What to Read Next Podcast or Cafe con Historias PR Recording - RaeAnne Thayne and Laura Yamin

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Welcome to the What your Next podcast. Today we have a supersized interview with RaeAnne Thayne writes one of my favorite sweet women's fictional light. Roman stories, there's a bit of like a family story tie together along with the romantic plot. They're kind of like really fun books to read if you want to just feel the emotional death.

In this episode, we're gonna talk about Anne, about her latest Christmas Woman's Snow Kiss, which is a single mom who's looking for a fake day for a wedding, and the perfect guy sos her in. And it's just sweet and fun and just \ joyful in this. In addition we're, I'm actually airing a, so you'll hear more about her plotting process, her process of writing multiple Romans and we round, so she's write Christmas and summer books and she's has a writing cycle.

She talks about how writing Christmas at the right time, as well as some book recommendations. We have Double Booker recommendations. You'll have Booker win edition from 2025 as well as from previous interview from 2024. So I [00:01:00] hope you enjoyed this episode.

Laura Yamin: Hi RaeAnne, welcome to the watch your next podcast.

RaeAnne R Thayne: Hi. It's great to see you.

Laura Yamin: So great to have you back. You've been a frequent guest and I love talking to you, especially during the holiday season because you give us, you keep us fun and happy with holiday books. I know you have your summer books, but the holiday books are like, they're dear, my heart.

So, what have you been up to since we last talked?

RaeAnne R Thayne: So I just finished next Summer's book and I am working starting up next Christmas book, and it just is an ongoing cycle. You finished one, you start the next one. It's mostly been writing. We did a little bit of travel as a family this summer and that was super fun. We haven't done a lot of travel for the last few years, but so

Laura Yamin: Yeah.

RaeAnne R Thayne: that was fun too.

Laura Yamin: Oh, that's so fun. So let's talk about Snow Kiss, which is your Christmas book. It's available around like, I listened to the audio actually, and it was delightful. I have

RaeAnne R Thayne: Good.

Laura Yamin: you I, my hoopla actually had it, but you can also find it in Libby if you're looking for library, or you can borrow it for Spotify or Audible.

[00:02:00] And there's many places for the audio, but there's also the ebook and paperback and all the fun stuff. So talk

RaeAnne R Thayne: Right.

Laura Yamin: What is the elevator pitch?

RaeAnne R Thayne: The elevator pitch for this book is a single mom

holly Moore, dedicated single mom and florist in Shelter Springs, Idaho Navigates. Family love and holiday magic as she grapples with her ex and her new connection with injured Navy Pilot Ryan.

Ryan. Discovering that healing and love often come when least is expected. So yeah, that's basically the story. She's a single mom. She's got a child with special needs, she needs a date for a wedding, and Ryan moves into town unexpectedly and sparks fly, and he's the perfect one to take her to this wedding.

Laura Yamin: Yes. And it's just like, what better can you ask for Christmas, a winter wedding, a fake date, or a date for a wedding? And then just like, trying to have a new lease on life. And then so, dealing with the baggage of the whole to

RaeAnne R Thayne: Right.

Laura Yamin: it. So I love,

RaeAnne R Thayne: And I've written about 80 books, almost 80 books, [00:03:00] and I think this was the very first fake dating trope I've ever used. And it was so much fun. I'm like, why have I not done this before? But I really loved, I loved that whole concept that he just stepped in and rescued her. She needed help and he stepped in, and I just love that.

Laura Yamin: Yes. I hope that you write more fake dating.

RaeAnne R Thayne: I might have to,

Laura Yamin: you're like, maybe in a few books it's like, let's just fake date them because

RaeAnne R Thayne: yeah. Perfect.

Laura Yamin: gonna get feelings. It's like such a fun thing for an author. 'cause the characters are denying their feelings. They're denying the attraction.

They're denying their, like the feelings are growing. And then as an author is like, actually I'm gonna make sure you understand that

RaeAnne R Thayne: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: true. It is not fake. There's no end date or

RaeAnne R Thayne: Right?

