Places We'll Go Book Launch | Margs & Manuscripts LIVE

Episode Summary

What started as an Instagram friendship turned into a podcast, a publishing journey, and now a live book launch celebration.

In this special first-ever live recording of Margs & Manuscripts, Jenna sits down with co-host Cait Waynelovich to celebrate the release of her debut novel, Places We'll Go. Together, they look back on the unexpected path that brought them here—from meeting online and bonding over the chaos of writing, to launching a podcast, building a creative community, and finally holding a published book in their hands.

Cait shares the decade-long journey behind Places We'll Go, including how a difficult season of life inspired the first scene, why the story became a love letter to travel, and how real-life adventures across Barcelona, Morocco, Paris, and Normandy shaped the novel. They also discuss the realities of writing, navigating creative ambition, finding your voice, and learning that art doesn't need to please everyone else to matter.

Plus: Romance-writing confessions, questionable community theater productions of Mamma Mia!, camels, World War II Jeeps, and the kind of off-the-rails conversation you've come to expect from Margs & Manuscripts.

In This Episode

•  The origin story of Margs & Manuscripts 
•  How Cait and Jenna became friends through Instagram 
•  Why writing can be surprisingly lonely 
•  The inspiration behind Places We'll Go
•  Travel, self-discovery, and the "age 27 crisis" 
•  Writing romance and intimacy on the page 
•  Twenty-plus drafts and the reality of revision 
•  What Cait wishes she could tell herself five years ago 
•  Audience Q&A from the live event 
•  What's next after Places We'll Go

About the Book

Places We'll Go follows a travel influencer whose carefully curated life begins to unravel, sending her on a journey across Europe in search of something she didn't realize she'd lost: herself.

Set against the backdrop of Barcelona, Morocco, Paris, and Normandy, this heartfelt debut explores friendship, ambition, identity, love, and the courage to choose your own path—even when it looks nothing like the one you planned.

📖 Places We'll Go is available now wherever books are sold.

Connect with Margs & Manuscripts

🍹 Follow the podcast for honest conversations about writing, publishing, creativity, and all the messy moments in between.

Website: MargsAndManuscripts.com
 Instagram: @margsandmanuscripts

Mentioned in This Episode

• Places We'll Go by Cait Waynelovich 
•  Rick Steves 
•  Elizabeth Gilbert 
• Under the Tuscan Sun
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Mamma Mia! (the community theater edition) 😅 

If you're enjoying the podcast, subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with a fellow reader, writer, or creative dreamer. It helps more than you know.

Transcript

Crystal (00:06)
so without further ado.

Please welcome Cait Waynelovich Come on, Cait

Cait Waynelovich (00:11)
Yeah.

Crystal (00:17)
And then a Jenna G Judith.

Cait Waynelovich (00:35)
Mic, Hot mic wow, thank you so much to everyone who's here. We can't see you right now, but we hear you and ⁓ we feel the support. So

You told me we're coming to this. You're a liar. Thank you for being here. ⁓ this is my amazing co-host, Jenna. She flew in this morning from Wisconsin, so thank you for being here today, Jenna, as well to celebrate the launch of this book. And yeah, let's let's chat. Let's we have a lot to talk about and catch up on. ⁓ cheers. Cheers. First of all. Cheers in our custom ⁓ mugs.

Jenna G Judith (01:14)
Yes.

Because ⁓ every good book launch needs some good swag. A little bit, yeah. After we are wrapped up here, you'll be able to experience some of that swag and some books over at the table over here. Cait will be signing and taking pics.

Cait Waynelovich (01:22)
We got a little bit of swag. Just a little bit.

Signing books only, you guys. Okay. Just keep it to the paper. I know some of you. ⁓ gosh. ⁓ marks and manuscripts. Yes. This is why we're here. Yes. This is the craziest thing. We went live for the first time backstage on TikTok, and I feel like I'm 19 years old again. it was in sh.

Jenna G Judith (01:38)
Yes, let's keep it to the paper.

