Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - How to Actually Relax This Summer

00:00:00.000 hey y'all joe here and you are listening to under the influence quick reminder to get your orders

00:00:11.000 in for the parisian heist the book of the summer the book you are not going to be able to stop

00:00:16.300 texting your group text about the book that delivers on all fronts except it won't make

00:00:22.160 you ragey it'll just bring you joy and it also has a very spicy sex scene in the louvre which

00:00:28.100 let's be honest, it's what we all want and need right now. Now onto today's episode. Summer just

00:00:35.600 started and I gotta tell you, it already feels like a lot. Like this summer is about five summers

00:00:42.720 worth of stress already for me. And summer is supposed to be this season of relaxation and rest,

00:00:50.540 but it's not. It's not for anyone I know. It's definitely not for any parent that I know. Because

00:00:55.820 somewhere along the way, summer became this thing, like yet another thing that we are supposed to be

00:01:01.320 optimizing, that we are supposed to be making perfect for our kids, but also kind of sucky

00:01:06.220 for ourselves. And the Instagram algorithm is the worst about this. Like I'm constantly being served

00:01:12.580 how to have your Italian Nona summer, how to have your 90s summer. Well, you know what? We don't

00:01:17.720 live in Italy and we don't live in the 90s. OK, it's not possible to have either of these things.

00:01:23.620 And it just makes us all feel bad about our actual normal, like, regular person summers that we're trying to make awesome and magical for our kids, but we're really all just, like, cobbling it together and figuring it out.

00:01:38.360 This week, I want to push back on all of it.

00:01:40.240 My guest is creator, blogger, and now novelist Chasity Evans, whose debut novel, Pink Sand Summer, is a delicious beach read that will make you feel like you're having the most perfect summer of your life.

00:01:51.340 But that's not what we're talking about today.

00:01:53.160 Today, we're talking about the reality of summer and all of the pressure to create the perfect summer for our kids and the things that we can just opt out of to actually make the world and life easier for us.

00:02:04.740 Because my my mantra this summer is ease.

00:02:08.760 I want things to be more relaxing, more easeful.

00:02:13.380 I want to let go of perfection. And if that means letting my kids watch a bunch of movies

00:02:19.400 on the couch in the air conditioning, because the other reason we cannot have an actual Nona

00:02:24.220 summer or a 90s summer is because it's too damn hot in most of the places. Okay. It was not this

00:02:29.760 hot when we were kids in the 90s. And so it was possible to run around outside all day without

00:02:35.660 getting heat stroke and then to just also drink from the garden hose, which I don't think is a

00:02:40.200 thing people should actually be doing anymore. So grab a flavor ice and throw on a pair of

00:02:47.380 umbros, settle in, and let's try to enjoy the summer together, preferably with copies of

00:02:52.420 The Parisian Heist and Pink Sand Summer. Hey lady, how you doing today? Hi Jo, I'm so excited

00:03:04.820 because I'm here with you. I'm very excited to be here with you too. One of the things

00:03:09.160 that I really want to chat about today is how to have your best, most low stress

00:03:17.160 summer yet. And so this is like the opposite of summer maxing. This is like, how do we let go of

00:03:24.420 all the things that are that we're told we should do during the summer in order to have an actual

00:03:29.980 fun summer? Right. And are you seeing everything in your feed about how to have a 90s summer as

00:03:38.280 well or is that just my feed oh my god no i'm seeing so i'm seeing so many things in my feed

00:03:42.760 the algorithm is killing me honestly because right now i'm getting how to have a 90s summer

00:03:49.320 and then also how to nona max your summer so how to live like an italian grandma but i love both

00:03:57.000 of these things because i love italian grandmas and i love the 90s but i actually think a lot of

00:04:01.260 people are getting 90s summer wrong what do you think about it well just today i actually saw a

00:04:07.920 reel that I found to be the most exciting I wish it was a new creator for me so I can't tell I

00:04:13.380 cannot credit her unfortunately but basically she was saying that this pressure for all of us to

00:04:19.040 have a 90s summer is too much pressure for us as parents because how are we supposed to give

00:04:25.460 our kids a 90s summer when we're not living anywhere in that era one of the examples she

00:04:30.740 gave was that back in January we had it in our calendar of when to sign up for the summer camps

00:04:35.700 for our kids so i mean it sounds really really great to do the summer the 90s summer and you

00:04:42.160 know i want to try to make that happen as much as i can and get off of devices as much as i can and

00:04:46.780 just be chill i don't know that i want to drink out of the water hose outside but um also to not

00:04:52.760 stress if it doesn't look like a 90s summer and if your kids are on their phones or watching tv

00:04:59.840 depending on you know how old they are i have teenagers so oh yeah how old how old are your

00:05:04.060 kids? My daughter, Lily, is 16 and my son, Fletcher, is 14. So they'll both be in high school

00:05:10.700 this year. OK, which is a very different place to be at than me because my kids are eight, six and

00:05:16.120 three. Yes, yes. I remember those days very well where you were probably scrambling to sign up for

00:05:22.080 the summer camps. Am I right? I was. And also just to find kind of flexible child care generally

00:05:29.240 because our travel schedule is so weird.

