Megan: All right, so I don’t know about you guys, but this is probably one of the coolest venues that we’ve had the opportunity to shoot She Boss in. And I am joined by Georgina Cross, who is an Amazon Best Selling Author. What?
Georgina: I don’t know
Megan: It’s just insane.
Georgina: Somebody made it up.
Megan: We’ll take it right, we’ll take it. So we typically do she bought series over a cocktail. And you can’t see behind us but we have a wall of bourbon thanks to her husband. And so we’re doing today’s interview over Basil Hayden, so cheers.
Georgina: Cheers to you.
Megan: This is my first time drinking it. And it’s pretty tasty. I gotta say.
Georgina: It’s my favorite. I’m gonna make Megan a convert.
Megan: She’s on her way. It’s really good. So anyways, thank you so much for carving out time. This is seriously just amazing. So Georgina and I have been friends for quite some time but she is a bit of a staple in this area. And so many people know about you through a variety of different things. But most recently, you’ve branched out and you are an amazing author and create these suspense books that like people can’t put down and it’s insane. Because talk about a transformation of going from working in the corporate world to working for the chamber and doing workforce development and doing all these really cool things. And now if you’re an author, I feel like you are this chameleon, you’ve sort of transformed yourself a little bit. So before we dive into the books, start from beginning kind of give us a little bit of background about you and your journey and how you got here today.
Georgina: It is a long journey. So I don’t know how long so I don’t know how long we have but the biggest thing I want to tell people is writing books is not an overnight thing, no one becomes this overnight success, as you might hear it. It’s a lot of work. And as you said, I was working in the corporate world for a long time. And I started off in TV news in Huntsville. That’s what brought me here was at Channel 48 News and was on a two year contract. And I think the entire time I was working and then went out to marketing and the Chamber of Commerce, I knew deep down what I really wanted to do was write. And so I’ve written when I was kid, a lot of the typical stories you hear about authors, we started writing when we were children, we were in high school, but it was always kind of like a hobby.
Megan: Did you study journalism?
Georgina: I did. And because there was a part of me that was like, as much as I loved reading and loved writing I didn’t think I could make- it wasn’t guaranteed I can make a career out of it. So it makes sense now wasn’t guaranteed. And I thought, well, I’m going to college, I’ll get my degree in journalism, because at least that’s a paycheck. Not a huge paycheck. But you know, there’s so much work.
Megan: There’s so much hustle involved in that.
Georgina: We’ll pay you $10 an hour.
Megan: And so you have to really love what you do.
Georgina: Yes but as many of us do, we’re in TV news. And we’ll roll out, we’ll go into marketing, communications, we’ll do PR, and I ended up landing in Aerospace Defense Contractors, and I did marketing for them. But I did proposal work for them. And it really just showed me this other business side, which I think added layers to me in terms of what I can tolerate, what’s good, what’s bad, how to act in certain environments. It was also really good case study of individual personalities.
Megan: Oh, interesting
Georgina: Right so the whole time, I’m like, kind of clock and stuff in my head of stories. You know, we’re not to make people paranoid, because I’ve had neighbors say, “Oh, my God in my in your book?”
Megan: Because you identify someone and then turn them into a character
Georgina: Oh, and you know, I had a really good girlfriend of mine who called me and said, “Am I you know so and so in the book?” and I was like, “Well, the fact that you even picked up on that, you know, maybe there’s some sort of personality trait.” But I think what ends up happening is we are observers, so like, we were talking before the cameras start rolling. And I am listening because I’m so enraptured because I want to know everything about you. Not that I’m going to put you in a book, like, don’t freak out. But it’s the interesting personality traits of all humans. And so we’ll kind of library catalogue them in our brains. And maybe when we write, we think that’s a tree I want to put in, or that’s this career on what this character to have. She has runs her own company, right? Or there’s a nasty person who was really mean to me one day in the neighborhood, and now she might feature one of my books, I don’t know.
Megan: Stay tuned
Georgina: Right, it’s those kinds of things but I knew that I always wanted to write. And then four years ago, I really sat down and said, “Okay, like, if I’m going to do this, I need to do this before I’m too old. Before I regret that I didn’t try to make it serious.” And so every single weekend, that was it. It was like Saturday and Sunday and people ask me all the time, you know, “What’s the biggest advice you can give to writers?” and I say, “You just have to make it a priority.”
Megan: Yeah, if it’s a hobby, it’s never going to cross the line that it needs to cross.
