get stale. So I don't think that you'd pick up one of my books and say, oh my gosh, on the seventh book, it's cookie cutter. I'm always trying to bring something fresh. And also as we grow, we experience different things, you know, like, you know, single days and dating days are different from mom days. And, you know, I think that you appreciate new things as you get older and you bring them into your work. There you go. What's your writing schedule? Do you keep, how often are you pumping out books? Some writers do every three months or six months. And then what sort of writing do you do?

Do you keep like a daily thing or? Yeah, unfortunately writing right now is different from when it was. It is kind of exploded into a lot of administrative. It's not just writing the book. When we have millions of books out there, we have to make ourselves relevant enough for readers to find our book. So I'm glad that I got a business degree, a bachelor's in business management, because it is a lot of business.

You have to really take on, you're pretty much the CEO. So writing is always my number one concern. I know when I've been going down too much admin with email and marketing and branding and PR and social media. And I know I have to get back to the work. I write every day. Sometimes when I do need a break after a book or I'm in burnout, I'll take a week

and I'll watch like hours of Bravo television and refill the well. Yeah, you have to kind of show up but in the chair it's not about inspiration striking it really isn't it's about just trying to take care of your creative i always say protect the work protect the muse uh keep it keep it fresh and then but in chair so every day i'm pumping out some about 2 000 words a day i'm going to say. And every three to four months, I'm going to say every three to four months I have a book or something published. Yeah. Three to four months, 2000 words.

How long does it take you to pump out 2000 words? I'm curious. Like an hour or two hours? It totally depends on where the book is. So the beginning to the middle is really hard slogging. So 2000 words can take me from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., especially it depends on my deadline and how much I've procrastinated. Because if I have four months for a deadline and I procrastinate to two months

because I've been watching Bravo too much, well, guess what? You can't move the deadline up. So now I'm writing 12 hours a day and it's my fault. Towards the middle to the end, I can literally pump i'm writing 12 hours a day and it's my fault towards the middle to the end i can literally pump out 6 000 words a day wow because i'm telling the story but the beginning when the story is coming to me very very slow so there you go and then once you kind of got it it hits the road then it's then why i do this career it's like going down the hill of a roller coaster it It is a gift.

It's heaven. It's just letting the story like take you, but it takes a lot for me to, to get to that point. That's called just, just showing up. I think we had, I think we had another prolific author on recently,

I think a month or two ago who I was like, I was like, you know, how do you stay motivated every day? And, and what do you do? And they literally said, I last like, you know, how do you stay motivated every day? And, and what do you do? And they literally said, I last minute the, the contractor, the deadline. I'm like, really? Wow. Okay. I will tell you this has happened in my house. That's why I said,

don't marry a writer. If you're really ready. I have, I torture my kids. My kids are like, mom, you have to be quiet. We cannot hear your whining anymore, your deadline anymore. And I've been known to like stalk into your whining anymore, your deadline anymore. And I've been known to like stalk into the kitchen and say, sell the house. I'm not writing the book and we're giving back the contract. We're going to go to a tent. We're going to be good. We're not writing anymore.

Some drama right there. Maybe this could be a, one of those reality TV shows, the life of a writer. I think they've tried chris they've been i've been approached like twice during the last 15 years about a reality show with writers the thing is is that we're not that interesting we're pretty much in our pajamas talking to dogs and imaginary people every day you just described my whole life yeah well welcome to the creative club. Not showering for two days or so. Maybe. Yeah, exactly. That sort of thing.

It's real glamorous. You kind of reach the point where you're writing and you're just like, what was I saying? I showered. I smell. That's why I have people around me. I come out and they go, you know, you, you've had the same clothes on for four days and the children are very

embarrassed for you to go pick them up at school. So can you please do something? Yeah. See, I don't have that problem. I have just two dogs. Yeah. And they have large noses. And so when they won't come near you, then, you know, you're going to.

It's bad. They're just like, you stink. Worse than us. And we're Siberian Huskies. So there you go. I love the Huskies. I love your story that you told. I'm probably going to be

telling that forever to a lot of people that the paradigm that you used of taking your first rejection letter and going now it makes me official as an author i love that paradigm you know we we joke in the business you know i've had a lot of social media accounts that we've you know raised hundreds of thousand on. Yeah. And, of course, our YouTube channel. And the joke is you don't become official until you finally get trolled and people start throwing shit at you and comments on your social media. Then you're like, I must have made it because now I have trolls. Yes, I have heard that, and I think it's true.

It's all the way that you look. It's the way you look at things. I just think that we get our own perspective. There you go. Final question for you. Any advice you give to aspiring writers who are looking to write, well, any, any books? Yeah. I think any is good.

Yeah. Well, I say it again and again. I mean, there's a million things I can tell you on, oh, this is how you, you know, slay Amazon. This is how you do ads. And this is how you slay Amazon, and this is how you do ads, and this is how you make yourself relevant and go viral. And not that I've gone viral, but really I always go back to, it's you alone in a room with a story.

There's nobody that can write it for you. There's nobody that can make it happen for you. And the second thing that you've got to know is that everybody is so unique. You can never write the same story that somebody else is. And the world needs your perspective. It needs your story. It's waiting for you out there. You have to protect the work and believe in yourself and just focus on that. That's everything. Every single day you get to choose. Today, I'm going to choose my work. Today, I'm going to take

a chance. And then, you know, you're looking a year down the line and you can have this fantastic book, this accomplishment. Yeah. Eat the elephant, small bites. Yeah. Write those words.

Like, you know, like you said that, you know, 2000, 6,000 words a day, you know, you're like,

I don't know where this is going. And then you wake up one day and you're like 50,000, 70,000 words. And you're like, wow, who did this thing? Wow. It finally is here. It's so true. is going and then you wake up one day and you're like 50 000 70 000 words and you're like wow who did this thing wow yes it finally is here it's so true yeah there you go we're very inspirational so everyone else should start writing 50 books damn it she had the code so she just gave you the code just keep going at it yep there you go thank you very much jennifer coming on the show

give us your.com so people can find you on the interwebs. Yep. JenniferPropes.com. Super easy. Just my name. You'll find if you sign up for a newsletter, you get a free book. There's lots of fun stuff on there. I'm definitely going to be putting this fantastic podcast on there.

There you go. Thank you. So you can see Kristen and us in all our glory. There you go. There you go. There you go. You can just black out my side of the screen. But please come back for the next one. We'd love to have you.

The next 50 actually come back. Yes, that sounds good. We're going to go have a hundred celebration party. There you go. Can we do this and get somebody to pay for that? So yeah, there you go. And order up the book, folks. You can find out those secrets we alluded to at

the beginning of the show you gotta find out the secrets and surprises probably uh a wedding in lake como book three of the meet me in italy series comes out may 14th 2024 that's halfway through the year geez we're already there aren't we there you go thanks for tuning in go to good reads.com fortunes choss, linkedin.com, 4chesschrisfoss, chrisfoss1 on the TikTokity. All those crazy places around the internet. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. And we'll see you guys next time.