1 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:21,320 We're back with another edition of the Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emily Dashinsky, 2 00:00:21,359 --> 00:00:24,399 culture editor here at the Federalist. As always, you can email the show 3 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:28,519 at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr LST. 4 00:00:28,719 --> 00:00:31,800 Make sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcasts, and if you want 5 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,399 to support our work, you can head over get access to the premium version 6 00:00:35,479 --> 00:00:39,479 of our site at the Federalist dot com as well. Today we are joined 7 00:00:39,479 --> 00:00:43,079 by Faith More. She's a freelance writer, stay at home mom, and 8 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,600 of course a self proclaimed Disney princess addict. We're gonna have to talk about 9 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:51,439 that, Faith, but also the author of the new novel Christmas Carol. 10 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:54,880 That's Carol with a K. You can get it wherever books are sold. 11 00:00:55,079 --> 00:00:57,840 Faith, thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. 12 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:00,799 It's great to be here. Yeah. Absolutely, And people might recognize 13 00:01:00,799 --> 00:01:03,280 your byline. You have written for the Federalists before, in addition to the 14 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:06,680 Wall Street Journal, the New York Daily News, or Culturated ev all kinds 15 00:01:06,719 --> 00:01:10,359 of different outlets. Faith. If you could start though, just by telling 16 00:01:10,439 --> 00:01:15,560 us a little bit about your background, how you came to write a novel, 17 00:01:15,439 --> 00:01:18,400 It's one of those things that a lot of people want to do but 18 00:01:18,439 --> 00:01:23,359 don't always actually end up doing. But I imagine for you there's a story 19 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:25,840 behind it. So if you could give us a little of your background, 20 00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:27,879 that would be great. Score. So, yeah, being a novelist is 21 00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,480 actually the thing that I always wanted to do since I was a little girl, 22 00:01:32,879 --> 00:01:36,719 and so all of the other stuff work wise has been kind of just 23 00:01:36,799 --> 00:01:40,879 leading up to this moment. So I feel very excited about about this book. 24 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:46,280 My main job, I always say this is not my job, it's 25 00:01:46,319 --> 00:01:49,400 my vocation. But my main use of my time is that I am a 26 00:01:49,439 --> 00:01:53,159 mom. I'm a stay at home mom. I have two kids, an 27 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:57,239 almost three year old and an almost nine year old, and that is pretty 28 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:01,120 much where I spend almost all of my time. But I get about an 29 00:02:01,159 --> 00:02:04,799 hour, maybe an hour and a half a day when my two year old 30 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:08,759 is napping, to work. And that is when I wrote this novel. 31 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:15,360 And I before that, I well long before that, I was a teacher. 32 00:02:15,879 --> 00:02:20,080 I taught third and fourth grade for many years, but when I had 33 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:24,639 my first child, I quit and never looked back. And you know, 34 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:30,039 I've always wanted to write. I you know, my father is a novelist. 35 00:02:30,120 --> 00:02:35,280 My father is Andrew Clavin, and he really kind of allowed me to 36 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:38,800 see that telling stories and writing stories is something that you actually could aspire to 37 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:43,520 grow up to do, which I think a lot of people maybe don't kind 38 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:46,599 of have in their background. And so it was something that I always kind 39 00:02:46,599 --> 00:02:51,319 of aspired to, is telling stories. And I got out. I started 40 00:02:51,360 --> 00:02:54,879 out in nonfiction just because I, you know, I had had a kid 41 00:02:54,879 --> 00:02:59,280 and I was sort of writing about parenting and I I had actually suffered a 42 00:02:59,319 --> 00:03:04,319 miscarriage, and so I wrote about that and I got into kind of freelance 43 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:09,479 work that way. But this, the writing a novel, is really what 44 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:13,479 I wanted to do, and so I feel so so lucky to be here 45 00:03:13,479 --> 00:03:16,159 and it's like a dream come true to be sort of talking suddenly about this 46 00:03:16,319 --> 00:03:20,039 novel that I wrote, which is amazing. So that's kind of my background 47 00:03:20,039 --> 00:03:23,759 a little bit. No I can imagine it's almost surreal, but even you 48 00:03:23,800 --> 00:03:27,840 know, actually, one of the questions there are too many Clayman's, clearly, 49 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:29,840 there are too many claimons in the world. But one of the questions 50 00:03:29,879 --> 00:03:31,360 I asked your dad recently when he was on the show, is just about 51 00:03:31,759 --> 00:03:37,240 the act mentally of well it's not just mental, but also just like the 52 00:03:37,719 --> 00:03:42,680 act of writing a novel in the age of social media, especially as a 53 00:03:42,719 --> 00:03:46,000 younger person. Can you tell us about that? I mean, first of 54 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:46,919 all, tell us a little bit about the book, and then maybe if 55 00:03:46,919 --> 00:03:51,639 you could get into a little bit about how it is that with all of 56 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:54,439 the distractions in the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty three, you're able to 57 00:03:54,439 --> 00:03:59,840 sort of tune those out and dive into a fictional world and create care. 58 00:04:00,159 --> 00:04:03,120 Yeah, that's a great question. So the book is called Christmas Carol. 