Aime Austin is the author of the Casey Cort Crime Fiction Series. Casey is almost always in trouble. Aime’s full time job? Rescuing her. Good thing Aime’s got experience. She practiced family and criminal law in Cleveland, Ohio for several years—so she has the skills for the job. When Aime isn’t rescuing Casey from herself, she’s raising her son or traveling between Budapest and Los Angeles.
How Do You Write Podcast: Explore the processes of working writers with bestselling author Rachael Herron. Want tips on how to write the book you long to finish? Here you’ll gain insight from other writers on how to get in the chair, tricks to stay in it, and inspiration to get your own words flowing.
Transcript
Rachael Herron: [00:00:00] Welcome to “How do you Write?” I’m your host, Rachael Herron. On this podcast, I talk to authors about how they write, what their process is and how their lives fit together. I’ll keep each episode short so you can get back to writing.
Well, Hello writers! Welcome to episode 164 of “How do you Write?” I’m Rachael Herron. So pleased you’re here with me today. I am talking to Aime Austin on avoiding head hopping in fiction, and you’re going to love this episode. She was truly inspiring to me, and I swear to God, when we got done talking, I Googled Homeless Things in Budapest. So, you’re going to really enjoy this episode.
So hold tight for that. A little update about what’s going on around here. Well, those mini podcasts have kind of been helping, keeping you apprised. Ya’ll already know perhaps that my dog died, which sucks. It is Thursday as I record this, and she died on Saturday. And I’m just not over it. I’m just not over looking down at the ground and she’s not there to step over. She’s just the dog of my heart. So that happened. What else has happened? Oh, since the last time I actually posted an interview podcast has been a couple of weeks. I did my money episode, a couple of mini episodes, and, in between that time, I went out to Seton Hill and taught fiction in their MFA program for popular fiction, which is just the best program around. I did that but between traveling and dog loss and I left on January 1st, I really feel like my year just started this last Monday. Everyone else kind of started with their goals and I didn’t, I was just working. I was, I was in Pittsburgh for nine days and then came home and hit the ground running with the dog. And then, so she died on Saturday and on Monday, I guess I had grieved enough on Saturday night and Sunday to allow me to get to the page on Monday. Which was helpful. Sometimes I believe that when you’re in grief, work can really help. And sometimes you just can’t work. Depends on the level of grief, that kind of grief, who it was, that kind of thing. But I found that I was able to not only work but to plan, a new, like a, a look ahead.
So I wanted to mention, I haven’t mentioned it in a while, but Adrienne Bell, who is a friend of mine, you might know her from the podcast, The Misfits Guide to Writing Indie Romance. She is doing a challenge this year called, “Write Hella Words” and I love this challenge. She’s got a ton of people doing it, https://www.writehellawords.com/ You can go sign up. It’s a Slack channel, basically where you post your goal for the year in writing words and then you come back and you remain accountable. It is not too late to join my friends. It is still January. You could join in February or March and say what you wanted to get done for the rest of the year. I did my numbers and my goal is my, I would like to write 450 thousand words in 2020, it’s almost a half a million. I think that Adrienne is going for a half a million as well. Mine isn’t quite up that high. What I am doing is something a little bit new, and I don’t think I’ve talked about it on this podcast. I’m pulling back a little bit and I’m giving myself a little bit more space and grace in doing this job because honestly, if I write a book in four months, three months, to write it and one month to revise, that is a great pace for me. And of course there’ll be more revisions down the road with my editor or whatever. But that’s a really great pace. I am not going to beat myself up for that and make myself work faster.
Joanna Penn, I think once said, when she realized that she just couldn’t keep up with the pace that a lot of people are trying to write books at, it allowed her to step back and say, that’s not my pace. And I am stepping back and saying a book every two months, a book every three months is not my pace. I’m obviously not performing at that level. So what does it really look like? And this is what it really looks like for 2020. 20 days a month, which gives me weekends off, or it gives me days off in the month and I’ll make up for them on weekends if I need to. So for 20 days, every month, 1500 words of new fiction, that is less than I usually push myself to do. I usually push myself to do between two and four. Sometimes when I write 4,000 words in a day, I don’t write for the next two days because I feel depleted. 1500 words on the other hand is pretty darn easy for me. I write and write and write, and you know, half an hour, 45 minutes, I look over and go, Oh! I hit it. Great. I’m done. I’m done with new fiction for the day, and what that means is contract a new fiction. So the thriller that I’m writing under contract. That always feels pretty workaday, that kind of word, that kind of, those kinds of words. So what I’m adding is an element that I stole from an interview that is coming up, I think next week from two artists. One of them said that he introduced play back into his, into his work day, and I am incorporating play. I’m having about an hour or about a thousand words, whichever comes first of play every day. And what it means is I sit down and I write whatever I want. If it’s fiction, not likely to be fiction, but if it’s fiction, I write it. If it is, it’s usually creative nonfiction, so far, just, you know. Journaling, but a little bit expanded, into the essay format and is, which is the one I love to write the best, and it’s just been such a joy. I write my 1500 words first, and then I write my thousand words of play, and while I’m writing my 1500 words first, I’m looking forward to the play that’s coming up. So that’s really, really been working for me. So I’m going to do that cycle. Or three months at a time, and then spend one month revising whatever it is that I have.
