She Scrapped a Finished Manuscript to Write Yes, Chef | Grace Reilly

What do you do when the book you're supposed to publish next is one you can't stand behind?

This week, on release day for Yes Chef, romance author Grace Reilly tells us about the book she almost had to publish instead — 80,000 words she wrote, hated, and walked away from — and the restaurant-world romance that came out of starting over. From Kitchen Confidential and The Bear as research material to what it actually looks like to tell your editor "no," Grace gets honest about a year most authors don't talk about publicly.

Grace joins Jenna and Cait to unpack the real timeline behind Yes Chef: a scrapped manuscript, a full year without a release, and the fear of being forgotten in a publishing landscape that rewards volume. From there, the conversation moves into the food-world research that shaped Fable and Jack's character, the real Treasure Coast restaurant that inspired the book's setting, and the specific tension of being both the artist and the marketer of your own work.

For writers, this episode is a candid look at what it means to protect your name from a project that isn't working. For readers, it's a peek behind Yes Chef's grumpy-chef, forced-proximity romance and the real restaurant that inspired Fable.

In This Episode

• Why Grace scrapped 80,000 words of a finished manuscript
• Telling her editor she didn't want to publish the book
• Kitchen Confidential, The Bear, and researching restaurant culture
• The real Treasure Coast restaurant that inspired Fable
• Writing Poppy and Jack's dynamic: the artist vs. the marketer
• Why "content" and "art" are two different modes for authors
• How romance readers use trope labels to set expectations
• Balancing multiple projects and subgenres at once
• Trusting that a book's reception isn't a verdict on its quality
• What it's like to release a book you have zero regrets about

Yes, Chef

Grace Reilly

A disgraced chef returns to his hometown to save his family's restaurant — and finds himself forced into proximity with the sharp-tongued marketer determined to save it her way. Grumpy sunshine, found family, and a love letter to the misfits who find belonging in a kitchen.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, friends, we got a really great episode for you today. You will want this book on your TBR. Grace Riley is our guest today, and she essentially should be moonlighting as a therapist for authors. Because if you have ever been in the midst of promoting your book or working on your next one, or even just pitching your latest idea to your agent, you probably have gone through everything that we talk about today. Except Grace is probably one of the bravest people we've met because she got through 80% of the manuscript and said, I hate this, and said no thank you to it, and started writing her next book and made it everything that she ever wanted it to be. And that book is called Yes Chef. It is out today on release day of this episode. Go buy it right now. Like legit, it is gonna be the perfect summer read. If you like the bear, if you like top chef, if you like Master Chef, if you like anything food related, if you like to take pictures of your food and post it on Instagram when you're out at a restaurant, cool, this book's for you. Or if you just like grumpy sunshine or other fun tropes, feel free to go by it right now. So we're very excited for Grace to join us on the pod today. And you will not want to miss this one, especially if you need to feel the feels today as an author. Cool. Love you guys. So did you start with the pitch, or did you like kind of stumble upon this story? Like, oh yeah, totally pitched this to my agent. They're like, that sounds great. Or was it something you had like sitting in your like drafts for the longest time?

SPEAKER_00 1:42

I actually wrote after Witch It Served, The Last Beyond the Playbook came out, I wrote probably like 80% of a completely different contemporary romance that I ended up hating. That's the reason why there wasn't a book last year and why Yes Chef is coming out this summer. It's because it took me in a direction that I didn't necessarily want my crew to go in. Um, and I think a lot of it was just feeling like I was trying to make it fit for Trad in a way that did not fit for me. Um I ended up telling my editor that I just didn't want to publish this book. And we went back to the drawing board. And then, you know, one of the other ideas that I had back when I was pitching was the concept of doing something with a chef. Initially, the concept was a little different. It was like personal chef, you know, kind of like not restaurant-based, but it was the kernel of the story that then after I did some more brainstorming, being like, what? Like, what do I actually want to write? You know, like not based on expectation, but like what would I actually want my next book to be after Beyond the Play? This is what I settled on. And like I said, you know, it was inspired by the bear and all that good stuff. And it just kind of went on from there. But that's the reason why there's kind of a long timeline between this book and then um, you know, my stuff that came out for Beyond the Play. Cause I I think Wicked Serve was August 2024, and then all of 2025 passed, and that was when I was having my crisis and then writing Yes Chef. So uh now we're now we're in 2026 and we have Yes Chef finally. But um, it was definitely one of those experiences where Yes Chef was the book that I I'm really happy to have written and I'm very, very pleased with it, but it took writing most of a book that probably will never see the light of day that's completely unrelated first. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