59 00:04:03,199 --> 00:04:09,039 It's a modern retelling of Charles Dickens as a Christmas Carol, but the Scrooge 60 00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:15,159 character has been reimagined as a workaholic mom named Carol. But her miserliness is 61 00:04:15,159 --> 00:04:18,000 not about her money the way Scrooges is. It's about her time and how 62 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:23,680 much time she chooses to spend or not spend with her family. And so 63 00:04:24,199 --> 00:04:28,160 the conceit of the story is that on Christmas Eve she kind of suffers an 64 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:32,199 accident and ends up in this kind of supernatural world where she gets to view 65 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:36,759 at a distance her past, present, and possible future in the hopes that 66 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:43,800 she will remember what's really important, which is her family. And so it 67 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:47,560 follows the Dickens structure of the story, but it completely kind of reworks the 68 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:51,439 themes and ideas to be more about motherhood and marriage and family and things like 69 00:04:51,439 --> 00:04:59,199 that. So that's the story. It's a great question about the distractions, 70 00:04:59,519 --> 00:05:05,480 you know, for me, I view this time when my kid is sleeping, 71 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:12,040 when my kid is napping as a kind of sacred space almost, and 72 00:05:12,639 --> 00:05:14,759 it was it took me a while to realize this, but it is kind 73 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:16,639 of like a ritual that I have. I sort of brew a cup of 74 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,000 tea in a little teapot, you know, and I have a little tea 75 00:05:20,040 --> 00:05:25,000 cup and a saucer, and I bring that upstairs to my desk, and 76 00:05:25,199 --> 00:05:28,720 you know, I pour my tea and then I just I just turn everything 77 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:31,560 off. I turn off the social media and the email and you know, 78 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:35,639 and anything that might ping or ding or bother me in any way. And 79 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:40,399 I try to work for that straight hour, maybe hour and a half, 80 00:05:40,519 --> 00:05:43,079 until he starts calling. I guess the only thing that's not off is the 81 00:05:43,079 --> 00:05:46,000 baby monitor, because then you know, he wakes up and he starts calling 82 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:49,639 me, and then that's the end of that, but I think for me 83 00:05:49,839 --> 00:05:53,800 very selfish of him. I know, how could he not know that I'm 84 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:58,160 working? Yeah, but no, it's great. And for me, I 85 00:05:58,199 --> 00:06:01,439 think it's it's about setting aside that time, and that really is something I 86 00:06:01,519 --> 00:06:05,560 learned from my dad actually, that it's it's something you have to work at. 87 00:06:05,639 --> 00:06:10,160 You know. We often think about kind of artists or you know, 88 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:14,040 novelists as these kind of like moody people who just wait for the muse to 89 00:06:14,079 --> 00:06:16,079 strike and then they have to sort of rush up to their garrett and you 90 00:06:16,079 --> 00:06:21,720 know, scribble things with fountain pens. But I know from watching my dad 91 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:25,199 that actually it's a job, just like anything else. You have to put 92 00:06:25,199 --> 00:06:30,000 in the time and the work and that's how it gets done. So I 93 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,839 think for me it's kind of about turning off all of those things, and 94 00:06:32,879 --> 00:06:38,560 I have almost the it's kind of the blessing of not really having that much 95 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:41,959 time. So the time that I have is feels very important and I'm able 96 00:06:41,959 --> 00:06:46,920 to just sort of dedicate that specifically to the writing. I love that well, 97 00:06:46,959 --> 00:06:48,480 as you were. Just another kind of interesting thing that you did is 98 00:06:48,879 --> 00:06:56,040 looking at a story written by a man, written about a man, you 99 00:06:56,120 --> 00:07:00,120 know, there's some maybe we can get into this some really interesting female characters 100 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:04,839 in a Christmas Carol in Dickens Christmas Carol. But as you were, you 101 00:07:04,879 --> 00:07:11,560 know, a trying to dig back into this work of classic literature and be 102 00:07:12,279 --> 00:07:16,759 trying to dig back into this very male work of classic literature and look at 103 00:07:16,759 --> 00:07:20,360 it from a different lens. What was that like? Yeah? So one 104 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:27,000 of the things that I absolutely hate is when they gender swamp characters but it's 105 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:30,240 basically the same character. Yeah, right, so they take a male character 106 00:07:30,800 --> 00:07:33,879 and then they say, well, wouldn't it be great and so feminist if 107 00:07:33,879 --> 00:07:38,680 it was actually a woman, But then the character behaves in the exact same 108 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:41,759 way and does the exact same things and makes the exact same choices as the 109 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:45,000 man did in the story. And I hate that. And so that's one 110 00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:49,120 of the things that I really wanted to avoid with this story was to flip 111 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:56,279 it so that the themes that I was trying to convey and the characters that 112 00:07:56,319 --> 00:08:00,240 I was trying to convey really worked within the narrative. So that was that 113 00:08:00,360 --> 00:08:03,639 was really important to me. And so I think even though you know, 114 00:08:03,839 --> 00:08:07,040 the Carol character is the scrooge character in a lot of ways. She's not 115 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:13,040 the same as him, and and her you know, the things that she 116 00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:16,800 wants and the things that she needs are are different than his. It's just 117 00:08:16,800 --> 00:08:20,399 that she's sort of following this trajectory of having kind of gone off course in 118 00:08:20,439 --> 00:08:24,120 the way that he his life went off course, and needing to be kind 119 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:31,160 of redirected via the lens of kind of what brought her to this place. 120 00:08:31,759 --> 00:08:35,519 You know. The wonderful thing about the Screwge story, which is really what 121 00:08:35,600 --> 00:08:39,519 kind of hooked me into telling this this particular story, is that even though 122 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:43,759 Evan he's a scrooge in the in the Dickens classic, even though he goes 123 00:08:43,840 --> 00:08:50,279 through this incredible journey of being visited by these three supernatural spirits and seeing his 124 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:54,200 past and his president looking into the future, at the end of it, 125 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,720 he's really the same guy. I mean, nothing has really changed for him 126 00:08:58,039 --> 00:09:01,600 materially. You know, he's still an old man. He doesn't get to 127 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:05,000 go back and live it again. His fiancee has still left him long ago, 128 00:09:05,039 --> 00:09:09,879 and he doesn't get her back. You know, his nephew who he 129 00:09:09,919 --> 00:09:13,120 was supposed to take care of, he has grown up without him, and 130 00:09:13,159 --> 00:09:16,879 he has to deal with that the only thing that has changed is his perspective 131 00:09:16,039 --> 00:09:20,759 and his priorities, and you know, that's kind of everything to him, 132 00:09:20,759 --> 00:09:24,200 and that's what the story is about. So for me, that was the 133 