What to Read Next Podcast Recording - Samantha Chase and Laura Yamin
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[00:00:00]
Laura Yamin: Hi Samantha. Welcome to What your next podcast.
Samantha Chase: Hi, how are you?
Laura Yamin: Good. so excited to chat with you. You've been a frequent guest to the show quite a few times, but I always love coming back and talking to you. So when the opportunity rose, I was like, yes, please. So, so
Samantha Chase: Well, thank you.
Laura Yamin: tell us where you've been out to other
Samantha Chase: my goodness. I feel like lately that all I've been doing is writing. I'm actually I'm gonna finish a book tomorrow, leaving for the beach on Saturday for my annual writing retreat. My husband and I go and he fishes and I write, and it's just glorious. But I'm working on book three in my lake, my new Lakeview Harbor series.
So that's the one that's getting finished tomorrow. And I've got a super secret project that's not gonna be announced until April. Yes. April. So that, so I was sort of, I'm sort of like writing like two books at a time, which I don't normally enjoy doing,[00:01:00]
Laura Yamin: Yeah.
Samantha Chase: it's just the way that this project was given to me and I was like, I had to do it.
So
Laura Yamin: Yeah.
Samantha Chase: see how it, hopefully it'll work well.
Laura Yamin: My gosh.
Samantha Chase: but yeah. So just lots and lots of writing. And taking care of my dog and just trying to stay afloat.
Laura Yamin: Yeah, that's all we can do. So talk. Talk to me about your writing process. 'cause I think like you're someone who publishes consistently, which is a great we love writers. Are you, like, you're pro giving us fun and happy, but how much planning do you have ahead, like for a series? Like do you, are you, like how many books ahead are you from?
What's getting published? Like
Samantha Chase: Okay, so, all right. Well. When we are, when I'm getting ready to start a new series, I sit down with my assistant and we we start with like almost nothing. We're like, do we wanna do a family saga? Do I wanna do like friends? Do I wanna do, what do we wanna do? And we will plot out an entire series, but like, very loosely, [00:02:00] we know the tropes, we know the characters and like what their deal is, like what's gonna be like the conflict.
Laura Yamin: Mm-hmm.
Samantha Chase: maybe just like a few brief ideas of like, things that'll happen in the story. And then I have that in one document and it's really just kind of funny 'cause it'll just be like a name opposites attract, she hates him for this reason, he's got this issue and like I just have to go with it from there.
But right now, typically, like, my next, now my next three books are written. My next three releases are written, so Holly Brown, which comes out November 4th, that's all written and ready to go. My January release Resort Fling is ready to go, and then tomorrow I'm gonna finish writing the next Lakeview Harbor book.
And so that won't come out until the end of March, and that's gonna be going off to my editor. So typically I like, I prefer to have like my next three to four books.
Done. Just [00:03:00] because you never know what life's gonna throw you away. So I like having things ready to go.
Laura Yamin: Yeah, I like, let's talk about the back list. 'cause I feel like you have a healthy back list and you have been building over time. And I think when new writers come in, they think that they just need to hit big on the first book and that's the one thing that's gonna make it or break it. And the reality is I have a healthy back list in a podcast.
I can tell you my workforce is not just a new episode, it's the 800 previous episodes that are there and like people
Samantha Chase: That's right.
Laura Yamin: and stuff like that. So. Building the back list, like from ground up. 'cause how many books you have published? Like this point, like quite a few.
Samantha Chase: Yeah, I wanna say that I looked the other day and like this book that I'm finishing tomorrow is gonna be like my 120, no, my hundred 18th. A hundred 18th.
Laura Yamin: Yes. So think of my, like when you were starting out like into, what would advice would you give yourself starting out and thinking, is this gonna work? Well, you have a hundred 'cause I think you have a valuable [00:04:00] experience 'cause you have 118 books published. Not just because you may have a bunch of other ones that are not published.
It may just be in different drawers.
Samantha Chase: Okay.
Laura Yamin: have actually have a work product of a healthy backlist, and you're not in the KU space that is still fickle, like you're actually wide, which is another, unique thing. At this point in the lower year, 2025, it was normal in 2016, but not in 2025.
