Super Bloom Author Megan Tady on the Eight-Year Journey to Overnight Success
Show Snapshot:
Debut novelist Megan Tady schools us on love, loss, hard conversations, and the wild, wonderful phenomena of Super Blooms – wildflowers with seeds that lie dormant for years only to blossom unexpectedly when conditions are exactly right. We dive into her rom-com novel, “Super Bloom,” and cover late blooming, the highs and lows of female friendship, the long and winding road to “overnight” success, plus midlife resiliency. You know, all the good stuff!
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Megan’s Book: Super Bloom
Quotable:
I think we are really hit over the head with overnight success stories...it took a long time for me to realize that most authors have a novel or two in a drawer, and that the biggest thing that would help me on my journey was resilience and not giving up.
Transcript:
Katie Fogarty 0:03
Welcome to a certain age a show for women who are unafraid to age out loud. beauties. There are so many wonderful fabulous things about being a podcaster. Sometimes you get invited to events or product launches or book parties. And when you hear a smart fabulous bloomin say an author sharing funny stories and wise words about life love late blooming and midlife reinvention. You can walk up to them during the cocktail hour and say, I have a podcast and I'd love to invite you to be a guest. And if you're lucky, they say yes. I feel lucky today to have had a yes from today's guest writer Meghan Katie, author of the fresh, funny delightful romance novel superbloom. Megan joins me to talk about her debut novel, love loss and the arc and evolution of a career that began in journalism. If you love storytelling, and storyteller, stick around the show is for you. welcome Megan.
Speaker 1 0:55
Oh, thank you so much, Katie. I am so glad we met at that author event. I know approached me I'm so happy to be here.
Katie Fogarty 1:02
I'm not even kidding. It's like literally one of the best things about having a podcast because when you I come across amazing women all the time. And it's just a great way to reach out and say, I'd love to connect and learn more. But so thank you for being a yes, I'm excited. And I want to ask you one of the main you actually many the main characters in your book are writers, but one of them is a demanding and very sort of imperious, best selling romance writer by the name of Carmen bronze. And at one point in the book, Carmen shares how much she hates doing press right after writing 34 bucks, people always ask the same question, which was what was your inspiration for this novel? And I don't want to piss Carmen off. But I'm starting with the same question. What was the spark of the idea for superbloom?
Speaker 1 1:45
That is so funny that you brought that up? I love it. And thanks for asking that I don't tire of that question at all. I'm
Katie Fogarty 1:52
like Carmen.
Speaker 1 1:55
So I think it was around eight years ago, that my husband took me on a surprise trip to Vermont to a spa for my birthday in February. I live in Western Massachusetts, and we zipped up there and I was getting a massage from a very grumpy body worker. And I, you know, I just she was maybe having a bad day, and my face was in the face cradle of the massage table. And she's sort of working on me the whole time. I'm wondering, what is her story, you know, what's going on with her? I have a journalism background, like you said, and I have interviewed so many people over the years, and my inclination is to find out what someone's story is. So all these questions were rattling through my head, you know, what, Am I her last client of the day? What was it like to work at that spot? Is she broken hearted? And of course, all those questions are very inappropriate for, you know, for her to like, turn me over and start working on my feet. And me, telling me I agree. So I walked out of there, not necessarily with a great massage, but with this novel idea, flooding through my head, casting her as a broken hearted downtrodden body worker who's you know, about to lose her job and ends up having to try to fight for it. And also rediscover a hidden love of writing. And of course, in this scenario, I am Carmen bronze, Carmen ends up being Joe, my character Jones, calm client, and she has to get a glowing review from her in order to keep her job. And Carmen wants all the dirt about the spa, because she wants to set her best seller there. So in this very, like nascent moment, I'm Carmen wondering about all these things and left there thinking I want to interview, you know, massage therapist, I want to find out what this job is really like. And that's what I ended up doing. And, you know, not I didn't end up talking with her. But I talked with lots of other people to begin to understand a really interesting, very unique industry.
