The Edge Breakfast - FULL CHAT EXCLUSIVE Ash London - Love On Air

Episode Date: April 2, 2025

This is a podcast from Rover. Clint, Meg and Dan. Welcome, first of all. Thank you so much, Dan. Now, we're having you in, after our radio show, we've just recorded a podcast, which we do on a Friday, where we do a segment called Guess the Fart. Oh, nice.

Me and Dan make a noise and then Clint farts. It's very self-explanatory. You can just fart on cue. That's why we've done it for months. It's amazing. It's amazing. Thank you. It's amazing. My son, you would be his new hero if he knew that. That's why we've done it for months. That's amazing. It's amazing. Thank you. It's amazing.

My son, you would be his new hero if he knew that. It's very funny. We were walking out of kindy the other day, and Buddy goes to his favourite, he says, say goodbye to everyone, and then his favourite teacher, bye Mackenzie, bye Buddy. Hey, Mackenzie, check this out. Lifts a leg and farts at her.

That's Clint's kind of guy. Like, so he would probably love that where did he learn where did that I'm so sorry yeah you do do that

to me though so yeah and so in the context of this interview we've literally just recorded

that podcast and then seconds later Clint had dropped the biggest one he's ever done before and then you

walk in oh I didn't smell it good I could smell perfume in the air did you spray something to mask it I didn't smell it. Good, good. I could smell perfume in the air. Did you spray something to mask it? I might have tried to counteract that.

Yeah, I smelled that. So the masking agent is what came into my nostril. So well done. Thank you for that. I'm so excited to read this book. Maybe more excited than most because I feel I have a vested interest in the fact that you have written a book about your love life and it has a little bit of smart and stuff in it, except we know your partner because he is our boss.

Yeah, I'm so sorry. Yeah, so it's not real. It's a fictional book, but there's definitely bits. Elements. Elements. And we have to guess which ones are true and which ones are false. Pretty much. There was a hardcore sex scene in it.

Shut up, Annie! There was, yeah, but I cut it out because of that. Because I thought no matter how much I say this is a fictionalised version, people are going to imagine AB and I having sex. So I got rid of it and then maybe the next book there'll be some hardcore sex. And so AB, your partner, is our boss essentially, isn't he? And he's an amazing boss. He is the best.

He's a cool man. He's such a great man. But there's something about knowing that he has been written in a smutty way in a book. Oh, Mr. Smooth Guy. Let me say, if it was me and AB's real love story, this is what's real. I worked in radio and I fell in love with my boss. But our love story would be a one-page, A4, one-sided. They met.

They knew they were going to get married that night. They got married. Very boring. So I've turned it into something quite fictionalised. And AB's not as smooth as Leo Billings. Oh, is he not? Because I've read the book and I said to the boys, because they now have their copies to read, and I was like, he's pretty smooth. Did I not say

that this morning? She goes, wow, yeah, he's really smooth. And I was like, oh, okay, I can see that. I mean, we see a different side of him than obviously you do. Yeah, he had great banter. I fell in love with the banter. There's good banter between Alex and Leo, but I think in real life, AB was pretty stoked that I knew he existed. Like, I'm cool.

Would you say that to his face or no? Absolutely. He knows. Come on. He's met me. Like, he knows. That's good because he's in the producer booth listening to this. Don't put me on.

I can't hear anything. How did he take it when he found out that he was essentially the main character in a smut book? Well, how would you take it? Knowing that tens of thousands of people are going to read about you being a total, like, you know. Hundreds of thousands. This is going to be a top, top seller. Thank you so much, man.

I think if I was portrayed well, I'd be stoked. Well, he's portrayed very well. Good. Very well, I thought. I come off looking like a Hollywood, like, star. I'm definitely not that suave in real life. So while we have you then, AB, Ash's husband, if this

book got made into a movie, who plays you? Good question. Who's the guy that was in Entourage? There's many guys in Entourage. No, the lead one. The lead guy. Adrian Grenier. Are you saying that because he's just got the same name? Yeah.

