Episode 62: [GUEST] Finding Your Audience After a Multi-Year Break with Romance Author Marysol James

Join Elizabeth for a great conversation with Marysol James, a remarkably prolific self-published romance author with 31 books across six bestselling series who discovered her writing career by happy accident. 

Marysol's journey includes not only impressive literary success spanning cowboys to motorcycle bikers, but also a powerful personal story of healing and rebuilding her life after an abusive relationship derailed her writing. 

Meet Marysol James:

Marysol James was a best-selling romance writer when she met and fell in love with a man who offered her a future worthy of one of her books… but within two years of moving in with him, she had lost everything that she’d worked for. She was abused emotionally, psychologically, physically, and financially. She was isolated and manipulated and gaslighted, until she was convinced by a narcissist that everything was her fault.

She managed to leave the relationship 18 months ago, and has spent that time reclaiming her life, her dignity, her sanity, and her independence. She has returned to romance writing and has done extensive research – with a therapist specialised in narcissistic trauma - and has taken her horrible experience, and created a 90-day program called ‘It Happens To The Best Of Us’.

The program is aimed at high-achieving women, and it teaches the red flags and realities of being in a romantic relationship with a narcissist. It explains the patterns and behaviours of narcissism, and shows you how to reclaim your power and your peace. The program launch date is Saturday, April 5.

To find out more about ‘It Happens To The Best Of Us', or to set up a one-on-one call with Marysol about how the program can help you, please go to her Instagram account: ​https://www.instagram.com/marysoljames/​

Connect with Marysol online: 

Website: ​https://marysoljames.com​

YouTube: ​https://www.youtube.com/@MarysolJames-s6q​

FaceBook: ​https://www.facebook.com/marysol.james.romanceauthor​

Newsletter: ​https://marysoljames.substack.com

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We hope you've found guidance and inspiration for your own writing.

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Transcript

Elizabeth: 0:01

Hello, listener. Welcome back to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. I am your co-host, Elizabeth, and today I am joined by Marisol James. She is a self-published romance writer. She's written 31 books to date. She's got another one coming out in February. It's spread over the course of six different bestselling series ranging from cowboys to motorcycle bikers, and. I think there's some Jim Bros in there. Um, and she itself has self-published all of these on Amazon. of those series also includes audio books. And what's so interesting about her story that I think everyone's gonna really enjoy today is that she landed in this career totally by happy accident. It started as a joke, and by doing so, she learned the value of deviating from a set path and embracing opportunities outside of the box. And don't, all of us as writers need to embrace that at some points, embracing that magic of writing the opposite of what you're used to. She's a Canadian who is now living in England. She's traveled a lot, lived in other countries. And on a more personal note, just over a year ago, she ended a very abusive relationship and has spent a lot of time healing and rebuilding her life from zero. During the course of that relationship, she stopped writing. So we're gonna be talking about how she has is rejuvenating, reclaiming her life, reclaiming her role as a writer, and also helping other people to avoid the same sort of relationship pitfalls that she experienced. So Marisol, welcome to the podcast. I'm so grateful to have you here with us today.

Marysol: 1:42

Hi, Elizabeth. It's good to be here. Thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure.

Elizabeth: 1:47

I just, I loved hearing your story of how you got started, and so I wonder if you would just start there with letting the listeners know, like how you were kind of going down one path with your writing and then this opportunity presented itself and it took off.

Marysol: 2:03

Okay, well, um, I'll go back a little bit because the truth is that ever since I was young, I wanted to be a writer. It was my dream. But this was back in the 1980s. So back then there was no Amazon, there was no self-publishing. It was, you get an agent, you get a publishing house, you get a contract. And that's how you became a writer. And so I ended up just sticking with academia. I graduated with a master's degree in International Law and International Relations, and I promptly got into what you would expect me to, which was working in business, not in Canada where I'm from, but overseas. So I was in upper management in China. In Hong Kong and then eventually in Poland where I got married and had two kids and I was kind of at the pinnacle of my career in Warsaw. I was the Chief operational Director of Central and Eastern Europe. Um, I had a team of like 40 people spread over. Central and Eastern Europe and I got diagnosed with cancer and uh, I was promptly fired from my upper management position. I got a decent severance two years, but still I was unemployed and I didn't really have anything to do. I was flat on my back. I wasn't feeling great. I was having treatment. I was in my head a lot and I did national novel writing month. In the middle of my chemo and my, my treatment, and it was the first year they did the summer cabins. So I ended up in this virtual cabin with two women named Ruby and Angie. And before this point, I had just written for fun for myself. I'd self-published some short stories, I'd self-published, sort of a dark contemporary literature. Book based in Canada and during this nano Rmo summer camp, I finished the second book of the, the Contemporary Literature series and I finished it in two weeks. Um,'cause I had nothing else to do except sit around and write 50,000 words and then I didn't quite know what to do for the next two weeks of the summer camp. So I said to Ruby and Angie, what am I gonna do? Like I've, I've used up my 50,000 words. I finished my book, what do I do now? And they said it was their idea. They said, why don't you write the exact opposite of what you normally write? So looking back on it, I had written a master's thesis about international law. I had written business proposals. Budgets, um, hard, like heavy contemporary literature.

