Episode 40: October Kickoff: Starting a Month of Learning From Different Perspectives

Cassie Newell (00:18)
Welcome to episode 40. I'm Cassie Newell and I'm here with my co-host Angela Haas. And this month we're talking about different perspectives in writing.

So what do we mean by perspectives? Basically, it's in another context, a viewpoint or an outlook. We've loaded this month with different guests who will bring perspectives that are unique and what we think is worth sharing. So with that, Angela.

got some questions. You've

Angela Haas (00:46)
Okay, do it.

Cassie Newell (00:47)
okay, so you've worn a lot of creative hats over the years, because we've talked about ⁓ through the year, basically, you know, your buying and your creative journalism and your classes in the college, like you've worn all these different creative hats in your career. So from that, do you does any of that come into your perspective with writing? Does it influence you at all?

Angela Haas (01:14)
yeah, all the time.

Cassie Newell (01:14)
And if so, how? Like, I want to know the deets, not

just a yes.

Angela Haas (01:19)
Well, I love weaving in just my perspective, things that I know about into my stories because I think that's something they tell us, right? Write what you know. And for a while I was like, what do I know about? And I didn't think it was very exciting because I looked back down my resume and I was like, gosh, lots of retail, lots of teaching. And then I was like, you know what?

Cassie Newell (01:33)
Yeah.

Angela Haas (01:47)
I do know about other things that I like too. But it's also like where I grew up and what my childhood was like and being Italian and cooking from an Italian perspective, like how food was so important to our family and the memories I have of just being in my grandmother's kitchen. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna bring that in to, well,

Cassie Newell (02:12)
Yeah.

Angela Haas (02:13)
this current book that I'm writing, decided to make the guy like part Italian so then I can, you know, share my favorite recipes through him because he's a chef. And then in the last romance, I really got to explore what it was like to grow up in Colorado because so many people love moving here. We have like some of the most incredible natural areas and I don't like them.

Cassie Newell (02:22)
I love that.

Yeah.

i. e. your main female character who's a little, you know, pushing off of that too. Yeah.

Angela Haas (02:46)
Yeah. Yes. She's like traumatized

by going back into the wilderness because I was as a kid, I didn't like it. It was lonely. It was scary sometimes. And I almost when I go back into the mountains today based on how I felt as a child, I get anxious. I don't like being out there. It just has a sense of feeling disconnected and not safe.

That just has a lot to do with growing up out there. But until you grow up in the mountains, and some people, that is my perspective. And that's the point of sharing your perspective and writing. My perspective is not the same as the other person who grew up in the wilderness and loved every minute of it and still lives there and never wants to live in the city. And I think that's what we have to learn as authors. Each person's perspective

as an author is different. And I think it's up to us to learn from that. And that helps us grow as writers and helps our characters. But that's what I thought was inspiring about this month is just learning from different people and understanding their point of view. she yeah, she is. And I got to explore what it's like.

Cassie Newell (04:00)
Yeah, because even in your career as a buyer, your first book, She is a Buyer.

Yeah!

Angela Haas (04:11)
running a retail business in that book because ⁓ it's not as glamorous as you think. And a lot of people don't understand that when you own your own business, especially if you're retail service, food service industry, there are no nights off and weekends. It's not nine to five. You are there in the trenches. Sometimes I was working 16 hours a day because there's no one else, you know, and people call in sick and then

Cassie Newell (04:13)
Yeah.

Angela Haas (04:40)
you have to manage two different departments where I was like selling fine jewelry in the gallery and then going helping on the grill in the cafe. And it sucked at the time, but it's amazing how much we can draw from that. And then I was like, gosh, I have so much experience as being in the world of academia with getting my master's, being a teacher. ⁓ You know, I could go and draw in those perspectives. So,

Cassie Newell (05:04)
Right.

Angela Haas (05:09)
Yeah, we have a lot, right? We have a lot in our arsenal as human beings.

