Hi, Rosie. Welcome to Next podcast.

Thank you. So nice to meet you.

So nice to meet you too. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Well, my name is Rosie Story. I live in London and my debut novel, dandelion is Dead, is coming out in the US in January.

Okay, so we gotta talk about your debut, talk about Life in London, and talk to us about your writing journey, because this was not the first book.

No.

this is not the first rodeo that you have encountered.

Yes. Yeah. I hope that if anyone's listening who is struggling with writing, then I can. Give them some hope because this was a very long journey and I have managed to remain persistent somehow and finally pulled it off and my book will be coming out, which I didn't think would necessarily ever happen.

Yeah. So talk to us about, the journey

Right. Yeah., I've always loved writing and even as a child I was writing stories but I never thought that. It would be something that I did professionally. It was always kind of on the side and I always kept it separate and secret in a way, even from myself. After uni I started a corporate career. I went to go and work in the world of tech and I would go and take myself off to writing classes kind of after work and I was always writing something. But I didn't really consciously think about pursuing it. I mean, I just thought it would never work out as a profession. And then around over a decade ago, I started writing my first novel. And I was writing that for years. And I had some good feedback on that. And I thought, right, I'm gonna give this everything. Actually, I'm gonna try and be a novelist, and I quit my job. And I dedicated full-time to writing that novel. And it just all came, it didn't work out. Spoiler,

Yeah.

that fell flat on its face. And I went crawling back to work and I just thought, okay, I tried to pursue my dream. I failed miserably. But I just couldn't start writing. So I started writing dandelion as dead in 2020 in the evenings after work then I just pursued that. So it's sort of technically my second book, but you know, it's the first one that will ever see the light of day, really. And then I got a book deal last summer.

That's amazing and I love the fact that were able to walk through that. This is not a linear process. This is not like I did this. I think a lot of times we realize that we may take some steps, they may build some momentum, but then sometimes it just. Goes to a halt and then we have to go back, pivot, and then go back and it's not this straightforward process.

It's not straightforward and what I kind of love about it now is there was so many knock backs along the way. I mean. With dandelion as dead. This novel as well, I was probably rejected from about 10 agents. I said I was blanked by probably another 10 agents, so it wasn't smooth sailing with this novel either. But now I'm in a position where I look back and I see those rejections as stepping stones

Yeah.

Each one, they sort of needed to be there partly. So I would improve, but partly so I would meet the right people. And at the time it just felt like the end. And luckily I managed to kind of get up and brush myself off and continue because it wasn't the end, it was just, part of the journey.

It was just the

Mm-hmm.

All right, so let's start instead, which is, it has a high level concept which you wouldn't think of it, and then you're like, oh, yeah, it makes sense. As I was telling you, I was like, if I was in a place of grief, I would probably have. Probably taking some actions that may not make sense and then it snowballs, so talk to me about the high level pit, the high level,

so the book is about Poppy, who's 37, and when we meet her, she's grieving her older sister. Dandelion who died seven months before the book starts, and Poppy is at her sister's flat and she looks at her sister's phone and she goes into her sister's dating app and she starts talking to a stranger called Jake through dandelion dating app. And then she meets him and then it sort of spirals into a web of lies.

Yes. And it just takes you to a journey of overcoming grief, overcoming just making sense in your late thirties is very different than making sense in your twenties and feeling your life. If it's like, what am I doing with my life and those midlife questions that you have,

Yeah. I mean they're, intrinsic to what I write. That's the age that I was when I was writing that, and I'm sort of now writing my second book and it'll be a similar thing. I mean, I think as we approach middle age.

Yeah.

such a pressure of what life is meant to look like, and if it doesn't look like that, you can feel terrible about yourself. So in so many ways, my novel is really, I think the main theme actually is personal authenticity and finding that journey of finding out who we are.

Yeah. I really appreciate your novel. Yes. Because it dealt with like similar age that I am far, but it's also this Carlos thing. 'cause when I was reading and you just reread this book, which is Brita Jones Sari that came out 20 something years ago. I remember reading that in my twenties and being like, I wanna be a London girl. And there was like a whole resurgence of British chicklet. And so it's nice to see like the grownup version of it in that era of

yeah.

in our twenties, we're in our thirties or forties. We're trying to figure out makes sense, but we still have this messy life

Yeah,

we're not perfect.

no, and that's something I'm also really passionate about is that everyone's life is messy.

Yeah.

All lives are messy. It doesn't matter if you haven't got married or you don't have children, or you do have children, you can't keep life neat and tidy.

Yeah. So this is not neat and tidy. So for listener standalone whose that is, is available this week when it publishes this episode. You can borrow from the library, you can purchase, you can pre-order, you can get the book. I think it's a really, I think it's, it will make a really good book club book for people who are looking to have conversations. 'cause it does bring some good discussion with it.