Georgina: Right and there’s nothing wrong with having hobbies. And I think for a lot of writers, poets, screenwriters, journaling is another way of expressing yourself. But for me, I just wanted to have a book published. And so for me, it was okay, every Saturday and every Sunday, every single morning. I didn’t see friends. David and I were dating the time, he knew we wouldn’t see each other till dinner, maybe, he was really patient. And my kids knew, like if the door was shut, mom was in there working and go make your own waffles, go feed yourself, you’re going to be fine. And that’s what I did for like, four years. And in the meantime, started getting these books finished and got the agent and she sold my books, for me.
Megan: That’s insane. So I have a question for you. So was there was there any sort of like turning point or catalyst that it was like you woke up one day or had this revelation where it was like, today’s the day like it’s gonna happen? Did something happen that really shifted it from being something that you always thought about something that you physically did you know what I mean like did it just sort of just sort of unfold over time?
Georgina: That’s a great question. Yes, I’ve never been asked that question before. Yeah, there were definitely moments at my former job and this was before the Chamber of Commerce. So when I was at Aerospace Defense I thought, this is in no way close to being creative at all, like I felt my creativity sucked out of me. But it was, again, an amazing job. The pay is far better than TV news, far better than one of the marketing jobs. And I had this team that I learned so much from right. And I really think that they helped me, I don’t think that I could have written what I’m writing now, in my 20s, I just didn’t have the maturity level hadn’t been through enough damage, right. I just didn’t have enough life experience to feel comfortable in- and not to say that 20 year olds can’t write books, some of the most amazing authors are in their 20s. Their debuts are killing it. But for me, I needed that. There were definitely days where I thought I’ve got to leave here, because I don’t see myself doing this for another year, let alone 10 years. Yeah, the idea was just scary to me.
Megan: Yeah. Well, and I think there’s something to be said around, I think, I don’t know, I may be wrong, but I feel like you reach a certain point in your life, or there’s a turning point, or there’s something that unfolds that oftentimes will sort of trigger that is this it, is this what was going to define me moving forward? And whether it be a job or it be a relationship or it be something else, it really makes you question your purpose a little bit. So I mean, even though a lot of the experiences are good ones, they certainly help kind of craft just as much what you don’t want your future to hold versus what you do now, which is a very good thing. So along the way, you’ve also started something called Susie’s Wish too, which I would love to learn a little bit more about because I’ve seen this in the past and I think it’s amazing. And the simple fact that you started something like this, which some people may not know about, so I find that to be just so inspiring. So tell us about that.
Georgina: Aw Susie, yeah, love Susie. So she was best friend of mine. And she worked in TV news, too. So go TV news. And we found out when she was 34, the she had cancer. So this is it’s been more than 10 years ago that she passed. But when her cancer spread to her lungs we knew we didn’t have much time left. So one of her final wishes, especially toward the end was she wanted to go somewhere. She wanted to go to the beach and put her toes in the sand. Well, this was like November, December timeframe. And Susie had a very fun personality. So this was very typical of her to be like, “Hey, you know, and I’m being a pain in the butt” because we were like, “Where are we going to take you in November December?” Yeah, that’s warm enough. We have to like get out of the country and go south. It’s so expensive. And she’s like, “I’m just such a pain, but you’re gonna make it happen.” So we had fundraisers, I mean, I literally had bid sheets that were like, you know, pay money for Susie’s Cobra, because her insurance was about to run out, you know, pay money, because we’re going to take her to the beach. We had somebody buy our plane tickets. We had a house that was donated to us in Cozumel. And the day we were supposed to leave. She was rushed to hospital she had to have emergency blood transfusion. And last time I talked to her she said, “Go, you guys go. They’re gonna keep me overnight. The doctor thinks I’ll be fine. My mom will fly with me tomorrow.” And there was just something I think inside of all of us that thought this just doesn’t feel right. But we went anyway, we had the tickets and that night she passed away. And so we got the call. We were in Mexico, we flew back.
And so it struck me that even with all the means that we had, and the TV news because she was at WWL, New Orleans, so you know, they’re having huge fundraisers for her. Even with all the connections we had, we couldn’t get her to the beach in time. We couldn’t meet her final wish. And I thought there are these families out there that are even worse shape. Yeah, there’s no one to get their medications. There’s no one to take them. And if they did have a final wish for a place to go, like who’s going to bring them? So I went to hospital and we talked for a while and I said, I want to do this. And then it kind of hit a wall where I was like grief. You go through that adrenaline rush of when to make change the world, everything happened. And it was just the adrenaline rush of weeks and months of like planning her medications and playing it because we now we’re doing experimental chemo, so we’re travelling everywhere. And we just worked. We took a vaccine set. But it was Leadership Connect. So once I got into Leadership Connect, we have a project.
