Raquel Vasquez Gilliland

[00:00:00]

Laura: Hi Raquel, welcome to What to Read Next Podcast. I'm so so

Raquel: Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. This is awesome.

Laura: excited to chat with you. So tell us what you've been, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Raquel: I'm Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, and I have wanted to be an author since I was eight years old.

Laura: Yeah,

Raquel: I'm an author and illustrator specifically. I'm still working on the illustration part of it, and I live in, I currently live in Tennessee, in East Tennessee, in Appalachia, and I love books. I love my garden.

Raquel: Like, I spend a lot of time in the garden. I'm also, like, an amateur herbalist, and I like to read tarot cards, and lots of stuff

Laura: I [00:01:00] love this. I love it so much. And so what kind of garden do you have? Do you have like a vegetable garden, fruit garden, like a fruit, a vegetable fruit, or flowers, or just herbs? Like what kind of garden? Talk all about it.

Raquel: Yeah, so basically my whole yard is a garden. That sounds impressive and it is a lot of work, but it's not a huge yard. It's more like I have two small side yards and a little bit bigger in the backyard and the front yard is a little bit bigger too. And I really wanted it to be as beneficial as possible to the local wildlife. To and also to me and my child because I wanted him to grow up, you know, honoring the natural world and like the magic and miracle of seeds and flowers and the pollinators. So, to your question on what kind of garden is, it is it's all of the above [00:02:00] in the yard I have. fruit trees multiple cherry trees, an apple tree, a mulberry tree.

Raquel: There's more I'm forgetting. And I have a strip of native, mostly native flowers I'm growing and had an herb circle that I kind of tried to put my herbs within this rock circle. And and now I have herbs everywhere. Like I just got really invested in herbs. There's herbs literally all over and I'm growing tomatoes and a squash, like summer squash, a watermelon cucumbers.

Raquel: So there is, you know, the like traditional gardening edibles. My favorite thing is flowers. I actually have a side hobby of

Raquel: cross pollinating flowers to create new varieties.

Laura: Yeah.

Raquel: with dahlias and zinnias. So [00:03:00] yeah, it's not as like complicated as it sounds. I really let the bees do the work and then I save seeds and then see what comes up next year,

Laura: Oh my gosh, that's amazing. I should not have realized. That could be like, you know, a little side little project where you can actually just do and create something for the next season and see what comes up.

Raquel: especially with the dahlias because they they're only, you know, the specific dahlia plant can only be replicated. Either with a cutting or with a root, because if you save seeds, their genetic variables are too big. You don't know what you're going to get. They're octoploids as opposed to diploids, which most plants are.

Raquel: They have eight sets of chromosomes, so they can look like anything. So you have to save the root. Basically, you have to make a clone. So yeah of the Dahlia. So [00:04:00] the Dahlia is almost like instant gratification. Like you make, you save seeds and you get a cool one. Like that's it. That's your cool plan that you can share and save for next year.

Raquel: So

Laura: Amazing. Thank you. I did not realize that, but someone who's like, I have an apartment dweller most of my life, you know, so I'm like, oh, this is great. I have access to community garden there. And a part of me is like, iactually, just get a five and just.

Raquel: yeah.

Laura: It's so weird, like not monetizing every single hobby, but this is like could be a hobby I don't need to monetize, you know, just enjoy the pleasure of your harvest. So thank you for instructing me. I'm like going, you know, like, there's so many possibilities I can deal with it.

Raquel: Yeah. And you could do like, if flowers weren't your thing, you could do the same thing with tomatoes. Like you could saving seeds and. And like planting your favorites together to see what comes up next year, [00:05:00] because if you want to preserve certain tomato, you've got to cover the flowers once they're pollinated because you don't want them to cross pollinate, you know. We'll cover them before they're pollinated because tomatoes are wind pollinated. That way, the pollinators won't cross pollinate them. But if you don't care, like me, I, like, I'll take rotten tomatoes that are that an animal ate on the vine or whatever, and throw them in the compost, and who knows what's going to come next year.

Raquel: And actually, my compost tomato is the best tomato I've ever had. This, like, this year, the best tomato I've ever had. So I'm going to save those seeds, and hopefully I can recreate those. Again, next season. Yeah,

Laura: Oh my god, that's amazing. Oh, thank you for indulging me. And power reading, do you have a specific type that you like, or a specific, place that you look forward to it? I grew up with, my mom reads tarot, I grew up in like, in a long line of witches real life witches, you [00:06:00] know, and so, but I'm always curious to, like, now that I'm like, exploring that idea, I'm like, going back to it, do you have, They were terror just to screen out their regular death.