Laura Yamin: One expiration time. It is, you're gonna, you're gonna come

RaeAnne R Thayne: yep,

Laura Yamin: your fears and you're gonna fall in love,

RaeAnne R Thayne: exactly.

Laura Yamin: Yes. So. All right, so let's talk some, actually more of the Christmas books. Let's talk about some other Christmas book that you may have, like on your back list that you may remember. If you wanna talk about some of them, [00:04:00] if you have like any specific ones you wanna share. I see a couple ones. This is not market.

I see the Christmas, I think, I don't know. Egg

RaeAnne R Thayne: Christmas at the Shelter Inn. So Snow Kiss is actually the third book in a Christmas only series that I've been doing every year. I've had a new book in the series. It started three year, two years ago, I guess, with Christmas at the Shelter Inn. That's the first. Story in the series. And the second one was last year was the December market, and then Snow Kiss is the third one.

And they're standalone stories, but I think if you read all three of them, you sort of get a more context for the characters in the town. And like I introduced Holly in the very first, I think the very first book, she was just a twin. Sister, she has a twin sister and they were good friends with the heroines of the first two books, and I knew I was gonna write her story someday, but I wasn't quite sure what her story was at that point.

But yeah, so that, I like writing connected Christmas stories because I think my readers love connected stories. They like going back and revisiting communities and seeing heroine heroines that they've met before and finding out where they are in their [00:05:00] life. And, but I like the fact that it could be a standalone if you haven't read the other two, you're fine to read this one.

You totally get it.

Laura Yamin: I love this. So you guys, you have three books to read and there's plenty of more because Rayann writes Christmas and Summer. So

RaeAnne R Thayne: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: you're a beachy, if you're actually taking a beach vacation, you're in this holiday season, you can pick some of her summer books. You're just as delightful and they're awesome to do so.

RaeAnne R Thayne: Right. Yeah. I think this was like my 21st or 22nd Christmas book, so there's a lot, if you're into Christmas books, if you like warm, cozy, hallmark movie kind of Christmas books, I've got a whole back list you can find on my website.

Laura Yamin: Like if you're a Virgin River fan, like these are like in the Netflix book, like Netflix show, like these are good companion, like these are kind of like a good entryway to get the book form

RaeAnne R Thayne: Right,

Laura Yamin: it.

RaeAnne R Thayne: right. I agree.

Laura Yamin: There's like military, some of them have some of them like healing, a little bit of like emotional death and it just gets you and you get the community aspect of it.

So I think there are like the perfect entry. If you're watching [00:06:00] Virgin River, these are books for you. Look for,

RaeAnne R Thayne: that's very nice comparison. I'll take a comparison to Robin Carr anytime I can

Laura Yamin: Yes.

RaeAnne R Thayne: have one.

Laura Yamin: Yes. So, all right, so let's talk some book recommendations. What have you been reading lately?

RaeAnne R Thayne: So lately I've actually sort of been delving a little bit outside the genre. Excuse me, I've had a cold in the last week. My voice is coming in and out. I really liked the very secret society of irregular witches by sangu mandanna, and I thought that was. It was such a great story about magical realism and there were great characters, really compelling storyline and I especially love the characters.

I just fell for every character in that story. And so I recommend that one. And then another one that I really enjoyed lately was the nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meisner, which is a historical set around the San Francisco Great earthquake. There's a lot of trigger warnings 'cause there's some DV in it and other things.

But I really enjoyed. That, that book and delving into that period of time that I didn't know a lot about, and on a nonfiction side, I recently read How to [00:07:00] Know a Person by David Brooks, and I just thought that was so fascinating. It was a gripping perspective about how to see into the heart of a person and how to really see beyond the surface that all of us put on the facade that all of us put on so that you can, they people know you care about them when you actually demonstrate that you love.

That you know them and understand them. So anyway, three recommendations

Laura Yamin: These are great recommendations. I just literally listened to NG Go's interview. She came to the show for the first book her first adult book. And so I'm actually re airing it because her the second book is even better. And

RaeAnne R Thayne: really.