My God, I have not heard that before.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Feeling poorens, I'm sure. Um, yeah. It's very difficult to tell them that you don't want to publish something that you've been working on because they were, you know, they were hoping that that would be summer 2025. So it would be, you know, it would have come out last summer. But yeah, it sometimes it just doesn't work out. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

And we've talked a lot on this podcast about every book having its own journey, right? Like sometimes we start out as indie, sometimes we start out as trod, and then we do an indie book that we want to publish, or like it's in in that people tend to diversify more than we know it as readers. Um, so it's fun to hear as authors what those journeys are like for you.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

So essentially, you were your own head chef, and you said, This this dish is not good enough to go through the pass. And you chucked it across the room, broke the plate. Yes, and front of house was like, What the hell, man?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

Yeah, it was like okay. The butt that you wrote 80,000 words for that we've talked about a lot. Like, you're just gonna just pretend that that doesn't exist anymore. Yep, yep. Oh my god, what are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 4:44

Yeah, I feel like it all worked out because this is like you said, like everyone's really pumped for this book that we can tell and we have FOMO. We really try to listen and like keep our like make sure that we are like on the bookstagrams and stuff. And like, yeah, I feel like this one's at the top of everybody's list for the summer, and it should be. Uh, you guys, like it's it's awesome, and you are for sure gonna love it. Let's talk about the influencing aspect of yeah, sure. I loved the dynamics between Poppy and Jack, and like he's the artist, she's the marketer. But as authors, I feel like we can relate to wanting to create the art, not wanting to have to market it, but needing to market it to literally get ourselves out there and being modern artists or modern authors, and like I'd love to talk a little bit more of that and your experience in that world as well.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yeah, it's like I think the bane of everybody's existence, including mine. Um, it's just really hard. It's hard to be present online and also make art at the same time, frankly. It's really difficult. I've had a lot of trouble balancing promotion for Yeshef with working on stuff that I have going on behind the scenes. Um, because there's, you know, that immediate satisfaction that you get from if you post something and then somebody notices it. And it's like, okay, well, I feel like I'm taking control. I'm doing something to let people know about my book. But then, you know, the real work is sort of on the side of you're sitting by yourself at your computer and nobody knows what you're doing. Um, and eventually they might know about it, but you can't get to the point where you'd have to share the fun like snippets and like aesthetics and all that stuff until, you know, you have like the guts of it on the on the page and written down. So it's very difficult to balance the two. I find them to be like completely different, you know, completely separate sort of enterprises. Um, I'm not very good at focusing on even one thing at a time, much less multiple things. So it it it is a real struggle, and I think it's a struggle for a lot of other authors too. But, you know, with Poppy specifically, I think it's really interesting how she she like doesn't take herself seriously in the beginning, um, because no one else really takes her serious. And then Jack also doesn't take her seriously because he's kind of like, uh, this influencing thing is like, I can see why it might be useful, but I'm not really putting that much stock in it. And then by the end, it's like something that he's very much aware of, like her impact in, you know, everything that happens with Fable and feeling like, you know, she's really, really capable and like has a lot of knowledge to share. You know, I don't want to put down anybody who like does influencing or anything like that. That wasn't what I mean by like it being something where, you know, you're trying to take like the depths of what's on the page and then like make it pretty necessarily. Um, but two different modes. And I think exploring the difference between those two modes is something that, you know, did come up in Yes Chef, probably because it also comes up in my author life all the time. Where I'm like, you know, how am I gonna present this book to people? But then at the same time, like, how am I gonna stay quiet long enough to be in my own brain and my own creativity to you know to get to the point where I can share things with people?