Elizabeth: 4:54

Mm-hmm.

Marysol: 4:55

I said, well, what do you suggest? And they said, why don't you write a romance? Why don't you write something kind of light and fun, something to give yourself a mental break and just do that? And I said. I've never even read a romance. I don't know where to begin. I don't know how to do this. And they said, well, you know, we'll help you. So the three of us in this virtual cabin decided that I would write a sexy cowboy novel, and we just. Through everything we had at the trope. Like we, we, we threw, he's a, he's a surly snarly kind of cowboy who looks good in his jeans. His name is Jake. He hates the city girl. And of course they fall in love. So I wrote it in two weeks, this book, that was it. I wrote it. I was, and I finished and I said to them, okay, it's done. And they said, well, now self-publish it. I said, no way. It was never, nobody's supposed to read this thing. It's just the three of us. And they, um, they said, no. Publish it. Publish it. So I did, I self-published it and I kind of forgot about it. Um, I was dealing with health issues. I. And next thing I knew, money started arriving in my bank account in sort of August, September. And I remember thinking like, where, where did this come from? And I looked and it was royalties from Amazon. And that was when I went to the Amazon Analytics for this book, and I realized this thing had sold. Thousands of copies, tens of thousands of copies. It had become a bestselling beach read that summer. And I had no idea. No idea. And I thought, good, sweet Lord. Like where did these people all come from? Uh, so that I told Angie and Ruby, we had stayed in touch and they said, well, no, no, you need to start a Facebook page'cause they're gonna be looking for you. All these people have bought your book and you're nowhere to be found. So I said, okay. So I showed a Facebook page and I got followers. And the followers started asking probably the logical question, which was, where's book two? When's the next book coming out? Yeah.

Elizabeth: 7:07

app.

Marysol: 7:07

And I remember thinking and even saying to my husband, I remember saying, what the reason no, book two, I mean, this thing, I wrote it in two weeks. It was just, it was almost a joke. It was just a way to pass the time. I have no idea what to do now. It's, I didn't plan any of this. I'm, I'm more surprised than anybody. And so I said, okay, well, and I wrote Book two and I put the link on the Facebook page and I said, here you go. Here's the link on Amazon. Go to it. Um, and it became a bestseller and along came book three, and then I got a bit tired of the Sexy Cowboys. So that was when I did another series about MMA fighters, like karate guys, mixed martial arts guys. They own a gym in, in Denver, Colorado. And I wrote those bestsellers. Um, and then I wrote my Unseen Enemy series, and this was the one that changed the game in a few different ways. First, it wasn't just a bestseller, it catapulted me to an Amazon All Star, which is you have to be a top 100 bestselling author on Amazon and not romance, but like. Whole site.

Elizabeth: 8:19

Oh,

Marysol: 8:20

So it catapulted me to be an all star. And it was around that time when I decided, like by that point I was well and I thought I should go back out and find a management position. You know, I need to go get a job. But then I started thinking and I thought, you know, I think I have a job and I think my job title. Is romance writer. So that was when I decided to give up anything except the romance writing and that became my new full-time job. And so, um, when I published the Unseen Enemy series, that was when I decided to. Start planning my series as a whole, being more strategic, doing proper promotion on Facebook, taking it seriously, taking pride in it as opposed to this is just something I'm doing to pass the time till I go out and get another management position. So that was the turning point for me, was the Unseen Enemy series. That was when I realized that I was a romance writer and I started. Taking it as seriously as I had ever taken any upper management position or education, um, degree in my life. And that was how, that was how it started.

