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Good morning, Gracie. How are
you doing today? Hello, very well,

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thank you. How are you?
Absolutely fantastic, very excited to talk

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about the new book They'll last fall
in realm, because this is going to

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be a summer read. This is
what what young adults are going to be

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taking with them when they go to
the beach. That would be amazing if

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they did. To put yourself in
right back in here again with with the

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books, I mean, because it's
it's got to be like a sport or

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a game to be able to be
that author, put it out here for

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readers to attach themselves too, and
then you're back in your game again writing

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new books. What is that journey
like for you? Oh, you know,

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it's the most interesting thing because,
as you will know, the time

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that it takes us to writing a
book and completing the book and then when

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it comes out into the world is
quite a large amount of time. And

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so by the time that you're you
know, for example, right now,

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me talking about and promoting my last
book and this series I'm already working on

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you are ye, So you really
do have to pull yourself out and put

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yourself back into old me and remember
what that was like. So it's a

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really fun experience. Actually, it's
almost like walking down memory laid a little

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Well, I'm so I'm so glad
that you said that it's fun, because

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so many people think that, well, I'm not getting that time back,

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so why should I write? And
it's like, no, you got to

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follow the path of Gracie Kim because
she makes it fun and she puts messages

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in those paragraphs. I mean,
you really do work it. Oh,

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thank you, it's very kind.
I mean I think ultimately my wish is

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to entertain, you know, I
just want people to be able to pick

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up my books and be transported and
experience magic and adventure and just had a

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good time. And if they can
take away some messages that I'm hoping to

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share, I mean, that's just
an extra edit bonus. You talk about

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that magic, you are really good
at bringing that magic forward as the author

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and creator. How do you envision
the magic before it becomes words on a

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page. I wish I could say
I envisage it, but I really don't.

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I mean, I'm a plotter,
right as opposed to a panther,

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as in I don't write by the
seat of my pants. I really do

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outline and plan before I write.
But at the same time, I feel

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like the really yeah kind of the
mysterious magical stuff. That's the stuff that

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happens without me realizing, and it's
only afterwards and looking back I'm like,

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oh, why did that and what
does that mean? Does it appear in

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dreams? Or while you're driving down
the road all of a sudden this idea

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comes you and you're going, whoa, there we go, here we go,

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let's have some fun with this.
Sometimes it comes out like that.

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Although those types of ideas are usually
at the very beginning of a world or

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a new series, where I have
those kinds of oh, how about this

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and maybe I could include that,
I find that when I'm in a series,

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the ideas come more like they almost
kind of jump out. Yeah,

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yeah, so I love this idea
of that creative Well, you know that

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creators have this well and they fill
it when they're not creating or writing.

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They're filling it with things. They're
reading, things, they're watching conversations that

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they've been part of life, being
in nature, just experiencing. Yeah.

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I was gonna say, I'm so
glad that you said that. And the

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reason why is because so many readers
really they dive in and it's book after

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book after book after book. I
want to make sure that the reader knows

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you've got permission to be a writer
as well, go enjoy both sides of

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that imagination. Absolutely, I think
we're all storytellers. I think being human

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is to be a storyteller, and
it just so happens that some of us

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do it in this very specific form
with writenal word. But I agree,

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I absolutely agree. And I think
once you feel that creative well with life

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essentially and everything that we consume and
enjoy, then when you do exercise that

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muscle to write, I think we
surprise ourselves because all that stuff is already

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there. You would just have to
pull from it and pull it together in

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a way that only you can.
I think that is creativity. Do you

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believe in the theory that you know, like when you do have a book

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like The Last Fallen Realm, you
know people will say, well, I

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want I want to do books of
magic. I want to do things where

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there's adventure. You've got to be
able to read those books before you can

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write about them, isn't that correct? You have you have to be able

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to follow the plan. I really
do think it's important if you want to

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write in a certain age category or
a certain genre, to know what's happening

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in that area. Children's writers I
meet, well, I wouldn't say a

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lot, but some children's writers I
meet are reading books that were published decades

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ago, you know, And I
think that's also incredible. We can draw,

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like I said, ideas from everywhere, but it is really exciting to

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know what pantings currently right now in
the contemporary world. So yeah, absolutely.

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At the same time, some of
my most interesting ideas have come from

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reading completely outside of what I would
normally read, So I would say,

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just read read everything in your heart. Who is Riley? Have you met

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Riley in real life? Or is
it just a character? I think essentially

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Riley is a little bit of me
put in our completely different world. Yeah,

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and I don't think I meant for
her to become that way, but

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I think it was just as a
process, so much as me got pulled

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into her the day. A lot
of me is not her, but a

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lot of me is also her.
And I wonder if I'll say that for

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every character I ever write. I
wonder, because you know, we are

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such a multitude as human There is
so much inside us that is contradictory,

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and there's so much to pull from. But I do feel like there is

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a lot of me in Riley though
now in putting the books together, I'm

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sure you do research. And the
reason why I bring this up is because

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I'm a third don taekwondo, and
the thing is is that in order for

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us to grow in any level of
taekwondo is we had to study the history

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and the origin of where it came
from. Do you do the same thing

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with your stories? You've got to
go get the history? Or are you

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creating history by writing the characters?
I think there is a definite given like

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a pull and push and pull there. Yeah, Because for sure, I

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think it's important to learn the history, because if we don't know where we

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came from, how do we draw
from it and take it to the nicklible.

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What I found really actually quite challenging
is that because so many of these

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Korean mythological stories and folk childs were
passed down orally, it was very difficult

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to know what was accurate quote unquote, And what I quickly discovered is that

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actually, when it comes to mythology
of folk tales, it is as accurate

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as the storyteller who tells it,
and they change naturally over time because three

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tellers ad flair, it's adapted to
the modern environment. These things are a

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natural progression of story, and so
that gave me a lot of confidence,

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I guess, to really put my
own creative spin on these stories. So

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that's been a lot of fun for
me, but also being able to draw

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from from whethy stories come from.
What's your daily discipline for writing? Do

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you go in you give yourself three
hours or a certain amount of pages?

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I have none. Can you please
give me some disciplines? I find a

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very focus. My poor little daughter
who's three, struggles to find me even

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when I'm right next to her when
I'm in that mode because I'm just so

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lost and would I would rather do
that than you be eating or sleeping to

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them so focused, and then when
I'm out, I'm out. So I

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really actually admire writers who can do
that thing where they go and every morning

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and they put some time assign they
just turn that muscle on and they do

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the thing and they come out and
they repeat again the next day. Do

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that. So far, I haven't
found a way to do that very effectively,

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but perhaps it's just more practice.
Please come back to this show anytime

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in the future. Gracie. The
door is always going to be open for

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you. Oh, thank you so
much. It's been a pleasure. Will

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you be brilliant today? Okay,
thank you