Katie Fogarty 4:14
And how did you source all of these massage, you know, therapists and bodyworkers to be your kind of, you know, resource material. Where do you find them? Did you get a lot of massages? Madigan is
Speaker 1 4:27
I know people are like, did you go to so many spas and I wish I did. I did it. I first of all, just approached a friend, someone I knew. And at this point, I was just dipping a toe into fiction. And I had a lot of self doubt about whether I could write a novel whether I had it in me. And I always assumed my first book would be nonfiction. And I have my whole world has been steeped in writing and words even from a young age. So But fiction still eluded me. And I felt like that belonged to someone else. And as I began to sort of craft this idea, I approached a friend. And it felt quite scary because it was sort of saying it out loud. I'm writing a novel. And those words felt absurd. You know, like, it felt like, first of all, everyone's writing a novel, but no one's really writing a novel. And I felt sort of silly. And I had to be really vulnerable and say to this person, can I interview you? I'm at the very early stages of this book. And she said, Yes. And we had a great chat, I still have the notes from that first interview. And I was just really looking for what do we not know about this really unique, you know, quite intimate profession, you're in a tiny room with someone for 60 minutes or 90 minutes, you often don't know who you're going to get. It's very physically taxing. What we often are just concerned about the experience for ourselves, but what's it like to be the massage therapist? And what are the funny stories? What are the heartwarming stories, and a lot began to bubble up from that. And then I just, I wanted to interview people who worked in a variety of settings, whether luxury spas, whether for yourself, or some of these, these large franchises across the country, and people who felt disillusioned by that work and people who really loved it and felt fulfilled by it.
Katie Fogarty 6:34
And I think you capture that so well, because the book is sort of peppered with experiences of the character share, for example, who really is committed and, you know, invested in the profession, and then that people who use some of the blog posts that you share some of the, you know, the research material surfaces up, you know, kind of harrowing, you know, encounters that some of these massage body workers go through with, you know, very unfortunate clients. And I mean, Carmen bronze almost winds up being like one of the nicer ones, even though she's demanding taskmaster, Master, Megan, I love that it's really true. It's so funny. I love also that you share that you felt silly at one point, sharing your vision for you know, novel writing with people in your life, because I can totally relate to that, you know, I remember when I launched this podcast, I felt like kind of sheepish about, like, Hey, I'm a podcaster. Now. And it's like, really? Like, how do you get to get out, you're giving yourself permission to do something, and it can feel uncomfortable to tell people that you're switching into new lanes. And one of the reasons why I kind of stalked you at the Zb Owens book party for you, you know, with my class of roseanne Han, is that you shared when you're on your panel, led to check you eight years to get superbloom from an idea, you know, from an idea after a bad massage into a newly mentioned book. And I absolutely love this because we have like a semi official motto over here, which is just bloom, whatever the hell you feel like it. And I think there's a lot of people that think like you need to bloom at certain times, or that, you know, there's like a timeline or timeframe, we have a lot of people that come on the show that describe themselves as late bloomers, do you feel like a late bloomer? Or do you feel like you are right on time?
