The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Book of Silver Linings by Nan Fischer

Episode Date: August 28, 2023

The Book of Silver Linings by Nan Fischer https://amzn.to/3Pfgcx3 Within the margins of an antique book, a timeless love waits for a young woman on the precipice of a terrible mistake in this enthralling new novel from the acclaimed author of Some of It Was Real. Constance Sparks always says yes…when her capricious best friend needs money; when her boss gives her more responsibility without a raise; and when her boyfriend, Hayden, who is very kind but also secretive, asks her to marry him. While planning their wedding—and struggling with anxiety about the right course for her future—Constance researches the history of her antique engagement ring and unearths the name of a man who might be connected to it, plus his tragic love story. When she finds a book of letters in her library’s old manuscript section written by the long-dead man, Constance is deeply touched by his words and leaves a note for him confessing her uncertainty and doubts. She’s shocked days later to find a response tucked among the pages. As the notes continue to arrive, Constance finds herself quickly falling in love with a ghost and putting her real-life relationship in jeopardy. Will a bond based on letters impossibly sent from the past derail her future? Or will Constance discover her voice and risk everything for the chance to somehow connect with her true soul mate?

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, thechrisvossshow.com.

Welcome to the big show. I had to go along there so I could get the audience, uh, pressing the button to tell them to clap and everything. And as always, we do the Chris Voss show, uh, in front of no audience,

uh, other than the wonderful guests we have on the show as well. Um, but the other, the rest of the audience is pretty much the seven other, uh, personalities that are in my head. Um,

so there's that. I don't know what that means. And once again, another joke that sounded good in my head and died. Uh, so there you go. Uh, as always folks, we have the most amazing authors. We have a returning author, uh, and she's done a plethora of really cool books, not just a bunch of books, a plethora of really good books.

Many of you are going to have to Google what that means. And I don't know what it means either in the definition, but plethora just sound like the most appropriate word she's done multiple books including those of a star wars trilogy for lucasfilm uh sports autobiographies etc etc so we're going to get to her in a second she's returning guests on the show but as always we have to use this point of the show to guilt shame and uh cajole you into going and give us five-star reviews on itunes because then you'll receive the fullness of my love it's like a it's like a god uh human relationship where if you really want god's love to shine on you you must go did i just do like a narcissistic god thing wow that's

fucking weird i'll talk to my psychologist about that on friday uh so anyway give us five-star reviews over there go to goodreads.com fortune's christmas linkedin.com for instance christmas youtube.com for just christmas and we're uh nowcom, Fortune's Chris Voss, YouTube.com, Fortune's Chris Voss. And we're now killing it on TikTok or trying to. Chris Voss won in the Chris Voss Show podcast. She is the author of the amazing new book that's just barely come out, August 15th,

The Book of Silver Linings. Nan Fisher joins us again on the show. She was on last year, so be sure to check out that episode and her other book as well. Plug, plug, plug. So we're going to be talking about her amazing book what went into it and uh why you should order it now and buy like five copies because you know what christmas is coming up it'll make a great gift we'll find out for her if it's a great gift nan fisher is the author of some of it was real and the book of silver linings i believe some of it was real is an autobiography of my

life isn't it some was real so it was uh highly imagined and the rest of time i was drunk or high i'm not sure what that means either uh she's the author of young adult novels when elephants fly that's also a biography of my life uh and the speed of there's too much vodka no i'm just kidding i'm sorry uh you know i'm butchering all your titles uh the speed of falling objects under the name nancy richardson fisher a star wars trilogy for lucasfilm and six sport biographies autobiographies ranging from uh i'm gonna butcher that name monica sellis to apollo anton ono and juliehn. Did I get those names right? You did. I skipped one. So there you go. So welcome to the show, Nan. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks so much for having me back. And thanks for coming. Congratulations on another new book that's

