I Love When Things Poof

[00:00:00] My name is Megan LeFegg, and you're listening to The Incoherent Fangirl. Welcome to The Incoherent Fangirl, where we're bringing you this very special mini-sode. Oh, baby! Just a little one. Just a little big one. I'm Mandy. And I'm Karin. And we're so excited for you guys to listen to this episode. We recorded it a little while back, and now you finally get to hear it. Yay! Yay! Yay!

[00:00:34] That sound means we have an intruder alert! Yay! We're so excited! So excited! I don't have a copy of the book in front of me. Mine's in the mail, but we have Megan LeFegg here, Wings of Life. Oh, it's so beautiful. So excited. Thank you for being here with us, Megan. Oh, I'm so excited to be here. Okay, so the first question we always ask feels like it's like the hardest question for authors, which is, can you give us the elevator pitch of the book?

[00:01:04] Yes, yes. Here we go. Okay, so we have Sarai. She is your pampered daughter of nobility, betrothed to the heir of the enemy kingdom, a story we all know and love. So, it's not a kingdom. It's more like a massive conglomeration of lands of Viking-like warriors, definitely seafaring vibes. They're known for being super brutal, fearsome, ruthless warriors.

[00:01:32] So, Sarai is sent off to marry their heir, but she is no blushing bride. She is being sent there as a spy. So, in this world right now, both the Rit and Sarai's kingdom are at war with the lands to the south. And those lands are overrun with these terrifying, demonic, like, draconic-like beasts. And somehow, the Rit is doing just fine.

[00:01:58] And Sarai's kingdom is losing their soldiers left and right. Their squadrons are disappearing. They're trying to figure out what to do. So, their king has cocked up this ridiculous scheme to send someone off to be on the inside and figure out why. And that lucky person, of course, is Sarai. And the little carrot on the stick for her is, if you do this right, you're going to come home.

[00:02:24] You're going to marry your childhood sweetheart, your first lover, the man that you love. And everything for your life is going to be happy. You don't have to marry for advantage. Everything will be wonderful. So, Sarai goes. She's immediately thrown into a series of physical and mental trials, which she fails miserably, in her opinion.

[00:02:48] And then, right after getting her ass kicked, like, for the fifth time, enter stage left the Weapon Master. She sees him. She's like, holy gods, the hottest thing I've ever seen in my life just came in. But he's so grumpy. And she just, she doesn't want to be around him. She's upset about it. She's begrudgingly attracted to him.

[00:03:12] But worst of all is the two of them are the only two in the entire continent with red hair. In this world, red hair is not a thing. They have never met another person with red hair except each other. So, after that, she's paraded around the Rit to be judged by the people. She's then taken to a sacred cave where she's told, now you're going to be judged by the gods.

[00:03:40] She goes into this cave with her head all full of crazy. And she stumbles upon a real life breathing dragon. I want that. Okay, so I promise I have a question. But first, I have to tell you, you got me on not even page one of this book. Your dedication is for Zuzu. I have a Zuzu. My dog is Zuzu. It's her name.

[00:04:10] That's so sweet. And I feel like she, we lost a dog very recently. And she, your dedication is for Zuzu. Without you, I would never have found my smile. She is one of my few reasons to smile. Even in the grief. And so, I was like, oh, when I read that even. Oh my gosh. That's so beautiful. And I love that. And also, that breaks my heart. And I'm also a sympathetic crier. So, I'm over here like, oh my goodness. Oh no.

[00:04:39] I'm the same. I'm also a sympathetic crier. So, I'm like, oh God. Oh yeah. Karen's been a mess. Just like I have over the past months. I've been a mess. It's been. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Thank you. All right. I'm going to bring the vibe back up. Where did this story come from? Like what birthed it in your head? Oh, so this is kind of a silly story. I saw a random post that was just some guy was like, this is a really hot take from a historian.

[00:05:07] And blurb was from a 13th century historian. And it was like, we're losing all of our good English wives to the Danish because they bathe regularly and eat salads or something and like make their bodies pleasing. And I was like, what? Okay. What? That is wildly out of context, of course. But that is such a hot take to think like you're just some English, whatever.