Laura: You know,

Raquel: no, I have a lot of decks. I'm looking at. Yeah, there's many, but my favorite are like the variations of cats.

Laura: yeah. Yeah.

Raquel: to, and I think it just brings a little bit of levity because. A lot of times tarot can be scary whether it's because you were raised like more strictly religious or conservative and or like you some of the cards are kind of violent. So if I pull a card like that and it's cats, it helps me to be like, okay, this is symbolic. Like I'm looking at something symbolic. So I do like, right now, my little, my favorite little deck that I use the most is called tarot of the pagan cats. [00:07:00] And it's just cute. It's very cute. So

Laura: yeah, I do. Look I participate in energy reading, like, it's like a commune of other people are like interested in the same setting the week. And so everyone will bring their own back and stuff like that. And I didn't realize, because I grew up in the old school, very straight up tarot, like, very, the old school tarot cards, like, that's what I use.

Laura: That's what she engaged with, like, the people that she got to see energy readings were using. So I didn't realize there's like this whole world dots. And, like, someone presented the pasta duck and I was like, I need to have the pasta. Like, how cute is, like, a little pasta, a little lemon, a little lady, you know, to tell me, like, the information.

Laura: And so, I was like, I'm now faxing. I'm like, okay, I need to know which one's your favorite duck. So, I thought it would be perfect to, like, make this more palatable and more cute and more fun.

Raquel: Exactly. And I actually acquired a deck [00:08:00] recently called Cute Ghost Tarot.

Laura: Ah! Ooh!

Raquel: like, like almost like the kids Halloween illustrations of ghosts.

Raquel: It's really cute. And that's what I like. I guess I just like the less serious ducks

Raquel: Because when you're reading, it's important to be relaxed.

Raquel: And if I pull out like something kind of gory looking, it stresses me out, you know? So, so the cute ducks I prefer.

Laura: yeah. I like this. I like this idea. Yeah. I think we were it's, it definitely pulls you out. Like, it depends on the relationship, like you said. Like, if you grew up in a strict, like, I think my upbringing was strict, like. mainly like religious, like this is bad, this is all the stuff. And I grew up in a culture where it was like kind of like we practiced witchcraft, but same time we were like, you know, kind of it's like a weird like combination of it.

Laura: It's interesting to see like, you know, the readings and when they come, when they may come to say something else and it's just guidance. It's not like anything [00:09:00] else. Like when you see death and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm going to die. I'm like, no, it's like clearly. It's a death of a rebirth and a change and all the different things.

Laura: I mean, there's nothing that gets the initial thought, the initial message. And I think that's the beauty of tarot. It's like you, it's a, it's the eye of the beholder. It's like where you are, what your guide is, what's telling you, and what it comes for.

Raquel: Exactly. That's a beautiful way to put it. And I'll just say this. I know not a lot of people would With a valid, not validate, but agree with this, I guess, but if a card is triggering, like, don't read with it, like, take it out some, like, especially with. Like, in my life, if somebody is ill, like really sick, I'll take the death card out because I don't want that to come up during that time in my life.

Raquel: So, yeah, because your mental health is the most important thing.[00:10:00]

Laura: yeah. And honestly, like, sometimes you just get the message you need to receive at that moment. Like, things change, decisions change, things move around, and stuff like that. So it's not like, it's not in the sense of like, the cards told me this, and this is the epiphany of what if last year. It's like, no, it's just giving you guidance of something, and where you are is where you need to be, but it's not the whole, like, Things change, like, you know, stars change, like opportunities change, your thought process changes, your feel is somewhere else.

Laura: And so it just, it shifts us as it goes along, it's just like, it's just a guidance, it's not like, this is the rest of your life, this is how you're supposed to go.

Raquel: and you can, exactly, you can do multiple readings depending on, you know, If I do X, what will things look like? If I change my mind or if I make a different decision, then what will things look like? I do that a lot actually, cause I'm indecisive.

Raquel: So

Laura: yeah. So, oh, thank you for indulging me in this question. So let's [00:11:00] talk about some more witchy. So Witch and the Wild Things is your new series. There's two books in the series, but for the first one is Witch of the Wildlings, and then second one is Lightning in Her Hands. What is the other one? For the series, I don't want to talk about it for that, so people can go and enjoy.

