The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Rom Con by Devon Daniels

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

The Rom Con by Devon Daniels https://amzn.to/3usX8DO A modern battle of the sexes about a journalist who hatches an elaborate plan to take down her professional rival, in a rom-com perfect for fans of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. After a particularly brutal breakup, Cassidy Sutton has had it with dating. So when her grandmother gives her a 1950’s dating guide entitled 125 Tips to Hook a Husband, she decides to turn the retro advice into an ironic “What not to do” article for Siren, the popular online women’s publication she writes for. And who better to secretly test the old-fashioned tips on than Jack Bradford, chauvinistic creator of rival men’s site Brawler? She’ll write an article that will entertain female readers everywhere and embarrass their sexist nemesis at the same time. Two birds, one stone. But her perfect plan soon proves to be anything but. Those vintage courtship tips Cassidy was so quick to poke fun at? They actually seem to work, calling her most closely-held beliefs into question. Even worse? Jack isn’t falling for any of her tricks—and it’s not long before their ‘fake’ relationship starts to feel like the realest one of her life. As her cat and mouse game starts to spiral out of control, Cassidy has to decide if she’s playing to win, or if she’s willing to lose it all for love.

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. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com.

There you go. When the Iron Lady sings it, that's when you know it's official, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the big show. The Chris Foss Show family. The family that loves you but doesn't judge you. At least not as harshly as your mother-in-law because she never liked you anyway. You know what I mean? Anyway, guys, we've been bringing you for 15 years all the smartest people.

The CEO, the billionaires, the Pulitzer Prize winners, all the great people who write the greatest things. They spend a lifetime or tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of hours, maybe a couple of lifetimes. It just depends on the author. I think there's some Hollywood people that have done multiple lifetimes, or I think they do. Let's put it that way. And they bring it to you in a concise little format we call the Chris Voss Show

and they enlighten you and brighten you. That's not a word, brighten, but I just made it up, and there you go we have an amazing author on the show she's a multi-book author and she has her newest book that's just come out november 7th 2023 the rom con devon daniels is on the show i tried to call her devon as in like leave on from elton john because i was actually listening to elton john last night and we were just playing the whole library over there. But there's some real classics on there. But Devin Daniels joins us on the show today. Thank you for having me.

Thank you for coming. We certainly appreciate it as well. She is a born and bred California girl whose own love story found her transplanted. Are you going to learn to speak today i'm still on elton john i guess to the i don't know what that means did he ever stay transplanted i don't know he's got so many albums the songs is probably one for that she was transplanted to the maryland shores of the chesapeake she loves writing contemporary rom-coms with all the witty

banter and slow burn tension readers can handle slow burn her debut novel meet you in the middle was chosen as one of the best books of 2021 by usa today and when she's not writing you'll find her clinging to her sanity as a mom chef chauffeur and referee to four children or sneaking off with her husband for date nights in Washington, D.C. Welcome to the show, Devin. How are you? I'm fantastic. How are you? I am excellent. I was trying to think of a leave-on lyric. I couldn't do this joke there. It's an Elton John callback show.

Congratulations on your new book, The Rom Con. There you go. Gibbous.com, internet places, wherever you want people to follow you on the internet. Yes, people can find me for the most part on Instagram at devandanielsauthor, or you can find me on my website, which is devandanielsauthor.com. There you go. So give us a 30,000 overview of what's inside your new book. New book. So The Rom Con is the story of Cassidy Sutton. She's a writer for a female driven websites like a bustle or a refinery 29 type of website, women's digital magazine. And she's

disillusioned with the dating scene. She lives in New York, she's frustrated with app dating. And she's seeing all of her friends, you know, get married, move on to the next stage of life. And she's starting to feel like she's left behind. And one day she goes to visit her grandmother. It's her nine, her grandmother's 90th birthday. And she's lamenting sort of the state, her sorry state of romantic affairs. And her grandmother pulls out a magazine that she has saved from the 1950s, which had an article entitled 125 ways to hook a husband. And she says, you should use these tips. This is a great idea for you. And of course, Cassidy thinks this is ridiculous and absurd and antiquated old fashioned. But because she's a writer for this digital magazine, she decides