[00:05:33] And all of a sudden you see this like really well groomed Viking man and you're like, excuse me, I need to leave everybody. I'm leaving my life behind. Yes. And then, of course, it's me. So fantasy and dragons and poof, here we go. I love that. That is if that is not an example of how inspirations can strike wherever. Like, I don't know what is. That is so funny. Yeah, so true.

[00:06:01] So when you are writing like, do you, are you a plotter? Like, do you have to plot everything out beforehand? Or does it kind of fly by the seat of your pants? What comes first for you? Like this, the plot, the characters, the setting, whatever. I'm probably like 60 to 70% on the planner side and then 30, 40% on the pantser side.

[00:06:27] I think I kind of go into it where I get an idea of a story and I get an idea of some characters. And then I start to write a little bit about them and then I pause and I go, wait, I need to build this world. And then I write a little more and then I pause and I'm like, wait, I need to actually build what I'm writing about. So I kind of switch back and forth. And definitely as I come across something, I'll be like, oh, I know nothing about sword fighting. I need to go research for three days.

[00:06:56] I've got to become an expert overnight. Yes, that does feel. That's cool. Okay. Can you tell us what the publishing process has been like for you with this book? Yes, it has been a wonderful and wild whirlwind. I, in January of last year, I went looking for an agent to sell this book. I signed on with my agent in February, which is crazy.

[00:07:22] And then I sold my entire trilogy in April, which is also crazy fast. And we went right into editing book one. And right now we're actually we're in editing for book three. So the trilogy is fully written and in its final stages. But everything since then has been just a dream. My publisher is so great. Obviously, you saw the design work on everything is gorgeous.

[00:07:50] They're so just supportive and wonderful. My editor, I could go on about her for days and days. She's just the perfect person. So yeah, it's been but it's been it's been wild. That is so fast and crazy. Yeah, that is so cool, though. So did you have the the full trilogy already like not done done, but like done when you went out on submission or was it kind of like, OK?

[00:08:18] Yeah, no, I knew how book three was going to end. Before I finished writing book one. Oh, my gosh, I could never know that people say that and you're like, how so many things could change. But no, if you know the ending, you know the ending. Well, you know where you're going then. So like, yeah, things change, but you're still know where you're going.

[00:08:42] And the great part for me is like I hit a whole bunch of things in book one that don't mean anything when you read them right now. But like in the first book is hidden the title for book three. And you won't know that until book three comes out. And I mean, I'm a highlighter. Then I love that. That is so I love that.

[00:09:08] And it makes it more fun to like go back and reread because I love to do that once the series is complete. I love to go back and be like, oh, that's an Easter egg. Yes. That's a nugget. Yes. Me too. It's one of my favorite things to do, actually. And that's why I often reread series because then the second time through, I'm like, this author is a genius. I love everything that they've done here. And I have such a bigger appreciation for all of their work. Yes. Yeah, for sure.

[00:09:38] So there's a very rich history in this book, both in like the land and that it's set in and the dragons. How did you keep track of everything to make sure you maintain consistency while world building and telling the story? I have a massive one note document with like a million tabs to keep track of everything.

[00:10:02] Every character is in there, as well as the descriptions I put for them in the book, as well as things that aren't in the book that I know about them. Everything about the cultures, you know, the maps, the whole drawings of the world, everything is in there. And I need it to keep because I'll be writing and I'm trying to write something about someone and I'll literally be like, I don't even remember their hair color right now. So you have a show Bible, basically, that you follow.

[00:10:32] Yes, I do. Yes, I go back to it for everything. I love that. It is one of those things where I, I don't think that I could ever write fantasy just because my brain doesn't work that way. Like I tried and I'm like, I can't keep anything straight. So kudos to all y'all who are writing fantasy because that's hard. Aw. Yeah, I think that's learned.

