The Fantasy Series That Made It Out of the Group Chat | Cozy Fantasy with E.B. Asher
April 29, 2026
Featured Guest:
E.B. Asher
E. B. Asher is the author of USA Today and indie bestseller This Will Be Fun and This Will Be Interesting, and the pen name for Bridget Morrissey, Emily Wibberley, and Austin Siegemund-Broka.
Bridget is the author of several novels including That Summer Feeling and Anywhere You Go. She lives in Los Angeles with her two cats.
Emily and Austin are the authors of novels including the The Roughest Draft and Reese’s Book Club pick Heiress Takes All. Married, they live in Los Angeles, where they continue to take daily inspiration from their own love story.
Connect with E.B. Asher
📸 Instagram: @eb_asher
What happens when a group chat turns into a published fantasy series?
This week, we’re joined by E.B. Asher—aka Bridget Morrissey, Emily Wibberley, and Austin Siegemund-Broka—the trio behind one of the most fun, chaotic, and genuinely entertaining cozy romantasy series out right now.
We get into how their books This Will Be Fun and This Will Be Interesting were born out of a years-long group chat, what it actually looks like to write a fantasy novel as a team, and why starting with a pitch (instead of a manuscript) might change everything about how you write.
Also: sequels, worldbuilding, why humor works better when characters take themselves seriously, and the surprisingly strategic side of writing something that feels effortless.
In This Episode
How E.B. Asher turned a group chat into a full fantasy series
Writing a sequel vs. “hoping” for one
Their collaborative process (and why it works)
Why they start with the pitch instead of the book
The reality of co-writing a 120K word fantasy novel
Balancing humor with real emotional stakes
Cozy fantasy, romantasy, and writing for fun first
Audiobooks, accents, and letting narrators run with it
Their next project (and it’s chaotic in the best way)
What they’re reading right now
Announcements
✨ New Bonus Series Coming Soon! We’re launching a new short-form bonus episode series: “How I Got My Agent”
These will be 10–15 minute episodes featuring real stories from authors about how they landed representation or publishing deals—what worked, what didn’t, and what actually matters.
Favorite Moments from the Episode
“This book literally came out of a group chat.”
“We start with the pitchiest version of the idea first—and build from there.”
“The whole point is the class clown.”
“It’s like opening a document and it’s grown without you.”
This Will Be Interesting
E.B. Asher
Set in the same magical, madcap world as E. B. Asher’s USA Today bestseller This Will Be Fun, this heartwarming, hilarious fantasy follows an unlikely band of heroes who must get to the bottom of an assassination plot gone wrong without breaking the one rule of questing: do not fall in love with your questmates.
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Jenna G Judith (00:00)
Well everyone, we have finally popped Cait's fantasy cherry. And I couldn't be more happy that we did it with like... with our guest this week.
Cait (00:07)
I'm not mad about
Jenna G Judith (00:10)
E.B. Asher. Fun fact, it's three people. ⁓ We have Bridget, Emily, and Austin and we could not be more excited to have them on the pod. They are the co-authors of a cozy romantasy series. The first was this will be fun and then the one that just came out this year is this will be interesting. Buckle up for a very fun interview with them and maybe you will learn something in this one. If not,
That's fine too.
Cait (00:41)
cannot believe we got to talk to them. This was like so fun.
Jenna G Judith (00:44)
holy hell.
Cait (00:47)
I'm still not over the part of this podcast where like I read a book that I love so much and then immediately get to talk to the authors, especially this one because I feel like I was laughing so hard, literally laughing out loud. then I was like, oh my God, I get to like chat with them in a few, in like a good day, like tomorrow. I get to go like talk to them. I have so many questions and I'm so excited.
truly unique experience. And so this was one particularly that I was really genuinely excited to chat to.
Something that's really exciting that's coming up is that we are launching a bonus episode series. They are going to be shorter episodes, 10 to 15 minutes. And they are all going to be stories of how I got my agent or how I got my publishing deal.
How I Got My Agent has a nice Higma to it. if you've seen that, Higma bonus episodes. Yeah, we're gonna talk to some authors and find out these like really fascinating stories about how they ended up in this world and their stories about being in the industry. So it'll be really fun.
Jenna (02:04)
I am so excited for all of you to join us today, all three of you, because Newsflash, E.B. Asher is three individuals. And it's like the trifecta of authors creating some really incredible, fun, romantasy books. so cozy and just like, my god, I love it. I'm going to try really hard not to just fangirl this entire time. But
Hahaha!
Austin (02:27)
It's okay, you can.
Emily Wibberley (02:28)
Okay
Jenna (02:29)
And like stroke that ego like this is what
Austin (02:32)
you
Cait (02:33)
Was it always a... I'm sorry, I'm totally jumping in because I have to don't care. Was it a thing that you guys were like, we're going to use this as a pen name and not tell everybody who we are and then do our separate things? was it always the plan to show yourselves?
