Olivia Blacke

[00:00:00] Laura: Hi, Olivia. Welcome to What to Read Next Podcast.

[00:00:05] Olivia Blacke: Thank you, Laura. I'm very happy to be here.

[00:00:07] Laura: So happy to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

[00:00:12] Olivia Blacke: So, I am Olivia Black. I am a mystery author. I have written a couple of cozies and I'm starting to branch into non cozy mysteries and I just I read an awful lot, probably an odd amount, and like to write.

[00:00:30] Laura: I love this. So what led you to start writing mysteries? Were you like an Aretha Christie fan or Nancy Drew, back in the day and then led you or was it something that you just you develop afterwards and you're like, you know what, this is something later in life, like it might be a fun way to make your life more entertaining by solving mysteries and whatnot.

[00:00:51] Olivia Blacke: So I didn't start writing mysteries until later, but I some of my first memories [00:01:00] are reading mysteries, and especially we had a but my bill that would come to our little part of the town. And so we didn't have to like drive all the way to the county library. And I read every single book on the book, my bill, like I went through everything that was like age appropriate.

I started going through everything that wasn't age appropriate.

[00:01:21] Laura: Yeah.

[00:01:21] Olivia Blacke: And the librarian got to the point where they were like, okay, you've literally read every book on the truck. And he would bring in curated books for me. And one of the books that he brought in was like an Agatha Christie was like, This is age appropriate.

I was this little tiny kid. I was like, no, read it. And I just fell in love. And I remember the day he was like, you have read every Agatha Christie out there. And I was like, awesome. What's it, when's the next one coming out? And he's like, she's been dead for a while. I just, I was devastated. I

[00:01:51] Laura: Oh my gosh. And she does have an extended backless, so that's a lot of reading.

[00:01:56] Olivia Blacke: read every single one of them. I was the nerdy kid [00:02:00] who always won the pizza for reading over the summer. Yeah.

[00:02:03] Laura: yeah. Oh my gosh. And I can imagine, like, knowing that she passed away. So there's no more new books. I think that's like the weird, the reader's worst problem is like the author you love and you're like, and they have written, like, written extensively and you're like, okay, but I'm ready to go for the next one.

It's like, oh, there's no more. That's the only one, no more.

[00:02:25] Olivia Blacke: And I mean series stop and sometimes it's the writer, sometimes it's the editor, sometimes there's just no market for them. Or you know somebody's got something else that's, shiny and new over there. And so I hate it whenever I'm reading a series and it ends on a cliffhanger and then I find out there's no more books.

I'm like, ah, wait, what?

[00:02:50] Laura: Yes. Oh, gosh. These are reader problems. Like I feel like we should talk about these in therapy.

[00:02:57] Olivia Blacke: We should.

[00:02:59] Laura: Like a [00:03:00] therapist, can you help us like figure out how to make sense how to make meaning for something that it does not have an ending that we're satisfied like anything in some ways we I know for myself, I've gone to fanfiction to fit that hole because obviously, like, somebody else can actually help me, resolve this issue because it's existential.

Like, it's like, these characters are my friends. I want to know what happens to them.

[00:03:28] Olivia Blacke: Okay, so we need a new t shirt that says fanfiction is my therapy.

[00:03:32] Laura: Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree wholeheartedly. So awesome. So Olivia, talk to us about like you're transitioning over to mysteries that are not cozy, but they're a little bit touch paranormal, little touch of like, like a little bit more edgier than a cozy mystery. Why don't you two do that, try out this new series and what is this new series all about?

[00:03:59] Olivia Blacke: so [00:04:00] first off, I love cozies. I love reading them. I love writing them. They are so much fun. They are so light. They're fast reads. Some of them are actually even fast to write. And it's just a really fun genre. But I've had this story that's been in my head for years and I've wanted to write a story of a mystery from a ghost point of view.

