Models, Mobsters, Characters & Manuscripts with Ginni Conquest & Anthony Celano

I am Diane Grissell, also known as Silver Disobedience, and this is the Silver Disobedience Perception Dynamics podcast. And I'm beyond excited because we are recording this in iconic Manhattan center located on 34th St. and 8th Ave. They have the home of the Hammerstein in grand ballrooms and amazing TV studios and a lot of great music has been recorded

here as well. So I'm very psyched to be here and I'm even more excited as if that's possible because I have two great guests today and we are going to be talking about models, mobsters and manuscripts.

And my guests are Ginny Conquest, who is a Co director at Wilhelmina Models for the women's and direct divisions, and Anthony Solano, retired New York City Police Department squad commander. And they are going to tell us about their careers and how they ended up in this room talking about their manuscripts. So Anthony, let's start with

you. OK, From the Police Department to writing crime fiction and a lot of them. How'd this happen? Well, after I, I had a business, after I retired from the Police Department, then I, I had an investigative company and I did that for 22 years. And excuse me, I did that for 17 years in, in midtown. I retired when I hit a certain age, I was 65 and I said I have to do something because I wasn't quite repaired prepared to just,

you know, shut down. So I decided that I would try writing a book and, and I, I, I based that on because I thought that there were so many great mystery writers, you know, Earl, the beggars of the Charlie Chan and, and the James James Cain and Sam Spade and, and all of those Dashiell Hammett and all those guys. I said they all had one thing in common. None of them were law enforcement people. So I said I that should give me

a voice. I should have some kind of credibility because I do have some experience in that world. So I, I coupled that with the, with the experience I had with working organized crime when I worked, when I was assigned to the DA's office out in Queens County. And I thought between the two, you know, between the two areas, I should be able to put together, weave together a story or two. As it turned out, I weaved together 7. 7 and counting now Ginny you You book models in

mega campaigns, worldwide campaigns all day long and then you somehow find the time you're up to your 10th sexy romance novel. How are you doing it? Where's the inspiration coming from? I really don't know. I, I maybe just day-to-day life experiences and I have a very vivid imagination. So I wrap all of that, you know, into one end, create these stories for entertainment as an escape.

And it's not only escape from my readers, it's an escape for me as well, you know, from the day-to-day, you know. So that's how that all came about. Now, now you're both authors who came from very intense careers

or Jenny, you're still in your career, so you're still booking models all over the place in big campaigns. Anthony, you, Oh my gosh, the things you handled on the police force with New York City are are mind boggling, overwhelming. Some of the stories you've told me have really left me awestruck. I'm curious, when you're working on books, are you both drawing from your daytime jobs or jobs you had to build these characters? Well, I, I think it's a combination and I think it's a

combination of both. I, I think you draw upon your life experiences, you know, and that's how you create your characters because let's face it, there are many, many characters that we come across in life. It's just a question for me, it's just a question of taking those characters and sometimes, sometimes combining several characteristics into one character from several different people. And then of course, there are actual cases that, that I had worked with and different

personality types. And in those cases, and that adds to a, you know, another, another dynamic, you know, to the books that I'm writing. I, I found it, I like to tell more than one story when I, when I write a book and I try to tell several stories. And the reason I did that was really to sort of self protect myself because I said somebody could pick up a book, read it and not like it.

I says, but if I go in with seven different stories and sort of bring them all together at the end, the odds are they're going to like one of those scenarios that I put together. So they can't really pan the book all together. And that's how that I got to do that. You know, it's a very interesting style that you have, and you have an interesting style too, Jenny. You both you get you get right into it.

Like your first chapter, you're you're there's some scene that makes you say, whoa, where's this going to go? And Tony, your style is very unique in that you really do have multiple stories going on. And sometimes I read your books and I say, how's this all going to tie together? You know, you both say you write fiction.

I want to know how much non fiction is in your stories. Well, for me, I have, well, I'm, I'm known right now for my Rockstar romance series and that pretty much stems from my years in the early 90s of being a singer in my original rock band Spies here in New York. And it was my drummers fault. He's the one. He's like, you're writing all these romance novels. Why don't you write a rock star

romance? Write about what you know, So I was like, Ding, Ding, Ding, you know, the alarm bells went off and I'm in now writing book three of a six book series, the Song of the Heart series. So it that's pretty much near and dear to my heart from those years of being a singer and a man's dominated world pretty much, you know, back in the 90s especially. And it would great experiences. So I'm able to bring that realness to it.