Emily Wibberley (02:52)
It was, when we pitched this to our agents, we were just like, here's a book we could use a pen name or not, like whatever everybody wants. And then when we went on sub, the Avon editor who acquired us was like, you know, there's a little bit of concern that with like the three names on the book, it could sound like an anthology of like stories. And so we're like, yeah, we've been from the get go, probably gonna do. And it was exciting. We all have long names like in those.
Austin (03:19)
So
it more than a
Emily Wibberley (03:19)
The
alphabet, yeah. So we were excited to have a short name at the beginning of the alphabet.
Jenna (03:25)
That's true. Yeah. Looking at like where you are on like the actual bookshelves in stores.
Austin (03:30)
Exactly.
Cait (03:32)
That's a good point.
Jenna (03:33)
obviously, the book that just recently came out is your second one in the series. And I know that you all have like talked a lot about like your collaboration like together, how you like work together, like the cohesion that exists. But what I am dying to know is the land of sequels because we literally have not
interviewed someone that has released a sequel. Like it's always, I'm going to write a sequel, but it's never like, yeah, we did the damn thing.
Emily Wibberley (04:02)
Mm-hmm.
Austin (04:06)
I think we love this world so much that we always knew we would take any chance to come back to it. And I think it's like there's like a passion question and a commercial question and you have to sort of like put the ladder on hold and hope that the stars align for you to get to do more in this world that you love. But I think that we, I think it was almost like a foregone conclusion that any chance we would get to spend with these characters and in Mithria was something
we would be excited to continue doing as long as folks would have us. Also, mean, the first book ends up on some pretty tidy layups for continuations. And so I think sort of like not that much of a surprise to any of us that we were kind of like, wouldn't it be cool if...
Jenna (04:48)
Yeah, was it I'm always curious of were you like writing the second book while you were like in your heads while you were writing the first one?
Bridget (04:57)
I think we kind of were in some ways. knew.
what we would want to do loosely if we were able to write a second book because like Austin was saying, like obviously we would hope to return, but it wasn't a guarantee. So we would have been happy with the book to end where it ended, but it was also very exciting for us to get to follow some characters in the second one that were maybe dead in the first one or we just didn't get to see. So yeah, we definitely wanted it, but
It could have gone either way and we would have rolled with the punches, but this is the best case scenario for us because we love the characters we got to write about and this will be interesting.
Jenna (05:38)
What do you think readers didn't get in the first one?
Emily Wibberley (05:42)
yeah, I mean, absolutely. ending of Book One was an intentional like, we were like, bear with us. Like, here we go. This was actually we were as soon as we had that idea, we were like, that is a whole other book to write that we're going to now have Galwell story. And like, what does it mean? It's just like, it's so it was so interesting to us to explore the idea of somebody who had
died and given hit achieved his life's purpose and then was just brought back. We're like, well that is it that is an interesting character. And so we were like, let's run with it and hopefully people will want to see where that goes.
Jenna (06:22)
Cait, know that like you've talked about this, was it? Or it was our episode, or two weeks ago, we talked about, can we just like, the moment of like, suspend disbelief for our readers, like, can you just like, be okay with it?
Emily Wibberley (06:25)
It was our
Cait (06:38)
Yeah, bear with us a little bit and just accept what's happening. And yeah, I was thrilled with the way the first one ended and jumping right into the second one to be, because I think, we missed that whole character. we were like, he would have been such a great guy to get to know. This is so sad. It was really sad. And where does this all, and for listeners who haven't read the series yet, it's...
It's Shrek, it's Princess Bride, it's Monty Python, it's like all of your favorite comedic things in one and it's awesome. It's so entertaining, it's wonderful. What was that first conversation between the three of you? The very first conversation about writing this series.
Bridget (07:18)
I don't remember, do you guys remember? was like text message.
Emily Wibberley (07:22)
Literally
on text message.
Austin (07:23)
It was the group chat. God, you know, ghosts bless the group chat because, truly it informs so much of our, like, so much technology is bad, but the group chat, like, as a convention, I think is such a good thing that we have, like, continual, long-running message board report of life. And this book, as well as the idea of writing together, was really born out of there. And it was one of those things where, like, the more we kicked it around,
the more serious we started getting of like, ⁓ you know, this actually kind of would be fun. Like this would be, this would be great. These are the kinds of things we like. And at that time, the cozy fantasy world was a little bit in its, in its nasancy. And we sort of started to think about things that, that, you know, obviously we've been huge Shrek and Princess Bride fans for much longer than the inception of this book ever. But we started thinking about what were some stories that we could,
could do together and you know, won't, Emily should explain this because she always says it so well, but there's like, we wanted to come up with ⁓ a premise that was right to be written by friends because it's about friends. I will hand the baton.
