Stella Fosse: The Business of Erotic Writing and Seasoned Romance

Welcome everyone.

I am over the moon excited today to bring a very, very

special guest on this platform.

I met our guest on the screen, if you're watching us on YouTube today,

she identifies as Stella Fosse.

We met several years ago in a Facebook group for women who were reinventing,

reimagining, and redefining what it means to be of a certain age or to be

retired or to do both at the same time.

And instantly I fell in love with this woman and I was

aware that she was an author.

I purchased her book and I did something very rare.

The weekend that I received the book, I sat down on the couch one morning

with a cup of coffee and I didn't get up till much later in the day

when I had turned the last page.

I was so charmed by this book, I knew that I needed to know more about the author.

So today on the screen with me, Stella Fosse, who is the author

of Elegant Charming Bastard.

And this book is for sale on Amazon and it should be on your bookcase

because it was a fabulous romp.

And it was the first time that I thought about the fact that there should be

quality fiction literature for women of my age, and that it should be

irreverent and saucy and humorous and sexy, but also really well written.

So thank you today for being here with us, Stella.

Thank

you.

What a fabulous introduction.

It is so easy to gush about you , and for several reasons let's be clear.

I have a girl crush on you because you're doing something that I aspire to do more

of and do and that's to be an author.

And because I also purchased your book, Aphrodite's Pen, we're going to talk a

little bit more about that in a minute.

I began Collecting my thoughts, my characters, my storyline for

my own elder erotica romance, steamy, sexy, senior, seasoned

woman romance, a couple years ago.

Those thoughts are still all in the journal that I started when I was

following your program that you had where you were sending us out prompts.

And then my own life got a little steamy and I went through a divorce.

I went through a country change.

I went through all of the, drama and excitement associated with that.

I guess I better pick that project back up and get going.

Yes, please do.

One of the things I would love to talk to you about is your perspective

on why there should be more women of our age writing fiction and fantasy

and non fiction because our peers, women like you and me want to identify

with the literature that's available.

Stella, tell us a bit more about how you came to really underline that belief and

how you've been doing something about it.

Okay,

Wow, what a great question!

I was in biotechnology for most of my adult life and I was a writer, but I

wasn't writing what I felt like writing.

I was writing submissions to the Food and Drug Administration for

approval of new medical products.

The tallest one I wrote was 32 volumes and stacked up, it was exactly my height.

32 volumes, 5 feet 6 inches.

So that's all well and good, and I did just fine doing

that, but I wanted to do more.

I wanted to write my own stories.

And right before I retired, or rewired, or repurposed myself, whatever verbiage

we want to use, I read an article in the New York Times book review section by a

romance author in her 50s who was advising her sister writers of her age group that

if they wanted to get published, they needed to write characters in their 20s.

And I thought, hell no, I'm not doing that.

I'm writing about people my own age and the vivid lives

that we lead because we do.

We lead these vibrant, wonderful lives and it doesn't get talked about enough.

that when you turn 60, that around that time, your kids are probably grown,

your career is winding down, you feel great, you're doing all kinds of things,

and a lot of us are having wonderful, complicated, interesting love lives.

And why not show that in fiction?

Why not talk about that with one another?

So that's how I really started on this path.

And in particular, a friend of mine, Lynx Cannon, was starting

a reader series around that time.

It was called the Dirty Old Women Reader Series an d it was

held in a bookstore in Oakland.

She invited all her friends who were writers to write erotic stories.

This is friends of hers who were over 50, to write erotic stories and come and

read them in front of a live audience.

I took that as a challenge and it was scary and it was really fun.

One of the best things about it was, oftentimes, after a reading,

the place was always packed.

And women who were in their, say, 30s, would come up to us and say, Thank

you, we had no idea, we thought that part of life for women ended at 40.

Because that's the message they had been getting their

entire lives from the culture.

It seems to me that one of the best and most enjoyable ways to

push back on the gendered ageism we encounter in our culture is for

us to create and share our stories.