Cassie Newell (05:13)
You know, it's interesting

when you said, write what you know, as a coach, I have this, this aspect where I'm like, no, you don't have to write what you know, you have to write what it feels like, because I'm not an astronaut. I'm never going to be an astronaut even from my second grade, you know, dream that I would be at one point in my life. But I know how it feels to be excited, to be let down, to be

Angela Haas (05:26)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (05:41)
frustrated, to be angry and not

Angela Haas (05:42)
Thank

Cassie Newell (05:43)
be able to talk about it. ⁓ All those things. I love to distill moments down to emotions and what it feels like. Because I feel like that every author has some empathic way of knowing exactly the motivations of things for their characters or what's driving them.

So it's not always about the professions or that experience. I feel like a lot of that can be researched. mean, look at historical romance. I'm always like, how do they know all this stuff? But like they research it, right? So I don't know. I'm kind of a little opposite. I like to write out things I don't know about, but at the same term, I'm writing Southern contemporary romance and I'm a Southern girl, you know, in a Southern family. But I also

Angela Haas (06:14)
⁓ yeah.

Yes.

Cassie Newell (06:37)
and very cognizant that I don't want my Southern romance to be, because I hate the extremism of hillbillies. And I don't like Southern cliches of people thinking the Southern I'm writing is from like the 70s and 80s, or even the 40s. I'm just like,

Angela Haas (06:45)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (06:57)
no, it's current contemporary modern Southern, you know. ⁓ So I'm very cognizant of how I want that to be played out.

for my books. So it's funny I say that at the same time, I'm still drawing from what I know, but it's also because I love it. I love being Southern. So yeah.

Angela Haas (07:06)
Yeah. Yeah. But do

you, did you have a fascination with space and, you know, space travel and yeah.

Cassie Newell (07:24)
when I was younger, yes.

Yeah, because I got like this whole packet I wrote to NASA back in the days when people would, you know, write letters from school. And I got this whole packet with all these photographs of astronauts that were signed and all these like mission notes. And I was like, this is awesome. And my mom's like, you're horrible at math. So, you know, like you kind of realize, you know, as you get older, like

Angela Haas (07:33)
Write letters.

Isn't that terrible how it gets in your head? Yeah.

Cassie Newell (07:52)
Maybe not for me, but it's so fun because in Huntsville, Alabama, there's this NASA. Anyway, I used to go there all the time with the girls when they were younger and we would tour it and people would be there for space camp. I don't know. I find that stuff fascinating. I always love sci-fi. I'm a Star Wars junkie. ⁓ And yeah, it's fun. But I've also wanted to be a hundred other things in my life too. So yeah.

Angela Haas (07:58)
Yeah.

Right. yeah, I mean,

but I think that still influence your perspective because you had such a passion for it. So in a way, yeah, that is something you know about because you were there and you were writing letters and you were involved, you were kind of interested and involved and, you know, learning more about it, you know, so that does become innately part of your perspective, even though

Cassie Newell (08:27)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's just curiosity

Angela Haas (08:45)
Yeah, with curiosity, absolutely. Yeah.

Cassie Newell (08:45)
more than anything though. Yeah. Yeah.

Angela Haas (08:50)
And circling back to, you know, you're writing from a place where you don't want to convey that there's Southern stereotypes because there is and, you know.

Cassie Newell (09:00)
Yeah, I mean, I lean

into a few of them, but in a modern way. I just, I don't like the stereotypes that Southern is stupid. And that gets portrayed a lot. And I don't like it at all. So no.

Angela Haas (09:09)
Yeah. yeah.

I mean, being Italian and seeing how Italian culture is represented in movies, where either goombas or mafiosos or... And what I would always drive me crazy in TV and movies is someone who was not Italian that has this over exaggerated, sing song the Italian accent. And I was like, you know, I'm watching like, but I'm like, I don't know anyone in our family who talks like that. Like, we're like...

Cassie Newell (09:38)
You grew up in Jersey. You're like, really? That's what I want to say to people.

Angela Haas (09:46)
You know, my maiden name is Guido, okay? My family name's the Vergolinis the Aspettis. No one talked like that. I was like, where did they get this? I've heard other different regional accents coming out of Italy. But the one thing my grandmother told

Cassie Newell (09:46)
Yeah, my mom's half Italian. Nobody talks like that.