00:05:32.000 I'm on book tour for the Parisian Heist.

00:05:33.760 I'm going to see you in Charleston,

00:05:34.940 which I'm so excited about.

00:05:36.880 I'm on book tour for Parisian Heist

00:05:38.680 for like three weeks

00:05:39.820 and we're in the Catskills

00:05:40.920 and we're just cobbling it all together.

00:05:43.760 It's, I mean, it is bananas.

00:05:45.560 And I love what you said.

00:05:46.880 Like, we're all getting served this,

00:05:48.880 have a 90s summer,

00:05:50.060 but we don't live in the 90s.

00:05:51.820 And so we don't have 90s infrastructure

00:05:54.840 or parental freedom actually have

00:05:59.080 a 90s summer, my 90s summer. I did go to summer camp, but it was also when I got home from summer

00:06:03.700 camp, I just ran around outside for hours and hours and hours with no parental supervision.

00:06:08.140 We don't live in that world anymore. We don't. We don't. And it would be very hard to pretend

00:06:13.340 like we do. And we have habits that are hard to break. You know, we have routines that we do.

00:06:18.360 So I think we should all just kind of be kind to ourselves if it doesn't look exactly like

00:06:23.700 the curated reel or carousel on Instagram of how to have that 90s summer but be inspired by it you

00:06:30.740 know like maybe I'll go buy those firecracker popsicles the red white and blue ones I love

00:06:37.640 I love a firecracker popsicle I really do or you know what not a firecracker popsicle you know what

00:06:43.160 I think is so much more 90s flavor ices they're cheap they're cheap they're hard to open and so

00:06:50.320 i mean it can take it can take those kids like a half an hour to open those popsicles right they

00:06:53.820 have to find the scissors it's not easy and they cost they cost like five cents per unit so they

00:06:59.960 could sell them at their lemonade stands for like a five dollar markup uh yes yes there's

00:07:05.200 also i don't love that everything i read about 90 summer talks about screen free because sometimes

00:07:11.080 during the 90 summer you just sat inside and watched soap operas and donahue all day okay

00:07:16.260 And that was fine.

00:07:17.400 You did.

00:07:17.760 You watched The Price is Right.

00:07:19.520 Oh, my gosh.

00:07:20.300 Yeah.

00:07:20.580 I mean, that's what you did.

00:07:22.260 The things that I learned from some of those daytime talk shows and days of our lives was life.

00:07:29.080 OK, I learned life from Sally Jesse Raphael.

00:07:31.900 And so I do think I think all of these lists and the ridiculous things that were served on social media about how how to how to have this kind of summer, how to have an Italian grandma summer. 0.91

00:07:41.880 Also, you can't have an Italian grandma summer because you're not living in Italy. 0.76

00:07:45.060 OK, y'all.

00:07:45.760 like no it is not and also all they are all like kind of tongue-in-cheek they're like you should

00:07:50.820 start smoking again i'm like no one's gonna start smoking and you're not allowed to smoke anywhere

00:07:53.600 anymore oh sure i would like i would not like that one to come back at all no no and or also 1.00

00:08:00.320 like look at all these italian grandmas like laying out in their bikinis not wearing sunscreen 0.96

00:08:04.380 i'm like you're also not doing that y'all that's not a thing not that you're you're not gonna be 1.00

00:08:08.600 put in baby also 90 summer no one's gonna be putting sun in and baby oil back on their head

00:08:14.020 back on their hair and bodies no actually my daughter is putting sun in and tanning these

00:08:21.340 teenagers are tanning you know that right like they are i did not know that but tell me everything

00:08:26.800 i'm so excited by this they have like these they follow the uv index and they want to be out there

00:08:33.080 at the very worst uv times like we we have a uv index so we know when to not go out in the sun

00:08:39.300 and these teenagers are using it to know when to go outside to sun so that they can get as dark as

00:08:46.020 they possibly can. It's horrifying. Stop it. Are they using baby oil too? My daughter's not. I

00:08:53.120 don't know if others are. I know I hate to disappoint. That is wild. That is wild. I mean,

00:09:02.660 So I like talking about just how to have a less stressful summer, how to actually enjoy the summer, to be honest.

00:09:11.040 Like, that's what I want.

00:09:12.300 I want people to actually enjoy the summer as if it's a vacation and not a burden, because it is a burden for a lot of us.

00:09:21.440 There's less to no child care for many of us.

00:09:25.060 And for grownups, we're all working for the majority of the summer.

00:09:29.400 It's not like most of us are just taken off.

00:09:31.580 I know that I'm not. So I like to think about ways to have a more enjoyable summer.