[00:11:00] Do you, so there's a couple different like POVs in the book. Did you have, were you writing like in the order that we see or did you kind of go like one POV all the way through and then the other or like how was that process for you and how was keeping all of that straight? I wrote largely in the order that you see.

[00:11:24] There were maybe two scenes in the whole trilogy where I wrote it from someone else's POV and then when I was, you know, doing my own second and third draft, I was like, no, this is the wrong POV and I switched it. Um, but yeah, I kind of switched between the characters as I go because as I, as I'm writing, I have a sense of, I need to check in with this other person.

[00:11:48] I need to share some of the things that they're experiencing and you know, for specific reasons to keep everything moving. So I kind of bounce around in my head. Did you have to, um, like, did you have to do something specific to get into each, each voice? Like, cause they're so distinct. Yes, yes, yes. I Google search images until I find somebody who I think kind of looks like the person I'm writing from. And then I just put that up on my screen.

[00:12:18] And then when I'm writing, I kind of stare at them to like get my head working. I love that so much. That is so smart. Yes. Because you're rewriting like the way that I'm going to write in the future. Cause that is brilliant. Yeah. Because like you get that vision, like there's something about a visual that really just rewires your brain a little bit and gets you in the right space. That's so smart. Yay. All right.

[00:12:45] Was, were there any like names we would know that you used or is it just like generic random people? No, it's generic random people. And a lot of times it's like animations and this is a rabbit hole, but I'm actually a lot more careful now when I do it. Cause I've realized that some of the images that I come up are like AI generated images and that just hurts my soul. Yeah. So now I try to look more for like humans, but they're just random models.

[00:13:14] They're not people that I could point to and say, Oh, this guy. Right. So you don't have like a fan cast in your head. Yeah. No, not yet. I probably should do that, but yeah, not yet. I'm sure people will start telling you once the book is out. Oh yeah. Oh, I see. I saw this person. Yes. I need that help. Please. Please. Anyone. When I was writing my book, I was the exact opposite. I was like, he looks like Tom Hiddleston. So I like Googled what does he like?

[00:13:42] How do you like describe Tom Hiddleston's face? Like the shape of it. Yeah. That's kind of hard. No, it's like, would you say he has an angular face or a heart shaped face? It's harder than you think to describe a face. It is. It really is. Um, can you talk for a second about the cover design and the sprayed edges? I also freaking love, hold on, let me get it out.

[00:14:11] The naked cover is beautiful. And the end pages, like, were you involved in the design aspects of this gorgeous book? And like, what was that process like? I was very luckily involved. Um, the designers are just absolutely amazing.

[00:14:29] Um, and they would create something and then they would send it to me and they would very kindly take the many, many feedback bits that I had because not that their work wasn't beautiful. It was so beautiful. To be very clear. It was so beautiful from the very first iteration. I am just so picky about things in my head. And they were so patient with me to hear like things that I was really interested in.

[00:14:55] And they would take all of that garbled mess and produced masterpiece. It really is gorgeous. I love that there's like a rip into the forest and it's dragon shaped. Right. And I feel like the further I read into the book, the more I can see how the cover was inspired by the story. Like every, like little pieces here and there are like, oh, that's, that's why that's there.

[00:15:22] There's like a dragon right there that like, if you'd like glance, you can't notice. Ugh. It's just beautiful. Just beautiful all around. It's so, so pretty. Yes. And a lot of that even like credit to my editor too, because I know that she did a big write up of like themes and imagery and stuff too that she sent over and the designer kind of took everything and poof. Oh, I love. I love when they just poof. It's just insane. Insane talent.

[00:15:52] Um, can you talk a little bit about like your author origin story? Like, have you always been a storyteller or was this something you kind of stumbled into? Um, I went to college for creative writing. That was what I wanted to do. Um, I had a sort of, we'll call it tragic event that led me on a different path for a good long time. And I worked in a completely different field.

[00:16:20] And then I had kind of another traumatic event of, you know, being in like a really toxic workspace. Um, that I chose to leave for my mental health. And along the way, kind of did some self evaluation of what are my overall goals in life? My goals have always been to be a full time author. And so I just refocused all of my energy and all of my time that I was spending in this job, um, into my writing.