Laura Yamin: you're not the only one. There's multiple authors and across genre who have raved about this book.

It's so cozy. It's like such a balm to your like

RaeAnne R Thayne: Right.

Laura Yamin: It's just a good escape because the world's terrible. We

RaeAnne R Thayne: Yeah.

Laura Yamin: kind of content and so, so I'll re airing that interview and I'll just make sure, like, link it to this one. Like, Anne just recommended this, like, it's a cross board, but I think like, thank you for writing your books.

Thank you for writing. [00:08:00] Books are actually give you emotional death, but they're also cozy and calming and you're like, they're not triggering in a sense. And I think it's in this world where we are just going through a lot. It's kind of like a good escape to have. So,

RaeAnne R Thayne: appreciate that, and that's actually what I try to do when I sit down to write, because like you said, we are going through a tough time right now in our world, and I like to remind people that we need to be kind to each other and that's basically the. Point of my books, they're about community.

They're about caring for each other, they're about lifting each other, and I hope that maybe it makes a tiny difference in whatever world that my readers are in, but I just like reminding people that kindness is so important in this world.

Laura Yamin: Awesome. Well, Anne, tell us find you online and then Yeah.

RaeAnne R Thayne: Okay, so my website is rayanne tha.com. It's lots of e's are

Laura Yamin: Yeah.

RaeAnne R Thayne: my name. Lots of vowels, I tell people. And then my, I'm on Facebook a lot. It's author Rayann Tha I'm on Instagram at rayann thayne, TikTok a little bit here and [00:09:00] there. But basically that's where you find me.

Laura Yamin: Awesome. Thank you Anne for showing up, talking about Uni book and new book recommendations for listeners. We're gonna continue listening to an older interview with Anne, so you get to hear more recommendations and more books for you to pick up for your. TBR. Thank you, Rayanne, for being the show.

RaeAnne-Thayne-converted: Hi Rene. Welcome to What your next podcast. Hi. I am so thrilled to be here. Thank you for inviting me. I am so happy to chat with you. You've been like we've been. I have a group of friends who we love your small town Romans, and you were a fan of yours since like 2017. Oh wow. Romans 2016, so it's like you were like early Romans.

I'm like, oh my gosh, these are like my books. Or just like my comforter, small town, Romans. Little bit of hallmark, little bit of everything just gets soft, so I'm so happy to hear that. Yeah. There's some early episodes where we talked about your series, so. I am very excited to chat with you. Tell us a [00:10:00] little bit about yourself.

Tell us like what kind of books do you tend to write and all the fun stuff. Sure. Well, I'm Rayann Thne. I have been writing for a long time. I sold my first book in 95, so Oh my gosh. And I finished my 76 last week, so for a while. So lots of backlist books for people to read if they're just discovering me.

But yeah. I've been writing Sweet. Well, I've done kind of a little of everything in my career. I wrote quite a lot of romantic suspense when I was first starting out. Yeah. Some of my early books I did about 30 years. Or 35 romantic suspense. But since then I've been writing mostly community feel good.

Small town. I call 'em up. Lit reads, they're, they make you feel good at the end of them. There's not a lot of, I mean there's drama and there's tension and everything, but there's not a lot of tragedy in my books. Yeah. In the back history there is, but not on the page usually when I'm writing. Yeah. I want people to close the book and feel like they had a happy experience and they like being in the community.

I really try to, hard to write. Communities about people that care [00:11:00] about each other, that work hard to make their world a better place and work together to solve problems and things like that. Those are the kind of stories I write. And of course there was, there's romance involved. I love writing romances.

I, my last, I'd say for about the last five or six years, I've been doing a little more women's fiction once a year, and then I do a Christmas romance. So my summer books are typically a little more. Women's fictiony on the border between romance and women's fiction. There's definitely romance in them, but there's a few deeper issues.