It was actually Instagram. I'm

like, I don't know the TikTok.

Cait Waynelovich (02:01)
Don't know, we

went live, we said some stuff. There were people watching. It was weird. ⁓ but we went live for the first time. It was like the craziest experience and ⁓ I think marks and manuscripts in general has been the craziest experience so far.

Jenna G Judith (02:18)
Just like if you look back about not even a year, I didn't even know who you were. Yeah, a year ago when I started renovating my office and you started Instagram stalking me. And then, yeah, that was it.

Cait Waynelovich (02:24)
Here go.

Yeah, I was like I'm gonna be best friends with her. Ten thousand followers later. Thousands of streams later. Yes. here we are on a stage talking about my book lots because

Jenna G Judith (02:41)
I don't know how we.

You did the damn thing. You wrote a book.

And you officially made us a publishing house, which is like, we're a business. Legally binding. Absolutely. Sorry, my husband's here. I have another spouse too. anyways. ⁓

Cait Waynelovich (03:01)
We did that.

I'm tied to you now. Yep. Fifty fifty.

Jenna G Judith (03:16)
So the whole point of our podcast was really born out of the necessity to connect with other people going through the hellscape that is writing. ⁓ If you haven't listened to the podcast, now's your chance. ⁓ And we have had 25 episodes, 26?

Cait Waynelovich (03:37)
Twenty s five or twenty six it's yeah.

Jenna G Judith (03:40)
And we've had wonderful guests on, some amazing authors, besties of the pod, Crystal included. And all we do, we don't really teach you anything.

Cait Waynelovich (03:50)
No. There's nothing to learn. No. No. We we drink margaritas and we talk a lot of shit with people who have done really cool shit that we want to do. And and there's books there's a lot of books involved, but I think we started the podcast because if if you don't know like writing is a very solitary experience.

Jenna G Judith (04:01)
There's some books involved.

It's a one-man sport and you don't really know that going into it. You're like, yeah, I'm all jazzed up. Like, I'm gonna write a book. And then you're like, I'm all alone in my emotions and don't know what to do with them. And you have all of these people screaming advice at you saying, you need to do this. You have to have this character arc. You need to have like these like three acts plus then some and maybe an epilogue or whatever. And you're just...

It's a lot of things. So when we connected on Instagram, it was really just, have feelings, you have feelings, let's have feelings together. So we didn't actually officially meet until we went to the Women's Fiction Writers Association's writing conference in New Mexico. And everyone thought we were best friends.

Cait Waynelovich (05:04)
Everyone there was like, I want to be in this click. Like, who are they? Like, are you like we're like, we just met for the first time. And so like 12 hours ago. We I think so we connected over this shared bond of being alone, it a hoodie, crying at a keyboard by yourself. And you're like, is anybody else going through this? Because when I look online at podcasts, they're all here's how you write the hero's journey for women female characters. And you're like, or like female main characters, whatever I'm saying. Yeah. And you're just like.

I don't care. I I know I don't care about the hero's journey. How do I just like talk about the experience of sorry, writing a S E X scene? Mm-hmm. Cause that's weird. Let's cover her ears. That's weird to do by yourself. Mm-hmm. And or like how do I is anybody else just like having a couple glasses of wine and chatting about how this is all just real weird to do?

Jenna G Judith (05:53)
Like it's

a social construct that I'm actually putting these symbols on a page in a little

Cait Waynelovich (05:59)
box. And I'm telling a weird funny story by myself to myself. And maybe one day maybe one day someone will read it. And want them to read it? We kinda want them to. I don't know why. It they're my weird like inner thoughts. So ⁓ now you all have them in your hands and it's gonna be real weird when you get to unpack all that. Yeah. So

Jenna G Judith (06:02)
and I'm laughing at myself.

We want

I don't know.

Especially

that one scene in the chateau.

Cait Waynelovich (06:27)
The one scene in the chateau has to be explained a little bit, but That's true. ⁓ my dad's not here, but he has a redacted version. Yes.