Elizabeth: 9:43

Did you ever, like in that process, did you start reading Romance to see like what the, like themes were? Did you immerse yourself in like that world of like the readership and all the other authors and that, you know, expectation of always churning out another series or, or

Marysol: 10:00

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 10:01

and all of that?

Marysol: 10:02

It's, it's kind of interesting that question because the answer is yes, and then the answer is. I stopped immediately because, um, I, I, I don't know how, but somehow. I, I think that I was on Amazon looking at my books and because I was a top 100 bestselling author on Amazon, there was this section where when you went to my writer's profile, a whole bunch of recommended authors came up attached to my profile. Like, if you like Marisol James, you will probably also like, right. And I think that's how I found Kaylee Cross. So I clicked on her. Um, and I, I bought a few of her books and they're all military books and they actually kind of inspired my unseen enemy series. So I read

Elizabeth: 10:54

Mm.

Marysol: 10:55

military guy books. Um, loved it. Got inspired, started my own series and then thought I guess I should stay in touch with kind of what's happening. Like military guys are hot now, but they might not be hot next year. And, um. That was when I kind of lost my way a little bit because I found out that just because something is hot, like werewolves or um, shape-shifting bears, or I don't know, like mafia, like dark romance, these things might hot and bestselling, but I don't wanna write them. They don't appeal to me as a writer. So. I took my inspiration from Kaylee Cross. She's the only writer I ever read, loved, and was inspired by. Um, but then everything else, I just, I don't read romance now. I avoid it completely because I think it's really easy as a writer to put on someone else's skin or borrow someone else's voice, and I don't believe that. Makes you a strong writer. So my answer is yes. I did read some romance. I got very inspired by it. My first really, really. Hit series came out of it, but then I stopped, um, and now I don't read romance at all. At all. And I have to say, I met Kaylee Cross, um, at the Rare convention in Edinburgh. She was there as a guest author, and I met her there and I told her the story. About how I read her book and it inspired my bestselling series. And it was really lovely to meet her because she was the one who really, um, really got me on the right path of what type of romance I want to write. And she was actually really happy to hear that she was, she was weirdly touched about that.

Elizabeth: 12:54

Oh, I mean, I think all writers are when we, I mean, we want our stories to inspire people, and I think that's a great level of inspiration. I mean, if my, you know, writing inspires other people to like put out their own art, like, oh, that's phenomenal. That's such a compliment. I'm so glad you shared that with her. and along what you're saying, I've heard that advice before too, or like that careful balance of like. Maybe you can read in your genre when you're not currently like in a project, and you can use that for inspiration. But when you're actively writing, like a lot of people recommend, don't read in your genre then, because it is too easy to like, take on someone's voice or their plot structure or their, you know, any number of things. So, I mean, I think you kind of naturally were wise to that and found that for yourself anyways. Um, but that, that is sort of the, the. Kind of the advice that I've heard sort of repeated as far as like reading within your genre and when to maybe put a pause on that so it doesn't affect, you know, your own writing. Um,

Marysol: 13:52

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 13:52

was really intrigued by your male characters because one of your Amazon, uh, reviewers who seems to be a, you know, a large reader, they were referencing a number of your different series in their review, said that they loved your alpha, yet scary, but sweet leading guys.

Marysol: 14:07

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 14:08

what is it that like. Draws you to that, that seems to be sort of a theme across, no matter whether you're placing it in a, you know, motorcycle gang or MMA thing or out on the, in a ranch, you've got that sort of theme of this kind of male character and then, and then the female characters. How do you, how do you play with those dynamics? What is kind of your go-to like dynamic between your leading guy and leading lady?

Marysol: 14:36

Well, my, my guys, my, my heroes, I think. Let me just take a step back in answering the question. I think I'm attracted to a certain type of romance. I like my sexy cowboys. I like my MMA fighters. I love my motorcycle club guys, my ex-military. My bodyguards. My mercenaries, and I like those plots. That's the kind of stuff. I like to write, so my romance tends to have a real edge of adventure, suspense, a little bit of a thriller, some mystery. And so if you're talking about guys who. Work or live or exist in these types of what backdrops or scenarios or realities, they're going to be a certain kind of guy to survive, you know, to be a professional bodyguard, an ex-military sniper. I. You're a certain kind of guy and so I don't know if I'm as attracted to the alpha men as I am to the world that the Alpha men inhabit. I like that. And so it only makes sense that if I'm gonna talk about a former one percenter motorcycle club of 12 guys. These guys are former one percenter Mc guys. They're going to be certain types of guys, ex-cons or ex-military or. Whatever. Um, so that's where these guys come from and they are tough as nails and they are, um, they're, they can be very dark, they can be very difficult to get to know, even as the reader sort of gets to know them. It can be a bit of a process'cause these guys are quite, um. Conservative about their emotions, but these are the kind of guys that once they are interested in you or um, they can trust you, then they, they give everything I. They are open books and they will sort of fight to protect what they love. And it doesn't matter if that's their gym or their team or their brothers or their girlfriend, they will fight to the death. And I think as a woman. There's something so, um, sexy about a man who will do that for his loved ones, whether that's his own brother or his child or his girlfriend, you know,

Elizabeth: 17:04

Mm-hmm.