Megan: Yeah.
Georgina: So you did Connect?
Megan: I’m with Flagship now.
Georgina: You’re with Flagship, did you do Connect?
Megan: No
Georgina: Okay, so you went straight to like big management group. You’re like the big dog. Okay. So I did the baby connect class, we were class 17. And I don’t know how Flagship is, but do you have to have a project?
Megan: Yeah
Georgina: So I just threw it out there. And I was like, “I was thinking about this thing called Susie’s Wish.” Like, I mean, I had the idea and a name for it from the very beginning. And there were five or six, six people that said, we either have loved one that passed, or we just feel really strongly about what you’re doing. And we want to join your team. So when you get like six, eight type personalities. You have to make it happen. So and then we had to make it happen to graduate the class. So hence, Susie’s Wish was born.
Megan: Love it.
Georgina: And we just sent a patient in June. But we stopped last year and COVID really hit, we sent this one patient June and then we shut down last year. So now what we do is we give money to the board members, and they pick a charity, because we know a lot of the nonprofits got hit too. Yeah. And they’re not having as many donations. And we received enough donations, we were lucky that we’re now kind of paying it forward. So eventually, we’d like to start sending people to the beach again next year.
Megan: That’s awesome.
Georgina: Yeah
Megan: That is so great. Well, and I don’t think that you realize how I mean, I know that sounds silly because so many people are impacted by cancer. But unless you’re directly seeing things unfold, you don’t really know about those little things that people can’t do, you know, and we had a chance to listen to. I’m never going to forget her name, the woman who founded Mary Mack Hall, not that long ago. And she was talking about it was it Allison Jane?
Georgina: Deborah
Megan: Deborah. But anyways, she was talking about with what they do, you know, they help special needs get into performing arts and it’s all inclusion and but one of the things that she talked about was like, ‘You never realize how, you know how left out individuals are because of their circumstances until you’re one of those individuals and you never realize the hardships that you go through when you have something like cancer or anything else, for that matter.’ So to be able to see it firsthand and react to it firsthand and be able to, you know, fill some of those voids. Yeah, you take for granted the little things in life, like putting your toes in the sand. You know, that you don’t get the chance.
Georgina: And I think for this is how it was with Susie too. She said I think I want to go on this final trip. We didn’t want to hear it. Nobody wants to hear that.
Megan: Yeah because it’s not your final trip
Georgina: Yeah, we still have months with you, we still have weeks with you, or there will be some miracle, experimental drug and we’re flying to Boston every weekend. So something clearly is going to work. And then I think she just became more and more aware. And we planned her funeral.
Megan: She was part of planning her own funeral?
Georgina: We went as soon as we came back from Boston. So we went to dinner and she you know, she’s a reporter, she’s a journalist, so she busts out her notebook, and she’s like, “Okay, this is what I want.” And I remember trying to eat I think it was like a chicken parmesan and kind of trying to not to vomit at the same time and looking at her. And she said, “I just I need you to know what I want to make it happen.” So the flowers, we went to the funeral parlor, we picked out a coffin, it was horrible.
Megan: Oh my gosh
Georgina: She was like, “This is what’s gonna happen soon.” And it did unfortunately happen, you know, less than a month later, but we just thought there are so many families out there who just don’t know when that final trip and because you’re so busy with getting them to the hospitals and all the treatments. You run out of weeks and that’s what happened with us. And I was like nobody can go through that again.
Megan: Oh my gosh. Well, I think that’s amazing
Georgina: Thank you
Megan: I think that story is pretty awesome. And the fact that you had an idea like that, that can impact people on such a deep level.
Georgina: And it’s not just me there are 13 board members but leadership.
Megan: Yeah, but it’s in leadership is amazing. Leadership Huntsville, L 35 Flagship best class ever
Georgina: Connect class 17 is the best class ever. We also came out with Rocket Chef, our group. I mean, it wasn’t my group but our class also came. So I was like, wow, our class is pretty.
Megan: We got to step it up. I know, well, they start talking about the projects and like, there is some serious pressure to like, come on. I mean, I’m all about it.
