60. CHRISTY SWIFT: Celebrity Crush and the joys of fandom

I love introducing you to debut authors, and this is a fun one. Christy Swift is the author of "Celebrity Crush", where a single mom's novel about her real celebrity crush leads to meeting the man in person.

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Watch the full interview with Andrew Eiden/Teddy Hamilton, including his love for Celebrity Crush, here.

Transcript

00;00;03;13 - 00;00;24;13
Speaker 1
Hi and welcome to Literary Hype. I am Stefani, your literary hype woman. And today I get to do one of my favorite things, and that is introduce you to a debut author. Today's debut author is Christie Swift. Her brand new book is Celebrity Crush. This is about a woman who writes a novel about falling in love with her celebrity crush and then actually gets to meet her celebrity crush.

00;00;24;13 - 00;00;49;11
Speaker 1
And he stars in the movie based on a book. So lots of shenanigans to be had. Christina are both pretty nerdy. So we do talk a lot about fandoms in Sam casting and hot celebrities. So if you like hot celebrities, if you like nerdy stuff, buckle in. You're going to have a good time. So without any further ado, here's my conversation with Christie Slay Welcome to Literary Hype.

00;00;49;13 - 00;00;53;09
Speaker 1
It's so exciting to have you on to talk about your debut novel, Celebrity Crush.

00;00;53;22 - 00;00;56;10
Speaker 2
Thank you for having me. I am thrilled to be here.

00;00;57;04 - 00;01;12;07
Speaker 1
So before we get into talking about the book itself, we've got to talk about your lovely little celebrity endorsement. So Andrew, a.k.a. Teddy Hamilton, voices your audio book. So before we get to the question, I'm going to play this clip.

00;01;12;16 - 00;01;36;24
Speaker 3
I just did a book called Celebrity Crush. I don't remember the author's name, but it was so fun. It was a nice romcom and like it was legit funny and me, like, I got to kind of have fun with it. And there was like a couple things that even I did that was not, you know, it's just like the way that I did it but when I was done, I was like, they're gonna laugh at that.

00;01;36;24 - 00;01;58;10
Speaker 3
Like, that was a good, good jab at myself on the back because I felt like, I know they'll laugh because I did that. Funny. I think it's funny And so it's very exciting. I hadn't done a book a lot of the rom com world I haven't been a part of because of all the dark stuff I've been. So it's either it's either hockey or or knives.

00;01;59;02 - 00;02;07;25
Speaker 3
That's that's my life right now. So then getting some, some good old fashioned romcoms And this one was pretty good at that.

00;02;08;00 - 00;02;13;25
Speaker 1
What is it like for you to have such an iconic voice shouting out about your book?

00;02;14;01 - 00;02;48;27
Speaker 2
That blew my mind. It came into my inbox and I didn't know what it was, so I didn't look at it until I was ready to deal with it. You know, like, that's my philosophy of email. Don't look at it unless you're ready to deal with it. And I open the clip and to watch Andrew like Blake talking about my book and how much fun he had narrating it and the jokes and how he was putting his little spin on the jokes and how it made him laugh, that just made my day This this book is meant to make people laugh and have fun.

00;02;48;27 - 00;02;56;04
Speaker 2
And to watch that happen in real life with Andrew was Chayefsky It was fantastic.

00;02;56;16 - 00;03;14;24
Speaker 1
Yeah. And we had just talked about like Tessa Bailey books and Lauren Blakely books and Onyx Storm. And so for him to throw that name out, I was it was not the one I was expecting him to talk about. But that led to me sending your publisher the clip, which led to this interview. So, you know, Andrew's just bringing us all together I love it.

00;03;14;24 - 00;03;29;22
Speaker 2
I am a big thanks for that. I mean, because I'm a debut author, right? So how are you? When he mentioned that book, you were probably like, what? Who? Because nobody knows about me. It's my first book. And, you know, I'm a brand new baby author. So that meant a lot to me.

00;03;30;05 - 00;03;46;07
Speaker 1
And for anybody who needs this clarification, because I have seen some little bit of conversation about it online of the paperwork that he had for this book did not have your name on it. So that's why he's like, I don't know who the author is. It wasn't that he forgot it was he literally showed me it was not listed.