this could be a really funny article that I could write, you know, here, I'm going to try out these silly tips. And we're going to see how times have changed. And I got this idea. It's actually the list 125 ways to hook a husband is actually based on a true article from a 1958 McCall's magazine. Yeah, you know, that's why I say I can't make up anything funnier than what already exists out in the world, right? There you go. And anyway, so she decides to test out these tips thinking that she's going to write, you know, kind of a silly article. And she decides to test these tips out on her nemesis, a guy who is the co founder of sort of a rival website for men who she she feels is very, you know, chauvinistic,

and kind of a bro culture modeled off of like a barstool sports site. And so she thinks, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to test these tips out on him. He's going to fall for all this stuff. And then I'm going to write an expose, which really kind of exposes, you know, his bad behavior and that of the readers of his website. And instead, what do you think ends up happening instead? He doesn't really fall for the tricks and she ends up falling for him instead. It's a really fun time. People think that it's, you know, it has similar vibes to like how to lose a guy in 10 days and the kind of rom-coms of the early 2000s. That's the feedback that I've been hearing the most so far. And it was just a really fun book to write. Really fun to juxtapose the sort of courtship rituals of the 1950s versus today, you know, app-driven dating culture.

So I just had really a ton of fun with this. There you go. And what is the title of the rom-com? Rom-com. You know, I'm sure you've heard the phrase romantic comedy rom-com, right? So the idea is the rom-com is she is conning him, right? This is a little play on words there for you there you go the romance con you met my axis no i'm just kidding i've seen a few

that that was interesting that magazine uh was it mccall's i think it's mccall's yeah it's uh the uh january 1958 issue there you go i've gotten my hands on one. Have you ever seen those old recipe things that they have where they do nasty thing with like jello and gravy? Have you ever seen those? Maybe that could be another book where you do... Oh, yes. In fact, there are disgusting recipes

in this exact issue that I have found. Yes, there's one for like a mincemeat fig pie. It's so funny when you flip through this and you see, you know, the articles that they used to publish. I think there was a lot of drugs going on back then. Something going on. But maybe you should do a romance novel about, you know, a gal who uses old recipes from the 50s, those nasty looking things. And the guy falls in love with her, I don't know.

Or he dies of food poisoning. Yeah, you could do a thing on a married couple who off each other. It could be more of a thriller. How's that? Yeah, that sounds like it. We'll just do our thriller things. Tell us a little bit about your background for people who aren't aware of you so we can get them up to speed. Absolutely. Yeah. So I grew up in California, in Southern California, Orange County area. I went to a USC for school. I thought I would probably end up somehow in the entertainment industry. And shortly after graduating, I ended up meeting my husband and moved across the country to Maryland. So the entertainment industry kind of got put on the back burner there, no longer being in Los Angeles. But anyways, I've been living in Maryland now for about 18 years, promptly had four children. And it was when I was home with my

fourth child, baby, that I was like, you know, what am I going to do next? You know, it's it's a challenge to work outside the home when you have all these kids. And what can I do work wise, you know, that would allow me to have the flexibility I'm looking for. And so I have always been an avid, avid reader. And while I didn't really consider the idea of writing, you know, I did not study creative writing or anything in college. I just thought, you know, I read so much. And I frequently get kind of annoyed with the books I'm reading, I'm reading, because I think what you know, I pick it up. And I think the idea is so great. But then I get like annoyed by the execution as I'm reading it. And I'm thinking, you know, I pick it up and I think the idea is so great, but then I get like annoyed by the execution as I'm reading it. And I'm thinking, oh, you know, maybe I would have done this differently or whatever. And I really kind of just set a challenge for myself.