Georgina: But 8-type personalities in the room
Megan: For sure, everybody wants to make things happen. So it’s really exciting and not to not to derail. But I was blown away at how much a lot of the small group projects haven’t been publicized in the community. I’m like, “I don’t I never even knew that all of these amazing things.” And not that it’s about a pat on the back all the time. But there’s definitely an opportunity to showcase what all these amazing people have done in our community with their small group projects, you know, anyway, so that’s for another time. I think there’s definitely an opportunity to showcase that a little bit more as part of the amazing things that Leadership Huntsville is doing here. So let’s talk a little bit about ‘Nanny Needed’.
Georgina: The writing part, I do the writing part.
Megan: So I will say that Georgina and the Flourish team definitely have a shared love of all things suspense and murder. And we have our newsletter, and it’s like, what we’re reading what we’re watching, and it’s all murder documentaries and all of it every week.
Georgina: I noticed that.
Megan: We’re like, we should probably think about something else to read, but no, because it’s just so good. So and my daughter is the same way too like her bookshelf was just filled on documentaries about psycho killers. And yeah, she’s just obsessed with it. It’s great stuff. So it’s just fascinating. It is fascinating. And it’s a page turner, you don’t want to put it down, you can get through it really quickly. But this book in particular, is Georgina’s most recent book. And so I honestly I want to geek out over your creative process and like understand where you get your inspiration from how you physically, no pun intended, put pen to paper like how do you pull together your ideas and come up with the story and what does that creative process look like for you?
Georgina: Oh, gosh, these are great questions.
Megan: They just peek inside the brain.
Georgina: Peek inside the brain. So I read only suspense. That’s a lie, because I’m reading Sally Rooney‘s latest book, ‘Beautiful World Where Are You?’ So every once a while I’ll have to read like a really good literary fiction
Megan: To clean out to your mind
Georgina: Sally Rooney you just read her stuff and you’re like, “This is the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read in my life.” And I don’t think I can ever do what she does. But I read less suspense and I watch less suspense because your newsletters like y’all are like ‘Mare of Easttown’ and the ‘Night Stalker’, I remember reading. So those are all shows I watch. But, you know, looking back because my husband and I were talking about this recently, and I was like, you know, looking back in grade school in high school, I think I was even though I read a lot of women’s fiction, there was always this appeal for like horror movies. And I don’t write horror, right. But I can watch horror, we will watch scary movies all year.
Megan: That you are speaking the language that in the same way like my daughter Madison is obsessed, like unless it’s horror or something like that’s the only thing that she’s watching
Georgina: He’s even shaking his head.
Megan: Like the scarier the better and I have my I have my blanket, you know, I’m just like, you know, I love it. So what else, you have to tell me a good one that you guys have watched recently, too.
Georgina: I mean, ‘Click bait’-
Megan: Watching that right now
Georgina: Netflix, that’s great. So I can’t watch well I can’t read a lot of horror, Stephen King I can handle but there are few books that I can handle but it’s more of a psychological suspense, especially as I am writing it.
Megan: Yeah. Dean Koontz is a good one.
Georgina: Dean Koontz is great because at least there’s like, it’s gritty, but it’s so well written, short, punchy sentences. But I think in my 30s when I was really thinking, “Okay, this needs to go from a hobby to, if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it before I’m too old.” And that was the goal I had for myself. And so I thought, “Okay, if I’m going to finish a book, I think the only way to finish a book is if it’s suspense, because I have to end it. There has to be a mystery that’s solved. I have to figure it out for myself, which means I have to finish it for the reader.” And with women’s fiction, I found myself waffling. Like, I would go here and sometimes I felt like the stories could just go on and on forever. And maybe that was just part of my brain pinging and saying you need to be writing suspense since you watch all that stuff anyway. Okay, she’s having another sip, which means that she really- she likes it guys. I was waiting. I was like, “I wonder if she’s gonna have another sip.” And so then with suspense, at least I thought, “Okay, this is something I enjoy reading watching already. Why don’t I try writing it.” And I start creating folders on my hard drive of just different ideas I had, I can always picture the beginning. And I always visualize the end. So it was on a panel discussion at a conference in Nashville called Killer Nashville. Love it perfect. Other people are like, that is really strange, though.
Megan: That’s awesome
Georgina: So, it’s called Killer Nashville. And so there was this author, she big time author, J.T Ellison and she’s sitting on the panel with me and she does not know her endings.