It's relationships between sisters and mothers and children and things like that. So, but always a romance because that's my base and that's what I love. That's your love. So talk to us like how to get started. So, women's fiction we're your summer romance like, or summer women's fiction. Your summer releases tend to be more women's fiction, entry point to romance a little bit.

There's more depth in the issues where can get, we just can get started. Like you have like one or two entry points you would say, like, you should turn right here and then go down this rabbit hole [00:12:00] or. Sure. Well, if you're looking for my women's fiction, they're really all standalone books. They like, I had five of them that are set in the same place, but the characters don't intersect at all.

So there's no. It's not like you have to read the first one to understand what's going on. The next one. It's just, they're just connected by geography because I created a place that I liked and I liked writing there and I had a lot of story ideas for that place. Yeah. And so that's Cape Sanctuary book.

So the first one of those, if you want 'em in order, it was the cliff house. It was the sea glass cottage. It was, I'm gonna run out, I'm gonna not get 'em Right. Anyway, summer at the Cape. In one of them, the path to Sunshine Cove is one of them. And then the cafe at Beach End is one of them. And then this year I had a new one out.

They can start there if they want. That's not. Related it all to Cape Sanctuary. It's set in a little fictional small town in Idaho, sort of roughly based on Sun Valley. It's called 15 Summers later if they want my strict romance kind of series. I have two main single title romances. I did My Haven Point and my [00:13:00] host Crossing series, and there's seven books in Hopes Crossing that are kind of connected, especially the first three.

After that, it doesn't really matter what order you read them in, but I tend to tell people read the first three because they. The second and third build off of something that happened in the first one. And so it, it's good if people can read those. And then Hope's Crossing was a spinoff or Haven Point was a spinoff of Pope's Crossing because I created this family in like the last four books and there was one.

Son, one brother that who's who I needed to have somewhere distant for his story. And so he moved to the middle town in Idaho and I liked Idaho. I live in Utah, so I write a lot of books set in around me, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, just because that's sort of what I know the most. But, and then my Christmas books, I have a Christmas book out this year that's called the December Market.

Which is my 75th book. So I'm really excited about it. And it is actually the second book in a series, and I would recommend if people did not read my Christmas book last year, that they maybe try to pick that one up. It is coming out in Mass Market paper [00:14:00] back again this year, so you can find it digitally.

It's available all the time, but the trade paper back was out last year and it is called. At the Shelter Inn and the book this year, the December market is the sister of the hero of the first book. So she does appear and she was the best friend of the heroin. So she does appear in the first book. So if you really want the full context of her story, you might wanna read that one first.

You won't be lost or anything if you just pick up the December market. 'cause it is a, I mean, it's a standalone story, but yeah, you might have better subtext if you read the first one. And the first one is she has to come back to, she leaves town, comes back to town to help her sister who is pregnant and basically has to take care of the end like any other Sweeny holiday.

Romans come back to town and it's like against my well. And it's like, oh, but everything is so wonderful. It's just, and she kind of falls for her brother's best friend. Nope, that's an old trope. One of my favorite [00:15:00] tropes. And. They were friends. I mean, she knew him before but never looked at him romantically and until she comes back to town and sees everything through different eyes, and I loved writing that book because.

It's kind of one of my favorite tropes. Friends to Lovers is one of my absolute favorite, but it's also, she's been traveling. She couldn't wait to leave this little town in Idaho, and for the last 10 years she's been traveling. She makes her job as a digital nomad. She's an editor, but she can work anywhere.

So she travels all over and house sits and pet sits for people and things like that. So I love the idea of her coming back, coming home, trying to figure out, this is actually what I'm looking for. I still love the travel part of it, but. I love home too, and I really love writing that kind of story. So what is it like to write Christmas books?

'cause I'm assuming you're not writing them during quality season. You're writing them on the off season just to get ready. What's a process? Do you like listen to Christmas via, do you watch some following movies or you're like, how do you get in the mood? All of those things. So I actually am lucky enough that my [00:16:00] writing cycle happens to be, I'm getting ready to start my next year's Christmas book right now.