Jenna G Judith (06:37)
And when Cait and I, when we were really unpacking of what's the most awkward part about writing a book, you literally said, specifically about intimacy, you said a lot of people read it and they didn't know if they actually did it. I'm like.

Cait Waynelovich (07:02)
See

you, Angela Amato.

Jenna G Judith (07:05)
And

I'm like, girl, my scenes are like three chapters long.

Cait Waynelovich (07:10)
I was like, I have maybe a paragraph and people were really unsure of what happened there.

Jenna G Judith (07:15)
So we have different styles. So I write romantic and other romance books and not yet published. Thank you for being the guinea pig with all of this jazz. But what I think is the most interesting part about your journey is that this literally started like a decade ago. Mine was like on a day or two years ago, like very different. Like my best friend said.

you can write a better book than some of these other authors. I'm like, girl, just you wait. I did. Like Humblebrick. And it was in like the height of being a new mom, not knowing who I was, but your journey started way before that, way before kids. And it also followed a similar trajectory and that you wanted to find out who you were.

Cait Waynelovich (07:46)
She did.

Yeah, I think our styles of writing are just super different. Like we you're like a plotter. You want to sit down and you wanna make an Excel sheet. A character's backstory for seven generations. You want to make an ancestry.com version of whatever character you just made up in your head. There's like Yeah, that's insane. That's that's a crazy Yeah. And I'm like, I'm really sad today.

Jenna G Judith (08:15)
of love is free.

like family crests.

just cool.

Cait Waynelovich (08:34)
I'm gonna rate I'm gonna rate it out on the page. I just I don't know where it's gonna go. The characters are just gonna take me there. And cool. They did.

But that was how this I mean, that was how this started. It was it was just like a really hard moment and I had no other way to like put it or like experien like I I don't know, some people go talk to their therapist, some people write a song, or some people do whatever, and I was like, I'm just gonna write a scene about a really happy time that had nothing to do with this moment. And then maybe one day he'll read it and he'll get that I'm pissed.

Jenna G Judith (09:12)
That sounds like a passive aggressive problem.

Cait Waynelovich (09:14)
Yeah, it was actually like let me put it out on paper so maybe like it'll solve my problems. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ and I didn't know it was gonna be a book. I had no idea. It was a scene about two h people on their graduation night sitting on the beach talking about their hopes and dreams, and ⁓ then realizing that your hopes and dreams don't come true and you get stuck in your life and you don't know where to go and

Jenna G Judith (09:40)
Are you trying to tell our lovely audience a little bit about your own life?

Cait Waynelovich (09:45)
You know what? I think that there's a time that nobody's talking about, especially for women. And that time is when you're twenty-seven. And you're unmarried. Very so Yeah, it's twenty-seven. I'm I'm saying it right now. That is the new that's like the new quarter life crisis. Is that what we're calling it? That's what they called it, right? Twenty-five. Like it's not like twenty-seven, I'll say twenty-eight, maybe. Everybody's getting married later.

Jenna G Judith (09:58)
Pacific H.

Cait Waynelovich (10:14)
Right? So it like most 27, 28-year-olds don't have kids. Maybe you're not in a serious relationship, but you've been at your job for a while, you're probably pretty good at it by that point. Yeah, exactly. Like they're getting slightly older than the interns, and it's not as exciting anymore. And you're just like, what am I doing? Did I like do all the things that I wanted to do when I was twenty one, graduating college, and I had all these hopes and dreams for myself? And

Jenna G Judith (10:26)
You're getting kind of annoyed with the interns.

Cait Waynelovich (10:44)
Y there's a there's a point at twenty-seven, twenty-eight where you feel really lost. And I think we're gonna see a lot more art coming from that age at this point because like it's people are just getting married and having kids so much later in life that that's becoming the like next quarter life crisis.

Jenna G Judith (11:02)
And it kind of behooves us to talk about the fact that art isn't just writing, it's not just painting or like any other traditional senses, but more of finding a means of expressing yourself while not caring if it is received well from anyone else. Like just doing it for you.