00:09:38.060 That can be 90s coded if that's what you want. I've got some Umbros that I pulled out of cold

00:09:43.660 storage the other day. I'm going to wear Umbros this summer. Yes, it takes me back to middle

00:09:48.400 school track. Middle school track. Exactly. Exactly. And you did a list on your Truly

00:09:54.740 Excellent newsletter last summer about little replacements, little things that you can do

00:10:00.140 to have more of a stress-free summer.

00:10:04.260 One of the things that truly inspired me

00:10:06.760 that I'm actually going to text my husband right now

00:10:09.160 and see if he wants to do this afternoon

00:10:10.380 is to not feel guilty about skipping a workout class,

00:10:13.940 which I did today because I had too much work,

00:10:16.040 and then just going outside to play pickleball.

00:10:18.140 Instead, I'm going to ask Nick Astor

00:10:19.440 if he wants to play pickleball with me this evening.

00:10:22.460 What do you think his answer will be?

00:10:24.700 I think at first he's going to be like,

00:10:26.760 well, we've got to get all the kids to the playground

00:10:28.840 because we have to take them over to the playground and how are we going to do this?

00:10:32.160 And I'm just going to say, no, let's go get some Bud Lights and go play the pickleball.

00:10:37.500 We just have to do it.

00:10:38.520 We're just going to do it.

00:10:40.180 And I think it is also about adding more fun and more whimsy into our everydays that can,

00:10:48.940 even during the summer months, just feel a little monotonous and repetitive, right?

00:10:53.620 Right.

00:10:54.040 And speaking of the algorithm, aren't we being told we need more whimsy?

00:10:57.600 the algorithm the algorithm loves to tell us we need more whimsy but again i think just like

00:11:03.400 everything else like the things it tells us to do to feel whimsical are always like impossible

00:11:08.540 and hard i'm like i cannot live up to what the algorithm tells me is going to be easy

00:11:12.480 and enjoyable right i know you can't and you know something like skipping the workout at your local

00:11:21.180 gym or studio and going and playing pickleball with whether that's your girlfriends or your

00:11:26.120 husband or your kids it is just more fun and it it's more memorable and you're you're together

00:11:33.320 but you're still getting active but we're still being active like we're still doing something

00:11:37.560 we have this badminton net in the garage at the cabin that we've never set up and i'm like

00:11:42.340 just set up the badminton net already okay people are people are going to be really happy

00:11:46.400 when we finally get that badminton net set up but it seemed like such a chore and i'm like no no no

00:11:50.580 i'm going to make i'm going to make that a priority this time this time next week i'll check

00:11:55.360 in with you, and I'm going to text you a picture of me playing badminton. Okay, I'm looking forward

00:11:59.560 to that. I've never played badminton. I don't know if I have either. I mean, is it badminton?

00:12:06.640 Badminton. Minton. Minton. With an extra N in there. Okay. With an extra N. I don't know why.

00:12:12.520 It's a racket sport. I feel like racket sports have really, really made a comeback recently

00:12:18.000 with the paddle and the pickle. And so I haven't seen it with badminton, but maybe it can be me

00:12:24.540 bringing badminton back maybe you're about to bring it back to the 90s summer with your badminton

00:12:29.520 and let's hope that goes viral and sells all of the books yes that's exactly what you need

00:12:35.540 that's this is the new marketing campaign this is the new marketing campaign i'll just put this in

00:12:42.060 penguin random house marketing brief joe piazza will be bringing badminton back this summer do

00:12:48.380 you have any badminton scenes in heist i have no badminton scenes uh but we i don't even think

00:12:54.840 they play petanque but i am i'm also throwing a petanque party i don't know what petanque is

00:12:59.980 either you're gonna have to you know petanque is a french sport kind of like bocce ball

00:13:04.900 oh that sounds nice that's what's fun easy it's fun right i know i know exactly um but i do want

00:13:13.540 to talk about books. I want to talk about making this a bookish summer. And so let's talk about

00:13:19.200 that when we get back from a quick break. Sounds good. Okay, we are back. I think that one of the

00:13:33.220 ways you can truly make your summer more enjoyable is to prioritize reading. And I like to do that

00:13:41.380 in a number of ways. I like to really stock up on books, keep books within my reach at all times

00:13:47.800 during the summer. So I'll have one in the car. Like I have them already there. I place them

00:13:53.080 strategically. So there is constantly a book that I want to read within reach of me. So there's like

00:13:58.580 the car book and then there's, you know, the cabin book and the bed. There's a bedroom book and then

00:14:03.940 there's a downstairs book because I don't want to go upstairs to fetch a book most of the time.

00:14:07.700 And then I'm also, I just became a Kindle reader, too.

00:14:11.340 I was going to say, you must not be a Kindle reader, but okay, so you are.

00:14:16.240 I just, but I literally, much like our mutual friend, Grace Atwood, I convinced Grace to

00:14:20.380 get a Kindle when we were in Croatia together.