Okay. So I'll be writing it, at least doing the rough draft during the holiday season, which is perfect. Yeah. And then I'll have to wrap it up in the springtime. It'll be February or so before I'm done with it. So what I do, I put my Christmas tree up as soon as I start. So I'll be putting the Christmas tree in my office up.

Probably next week when I'm gonna be traveling this week, and I'll be, as soon as I get back, I'll be putting my Christmas tree up and getting ready to start writing Christmas. I do listen to Christmas music. I used to listen to music a lot when I write. And as my writing has evolved, I guess, and maybe as I've gotten older, I need to focus and so music tends to distract me too much.

So I actually still listen to music, but I listen to like, it has to be lo-fi with no words or anything. So. When I listen to, when I'm revising, when I'm writing, I need silence because I do a kind hybrid dictation and writing. I dictate, but I look at it on the screen as I'm dictating, and then I'll type a thing that.

If something else comes to me, so I have to have silence for that. Yeah. But to get in the mode, it really, because [00:17:00] I've written lots of Christmas books, I love writing them, and it really feels like I'm slipping back into a comfortable zone for me to write a Christmas book. I think they fit very well with my voice because I tend to write about families and about community and about caring about each other, which is all the things that people love to think about at Christmas time.

And so it, I seem to slip quite easily back into the Christmas zone when I'm writing one. And then I don't take the tree down until I'm done. So I won't take the tree down until February or March in my office until I'm finish. I love this. And so you're writing at least a couple books a year. So how do you process?

Do you revise, you take time to revise one book and then while drafting, or how do you block it among that process? I'm just curious. Well, I, so I usually am thinking about the next book as I'm wrapping up the previous book. Okay. This particular, the book I'm starting right now, I did not have, I knew the, I know the heroin and I thought that part, but I don't have anything else, so I'm starting, oh my gosh.

So I'm actually gonna [00:18:00] kind of take this week off. I just finished on Thursday of my last book. So yeah, and it was pretty intense and it was, I had a lot of family stuff going on at the same time, so getting that done was like a miracle it feels like. Yeah, it's like a miracle that I got it done but I will spend a little, probably a week thinking about it and plotting it, trying to come up with a hero.

I like to plot very much. If you wanna know the process, I'm very much a plotter, and so I will have it pretty roughed out in terms of, I know. I pretty much know scene by scene what's going to happen, and I can change that as we go along, but I like to know that because it helps me have a roadmap for the book.

And then when I sit down to write every day, I know, okay, this is what I gotta do. I know whose point of view this scene is gonna be. I know what, what needs to happen for the story arc and the romance arc and things like that. And so I'm a very intensive plotter. I'm also very lucky enough that I plot with friends sometimes.

Yeah. Usually one book a year I plot with friends and we go to beach house in San Diego in the wintertime and yeah. Hang out and eat and talk and have a great time. Yeah. Laugh and help plot each other's books. So everybody [00:19:00] brings an idea and we send the idea out to everybody ahead of time so they can look at it, and then they help us come up with different plots that we can do to move the story forward.

So, oh my gosh. It's really love. It's great. And anybody that's a writer, I really highly recommend it especially, but I recommend you get people that are kind of the same, writing, the same kind of things, but maybe not exactly what you're writing. Yeah. So like I write with a dear friend who's a, who writes more romantic comedy, so she helps me bring the comedy ems, I sort of help her with the more emotional, that's sort of my forte is all the emotion, emotional intensity of this, of the scenes.

And so, and then we've got a couple other friends that are so good at. Figuring out women's fiction and things like that. Yeah. And so it works really well if you get the right that's like a brilliant idea. I think it's sounds, it's also nice to have a community that you can bounce ideas and you, when you're stuck in the problem or the idea, like sometimes, yeah, sometimes the shower works and sometimes just like sleep it up and so, or go for a walk.