Speaker 1 8:24
That's a great question. And, and also, I relate to you saying, like, you're telling your family, I'm a podcaster. Now, I think the people have asked, you know, is it hard to do events and press around your book when you've been quietly writing a novel for years? And I think the hardest, the hardest events are once actually with friends and family who know me well, because I'm asking them to cast me in a in a different role. Now I'm public speaking, I'm talking about being an author. And it feels more difficult to do that with people I know and love and who love me, because I'm asking them to suspend what they used to know and see me differently. So it's just kind of interesting sidenote, in terms of like blooming at different ages. So I'm 43 now and I started the book in my mid 30s. And I think we are really hit over the head with overnight success stories, and that if we don't get picked up right away, whatever it is that we're sort of working on, that it means that we're talentless, you know, and I was seeing, like, 18 year old you know, who's now on Oprah, and Oprah book pick, you know, I'm like, Oh, God, I'm not 18 I'll never be and it took a long time for me to realize that most authors have a novel or two in a drawer, and that the biggest thing that would help me on my journey was resilience and not giving up. So, of course, I, I wish I had sort of, quote unquote bloomed earlier in some ways, like I queried my book a year after writing it and heard, you know, nothing against right ages. But also I really perfected my my writing over the course of that eight years. The the books wasn't even a thing back then. So I'm, I'm so glad it took me as long as it did. And my title of the book is super bloom, which basically, is the idea or this sort of phenomenon in nature that wildflower seeds lie dormant and deserts for years waiting for the right conditions to bloom, and that they have these seeds of potential basically coiled inside of them. And when I learned about that, I think it was 2019. I was halfway into my, my years working on this book, and I heard an NPR story about Super blooms. And I, what are what the heck are those, and I looked them up and saw the pictures. And I knew instantly that that was the metaphor for my character, who would be the title for my book. And it was also what was happening for me that I had had this sort of seed of potential for writing, I'm waiting for these right conditions. And I'm so glad I sort of feel so thankful to earlier iterations of myself that I didn't give up when it felt really hard when I was facing a lot of rejection when I didn't know what to do. So So, yes, I love that late bloomer. But yeah,
Katie Fogarty 11:45
it's also that whole concept of the super Bloom is new to me, I learned about it in your book, I adore this notion of sort of dormancy and waiting for the right conditions. That's something that we talked about a lot in the show. Meghan, we're heading into a quick break. When we come back, we're going to pick this up. We're back from the break, we went into it talking about this notion of super blooms, how we can lie dormant as sort of seeds of potential waiting for conditions to occur that allow us to sort of bloom into our full selves. And this is a great segue into something I want to ask you about in your book, because at one point in the book, Carmen who's one is sort of the two main protagonists and she's kind of an anti heroine. But she says something in the book that begins to, I think, endear her to readers because at least it started to endear her to me. She says about the women in her own romance books, quote, my heroine, she doesn't shy away from her wants her needs her most base desire, she grabs them, snatches them as if it's a case of life or death. And then she goes on to say, we can't get enough of it, because we rarely see it in our own lives. Many women walking around experiencing a slow spiritual death, that women in my books reckon with that they face those dark thoughts of loneliness, despair of life with that passion, and they make a different decision. The women in my novels do the most revolutionary act, they are their true selves. Why do you think it is so hard for women to be their true selves?
Speaker 1 13:12
Oh, first of all, it's so it's such a delight to hear my words read back to me. It's just so fun. So thank you. And thank you for choosing that passage. I really love that. I'll answer this in two ways. First of all, when I was creating Carmen and creating her as a romance character, a romance writer, at first, you know, this is a comedic novel in a lot of ways. And at first, I was choosing romance novelist, sort of as a lark, thinking this would be so funny. And it had been years since I had read romance myself. And so I was like, you know, I should probably read some some romance novels, I should listen to Romance Writers. And I should just really kind of dive deep. And I'm so glad I did. This genre is much more feminist than it has been in years. It's doing really innovative things. It's incredibly hard to write, as Carmen says, at one point. And I had to re kind of fashion the way I was approaching her. So that even in moments where I'm kind of poking fun at romance, novel names and things like that, that I was also showing a lot of respect for what she does, and the craft and the genre. And that women are turning to these books, I think because they don't often get a chance to be their true selves. And in real life, we have so many sort of pressures put upon us whether it's motherhood and balancing, as you know, the career and working in kind of, I think when I became a mom, I had this this idea that you know, you can you can have it all you know, we're kind of told Hold that. And when I found myself struggling to have it all, and to hold it all at one time, I began to feel like I was the failure. And then I began to realize, oh, it's the message. That's the failure, there's no way I can, there's so many hours only so many hours in one day, there's no way I can do every single thing, I can't fulfill myself creatively, I can't do my career, I can't fold the laundry, again, exercise to spend time with my dog, and do well by my husband and children all in one day. And so I think we just have so many pressures. And out of that, we're also trying to figure out who is our true self, when we're facing these messages of perfection? And sometimes the true self, isn't that that perfect model, right? Like it's
Katie Fogarty 15:58
get perfectionism? Exactly, there's right, we're measuring ourselves against an absolutely impossible measuring stick, where people are doing everything right. So I love this idea of messages to failure. I would also like add to that, and say, it's the systems that are the failure as well. I mean, we, you know, we are we are placed in, you know, work and community systems that aren't always supportive of women, we, you know, look, we don't have paid childcare, and, you know, leave child leave in this country. I'm like, my brain is not working right now. But you know, what I mean, like, we are expected to do everything in a place that's not supporting that and in many key and fundamental ways, so it's, it does make a tricky, do you feel that? As you've aged, though, it's easier to be your true self. I mean, you it allowed you particularly stepped into a new role and allowed yourself to feel silly or do as you said, you sort of cast yourself in a new role in your, in your your life, that it was sort of hard to maybe do that in front of your family, but to get into midlife, and anyway make it easier to assume these sort of this new identity or to feel true to yourself?