I like that though. Like a beardy. Adrian Grenier. Yeah. Are you saying that because he's just got the same name as you? Yeah. Someone original. Oh, I like that, though. Like a beady. I get it. I get it as Leo, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. So, look, it's a bit of him. And then, of course, in Love on the Air, there's all the celebrities and the radio and the

musicians and all that kind of fun stuff. Okay. A couple more questions for me because, again, I've read the book more than the boys. Okay. So, is the, and I've forgotten her name, but is the big radio female lady, is she based off somebody real? I wish she was real. She's the woman that every woman in radio wishes.

So there's a lady called Goldie and she's like the OG of radio. What a great radio name too. Right? And she, Goldie Miller. She sticks up for a girl. And she sticks up for a girl. Because a lot of this book is about being a woman in the media industry, the specific challenges it comes with.

And like the show Schitt's Creek, which is this kind of utopian version of really what we wish life was like. Yeah. A gay couple in a small town and everyone just loves them. This is kind of a utopian version in many ways of how things should be. You know, women especially are stronger when we stick up for each other. And I've got to say, I'm not saying this to pump up your ties, but when I moved here to Auckland from Australia,

all the women, like Steph and Shaz and you, Meg, have been so wonderful to me and it has felt like this is how the sisterhood should work in the media industry. We bitch behind your back all the time, though. Even to us. Even to us. She's always doing it. I'll leave.

I'll leave. My question is, I always take my hat off and I'm wearing a beanie. I'll leave that. The beanie really works for you, by the way. It's a look that you should continue with. I bless you. And I always just think,

whenever someone writes a book, it is such an incredible thing to do. Because it's, for me, that is such a foreign, I could never dream of it, Ash. Because it's, for me, that is such a far, I could never dream of it, Ash. Because it's, I just don't know how you've got the brain capacity to have this world within your head that you can just put that

onto paper. To me, it is a superpower. It's amazing. When I was making my way through the chapters, I kept having moments, and it's like blowing smoke up your ass, but you have become a friend of mine. And I just, I kept like putting it down on like blowing smoke up your ass, but you have become a friend of mine. After she's been bitching about you. And I just, I keep like putting it down on my lap and can sit in there going, she's still,

like there's so much detail in it. And yeah, you're right, Dan, world creating. How did you know that you could do it? How did you have the guts to start something you've never done before? Especially as radio presenters, when it's like the immediacy of what we do, right? You have an idea, you get it out, an hour later you move on.

Yeah, true. Well, I just had a baby and I wasn't working. And in many ways I was kind of grieving the career that I'd said goodbye to. And I wanted to really like allow myself to remember and reminisce. So I started doing that in this new world I was living in with a baby. It was COVID time, so we were just at home. reminisce. So I started doing that in this new world I was living in with a, you know, a baby. It was COVID time. So we were just at home and it was kind of a love letter to this amazing career, this industry I loved. And once I started writing it, because I couldn't think about the fact that I needed a hundred thousand words down, otherwise I would be so overwhelmed.

It's like a mountain. I count every paragraph. Seriously. So I just started writing and really thinking of it as like my gateway back into this world that I took for granted, that I never knew if I'd go back to radio. So it really started just a love letter to the best job in the world. And then once I had the publishing deal, as a people pleaser, people are expecting me to finish it. Yes. So when you have a check-in every month and they're expecting you

to submit pages and chapters, that really helped. If it was just some never-ending project, I still would be on chapter two. But the fact that it was like, okay, well, they're expecting me to finish this in a year and you think year, that's ages. It went so quickly. Yeah, yeah. So you started writing these. When did you, what was the point that you got to a stage you go, yeah, that's ages. It went so quickly. So you started writing these.

What was the point that you got to a stage where you go, do you know what, did you contact a publisher? Well, my manager, I kind of mentioned it to my manager and she was like, oh, great, radio, so I think she can write a novel. Okay, yeah, no, send me some pages, babe, I'll read them. And she read it and it was probably about 3,000 or 4,000 words, which is not a lot at that time is what I was comfortable sharing with her. And she was like, oh, I think this is actually good.

So we pitched it out and I just chose the editor that I connected with the most and then we went from there. Is it like a one and done for you or is it like a bug now? Oh, it's a bug. Yeah? Really? So there's two. I've already – and Adrian, my husband, who we've talked about,

is my like co-conspirator in this because he's really good with storytelling. It's why he's good at radio. He's just good with story and I hate to admit it, but I couldn't have written a book without him because he's really helpful. So we've got two kind of stories and every day I'm going between the two. Am I going to continue on with the world and choose another character? We've kind of got that idea, but then I have another idea for like maybe a bit of a smuttier, hornier.