[00:16:49] And then there we go. Oh, yay. That's amazing. I'm sorry you had to go through traumatic events, but sometimes they're the things that you need to get you to where you're supposed to be. Yes. Yeah. Even though it's awful. Yeah. Yes. I love the way that you said that.

[00:17:07] And, and I, I also feel in some ways, I feel kind of like a kinship with my character because she was already on this journey of being thrust into all of the wrong situations that turn out to be all the right situations. And then when I started to have that happen, it was kind of cathartic to be like, okay, we're doing the same thing here, girl. We're both dealing with the stress and the trauma. Yes. We're getting to the right place.

[00:17:34] Oh, that's, that's special too, that you get, you get that kinship with her. Yeah. Oh, I love it. Okay, we want to keep you forever, but we promised that we wouldn't. Um, so we have a few questions that we always ask our guests. Um, this is the moment in time where every bit of media you've ever consumed is going to leave your brain. Um, it's a weird phenomenon and we can't explain it. It happens to everyone but me when I'm asked this question.

[00:18:05] Um, okay, so we have a segment on the podcast that we call fictional boyfriend of the week, where we choose a character that we are vibing with that week. It doesn't have to be a boyfriend. Um, we've both had a fictional son. Karen's had a fictional granny. I've had a fictional pet. Um, are there any characters in TV books movies whatever where you're like that's my boo thing or that's my best friend. I want everybody to know about this character.

[00:18:32] So I listen to your podcast which I love. Yeah. Thank you. I know that you asked this question. So you were prepared. You were prepared. And I was like, oh my God, it took me, I am not kidding, multiple nights of thinking to come up with my answer. So my answer is from name of the wind, the character Simon or Sim.

[00:18:56] Um, because I, he, to me, he's like the perfect person. I would be his best friend. I would be his best friend. I would be his girlfriend. I would be anything. And I think it's because he reminds me a lot of my husband who is my, my, my best person. So that's probably why if my husband didn't exist and I were transported into the world of the Kingkiller Chronicles, I would be like Simon. Yeah. Let's go. I love that.

[00:19:26] This is our time. Yeah. That's awesome. Oh yeah. I'm gonna have to read it now. Oh, it's a very, very, very good fantasy. And it will take you down a rabbit hole that I will warn you in advance. There's only two books. The third we've been waiting on for 14 years. Oh no. Yeah. I'm not going down that rabbit hole until those 14 years are up. Until the wait is over. That's fair. That's fair. Good warning. Yeah. Okay.

[00:19:55] So kind of along the same lines, like we know we're obsessed with this right now. Um, but, uh, what are you reading? What are you recommending? Do you have any like all time favorites that you want to share with people? Oh, um, I love everything in the world by Holly black. I've read almost every book of hers. I haven't yet read the latest one that she's put out, but I'm going to get there soon. And I just can't say enough good things about her. I love her worlds. I love her characters.

[00:20:24] So I definitely recommend she's, she's more in the YA space. Um, but I still find them incredibly fun reads. She's incredible. I'm trying really hard to get my neat. They're 17 year old twins. I'm trying to get my nieces into cruel prints, but they're stuck on the tail. And I'm like, you don't even remember the tail is there. No. Cause they're like, he has a tail. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. It's a letter.

[00:20:55] Oh my God. Like eventually they're going to read it and they're going to be like, you were right. They, what was I thinking? This writing is insane. Jude, Jude, Jude. Oh. I couldn't think a page of like, I don't even know how many Jude's there were. And you read it and it hits you so hard. In my sock. Yes. I have some Jude socks that are just Jude. Oh my God. I love that. Yeah. One day they'll read it and they'll be like, I cannot believe I waited this long.

[00:21:24] Come be angry at a nearer distance. Okay. What comes next? Well, we already know what comes next because this is a trilogy, but is there anything coming after that? Or can you tell us anything about the next two books in this trilogy? Anything you want to share? Well, the next two books, of course, the fun thing for me is the world scope gets bigger and bigger.