Well, what if I tried to write my own book? You know, what would that look like? And my husband, you know, encouraged me to do it. And so I kind of just jumped, you know, in, I dove in headfirst. And, you know, the first book I wrote ended up being my first book, Meet You in the Middle, was an across the aisle romance between a Democrat staffer and a Republican staffer. Yeah. And this that book came out in 2021. And I had, you know, I have proximity to Washington, D.C., so I was able to do some really interesting research about it. And it was a really fun book to write. It's an enemies to lovers trope. And it really was just a great time. It was, that was my first foray into writing and you know, it's kind of unusual and, and fascinating to me that I was able to really, you know, make it work. And now I'm an author. That's what I like all of a sudden I'm an author now. So was it, was it kind of like who's it was it mary madeline yes yep they were models for me there was a few there's a few kind of famous the aisle couples out there hopefully

it was with better looking people on james's side because i like james but he looks like a skull all the time. I want Mary. Mary was a hot, she was hot. And what she saw in him, I have no idea. Well, they seem to have made it work. You know,

they've been married for a long time. They have been married for a long time. They're a success story. Maybe, maybe that's the true success. Marry someone who looks like the ghost writer or something. He just, he just has this, that thing sort sort of going on but i don't know maybe he's really good but i don't know uh so there you go that could be it on some of the

characters that you had in the book uh how did you go about developing the characters and and what did you hope your readers will love about them you know i wanted to pick characters who are, you know, approaching 30, early 30s, who are kind of at a crossroads in their life. Like they are like, so my main character, Cassidy, she's a writer, but she's a little bit stagnant in her job. She's trying to figure out what's next. She's always wanted to write a book, but she can't really figure out the idea that she wants. Or she's just, I would say, challenged and actually like taking the steps to write this book. And I think as a writer, I can, I can relate to that, obviously, my main character, my hero, Jack, he's also in a crossroads of his life, where he's founded this

website that's become really successful. And he's trying to figure out what his next steps are. It's always really fun to come up with these character arcs and to figure out how these two people and their different their different dreams are going to intersect and how the relationship also follows a specific path you know alongside their professional careers i really try to to make my characters very well rounded conflict isn't just a relationship but there's also you know professional aspects and also personal you know familial relationships that are uh sprinkled in there as well ah those familiar relationships that are always getting in there and mucking up like a joke we always tell on the

show about the yeah your mother-in-law didn't like him uh so how do you how do you balance romance and comedy in your writing when you approach when you approach it that's a great question in fact that's one of the biggest challenges that i have and when you're writing romantic comedy i have some specific rules that I try to follow, which is that to be classified as a comedy, I think you need to have a few recipe items. One of them is, you know, very funny dialogue. And that's like the banter between the characters

where you're laughing out loud as the reader at, you know, how they're back and forth. That's one. Two would be funny situations. So in this book, you know, these 1950s tips that she's testing out on him are very off the rails, you know, very funny, and he doesn't really know how to react to them. And so that's sort of like a humorous situation. The third thing for me is the like a humorous voice, you know, her narrative in her own head, her inner monologue is

also funny. It's just about like how how clever you can make your writing and and just i don't know i i think of it as as like you're trying to surprise and delight the reader and for for romantic comedy it is very different than just a pure like romance because the the comedic aspect is you know hugely important but also you want to make sure that your comedy does not overshadow the actual intensity of the romance, which the reader is really looking for that really intense romance that they can get very emotionally attached to. One of the things I try to do as I'm writing is if a specific scene that I'm in is meant to be more of an emotional scene or have some sort of, you know, climactic intensity that I'm not trying to go real crazy with the comedy,

I would pull it back in those situations. And then in other situations, if it's, if the comedy is the main emotion I want people to be feeling, then I might ramp it up. Ah, there you go. There you go. So is there a favorite scene that you enjoyed writing that you can tease out

to us or, you know, we can't give away the middle. There's a scene in the middle where she goes, she goes on a series of dates with him and she decides to go on a double date with her sister and her brother-in-law and she goes out with this guy. And it's just a comedy of errors that goes on at this double date as she's trying to trick this guy. She's also trying to play it off, you know, to her sister and her brother-in-law so that they don't,

you know, know what's going on. There's a a lot happening it very much feels like a movie scene you know where you where you have sort of a rapid fire a lot of different people like at a dinner table all you know thinking and saying different things and no one's following what the other person is doing i had a lot i had a lot of fun with that one. Is there any handkerchief dropping scenes? Remember how in the 50s they would always, you know. This is very specifically mentioned in there because that is one of the, so in this McCall's magazine, that's one of the tips. One of the tips says dropping the handkerchief still works.