Like what is going on,
Samantha Chase: readers, the KU readers don't grab me. Like they just, they're, and I have like, we've tried it and I've tried it with like my longer series because the KU reader tends to like, is the longer the series the better. What if they find you, they like you, they're gonna read you. But it just, it wasn't sustainable for me.
I was making more wide and I think it's because I write sweeter. Contemporary like I have a broader audience, so, but I would probably tell my younger self to just like, [00:05:00] you suck right now at your first book. Like you're gonna look back and you're gonna cringe. You're gonna get better. Like this is not the book that's gonna be, it's not gonna be the be all end all.
Although that would be nice, like when it happens for some authors, I'm just. I'm amazed, but most authors like, you gotta work at it a little bit. This, it's, it is a job, and I do, I look back on my early books and I'm like, oh my God. Like what? Like, why did nobody even stop me? Why didn't more people, why did my editor correct more stuff?
But it's all part of the journey,
Laura Yamin: it's part of the journey. It is part of like, you kind of have to master the skill and stuff. And I think you have to master, not just publish writing in the book, editing the book, publishing the book, then actually marketing the book and to be in the face of it. It's, I think when we look back and especially in the white space, that you're actually, you're multiple, you're, which is great 'cause you're diversifying your income.
You're not relying on just one place. A one Ag basket. As we learned, the people on the internet have relied on [00:06:00] Amazon, on the web services to speak, and the internet broke down because we rely on Amazon.
Samantha Chase: That's right. That's right.
Laura Yamin: I, if we had diversify the internet may not have broken out. Like we would not feel the break. So I think in some ways, like, I think you're providing a, like a a, a case study for someone who's like looking for a different space
Samantha Chase: Right.
Laura Yamin: just relying on Amazon or just one thing. I think you have your audio books are why. I've seen them in libraries. I've seen it like, so you're not relying on that space.
I think that's a great case study to look at,
Samantha Chase: Yeah,
Laura Yamin: a lot of work.
Samantha Chase: it is. And I don't have, I don't really have like a marketing brain. Like I've worked with some authors who like, their brain just goes so, such into a deep dive on analytics and doing and looking at all the numbers and I glaze over 'cause I'm like. Just tell me where I need to be and what I need to do, and that's what I'm gonna do.
I can, I'm just not good with that. My [00:07:00] assistant, thank God, like she can do that stuff. But
Laura Yamin: Yeah.
Samantha Chase: right now, in this current time, I feel like all the stuff that used to like work doesn't work really anymore and it doesn't work. Even something that worked a year ago doesn't work. Like, so we're all, I think trying to figure out.
What works for us. Like you can't even, you can't even share like, Hey, I did this and it worked really well because if it worked well for me then it's not gonna work well for anybody else. Like that sort of thing. And it's so frustrating 'cause back in like the 2020 to 2013 to 2015 space, there was like a formula.
Like you knew, like, you published a book, so many months later you did a book bub, you did a freebie, you were guaranteed to hit like the USA today or the New York Times, and. Those days are gone. So I just, I'm just consistent now. Like every eight weeks every eight to nine weeks there is a book for me out.
And that's my job. That's what I do. [00:08:00] Yeah,
Laura Yamin: love this idea of like, yeah the idea of like what used to work no longer works and stuff like that, and the market is shifting and the market is shifting constantly,
Samantha Chase: like.
Laura Yamin: we're, when I noticed, and this is something I'm happy to talk to you about this is that. We see au new authors chasing virality as a way to make it because they wanna become, they wanna be rich and famous. And the reality is that writing is a job. It's not, conation is a job. It's not supposed to like, make you famous and make you all this famous. The one that they're like I'm amazed. I'm like, why do you wanna be famous? Like, it's not gonna pay the bills, and so.
What really comes down to like the what is consistent is once being consistent, be being able to show up to your readers and show up a new work product and for them and have a back list they can go back to for new readers to get started. Have a place where new readers to say You're new, here's where you can get started.
Don't get overwhelmed. Try this, and then go back. And then you just find your own, choose your own adventure.[00:09:00]
Samantha Chase: Exactly.
Laura Yamin: sharing that example that it is possible, it is a job. It's not. It's not glamorous, it's just like writing, and you have to treat it as a job, but it is a job.
Samantha Chase: Noelle Adams, who I've co-written several books with, she just put out a book on writing and it's called Writing Invisible.
Laura Yamin: Yeah.