So basically, I’ve got three, four months’ cycles in 2020, all told for the kind of contracted fiction that I sell that’ll look like 270,000 new words in 2020. If I maintain that really doable pace, with a stretch goal of 180,000 words of play words for a total of 450 new words. The main goal though is that 270,000 words of new fiction, which is three books in a year. That is awesome for me. That’s a pace I used to be at. I’d like to be at it again. So, www.writehellawords.com if you’d like to sign up and get on the Slack channel is really great and I would love to encourage you to do that.
Okay. Another thing to remind you about, if you haven’t heard about it, I think this is only the second time I mentioned it on the podcast. Probably will be the last time I mentioned it on the podcast. Because both sections are almost full, but I am teaching 90 Days to Done, in which you write your novel or your memoir. Both are constructed the same way in 90 days with me. It is an intensive masterclass, you and 11 other people. It gets really tight, really bonded, and people finish their books. I have a quote from a student from that class, “Rachael pushed us hard.” Let me start that over. “Rachel pushed us to write hard and fast and inspired so many of us to get out of a scared bubble and simply get the words on the page. I am truly inspired by her and all she was able to teach me. I feel so much more confident about my writing skills and they will only continue to get better from here with all the tools she’s provided. Thanks to her, I remember why I love and have a need for writing in my life.” And I love that. So if you’re interested in 90 Days to Done, which runs February, March, April, you can go to www.rachaelherron.com/90daystodone. 90 is the word. The rest is spelled out. Sorry. 90 is the number. The rest is spelled out, 90 days to done. And I’m also doing a section of my 90-day revision, which is super exciting. You bring your book that you have written or at least written, most of, as long as it’s 80-90% done, you can do this, but it has to be pretty close. Otherwise I would not sign up for this. That’s at www.rachaelherron.com/revision and in this class we actually do revise whole books. We learn how to do that first major scary revision, which a lot of writer’s balk at, and here is a testimonial from a student, “Revision was an impossibly scary mountain before I took this class. Now I know my way up that mountain as if I’d been raised on it. This class will teach you how to not only look at your book from the 30,000-foot level, but will help you get the work done on the ground. I started and finished my huge revision in her class, and now I’m querying agents.” Super exciting. So if you’re interested in that, www.rachaelherron.com/revision. I’ve got one class in the one spot in the 90 Days to Done, and I’ve got three or four left in the revision class. So if you’re interested, go join that. And I also, speaking of awesome things and awesome people have a few shout outs for Patreon subscribers who signed up over the last few weeks where I’ve been talking about other things. Thank you to Andrew Mueller, Amanda Gibson, Kate Creek, Michelle Reed. Deb Syenes, that’s how I’m going to say it. Thank you, Deb! Barbara Cann and Lori Ninkhelser. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you all of you who support me over at Patreon, it means the world. You get those essays to read, which I love writing. You can always look at www.patreon.com/rachael.
And now let’s get into the interview with Aime Austin. You’re going to love it so much as much as I did. I’m sure. Enjoy. I wish you very happy writing this week, my friends, and don’t forget to play. Don’t forget to have fun. It’s astonishing to me that this is my job and I get to do it. And I still sometimes forget about play. I still forget to enjoy what I’m doing. So reminding myself of that and going out to look for it and finding it, has really been wonderful. If you’re not enjoying what you’re writing, take a break from it. Do something completely different. There is a part of writing, of course, that is difficult and it’s not enjoyable, and that happens many, many, many days. But if you’re burning out and you really need a break, take a break. Don’t push yourself through that, often push yourself through it, but if you’re really feeling burned out, take a break, do some play, or just add some extra play. Add 15 minutes of play at the end of your session. It’s really working for me. So, happy writing my friends!
Hey, how’s your writing going? Do you swing from word to word like the sentence monkey you are in the enchanted book jungle? or is writing a slog? Maybe you’re not even writing. Let me suggest this. The stronger your resistance is to doing something, the more important it is for you to do. You need a community, and I have one for you. Join my ongoing Tuesday morning writing group from 5:00 to 7:00 AM Pacific standard time. We get together and we write together each week for two hours, and we spend most of that time really writing. Yes, that’s hella early for you, west coast Americans much easier for you, Europeans. But you can do it. You write with company, you get to talk to your peers about what you’re working on, and having that kind of support is invaluable. Go to www.rachaelherron.com/Tuesday for more information.
Rachael Herron: [00:12:02] Well, I could not be more pleased to welcome to the show today, Amie Austin. Hello, Amie!
Aime Austin: [00:12:06] Hey, how are you? Glad to be here.