That's one of the how to hook a husband tips. Do you want me to read you a few? I'd love to. Yeah, I was just actually searching for them online. So the actual article is $120. I only changed it to $125 for my book, but here's just a few of them, okay? Get a dog and walk it. Have your car break down at strategic places.

Have your car break down at strategic places? Look in a car breakdown at strategic places? Look in the census reports for places with the most single men. Nevada has 125 males for every 100 females. Holy crap. That's a place to be. How about this? Read the obituaries

to find eligible widowers. I've got some more for you. to find eligible widowers. I'm still doing that now, maybe. I've got some more for you. I actually pulled up the PDF. This is funny as hell to read. And you know, sort of the interesting thing about writing this is that some of these tips are actually legit. Like I would say,

some of these are smart and I think you could still use today. Others, not so much. For example, be friendly to ugly men. I was just reading that. I was going to say that. Be friendly to ugly men. There's one about here that I liked that was about a wallflower.

It says cultivate those wallflowers because you might find a diamond in the rough. And I kind of like that, you know, to find a shy guy. So walk up to him and tell him you need some advice. That's a good one. There you go. Number three. Here you go. Dropping the handkerchief still works.

I'm going to go put the number 17, be friendly to ugly men in my Tinder profile photos. How about this one? Stand in a corner and cry softly. Chances are good you'll come over to find out what's wrong. So I had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to incorporate all these tips into the book i mean obviously i couldn't get 125 into it but had them really sprinkled throughout and and my main character of course is trying to

figure out what are the ones that i can really do to this guy to throw him off and you know of course you know getting to write like his reactions to these just absurd things that she's doing it was also a lot of fun so there you go number 33 carry a hat box that gets me every time wear a band-aid because people always happen there's just the dropping the handkerchief number andowers. There's a bunch about that. What, like, what is this one?

58 get a sunburn. I mean, I don't, I don't get it, but I'm, I'm curious about it. I guess. Yeah.

What are your, what are your stake rare? 45 laugh at his jokes as opposed to what crying. I mean, I think that's pretty good. You know, flatter him, ask him for advice.

This one I used in the book in a key scene. Accidentally have your purse fly open and scattering its contents all over the street. I mean, these are very fun, neat, cute suggestions. And I think there's some gems.

There you go. Well, I'm sure you could create a lot of funny stuff off this. Use an ashtray. Don't crush out those cigarettes and coffee cups. Damn it. Doesn't say damn. Get that fresh scrubbed look by scrubbing. There's one in here about like send a letter to his mom and ask for her favorite recipes.

See, now if that happened nowadays, I'd be like, we need to check up on her that might be a red flag just maybe just maybe there you go that is funny send his mother a birthday card uh these are hilarious yeah it's very they're all very entertaining and you know the the way i came up with this idea to begin with was this was a viral facebook post so there was a woman who had gone to a garage sale she found a stack of old magazines, she bought them and brought them home and was flipping through them. And she found this article and she took photos of it and put it up on Facebook and it went viral. And so I saw this, you know, years ago, and I kind of made a note of it mentally. And you know, there are 1000s of comments on on this, because

all these women were sort of debating, you know of debating which tips were good, which were not. Would any of these still work? How would we make them work today? Anytime I see something like that where people are kind of debating, I know that that's an interesting and meaty topic that I can use for a story. Turn wolves into husband material by assuming they have honor i put that one in the book because i loved that one really yeah that was one of my favorite ones that's kind of that's kind of mean calling us wait uh hold on that's probably my thing it's always the beauty and the beast that's the number one woman fantasy beauty and the beast change that beast into some sort of

beauty or whatever that's right and land him so how do you feel the romance genre has evolved i mean clearly it's evolved from the 50s but oh my goodness yeah you know i i grew up on like danielle steel you know my own grandmother was passing like danielle steeles and nora roberts on to me and that's what i you know a lot of what i grew up reading um and then you know back when i was in college which was like which was like the early 2000s, what was big was chick lit. And you would it was like Bridget Jones's diary. And you know, Confessions of the Shopaholic. I don't know if you remember that series. There's a lot of these, what they call chick lit. And then it kind of, I would say, evolved into what we what we would know as a contemporary romance today. And contemporary romance is really just a huge genre. And it's so popular. And it's gotten even more popular in the last few years.