But sometimes it's just having someone to just like send a voice note or call and be like, Hey, here's the [00:20:00] issue. Let's figure things out. And having that space of like on escape to go socialize. And spend time with friends and help you. It's a work. Its a work so good. It really is. And it energizes all of us.

I think we come back really excited from it. We didn't, we couldn't do it during COVID, so we just did Zoom and that's can be successful. I mean, if you're all spread out, you can't get together. We actually it, we found it all really very helpful. But it's better if you're in person. 'cause a lot of the fun happens at night when you're all done work.

When we work really hard, we have two full days of plotting. Everybody gets half a day and it's a lot of work and we're tired at the end, but it's really fun to hang out and just talk about our lives and things like that. But. And I do recommend it just because I've written 75 books at this point. I've written every story I ever wanted to tell in order for me to keep bringing my readers something fresh and new and original.

Sometimes I need other perspectives from people who maybe have a different life experience than I do and can offer they watch different shows than I do, or they have had [00:21:00] something happen to them that's very different from me and it so, so it does help my books. I feel like it helps my books to be stronger than if I were doing it on my own.

And can we expect for book 76, like I'm assuming this is the summer release. So talk to, like, if you give us a teaser so then we know, okay, we can go, how are we gonna look forward next 2025. So it was, it's my longest book ever, I would say. Oh my gosh. And it's kind of a dual, there's a dual story.

It's not a dual timeline, but it's kind of a dual story. So it's about. Basically the opening line is the day she died, Juniper, I can't remember her last, Connolly had just finished firing her latest intern. So she has, this woman has a cardiac arrest in her office and she's brought back to life by her, this assistant that she was just firing in the middle of firing.

And turns out there's this seeker between the two of them, which comes out really early in the book. So I can tell you they're half sisters. She doesn't know. June doesn't know that they're half sisters. And so the other sister had gone there to meet her, to get to know her, to [00:22:00] sort of. Find out. They find, she finds out about Midway through the book that her dad was this famous author that she loved.

Her mother had loved this famous author, obviously, 'cause she had a baby by him, but she didn't know. And so it's kind of a mystery about what tore those two lovers apart and then these two sisters coming together. And then of course this woman dealing with the fact that she's got this congenital heart issue that she didn't know about.

She's very healthy, she's an athlete. She didn't know that she had this rhythm, heart rhythm issue. And so it's her dealing with that as well. So it's called the Lost Book of First Loves. And so there's a, they're looking for a manuscript. Their father had just died six months earlier, so she never got to meet him, but.

He, she thinks that he wrote this manuscript years ago and so she's trying to find it, not knowing that it's about his relationship with her mother. So it's kind of a, oh gosh, this is very exciting. I'm like, now I just wanna be summer 2025. I know. Yeah. Coming out, I think in June, I don't know exactly the re release date by it.

So good. So be on the lookout, [00:23:00] but we have, you have so many five looks for us to dive into in the back. Which is a healthy back list that gives you, you have small talent, you got to suspense, you wanna go to your earlier books, but then you have your woman's fiction . And then your Christmas S, which is birthday Santa.

I do like to add the caveat to people who are just discovering the me that my books are, I would say, I don't like the term, but they're on the suite. There's not a lot of Yeah, intimacy in my stories. My earlier books were not like that. They were a little spicier. I wouldn't say they were ever super spicy, but if you only want nothing like that, then you need to read my later books.

If you're okay with that, you can read some of their books. That's certainly perfect. So thank you for making that comment. I guess I think it's a more to, so it depends on their reader, it depends on their taste, it depends on where they are. Some readers are very passionate about having them so. It is all good. So you have a spectrum there to offer. Right. And I get comments on both sides. I get comments from people who say, I love that I don't have to skip over a lot in your books. And lot people who say, why I don't [00:24:00] need more sex, I needed more students, but I was never sensual.

I would say Yeah. I mean there's tension definitely between the hero and the heroin. There's, it's always there underlying the story, but I just don't, I like to keep the door closed. It's all good.

. Thank you, Anne, for being in the shower. That was a delight. Thank you so much for inviting me.

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