Rachael Herron: [00:12:08] I’m so glad to see you. This is great. Let me give you a little bit of bio. Aime Austin is the author of the Casey Cort crime fiction series. Casey is almost always in trouble. Aime’s fulltime job, rescuing her. Good thing Aime’s got experience. She practiced family and criminal law in Cleveland, Ohio for several years. So she has the skills for the job. When Amie isn’t rescuing Casey from herself, she’s raising her son or traveling between Budapest and Los Angeles. So I have to ask about that. Budapest. How did that, how did that get started?
Aime Austin: [00:12:38] So for years, to be quite honest, I was looking for like a place for refuge to hang out and I went to a lot of cities and actually went to Budapest by mistake because I made a, I made a geographical error. I was supposed to be in Vienna, but I was like, oh, I was in Prague and I thought, oh, I want a three-hour treatment. Because at the time my son was two, and then I went to go pay the train tickets. I look at it and it was six hours, and I was like, oh, I picked the wrong city. But you know, at that point I was like, all right, well, whatever. And so I got on the train and I got off and I was like, Oh my God, I’m home. Like this is the place I’ve been looking for.
Rachael Herron: [00:13:15] That’s amazing.
Aime Austin: [00:13:16] So I went back four months later and bought an apartment.
Rachael Herron: [00:13:19] What do you love about it?
Aime Austin: [00:13:21] Oh my god. So I’m from New York city, so it’s like New York in the 70s. So if that’s your jam, that would be –
Rachael Herron: [00:13:27] Oh, that sounds, awesome!
Aime Austin: [00:13:29] – beautiful old buildings. The food is exactly the food I grew up with, like heavy Eastern European food, which I love. Bakeries on every corner with like really hardy pastries with lard and butter, which I love. So all of that old buildings, great architecture. Like, so where I live in Budapest, it actually looks like the street I grew up on Brooklyn. So it’s just ‘cause I can’t, you can’t go back. And I live in Los Angeles and that’s certainly different. It’s beautiful architecture, beautiful museums. There’s 150 museums, more or less. And so I go to a different one every day. I walk around, they take pictures, I go to, I can go to the puppet shows with my kid, but I can also go to the ballet in theater. And so all of that, I love public transportation.
Rachael Herron: [00:14:13] Oh my God, that sounds amazing. My wife and I have been maybe looking around for another place to go. I have a New Zealand citizenship, so that’s kind of our, our ticket out. But, but what’s the cost of living like there?
Aime Austin: [00:13:25] So it’s very low. So Eastern Europe, so it was on the other side of the iron curtain. So even though they’re a capitalist country now, I think the per capita income, I want to say is about 13,000 euros per person per year. So everything is about at that scale. So low local bread is maybe 80 cents.
Rachael Herron: [00:14:41] Now, how do you, I’m sorry that I’m just, this is not where the podcast was going to go, but I’m fascinated. How, how do they accept Americans? Like what’s the visa look like there?
Aime Austin: [00:14:52] So I had to apply so it wasn’t good. So I overstayed, you know, you’re not supposed to overstay. Overstayed in a friend of mine. So there’s an, Lisa Marie Rice, who’s an author who lives in Italy. She writes thrillers as well. At some point, we were in Los Angeles together and she was like, so how are you staying? She’s like, do you have a visa? And I was like, no, I don’t have a visa. And she was like, you can’t just overstay. And I was like, I’m an American. I can overstay anything. And so she was like, what I think I need you to do is you need to apply for residency. And I was like, Oh, that’s a good idea. So I actually went back and I looked it up, and it’s just a lot of forms. I mean, if I was in the EU or any other country except for US or China, it would be easier. But I am where I am. So I filled out a lot of forms, a lot of forms. I had an interview and I had to get like clearance that I was not a criminal, both here and there and a lot of stuff, but I have permanent residency, which includes health insurance and all of that. So now I know, I know that’s what I do, and that’s what I do when I go. I get all my healthcare,
Rachael Herron: [00:15:56] That’s what I want to go to New Zealand for, its freaking healthcare.
Aime Austin: [00:15:59] So I stay, so I no longer overstay. So I can stay more than 90 days.
Rachael Herron: [00:16:06] That is so cool. All right. You just added a city to my list to investigate. Thank you very much. It’s blowing my mind.
Aime Austin: [00:16:10] I highly, highly recommend it. I mean, it’s beautiful and if I’m there, I would be happy to show you around.
Rachael Herron: [00:16:14] Okay, if you’re there, I’m gonna go then.
Aime Austin: [00:16:15] And I know many authors there.
Rachael Herron: [00:16:19] I did not expect to go there. That is so cool. Let’s go to writing process ‘cause I know that you write a lot, and you have written under different pendings, which we will not bring up here. But what is your process writing process look like? How do you get the word step?