Megan: She starts writing and then the endings just sort of find it.
Georgina: She does not write literally, like I write chapter one, all the way till the end, and if there are flashbacks, I will leave a hole and maybe go back. I did that with the Missing Woman. I’m doing that actually now with this latest book too. It was so interesting to listen to her. She writes different chunks, and then she rearranges them later. And then eventually she figures out the ending. Now I’ve seen because TV news and the way our brains are geared in journalism and maybe just my like OCD behavior.
Megan: Step one, step two
Georgina: Right, so I was like no I can’t do that. But also know authors who write different points of view. And I’ve done that as well. In fact, all my books for the most part, except for one, have different points of view it but I also still write them chronologically as the story is happening. But I know authors who will write all of Mary’s parts, and then they’ll go and write all of like little kids parts.
Megan: Gotcha
Georgina: And that just like that, how are you-
Megan: Yeah, so it’s just seems much more challenging to do that.
Georgina: But they are on a different plane, I think.
Megan: Yeah, creatively, their process is just different.
Georgina: Yeah and you know, people do storyboards so I don’t do storyboards. My process is pretty simple. Maybe as I write more, I might have a more sophisticated process.
Megan: I don’t know. But so far, it seems to be working okay. I think you just need to do whatever works right now. I think, if it’s going to generate books like this, you just have to keep on doing you know, there’s no need to change anything.
Georgina: Except there is, you know, I think maybe if I planned more, the editing and revising wouldn’t be as painful later. So I plan, I do plot. I’ve learned painfully that I need to plot but I don’t do these except like, I know, authors who do 100 page outlines and character developments like, you know, Mary, everything about Mary the car, she drives for job, what she looks like, I mean, huge character developments.
Megan: You don’t do that.
Georgina: I will write bullet points. So my outlines are very bullet point. She had this Honda Civic at this part and story, but then she switched so that I can remember. And I can slip in, they’re all in like Heading format and the Word doc.
Megan: Do the characters, do you often find that they evolve and change as you go throughout that so you don’t like come up with who they are, and then place them, like do they sort of-
Georgina: Yeah, I know the main people. And then character sometimes will come up like in the ‘Missing Woman’, another character just kind of came from out of nowhere. And he ended up becoming a huge red herring, and was a huge part of the story. And I never envisioned he just showed up. In this latest book I’m writing there’s a dog that showed up.
Megan: It’s the little things that just kind of pique that right, like they just sort of happen.
Georgina: I guess, I don’t know, I just felt like they’re just needed. It’s weird, because you’re writing and you have a general sense of where you want story to go, or at least I do. And I thought well, just I think there needs to be this particular change. And so yeah, I’ll do like a brief character development. And I’ll add to it over time. So there are headings I can quickly look in the viewfinder and see, okay, and then I do every chapter bullet points. So these are the main things I want to happen in each chapter and this is how I want the ending. The middle though, it’s amazing at some point like that outline just, I have it kind of printed and it’s out on the floor. I might occasionally look at it, but the middle can kind of do this. And that’s okay. Because I know once the editor gets her hands on it, it all gets changed.
Megan: And so what tell me, so a lot of people don’t see behind the scenes of what goes into creating something like this. So once you get a draft over to your editor and then what unfolds at that point? Do you usually freak out when you hit send on that?
Georgina: No
Megan: It’s almost like you birth a child.
Georgina: Yes, it’s like a sigh of relief. I’m throwing this over the fence. Dear God, I hope they like it. And oftentimes because they sign you on contract, they have bought the idea so before they buy the idea.
Megan: You have to have a seat to like sell the concept and then oh
Georgina: So with ‘Nanny Needed’ I had the entire book written, she, my agent sent it to several editors. And in less than a month, we got the phone call. So she’d flown through the book at Penguin Random House, bought it. And but I’d also sold two other books to another publisher. That’s why I’m with two publishers. That’s why I have so many books coming out so fast.
Megan: Well, that’s another thing that I wanted to ask you about. Like how the heck do you knock books out so quickly? Like that’s insane to me.
Georgina: I don’t sleep. That’s not true. I do sleep. I sleep every night. Sleep is really important to me. I go to bed so early. “David’s like you’re so boring.”