SPEAKER_01 8:02

You just essentially articulated what's in my head every time I post on Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

It's so relatable. Can we just talk about how fable is like the fucking best name for a restaurant?

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Thank you. Ever. Okay, so if you were to make your own restaurant, would it be that or would you have something else in mind?

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Me? Yeah. I wouldn't want an S I I wouldn't want a restaurant. I would probably do an ice cream shop, honestly. If I was gonna do anything food related, I'm muted. Solid choice. Yeah, mute ice cream brand. Um I think it'd be fun at home up with ice cream flavors. But Fable is actually based on a restaurant that I really like in the area where I live. So Diamond Bay is sort of like meant to be a patchwork of a bunch of different towns in the area where I live in Florida on the Treasure Coast. And then Fable is kind of based on a bunch of different restaurants that are in the area. One of them in particular, District Table and Bar, is amazing. First of all, if anybody's ever on the Treasure Coast, they should go. But the thing that I really liked about it is that the menu is always a bit different. Um, they don't keep a set menu, they change it depending upon like the season, what ingredients are available, what you know inspiration the chef is coming up with. And I think that that's really fun and that's what I wanted to go for for Fable. So in the future, I can imagine that the restaurant menu would change often and that there would always be doing something to like experiment. And I think that that level of like artistic expression doesn't always come up in the food industry, you know, sometimes it's more cut and dry, but it's really fun when it does happen. And yeah, it was just fun to imagine Fable being similar, especially if they're eventually gonna dead a star, which they do, you know, not in the course of the book, but I think you know, it's you could tell that it's going in that direction. That's what he wants, uh, what Jack wants.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

I think if I were to be in your shoes, I would be eating there every single day for research. I would chalk it up to maybe some tax, some tax exemptions, and I would just become a carbloating hermit. And I wouldn't be mad about it.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

I'd be checking out the chef and seeing if he has an octopus tattoo on his neck. I'm into it. I'm into the octopus tattoo. I was completely down for it the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Especially like my husband, he has this thing where he's when I don't know when, but he's gonna let the kids like pick out his next tattoo. And sure shit, I think it's gonna be an octopus. Like like completely unrelated from this situation. It's I like probably gonna be a giant squid or something of cephalopod related. I don't know. Cause that's just those are my children.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

Yeah, I just thought it was, I don't know. I like the concept of chefs being like kind of like dirty hot. Um, you know, in the way that like they're like a little grimy, it's kind of gross, they're all sweaty. Um, but then at the same time, they're very competent, and competent, I think, leads to a lot of heroes and romance. The thing that makes them so irresistible is that core of competency in whatever it is. So, like whether it they're, you know, I've written about athletes too, like being really good at a sport is a form of competency. Being like really amazing in the kitchen, same thing. And, you know, writing about somebody at the top of their game is very fun and something that people really love to read about. So, you know, Jack is I mean, he's distraced in the beginning, but he definitely is very talented. And yeah, it's just fun to pair that with like tattoos and a beard and like, you know, all of this kind of like rough and tumble stuff that's very different from Poppy's very polished veneer. So they make, you know, I think at least a pretty hot couple together.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

I think they would make beautiful babies.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

So no, I love like friend aesthetic for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Yeah, like you described everything I ever like dream of in terms of like a book boyfriend, and then I have like a very polished, blonde, blue-eyed, like husband that is the antithesis of it. I'm like, how did this happen?