Raquel: My elevator pitch for this series is really short. It's. This is a Latinx practical magic,

Laura: Yeah.

Raquel: but three sisters instead of two, because that's what I typed on Twitter after, while I was in the middle of Wichita Wild Things, I was on Twitter. I'm not on Twitter right now or anymore, but I was like, I'm in love with my Latinx practical magic.

Raquel: And an editor saw that from Berkeley. wrote my agent and she ended up buying the book because of it because well the tweet she obviously loved the book but the tweet is what connected us

Laura: Oh my gosh.

Raquel: but that's my like i'm like that's a tried and true pitch you know that's successful [00:12:00] pitch so that's my elevator pitch

Laura: You call it into the universe. You're like, you know, I'm writing this world and like, here's the like really big, a little bit of page. I'm like, buy it, just sold, you know?

Raquel: right exactly and it worked and i still refer to that every now and then because it's like still amazes like i'm just sitting here kind of Taking a break from my writing and, you know, probably eating chocolate. I kind of eat chocolate throughout the day, especially when I have a work day.

Raquel: And I'm like, let me just type up, it was literally like one line and that is. It's what led to Berkley buying the series. So

Laura: And so when you know his hands, we had a fake marriage. We got like, see me, it has things you can't control. Talk to us about Lightning in her hands and what can we just expect from that, from the second book in the series.

Raquel: yeah so lightning in our hands [00:13:00] follows the middle sister and makes them just the middle book Tio Flores and she, you know, it's, it was really interesting to write from her perspective because she was the villain in the first book. Like she was the villain, right? Everyone hated her. I got a lot of messages from people who were like I hated to y'all.

Raquel: Like, I think they thought that Sage forgave her too quickly for what she did to her elder sister and much of all things. And so, and, you know, it was kind of hard for me to get into the mindset of how I'm going to, how I'm features a character people hate, you know, because generally speaking, we want to read books of people about people we can relate to and see ourselves in.

Raquel: And usually if we hate the character, we don't want to see ourselves in that character and we don't want to read their [00:14:00] story. So I had to sit down and be like, okay, why is Teal the way she is? Usually people behave in ways that are hurtful because they're traumatized. So I was able to go like kind of back into her history.

Raquel: And this isn't a spoiler. It was in which involved things of their mother, abandoning them and learning how that affected Teal. And And how it led to her feeling like she doesn't deserve love. So I knew whatever trope, you know, I chose, it would have to be one where she's kind of in a lot of forced proximity because her thing is to run away and like put up all of these barricades between her heart and her and Carter, who's her love interest.

Raquel: So I was like, I guess we can, you know, we should do a marriage of convenience, she can't escape him if she's married to him. So, so yeah, there's that trope. There's only one bed and trying to think of other [00:15:00] tropes. I mean, there's, I don't know, I guess, magical. There's, she can sort of, I mean, she can control the weather or the weather reflects her emotions.

Raquel: So there's that element too.

Laura: Which is kind of, that would be a fun place to be. Like, it's something you can control. Because it's your emotions, you have to take a hold of them. But sometimes your emotions can control you. Which I think is a great paradox as a writer. Because you can create chaos, you know.

Laura: As you do the story arc as we grow that practice, you know, some growth and.

Laura: Steal us and stuff, we still can play around with it, you know?

Raquel: yeah, it was really interesting because, you know, when I sent my first, the first draft to the editor Christine, and she wrote me back and she said, I feel like these Teal's traits, like her emotional traits could be explained by something like bipolar disorder.

Laura: Yeah.

Raquel: And I [00:16:00] was like yeah, okay. So I began to research bipolar disorder. And I, Contacted a sensitivity reader and when I sent it to her, she was like, yep, like, this is it. And so I changed, I just changed some of the language.

Raquel: So I was able to create a character who. Has bipolar disorder, and that sort of adds a little bit more intensity to her struggles with weather magic and the weather reflecting the emotions that she has a difficulty controlling or regulating. So that was really cool, especially because my editor was like, it's really rare to get a bipolar character in a book who, especially a romance, where she gets a happy ending.

Laura: The Latina, like you would go in deeper because we see a lot of white characters like, you know, struggle with mental health, you know, emergency, but like within the [00:17:00] small community, and I am talking from my experience. It was never okay to like you're supposed to silence.