And so once I had the opportunity, I jumped at it. So A New Release on Death is actually the first book in a series, and it follows Cordelia Graves, who is dead, and Ruby Young, who is alive. And they are roommates. Ruby doesn't know she has a roommate at first, but they are roommates. And together they end up solving A series of seemingly unrelated [00:05:00] mysteries in around their Boston apartment.

So the fact that half of the book is from the point of view of a dead woman and the other half is from the point of view of a very young, very bright eyed, kind of naive woman. It's just so much fun to write.

[00:05:17] Laura: Oh my gosh. I love the fact that your books are set in cities. Like it's some of the ones that I read, you have Brooklyn, you got Boston and you got like the big cities in some ways, they're like a touch of like, where some of the people are living, like you're not. I think for me when I was trying, I just discovered, not discover I started to enjoy cozy mistress this year.

I, there's a lot of small town. There's a lot of like, small. small towns in America, which is great, except that my lived experience has been in major cities, New York, Chicago, Tampa. Tampa's like a small city. So it's been nice to have your books to be like, Hey, there's actually the things, the elements that you love about the cozies and the mysteries [00:06:00] set in the bigger.

Bad cities, where most things would normally happen,

[00:06:05] Olivia Blacke: Yeah, and some of that is from me and from my experience. I've lived in some major cities, including New York. Lived very briefly in Austin. I lived just outside of Boston. I lived in Dallas. I lived up and down the country. But I've also lived in this little tiny town in Maine that didn't have a Any kind of incorporation.

I've lived in New Hampshire. I've lived I've lived in places where it literally takes you 30 minutes to drive to the Walmart. So I have been on both sides of this and one thing that I have noticed is that big cities aren't what people think that they are. Like if you haven't lived in a big city, you're like, Oh my goodness, it's so scary.

It's so big. And you get there and it's a series of interconnected [00:07:00] neighborhoods. You bump into the same people every day. I cannot tell you whenever I was living in Manhattan, I would bump into friends, On the subway and I would bump into like, okay, it's a friend from work or a friend from a previous job.

I was bumping into friends that I went to college with in Texas on the subway in Manhattan. I mean, it's. It's funny, it's, yes, it's a big city, but it's also, it's a very small set of, like, it's a set of very small towns.

[00:07:33] Laura: Yeah, I agree. I lived in New York for 14 years. And I can tell you, I used to see friends. It's the same thing. Like you see celebrities, you see people you're like, you see the same people going to subway at the same time for your community to listen places. Like there's a sense of like community there was actually I broke up with a friend, actually, like early, my, I think mid twenties, early thirties, and I kept bumping into her, like, after breakup.[00:08:00]

And I was like, well, it used to be really fun. It was like, again, I bump into the same person I don't want to see.

[00:08:07] Olivia Blacke: Oh,

[00:08:08] Laura: It's like, you kind of like you're bound to it's a it's a rifle. Like, there's also like the idea of the neighborhoods because you're so like, even just so big, you can connect to that neighborhood.

You have like your. Go to coffee shop you got your go to like place the bagel place or your office or your like little cute store or like fitness classes like in some ways you make the most out of your neighborhood and you're less likely to like travel to the other neighborhood but you might explore and I think that's the beauty of this the big cities like a lot to explore but like even that I live in Tampa And I live in a like a really cute little neighborhood.

And I just basically most like 99 percent of the time I'm in my neighborhood. I went to Ottawa, then I go other people's other neighborhoods, but I'm mostly in my neighborhood. And I see the same [00:09:00] people every day. Like I think for As far like I see the same people in my fitness classes like I have friends with my 70 year olds who go like I have like this community that I've been able to build because I'm just like you're just in that part and it makes it much more manageable or palatable.

I think the idea that it's like you just like hustle and bustling and stuff like that. It's like it is, but it is not true. Yeah.

[00:09:24] Olivia Blacke: I don't know if it's just because I'm kind of a creature of habit, but I've lived in D. C. for about 10 years, and I will walk up towards this bank of food trucks, and You make eye contact with the guy at the food truck and he's got a line of 10, 20 people waiting for him and I get up to the front of the line and he's got my order already prepared because I go to that food truck every Tuesday, and that's part of why you said before the interview that you hadn't read a lot of cozy set in Brooklyn and [00:10:00] that's, Why I think that Brooklyn is the perfect place for a cozy.