[00:21:53] So in the second book, we see a bigger picture of the writ and what's going on in a bunch of different places. In the next book after that, we see more of what's going on in the world. So that's a fun scope change. And what I'm writing next, I'm really excited about. It's a series of fairytale retellings, but with pretty dark twists and it is very solidly in the adult space.

[00:22:20] They are not YA themed novels, which I think gives me more fun to play. Oh, yeah. Gives you more room. Yes. A hundred percent. Well, you said you listen, so you do know that we have a little bit of bad news coming, which is now that you've been on the podcast, you're actually legally obligated to come back for all your future book releases. Oh, twist my arm. Oh, the horror. I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry at all.

[00:22:48] So we will look forward to that. Yay. When this episode airs, when this interview airs, the book will be out. So everybody can go into the store, pick up a copy. Seriously. It's so pretty. I am just now realizing, does your hair match the book? Oh, you know what? Kind of. I was like, I kind of. It's not on purpose. I have had it like this for years and it's not, it's very faded. I'm sorry, but it's normally blue, teal and purple. So it kind of does.

[00:23:17] It's kind of perfect. Perfect. I love it. Everybody go pick up a copy of this book. It's so beautiful. And get ready because there's two more coming. It's so exciting. Thank you so much, Megan, for doing this. This has been so much fun and we're so excited for the next one. Oh, yes. Thank you so much for having me. I would love to come back. Yes. Thank you. All right. We'll talk to you soon. Okay. Bye. Bye. Oh my gosh.

[00:23:47] I love her. She's so pretty. She's so pretty. And her hair matching the book is. I looked, I was like, wait a minute. So cool. There's color. I think that matches. Oh, man. That was so much fun. She's so. And I love the guests to do their homework and they're like, I was prepared for this. I know. I was like, wait, what do you mean? I always get like, I always get like flustered when people say they listen. I know. I'm like, what do you mean? Meet to meet to us? What?

[00:24:17] What do you mean? The eye bat. I love that. That was so cool. I love her. Yay. All right. So I guess we don't have any announcements because we're on break. So we're going right into the spiel. Yeah. Okay, friends. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, follow and subscribe wherever you're listening to us. Follow us on social media. We are at the incoherent fangirl on all the things. Visit our website, the incoherent fangirl.com where you can also stream all of our episodes as well as read our blog.

[00:24:45] Head over to Patreon to subscribe for early access to podcast episodes, full video episodes, bonus content, and the opportunity to ask questions of our guests because that's super fun. And of course you can shop our merch store, the incoherent fangirl.com slash shop because sometimes Maddie gets bored with an iPad and we all benefit from it. This is one of them. Yes. I love it so much. If you have any comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, design ideas you want to tell us that we're pretty.

[00:25:12] We will accept all of that in our inbox, the incoherent fangirl at gmail.com. We love hearing from y'all. Yes. Also, since we're on break, how else are you going to reach us? Just send us an email. Come talk to us. Yeah. We're hanging out. Yeah. And of course, one last way to support the podcast is to rate and review on whatever platform you're listening to us on. Please give us your words. You know we love words here. We love words. She is at Mandy Perv on all the things. She's at Miss Maid in China on all the things.

[00:25:40] And once you've followed us on social media and you follow the podcast on social media, you can head over and visit our internet besties and do some self care because we love you and we want you to stick around forever. Okay? So take care of yourself. Do some shopping. It's good for you. First up, you're going to visit our friends at Here Comes a Nerd at herecomesanerd.com. Get you some pins and artsy goodies. Use code fangirl and you'll get 20% off your first order. Then you're going to head to onceapontableclub.com. You can subscribe.

[00:26:08] You can get some existing boxes or any random goodies you want. And you'll use code Karen10 at checkout. But you have to spell Karen right and you'll get 10% off. And if you don't spell Karen right, I don't even know what we're going to do. It's going to be a mystery. It's just bad things will happen. Yeah. Bad things will happen. So spell Karen right. Pretty please. I appreciate it. All right. Next up, you're going to visit our friend Amber D. Lewis at AmberDLewis.com.