00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:28,120 key to this was kind of what would it be like if someone who has 134 00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:31,519 kind of gotten off course in her life for a variety of reasons, was 135 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:37,240 able to kind of shift her perspective so that she could see what she was 136 00:09:37,360 --> 00:09:43,399 missing back at home. And you know, that's kind of where where the 137 00:09:43,399 --> 00:09:46,279 underpinnings of the story came from. But I really wanted to make sure that 138 00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:50,559 I wasn't just kind of turning men into women and women into men, because 139 00:09:50,559 --> 00:09:52,679 there's there's really no point and it doesn't work because it's not real. It 140 00:09:52,679 --> 00:09:56,279 doesn't it doesn't convey anything true, and so I didn't want to do that. 141 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:01,799 Well, another thing a lot of people see in Dickens that mirrors from 142 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:09,320 their perspective today Victorian England kind of Gilded Age time today, is that exact 143 00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:18,039 dynamic of almost a populism. As you were re exploring Dickens and then exploring 144 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:20,720 some of these themes, you know, as you were writing this book in 145 00:10:20,759 --> 00:10:24,720 the last year, and I'm sure maybe even longer than that. Did any 146 00:10:24,759 --> 00:10:28,879 of that stand out to you, and did any of that you feel important 147 00:10:28,919 --> 00:10:33,159 to convey in your own story. Well, the thing actually that I felt 148 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:39,399 was connected between this story and the world that we're currently living in was actually 149 00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:43,759 it actually had to do more with what was going on during the pandemic. 150 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,440 So I got the idea for the story kind of at the tail end of 151 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:52,840 the pandemic around Christmas time. So one thing about our family is that every 152 00:10:52,879 --> 00:10:56,000 Christmas we sit down and we watched the Alistair simm version of a Christmas Carol. 153 00:10:56,320 --> 00:11:01,840 And obviously I have read the Dickens for several times and many more times 154 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:05,200 having written this book, but that is actually the movie is actually the version 155 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:07,799 of the Christmas Carol. That is kind of imprinted on my heart because it's 156 00:11:07,799 --> 00:11:13,200 something that we would watch every year at Christmas, and so such nerds, 157 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:16,480 I know, we well, I think it would be nerdy. It would 158 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:22,639 be probably nerdier to read the book together every year. I guess I'm surprised 159 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:24,440 you don't do both. Well, that's something my dad and my brother would 160 00:11:24,440 --> 00:11:26,879 do, but I'm a little less intellectual than they are, so we watched 161 00:11:26,879 --> 00:11:33,360 the movie. So but that Christmas. It was kind of the tail end 162 00:11:33,399 --> 00:11:35,519 of the pandemic. And what had happened during the pandemic was that, of 163 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:39,120 course all of the parents, the working parents have had to come home, 164 00:11:39,360 --> 00:11:43,440 you know, during the lockdown, and everyone was at home with their kids. 165 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:48,559 Everyone was trying to parent full time and work full time, and everyone 166 00:11:48,639 --> 00:11:52,279 was obviously realizing that that's not something that you can do. It's impossible to 167 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:56,000 do both. You cannot have it all. And you know, so that 168 00:11:56,039 --> 00:11:58,120 I expected, you know, here, I was having been home the whole 169 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:01,480 time, because I had been and you know, a stay at home parents 170 00:12:01,480 --> 00:12:05,519 since my older child was born. But the thing that really surprised me actually 171 00:12:05,639 --> 00:12:07,559 was when people would say, and I heard this all the time, people 172 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:13,679 were talking about how much they were enjoying being at home with their kids and 173 00:12:13,200 --> 00:12:18,679 how different it was to kind of be with their kids twenty four to seven 174 00:12:18,799 --> 00:12:24,919 and realizing different aspects of their kids' personalities and enjoying that time with them that 175 00:12:24,960 --> 00:12:30,039 they didn't normally have. And I thought that was lovely and I was very 176 00:12:30,120 --> 00:12:31,879 excited by that. But then, of course the pandemic ended and everybody went 177 00:12:31,919 --> 00:12:37,399 back to work, you know, so I think for me, it was 178 00:12:37,399 --> 00:12:43,000 the piece that was sort of connected was that this idea of the narrative of 179 00:12:43,039 --> 00:12:48,159 the way that you're supposed to quote unquote live your life and not really being 180 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:52,639 able to kind of step outside of that and just kind of walking in lockstep 181 00:12:52,720 --> 00:12:56,840 with, you know, whatever you think you're supposed to be doing in your 182 00:12:56,879 --> 00:13:00,480 life, even though you've had this experience of realizing like, wait, hey, 183 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,639 you know, maybe I'm missing something here. You know, maybe this 184 00:13:03,840 --> 00:13:05,720 time that I'm having with my kids now is something that I would like more 185 00:13:05,759 --> 00:13:11,360 of. 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And this, 208 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:05,240 as you mentioned, this dynamic that you know it is not universal for women, 209 00:15:05,399 --> 00:15:11,159 but especially your character somebody who's at a law firm in New York that 210 00:15:11,759 --> 00:15:15,399 versus it's it's kind of getting into to lean in territory and correct me if 211 00:15:15,399 --> 00:15:20,039 I'm wrong. But that's a sort of asking women to challenge some of the 212 00:15:20,279 --> 00:15:28,879 assumptions or some of the rallying cries that have been imparted over the last decade 213 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,440 or so. How important was that? I mean, obviously that's central to 214 00:15:31,519 --> 00:15:37,679 the story, But how are you thinking about that as somebody who you explained 215 00:15:37,679 --> 00:15:48,320 earlier prioritizes motherhood and has this very personal experience of sort of making work work 216 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:52,519 with motherhood, not the other way around, not making motherhood somehow fit into 217 00:15:52,519 --> 00:15:54,120 a work schedule. Yeah, yeah, you know. I mean, I 218 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:58,320 think the first thing to just