In addition to writing my own stories, I'm really interested in spreading

the word and spreading information about how to do this, how to write,

how to edit, how to publish, how to market our seasoned sexy stories.

Thank you.

Thank you for doing that.

We were talking a little bit off air earlier about needing to step

up to the responsibility of being role models and trailblazers because

Let's face it, there was no manual for this before because we were all raised

with that narrative of "Go gently into that sweet night, blue haired lady."

right?

God knows I didn't think about my grandparents having sex.

But the fact that they had 10 children, they must've been pretty good at it.

We, we're not just talking about, trashy sex for the sake of being provocative.

We're talking about highly entertaining literature and can drawing other

women authors and male, all authors out saying you have an a lifetime of

experience which to draw on to create these works which serve to entertain

but they also serve to educate.

Because, you know, that we aren't sitting around waiting to die we're

way too busy living full vibrant lives and pushing the limits.

We certainly are, and you're right!

It's wonderful how much we have this great combination of a lifetime of experience

plus our imaginations to draw upon.

One of the things I talk about in my new book is autofiction, which is a

combination of autobiography and fiction, where you can take, say, A person you

knew when you were in your 40s and a situation, a conflict that came up when

you were in your 50s in a setting that was very dear to you in your 20s or your

60s and put those things together and combine them with imaginative elements

to create a story that's just yours that no one else could create because each

of us has this incredible library in our minds of experiences and feelings and

people we've known and places we've been and conflicts and interesting situations

that we've encountered and overcome.

We can draw on all that to create this magical thing,

this narrative that's only ours.

Yes , it's an absolutely precious thing that we have as older adults

that we can draw upon to create fiction or any other kind of art.

I have friends who, who've switched from corporate careers into being painters.

There are all kinds of creative things that we can be

doing at this point in life.

And we are empowered to do it because, again, some of our

responsibilities that we had for much of our adult lives may be behind

us, or may at least be winding down.

So it's a really fabulous time in life.

I agree wholeheartedly.

And you just introduced something that I did want to talk to you about, and that is

the controversy today about AI in writing.

What you just described, that scenario of what did you call it?

Autofiction?

Is impossible with AI because you have to have had those various life experiences

to draw on, to create that blended narrative and have those perspectives.

It doesn't just come out of a can.

It's not automated.

It's a beautiful soup that you're talking about, and I love that idea!

And it also titillates me to think about which part of me will they think, is the

real me that I've written about, right?

That's right.

I love and I'm going to share, of course, in the show notes,

your contact information and the links to your books and your bio.

But I was intrigued when I was preparing for our show that there was something in

your bio that just stood out so much to me and you're just touching on it now.

You said, "This is our voice.

This is our opportunity to let in others in on the secret that women past

middle life are vibrant and alive."

I just love this!

"That when we live in sin, we are blissfully sinning.

That when we marry, we want more than a companion.

That whether single or in a relationship, our sexuality is our innate birthright."

And I thought again, yay!

Let's blow those paradigms up.

Let's, change the narrative.

Who any of us are, whatever our gender is or whatever our preference is it's

about we get to choose the character and how they show up in our lives.

Exactly.

Very cool.

So take me to a little more, because I, what has also come out of this is that,

as I am understanding, so you, after a professional, a long running career,

technically writing, and by the way, I'm one inch taller than you, so you

would have had to write one more volume.

Good thing I'm only 5'6 then.

Okay so now that we are comparing numbers I didn't ask you at the outset of the

interview one of my favorite questions, and I'm thanking Diane von Furstenberg

for reframing a question that was often in our generation frowned upon asking a lady.

Instead of asking how old you are, Diane suggested that we say

how long have you lived, Stella?

I have lived for 70 years, and I will celebrate my 71st birthday

next month, so I've lived almost 71 years.

Great, congratulations.

I'm celebrating my 70th next month.