00:14:22.480 Yes.

00:14:23.160 Yeah.

00:14:23.440 I know.

00:14:23.740 I know.

00:14:24.800 Life-changing.

00:14:25.540 I am a Kindle girly.

00:14:26.660 I love my Kindle.

00:14:28.280 I'm so new to this, and I thought that it would feel like staring at a screen, because

00:14:31.680 I think the first time I tried a Kindle was 20 years ago, and it felt like staring at

00:14:34.980 another screen.

00:14:36.220 And it doesn't.

00:14:37.180 The Paper White is great.

00:14:38.860 I've been reading on it for a month now, and it has completely changed my life because

00:14:42.920 I find that it's constantly in my purse, and I'll just whip it out.

00:14:48.420 I whip out the Kindle in all of the places, and I think I'm reading more.

00:14:53.760 I think the Kindle, it was life-changing for me many, many, many years ago.

00:14:58.920 I don't know, 15 years ago, just to get me back into the very, very regular habit of

00:15:04.900 reading because I would finish a book and then I wouldn't get to the bookstore for a while to go

00:15:10.920 pick out a new one. Whereas, you know, with the Kindle, you can just download it automatically

00:15:14.580 and you can download a bunch. So they're all just like sitting there in your library waiting

00:15:18.120 to be read. But then also I'm married and we like to have the lights off and read at night.

00:15:26.220 And so this way you don't have to have the light, like the lamp on next to you in bed where it's

00:15:30.800 disturbing the person sleeping next to you. And so it just it feels so much easier at nighttime,

00:15:37.340 especially. Truth. It really does. And I'm sharing the Kindle with my eight-year-old,

00:15:43.540 almost nine-year-old. And that's also been great, to be honest, because he'll be like,

00:15:49.040 oh, I want to read this book next and we can get it right away, which is amazing. And then,

00:15:55.440 yeah, we read in bed quietly next to each other, you know, as part of our bedtime ritual when we're

00:16:00.540 not reading together. So yeah, I cannot say, I mean, I am not, I'm not sponsored by Kindle. I'm

00:16:05.280 not sponsored by Amazon, but I have to tell you getting the Kindle was life-changing. I think it

00:16:10.140 would be life-changing for my summer of reading. I mean, I read about a book a week as it is,

00:16:16.300 but I just think having it so accessible and also having the ability to then, this is what I love.

00:16:22.300 I get so many people that say to me, I love your books. I've read all your books. And I'm like,

00:16:26.280 oh my gosh, there's, there's a lot of them. You've read all of them. But they've read the

00:16:29.920 ones that are available in bookstores that are still front and center in bookstores and bookstores

00:16:35.280 do not carry a lot of backlist so i've been able to go to after i enjoy an author's book then i buy

00:16:41.940 their backlist right away and that is not something that's always that easy to do in a bookstore so

00:16:47.620 that's been awesome too yeah that is nice um what was i gonna say something about the kindle oh did

00:16:55.280 you know that the Kindle has an app. This was something that I, for whatever reason, did not

00:17:01.400 already know. And I just learned it. So I have the app on my phone that's connected to your actual

00:17:06.780 Kindle device. So if you're waiting at the doctor's office or in the car line and you don't

00:17:12.900 have your Kindle with you, you can just pick up the app on your phone and pick right up on your

00:17:17.160 book, too, which I think is phenomenal. And it's like another way to keep you away from scrolling.

00:17:22.200 okay no i did not know this i did not know this and that is also life-changing my gosh okay

00:17:30.160 yay yay yay yay all right i'm all in i'm all in on the kindle well i'm also trying to read

00:17:36.040 outside my normal genre this summer uh but i also give myself all the grace i talk about this all

00:17:42.820 the time if i'm not enjoying a book i dnf after 50 pages i'm a grown-ass woman i think that i know

00:17:50.000 what I like and what I don't like in 50 pages is more than enough and my time is too valuable.

00:17:55.720 But I am trying to read outside my comfort zone. So I started the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and

00:18:01.780 I'm really enjoying it. It is not something I would have picked up. I don't think I've heard

00:18:05.760 of that series. I'm not even going to tell you anything about it because I actually think the

00:18:11.800 Dungeon Crawler Carl books are best picked up not knowing anything going into them. I think this is

00:18:17.640 a book you have to go into fully blind but i'm really liking it and it's not young adult no it's

00:18:24.280 not it's not young adult it is it is dystopian sci-fi but like wacky wacky dystopian sci-fi

00:18:32.260 okay i like it i love a good suggestion i tend to just read beaky read romance books over and over

00:18:41.720 and over again just because i love them and i love the way that it makes me feel in my mood and all

00:18:46.320 that. And then sometimes I'll throw something different in there, too, just to kind of, you

00:18:50.640 know, switch things up. So this will be a good one for me, too. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Well,

00:18:55.840 and you've also written a beachy summer book. And I want you to tell us all about that. What

00:19:04.060 made you want to want to write a book in the first place and then want to write this particular book?