00;03;46;25 - 00;04;03;07
Speaker 2
One of my friends teased him a little bit in the comments when I shared the clip and I did ask for permission to share the clip from my publicist she said, Yeah, and she's like, her name is Christie Swift. And I was like, Yeah, maybe he'll remember it next time. So we teased him a little bit. But, you know, all in all, in good fun.

00;04;03;14 - 00;04;13;10
Speaker 1
But so let's talk about your book that Andrew Loves Teddy it love so much Celebrity Crush. So for anyone who has not already seen this book, tell us what it's about.

00;04;13;16 - 00;04;36;13
Speaker 2
Celebrity Crush is about a spurned writer and social media influencer who gets a second chance at Hollywood when she admits that her romance novel is based on her real celebrity crush. She gets a chance to meet him on a talk show and their on screen chemistry kicks off a movie deal with a fake dating promos for and eventually real feelings.

00;04;36;26 - 00;04;52;29
Speaker 2
The problem is she has a secret. When she was writing the book, she included a piece of information from his past, a very painful moment for him. And when he realizes that it could ruin their Hollywood ending what.

00;04;52;29 - 00;04;55;16
Speaker 1
Was your initial spark of the idea for this story?

00;04;55;24 - 00;05;25;07
Speaker 2
This book was literally an Avengers movie marathon, COVID Quarantine, Fever Dream. It's the first romcom I've ever written, and I had just done one for the NYC Midnight Short Story contest. It did really well and I and then COVID quarantine happens. I tell my husband, Let's make it fun. Let's sit down with the girls. Let's watch all the Avengers movies in the recommended order.

00;05;26;10 - 00;05;51;21
Speaker 2
We did that and the girls and I just obsessed. We just obsessed. They were sending me premature footage clips and telling me all these behind the scenes things. And I was like, you know, getting a little existential during COVID. Like Oh, what could I have done with my life? If things had gone differently, I could have been a part of something like, you know, the Marvel Universe or Star Trek.

00;05;51;21 - 00;06;12;25
Speaker 2
I'm a big nerd, you know, what would that have been like? And then I'm like, You know what? I'm going to live it. I'm going to write a romcom. Now that I have some romcom chops, I'm going to write a romcom. It's just going to be living in that Hollywood universe with some big sci fi fandom where everybody's friends outside of it and you know, I'm going to live that life.

00;06;12;25 - 00;06;15;26
Speaker 2
I'm just going to entertain myself. So that's how the book came about.

00;06;16;04 - 00;06;26;19
Speaker 1
And in this book, her real celebrity crush at this book is based on gets to play the part in the movie. So if you were a fan casting Jason, who would you pick?

00;06;26;24 - 00;06;53;05
Speaker 2
I did do a lot of fan casting as I was writing it because I was actually kind of testing out as a writer. I like that tool because I had never done it before. So you know, when you're a writer, they always tell you, you know, show, don't tell, show, don't tell. So you're not allowed to say he was sad, you know, because that's that's lazy writing you have to show how he was sad.

00;06;53;05 - 00;07;13;17
Speaker 2
And it's usually facial expressions and the way that they do things and whatever. So I started like thinking about what I wanted my character to do in a scene and who I had seen play a scene like that really well in the past and just sort of watch them run the scene in my head. And then I would write how they did it.

00;07;14;03 - 00;07;42;22
Speaker 2
So I did that with Jason and he was played most often in my head by Chris Pratt for the facial expressions and Justin Hartley like for Justin generally, you know, it was like those two, and I'm sure there were other people who popped in, but those were my two. Although I had a reader early reader who read it and she was like, It's Sebastian Stantis.

00;07;42;22 - 00;07;53;25
Speaker 2
And then I was like, Well, yes, it is for you, it's Sebastian, it's whoever you want it to be. But that's kind of how I did it, and I did that with many, many of the characters in this book.

00;07;53;29 - 00;08;09;13
Speaker 1
I saw a post on your Instagram of your celebrity crushes and you've got a pretty solid list, and I've met three of them, so very good, very good choices. Jensen Ackles, Mark Consuelos and Chris Evans.