Angela Haas (10:05)
my mother and the reason why, you know, because people are like, you're Italian, well say something in Italian. And I'm like, I don't know, Italian. I can read it. But I can't speak it except for like some of the awful swear word phrases my grandfather taught me. But those aren't appropriate, always. But it's like assuming that you're Italian that

you just speak Italian and what my grandmother, they came over and everyone settled in Detroit But her thing was like, you're going to assimilate. You're going to be like the people here. That's kind of sad that she felt like she just had to get rid of her culture to fit in. But that was the reality of the time. That's another perspective. People weren't just.

They were, they needed to learn English and speak English fluently and not have the Italian mannerisms as much when they were out and about. Now at home around the dinner table is something different, but they really wanted to assimilate instead of stand out because that was the time that they came over and where they were. So there's, that's why sharing our perspectives on those things like you with the Southern isms that may be true and may not be true.

Cassie Newell (11:18)
Yeah.

Angela Haas (11:19)
I

think that's cool that we can weave that into our writing. So as you're writing, you're writing from a southern small town. So what are the things that are like, this is the southernism that is absolutely true and this is how it is versus something that's a misconception maybe of modern, like a modern southern woman.

Cassie Newell (11:42)
Hmm. I think that there's a misconception that we talk in code with a lot of Southern phrases, like back to back to back to back. That's really a cliche. mean, they come into play certainly at times, but they're not back to back to back phrases. Also, bless your heart is not always demeaning,

Angela Haas (11:50)
that's fine.

Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (12:07)
It's also all in the delivery, which is going to be hard when you're reading the written word of bless your heart, because it may be like her husband passed away. bless her heart versus she just took the last dress in a size eight that was for me. ⁓ bless her heart. Like it's it just depends on the tone of what you're saying it. ⁓ So.

Angela Haas (12:12)
Yeah.

Right, depends on the situation, yeah.

Cassie Newell (12:31)
It's interesting because people who aren't from here automatically think bless your heart is evil and like kind of F you, which it can be. Absolutely. but there's so many different ways of meaning. The other thing is, that

In the South, you're fairly humble. it's, and there's a lot of politeness and almost irredeemable politeness. Like people won't say things to be polite. You respect your elders. There's a certain type of mannerisms that you're grown up with. If you know people really well, you still use Miss and Mister a lot.

And sometimes as you know somebody, you may be like Miss Angela, you know, to my

Angela Haas (13:17)
Right, yeah.

Cassie Newell (13:19)
children versus just Angela. There's like an endearment phrase to all of it. I don't know. And I think the biggest misconceptions, like I said, are that we're hicks, we're small-minded, we're not in touch. We don't have, you know, ⁓

an idea of government or values. And I would say it's quite the opposite. The values are quite high and strong in a Southern community. I also think small towns, the reason why I love them so much and it's not as common as it used to be is like everybody knows your name. If you grow up in a small town, there's usually a matriarch in a small town. And I've

Angela Haas (14:00)
yeah. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (14:07)
developed that with my Mrs. Havers character and the Southern bells like depends on the small town but as small towns grew they became a little bit more affluent and so you might have a traditional Southern bell but those kind of went away like

Angela Haas (14:11)
Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (14:24)
in the 80s and late night early 90s like you don't really have those debutante pieces anymore it's really hard to keep those things alive without

Angela Haas (14:31)
Sure.

Cassie Newell (14:35)
the elders and the community influencing that. So I don't know, it's just my way of trying to keep it alive a little longer. Yeah.

Angela Haas (14:44)
Yeah, no, I think that's great. Well, it just gives you a lot of inspiration, you know, because from.

Cassie Newell (14:51)
Yeah, I'm

having the funnest time because my town's completely fictional. And what's so crazy is that when I named my town, I was really thinking of my aunts who lived in Northern or live in Northern Georgia and just the Southern bells of both of them. I just adore them. And I was like, that's where I want to and I want to have something, you know, in Georgia with peaches. And it just kind of flew together a peachwood grove.

Angela Haas (15:10)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (15:20)
But it's so funny because now I live in a town called Beech Grove and I was like, obviously I was influenced and I didn't even know it subconsciously. And it's been hilarious. My husband and I learning our new address because this is where my parents live

Angela Haas (15:28)
Yes. Yeah.

