The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Technically Yours by Denise Williams

Episode Date: December 7, 2023

Technically Yours by Denise Williams https://amzn.to/41bPav2 “You’ll laugh, you’ll swoon, and you’ll root for Pearl and Cord’s happy ending."—New York Times bestselling author Carley Fortune LibraryReads Pick Eight years ago, he fell in love with a stranger he couldn’t have—today, she’s back in his life and the sparks between them threaten to set her career on fire. Pearl Harris has learned the hard way to be careful in work and in love. She has the chance to make lasting change at OurCode—a nonprofit aimed at inspiring high schoolers to code—but a recent scandal puts its reputation at risk. Further complicating things, Pearl didn't expect the one man she never stopped thinking about to join as the newest member of her board of directors. Cord Matthews fell for Pearl when they met in an elevator eight years ago. She’s just his type: smart, capable, and makes him laugh, but when she broke his heart, he decided love wasn't for him. When they reconnect after years with no contact, Cord is tempted to consider breaking his ban on serious relationships. But going public with a romance between them might derail Pearl’s career and the progress she’s made at OurCode. While Pearl and Cord are both hesitant to trust their feelings and take a risk, it soon becomes impossible to keep ignoring the electricity between them. Cord is a skilled programmer, but a workplace romance might spell disaster for both of them--and love isn’t easily debugged.

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We have an amazing multi-book author on the show today. She's talking to us about her newest book that's just come out, December 5th, 2023, which is actually tomorrow. So there you go. People watching this 10 years from now are like, no, that's not how it works on YouTube. So her newest book is called

Technically Yours by Denise Williams. And it's the editor's pick actually on Amazon for best romance. So there you go. I tried to write my book for best romance so there you go i tried to write my book for best romance but it was just a business book so it didn't count denise williams wrote her first book in the second grade i hate you and its sequel i still hate you did we date in your youth denise i i don't know sounds. I hear that a lot from women. I Still Hate You

featured a tough, funny heroine, quirky hero, witty banter, and a dragon. Minus the dragons, these are still the books she likes to write. After penning those early works, she finished second grade and eventually earned a PhD in education, going to work

in higher education. After growing up a military brat around the country and across, she now lives in Des Moines, Iowa with her husband's son and two ornery Shih Tzus who think they own the house. That sounds typical for those breeds of dogs. Welcome to the show. How are you? I am great. It's so good to join you today. It's so wonderful to have you as well. So give us your dot coms. Any place you want people to find you on the interweb? Yeah, well, the legit places. I'm at DeniseWilliamsWrites.com.

I'm on Instagram and Twitter. Well, we're not calling it Twitter anymore, X. And TikTok, and I make embarrassing videos that are probably a little cringeworthy, according to my child. Oh, wow. And yeah, that's where you can always find me at Nick Will Writes. There you go. So how many books do you have total? You got more than I can count. I flunked second grade, so I can't count.

Yeah, that was before we dated in the third grade, I guess. Is that what I'm waiting? This will be my ninth book. There you go. Yeah, you've got quite the collection going on. My debut came out in 2020, so it's been a wild ride over the last three, four years. There you go. The Fastest Way to Fall, The Misconnection, How to Fail at Flirting.

I've got a camera in front of me. The Love Connection, The Sweetest Connect connection, how to fail at flirting. That sounds like a real funny book. I think I'm pretty funny, so I think it was. There you go. There you go. Tell us about this newest book, Technically Yours. Yeah, so Technically Yours, as you said,

for us, comes out tomorrow. For those in the future, hey, it's in your bookstore right now. It's a second chance romance. So the couple met years ago and now they're back together. It takes place in the world of a tech nonprofit. So kind of like Girls Who Code or those type organizations

that are trying to get kids, particularly women and kids of color into the tech world. And it takes place between the executive director and one of the board members who is a tech CEO. So I always joke that it's got Fortran as foreplay. And so you get quite a bit of heat and spice, but also some great chemistry and some good,

I think, social commentary around diversity and technology. There you go. Does that mean conspiracy? Because you know what Fortran is. Fortran, not Fortran. Oh, okay. There you go. All right.

Yeah, that'd be a very different book. It's money for me. Yeah, that probably would be. On the cover, it it says sometimes love needs a reboot so does that basically turn it off and then power back up again is that how it works yeah kind of i mean sometimes you gotta try that second time try that with my exes then or don't i don't know i'm gonna call them and ask for a second time and then they hang up on me. That's when I usually get the books written about hating me. That's when tech support comes on and says, are you sure that it's plugged in? Definitely.