killing it. Give us your.com so people can find you on the interwebs. Sure, at nanfisherauthor.com and you can find me on Instagram at nanfisherauthor. There you go. So you've written a lot of great books. What motivated you on to write this one? Well, I've always wanted to tell a little bit of a ghost story, a story with hints of reincarnation. The first thing that motivated me though, was my husband, when he proposed, gave me an antique engagement ring. And I've always wondered about the women who wore that ring before me and what their lives were like. So that was kind of the first seed that started the idea of writing this story. I've also always been a people pleaser in my life. So I wanted to write a story for people like me who maybe aren't

paying attention to their own wants and needs and kind of trying to figure out a way to motivate them to think of themselves a little more so that they can find their own version of their happily ever after. There you go. So why did you title it The Book of Silver Linings? Well, for me, in my life, finding and being a silver lining is hugely important. I think being a silver lining is even more important than finding the silver linings in your life. I think it's important to reframe always in your life and try and figure out what's positive about a situation. But I found that being a silver lining in life gives you way more than you give to other people. So it's a thread that runs through the whole story about finding and being silver linings in life. And there's the other thing that really motivated me to write

this story is my love of animals and my support of animal rescue. And I think animal rescue and I think animal rescue there's no better way to be a silver lining than to help find animals who need you and give them a second chance there you go uh you know I've been referred to as a lead linings person but that's a different story uh so I love the positive attitude of being someone who finds a silver lining. It's not always easy. That's for sure. And I know for my character, Constance in this story, she has a very difficult past and childhood,

and those are things she needs to overcome. And giving to other people is one of the ways that she ultimately finds her raison d'etre and passion and discovers true love. There you go. I mean, it's one of those things where if you have gratitude and you give to other people, it sometimes pays better than just having hate and anger, which is my issue. I'm seeing my psychiatrist on Friday about that. That's the callback joke.

Well, maybe the book of silver linings will motivate you. I need it. Yeah, I need to read your insights and learn clearly. In fact, before I was called the lead linings person, I was called the bestest popcorn ceiling person, but they had that removed. Well, then you need the book of silver linings. I don't know where we're doing men and Titus or men of Jada Stokes or whatever, whatever those commercials are. You see the attorney on CNN all the time. So let's get into the deets. It sounds like this is kind of close to what happened with you and your now husband, I guess. So you're planning a wedding

and you're trying to figure out where this antique engagement ring comes from. Well, so the basic premise of the book of silver linings is that Constance is a people pleaser and an animal rescue volunteer and her boyfriend proposes and she says yes, even though she's quite uncertain whether he's the right fit, which wasn't my case. I was sure, but she's very uncertain because her fiance is, he's kind, but he's very secretive and he doesn't love animals. And so he gives her an antique engagement ring and to distract herself, she starts researching that ring and discovers that it's tied to a book of letters that was

written by James, a World War I ambulance driver, about the war, but also about his love affair with this woman named Anna. And she recognizes a kindred spirit in James. So she writes this long dead man a letter confessing her fears. And she's shocked days later when she goes to read more letters that his ghost has written her back. What? Yeah. So the question is. I just got chills.

I just got chills. Thank you. Well, the question is whether this impossible love affair will derail her life or whether it will help her find her voice, save the animal shelter where she works that's under threat, and also discover her true love in life. I'm literally having that hair stand on end experience. Oh, good. It just got me. I'm like, you got me on that one. It's a ghost story.

It's a story within a story. And you kind of go along on her journey toward finding herself. Because I found in life that until you know your passion or until you know who you are, it's really impossible to have a successful relationship with anyone. So that's why I'm seeing my psychiatrist on Friday. Oh, good. This, this is good.

Call back trick for the show. So this is really interesting and it sounds like a lot of, is it, is it a fun? Is it a mystery? Is it, is it spooky? It's spooky. It's a mystery is it uh is it spooky it's it's spooky it's a mystery it's heartfelt um it's really a journey of one woman to to find out who she is by using by this relationship with james's ghost by reading about james's love affair with a nurse named Anna. She comes to recognize what she truly wants in life. But there's always, everything I write, there's always a bit of a mystery and hopefully every chapter you read makes you want to read the next chapter.