Laura: You're supposed to be spousal. You're supposed to be submissive. You're supposed to be like childbearing and inputs and all those different things. And then yeah, having, you know, and I was trying to, and then I gathered the crap. You know, mental illness, you know, trauma, like actual trauma and actually how to heal it's a whole different ballgame like I, you know, I did I had a traumatic childhood and all sorts of things and I ended up like going my own route, but I haven't it's really weird to see other people like me in that same struggle, who also identify as like, I'm gonna read again, I'm gonna go again, like, thanks again, like Because our culture is, it has its own set of rigidity, and so like, expectations that we may not see in the typical American culture.

Laura: We might see it now with the Christian nationalism and stuff, but, you know, it's a [00:18:00] whole different, even more deeper. Which is powerful, just to write that character and to provide voice to those who may be struggling with it, or may be living with it, and may want to see themselves in the chart paper.

Raquel: It's so powerful and You know, I, this, what you just explained is the same thing that I've seen in my family, like, I had a DIA who struggled with her mental health, and she didn't get the support she needed, so she died by suicide when I was little, and everyone, like, the whole conversation around her and her life is so13 5 Filled with pain that people don't even don't want to talk about her when they talk about her struggles It's always it was someone else's fault Like it's not the culture's fault or the way we talked about her struggles fault or approached her with her struggles it was like it was everyone else's fault and we are going to especially [00:19:00] after a trauma like that like our inheritance The next kids as we definitely aren't going to talk about it.

Raquel: I do not want to hear if you're struggling.

Laura: It's a generational trauma. I had the, I, like, generational, we inherited it from wealth and reality. We wanted to inherit it from wealth and reality. We just inherited it from trauma. And I actually come from the trauma olympics where people were like, your feelings are not valid because I had it worse than you or somebody else in my family had it worse than you did.

Laura: You know, it's like the sense of like, either you go to the Olympics and you're like, who has the worst crime, or you just don't talk about it because it's not valid. Even your simple run of the mill trauma, run of the mill like, you know, depression and anxiety, it's like, we don't talk about it. So you're like, you're either silenced or you just have to compete with somebody else.[00:20:00]

Raquel: And that's like actually that's actually a key component of people who haven't. Learned how to heal their emotional trauma is they cannot stand to listen to the struggles of others, and they have to invalidate it. Like, it's almost like if you watch them, it is like knee jerk reaction. So I'll tell somebody in my family.

Raquel: I have a headache. And they're like, well, actually, I'm suffering from a displaced hip surgery from a couple years ago. And it's really acting up today. Like, it's a knee jerk. I'm the only one who is allowed to be in pain. And that's incredibly harmful, especially before I knew what it was like now that I've been through therapy and I understand what they're doing.

Raquel: It can be more entertaining rather than hurtful, but I remember being so hurt because I'm just like, I am, I'm really sick and they're like, [00:21:00] you're okay because I'm sicker, you know?

Laura: It's Olympics! Who's going to win the gold medal? Who's going to go? Who's going to do it? You're always going to be the silver medal because you're never going to be the gold, you know. It's like the sense of like competition. I think it's just it's a nuance. It's something that, We don't talk enough about it.

Laura: I mean, and as we feel as our generation starts to be awakened and try to figure out like, hey, I got to fix this issues for myself and maybe for the future generations. Maybe this conversation shifts and it's shifting in some ways, but it's interesting. Yeah, I feel I went through therapy for like, 1 year or something.

Laura: Like I invested in therapy, like invested in the time. And so it's funny enough, like, my relationship with my parents, like, my parents actually do care, they, they have, like, but I had to teach them how to do it, I had to teach them, we're not competing with your things are worse than my things, or my health, my mental health is worse than the other [00:22:00] one, but it's a lot of responsibility for that person who is wanting to heal.

Laura: To also take care of, like, you know, like be a role model to others, you know, and not everyone wants to be a role model. They just want to process. I just want to process. I just want to live, you know, read my books, do my little hobbies, do my little podcast, go to work, do my thing, have a good life. That's what I want, you know?

Raquel: exactly. And I know where you're coming from because I'm an eldest daughter. And I'm the first to graduate high school. I'm the first to go to college first to get to multiple degrees. And I've like, I feel like I'm just continuously educating my elders. It's not just with mental health. It's also like I had to teach them what ovulation was. No, I had to teach them about their own bodies. It's a huge burden. At the same time, I recognize it's not their fault that they're [00:23:00] not educated. And most of the time, it's, I enjoy helping them. But sometimes I'm just like, Oh, this is so much for one person, you know?