00;08;09;22 - 00;08;15;21
Speaker 2
I know what post you're talking about, and that was kind of a generalized list, but those aren't really my tops.

00;08;15;27 - 00;08;17;05
Speaker 1
OK, spill.

00;08;17;17 - 00;08;42;29
Speaker 2
OK, let's do the historical walk, shall we? My very first celebrity crush was Sting, and he gets a mention in here, and he's still he's still in my heart. Michael being in the Terminator when he played Kyle Reese in The Terminator, that was my whole childhood adolescent hood right there. Later as Kiefer Sutherland and back in the day, you know, Michael J.

00;08;43;00 - 00;09;10;27
Speaker 2
Fox and all that. Then more recently, definitely Henry Cavill who gets a mention? Definitely Chris Pratt, who I already mentioned. Lately, Anson Mount as he plays the starship captain of Star Trek Strange New Worlds. He's fantastic. And Ryan Gosling and Lee Pace in Foundation I don't know. That's a sci fi show. Not a lot of people have talked about my husband.

00;09;10;29 - 00;09;29;03
Speaker 2
I love it. And Lee Pace is like the first alpha that I like was like, whoa, I don't usually I usually prefer the charming rogue, you know, but Lee Pace plays an alpha in that show and fantastic. So I would say those are my top ones right now.

00;09;29;03 - 00;09;36;06
Speaker 1
Lee Pace was fantastic back in Pushing Daisies. I've loved him since then. And like, he's been in Marvel, so he's he's been around the block.

00;09;36;06 - 00;09;38;14
Speaker 2
And Lord of the Rings, right? Yeah.

00;09;39;02 - 00;10;02;20
Speaker 1
There's so many actors that have done like the Trifecta or whatever they've done, like Marvel and Disney and like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars or something like that. There are so many nerdy references in this book. So which of the references to sci fi are your favorite from this book, and which did you wish you could put in but couldn't find a way?

00;10;02;29 - 00;10;30;09
Speaker 2
Oh gosh, I didn't put enough Battlestar Galactica and Battlestar Galactica and My Girl Crush, she didn't get enough. And like Katie Sackhoff would be my girl Crush. She's she's just so freaking amazing. And Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck. So I kind of regret that I didn't work her in there enough. I love my my aliens quote. That is kind of like a bookend in this book.

00;10;31;02 - 00;11;01;10
Speaker 2
I want to spoil it. Terminator is in there quite a bit. I have a couple of mentions of Terminator Firefly. Firefly is one of my favorite sci fi TV shows, and I think I got a couple I had to balance it, right? Because even though I was like writing this for those sci fi, nerdy girls like myself, I didn't want it to be a book that you had to have all that knowledge and understanding of those phantoms to enjoy.

00;11;01;23 - 00;11;23;20
Speaker 2
So I was very careful about that balance and it worked because my agent who picked me up on this manuscript, she didn't get any of those references, and my editor at my publishing house didn't get any of the references either. And they both still laughed a lot and loved the novel. So that's kind of how I knew it was my sweet spot.

00;11;23;20 - 00;11;31;02
Speaker 2
But I think that aliens quote, that's kind of my favorite, my favorite Easter egg.

00;11;32;05 - 00;11;37;06
Speaker 1
OK, now I'm going to be real mean. Do it rank your sci fi fandoms?

00;11;37;24 - 00;12;01;13
Speaker 2
Oh, no. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Firefly is at the top Battlestar Galactica, the early Star Wars, Star Trek, the whole Star Wars. Who am I leaving out Marvel? Oh, God, DC Keep Marvel, Marvel and Firefly.

00;12;04;27 - 00;12;09;00
Speaker 2
DC underneath the rest. I do love Wonder Woman.

00;12;09;10 - 00;12;15;23
Speaker 1
Rightly DC as film franchises have just left a lot to be desired.

00;12;16;04 - 00;12;46;25
Speaker 2
So my husband managed to do this thing where they didn't take themselves so seriously and that was the win. Because I'll tell you the reason I had to have an Avengers marathon during COVID because I hadn't watched the movies is because I was totally off of superhero movies. Because and I hope I don't make any enemies by saying this, but during my time growing up with superhero movies, it was all Spiderman, Batman, Spiderman, Batman, Batman, Spiderman.