say, generally is that the story itself isn't 219 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:02,840 really a particular trying to say anything to anyone, you know, It's it's 220 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,080 just it's a story. It's not a manifesto. And I think that the 221 00:16:06,559 --> 00:16:08,919 certainly it has themes that people will pick up on, and you know, 222 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,279 and I certainly have my own beliefs, but I think that, you know, 223 00:16:12,399 --> 00:16:17,320 the wonderful thing about stories is that they aren't kind of you know, 224 00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:22,840 speeches or you know, calls to action or anything like that. They're just 225 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,360 kind of a narrative that you might connect to in one way or another, 226 00:16:26,399 --> 00:16:29,399 and it might be different for each person. But I think, speaking for 227 00:16:30,039 --> 00:16:36,320 myself, I think that the lie that we've all been sold is kind of 228 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:42,720 that in order to be valuable members of society and successful and important, you 229 00:16:42,759 --> 00:16:47,240 know, we as women all have to follow this path. We have to 230 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:48,600 graduate high school, we have to go to college, we have to graduate 231 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:52,240 that, maybe we want to get another degree, and then off we go 232 00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:56,320 into the workforce in order to try to climb the corporate ladder, et cetera, 233 00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,240 et cetera. And then along the way we're supposed to kind of get 234 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:03,000 married and have children, because that's also part of a full life. And 235 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:07,720 but what happens then is, you know, if you're holding as your kind 236 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:14,759 of north star, like, oh, my my career aspirations and my ambitions, 237 00:17:15,079 --> 00:17:18,799 then the kids and the things that they need and the life that they're 238 00:17:18,839 --> 00:17:22,720 living become a sort of annoying distraction. So you're kind of annoyed by the 239 00:17:22,759 --> 00:17:25,279 fact that like, oh, it's school pickup, but I'm supposed to be 240 00:17:25,279 --> 00:17:27,720 in this meeting or you know, oh, you know the babysitter you know 241 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:30,920 is not here today. What do I do? You know, instead of 242 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:38,119 oh, the percentage of my life as a complete person who hopefully will live 243 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:44,319 along life, the percentage of my life that involves kids being at home who 244 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:48,960 need me is actually really small. You know, you have your kid, 245 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:51,640 and then by the age of let's say three, they're probably in a little 246 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:53,519 bit of nursery school, and by the age of let's say five, they're 247 00:17:53,559 --> 00:17:56,559 in kind of full time school. And then you know, eventually they're in 248 00:17:56,599 --> 00:18:00,720 middle school and they're able to take themselves to their after school activities and on 249 00:18:00,759 --> 00:18:03,319 and on until they've graduated high school and they're not even there anymore. So 250 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:07,880 that's kind of the perspective that I take. It's not that parenthood becomes a 251 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:12,519 complete amputation of anything other than my kids, you know, all of my 252 00:18:12,599 --> 00:18:15,759 creativity and all of my ambition and drive to do anything else. It's not 253 00:18:15,920 --> 00:18:21,640 that. It's that when I've had my kids and they are here, I 254 00:18:22,839 --> 00:18:25,799 would like to spend time with them, they also need me. They need 255 00:18:25,839 --> 00:18:27,319 to spend time with me. I mean, studies have shown that, but 256 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:32,839 also, you know, here they are these wonderful, beautiful, amazing people 257 00:18:32,839 --> 00:18:36,400 that I have made, and I would like to be a part of their 258 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:38,839 lives. And I actually can be if I kind of step outside of that 259 00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:45,680 idea that I must be on this continuous upward trajectory. So I think it's 260 00:18:45,119 --> 00:18:48,920 for me. It's really about that. It's not so much oh, you 261 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:51,680 know, you have to not work, or you have to work, or 262 00:18:51,720 --> 00:18:56,079 you have to do this. It's more how can you reprioritize your life so 263 00:18:56,119 --> 00:19:00,839 that during the time when your kids are home, you can be there with 264 00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:03,440 them, and then as they start to leave the home, you can start 265 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:07,799 to find the other things that you want to do with your time, because 266 00:19:07,799 --> 00:19:10,759 you certainly don't want your kids to leave and you know, go off to 267 00:19:10,759 --> 00:19:12,079 college and think, oh no, who am I now? I mean, 268 00:19:12,119 --> 00:19:15,799 that's not how it's supposed to be. But you know, you do want 269 00:19:15,839 --> 00:19:19,839 to remember that, you know, there is there is no later when it 270 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:22,799 comes to your kids, everything that they're doing, they'll only do it once, 271 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:30,599 and you know, maybe you want to be there absolutely. The other 272 00:19:30,039 --> 00:19:34,319 question that I wanted to ask is you also follow and cover pop culture pretty 273 00:19:34,319 --> 00:19:44,039 closely. Sometimes it's the case that our popular culture is somehow more skeptical of 274 00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:48,200 progressive ideas even when it doesn't realize it. And I think of particularly abortion, 275 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:52,000 but you know, motherhood is a good example of that too. You 276 00:19:52,039 --> 00:19:57,079 know, the sort of liberals of Hollywood sometimes don't realize you know, their 277 00:19:57,119 --> 00:20:03,559 embrace of femininity there, motherhood there, there's skepticism about the emotional dynamics of 278 00:20:03,599 --> 00:20:07,519 abortion that comes across on the screen in ways that you know, maybe even 279 00:20:07,519 --> 00:20:14,640 surprise them or or are unintentional or unexpected. As you look at, uh, 280 00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:21,000 the literary world today, have you found that to be the case or 281 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:25,839 and this is you know, my expect My expectation actually is that it's sort 282 00:20:25,839 --> 00:20:27,960 of been dominated. I feel like every time I pick up, you know, 283 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:34,160 a soft covered novel it's about girl bosses. Now, is that you 284 00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,640 know as you see it, is that what's really taken over? Are there 285 00:20:37,720 --> 00:20:44,240 still these sort of hints that women are grappling with this or has it devolved 286 00:20:44,359 --> 00:20:48,640 entirely into propaganda? Yeah? I mean I think that part of the problem 287 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:52,279 is that publishing is a place where they're still gatekeepers. You know, that 288 00:20:52,599 --> 00:20:56,160 there are still you know, kind of agents and publishers and people like that 289 00:20:56,279 --> 00:21:00,799 who have a particular ideology and a lot of a lot of cases, and 290 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:07,240 that causes the stories to kind of stop before they can reach the general public. 