Aime Austin: [00:16:34] So it’s really mundane and boring to be quite honest. So I get up every morning and I don’t like to write in the mornings, but after having a child, I found out that I had to write in the morning. So I used to write. Okay, I used to write like in the afternoon, so I’d go to exercise and I eat, and then I would like sit around and I’d write between one and eight and then I had a child and there’s an author I know her name was Lynmarc, actually Harlequin romances. So I was crying to her when he was about two and I was like, what am I going to do? I’m never going to write a book again. And she was like, so when you enroll him in nursery, you’re going write in the morning. And I was like, I don’t understand what you said. It doesn’t compute. I’m confused. So she said, you’re going to write in the morning, or you’re going to write no more books? And so, yeah.
Rachael Herron: [00:17:23] That’s a good friend to put it to you straight, you know.
Aime Austin: [00:17:26] I know, and it was hard, and I was like over coffee, I’m crying. Probably also emotional and nursing. So I mean, a lot of stuff happening. But I left. So I write in the morning so as soon as I drop my son off at school, I write. I write 1600 words a day. Sometimes it takes 90 minutes. We could have two if I didn’t have an appointment. Sometimes it takes six hours. It’s done. Yeah. If it gets done and when I get hit word, usually 1601, I closed the computer and quit.
Rachael Herron: [00:17:53] I love the East side because nobody else does that. I do that. Like if my goal is a thousand or 2000, 2001 I’m done. I can be in the middle of a sentence. Just. I know where It’s just that. Done.
Aime Austin: [00:17:59] I know. And then you can walk away. Yup.
Rachael Herron: [00:18:02] They’ll say, well, I hit a roll and I just got another 5,000 I’m like, I don’t understand you. No,
Aime Austin: [00:18:08] Never, most have written on a day is 2200 and that’s a role. So…
Rachael Herron: [00:18:13] That is awesome! That’s really good to hear.
Aime Austin: [00:18:15] But in order to do it, to be prolific, I just have to do it every day. And if I don’t do it every day, I’m going to be quite honest, I forget. So, I mean, it’s, that’s hard. I don’t know what to say. Like I live with, I live with Keith, she embodies me, but I’m honest. I just forget. So I went to Hawaii for Thanksgiving with my son. We went to go see volcanoes and I didn’t write for five days because I always have these plans. I dragged the laptop everywhere, but then he was having fun, and we have to eat and time difference and mixing. I knew it was on the point back sleeping, so, yeah, over the Pacific Ocean. So I didn’t write at all. So I started, God, I landed at midnight. It was horrible. But I started Sunday and I’ve written four days, but it’s, it’s on a roll now
Rachael Herron: [00:19:05] Yeah so it’s you to get back on the, back on the train. So you write on the weekends too? Is that right?
Aime Austin: [00:19:08] Yes, because I can’t, I forgot the thread of the story. So because I quit, its word 1601, if I don’t get up the next day, I honestly, then I’m like, what was I, what was, what was going to happen next? I have no idea and I don’t quack, so I need to, I need to move forward.
Rachael Herron: [00:19:24] You need to be inside the story. That is fantastic. I love that. What is your biggest challenge when it comes to writing?
Aime Austin: [00:19:30] Sitting down to write? So I have, I’m going to be honest, 2 weeks ago, my housekeeper came to my house and she looks at me and she goes, there’s nothing to clean. And I was like –
Rachael Herron: [00:19:41] That has never happened in my house.
Aime Austin: [00:19:42] So it’s actually a mess right now. I don’t know. There’s no, there’s going to be chips and salsa on the floor, but that’s not me. So I, I think two weeks ago I found myself cleaning based sports. Then the week before there’s moths that fly in, because I live in California. So the entryway is an arch, but you know the door, I have a door. So, but between the arch and the door, there’s steps and all this stuff, and there’s moths and then I thought I should get a broom. And then I got a mop. And so that’s really clean. Today, like who’s down the mats in the back of the house. So I mean, I have, it’s really hard to- I organize my pens. I organize my pencils.
Rachael Herron: [00:20:18] But you get it done. You still get the work done.
Aime Austin: [00:20:22] No, but sometimes it’s really hard to just sit down. So I think I texted a friend of mine of the day and I go, okay, it’s five to noon and I dropped my kid off at 8:30. It’s five to noon, I have exactly 2 hours and 40 minutes. Let me just send you this last text about, I dunno, release strategy whatever we were talking about, I said, but then I gotta get off cause I’m actually going to write now. But I mean, so some days it takes a long time to just. You know my brain to settle enough to spit down and write. But –
Rachael Herron: [00:20:50] I really, really understand that.
Aime Austin: [00:20:52] I will say this. So this week actually, I had the great pleasure of meeting George de Kaye.
Rachael Herron: [00:20:56] Wow!
Aime Austin: [00:20:57] I know. So he write, he wrote a graphic novel called, oh my god, I –
Rachael Herron: [00:21:02] Yeah
Aime Austin: [00:21:03] This thing called enemy
Rachael Herron: [00:21:04] It’s getting so much great prods.
