What to Read Next Podcastor Recording - Katie Cicatelli-Kuc and Laura Yamin

===

[00:00:00]

Laura Yamin: Hi Katie. Welcome to your next podcast.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Hi.

Laura Yamin: So happy to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Sure. So I am a young adult author. I write other things too, but primarily young adult these days. My first book, I have to say that I was have to say this. I wrote it pre COVID. It came out pre COVID, it's called Quarantine. In my second book I wrote in the summer of 2020. That one is called, it's Going Viral.

And that one is very much about COVID and that one was just, it was interesting to write about something as the whole world was kind of experiencing it. My third book is called Pumpkin Spice and Everything. Nice. I have two notes about that. Before, after my next book, my fourth book is called Mint to Be.

That just came out three weeks ago. But two, two things to say about pumpkin spice and everything. Nice. The book came out. A year ago, but then Barnes Noble did a special edition of the book this year, this fall for their hot coffee hot book promotion. And it's a [00:01:00] beautiful book. It's got sprayed edges.

It's beautiful.

Laura Yamin: Yeah.

katiecicatelli-kuc: the book. Ended up going viral online, and I was completely oblivious to what was happening because I was on vacation with my family. So we were out and about all day eating ice cream. We went back to the place we were staying. I checked my phone for the first time. I'm like, what's happening on Instagram?

Why am I being tagged all these posts? And I still don't think I really realized what was happening until I went to my Barnes Noble back home. They're like, oh, that book is really blowing up on TikTok. And I was like, oh, I forgot about TikTok. So I went home, opened TikTok, and I was like, oh my God, it's everywhere.

And it was just completely wild to see pumpkin spice and everything. Nice. Just everyone talking about it, trying to say my name talking about the book and just it was, it still is mind blowing. Second thing I wanted to say is that I wrote pumpkin spice when I was really sick. I was going through chemotherapy and it was just, it was a really nice escape to write the book.

And the book actually came out a few weeks after I finished this drug called Za. It's kind of like a chemo medication. So the [00:02:00] book came out a few weeks after that. Then also with Mint To Be. I wrote that during recovery time. I mean, I don't think I realized how challenging that time period was gonna be.

I was like, I'm done with treatment. Life is great. Everything will be fine. But it's like that was a really challenging time for me and Min to be was just like such a nice, cozy, warm escape just to kind of go into, and that was the bright end. I really do feel like saved my life.

Laura Yamin: So I can imagine you in some ways you, I was joking. I was like, you manifest it 'cause you have going viral and then, but , we also have to think about, as writers, we may not trend. Of what's going on. We may have an idea, but obviously we did not expect COVID to happen. We

katiecicatelli-kuc: No.

Laura Yamin: I moved, actually moved outta New York two weeks before COVID to Chicago.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Oh God.

Laura Yamin: no, just an apartment. And I had chosen, thank goodness I chose the bigger apartment. That was

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: my budget because little did I know that I was spending a year and a half in that [00:03:00] apartment,

katiecicatelli-kuc: Oh my God.

Laura Yamin: in this strange city. No family, no friends, nobody. I was interviewing people, I was doing podcasting 'cause I had nothing to do and I was.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: Doing the space and we can't expect it. And yet at the same time, like you're writing for where we are, pumpkin spice and mint to be, are kind of like the balm of this terrible, weird time that we live, like

katiecicatelli-kuc: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: alternate timeline that's like. What are we doing? And

katiecicatelli-kuc: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: going for that comfort of like like fall, like the idea of the Gilmore Girls and pumpkin spice and the fall changed, and the leaves changing, and the space of like, romance.

And it is like comforting. We know the ending's gonna be okay. Nobody's gonna die.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah. Yeah, it's been really nice too. I've gotten some really nice messages to people who are, who've written me to tell me that my books have helped them get through their own challenging times. Like it's just really moving messages and I'm like, that's just, I tell them and I really mean it.

Like, if I, my writing can help you through a difficult time. I'm like that's such an [00:04:00] honor. I think that's every writer's goal is to, touch a reader or affect a reader in such a moving line. It's really it's amazing that my writing can help someone that much.

Laura Yamin: Yeah, so talk to a little about pumpkin spice and everything. Nice. What is the elevator pitch or like what are the high levels or the vibes? Obviously it's pumpkin spice as Paul,

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah, so

Laura Yamin: so it's,

katiecicatelli-kuc: it, it's, so this is tricky too because pumpkin space came out. A year ago and then meant to be is the newest one. So I'm like, I feel like pumpkin spice is like the older child, like meant to be is like the new baby. Like trying to like get attention. Pumpkin spice is never forget about me.

But pumpkin Spice is meant to be both take place in the same world. They're both in Briar Glen. A lot of the stories take place at. The local coffee shop called Cappa Joe and pumpkin spice and everything nice. Lucy and her mom help her and cuppa Joe. And then a big coffee chain moves in across the streets.

Ironically, Lucy hates pumpkin spice because it doesn't have any actual real pumpkin. But then their business starts to suffer because the big chain across the street starts to sell their [00:05:00] coffee. Then Lucy decides to make. A perfect pumpkin spice latte with help from her crush slash nemesis slash we'll see.

And it's just it's a, like I said, it's a cozy, warm story. And then meant to be is also the same world and it's about. A main character named Emma and she has moved to New York to go to boarding school from Briar Glen, and she left without saying goodbye to her best friend named Aiden, and now she's back in town.

It's the holidays. Aiden doesn't know she's back. He doesn't know that she's brought her boyfriend with her. Scenes take place. Like they go ice skating, they make Christmas cookies. The story is told from dual points of view and also with flashbacks there's one scene at like a Christmas tree lighting, like it's all just very, it's just like a warm sweater.