291 00:21:07,279 --> 00:21:10,559 And that's why this this book, Christmas Carol is being published by Daily 292 00:21:10,559 --> 00:21:14,880 Wire Books, which I feel really grateful for because I think that they are 293 00:21:15,599 --> 00:21:22,200 an organization that kind of understands that stories need to be told and people people 294 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:27,119 are craving stories, and they're craving the kinds of stories that you know that 295 00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,400 used to just sort of be a diamond dozen, like stories where women are 296 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:34,200 women and men are men, and you know everybody's and you know, motherhood 297 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:40,039 is celebrated in all of those things, without the kind of preachiness that sometimes 298 00:21:40,079 --> 00:21:42,519 comes with like, you know, I'm trying to tell this story because I 299 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,359 you know, everything else is woke, and you know, I want, 300 00:21:45,559 --> 00:21:49,000 I want my story to be told. And I think sometimes we sort of 301 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:52,880 overshoot the mark and try to preach a little bit. And I what I 302 00:21:52,920 --> 00:21:56,960 love about what the Daily Wires doing and what they allowed me to do is 303 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:02,880 that you know, it's it's not and it's just it's just a story. 304 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:06,119 And I think, you know, we need, we need more of that. 305 00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:11,160 I think the problem, I think is that as a culture we have 306 00:22:11,240 --> 00:22:15,720 become far too literal. You know, I think that I one of the 307 00:22:15,759 --> 00:22:18,400 things, the other things that I write about a lot is is fairy tales 308 00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:22,400 and Disney. And I think, you know, the thing that we've forgotten 309 00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:26,000 about fairy tales, for example, is that they are never they were never 310 00:22:26,039 --> 00:22:30,240 ever meant to be taken literally. So the criticism that comes up when it 311 00:22:30,279 --> 00:22:33,599 comes to sort of Disney princesses or fairy tales in general is kind of like, 312 00:22:33,680 --> 00:22:37,799 well, you know, how could she just she falls asleep for the 313 00:22:37,839 --> 00:22:40,480 whole time, or you know, she needs a man to rescue her. 314 00:22:40,519 --> 00:22:47,119 And we've forgotten, right that these stories are actually kind of metaphors and allegories 315 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:49,559 for other things, you know, for growing up, for you know, 316 00:22:51,079 --> 00:22:56,119 mental crises, for you know, warnings of not talking to strangers and things 317 00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:00,440 like that. And I think that's actually true of all stories. Worries are 318 00:23:00,519 --> 00:23:06,680 essentially sort of symbolic or metaphorical in some way. And I think what's happening 319 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:11,359 now is that in forgetting that, I think on both sides of the political 320 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,440 divide, in forgetting that the stories are sort of becoming less and less real 321 00:23:15,559 --> 00:23:21,200 and less and less kind of emotionally valid, and I think we kind of 322 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:23,720 need to step back from that and kind of remember what a story is and 323 00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:27,319 how it's different than an argument, for example. Yeah, and you know, 324 00:23:27,359 --> 00:23:33,880 actually I sort of was tasting at the beginning when reading your bio and 325 00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:40,319 your love of Disney princesses, because it's just it's Disney is what it is 326 00:23:40,400 --> 00:23:44,000 these days. But that's actually one of the areas of pop culture that has 327 00:23:44,240 --> 00:23:55,279 always shown even self proclaimed feminists are still attracted to traditional femininity, and in 328 00:23:55,359 --> 00:24:00,480 some ways they now want to performatively resist that. And I guess I just 329 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,799 you know, this isn't so much a question as a conversation point, you 330 00:24:03,799 --> 00:24:06,799 know, as somebody who follows this, I've basically tuned out of Disney at 331 00:24:06,799 --> 00:24:10,039 this point because every time I see Disney News it's the same thing. Yes, 332 00:24:10,599 --> 00:24:14,640 but that seems to be part of the struggle that is happening internally at 333 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:21,759 Disney, when they're trying to reimagine old stories and then create new stories. 334 00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:26,319 Yes, that's exactly right. So I think Disney seems it's almost not to 335 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:30,000 care whether they make money at this point anymore. I mean, maybe they're 336 00:24:30,039 --> 00:24:33,680 just making so much money off of whatever they've got going on, and it 337 00:24:33,720 --> 00:24:37,799 doesn't it doesn't matter, because all they're doing now is kind of trying to 338 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,680 quote unquote correct the mistakes of the past. You know, they oh, 339 00:24:41,799 --> 00:24:45,640 you know, we're going to make the live action Cinderella or snow White or 340 00:24:45,640 --> 00:24:48,799 whatever it is. But you know, the prince is not going to rescue 341 00:24:48,799 --> 00:24:51,960 her. She's going to rescue herself. But you know she's going to be 342 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:55,880 a feminist and oh, she's going to save herself. But really what's going 343 00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:59,720 on is that the movies that they're, the new movies that they're making, 344 00:25:00,279 --> 00:25:04,599 where they try to kind of put forward these much more almost masculine female leads, 345 00:25:04,799 --> 00:25:10,359 aren't doing as well as the movies from the past that everybody loves, 346 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:12,920 you know, the Little Mermaid and Beating the Beast and you know, Aladdin 347 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:18,079 and all of those, and further back Cinderella and Sleeping Nudy and snow White. 