00;12;46;25 - 00;13;05;21
Speaker 2
And they were all kind of dark and they were all kind of, I don't know, angsty and I was tired of it, and I thought that that was just going to be more of that. Now, I will say that when Iron Man came out, I told my husband, I am watching Iron Man I am supporting RJ J. I want him to succeed.

00;13;05;21 - 00;13;28;25
Speaker 2
I want to show him my love. I'm there. I'm there for Iron Man. And I wasn't disappointed, but I still hadn't gotten over kind of my anti superhero thing. But I'm over it now because Marvel cured me so much fun. The character arcs, the acting the special effects, the stories, all of it. The TV shows that came want a vision?

00;13;28;25 - 00;13;39;12
Speaker 2
Oh, my God. I would watch that 100 times so I take back in. No all bad feelings. Washed away, gone, forgotten. I'm in love.

00;13;39;21 - 00;13;44;25
Speaker 1
So what is it about fan culture? And fandom that really just sucks us in so much?

00;13;45;07 - 00;14;24;09
Speaker 2
Honestly, I don't consider myself the best fan. Like, my daughters are way better at it than I am. They have memorized all the stuff they know all of the, you know, backstory of this and the what the actors are doing in their real lives and the really the the law. I don't know all that. I, I just show up and when the story is amazing, and immersive and the actors are fantastic and you have all the fields and you get to escape life and go to a place where you know, just anything can happen.

00;14;24;13 - 00;14;44;24
Speaker 2
And in the end, good usually wins. It's just so gratifying. And so for me, I don't know, maybe I'm more just like that. That fickle girl who likes to be entertained. Just, you know, here I am. Show me a good time. I'm here for it. I just want to feel good. I want to laugh, cry at the end.

00;14;44;24 - 00;15;09;09
Speaker 2
I want to feel satisfied. I just think they do a really good job of that. And I think the world building to to be able to come out of the real world and live in a place where impossible things are possible and where love wins, and where our deejay is making snarky, offhand comments that, you know, like you remember forever.

00;15;09;09 - 00;15;14;27
Speaker 2
I don't know there. It's magic. It's some it's it's like the only real magic that we have.

00;15;15;19 - 00;15;22;12
Speaker 1
Were there any particular shows that influenced your fake show in this book that Jason is a part of?

00;15;22;18 - 00;15;47;04
Speaker 2
Of course, it was really Star Trek that I was having in mind. But then I thought about I thought about like Glee. Like Glee meets Star Trek would be kind of fun for this show. And actually, what really influenced the whole dancing part of it was Tock Dances because during COVID, I did some tick tock dances with my daughters just to, you know, have something fun to do.

00;15;47;14 - 00;16;09;12
Speaker 2
And then I also have a friend in a local writer's group. She thought I think she thought she was teasing us a little bit when we were going to have an event. And she said we should do this dance. And she, like, linked I don't know. Was it made you look? I think and I don't think she expected any of us to say yes.

00;16;09;12 - 00;16;31;17
Speaker 2
And I was like, yes, totally. I'm on. So everyone else did, too. And we ended up performing at our writers group. And now every time we have an event, our little group does a tick tock dance. And I don't know what it is about it that makes it so fun. Like, I'm not even good at it. We're not good at it, but I don't care.

00;16;31;17 - 00;16;41;20
Speaker 2
It is so much fun. It makes me so happy. I mean, and honestly, at this point in my life, I being good at stuff. Who cares? Do what you love, have fun.

00;16;42;00 - 00;16;59;05
Speaker 1
Another different kind of fandom that is kind of hinted at early in this book is football and NFL. And there's a scene where Jason's trying to watch football and he references my team, the Chiefs. And with this book coming out right after the Super Bowl, who is your team and who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl?

00;16;59;18 - 00;17;20;11
Speaker 2
Oh, my God, I'm going to disappoint you. I'm not a huge football fan. I'm really not. But I did grow up with it. And the Miami Dolphins were my team because I'm a Floridian. And I would say that the Eagles are going to win. I do have family from the Philadelphia area. So there you go. I'm sorry.