Emily Wibberley (08:29)
Yeah, I think we started literally from a place that we were like, if we were to write something together, the tone would be like the new Jumanji movies. Like, I think that was like the first. Yeah, we were like, we want something that is like fun and silly and like full of heart. And so we were like, but we can't do Jumanji. Like that already exists. And so we started to think about like, I think it literally started from.
Austin (08:38)
That was big too, yeah.
Emily Wibberley (08:53)
combining people we meet on vacation with like a Shrek vibe of like people who did this whole thing together, they saved the realm and then they haven't spoken in the 10 years since and then they have to go on another trip slash quest with each other and so that like that literally was once we said that in the group chat like I think we just continued texting for like two hours and like figured out
a lot of the story just on that first day.
Bridget (09:22)
And as a whole, way that our creative process works is very similar to improv in that it's a very yes and kind of world that we create together. But just how we approach ideas is like, I love that. What about if this is added on to it? And so in the initial conception of that, it was just like a snowball that kept building and building and building and really just the core of it and our driving force
through all of it was entertaining ourselves, bringing together so many things we love. And as they both said, creating something we felt like only we could create together, something that we wouldn't be able to accomplish with the same amount or same voice, tone, humor if we tried to write it on our own even. So that's how the This Will Bees came to be.
Cait (10:14)
I want to be in that group chat. Can you just put me in the group chat? Yeah. just want to I want to watch it.
Austin (10:21)
channel
off.
Cait (10:21)
picturing the like, and what if Claire meets himself and he starts punching himself in the face? That sounds amazing. And I love talking to teams. Like we've now talked to a couple of different teams and like, it's, there is something to like finding that magic with, for you guys, it's three people. For me and Jenna, it's two people. like,
Austin (10:26)
Pretty much how it goes,
Cait (10:42)
When you find that magic, it's like, OK, this has been the right people type of thing. So it's always fun to hear those origin stories. And did you all know each other before the group chat? Or did you meet randomly? How did that happen?
Jenna (10:46)
Destined
Bridget (10:48)
like.
Emily Wibberley (10:56)
We've each
other since 2017, I think, was when, because we all debuted in YA books together in Los Angeles in 2018. And so we met up with like a bunch of other of the 2018 YA debuts. We got to know each other and we just stayed friends. Like it's been almost 10 years now.
Austin (11:14)
The group chat was popping long before we ever decided to write a book together. It really was just like an outgrowth of the dynamic that we already had and that's why it worked so well. We knew we had the same sense of humor, we knew we had the same reference, we knew we trusted each other and very much admired each other's accomplishments and skill and stuff. So was actually very easy to just sort of keep having the same kinds of conversations that we've been having just about these characters.
Bridget (11:39)
And we also are very similar in that we're very driven and we're very focused in not the exact same way, but like on a same wavelength where collaborating at this level and especially on a fantasy book like this will be interesting is one hundred and twenty thousand words long. It's a long book. So there's a huge amount of trust that goes into something like that and creating something like that with other people. And so we had known each other so long and that was the foundation.
Obviously, Emily and Austin are married, so they trust each other.
Cait (12:10)
Yeah.
Austin (12:11)
known
each other for a little while.
Bridget (12:13)
But me coming into that and I know them and we know each other outside of this now business relationship we all have, but we knew we could stay the course and that is something that I think is a very underrated element of any sort of partnership you enter into.
Jenna (12:29)
Cait and I we just got like our LLC together like for this not too long ago and I think what solidified it was like literally going on vacation together and going going through like a snowstorm together and almost perishing in a snowstorm and then we're like okay we can do this together so can like take my money we're fine
Austin (12:48)
We can do this. ⁓
Cait (12:53)
And that makes me so curious as to like how you break up the writing or how that actually works day to day on the team level.
Bridget (12:52)
That's great.
We have three POVs, so we each write a POV basically, but we, just like this call, we meet up and do FaceTimes and we break the story together. So there's nobody that's just like, surprise, chapter 10 is about this. It's, everything is carefully plotted and it's very much like the group chat in person. Like, well, via FaceTime, basically.
Cait (13:15)
yeah.
Austin (13:16)
No pop.
Emily Wibberley (13:24)
Yeah,
it's like, think it's like how TV rooms are run where it's kind of like writers all get together in like a writer's room and like break the story and then they all disperse and write their episodes. And that is like kind of how we do it. we try to stay at this like we're trying to stay at the same place in the story so we're able to like read each other's as we write and and just
Austin (13:45)
And
it comes from a very complete, very detailed outline that we generate 100 % together. Like we are literally talking about every scene and all of the contents they're in. so like we really, like everybody is very comfortable and very enthusiastic and like we all come up with all the big plot moves, all the, all the components, all the everything. And then it really just kind of like branches at the end. And that part is super fun because you can read your counterparts work and it's like exciting and a surprise. And also because the book
grows at three times your own writing speed.