Cait Waynelovich (11:26)
Yeah,

and you're not putting it up on TikTok.

Jenna G Judith (11:29)
You could. Yes, it's true. ⁓ But what I think was really wonderful about reading your book was that moment of discovery, of that aha moment of I don't need to please everyone else. I don't need to make art for that person. I need to make art for me. I need to find me.

Cait Waynelovich (11:31)
I don't

Jenna G Judith (11:55)
I think every author goes through that, especially in a debut novel. This is your first one and you said, what, your second is gonna be far more confident and maybe a little bit more efficient in writing.

Cait Waynelovich (12:10)
It's not gonna take me eight years to write the next one, that's for sure. But yeah. I mean, finding your process in. ⁓ but yeah, I mean, again, back to the main this took me a decade to write because I didn't have any life experience when I first started it. I don't even know. So this whole that's the other funny thing too, is that like this whole thing.

Jenna G Judith (12:24)
I don't think TikTok was a thing when you started it.

Cait Waynelovich (12:32)
started and like Instagram and TikTok and all of that was in such a different place that over the years I've had to completely update the technology as it has continued because she's a social media influencer. Like I've had to like reels weren't a thing or like going live wasn't a thing. And it was like it was still just like it was just like like emo or indie posts of coffee when I started writing it. On my s it was almost like that old and it was not like

twenty years ago, it was eight years ago. So I've really updated the technology and in two years it'll even be completely different. So this is just a snapshot of a time and a place at the moment, but it has been a whirlwind of just like keeping up with being an influencer and also becoming at the exact same time a podcaster, which who knew?

Jenna G Judith (13:26)
I know. No. I did not have this on my bingo card.

Cait Waynelovich (13:31)
No, absolutely not. So that it's like we have been doing it as the character has been experiencing it as well. The other cool thing about the podcast is we interview all of these authors and we try to incorporate everybody at every different points of their journey, right? Pre-published people, people who are bestsellers, people who are with small companies or indie, in everybody. But we have been able to talk to

People at all different parts of their journey and I've been able to ask them questions as a new author. Yeah. And that has been the coolest part of this whole thing. Even just saying, like, hey, my book launches next week to two of my favorite authors I've ever read. What's your advice? And they've been able to give it to me. So like I've been coming into my own as an author as we have been able to launch this podcast and finding these mentors and like it's been the most awesome thing ever. It's so weird.

Jenna G Judith (14:28)
And

hearing that everyone's craft is pretty much the same, like hearing from Lauren Oakey, who is a fantastic romance author and her prose are beautiful, she's coming out with a book in June, just so you know. June 6th. Yep, thank you. And hearing her talk about how she writes, and she's like, she's a person. Like it...

Cait Waynelovich (14:52)
I didn't know that.

Jenna G Judith (14:53)
No, like DNA in the flesh. And she taught herself how to write. She taught herself how to do like a character arc. And she said, I edit the crap out of these things. It's like garbage. We always say like your first draft is trash. And if your first draft isn't trash, you didn't do it right. And she does the same thing. And we, you did that like 20 times.

Cait Waynelovich (15:21)
Twenty twenty something drafts? Yeah. Twenty something drafts. So some people in this room probably read draft seven. And I'm really sorry about that. But read the new one. Read draft thirty, because it's way better. ⁓ no, it's it takes a long time. The way that we do it is weird. We're all weird. We all do it in weird different ways. So we're all unique unicorns. We are and and it's so it'd been so amazing to like share that experience with people on this journey.

Jenna G Judith (15:45)
corn.

Cait Waynelovich (15:51)
Becoming an author, doing the podcast has been really special. So I'm so glad that you are all here to celebrate this really special moment with us. And yeah, it's been amazing. ⁓

Jenna G Judith (16:05)
interview you now.

Cait Waynelovich (16:08)
Am I the author now? Am I the author on the podcast? 'Cause I you are terrifying. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (16:11)
That's.