Cassie Newell (15:35)
in Tennessee. And I was just like, ⁓ my gosh, how did I not know I did this subconsciously? And he's like, I have no idea, but it's hilarious. know, so I think also your experiences and your perspectives, you may not

Angela Haas (15:44)
Right.

Cassie Newell (15:49)
realize how they're influencing your choices, they just happen. Which is pretty fun and wild when you connect the dots later.

And this town is a small town, you know. So we don't we don't really have a stoplight, but we do have a post office. And we got a Dollar General.

Angela Haas (16:01)
Yes.

Nope. Yeah, that is Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, where I lived. was, there's,

yeah, there was stop signs. There was a 7-Eleven when I was a kid in front of a horse stable. ⁓ there's a big lake with, yeah, yeah. there was a big gazebo around the stock lake where we, people could fish for trout. And then

Cassie Newell (16:22)
Nice. You gotta get your slurpee when you're on your horse.

Angela Haas (16:36)
Just a couple, you know, like a greasy spoon breakfast diner, the pantry, go there because it's amazing. It's just amazing home cooked small town food. And then the dive bar, the post office, the church. And that was it. You know, that was my small mountain town. And that's what I think I tried to convey in my romance is everyone assumes that if you say Colorado and small town romance, and it's just all cowboys.

Cassie Newell (16:45)
Yeah.

Angela Haas (17:06)
And I'm like, there's a difference between the mountain men of the West and a cowboy. Now, sometimes they do intersect, you know, it's not that a cowboy in Colorado isn't also a hunter and a mountain man, but there's a certain mountain man culture here that has nothing to do with being a wrangler or a ranch hand. And that's what I tried to, I'm like,

Cassie Newell (17:08)
Yeah.

Angela Haas (17:33)
torn in this, that's my perspective as being around mountain men. And mountain men very much love to be off-grid and nature and fish and hike and chase 14ers, the ultimate climbs. They're rock climbers, they're ice climbers, they're ice fishermen. You know, it's a different culture than a cowboy. And that's what I wanted to emulate because that's my perspective growing up around those kind of people.

Cassie Newell (17:42)
right?

Yeah.

Angela Haas (18:01)
And then I'm like, gosh, okay, now am I going into this marketing danger zone where I don't want to say it's a cowboy romance because I think there's expectations that you understand how a working ranch is. And even though mine takes place on a ranch, it's been a converted ranch. That's a sanctuary for veterans, which is different.

Cassie Newell (18:21)
I also thinking about the other things I've been writing about, too. I think also we have unique perspective as women. And I know we've had this talk before, like, can a man write a really good romance? But I recently ⁓ completed a novel.

Angela Haas (18:33)
Mm-hmm.

Can a man write a romance from a woman's point of view? Yeah, I mean men can write romance, but can they write from a woman's point of view? Yeah.

Cassie Newell (18:45)
woman's point of view. Yeah, as the main character. Yeah. So

yeah, so I wrote a book recently that hasn't been released at this point. I'm shopping it. ⁓ That is all about equality in the workforce. And I've certainly have a lot of experience being passed over in positions.

for male counterparts that have not had the same experience or background ⁓ and things of that nature, which was really interesting for me to write because I also have had male and female bosses who didn't realize that they were being sexist. And so that

Angela Haas (19:31)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (19:34)
was really difficult to write, but I also felt like who better to write it?

Angela Haas (19:39)
Right.

Cassie Newell (19:39)
⁓ you know, I just was like, and in my current corporate industry, it's pretty female, dumb dominated, but as the worker bees, there are very few executives at the top and it drives me nuts drives me so batty nuts. and

I'm just like, but this senior vice president or whatever it would be excellent. And as that role, like,

Angela Haas (20:07)
Right,

yeah.

Cassie Newell (20:08)
and they just don't ever get there, never. It's rare, rare in my industry. Anyway,

I've just watched it in several industries and I think too as females, we have just experiences that are so drastically different than males in what we write and how our females respond, even in their different personalities. ⁓ I'm just curious as to your thoughts.

Angela Haas (20:29)
Yeah. Mm hmm.