Jenna (14:16)
I bet that's so satisfying.
Austin (14:17)
It's awesome. It's amazing.
Bridget (14:19)
It's literally magic. It is like its own version of Mithrian magic that you get to open up a document.
Austin (14:26)
and magic.
Bridget (14:27)
grown without your direct confirmation. Yeah. But we also do things like for this book, we created an encyclopedia. So anytime somebody made up an animal or this or that or the other, we put it into an encyclopedia and had it categorized by different types of things. it was like creating a language together that we could all easily grab from as we worked too.
Austin (14:52)
We did a great job on it and we sent it to our public service. Yeah. And they were like, that's awesome. We'll never look at this again.
Jenna (14:54)
which
You're like, but I'm so proud of my baby.
Austin (15:00)
You
should put this in here, it's great!
Emily Wibberley (15:02)
yeah.
Jenna (15:03)
You wanna think?
Bridget (15:03)
It's cheeky. It's like a silly encyclopedia.
Austin (15:07)
Great,
it's
Jenna (15:07)
Oh my God, that's incredible. And when you were talking about outlining, I'm like, oh, that's how I work. And then when you said word count, I saw Cait's face like just go white. any, because I, what did I tell you? Like when I was first working on like my second draft of my Romanticie was literally like 130,000 words. And you're like, how did you even do that?
Austin (15:29)
How did I
do this?
Bridget (15:30)
You
Cait (15:31)
make stuff up at such a rate.
Jenna (15:33)
It's not that anymore, but...
Bridget (15:34)
For
us, independently, none of us are like long writers in our like actual work. So it actually is like a feat for us to get to these longer stories together too. And again, another thing we could only accomplish together because we're always like, we all write adult romance, contemporary romance or speculative elements now, but they like you to hover around like an 80, 85,000 and we're like, how's 78? know, so we're. Yeah, so.
Austin (16:00)
Really scrape it
Bridget (16:02)
It was an accomplishment for us to hit that 120, whatever it ended up being.
Jenna (16:08)
in the group chat, who's like the most brutal in the editing?
Austin (16:11)
I mean, I think we're... Yeah, we edit pretty light.
Emily Wibberley (16:12)
Tozer.
Jenna (16:15)
really?
Emily Wibberley (16:15)
in
actual like when we're brainstorming that's where we're more like like going back and forth on ideas and I definitely I will say that I like am the most like hard I'll just be like I don't know if that's it yet like keep keep thinking keep thinking keep thinking but like we don't go onto each other's chapters and like unless it's like a true like inconsistency where it's like yeah this happened in my chapter already so I think we need to reconcile these two or like we need a
setting change for whatever reason. We try to once we actually have are into the writing not have that many edits but.
Bridget (16:52)
Yeah. it'll like I will say I'm the type of person to that will ask like a question that's like a brain breaking question that has come to me that is sort of like a foundation shaking question that I'm like, unfortunately, as I was showering, I realized that we said Mithria is this and now it doesn't make any of this make sense or whatever it may be. Yeah. But it's like we each kind of have our own thing like that.
as Emily is saying too, all of those things kind of go into the brain crock pot is what I like to say. And so that's all constantly simmering as we're creating. So there never really is a major issue by the time we are in drafting. It's just a lot of minor inconsistencies or just punch ups really like ways to up the stakes, up the tension, whatever it may be.
Jenna (17:41)
And who is the one that is most likely to crack as many jokes as possible?
Austin (17:45)
It's kind cause it's like so fundamental to the story. We're kind of like always trying to riff on it because like that is what we're actually literally creatively trying to do here. So it's kind of like, it's not, nobody's like the class clown because like the whole point is the class clown. It's like.
Emily Wibberley (18:00)
the most likely to describe a food he will create yeah
Austin (18:04)
And I really like the whole like, shrek of it all of like, how do we make a fantasy version of X, and Z so that it's like a funny reflection of modern times. Like that has always been, I will call a passion of mine. And it is something that I have, you know, why I wanted and we wanted to write more of these is like, I knew there were more such jokes to be made.
Bridget (18:26)
We actually had a really funny group chat moment where I wish I can't remember the exact context, but it's like our own internal meme that could make me cry laughing when I think of it. I was talking about the characterization of the romances in this book. This will be interesting and like whatever layers I wanted to add. And there's a picture of an actor that we were using as like a reference for him. He's standing shirtless in like a lake. And so it was like.
Austin (18:49)
yeah.
Emily Wibberley (18:54)
no depth
to it. Our synopsis and it was like we were really like Galwell had so much depth like he just comes to the page.