So it's it is fiction. The characters have nothing to do with any of the guys that I worked with or any of the bands we performed with. I've just created stories based off my own experiences. So it's been fun so. You know, that's kind of like what Tony said. You were talking about other writers who've written in the crime, crime fiction genre. I find, you know, some of my favorite authors in those different genres are people

who've been there and done that. Because the nuances of what you bring into a story, the character development is very different. And you really see that in your your books, Tony, when you write about the different detectives and the dynamics between the detectives. And I don't think you would get that if you hadn't experienced it. Yeah. Well, that, that's true, you know that that's very, very

true. Yeah. You know, the, the, the conversations that in my Sergeant Markey series, the, the conversations between Sergeant Markey and this Detective von Hess that really don't have anything to do with the, the crime that they're investigating. Those are conversations that people have had, you know, that I've had probably with other others. So there is some, you know, facts to that in discussing A homicide. Well, perhaps, you know, the homicide happened this way for

argument's sake. The case of two in the trunk. Yeah, there were two girls in the trunk that we found. But you build upon that. You know, you, you, you add to that story to make it somewhat entertaining. And what you do is you add personalities of of some of the characters that are involved in that particular homicide, witnesses and, and family members and stuff like that.

You kind of take those and you just embellish and you add to it and you may draw upon somebody who had nothing to do with anything, just somebody in your your childhood that you knew had certain idiosyncrasies about them and you would incorporate that person into one of those characters that actually took part in in this case. I want to go back and forth on

this, Jenny. Are, you know, are you drawing on particular characters and yourself, others? You know, they say a lot of fiction is autobiographical in different ways. And, you know, and that autobiographical could be about the author self or as we're talking about people you've encountered or the merger, the myriad of personalities melded into one. What do you say, Jimmy? Well, for my characters in the Song of the Heart series, they are modeled after my favorite

rock stars. Who might those be? The lead character, Bo Taggart of my book series is pretty much now modeled after Tommy from the band Kiss, the lead guitarist. And because I love him, I think he's such a solid, driven guitar player, so he influenced that character. For the singers, it was more Geoff Tate from Queens Reich, formerly from Queens Reich. Dung, you're laughing here. I love it. Queens Reich.

Yeah, my favorite, Kelly Hansen from Foreigner, Steve Perry, who's always been Forget it since I was a young girl. I loved his voice. And the women in the book are all modeled after, say, Pat Benatar and Wilson. Nancy Wilson, you know, just really strong characters because this, the whole storyline is of six guys on the trajectory to be the hottest rock band in the world clashing with six women who are on the same trajectory. And there's a love hate

relationship between both bands. And they get stuck now on a tour together, which neither band is happy about. It's their first wore out and things happen. So yeah. So. Tony, you have a character or recurring character in your bucks? Fishnet. Yes, Fishnet. He's an intriguing detective. A rogue detective, Yes. Where'd that character come from? Well, you know. Not to put you on the spot. No, no, you, you, you, you talk about characters. You know, to me it's a little

like method acting. You know, when you create characters, you are that character at least. At least that's the way I do it. I put my head in the role of whatever character, male or female, good or bad. I become that person as I'm writing this. And the actions that that those people take, regardless how terrible they are, that's what I would do if I were that person. And that's how sort of my characters develop. Now, that doesn't say a lot about me, of course.

That's how I do it. And it seems to flow and it seems to to work Now. Fishnet is a combination of, of different rogues that I've known, you know, over the years, you know, the people who would be willing to take a chance and, you know, do things that are very, very unorthodox. And then, you know, it's like anything else. People are people. You have selfish people, you have greedy people, you have envious people.

And, and these are all motivating factors that get people to do the things that they do. And they're human. You know, I'm not saying that I'm not eulogizing or glorifying them, but, you know, I'd be lying to say that they don't exist. They do exist. And, and I try to tell a tale, you know, that that's interesting. And, and I, I, I can't say it's factual. I mean, it's all fiction, but it's also possible.

You know, I, I want to point out if you're a movie producer or you are TV producer or anything, one of the things I find very interesting in both Tony Solano's books and Ginny Conquest books is there very adaptable. They're adaptable to film and you're very young prolific

authors. I'm going to call you undiscovered, you know, because I do believe neither of you have had your mega breakout moment that I think you're worthy of and have the potential to be at those breakout moments when you're writing, are you writing for yourself? Are you writing for a bigger picture or you? What inspires you to get up and tell these stories? Either one of you, go ahead because I would love you to exchange this between the two of you.