SPEAKER_03 12:10

So when we got the proofs though, I was like looking on the back and I realized too that they put the tropes, and then I was like, Jenna, do you think that this is like I was like, I don't is this is this like a proof thing or is this on all the books now, like all like kind of romance contemporary romance books? And I think it looks like it is.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

It's like a thing.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

It depends. It could be. I'm not actually not sure. I haven't gotten any any like final versions of uh Yeshef yet from Avon. I do think that a lot of readers are, and in myself as well, like it's really useful to have the tropes as kind of like a guiding light when you're picking out what to read. Um, I know that sometimes people are like, well, I don't like to reduce a book down to tropes, but every it's not just romance, like, you know, there are tropes in every single kind of book, every single piece of media. You know, if you're watching a crime procedural and there's no crime in it, then you'd be disappointed, right? And we'll bet. Well bet. With romance, if you're getting kind of like into the nitty-gritty where you're like, okay, like I'm expecting there to be crappy sunshine in this. I'm excited about that. I find that the more you know about the book going in, not like specifics about what happens, but the more you can prime your expectations in romance, often the more you enjoy it because you're you're like going into something wanting it and being in the mood for it.

SPEAKER_03 13:31

So I'm all for the that's yeah, like sorry, Jen, that's literally the one I was talking about because it was like what set me off on it because it says grumpy, it says grumpy sunshine. And I was like, that's so much better than saying like enemies to lovers or anything, like give me grumpy sunshine. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

So my best friend Jenny, oh my god. She's like, if I read another book that does not disclaim that it is an unexpected pregnancy trope, I'm gonna I'm gonna scream. And I'm she's like, they just sneak up on you and I don't expect it and I don't like it. And then I throw the book across the room.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

I feel like I've I've never been surprised by that though. Maybe I've just never accidentally picked up one. Like I I personally like that trope, uh, but I don't think I've ever not like I I don't think I've ever read a book and been surprised by experiencing it like halfway through the book or whatever. That's so strange to me. I don't know. Maybe, maybe I just like haven't had haven't had that luck, I guess. Because for me it would be enjoyable, but that's not all.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

I mean I was fascinated by the tropes thing, though, on the back of the book. And I think we did we did uh go into a romance bookstore and notice that it is more common than we thought it was. Yeah. Um, but it's pretty cool. And it's yeah, forks press force proximity, friends with benefits, opposites attract, and found family, everyone.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

So if you were to describe the tropes of your next project without giving your project away, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

It's a little tricky because it involves some subgenre shifting. Um, but I would say what you know, what I'm working on currently, what I was working on before I came on for this interview, how to explain it? Like temporary marriage? Ooh, kind of like a bit of an omediverse vibe, but not fully. Um shifter.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Oh my god. Yeah. All right, taking notes. Not that I'm not writing contemporary as well, but like cool. So are you really like writing multiple books at one time?

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Well, sort of. I mean, I I finished something that is I think gonna be announced fairly soon. Um that's separate from what I was just saying. Um, and that's more like friends to lovers, uh, at a wedding, rom-com vibes. And then the thing that I'm talking about hopefully is gonna be next year at some point. And that's more like, you know, next like butch stuff. There's always some element of overlap. There's diff, you know, projects are in different phases. Like Yes Chef is still in progress in my eyes, because even though the butch itself is completely done, like it hasn't come out yet. So I'm still in that promotional phase. So I just you could say that I'm working on like three projects right now. If you include Yes Chef as one of them, you know, until it comes out, I feel like it's still like in the pipeline as something that's my responsibility to, you know, like really like pay attention to. And even after a book comes out, it kind of just, you know, the life, the lifespan of a book is like the release date is like the tiniest part in the end, you know, because people discover books long after they come out. So it never really does away. But yes, I would say that yeah, I'm working on a couple of different things at once, which is definitely hard. Maybe she is like, girl, this is like, what the hell are you trying to do? Yeah, it's been, it's been really brutal, um, actually, to be fully transparent. But I'm trying my best because in publishing, especially trad publishing, the timelines are so long that you want to make sure that you're like stitching to them as much as possible, because otherwise things can get kind of messed up down the line. And, you know, you might end up having to shift to a different season or whatever in terms of releasing. Whereas with Indie, you know, you get more a little bit more flexibility because you could be like, all right, I'm gonna push it a month, but like just a month when it's only you doing it, you know. When you're answering to a corporation, it's like completely different. It's a little bit scarier.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Scary.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Yeah, it's scary. I won't deny it.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Yeah, definitely. I totally that's I mean, it's understandable though, but um that's fascinating. Before we came on and you were telling me too about um, because we have talked about this a lot with other authors, but just kind of like how the the timeline for even a release was, and I was asking you if you're starting to get busy now, or like when does it like truly because your uh Yes Chef comes out July 21st. So as we record this now, we're a little less than a month and a half away, but is it about to ramp up for release time for you, or like when does it truly kind of really like you're I need to just focus on Yes Chef?