Buckle up. OK. What did you want this book to be when you initially started writing it? When you're like, this is going to become a book. What did you think it was going to look like at the end? Was it this? Or was it like a love letter to my 20s?

Cait Waynelovich (16:31)
⁓ no. No, I don't know. I that's a great I what the f what the

Tell me you're gonna ask me that.

Jenna G Judith (16:43)
I told you I wasn't prepared. didn't tell you.

Cait Waynelovich (16:46)
⁓

no, I what did I think it was gonna be? I thought it was gonna be ⁓ you know what? I thought it was gonna be a love letter to everything that made me obsessed with travel growing up. I was obsessed with The Prey Love. I was obsessed with Under the Tuscan Sun. I was obsessed with Austin Land and all of these really wonderful movies and books that came out when we were in high school, and I was obsessed.

Especially obsessed with Anthony Anthony Bourdain and Rick Steves. Weird different vibes, but I like them both. ⁓ The Bible of Rick Steves. The Bible of Rick Steves. The Bible of this. Yeah. and Samantha Brown and everybody who raised me as a teenager. Hashtag yes, exec the travel channel. ⁓

Jenna G Judith (17:25)
Rick Steves.

PBS.

Cait Waynelovich (17:40)
All of those things that I was obsessed with. Some people love Star Wars, I loved Elizabeth Gilbert. Like it it it was a love letter to all of those movies and all of those books, and there's a lot of Easter eggs into all of those things in there as well. ⁓ but I knew I wanted to at least have my debut be dedicated to all those people because they completely shaped my experiences as an adult.

I did hear that there were questions that were given to the audience.

Jenna G Judith (18:10)
Can we have the postman from Mr. Rogers?

Cait Waynelovich (18:14)
Is the male here? Is the mail here? I I I thought it would be really weird if we like asked

It'd super weird if like asked the audience for questions, so it'll like, you, ma'am, in the front yellow that I don't know from the cubicle next to me.

Do you want to give me one, Emma? ⁓ thank you. I what? I don't know how to read it. Okay. this is from Ava. Are we supposed to be anonymous? Am I not supposed to be anything? okay. Okay. How did you learn to write professionally and was it hard to get the concepts into words?

Jenna G Judith (18:43)
Do you need help?

Crystal (19:00)
Cosanto.

Jenna G Judith (19:01)
in kindergarten.

Cait Waynelovich (19:04)
Well

Jenna G Judith (19:08)
you

Cait Waynelovich (19:09)
To write professionally, Ava. So I did it. You know what? It started with a lot of journaling. And so I know that Ava is a teenager, so I'm gonna direct this to her. But Ava, if you want to start writing, the best thing to do is just to journal every single day and be comfortable with yourself writing first. ⁓ And then maybe one day you will spend a lot of money.

And you will get a master's degree. ⁓ but for the moment I think anybody can do it if you just get comfortable with yourself and your voice first.

Jenna G Judith (19:43)
Fun fact, I don't have one those. ⁓ No, I have. Excellent. Okay.

Cait Waynelovich (19:49)
Basically.

Okay.

Jenna G Judith (19:55)
from Ashley who is pictured on the cover who's that? ⁓

Thank you.

Cait Waynelovich (20:09)
So what's really funny is that everyone makes fun of, and then we had a lot of people on the podcast before my cover was revealed saying, like, ⁓ the trend right now is to have a woman walking away from something. And then I got my cover and I was like, well, it sells apparently. So here we are. I that's my main character. She's outside of the Sagrada Familia, that's in Barcelona. She ⁓ has a wonderful metaphoric.

moment in the Sagrata, so it worked.

Jenna G Judith (20:41)
I have a question. What was your favorite landmark, like in real life, when you went to Barcelona?

Cait Waynelovich (20:51)
I think like maybe Park Gwell, but now it's like a huge tourist attraction. So you ⁓ when you go to Park Gwell na now it's just all TikTokers. I mean it is like a sea of TikTok it's a sea of selfies. Yeah, it's really hard to get near anything. It's i it's it's just like it you can't but ⁓ that's a really incredible part of of Barcelona for sure.