Aime Austin: [00:21:05] So he came to my son’s school to speak, which was fantastic. So, you know, I’m going to go at one in the afternoon. But I was like, I have to get the words done before one in the afternoon. And surprisingly, I was able to sit down and do it. Well before that, I was at noon and I was like, it’s all done. Let me get dressed and go out. So it can get done obviously when there’s time pressure, but to be honest, some days it’s just hard and I don’t have a good reason as to why it’s hard. It’s just hard.
Rachael Herron: [00:21:34] I love hearing you say it because it’s something that I’m always battling to and I don’t know why. What is your biggest joy when it comes to writing?
Aime Austin: [00:21:41] Readers?
Rachael Herron: [00:21:42] Yeah
Aime Austin: [00:21:43] So I love, emails and so I get, I get a lot of emails and because of the topics I write about are a bit, I don’t know. I read about foster care and sex trafficking and child molestation and –
Rachael Herron: [00:21:55] Big stuffs.
Aime Austin: [00:21:56] Happy topic. I do get a lot of sort of really great emails with people who are like, I experienced this and I want to share this with you. So, I want to say it’s a joy, but it’s a joy to know that you touch people in that way and they send you these long, I just got an email from an 80 something year old man in Wales who was like, I know. I don’t know. I’m like, where’d you find this book? But whatever. And he was talking about how he had worked in the foster care program in Wales and like how it worked in the greater UK, but he was so happy to read about a book that talked about those topics because it’s something that normally that doesn’t get addressed. And he told me his whole life history.
Rachael Herron: [00:22:30] Oh my God…
Aime Austin: [00:22:31] Its just really sort of fascinating to get those sort of emails. And then I got one from another man, and I don’t, mostly men or women, I mean, readers are women, but I think the men may email more. It was so funny. He’s like, I read your book in tears, and he would say tears. He’s like, water may have leaked out of my eyes. And I was like, it’s okay to say that you cried. Somebody died in a book. And I usually don’t. People usually, don’t die in my books, to be quite honest. And so what, somebody did die. And he was like, Oh, I didn’t expect any sign. It was hard and all of this. And I was like, okay. But I do enjoy the, the fact that people get it, ‘cause you know, it’s a very isolating experience. I mean, I’m here by myself spinning in my chair and organizing my pens. So it’s a nice note that beyond that somebody actually, you know, gets what I’m doing.
Rachael Herron: [00:23:18] I also write about some, some grave topics, and I get some of those emails and I’m always, I always feel number one, really honored to get that, but I also feel like really obligated to send back a very thoughtful email instead of just like, you know, usually I just dash off emails and those I really feel like I need to take time and process and respond to because they don’t, they’re not writing, they’re not writing 400 emails a day like we are, you know, that’s really special to them.
Aime Austin: [00:23:46] Right. So, and I do, although I curb it now because I don’t necessarily know what to say. Like I, in another, I wrote about an affair and it was women’s fiction about an affair. And somebody was like, Oh, I had a similar thing happened to me. And I thought, I don’t have the capacity to respond to this. So usually now, because I used to respond more, I used to; I’m really thankful that you’re reading. I really like, I’m very happy to share your experience because I am.
Rachael Herron: [00:24:15] That’s lovely. I think, and I always thank them for, for honoring me with that share.
Aime Austin: [00:24:22] Right.
Rachael Herron: [00:24:23] Hopefully that works. I always feel so inadequate in that,
Aime Austin: [00:24:25] So do I, but the alternative response, which is what my friends say to their readers and on lighter books is, “Hey, did you read an Amazon review?
Rachael Herron: [00:24:32] Exactly! And you can’t say it on those.
Aime Austin: [00:24:34] I can’t say that. So, I was – ‘cause the pressure is like, you just can’t say. And I was like, no
Rachael Herron: [00:24:39] Definitely not
Aime Austin: [00:24:39] No way, inappropriate.
Rachael Herron: [00:24:40] Yeah. I’m sorry about your foster care experience. Please write a review.
Aime Austin: [00:24:46] That’s a different group of readers. And so I do have a couple of super fans that I love. So I hired a new assistant years and year ago when she was reading the emails and she was like, Oh, she’s like, do you remember the super fans? I’m like, I’m well aware of the super fan, and they write reviews, and so we have a different kind of conversation.
Rachael Herron: [00:25:01] I love super fans. Can you share a craft tip of any sort with us?
Aime Austin: [00:25:08] I will say this. The one thing I learned, I was actually, I did a library talk. I love, okay. I love the mission of libraries. I deeply believe in them. So I went to what’s called the Hyde Park Memorial library, is one of the – a hundred branches of the Los Angeles public library, and somebody asked me this last week, and I really thought about it a little bit. I think the thing that I learned, was actually, and this is not a tip for everyone, it’s a tip for me. I had a head hopping problem.
