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

In this episode, we put our relationship to the test with a few would-you-rather questions from a classic Cosmo-style quiz, then sit down with bestselling author and former Cosmopolitan editor John Searles to talk about his new novel, Single Girls.

John shares how a brutally honest rejection nearly ended his writing career, the unlikely path that led him to Cosmopolitan, and what it was like working alongside legendary editor Helen Gurley Brown for more than two decades.

Then we debut a brand-new, fresh outta the oven segment, Officially Stacked, and add Naina Kumar’s Scottish road-trip romance Just a Highland Fling to our growing TBR.

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 contemporary romance author Georgia Stone to talk about her new rom-com, The Roommate Rule.

Georgia shares how growing up in Switzerland shaped her creativity, how she came back to reading and writing as an adult, and how late-night writing sessions helped her turn a tiny idea into her debut novel.

We also talk about doomed rules, forced proximity, tall heroines, banter, book tours, author signatures, and the joy of writing imaginary friends for a living.

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 back from a very bookish road trip with a slightly late episode, a dash of magic, and the world’s biggest em dash announcement.

This week, we launch our very serious, very unofficial Save the Em Dash movement, recap a weekend of author events with Kirsty Greenwood, Ashley Poston, Kayla Olson, Livy Hart, and Naina Kumar, and dive into why magical realism has become one of our favorite storytelling devices.

From Romantic Hero and The Love of My Afterlife to The Seven Year Slip, The Dead Romantics, and The Someday Garden, we talk about romance books that use one impossible thing to make grief, hope, humor, love, and change feel even more real. We also share how magical realism may be making its way into our own book.

Plus, the great Mattzini does some Matt-gic.

Join the Movement: www.OurNextChapter.com/SaveTheEmDash

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

Lauren Okie is back for our first-ever return guest episode, and we’re talking all things Tropesick, her second novel out June 16. We get into romance tropes, writing through fear, sophomore-book pressure, big emotional swings, and why Lauren is so good at writing stories that feel messy, honest, hot, and human.

Plus, we rank Andrea’s favorite romance tropes and somehow make room for Annabel Monaghan, fake dating, Jason Momoa, and Matt’s ongoing refusal to watch The Notebook.

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

In this episode, we're recording at LaunchPad Studios in Dallas while surviving May: graduations, theater awards, senior celebrations, middle school milestones, Mother’s Day, road trips, and the big-time realization we’re about to have both a high school freshman and a college freshman.

Then we dive into two of our favorite new summer reads: The Shippers by Katherine Center and Dolly All the Time by Annabel Monaghan.

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