We love smutt on the show. So I think we might go the second route. The timing feels perfect. Or maybe the timing has always been perfect. Maybe it's just because Meg's introduced me to Rebecca Yarris with her books with Fourth Wing series. Or do you find that it is right now a genre that people are craving to read more than they ever have?

I think the universe has smiled upon me that I kind of, as the advent of mainstream romance novels started as I was writing this book and now it feels like it's crescendoing. Yeah. And can I say I think the fact that women are reading romance novels, spicy novels is so liberating and so wonderful that we are allowing ourselves to indulge in these fantasies in a way that comes with no judgment. You know, we had Fifty Shades of Grey a couple of years ago

and it was like, ooh, she's ruining it on the train. But now it's like these novels look like they've got cartoons on the front and then you open them up and you're like, oh my gosh, cover your eyes. So it's, I mean, there's romance bookshops opening now. They just carry romance books. I think this is women's way.

We live stressful lives, especially if you're a parent. Just existing in this world is stressful. Yeah. I think the thing that's different now is books like this with Love on the Air and Rebecca Yaros' ones. They're written by women. Yeah. I think the thing that's different now is books like this with Love on the Air and Rebecca Yaros' ones. They're written by women. Yeah.

But they're also like, I think there's always been a form of smut, but it's been kind of trashy and crap. But now there's meat to it. Now there's other storylines that intertwine with the smut. And so you've got these really complex stories that are entertaining, but interwoven is this kind of stuff. And I love that. Yeah, and I think Meg's right.

They're written by women. We actually used to do a segment on here because I read smart books and that were written by men. And my goodness, it would be like her breasts boobily bounced bountifully in their double Ds. And I would die laughing at these excerpts. Double Ds. And I would, like, die laughing at these, like, excerpts. Double Ds clanging together as she walks. They were turning me on.

I was like, they have no idea what the woman's body actually does. And so I would get the boys every week to write some smart. And then since then, not that, it's Rebecca Yarris has come out, and that was my first introduction to proper female smart who knew what to write, and it blew my mind. It's heaven. I'm so happy. And I will say some of the female smites still is pretty like the men are so big

and the ladies are so tiny. And you're like, she's as light as a feather. If you turned to cypress, you wouldn't even see her. He just like picks her up with one hand and puts her over his shoulder. That's the dream, isn't it? But a lot of them now are like the protagonists are in their mid to late 30s, and they're the romance stories I want now. I want people who

have seen some stuff, they've lived through some stuff, they've done some stuff, and now they're ready to, like, you know, get it. Yeah, well, I mean, hats off to you, because Dan and I gave it a go for a few months. Oh, they were not good. Bloody hard. It is hard. They did for a year and a half. I don't think we had one successful

paragraph. The funny thing is I found myself cringing at myself but not being able to not cringe and change the writing. That's just who I am. That's who you are. Embrace it, babe. Is smut offensive as a word or not? No, I think smut's the word and smut's spice. I think it's just bloody awesome.

And I love nothing more than a friend recommending me a book. I'm like, great. And then I read it and I'm like, this is filthy. Isn't it fabulous when you have a friend recommendation and you go, oh, my God, they've read this. Oh, my God, me? What? I'm thinking about right now how I'm going to construct the sentence in my head.

Safe space, babe. I'm being respectful because you are also my boss's wife. How – Just say the words as an author who writes smut then is the way

that your friends in that treat you after reading these types of books is it kind of different or the way that people because now they think oh you must be this

absolute sex goddess who's like horny all the time or whatever to be able to write well that's what I am so

yes totally I get it though you wonder like people read what you've written to be able to write stuff. Well, that's what I am. Well, yeah, correct. Ding, ding, yes. Totally fine. I get it, though. You wonder, like, people read what you've written and then they see you differently. Yeah, they're like, is that the type of stuff that's always in your head and so that they now think they know you and you're like, no, this is just a skill that I have that I can perform when I need to.