Cassie Newell (20:35)
on that because I know we've had that discussion about men writing romance from a female point of view. And I know females love the men we write from our point of views, even in the male sphere, because it's fantasy. It's what every female is wanting from their partners. So it's very different. find this conversation really interesting, but I'm curious as to your perspective on it.

Angela Haas (20:53)
Yeah.

Well, I think it just depends. I think if a man is willing to do research and talk to women and say, how would you react in the situation? You know, I think that's what I've had to do writing from a male perspective. I don't want to assume that I know what

We really don't know what men are thinking. I don't even know what some other women are thinking. I'm like, what were you thinking? And I come from a different place, in the small business world, but also academia. The interesting thing from my perspective, my point of view, every opportunity I had for promotion came from a male. And the females didn't like me.

Cassie Newell (21:25)
You

Angela Haas (21:43)
because I was too assertive. I was even told that by a woman in academia that was supposed to, that was coming into a new culture as in like taking over position that this beloved man who was running this department had. We all loved him and he, he just looked at people's merit. He didn't really care, but he always like, he was the one that gave me my opportunity to teach.

And then that was further nurtured by another man because they saw what I could do. And they just looked at that. Whereas the woman coming in was threatened by me.

And that's my experience with women all the time. My female basketball coach didn't like my mother, who was the secretary of my high school, punished me by putting me on the lower teams for practice. Whereas my male track coach said, I think you're fast. I'm gonna put you with the seniors because I think you can keep up with them and learn from them. So growing up and just

For some reason, I had such different experiences with males in positions of authority over me versus the females. And that was not all the time. There was a couple really inspiring women I worked for. But that's my perspective. So I weave that into.

with a lot of male mentors, I've noticed where I've had to like shift and be like, you know what, I some female mentors, but I always had male ones that I looked up to that were like father figures in a way in business. so that isn't that interesting how your experience is completely different, your perspective in your industry. mean, not completely different, but you're looking at it like women being passed over, which is terrible. And I know it happens versus

Cassie Newell (23:10)
Yeah.

Well, I wouldn't say it's completely different, but I've had.

Yeah.

Well, and in current terms, people that put tests on you too, which is really unfair, but it happens all the time. Like you think you're just in maintenance of your job, but you're being tested constantly with certain, and you don't know about it, but others might. ⁓

Angela Haas (23:42)
By tests, what do you mean?

I got You don't know about it, right? ⁓ Yeah, okay. ⁓

Cassie Newell (23:54)
It's really unfair.

Angela Haas (23:55)
I don't like that.

Cassie Newell (23:56)
⁓ So yeah, I don't know. had a lot of, I don't know, it was a little cathartic writing those out. I've really overcome a lot in my corporate career and I feel very comfortable where I'm at. Yeah, it's really interesting to write those kinds of things and play with those. also wrote in my young adult fiction,

because my daughters, especially my youngest one was always like, these are my group of friends and they will be my friends forever. And I'm like, honey, I had a group of friends too in high school, tied as a rock. I mean, if I went back in my 30 year reunion or whatever it is, I'm sure I would just be aglow seeing them again, but it's not really reality. And sometimes those things break apart. And so,

Angela Haas (24:28)
Yeah.

Cassie Newell (24:48)
I had it break apart pretty hard at the end of ⁓ my series for that particular storyline. And I actually had a turncoat, you know, who wasn't like that. The beginning is one of her best friends and she completely turned on her. But it happens all the time with female friend groups, all the time over

Angela Haas (25:07)
happens all the time. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Newell (25:13)
stupid stuff. But that's so YA.

Angela Haas (25:14)
Yeah.

⁓ I've got some stories.

Cassie Newell (25:16)
Well, I'm curious,

do you think your perspective has changed or fine-tuned as you've become a writer?

Angela Haas (25:22)
Yeah, I mean, I think from the time, especially when I first started and I didn't know what the hell I was doing to now having a lot more of a plan and understanding my characters a little bit more and understanding that it's kind of fun to pick and choose little bits from my life and put them in the book. And it gives me such inspiration. yeah, I've learned a lot, but just learned about how to.

fine-tuned, so it's not all about, it can't be all about my experiences. There's just some stuff that you have to make up and especially writing sci-fi fantasy, I had to do a lot of research. But I think with the romances and that being more, grounded in reality as far as setting wise,

Yeah, that's definitely shifted my perspective. What about you? What about for you?