Speaker 1 17:11
I think it has, and I think I've started to be really careful around language that I use with my writing. And what I mean by that is, and maybe you can relate to this, but I think women a lot of times, even when we're communicating with each other will say we use the word sneaking, sneaking out or sneaking, can you sneak this in, can you sneak to this event with me and I often use that wording around my writing, like I'm gonna sneak in a little bit of writing. And I think that saying devalues what the writing is, devalues your social life, if that's how you're using it makes it almost seem like it's not allowed, like there's something kind of criminal even about it, I'm gonna sneak away from my family. Otherwise, I'm not allowed to do it unless I can kind of, you know, get out in the cover of darkness or get this writing done behind there behind their backs behind a closed door very quickly. And it wasn't like I had a very conscious conversation with my husband, who's really supportive, and my kids are also really supportive. But I began to notice that the writing was happening on the edges and fringes of my life. And that's also why it took me so long. And I began to say very clearly to my family. You know, I'm going to this is a Sunday and I'm going to my studio and I'm writing from one to three and I'm taking and I'm very open about it, you know, and I would say to my kids mom's writing, or Oh, you guys hold on, I have an idea about a chapter, I need to go upstairs and I'm going to do some writing. And that sort of just opened it up for me, for my family. It put a new value on it. And it put a value on being in my imagination, right because some of this work is unseen. The work of writing isn't just sitting at my computer, moving my fingers over my keyboard, a lot of it is thinking and it seems like what's mom doing? Why is she standing at that window. It just it's sort of this unseen sort of work but we have to value it and we I wanted to talk about it really openly and begin to pivot my family to making it very central to our lives. And we've done that now and and I think that also has come with age and me feeling more confident to say this is who I am. This is what I want to do and going back to like my true self. This is my true self. It's what I love and my days are better. I'm a better mom a better or partner, a better person standing at the bank way more patients when I've touched the page in some way. And our whole family is now sort of rallying around that which felt really crucial. So no more sneaking around, like don't use that language.
Katie Fogarty 20:16
This is it's this is so intriguing. I have a good friend who does a lot of, you know, high level coaching at organizations. And one of the fundamental tenets to shifting behaviors and driving, you know, outcomes is as declaring a vision and they use that word deliberately. I've heard her talk about this, you have to declare what it is you want to do. You'll claim it publicly in order to breathe it into existence, right? It can't happen, just like as you said, on the fringes. And so I love hearing you talk about how you how do you how to articulate the value of the work that you're doing in a way that was understandable to both yourself and to the people in your life that are going to be necessary to help you support that. And I think that's such a powerful sort of offering to our listeners, because everyone who's listening to this has a has a long simmering desire that they would like to do. And that this, this notion of declaring something I feel is so powerful. Tell me a little bit about your your children, are they excited to see your book out in the world, they've been able to enjoy your book events. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Speaker 1 21:29
Yeah, they they love it. So they're four and seven. So they're still quite young. And that, you know, I've been writing this book the entire time, my daughter and son have been both, you know, alive. And they have seen, the thing that that really makes me proud about this is they've seen me work so hard at something. They've seen the grind, and they've seen me cry over it. They've seen me, you know, get rejected. They, they used to march around the house saying if you don't like mom's book, we're gonna kick you. They were just they were, you know, because they, they watched all these ups and downs. And while they couldn't totally grasp all of it, they saw that I was working really hard. And then, of course, when I got the book deal, they were like, where's the book? Like, it's coming, it takes a while. And they, when I did my unboxing of my books, I mean, they were just so thrilled to hold it and see it and see the tangible illness. And it just, oh, gosh, I mean, my daughter, just last weekend, we were at a restaurant and my daughter was like, Mom, are you gonna tell them? Who you
Katie Fogarty 22:40
who you are? Oh, my God, I love it. No, honey, no, no.