I think this could be an interesting discussion. Well, for me, the first, the first one, I, I, I just wanted to do something, you know, to keep myself busy. And then after I did the first one, I said, you know what, maybe I can make this into a series. Then I did the second one and then if I did the second one, I said it seems to come easy enough.

So I said, well, maybe I could, if I could parlay maybe six or seven, you know, a bunch of these, maybe I could sell them to somebody or somebody would have an interest in putting this

on on a screen. You know, it's funny you brought that up because I just had a screenplay done with this fellow Glenn Toronto. We played Gomez on the Addams family and and we're we're talking about, you know, I'm sitting with the producer and and you know, one of these independent, the producers and we're talking about trying to put this on on the big screen, on the screen, you know, but that's my story, Jenny. What do you say? Wow, that's a loaded question. I do it because I need that

artistic outlet. I would go crazy because I'm not really singing anymore. That door closed many years ago. But I'm also doing it for the readers as a wonderful escape. My first book was actually came about from a dream that I had, and I was encouraged by an agent that used to work at Wilhelmina. When I told her about the dream, she said you have to do something with that. And then all of a sudden I started thinking, I'm going to write a book.

I'm going to write a romance novel, and A Loving Name Only was born. And then the second book I wrote, A Love Forever, came from that. I've put that aside for the Rockstar series, but from there I've written second chance romances, I've written ROM coms, whatever feeling I'm in at that moment.

And to kind of piggyback what Anthony was saying when he was trying, you know, with character development, a lot of times I will walk around, even in a store, because I'm not really thinking about it, looking like I'm talking to myself, going back and forth with the dialogue to see if it fits naturally. Because it has to be a natural flowing conversation. It can't be stilted or one sided because then the believability

is gone. I wrote a Christmas book, Believe In It Will Happen, and that's perfect. I think for like a Hallmark, I just whatever moment I'm in, whatever feeling I'm in, that's the kind of writing that I do. But right now I need to be focused on the Rockstar romance series. That's my first love now. How? How do you go about explaining you're both married? How do you, how do you go about explaining your characters to your spouses? Do they ever wonder about your characters?

You create and ask you questions like what didn't I know about you or where did you come up with this? You know, it's very imaginative. Not to put you both on the spot, but this is TV. We are looking for ratings. OK, we'll we'll give you some. Ratings. No, I'm just curious. I think my husband Bob kind of hopes that none of these guys are modeled after him. And actually, to be all honest, sorry, Bob, you're going to see

this. They're not. I, I don't want to share that part of my life with anyone. These are purely my, maybe, you know, my dream guys, if you want to say that, or maybe the reader's dream guy. It's whatever you want those characters to be. But I, you know, Bob knows that I write this. He does support me in the writing of these books. He's read one or two chapters of Unlawful Full Love, which is my MC to those out there, motorcycle club romance.

And he's like, where are you getting these ideas from? And that was pretty much the end. You know, he's more autobiographer, historian, World War 12, Vietnam, you know, those are the books that he loves to read. So romance is not his thing. So. What do you say, Anthony? Well, I'll tell you that was something I never figured on, you know, writing these books. I never thought I would be questioned as to where this came from because I was never the kind of guy that took my work home.

I I never spoke about, you know, what went on at work or regardless what it was good or bad or, you know, so I never was want to to engage in war stories. You know, when I went, when I went to when I went home. And now after these books started coming out, now I find out a lot of friends, the wives of a lot of friends of mine, ask my wife, how how do you live with him? How could you, how could you lay your head on the pillow, you know, and hope you're going to wake up?

But that's, you know, I never gave it much thought, But I guess, you know, that's just the way it is. You know it, you're right about what you know. And if you know it, you understand it. And if you experienced it, it comes relatively easy. Of course, if you have that touch of creativity, you know, I mean, that makes it a lot, lot easier. I mean, like listening to Jenny, I'm thinking as she as you're speaking, I'm thinking of of you and I'm thinking of a woman in

your position hiring models. And I'm thinking of three girls that go to your place and two of them make the cut and one doesn't. The one that doesn't is now after you because oh, here's a. Storyline. Because you cancelled that. Storyline.

Now you're getting me scared. But but you know, this is what fascinates me, how, you know, I'm always focused on perceptions of people, how the the thoughts merge with beliefs that become the operating systems, which is largely the theme of this new newly launched podcast.

And character development is very big in that you know, what you're picking up on people because I would describe you both as extremely perceptive people that, you know, are really good at picking up on nuance in personalities. And you both do it subtly. You know, obviously you do it professionally. And let's say Jenny does it professionally. She's sizing people up. You know, she's trying to decide, can I book this person?