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Um, I would say that, you know, after the book is completely done, when art started first, first started circulating, that was definitely a very busy period because it felt like I was really talking about it in more specificity for the first time since people were actually reading it. So a lot of social media, a lot of that kind of thing, you know, not that I'm monitoring reviews, just I don't I don't read reviews, but just in general, knowing that people are reading it, I have like a little bit more leeway to talk about it. And then I would say as this month goes on leading into July, yeah, there'll be a lot of like, okay, like it's crunch time. I'm gonna be talking about this book a lot, and then I'll be doing events when it comes out. So I'll be traveling and you know, going to different bookstores and chatting with people about the book. And that'll kind of be like the second half of July. And that that'll probably be, you know, the busiest I'll be on a on like a back-to-back-to-back basis, being like, you know, promoting the book left and right. But honestly, it ever really goes away fully because you know, there's always something like, you know, the lifespan of a book is really long, but release is still important. Um, so yeah, it's very nerve-wracking. And you know, that as an author, there's like personal like goals that I want to hit and stuff. And well, they can't really be goals because I'm not in control of them. There are wishes that I would love to have happen for the book.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Well, like that. That's very good mental, like trying my best.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yes. Trying my best. Um, yeah, to only control the things I can control. Not super successfully, but at least I can try. It's very nerve-wracking, and I I feel very, very good about the book, which I'm happy about. Like, I was actually rereading parts of it the other day, and I don't normally do that. Like, I don't normally go back to my old stuff. Um, because it's very much it like it exists in a moment of time. You know what I mean? Like, if I wrote, if I started writing Yes Chef today, probably the book would be quite different than the book that I wrote last year that became Yes Chef, which doesn't necessarily mean that it would be better, just different. You know, like you're always growing, hopefully, as a writer and like, you know, have different things that you want to focus on and different things you want to say. Like Yes Chef specifically, a lot of like the ADHD angle came directly out of like realizing that I have it, you know, as like a 29-year-old woman, being like, okay, this put a lot of things into perspective that I did not even realize, right? And I think if I was writing it now with a little bit feeling a little bit more settled with the diagnosis, it would just feel different. So, you know, I don't normally go back because it feels like it's representative of a very specific time in my life and a very specific kind of way that I was feeling and way that I was approaching the world. And I don't want to like drive myself crazy thinking about like all the ways that it could be different, you know? Um, but in this case, I'm still very happy with it. Um, there's nothing that I wish was different about it, which is, I think, a pretty rare feeling for an author. So I'm like fully prepared to stand behind it and I'm very happy with how it came out. It's just, yeah, very nerve-wracking to get to that point where people are going to be reading it like, you know, beyond the the confines of like Bootstagram and like people who want to read advanced reader hobbies. Like, you know, hopefully there will be many, many random people who I will never meet who will put up at a bookstore and then read it. You know what I mean? Yeah, getting to that point is definitely very scary. Like the general public.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yeah, no, the general public, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Like yeah, but I I love how you literally just like Kate, you probably don't know this, but like Kate just published her book a couple weeks ago. I did not know this. That's great. Yeah, like yay, Kate. I'm gonna talk. You have all day long. But uh but it's also like that being okay with what you create and allowing it to be that moment in time. And it doesn't need to be perfect today and perfect a week from now. It can be perfect from the moment that you did it and completed it and like sent it off into the world and learning to accept that kind of perfection and not the ongoing must sustain must be all present. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