Cait (18:55)
It's just like a very-
Austin (18:56)
Yeah.
Bridget (18:58)
Handsome.
Austin (18:59)
Cool man.
Yeah.
Emily Wibberley (19:08)
And we gave him this villain romance. And so we were like, there's just so much to work with there. And then Bridgette brought in this backstory for her characters. And then when it was time for Thessia and Hugh, we were like, well, Hugh's thing is this. And it's just a hot. That's all we got.
Austin (19:23)
That's all
we need. That's all we got and that's all we need.
Emily Wibberley (19:25)
But originally he had none of that. We were just like, he's just that hot him, though. doesn't really think that much.
Bridget (19:31)
The picture is so funny because he's so affable. It is just so Hugh. But that is like a classic. But that humor, though, is very us too, that we're dealing with like these really serious themes. And then there's like a handsome shirtless guy smiling in a lake. And that is the contrast we're always playing with in these.
Austin (19:49)
Yes.
Cait (19:49)
I think you guys are, it's obviously super funny, but it takes itself very seriously and you don't play, I mean like, you don't play to the humor as much as like you would think that somebody who's really funny does. Like each character very much takes themselves very seriously and they have very serious emotions and they are 100 % committed to whatever they're trying to achieve and...
And that's, think, also gives it the heart that it has, is that it's serious. At the end of the day, these are very serious things that they want for them. And you guys do a great job at making it feel serious, but it's fucking hilarious.
Jenna (20:27)
I think there was like a Steve Carell quote when I was listening to like an Amy Poehler podcast. Yeah. He's like, people like characters in comedies don't know they're in comedies. They take everything very seriously. And if they know they're in a comedy, no.
Austin (20:37)
Right.
So
I used to go. I mean, we wanted the fantasy story to be to be like real like we weren't we didn't want it to be a spoof. It's like the fantasy part should work.
Bridget (20:52)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and also like with our characters like a character like Galwell who is so deeply earnest and is essentially and while he's a great hero he's also kind of like not experienced a lot in his life outside of his heroism and he died that is something that like because he died and now he's back in the world and the world has moved on without him and like it for him he's one of my favorite characters because you know it would be very easy to make him to play it for laughs and a
lot of his stuff is comedic, but like it works because his heart is genuinely so good that it just makes it funny. Like the I assure you my legs are clean and muscular.
Austin (21:33)
yeah.
Bridget (21:35)
I'm listening to it on the audiobook right now. I'm listening to our own book because the audiobook is so fun. And I'm like just having the best time laughing at the chapters I didn't write particularly because it's fun to get to experience them in a different ⁓ medium.
Jenna (21:49)
So when you did the audiobook, what were your dream goals with it? Because I know there can be some creative license and everything, but what were you really passionate about that you wanted to ensure got in?
Emily Wibberley (22:04)
off the page. They came to us for this will be fun and they were like yeah the producers want to do like some fun accents and we were like sure like this isn't this isn't a traditional fantasy it's like Claire has kind of a western he's a cowboy
Austin (22:11)
Yeah.
Jenna (22:16)
Like.
Bridget (22:17)
cowboy
Austin (22:19)
I
we kind of liked that they were having fun with it. It was kind of like that was like, yeah, you know what? Like, yes, like we want you guys to enjoy this too and like have fun and like bring your own crazy stuff. Cause at the end of the day, that's what we did.
Emily Wibberley (22:31)
Mm-hmm
Bridget (22:32)
Yeah, and they really lean into that. And that's why if you haven't read it or are an audiobook listener, I'm a big audiobook listener. They're actually really fun to listen to on audio. And you can tell that the narrators are having fun, too. At least I like to think that they are because they're getting to do so many accents. But yes, it's not at all like a traditional fantasy. But we didn't have any. We didn't suggest that that was completely from the producer. And we were just lucky to to benefit from that.
Cait (23:00)
The best part of the audiobook too is hearing all the different... Hearing the chapters read by that character who that chapter's about, but then having to hear them all do all the different voices for each other. Yeah. Yeah. That's so fucking hilarious. You're just like, yeah, Claire doing...
Bridget (23:17)
like Bandra
and dude.
Cait (23:19)
That
cable and Beatrice's voice is so funny because when you hear her actual voice, it's totally different. They definitely sound like they're having fun. Yeah, highly recommend the audio. I did. I'm curious, can we ask you about the next thing? Because I know that you announced recently that there is a next thing.
Bridget (23:31)
Yeah, it's such a good time.
Austin (23:41)
Yeah
Cait (23:43)
If I can ask you about it. I want you to know more about it.
Emily Wibberley (23:45)
We are super excited.