Unknown Speaker 22:46
So she's
Katie Fogarty 22:47
there. She's like, my mom's Beyonce. Yeah, they're
Unknown Speaker 22:51
like, I don't think they know.
Katie Fogarty 22:53
I know. But she's, you know, I know, they know, your, you know, they know how hard you work and you're a superstar to them. And it's so exciting that they get to see that kind of energy. I know sometimes that you would you or your kids are so much younger, I didn't realize that mine minor 2320 and 16. And I, when you were talking about the early days of new motherhood, I mean, I still feel I remember that stuff very presently, like how overwhelming it is to be sort of tossed into the ocean of do motherhood and to kind of keep up with it. And, you know, but we use, I remember, it's sort of feeling like inadequate in so many ways, because we're again, we're measuring ourselves against a very false yardstick, about what it looks means to be a good mother, but I feel like I've sort of evolved and I've gotten so much more confident in it. But I a big part of it is recognizing that you need to model things for your children that you're doing that you know that they see work that they see passion that they see, you know, upset feelings, and that they see like results and, and it's so good. And sometimes when we're brand new moms, we don't allow ourselves to do those to do those things. So I love that.
Speaker 1 24:05
Yeah, one of the things I found the most startling and new motherhood that I think no one can prepare you for is the amount of mental space being a mom takes up that you have to sort of shift everything else to the side for and I'm talking about holding things in your mind like camp forms and shoe sizes that oh for Fall they're gonna need this you know, and like oh, right buying
Katie Fogarty 24:37
on buying the snow boots before they sell out because you gotta you gotta buy them way before the snow ever shows up. Right?
Speaker 1 24:43
And the vigilance on that level beyond taking just like physical care of them the vigilance of like every aspect that really no matter I mean, I have a very supportive wonderful partner but there are some things that just really seemed to fall on the mom that I just wasn't prepared for the mental space that was going to take up that I'd have to shove, so much to the side to really hold on to that. And, you know, then things fall, you know, fall through and you're like, Oh, you feel terrible. I forgot the bug spray, you know, just, and the you just kind of put yourself through the wringer about those things. And it's hard to keep your passions and creativity going. When you're when you're, you know, working on that level, it's really tough.
Katie Fogarty 25:33
Yeah, absolutely. And you, you eventually you get space, you know, I'm in the phase of life where I'm getting a lot of space, my children have fewer needs and are more self sufficient. And, you know, I enjoy them in new ways. And it's, there's less, you know, it's less of a, it's more of a consultant role than it is like a direct manager, which is so much better. But, you know, I'm in the phase now where I have an aging parent that has a lot of health, recent health issues, and that's challenging the new way. And so I, you know, I've had several weeks where again, it's all consuming. So it's interesting, it's that whole sort of sandwich generation I, you know, we, we, it's just part of life going through, there's no cure for being human, we have to manage all these different these different things. So, speaking of no cure for being human, you know, your book touches on a lot of different themes. It's, you know, it's on its surface. It's a love story. It's also about loss and grief. It's about finding oneself rediscovering passions is Joan kind of rat resurrects her love for writing, it's about friendship. One of the things I wanted to ask you about is is one of the friendship moments that happens in the book. And this really spoke to me is when Cher who's one of the characters in Joan are struggling, right, their friendships faltering at one point in the book, and they are able to sort of breathe new life into it through a really honest conversation about hurt feelings. And I love this particular moment in the book, and it really spoke to me, I think, because of what I do on the podcast, I feel like having honest conversations is so transformative. And it can be so hard to do you know, was this something that you put in place deliberately? Tell me a little bit about what you think the role of honest conversations is in this particular book, and maybe in your own life.