Could you be a model? And Anthony, you must have done this countless times, interviewing witnesses or criminals, you know, or So what do you think about the perceptive aspects of your nature that you bring to the writing process? Well, I, I think police work in general, it, it gives you like a very, very negative outlook on things. I mean, it, it just, you know, you see a lot of things that aren't so great and, and it sort of makes you a pessimistic person when it comes to when

you're dealing with people. So you always have your, your antennas up. You're always a little a little leery of of the motives of the people you're dealing with. And you know, when, when you think like that, you, you, you just kind of know, it's like a sixth sense. You know, when somebody is selling you a bill of goods, you know that this isn't the, the, you know, the right wife for your son or you know, this isn't the right boy for your, your

daughter. You know, you just kind of know because it's it's you're suspicious by nature and you're basically looking, you're looking for tell tale signs that could be problematic without conveying that you're looking at those signs, if that makes sense. No, that does make a lot of sense. Where do where do you think your perceptive nature comes in?

From just from over the four decades I've been at Wilhelmina interviewing girls, countless thousands of girls over my career and just being kind about letting them down. If they're not. You just know when a girl comes in, you're looking for that diamond in the rough, right? And you just know, if somebody has it, they might have it. You have to bring it out. Or definitely, I'm sorry, you have no business. It's just not going to happen. And it's sad because those are those people's dreams.

And I hate to be the crusher of dreams. You know, my hashtag is, you know, we make dreams happen, you know, And so I think I've over the years been able to pick out who's going to be beneficial for the agency, who is not going to be beneficial. And it's just a way of letting those women know. It's just how you speak to them with the form of kindness. And that's how basically I go about it. Now.

I'm telling my secrets as an agent out there that all the young agents, but from doing this for so long, I just pretty much know when I see somebody. That's quite a contrast, you know, from, from the way we would, I would look at things because I know we got used to, I got used to conveying bad news, you know, negative news to people. That's not easy, you know, to, to tell somebody that they lost a child or their son got murdered.

You know, it's, it's a little, it's, it's difficult, but you get used to it like anything else. I mean, you know, and you get better at it, for lack of a better word. I mean, you, you get better at it and and you're able to to convey negative stuff, you know, without, you know, in the best possible way. And, you know, very rarely in the in police work do you really have great news to convey, to convey to somebody. Yeah, your son was shot, but he's going to live, you know

what I mean? You know, I mean, what's, what's, I mean, it's nice that he's going to live, but it's also terrible news, you know, to receive. And, and that's kind of the world and, you know, in, in when you compare that to to civilian life, to somebody who doesn't have to do that, it's really hard to, to tell people some negative things. And I, and I understand Ginny's feeling on that. That's not easy. You know, you don't want to displease people.

It's like writing your books. You don't want to displease anyone. You want to please people. You want them to enjoy themselves. You don't want them to, to hurt anybody's feelings. And when, when it gets back to you that they did enjoy it, that there's nothing more rewarding than that. I mean, it transcends money and anything else that comes with it. It's just a good feeling, but particularly at this stage of the game.

Well, it makes it all. Such an interesting segue guy. Yeah, it it just makes it all worthwhile because it's time what Anthony and I and so many authors do. It's time, it's money, it's angst. It's like your book. You're really happy with it. And then it goes to your editor and proofreader. And then they get on the phone with you and say I'm hacking this, hacking this. You got to do this.

And I'm, I'm like, I just spent like months on this thing and now I'm in the middle of rewrites, but it's all for the better purpose. So when I have a great review that comes out on Amazon, I'm sure Anthony feels the same way. It's all worthwhile when you know you've reached a reader and now they like you and now they're looking into your other books. It's a great feeling. You know, it's so funny when you mention the editing process.

My my friend Judy Katz, who's been on this show before, we met when I was 21 and she's ghost written 55 books, but going back probably would have been about 30 years ago. I had written my first business book and I was so proud of it. And I showed it to her and it came back and I swear it looked like OJ Simpson had been there, you know, and they had used my book to mop up all the blood, you know, she had used this red

sharpie. I don't think I talked to her for two weeks, could have been two months. I was so upset. The editing process. I tell people all the time there's and I can't write a fiction book. I don't know how somebody starts a fiction book. I don't have that capacity to invent a character, really. Or 1 maybe to maybe, but to get them to intertwine into a story, it's such an interesting brain

space that someone can do that. But before we get into that, I really want to talk about the editing process because there's writing and then there's editing. And when people want to write books, they and they asked me for advice. I try to say, just remember, there are two different processes. Get as much as you can on paper as a writer and then go back and edit. But you could get stuck for an hour rewriting your first sentence, you know, and the whole hours over. So what do you think?