348 00:25:18,240 --> 00:25:22,319 So there instead they're like, oh, well, we're going to remake 349 00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:25,839 those movies because those are the movies that people actually like, you know, 350 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:30,640 those are the movies that people actually are drawn to, even though they kind 351 00:25:30,680 --> 00:25:33,960 of want to apologize for them because they think that they're so horribly anti feminist 352 00:25:34,039 --> 00:25:37,960 and so horribly bad for little girls. And you know, of course, 353 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:41,759 we are always getting kind of celebrities saying, oh, I've banned The Little 354 00:25:41,799 --> 00:25:45,960 Mermaid from my house because my daughters will not watch that or whatever. But 355 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:51,000 the truth is that the reason that those stories are great and that we love 356 00:25:51,079 --> 00:25:53,400 them is not because, oh, we're so brainwashed by the patriarchy. It's 357 00:25:53,400 --> 00:26:02,200 because those stories are speaking to us about universally truth things. But they're speaking 358 00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:06,920 to us in the language of allegory and metaphor and symbolism, and we actually 359 00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:11,480 instinctively understand that language, even children do. And people are always yelling at 360 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:14,960 me because they're like, yeah, well, you're saying that snow White is 361 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,599 really about, you know, a girl growing into her womanhood, but kids 362 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:22,279 don't know that. And the truth is that you're right, they can't articulate 363 00:26:22,359 --> 00:26:25,680 that, but they know it. They do know it, just like you 364 00:26:25,799 --> 00:26:27,720 know it and I know it, even if we can't articulate it either. 365 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:33,240 So I think it's there is this kind of push and pull going on right 366 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:34,920 now, which is that we are drawn to these stories. We love these 367 00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:40,279 stories, our children are drawn to them. And yet if we're you know, 368 00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:45,240 if the feminists are so concerned, because you know why, I'm trying 369 00:26:45,279 --> 00:26:48,519 to raise my daughter to you know, play with trucks, but she just 370 00:26:48,599 --> 00:26:51,240 keeps putting little tiars on them. You know what am I supposed to do? 371 00:26:51,559 --> 00:26:55,839 You know? So I think for us, you know, for for 372 00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:59,839 me and for people who are creating art now and trying to kind of tap 373 00:27:00,079 --> 00:27:07,480 into what's real, we have to remember the kind of symbolic underpinnings of stories 374 00:27:07,759 --> 00:27:11,000 and what they do and how they work, so that we can we can 375 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:19,440 recapture people again in the way that those old stories still do m And actually, 376 00:27:19,519 --> 00:27:22,759 back to your point, that's another one I wanted to pick up on. 377 00:27:22,799 --> 00:27:27,279 I found so interesting about how difficult it becomes to focus on a story 378 00:27:27,400 --> 00:27:33,920 in and of itself when you're kind of clouded, or you're you're mentally sort 379 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:40,519 of there's a fog of activism that's maybe clouding your creativity. You know, 380 00:27:40,920 --> 00:27:45,319 we all have perspectives and biases and ideologies, and it's perfectly fine for those 381 00:27:45,359 --> 00:27:48,400 to inform your art. In fact, that's where some of the best art 382 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:53,559 actually comes from left, right, whatever, just but everybody you know agrees 383 00:27:53,559 --> 00:28:00,000 on Bob Dylan for example. But as you were kind of confronting this specifically 384 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,160 somebody who thinks about how it's affected art from the left recently, how did 385 00:28:04,200 --> 00:28:08,759 you deal with that yourself? Well, it's a it's an interesting question because 386 00:28:08,799 --> 00:28:12,799 it's it's not something that I had to really think too much about, because 387 00:28:14,319 --> 00:28:18,559 even though the career that I've had so far as a writer has been in 388 00:28:18,759 --> 00:28:22,799 kind of basically in freelance kind of opinion pieces, and so I do think 389 00:28:22,799 --> 00:28:26,559 a lot about the culture and a lot about you know, what messages things 390 00:28:26,559 --> 00:28:30,440 are sending and what I want to convey. As you know, my values, 391 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:34,559 the thing, the core of me has always been just that I want 392 00:28:34,599 --> 00:28:37,720 to tell stories. I love to read stories and watch stories, and I 393 00:28:37,759 --> 00:28:41,480 want to tell stories. And so when this story came to me, it 394 00:28:41,519 --> 00:28:47,799 didn't come to me as a kind of It didn't come to me as a 395 00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:51,160 kind of thesis. It didn't come to me as you know, this is 396 00:28:51,240 --> 00:28:53,480 the value that I want to impart or this is the message. It did 397 00:28:53,519 --> 00:28:56,359 not come to me as a message. It really came to me as a 398 00:28:56,400 --> 00:29:00,720 story. It came to me as like, what if Scrooge was was a 399 00:29:00,759 --> 00:29:04,319 mom? You know, what if Scrooge was a workaholic mom? And you 400 00:29:04,359 --> 00:29:07,880 know who among us has not had this thought exactly what if Scrooge was a 401 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:11,119 mom? But I think you know, the feminist would love that, right, 402 00:29:14,559 --> 00:29:17,559 No woke left would love what if Scrooge was a mom? But you 403 00:29:17,599 --> 00:29:21,519 know, I just it came to me in that way as a story, 404 00:29:22,079 --> 00:29:25,759 and I think as I told the story, it became about like, well, 405 00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:32,640 why why would this person have shut off so completely the side of herself 406 00:29:32,799 --> 00:29:34,720 that has to do with her kids. And it was important to me that 407 00:29:34,799 --> 00:29:38,640 it wasn't because she's evil, you know that, It wasn't just that she's 408 00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:42,759 like a horrible person, so let's just hate her. It was important to 409 00:29:42,799 --> 00:29:48,720 me that she was a good person and that we so so that we cared 410 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:52,079 whether she found her way back to her husband and her kids again. Otherwise 411 00:29:52,519 --> 00:29:55,880 why would I mean, maybe we would want her to get a divorce or 412 00:29:55,920 --> 00:30:00,240 something if we really