Samantha Chase: she does, she writes about like, you know what she is, she's written a hun over a hundred books as well. She has two pen names, and she really, like, most people don't know her name like you.
She doesn't do signing, she doesn't do events. She, it's sort of like in the space where you're seeing some of like, like look at like Colleen Hoover for example. Like everybody now knows who Colleen Hoover is.
Laura Yamin: Mm-hmm.
Samantha Chase: Not everybody knows who Samantha Chase is or who Noelle Adams is. We've written probably more books than Colleen, but nobody knows our names.
So, but you keep doing what you love and it doesn't matter if you become like that rich, famous celebrity. You know what I mean? If this is what you're [00:10:00] passionate about, then that, that's your, that's its own reward.
Laura Yamin: Yeah. I think in some ways is like I, one of the things that I hated about 2020 was a nurse. little crisis there was great about making Romans mainstream and making it like very like open and stuff like that, but there were some issues that I was like expecting the authors to be so open and we get to know and they sell the thing and be a parasocial relationship with the authors and expectation when the reality is I just want the, I don't want the author to be on talk, Chuck telling me how to sell the book and tell me storytelling.
I want the author to just go buy, write a book, and then I can buy it and then I can just read it. I want you to get to work. Don't, like, don't try to give me this, like hooks and this story time and this stuff. I just want you to like write the book and just Okay. Like, it there and, and the expectation for them to travel to 20,000 signings and talk to people.
I'm like, it's exhausting and we
Samantha Chase: Exhausting,
Laura Yamin: we're not gonna be best friends with authors. Like, it's not realistic.
Samantha Chase: but [00:11:00] like the, there is this expectation that we are supposed to be able to do it all. You're supposed to write the book, edit the book, market the book, make tiktoks, do Instagram reels, go to signings and like, and have a life, and like, still be like, a wife, a mother a girlfriend, a sister or daughter.
So it's impossible to do it all.
Laura Yamin: It is. I hope that we are in a reckoning. I hope that things go back to, there's like no book signings, no terrible,, let me just buy the books. Let me just hear the books from word of mouth. Let me just like, actually find authors that I love and just go dip, dive in the list.
Let's go to the library and look for books. And like actually like borrow them and then, and have no. I think I love libraries because you can borrow the book. You can read the book and you can say, DF did. Or you can say, I love this, and then I can just go back and get all the other books and stuff like
Samantha Chase: Right,
Laura Yamin: And it's a point where it's like, right now money's tight. So it's like a place where you can actually author, get compensated
Samantha Chase: right.
Laura Yamin: get compensated. And like we get [00:12:00] to understand, get to do that, and then we can buy the physical copies, we can buy the 12 fees and stuff. But I think it's moving away from the world of like expecting the authors to be your BFF.
Samantha Chase: Yeah.
Laura Yamin: and I think it's and I know it comes from a place of privilege for me because I do talk to authors as
Samantha Chase: Right, right.
Laura Yamin: but it's very rare that authors are my BFF.
Samantha Chase: I will say, like I have met, I have made some really good friends in the romance world with readers like I've, there, there are several who have become very dear friends. That's not the case with everybody that comes to your table at a signing. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just a, it's an appreciation.
Like they, Hey, I love your. Hey, I am glad that you're reading it and then everybody goes on their way and I mean, that's equal, that's also cool, but yeah, I don't like having to have the list of all the stuff that I have that I'm expected to do. I'm really bad at it,
Laura Yamin: it, I want you just to get to work and just write the book.
Samantha Chase: going as fast as I can.
Laura Yamin: Like, [00:13:00] don't engage in drama, don't engage in opinions. I don't care about your opinion right now.
Samantha Chase: Yeah.
Laura Yamin: I don't care. Like just do, just write a book. And I think it's like, I think it's like expecting people to like have an opinion about every single issue. It's like exhausting. It's. It
Samantha Chase: It's exhausting.
Laura Yamin: Let the writing just speak for itself. Writing is political. It's like you can
Samantha Chase: That's right.
Laura Yamin: opinion in the writing, don't need to have a statement about every single issue.
Samantha Chase: About every event that's happening in the world, like you do not have to. Yeah,
Laura Yamin: no,
Samantha Chase: I agree.