00:19:09.580 oh my gosh okay joe it's so weird because i had i never ever dreamed about writing a book and never

00:19:17.180 thought about it and i literally woke up one morning it was a download or a dream whatever

00:19:24.500 you want to call it knowing that i was going to write this exact book shut up the story the

00:19:30.940 characters the location that it was going to happen that it was going to happen soon

00:19:36.120 and sat and thought about it for about two weeks and I made notes in my notes app about it just

00:19:44.220 kind of thinking about it because I've never even taken a writing class okay right which is amazing

00:19:49.240 to me that you're like oh my gosh I'm right I'm not just writing a book I'm writing this highly

00:19:52.800 specific book I mean it was because of this I don't know what it was I'll call it a dream but

00:19:59.480 I started writing it two weeks after that and I really wanted to just dive in and do that

00:20:06.500 rather than trying to take you know a class or or any or you know join reading or not reading

00:20:13.620 I didn't want to join any writing groups or anything like that because I was afraid if I

00:20:17.360 started doing that I was never going to start just writing the book and so I just started writing it

00:20:24.340 And then after my third draft of it is when I got my first beta reader to look over it and then hired my first, my editor to go over it. And then it was, you know, lots of drafts back and forth of getting feedback of what was working, what wasn't.

00:20:41.220 And, you know, having an editor who knew exactly what she was talking about, who could help me, you know, know where like a plot hole was, you know, how things were going, just really helped me have the confidence to, you know, put it, actually put it out there.

00:20:58.200 But, yeah, it was never something that I ever even thought I'd do, which is pretty wild.

00:21:04.800 Which must feel really amazing, right?

00:21:07.340 It does.

00:21:08.080 Like it's not something you ever thought you would do.

00:21:10.140 And then to all of a sudden have this thing that is a completely new kind of creative outlet, which is this is why I brought it up, because I also think it's amazing if you if you find this one thing you want to try during the summer.

00:21:26.560 Lots of people are like, I'm going to try one new hobby a week.

00:21:28.440 I'm like, that's too many hobbies to try.

00:21:30.200 OK, why don't you just choose maybe one new creative thing that you want to try this summer and just freaking go for it?

00:21:37.640 and you just went for it like you never thought about it before and then you're like all right I'm

00:21:40.860 just I'm just gonna do it like what does that feel like to now finally have this as a book

00:21:45.720 uh it's it's incredible and it is so inspiring to me and just the way of thinking that I don't

00:21:54.980 even know what my life could look like for five years from now because a year and a half ago I

00:21:59.700 would have never dreamed that I would have a book so it just really kind of cements in my mind that

00:22:05.080 You never know where life will take you and to just kind of go with the flow.

00:22:09.540 I mean, who knows, Joe, next summer, this whole badminton, you know, what a game that

00:22:16.680 you're about to be the queen of badminton.

00:22:18.220 I could be the queen of badminton by next summer.

00:22:20.060 You can be like this yet isn't isn't working for 2026.

00:22:24.040 We need to update this net.

00:22:26.100 And, you know, this could be your whole new thing, too.

00:22:29.100 Life's long.

00:22:29.740 Who knows?

00:22:30.760 Life is long.

00:22:31.860 And I think that's such a great reminder.

00:22:33.460 uh life is long summers are short give something a try you know just like I think I think you know

00:22:41.020 novelty and newness it doesn't doesn't have to be I think the internet's version of whimsy is

00:22:46.420 find some thrift store salt and pepper shakers and turn them into flower pots and I'm like that's

00:22:51.320 not that's not going to change my life um but you know just picking one thing like as I'm I'm gonna

00:22:56.980 do badminton this summer and and you have this book that you're you're out there promoting

00:23:02.580 this summer whereas last summer you were reading beach reads and now you have a beach read of your

00:23:07.760 own that you're actually sharing with people that's freaking amazing it's been incredible

00:23:13.360 so it's been out for almost a month at this point and my most favorite part of it is so i'm a i'm a

00:23:21.500 content creator influencer i share a lot of my outfits and clothing things on my instagram and

00:23:27.060 Substack and blog and all that. And I will go to my DMs and my Instagram and someone will have

00:23:33.160 responded to an outfit story, but they're giving me the update on where they're at in my book.

00:23:39.420 And so I'm just having so many conversations about, you know, Pink Sand Summer and the book

00:23:45.280 and all of that. But it just makes me so happy. You know, it's just fun.

00:23:51.300 No, it truly it truly is. And yeah, so the book is called Pink Sand Summer.

00:23:56.140 Tell us a little bit about what it's about.

00:23:59.860 Well, it's about a group of friends that have summered on Harbor Island in the Bahamas every year.

00:24:07.440 So it's a close-knit group of friends.

00:24:09.860 And the main girl, Lucy, has just inherited her grandmother's beach house.