[00:26:37] Add 10, 20, 30, many of all the things to your cart, right? Because they're all very excellent things. And then you're going to add code fangirl10 because then you'll get 10% off all of that stuff. And you saved lots of money, got some free stuff. Pretty sure that's how math works. It throws me off that you've added 20, 30, because now we can't say you'll get one thing free. But you'll get multiple things free. Fair. Fair. If you, the more you add, the more free you get.

[00:27:06] It's just that you add numbers and my brain starts weeping. That's fair. Numbers are. I just, I kind of black out and it just weren't. Yeah. Things just tumble out. It happens. I'm sorry. It's okay. Last but not least, you can support my family. You can follow the show husband. He's at born of Josh on all the things. And you can follow at searchers believe that's his paranormal investigation group.

[00:27:35] If you go to searchers believe.com slash shop and use code fangirl 10 there, you'll get 10% off of merch also designed by me. You can follow at searchers podcast. That's where we talk about spooky weird stuff. Maybe since I have a break from this podcast. I'll have a little more time to do that podcast. Um, then we're going to what else? What else? What else? What else? Searcher. I mean, I already did searchers. Now the big one.

[00:28:05] The big one. Stream Beacon TV. Um, you can subscribe. You can. I can't get my words right today. Go follow at stream beacon TV on all the things. I'm their social media girly. We're having a lot of big announcements soon. We posted a really cool teaser. First look for a show today on April 30th where I am. Um, so you'll have to go back and find it, but I post every day or I try to.

[00:28:34] Um, and if you go subscribe to this, um, paranormal horror, true crime platform, um, you can use code fangirl 10 to get 10% off of your subscription. So, I mean, and that's stream beacon TV.com. I am out of my mind today. Yes. That's why you have. Yes. It's very important that you go to stream beacon TV.com. Yes.

[00:29:03] There's another beacon out there that opened about the same time that we did. That's been great fun. Um, we get a lot of customer complaints of theirs. Not a lot. They don't do anything wrong, but I do get people who are like, I'm not going to go to the world. They're still being charged when they thought they canceled and it's not us. It's them. Yeah. So anyways, um, and then last but not least, I wrote a book. It's called the living in the dead.

[00:29:31] Uh, it's about a girl who was born a ghost and ages like the living and the reaper who would die to get her to look at him. Cause he's a yearny yearny boy. Um, just one. That's all he wants. Just one look. Just one look. Hair. Just a keek. Just a glance. Um, uh, I'm on all the major retailers websites. I put in to be in my local library. So we'll see. They did say that they, um, are more likely to buy locals books. So. I love it.

[00:30:00] Maybe I'll go to the libraries. I grew up going to and see myself in the stacks. Um, just give me chills. I know. I don't know why I like it took me this long to do. Um, grief. Yeah. Lots of grief. Um, but that's very exciting.

[00:30:18] So yeah, all the major retailers websites, but if you'd like a signed copy, um, ae purpose.com, if you use code Aaron Warner, you'll get 10% off because it wouldn't be me if I didn't make something about Aaron Warner. That's we're talking about, I need to look more into it. Getting, I have the show dogs paw print tattooed. So I have photos of his paw print.

[00:30:41] So we're talking about making into an, into a stamp and like keeping it on or not even a stamp or like a graphic that can stay on like title pages for the rest of time. Because he was with me for every word of that book. So. Mm hmm. Aw. The show dog. The show dog. All right. And that was a very special episode of the ankle hair girl. Thanks for listening. We love you. We love you.

[00:31:11] Bye bye. Bye. We are sponsored by our friends at here comes the nerd pins, stickers, magnets, and more. Here comes the nerd has happy art for all fandom loving hearts. New customers can use coupon code fan girl during checkout for 20% off their first order at here comes the nerd.com. Coupon applies to ready to ship items only. We are also sponsored by our clients in the early days of the day. We love you. We love you.