Jenna G Judith (21:04)
I really shouldn't judge.

⁓ This one's from Marcia. Marcia, thank you. ⁓ English is my first language. ⁓ How did you get the idea for the book? Have you lived any part of this story? I want like percentages. ⁓ Have you traveled to any or all of the locations in said book?

Cait Waynelovich (21:39)
Yeah, a lot of it's a lot of it's real. And I'm yeah, that's the question, right? Whenever you read a book like this. yeah, a lot of it's real and a lot of it's fiction. And I've been to all the locations and I have a true story in each location, and some stories are a little too true. but it's it's all very real. I I went to Morocco, I went to I went to Barcelona, I went to

Paris and and Normandy and all of these awesome places and I had a lot of these experiences. Starting the book from a weird place and feeling really lost and then having all of these experiences and saying, Thank God I didn't try to write a book before I had these experiences because I think the important thing about writing is is to let your your experiences in life and everything guide what you want to say and where you're going.

'Cause you might not know that when you sit down to write it. And so I get really I think when somebody said they wrote a book or they wrote their first draft in four months, that's a red flag to me. Yeah, I don't know, that's a big red flag.

Jenna G Judith (22:46)
if authors were on a dating app.

Cait Waynelovich (22:49)
Yeah, because it because you're saying like I I have this idea and I think I have something to say, but how do you know what you have to say if you're writing it after four months? Like it it's like if you you need to seep on that. You need to let that idea sit and you need to wait for those moments where the next idea hits or you have this experience that is is backs up what you want to say or your theme and you you roll with it. so yeah, yes.

A lot of it is based on real life.

Jenna G Judith (23:20)
Yeah.

your characters, who it was your favorite fictional one, and who was your favorite real life one.

Cait Waynelovich (23:35)
yeah, I love that question. Yeah,

great. you guys haven't met Jan yet. if you've met Jan, you're welcome. ⁓ Jan Jan is me, I am her. Jan is a fictional character, but I feel like I wanna just wanna be her. ⁓ she's my favorite for sure. ⁓ real life characters, the only two people I didn't change their name and

Jenna G Judith (23:43)
Raise your hand if you have met Jane.

Cait Waynelovich (24:03)
They know that I didn't because I asked them not to sue me when the book came out. Er Jim and Sandy. And ⁓ they are real life, they were too good to fictionalize. Yeah. You'll you'll meet them. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (24:15)
my goodness. ⁓ Guys, you're all.

Cait Waynelovich (24:21)
Maybe

like two more.

Jenna G Judith (24:28)
This one's from your daughter.

Why did the girl love winter?

Cait Waynelovich (24:34)
⁓ she told me because she wanted to build a snowman. Am I right? Emmo, is that right? She wanted to build a snowman? Emmo, is that right? She loved winter cause she wanted to build a snowman? Great.

Jenna G Judith (24:52)
Yes.

This is from Leah. Lee, Lee. That is an A, okay?

Cait Waynelovich (25:01)
I I know, she's British.

Jenna G Judith (25:05)
you I'm sorry. ⁓ Which of the male characters most resemble your husband?

Spill the tea.

Cait Waynelovich (25:22)
Here's the thing.

Jenna G Judith (25:24)
Wait, did John even make it into the book?

Cait Waynelovich (25:27)
He did.

⁓ John makes it into the book because eventually my character falls in love. And there's the chateau scene. But

It's not directly him, right? Like you you're not saying like, here's my husband and here's our love story. No, that's never how it how it is. But what's boring. That's boring. That sucks. That's too happy. Like we're all we all know. We we have we're happily married. That's fine. But ⁓ what you're doing when you're writing is I'm not like sitting there writing thinking about a chateau scene with like whatever character. Like I'm thinking about love.