Laura: well, I felt your writing can actually infuse that knowledge and that compassion and that level of, you know, just looking at the world in a different space. I think it brings you a little, like a depth that can, you know, help not just help yourself and help others. and be seen. And I think that sometimes that's what I love about reading romance specifically is to be seen that there's other opportunities, there's healthier options out there.

Laura: There's not the walking red flags that we grew up and watching them in our lives. Like there are opportunities out there and that we are seeing characters going through it, but they're also healing and they're also living. A wonderful life, because that's what one must guarantee is the property you're after.

Laura: So, I [00:24:00] think it's like, it's, you're doing a service, you know? Whether it's thankless job at times or not, it's a service, not just for you, but for the community.

Raquel: Yeah, I agree. And I think that it's so silly when people are like, oh, romance novels are just porn because there's such a huge emotional element to it. Not to say that porn doesn't serve a purpose, But conflating them means you've never read a romance, so you don't understand romance. Because the emotional arc is why I read romance.

Raquel: I love seeing people transform and realize they're worthy of love. Like, that's it. And yeah, the spicy parts are fun. But I wouldn't read it if there wasn't that emotional component.

Laura: Yeah, and I'm wishing and putting and just like, it's just, it's looking at even the spicy parts, it tells you like, actually opportunities for you to explore that part of yourself. So it's [00:25:00] just like, it's an opportunity for you to explore things by yourself, like not just like one thing or the other, like it just gives you an opportunity to see like, This is what a healthy literature looks like.

Laura: This is what a nice guy looks like. This is not, you know, what your idea of it might be a little different. And this is actually a fun, safe, consensual, safe exploration of sexuality. That sometimes we get silenced for it. We're not supposed to enjoy pressure. We're not supposed to enjoy, like, things that feel good.

Laura: And it's like, no, like, actually, I want to speak to you too. Like, it is possible and it is good and it is, it can happen for you. Here are some examples of how it can happen.

Raquel: Oh yeah, like standards for romance novels are raising all kinds of standards like

Laura: Yeah.

Raquel: emotionally available partners, emotional reciprocity, orgasmic reciprocity, like, like, I mean, I really credit romance novels with [00:26:00] educating me on that by, like you said, by example, because although I wish all young women were kind of taught, you know, To not do this labor in the relationship and to not expect a lack in an orgasms, a lack of orgasms or lack of reciprocity and other areas.

Raquel: You know, I didn't, I wish that all young women were taught this, but like most young women, I want to say I wasn't taught this and I was actually taught that. Oh, this is how men are. We have to do their labor for them because they will do it wrong and we shouldn't expect too much of them. And obviously that's this, I'm talking about the hetero normative or the hetero romances that have taught me that no, it's possible to imagine.

Raquel: An actual healthy balanced relationship. And once you imagine that, then you can, then your standards just go up and you [00:27:00] can't tolerate anything less.

Laura: Yeah. Thank you for doing this work. Thank you for writing and putting it in a place for not just. Not just for us to consume, but also to be educated in some ways and to raise our own standards and to give us more examples of like, here are some healthy things. You know, here's some things you are not just a childbearing woman to just appropriate, like you are actually enjoy sex.

Laura: You can enjoy this for the sake of enjoyment. Doesn't have to have any goal, doesn't need to be monetized, doesn't need to be optimized. Like it can just be enjoyable experience. So. So thank you for engaging with this conversation. Do you have any books you recommend our listeners pick up? Any books like you have read recently?

Laura: Or if you're like, you know, this one book, it doesn't have to be your favorite. It can just be any book that you might be reading. You know, after reading a bunch of the wall things and mining lands, what else [00:28:00] can they read?

Raquel: Well, I had I saw your pre podcast questionnaires. I have a couple books ready. The first one is come as you are by Emily Nagoski. So, I know. Yes, you know,

Laura: yeah.

Raquel: I'm holding the book up. It's the subtitle is The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life.

Raquel: And I have been reading this book for a year. I feel like it's so important. I only read one or two pages a day and just taking it in slowly. And basically she is shattering all the myths, especially the super sexist myths about what sex is, about what desire is, and. And I just feel like every person who's, well, probably every person should read, especially those who want to. If you want to have a sexual relationship, so super important. I'm [00:29:00] actually getting close to done finally, but she's also a really compelling writer, so I'll miss it when it's done. So the next one is Business or Pleasure by Rachel Lynn Solomon. . And this is one of my favorite romance novels because I feel like a lot of romances come with the trope of the man knows her body and then he knows what she wants and what turns her on and she has multiple orgasms with very little effort on his part and I really do.