I'd be here curious about the writing process and editing and how you try to separate them both of you. Well, for me, I love writing prologues. Every one of my books has it, and I find that's the easiest segue into chapter 1. Now that I said that, I've been stuck on chapter 1 for about 3 months right now and I really have to get serious because I have a book signing in June and

I want the third book out. The cover's been shot, but listen, I know my my editor proofreader, she's going to like attack it with, you know, with her computer and that's fine. She brings out the best in me. I found someone that I really trust with my writing and I think that's important, you know, for an author that you trust the person, they have your best interest because they're editing a lot of people's books, a lot of different genres jumping around.

So you want that person to be into your style of writing. So this will be, I guess, the 5th book she'll be editing for me. So it's common, Rose, it's common. Yeah, I find editing is an interesting thing because, you know, there's one thing about, you know, taking care of the punctuation and the tenses and that's that's part of it. But there's another thing when they start changing the content right now if it's.

Personal. Well, it it it gets personal in a way, because the person who's doing the editing doesn't understand the character that you're writing about. Now, if I'm writing about mobsters, you can forget about politically correct. Yeah. I don't need you to tell me I can't use the term nervous, Nelly, because some gangster uses it.

I mean, we've reached the preposterous, you know, And I think that that is a little bit it's, it's, it's tough to navigate that water because, because you don't want to offend the editor either. But quite frankly, have the editors, they, they really did, you got off the boat. I mean, you know, they, they don't quite understand the flavor of the character that you created.

And I'm sure when, when, when, when Jenny, when you create a character and that character says something, you've heard that from a person like that, you know, so it's coming from a real place. You don't need your language corrected. Yeah, you know, and and I find that is my only thing with the editor.

So the editor went by with. For me, the editor went by way of lumbago doesn't exist anymore. You know, that is so funny because when I I obviously I wrote business books. When I started to write more personal stuff was when I started to blog everyday, which I've now I think I'm in my 8th year and people say wow when they meet me. They say you write just like you speak and I'm like is that a compliment or not? You know, I like I've been trying to break that Long Island

accent for years. So hopefully it's not that part, you know, it's, it's the tone, it's how you express a story. It's where you would accent something.

And I think what we're talking about is this right now, you know, when someone takes your character or your message and you've really thought about it or they want to move this paragraph up here, you know, or this part of the story here, which is interesting that you say you start with your prologue. All the time. I love that. It really, it just sets the whole tone for me and makes the process a little bit easier.

But yeah, she'll come back with me and saying, Jen, I don't understand this part where you're going with this because sometimes, like you said, I write like I speak. And sometimes I'm like, because I'm afraid I'm going to forget something. So I want to get everything out. And then when you look at it, you're like, what the heck is she talking about? But if you know me, you love me and, you know, and you get where I'm coming from.

But no, in reality, that's where, you know, she steps in and reigns me back in. So I appreciate her. Well, it's real too. The words that you're using, they're real because you've heard them, you've used them and and to turn them into something that's unreal is not good. I mean, you know, in sometimes you have to just stand firm, you know, on what you have. I mean, that's, that's the way I that's the way I write. I mean, that's the way I feel.

And you do have intense characters, like you've got the mobsters in there that you know, there are, there are a few characters that I've read in your books, Tony, where I can feel, you know, that feeling on my neck start to go up when that person's back in the chapter again. Yeah, well, they're scary characters and they're killers. I mean, you know, they're not altar boys. I mean, they're, they're not nice. And you can't convey them as nice. I mean, let's face it, it's not Shakespeare.

This isn't, this isn't Dickens that's writing this. I mean, you're telling a tale of, of, of an element that's, you know, vulgar food, but not to say unintelligent, you know, not to say that they aren't intelligent because they are intelligent. These guys are very. These. Guys are very intelligent, yeah, you know, and and if they maybe had, they haven't had the opportunities that that some of us have had. But that doesn't mean that they're not smart and they're

not cunning and and capable. And I and, and the only one to convey that is the author, because you have that experience, you have that feel and, and you can convey that to have that tampered with. I, I don't see that as, as a good formula because you'll lose credibility. You know, how we use Sir is never going to be said by some major gangster that that's just not going to, you know? Or not without a lot of sarcasm. You know, it's funny.

You bring in characters that I can feel the tension. You bring in characters that bring in the tingle. Oh, OK. But then I did my job. Yes. Yeah.