Cassie Newell (26:14)
Yeah, I definitely think my perspective has shifted from publishing my first book. And my why has changed ⁓ since I started this creative endeavor. I'm definitely more clear what I want out of this romance pen name that I've been, you know, doing all year and my plans for the next two years. But I also have

Angela Haas (26:18)
Mm-hmm

Cassie Newell (26:39)
some reality checks around it too, ⁓

that at this point I will make the decision if it's a hobby versus a career choice and what I'll lean into and what my business strategies are. So I'm very much more entrepreneurial in it than I was in the beginning. In the beginning it was all the art and the creative journey and I'm much more settled on the business.

Angela Haas (26:44)
you you

Cassie Newell (27:05)
the strategy and the marketing journey. And I think the difference of where I am today is I've decided, and it's a bold statement, I've decided I know how to write a story. I've decided I know how to bring characters together and I know how to make things cohesive that is enjoyable entertainment. I am never striving for a literary award. That is not who I am.

Angela Haas (27:18)
Yeah. Thank

Cassie Newell (27:33)
So I just want to continue to provide entertainment and that people enjoy and gravitate to. Would I like to be your author that you're like an automatic buy for? Heck yeah. But at the same, I might be, which would be fabulous. And I try to cultivate that in my community, absolutely. But for me, I'm just like, I just want to have the right creative payday as well.

Angela Haas (27:43)
Yes. Yes. You may be for someone already. You probably are.

Cassie Newell (28:02)
for me to continue. I've had my own passion project, which was a prose and poetry book. I think I will continue on that journey. I still have another one that I have kind of just fiddled with. thank you. But it doesn't make money. Like, it's just, I mean, I don't.

Angela Haas (28:08)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, that first one was amazing. It so lovely.

Cassie Newell (28:24)
think it made the money that it took to print it. But I,

Angela Haas (28:28)
Right.

Cassie Newell (28:29)
but I love it. And I think at this point, at the end of the year, I decided to have a really hard talk with myself. And this is a new perspective I probably wouldn't have done like five years ago, which is what are the things I'm going to remove? Because I can't do it all. And I'm not willing to give up my day job. I don't hate my day job.

I actually like it. I'm really good at it. And I'm like, that's not going away anytime soon. ⁓ But I can't continue all the businesses and all the things and expect to grow and what I'm enjoying.

Angela Haas (28:50)
right. Yeah.

Cassie Newell (29:03)
So yeah, I'm going to have a hard discussion with myself at the end of the year as to what I'm cutting. But yeah, I think my perspective is much different now.

Angela Haas (29:05)
Yeah, I think we all have to do that.

Cassie Newell (29:15)
than it was in 2016, which was let's put this out. Let's see what happens. Let me write the next one. Let me get the next one. Now I'm like, this is the series I'm writing. This is how I'm going to launch it. This is what I'm going to invest in. I've decided on audiobooks. This is how I'm going to, you know, do this and try to grow. My whole aspect was to just to grow this to see where it would go and stay in romance and have some fun with it. And then

two years from now, assess

Angela Haas (29:46)
Yeah.

Cassie Newell (29:49)
Yeah, so my perspective is very different than it was before.

Angela Haas (29:50)
All right.

yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if this is true for you, but I was just sort of like, sure, I can write a book, whatever. Now it's, we have to have a business planner, we have to have an outlook, we have to have a path, where is this going? What are we doing? Why are we doing this? And looking at each different thing. So

Yeah, definitely a big shift and for the better. mean, I think if you want to be successful, you can't just be like, might write something today or maybe I'll do this, whatever. You kind of have to have a path.

Cassie Newell (30:24)
different

personalities, like different strokes for different folks, like those that are super creative that they're like, this is a hobby, and I'm dallying. Fine. Yeah, I, I want it to be part of a side gig. Honestly. Would I love for it to take over my day job? Absolutely. Are you kidding me to have full time? Yeah. But is that my main goal right now? No, I just

Angela Haas (30:28)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm, exactly. Sure, perfect.