Marysol: 17:04

that's where my women come in. My women tend to be, I. Really tough, really strong. Um, some damage, some personal history, some emotional, uh, struggles or challenges. But my alpha male characters have this as well. Doesn't matter how tough you are, you walk out of a war zone, you've got some damage. That's just the way it's, that's human. So when you put these two. Types of characters together. Um, a damaged female character and a damaged male character, both determined to get on with their lives and open up and be trusting and find love, and then you put them in the scenario of a motorcycle club who is trying to leave the one percenter lifestyle, but nobody around them wants to. They keep getting pulled back into the mc lifestyle and in the middle of all this. You've got a romantic relationship blossoming, and the story from there I find very easy. I see it very clearly. How do two people. In this situation, approach each other, um, talk to each other. What do they need from each other? How do they show trust and commitment? And that's the kind of romance that I write, and that's why I write these types of guys and these types of women. It's because I'm attracted to these. Situations I couldn't write, um, like a Victorian romance. I couldn't write it, or I couldn't write

Elizabeth: 18:34

Right.

Marysol: 18:35

a clean romance, or I couldn't write a mafia romance or, um, a, a billionaire boss romance. I can't do any of that. None of that interests me, but give me a bunch of ex-cons and put them in a bar on the side of the highway. I have nothing but ideas for what to do with them.

Elizabeth: 18:53

That's amazing. Yeah, I've, I've heard, um, Jordan Peterson, a psychologist, talk about that concept of like beauty and the beast and like how women are trying to find that tamable beast, right? Someone

Marysol: 19:05

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 19:05

got the, the strength and the. know, enough aggression to protect them from the narcissist of the world, you know,

Marysol: 19:14

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 19:16

Stans or whatever of the world,

Marysol: 19:18

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 19:18

can still be gentle, can still, you know, at least with them, at least in, you know, the safety of their home or the trust of the relationship have that, that softness to them. And that seems like that's the essence of what you've captured when you're like, that's what comes to mind for me as you're describing these, these leading men.

Marysol: 19:36

That's a hundred percent what it is. It's, they are hard men and they are hard men to get to know, but

Elizabeth: 19:44

Mm-hmm.

Marysol: 19:45

once they've decided to be open or give themselves to someone, um, that person is utterly safe with them. And, and it, it, it is, it isn't so much the taming of the wild beast. It's more, um, the beast invites you into their cave or their safe place and you're, you're safest with them. The safest place in the world is with these men'cause they're nothing, nothing's gonna get to you when, when they're between you and the world. But it has to be said that none of my male characters are particularly over. Bearing or controlling or narcissistic, they want their women to. Have their own life to stand on their own two feet, to have their own path. It's really important that their women be individuals, entire people without them, um, like a partner. They don't, they don't want a slave or a submissive, or they want a partner, somebody that they can support, but who also will support them when they need it.'cause even alpha men sometimes need a shoulder to cry on.

Elizabeth: 20:48

Yeah. So this might be an interesting time to like, kind of divert the conversation and blend it with sort of real life

Marysol: 20:55

Hmm

Elizabeth: 20:56

are the stories you're writing, you're cr, you're painting these dynamics of these beautiful, healthy relationships,

Marysol: 21:01

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 21:02

and yet

Marysol: 21:04

And yet.

Elizabeth: 21:05

in your own, you know, romantic life and your own relationship.