Yes, next year, our next, it's just not connected to this will be universe. It is a new story and it is, we pitch it as like the hangover meets the Atlas six, Atlas six, but like in a silly way. It's like there are three magic school flunkies who end up,
getting very drunk and pulling a prank that maybe is gonna destroy the entire city and they're the only ones who can fix it if they can remember what they did last night. But they blacked out so they gotta retrace their steps like in the hangover.
Jenna (24:24)
my god. Yes, please.
Austin (24:25)
It's been great to write. It's been really fun. They're a very like new crop of characters because they're kind of like, they're really like when we meet them, they're kind of like, they're kind of the screw ups. they don't, at least some of them don't think of themselves that way, but they're sort of like a mess and all kind of like having to deal with the fact that they feel like they're the three worst magic school students there is, and they just got super drunk and have no idea what they're doing. So it was a nice change of pace.
Bridget (24:53)
Yeah, we're working on it right now. we're in the process of it and we're having such a blast and it's fun to be in a different world than the world of Myths of Investria and to be coming up with things that are just entirely new but also feel like what is now kind of our E.B. Asher signature of just a little bit of the silliness mixed with like a lot of sincerity and some serious real real stakes
set against some very unserious situations.
Jenna (25:23)
so for this book, when I can you mentioned like, you originally thought of like Jumanji, like the new one. And I feel like your new project that you're working on, I'm just keep picturing Jack Black, like over and over again in my head.
Emily Wibberley (25:39)
He is a good, like...
Austin (25:40)
He has a part in all of our hearts.
Jenna (25:42)
You
Emily Wibberley (25:43)
Yes, Disney is always a guiding force for us. The other day we were like, could we find a way to do School of Rock?
Austin (25:47)
Yes he is.
Yeah.
You wouldn't tell Picasso to sell his guitars.
Emily Wibberley (25:55)
I like him.
Austin (25:56)
It kills me every time. I love that movie so much.
Emily Wibberley (25:59)
Yeah, Jack Black is always like a guiding star for us.
Jenna (26:03)
Yeah,
my kids watched Minecraft for the first time. Yeah, and I'm like not a Minecraft nerd or really mildly invested in any sense of the word. And like my son, he's turning five next week and he wanted to watch it. I'm like, sure. And so now for about seven days straight, we have played lava chicken on repeat in our house.
Austin (26:06)
⁓ yeah!
Bridget (26:29)
Love it.
Jenna (26:30)
It's
it's I can't be mad about it because it's check black. If it was anyone else, I'd be like, no, but yeah.
Austin (26:33)
Yeah.
Emily Wibberley (26:37)
you
Austin (26:37)
It was really smart of him. really like, that was a really good relevance play. I have to add to him. Like he kind of like knew, he knew something that we didn't.
Jenna (26:45)
Mm-hmm.
Bridget (26:46)
truly.
Cait (26:47)
Did you see
that interview with the Fanning sisters where one of them is like, he is just like, yes. ⁓
Emily Wibberley (26:51)
my god.
Bridget (26:52)
Yeah.
Emily Wibberley (26:55)
And then he saw it and he was like, I'm flattered.
Austin (26:58)
That's awesome.
Cait (26:59)
I kind of get it. I'm not against a Jack Black. I do want to like do chat about kind of side things too outside of EB Asher and what you all are up to in your other lives.
Jenna (27:03)
Doop.
Yeah, you have a multi-faceted life, each of you.
Bridget (27:17)
Yeah.
Emily Wibberley (27:18)
Well,
Bridget, yours comes out first.
Bridget (27:19)
Yeah, my next Bridget Morrissey book is called In What World? That comes out in August. It's a sapphic speculative romance about two women who hated each other in high school reuniting as adults to investigate the disappearance of their beloved former teacher, only to end up traveling through a series of increasingly bizarre alternate realities together where they are forced to confront the question of like, in what world would the two of them ever fall?
love. And it has been such a blast. I love any sort of, which is will be neatly tied into what Emily and Austin tell you they have coming next, but love anything to do with time travel, multiverse, like what would my life be in another version of reality. And this book basically takes that very literally. They meet alternate versions of themselves and literally see who they would be if they made different choices in their life. So that's what I've got coming up next.
Next.
Jenna (28:17)
So
it's like the Marvel multiverse, but done well.
Bridget (28:21)
I actually have never seen any of the Marvel movies, but maybe it is. It's my take on it without knowing their take.
Jenna (28:24)
thank God.
Perfect.
Emily Wibberley (28:30)
You
Bridget (28:31)
And then Emily and Austin have.
Emily Wibberley (28:33)
Yeah, so we have our next ⁓ adult romance which is called Just in Time and we pitch it as when Harry met Sally but about two time travelers who keep bumping into each other as they travel through the past and strike up a friendship that might shake up their time travel and what it means going into the future.