Yeah. There

Cassie Newell (30:52)
would like to see some income, get some momentum, see it build and actually see what could happen with it. So I'm definitely in a different stage of that. And also there are other creatives that are like, if you take away my ability to write, I will die. I won't, you know, I honestly, I won't

Angela Haas (31:11)
go.

Cassie Newell (31:13)
like I'll still fiddle. I'll still have little projects, but I won't be under a timeline. You know, I'd probably get a lot more done in my house.

Angela Haas (31:18)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Newell (31:21)
I might actually

Angela Haas (31:22)
Right.

Cassie Newell (31:22)
garden. Like I will find other things to do. It would not kill me not to write. It might be sad for a little while, but I tell you life, there's just so much out there creatively to do. And yeah, I just, that's not me, but I also wasn't that kid writing big stories and it was always my life path either. So although it's been a good chunk of my life,

Angela Haas (31:29)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, totally. Yeah.

Cassie Newell (31:48)
It's just not something that I go, oh, if I wasn't writing, I don't know what I would do. That's not me.

Angela Haas (31:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, I feel like I'm on the different, it was my dream since I was a kid, that of being a movie star, would practice Oscar speeches in the mirror when the Oscars were on. But I always, had a, you know, those printers, what were they, the bubble printers that would like, yeah, I had a dot matrix and I printed on, I dream of being a writer and I stuck that in my room because that's what I was doing.

Cassie Newell (32:12)
The dot matrix.

Angela Haas (32:23)
you know, from the time I was a kid. Now the stories are like, never see the light of day because they're terrible, but I still was like, dreaming of characters, other worlds, that's, you know, we also had to keep ourselves busy in different ways because we didn't have social media and I was like in a cabin in the mountains. you know, that, that was my life school for sure. So, and for everyone listening, it's never too late. You know, gonna be.

Cassie Newell (32:43)
Yeah.

It's never too

late.

Angela Haas (32:52)
I'm going to be 50 soon and I'm just now getting things going. So, you know, you can always dream away and it will come true if you manifest it. So anyway, I think good discussion. I think it's going to be an exciting month of different perspectives, different people sharing what they write from and how they organize their life and, you know, how they do things. And that's, I that's cool. So.

Cassie Newell (33:19)
Yeah,

what do you hope listeners will take away from this month and these conversations about perspective?

Angela Haas (33:27)
Sometimes I think as writers, we get in our own little bubble, tunnel vision, and we're focused so much on one thing. It's really good to open up yourself to other conversations and other people who, like last month when we were talking to Dan Willcocks and he writes horror, that's nothing I ever could do or think about or read.

But I learned something hearing from his perspective. And so I hope with our guests and us sharing ours that someone might learn something and then be curious to seek out another perspective that's different from something they're doing.

Cassie Newell (34:10)
or even

pause and evaluate their own. Like I just told you about my story on the town name. maybe make some evaluations and connecting the dots of how you're writing a certain character, especially if it's painful. Like if you can't get through something with a character, what devices are you subconsciously putting in place? Yeah, yeah.

Angela Haas (34:14)
Yeah, exactly.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, totally. Mm hmm. Yeah, exactly.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Totally.

We can learn a lot from other people and ourselves. So, yeah.

Cassie Newell (34:41)
Absolutely.

All right, so I'm going to ask you really quickly as we wrap this up. Any personal updates? What are you reading, watching? What do you want to talk about that's been kind of new and exciting for you?

Angela Haas (34:55)
I don't think I... I don't have the book in front of me. So I just bought I'm Trying to Consume Western Romances just so I can get different perspectives on how different writers are doing it and I think I just got the title is cash but now I forget who's the author is and I'll have to put it in our Shona

Cassie Newell (35:05)
Mmm.

Layla Sage.

Angela Haas (35:20)
No, that's Done and Dusted I have that one in the arsenal,

Cassie Newell (35:20)
⁓ okay.

Angela Haas (35:23)
but Cash and I can't, I'm so sorry. I'll look it up and figure out. I'll put, maybe put a picture of it. There, I'm pointing to it. It's this book right here. There it is. Yeah, so I'm just trying to consume that stuff and, you know, I actually have a lot of fun.