Downtown DC is the perfect place for a cozy. I'm Jen Chow, she writes books in LA. Mia Manancello writes books set in Chicago. And it's like, these cities are perfect for cozies because everybody's got little neighborhoods.

[00:10:19] Laura: Yeah, I actually, I spent a pandemic in Chicago, and I moved two weeks before the pandemic, before the shutdown, and I literally spent in the, I live in Lakeview, the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, and I literally spent like, I made, Like I didn't see people, I didn't, I was like in isolation and stuff like that, and every day I would go to the Starbucks, like that was like my outing, and they were like, they would actually take the thing outside, they couldn't even go into the store because it was like pandemic, and like this, they knew, like they saw me like, Hey Laura, how's it going?

And it was like this sense of like, I actually belong here. Like it's a simple act of like, somebody knows your, it doesn't even [00:11:00] mean that they don't know your order. It's just like, they see, they know your name and it's like, makes you feel part of it. And like, I thought of myself, I was like, I should do like, small town romance with like, like, Lakeview Chicago.

Like, it's like such a cute little neighborhood. It's like such a cute little neighborhood that you just like, you're part of it. And still, it's part of the bigger city.

[00:11:20] Olivia Blacke: And I don't actually name the neighborhood in A New Lace on Death, but I know in my head what the neighborhood is. And the reason why I don't name it, because I've spent a lot of time in Boston, I know a lot about the different neighborhoods. The reason why I don't name this neighborhood is because Cordelia Graves, who is the ghost, is a very snarky character.

She's kind of depressed. She's kind of rude. I have no idea where this character came from. She just popped out of my head. I don't know. However, she doesn't like her neighborhood. She's very critical of her neighborhood and she says [00:12:00] things like, well, it's not the best neighborhood. Sure, there's a dead body on the street.

I mean, she's kind of snarky about it. And I didn't want to name this neighborhood and somebody go, Hey, that's my home you're talking about.

[00:12:12] Laura: yeah. I think it's, I think it's like taking that sense of humor. We're like, are you like being sarcastic? Or what do you mean? And, and some people, and like you, some, this is part of the life of like, not everyone's gonna love where they live. I lived in a shitty apartment. It's like, it was shitty.

[00:12:27] Olivia Blacke: Oh yeah, I had an apartment in Alphabet City in Manhattan. That was, it was a closet. It was in a sub basement. All my neighbors got broken into. The only reason I didn't get broken into was I was over the entrance to the sub basement. So there was like a shaft outside of my window instead of like street access.

It's the only reason I didn't get broken into. This place was a hole and I love it. Like, [00:13:00] that's just like when I think of New York, I'm like, I loved that apartment. I couldn't fit a twin size bed in this apartment, and I loved it.

[00:13:08] Laura: yeah, I think you just, yeah, you look back at certain places you're like, Oh, like, I'm so grateful that I look there and all the certain things. Yeah, I feel you know, like, as it's, sometimes it's a shitty place. And that's what it comes to it. And that's the trade off that you have, like, the world's your oyster.

And you're like, Okay, I have like a not so cool place to sleep. So, yeah,

[00:13:31] Olivia Blacke: And there's a huge trade off for, can I afford to live in like this really nice building that's like really posh or, can I afford to live in this building that I might have five blocks up my door? It's a trade off.

[00:13:49] Laura: Yep, it is a trade off. I finally, I actually upgraded my apartment and it's funny enough, like the money is, it cost me the same amount of money as a shitty apartment. I'm paying more than I [00:14:00] was paying in New York, but it's, I think it's a part of it. It's like, Oh, do I accept living in a nicer apartment now?

Like, Oh, this is worth it. Cause then in some ways the trade off is I don't go out as much as I used to when I was living in a shitty apartment. Not in my pretty shitty apartment, but like shitty apartment in New York, because I was like, I was always out and about in the city, but here in Tampa, I'm like, I'm in my house like 90 percent of the time.