Cait (28:53)
Like, do you guys write these insane blurbs first? Like, before you sit down to write the chapter, you're like, okay, here.
Austin (29:01)
I mean, yes.
Bridget (29:02)
Quite literally, yes we
Austin (29:04)
Yes,
and like we have to like, we come up with a bunch of these and like it's the ones that we that we keep thinking to ourselves, you know, I really can't ignore that idea. That's what we that's what we end up putting forward. And if it has a supernatural pun in the title, it's obviously gets bonus points for me and Emily specifically because we seemingly cannot help ourselves.
Jenna (29:23)
Yeah.
Please tell me that was part of your wedding vows.
Austin (29:25)
Unfortunately, we had not discovered that yet. Sadly. That's a good point. Just in time.
Bridget (29:29)
Time for a vow renewal. ⁓
Jenna (29:33)
There you go.
Bridget (29:34)
In what world? This one.
Austin (29:37)
wow, all coming together.
Bridget (29:39)
Yeah
Jenna (29:40)
Oh my god, so that was like the best sound bite in the entire universe. to the blurb thing, because I don't know, like, Cait if you've heard that before, of like starting with like the pitchiest pitch blurb ever and then building off of that, because I'm like, we always joke that we don't teach you crap on this podcast. We just like
Cait (29:42)
That was it.
Jenna (30:03)
drink, talk shit, and have fun. And I just learned something today. So that was just a little...
Austin (30:10)
I mean, yeah, it's really...
Bridget (30:11)
I don't know if everybody does, but it is definitely the three of us work like from the smallest, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. cause that's how you, every podcast you do, they say, what's your book about? You can't be like, let me read you a seven page document. You gotta be able to say it in a sentence. So.
Austin (30:28)
Let alone like commercially, like we always try to come up with like a great title and three paragraphs because when folks are going to be picking this thing up in the bookstore, what are they going to read? A great title and three paragraphs. That's like, so it has to work, you know.
Emily Wibberley (30:40)
our bellwether and it's like if we're not able to like make something sound good in those three paragraphs then it's something
Bridget (30:48)
It's
not tight enough yet.
Austin (30:50)
Right,
there isn't enough of a concept yet.
Jenna (30:53)
is why we talk to the pros.
Bridget (30:55)
But it is like they always that's what publishing wants from you when you sell books on proposal. They want to know what it is with the least amount of reading required from. They want to understand it seriously, be able to tell other people about it quickly. So whether or not you are good at that initially, like it is something definitely worth improving upon because it is you will be asked to do it and ask to sum things up in an appealing way.
more than you'll be asked to like wax poetic on any of it.
Cait (31:28)
Yeah,
yeah, and when we when we have others on too, I'm always amazed at how I'll be like, and like, you know, let's we'll wrap up and do you want to pitch anything else coming out and they can they just
Austin (31:40)
Just really
go!
Cait (31:42)
Yeah, it's like in there, it is memorized, it is ready to go. And so yeah, I totally get it. But you guys, your blurbs are specifically so good every time. Even when I see them on social media, I'm like, how do they... This is clearly where they're jumping off from.
Jenna (31:58)
Like who needs a list of tropes when you have that pitch like that's true it
Cait (32:03)
I'm at trope,
friggin' troper.
Bridget (32:05)
reveal.
Austin (32:05)
It's
reassuring to hear you say that because admittedly we have we have had a harder time reverse engineering our brains into coming up with the list of tropes and we're getting better at it but like it's that has come less naturally.
Cait (32:17)
Yeah.
Jenna (32:18)
Isn't that funny?
Austin (32:19)
Yeah, it's just a different convention.
Emily Wibberley (32:21)
breathing.
Cait (32:21)
It is, I'm kind of over it. I think it's like, I feel like it's like almost a social media trend at this point. It's,
Emily Wibberley (32:27)
It absolutely
is. you know, like, we all have to like, meet social media, like where it is, like, and so we just like, try to figure it out. But like, I think it's really cool when people are pushing it to another level, because that's inspiring to us, like, too. We're like, ⁓ that's a great idea. Like, I want to try to do it that way.
Bridget (32:46)
We also like the tropes specifically for this will be interesting. There are three romances in this book. Yeah. And we wanted them to be different. that like that's a place where tropes were really helpful because we could look and think about what it be like. Let's pick three very distinct, very different things and execute them so that we feel like we're giving three unique experiences within the same book.
Jenna (33:12)
So were you all like avid Romantic or fantasy readers before you even approached writing this series together?
Emily Wibberley (33:22)
I am a very avid romantasy reader, like all like YA and adult, definitely big reader. Austin has always loved fantasy as well, but he's a lawyer so he doesn't like have as much.
Jenna (33:26)
Okay.