Laura Yamin: but go write,
Samantha Chase: To me, like writing is an escape from all that stuff. You know what I'm saying? Like I love when everything else is a dumpster fire going on around me. I can then go to my little resort town, like of Lakeview Harbor and just play there for a little while.
Laura Yamin: yes. Like
Samantha Chase: Beautiful thing.
Laura Yamin: and just enjoy like a little breather and have characters that you can actually make them do things you can control. Although they may [00:14:00] not be able to be controllable, like, but you think you're controlling, you have something you're control to do. All right, so we gotta talk about Holly Brown Christmas.
As I was telling you beforehand, I am in a Christmas mood. I need world's terrible. We're just gonna have our own traditions. We're gonna go Christmas. And so I invited as many authors who are writing Christmas books to come and talk about their Christmas book, because we need more Christmas toys. So
Samantha Chase: I agree. I have a ton of them. I have a ton of Christmas books that's like. If I could, I'd probably write Christmas all year. Like I just, I love it, but I know then it would get stale. But like what I said from the very beginning, because my first big break was a Christmas book. Was the Christmas cottage.
Yes. Christmas Cottage was the second book that I wrote, and it was not supposed to be what it turned into.
Laura Yamin: Mm-hmm.
Samantha Chase: I had written one book and it sold like 30 [00:15:00] copies that entire year, and it was primarily friends and family, and I knew I needed to write something bigger, something better, but I wanted to keep my name out there.
So I wrote this Christmas novella, right? I wrote it in 11 days. I was doing national novel writing Month. I was doing nano rmo.
Laura Yamin: Yeah.
Samantha Chase: And bang that out in 11 days had it edited and I was gonna put it out there as a freebie for readers, and Amazon would not allow me to do it as a freebie that you've had to put it for at least 99 cents.
Laura Yamin: Yes.
Samantha Chase: So I put it out there for 99 cents and it sold 10,000 copies in like the first month.
Laura Yamin: Holy crap. That's like $9,000. That's like five figures, like almost five figures.
Samantha Chase: I was like, holy crap. So it's like the little book that could, you know what I mean? And when I got signed by an agent, I told him the, one of the first things I told him was that I wanted [00:16:00] that book to be a Hallmark movie. And he went, absolutely not. I said, why not? He goes, no, it's too hard to do.
You don't make a lot of money. It's not really worth it. And I kept asking and he always said no. And then they came to me, A producer came to me and said, we wanna make this book into a movie. So that like started my love of Christmas writing. Christmas.
Laura Yamin: Your second book got your homework movie. Like how Christmas. This is
Samantha Chase: I mean, it was years down the road it came out.
Laura Yamin: that. We know that. But it's still like you got, you manifested your Hallmark
Samantha Chase: I did. But you know, I mean, like, it wasn't a right away thing, like we were saying like that, your first book doesn't make you, but I mean, like, so the book I released in 2012, and it was a movie in 2017.
Laura Yamin: Mm-hmm.
Samantha Chase: it's like I said, it doesn't happen right away, but it does happen. But I said from the get go af like after that book did well, I was like, I told my readers, I'm like, you'll always get a Christmas story from me.
Like I don't [00:17:00] care if it's part of a series or a standalone. You are always gonna get a Christmas book from me. And I've stuck to my word on that
Laura Yamin: So you have technically 13, at least
Samantha Chase: at least. Yeah. All right. So I have my little stack behind me. So that's 2, 4, 6. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. This is 13. I have some that aren't down here, so that one was 14, 15, 16. I wanna say there's about 16 of them.
Laura Yamin: So you have like a little bit of everything. So I'll that's one thing I'll put together. I'll put little Christmas shop, my for you guys to buy yourself this book.
And they're so, they're not just ku, they're
Samantha Chase: Yep.
Laura Yamin: Apple Books. They're available Google Books. They're available on Barnes and novel. They're
Samantha Chase: They're on my website too. I have an ebook store on my website, so there's that too. Mm-hmm.
Laura Yamin: So talk to us about, like, now let's just talk about some Christmas books. Like we Got Christmas Cottage, which is a novella,
Samantha Chase: Yep.
Laura Yamin: [00:18:00] talk about maybe some of the contemporaries, some of the recent ones, and then we can, pick a couple more.
Samantha Chase: Okay, so, all right. I know we're not doing video, but I could show you.