It's just very cozy and warm.

Laura Yamin: Yeah. And you mentioned that you're doing, you wrote this in the other side of recovery, what was the, like, what was the feeling of escaping to this world that is like comforting in some ways? Comforting. . The Christmas the holidays, the traditions, the [00:06:00] family, the young love, which is very different from an adult love.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yes. Very wholesome, very clean.

Laura Yamin: wholesome, like if first, that's the beauty of why writing ya is that you constrained with parents and. Barely, adult responsibilities and adult worries.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Right.

Laura Yamin: and you are trying to, and you discover all these first

katiecicatelli-kuc: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: to figure out like how to make sense of your real.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was just weird to go from like. Things I was going through, just feeling horrible. And then I turn on my computer and let's write about like pumpkin spice lattes, and again, I just feel like that's kind of, it's a privilege to get to do that. And I, again, I think the world right now, just, I think we all just need a little escape into Briar Glen.

Laura Yamin: Yes. I actually, I have made a consent concentrate effort to talk to as many authors who are writing holiday romances

They holiday or they like holiday. I we're recording this on October 28th

katiecicatelli-kuc: Mm-hmm.[00:07:00]

Laura Yamin: friends, I work with the couple friends in the morning and I was like, I need to bring to Christmas tree.

And you're like, you cannot do this. It's too early. And I was like. have to, so

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: waiting for November 1st just to have the Christmas tree. I'm reading Christmas romances, 'cause I'm preparing for all these interviews

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: like, I just, it's just terrible and I just need something to look forward to.

So I

Writers like you who write these books because right now we just need something.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yes. Just some light, happy, just some happiness. Yeah, like just some comfort, just like, yeah, like I said, like a little

Laura Yamin: It's

katiecicatelli-kuc: A warm hug.

Laura Yamin: a warm hug and everything.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: so Katie talks about your reading. 'cause you read Wiley, you read nonfiction, you read paper, audio, you toggle along and

katiecicatelli-kuc: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: Talk to us about like, what books do you escape to?

katiecicatelli-kuc: So like you said, it's almost Halloween, so I have been reading and listening to, some spooky books. I in one called [00:08:00] Murder Road by Simone St. James, and it's, I like her work because it's spooky and creepy without being overly gory or glamorized in any kind of violence. Like I just, they're just creepy enough.

They're ghost stories and like, I just, I can't deal with extreme gore. I am extremely squeamish. My husband's watching a trailer for. Some Netflix show about a serial killer and I literally had to leave the room 'cause I was about to puco. I was like, I cannot watch this. I'm just, I can't do it.

So I really appreciate offers like some of the James who write, just, I don't wanna say less terrifying and less gory stories.

Laura Yamin: Like life, like horror light,

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yes. Yes. PG 13. Yes. I'm okay with that. I also listened to Agatha Christie's radio stories recently, and it's like a modernized version of some of her original stories, which people might have mixed feelings about, but I thought it was kind of interesting.

I also just read the paper. Book of oh y, a book called Zyla and Kai, and I really liked it. It's by Kristina Forrest. And it's about two [00:09:00] teens, and I really like that the characters are both very, like, they're strong. Zyla is, she's really into fashion. She wants good at fashion school.

She's a really good designer. And then Kai he, his parents died when he was young, but he is in therapy and he really, he's in touch with his feelings and he talks about his feelings and I really think that's. Unusual, but a good thing for, teens to know that they can talk about, especially men and boys, they can go to therapy.

It's okay to go to therapy. It's a good thing to talk about your feelings and to kind of work through what you've gone through. What else? Oh, I also recently read Leonora Carrington, her Collection of Short Stories. She's a surrealist author. She did not wanna be anyone's muse. She writes these kind of mystical, mythical stories.

All kinds of stories about change lanes and just it, I didn't realize how kind of perfectly timed it was for Halloween season, but it's just, her just stories are kind of eerie. But just magical realism kind of too. And I don't know, I, it's, I love kind of just escaping [00:10:00] into her world. I mean, very different, the worlds I escape into and I write, but it's also just kind of fun to go on her, just like into where her mind goes.

Laura Yamin: Yeah, I love these recommendations 'cause you gave us like lighter settings, so they're perfect for people who are like me, who do not do scary things

katiecicatelli-kuc: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: I have p.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Mm-hmm.

Laura Yamin: Terrible. PTSD. Like there's a point in the summer that I had brown noise 'cause I had a portable AC and my body thought that I was a war. That's

katiecicatelli-kuc: I don't know.

Laura Yamin: And so I need, like, I have to be very mindful of what triggers me. And so I find, comforting in little ghosts or things that I'm like outside of the control then things that happen in today's world.

So I like these recommendations are spooky, but they're not gonna give me nightmares,

katiecicatelli-kuc: Yeah. Oh, another good spooky one too. Dan p, he writes spooky stories. And actually his book is called More Tales Te Keep You Up at Night. And the one before that tales te keep you up at night. [00:11:00] And his stories, they're for middle grade or older elementary school kids they're just creepy enough to

creep enough to kind of make you like, oh my God, what's happening?

But also not enough to make you like, wanna throw up.

Laura Yamin: Yes. Oh my gosh, Katie, I love these recommendations. Tell us we can find you online.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Sure I am on Instagram at Katie Rights or Katie.

Laura Yamin: Awesome. Thank you, Katie, for being on the show.

katiecicatelli-kuc: Thank you.

Thanks for listening to the What three next. For more book lists, cozy reads and library tips, visit the what three Next block.com. Your next great read might be waiting there.