Rachael Herron: [00:25:32] Oh yeah. Can you explain what that means for people who might not know what that means.
Aime Austin: [00:25:35] Right, so a scene happened and both characters or one character knows what the other one’s thinking without having said without clearly having that information ‘cause they’re not mind readers. And it was a veal problem for me because I was trying to do more than one POV in a chapter. So the thing that I, the greatest tip that I’ve learned is I only have one POV character per chapter. I just, it just makes it so much easier for storytelling purposes because I used to think, Oh, I don’t know what he’s thinking. I went out there, there’s like five people in a room and I want to know what they’re all thinking. And it got too complicated, and I could never, even with an editor, you know, hanging with a hammer over my head, I could not untangle that, mentally. And I was like, so I sort of looking at books that I, that I enjoyed and I realized that, like Elizabeth George, who’s a, she wrote.
That’s what I want to write, like that kind of social commentary, but whatever. One day they’ll be her, but she, she only uses one POV and I was like, Oh, I can just pull back. Like I don’t have to, everybody doesn’t have to have everything right away.
Rachael Herron: [00:26:46] And sometimes I think it might make those story better because, because we don’t know what everybody’s thinking because those are secrets. And that adds up to tension.
Aime Austin: [00:26:53] Yes. So it’s the best thing I ever did when I, I wrote two books, not like that. And by the time I got to actually three, and I could guess, I rewrote one, but by the time I got to book four, I was like, okay, this is already going to save me a bunch of time.
Rachael Herron: [00:27:08] Oh, Yay! I love that.
Aime Austin: [00:27:10] It’s easier now because I’ve done it for a lot of books.
Rachael Herron: [00:27:13] Yeah. Yeah. So what thing in your life affects your writing in a surprising way?
Aime Austin: [00:27:22] Well. So many things affect writings. The first thing was having a child for some reason I thought, so I wrote three or four books before I had a child and I wrote one when I was pregnant. I still read that book. It’s the under color of lots of second or third Casey Cort book. And I still read it and go, I don’t really remember this.
Rachael Herron: [00:27:42] Oh my God.
Aime Austin: [00:27:43] Yeah. Because I was also. I had to paint and have baseboards and nesting and doing all the things like that. So I think that is one of the things that affected me the most. I didn’t realize, how I didn’t realize a lot. I didn’t realize I was going to have to change how I write. I didn’t realize that it was going to influence my writing at all because I thought, well, I feel like I’m the same person, but obviously I have been changed. And people say to you. So I think a little bit more, especially when I talk about some of the stuff like now, like look, I’m ready now is a continuation of the sex trafficking story from four books ago and some of the people under age, and I really think about that a lot in terms of like having a child. And I thought it’s devastating.
Rachael Herron: [00:28:26] That changes everything.
Aime Austin: [00:28:28] Yeah, I know it’s not as distant as it was before, I think is what I want to say.
Rachael Herron: [00:28:33] Yeah. I, I’ve had several books where, you know, kids die and I know that if I had a kid, I don’t have children, and if I did, I’m sure that I wouldn’t be able to write those books anymore.
Aime Austin: [00:28:42] Yes. No children will die in my books.
Rachael Herron: [00:28:43] Yeah,
Aime Austin: [00:28:45] So bad things may happen to them, but nobody dies. And I really struggle with it because I look at them, I know their characters, but I look at them and I think all your life, this trauma has really affected your life so much, and how are you going to recover? And actually I get those emails from writers, especially one character. They’re like two. They’re like, what happened to Stephanie? What happened to Olivia? And I’m like, I’m sorry. And I may resolve it one day, ‘cause I have a list of characters that are like, I don’t wanna say unresolved, but like hanging threads. I have a very big board on the wall with like the 50 people who are still in play. And so sometimes I think about them.
Rachael Herron: [00:29:22] That’s smart.
Aime Austin: [00:29:23] They’re recovering from their trauma. That’s what they’re doing.
Rachael Herron: [00:29:26] Hopefully they’re in therapy. What is the best book that you’ve read recently and why did you love it?
Aime Austin: [00:29:34] Okay, so I’m an evangelist about this book.
Rachael Herron: [00:29:36] Oh, yay. I love books.
Aime Austin: [00:29:40] So, it’s called 101 essays that will change the way you think. By a woman named Brianna, she pronounced it Wiest, W, I, E, S, T. I, I had to drive in a way. I had to drive to a show on the beach.
Rachael Herron: [00:29:55] And so that 2 days at that.
Aime Austin: [00:29:56] There’s no, Yeah. I mean I, I live like four miles or five miles from the beach, but there’s no highway between where I am and there. So, and my friend was having an art show, so I did, I’m going to go, cause that’s important to me. So I’m trying that took like an hour there and now I’m back. I started it as an audio book and it was like the most fascinating thing I ever read because it talks about emotional intelligence and like being, I know.
Rachael Herron: [00:30:24] I’m so excited.