I might as well enjoy my,

[00:14:27] Olivia Blacke: of the time.

[00:14:28] Laura: I might as well enjoy my apartment, so.

[00:14:32] Olivia Blacke: And I think in New York, part of it was. My apartment was too small. It was so cramped. I really couldn't have friends over. Like, I couldn't have a party or anything. And so, I went out every night of the week and I ate out at least two meals out of the day. And I think I probably spent more money, like, Nothing in my kitchen worked and I know it's totally illegal, but my refrigerator was always broken.

My [00:15:00] stove was always broken. Everything was broken. Nothing ever worked. It was an absolute hole, but I spent more money because I was eating out for every meal.

[00:15:12] Laura: Yeah.

[00:15:13] Olivia Blacke: really expensive to be broke.

[00:15:14] Laura: It's really expensive. Oh, you're saying the truth here.

[00:15:22] Olivia Blacke: I have been there.

[00:15:23] Laura: Olivia tells let's talk about some book recommendations. Do you have any books to recommend our listeners to pick up?

[00:15:29] Olivia Blacke: Oh my goodness. Okay, so first off, I read an awful lot and one of the things whenever I'm recommending books, like, somebody's like, oh, like, recommend a book to me. I'm like, what do you like? I met somebody the other day, and they were like, okay, what's the best book you've read lately? And I like, deer in the headlines look because I had read five books that week.

So I got to talking to them and I was like, okay, what do you like? What do you enjoy? And she was like, oh, I like fantasy books, [00:16:00] but I also like romance. And I was like, okay, India Holton, an ornithologist guide to love. And I think I left a word out in there. So I, I apologize in advance. But it's a fantasy and it's romance and then I saw this woman again like two weeks later and she's like, I have now read everything India Holton has ever written.

I am completely obsessed. Give me another recommendation. So, recommendations help if I know like what you're into.

[00:16:27] Laura: So you got a couple of romance recommendations. You got Danica Navas.

[00:16:31] Olivia Blacke: Oh my goodness, that book was so good. So that was The Truth According to Ember. It recently came out. It's a romance. It is a Native American main character and love interest. And it was written by an indigenous woman. I believe That it is the first indigenous romance written by an indigenous woman published traditionally.

And it got published like two weeks ago, [00:17:00] which is absolutely ridiculous, but the book is so good. And it's so heartwarming. And it's, I've been there where you have to fake it until you make it. And so that's what happens in this romance is the main character makes some bad decisions and she makes a couple of little white lies that snowball on her and she's lying on her resume and she's lying to her friends and she's lying to her boyfriend and she's lying to her boss and she's making bad decisions.

But every single one is her just. Trying, if I if I can just have this. job that I can go back to school. If I can just have this boyfriend, then maybe I can finally walk away from my old boyfriend, it's things like that. And she makes all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons.

And it's very cute. And of course, everything collapses in the end, and she has to dig her way out of it. But it's so heartwarming. And it's [00:18:00] such a good book.

[00:18:02] Laura: it is a really good book. So, and Danica came on the show. So if you can go back to the backlist, you should be able to find her interview and she's delightful too. So, we got to chat with her. So, and then how about Randolph is some mystery because. That's your bread and butters.

Maybe, let me invest your book to, to round up your recommendations. Do you have any ones to recommend?

[00:18:23] Olivia Blacke: So, the best mystery that I have read lately, and I have been recommending it to everybody because it is so good. It's called Trouble in Queenstown, and it's by Delia Pitts. And it is a modern noir mystery set in New Jersey. The main character is, like, a five year old. 40 something year old black woman who has decided to become a private detective and like her father was a cop.

And so she, she basically comes back to her hometown in New Jersey, which is very much a cozy mystery trope. This is not a cozy [00:19:00] mystery. This is more of the hard boiled mystery, but she goes back home to New Jersey. So she knows everybody and everybody knows her. And it's a very good mystery.

