You've Been Gilmored: Micol Ostow

I Am all In.

I Am all In with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.

Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one eleven productions, iHeart Radio. One on one interview. We have a very special guest, Micole Austo, who is a children's book editor for nearly a decade and began writing professionally in two thousand and four. She's written a children's book about Gilmore Girls, or Gilmore's Book that's geared toward children.

It is entitled I would be so happy to so Gilmore Girls at Home and Stars Hollow is actually a children's picture book, and it's a storybook that tells a little bit about Lorelei and Rory and their origins in Stars Hollows.

So it's a storybook.

It's a picture book meant for Gilmore Superband, meant for everyone.

Really, it's a.

Story for mothers and daughters, and it's a chance for everyone to revisit all their favorite characters and Stars Hollow and just spend a little time with all their favorite people in their favorite place. It was so much fun to write. It was such a good time. I had such a blast.

So why did you choose Gilmore? Girls?

You know I will tell you the truth. So I have, as you just said, I've been an editor. I started my publishing career in editing, and I worked in mostly very commercial, pop culture driven books. I was the editor of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Charmed and Angel and the original Sabrina the Teenage which upon a time with Melissa Joan Hart. So I got my start in Media Italians, and then when I began writing, I started writing in

The Friends picture books.

There are two out now and another one coming out tomorrow, and a few Roman Holiday for the same editor who who edited me for Gilmore Girls. And when they called about Gilmour, they were so excited that they were able to secure the.

License, and I was so thrilled that they came to me.

It was just not it was a no brainer, obviously, Like I had watched the show in its original incarnation live with my friends, like every Tuesday night we would cook dinner together post college.

That was That was how I learned to cook. I'll tell you honestly.

We would play off who was in charge of cooking, and we would watch the show together on Tuesdays, and then we would rewatch it long after the fact binging, and then of course we watched the Netflix revival.

And so I mean, how could I say no? Who? How? Like there was no chance in how I.

Don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Yeah, I guess you couldn't.

I couldn't.

So let me ask you this, why do you think the call? Why do you think the show is such a cultural staple for TV fans, and it seems to still be growing globally.

It is.

I wish that I could tell you why trends take off when they do, because obviously we'd all be, you know, phenomenally successful.

It's much more than a.

Trend twenty three years and it's getting stronger. It's snowballing.

I don't know exactly why it feels like there's something happening right now, but maybe it's because it's on Netflix right now, and so the youngsters are watching it right now. Like I have an eleven year old daughter, and everyone her age is now binging it with their moms. And I learned this because a couple of mom friends I have we're watching it with their daughters a year or

Where she curtsies and Laura Lai whispers to her, she just.

Curtsy and I had missed that, and my daughter and I almost fell off the couch laughing. I have seen that episode so many times, but somehow that moment between the two of them killed me all over again, and the two.

Of us died. So it just it begs for constant rewatching.

It hits you in all your fields and it just challenges you. But also it's so soothing, so it really is perfect for all ages and all occasions.

You know, it's very healing isn't it. I mean, I think about the mother, the estranged mother and daughter and they're not talking, and they've had a huge fight and they've moved out of the house or they're still living in the house, but they're just really acting in the rebellious way. And they sit down watching Gilmore's Up Girls episode and they laugh and laugh, and at the end of the episode they look at each other and say, what the heck were we mad at about? Yeah, we've

It's really about finding your place and finding your home and making your home and making your family. And I think it's really really the same themes that the show covers in terms of Lorala finding her strength or coming into her strength, because it was always there obviously, and making her way and sort of growing into herself and understanding that home and family is what you make of it.

At least we wish it. Well, yeah, we're like our home. Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. So you worked in editing for how long before you got the idea to write this book?

I was an editor for about ten years, but it's been I mean, I left in Oh gosh, I'm always wrong. I want to say two thousand and seven, but I bet you I'm off by a few years. And I've been writing. My first published novel came out in two thousand and five, I think, and I've been public since then, so there's been a lot of overlap.

So these types of picture books aimed at all audiences, but maybe specifically kids, that they're really popular. They sell really well. So the publishing business is pretty happy about that because they find so what doesn't sell well in terms of celebrity books or you know, I know a lot of celebrities they want to write novels, or they you know, they want to write tell alls and all this stuff. Do those things sell?

Yes? I think most It's a complicated equation.

Celebrity books do sell well, but you have to factor in that they also get paid so much that you're still probably taking a loss at the end of the day. Most publishers, I think, are probably making most of their money from their backlist, from the things like Catcher and The Rye that are just selling over and over and over again into.

Libraries and schools, and things like that.

Maybe not libraries because they're only buying the one or two copies a year, but they're Yeah, they're selling off of they're making their profits off of their backlist because the things that generate the most money are often the things that cost.

Them the most.

But the celebrity titles and the pop culture titles are the ones that make the biggest splash these days, for better or for worse.

So they have to have them, even though they're losing money on They have to.

Have them because that they're always losing money on them. It's really a question of the license costs a lot of money. The author does not always cost a lot of money in the and the art usually comes from the licenser. It depends on the project. It's it's not always it depends on the project.