00;17;21;05 - 00;17;32;07
Speaker 1
You know, everybody's rooting against the Chiefs at this point. We live long enough as the dumpster fire to coming to be decent that we are now the villain. And, you know, it's not bad, really.

00;17;32;21 - 00;17;43;06
Speaker 2
I won't fight over it. I'm not I'm not so invested I'm. If your team wins, good for you. I'm super happy for you. You know, you're not going to get any shade from me.

00;17;43;13 - 00;17;56;27
Speaker 1
With this book. Both of the main characters are single parents, and that brings a whole set of challenges for these characters to face. So talk a little bit about crafting these characters and their relationships with their kids and also with each other's kids.

00;17;57;04 - 00;18;27;18
Speaker 2
When I read a romance novel, I really enjoy books that have sort of some extra meat on them. And I wanted this book to have that. I'm not a single parent, so I'm not coming from that place of having experienced it, but I have watched my single mom friends with their daughters, and I've always been sort of interested in the relationship of a single mom and a daughter.

00;18;28;15 - 00;18;54;25
Speaker 2
They tend to be very close a lot of times, especially if the mom was young. They've kind of grown up together and I think it's just a really beautiful dynamic, and I wanted to explore that with Emma and Peyton. So that's where that came from, and I liked the idea of both of these characters, you know, having conflict between what they wanted for themselves and what they wanted for their children.

00;18;55;03 - 00;19;19;07
Speaker 2
So, you know, if you don't have anyone else that you're responsible for, you can do whatever you want and the consequences are just on you. But when you have a child, then then you need to incorporate that into all of your decisions. And you are going to be making sacrifices every step of the way, whether you're sacrificing your own wants and needs or their lives.

00;19;19;14 - 00;19;46;10
Speaker 2
So I wanted them to have that balancing act of kind of the fantasy versus reality, but less in the like, you know, TV fake versus real world, which you tend to get with these celebrity books, but more of like you know, I could have this, but do I really want it? When I look at what it really means in my life for myself, and my daughter?

00;19;46;23 - 00;19;55;07
Speaker 1
So how do you approach finding the balance? Because there are some heavier topics discussed throughout this book and finding the balance of a romcom with heavier topics.

00;19;55;13 - 00;20;20;21
Speaker 2
Oh, gosh, a lot of jokes, just like a lot of jokes in there. I, I try to keep it make it really funny when I was going for funny and then be really honest and authentic when I wasn't and I think a lot of times you're balance. You don't really know whether you have the balance until your readers tell you.

00;20;20;26 - 00;20;44;04
Speaker 2
So those early readers are the ones who tell you, you know, I really wanted more of her feelings here. So I'm like, OK, I went to hard into humor and that's not what the readers wanted in that moment. They, you know, ha ha in the last chapter. But now I really want to understand where this character's coming from.

00;20;44;04 - 00;20;55;01
Speaker 2
Their motivations, and I want to feel something that's not so fun. So that's I kind of relied on my early readers to help me with that balance.

00;20;55;08 - 00;21;12;13
Speaker 1
And you do utilize the trope that is pretty controversial. I'm not going to say what it is because it's kind of a spoiler when you're selecting the tropes you want to use for the story. Does it feel like a risk to go with one that isn't as beloved? Or how do you approach picking your tropes at all?

00;21;12;21 - 00;21;40;05
Speaker 2
Oh my gosh. Here's my dirty little secret. I did not write to tropes. I remember I read this for myself. I wrote this to entertain myself. And I did not. I didn't write to tropes at all. I told the story that I wanted to tell. I put things in there that I felt were necessary to challenge my characters, to grow in the ways that they needed to grow.

00;21;40;19 - 00;22;03;19
Speaker 2
And I didn't think about, Oh, well, you know, this trip isn't very popular. Maybe I shouldn't put it in there. And honestly, I didn't get any pushback from the professionals involved either. You know, nobody said, you know, maybe you should take that out. If they had done that, I'm sure I would have, you know, considered it and taken their professional advice.