Austin (33:34)
I have
always loved epic fantasy and as far as romance goes, am not some stereotypical neophyte. I have a competency. I sort of have like a, you know, a working knowledge.
Bridget (33:48)
And then I exist in like the space right between that two where I read, I read a lot. just read all across genres and categories. And I also when it comes to like film or TV, it's the same thing. But those touchstones, like all together and like the way that we vary on that or how we are able to find something that appeals to all of us, because it's like digging for like the diamond that we all covet, you know, when we put these things together.
Jenna (34:15)
I ask this a lot, with people in the fantasy realm. What are you reading when you are writing or do you not read when you are writing?
Emily Wibberley (34:25)
Usually,
always reading, but usually like...
usually more reading like what we want to write next, like so whatever we are writing. So like right now I am reading more fantasy because we want to try to like write a fantasy next. like when we're not, when we are writing a fantasy, it's like, okay, I'm to read some more contemporary or like whatever. it's, it's definitely because you want to like do that research before you're actually writing because you don't want to be like drawing too much from it or feeling too influenced.
Austin (34:31)
Yeah.
Emily Wibberley (34:56)
or getting in your head, like you want to be able to just like have fun when you're reading and not think about your work.
Bridget (35:00)
I'm just always...
just reading whatever is speaking to me in the moment. I'm like I said, I love audiobooks and I'm a big fan of the Libby apps. Skip the line. I will just go through there and like scroll, scroll, scroll and like pick a book that I maybe never in a million years would have picked up on the shelf. But I feel like that really helps me not tire out on one specific genre because I am writing a lot of it. And so I'm always just seeking novelty basically and just trying to
my brain fresh.
Jenna (35:31)
And I have to ask, what have you read this year that you're like, that was absolutely incredible?
Emily Wibberley (35:37)
I think most recently for me it was the new Heather Fawcett book that
Bridget (35:42)
the Agnes O'Bears. Yeah, I loved that.
Emily Wibberley (35:44)
The one about the cat shelter, that was great.
Bridget (35:48)
I
The Night and the Moth, Rachel Gillick, and I'm so excited for the next one of that. thought that the last, particularly the last act of that was so breathlessly exciting and so propulsive. So that would be mine, I think.
Emily Wibberley (36:02)
Mm-hmm.
Austin (36:05)
I sign on to Agnes as well. That's the one that like Emily filters the good stuff to me and that was, I agreed.
Bridget (36:13)
Cosines.
Austin (36:15)
Yeah,
basically.
Jenna (36:17)
What?
Emily Wibberley (36:17)
you could pick a romanticie for Austin to read next, what would you pick?
Austin (36:21)
Yeah, I would totally would take recommendations. I totally, would. Yeah.
Jenna (36:25)
⁓ I have, okay. Let me do my little spin.
you read Keri Anathema?
Austin (36:35)
No. ⁓ okay.
Jenna (36:37)
Keri Lake is one of my all-time favorite authors. I was like hook line and sinker for Nocticadia. And that was a dark academia sci-fi fantasy romance. Lots of things.
Emily Wibberley (36:52)
I can tell you it's got a very metal cover. think this Austin will like ⁓
Austin (36:56)
Great.
I was gonna read it anyway though. I'm sincerely looking for like genuine, like sourced, knowledgeable recommendations.
I really am looking for like good, you know, like genuine, yeah, audiobooks and legitimized recommendations that are not just like the endless internet.
Cait (37:13)
anybody listening who's not like a romantasy reader, because I'm really not very familiar with this world at all, and they're just not the books that I would normally pick up. So when I picked up, this will be fun.
I was like, well, have to get like I have to read both like right so I can't just pick up the new one but so I started it and I was like nervous So was like am I gonna be able to keep track of everything? Okay, like am I paying attention like I can't read when I have the kids around or like whatever it is But as soon as I read the sentence If first of all that the one it was sort of and it was like Beatrice is drunk. I was like, all right
Bridget (37:49)
Drunk in the bath, yeah.
Jenna (37:50)
Really?
Check.
Cait (37:51)
I'm okay. And then the next line, it was like a little bit after that, but it was like a fucking banquet. it was the perfect, and I was like, I am in safe hands and I'm going to be okay. After the ride was wonderful. So if you are listening and you would not normally pick up a romantasy, like this is a great, you'll be okay. Yes.
Emily Wibberley (38:03)
Thanks.
Jenna (38:13)
Go.
Austin (38:13)
That's a big compliment. was really a North Star for us. It really was. That it be like not something that you have to like study hard for and stuff. We really wanted to just be like, you know, well, fun.
Jenna (38:24)
Yes, and Cait, I'm never gonna force you to read Throne of Glass. Like, I won't do that to you.
Cait (38:31)
It's fair.
Emily Wibberley (38:31)
Very long.