Totally different than Tony. I I have to read one of your books, but I I think I have to keep the light on all night. You know, after I. You could take one home with. You. OK, I would love to read it, but yeah, I think from a romance writer's perspective, it's a little bit more entertaining and it's a way to get lost. It's a vacation. Take a vacation with one of my books, you know, or take it on vacation, you know? But yeah, it's pure entertainment and an escape, so.

Where, where do you envision these these characters? Do you do you want to keep your characters going? How do you put a character to bed? Like, how do you say no more for this character? That to me seems painful. It's heartbreaking for me because I feel like every time I finish writing, I break up with somebody, all right? I feel like it's a broken relationship. I will eventually go back to books one and two and bring Gregory back. He was my first love. Was Gregory Steele right?

Yeah, great. Very good, very good. Yeah, he's. A memorable guy. And then with the Rockstar romance series, each book has to do with one of the guys in the book. So right now, Book 3 focuses on the singer of the band, but all the guys are in it, all the girls are in it. So I've got like 20 character voices through my head. Adding in the manager, the PR person, it's not just six and

six, it's it's a lot. And as those books go on, the guys are getting older, the girls are getting older, and I are, I know what I'm doing for the 6th book. It'll be a new generational thing. And then whether or not I continue with Song of the Heart series, Part 2, the new generation, I don't know. We'll see when we get there, but I think this book book series is going to wear me out by the time I'm done with it. It'll. Keep you going, it'll keep you.

Going now, Tony, you have had the Sergeant Marquis series, but the last time we talked in person, you told me about a very different style book you were writing that is coming soon. Yeah. Where you took the female's perspective as the author. Yeah, what happened with with that was the my character's female, the excuse me, this fishnet Milligan that I had Rogue over six books.

He got worse and worse and worse and worse until finally you kind of run out of ideas and how much worse he could be. I mean, you know, and so something had to be done. So he was killed off. And, you know, when he was killed off, I had somebody tell me, he says, Gee, I thought he would have suffered more. I don't want to boil them in oil. I mean, you know, anyway, so now you have to come up with something a little different.

And what I did was I, I kind of looked at a couple of things and, and the 7th book has to do with AI don't want to say a romance novel, this would be a stretch, but it's about a very vulnerable woman who, who has has a number of bad experiences with men. And she, she turns to her diary and she records these in her diary. And as she does this, it, you know, she keeps getting her heart broken. And finally it's, she's fragile and, and finally she commits suicide.

And that suicide is, is the, is the basis for revenge where her father finds this diary and he knows his daughter's heart was broken and he doesn't know which guy exactly was the one that put her over. So he decides he's going to kill them all and to do this he has to recruit. He has to recruit help because he's not a killer. You know, he has to recruit somebody to do his dirty work. So it takes a little conniving and scheming.

So it's a little different, you know, in that one and then this, this one I'm working on now, the 8th one, I'm halfway through it. It has to do with a family business, the, you know, the treachery that could be involved when it, you know, you're talking money and funds and, you know, season control. So that's what I'm up to. Oh, those are those are good angles. When does your next one come out? I'm hoping it comes out this

month. Wow. It's with the publisher now, so hopefully it'll, you know, it'll be out there, you know. I'm, I'm really Jenny. When I think of yearbooks, I'm I'm really waiting for that Walmart Christmas story. Yeah, well, I wish they'd call me. I'm here, you can find me. But yeah, that would that would just be wonderful that because that storyline that started that book actually happened to me with my little niece who now is in her 30s.

And yeah, I don't know if I should tell the story, but now that I opened up Pandora's box, right? But. But you all might want to read it because she just admitted it kind of is based on some. Truth. Yeah, just just just the opening part and then the rest of it is all fictional, so. But it's a real, it's like a second chance holiday romance and just very sweet and very, you know, Hallmark. Very. Yeah. I think it'd be perfect for them. So you can get me through Diane Grisel.

Absolutely. What do you find the challenges are being an author? How do you balance your time

with writing, your time with other obligations, careers, building out the storyline? How do you balance your time during the day to keep those books moving so you're enthusiastic through the process? It's it's difficult to juggle because not only am I still working full time at Wilhelmina, I'm very blessed. Very full time. Yeah, very full time and into the evenings and some weekends. But just being able to work from home for four days and in the office one day, I'm very blessed

for that. So I'm juggling that. I'm my husband, 2 Basset Hounds, my church group that I've been president of for the last 20-3 years, and that's a lot of fundraising and everything for my parish. Gee, what else? I don't know. I think that that's a lot. But yeah, to be able to juggle. I usually try to write in the evenings and on an occasional weekend if I could slip it in when I'm not doing house chores or we have to do something else or a family commitment.