Marysol: 21:12

Yeah. You know, it's, it's odd because today I was actually, I sent out a newsletter today, sort of an end of the year newsletter, and in it I noted that I have been writing romance for 10 years now. I published my very first book, the Sexy Cowboy Joke book in 2014. And we're now entering 2025. So here we are, like 31 books later, 10 years. But I was in, uh, a narcissistic, abusive relationship for six years. So more than half of my, of the past decade was in a really, really unhealthy, um, dynamic. And. The first couple of years of that relationship, it was still long distance. I was still back in Poland and he was in England, and we kept it long distance for about two years. And in that time I was still writing, I was still, I. I still had my independence and my freedom. The kiss of death decision was when I got on the plane with my son, my oldest son, and we came here to England to live with my ex-boyfriend and for the first few months everything was really good, like fantastic. And then. Right around, just before lockdown started, he started to change and then we were in lockdown and we were just literally trapped in this situation. And that's when the mask came off and the monster came out. And that was when the writing. Stopped. It utterly stopped first because I was working for his company. He had his own small business and I, he asked me to help with it. I said, sure. Next thing I knew, it was the only work that he wanted me to do. And the second problem was that even after a couple of years. Of this. And I finally said to him, listen, lockdown is over. Covid is, is kind of, it's still around, but at least it's manageable. The world has opened up again. You can go back to work. You don't need me. I wanna get back to my writing because I haven't written a book in like three years. Right. Um. He said, fine. He said, um, how about you work for my company three days a week and you write two days a week? And I said, great. And then honestly, I mean, I don't suppose you'd be surprised to hear this, Elizabeth or anybody else, but on my writing days, the days that were designated as writing days, um, the weirdest thing would happen. He would start a fight with me. On my writing day or, uh, something really important would, would come up and I would absolutely have to do something for his company. Or he would come home and in the middle of the day and turn on the TV really loud and then tell me that, uh, you know, he paid the bills because of his company. And so I just had to sort of shut up about it. If I wanted to write, I could go somewhere else. So he sabotaged my writing days. So again, no writing got done. And I mean, just years passed like this. I mean, out of six years I spent two and a half where I was free to write, but I spent sort of three and a half, almost four. Just, you know, really I. Blocked. Literally blocked from getting my writing out. And I published one book in that time, one book in four years. And when you think about it, 31 books over 10 years. One book in four years. I mean, all my writing was before and since him, so. I, I lost my writing in that relationship and that was how he liked it. He liked it just fine and it was the most unhealthy relationship I've ever been in, and I know I will ever be in because you know. I, I, he was a crash course in, um, unhealthy relationships and never again will I be in a position like that ever. Um, so as you said sort of at the beginning of this, uh, podcast, you said that I've been reclaiming. My writing and my voice and, and my life, and this is indeed what I've been doing since leaving him just over a year ago. I have been writing and working and raising my son and being a single mom and,

Elizabeth: 25:47

Mm-hmm.

Marysol: 25:48

figuring out, you know, what, what I want in my life and what sort of. Relationship I would like in the future, you know, if I want one. And, um, yeah, that's, that's what I've been doing. So it is sort of ironic that I write all these tough, strong men who are. Really good partners. And then I had this tough, strong man who was a terrible partner, but when I was in it, I, I couldn't see it. I couldn't see it for the life of me. It wasn't until the last few months when I realized nothing was gonna change unless I got out of the situation and I began to plot my escape. And I pulled it off. I carried it out, and here we are.

Elizabeth: 26:33

Yeah. And you and I had talked before about how much the landscape changed from. You know,

Marysol: 26:40

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 26:41

regards to self-publishing and Amazon and even the social media piece between

Marysol: 26:46

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 26:46

you originally had your kind of with the Open Skies Cowboy series and even that series, your third series that really, um, like took off versus

Marysol: 26:58

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 26:58

trying to get back into it and find your readership again. Um, what does that, how have, how have you seen those shifts and how have you adapted to those?

Marysol: 27:09

Well, I mean, when I first started writing 10 years ago in 2014, um, self-publishing was still relatively new. I don't think it had been around for more than four or five years by that point, and it was still kind of considered. Crappy publishing. Like to be self-published was to not be a real writer. I mean, it was, it,

Elizabeth: 27:29

Yeah.

Marysol: 27:29

the, the attitude towards it was really, really condescending and kind of gross actually. Um, so there wasn't actually that much competition in terms of if you self-published something on Amazon. You were pretty easy to find it. It wasn't difficult, and back then there was just Facebook, so if you had any kind of blog or website, and then Facebook, I. You were, you were great. You were,

Elizabeth: 27:58

Mm-hmm.