Plus depending on the celebrity, you got to pay an upfront bonus, which is probably problematic.

Yeah, are you are you looking for a ghostwriter, Scott or a co writer? Is this?

I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know what they're right? Would I write?

Well, that's what I'm for, that's my job.

This is a section we called You've been gilmoord uh oh All right, you ready? What is your favorite episode and why?

My favorite episode?

I'm a real sucker for a holiday themes. So I love is the deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving where they go to Lane's family and they have to do like four Thanksgiving dinners. I love anything where they have to do anything anything holiday related. Whenever there's a holiday lurking, I make my family watch nothing but holiday themed episodes of our favorite TV shows. So so I love that one. I love the Festival of Living Art.

I love that one.

I obviously love Why don't have a spoiler alert? When Lorelai proposes? That killed me?

I almost yeah, we already, uh we already we just did that one.

Yeah, yeah, no that that kills me every time.

Did you like that proposal? Did you like that she propos?

Did I like it? That's a good question. I mean, I definitely was very moved by it. I wasn't I didn't see.

It coming, and I was so upset at what was going on with Rory.

I felt very.

I felt very protective of Lorelei in that moment, and I really wanted her to have what she needed and what she deserved, which I thought was luke. So I liked it in that, I was like, Oh, good for you. But I guess I would have liked I would have liked her to have to be taken care of more like to you know. But I think I think everything in the end it worked out the way. I was happy with the finale, let's put.

It that way.

I haven't a lot of.

The complaints that a lot of people have in terms of how things were handled toward the end of the series, but I understand what was going on.

Who's your favorite Gilmore Girls character?

That is a really tough question. I mean, I love them all for so many different reasons. I think Laurelize the one I associate the most with. And probably the best compliment that I ever got as a writer was when one of my editors told me that my manuscripts are like a Gilmore Girls script and she feels like she has to go look up all the pop culture references. She said, it's like reading the note the liners from

It was just Adam Brodie, Come on, this cameo was fabulous.

So mm hmmm, is Luke the best match for Laurel?

I I think so, I think so.

I mean, is there any doubt? Yeah, I mean there's some doubt, you have some doubt.

No, I just I get a little bit gas lit by everyone else's questions, like I mean to me, yeah, I mean, I was like, do you think so?

I hope so right?

Yeah? Yeah, I thought so. Who's your favorite boyfriend for Rory?

None of the above.

We were talking about this at breakfast. I think my daughter was like Lane Lane, but I don't know. I I think maybe Dean out of the out of the Dean, Jess and Logan projecta, I would say Dean was maybe the least problematic in his first iteration. But also I would definitely definitely have fallen for Jess and Logan, even though I don't think they were great for her.

In the long run.

Mm hmmmm hmm. Do you have a favorite season of the series. I liked the.

Yale the early Yale years, so maybe like season four ish, and I was happy with the way things were wrapped up at the end of season seven, Like I was glad that Luke and lore. I.

You know, I would have liked more confirmation.

I would have liked like another proposal, But but I don't have a favorite.

It's too much. It's too hard to choose.

Okay, Uh, what was your favorite part of the series.

Favorite part of the series, do you know? I will say I liked. It's not a favorite.

Again, it's too hard to choose, But I really liked in the revival, the wave of the show handled Richard's absence.

I thought that that was.

Pretty impressive, and I really appreciated the fact that the actors had a chance to mourn him. It's a weird thing to say as a favorite, and it's not a favorite, but I thought that that was like his absence was really palpable and they acknowledged it.

So that was that was pretty impressive to me, right.

Okay, what is your favorite Gilmore Girls era era? If you were to divide them up into eras, I guess seasons. Maybe it's maybe, maybe it's what's your favorite season?

Well, I guess season. I liked.

I liked anything to do with hep Alien. I loved when Lane went on her Christian tour with her rock band.

I loved I loved when Dean built Rory a car, so the beginning of their relationship was great. But I also loved when Jess came in and ruined that.

So you know that era, the Jess ruins everything between Lauri and Dean, Rory and Dean, and when Luke and Laura Lifers got together, I lost it. So that, yeah, did not like when April came along.

That was the opposite of my favorites.

Yeah, all right, well, look great talking to you. That's all the time we have with you.

Thank you so long.

But it was it was a real blast. And uh, your book is called Gilmore Girls at Home in Stars Hollo by mccol ostro. Is that Ostro or.

Astro aus Stow?

Ah, you're in such good company, don't worry McCole austow.

Yeah, and so pick up a copy everybody. It's a fascinating, fascinating book. We've had a wonderful time getting to know you a little bit. And uh, thanks so much for coming on for your time.

Thank you, and let me know when we're going to collaborate. I'm right here.

Well let's do it. Yeah, yeah, let's collabse let's do it. I'm getting idea. Okay, yeah, that'd be great, that'd be great. I'm really interested. I did a go around once and I never made a deal with anybody. Uh, but I got some you know, fifty to fifty offers and some ninety ten offers, and I just you know, nothing really seemed to write for me. It wasn't the right book in the whole thing. But yeah, so let's talk about yeah, yeah, all right, cool, all right, all right, great, talking to