And I'm thinking about my relationship and my marriage and my husband, and I'm writing those lines based on that, and not like some fictional person I made up or some fictional experience I had. Like it's it's all based on real life relationships and real life ups and downs. And so my husband's written into every word in this book in some way. and it may not be directly that she marries a mus musician at the end and they

have two children or anything like that, but you're you're writing the experiences that you have when you experience love and you experience pain or you experience any of that. And so he's he's in every part.

Thank you.

Jenna G Judith (27:00)
This one's from Jeff. What advice would you give yourself slash Cait five years ago about writing and going through your publishing journey with this book?

Cait Waynelovich (27:15)
You can do it. That's good. I don't know. That's it's just the weirdest thing to say, but like you can do it. I because five years ago I was having my first kid and that seems so far away, even though it was gonna happen. I knew it was gonna happen. This book had already well I was in the middle of writing it and I didn't write it for a long time because I had kids and it was just like such a far away idea at this moment, right now, sitting here with you was not it was so far in the future I couldn't even consider it and getting the book to where I wanted it to be. But ⁓

So yeah, you can do it and you should do it.

It's the craziest thing, but ⁓ yeah, the journey's amazing and you should do it.

Jenna G Judith (27:56)
We were just talking about this over dinner. Yeah. Of how everyone when you write a book, they're like, my god, you wrote a book? And to us, we're like...

Cait Waynelovich (28:08)
Yeah. Yeah, it's been I've been trying to do it for a long time. ⁓

Jenna G Judith (28:11)
Like, okay, like neat, I wrote a book. But to everyone else that hasn't been through this journey, it feels like Everest. It feels like I could never do that. I could not walk those steps that you took to climb that mountain.

Cait Waynelovich (28:26)
But when

it's been your plan the whole time, it doesn't seem that crazy. No. It's just been in the works for a very long time. The other advice too, and I there's like writers listen it writer writers listen to this podcast is don't take your acknowledgments like for a greater like take them seriously. Because they actually mean a lot more to the people that you're acknowledging than you think they do. And it's a very special experience.

Jenna G Judith (28:30)
the

Cait Waynelovich (28:55)
When a person gets to see their name in print, whatever it is, if it's dad or nana or whatever it is, it's a very special thing for them. And when you're writing them, you're you're like, this is just my silly book and no one's gonna care. But when you show them that acknowledgement, it's it's a really special moment. And so truly take the time to acknowledge the people that you wanna acknowledge. So that's my other piece of advice.

Can I take a drink on that? It's water.

Jenna G Judith (29:28)
Gotta hydrate.

Cait Waynelovich (29:30)
Last one and then I think we're we must be

Jenna G Judith (29:34)
Well, all of these are like, what inspired you? Who's on the cover? And I'm like, so many things. Or like, what's real life and what's not? So I have one. I felt really witty writing this. It's in there somewhere.

I love laughing at myself and my own silly

Cait Waynelovich (29:57)
You're

gonna have to hear this back a lot. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (29:59)
So, ⁓ if you had, like, if you were in Aladdin and Robin Williams was your genie, okay, and he was trying to pick, give you options for your mode of transportation. Like, you know, we talked about elephants, there were horses, there was a corvette. No, you didn't, I did with myself.

Cait Waynelovich (30:24)
When did we ever talk about that?

Jenna G Judith (30:28)
⁓ What would you rather have be your mode of transportation? A camel or a World War II Jeep?

Cait Waynelovich (30:40)
Have you ever been on a World War Two Jeep in rural France?

Jenna G Judith (30:43)
I've been on a camel.

Cait Waynelovich (30:48)
It is better have you camels two though. Okay. So there was a saddle and not a towel just laid out for you to because the chafing is bad on a camel. But if you like a World War II Jeep in rural France, I mean, it's better than being on a motorcycle going the fastest you can ever go. So World War II Jeep. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (30:51)
At a zoo.

Can there still be a camel?

Cait Waynelovich (31:17)
There's a lot of camels in this book.

Jenna G Judith (31:20)
like in

France because you mentioned the France part Mike sign me up but I want the camel. Excellent excellent excellent. I just could do this all day. ⁓ my god legit I just like picked my like magic. ⁓ Okay.