00;22;03;19 - 00;22;29;07
Speaker 2
So I feel like even though it's in there, it's in there in a way that is not going to make the readers who don't like that trope go, you know, why did she have to do that? So I'm hopeful. I haven't heard any complaints in the early reviews either about that. And these are books to grammar reviews from romance, you know, books to grandmas who read a lot of this stuff.

00;22;29;21 - 00;22;33;07
Speaker 2
So I'm hopeful that that's not a problem.

00;22;33;19 - 00;22;53;14
Speaker 1
You also are kind of a little bit of a predictor of things in this book, and I don't know if you've picked up on it you reference a Little House on the Prairie remake. Oh, my God. And that was just announced. And there's a line about like Hugh Jackman would never cheat on his wife, and here we are.

00;22;55;11 - 00;23;05;04
Speaker 1
So what's it like for you to see moments that you just kind of concocted years ago now playing out around the time that you're releasing this book?

00;23;05;12 - 00;23;28;04
Speaker 2
I don't like it. It's kind of scary because, you know, I'm like oh, is am I going to get a letter from a lawyer about the whole Little House on the Prairie thing? I had no idea they were doing a remake. I threw that in there. You know, the plot purposes. And and Hugh Jackman, you know, it's like I tried to I knew there was a danger in naming real names, right?

00;23;28;06 - 00;23;51;15
Speaker 2
Because you never know what's going to happen in the future. I don't really want to speak to that. I honestly, I stay out of celebrities personal lives. Like I'm very happy in my lane. You know, I watch your stuff and I'll you know, I'll respond and like your posts and everything, but I, I don't, I don't like to get involved in all of that stuff.

00;23;51;21 - 00;24;18;12
Speaker 2
I want to be able to enjoy the their work. So unless, you know, they've done something really, really horrible, I kind of just don't want to know what's going on with your relationships. I want to enjoy your movie. And I actually you know, the premise of this book is that me put something, you know, very painful from her crushes past in her book.

00;24;18;19 - 00;24;33;29
Speaker 2
And my biggest fear is that there's a celebrity hottie out there who actually has that as his deep, dark secret. And I'm going to get another letter from another lawyer and I'm going to be like, I didn't know. I promise. I just I just made it all up. I promise.

00;24;34;26 - 00;24;58;19
Speaker 1
Well, I mean, even there's like a trivia question about the hunger games and how many movies there are. And so I knew that this was written a couple of years ago just by how that's answered, because now there's a fifth movie and a sixth movie in the works. So it's very interesting when you can notice the teeny tiny details and like figure out when someone was writing versus how the release timeline comes out.

00;24;59;01 - 00;25;23;13
Speaker 2
And the social media stuff is problematic, too, because, you know, you name something in there, and then three years later, it's gone. It's always it's dangerous. Right. But I had to decide, right? Like there's the risk of dating this book or there's the risk of being so vague that that pulls the reader out. You know, you're going to pull the reader out either way.

00;25;23;23 - 00;25;54;18
Speaker 2
So I'd rather just really lean in to where it's at. And, you know, hopefully a lot of my readers, they lived through that. So they, you know, they understand, OK, this is set in a time and place that I understand and have been through rather than to be super, super vague and, you know, you know, social media platform X like I'm sorry, but I feel like that would pull me out more if the author was trying really, really hard not to name anybody and not to name anything.

00;25;54;18 - 00;25;55;26
Speaker 2
So I took a.

00;25;55;26 - 00;26;17;01
Speaker 1
Risk really and I've had conversations with some of my managers like and we were setting up a historical fiction section and one of the stories I worked in and I was like, well, what's your definition of historical fiction? And he said, anything that has not happened, that it happened for pre today. And I was like, so literally anything modern set would become historical fiction a week after it's released.

00;26;17;18 - 00;26;30;23
Speaker 1
And so we get into an argument about that. But it's so interesting how perspective on those little details can change your opinion of a genre or how it fits in the greater landscape of literature.