00:24:14.440 So that's kind of new for her this summer.

00:24:16.360 And this specific summer, she is kind of thrown into a little bit of a love triangle with Jack, who was the love of her life.

00:24:25.200 as well as Noah who is a newcomer so the book is you know it's it's got a lot of like

00:24:32.880 love interest between the two of them there's lots of fancy parties that are happening on

00:24:37.860 Harbor Island because it's a really social island and it's just it all takes place in that one

00:24:43.020 summer and I love that it's set on Harbor Island which is a place I'm dying to take my family you

00:24:50.680 guys spend a lot of time there I mean like truly Harbor Island becomes like another character in

00:24:54.740 this book. That was my intention. So we have a house there, hence why we actually spend a lot

00:25:00.240 of time there. And essentially this, you know, this was a completely made up story, but it could

00:25:06.680 in a way be my daughter Lily in 10 years, you know, like she spent, we spend a lot of our summers on

00:25:12.600 Harbor Island. And usually I think it's going to be close to six weeks this summer, which is

00:25:18.200 incredible. I will still be working from there, but it's incredible that you get to do that.

00:25:23.080 is so cool. I know. It really is. It is. It's a special place. The island is full of incredible

00:25:29.660 human beings. And I want more people to experience Harbor Island, whether it's just in the book or

00:25:37.220 they learn about it from the book and then book a trip there and experience it for themselves.

00:25:42.000 It just makes me happy to share Harbor Island. Well, I mean, you hooked me. We're going. We're

00:25:48.980 going to plan a trip for sure. You're going to have to help me plan it when I finally come around

00:25:53.720 to it. You're going to have to tell me all the places to go and things to do. I will absolutely

00:25:58.080 help you. There's lots of good restaurants and little stores and the sand is pink and the water

00:26:06.000 is blue and it's a great spot. I mean, what more could you want? What more could you want?

00:26:11.180 All right, let's take a quick break. And then I want to talk a little bit about your publishing

00:26:15.040 journey, too, because you are self-publishing, and I know that that's something that a lot of

00:26:19.520 people in my audience are very, very interested in, and I just really want to hear more about it.

00:26:24.240 Love to chat about that.

00:26:32.800 Okay, we're back. So talk to me a little bit about your decision to self-publish this book.

00:26:37.880 I have so many people in my audience who are writers and for whatever reason they don't want

00:26:44.880 to traditionally publish but they think that self-publishing feels so daunting so I would love

00:26:49.880 to hear how you got there. Well I was fortunate in that like I said I never dreamed or thought

00:26:57.100 about writing a book before so I did not have this dream of being traditionally published by

00:27:03.360 a specific house or anything like that and a lot of people do a lot of people have this idea they're

00:27:08.960 like I must be published by one of the big five top publishing houses or like I think I think

00:27:15.180 people have this idea and I I actually think I've been published by all of these places and but I

00:27:21.380 I think that there is a lot of ego often involved in it that it doesn't count if you're not being

00:27:26.500 published I'm like you wrote a book people are reading the book you're an author now like that's

00:27:30.520 that's that's what it is and I and I understand why a lot of people feel that way I'm fortunate

00:27:36.280 that I didn't feel that way so I I felt like I had all options open to me to consider so I just

00:27:43.960 dove into writing the book and wasn't even thinking about that next step of it and I had a friend

00:27:51.640 reach out to me who works with Amazon and on the KDP side on the self-publishing side and they kind

00:27:59.320 of did this little like beta program of of sorts with me where they helped me you know upload the

00:28:08.540 script that that sort of thing and you know anytime I had a question of how something worked I had a

00:28:14.420 contact that I could ask but it really wasn't anything that I couldn't have just googled you

00:28:19.640 know what I mean like I know there are tons of different like reddit threads and things like

00:28:24.100 that that probably are a wealth of knowledge as well but so i had someone in the publishing you

00:28:31.240 know world who i could talk to and then also i i am an influencer i really don't like that word but

00:28:39.780 i know that that's the the term that most people know the best right what is what word what word

00:28:44.760 do you prefer do you like creator yeah i probably do like creator better okay okay so i or i mean

00:28:52.800 I started as a blogger you know that's how I love the word blogger girl love it and blogger forever

00:29:00.500 so I started that in 2010 and I've had an audience and I've just been sharing my life and opinions

00:29:07.660 and things that I love for I guess 16 years now and that helped knowing that I did have an audience

00:29:14.800 who you know ideally some of them would support me and buy the book and then even more so than

00:29:21.240 that too is that I have this whole incredible community of content creator influencer friends

00:29:28.660 who and you know women are the best women are so supportive of each other we truly are we truly are

00:29:35.020 I dedicated the book to the girls because the girls are the ones who like really truly lift

00:29:41.900 each other up and I'm surrounded by so many incredible women whether they're you know I know

00:29:47.480 them personally or whether it's just online and i i was i knew that i would have some help there