So maybe there's a party somewhere together in the future for us.

That would be great.

Cool.

That would be great.

The entire decade, as I look back now, on the entire decade of my 60s, It was

perhaps the best decade of my life so far.

So I'm, I have every hope that my 70s will turn out to be just as great.

And the thing is, nobody tells you this.

Nobody tells you that your 60s can be absolutely fantastic.

When I look back on it, I published my first novel.

I fell in love with the man I'd now been with for nine years.

My children thrived and I was getting to do exactly what I wanted to do,

probably for the first time in my life.

My next book, not the one that's about to publish, but the one after

that, is going to be a collection of essays that I wrote during my 60s.

I'm going to call it, What to Expect When You're Sixty, Adventures in

the Secretly Wonderful Decade, because that's what it is.

The 60s are the secretly wonderful decade, and it's about time we shared

that secret, but that book's going to be a while, that one's going to be a bit.

I have to, I still have to put that one together.

And you continue to live it, and which I think is the other thing that

I've recognized just listening to you talk right now, being a seasoned

woman it gives us this advantage that we're just continuing to live

it and adjust the seasoning, right?

My 60s were also remarkable.

My mother died at age 59.

O I really wasn't thinking much forward to that.

And of course, we were brought up to, you start to fall apart at 40,

once, once perimenopause sets in and menopause like it's the end of the story.

This is the other thing that I've appreciate so much

about what you're doing.

You're writing new stories, both in real life by sharing with other

women how to tell stories, but also sharing the literature that are

examples that people might go, "I can see myself in that character.

Maybe I could explore that life."

I have to say, I think my 60s, yeah, were the best decade, up to this

point, but I have a strong suspicion my 70s are going to top that!

I have an epic list started.

I don't believe in using the term a bucket list because the

connotation for me is rather negative.

It's disappointing at the end.

So instead I choose to live an epic life and to have epic experiences.

And when I started making the list, I thought, There's a lot

of fun to be had here, right?

A lot of experience to have, a lot of growth.

And when in doing so, younger people are saying to me, I am glad you are

showing us how this should be lived.

That's great.

I had dinner with my granddaughter and a friend of hers last night,

and they were saying like, wow, this is the way it should be.

Alive, vibrant, desiring to continue to learn new things and have new experiences.

At the same time, though, I have to say I do have an anti bucket list.

I have a list of things I won't put up with anymore.

I'm glad that you gave me a little segue there because right now I'm a few weeks

from publishing The Phuckit Journey.

Ah!

Wonderful!

A journal to joy and it's about exactly that.

The things that we say, hell no, never again!

We are aligned.

Anti-Bucket List and my Phuckit List.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Just for those that are concerned that they might not be able to

google that, they'll get censored or something, it is spelled with a "Ph".

Very good.

So I bet we have some of the same things on that list.

For example, No More High Heel Shoes.

Oh,

yeah,

no, done.

So done.

And No More Playing Small.

No more apologizing for things that I don't own.

But then there are the very specific things like, no more wearing clothes

that are tight and uncomfortable.

Mm-Hmm.

Or including those shoes, right?

Yeah.

I guess that's the other part that I appreciate in my sixties and seventies

and the company I keep, is that we are now looking at things very selectively

and saying, not doing that anymore, because then that opens us up to doing

so much more than we ever did before.

Exactly.

We get to choose our priorities.

So nobody else is setting our priorities at this point.

No.

And whether you want to be in a relationship, coupled, single, exploring,

whatever, it's everything is there for us.

It's an option and life has become a wonderful buffet now, right?

or a charcuterie platter of living.

You get to sample all kinds of things.

That's true.

Yeah.

Take me back for a bit, because my audience, I want them to understand this.

Technical writer, then you explored some writing exercises and some

fiction writing, is that what led you to helping other writers find

their voice and their process?

When we

had our Dirty Old Women presentations, our reading series,

one of the things that came out of that was a desire to write together.