It's very fun to follow around and pick up the clue, learn what's going on. But for me, just like reading a modern noir set in New Jersey, I'm just like, yeah, this is perfect. This is something different. This isn't what every other book on the shelf is. So it's very twisty. It's very gritty. It's The main character, she's sex positive, she's body positive, and then she can just goes out there and kicks butt.

So, it's a fun book.

[00:19:41] Laura: You have me in New Jersey. I love New Jersey. I lived in New Jersey, so I worked in New York City. I worked in the World Trade Center area, that financial district, for about 10, 10 of those 15 years, or 14 years, and I lived in New Jersey for about 12 years, and I love it. It's underrated. [00:20:00] state that has a bad reputation, but I don't understand because people who live in New Jersey love New Jersey.

So it's a really like, we're Jersey proud. At least in this podcast, we're Jersey proud. Like I love New Jersey.

[00:20:15] Olivia Blacke: did live in New Jersey for a couple of years before I moved to Manhattan. And I mean, I lived in Staten Island, I lived in Manhattan. Like all of those like areas around there. And one of the things that I did not like about New Jersey was you were very dependent on your car. They've got a bus system, but it's not great.

[00:20:35] Laura: live in Jersey City. So I live in the Jersey City area where the path would take you and there's a light rail. So it's like, Jersey City is like a small town. It's another small town area. Same goes for Hoboken. Those are really small town, really close to walkable distance. Everything is walkable within.

So I live there I live in the waterfront area for about 12 11 out of the 12 [00:21:00] years. And then I lived in journal square, which is a little bit of inward. For my last year, cause I got like in my own apartment. It's definitely walkable for most bars. I didn't need the car. I finally live in, I finally live in a city that I needed a car.

I've been carless for like almost four years. Three years I've been living in Tampa. I don't have a car, so it's like another long story short that's coming sometime soon. But it's, the one good news is I never let go of my driver's license, despite having a car for almost like 20 years.

I still can't renew my license, so I don't have to take a driver's test. So when I get a car, that would be like the thing. But yeah, car dependence is definitely a big one. I live in, Now that I live in Tampa, this, it's a car dependent city, but yeah, it just depends on the neighborhood. It depends on where you are.

That's the beauty of being in a bigger city. It's like you do have public transportation or everything's cool. So

[00:21:56] Olivia Blacke: Yeah, I lived kind of out in the suburbs. So [00:22:00] there was, that one bus that comes by every 45 minutes and then you've got to transfer and transfer before you get in

[00:22:07] Laura: like, yeah, you need a car. I don't even have one.

[00:22:09] Olivia Blacke: yeah, I had a car when I lived in New Jersey and which means driving in New Jersey, which is not fun.

[00:22:15] Laura: Yeah, I don't have a I don't even have a bus system and like I have a friend who drives me after class and then I just like take an Uber. I am like a princess like take Ubers everywhere. But yeah, it's a one thing that I'm like, Oh, gosh, I miss that's one thing I miss about like, up north, the Northern cities with the public transportation, the bus system.

So,

[00:22:38] Olivia Blacke: I mean, even in DC, I didn't drive my I had a car and it would literally just set there. I never drove and you get so used to just walking and you take them, you take the metro and if you have to, you take an Uber and it's just, it's a beautiful thing to not have to [00:23:00] have a car.

[00:23:01] Laura: yeah, the last car I had was where I was living in DC. I live in, I went to school in Maryland, the clutch park campus. So I had a car then

[00:23:09] Olivia Blacke: very car dependent up

[00:23:10] Laura: I was very car dependent in that area, but I still like would travel to DC and I'll just drive to the metro and take the metro and just like, I wouldn't drive with DC at all.

But yeah, that was the last car. I ended up selling my car. My car funded my first apartment in New York.

[00:23:27] Olivia Blacke: So,

[00:23:28] Laura: That's how you,

[00:23:30] Olivia Blacke: One thing, one thing I think is really funny about the story that you're telling is A New Lace on Death starts with, so Ruby Young has just moved to Boston from Baltimore. She grew up in Baltimore. I love Baltimore. Baltimore is a beautiful

[00:23:44] Laura: It is so beautiful. Yeah.