There you go. It's billed as a feel-good book, preparing to fall in love with mystical realism and romance, magical, et cetera,., etc. from some of your viewers. That's good. As I'm looking at products related to this item that other people bought, including your book, it's a whole lot of guys with their chests, evidently, bare-chested. Yeah, I don't know what's happening with the feed

because it's not like that at all. But I think if you're a fan of Colleen Oakley or Ashley Poston, then stories with a bit of magic in them, then it's the right kind of book for you. There you go. So it sounds like a lot of interesting fun. Hey, so did you think about, you know, I'm sure this doesn't have in the book, and of course you can't tell us what happens in the middle and the ending. But is there any chance that maybe she falls in love with the ghost

and breaks up with the guy? There is definitely a chance. I don't want to ruin things. There's also a chance that maybe things aren't exactly what she imagined. But there is a version of Happily Ever After. I find the stories that I write, I never want to wrap things up super neatly with a bow I'm much even though I like magical realism and ghosts and mysteries and and bits of reincarnation I still

want to write a story that actually could in some way happen with an ending that is a bit more realistic but so far people have been really happy with the ending and and some people have had concerns that they're afraid to read it because maybe there's animal cruelty and i can tell you no animals have been hurt in the story and the animals do have happily ever after there you go and it's a work of fiction people come on uh yeah but no uh you're an animal lover uh so i was just setting up a premise for a joke there and it went it went uh it went into the book i didn't know uh but uh you know i was gonna say most of my most of my exes in my relationships think of me as a ghost because they're just glad i'm gone oh well that i hope that's not true

it's true this is another reason i'm seeing the psychiatristrists on Friday. Every, every show has got callback jokes. So, you know, we just find one and run with it. So there you go. But I think everyone after 15 years and two or three episodes a day, five to 10 a week, how much, five to 15 a week, 10 to 15 a week. I can't even tell anymore. I can't feel my legs. What do you people want from me already?

Go watch the shows. You know, I need all the help I can get. I think that's where I was going with that. So, you know, how much is the departure from some of the other things you've written? And what was it like to write the Star Wars series? I mean, that had to have been a lot of fun for Lucasfilm. Well, it's a big departure from that.

That Lucasfilm job was super fun. I mean, I remember watching the first Star Wars movie. I absolutely loved it. And the reason I got that job was super fun. I mean, I remember watching the first Star Wars movie. I absolutely loved it. And the reason I got that job was actually because a friend was visiting. I was working for the University of California, San Francisco as a grant writer at that point. I was 22. I was super bored with my job, unsure what I was going to do with writing. And my friend was friends with someone at Lucasfilm. I went to pick up backstage passes for a Grateful Dead show because Lucasfilm did Dark Horse Comics and they were affiliated with Grateful Dead. I met a woman who worked at

Lucasfilm and I offered to write on spec. So I offered to write for free. If she had any ideas, I would write a chapter or two. And after a year of doing that, I was hired to write a trilogy, a middle grade trilogy for them. And it was a dream come true. I mean, the universe, Star Wars, it's so impactful in my life. George Lucas is the only celebrity I've ever met where I've completely lost my words and just said like two or three things to him. But but yeah, it was it was unbelievable. It's it also made me realize I wanted to write fiction because up until then I had written, I think, one sport autobiography, Bella Caroli, the Romanian gymnastic coach. I had that was the first sport book I'd written. And I think I got that job at like 21 or 22.

And I realized after doing the Star Wars books, that fiction is what I wanted to write. And it took me a little while to make the leap to writing my own fiction, but that was the first start of realizing I can do it. And it's such a great series. In fact, yesterday, I have some ideas for books. If you ever want to contribute to, I guess it's Disney technically now. But this is from hard-drive.net, so I want to give credibility to this joke. But I just posted this 12 hours ago on my Facebook.