And so my friend Lynx Cannon and I started a writing group that we

called the Elderoctica Writing Group.

We met once a month, we invited friends who were also writing sexy stories,

and we got together And we had prompts and shared what we wrote in real time.

This is pre pandemic.

So we, all this was in person and we just generally had a great time.

And then Lynx decided to publish a collection of the best stories or

some of the really great stories from the Dirty Old Women writing series.

So that's out there.

That's called the Dirty Old Women Anthology.

And then I decided, that I would start putting together stories and

interviews and also writing prompts and information about how to set

up an Elderortica writing group.

I went to a writing and art retreat organized by a friend of mine and

I was sitting next to a woman I had not met before and I told her that

I was putting this book together.

And she said, "Oh, I work at North Atlantic Books and we would like

to publish a book like that!"

So I didn't do a book proposal.

I didn't reach out to agents.

None of that.

None of the things that people typically do for a first book.

And that's how Aphrodite's Pen, The Power of Writing Erotica

After Midlife, came to be.

So that book came out several years ago, and then meanwhile, I started doing more

writing, and when the pandemic hit, a friend of mine, who was locked down in

a senior community called me and said, we have been told that if we leave the

community and we don't come back with a doctor's note, we won't be let back in.

And she had spent a lot of money to get into this place and buy a

unit but, it wasn't the money that worried her, it wasn't the possibility

of getting sick that worried her.

What really bothered her was, How is this going to affect my dating life?

And this is a woman in her late 70s, and I took that as a challenge.

I decided that I would start writing stories about how women in

a locked down senior community could still have an active dating life.

So I wrote about friendly vampires coming to visit these ladies and

time travelers and ghosts and people calling others on the Ouija

board, people from other universes.

So I just had a grand time.

That's how I spent my pandemic.

was writing these stories and that came out the next year came out in 2020.

It's called The Erotic Pandemic Collection.

It now includes some stories, other stories in addition to the ones in that.

In that senior community.

So the Erotic Pandemic Collection came out.

My first novel, Brilliant, Charming Bastard, that you mentioned having read

was about three women in biotech, who are scientists who discover they're all

dating the same liar who is stealing their ideas for his invention and they

decide to get some very smart revenge.

So that book came out and then I decided that I wanted to write a romance novel.

I had thought that Brilliant Charming Bastard was a romance novel, but when I

looked into what the genre requirements are, I realized that it was not.

It didn't really match the requirements that dedicated romance readers expect

when they read a romance novel.

So I looked into the genre and I put together Vampires of a Certain

Age, which takes this idea of an older woman having a significant love

life, to the max, because the woman is actually 500 years old and falls

in love with a woman in her 50s.

So that was my first romance novel.

And then I decided that I wanted to share with other women, how to put together a

romance novel, and that's the book that's about to come out this month, which is

called Write and Sell a Seasoned Romance, and it takes you all the way through.

It tells you what's, what are the genre expectations, how do you write a romance

novel, gives you ideas for the premise that will work with characters our

age, and then goes through the editing process, takes you through all the

possibilities for publishing, and then lots and lots of ideas for marketing.

So I've tried to do both things.

I've tried to create my own stories, And at the same time, encourage other women

of a certain age to get into this fun revolution and create their stories too.

It is serendipity, synchronicity, or whatever you want to say, divine

kismet, that I just launched Seasoned Women Serious Business Podcast a few

weeks ago, and then reconnected with you.

Actually, I think I saw LinkedIn post about how to write and sell

a well seasoned romance, and I thought, Oh, good heavens.

If that is not a sign, then I need to call Stella and say, we should talk about

your book on the podcast, because you have a business and you're doing seriously

good work with it and supporting others.

But also, you haven't put all of this work into it for it not

to be sustainable financially.

I know that you tax all the prisms of your brain, but I just love the fact that we

can share this with all women, all people.

Life will just surprise you if you open up and take a chance.