Speaker 1 27:25
So glad you like that chapter. It's actually one of my favorite chapters of the book, and I wanted to explore you, they've been friends for years for years. And basically, you know, for people who don't know about what the book is about, Joan is grieving the loss of her her boyfriend, Samuel, it's been two years now. And they were only together for six months, but it was sort of an epic six months, and her best friend share is sort of like, you got to move on, you know, she's worried about her. And her way of sort of showing this worry is to be like you didn't know each other for that long. You're spinning your wheels, I need you to move on. And Joan is so heartbroken by that approach. And I wanted to show first of all that Cher is well meaning you know, she she is worried about her friend, but she's not necessarily able to express it in the right way. And everyone has a different response to a loved one grieving especially when they've been grieving for a long time. And also, I've definitely had friendships where suddenly you're texting passive aggressive emojis to each other. But you can't remember why. You know, it's like, it's been months and your your text messages are getting more and more sort of Curt and weird and passive aggressive and like happy face winky face. And suddenly you look up and you're sort of like, well, what is the problem? I think it's very rare that we have these honest conversations with our friends, we often do these, you know, these conversations with our partners, but to have a sort of resetting and a reshuffling with a friend I think is kind of rare, but very needed. So I wanted to sort of show that happening, and have Sharon and Joan kind of come back together. And at first kind of sparring over the surface of what feels like is going on. But when they dig a little deeper, they find there's a lot of her underneath that's gone on for quite some time and misunderstanding and it allows them to sort of come together and reset their friendship and kind of put it on a new track. And I've had opportunities to do that with friends and it feels so scary. It feels so vulnerable. Morrible trouble than with you know what with like a partner because it's, we just don't see it as often we don't do it as much and it feels kind of strange.
Katie Fogarty 30:08
Yeah, absolutely. I've done the same thing myself, which is probably why I was intrigued by this. And I, you know, my I have such wonderful friends in my life I've I I've had, you know, friends that I met when I was in fifth grade when I was 10, to, you know, friends that I met 10 years ago that are so close, close to me and I, I just this this chapter just really spoke to me because of that, and I am excited. I'm going to be having a wonderful guest on the show in a couple of months. Laura Tremaine who wrote the book, she's written several books, but she'll come on to talk about her book Life Council, which is all about female friendship. So I'm really excited to explore that with her and I was just I was curious about this. And but the notion to have this honest conversation is a reset, I think is something that I personally I've gotten better at in midlife, you know, having those harder conversations and, and just being more honest, so it was fun to see it. play out in this chapter. And I was just curious about what role, you know, if any, you have, you know, it's played in your own life?
Speaker 1 31:08
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely I've had friendships where, gosh, you know, you're kind of asking a close friend to do the work with you to take your friendship to a new level. And that is, again, kind of scary, because what if that friend doesn't want to, or doesn't see a problem, doesn't want to go that deep with you, or, you know, doesn't view you as that type of friend. So it's really, it's a kind of scary thing to ask another person to do. And I've definitely done that with friends or had moments where you come together as friends, and you say, this isn't quite working, you know, maybe we're better off as friends on the periphery, you know, we're not as close as we once were. And that's okay. And again, very, very vulnerable, takes a lot of bravery. But I think clearing the air is just, it feels so good afterwards, right? Like it just, it just like kind of cleanses you. So I'll be interested to hear that podcast as well. Because I, I have had a lot of, you know, varied experiences in this realm.