Laura Yamin: Yeah.
Samantha Chase: Okay. So Christmas Cottage, I did it as a, in paperback it's a duet. So like, because ever after was really like a continuation of the story. It was like the BFF story. So we put them in there. But then all the single title ones, we had Moonlight in Winter Park and waiting for midnight.
We have these two are actually my favorite the Snowflake Inn, which is my next goal for a Hallmark movie. That's what I really would love to see in Hallmark and missile toe between friends.
Laura Yamin: So
Samantha Chase: I have,
Laura Yamin: about that one. This is your favorite. Talk to us about the story.
Samantha Chase: The Snowflake and oh my God. It is the story of a girl who goes to work for this for this b and b called the Snowflake Inn. And she's her parents are gone. She's kind of, she has no family. So like the people at the b and B [00:19:00] are really like her family and the woman who owns it, her son is in the Marines and he comes home like he gets discharged and he comes home and he hates the BB.
Like he's embarrassed that like here he is this big tough Marine and like his legacy is gonna be like his mother's gonna leave him the Snowflake Inn and he's trying to convince her to sell it. But poor grace, like this has become her home. And so like they are really like an enemies, like from the get-go because he's trying to take away her home and her family and she's already lost a family.
And it turns into like an enemies to lovers sort of a thing. And he learns to embrace. That this was something that his family built and he wants to then keep it then for her. And it just like, if that doesn't scream, hallmark does
Laura Yamin: So full rush. I'm like, you got the veteran coming back home, the grumpy guy who does not wanna have this, and you have the person was like, sunshine was like, yes, this is like my [00:20:00] home. Like,
Samantha Chase: my dream place.
Laura Yamin: yes. It's like snowflake, like in like, how cute is this?
Samantha Chase: Then I created an entire town of Silverbell Falls.
Laura Yamin: Okay.
Samantha Chase: And this was also once we'd signed the contract for the Christmas cottage for the movie, I then, it was my goal then to write an entire series so that if they wanted it, it would mean multiple movies.
Laura Yamin: Yes. I love this. This is, you don't, you may not have marketing, but you have business acumen. You're like,
Samantha Chase: Right. That's right. So there are six books in that series. And so it's Christmas and Silver Belt Falls. It's Christmas on point. A very married Christmas rescue. Christmas in Love. Like in like a, like an actual, like in mm-hmm. And then the Christmas plan. So. We have those. I have baking at Mary, which [00:21:00] that was last year's Christmas book.
And that was a whole lot of fun to do because that was a another grumpy sunshine, enemies to lover's workplace. Like she has a life-sized gingerbread house set up in the lobby of this office building, and he's like the guy on like the top floor and he is a little snooty and he feels like this holiday shop thing makes it look like a circus and he wants it all gone.
But then she does him a favor. She bails him out of a bad situation and then they end up fake dating.
Laura Yamin: Oh my
Samantha Chase: So yeah, I am all about that stuff. I mean, you could do you, there is so much you could do at Christmas.
Laura Yamin: yes. And then we got Holly Brown Christmas, which
Samantha Chase: Yes.
Laura Yamin: a little parent trappy a little bit, a couple getting divorced. Doesn't wanna have this, the party, and we're gonna. Try to fix that situation.
Samantha Chase: Exactly, and I mean for Holly, like her thing is like the Christmas party is her one time a year to hang out with Lucas. Like they both work in [00:22:00] the same building, but he's a real workaholic and like doesn't socialize, but at the Christmas party. They get to spend time together. She looks forward to that every year and then the party gets canceled and she is like, I am not gonna allow that to happen at all.
And she convinces him like, you need to do this. Like you need to step up and take on this party. And he's not really into it, but she persuades him. Like her enthusiasm is infectious, and and she's got this little dog named Schmoop. So I really it's my little ode to a Charlie Brown Christmas, like little schmo in there.
He looks a little like Snoopy.
Laura Yamin: looks like a little Snoopy. I was like, oh my gosh. This is like Snoopy Brown.
Samantha Chase: Yes. Charlie Brown Christmas is one of my favorite Christmas movies. So like, this was just an idea that I had and I was like, I'm just gonna do it. I didn't wanna tie a Christmas story into a series this year. I just wanted a little standalone, and this one was super fun to do.