And that is why I pushed to have this interview now because at the date of

recording and just a couple of weeks, Write and Sell a Well Seasoned Romance.

Love that.

Will be on Amazon.

The publication release date is August 29th.

But if you are as excited as I am about this, you will go immediately

to Amazon and book a pre sale purchase of the book because I'm on the list.

I'm so excited.

I would love us to have Amazon say, Whoa, what's happened on over

here with all these seasoned women?

because we have sold out capacity of this book.

And I would love you, all my listeners, to do so and spread the word.

And of course, we'll put all the important links in the podcast notes, because

spread it, spread the word around.

Let's start a revolution of rogue, seasoned women writers.

Amen.

Woohoo.

Yes.

Okay, we're going to recap all of the titles of the books but one

question came up in, for me when you were talking about it, Why did

I think that was Pandemic Ball?

Is there a difference?

The original collection was the Erotic Pandemic Ball.

But I had some other stories that were about seasoned women and

their love lives in the pandemic that took place in New York City.

excuse me, that took place in California.

The the setting for Erotic Pandemic Ball is an imaginary senior community in North

Carolina where I live, but I had written stories about other places and how women

were finding love during the pandemic.

So we reissued the erotic pandemic stories with these additional stories.

So now it's called the Erotic Pandemic Collection.

So if you want all the stories, Check out that

edition.

I love the tagline, the most fun you can have with your mask on.

So good.

And, I also would like everybody to be aware.

You have an incredible blog series.

Seriously today with so many blog, blog, blog, blogs going on, there are very

few that I look forward to receiving in my inbox and read every single word.

While you're waiting for Stella's most recent book to come out, subscribe to

her blog also, because it's educational, it's entertaining, and I really like

that you push back on a lot of stuff.

Thank you.

And I also publish on the 10th of each month, I

publish a guest essay from an author, a woman author over 50.

If any of your listeners are interested, have a book coming out, and would

like to use that as part of their publicity, please get in touch.

The new one that just came out is from Lynne Sprain, who took up

writing after her career was over, started publishing books, and has done

extremely well, and she talks all about the ins and outs of that experience

in the new essay that's just out.

It's called Living the Dream.

Living the

dream.

It's up on my website.

And I also share out the blogs and guest blogs on my social media platform.

So folks can find them on LinkedIn.

X and Facebook as well.

Okay.

Stella, do you get pushback from people close to you, that you are

doing too much, that you're working too hard at your age or for your health?

How do people look at you and go, how is this possible that she's doing all this?

I don't

think I get pushback.

I have four grown children.

I think they're a little startled at how much I do compared to their

other parents and grandparents.

Their grandparents for the most part are no longer here, but their

other parents and step parents.

I think they're surprised, but they also really get it.

My daughters in particular are very clear that what I'm doing is

a benefit for women of all ages.

They're very happy that all this is happening.

So that's really wonderful for me.

I wasn't sure frankly, when I switched from technical writing to, at first

I was very much into writing erotica.

At this point I'm, what I'm writing is more romance and women's fiction.

And I wasn't sure, frankly, how they would react, but they're very positive about it.

So that's a wonderful thing.

There weren't any gulps in the beginning thinking, Oh, mom!

There was a little gulp here and there, but they're into it now.

Excellent.

That's a marvelous thing.

Good!

Because I'm going to make sure my kids listen to this section

of the podcast carefully.

I'm preparing them for, yes.

So what's next?

What's next for you?

Next, between now and when the book comes out, the

very next thing that's happening is I'm having cancer surgery.

So that's a thing that's happening on the 19th which is a really

interesting event in the middle of a book launch, I have to say.

I decided to leave my book launch date where it was when I found out that I did

have cancer and was going to need surgery.

And at times, frankly, I have thought to myself, what a foolish decision, but

on the other hand, It distracts me, it gives me something else to think about,

and I can use the techniques that I talk about in my own book to set up the kind

of marketing campaign that doesn't need my hands on participation every day.