Cait Waynelovich (31:25)
You can have whatever you want. Yes.

Last question. Okay.

Jenna G Judith (31:41)
What was your favorite scene to actually write in this entire book? Because there's some buttes in there. But what was your favorite one? You're like, I'm having so much.

Cait Waynelovich (31:52)
Yes, it's the terrible production of Mamma Mia.

Jenna G Judith (31:56)
Do tell.

Cait Waynelovich (31:57)
I guess

where she realizes that her boyfriend is cheating on her with his co-star at a terrible community theater production of Mamma Mia. And I've been to a few, not at this theater for sure. But it it that was the most fun I've ever had writing a scene because it was like the ideas were hilarious. I was just I was laughing out loud at myself by myself. Yeah, I was having a great time. But it was so fun thinking about what would be in a really bad production.

Of Mamma Mia, and like I think that ⁓ her boyfriend that is cheating on her is my one of my favorite characters to write because it's just it's too the nose. It's too on the nose, it's too good. He's gotta be he's you'll know him. You'll you'll just you'll read it and you'll know him. You'll know you'll know that guy. You'll know that guy. And ⁓ so yeah, that was probably my favorite favorite one to write by far. Excellent. But I hope you all

Jenna G Judith (32:37)
It's like on.

Cait Waynelovich (32:54)
Read it and enjoy it. I'm happy to sell you some after this. Paddle your wares. I'm paddled.

Jenna G Judith (33:00)
So at the end of every podcast episode we let the guest author like pitch their book, talk about what they're doing next. Yeah, you got to plug your stuff here. ⁓ So Cait, what are you working on next?

Cait Waynelovich (33:10)
Okay.

What am I working on next? Yeah, spilled it. okay. I thought I was gonna have to pitch this book. I just spent an hour talking about. ⁓ No. Okay, ⁓ next. ⁓ Nexus has nothing to do with the this book. ⁓ Next is ⁓ historical fiction based on ⁓ the relationship between Makeupone and Alcapone. And ⁓ her last visit to see him in Alcatraz. And yeah, I get to research that one.

Jenna G Judith (33:20)
Check that out.

Where can people get this book?

Cait Waynelovich (33:44)
That's a great way. They can get it at Barnes and Noble, ⁓ they can get it on Amazon, or they can get it right here. For fifteen dollars, 'cause math is hard. It's seventeen ninety nine on Barnes and Noble and we could not do that math tonight. So it's fifteen just straight fifteen billion. Degree. Yeah, like I cannot do more seventeen ninety nine math. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (34:01)
have an art.

I don't even know what that is times two.

Cait Waynelovich (34:09)
⁓

No. But fifteen times two is thirty. We can do it. Okay. I think we're I think we can do it. Yeah.

Jenna G Judith (34:14)
And after, what are we doing after?

Cait Waynelovich (34:17)
We're going to the rendezvous Lee? Yep, rendezvous. Rendezvous after.

Jenna G Judith (34:22)
All right, we have some bevs and let's celebrate the ever fabulous Cait. you guys. I love you so much and you are legally tied to me. Yes, we discussed this, but also you are like the best bestie of the pod because you literally came up with this entire idea. Like this was you, this was you and you're like, you're going to come with me. I'm like sweet.

Cait Waynelovich (34:51)
Crystal's coming with us too. Yeah. So thank you guys. Thanks for being here again. Thank you, Cait.

Jenna G Judith (34:51)
So...

Jenna G Judith (35:04)
This has been another episode of Margs and Manuscripts. Thanks for listening. Your hosts are Jenna G. Judith, Cait Waynelovich Our writer and public relations manager is Cait Waynelovich. Music by John Waynelovich Editor Jenna G. Judith. Creative direction, Jenna G. Judith. And our podcast manager, Cait Waynelovich Don't forget to like,

follow, subscribe, all that jazz. Visit our website at margsandmanuscripts.com and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.