Yeah, well, I say the sort of the sub heading is, it's a story about life and it does cover off a lot of life's moments. There's love and grief and lust and societal expectations and all the things. So I think there's a few things to chat about.

Yes, it is a good one. It is a good discussion book. All right, so let's talk some book recommendations. You have some really good ones to talk about. You got some around July. You got some, a book for 1985, so talk to us your book recommendations.

So the first one is a First Bad Man by Miranda July. And I just finished my reread of that, so I think that came out 10 years ago and I found it on my bookshelf. I thought, oh, I'm gonna have another look at this because, so many of us loved all fours.

Yeah.

And this, I think this was maybe her first novel or her second. But it's just such a wild ride. I mean, it's even, it's for people. If you didn't all fours, it wouldn't be for you because it's even less. It's less commercial, it's more niche. It's just a wild ride. It's about a woman called Cheryl, who lives quite a lonely life until a much younger woman moves into her apartment, and then a very bizarre series of events unfold I think that's one of the reasons I just love Miranda July's writing. I love her story collection as well. No one belongs here more than you, I think that's called, and it's just so unexpected. And when I read her writing, I feel like I, I'm watching her dance. There's such a kind of fluency to it, on a sentence level, I think she's a literary genius and she always keeps the reader kind of guessing and off balance about what the hell's gonna happen next. And I just loved it.

Yes, I am gonna pick that one off based on my recommendation. 'cause I did all four, so I'm like, oh, this would be perfect. And I love how you recommend, it's like the sister, the big sister one,

It is the big sister. Exactly. It's the big sister of all fours. And yeah, it's certainly unexpected.

Yes. So might as well go for another ride. This is what we read for, we just wanna be surprised in unexpected

Yeah and I think with Miranda, I don't even mind about her plots so much, I'm just there to sort of see what she's gonna do, I'm just having fun hanging out with her.

Yeah. I love this. All right. Talk to us about your next recommendation, which is an older collection of stories.

so this one is by Laurie Moore, who is a writer that I really greatly admire. This, I think it was her first collection of stories, and it's from 1985. And I do love short story. Collections because if you're just not in the mood and you can to commit to a novel or you are sort of on your way somewhere and you have 10 or 15 minutes, you could just dip in and out. And so this one is called Self-Help. And I think my favorite of the stories is maybe how to become a writer or how to be the other woman, and. They aren't self-help stories, but that's kind of a, like the theme that she's clustering around. But like July, I dunno, have you read any Laurie Moore?

No, I have not.

Oh, I, you must she's really funny and she's so clever and she's so skilled and. When I think about Lori Moore, I think about I was listening to the New Yorker Fiction Hour and David Sedaris was on it and he was reading a story by her, and then at the end he has a discussion about it and he said, this line that really sticks in my head because I think of it, it's so true. He just said. With Lori Moore, with her writing it's joke and then at the end you're devastated. And you think, how does she do that? And it's sort of it. It is exactly like that. You're sort of, this is so funny. And then you realize that you're completely heartbroken.

God, now you're selling me this book. I'm like, yeah, because I think sometimes jokes and laughter and funny things. Can bring the realities of devastation and like we look at the world in a very different space and a place for humor. It actually allows you to go deeper and to actually tap into the feelings that in that range of motion.

I completely agree. Yeah.

yeah. right. Talk to us about Meg Mason's, 'cause I actually am excited for this one to hear

Yeah so this kind of comes, follows on from exactly what you were just saying about humor and heartbreak sitting side by side. And that's exactly what sorrow and blisters, I mean, it's in the title for a start, but it's so funny and also heartbreaking. It follows a woman, Martha, who's in her late. Thirties and her life is kind of falling apart. She's having a difficult time with her mental health. She's having problems with her marriage. And thematically it sits really close to all the writing that I gravitate towards. And in fact, my own novel and what I write as well, which is a mixture of sorrow and humor and again, what we were discussing that kind. Real honesty around the messiness of life. I believe Martha's in her late thirties as well. So it's a similar moment of figuring things out. And I think with Mason's writing, she just demonstrates so well in this novel, how painful, but also how beautiful things can be. And sometimes just within the same paragraph.

Yeah. age range. So bliss, like we're just gonna go for the journey

I think that's my niche. That's what I'm loving. Yeah.

I am glad that you're writing this niche. I'm glad that you're writing some of the messiness about life and messiness in this era of middle age something that we need. Millennials are middle aged now,

yeah. Yeah.

Rosie tell us, are gonna find online.

I'm on Instagram, Rosie. Story writer.

Awesome.

Yeah.

for being in the show.

Oh, it was so lovely to meet you.

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