Before Laurie was the number one New York Times bestseller behind The Pumpkin Spice Cafe and the Dream Harbor series, she was writing werewolves under her own name, Melissa McTernan. Big Bad Wolf is that book, pulled back out, heavily rewritten and re-released under the name her readers know her by. She tells us what it is like to reopen something you wrote years ago, what she cut (the entire first third), what she refused to touch, and why a hero who walked away from his whole pack needed an old lady best friend.

Before the interview, Andrea digs out her Shelley Duvall Fairy Tale Theatre DVDs and Matt chats through where fairy tales actually came from, why the oldest ones have no fairies in them at all, and the three rules nearly every one of them follows.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

We’re sharing the romance books, magical realism, and new releases we’ve been reading, then taking you inside the Get Lit Adult Book Fair at the Dallas Public Library to for a little bit of convo and chaos.

Andrea recommends Mad Mabel, The Mash Up by Laura Marie Myers, and Our Perfect Storm by Carley Fortune. Matt is reading People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry, and together we’re reading Abby Jimenez’s A Married Little Christmas.

Then we settle a serious book-lover debate... should books stay clean and carefully protected, or should dog-eared pages, cracked spines, coffee stains, and a little pool water prove they were loved?

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com

This week, we’re joined by debut author Amy Archer to talk about Nemesis Mine, her funny and unexpectedly tender fantasy rom-com about a worn-out hero, an underappreciated villain, and the fake feud that leads to very real feelings.

Amy shares how childhood poetry nights and letters from her granddad helped shape her life as a writer, why she loves bringing together characters who seemingly have no business belonging together, and how writing from a villain’s perspective gave her permission to be a little more irreverent.

Plus, Amy reveals her connection to BBC’s Sherlock, tells us about her intense Squid Game era, and joins us for an Impossible Meet Cute involving a time-traveling knight, a terrified horror novelist, and one deeply confusing trip to the gym.

Before the interview, we kick off the North Texas Indie Bookstore Crawl. Afterward, we open the mailbox and discover that someone in our house may be plotting against Andrea.

Matt & Andrea here. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We'd love to hear from you. Visit us at www.OurNextChapterPodcast.com