hate her. So that that's kind of so then I 413 00:30:00,279 --> 00:30:03,480 sort of followed that down, like, well, what would have happened, 414 00:30:03,480 --> 00:30:06,119 Well, you know, there would be this not to give spoilers, but 415 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:07,319 you know there would be this trauma in her life, and she would have 416 00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:11,160 wanted to go in one direction. I mean like Scrooge, right, Scrooge 417 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,799 wants to kind of initially sort of help people and follow modern progress and all 418 00:30:15,839 --> 00:30:18,039 these things, and then he gets kind of, you know, mixed up 419 00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:22,720 in the in the whole kind of commerce of it all. And I think 420 00:30:22,119 --> 00:30:26,319 that's the same for Carol. She gets kind of downtrodden and mixed up. 421 00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:30,160 And that's that was kind of it for me. I just I wanted to 422 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:34,440 tell this story. And I think that, you know, knowing myself as 423 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,279 I do, that that kind of makes sense because that's that's who I am. 424 00:30:37,319 --> 00:30:41,160 You know, I'm not really I'm not a pundit or you know, 425 00:30:41,559 --> 00:30:45,920 a big sort of intellectual mind. I am a mom. You know, 426 00:30:45,039 --> 00:30:49,559 my day is filled with diaper changes and whether school pickup and nap time are 427 00:30:49,559 --> 00:30:52,119 going to coincide and what do I do about that? And you know, 428 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,680 we sing a lot of songs and we play a lot of games, and 429 00:30:55,680 --> 00:31:00,000 that's that's kind of who I am. And so in a lot of ways 430 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,480 kind of a surprise to me that suddenly the story is about anything at all 431 00:31:03,559 --> 00:31:08,920 other than you know these characters that I agreet. The Watch Dot on Wall 432 00:31:08,920 --> 00:31:14,640 Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day Chris helps unpack the connection between politics 433 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,240 and the economy and how it affects your wallet. Have you ever played Monopoly? 434 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:22,519 The purpose of the game is to build wealth by buying assets and profit. 435 00:31:22,680 --> 00:31:26,559 Are you playing the game by just passing go and collecting two hundred dollars 436 00:31:26,599 --> 00:31:29,960 without staying out of jail? Where does that go in the long run, 437 00:31:30,079 --> 00:31:33,359 Whether it's happening in DC or down on Wall Street, it's affecting you financially. 438 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,160 Be informed. Check out the Watch Dot on Wall Street podcast with Chris 439 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:42,160 Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you're 440 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:47,599 writing a character like Carol, I'm just curious, as this is from the 441 00:31:47,599 --> 00:31:53,720 perspective of somebody who's never embarked on such a difficult journey of creating a fictional 442 00:31:53,759 --> 00:32:00,359 person, how are you able to kind of figure out where you start and 443 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:06,279 your character begins, Oh, do you mean, like? Is she like 444 00:32:06,359 --> 00:32:08,400 me? Is that what you mean? You know, she's a product of 445 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:13,279 you no matter what. So you know, as you're you're kind of thinking 446 00:32:13,359 --> 00:32:15,880 of creating a distinct voice for a fictional person, but you're the person who's 447 00:32:15,920 --> 00:32:21,359 creating this fictional person. And how do you kind of separate, you know, 448 00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:27,880 your own personal instincts from those you think this creature of your own making 449 00:32:28,759 --> 00:32:31,680 might be. Yes, I imagine it's probably a little bit what a little 450 00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:36,319 bit what it's like to be crazy because I don't see her as a part 451 00:32:36,359 --> 00:32:38,119 of me at all. I see her as a separate entity. You know, 452 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:43,400 there is a way in which I mean honestly, as I was saying 453 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:46,440 before, you know, writing is a job. It's work, and you 454 00:32:46,839 --> 00:32:51,839 sit down and you you know, I outline a ton just to make sure 455 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,279 everything is going to make sense, and I think about who the characters are, 456 00:32:54,319 --> 00:32:57,720 and I write little kind of bios for them, and you know, 457 00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,960 who are they and how they interact with each other and how do they relate 458 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,039 to each other? So I kind of have that sort of skeleton to begin 459 00:33:05,119 --> 00:33:08,759 with to write, and that's really helpful for me personally. But when you 460 00:33:08,799 --> 00:33:13,799 sit down to write, it is almost like channeling someone, you know. 461 00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:17,279 It's almost like you're like the medium at the seance or whatever. It's almost 462 00:33:17,319 --> 00:33:22,720 like you know these people and these characters are somewhere out there and you just 463 00:33:22,799 --> 00:33:28,519 kind of have to channel them through you onto the page. And it is 464 00:33:28,559 --> 00:33:30,839 a weird thing. I mean, they do things that you didn't expect or 465 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:37,799 plan. You know, sometimes these characters become a way that you didn't really 466 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,559 know that they were going to be. I mean, I think initially I 467 00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:45,000 didn't really understand that Carol was going to be so kind of traumatized. You 468 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:47,559 know, she really goes through a lot to bring her to the place where 469 00:33:47,559 --> 00:33:51,839 she is this kind of workaholic person who really, you know, has to 470 00:33:52,079 --> 00:33:54,119 decide to make up a reason to go into the office on Christmas Eve. 471 00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:59,119 You know, I didn't really I didn't really know that about her until I 472 00:33:59,119 --> 00:34:01,359 started telling the story. So I know that's kind of a woo woo answer, 473 00:34:01,359 --> 00:34:05,160 And I wish there was some other, like really clear and concrete thing 474 00:34:05,200 --> 00:34:08,079 I could say, but it really is kind of just like meeting these people 475 00:34:08,199 --> 00:34:15,519 and then transcribing them. Yeah, I mean, I would think there actually 476 00:34:15,599 --> 00:34:21,280 isn't a very clear answer to that question because of you know, lastly, 477 00:34:21,679 --> 00:34:25,639 Faith, how did you approach the You talked about this a little bit earlier, 478 00:34:25,679 --> 00:34:30,639 but you know, one, what is it that you like about Dickens? 