And, you know, it's the best selling genre in all of publishing, you know, women cannot get enough. I mean, men as well, but but mostly women. And it's a really fun genre to write in. I mean, you can, it's just there's, there's so much interesting topics. It's not, it's not fluff. Women are writing about all kinds of things, you know, different issues, health issues where they're, you know, incorporating that into, into stories. And so I think if you are, you know, have particular things that you're looking for in romance, you can find it. You can find it. There you go. There's even one on here, 88, learn to sew and wear something you made yourself. I love it. So you can't get off of these tips either. And's even one on here, 88. Learn to sew and wear something you made yourself. I love it. So you can't get off of these tips either. And this is the thing. I was constantly referring back to these tips. And then when I was doing research, I was like, I'm going to find all

the tips that I can. And there's a ton of lists like this out there. Especially if you're a woman, you know, you grew up reading these Cosmo magazine magazine, you know, how to entice women. Yeah. And so I pulled like all these interesting lists into my research. And there was one in particular, I put it up on my website. It's called things to do with your hands that men like.

Okay. One of them was frolic in his chest hair. Like there are so many silly ones on on this particular list that i i had to incorporate a bunch of those as well you know some of these things are just like how did this ever make it to print along with the recipes like how to mix meat and jello right and you're like yeah what the hell man so there you go well it sounds like it's much safer than eating some of those recipes that you find in the magazine to do the thing.

But evidently romance is still alive and people are still buying books and killing it. Anything coming up in your future as some authors are... Yeah. I'm working on my third book now. There you go.

I'm a bit of a slow writer, so it's a slow process for me, but it's going to be a beachy, summery romance. Ah. And I'm really looking forward to that one. It's a little bit different. It's a second chance romance, you know, so a couple who had been together in the past broke up and are forced back together, and we'll see what happens. There you go. So I'm having fun with that. And, yeah, that's really it for now.

The beach books. The beach reads? Yes, beach reads. Yes. Yeah. Women love those things. They love it. And yeah, that's really it for now. The beach books. The beach reads? Yes, beach reads. Yes. Women love those things. They love it. You know, I love it too. I love it too.

Everyone wants a great beach read for a vacation. And that's what I'm going to be writing this time. There you go. Plus, you know, you got to have something to read while you're watching the pool boy. So there you go. Give us your final pitch out to readers on picking up your book. Final pitch is you will laugh your butt off and you will have a smile on your face the whole time you read this book. I think it's so much fun. It's got a really, really great and intense and emotional romance as well as just being completely hilarious. And I think that every woman is going to be able to see herself in this book. If you are my age, I'm 40. If you're, you know, dating in the dating scene, if you're, you know, a grandmother who's 90, you will have something that you will love about this book. If you are my age, I'm 40. If you're dating in the dating scene, if you're a grandmother who's 90, you will have something that you will love about this book. I just hope

you pick it up and have a good time with it. There you go. Well, it's been fun to have you on the show. Give us your dot coms too, so people can find you. All right. So you can find me on devindanielsauthor.com. That's my website and all of my books are available for sale on there. Or you can find me on Instagram at Devin Daniels author. That's the best way to get in contact with me. There you go. Thank you, Devin, for coming on the show. We really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for having me. I had so much fun. There you go. Thanks to my audience for tuning in. Go to wherever you can find the best books on the internet. Ordered up the ROM Con, available November 7th, 2023. Thanks to Devin for coming on the show with us. Thanks to our audience for tuning in.

Go to goodreads.com, Fortress Chris Voss, LinkedIn.com, Fortress Chris Voss, YouTube.com, Fortress Chris Voss, Chris Voss, Facebook.com, and Chris Voss1 on the Tickety Target. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe, and we'll see you guys next time.