Marysol: 27:59

to become a bestselling writer back then, especially in romance because, um, there just wasn't that much good romance back then. Not really not in self-publishing. And people who had the big names in romance were tied to publishing contracts. So they had agents and they had editors, and they had a publishing house schedule, so they would maybe publish a book a year. But as a self-published writer, I wrote five or six books a year, and there was nobody to tell me I couldn't or shouldn't, or you know, so that was that back then. And then of course, I took a time out and enforced time out in my relationship where I didn't do any writing at all. I didn't publish. And um, when I came back a little over a year ago and I started, I published a book, um, it was one of motorcycle club books and I couldn't figure out why I. It wasn't doing as well as my other books, and my first thought was maybe I've been gone too long. Maybe, um, my readers have kind of opted out. I I lost them by not writing for so long, but that wasn't true because I. My followers on Facebook were still there. I got personal messages and emails, you know, I would send out my newsletter and get a response. So they were there. They were there. It's just, I realized I did some research into it and the Facebook algorithm has changed. So much in the past six or seven years that even if I put a link to my newest book, like say, here's my Amazon link to my newest book, yay. Um, I've got a thousand followers on Facebook, but maybe I. 3% of them would see that post even though they follow me and, and I didn't, I didn't realize that. I didn't understand that. I didn't know that Facebook is like so passe. Everything is Instagram now. I. So I had an Instagram account, but I didn't know what to do with it. Like, I didn't have any idea how it worked. And every time I kind of got clued up, Instagram would change something. You know, it went from just posts to hashtags to now it to lives. And now the big thing is reels. And then the other big thing is reels with music. And like, it just, it constantly, um, moves. And so I had come from this quite. Pampered little world of put a link on Facebook, you'll be, you'll be a bestselling author, you'll be fine. And I've had to really, um, catch up. I've had to, it's been a crash course. It's been the steepest learning curve in terms of promotion and pr. And one of the big things is podcasts. I mean, 10 years ago, five years ago, nobody had pos, they didn't exist. But now, um, if you really want to, this is kind of the modern blog where you used to write beautiful long journal entries that would go on and on and on, and people would actually take the time to read it. Nobody does that anymore. So if you want to do a long form. Conversation. It, it has to be on a, a podcast now. And that's another way the, the landscape has shifted is podcasts are a thing. And, um, I mean, when I started no such thing as a podcast. So this is kind of like, um, it's kind of like before you needed an, uh, an agent and a, a publishing contract and a publishing house, and then Amazon put up the self-publishing platform. Well, it used to be you needed to be a radio star or a television presenter with an your own show. And now anybody. Anybody can have a podcast. It's kind of like self-publishing, you know, self podcasting. Um, so yeah, so I would just have to tell your listeners and any fellow writers that you've gotta stay clued up because it changes fast. I mean, Instagram is changing things for 2025 now. So, um, I have to shift again.

Elizabeth: 32:08

right. You know, it's interesting you brought up the point of like how we've switched from like reading blogs to listening to podcasts. Does that impact your kind of impression or ideas around how much of your books you want to be audio books? Do you feel like, just like we're getting more media or that we just listen to versus read is, do you feel any sort of like push in doing more of your upcoming books in a audio book series?

Marysol: 32:42

No, quite the opposite actually. What I'm finding is this weird backlash against, um, audio books in a strange way. Like there's a certain demographic that they love, their Kindle or their e-reader, whatever it is,

Elizabeth: 32:58

Mm-hmm.

Marysol: 32:58

and there's an even stronger demographic that is going back to paper. Um, I feel like, yeah, and I feel like this is. Paper is back in a weird way, and um, this is why I'm converting all my books right now. All my books are on ebook. I have one series on audiobook, but I'm in the middle of converting all of 31 of my books to paper print because this seems to be the resurgence right now. Things, everything is cyclical, everything's circular, and print is back. So the only way that I feel any sort of. Interest in, in any sort of, um, verbal or, or spoken interaction is on podcasts because I find that, um, podcast hosts are smart. I find they're informed. I find they're really switched on. I. They care about their listeners, the way I care about my readers, and they want to provide a quality product. And I'm just really happy to be part of a podcast, podcast with, um, somebody smart included because, uh, for me, this, this is the equivalent of. Writing long blog posts. It's, it's wonderful to be able to talk to somebody. It's, I know it's virtual, I know it's the internet, but it still feels a lot more personal and connected than an 87 paragraph blog post that maybe people read. Maybe they skim through. I don't know. Um, I find this a lot more personal and I like it a lot better.