And I guess it's a play on Disney's trying to come up with new stuff to serve the audience. And I think the returning CEO, who's a great guy, has commented that maybe they should calm down a little with Marvel and what they're doing with Disney and maybe not try to come out so many movies. Anyway, so hard-drive.net put out like an onion sort of feature story that says Disney Plus announces new show

about Luke's hand that got cut off. So his hand's cut that's great that's pretty funny and i was like i was like you know they should do a show giving uh the death star its own narration where it's it's its own star and i don't know it does whatever i mean we mean, we should, they've blown up the Death Star like, what is it, like 99% of the movies? I'm always like, these days I'm like, are we blowing up the Death Star again? Like, why? Is there anything new? And so

we should probably start seeing a movie featuring the Death Star from its perspective. Come on, you guys, stop. We've victimized this poor building for so bloody long in space. And it has feelings, too, I think. I don't know. That's funny.

Maybe some people say it does. So, you know, maybe we should see what it's like being the Death Star. And people are always trying to blow it up and crap. And you're just like, hey, man, I'm just trying to float in space and get along with people, man. I don't have control over these evil people that are inside of it. He deserves a voice, for sure. Yeah, that'll be coming out with Mandalorian 11.

There you go. Anyway, enough making fun of Star Wars. This should be an exciting book for you to go out. Are you doing the big book tour and stuff? Are people touring now after COVID's dead? Some people are touring i'm mostly doing podcasts and and zoom things stuff like that where i can reach the most amount

of people with a guaranteed audience yeah and it makes great for google search and stuff and and stuff i you know i i always wondered about i mean bookstores are nice i don't want to dump on bookstores because they're very necessary and support local independent bookstore i support mine um and uh but you know i was wondering sometimes about the smaller and i see somebody sitting in a room with like 20 people and i'm like you traveled there and spent four hours in an airplane to go talk to 20 people but i don't know man it's whatever well i think part of it is that writing is so solitary so any opportunity that you get to actually be live with people or face-to-face with people, I think authors like to take that opportunity because it feeds our soul.

You know, you write a book for so long and you're just sitting alone in your room for a year during the process. And especially now, because now with COVID, you don't fly to see your publisher as much or your editor or anything. You just talk to them on the phone so face to face is really wonderful plus you're meeting with your fans so that's that's probably a lot funner you mean people who really care about you know your fan base so there you go i'll fly anywhere for to meet 20 20 of my fans as long as people bathe beforehand because that's important i see what it's like they run up me screaming the christmas show it's like uh i have body armor on get away from me um so there's that um but yeah this should be a lot of fun people can read about the book it

sounds like a great adventure uh anything more i want to tease on before we go well i wanted to ask you how do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever had any experiences? I don't know. When I was young, I probably had some things, but I don't believe in ghosts. I've had some spooky. We used to go sometimes on Halloween and go tour cemeteries and silly stuff like that when we were young. But no, at this age, 55, I'm jaded and bitter and have no imagination left. What about reincarnation? No, I don't believe in reincarnation.

I'm a hardcore atheist. But if other people do, then that's cool. I like the idea of it. I don't know what I believe in, ghosts, reincarnation, psychics. But my husband, one of the other inspirations for the book of Silver Lining, there's a photo of his grandfather with Franklin Roosevelt at the Naval Academy. They're standing side by side. It was in 1941. And his grandfather was an officer in the Navy. And when I saw the picture, it's my husband. Exactly. I mean, it's my husband in a uniform,

basically. And that was one of the other inspirations for the story. It was just, it kind of blew me away. And it was, it was just a kind of a cool little seed and something that this the book of silver linings isn't about reincarnation but there is a thread woven through that if you do believe in reincarnation it gives you something to think about there you go who's that one hollywood gal who loves reincarnation she has a red hair she's been around for a million years oh um melanie not melanie gritt no the woman who was in that jack nicholson movie yeah yeah yeah i know who you mean she's got to be but she's really big in reincarnation like that's her thing right right hey you know i mean i'd love to believe in reincarnation right i think we all

would who want who doesn't want to i don't know i I think we all would. Who doesn't want to set his mind at the apple? I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this again. I want to do something else. Well, you'd be someone else, so you'd have another chance. What are you saying? I blew this one? Well, I don't know.