So when I'm first recovering, there will still be updates coming out.

There'll be memes that I created on Canva with excerpts from

early interviews of the book.

There'll be quotes from the book.

There'll be book trailers.

And of course, this wonderful podcast will come out.

So lots of things are going to happen to make sure that the

word gets out about the book.

And in a way, it demonstrates the very thing I'm talking about in my new book,

which is that you can set up a marketing campaign for your own book, a marketing

and publicity campaign that fits your own circumstances and your own skills.

and make that happen.

And it doesn't need to be expensive.

It can be exactly what you want it to be.

It's a mixed bag, but we are doing the absolute best with it that we can.

I,

first

of all from me, from all of my network.

We're there to support your full and quick recovery, rebound, because we're going

to need you to keep guiding us forward in our own journey of writing and just

being a friggin awesome role model!

It's inevitable that we will have some health issues.

I'm 10 weeks today post hip replacement, never felt better.

And, we take it in stride.

We have incredible medical resources around us.

We built our support networks.

In fact, that was my podcast last week, and my LinkedIn article is

Building Your Own Emotional and Inspirational Trampolines and

doing that very purposefully.

And living with the expectation to recover and go on to continue

to fulfill all of these epic list items that, that we have, right?

The list just keeps getting longer.

I don't want to say wish you well, because I don't have any doubt.

You are vibrant and strong and resilient and you're doing all the right stuff.

And today, medical.

processes and technologies have advanced so much that the word cancer

doesn't have to be as terrifying as it is, not that it's not serious.

Damn, it doesn't stand a chance against you!

Thank you.

Thank you

very much.

But let's be real, right?

We can be busy and creative and we create this public persona of having

everything perfect and having all this energy and all this stuff but

the truth is that we are still human beings and we are human living in these

bodies and so stuff will come along, but, mindset is incredibly important

for everything that we encounter.

That's true.

And somehow I suspect some more writing will come from this

experience in multiple genres.

You're going to weave it into the stories that you write.

So that'll be interesting to find out where that turns

up in the next publications.

I also want to commend you and thank you for having set up a

business process because I am a business person and so I like to

incorporate that in our conversations.

There's all the fun stuff, the aspirational stuff, the growth, the

evolutionary advantages of being a woman of a certain age, but then

there's also, the sustainability aspect.

And for you to walk people through with your book, how you support

the sale of the book, the how tos, explaining the technologies and

the platforms that we didn't even talk about 20 years ago, right?

It's very true.

It's very true that's one of the things that I cover is the evolution

of the publishing industry.

We have seen incredible changes from when we were in our, say, in our 20s.

The traditional publishing industry has had its hat handed to it by

Amazon, by Print On Demand, by all the other places where you

can now sell an independent book.

And next up will be people selling books on their own websites and

circumventing places like Amazon.

It's fascinating to see how all this is unfolding, and yes, I think

pulling all that information together in one place and providing it to

people I hope is a real service.

We want to encourage as many women as possible to take up this challenge, to

join this fun revolution and create our own stories that push back on

and subvert the dominant paradigm, because we know the way we're living,

we know how much fun we're having, and it's important to share that out.

We're removing the filters, right?

We're uncensoring how we have been censored by sharing these stories.

I love the fact that you are sharing the.

perspective on the platforms and the marketing machine in a very

general way and without an agenda, because this is a challenge today

with so much information, being dumped on us because of social media.

It's hard to sort out now, like who's, telling me something

because it serves their agenda.

I like that you're offering a broader look at and putting it in the context

which will be relevant for someone who's thinking , " I'd like to write.

I'd like to sell my story."

And we don't all have to rush out and spend tens of thousands of

dollars to be coached by somebody.

And, conversely, bullshit on the You Can Write a Successful

Book in a Weekend story.

I, because let's be honest, right?

Okay.

I want to keep talking to you forever and ever.