Megan: I get that though. I know. Oh, I’m all about my sleep. You’re so tired. Your brain, I think you and I are very similar in that even when I’m sleeping. My brain is still going 100 miles a minute. I mean, I wake up and I feel like I’ve had a marathon of experiences that are so bizarre, but you know, getting rested and sleep in that regard is something that is just so important.
Georgina: It’s critical or your day is ruined. It’s ruined. And then you can’t wait to go to bed.
Megan: I look forward to sleep. Going to bed is one of my most favorite times. I feel really selfish saying that like it’s the best.
Georgina: It’s the best time. Yeah, no, we’re exactly the same. Yeah, I think I mean, to answer your question. It’s because I was writing every weekend, while I have my full time job. And so while Rachel, my agent was trying to sell the books, what you do is while you’re waiting, you write another book. That’s what they tell you don’t ever just sit around. Because it’s like selling a house, it’s so painfully slow. And every day feels really awfully slow when you don’t hear anything. Yeah. So they say just write yourself another book. So I wrote another book. That’s how I had like, three come out so quickly. It’s not because I’m such a fast writer.
Megan: I think you are a fast writer though compared to-
Georgina: But I mean, I’m starting to slow down though. I’m very soon to get very tired. But yeah, so in a year, I published three books. So ‘Stepdaughter’, then ‘The Missing Woman’, ‘The Nanny Needed’. I was hired to ghost write a book. That’s how I was able to leave my Chamber job. So I was looking for part time work at the time, because I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to stay at the Chamber, and meet these contractual deadlines, because like two editors, two publishing houses kind of going in.
Megan: I mean, wow that’s a big demand of you.
Georgina: And I don’t know how to do this and still be a person that is likeable,
Megan: Like a good mom, like a good partner,
Georgina: Like my family would still here
Megan: Actually they would have dinner with you, you know, they’re not like, “Go back in your hole.”
Georgina: We need to find a solution, because you’re going insane. So yeah, I was hired to go straight and she said, you know, I’ll pay you for this six month period, and write my book for me. And I’ll work with you on all these interviews. So that was it was like the most brilliant, so I turned in her book last November. Then I turned around and wrote another book and turned in February, and then start writing this latest book. That’s based in Oregon. Yay, Oregon.
Megan: Can you share the name of it or no?
Georgina: Right now it’s tentatively called ‘One Night’.
Megan: ‘One Night’. Is there a murder involved?
Georgina: Oh of course
Megan: I love it. In Oregon?
Georgina: Yeah
Megan: Not to derail but like, do you go to these places for inspiration? Like, would you go to Oregon and like sit outside and allow that to help? Or do you just sort of wing it and do it based on whatever experiences you have?
Georgina: So they’ve all been places I’ve been to, so interestingly, ‘The Stepdaughter’ is based in Twickenham, because I felt like this neighborhood just down the street from us, I know there was something about it was just the homes and the families and
Megan: The history
Georgina: I felt like it was ripe for some sort of drama and death to ensue. And so that worked out perfectly and for me, it was just a great setting because the way I described the house and then ‘Missing Woman’, I don’t know why I just thought Hampton Cove, my former neighborhood it was also ripe for there to be drama and murder too, you know?
Megan: Yeah, why not? Just a little bit of drama and murder in any city.
Georgina: That’s why my neighbors got nervous like you’re moving in and now you’re gonna write about us so in ‘The Missing Woman’ the house that’s like you know, there’s definitely a section in Hampton Cove that’s for much bigger homes. And I exaggerate in the book like fully exaggerate the waterfall insurance; I’ve changed it up a little bit. And basically in this fictionalized Hampton Cove, there’s a section in the neighborhood that’s a lot more affordable, and everybody’s dual income. But it’s more cookie cutter kind of houses. And it’s based on my old house like that’s my old kitchen, that’s my Blue Moon beer that they’re sitting around drinking trying to figure out what happened to the woman. The ‘Nanny Needed’ book was inspired by when my sister lived in New York, and so we go visit her. She lived there, like 12, 13 years. So when we visit her, we just go on these long walks. And that’s the best way to see the city to see any city, really. And we end up in Upper West Side, New York, and I look at the penthouses and I was like, Ha.