Aime Austin: [00:30:25] People as a reflection of like you and your relationship with people and how it’s a reflection of what you and how things you love and people that you love about yourself. So I love smart women and artists that the things that you did that you just like about people and things we can’t see in yourself.
Rachael Herron: [00:30:40] I hate that. I hate that. And I know it’s true.
Aime Austin: [00:30:43] So I went. So I drove. And so I listened to the book once and then, I had to drive to Palm Springs, for a school event. And so I listened to it again and then I ordered it cause I’m like, I gotta read this. And so it’s on my nightstand with a highlighter and every night it’s a hundred, every night I like to read an essay. And sort of think about it, but it really is, it’s made me think a lot more about people, relationships and how people perceive others and perceive themselves.
Rachael Herron: [00:31:06] Oh my gosh. I have been really, really all about recently untangling stories that we tell ourselves, about ourselves. So I’m literally just going to go one click that
Aime Austin: [00:31:16] It’s the best I can’t, I can’t. It’s so brilliant and beautiful and wonderful.
Rachael Herron: [00:31:22] Thank you so, so much. That’s why I love asking this question. Speaking of books, tell us about a little bit about where you can be found, and about Casey Cort, and maybe where she is in the series and all of that.
Aime Austin: [00:31:34] So Casey, so Casey is, I’m going to be honest with Casey is an underdog.
Rachael Herron: [00:31:40] Oh, love an underdog.
Aime Austin: [00:31:42] She came out of law school. She crossed, a very influential family or two, and was unable to get a job. So she’s self-employed. She hung out a shingle and she practices law. She is always on the verge of bankruptcy. It’s not going well. Although she just got a new car and book. She had a car that wouldn’t, every time she turned it off like the motor would shutter with the car wouldn’t quite turn off.
Rachael Herron: [00:32:07] I used to have that car. I remember that car.
Aime Austin: [00:32:11] So she has this, she’s got a new car. Her parents like they’d realize how bad it was for her and so they just bought her a new car. So that’s very exciting. But she, it doesn’t help. It’s actually, I’m writing about this right now because. So it looks, do they go up? Did you have a new car? She’s like, well, they bought it for me, so I don’t have a payment, but they don’t have any more money either. So still where I was, I haven’t paid for a car, but I’m still broke. Right. So anyway, there’s seven books in this series. The seventh, eighth, well I’m writing about eighth, the seventh book just came out. It’s called No Child Left Behind. It’s actually about her father. So her father was 11th born child. So during WW2, Hitler had a more called a program. I don’t know. That’s not a right word, where they wanted to raise the next generation of area in children. And so when they discovered the, and this is still actually a problem in Europe right now, when women were not having babies at a rapid enough rate, despite incentives, they kidnapped children from all over Eastern Europe. So you get Slavia, Poland.
Rachael Herron: [00:33:14] I did not know that.
Aime Austin: [00:33:16] My God. So I, It was a research rabbit hole, two years, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of children they kidnapped them. And often if the children, and they forced them to speak German and not forget, I guess their native language. So Casey had been working on adoption cases where father was having all these problems and she’s like, what’s the problem? Helping people like do international adoption and aren’t I a great person? So he finally revealed to her that he was 11th born baby. And so he went back to Poland to find, to try to find his original family.
Rachael Herron: [00:33:48] I have got goose bumps all over me. I have to read this. Another one plague that’s gonna happen.
Aime Austin: [00:33:52] So it’s, so it’s a little frolic and detour cause she’s in Cleveland, usually battling cases. But he was so, I wouldn’t say passionate lots about her adoption practice. And she was like, this is the way to make money. And I’m not in criminal court. I’m not in juvenile court and people not having trauma. I’m bringing happy endings to people. And he’s like, adoption is not always a happy ending. So I know. So that’s where we are. So that book seven came out. Oh my God, I should know the date. I don’t know. In November. November was a good month. I was traveling, so I feel like I’ve lost November.
Rachael Herron: [00:34:26] Right, right.
Aime Austin: [00:34:28] So that is the latest one. And then the one I’m working on now is Double Jeopardy. So I have a, there is a bad guy in my book who has a sex trafficking ring and in book four it booms mostly about the woman who was trafficked to this woman girl. She was 14, 15 at the time. I know. I know. And she was never caught because he wasn’t really good operations,
Rachael Herron: [00:34:53] So I hope he’s going to get caught this time. Don’t tell us. Did you say you don’t know?
Aime Austin: [00:35:39] I don’t know. And she’s like, so what happens to him? I’m like, I don’t know. I don’t know.
Rachael Herron: [00:35:10] Don’t you love pot lunches with friends? And then you could do that –
Aime Austin: [00:35:14] I do.
Rachael Herron: [00:35:15] And then you could do that and then you could do that.
Aime Austin: [00:35:16] I know. And trust me, she solves a problem that actually than my son named the dog in the book. I needed the name of a dog for as like a side character, and he’s like, the dogs’ name you call him Moro. And I was like, like Morro Bay, California? And he’s licking. I’m like, they live in Cleveland. He was like, well, then you have to come up with a story for why the dog is named Moro.