Or I'm even plugged in. So with Technically Yours, as you've written all these books, is there a series of characters? Are they all standalones? Yeah, good question. They can all be read as standalones. I hate it when I find like a seventh book in a series and I have no idea like important parts because I got to read the rest of them. So these can all be read on their own. But this is the fourth book in the same universe. So How to Fail at Flirting, The Fastest Way to Fall, Do You Take This Man, and now Technically Yours

all have the same characters. They all take place in and around Chicago. They're kind of in that same world. And so this is the last one in that world. And then I have a series of novellas that take place in the airport that exist in kind of a separate world. There you go. Eight years ago, he fell in love with a stranger he couldn't have. That also sounds like most of my dating life. I feel like we need a relationship book for you. Maybe you need to read some more romance. Or how not to have a relationship. I'm just not sure i'm fitted properly for one i miss that codependency gene eight years ago he fell in love with a stranger he couldn't have today she's back in his life and the sparks between them threaten to set her career on fire fire i say so there you go uh so what what made you pick some of the characters

tell us about the characters and the protagonists that are in the book yeah so the two lead characters are accord who we met in the fastest way to fall i debut my second now my debut my sophomore novel and he i think the best way to describe him is he lives in chucks he never wants to wear a suit to work. And he's sort of your quintessential tech guy. I was told in editing he was drinking far too much Mountain Dew, which is what I sometimes tell my husband too. Just, you know, he's that guy.

He's very laid back. And he is in love with this woman and has been in love with this woman forever. And I always say when I'm describing him, he's a recovering people pleaser, as I think a lot of us are. And so figuring out how to not just work to serve other people, but to serve his own interests as well. And so we've met him before. Pearl was the secretary at his company eight years ago. And so we met her in The Fastest Way to Fall as well.

She is very guided, very purposeful, very meticulous in her work. And so falling in love with somebody at work she's not supposed to is a real conflict for her. And she's just kind of a badass. I really enjoyed writing her. And she takes care of her business and is on top of things, really cares about her family. And so she was a really fun person to write and a good counter to him because she has very, very little trouble standing up for what she wants, which so often we don't see that with women. And so I really like to write characters who challenge some of those dynamics sometimes. There you go. So does your husband ever get jealous? You've written about this guy a couple of times through some books. What's going on there? No, you know, he's secure in our relationship. It's not an I hate you moment. So he's good no you know he he's he's secure in our relationship it's not an

i hate you moment so he's good i think sometimes he's probably relieved because he can say you know like oh well you know you're gonna get some of that sappy stuff from your book boyfriend so it's fine yeah well he understands the the romance novel market doesn't he he does he does i mean he's got a a wife who's been up in it for several years so yeah he's had no choice i have enough beach read authors that come on that i know what's going on over there so it's it's funny because it's it's always a it's always either get back together situation or i found the guy that i missed when i was in high school and now i'm divorced it's a it's always a lifetime sort of movie i mean we've all got those stories in us I found the guy that I missed when I was in high school and now I'm divorced.

It's always a lifetime sort of movie. I mean, we've all got those stories in us, right? I always tell a lot of men they should read more romance if they don't, or women, too. It's a good guide for relationships. Maybe we should. I don't know. You let me know. I'll give you some recs.

There you go. Well, I'll just go through your library, right? Oh, yeah. That too. Is it placed in the same sort of scenarios or same areas, locales as your earlier books or is anything new going on that way? Yeah, no, it's a little bit different. All my books really, most of them are based in Chicago, at least the series, because that's where the first one took place. So physically that's where they are. But that whole world of tech was very new. That was not what any of my other books have been about. And so I tend to pick different settings for my books, which is really fun for me as a PhD as a researcher, I get to go learn new things. And

so I was studying up on programming terms. And you know, how do you can't make a good, a good pun unless you know what all these techie words mean. And so quite a bit of studying to put that in this world and also this world of kind of nonprofit management. I had a little bit of experience with, but not a lot. So that would be new for readers. And the second chance is not something I've written before. So that'll be new for my readers as well. But as far as the high heat, high emotion, like lots of side characters, lots of bad jokes,

good jokes too, but also a lot of dad jokes. Those will be really familiar to anybody who's read my work before. Sounds like a lot of Silicon Valley jokes probably too. You know, I didn't even think about that. That was totally a pun I missed. I got stuck on penetration testing. Penetration test. I'm just going gonna not even go near that uh but yeah technically yours it's got a cover on it it's kind of like a a bluer uh kind of less disturbing color of the the matrix on it sort of thing yeah this is right here too as we're airing but i actually had this idea for the cover and when they asked what we wanted to do i was like what if it was the matrix but like romantic and then i had to unpack that a little bit because obviously the matrix is not inherently romantic and i i love it it's probably

my i loved all my covers it's probably my favorite cover and yeah inside the book there's things in binary code and sometimes they spell some things out and things like that so it was just a fun sort of coded way to code it haha you know way to to brand the book there you go it sounds like some of the things i've done with love you know that scene the matrix where the guy goes i know the steak isn't real but i just love the taste of steak kind of my life love life is i i know it isn't love but i love the taste of whatever. That's kind of how my love life is. I know it isn't love, but I love the taste of whatever it is. Chris, I really feel like we do need to get you reading some romance. I feel like there's a need here and maybe there's some benefit here.