Megan: You see the nannies everywhere
Georgina: You see the knee everywhere
Megan: Yep
Georgina: And I always thought, there’s got like, are they really happy because some of these penthouses are three, four storey-tall in the one building. And I thought maybe they are, but what if they’re not. And I just decided to kind of percolate in my head. So that’s ‘Nanny Needed’ so that’s based in New York City. And the books that I’m turning in, hopefully soon before my editor gets mad at me, because I’m late. That was based on how David, he flew us to Oregon, we were with his family, we rented the house, everybody could stay in one house and overlooking the Pacific and there were these trails, and I was like, Oh,
Megan: This place is rich for a storyline
Georgina: There was storm and the power goes out and all this chaos but of course our family was sweet, there were like board games
Megan: It’s like you’re looking at this dual vision of what’s unfolding.
Georgina: But we are family we were sitting around watching a movie.
Megan: It’s like who should die in the next scene
Georgina: What’s going to happen if this person bangs on the door all of a sudden?
Megan: But that’s the way your brain works though right?
Georgina: These days
Megan: Yeah I mean my kids have to tell me to just slow my role when I’m talking about schoolwork and something comes up and I can geek out over marketing. I’m like, “You should have a logo for that, you should come up with…” And they are like, “No”. Sometimes you forget and you just cross your wires because you are always thinking about different things which I would imagine is very common for you.
Georgina: Especially with your brain
Megan: It’s always, right? But I can imagine you just walking through the grocery store and just seeing someone who is such a character.
Georgina: So this is a first, this is an exclusive. So how do you even pitch it to my editor?
Megan: She’s going to be like what?
Georgina: Because back to what you were asking earlier yeah I mean they buy the idea, you have to pitch concepts so they’ll ask for three or four page synopsis and sometimes if you’re ahead of the curb, the whole book is written but once you’re contracted by a publisher and they are like, “We know you can write and we can edit. So just write a synopsis and then we will pick.” And I’ve had some where I’ve been rejected but there’s an idea and I’ve talked to my agent about it, it’s inspired by this house in particular.
Megan: Oh I could see that.
Georgina: Especially all these different rooms
Megan: Yes
Georgina: And my step son, because I have got two step sons, the second oldest step son in particular, we had a conversation at dinner and I was like, “Yep”. And we both just thought of this and it’s such a cool idea. It’s funny because I’m trying to finish this book now but I’ve already been thinking and daydreaming and going to sleep and I’m picturing it, I already see the ending. I definitely see the beginning, the middle I’ve got to figure it out because I haven’t done the outline yet because I haven’t sold it to her either. So I needed to turn in, ‘Nanny Needed’, you know she’s happy. I need to turn in this next book to her, let her edit that for months. But the next book I think will be super cool.
Megan: Your home, we’ll get to see some shots of this for sure, has story and drama written all over it but in the best kind. By the way, we are sitting in Georgina’s home right now. This happens to be part of her home and there’s history in every single place you look.
Georgina: I should put a pub in the book too.
Megan: You should. And it’ll just be the escape room, if you will. I think there’s so many beautiful storylines even what’s up here, are these to hang glasses?
Georgina: So the previous owners, every single peg had its own beer sign. And so what David wants to do, and again we got this house right before Covid, is have our friends, some of our friends have started. Everybody bring their own glass or sign and they always leave it here.
Megan: I love it. It’s great.
Georgina: But because of Covid, we’ve turned into more bourbon sampling when people come over. We haven’t been doing as much beer but people have to start bringing their own glasses. It’ll be fun.
Megan: I love that concept.
Georgina: This David’s pub, it’s really my pub too but I just let him think it’s his.
Megan: It’s beautiful. This house is absolutely gorgeous.
Georgina: Thanks
Megan: I’m so excited for you. I know we haven’t known each other that long but I feel like I met you at the Chamber and all of a sudden, you are this insane, successful author and all of these books speak to me so much, even just looking at them, I’m like, “oh my god this is gonna be so good”. They are those books that you can sink your teeth into and get lost in.
Georgina: I hope so.
Megan: Oh my gosh, yeah. I know it started off by saying but it’s rated as one of Amazon’s best sellers for suspense which is insane and I am so proud of you.
Georgina: Thanks
Megan: And to say that we have a lot of great people here in Huntsville but to say you’re from Huntsville doing these different things, it’s awesome.
Georgina: Thanks
Megan: So thank you so much Georgina, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for introducing me to Basil Hayden.
Georgina: You’re welcome
Megan: She Boss has elevated to a whole new level.
Georgina: All your other guests are going to be like let’s bring our own bourbon.
Megan: And like what is that I know
Georgina: Now the cameras are about to be off, we have to finish the glass.
Megan: Thank you guys so much
Georgina: Thank you