Rachael Herron: [00:35:33] That’s so cute. Let’s just talk about your son for a minute. He set up your like space that you’re sitting in and he’s going to write a business and he’s gonna write a business plan for you after this.
Aime Austin: [00:35:44] Yes, a marketing plan
Rachael Herron: [00:35:45] And he’s nine.
Aime Austin: [00:35:46] Yes.
Rachael Herron: [00:35:47] He sounds awesome. Please send him to my house. I would like to- I would like to engage in his services.
Aime Austin: [00:35:52] So he leaves food on the floor, but he does write marketing plans to float things by him. And they’re like, we, so we have this conversation that goes, so, so what does your son think? And I was like, Oh, I’ll go ask him. And then I tell him, we haven’t, you know, Facebook group. And they’re like, we just do it. He says, do it. He said, because I think he watches like all that YouTube stuff that I don’t quite understand, but they’re really brilliant marketers.
Rachael Herron: [00:36:18] Oh my god.
Aime Austin: [00:36:19] And so I think he’s, I know.
Rachael Herron: [00:36:20] And he is not over 10 and has the same kind of information.
Aime Austin: [00:36:23] But I’m not going to watch like nine hours of Youtube, ‘cause I don’t have nine hours. I’d never had a book. But he comes in with that information. Like the other day he was doing something and he’s like, well, how come you’re not drinking with the mug with your name on it? And I was like, I know right. I know.
Rachael Herron: [00:36:41] Wow. Yes. I am advertising a cafe in Paris, you know, not myself. That is freaking genius. Tell him thank you for that little tip. I’d like to have him on my show now.
Aime Austin: [00:36:55] He would talk your ear off for four hours and you’d never be able to get him off. I’m quite honest.
Rachael Herron: [00:37:00] And where can we find you online?
Aime Austin: [00:37:02] So, so I will be honest. So my, my main writing name is Sylvie Fox, which is backwards.
Rachael Herron: [00:37:11] No, it’s actually, they swap this somewhere. I can read it. Yeah.
Aime Austin: [00:37:15] Oh, I can’t cause mine is backwards. And so I read this Aime Austin, and she’s www.aimeaustin.com It’s actually my grandmother’s name.
Rachael Herron: [00:37:25] Oh, beautiful.
Aime Austin: [00:37:26] So to honor her, I was like, why can’t you be alive? And I was like, ‘cause she was born in 1906. No. So, but so he passes my name Aime Austin. I used to write crime fiction under Sylvie Fox and my readers did not enjoy it. And so when I split the names, I got a lot of thank you for my script. Thank goodness. Because now I know which book is which, and I personally did the covers are to get them enough, but that’s a different conversation. So, I’m actually on Instagram the most lately cause I can’t, like,
Rachael Herron: [00:38:02] I know Instagram is the only place I only place I go now.
Aime Austin: [00:38:05] Because all happy.
Rachael Herron: [00:38:06] Yeah. Yes, yes.
Aime Austin: [00:38:08] It’s pretty pictures and all happy. So it’s www.instagram.com/sylviefox on Instagram and actually you can see all my travel pictures, so I travel a lot to Hawaii then before the Houston and Crystal Beach, Texas. And then before that it’s Budapest.
Rachael Herron: [00:38:21] I want to see the Budapest.
Aime Austin: [00:38:22] Before that, I don’t know where I was, maybe London, Italy, somewhere. Half computer, more travel, but she’s on Twitter, it’s www.caseycort.com/twitter And then, but I don’t treat much under her cause I just don’t have the time. And Casey doesn’t have that much to say. She said a lot of political things from the case side to back down from that. And then, www.aimeaustin.com is where all the books are.
Rachael Herron: [00:38:49] Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. It is such a delight to talk to you. You were talking at the end of the day and I feel revitalized and like I want to go write now and I never do that in the evening. Never. And I probably won’t, but I feel like I could, after talking to you.
Aime Austin: [00:39:07] That’s great! I’m gonna go and have dinner.
Rachael Herron: [00:39:09] Actually, I’m just gonna reheat from last night, so thanks. Thanks me. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so, so very much.
Aime Austin: [00:39:15] Thank you so much for having me.
Rachael Herron: [00:39:16] I will be following everything you do, so all right. Have a good night!
Aime Austin: [00:39:20] You too.
Rachael Herron: [00:39:21] Bye.
Rachael Herron: [00:39:22] Thanks so much for joining me on this episode of “How do you Write?” You can reach me on Twitter, twitter.com/RachaelHerron, or at my website, www.rachaelherron.com, you can also support me on Patreon and get essays on living your creative life for as little as a buck an essay at www.patreon.com/rachael spelled R, A, C, H, A, E, L and do sign up for my free weekly newsletter of encouragement to writers rachaelherron.com/write/
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