00:29:55.240 so i kind of thought to myself well as i'm learning here it sounds like it's hard to get

00:30:01.620 to query i didn't even know what that word meant you know right right and you're talking about

00:30:06.320 querying agents i mean this whole the whole process i talk about this a lot you know it

00:30:10.860 kind of feels like a black box for new writers learning yeah learning all of that was was

00:30:15.820 overwhelming and from what I was learning that queering was a horrible miserable process that 0.70

00:30:21.640 you know you would you didn't even know if you would find an agent so I that didn't even sound

00:30:27.000 fun to me and then if you do find an agent that it could be years until if you even get a publisher

00:30:35.340 for that for your book to come out and I am an immediate girl so I write a sub stack and it goes

00:30:41.700 out immediately. I'm not great at scheduling things. I want to share the things in the moment.

00:30:47.620 And the idea of Pink Sand Summer not coming out for years felt crazy, especially because I was

00:30:53.380 already talking about writing this book and the whole process regularly with my audience

00:30:58.160 on Substack and on stories. So it felt weird to have that long of a wait. And I mean, I think it

00:31:07.840 was really all those reasons as to why I decided to self-publish. Which I think are all really

00:31:15.660 smart. You know, it's fascinating how long traditional publishing often takes. Everyone

00:31:21.020 is lying to you. Our turnaround for that was less than a year. And that was so fast for us.

00:31:28.480 That's incredible. I never heard of that. That's incredible.

00:31:32.480 It was. Well, because, you know, there was a part of me that thought the Tradwife trend

00:31:35.700 was going to end if I waited but yeah traditional publishing it is very slow I mean I just had this

00:31:40.640 great idea the other day but it's for a book that wouldn't be coming out this summer next summer or

00:31:47.320 next summer it would be the summer after um because I've already written the book that's coming out

00:31:53.440 this summer and I've already written the book that's coming out next summer so yeah and it's

00:31:58.140 a bummer because I really want to write it it's a retelling of um the sound of music through the

00:32:02.840 Baroness's story oh yeah that's good I know it's so so super sexy super sexy how how she fell in

00:32:10.280 love and had a filthy affair with Captain Von Trapp and then how she orchestrated the Captain

00:32:15.300 and Maria ultimately getting together because she didn't want seven children okay this is right up

00:32:19.780 my alley I do want you to write this book well no now I need now I'm like does it become like

00:32:24.400 a digital original because I need to write it like right now I don't I don't know my poor agents

00:32:31.540 They just get too many text messages from me in the middle of the night.

00:32:34.920 But yeah, it does take a long time.

00:32:36.920 And if you have an audience, I think it's really smart these days to choose a self-publishing

00:32:42.580 route because you're doing so much marketing and publicity on your own anyway.

00:32:48.060 And I don't think that there necessarily is, I think there used to be kind of a stigma

00:32:52.400 around this, but now a creator is a creator and you're a multimedia creator.

00:32:56.480 So why not dip your toe in the water of books?

00:32:59.020 Yeah, I think it's different for everyone. But for me, it was like it's something to consider. Right. And for me, it made sense because of. I didn't care about being published by a specific, you know, that didn't matter to me. And it just got the whole book and this whole career started quicker.

00:33:22.100 you know and exactly why wait why the world is changing every day why wait to get something

00:33:27.900 into the world oh now i have to write the bareness immediately i know all right done

00:33:31.660 especially if you're talking about somebody else could write that story well that's why i'm talking

00:33:36.620 about it i'm like no one better swipe this story because i'm talking about it right now but

00:33:40.000 you know people can write write write things that are very similar to things that you have written

00:33:45.140 and just putting that out there um yeah exactly exactly so well i think i i just i think it's

00:33:53.460 really brave i want to say that i think it's brave to do something that you've never thought

00:33:56.960 about doing before and just be so balls to the wall about it that you're like i'm just doing this

00:34:01.900 i'm doing this i'm putting it out into the world and i'm gonna do it quickly and i'm gonna do it

00:34:08.140 on my own i think it's just wonderful so massive massive kudos to you for for doing this thank you

00:34:13.800 And, you know, I am a Kindle girly, so I appreciate a Kindle book from Amazon, you know, and so my book, it's on audio, it's in paperback, and it's on Kindle, and it's in Kindle Unlimited.

00:34:28.100 And I am also on, I'm a customer of Kindle Unlimited.

00:34:33.960 So it feels good to kind of give back to this readership world that I have been appreciating and consuming so much.

00:34:41.940 It's a fun world to be a part of. And my Amazon crew also introduced me to other self-published

00:34:50.420 romance authors that, you know, I mean, these people are killing it.

00:34:54.320 They're killing it. I know. I know.