So it's a lot of juggling, but we make it work. And Tony, you've got a family. You, you're the ultimate networker I think I've ever met. You know, you're always out there doing stuff. How do you balance it? What's your day like for you to get up and say I'm going to write from now to now or what did you do? I, I write when I get up in the morning and then I can get up 4:00 in the morning, 4:30 sometimes I, I get up really early and I find that at that time I'm most creative.

I, I could, you know, I could think of characters. I can pick up storylines. And so I'll do that for a couple of hours and then that's it, you know, then that's it. I'll do whatever I want to do for the rest of the day. And maybe before I go to bed, I'll go back at what I wrote and I'll clean it up, you know, embellish on it, add to a take away, make it pretty. And that's the way I do it.

And I find that it's not too strenuous, you know, physically it's, it's and I'm locked into a chair for so many hours and I find it works. You know, that was a process that didn't happen overnight that, you know, I learned the hard way after the first couple of books, you know, and then I realized, OK, this is my sweet spot. When I wake up, that's when I'm the sharpest at this. And that's when I that's what I do.

You know, it's really interesting you say that because I always try to get up earlier than anyone else in our household because it's. My head sharp. It's clear, there's no interruptions. I don't look at e-mail. You know, it's just like, what's the first thought that comes to my head? What can I write about? What what am I thinking about? What did I observe yesterday that somehow percolated in my subconscious over the night? You know, because it's really

fascinating. And, you know, my mother used to say when we were growing up, if you have a problem, Diane, sleep on it. You know, let your mind work on it overnight. And I know that helps me a lot with my writing. Do you find you have like times you wake up in the middle of the night and you have to keep that pad next to your bed or you want to write first thing in the morning because something about a character or how that plot unfolds just hits you in the middle of the night?

Mornings aren't good for me. They're not. No, I will. Probably because you've got so many demands. Yeah, no, morning. I I don't even think about that sometimes. For me, writing late at night has been great. I finished a book writing 3:00 AM. Really. Yes, yeah. Love Never Fails was done at 3:00 AM. And that's just, I don't know, I'm a night owl, I guess.

But having to say that, I'm going to contradict myself because book one of my very first book I wrote on my iPhone, iPhone 4 on my commute to and from New York. So that's what I did. I wrote it in the notes. And then I would e-mail the notes to my e-mail because sometimes I'd be so afraid that the notes would disappear. But I had an hour and a half on the train going and coming, and

I would just write out. And then I would show my friend on the train and I'd let her read what I just wrote. And she's like, Jen, I got to go to work. You know, I can't get like this like crazy, you know, with the book. But yeah, but that's what I did. My first book I wrote on my iPhone 4. So you're, you're like our kids. No, no, I I don't 2 thumbs. No, I forget that. I go like this if I'm like this. OK, that's a shout out to Shamani. Yeah, I'm like this. I I, yeah, I can't do the two

thumb things that that's no way. I'll start texting something and either one of our kids will say, Mom, seriously, you have got to learn how to use your thumbs because I might never. Done that, never done that, but I can go real fast. That's unbelievable. I can go real fast so. Too funny. Yeah, I, I have sometimes middle of the night creative ideas and that'll prompt me to get up and and take notes, just write things down on a piece of paper. So I remember when I get up to do it.

You know, the problem with those middle of the night wake ups and you know, we don't get enough sleep is you find yourself at the at the computer and you're, you know, typing away and you end up falling asleep. You know, I was once typing something and I I was tired because I gotten up, I didn't get much sleep and I had my finger on the letter X and I fell asleep. When I woke up, I had 40 pages of exes no on the computer. The Oh my. God, that was going to say. That was a true story.

That was a true. Story. OK, that is really funny. That's in one of the books. I don't know which one, but I put. You added in there, see, it was, that was what you woke up for. That needed to be there, right? I, I think I'm going to have to take this footage and send it to somebody who can break down the, the little six second because that could go viral on TikTok. So I fell asleep and my home page is. Working Alexis. Oh my gosh.

That's very funny. Yeah, you know, yeah, those middle of the night thoughts always. I. Know those are tough, but but the getting up in the morning, I definitely find the clarity. Do you find when you're having a conversation with someone? I know for me, I could be walking on the street or I'm having a conversation and someone will say something and in that split second I'm like, OK, that's my blog for tomorrow. I know exactly what I want to write about.