00;26;30;28 - 00;26;48;09
Speaker 2
Yeah, I mean, I thought you were going to say anything in the 1900s, and I thought about that, that joke where, you know, a woman gets carded buying wine and you know, the guy looks at her license for a split second and she's like, How did you know you didn't even look at that long enough to check my birthday?

00;26;48;09 - 00;26;49;24
Speaker 2
And he's like, I saw the 19.

00;26;52;03 - 00;26;54;29
Speaker 1
Oh, where's my walker and my cane? I just.

00;26;57;05 - 00;26;57;28
Speaker 2
I know.

00;26;58;14 - 00;27;20;00
Speaker 1
Which OK, that goes into another little aspect of the music that is woven throughout this book. So why did you pick Duran Duran as the band that is kind of the soundtrack for this movie? And if you were to pick a band to be the soundtrack of your musical life, who would you pick?

00;27;20;09 - 00;27;42;20
Speaker 2
Oh my God. So I picked Duran Duran because they were my favorite band back when I was, you know, in middle school or ah, before. So yeah, I've dated myself. I love Duran Duran, Simon LeBon, and I share a birthday that has my claim to fame. So again, because I was writing this for myself, I kind of leaned into that.

00;27;42;26 - 00;28;09;05
Speaker 2
But then they had, you know, songs like Girls on Film you know, it just it kind of fits. And, you know, they were they were my first favorite band. They were very formative along with Sting. So he gets a mention nowadays. Gosh, I am. So I am into what Alexa refers to as adult alternative, because if I ask for indie rock, she gets it wrong.

00;28;09;08 - 00;28;23;12
Speaker 2
But if I ask for adult alternative, she gives me men playing acoustic guitar and singing about women that they can never get over. And that is my genre. That is my favorite music with some Coldplay thrown in.

00;28;23;22 - 00;28;26;22
Speaker 1
The Coldplay song with beats is Top Tier.

00;28;27;05 - 00;28;28;04
Speaker 2
I mean, that.

00;28;28;04 - 00;28;40;19
Speaker 1
Which you would probably love the music video because it's like sci fi vibes. So it's like one of these people who are separated on different planets and people are not allowing them to make music and they're like, We will defy it.

00;28;40;19 - 00;28;43;00
Speaker 2
So Oh my God, I'm writing it down right now.

00;28;44;13 - 00;28;46;14
Speaker 1
So is there anything else you want to talk about that I missed?

00;28;47;13 - 00;28;51;23
Speaker 2
Gosh, you know, what you didn't ask me is if I ever met a celebrity.

00;28;53;19 - 00;28;59;07
Speaker 1
OK, well, that's because I cheated. And I looked at your Instagram that.

00;28;59;21 - 00;29;09;14
Speaker 2
Well, you know, like, how about this? I'll tell you about when I met the one celebrity that I've met. And then you tell me, like of one of your favorite celebrity meetings, it sounds like you've met a ton.

00;29;09;19 - 00;29;11;09
Speaker 1
OK, you've done a lot. Yeah.

00;29;12;15 - 00;29;38;01
Speaker 2
All right. Yeah, my celebrity meeting. I met Jed Nelson from The Breakfast Club when I was in the eighth grade. He was playing at the Jupiter Dinner Theater, doing some show. And my friend's mom let her bring two friends along. And I was one of the friend she picked. So we watched the show and we wanted to stick around and try to meet him.

00;29;38;04 - 00;29;56;29
Speaker 2
Afterwards, and my friend's mom was so cool. She was, like, waiting around with us. It felt like forever. We were like, we got kicked out of the venue. So we're in the parking lot, like, just waiting. We see all the cast cars there, and we're waiting and waiting and waiting. And finally they come out and they jump in their cars and they drive off and we're like up among them.

00;29;56;29 - 00;30;19;09
Speaker 2
And her mom she was just so awesome. She followed them for us and followed them to a bar and like, that was like a stop for us, right? Because we're 13 years old and we cannot go into this bar. So she goes into the bar for us and she approaches Jed Nelson and she says, These teenage girls are outside and they would really like to meet you.

00;30;19;19 - 00;30;44;08
Speaker 2
And let me tell you, he was so wonderful. He came right out. He met with us. He talked to us. He signed headshots for us, took pictures. I remember him to this day talking to me, like giving me real. I eye contact and like making me feel important and valued. And let me tell you, I mentioned this in that Instagram post.