That's what I'm talking to psychiatrists about on Friday. You're kind of leading me to believe you might have wanted to take some different steps in life. I don't know. I do wish if I could go back, like I talked to my young nephew who's about 23 and, you know, I'll hear him complain about something. He's like, dude, most of us at my age would trade lives with you in a heartbeat, especially if we could, if we could transpose everything we've learned at this point and have it. Oh my God, I would be a destroyer of worlds. Right. That's what we always say.

If we could just go back to our 20s but know everything that we know now, wouldn't that be fantastic? What's that old saying? Youth is wasted on the young. It becomes more and more true every year. Yeah. The appropriate thing of life should have been you start at old and then you go to young. Yeah. You go the opposite way. I completely agree because then at least when you're, you know, wearing diapers, it's cute.

Yeah. Well, I mean, we're all wearing diapers now eventually at this point. So it's going to come full circle, which is another reason I'm seeing my psychiatrist on Friday. Well, Nan, it's been wonderful to have you on and very fun. Please keep coming back for all your books, if you would. I would love to. Thank you. Even if you end up doing the Star Wars Death Star version of The Hand,

please come back. Thank you. I'd love to come back. I always like talking with you. I can see this little hand. What was that one show? The Munsters or The Addams Family? Right, with the hand. With the thing, the hand. It just has its own show. They're probably going to do that with The Addams Family. What was that one show, The Munsters or The Adams Family? Right, with the hand. With the thing, the hand. Right, right.

And so it just has its own show. They're probably going to do that with The Adams Family. So, Nan, give us your.com so people can find you on the interwebs. Sure, nanfisherauthor.com. There you go. And thanks, Samanis, for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com, 4chesschristmas, youtube.com, 4chesschristmas, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, chrism Christmas one. Order the book wherever fine books are sold.

August 15th, 2023. It's out. The Book of Silver Linings by Nan Fisher. And buy like five or ten copies. This sounds like a great book you can give away for Christmas. So that's what you've got to start thinking about, people. Always buy early. That way you have the Christmas gifts ready. and then you know what's good about books that i love about books you can always you buy a bunch of them and then uh if somebody who you weren't getting a gift for gives you one of those surprise gifts you're like ah crap now i gotta give them a gift you've got one in the back room and you just go

oh hey i was thinking of you when i bought this. Then you give it to them. That is a fantastic, fantastic idea. There you go. There's a lot of that going on right now. I'm pitching Christmas books. Buy extra. Give them away and have people enjoy them. Give them away to your book club. Do people do book clubs anymore?

They do. They do. I Zoom with book clubs all the time. People want to do any of my books for their book club i am always happy to zoom in and chat there you go we should start a chris voss show book club yes for sure and patreon and and stuff we thought about that once we're gonna have like uh you know how some shows like 60 minutes we'll do an after 60 minute show well mar will do an after show we thought about doing that on patreon where we kind of have like a we chop it up with the

the guests maybe after the show in the green room and and uh and then you know kind of give them a little bonus thing that's a great idea because there's so many secrets to writing a book and there's secrets about the publishing industry there's a lot of things that when i do book club um that people want to know about they want to secrets about the publishing industry. And there's a lot of things that when I do book club, um, that people want to know about, they want to know about the publishing industry. They want to know about how you found your agent. And they also want to know about the inspirations behind your story and about you as an author and what part of you is in the story and why it was important to tell. And we get in these incredibly detailed discussions with a lot of people sharing and it's it's it's one of the most fun things i do there you go one of the things we were talking

about doing too is giving away signed copies of uh authors books if we can get them to send us a thing or two so i'll see if i can build that out and send me the address and i'll send you a signed copy sure then we'll just give it away to one lucky winner and some. So, all right. Sounds good then. Thanks for tuning in. Go to,

uh, we already did the bits. Uh, thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe and we'll see you guys next time. It's turning a whole other.