But on the other hand, I also want to get this episode edited and published

because I'm very excited for this opportunity to be supporting you on your

surgery journey and recovery, and then to wherever book launch success globally.

But before I let you go.

Two questions and then I'd like to welcome you to share any

other thoughts that you have.

Number one, this is just for fun and this might be a little challenging

because you're a very public persona, but is there something that you

might share with us about you that we might not be able to find on Google?

Sure.

So many things.

How about this one?

I once applied for a job at Doubleday back when there was a Doubleday and got on

the elevator along with someone from HR.

And there was one other person on the elevator, Jackie Kennedy Onassis.

Wow.

And She smiled at me, and I smiled at her, and when the HR guy

and I got off the elevator, I said, That woman looked so much like Jackie Kennedy.

And he said, "That's because that was Jackie Kennedy.

She's working here as an art book editor."

. Briefly, she worked as an art book editor at Doubleday, making these

great, art coffee table books.

So that was one of those memories that absolutely sticks

with you your whole life.

Being this close to Jackie Kennedy

and sharing a smile.

Yeah, such an elegant woman, sophisticated.

She would have been ideally suited for that job, right?

But to be that, to be in that same airspace as her, that's, Thank you.

That was a great one.

And there's one heck of a woman example for swimming against

the current in her life, right?

Yes.

Cool.

The other thing I would like to ask, and again, this may be a challenge

because I'm going to ask you just to pick one, but if you were to share one

brief pearl of wisdom that we can share with our audience, what comes to mind?

I would

say to women of our age in particular, and women in

general, to get out of your own way.

We have been told so many things about ourselves over the decades.

We've been handed so many stereotypes, it's impossible

not to internalize some of it.

It's really impossible.

We grew up with the Disney princesses and the Disney bad

witch older women characters.

How could you not internalize the desire to be a princess and not a dragon lady?

But at our point in life, it's important to set aside that inner critic, to

find a way to amuse her and have her go off and do something else.

If you're writing a book, consider it as play.

Your first draft is your play space and let the inner critic

know that when it's time to proofread, she can have a free hand.

But for now, if she could please step aside and let you have your play space.

Play is so important for us at this age.

Yes, we might be serious about business, but we don't have

to live seriously all the time.

And laughter is so very important, especially when we look in the mirror.

You're so right!

Having been raised on fairy princesses and perfectly behaved, coiffed little

girls, it's time to look in the mirror and say, "I am the fairest of them all!"

Oh, I love that.

Yeah.

Yes, indeed.

Yes, indeed.

And we get to be creative.

We get to play.

That's not just the province of children.

It's for us too.

Oh, my God.

We can teach them.

We can teach those kids so much about having fun, right?

We could.

Stella.

I would love if we could book your calendar a few months after the book

launch and your robust return to health.

But for now, is there anything else that you want to share with the listeners?

We've covered so much.

I'm just really thrilled.

I think the only other thing I can think of is that when we're playing

and creating, we get to think big.

We get to think beyond our books.

Think about the media.

Think about movies.

Think about performing your work in public.

We get to be very visible at this point in life.

There's a wonderful program called The Writer's Lab, which is funded by Oprah and

Meryl Streep and some other actresses of a certain age, actors of a certain age.

And this is a program that invites women over 40 to submit their movie scripts.

So as you're writing your novel, your stories, think about that

you can potentially get your story out into an even wider audience.

We can change the narrative in so many ways, including the very public

presentation of our work in media.

So keep that in mind as well.

Let's all think big as we're creating and playing.

Oh my goodness.

We're creating the future.

We are!

Thank you.

All right.

I I'm going to follow up check in on you.

I'm excited about sharing this opportunity with everybody who's listening to PRE-buy

Write and Sell a Well Seasoned Romance, and hopefully find an opportunity in

the future to have it signed by the author when we find her out there.

Okay.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Talk to you soon.

All right.

Thanks.

Bye.