Elizabeth: 34:34

Yeah. Well, it's not lost on me that you started this journey with a virtual community of your two fellow writers at your, you know, virtual summer cabin. So

Marysol: 34:44

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 34:45

makes perfect sense that your, your kind of renaissance, this kind of, you know, reentry back into this world would also include an aspect of virtual community, which. Is what I think, you know, one of the strongest arguments for podcasting and, and being a part of that, whether as a guest or host or, or whatever, you know, suits people. Um, yeah, I don't know. I, I had something else I wanted to say about that and I kind of lost my, my train of thought there. But I, I definitely agree with you. Oh, I remember now. So it was, there's just something too about. Someone being able to hear like the earnestness in your voice. You know the tone that comes across when you are listening to a podcast versus even reading a, a blog post or reading a, you know, um, a writer's bio or hearing a writer talk passionately about their characters and about their plot lines. Hearing your enthusiasm for the stories that you enjoy writing, and clearly you're not looking just to write what's. Gonna sell. You know, like you

Marysol: 35:49

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 35:50

comes across so clearly in how you talk about the storylines you really throw yourself into and the things that you just don't enjoy as a writer, and therefore you don't pursue. and so for me, just as a, you know, even just listening to you talk, that gives me even more, you know, assurance that, oh, these are gonna be, you know, quality stories. Yes, it's self-published. Yes. She may put out a new book every two months, but I can. SI can tell the passion that's going into it. This is not just a, you know, jam it out, throw something out there, hope it takes off kind of situation. And I think that's one of the ways in which podcasting really shines as far as like, um, like a marketing standpoint or even just like allowing people to get to know you as a person a little bit, you know, revealing behind the curtain a bit of like, Hey, yeah, I disappeared for a few years. Here's what I was doing,

Marysol: 36:44

Yeah. Well, the great thing about podcasts as well, I mean at least, um, sort of where, where I sort of enter the picture is that, um, I, it turns out that. I mean, I, I can talk to podcasts about my writing. I can talk to podcasts about, um, romance or what it was like to go from a, a chief operational director to a full-time romance writer so I can talk to business podcasts, and I have, I can talk to podcasts about. Women getting out of abusive relationships. I can talk to them about what is a narcissist, what is narcissism, what are the red flags? So I, I can talk about, um, living overseas, traveling overseas. You know, I, I backpacked across Asia by myself as a young woman. I can talk about that. So the great thing about podcasts is you don't have to be sort of. Pigeonholed into one niche or area. I can talk to a lot of different podcast hosts about a lot of different things, and that makes it fun and interesting for me. That way I'm not having the same conversation 18 times. You know, I can have the same conversation two times, but then, um, I'll talk about something completely different to a, to a different host who's interested in something else. So, I mean, I talked to one man. Who wanted to hear all about how I run my romance writing like a small business, and how all of my management experience, um, informs how I run my small business. And that's a very different conversation than this other woman that I've spoken to who wants to talk about what do women look for in potential, you know, boyfriends. What are some of the red flags of narcissist or toxic people? Those are two totally different. Conversations. Um, and then other people wanna talk about my romance writing exclusively. What's it like to be a writer? Where do you get your inspiration? So what I love about the podcasts is it's not like you're a romance writer. You're in a niche. That's it. That's all you write about, that's all you talk about on podcasts. It's a lot more open and fluid and free, and I enjoy that part of the podcast community very, very much.

Elizabeth: 39:09

I love this. This is gonna, um, we're recording this episode at the end of December, but

Marysol: 39:14

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 39:15

have an episode planned between the two of us. That's about why writers should be going on podcasts to talk, you know, about their writing, to talk about their life, to talk about anything, you know,

Marysol: 39:25

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 39:26

related and so. This conversation is gonna piggyback so well off of that episode that will come out in early January, you know, to try to give some people some inspiration of how they can, you know, go about different ways of marketing themselves or their books or get comfortable sharing about their books or their stories.

Marysol: 39:43

Hmm.

Elizabeth: 39:44

and yeah, you just summarized that so well, that like, there's so many different elements that you can do, like I've been on. A podcast about sobriety. And so I'm a memoir writer, and so that, that's a part of my memoir. And I could talk about the writing process of the memoir, but we, we really talked about like how I found community around that and what that process was like, and then all the changes that, that then elicited in my life and why. Then I have content to write a memoir about. Um, there's, there's so many different like avenues you can take and there's. mean, that's beautiful because we are not one dimensional people. You know,

Marysol: 40:20

Yeah.