I don't know if it would prove anything. But, you know, you never know. There you go. What's coming up for you in the future? Do you have anything more? And sometimes, you know, authors have stuff in the can and they're pumping out quite a pace. Yeah, yes. Right now I'm slowing down.

I had four books out last year and three this year. And next year I only have one, which is lovely. So that is due here in a couple of weeks. And it'll be done by then if my editor is listening in. But that actually takes place in Des Moines, which is where I live here in Iowa, which is great because there's never books set I feel like in the in the Midwest and the state of Iowa. And it is about a lottery winner and a donut shop owner. And so that has been a lot of fun to write. There's a lot of like silliness. And I feel like buying a lottery ticket once a week and eating donuts constantly while writing it

are a business expense. So I don't know how my accountant will feel about that, but that is coming up and that'll come out next year. And then I'll have another one out in 2025. You are rocking it. And are you sticking in the same vein the whole time and writing for the same characters and stuff? No, no, no.

These will be new characters. And actually, this will be a totally new universe, a new world. But it is all romance. They're all usually folks who, for me, and this is a theme across all my books, their careers really matter to them. And that's because that's me. I work in education. I've always worked in education.

And so all my characters, their jobs are a big part of who they are and what they do and what they love and so that is definitely consistent for this next one but otherwise the setting and the issues really are very different there you go wonderful thing you got going on you're just taking ass taking names what got you into writing and stuff what's your journey and what got you into yeah you know i've always loved to write, but it was short stories, really bad poetry that I learned recently was still on the internet from 25 years ago. And I never thought much about it, but it was always a place where I found kind of joy and relaxation. I wrote for a while, but then I started working on my graduate degree and I didn't have time to write anything that

didn't have a citation attached to it. And in 2016, the world was, I don't know, 2016-ing and I had a newborn and I just felt buried. I was lost in everything that was going on. And so I decided to sit down and write just a short story like to, I don't know, just kind of have some time for me. So I did that and I loved it. I felt so relaxed. I felt so rejuvenated that I went back and did it every night. And that in short order turned into what would be my first novel. And when I finished it, I thought, oh, this is maybe kind of good. I'll show it to some friends. And they lovingly and kindly and gently told me it wasn't. And then I

met some writers and did some research, about writing and some of those folks less gently and kindly told me it wasn't good yet but through that process I ended up with a book I was really proud of and then found the right agent who found the right editor and again that became my debut novel so I always joke with folks you don't need an MFA you can learn as you go like that's something I love about writing is it's it's iterative like you learn it as you go. That's something I love about writing is it's iterative. You learn it as you go and you can always get better. Oh, wow. That's awesome. That's how you become a writer. So you went through the whole journey and everything else. And you feel that PhD really helps when you do research and stuff, huh? It does. And it does help with research because that's what we're

trained to do. It also really helps with getting reviews, especially if they're negative. Because in academia, if anybody's listening, if you're a professor, if you write academic journals, any of that, we kind of live to give critique to each other. And sometimes it's nice and warm and lovely, but usually it's a little harsh. And getting negative reviews on my books or getting critique from my editor is kind of, that's whatever. I'm used to that. But yeah, doing research has really helped. So for this one, it was learning about technology and coding and things that I know nothing about. The Missed Connection, which is

one of my novellas, is about chemistry professors. And the last time I took chemistry was when I dropped it after failing the midterm my freshman year in college. So I'm on the phone with friends. And I've got 27 browser windows open. So that I can make seven sex jokes about chemistry. That I'm sorry are real good jokes. I'm very proud of those jokes. So I could realistically give my characters what they're passionate about. But I certainly didn't know anything about it.

Maybe you have a future in comedy or standup. I mean, I think I'm very funny. Although again, my son would tell you differently. Well, that's always, yeah. The kids, man, they're always going to throw you off. But maybe you have a standup comedy future and you're writing jokes or doing standups. You know, maybe my uncle's a standup comedian. So there you go.

It's in the family. Yeah, I guess so. In the blood. There you go. It's in the family. Yeah, I guess so. In the blood. There you go. Anything more we want to tease out on the book before we go and what you're doing? Just I hope folks really enjoy it. Like I said, I think it's got a good message and really digs into the world of tech a little bit. But it's spicy.

There's some heat in it. There's some great chemistry in it. I'm really excited about this book and for folks to get to see it. There you go. Well, thank you very much, Denise, for coming on the show. Give us your.com so we can find you on the interwebs. Yeah, thanks for having me. Folks can find me at denisewilliamswrites.com or you can find me at Nick Will Writes across all the social platforms. There you go. Thanks, everyone, for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschrisfast, linkedin.com, 4chesschrisfast, LinkedIn.com, 4chesschrisfast, YouTube.com, 4chesschrisfast, and all those crazy places

on the internet. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time.