Do you find when you're you're having subtexts in your head while people are talking about, oh, my character would say something like that? Or how I can imagine working that into the story somehow. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely. I mean, I could get an idea sometimes if I see somebody cut somebody off in traffic and then they start, you know, waving fists at each other, to me

that's a story. Matter of fact, I opened up one of my books with a similar story like that where motorists, you know, got into something with somebody. But it was the basis of AI was able to incorporate that into the story. I was telling everything. I mean, it could be a somebody who waits on you in a restaurant. It could be just the behavior of somebody that the way they walk or the way they talk or the way they, you know, just conduct themselves or maybe the way they

interact with their spouses. You know, these are all all things that you can build upon. These are building blocks.

You know when when you talk about incorporating things into your stories. Have you had any of your friends or or charities asked to get included in your stories? You know, could you make They Have me as a character kind of thing? Well, I tell you the truth, I did do a friend of mine as an attorney and he's a good guy. And I called him up and I said would you like, I don't know if he asked me or I offered to do it, I probably offered to do it.

And I said would you like me to incorporate you? And you know, one of the books I have a piece for a lawyer I could put you in. And, you know, he said, yeah, do it. And I didn't. I put them in two books. So he was very happy, you know, to, to be memorialized, I guess in, in, in some kind of fashion like that. And I have two gay friends. Lovely. And they, you know, I told them if it was all right, I modeled 2 characters after them and they

just loved the idea. So when the book Desires Way came out, one of the guys worked with me at Wilhemina and when he saw that it came out, he called me on my extension and started screaming. I was like, because the character loved to eat. He was a chef, he had his own catering business and this person loved to eat. It was all about food for him all the time, but he was that's my ROM com. So that book was, you know, very

funny from that standpoint. But I also put in things that have personally happened to me. So every book that I write, it has something that has happened to me and I leave it up to my reader to decide what that particular scene is. So. Because I always got a kick out of the Stuart Woods Bucks that he would write about Tudor City where he had the main de character.

I can't, I don't know why I can't think of his name would have a home in Tudor City. But he also had one in Washington, Connecticut, which we had lived in at a time and not too many people. But he talked about the Rossiter mansions there, which we used to drive by because they were so unique. And then he would tie Elaine from Elaine's into the stories because that's where they would go have their dinners. So it's, it's fun to be a, it's

a great charity thing. I'm sure there's lots of charities that would just love to action off. It'd be included in one of your novels. I hate to say this, we are at the end of this episode. Time just goes too fast. I got the five minute sign a second ago. So thank you, Josh. And really I'm Diane Grisel. This been the silver disobedience perception dynamics podcast and Jenny Anthony, do you have any last things you want to say?

Inspiring other authors, maybe. That's the greatest thing in the

world. We, you know, I do these lunches, as you know, Diane, and we do that's called the authors Wordsmith networking lunches where we bring business people and, and you know, authors and, and people who maybe have a book in them, but they don't know how to quite get it out there. And we got 7 people published, you know, as a result of this. And, and, you know, all it took was a little bit of hold, hand holding, you know, walking them through it and and they got a

great story. Matter of fact, my friend Lenny's book, I'm going to give it to you when I see you next week, Diane. It's really a great read. And it's a great story that he has to tell a, you know, a

business tale. That's the greatest feeling in the world because, you know, you've you've done something for somebody and you know that maybe you didn't have somebody help you, but it's OK. It's a good feeling to, to, to help somebody else, you know, on a journey that's doable and, and, and it's, it's not as challenging as what it may seem to be, you know, to most people. And I would just say go for it.

If there's anybody out there thinking of publishing a book of poetry, short story, fiction, non fiction, romance, murder mystery, whatever, just go for it. Go for your dream. You just never know where you're going to end up. And that would just be my words of wisdom. Don't be afraid. Just take that leap of faith. So. Thank you so much. I enjoyed this tremendously everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank. You. This has been the Silver Despedience Perception Dynamics Podcast.

I'm Diane Grisell. My guests have been Ginny Conquest and Anthony Solano. They are both prolific authors in the notes below this podcast. So besides watching it or listening to it, please Scroll down and do see the notes. There going to be lots of links to their author pages so you can easily pick up their books. So thank you very much. You know what do me a favor? Hit subscribe because there's lots of great content in past episodes.

You can see one on ones with both Jenny and Anthony one-on-one interviews that we've done in the past and there are lots of great future content coming. So thank you very much for tuning in. Please hit subscribe and thank you, Manhattan Center.