I mean, it's a huge struggle, believe me. It's it's as someone who's definitely a perfectionist, it's really hard to write sometimes, even just to get a draft down, because it's it's like great, I'm looking at something that is like total trap. Especially when you finish something and then you start something new. You're like, I went from the pretty polished thing that was past pages, so beautiful. Like, look at all my work to like this steaming pile of garbage in Word that I hate, you know? Um, but I will I will say that I think um with Yes Chef, because I feel very good about the product and like how it turned out, I feel a little bit more insulated from criticism about it. I feel more comfortable taking a position and having a point of view with my books. Um and by that I mean like if someone, for example, reads it, right, and isn't a big fan of Jack because they think he's like too mean, too grumpy, that's fine. That's totally okay. But that doesn't mean that I didn't accomplish what I wanted to do. Like that doesn't mean that there's anything at fault with that. I think really just being like, this is exactly what I wanted it to be, and your reaction to it has nothing to do with the quality of the work, you know, is it feels to me kind of like an advanced level of authoring that I'm like just kind of tiptoeing toward as I get further along. Because I used to be very, very fragile when it came to like feeling like I didn't write it correctly if someone didn't like it, you know, but it's art. So there isn't really a correct way anyway. And I think, you know, as I get further along in publishing, and especially with Yes Chef, which I feel very good about what I did like artistically, if someone, if it, if someone doesn't like it, that doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the book or my intentions or how successful I was at creating the thing that I intended to create, you know. Um, cause every bookish opinion is really based on the personal experience that you bring into the book more so than like anything else. You know, you might just have like have a thing for heroes like that where it just like isn't your favorite. But that doesn't mean that I didn't write a successful version of that kind of hero. And yeah, I think that that's that's like a a growth piece that you know I can say now, but I probably wouldn't have said a year ago, you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

This is like author therapy today.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

Like no, I'm just I'm just taking it in because that's what I need to hear.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean it's it's really difficult for sure. But, you know, and I like like I said, I haven't I don't seek out reviews. Like I obviously I get tat and stuff on Instagram, so I have seen like some of the things that people aren't resonating with as strongly, but it's still just for them, not for me, you know, and it doesn't have anything to do with, you know, the book itself or the job that I did on it. And um yeah, I I'm really grateful for this book for that reason. Like I I think it I don't know. I maybe it was the process of writing something that I hated first and then writing this and being like, I want it to be exactly what I want it to be, but like I feel I feel just like so confident about it that I really do not care about anybody's opinion on it. Like it's a very weird feeling. I used to care a lot more.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

It's like you unlock the next the next level of being an author. You're like, yeah, I'm here now.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Yeah, okay. I mean, I hope it stays. That would be really nice. Um, I have a feeling it's gonna dip again as I kind of go into a slightly different area of publishing. But yeah, uh I, you know, I think it's it's especially easy with social media to be like, my books are content. You know, I'm trading content for the internet. When in reality, it's not that, it's art. Um, and art is specific, art has a point of view, art is something that not everybody is going to like by definition, because there is no right or wrong when it comes to art. Right. And it's very difficult to remember that when you're trying to put together an Instagram post about your book. It just is, you know, it feels like you're trying to appeal to people in a way that's like, I I'm just, you know, I'm putting myself out there, I'm putting my work out there, but it feels, you know, it feels like I'm I'm trying to get you to, you know, to buy something, which is just, it's just different than the the whole experience of doing art. You know, it's just two separate things and and finding a way to separate them is I think just like such such the challenge right now from a creative perspective. It's hard, it's it's weird. Maybe it's just me. Maybe other people don't feel this way, but I do feel like I literally had to remind myself to be like, your books are art. They're not like, you know, you are it's not just you art. No, I mean it it's very easy to be like, you know, this is this is content, but it's not content. It's different. Um, you know, feeling feeling confident calling it art is I think even like that is like a a big hurdle to get over as a creator, especially with writing, because in some ways, like writing is, you know, it's communication and like everybody can write. Um can feel like the bar is a little like low sometimes in that it's just easy to devalue it, you know, when in reality it's like a really, really difficult skill. I wouldn't devalue like a painter's work, right? Uh, but for some reason it's so much so much easier for me at least to be like, yeah, this is just, you know, my like writing scribble, whatever thing. And, you know, anyhow.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