[00:23:48] Olivia Blacke: from she just had a bad breakup.

She has a very close family, but they're kind of like too close. Sometimes, like, she lets herself be pushed around by her family. She let herself [00:24:00] be pushed around by this ex boyfriend. So she comes to the conclusion, I'm going to go to a new city and I'm going to start my life all over again. And I'm going to take my control back.

And that's how she decides to take her control back. And I totally understand that because I have done that. I have just like picked up and moved to New City and be like, okay, new start, let's figure it out. And one of the things that she did was she sold her car to afford the first couple of months of rent.

And living in Boston, you don't need a car, it's just going to hinder you. So it was a good decision for her. But now she has to figure out like what the bus system is like and how she can get around. So,

[00:24:40] Laura: Yeah. It's like, it's a rare thing. It's like, so there's just like something is random, like you're dependent on a car. You're like, Hey, that actually is going to fund me to my next. Geographical cure. Like it was a big I think for me was a bigger change to move. It wasn't a so I moved from New York to Chicago and that was fine because it was [00:25:00] like a small city.

I still have buses. I still walkable. Everything was city wise. The biggest shock was when I moved to Tampa, and I was like, stuck in this neighborhood. And I was like, what? And I did not see the neighborhood did not travel because this is pandemic time. So I didn't Oh, I just sight unseen. I found an apartment.

I was like, first apartment I was available. I just took it and I google map the neighborhood and it looked like things are closer. They're like a couple miles. I was like, I can walk that. And then I realized I was like, oh no, it's like a fucking highway. So I can't walk that.

[00:25:33] Olivia Blacke: And not only that, it is a thousand degrees outside.

[00:25:37] Laura: is a thousand degrees.

[00:25:38] Olivia Blacke: out in that.

[00:25:39] Laura: So, so that was like the biggest shock. I like, and I, in some ways I was living in this isolation and now I get out and I have friends and I go like, I go to my classes and I do have my Uber and I get discounts and all different things, but it's still like a pretty like a sense of like, it took longer to adjust here because it's so car [00:26:00] dependent and it's like, I need to add that expense.

I need to add the expense of gas. I need to add the expense of Insurance, I need to add the expense and it's already like the city went up like inflation and there's a lot of people like move it became much more expensive. So it's more expensive to live in Tampa right now for me than to live in New York, which

[00:26:19] Olivia Blacke: Oh, yeah,

[00:26:19] Laura: Crazy, but

[00:26:21] Olivia Blacke: it happens that way sometimes. So, at one point, I'm I moved from New York City to Maine. And so I had to buy a car and I had to buy a brand new wardrobe and I had to do all of these things and I'm just like, wait a second. I thought I was going to be saving money.

[00:26:39] Laura: yeah, he's like, no, it's not. I thought that too. I was shocked. And I was like, oh, I'm actually spending my job. It's still a job. I told my job, I was like, it's more expensive. Like, give me my money. They're like, I had to negotiate quite a few because of the fact that it was Florida and they're like, you don't pay taxes.

I was like, [00:27:00] no, it's more expensive.

[00:27:02] Olivia Blacke: Well, I mean, you don't pay income taxes. Don't think you pay sales taxes.

[00:27:08] Laura: we do pay sales taxes.

[00:27:10] Olivia Blacke: Okay, you do pay sales tax, but also like as a renter, you don't have to pay homeowners insurance and the home taxes, but the people who own the building have to pay these enormous taxes. And so that comes out of your rent. So it's the same thing.

Like when I lived in Texas, they didn't have state income and, they had like a really high sales tax.

[00:27:33] Laura: yeah.

[00:27:34] Olivia Blacke: And they had a really high homeowners taxes. And Even if you're a renter, you end up paying that.

[00:27:40] Laura: Yeah. Plus gas. Plus strings. Plus a car.