I think people are used to it because for so long now they've seen me, you know, we're on the radio and we're ourselves, but we're kind of the radio version of us and it's kind of a caricatured version. So I think most people can kind of separate it. And like I said, I had a hardcore sex scene in this book, which I removed. So my best friend Claudia read it. She's the only person who read it. And she was like, babe, that was hot.

But she agreed that it was unnecessary in the story. So in this is kind of one reference to some, can I say Cunning Lingus on the radio? It's a reference and that's all it is and all I could think of was my 14 year old, 13, 12 year old nephew a niece, sorry, had read it and I was like oh, can we just redact that one line but I promise you

it's romantic but it's not smutty this book. The next one will be but this is like, it doesn't count so I'm uncomfortable with it. And now after this, I'll be ready for people to read the filth that is in my mind. I'm intrigued.

I'm intrigued to read the filth that was deleted from this one. Maybe one day. Maybe there'll be like a director's cut. Yeah. Maybe I'll just print it out in some A4s and just hand it around the office. Your husband must have read it. Yes. Well, he kind of knew.

Like we'd lie in bed every night and I'd be like, oh, I'm struggling with this, I'm struggling with that. But then he finally read it when he was away on a holiday and he loved it, thank God, because if he didn't, that would be rough. Specifically that scene or the whole book? Just the whole thing. He loved it all.

He hasn't read the sex scene that I wrote. Oh, he hasn't? I would feel a bit, I'd feel nervous showing him. And don't turn this into some weird radio thing now where you read the sex scene to him and have it, you know. Oh, Bridget's a girl. Scrap that. Next story.

Yeah, three separate sex scenes. Which one was just your white guy? And then the intrigue then is if you're writing sexy stuff, I mean, like you're saying, maybe you dial up the smart in the next book, do you find that as you're writing sexy stories, it actually starts to invoke something within you? No. It's not the same as reading it. It's not.

Because you're thinking about it in such a technical way. Like you have to be like, okay, he's put his elbow there. You're like an intimacy coordinator. His elbow's now on the bed and she's going to, so how are they going to get into a position where – okay, so I'd have to have him reposition himself. Okay, so I have to write that he's repositioning himself and then she – well, that angle, would she want to be on that angle?

There's a lot of technicality that goes into it so it does not feel sexy at all to do. Is this really true to you, Clint? Because I felt this exact thing when I was writing mine. Yeah, that's why I really struggled. That's what you struggle with. You understand the struggle. I even tried getting nude, Ash, to just train you.

Why do you make everything weird? I know. You can't help it, can you? They don't make it in their roast smut. No one's doing that. Made it worse, if anything. The best one you ever did, Hand on Heart, was two men. It was the gay smut, and that was brilliant.

Yeah, that was interesting. I'd love to read that I thought that was terrible no that was a good one Rumi got really excited about it that's the thing I could do yeah

you got really excited I mean AB must be so proud of you because it's such an amazing thing to do yeah he is he's a good man do you feel now

you're nervous because you've released your baby I want to vomit I've wanted to vomit from the week before it was out through the whole week

it's just three years of work goes into something that now the world can judge and you know what the world is like they'll tell you the internet will tell you something's a piece of crap

it's just a lot of work but I'm really proud that I just got it done that was my only goal it wasn't to like be a bestseller or it was just to finish it because I struggle

with big creative projects and seeing it through but I saw it through while having a newborn, so I'm really bloody proud of it. Just unbelievable. You should be proud. It's so cool. It's such a legacy.

And I think less than 0.1% of the population will ever do it. Radio announcers do books, but mostly just biographies. This is so cool. Yeah. Love on the air, Ash London. And how do you get it? That's the important thing. You can online at Whitcalls, bookshops, it's around.

Do you do that thing where you go into Whitcalls, you find the book and then put it all at the front of all the other books? We'll do that. Well, I can do it in Aotearoa because no one knows me, so they won't be like, why is Ash London putting her? They'll just be like, oh, she must be a fan. I can't do it in Australia because people will be like, loser! But I will do that at every book.

Are we allowed to encourage people listening that if they do see your book and it isn't in a really prevalent position to move it into one where it can be seen? Just find all the Rebecca Yaros, all the Emily Hendricks. Just find it all. Just cover it up. Cover it up. Cover it with Little Mare.

Thanks, guys. Ash, thank you so much. You're the best.