I say that all the time because my husband's a piano player. And he's like, like one of the things that drives me crazy is every time I say, like, people ask me what I do, I'm like, oh, I'm a piano player. And they're like, oh, I've always wanted to play piano, or oh, I took piano in high school. And I'm like, what I do is very different than what you did in high school or whatever. And I'm like, yeah, but at least that's a skill that like people have to learn and are open to saying, I don't know how to play the piano. I just played in high school. And I'm like, what I do, what we do, is a skill everybody can do. And like a lot of the times it's it's like, oh yeah, like, am I not there? And it's like, oh, I have an idea for a book, or oh yeah, I've I used to write for my high school dude. And it's like, I feel like, yeah, sometimes it's just kind of taken as as content or whatever it is. And the other thing about content too is that like content is there's supposed to be a large quantity of it. You're supposed to make a ton of content. And I think that that's what's overwhelming about producing books too right now, too. Because like it feels like content. So you're like have this pressure to like keep producing and keep producing. And so that's why that story about you saying like standing up for your work and standing up for what you want to put your name on and saying, like, this isn't the time for this book or what I want to be putting out there is like really honestly super inspiring because it is there, there is a pressure to create.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Yeah, I think that that's a great point. Content being something that you're supposed to produce in volume. Um yeah, I mean, it it can really feel like if you're not putting out the most, um, you're not doing anything at all. And it's it's hard to deal with that um as an author, especially with the amount of competition out there. And you know, on the one hand, it's great. Like from me as a reader perspective, I'm like, there's so many options of things to read. I'm so happy about this. But from an author perspective, it can be like, oh my God, this is a sea of people, all very talented, producing amazing work faster than me, apparently. It feels like it's so fast. And I'm just like the one that's like quietly like drowning. You know what I mean? Like it's just it's very difficult to, you know, to get yourself to feel like whatever you're doing is enough. And I'm not, you know, I'm not it often does not feel like enough still. But it's a great point. Like, if you're gonna, if you're gonna call it art, you're like, okay, well, there is no timeline for art, technically. Like, you know, it's weird. No one would be like, my gosh, like, no a con. It took you this long to come out with another album. Like, what? You know what I mean? Like, I know Taylor Smith is very prolific, but if she's been five years between albums, no one would be like, oh, like, you know, what's wrong with her? You know, but for authors, I'm like, if I don't get two butts out a year, you know, I like everyone's gonna forget who I am and like am I even an author? It's it's very difficult, I think, in the romance space, especially, which is yeah, it's just hard uh getting that that trying to like munch you off your back when it comes to thinking of of your work as something that you know doesn't need to be like rushed out.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Yeah. Well, this was like everything I needed to hear.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Yeah, I wouldn't really worry about that right now.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Like this is you're gonna be fine. You will be fine. You will be fine. We'll see. I know. I I'm I'm very curious what it's gonna be like when it comes out. Um, yeah. I mean, I'm I'm really lucky in that people have been enjoying it so far. But yeah, I'm I'm definitely like very anxious about July. Um and just yeah, just wondering like what it's actually gonna look like when it's when it's out on shelves and everything. It's not luck.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

It's not luck. You worked really hard for this. So it's you wrote an amazing way. Like everybody's gonna love it. Um, Grace, thank you so much for joining us today. We are super excited for your book. This will come out on release day, so everybody listening, grab a copy of Yesh Jeff. You won't be disappointed. So you will know.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

This has been another episode of Marks and Manuscript. Thanks for listening. Your hosts are Jenna G. Judith, Kate Wynelovich, our writer and public relations manager, it's Kate Wynelovich. Music by John Wynelovich. Editor, Jenna G. Judith, Creative Direction, Jenna G. Judith, and our podcast manager, Kate Wynelovich. Don't forget to like, follow, subscribe, all that jazz. Um visit our website at marksandmanuscripts.com, and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.