Laura Yamin: Oh my gosh, this is so cute. I'm excited to read it.
Samantha, do you have [00:23:00] any other books, non Christmas, non your books, the other author books you recommend our listeners to pick up, even though they have a healthy back list of 118 bucks to read back?
Samantha Chase: Gino, I just did an event Monday night with Lauren Blakely for her book, my favorite Holidate
Laura Yamin: Yes. Lauren's
Samantha Chase: was so I, all right, we had the best time. I was like, okay, so. I had no idea what the event was gonna go like. It was one of those in conversation. So I was interviewing her,
Laura Yamin: Yeah.
Samantha Chase: I had highlighted all throughout the book things that I wanted to ask her about. We didn't even get to like a 10th of it because it was just like there.
Everything about that book was so great. I cannot recommend it enough. So if anybody hasn't read Lauren Blakely, grab my favorite holidates
Laura Yamin: Yeah, I actually had Lauren at her interview, the start of the Christmas extra ganza. It was delightful. Lauren is a great [00:24:00] person to talk to, great person to chat, and I love my favorite holiday. The audiobook is excellent 'cause this will cast audio, and
Samantha Chase: I,
Laura Yamin: gracious enough they allowed me to get this, the Merry Little Kissmas audio for the new one. So good. Holy crap. It's
Samantha Chase: oh my gosh.
Laura Yamin: He hates Christmas. He has a 9-year-old and she, . He's in the hockey team. The guy set him up with a matchmaker to the grumpiness about Christmas. And the matchmaker is the love interest. And they do all these holiday traditions.
And like the 9-year-old is like, I wanted a Christmas advent. And he's like, oh, I want, he is grumpy. He is like, I'm not getting you a tree or anything. And she's. So cute. She's like, okay, but can we do a book line? So he was like, really? Yeah, we'll do a book Advent. And so she negotiated the whole, so he bought her 24 books for her to have,
Samantha Chase: oh
Laura Yamin: it's so cute.
Samantha Chase: yeah she does holiday stuff very well. Like, some of the things like, [00:25:00] like particularly in in my favorite holidate when she was, all the activities that they were doing in like the town, I was like, I asked her, I said, would you do any of that stuff? And she's just like. Oh, like some of it, like they were just wild, like karaoking in the square.
Like I don't know if I would do that.
Laura Yamin: No, I was like, just do I really love, I've been talking to a lot of authors and I love that you're trying to add, incorporate things. It's the characters of traditions or things that you're seeing or things are like a little wacky and you're like, wouldn't it be fun to do it? And some authors I've talked to Natasha Madison, it's just like, I did everything that's wrong about Christmas.
And I was like, I love that for you. So we got a little bit scrooge It was like, everything that goes wrong in Christmas, we're gonna put it in writing,
Samantha Chase: I think though the difference with some, like with Natasha, with Lauren, like it's a rom-com but it's not like cringey, like comedic stuff like that because, you've probably read some too that like, you're reading it and you're almost like, oh, I like, I just wanna turn the page. I don't wanna finish reading that sentence.
But [00:26:00] they do it really well, that it's all relatable.
Laura Yamin: Yes. Yes.
Samantha Chase: All relatable.
Laura Yamin: I love this Samantha, as always, it's a pleasure talking to you.
Samantha Chase: You.
Laura Yamin: us we can find you online.
Samantha Chase: I am everywhere. I'm on Facebook. My page is Samantha Chase Fan club. I am Instagram. I am at Samantha Chase, romance on TikTok., It's probably Samantha Chase books or Samantha Chase, author on TikTok.
Laura Yamin: It is all
Samantha Chase: And then my website is chasing-romance.com. You could, I signed paperbacks on my website and you could buy eBooks on my website. So. You can get everything directly from me and not have to deal with the Amazons of the world with their whole server thing going down.
Laura Yamin: Even better. I love this. Thank you, Samantha, for being the show.
Samantha Chase: This is always so much fun.
Laura Yamin: It has been so much fun. Listeners, if you enjoyed this podcast, please consider rate, review or subscribe for MyBook recommendations visit [00:27:00] whattoreadnextblog.com, and we'll have a special link to all Samantha's Christmas books in the episode notes. So enjoy this episode. Thank you for, thank you so much for listening.
Samantha Chase: Thank you.