Cassie Newell (35:32)
There.

Angela Haas (35:42)
interacting on Threads more than any other social media, just because I've kind of figured it out finally, how you get views. And one of my replies got 5,000 views. And so it's interesting to be a part of those conversations,

the other thing about Threads is you don't get anywhere really by posting.

about you, it's really all in your replies to others. My followers jumped by 20 by replying versus me posting about me. Someone went viral because she was talking about potato chips and she like 20,000 comments or something crazy and a spike in followers. Then they were discovering she's an author and she had some book sales.

versus her actual posting her cover reveal. So anyway, it's just the nuances of each platform. That is so fascinating to me, but that's the Threads beacon report. Is that a new thing? What about you? What's your update?

Cassie Newell (36:37)
Yeah.

So my personal update since this is October is that my ARCs and ALCs will be coming out for my holiday romance, which launches November 7th, Holiday Hearts Unwrapped. And I'm super excited about this new series that's coming out. It's my holiday matchmaker series. And yeah, I'm really excited about it. It's interconnected, but really more standalones.

Angela Haas (36:50)
That's great.

Sure.

Cassie Newell (37:08)
⁓

in how I organized it than Sweethearts. ⁓ So I think it'll be interesting to see. And I had so much fun writing in the holiday because I was in this sphere this summer. So I'm like, it's kind of fun to write holiday stuff when it's sweltering outside.

Angela Haas (37:14)
Awesome.

Yeah. ⁓ I love it.

Cassie Newell (37:32)
And I've got like the fake Christmas music and pictures going from YouTube on TV, like fireplaces

and things. But yeah, I'm really excited about all of that launching and coming to fruition because this adds to the four books I have out. So, you know, I'll have seven done.

and out and I'm like, wow, look at this go. So I'm really excited about it and the audio books are taking off so that's kind of my, my thing. And I ha I'm getting through books that I got at Tennessee Litcon. So I'm really excited about those two, because I got a number of small town books doing the same, just kind of

devouring and learning and just seeing what others are doing. But it's really hard for me to read those when I'm writing. I tend to write and ⁓ read in a different subgenre when I'm actively writing, just because I'm too fearful that something will just get in subconsciously that I won't realize is coming out.

I'm really excited.

Angela Haas (38:41)
a lot. Okay, well we'll pop up a picture of

holiday hearts unwrapped so people can...

Cassie Newell (38:51)
check it out. All right, table topics. ⁓

boy.

Angela Haas (38:56)
What for dummies book have you read? you know, such and such for dummies, those books, those how-to books. Have you ever read one of those books?

Cassie Newell (39:05)
gosh, I used to read

so many of them. I read one on leadership.

Angela Haas (39:13)
Leadership for Dummies, I love it. That's fantastic.

Cassie Newell (39:15)
Mm-hmm. I sure

did. I've read like project managers for dummies. I've read, I think I did an Adobe one, like specific to Adobe software back in the day. So many. What were your, what did

Angela Haas (39:21)
yeah.

Those are great books. I still have mine. I

still have mine. It was when I was single and Living by myself. I had like the home repair for dummies with like the lady with the you know, the we can do it lady comic book lady ⁓ on it and I was like I need to know Since I'm by myself like how to check the hot water heater how to use a drill how to yeah do all that stuff

Cassie Newell (39:40)
Kind of an awesome one.

Yeah.

turn on the pilot light if you're living in a house.

Angela Haas (39:57)
Those looks are really helpful. They need to bring those back. Nope, they're awesome. Hello. If you know, you know. Okay? Yeah.

Cassie Newell (39:57)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, don't be knocking the four dummy books. Yeah. No, yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much. This was I think this was a great kickoff. All right, so

Angela Haas (40:15)
Yeah.

Cassie Newell (40:16)
Thank you everyone for joining us today. Don't forget to give us a review and rating wherever you listen to the podcast. It really helps with our visibility and share it with your friends. Get people involved. Let them come find us.

Angela Haas (40:26)
you

Cassie Newell (40:28)
Next week, we're talking with JP Rindflesh and until then keep writing, keep doing. Bye.

Angela Haas (40:35)
We'll

see ya.