00:34:56.140 Killing it. And, you know, they're making all the decisions for themselves. And I found that 1.00

00:35:02.280 to be really inspiring. I am a Taylor Swift girl, and I was very inspired by her getting the rights

00:35:08.640 to all of her books back. So this is not to say that I would never take a deal, you know, like,

00:35:15.300 right, of course, certainly consider the right thing. But to kick everything off, it did feel

00:35:20.920 right for me. No, I think there's something very empowering about it. And I think that so many

00:35:27.520 women writers have known that for a very long time, because so much of romance was self-published.

00:35:33.480 so much of romance and romanticy still is because women they wanted agency and they wanted more

00:35:42.320 control and they couldn't get that you know often in a more traditional deal and so I do think we're

00:35:49.740 going to see a lot more authors also doing kind of a hybrid so I know a lot of women and I've

00:35:56.520 talked to a lot of agents about this have started started in the indie world and then then kind of

00:36:00.900 a hybrid with more traditional publishers or been given their own imprint with traditional

00:36:05.280 publishers. I don't think that there's any one path anymore. And I think that that is very,

00:36:10.280 very exciting. Yeah, I agree. I do think a hybrid situation could be really appealing to me someday.

00:36:20.000 I would, in a perfect world, I would still retain my rights to the e-book. And that's what I've seen

00:36:26.640 people do i've seen people retain the rights to the audio um or to the audio in the e uh i think

00:36:33.920 we're in the wild west of licensing and and publishing and you know you're you're doing all

00:36:40.900 of the things which is which is very very cool and if if people have questions for you about

00:36:46.600 self-publishing can they can they reach out because i know this is going to be such an

00:36:50.000 inspiration to a lot of people absolutely you know another fun thing that i really liked

00:36:54.760 about this self-publishing so as an influencer I mean every day I'm in my analytics seeing like

00:37:01.180 what is it that people are clicking on the most what are people buying the most like I have all

00:37:05.420 of that data in front of me and I've been accustomed to having that immediate data for

00:37:10.480 so many years now the idea of not having the book sales data on a regular basis like that

00:37:17.880 that doesn't sound as fun to me whereas like I'm look I'm looking at all my sales

00:37:23.200 all the time like all throughout the day and so I appreciate seeing how things move day to day

00:37:30.860 depending on what the marketing push I might be doing I know exactly and I will tell you that

00:37:36.680 the only data I have barely any pre-sale data I have to beg for it and then once a book goes on

00:37:43.580 sale my data is not updated in real time I can see sales from last week but that's still about

00:37:50.160 three weeks of a lag. And the only thing I have to look at on a daily basis is the Amazon number,

00:37:55.460 which is also imperfect and, you know, not necessarily tailored for us to be looking at

00:38:00.380 how much are we actually moving in terms of sales. Right. That's interesting to hear.

00:38:06.040 Yeah. No, because I'm a data girly. I want to know what's working, right? I'm like, oh,

00:38:08.840 if this kind of Instagram reel worked or this story, I will do more of those to sell more books.

00:38:13.420 You know, I want to get this book into as many people's hands as possible. So I look at it

00:38:18.920 the same way i would look at any other consumer good right and well i mean we we all are responsible

00:38:26.140 for marketing our books and that's the case whether you're traditionally published or self-published

00:38:31.500 and the more data feedback that you actually have for what's working the better you can market your

00:38:37.480 own book so i think more is more more is more more is more exactly well will you tell everyone where

00:38:45.480 they can find you how they can slide into your dms and where they can pick up this wonderful

00:38:51.020 summer read yeah thank you so it's my name chastity.evans on instagram and then it's

00:38:58.920 chastity evans on substack chastityevans.com and my book is on amazon and i mean books bookstores

00:39:07.460 can can order it but i i can't guarantee that it's in any of the bookstores right right but like so

00:39:14.720 If bookstores want to order it, because I'm a bookstore, I'm a traveling mobile bookstore, and I'll be selling books all summer at the bookcase, I can order from Ingram?

00:39:25.800 Yeah, you can order from IngramSpark.

00:39:28.260 Great. Easy peasy. I have an Ingram account.

00:39:30.640 So I'm going to place that order right now, and you can buy copies of this wonderful book from the bookcase from me, and maybe I'll even bring some when I come to New York, and we'll get some signed copies for the bookstore.

00:39:45.200 That would be incredible.

00:39:46.400 I cannot wait to see you next week.

00:39:48.320 It's going to be the best.

00:39:50.240 I know.

00:39:50.620 It's going to be the best.

00:39:51.660 Ah, all right.

00:39:52.740 This was wonderful.

00:39:53.820 I hope everyone has a badminton pickleball, relaxing, creative, wonderful summer.

00:40:01.440 But don't drink out of the garden, Host, because I do think that that is probably not good for you.

00:40:06.420 I don't think it is either.

00:40:07.740 Thank you for having me.

00:40:08.900 It's been so much fun.

00:40:10.100 Thanks for being here.

00:40:14.720 Thank you.

00:40:44.720 You

Under the Influence (with Jo Piazza) - June 30, 2026

How to Actually Relax This Summer

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