[00:27:46] Olivia Blacke: gas, plus, oh yeah.

[00:27:48] Laura: All the things. So, yeah. It's a trade off. You summer around and then, or you get four seasons over there. We're going to take it off. So.

[00:27:57] Olivia Blacke: You're going to pay for it one way or another. And I [00:28:00] mean, it all comes down to how you want to be living. Do you want, and a lot of people they've moved to be closer to friends. They've moved to be closer to family. They want to be, closer to the water, they want to be warmer, they want to be colder, whatever.

And that's what you're paying for.

[00:28:18] Laura: Yeah, I got to be close to my family, so it's a trade off that I don't, that I don't regret. I don't regret the move. It just basically, it's just like a shock, and then just basically I had to learn how to budget, and but yeah. So Olivia, tell us where you can find me online.

[00:28:33] Olivia Blacke: I'm sorry.

[00:28:34] Laura: Tell us where you can find me online, your website and Instagram or.

[00:28:37] Olivia Blacke: Okay, so OliviaBlack. com, and that is black with an e on the end of it, is my website. And I actually, so I'll tell you a story. I had a name that I used for all of my socials, I had a name that I use. Used basically as my pen name for most of my life [00:29:00] And it was great pen name. It fit me. I was very used to it.

I was very comfortable with it And the day that I signed my contract with berkeley woman Decided that she also wanted to open up a business with My pen name is her performance name, and she is an adult performer,

[00:29:23] Laura: oh,

[00:29:24] Olivia Blacke: and she has every right to be an adult performer. That is hard work, she hustles, but she also put out about a thousand videos within a week.

And of course, now when you Google the pen name I always use, it comes up with this performer.

[00:29:43] Laura: okay.

[00:29:44] Olivia Blacke: And it wasn't exactly the brand of a cozy author to come up with some of the videos that she had presented. And again, good for her. She's doing some great work, and it's hard [00:30:00] work, but all of a sudden I find myself like literally on the phone with my editor going, you can't use that name anymore. And so she was like, I need a new name from you. You need a new website. You need a new Instagram account. You need a new Facebook account. Everything. I need this today. So, yeah, that was very quick.

[00:30:23] Laura: like, holy crap, like I need to start my life from scratch in like 24 hours. Getting paperwork.

[00:30:30] Olivia Blacke: yeah it was very it was very difficult at first just to like wrap my head around it and to go, okay, I've got to do this. And so I, we ended up going with Olivia Black. Which is I love that. It is now my whole identity and I'm great. But then, so, my Facebook account is Author Olivia Black. My Instagram account is Olivia Black Author. [00:31:00] My Twitter account is Olivia Black. And my website is Olivia Black. So, I think if I had 15 more minutes. I probably would have aligned everything, but like somebody asked me like what my Facebook or what my email address is and I have to think and I'm like, Oh, which one is it?

I have to look it up every time it is. So I normally just tell people, find me on my website and I've got everything linked from there. So I don't have to remember because. None of my names match up. So, if anybody is listening to this podcast and you want to be an author, my main, like, number one thing, find a name, stick to it, it might change at the last minute, that's out of your hands, but anytime that you have socials, make them all the same.

[00:31:55] Laura: Yes. Awesome. Oh, thank you so much for being on the [00:32:00] show, Olivia. It's been a pleasure talking to you. Oh

[00:32:02] Olivia Blacke: Oh, thank you, Laura. This has been so much fun, and I know that you will settle into your new home and maybe you'll get lucky and maybe you'll have a ghost in your new apartment. Who knows? And like in the pond outside, I'm assuming

[00:32:19] Laura: There's a, there's an alligator running around the parking lot. I used to have docks. So this is just like, got an alligator. I'm in Florida.

[00:32:27] Olivia Blacke: you're in, you're in Florida. Whenever there's an alligator living in your parking lot that you like, recognize, you're like

[00:32:32] Laura: Yeah. So we're good.

[00:32:35] Olivia Blacke: I think I'd rather have a ghost. Thank you, Laura.