00;30;44;08 - 00;31;05;05
Speaker 2
I had the worst perm you've ever seen that day. I had gotten the perm the day before and my hair was just like and I didn't know I have straight hair, right. So I don't know what to do with curls. So I looked terrible. And yet he treated me so nicely. I love I will love Jen Nelson forever.

00;31;05;16 - 00;31;24;17
Speaker 2
For that. And I'll also tell you, but you're not going to get this out of me. There was someone else there who was not very nice and I'm not going to name them but it also just kind of showed how extra nice Judd was because this person didn't want to talk to us or do or have anything to do with us, which was sad.

00;31;25;05 - 00;31;45;22
Speaker 1
There's always an interesting mix of the nice ones versus the not nice ones, I guess. So my favorites are I gave Zachary Levi a piggyback. So that was that was a life moment, just being like, you want a piggyback? And he was like, OK, one, two, three, and jumped on this.

00;31;45;22 - 00;31;54;16
Speaker 2
And he's fan cast in Celebrity Crush as Zach. And you gave him a piggyback, right? I'm so jealous. I'm never going to get over it.

00;31;54;26 - 00;32;00;21
Speaker 1
It's a pinned post on my Instagram because I'm not over it. It's been like it's almost been two years at this point. And I'm in.

00;32;00;22 - 00;32;04;14
Speaker 2
Another note what I have to follow up after this interview.

00;32;04;18 - 00;32;22;12
Speaker 1
And then Jonathan Bennett from Mean Girls, who played Aaron Samuels, he was absolutely hilarious and he signed my cookbook that he wrote. Stephanie, you are a fugly slut. And as a redheaded homeschooler of that time, there's no peak. That's that's it. I'm not getting any better.

00;32;24;27 - 00;32;47;06
Speaker 2
That's awesome. My I call her my mentor. She's a fellow writer. Her name is Lisa AMA, which and she told me that she actually got kissed like right here by John Travolta back in the day. I've been obsessed with that story ever since she told me. So, you know, that would be the pinnacle. I know. It's kind of like out to you, like, kiss people anymore.

00;32;47;06 - 00;32;55;25
Speaker 2
Like, we just don't do that. But I just want to say any any hot celebrity crush out there who wants to kiss me right here? I can say we're good. Do it.

00;32;57;15 - 00;33;01;24
Speaker 1
So last question we always ask, because this is literary hype. What books are you hyped about?

00;33;02;06 - 00;33;33;25
Speaker 2
I am hyped about some of my fellow debuts and I want everybody to know about them. So Shames Patel has a nerdy romance out there called Playing Flirty. So for and Aaron Connor has Unreal Man, that's another celebrity, one little spice here. And then Annie McQuaid Crash Landing. I'm dying. That one doesn't come out till April, but I'm dying to read it.

00;33;33;25 - 00;33;43;08
Speaker 2
It's make it's given me like was it Lost City Vibes? So those are the ones those are the ones that I'm excited about.

00;33;43;13 - 00;33;50;05
Speaker 1
I have two of those and the third one is on my TBR. So we're in good shape. I'm in good shape with your accent.

00;33;51;08 - 00;33;51;26
Speaker 2
Awesome.

00;33;52;09 - 00;33;57;09
Speaker 1
Thank you so much for hanging out with literary hype and talking about your brand new book, Celebrity Crush.

00;33;57;09 - 00;34;01;04
Speaker 2
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. This was really fun.

00;34;01;04 - 00;34;03;01
Speaker 4
And I'm glad you liked it.

00;34;06;06 - 00;34;22;20
Speaker 1
Thanks so much to Christie for taking time out of her day to talk about her brand new novel, Celebrity Crush. If you'd like to get your hands on this book, just go down to those show notes and check out the links to get a hold of it, as well as where to find Christie on social media. If you enjoyed this conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the Literary Hype podcast.

00;34;22;29 - 00;34;27;19
Speaker 1
Give us some stars and share it with a friend. Thanks so much for listening to the Literary Hype podcast.