Raquel: I mean, those are fun to read, but I really appreciated this book because they have a one night stand and it is like the worst text she's ever had and they end up, they, it's horrible, it's awkward he's just completely unintuitive and I'm really uninterested in her responses and of course because you know it's the novel we, they are in forest proximity and at some [00:30:00] point she has to tell him.

Raquel: That was bad. And she has to educate him on pleasure, hence the pleasure and business or pleasure. And it was just really good, really fun. And also it's really hot. I think when a woman educates the man on her own pleasure and he is humble enough to be like, okay, let's do this. You know, this is a book.

Raquel: I think this might be the most recent book I finished. It's called Fresh Banana Leaves by Dr. Jessica Hernandez, and the subtitle for that is Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science. And she is a scientist, and basically she is speaking about conservation and how It's been excluding indigenous people when it should be centering indigenous people and indigenous healing practices.

Raquel: And it was [00:31:00] really good. We I had my book club read it and we had a great discussion about it. So I recommend it. It was awesome. So

Laura: These are great recommendations. I did not know about fresh cannellies. And I'm like, oh, I need to add this to my tier. So, thank you for giving me something new that I wasn't expecting. And I agree, this is a pleasure. It's so realistic, a realistic point of view of a terrible one night stand.

Laura: Because I think in some ways, people like highlight like, Oh, one night stand is so great, but like, it can be terrible. You're just like, what are you doing here? So, so yeah.

Raquel: yeah, just like when I don't think this is a spoiler because This would be included in any sex education. When she introduces him to where the clit is,

Laura: Yes.

Raquel: he says, 15 years of ineptitude are just falling around him. Such a great scene.[00:32:00]

Laura: don't have sex education in this country, so like what can you expect, but

Raquel: Right. And I have in high school, I had, Probably the most advanced sex education available.

Laura: yeah.

Raquel: It was, it did not go into pleasure at all. Like at all. They did say they emphasize that the, they didn't talk about anything other than hetero sexuality, first of all. And then they said that the man will always want, always be ready quicker than The woman, like they kept saying, Oh, I know her again.

Raquel: And I was like, okay, like, what are we supposed to do about that? They didn't talk about consent. I mean, they just showed the slideshow of the various diseases we could get. Presumably to scare us.

Laura: Or you can get pregnant, and that really comes down to it, because [00:33:00] at the end of the day, that's what they want you to do is, like my job is to question that belief for myself. I think sex education is like either you get diseased if you do it too young or you just get pregnant and then you're supposed to have a bunch of babies and that's it. No, you're not supposed to enjoy it.

Laura: You're supposed to just have babies.

Raquel: Right. And if you look at the history of purity culture, I mean, they used to, at a certain point, They would have the men wear, I can't recall the name now, but it was basically this nightgown with like a hole, because you wouldn't get to have to see each other naked, only the most essential body parts were exposed, and it just sounds horrible and so sad, like they think that was superior.

Laura: Yeah,

Raquel: just, it's just so indicative of this irrational fear of our [00:34:00] bodies and our ability to experience pleasure. So,

Laura: again, let's just go back to Romans. Let's just start reading Romans and start learning about more about your body and more about your religion, more about consent, more about, like, what feels good and where are the green flags, you know, all the green flags, not the red flags, not the ruby red flags, the green flags, so yes,

Raquel: All the green flags. Wave at me, please.

Laura: us where you can find that line.

Raquel: Okay. I am on threads, mostly. I believe my username is Raquel Vasquez Gilliland underscore poet. It's really long. I don't know why I chose that when I joined Instagram so long ago, but now I'm like, I really can't change it at this point. I mean, I could, but it's like, so

Laura: It's all good.

Raquel: my [00:35:00] name underscore poet, I should have just said my name.

Raquel: Why did I add

Laura: Because you are calling in the poetry. You are calling in, I am a poet. So it is okay. It is a vibe. There we

Raquel: joined, called myself a poet, and then I had two books of poetry published, so, yeah. And my website is my name, rachaelvasquezgilliland. com. I'm also on Instagram, like I said, under the same username as Threads. And I think that's it. Like, I don't think I am anywhere else.

Raquel: So,

Laura: Okay. Thank you again for being on the show.

Raquel: thank you for having me. This was awesome.