Elizabeth: 40:21

have our one job or our one passion or one thing that makes us us. Um, so I'm so glad you shared that insight and I wholeheartedly agree in that. And we will have links in the description so that people can find you.

Marysol: 40:38

Okay,

Elizabeth: 40:38

did you wanna mention the book that's coming out in February?

Marysol: 40:42

sure. It's going to be on presale, uh, um, on February 14th. So Valentine's Day, and, uh, it's going to be the. Okay, I've just gone blank. It's the fourth. It's the fifth book. It's the fifth book. I just went blank. It's the fifth book in um, the Road Devil's mc series and it is called The Devil's Ice and Ice is one of my mc guys. He is sort of the chief enforcer of the motorcycle club. So he is a serious bad boy. Um, and he comes by his name, ice. Very, very honestly, he is cold. He is implacable, he is menacing. He's blonde with blue eyes. He is, nobody really knows him. He doesn't really let anybody close to him except his fellow mc brothers, and it's his book next. And my reader are so excited because he's one of those male characters who's just so alpha. So mysterious. So I mean, in the first four books, you've, you've got maybe this much information about the man. I mean, if I asked my, my readers to talk about Jinx or Cowboy or Wolf or, you know, scars, they could talk about these guys till the cows come home. But if I say, tell me about ice, they, they'd be like, uh, he was an enforcer. He's kind of a badass. He doesn't seem like a very nice guy. We don't know anything about him. So when I told them that the next book is his book, they were like sending me all the gifts of like the dancing kids at the party and yeah,

Elizabeth: 42:23

Yeah.

Marysol: 42:24

they're like, Woohoo. Tell me about ice. So that's the next book that's coming out. It's going to be the double size. Yeah. And actually it's a lot of fun to write characters like this because. Um, like what I do now, because I do plan my series in advance, I make a point of introducing as many characters as possible in book one and two. So then when their book comes along, you say, oh yeah, I know this guy, right? He's, I remember him. But it's also fun to introduce a character who kind of like floats around the first four books, always on the outskirts. You know, when the president needs something done, ice goes off, he comes back. It's done. We don't know. We don't know what he's done exactly. We just know the problem's resolved. He's a man of very few words, so there's something great about fleshing out such a ghostly sort of character as well. So on the one hand, it's fun to write, um. Characters introduce them, and then it's like, okay, I've done my backstory for, for the, for the large part. So when his book comes along, it's easy, but there is something as well, right? Really fun and challenging about having a guy in the background for four books, a really formidable presence that you know nothing about. And now. We have a whole book to talk about him and for him to fall in love. So that's always fun. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 43:53

Amazing. Well, Marisol, thank you so much for your time today,

Marysol: 43:59

Thank you.

Elizabeth: 43:59

for your passion for writing, for you, sharing your story, and just getting it back out there into the writing world. I'm, I know your readers are excited to have you back.

Marysol: 44:11

Thank you.

Elizabeth: 44:12

I really appreciate the, like heartfelt insight that you provided today in our conversation. Not just about writing, but about life too and the ways that. It's so easy to lose ourselves sometimes, but how there's always an opportunity to come back to our writing. It's

Marysol: 44:28

Yes.

Elizabeth: 44:28

always there for us.

Marysol: 44:30

Yeah, I mean, writing is like, it's like one of those old friends that you can, you can go away for a really long time and you can come back and even if I. Had a full-time office job again, and I wasn't writing, I wasn't writing romance anymore. Um, I would still be writing because it's, writing's one of those things that you can pick up at any time and start again. And I think it's, it's one of those ways you can come home. I think it's one of those things that you can leave for a while and you can always go back, even if the landscape has changed, you are writing something different. You are different. Um, I. It's like an old friend that never really desserts you or lets you go, so it will always welcome you back if you just ask.

Elizabeth: 45:17

Yeah. hey, if you need to spice it up, write the opposite of what you're used to, just like Marial did.

Marysol: 45:24

Yeah. To this day, if I, if it wasn't for Ruby and Angie, none of this would've happened. It was there, it wasn't my idea. It was their idea. So I, my very first book, open Skies, I dedicated to them because they're the ones that. Told me to pub first to write the thing and then to publish the thing. And they changed my entire life by pushing me as two good friends. So I owe everything to them really. Yeah.

Elizabeth: 45:52

All right. Well, thank you Marisol,

Marysol: 45:54

Thank you.

Elizabeth: 45:56

All of those links will be in the descriptions. You can connect with Marisol now on Instagram and check out all of her books. Happy writing.