Katie Fogarty 32:24
I'm excited for it. I'm really looking forward to it. So this book is just full of wonderful themes. It was really such a joy to read, it does have a vein of comedy that runs through that. She said it was meant to be a comedic novel. And it is it's romance. It's, you know, checks a lot of boxes. I so enjoyed it. We're going to be heading into our speed round in just a few minutes. But before we go, I just wanted to ask a quick question about like process because I know people are always curious, myself included, you know, what, you know, it took you eight years to write this book. It happened a little bit on the fringes, but what maybe walk us through when it how did it solidify? Like, did you do it all by yourself? Were you in a writing group? How did you get your you know, your agent and your publisher, and maybe give us a little quick snapshot of how that worked.
Speaker 1 33:07
I think it was 2019 that I really doubled down on the novel. And I said, Okay, I'm I'm getting close, but it's not quite there. And I had a lot of agent rejections, but some a lot of great baits. And so I took another writing class, I joined a writing group that was instrumental to getting my book in tip top shape. I got a rejection from my now agent who sent me the most amazing rejection letter and with some feedback in it. And I, of course, I cried. And then the next day, I took it to my writing group. And I spent the next 10 months tweaking the book again. And it went back to that agent the following fall. And I said, Would you read this again? And she said, I'm so happy to see you. Yes, send it to me. I sent it to her. And in the meantime, I saw Zippy books was starting their imprint. And I was really excited about it. I've been watching Zippy Oh, once and her podcast for a long time. And so this was about four months after my agent looked at my manuscript again, and was considering it. And so I had a connection to Zippy books and introduction, which is always helpful in publishing. And six weeks after that. The bee acquired my novel and I got my agent the next day, and the whole thing came together in one week after seven years of working on it. So it was a very exciting week.
Katie Fogarty 34:39
It's such a fabulous story. And it's just such a testament to the this notion of resilience, which you touched on, you know, that and grit and tenacity and, you know, evolving and iterating answer that try try again and it produced superbloom such an enjoyable, beautiful book. I encourage everyone who's listening to check it out. added to your beach bag this summer. I really thoroughly enjoyed it. So we're heading into our speed round magazine and we always close the show with us. It's just a quick one to two word answer so we can end on a high energy note. Are you ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. Okay, writing superbloom was
Unknown Speaker 35:18
oh, endlessly fond.
Katie Fogarty 35:22
The first time you saw superbloom on a bookstore shelf or on a Amazon page, how did it feel? I was elated. Nice. lated. Yep. A legend is a good word. And a good feeling. Writing is a solitary sport. What gives you a sense of community as a writer?
Unknown Speaker 35:40
texting my writing group in the midst of it.
Katie Fogarty 35:43
Nice, long hand or computer or computer. Your characters write in longhand notebooks though? So I was curious, do they do what what's harder writing or editing? Writing the character in the book you most identify with? Joan? What book or books is on the top of your to be read pile this summer?
Speaker 1 36:04
I'm looking at one right now the marriage portrait. Nice. Okay,
Katie Fogarty 36:09
who is an author that does rom coms, right.
Unknown Speaker 36:12
Emily Henry,
Katie Fogarty 36:14
who is an author that captures midlife women well.
Unknown Speaker 36:18
Oh gosh. I blanking I don't know.
Katie Fogarty 36:24
If it's admittedly brain fog. Sometimes it's hard
Speaker 1 36:28
anxiety or I'm gonna like think of 12 as soon as we get
Katie Fogarty 36:32
off you can you can then you can text me I'll put them into the shownotes Okay, finally, your one word answer to complete the sentence as I age I feel wiser. Nice. Thank you Megan. This was so much fun before we say goodbye. How can our listeners find you your writing and superbloom
Speaker 1 36:48
Thank you for having me on. You can find me at Meghan tt.com I'm on Instagram at Meg Katie and my books are everywhere. books are sold.
Katie Fogarty 36:59
Phenomenal. This wraps a certain age a show for women who are aging without apology. Want more of a certain age sign up for our newsletter age boldly over on our website a certain age pod.com or follow us on Instagram at a certain age pod. We share bonus content giveaways links and mid life resources come hang out. Special thanks to Michael Mann CME who composed and produced our theme music See you next time and until then, age boldly beauties.