479 00:34:30,639 --> 00:34:32,800 What is it that you love about Dickens? And then how did you 480 00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,400 sort of keep to the integrity of the story as best you could while also 481 00:34:37,519 --> 00:34:42,559 you know, kind of putting your own perspective and spin on it. Yeah, 482 00:34:42,559 --> 00:34:45,440 that last part was really important to me. You know, I didn't 483 00:34:45,519 --> 00:34:50,599 want to kind of trample all over this story that's such a classic and so 484 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,760 beloved by so many people. I didn't want to kind of I really wanted 485 00:34:54,079 --> 00:35:00,159 to do it justice. And that piece was all about the outline. It 486 00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:04,159 was all about kind of I had an outline of of the Dickens story, 487 00:35:04,239 --> 00:35:06,679 and then I had an outline of mine. I had, you know, 488 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,039 character sketches of the Dickens characters and then character sketches of my characters, and 489 00:35:10,079 --> 00:35:15,519 I you know, really worked hard to kind of, you know, incorporate 490 00:35:15,599 --> 00:35:21,159 different pieces from from Dickens into mind so that if you know and love the 491 00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:24,119 Dickens story, that I hope that you will feel like I kind of did 492 00:35:24,119 --> 00:35:29,280 it justice. And I wove in the different kind of narrative things and the 493 00:35:29,360 --> 00:35:37,320 character traits and arcs that that we were there and forgotten the first part of 494 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:40,960 your question, something about Dickens just basically, you know, what do you 495 00:35:42,079 --> 00:35:45,719 like about Dickens, you know, I mean, and maybe even about this 496 00:35:45,800 --> 00:35:50,480 particular story. You know that it's such a beloved story, although you know 497 00:35:50,519 --> 00:35:53,760 that the act of you know, doing a novel based on that story, 498 00:35:53,800 --> 00:36:00,519 retelling that story takes fandom to another level. Personally, Yeah, well, 499 00:36:00,639 --> 00:36:04,599 I mean I do love Dickens, but I think that for me, a 500 00:36:04,679 --> 00:36:08,760 Christmas Carroll is not my favorite Dickens novel. I would say probably David Copperfield 501 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:13,880 is my favorite fellow, maybe closely by Bleak House, but so for me, 502 00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:16,239 it really actually is the movie that I love so much, which is 503 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:22,360 kind of not necessarily the best intellectual answer, but is the truth. And 504 00:36:22,599 --> 00:36:25,079 that is something that's true about me, is that, you know, even 505 00:36:25,119 --> 00:36:30,840 though I grew up in this household with with my dad and with my brother 506 00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:37,280 Spencer, who is a fantastic intellect, I am kind of the book it 507 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:40,239 maybe me Yeah, I know, right, you know, No, I 508 00:36:40,239 --> 00:36:45,159 mean an amazing mind and both of them. I am not like that, 509 00:36:45,239 --> 00:36:50,320 you know. I was always kind of having to approach the classics kind of 510 00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:53,360 slant wise, like by watching a movie or you know, going to a 511 00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:57,960 play about something and then kind of finding out what the plot was, and 512 00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:00,079 then going back and reading the real thing, because it always very hard for 513 00:37:00,199 --> 00:37:05,360 me to read and understand, you know, the books of the past. 514 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:08,280 And so you know, for me, it's really this this movie that we 515 00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:14,320 watch because because it has so much to do with our family and it holds 516 00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:16,760 such emotional weight for me. And you know, all we have so many 517 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:20,719 kind of inside jokes and little things that we say to each other that are 518 00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:23,719 just quotes from this this movie and we use them as kind of emotional touchstones 519 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:27,880 to kind of convey things to each other. So, you know, I 520 00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:31,199 think it made sense for me to reach for that story when I was trying 521 00:37:31,239 --> 00:37:36,199 to tell a story about about something that was really important to me, which 522 00:37:36,239 --> 00:37:40,039 is which is family and children and the gratitude that you feel or sometimes forget 523 00:37:40,079 --> 00:37:45,039 to feel for your kids and for your family. And so I think for 524 00:37:45,079 --> 00:37:49,679 me it was that was the story that just spoke directly into my kind of 525 00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:55,159 emotional self because of that holiday tradition that we have. That makes so much 526 00:37:55,159 --> 00:37:58,880 sense. That's beautiful. So the book is already out faith right, people 527 00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,440 can go get their copies now, Yes, absolutely, wherever you buy books, 528 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:06,000 Amazon or Daily Wire or anywhere you get your books. Well, there 529 00:38:06,039 --> 00:38:09,320 you go again. It's called Christmas Carol faith More. Any novels that you're 530 00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:13,760 going to be working on soon? Is this? You know? Are you 531 00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:16,559 already working on another one? I already am, but I can't really share 532 00:38:16,639 --> 00:38:20,320 too much about it right now, but I'm very hopeful that it will. 533 00:38:20,559 --> 00:38:23,960 It will see the light of day, so stay tuned. It's about how 534 00:38:24,159 --> 00:38:30,079 one of the craven men becomes president I assume, yes exactly, and how 535 00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:34,519 but the you know, their daughters and sister is secretly the mastermind behind it 536 00:38:34,599 --> 00:38:38,920 all. Of course, actually I would read that dotting that down now. 537 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:45,760 Thank you, faith More once again is the author of Christmas Carol faith Thank 538 00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:47,400 you so much for joining the show. Thank you so much for having me. 539 00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:51,719 This is great. Of course you've been listening to another edition of The 540 00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:54,559 Federalist or radio hour. I'm Emialindrisinski, culture editor here at The Federalist. 541 00:38:54,599 --> 00:38:58,760 Will be back soon with more. Until then, the lovers of freedom and 542 00:38:58,880 --> 00:39:07,239 anxious for the friend we have in the o